f13.net

There is a post on getting started at the bottom of the page but the red letters warned me about posting in a topic over 120 days old. And from the reading I've managed it seems between Jan. 2007 and now the game has undergone some significant changes.

Since I'll be trying this game out when I get off work I'm looking for some pointers. I'm in info overload at the moment. I played eq1 for a few years and I'm currently a WoW player looking for something a little different. How noobie friendly is this game? Will I have that itch behind my eyeballs because I'm too used to wow's gameplay?

If you played EQ1 and WoW, then you should have no problem with EQ2. It is quite newbie friendly, although I speak from over 10 years of playing MMOGs , so my "newbie" glasses aren't as clear as they used to be. In any case, I think you will have an enjoyable time and the voiceover quests really add to immersion. Not to mention the nostalgia of experiencing the world of Norrath in a new graphics engine. The world is much more vibrant and alive. But now I sound like a commercial. You'll enjoy it.

I've been having a blast with it. This coming from someone who hated it when it was first released. I just started up again a little over a month ago and enjoy the hell out of it. I will say, though, do yourself a favor and play a race that starts in Kelethin, Neriak or Kunark. Qeynos and Freeport continue to suck for quest lines. They desperately need a makeover.

I've only been playing for about 4 days and I concur, it really is much more fun than the first EQ. What he says about starter towns is dead on, which sucks if you like Frogloks or Halflings.

It isn't necessarily easy but you ca get a froglock or halfling to the RoK starting city from the Butcherblock docks, although you have to jump off the RoK boat before the docks. You will start with -15000 faction which is not KoS. Get your Qeynos teleport spell first though so you can sell in a faction friendly area.

Ok after about 12 hours of patching the game is working. Only had time to make a character and play around on the noobie beach this morning. First impressions are that it didn't instantly suck. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would, the talking quest guy was neat but the wower in me just clicked thru the text. I was able to kill the first few things with ease, as I recall from EQ1 it was an uphill battle vs snakes and rats at the early levels. I'll have more impressions tonight when I actually get some time with the game. I've been spending some time on the official boards for EQ2 and already I'm amazed at the difference in post quality. I don't think I saw one post that was a rant about how class x beats class y or any other random BS that plagues wow's boards. perhaps thats a function of moderation or lower sub base.

Any advice on what server to play on? If I get hooked I don't want to end up on a dead end server. A server with more of a Eastern time zone preference would be great.

If you don't mind the fact it's an exchange server the Bazaar is a decent server to play on. The fact it IS an exchange server makes it seem to me that it might actually be policed a little tighter than some other servers. Or its possible they've cracked down on bot groups and trade skill bots on all servers and I just have a narrow perspective.

There's always a good low to mid level population since people are always leveling up new chars for farming/selling purposes. There's almost constant grouping calls and most nights it seems there are open raids or at least open spots in guild hosted raids (if you ever want to raid that is). Right now there's been at least two Timorous Deep (RoK starting zones) instances every night since the expansion dropped.

Short of Bazaar, I think everyone still plays on Oasis.

Well sure but UD_Delt > everyone else.   :grin:

lol, bad logic.

Judging by the number of times it crashed under heavy load at the weekend, Antonia Bayle has a decent population.

I'm still on AB.

I'm on Oasis and it usually has a decent amount of people. But I play very infrequently (once or twice a week), so don't pick based solely on me.

Actually, I think it is a function of EQ2 figuring out a simple game mechanic. Make all classes fairly overpowered with respect to the PvE experience and nobody will bitch about one or the other, but rather players will want to play all classes and will try a lot of them out. That's just my opinion, but from every class I've played thus far, while some take a little longer to kill mobs than others, I haven't really stumbled upon a class that out and out sucked.

So Got a chance to really dive in last night, at first I was'nt feeling "it". Tweaked the graphics some more so the game wasn't giving me a headache. Played around with a few of the classes and settled on a Sarnak Dirge. After redoing the first few quest something clicked and I was in that mmorpg mode. The collections are really what did it to me. I'm a packrat by nature so I found myself looking excitingly in every nook for those little sparkling '?'. I was ripping thru the quests at this point, gameplay was similar to WoW's combat felt fast paced enough and tactical that I wasn't bored. I can see some people's complaint about having to hit alot of keys to kill something but then again whats the differenced between a sequence of attacks my dirge can do and the sequence of spells my priest in wow casts to kill something.

I'm on crushbone server btw. I saw a few people on the starter islands, but mostly it has been a soloing path for me. I'll expect that to change at some point. I'm level 12 now in the main sarnak city, bought a cheep house and put some things on the broker. Needed to buy some bags for obvious reasons, I took every bit of will I had not to click on ever harvest node I came across just because I was running out of space. I limited myself to quest items, collections, and random gear I found in chests.

So far I'm having a very positive experience. will keep posted on progress.

Click on all those nods and just delete the stuff that isn't rare. You want to get your harvesting up. Trust me, I didn't and my 72 mystic needs to spend some quality time in level 20-70 zones to get hers up.

Don't destroy any LEADED LOAM you find!

I'm not sure about every server but on most it goes for 15s or more. I've seen it up to around 45s each at certain times. It's a pain in the arse to find and you need a ton of it just to get out of the first few levels of tinkering. With a bunch of new chars starting up I'm guessing even if it has come down in price it will go back up.

That and roots are about the only t1 harvestable worth selling on the broker. Sometimes you can get a little bit for the tin clusters.

Another harvesting-for-reselling tip: Save any shining/glittering/shimmering/etc materials, and also any rare harvests (you get a mini-announcement for them, and the icon for them has sparklies on it).

They will sell.

Oh, and a general sales tip - the prices on the brokers include the sales margin, so don't forget to take that same margin out when you're figuring out what to sell at:
e.g. Item is already up at 1g20s on the broker = You put it up for sale for 1 gold.

Since we're doing sales tips...

Never vendor any Treasured gear or Adept 1 books. Even though they look like they'll only sell for 2s-5s to a vendor they will sell for 2-3 gold or more on the broker.

Transmuters use those items to gain skill levels.

I kept any 'treasured' item , and I have 4 or 5 books that I can't use. some seem to be tradeskill recipes some look like class skills. I did also keep the rare things I got from the few nodes I did click on. now that I have more bag space I'll be doing a lot more collecting.

Question about the combat, is their such a thing as the GCD for abilities? I find myself reflexly waiting that 1.5 seconds between each skill but I've noticed that unless it has a cast time I can fire them off in quick succession.

Once you get a few gold, and the strength to carry one (they weigh 100 each), buy a box. You can get a 32 slot for 6gp or so from the broker. Throw a couple in the bank once you can afford to, as well.

No global cooldown in eq2. You can even have an ability queued up, ala CoH, by hitting its hotkey while one is casting.

Spent the first half of last night doing the tradeskill quest, Interesting system. Took a while to catching on that I could use those abilities even though there wasn't a problem icon, at least it seemed to be that I was able to keep durability up between the problems. Then I was back into questing mode, took of to mok rent or rend and blew thru most of the quests their, ended up at 1 bubble shy of 19 with a few of the quests at the west station left. Tried to do one of them that involved taking out a level 20 and I got my clock cleaned, going to spend some time tonight looking into gear and spell upgrades(I have all the trainer once I can use(App 2 i think).

I wish I could filter the spell scrolls by 'usable' meaning I can scribe it, but thats minor. Will be spending some time looking at upgrades to my current line up of spells. Its my understanding that every spell has different levels even if it is out dated by another spell, like I could get a master version of the singing blade ability and possibly it could be better then the appr 2 version?

Still enjoying it, it seems there are alot of people leveling now. Good news for me I guess when I want to try out the grouping. Once I finish off the noobie sarnak area I guess I'll move on to butcherblock? or is their somewhere else I should check out.

For making money the books I've been finding have been selling very well, I think I had a master 1 of some pally spell and that went pretty fast. the collectibles are not priced very high atm but I guess that is because so many people are filtering thru the noobie areas. That is good because I'm hooked on completing them. did all the moths, and the chipped stones and I need one more scuffed for that collection. Can anyone suggest what tradeskill/gathering I should work on to increase my storage and carrying capacity, I thought tailoring because that it where bags are from but the boxes are made at the woodworking bench. I hear their is a card game associated with EQ2 that you can play in game of off line and the cards drop in game... I think I might make the permanent switch from wow if my enjoyment levels are kept high. I don't want to rag on WoW but I've not been having funt heir lately and this foray back into norath has been refreshing.

Last question for the vets, I'm seeing alot of people advertising guilds and they list the guild level. Should I worry about joining a guild or should I just stay taggless until I level cap and look for something then?

I found a guild handy for consistent groups after the mid-30's but if you are happy with PUG lotto you certainly don't need to join a guild.  You can also solo all the way up pretty easily but you will miss out on some fun group-centric stuff.

You could just browse the "looking for guild" function (yet another thing I want Blizzard to steal from EQ2) and have a chat with any recruiters for guilds that catch your attention.

Waste of money. The only spell upgrades you should consider at 20ish are AppIV and AdeptI. Masters if you can afford it for a critical spell (like a brawler's feign death or a healer's heal), but you'll probably level too fast to make it worth it unless you play like me (level-locked). You should also do some research on spell lists and class Master IIs, so you don't buy a Master of something you can Master for free or invest in a spell that's about to get an upgrade from leveling up.

Crafting skill for storage: craftsman/carpenter. Not much other utility, though. They make house furniture (which is actually pretty cool if you use your house). You might be able to get the wood on the cheap, but wood is also plentiful to harvest. Iirc you'll want to stock up on roots and hard metals, just look at the formulas for carpenter items, it doesn't vary much over the levels.

Legends of Norrath (the card game): /tcg is the command to open it.

Guilds: bah.  :oh_i_see:

Slow night last night, using the solo-timlines from a post below I finished off some quests that I had missed the first pass thru TD (I'm OCD like that for quest's in an area). Spent some time in my modest one room house claiming rewards and placing them about. Headed to butcherblock after that, I seem to be under-level for some of the quests since most things are yellow+ to me when I got there. Did get a few quests done, one was annoying because it involved killing these tiny little annomes in the water, Swimming isn't as bad as it was in eq1 but not as good as wow's. After running up and down the beach trying to tab target the things I remembered I have a track skill, having played a ranger as a main I was prepared for the "you target is west...your target is north" spam. I was pleasantly surprised at the path that lead me right to what I was tracking. One thing I'm noticing is the gear I'm receiving for rewards from the butcherblock quests was comparable to gear I was getting 10 levels ago in TD. I've read about how RoK quest rewards were awesome and now I guess I'm experiencing it. finally figured out what it means when a spell says "affects the entire encounter" I assumed it meant AoE, then I fought those linked bird packs. Still really enjoying it, their seems to be alot to do regardless of level.

I’m seeing alot more advertisement for groups in the 20-29 channel, they use acronyms I'm un-familiar with. I'm hesitant first because I'm not sure what I should be doing in a group other then what I do solo; song buff, debuff, us my combat arts, repeat. Second because I'm not sure what these groups are for, are they like instance groups or is it like sitting in a spot and pulling mobs to us type.

Iis their a way to have more then one bar of hot-keys visible?

Right-click on your hotbar, but not on an actual ability. The EQ2 interface totally rocks for customization, you can make icons smaller, reduce padding, get rid of backgrounds, etc. Great for playing at a fixed resolution as I do.

Swimming: you need to level up your swimming some.

AoE: Two kinds: Actual AoE and encounter-based. Actual AoE is the traditional AoE that can pick up adds and whatnot, but can also hit multiple mobs if they aren't linked. Encounter based only hits the encounter you have targeted, useful for a linked encounter, less so for multiple single mobs or encounter + add.

Also, sarnak get underwater vision, of dubious usefulness. I already miss my dark elf's ultravision, I hate being blind at night. Infravision is a joke. Sonic vision is probably my favorite night vision, takes less getting used to than the electric purple of ultravision.

And yes, the non-RoK gear now sucks. Mudflation 101. RoK treasured is more like Legendary (I'm wearing the Meat Moccasins, a legendary item from WC, it's about on par with my RoK gear).

I was going to play some EQ2 yesterday but it was packed. Too many goddamn people, I'm not going to dick around trying to contest anemones with several dozen twinked sarnak + healbots.

On the night vision thing, there's a setting somewhere in the graphics to set a bottom level for ambient light, so you can adjust the floor on how dark it gets to your liking.

Eh, no. Raising ambient light is not what I consider a solution. The old gamma trick.

I'll just roll more dark elves (without racial hide now) and kerrans, I guess.

Managed to have a grouping experience last night. I have been throwing up the lfg tag for the past few nights and missed an invite here and there when I got up from the computer for various reasons. Was in a group for Nek Castle, we had a 63 ranger in the group so I don't think it was a good representation of what I would normally expect. We dove thru the place to nail what I guess was the end guy, after which the ranger had to bounce. So we reform at the entrance and start randomly running around killing things, the mess of quests I picked up upon entering get updates. I'm looking for things to do on eq2i while we stomp around. I convince them to go pick up the L&L books in the area. After that we end up with a bad pull in the kitchen where the tank dies so I evac us, and the group breaks up from there. I've been studying things to accomplish in and around my level range so I think I'll be looking for more groups to finish some heroic quests I currently have.

Once again I'm really impressed with the amount of content that is available for me in this game. I can understand now why people would want to lock their combat xp at times.

I liked the story in Nek Castle quite a bit.  My first time through we also had a tank that was mentored down to lead us along but he took the time to make sure we got as much of the HQ's and other quests in there done as we could.  Though I still haven't finished the Mask of the Deceiver HQ.

But, yeah.  Lot's to do in the game.  More than enough content for 2 or 3 trips to the 60's without repeating much at all.

there's a good stickied thread on the official forums in the Newbie Yard section.  It's chock-a-block full of useful info.

Picking what you want to do is the hardest part. I'm convinced you could just do explore exp and collections to 60 at this point.

I have like 5 quest zones that are green/blue to me right now and I'm having a hard time juggling them all without out-leveling them.

Nek Castle I would say is the first really good group instance in the game and one that everyone should experience at some point.  However, you really should have at least one person in the group that has done the entire instance and can drive it for everyone else, or you end up wandering around at random on the first floor killing crap for an hour and disbanding.  Typically I leave the leading to other people in instances, but I end up doing it in Nek Castle often because everyone else seems to be clueless (which is not necessarily a bad thing for the game since alot of them are actual genuine new people).  Also, since the instance can take an hour or two to do if you are all the correct level and do most of the quests inside the place (and don't blitz straight to Everling) you end up getting people dropping out early and making life hard for everyone else.  As a result it can take a few PUGs for Nek Castle before you get a really good one, but it is a lot of fun when you do.

That's pretty much the role of a dirge - keep the debuffs up and poke at the targets when you can.  As for spells, I'd suggest putting out the gold to keep any version of Bria's at the highest level you can afford.  Master it whenever possible.  There is nothing like having in-combat power regen going.  The caster types will love you. 

I'm on AB with my dirge (I just really like that class for some reason) and recently got into my first PUG since I started on the server.  PUGs in EQ2 are such a breath of fresh air compared to the pain that are WoW PUGs.  Got into a group with two others in Stormhold Castle, which is a zone I'd never seen before.  The other members were like "Oh man, I'd forgotten how nice it is to have a dirge in the group" and I was thinking "damn, we are just mowing down these mobs like paper."  That night reminded me that I needed to upgrade my Bria's since power is sol important in combat.

Oh, and I think the gold and the experience are flowing faster since the last time I played.  I actually turned off combat experience when I was level 19 so that I wouldn't outlevel a bunch of quests I had; that's how quickly I was leveling just on quest xp alone.  Finally turned it back on in SH and went from early 21 to early level 24 in there from hunting and quests.

I'm definitely enjoying EQ2 from a casual standpoint (log in and play whenever I have time/feel like it) than I ever did playing WoW.

For what it's worth I got my certifcation test out of the way and ran my 10k so I'm back on bat country.

What is it you're certified to do now? 

Uh technically trading futures and commodities I guess.  Not really salient to my current job, but whatever they're willing to pay for, I'ma taking it.

I think the playerbase is starting to really grasp how much the different minstrel classes add to a group, for a long time it was hard to prove. I mostly noticed it as a healer because it was just so much easier to keep people alive--shorter fights, less damage taken, etc.

As someone taking a short break from EQ2 and playing some WOW, I can't agree more with the difference on PUGs. It's funny, I've watched people say stuff here on F13 about PUGs and I've sort of shook my head and thought "gee, I never have much of a problem," but getting my characters in WOW up to the SM/ZF levels was a huge wakeup call.

I'm 44 now, still questing along.

I'm starting the grasp alot of the more intricate things involved with the game like the heroic opportunities and tradeskilling. I've had the opportunity to go on a few group adventures. I have to say I prefer the shared instances to the single group instanced ones. Went on an interesting pug CT where the tank was wearing no stat plate in his appearance slots but the gear that actually contributed to his stats was garbage, and in some cases cloth/leather, needless to say we weren't very successful. I'm still shopping around of a guild or at least a group of people to regularly play with. as it stands now I log on and throw lfg up and if I'm not in something by 9:30/10 my time I give up because it is getting to late to start something at that point.  I still don't feel like I'm on a treadmill grinding levels, I'm taking things in and sometimes doing quest way below my level for kicks, and collections...so many collections. Sometimes I'll finish off a L&L or collection and ding a level and be like oh cool.  solo explored Klak'anon the other night for fun, really impressed how it still feels a bit like old ak'anon. Was trying to convince a few old EQ buddies to try it out and they did download the Play the Fae, however upon discovering that they had to roll fairies they stopped right there.

I haven't played in ages.  (except a wee bit on a new Sarnak thingy)  If I can remember to find out, I'll play a little when the Xmas stuff goes in and then take another long break.  I guess I'm getting a little bored again.   

Cloth and leather tank  :uhrr:
 :ye_gods:

I should start playing again, my SK rocks even though he's not set up for gaining/holding aggro because I mostly solo. DFC/Ebon plate, though I do need a decent weapon (that's where not grouping bones me the hardest). He's 43, I think.

Oh, wait you're on CB? Never mind! I'm also very slow, you'll outlevel me in a week or so. I think I rolled this character about a year ago and he's my fastest levelling character.

Sig, I was also thinking about taking a break after xmas goodies, haven't played much either. Haven't really been playing any games except the Crysis demo now and again.

Luckily, they don't ditch our names or erase (yet) so it's there when we need it.  I'm easily annoyed with games when it gets cold and snowy.  It might make you want ski but it makes me want to lay about and drink vodka.  Suppose it depends on which side of Norway you come from.

They only have to create the Fae, they might have to log in with it once or not, I'm not sure.  After that you can create any race you want that starts in a fae starting zone.

I don't know back that far, I've only traced us to northern ireland.

I agree with Signe about snow.

Snow sucks. It was -50 F. this morning, I'm stuck with it until May.

Anyhoo I got my technical issues taken care of, and I gotta say I'm blown away by the sheer amount of content in EQ2. Quests everywhere, collections, achievements, status points, housing, blah blah blah. I'm sure some of it is new shininess coming from WoW for the last three years but I have to say after 8 levels or so I'm very impressed.

Playing a Shadowknight, and while its not exactly very innovative the combat system doesn't feel like I'm fighting underwater in melee, which was my major complaint with LOTRO and COH. 

8 levels, bah. SK don't really get going for a while. Take the Blessing as your Master choice when it comes up. My SK is 45 now, by far my favorite class in the game. You've got it much easier with feign because it's now 12 hours instead of 10 seconds :P Quite a number of SKs here if you have queshuns.

Remember the SK is very dependent on casting for success, once you get into earning AAs, I suggest 448 in the Int line. 8 points in the spell crit is great, but don't put any into the heal crit right after it, because our heals crit using the spell crit formula, because they're lifetaps, not heals.

-50, where do you live, Canada? It gets cold here in upstate NY, but not that cold!

Cool, thanks.

I live in North Pole, Alaska. Ho ho ho-ly shit is it cold! as they say up here.

I'm Canadian and -50 is colder then it's ever been here. Make sure you do the tradeskill quest, takes a little bit of time but worth it. As for picking a tradeskill you can go with the one that makes your adept III 's (Alch for Fighters) or I'd suggest going with armorer to make mastercraft stuff for yourself and later one make money with. And if you didn't start in Grorwyn head over their asap (Griffon in butcherblock) and do all the quests.

Having played around with some new characters, I can recommend anyone starting a new toon move to Timorous Deep for the quests and the quests rewards. The  sarnak are neutral so you do not have to be evil aligned to go through the quest sequences. The quests are fun, the experience is unreal and the rewards are much better than in other starting zones.

Eh, it's a toss-up on trades for SKs. I'm an armorcrafter, and I've almost exclusively worn my own armor, so that has worked out very well for me. I do have an alchemist alt, but I haven't been keeping him up (I'm actually doing a round of tradeskilling right now, the new system is much kinder than the old new system). I mostly buy stuff at the broker, because I got lucky enough to get a LoN booster drop the week it came out and sold it for 12pp. Actually, I mostly have Masters with Adept IIIs filling in, which is overkill unless you play slow like I do (combat exp turned off since level 31, I'm 45).

I will third doing the new city quests, the rewards are ridiculously better, treasured stuff like original EQ2 legendary stuff. My sarnak bruiser has a cool bottle, I forget the name (but it's cool, too) to bonk people over the head with.

I'm 24 now, about to hit Butcherblock, but I'm gonna grind some scribing up first so I can take advantage of the T3 materials there.

I've been pretty happy with the GFey->Crushbone->Butcherblock progression so far.

Estate of Unrest is amazing... all the little touches. Awesome place.

Speaking of Unrest, a group of us killed the Bugaboo this weekend. First time for me. I was the only non-80 and we only had one healer but it went smoothly.

For those that don't know, once you enter the house, a 80x2 spawns outside and slowly circles the mansion.  Loot was forgettable (since I forgot what it was.)  He has a lot fewer hps than one would expect of a 80x2.

Lastly, RoK has clearly brought back "camping the named" from EQ1 for some select quests and I expect there will be a bunch of this (and possibly major faction grinding) for the epic weapons. Now, the respawn timers on these nameds needed for quests are only about an hour but I found myself getting really annoyed after only about 30 minutes. That is how much my expectations have changed.

Ding 80  :awesome_for_real:

catass  :grin:

Don't be hating. I considered my leveling in this to be pretty casual.  :grin:

Me too on Sunday! Started my epic.

Nice, what class? I finished mine (Dirge) in 5 days but I think I got pretty lucky with some of the drops and getting into groups at the right time.

Berserker. It is an easy epic as far as I can tell. I just don't play very much.