re-de-activated.

[Kenrick]

I played for a month or two after launch... haven't played or read anything about the game since January 2005.  So now I'm jumping back in.  Anyone want to give me a few bullet points on what the biggest changes are?  I've heard there've been a ton...

My character is on the Najena server, level 30 Dwarf berserker.

[Cheddar]

I played for a month or two after launch... haven't played or read anything about the game since January 2005.  So now I'm jumping back in.  Anyone want to give me a few bullet points on what the biggest changes are?  I've heard there've been a ton...

My character is on the Najena server, level 30 Dwarf berserker.

Everything.  No, seriously.  It is a completely different game now.  Combat was revamped, classes revamped, skills overhauled 2 or 3 times across the board, a plethora of additions, etc.

Watch out though,  SB may be shaping up to be the flavor of the month shortly!

[Kenrick]

SB may be shaping up to be the flavor of the month shortly!

I really don't care to know what SirBruce tastes like, thank you.

[Cheddar]

SB may be shaping up to be the flavor of the month shortly!

I really don't care to know what SirBruce tastes like, thank you.

You sick, sick man. 

[Kenrick]

That's odd, I didn't even re-activate and yet it still let me log into the server with my character.  Apparently I get 1 week for free, judging by what it says on my account management screen.

[Cheddar]

That's odd, I didn't even re-activate and yet it still let me log into the server with my character.  Apparently I get 1 week for free, judging by what it says on my account management screen.

Yeah, there was/is some promotion for accounts deactivated before last July or some such crud.  Forgot all about it.

[schild]

Watch out though, SB may be shaping up to be the flavor of the month shortly!

Just because it's free doesn't mean it's worth going back to. Once I'm done with a game, I'm pretty much done with a game. Ironically I'm not done with EQ2. I am however less done with games that are more fun at this moment.

[jpark]

Some key things you should know:

1.  Monster chasing.  You no longer have to run to zone line - monsters give up quickly and will desist.

2.  Combat is easy.  Real easy - if you can't be bothered with HO's - no biggies.  If you are concerned with HO's they have become much more forgiving - you can do things out of order to some extent now and still get the HO off.  Whatever.

3.  You can solo linked mobs.  I suggest doing this - since with this added "solo" content - if you perform and HO and the target dies - you can transfer the completion of the next step of the HO to the next mob in the linked group.  Good for leveling quickly.

4.  Pvp.  Possible but an utter joke.  Another fine example by this development team that they learned nothing from EQ.

5.  Group Exp debt.  You are no longer penalized with the combined debt of all party members experiencing a wipe.  You can call this a vast improvement - I guess the worst design decisions can only lead to better things down the road  :-D

6.  Movement Kinetics.  The movement animations have underwent some adjustments - much for the better - and there are some interesting combat nuances that appear to have been added that I do not recall from before - such as being knocked down.  Nice little touches here.

7.  Gear.  The variety still sucks and they still appear to have been forged in a vaccuum of creativity.  However, a lot of weapon graphics have been replaced with something more detailed and a bit more appealing - not a bad touch.

The game is easier in almost all aspects.  With technicians in charge of this game you can expect simple incremental adjustments of this sort.  But no soul has been added to the game.

My comments are dated to several months ago - I am not a current subscriber.

[Kenrick]

Thanks, jp.  Good info.  I'm glad they give me 1 free week to see if I think it's worth paying for again.

Anyone here play on Najena?

[HaemishM]

I think most of us are on Oasis, with some alting on Lucan D'Lere.

2.  Combat is easy.  Real easy - if you can't be bothered with HO's - no biggies.  If you are concerned with HO's they have become much more forgiving - you can do things out of order to some extent now and still get the HO off.  Whatever.

This I disagree with a bit. On some green mobs, yes HO's aren't a big deal. But blues and up, if you try to solo without HO's, you are going to have a harder time of it. They are certainly easier to pull off, though, which is a good thing.

[Kenrick]

I see that I still have to set my graphics quality to "blend" to get good FPS, although overall it does seem to be a bit more stable/smooth.

[Venkman]

I partially agree with Haemish on the HOs, but it really depends on which one you activate. For me, it's generally the target DD or encounter AOE that come up. The former is all but useless, as it has not at all scaled with my level it seems. The latter is more effective though since it also comes with a debuff. There's another one in there, but it's so rare I forget what it does.

As so SB, heh, that will probably be the truest example of "month" yet. If anyone here that isn't playing it plays it for more than a month, I'll be surprised. No matter what they do to the game, it is still more hardcore than anything that has a private game-specific forum here (even Eve, which can certainly scale into hardcore, but isn't a functional requirement).

For myself, my EQ2 interest has waned a bit, but my absense of late has more been because I've been trying to kick what feels like three different types of sick. In the meantime, I've been more on the casual online game stuff and going through CGW's top 101 free games list.

[Kenrick]

Alright, 3 days in to my 7 day free re-trial... and I'm done.

Make tradeskills less of a pain kthxbye.

[Venkman]

The least painful right now is Artisan>Scholar>Sage. Not sure when the others will become such.

[UD_Delt]

Alright, 3 days in to my 7 day free re-trial... and I'm done.

Make tradeskills less of a pain kthxbye.

It's in the works. Probably in the next patch or two (ie... one or two months away). Right now a lot of the pre 20 items have been changed and all of the post 60 stuff is on the new system. You no longer have subcombines. If you want to make a spear you collect the raws and make a spear. No more making bits and pieces of it first.

I partially agree with Haemish on the HOs, but it really depends on which one you activate. For me, it's generally the target DD or encounter AOE that come up. The former is all but useless, as it has not at all scaled with my level it seems. The latter is more effective though since it also comes with a debuff. There's another one in there, but it's so rare I forget what it does.

The effectiveness of HO's is based on both the adventure level and spell level of both the advancing and the completion spell. So, using an adept 1 of your current level and a master 2 spell to complete would show a MUCH larger effect than using an apprentice 1 spell from a few levels back and another old apprentice 1 spell to finish.

Hope that makes sense. Basically 4 factors that determine how strong a solo HO will be.

[shiznitz]

The spell quality might affect the power of the HO, but the difference is quite small and therefore meaningless in practice. I really only use HOs when soloing and have never noticed a significant change in HO spell damage after dinging a level and using a new CA at Adept 1.

[UD_Delt]

The spell quality might affect the power of the HO, but the difference is quite small and therefore meaningless in practice. I really only use HOs when soloing and have never noticed a significant change in HO spell damage after dinging a level and using a new CA at Adept 1.

I notice a difference in mine. I always use the same skill when triggering but then it depends on the situation which spell I use to finish them. They closer can vary between Adept 1 and Master 2 quality. My damage HO when finishing Adept 1 will hit for 250ish and when finishing with Master 2 will hit for 350ish.

The buff adds 21 point to combat skills at Adept 1 level and 25 to combat skills at Master 2 level.

The trigger skill used to be a Master 1 level 54 skill and now is a Adept 1 level 64 skill. I have not noticed a difference in those two and there also is really no difference in the debuff itself. I'm guessing once I find a Master 1 or upgrade to Adept 3 I'll see a difference in my HO's.

[shiznitz]

Well that is certainly a bigger effect than I have noticed, but maybe melee HOs are different.