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How Casual friendly is EQ2 and if you can't raid are you better off not playing?
ArmySurplus
Member Posts: 103
Im searching for a fun mmo to play off and on. I would most likely roll on a RP server since I'm into that. Ive looked at LOTRO and Dark Age of Camelot. LOTRO just wasnt for me and DAOC was barren. I couldnt find a RP guild and like I mentioned before Im into that. Anyway, how casual friendly is EQ2 and if you have no interest in or time to raid are you better off finding another game to play?
What really attracted me to DAOC was the guild emblems and the way you could deck out your self and your horse. If only there were more playing Id have my home, or at the very least a Knight themed RP guild on any server. I guess I could play it, but it feels like a single player game. Bah, Im going off track... I just wish it would have worked out..
So thats basically it, while I did the trail I seen quite a few RP guilds recruiting. I'm just wondering what the levels look like past 8. I play MMORPG's because of the MMO part.
Oh and the search function isnt working for me so I couldnt look up any threads that might of answered my questions. 
Family man first, Gamer second!
ArmySurplus makes no apologies if someone other than him has already posted his reply in part or otherwise. He cant be expected to read every single post on a thread and makes no promise to do so. If you posted a similar reply before him you undoubtedly stole his thoughts and used them without his written authorization. Please return to your post and edit it so that his post is the first to state whatever the hell he was thinking at the time. Thank you!
Comments
Raids are only a couple hours long you say?? Well that isnt bad at all, heck I was thinking it was like what I read about WOW or even some of the LOTRO raids. 5 to 12 hours that is about 2 to 9 hours more than Im willing to spend playing a game. My play style is anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 maybe 2 1/2 hours long and we arent talking every day.
Im glad to hear it Damkar!
Here is another question for anyone.
These Adventure packs they throw out now and then for 4.99, do they ever give out free content and how does it compare to the AP's?
Family man first, Gamer second!
ArmySurplus makes no apologies if someone other than him has already posted his reply in part or otherwise. He cant be expected to read every single post on a thread and makes no promise to do so. If you posted a similar reply before him you undoubtedly stole his thoughts and used them without his written authorization. Please return to your post and edit it so that his post is the first to state whatever the hell he was thinking at the time. Thank you!
Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice.
They've added a bunch of solo content that's pretty decent.
If you don't have to have the best and most uber equipment then you'll be fine with EQ2.
Its true that the lore of DAOC is whats drawing me towards it, but with the population decline it seems like its on its final sunset. I did the 14 day trial prior to doing the 7 day EQ2 trail and I love the look and feel of Albion, but how much longer will it go on for. I purchased the 5th anniversary edition and am seriously thinking about not opening it and returning it for a refund. It's a totally different game than it was when I first played it, now it feels like the part in Excaliber when arthur sent out his Knights to find the grail. The crops have died and the land is in decay. I guess I could be over reacting.. hehe
Family man first, Gamer second!
ArmySurplus makes no apologies if someone other than him has already posted his reply in part or otherwise. He cant be expected to read every single post on a thread and makes no promise to do so. If you posted a similar reply before him you undoubtedly stole his thoughts and used them without his written authorization. Please return to your post and edit it so that his post is the first to state whatever the hell he was thinking at the time. Thank you!
Pay no attention to this guy he doesnt have a clue what hes talking about.
You are not a second class citizen because you dont have raid gear, and you know what...you only need raid gear to (you guessed it) RAID. So if you dont raid theres no issue with gear.
Pay no attention to this guy he doesnt have a clue what hes talking about.
You are not a second class citizen because you dont have raid gear, and you know what...you only need raid gear to (you guessed it) RAID. So if you dont raid theres no issue with gear.
More good news, Ive never been one of those sitting at the brit bank on my mount holding the latest rare weapon or armor kind of player. I play to have fun and seldom worry about the best gear, but with that said its nice to hear that wont be a problem.
Family man first, Gamer second!
ArmySurplus makes no apologies if someone other than him has already posted his reply in part or otherwise. He cant be expected to read every single post on a thread and makes no promise to do so. If you posted a similar reply before him you undoubtedly stole his thoughts and used them without his written authorization. Please return to your post and edit it so that his post is the first to state whatever the hell he was thinking at the time. Thank you!
Ppl say that in EQ2 you dont have to get the best gear if youre not raiding. If youre not raiding or pvping(for which you need the best crafted gear and takes eons to get), then youre QUESTING which is grinding-lite. You are grinding to nowhere. Well, at least the animations are cool
Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice.
Oh by the way, clustering has hurt DAOC in that its last good server Gareth has lost ppl to the smaller classic servers, helping them and hurting the only server with adequate population.
Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice.
The majority of the content in the game is for non-raiders as the majority of the players are non-raiders. As someone mentioned you only need raid gear to raid harder raids. This is the first game I have played where there is enough content in it that when I hit the level cap with my first character I still have lots to do with him besides raid. Also, the game is so rich in content that I am leveling a second character and experiencing content and quests that I never even saw with my first.
The biggest part is that you can still interact with others while you are doing it. If role-playing is your cup of tea, don't forget to check out the RP based servers. Sure, no PVP on RP based ones, but hey.
As far as the guild emblems and stuff - you get a cape, with the guild emblem on the back. Depending on how high the guild is, depends on how much detail you can have on it. Probably not as "decked out" as you are looking for, more like a common branding.
All in all, I'd say it's at least worth a try.
Up to level 60 or so the player crafted legendary equipment was among the best in the game and with the multi recipe crafting it was possible for a crafter (I was a top provisioner) to make enough coin to keep the equipment upgraded.
But changes towards the end of 2006 in the crafting system tilted the profit in favour of the harvesters of the ingredients rather than the crafters and the relative reduction in the quality of the better player crafted gear (now called mastercrafted) compard to the looted legendary gear was a kick for the solo player - because the legendary loot is generally from group (heroic) conquests deep in group zones (much as the best gear - fabled - (given that I only ever saw one mythical item) - is from epic conquests deep in raid zones.
But the solo player is (in my opinion) most dependant on really good quality gear or else they are stuck trying to pick off single green (litte exp) mobs from the edges of populations and cannot take the risks to venture to agressive areas to harvest.
So my view is that EQ2 was solo/casual friendly and crafting was a way to make coin and coin could buy pretty good equipment. But now it is hard to play casually or solo as crafting is less profitable, harvesting at your tier is more risky, and better gear is not obtainable to casual players who can't raid for fabled or who are looking for pick-up groups which can't get to the legendary stuff the way a practiced group can.
I was a quester and collector and had completed a very large number of quests (top 10 my server at best - now 23rd as I'm inactive) and this really killed me when they introduced AA as a lot of it is eared from quests but I had done so many that there were few available to me - so after a while my AA lagged way behind my guildmates who still had many available quests undone. Other AA is available for exploring and killing named mobs while they are still worth exp (usually group required) and for epics (raids) so I was badly stuck on AA so I went from being amongst the best equipped and most solo capable in my guild at 55 to being about the worst equipped and least solo capable by the mid 60s. I was still amongst the richest in my guild but much of the better gear was not tradable above 60 or so even having a lot available (still about 200 plat in the bank gathering dust) it was of little use except for alts - and I like roleplay and a single character so I didn't need it.
But I did enjoy the (very slow) journey through the levels - I had been thinking about starting again to do the quest when the will get AA, but repeating a couple of thousands quests on another character (including 250 or so collections) seems like too much repition just to get back to where I was.
Overall I'd say it's as good as most of the better MMORPGS for casual / solo / pick-up group play - which is to say that it is not great - in general these games do not reward casual visits - they reward immersion - regular longer play sessions - with a pool of people (guild or whatever) who you play with frequently. And even in a good guild the occasional drop-in is almost as bad as a random pick-up group.
If you don't agree with my opinion, please feel free to express your disagreement as vociferously and offensively as possible. I find that if I give my kids permission to behave badly occasionally they are less likely to actually do so - I wonder if the same approach will work here!
You are an idiot! You don't know what you are talking about! Were you dropped on your head when you were born? This is the dumbest post I have EVER read! You can't spell, don't know english, your feet stink, and your hair looks stupid!
Ok, with all that out of the way, he is pretty much correct.
I think EQ2 is one of the more solo-friendly games on the market, it may not be quite as solo-friendly as WoW (up to 60, more so after 60) or a couple of the newer games that relish in solo-ability, but it is interesting and solo up to 70 without too much problem.
HOWEVER, guilds and groups get the most love. That is actually why I play the game. I have the option to solo, but the game is really built around groups and guilds. Plus, there's some really good raiding at all levels if you hook up with a couple dozen people and want to hit a raid scene a bit. The best equipment comes from raids, and the group equipment is excellent I think for grouping. The legendary sets look completely unique from raiding sets and crafted sets. A lot of great choices in gameplay and equipment if you really want to get it.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
castle mistmoore is maybe an exception as its a very hard zone with raid parts in it, but once you gto good legendary equip form eof instances you can even play there. even for players equipped with kos raidgear castle is a hard zone and it is meant to be that.
Besides that if you compare eof legendary and kos fabled equip the differences are often very small, and in some cases eof legendary is better than kos fabled.
Ironman, I suggest that you ignore what the majority of the "elitist" people have told you, and just play the game the way you want to play it.
It is true that the Echoes of Faydwer dungeon / raid content is more difficult that any of the other content in the game, but you really dont need to have been through Kingdom of Skies instances to be prepared for these instances / raids. Sure it helps to be wearing the best gear but raiding is still a viable option without being "fully fabled" if you have a good group.
I have a Level 70 Necromancer in EQ2 and can tell you that I can pretty much solo most of the early dungeons in Kingdom of Skies, but the same types of dungeons / instances in Echoes of Faydwer are much more of a challenge.
Also I can safely say that most of the players I know i game are curteous and respectable, I cant think of many that will "fully insult" and "degrade" people.
Normally if you find people like that it is best to put them on ignore. To be fair, you will find rudeness, arrogance, and ignorance in any MMO online game, not just EQ2.
You don't need raiding or raid gear at all in this game to get by.
I personally do raid, and have raid gear. But trust me if you dont want to raid then you have no need at all for it.
Also on a side note, since the EOF expansion, for the most part, the loot you get from quests, collections and normal small grouping is just as good and equel to any of the pre EOF raid gear, stats wise. so even less to care about
Che.
When you say EOF group, quest etc gear is equal to pre-eof raid gear, you mean gameworld wise or just EOF areas?
The reason I'm asking is because in WoW when Burning Crusade was released they introduced far superior 58-60 loot which in turn "killed" the original 58-60 content. As it stands now, no one bothers with the 58-60 content and hop over to TBC as soon as they hit 58.
Is this also happening in EQ2? Are the pre-EOF areas deserted?
I ask because the pursuit of gear upgrade is a primary motivator in MMOs, and it would be a shame to see great original or pre-EOF content be left untouched for lack of payoff. I know some will say why not do it for the simple entertainment of going through it but I wish the design team would keep this in mind.
Also, I see a lot of talk about instances, has EQ2 introduced more instanced dungeons since release? Instances dungeons are my favorite part of WoW and I was considering making a come back to EQ2 and hoped there would be more than the original Adventure Packs. I don't know that I can live through another 6 hour campfest for Bloodtalon
- Dwyn