Hello and thanks in advance, I tested out a bit both EQ 1(till lvl 13) and EQ 2(till lvl 21) months ago and now considering to start seriously, so to start with I am torn which to pick as EQ seems like somewhat more deep on char progression and EQ2 seems more polished with quality of life features. I may end up playing both but what are the main differences between the 2 games? Also on class choice, I tend to pick either tanks or healers, you got any suggestions for me? Finally, considering its an old game and its possible the majority are on endgame, which servers would you suggest for people totally new to the game?
Try one of EQ1 progression severs. Phinny server if you prefer fast unlocks and to play one charakter. (you can box but requre more then one comp). Ragefire or Lockjaw if you prefer slower unlocks and want to box at some point. All three servers are going in to expantion three soon (Luclin), 1-2 month to catch up. Downside is that you need a subscription to see the progression servers, but totally worth it. Im not very familiar with live servers so cant give you any advice there. As for class, any of the 3 tank or healing classes are good. Warrior for raidcontent, hard to solo with. Paladin / SK more utility and really shine in the groupcontent. Clerics are the strongest healers. Druid and Shm are good group healers but brings more utility and are good at soloing. I play on Ragefire myself and if your choice end there your welcome to send me a tell for any questions you might have as a new player.
I see and thank you. It happens that right now I cant get a subscription right away(capital control in my country) though it should be possible in the future. So for a start I will have to pick one of the free servers. I am getting quite interested for shaman from what I read and possibly paladin if I make a second char too
For the live servers (FTP) I think you'll be fine picking any of them, but you should probably seek a guild early on that specializes in new and returning players. There is a listing of them on the guild recruiting page, but to save time here is an excerpt. Unfortunately even with most of these guilds there just isn't much population out there to group with for the first 80 levels or so. The good news is you can slam through the first 80 levels without a ton of help and in just a few weeks if you want. For probably your first 20 levels you should do the tutorial quests (should get you to around level 9, then the Crescent Reach Quests, then I'd recommend the Blightfire Moors quests. That series will really give you a better understanding of the game I feel. After that stick to the hot zones as much as possible, don't beg buffs but if you return to the PoK/Guild Lobby every few hours you'll probably see guildies that are happy to buff you if you come to them. Stay at 100% xp, if you can pay for a subscription for a month I'd buy one around level 85 and take the auto grant AA's and keep it on. You'll want the Autogrant again at 95 so if you are not able to get there in the month of paid subscription I'd pay for a second month. (You'll understand AAs starting around level 50 if you are unfamiliar with the term). As for your class choice I think those would both be good classes. Try them out and find which is best for you. I personally prefer the Paladin to the Shaman, but that is a personal choice, whichever you prefer is great.
I see and thank you for your answers. I only played about to tutorial before so I am not great navigating through the various areas but learning slowly. I cant subscribe yet but probably will be able in the near future
A lot of your class choice also depends on if you plan to 2 or 3 box, or just play legit solo. Paladin is a perfectly good choice for solo play, but I would go SK/War if boxing. As for SK vs Paladin directly, I feel like paladin has better threat control for single targets, but SK can do swarm pulls a lot better due to life tap procs from ripostes, snares, dots, etc, and Harm Touch is one of the best emergency threat tools in the game (with a HUGE cooldown). Paladins have spot heals, Lay Hands for emergency "Nope to death" power, can chain stun a target to mitigate their dmg and generate a lot of hate, ghetto cleric buffs if you aren't going to run a proper cleric, etc. The main drawback for paladins is that their most powerful procs (Nife spell line) only work against undead. They get a Might spell line that is weaker and more general purpose, but SKs don't usually have to worry about this kind of thing much. Their procs work against most everything. Warriors are tricky, because their power at higher levels is much more dependent on gear and AAs than either of the knight classes (imo, ofc), but they get the best mitigation, hands down. Their dps isn't anything to brag about, but they get the job done. As for soloing in general, a few classes are known to be quite effective at it--especially if you don't plan to box: -Mage/Necro: Pet classes with a strong suite of spells and utility, generally welcomed into groups for various reasons, but can get by just fine even without mercs. Necros are renown as the supposed best soloing class. I think mages are really close. -Monk: Tanky for a dps-oriented class, but focuses on avoidance more than mitigation. Can use Feign Death to avoid dangerous situations, and gets specialized pulling tools at higher level to ensure a solid spot in groups that need a good puller or dps. Use a tank merc through the tutorial, then switch to a healer once you're out. Get familiar with your merc commands if you are going to practice your split pulling. -Wizard: This one is tricky, because of the squish factor, but with practice you can "quad kite" your way through the levels. Alternatively, just grab a tank merc and burn things down before they drop your merc. Just watch your aggro. -Bard: It takes practice and patience to solo as a bard, but they eventually get great tools for just about everything--pulling, charm, CC, nuke, haste, slow, snare, defensive stats, hp/mp regen, etc. For a class that has everything, it's all about knowing when to use what. Early levels are rough, so you will probably rely on a healer merc until you are high enough level for the tank mercs to consistently hold aggro off you. Tank merc is generally preferred for the simple fact that they contribute dps, but there's room for flexibility according to play style. For example, a healer merc would be preferred if you plan to charm enemies a lot. Most others can work with the right merc and play style adjustment, but these are the more popular choices.
Thank you, but to start with, because you mention boxing, I got to admit in all games I am heavily against boxing or any forms of playing multiple chars same time. Its also my belief that boxing in general hurts longterm viability and survival of games making them less appealing to newer players and lowering interaction and cooperation between them. The only game I ever played 2 chars at once was EVE and wont do it anywhere else. Thank you for all that info, I think I will go for a froglok shaman initially and will make a tank once I get the hang of it a bit. There is a lot classes I like but I generally like to have some utility on my support(healer or tank) roles if viable
In other games I might agree with you about boxing, but EQ has survived BECAUSE of boxing. I wouldn't be too judgmental about it for this game, especially since it's so common practice. That said, soloing is totally fine too, and I'm not going to tell you to play in a way that you don't want to--only that those reasons against boxing don't apply here. I don't have a lot of experience with Druid soloing (up to level 40 or so), but from what I have tried it's really slow. It -can- work, but I don't recommend it.
A lack of experience would explain it. It's okay though. Druid was considered #2 solo class for a very long time. We can kite all over the place. Ports, run speed, snare, root, strong DoTs, AoE nukes, charm, invis on the run...druids were the most popular class before the introduction of mercenaries for a reason.
Yeah, I've been duo'ing a monk/druid, and coming to appreciate the druid a bit more. Still not sure I would want to solo with one, but with a merc there's no doubt in my mind that it's perfectly capable of it.
I still think multi boxing is the number one reason people wont find teams and that is a bad thing for most if not all games. As for my class, well for now seems cool, I buff the tank mercenary, I got heals, cures when needed, I do mainly DoTs and got one direct damage spell too.There is definitely a lot learn and probably would help if I got a guild later on /claim also gave an item that summons a familiar who boosts hp for like 5 or 6 hours
One difference between EQ and EQ2 is EQ2 has so much more in the Quest area. Quests are visible (meaning you don't have to hail every NPC and go through a slew of bracketed words), there is a journal to keep track of them (unlike EQ when such a thing came out when the Drakkin did), and I feel there is a bit more choice in race and class combinations. On the flipside, EQ has the factions (you have to WORK to get where you want to go), unlike EQ2 where you just kinda waltz in, stay away from the guards so you don't get killed, and can talk politely to people. I see you have your class picked out, but since no one gave you info on EQ2, I thought I'd chime in and do so.
I see, thank you, having started gaming in the late 90s(for online gaming at least) I am not a stranger to what you say. I remember on many games I played I had to type hi and bye to npcs back then(and if I didnt say buy the npc couldnt be even used for a while by others) and go through keywords to have a dialogue with npcs.I currently check on both EQs and well EQ2 seems to have more quality of life features while EQ1 is more true to the fantasy feel. Both great games, I do have time for both(I think) but wanting to see them both further on
Like I said, that would be true for other games, but with EQ the reason you don't find groups is a combination of small player base and most of the regular player base being at max level. There simply aren't enough people to just randomly group during the leveling process. Once you're level capped, have a bunch of AAs, and are somewhat geared, you don't need to box to find groups. You just need a good guild and friends (much easier to accomplish at level cap). Until then, boxing is the best way to get there, and carries the benefit of having other max level alts when you do.
