I played everquest for years and now thinking about giving EQ2 a try. I have a couple questions. Is eq2 like eq where it takes a person about a year to get in current content? I was looking at making a bard, are they very useful? Are they cany classes that seem to be in more demand that others? IE Scouts, mages, fighters..exec Is this game pretty balanced among everything? Any help on any of the callings would be greatful, likes dislikes and such. thanks in advance.
You can level a toon to 90 and get 300 AA's in 2-3 days. They are about to remove the shard requirements from Ry'Gorr gear which will give you the stats you need to get in a raid for no effort whatsoever. This game has been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, and they do it on a rolling basis. If you can not get into max level, max AA in 2 weeks then you are not really trying.
Wow i didnt know it was so easy. Though I am sure not know one zone from another i would be quite slow, though i do level fast. So each of the scouts are more or less equal?
I'm not a scout, but no they are not more or less equal. Troubador - As a warlock this is obviously my favorite scout they have great group buffs for caster groups and can do some decent DPS if the person playing them knows the class and it isn't a mostly ranged situation. Dirges - Had the most easy mode DPS is the game with their mythical and now it is getting a small nerf, there is a lot of outcry over this as if it is the "end of days" they are great for buffs to melee groups have a decent rez but the cast time is too long to be really effective. Rangers - High parsing can be in the top 3 or 4 of the parse most of the time if played competently. Have not played one but they are certainly nice to have in raid especially for some ranged encounters. Assassins - Can put up some wicked numbers but I do not think their DPS comes easy position is everything for them to parse high. Swashys and brigands hate transfers, debuffs never played either. There are some great scouts on here frequently that are active and I'm pretty sure one will opn this up, what is your class in EQ1?
Ceilidhknight wrote: He makes it sound a lot easier than it is. A person who already knows the game and has a lot of free time to level, can level very quickly. New players it takes a lot more time because they don't know the tricks.
It also depends on the class you play. Troubadors and Dirges are slower to level because they are low DPS compared to the other scouts.
IN everquest I 3 boxed Warrior, bard and berserker. My main that i raided with was a berserker. I am up to playing any class but a priest.
Raahl wrote: If he is coming from EQ1 I do not consider him to fall into the new player category. And seeing his post that was made as I was typing this he DEFINATELY does not fall into a new player category.
Lempo@Everfrost wrote: This really shows that you don't play any of these classes. The major points are there, but there's some fine tuning that needs to be done. Troubador - Huge caster buffs, easily the lowest DPS of the scouts (for now, not sure how they'll be once the buff goes through). Their damage should be better than most healers in a raid, lower than even a lot of tanks. Dirge - Huge melee/tank buffs, not super hard to DPS with in raids (behind most scouts and mages but can keep above tanks and healers). It does take some knowing of abilities to be great. Also leveling can get tough because you don't get your mythical buff until 80, which is where their raid dps comes from. Ranger - Former redheaded stepchild of scouts (they've gotten some buffage lately). Decent DPS, higher than most scouts but their counterpart (assassins) can beat them hands down in ideal conditions. Assassin - Best single target scout. Huge damage, hate transfer. Heavy on position to do their best. Swashy - Good single target damage but AoE damage is their specialty, mage debuffs (tied to dps abilities as opposed to dirge/trouby debuffs which are seperate), hate transfer. Brigand - New redheaed stepchild of scouts. Decent DPS but can't compare to their counterpart (swashbucklers). Melee debuffs (mostly tied to abilities). Their I've raided with a Ranger and currently a Dirge. Have also played trouby and assassin at end game though not raids. All scouts rely on being behind a mob to do full damage, some more and others. Bards (dirge and trouby) are heavy into utility, they have a lot of maintaned buffs and several debuffs that they need to keep on a mob (in raids at least) to help DPS and Heals, plus each has a buff to cycle on allies. Dirge's get a single target and group rez (100 health/mana with AAs) while troubies get a short charm and mez (not used in raids, but nice for soloing). Rogues (swashy and brigands) are DPSers with debuffs tied to their damage abilities. They have some utility but it's their job to keep their debuffs up to help the raid dps. Have the greatest survivability of scouts (have "tank"-y AAs though they are rarely used besides some limited soling). Predators (ranger and assassin) are pure DPS. Neither has much for group buffs and are all about killing. These are the two most different scouts in terms of play style. Rangers are all about geting perfect range to use bow and melee attacks at any angle while assassins are all about being up the mobs rearend and hit fast. All of them are needed in raids, it just depends on who you're running with. I know our raid tries to run 2-3 dirges and at least one troub, one of each rogue when we can, and we wont turn down preds (we usually have 1-4). I am not in a hardcore guild by any means so we run with what we can get. I don't know how other raids to thing but we're usually mage heavy for DPS. Find one that suits your playstyle and stick with it. Have fun and you'll find a guild to play with even in raids.
Races can have some impact though i don't think there are any huge ones. You can find races that have racial abilities that can add benefit to your class or give your class something they normally wouldn't have access to solo, i.e. water breathing, tracking, safefall some races also have boosts to your primary stat. You were provided a much more detailed breakdown of the classes after me and it is all valid points and a better summary even down to where he said it was obvious that I don't play those calsses I even mentioned that lol, so what his problem is I'm not exactly sure.
Lempo@Everfrost wrote: You shouldn't consider those when picking a race IMHO. you can get the fishbone earring that gives you water breathing for 12 hours(there is a tinker item too). Woodworkers can make a totem that can grant you fish vision, tinkerers can make stuff that gives you temporary vision types, tinkers can make a flotation device that lets you walk underwater. researching i think is the best thing to do when considering which race to pick after all if you have to choose between one race that provides a unique trait and a race that has a trait that can be replicated through another method you may as well choose the one that has the unique trait .
How do the rangers/assasins fare as far as solo levelling considering the range/position requirement?
If you don't have a positional advantage, then it is a disadvantage. You won't find yourself plowing through mobs solo just starting out as you might with less positionally dependant classes, but it is definately viable. As you gain world and class awareness of limits and potential, you'll find the the dependance on positional attacks slighly diminishes, as you pick your fights a little better, and your gear/training/wealth in general improves. The disadantage while soloing never goes away, but it shouldn't hamper you as much in later stages of development. The best advice I can give is to to not overlook AA's as you level up no matter which class you choose. They add a lot of power to a character, and point for point, are probably far more effective than AAs in EQ1. Any character I start at this point, I aim for two points per level till 50 (targetting 100 total earned AA by the time I reach 50), and [at least] three per level after that (220ish total earned AA by 90). There are lot of reasons I could give why this is a good idea to earn a fair number of AA as you go, and probably a few reasons why others would tell you this is not a good idea... so I won't get into why at this point. The other often overlooked advice I would give a character transitioning to EQ2 (especially to a scout class) after a long period of EQ1 gameplay, is to pay attention to auto-attack cycles, and note how combat arts/abilities activated will block auto-attack from cycling. Get in the habit of [generally] not blocking auto-attack. Do this by delaying or omitting combat arts from your attack routines in favor of uninhibited auto-attack.
I never had a problem as a ranger leveling up on normal mobs solo. You can easilygo from 0 to 90 with 200+ AA by doing the solo timeline quests. It's heroic mobs that are difficult. ^^ or ^^^ heroics for scouts, as we have low hp and defence skills.
Ceilidhknight wrote: And you don't need to be it so. I come from EQ1 too, and after 4 years playing EQ2 I'm still not max level. Just play fun and cool.
I always hear people saying you can level to max in 2-3 days and they usually mention double xp weekends and using station cash xp multiplier potions. I played for a month or so back in '08 (got a Dirge to 40ish, Bruiser and Sk to 35ish) and just resubbed about a month ago and in the two months or so that I've played, I've never seen a double xp weekend. How often to they have these? I also consider myself a "new" player even though I played EQ2 for about 4 years, played WoW from release until about a year ago and in that time dual boxed a pally/warrior and got the achievement for server first 80 deathknight (without the dualbox, assistance, twinking, or gimmicks like chain pulling) so I totally understand fast leveling. But I still level somewhat slow in EQ2 mainly because most of the zones I've played lack quest helper and I don't really know the zones and have never been through the quests before. also, I don't use the xp potions or anything like that. Not to mention that having to go through 5+ pages of text to pick up a quest slows it down for people not used to EQ2. Also, you said you play for short bursts throughout the day which will slow you down a good bit as well. Like if I have time to sit down for several hours and really dig into a good quest grind, I can probably get 10 levels in a session (split between AA and regular levels). But I admittedly do lose a lot of time tabbing out to pull up EQMaps, EQwikia and ZAM to try and find out where the hell I'm supposed to go for a lot of quests.
Oh the joys of a second monitor. Play EQ2 on your primary display (windowed, maximized) and open up ZAM on the second monitor for quest help. I guess I have had mine for so long, I just assume everyone else has it setup that way. Really, get a second monitor, you wont regret it.
