Longtime player of EQ1, also once a player of Landmark. Played EQ2 9 years ago during a trial and thought of trying it out again. TL;DR at bottom. Isle of Refuge is loads of fun. I wish I could go back to it if I de-level to 5 or 10 (chronomage or whatever its called). It taught me the bare basics of how to play my class and the game. 10/10 would headbang with Kander the skeleton. Head to Qeynos Harbor. Quite overwhelming, but it wouldn't be a city if it didn't. At least one quest leads me to an inn to encourage me to rent a house/room or something, but isn't specific enough. It just so happens there are mercenaries everywhere. I click on one. A window pops up telling me I need to purchase the feature. Do you know what the text says to me? "LOL ALL ACCESS MEANS NOTHING WE WANT MORE MONEY PLZ". I see people running around on all sorts of crazy mounts. I don't care if it's a banana, its fast and running across Antonica on foot doesn't appeal to me. I find a stable, browse, and I see lots of blue numbers. Had to look up what SP (status points) are, how to get them, etc. because the game doesn't mention anything about it as far as I know. Some mounts are priced directly for Daybreak Cash. I stomp over to a provisioner and buy a torch, hoping to ignite the stables in a fit of protest. But alas, game mechanics aren't THAT ahead of their time. This puts into question what to expect in this game, so I dive into the forums, reddit, and ask my cat to get a feel. It seems like a lot of players who play current content are seeing the game become Pay-to-win. So I lower my positive outlook about the game, telling myself to enjoy it for what it is, make best of the old content and avoid the misery of [Pay 35 DBC to see the rest of this message!]. (You get my point, right?) I get into tradeskills to make armor. Get really into it. Become armorer, learn only one tradeskill can go beyond 20 or 30 (really? Of all the cash grabs put in the game, you can't spend DBC to max more tradeskills? Even I would have thought that over). I beat on rocks more than I beat on mobs, make a set of armor that made me feel like a French knight during the Battle of Agincourt. Stuff just bounced off me. Sold rare ingredients at less than half the lowest going price on the Broker, used the money to buy bigger bags (thanks Snowygal and others for making it affordable to newbs!). I learn about Transmuting, Adorning, and Tinkering. Crap, I have nothing to Transmute because its too low and my level is too high. I learn about... mentoring? Chronolevels? I don't know, in EQ1 its called Monster Shroud, where you de-level on purpose temporarily. And unlike EQ1 that abandoned shrouds years ago for no freaking reason, this game got it right. I'm smashing already-done content, smashing items with my mind to make gemstones and powders, which I then use to raise Adorning. A lot of fun. Some boss monsters are really epic fights, ending usually first in defeat, then a narrow victory a second time and on. Lurkblister, Grubdigger, that ugly white giant mole in The Caves. I prefer to "conquer" a zone by completing every quest the zone has to offer, if possible, before moving on to the next. Lord Chesgard (the quest involving him) was by far my most difficult to accomplish. I was really broke for a while, as broken as my faith in Daybreak Games is. A friendly supercute fairy.... girl? Guy? I dunno. A friendly fairy tells me to use daily tokens I earn and shows me what to get. 500 platinum bag. I flip out. Give him some rare harvestables as thanks. Since I don't know of any Halfling brothels, I did the next best thing with my money and bought upgrades on the Broker while still retaining my passive skill Cheapskate. New big bags = more space = MOAR HARVESTABLES. Found my Holy Steed too, so now I can whistle at cute babes and run before they notice. I learn about staggering levels with AAs and do just that. I'm 32 with optimal equipment that can easily take on a small group of non-heroic mobs five levels higher. FINALLY found a cloak. Why do cloaks not have stats until level 30? Anyway, thanks Burnspear. I hate you as much as I love your loot. But I can't understand why I can level so fast and yet my AAs are so slow. I went 25-32 in a single day without trying all that hard, but I struggle to gain maybe 2 AAs in the same timeframe? What gives? Is this that "nerf" to non-KA content I read about? It also sucks that it auto-spends the AAs for me. I like this sort of progression I'm doing, as it lets me enjoy content at my level all over, and there's really no shortage of it. Ascension, Resolve, Potency... doesn't make much sense other than "minimum requirement to do such and such content". I see tiny bits of potency on my gear, so I assume resolve comes later, then Ascension. I don't see myself going that far in the game, though. That seems to be the point where players are concerned about the P2W corruption affecting the game. So methodical questing, tradeskilling, and slow leveling is the way I choose to go. I have to keep my passion, commitment, and loyalty to a limit when it comes to this game, though - this company does not deserve anything from me, let alone any sort of trust, after seeing past actions. I want to avoid rolling around in misery, boredom, and grinding while other players can fork over cash and finish that much faster and get that much more powerful. Although its not a race, where do you draw the line? Even if there is one, this company would gladly run over it and through a wall comprised of cute baby kittens for a dollar. What parts of the game are lacking in information, the online resources pulled through. I'm pleased with just about everything, even the hard stuff. The only major complaint is the ad window when I enter the game and subtle "pssst, spend DBC!" on merchants. Whichever developer did that willingly, I turn a scowl toward. The least the game could do is hide the ads or give me the option to disable them because I'm subscribed. TL;DR - EQ2 newb content good and fun, 9/10. Daybreak company bad, 2/10. Mind is conflicted. Great short term, but highly questionable long-term. Like smelling a flower growing out of a mound of poop. Also, is Holly available to speak to in any way, or is she still in hiding? I want to ask her some semi-important questions on Landmark.
To be fair, mercs have ALWAYS costed extra, and it's a one time purchase. Daybreak is doing what it can to survive and bundling those into an already massive benefit package won't help the games survival. The mounts costing DBC are a waste. Other than that, agree with you totally. Why can't I buy any damn cloaks?!?!?!?
you get a mount at the end of your newb starting area, neriak line was fun for one. At lvl 30 you can get a raptor pet that has supper high jump and landing safely. 30 adventure or crafting I think small quest line.. As for pay to win , I only sub and find I have np , most people will say join a guild if you need help information wise or ask in chat , you be surprised most players are nice. You can slide your AA bar all the way to 100% and get AA instead of xp. Only thing you can do is play the game you wish to , not the way others want. And also its easy to blame Day Brake but there hands are tied with what Novus Columbus or what ever there name is say they can do..
Oh, so much to address. Like Dude said, the new expansion (Kunark Ascending) gives the mercenary feature. Content is level 100 though, so if you decide to pass the expansion for now and still use mercenaries you have to buy the feature à la carte. It's been like that since SoE times. There are quested mounts in starting areas... except the Isle of Refuge. The other areas hold your hand through features to avoid the overwhelming feeling (some people think it is *too much* hand-holding though). If you're really decided on getting a mount you can get one for free in any of the other 4 starting areas -- you can even get a mount in the evil cities like Gorowyn or Neriak. For every single tier of mounts (leaper, flider, flier) you can get at least 2 different free mounts: one for adventuring and one for crafting. Those are independent, so you can rock a flying mount (usually lvl 85) on level 1 adventure with a high level crafter. And vice-versa. Also there are a few mounts that sell for money only. They cost a few platinum pieces each. Check again with the stable guy! I find the stable in New Halas easier to deal with because it has fewer mounts on display so it doesn't drown the cheap ones like the Qeynos one. Most festivals give you a way to get free mounts for tokens. I was about to say *every* festival, but that's not true: the Chronofest is going on and there's no mount you can get from it... that I know of. Next week Bristlebane's festival starts and you can get a cool horse that changes colors. So... Free mounts! I'm a bit confused about the crafting bit... only one tradeskill can go beyond 20... as in you wanted to be an armorer and alchemist and tailor and carpenter, like that? Well, you can only have one class for adventuring, you only have one class for tradeskilling. I would freak out so much if I could level more than one tradeskill class! Transmuting, adorning, tinkering... Okay, tell you what. Look for Londiar Inygad in North Qeynos. Ask a guard. Tell him I said hi. Bring cash for coal. AA is super cool, but at level 30 it really takes a while to come by. By level 60 you'll be getting more AAs than you know what to do with. That's when they really start making a difference. Ascension is a way to level past level 100. It is a completely new ball game, you can't even start leveling ascension until the last expansion. Resolve too is level 100 stuff, pretty much a "you have to be this tall" sign for heroic dungeons. Since you're doing the methodical questing route it will be a while until those should concern you. Totally agree with your assessment of "flower on mound of poop". A beautiful resilient flower with lots of surprises if you're willing to explore. I recommend you this old post: Things I wish I'd Known Earlier. I found it by accident a couple years back and from time to time I come back at it. Loads of good info on the game and a great resource on the thread too with people talking. The info is not up-to-date: nothing on the new deity system, heartbound or infusion, all of these are way too recent. But the basics are covered beautifully. Wish you good luck in this new corner of Norrath... Welcome!
Thanks for the advice and tidbits, folks. I've seen a few leaper mounts and it instantly triggers my ADD and I follow the player (who is constantly leaping high in the air). Mounts like that don't exist in EQ1. Heck the mounts with wings in that game don't even fly, but glide. I can only go by what I've known in EQ1, but mercenaries there aren't blocked by a paywall and they're pretty much a necessity for some classes. If they're just a luxury here and only help make killing easier or whatever, I can understand the DBC price, but the game offers really no information other than asking me to pay up first. Tradeskills also can all be maxed (minus class/race specifics) and they all work like Tinkering and Adorning does in this game. It's brutal and slow, but it gave even the nuttiest players something to do and it was productive. But anyway, time to get that leaper mount. EQ1 mounts at best only glide, and some are buggy and fall like a rock anyway. Good to know about the AAs as well.
There are 2 separate leapers; both are available from quest lines in Butcherblock Mountains - one adventure and one tradeskill. I loved my leapers for such a long time!
Eq2 really does lack a proper tutorial. The newbie areas ease you into fighting pretty nicely, but do crap for all the features the game has. Our flying mounts really fly, and fae/arasai can do a quest to get the ability to shrink & fly without a mount. Mercs really are mostly a luxury. You don't need them. They do speed things up and make it easier to do things with worse gear, but one can solo to 100 without one. They certainly make it easier to solo herioc (aka group oriented) content. As someone else said, if you decide to buy the latest expansion, mercs are included in the purchase price. Crafting has always leveled like adventuring in this game, with it being more a specific class than just something adventurers do (until very recently with the crafting requriement for the epic 2.0). I know it's different than EQ1, but hey it's a different game with different mechanics. Starts with the broad category & narrows to archetype then specific class. Adventuring used to do that as well. Started off as an archetype (priest, scout, mage, fighter), then to get to level 10 you had to pick a subclass (say if you'd picked priest before you'd have to choose druid, cleric or shaman at this point) and finally your actual class at 20. Crafting mirrored that. Random bits... There are cloaks at low levels that have stats. Just not in the Qeynos or Freeport areas since back when those areas were populated & loot made, we didn't even have a cloak slot. Tailors can also make cloaks with stats starting at level 20. It's really easy to get a mount with out paying DBC. There are tons of quests, merchant bought (even for just coin), loyalty token merchant bought mounts and /claimed ones. The DBC ones really are there just for looks (can stick them in your mount appearance slot). Every type (ground, leaper, glider & flyer) can be had for no real $$ cost. As a player who is level 100 on a few characters, I can tell you I have not spend one DBC on anything that wasn't fluff and I'm perfectly happy. I am not a fan of the 'paid for your research' thing, protested the SC (at the time) cost to buy it instantly when it was put in and won't use it still. I'll do my research the old slow way. I of course am not at the 'high end' of the game though.
Well hmmm.... Pretty much every thing that needs to be said has been said. I guess I would add join a guild, there will be a ton of resources avail to you in a guild. to include crafting areas & supplies, portals , guild buff spell & recall spell. and most importantly other players to chat with and ask questions of. Please allow me to say WB & if you have any questions feel free to ask.
Number one mistake every new player makes is not taking the time to find a guild that suits you. That one omission lengthens your learning curve exponentially. Talking to people who know this stuff will make the game a lot more fun a lot quicker for a new player.
Like +1000. This game is all about the guild. Find a group of people that are on the same time as you that you enjoy talking to and it just enriches the whole experience! If I had to depend on /general for conversation I'd go nuts lol.
Honestly given your playstyle you may enjoy hte game till at least Destiny of Velious. Btw pick a deity (more quest and some fun) and go and grab your jumping raptor in Butcher block.
Thanks to all here in the forums and in the game. If there was a /drag command some players would have used it on me to get the good stuff. Got my leaper mount, approaching 90 armorer level, adventure level is mid-60's. First time in a semi-serious group doing a dungeon and I was overwhelmed quite a bit. Scrambled to find the right skill to hold aggro. Got to work on making a set or whatever it's called. I already know some zones and dungeons well enough to guide someone else through to a specific thing. Old content is very fun. Looking up maps online because the game won't display them is not fun. Got my cloak of the harvester, raising adorning and tinkering often. Haven't picked a deity since the game lacks any information on how or why, but it's something to look into on the wiki someday. If I don't do my daily tradeskill quests I probably won't be able to sleep peacefully at night. I HAVE to do them. I even have a bixie flying mount from playing the bouncy game too much in Sinking Sands (272 server best, beat that). Public Quests are amazing and fun, even if I can't do much of anything at my level. I die sometimes, but I don't beg for an invite, rez, or heals, and I even die due to choosing to heal someone else rather than myself. It's hard to learn how to play any differently when all fights seem to be designed to end in 30 seconds or less. I don't really want to level up so fast but everyone else is 100 or up there and I can de-level if need be to enjoy lower content anyway. EQ1 doesn't have that feature (except monster shrouds which they abandoned long ago and basically leaves you as a naked player with 5 skills) so it sucks when you go back into an old zone, and your weakest spell kills everything. lol
Sone dude with a fancy hat on Butcher Block docks may tell you things but very few, you may pick one check the miracle and give up if you dislike it, to abandon your paith just click on an altar ... I do like 150 at the game, so i may need training ... You can use the chronomages (it cost some status) to set up your level to any multiple of 5 you want, check for them some are in Kelethin i m sure.
I'll give you some tips over a nice dinner. :3 Okay, okay, more serious: 1. No competition, do it alone. This leaves all the shinies to yourself. 2. When you bounce from a blue square, always aim for a blue fish/bouncy to get higher for possibility of getting a gold orb. 3. Ignore green orbs completely. Only aim for red orbs when you know you can't grab anything else on your way to the ground. 4. Hard part: start making a pattern or route so that every time you jump/bounce, you can get to a gold orb. Example: the bouncy thing right in the middle of the dervish tents to the one in the air directly south will/should launch you directly towards two gold orbs and a red orb as you fall to the ground. 5. Crank up your favorite song and just have fun. As long as you get the highest reward, you did good. EQ1's deity stuff only affected your starting factions and that's all, but this system is way more different and beneficial. Had no idea.
