Some EQ2 Questions based off EQ1 or other MMOs. Thanks for help.

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks, and New Player Questions' started by ARCHIVED-friz898, Jun 29, 2012.

  1. ARCHIVED-friz898 Guest

    Hi Guys,

    tl:dr version: Hi. EQ1 had this this and that, does EQ2 have it?


    I am currently a lvl 40 Templar on Freeport.


    1. I currently have nearly 400 Wis, or may have just reached/passed that. Is this good? In other words, EQ1 had alot of Soft Caps and Hard Caps that were later removed, but in the early days if you had 200 Wisdom, you were doing good. Can you guys fill me in on a list of soft/hard caps for stats, or a site/link that already has this? Including Haste, Spell Haste, all Stat caps, Resist caps, etc.

    2. Is there anyway to get better control of the mercs? EQ2 mercs are without a doubt more diverse than EQ1 mercs. However, being able to set the EQ1 mercs to assist-only, not tank (i.e. not taunt) etc was a huge plus. More specifically. Being a templar, I keep the SK merc with me. When I group with my RL friend who is also an SK, she either causes him trouble with ping-pong agro, or completely steals the mob and seems to want to run halfway down a tunnel or something. Meanwhile I just look like a noob EQ1 necro who cant control his skelly. This happens even when I have it set to Follow me, protect none, and assist my RL friend.

    3. Where can I find the ultimate or website for templars? If there is nothingt better than "check the class forums here and eq2 flames" so be it. I currently read the forums here and there, although I don't have the time to search and read years worth of postings. I also try to school up between ZAM and EQ2 Wikia. But with there being so much to learn, I still have no clue if I'm "doing it right" as a templar.

    3. <cont> In particular: I wondered why healing was so hard and why I blew through mana until I read a post that said that although Templars are the main healers, they don't heal the conventional way. They focus on reactive proc heals, reverse dmg shield type spells, and other things that cause the mob to heal you when it strikes you or you strike it. Does this ever change? Currently it seems if things are going smoothly, using these reactives as needed is great, but the second we have a boss, bad pull, or just whatever, I'm spamming whatever heal spell (including Group heal) is available as I await the cool downs to refresh. --- Do Templars (or any other class) ever get some kind of huge heal, like a Complete Heal, or even in other games such as WoW and DAoC, a huge heal for alot of mana type thing.


    4. What stats do I want to focus on my Templar besides Wisdom? I havent seen any type of mana regen/flowing thought type stuff. I haven't seen any spell casting haste type items yet. Anything else besides Stamina?

    5. Is there a good "old school checklist" type deal? What I mean is, a buddy mentioned "oh ya, this game has manastones, jboots, and guise of the deceivers too!" and the nostalgia really kicked in. Is there some kind of website where it list this kind of thing? I know that's unlikely, but well.. everything is on the internet somewhere.

    6. Other than the Golden Path, is there any other "best leveling path" or "best dungeon" etc type thing? I mean, I know I can't expect to learn everything about the game in one post on a forum, but man, I just don't have the time to learn all the stuff in EQ2 that came over hundreds of days /played in EQ1.

    7. Being 40, I'm pretty excited to hit Cazic Thule this weekend. Nostalgia, I'm telling you. Playing this game has been like seeing the Star Trek reboot a couple years ago. It's retelling the story, and it's fresh, yet familiar. Where's the question in this? It's actually about Frogloks. My favorite dungeon of all time was Sebilis, and I of course have fond memories of Guk as well. What is the 'soonest' I can find Frogloks? I haven't seen one in this game yet, well the kind you kill anyway. Including Undead Frogloks!

    8. Has there been any talk of ever doing any special ruleset servers, or a progression server? Again, this whole post is based off EQ1.



    Thanks to anybody who took the time out of their day to reply to some mmo nerd on an EQ2 forum. It may sound like I need to go to back to EQ1 or something, but I'm having a blast on EQ2, and have been burned out on EQ1 for quite some time. Not to mention, EQ2 is such a beautiful game, and I just built a new computer, so I'm really able to enjoy the artwork/graphics/colors.


    Dookplar
    Freeport Server


    Chikkin from Vis Maior of Quellious.
  2. ARCHIVED-Finora Guest

    1) I'll leave most of that for people who pay more attention to that stuff than I do. 400 wis seems just a tad low to me for a level 40 just going by what my level 40ish characters seem to have. Likely due to your gear being tier 4 (30s) rather than tier 5 (40s).
    2) Mercs used to 'listen' better. A fairly recent patch theoretically gave them more AI & in effect made them more aggravating (imo). Hopefully a patch in the near future will tune it back a bit.
    3) I'll leave 3a to someone who has a templar above level 14 =), but 3b all 3 types of priests (druids, clerics & shaman) have their specialty heals which usually make up the majority of their healing. Druids have heal over times, shaman have wards (prevent damage from ever happening), and the clerics both have the reactive heals. The other heals are certainly useful too, particularly on boss & harder fights. Typically one will lead with your special heals then fill in with your other heals until your special heal is refreshed & useable again/ or used up.
    Early on there are patches where your heals just are kind of bad for your level, late 20s is one spot, late 30s, early 40s is the other, due to the spread of when you get ability upgrades. You say you are level 40 now, you should be getting your new higher level versions of your heals in a level or 3. Healing will get much better then.
    Also, there are no complete heals here. You get some other heals & things from your aa's & some are pretty big though. (Can't tell you any specifics about templar there sorry).
    4) You've obviously got the wis/sta part. Otherwise you'll be getting crit chance, crit bonus, potency, ability mod and casting speed & recast speed. Basically anything that makes your heals bigger, cast faster & up to recast faster.
    5) Not exactly a check list, but eq2wiki has the list of Heritage quests (quests that reward items that existed in EQ1).
    6) Just the opinion of a 'smell the roses' kind of leveler, but the best leveling route is the one that doesn't leave you burnt out at the end & you have fun while you are doing it. I'm sure Zam.com, flames or eq2 wiki would have something about most efficient leveling paths though.
    7) I think you don't really see non-player/city frogloks until you hit Kunark in your late 60s/70s. There are of course undead frogs to kill in Sebs still =). Guk is a bit higher level than that (80ish if I remember right).
    8 ) They mentioned it in passing but more to answer players who'd asked about it. They said it was always a possibility but not something in the immediate future.


    To close, welcome to the game & hope you have at least as much fun as I have had over the years here. I moved here from Eq1 when it launched after being completely burned out on the eq1 raid scene in PoP etc, so I know the feeling =).
    OH! and EQ2U is a pretty good place to look up other players and compare if you would like to do that, or keep up with your own.
  3. ARCHIVED-friz898 Guest

    (Thank You so much Finora)

    Replies:


    1. Well, now I'm at 492 Wisdom at lvl 46. I have some lvl 40'ish gear, some lvl 30'ish gear.

    1b. Can you tell me more about tiers? Is it as simple as all mobs and all equipment goes up in tiers in a pattern like 31-40, 41-50 etc?

    3. Ah, so all healers are "gimicky" for lack of a better way of putting it. My templar has been healing fine, and has enough mana for healing for the most part, however sometimes, my spells are all on cooldown and I have the mana, but simply cannot cast the spells fast enough to keep the tank alive. Now, this is the exception not the norm, but I guess I'm just not use to healing with true cooldown type spells. My experience healing has been FF XI, EQ1, and DAoC. EQ1 had a very minimal amount of spell refresh.

    Pretty much on all those games you could cast Hot, big heal, little heal, group heal as soon as it was done casting.

    5. Thank you. I had no idea they were called Heritage quests. I went and checked that out. They're pretty cool.

    6. Well, I guess it's mostly about balancing the aa/exp stuff and maintain sanity. I have been doing a 50/50 split for most of the time, and I guess that's ok. I'm currently lvl 46 with 70aa, however I hate watching the exp bars move so slowly. But I know if I go 100% aa, I'll get tired of being same level, and I know if I go 100% exp, my AA will kill me at higher levels. I suppose there is no making me happy on this subject.

    7. I WANT FROGLOKS. (But thanks)
  4. ARCHIVED-Arielle Nightshade Guest

    There are Frogloks!!! /pats you gently.
    When they introduced Froglok as a playable race, the servers had to complete a huge but lore-filled questline, culminating in a raid. The raid group that successfully completed the final raid basically unlocked the race for the server. After awhile, it was just unlocked - but there was a race to see who could do it first. The questline is still listed on the Wiki, so that's making me think it's still available to do.
    The raid associated with the questline was tuned for the Old pre-AA world - so it's not as tough to do now. I remember that providing a TON of AA, too, later on for other characters besides the ones that did it originally.
    Here's the walkthrough: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Froglok_Timeline
    Frogloks are a playable race, but not one of the F2P ones if you are playing this that way.
    Your wisdom sounds 'about right'. You will not be able to even remotely hit the cap on that stat, so go to town with gear and adorns that stack that. I can't remember what the cap is, but my reasonably well geared healer toons at 92 have not hit that cap either. On the other hand, they never run out of mana so I don't really think about it.
    To optimize your mana useage, make sure you are wearing at least Mastercrafted or better gear. Make sure every single gear slot has something with a stat you need in it. Also make sure each piece of gear that has an adornment slot is adorned. Even if you are wearing the cheapest adorns you can get that are 30 levels lower than your gear, that's still better than 'none'. Unless you know for a fact you are going to do an instance or kill a mob in the next hour that will net you a wonderful piece of gear that is 400 times better than the one you have - don't leave a piece of gear unadorned because you 'think' you might get something better.
    Make sure you have upgraded your spells. If you are grouping a lot, you really need your heals and buffs to be Adept 3 or better. For a Templar, really good quality buffs are almost like having an extra heal - since you have some awesome HP buffs. Spec to heal first, damage second in a grouping situation while you are leveling. When you get better gear and more AA you will be able to allocate points so that your damage will go up.
    Healers blow through mana if they are nuking to damage - something a lot of healers have forgotten since melee spec seems to be what everyone does. So if you are running out of mana quickly, just heal and auto attack to damage with a good 2H Hammer.
    Reactives are your archetype-defining heal. So yeah, the healers are kind of gimmick-y. Shamans use wards, Druids have direct heals with Heal Over Time components. As you level up and get more variety in equipment and AA, you'll find those lines get a little smudged - for example, my Druid has several pieces of gear that proc a Ward, my tank is wearing bits that will proc a heal with a heal over time..etc. I always say with enough AA we'll all be one giant class that can do everything.
    You have a single target and a group reactive. (Vital Intercession and Holy Intercession? I think?) The spell says 'heals for X amount', but it does that for a certain number of 'hits'. Templar's single target is 5 hits and the group is 9 hits (I think - that might be with AA, and I hven't been a no-AA Templar in forever..) So if it heals for 400-550, say, that covers 2000+ HP worth of damage. That's pretty significant.
    So before the pull, cast your group reactive first (cause it's the slowest casting) then single target reactive the tank. If no one but the tank gets any damage - that's 14 hits of the 2 heals on him alone. Use your direct heals to spot heal or fill in for the reactives - but if the poo is hitting the fan and you have to spam anything, spam the reactives. If you have to pull your heal focus off the tank to spend a lot of time healing other members of the party because they got aggro, that's on them, not your lack of ability to heal or not enough mana. They should watch what they are doing, or you should get a different tank.
    You will not see mana/flowing thought/heal proc gear till you get past 50. It was coveted raid gear back then - as you level through the expansion packs, there is more opportunity to get that. If you can, make friends with a coercer and never let them go. They are your mana batteries in this game if you don't have mana proc'ing gear. There are also mana potions that are player made, and a Heritage Quest called "Stiletto's Orders Intercepted" that has an end reward of a manastone. I still use that item at 92. On all my healers I have a way to proc mana with heals, but if we are drained completely by an AoE, hitting my manastone gives me just enough of a 'hook' of mana to toss one heal and start proc'ing more power. Here's that walkthrough:
    http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Stiletto%...ers_Intercepted
    You want to focus on Wisdom as your main stat. That's your mana pool and also how much damage you can do. Stamina is the next stat to focus on, but only after you stop running out of mana in a group situation on a regular basis (ie, not just big fights). At this writing, it's that way all the way up to 92 - what differs is what adornments you pick and what procs on gear you pick. Adornments at your level are all pretty simple, not much choice but wis and stamina.
    With regard to mercs - nope ...especially the SK tank and the Warden merc. They seem to do w/e the heck they want. I'd advise if you are grouping with your SK friend, either swap out for a merc that's more helpful to the SK (troub, dirge or coercer), or just leave them at home.
    There's also no such thing as 'a main healer' ie, Main and backup heals. All healers can heal equally well, they just do it in a different way from each other. The only reason anyone brings one type of healer over another is because of buffs. Healers aren't balanced in this game in that regard, but all can heal damage as well as the others can.
    You will get something similar to 'complete heal' when you get 320 AA and are level 92 - so ...get bizzy!
    At 50, not a ton of AA isn't going to hurt you. But it WILL hurt if you get to about level 90 without 300 AA. I get itchy too if I'm not leveling - the best guideline is 3 or 4 AA per level. If you are getting to the end of the level and you didn't get 3 AA..lock, get them then unlock. That way you are leveling at a satisfactory rate but you aren't that behind on the AA as you are leveling. If you only have 70 AA right now, you are behind the curve a bit. I'd lock completely till you catch up. Setting your slider to 50/50 - that way lies madness.
    There is no 'ultimate' website for Templars, no specific checklist. If you have the patience, read through these forums. Early on, there were a ton of people to help. EQ2Flames is normally a very good website for cutting-edge opinions, spec's and abilities, but of late, the Templar section is a lot of 'UR MOM!' "NO UR MOM!". Early on it may have been different. There were a lot of really amazing Templars that used to post that just gave up on it on that site.
    Hope this helps!
  5. ARCHIVED-Rainy Guest

    as to the mercs. it's a special buff that ALL the tank mercs get. and while it's great if your using one to actually tank, it's a royal pain in the rear to have one when it's not tanking. the buff gives them a 4k hate proc on EVERY hit, and EVERY time they get it. so they generate aggro insanely.
    I would say, honestly, if you know your SK friend is going to be on, grab a different merc. like a dirge or a troub. those buff melee/casters respectively.
    though that might get expensive at 5p each switch.