Why EQ2 over WoW

Ever play World of Warcraft? Well I have...played for 4 years. Two level 70s(HolyPaladin Tier 5, Frost Mage 409 resilience). I know ever aspect of the game and now I can say without a doubt that EQ2 is where to be.
I played EQ2 when it launched and thought it might have been one of the worse games ever. It had no match against EQ1 and I can see why EQ1 has so many players still with the way EQ2 came out. After 4 years I have returned and I am impressed. The game has been upgraded. Graphics are still very nice, classes have been tweaked but for the best, quests/instances well done and having AA's start at lv10 allow the player to have plenty to do even at lower levels.
I have noticed in the time I have been back that there are plenty of new characters coming into the game. Most people are very helpful even though the community does need help. I mean it may be weak but how often are you in WoW and its just a bunch of 10 year olds and basement virgins spamming how well they can "pwn" you in areans. Yay for WoWs kiddy graphics.
Neat things: Everquest brings really unique things like Illusions on items. If I was in WoW and I was a Dwarf Rogue I cant get a cool item to make myself look like a Night Elf..
Class balancing: Well look at it like this. If EQ2 wanted to go heavy PvP in a adventure pack and try to embrace the whole PvP aspect of games then it would find that its classes would be imbalanced. How many assassins would just run around owning people left and right. WoW's classes get changed ALL THE TIME. You might log on and all the sudden half you abilities can no longer be used. And any ability over 10min on cooldown is unable to be used in Arenas. So my rant here is that PvP is fun in its own rights but im fine without it in EQ2 to avoid class balancing patches every other day.
Tradeskill difficulty: Love how tradeskills played out in EQ2. In WoW I took a tradeskill from 0-375(cap) in 2 days.. Therefore every player and his brother is a max tradeskiller so tradeskills bring no money. In this game it takes time. Its pretty much leveling but in your tradeskill. Very well done.
In conclusion I have talked to people in Everquest2 and they all say EQ2's endgame is better then WoWs and that is keeping my interests peaked. I am loving my Dirge and can't wait to get him even higher level.

Very nicely written. I will have to keep this post in mind for others that come from WoW that want to know how the game is. There have been a lot!

I am glad to hear that you are enjoying your time here in Norrath!

I started playing wow in 2006, and TBH, I wish i had chosen eq2 instead. WoW's cartoony graphics and the prepubescent nature of 80% of it's players do not even hold a candle to the superior look and feel of EQ2 and it's not-spamming-about-internet-memes-all-the-time community.

In WoW, every time you enter a cave in any zone it is the same one-of-three cookie cutter caves, and by the time you hit level 70 you've seen 15 different incarnations of the same mob character model, and from the looks of WotLK the expansion will stretch the same flavorless eye-candy even thinner. Tradeskills are next to valueless for making money, leaving you with one option for money, grinding for it. Every zone is cram packed with other players, all competing for the same quest item or resource node. I played wow alongside my wife, and the GMs did next to nothing about the sexual harassment she repeatedly endured from the same players, over and over. The ignore list on Wow is not long enough to block out all of people who need to be ignored, as it is fully 50% of the people who play. We had to build our own guild from the ground up in order to have a couple hundred casual adult players to party with from time to time, on a server of over 10,000. Most of the joy we derived from the game came solely from the few diamonds in the rough that we guilded rather than from the game itself.

On the other hand we've been able to play EQ2 thusfar with no real repetition, the crafting system is almost as alluring as questing, and by level 5 I had actually made GOLD from selling resources. When i ask a question in 1-9 or 10-19, i get several real answers and tells form polite, courteous people. I never see garbage chat about chuck norris or pwnage.

This was worth the 16 hour update!

Both are good games, the only beef I have with EQ2 is the PC requirements. Right now my PC is 4 years old and has 1g ddr ram, 1.1 cpu, and geforce fx 5600. It runs perfectly when I play WoW but on EQ2 I barely can get through Neriak even with the lowest settings.

Both are great games. I would choose EQ2 over WoW any day. If Blizzard would release more content more often that would be a harder choice to make. PvP is dull to me personally (sometimes battlegrounds can be fun). The PVE aspect and raiding in WoW knocks EQ2 out any day. WoW has beautifully scripted mobs, everyone has a job, each class brings something and its noticeable. EQ2 raiding is how many hits your tank can take, DPS DPS DPS, HEAL HEAL HEAL. Every raid encounter has "twists" but they all feel the same in EQ2. People keep saying that WoW is less mature which I don't comprehend. I played on a pvp server for 2+ years and ive found more immature rude players in EQ2 then WoW.
I have 3 level 70s, geared up to TK. Burning Crusade was amazing and it was exilerating the first moment I bought my flying mount. It was actually the peak of my entire gaming experience. But since Blizzard cant release new content with all their millions and millions of dollars, im here to stay for awhile for sure. Ive been coming back to EQ2 for 4 years now, and have 3 characters over 70, 1 which is 80. I enjoy the pace here of new content.

I personally never tried WoW, but due to hearing horror stories about its' community, I'm not so sure I want to try it out. As for gameplay, graphics aren't the top priority for me. It's about the game play, not the graphics. The only 3 MMO's I've really played were EQ1, EQ2 and Guild Wars. -shrug-

Miss_Jackie wrote:

Its really not as bad as people make it sound. The quests are pretty entertaining. The biggest issue however with even trying to play that game from scratch is that its become like EQ1. Everyone is max level and theres barely anyone around to level with. They're releasing a new class in their expansion coming up which will start at level 50+. Pretty stupid imo.

My husband switched to WoW, mainly because his brother and a good friend play that. And he likes PvP, which I wouldn't play with him in EQ2 anyway. I keep trying to start playing WoW, just because it's something we like to do together, but I get irritated pretty much instantly every time. Some random <insert your preferred colorful vocabulary> would always start bugging us, and I would just get too annoyed to enjoy the game. Plus, the graphics bug the heck out of me, and I don't really like that when I dance I look like a stripper wannabe. And a million other things...such that I can't even get myself past level 10 to experience most of the game.

Nefania@Lucan DLere wrote:

You must be referring to the Night Elf female dance. It's actually based on a performance of J'en ai marre! by French pop star Alizee. You can watch the inspiration here.
As for the graphics of that game, it's rather intended. The Warcraft series has been known for that particular style of graphics since the original Warcraft series (especially notable in Warcraft 3, when most of the other races were introduced.) Blizzard almost had to continue that graphic style in order to bring in the millions of fans of the original games. Yes, it's rather annoying looking, but WOW wouldn't be quite the same game (or have had the same impact) had they gone with a different look.

My friend and I are currently debating whether to play EQ2 or WoW untill Darkfall is released. My friend wants me to convert to WoW because he and his brother have been playing for years and he's grown accustomed to the games mechanics. I on the other hand, want something change of pace and have grown to like this game. (Got hooked on a rainy day playing the free-trial out of boredom) If anyone can give me some momentum that would be great. (He's tried the game on my character, hence the mechanics comment)
P.S I've tried the "no spamming, annoying little kids" card and he insists that he and his brother only play Horde and that most of the kids are Alliance. For me this would be like cutting the options in a game in half.

Maverick7200 wrote:

first of all to let u know where im coming from im an eq fanboy. i have been playing eq2 since nov 8th 04 and eq1 for years b4 that.

WoW is a very good game. The solo content is second to non imho. great fun rewarding quests. not too hard lots of killing not much of this run here and inspect this or run there and do that.

with that said it gets real old real fast. at least for me it did. i got a hunter ( #2 most fun played class in any mmo, Nec from eq1 is still #1.. ) to 40 and wow i got so bored so fast. the crafting is a joke at best. and im sorry but thoes grafix r total crap. but it does run inreadibly smooth..

i think when deciding between eq2 and wow it all depends on the amount of time u want to dedicate to the game. if u have alot of time and really want a grownup hardcore mmo u will play eq2. if u want to only play an hr or 2 a night and dont wanna get to serious about ur mmo then play wow.

no offence to anyone that likes wow but it really is a "My First MMO" type of game.

when i played wow i rarely ever grped and when i did it was a big ***********. didnt matter who had agrro just kill the mobs. i love the way eq2 makes it so important who has agro. the solo/grp mobs was a great idea, they really did learn from eq1. also the way encounters work. one ^^^ to 8 double arrow downs and everything in between. really does beat any other mmo out there.

The one big thing, and its a HUGE thing, that holds eq2 down is its class imbalance. i wont get into specifics but they messed up big time when they made the arc-type system and made 24 classes....thats about 10 or so more classes than u needed and they are having a real hard time balancing them all.

Kage848 wrote:

The whole "who has the agro and not careing" is the same mentality i see in lowerlevels of EQ2 also. It's basically a bunch of folks that just simply don't understand their class and how to group or more importantly how team work works. Heck even at 80 I still see this mentality folks are soo concerned about the parse (as in where they sit on the dps chart) that they completly forgot it takes teamwork to actually do this. Of course if you overagro on purpose a few times even after being told to watch your agro i'll just forget to heal you.. Teamwork is what a group is about.
As to wow, well frankly you just never got far enough in the game to really make a statement. Level 40 is nothing really, i did the whole gambit up to max level and also did some raiding. Up to vash when i left if anyone actually cared. NOW that being said as far as quests go, EQ2 has WAY WAY WAY more quests and i really enjoy that about this game. Although to be honest you don't need that many quests in Wow cause frankly it's not that hard to level. Actually it's not hard to level in eq2 either it's just that it takes more xp so corispondly takes more quests to gain a level. Each level feels more/less signifiant in eq2 versus what it is in wow.
Crafting basically day and night. I LOVE the crafting in eq2, but i love the use of consumables in wow. IF we had to burn through as many consumables that we did in wow in eq2 all of the crafters would rebel cause frankly it's alot more effort to do what happened in wow with eq2's current setup. This is one of the main reasons tradeskills are easy in wow, also another point of why they are easier IMO is that was a goal for them. Basically to get you interested in the game. Although I must admit it was nice being able to have 2 professions in wow and no effective gathering skills, versus in eq2 you only get 1 primary profession and 1 secondary profession (secondary professions are only tinkering OR transmuting).
Solo content, frankly both wow and eq2 I would say are about the same in that reguard. You can level to max level and never ever group in either game. Although that being said, there are lots of grouping options for both games, for eq2 specifically there are even some low level raiding options. UNFORTUNATLY since both games are fairly mature there are alot of folks sitting at max level and not as many folks at the lower tiers. That isn't to say it is "impossible" to find groups, just saying you might have to work at it a bit. Solo quest rewards in EQ2 once you hit Kunark are JUST OUT OF THIS WORLD good. I mean insanly good. TO say anything less is just a lie. Heck i would almost say way better then what WoW did for thier quest rewards but frankly that's like trying to compair apples and oranges OR pie and cake..
Trying to decide between just wow and EQ2 can be hard. One of the deciding factors for alot of folks is their PC. Wow's model allows it to work on alot of POS machines, versus for EQ2 you need to have a decient machine. This might be a turn off for alot of folks, in away I prefer it this way. There is so much more graphical details in EQ2. IF your computer can handle the both games, then truethfully the best suggestion is just try both of them. Both games give trial versions. I don't believe wow cap's your level in the trial but i truethfully don't know since i've never plaied the trial for it. In EQ2 you are capped at level 10. It's enough to give you a taste of it but that's about it.

Grumble grumble grumble double post. I am soo sorry. I wish i could delete my own 2nd post.

I have played EQ2 for years. I only play a few days a week and not for that long when I do play. I don't think you need to invest massive amounts of time in order to enjoy the game. I tried WoW because a few of my co-workers play it. I seriously tried it but I felt like I was playing a game designed for my 12 year old. I enjoy the depth and complexity of EQ2. Just my 2 cents.

its not really true when people say blizzard doesnt release new content. before TBC came out, they released enough new zones/dungeons/raid content to fill up 2 expansions, and all of this was free. as far as new content since tbc i cant really say, because i didnt play enough after that to know. and as far as making money with tradeskills, i never had a problem with it. sure, the items you make that your trainer teaches to you dont sell well. but if you get a rare pattern it really pays off. pre-tbc i could make shifting cloaks and get 800g per cloak. but....i do agree with whoever said that wow is a "my first mmo" type game. to me it feels like they really, for lack of a better word, dumbed down the game. i do think it is great that they are getting more people into this type of genre of game though. and i could be wrong, but to me it seems like alot of old wow players are coming over to eq2.

danardatroll wrote:

It is completely true when people say Blizzard does not release new content "Very often at all". You have SOE who is releasing content once a month. Then you have Blizzard who is releasing content once every year. Dont forget to mention how big of ******** their developers are. Take a look at their dev in test realm forums and how he talks to people like they are 10. So yes EQ2 a ant compared to a skyscraper WoW in terms of profit releases content much faster.
I had so much fun raiding in Molten Core and Blackwing Lair. Then Burning Crusade was released and that killed my need to raid whatsoever. My guild was always fighting and it just was not enjoyable. People would just not log in. Karazhan was the most amazing end game piece that came from BC. If I had it my way, even in EQ2 I would make all raids 10 man only.

Ohiv wrote:

thats about it on how i feel about it. someone said if u dont have alot of time then eq2 can still be ur game and that is true but.

eq2 is more about grping imho. there r not a ton of pugs in eq2 so in order to have fun with it ur ganna want to make some friends. that means talking to other people and weeding out the scrubs. this can and will be very time consuming.

i dont think eq2 will do as much for ur entertainment as wow will on a limited play time.

ok 2 things that puts eq2 way ahead of wow, for me at least, is the targeting system ( implied target and healing though the mob or dpsing through the MT is the best fighting system out there period ) and mentoring...im sorry but when i played wow i missed mentoring alot and it helped kill wow for me.

Kage848 wrote:

I played EQ2 before I went to WoW and feel that pain. Luckily, I was able to mimic EQ2s targeting system easily using macro's. Finally my holy priest was able to do damage and heal easily!

Enderlin wrote:

There are no class patches every day.
Not all classes are balanced, and probably never will be. Some are easy, some take finesse. some have been made better, and some are still ****.
Assassins are not the most uber scout, even at the tier 2 levels where everyone is godlike.
Our classes are not changed all the time. I have no idea where your getting your info from to think they are. There are sometimes minor tweaks every now and then, but most changes only occur during the live updates.

Kage848 wrote: