So I have almost 2 days /played on my Crusader in EQ2. I decided to take a little break and write up these impressions. I played EQ since before the public beta and I played a Necro in the original game, so I decided to do the exact opposite this time around a play a Paladin (which I played in WoW).
EverQuest II is set 500 years after EQ (which makes it 1,000 years after EQOA). The basic story is that the gods got upset that the mortals became so powerful (and they kept killing the gods over and over) that they decided to abandon Norrath. This lead to massive wars when Rallos Zek's followers caused all sorts of chaos. There were
natural disasters that tore apart the continents. Just when things couldn't get any worse, Luclin exploded and really destroyed everything.
No one knows what happened to Faydwer, Kunark, or Velious, but Antonica was split up into an island chain called the Shattered Lands. Qeynos and Freeport are on their own islands and are the homes to good (Qeynos) and evil (Freeport). Everfrost survived along with Permafrost, but no one knows what happened to Halas. Lavastorm is there, along with Solusek's Eye. Misty Thicket is known as the Enchanted Lands, and word has it Rivervale is a very nasty place now. The Ferrott is still there, along with the Lost Temple of Cazic Thule and some people believe that dungeon has something to do with unlocking the Froglok race. One of my favorite changed areas is Neriak. It still looks like Neriak, but something happened to cause a cave-in so it's in ruins and is a very high level dungeon called the Fallen Gate.
EQ2 starts off with a tutorial where youre a refugee on their way to the Shattered Lands. You're on a boat that's taking you to the Isle of Refuge. You start off as a Level 1 Commoner, but when you get to the Isle you hit Level 3 and choose your class archetype (Fighter, Priest, Scout, Mage). After you finish the quests on the island you go to your home city (Qeynos for good, Freeport for evil). Some races (Dark Elves, Ogres, Trolls, Iksar, Ratonga) are evil, others (High Elves, Dwarves, Wood Elves, Halflings) are good, and others (Humans, Erudites, Gnomes, etc.) can choose their alignment.
When you reach your home city you are immediately given an apartment (your first house), which has an easy upkeep of 5 silver a week. From exploring Qeynos I found actually houses for sale, but they can get extremely expensive.
Your first 10 levels will be as your archetype and you'll do quests to learn about the classes that can branch off from that. At 10 each archetype branches into three separate classes (Fighters turn into Warriors, Brawlers, or Crusaders) and then at 20 each class branches into two different choices. Warriors can be Beserkers or Guardians, Brawlers can be Bruisers or Monks, and Crusaders can go Paladin or Shadowknight.
To gain your class you do a specific quest. For example, for my Fighter to become a Crusader I had to accept a quest where I had to storm into a run-down building, kill a bunch of brigands, and finally slay their leader to free a hostage being held. Each quest is unique to the class, and can only be done solo. I know someone playing an evil Gnome Wizard and to get the Wizard class he had to participate in a Wizard duel.
Upon hitting Crusader I began exploring a bit more and killing a lot more, at which point I discovered the cool titles you could get. By slaying a specific type of mob enough, you begin to go up in ranks. Slay enough Gnolls and you'll eventually earn the rank of Master Gnoll Hunter at which point you can assign a title after your name that says "Hunter of Gnolls". So far I've seen "Hunter of Gnolls", "Hunter of Goblins", "Hunter of Undead", and "Hunter of Elementals", so there are probably TONS of these titles in the game. I'd imagine "Hunter of Dragons" to be the uber title everyone will want.
Combat is fast-paced and fun, and works a lot like combat in WoW but they've done some awesome things with grouping. Now you do not ever have to stop targeting a mob to heal another player. If the main tank is getting pounded by your target and needs a heal, all you have to do is cast the heal while keeping the mob targeted and the spell will "cast through" the mob to heal its target. This works with assisting as well. Just target the main tank and cast your attack spell or combat art and it'll automatically attack whatever they are targeting.
Speaking of spells and combat arts, that's something else that's cool. When you level and acquire a new spell or ability, you automatically receive the Apprentice I first-rank version of the spell. You do not have to buy it. Higher level spells (like Apprentice II or Adept I on up) must be bought from stores, some ranks can only be crafted by players, and the highest level ones are dropped off mobs.
The more you use an ability, the better you get with it. These are shown via a "con" system like with mobs with Red/Orange being the higher, more difficult, things and Blue/Green/Gray being the easier. Spells, abilities, and items have their own difficulty and as you use a specific ability/item/weapon you'll gain experience with that specific type and eventually be able to use better versions.
For example if you get a weapon that cons light blue or green to you, you are well overqualified to use it and doing so won't really improve your ability to wield that weapon (or armor) type. A yellow or orange version would be a better one to use so you can increase your ability in that field.
I've barely started in on crafting, but that's a whole other game to itself. You have your "Adventure" class that you gain experience in by doing quest or killing mobs, but then you also have an "Artisan" class where you gain experience by crafting. The Artisan classes branch off just like the Adventure classes and you can level up in the Artisan field right along with your Adventure class, so you can be a level 20 Paladin and a level 15 Outfitter. Crafters can make weapons, armor, furniture, food, clothing, potions, spells basically anything a player needs can be made by a crafter and they are very much needed especially for spells.
The crafting system itself is awesome, and it's so cool that they made it so you cannot macro or bot it. While crafting, each stage has a "concentration" meter. There's a chance that you can become distracted by something random and when that happens you have specific crafting "special moves" that you can use to overcome the distraction and improve your final crafting result. I'll be diving into more crafting later on, as I am going to work towards Armorer.
Before I dive back into the game, I should mention that languages actually serve a purpose in the gameplay now aside from just being flavor or preventing you from doing a quest. For example, if you're fighting a group of Gnolls the leader of the group may start shouting tactics orders to the rest of the mobs. If you don't understand the language you'll just hear gibberish, but if you've completed the quest to understand Gnoll you'll know what the mobs are about to do and you can plan your attacks accordingly. I'm currently in Blackburrow working on the quest to learn Gnoll.
I haven't been this addicted to a MMORPG since the early days of EQ1.
EverQuest II is set 500 years after EQ (which makes it 1,000 years after EQOA). The basic story is that the gods got upset that the mortals became so powerful (and they kept killing the gods over and over) that they decided to abandon Norrath. This lead to massive wars when Rallos Zek's followers caused all sorts of chaos. There were
natural disasters that tore apart the continents. Just when things couldn't get any worse, Luclin exploded and really destroyed everything.
No one knows what happened to Faydwer, Kunark, or Velious, but Antonica was split up into an island chain called the Shattered Lands. Qeynos and Freeport are on their own islands and are the homes to good (Qeynos) and evil (Freeport). Everfrost survived along with Permafrost, but no one knows what happened to Halas. Lavastorm is there, along with Solusek's Eye. Misty Thicket is known as the Enchanted Lands, and word has it Rivervale is a very nasty place now. The Ferrott is still there, along with the Lost Temple of Cazic Thule and some people believe that dungeon has something to do with unlocking the Froglok race. One of my favorite changed areas is Neriak. It still looks like Neriak, but something happened to cause a cave-in so it's in ruins and is a very high level dungeon called the Fallen Gate.
EQ2 starts off with a tutorial where youre a refugee on their way to the Shattered Lands. You're on a boat that's taking you to the Isle of Refuge. You start off as a Level 1 Commoner, but when you get to the Isle you hit Level 3 and choose your class archetype (Fighter, Priest, Scout, Mage). After you finish the quests on the island you go to your home city (Qeynos for good, Freeport for evil). Some races (Dark Elves, Ogres, Trolls, Iksar, Ratonga) are evil, others (High Elves, Dwarves, Wood Elves, Halflings) are good, and others (Humans, Erudites, Gnomes, etc.) can choose their alignment.
When you reach your home city you are immediately given an apartment (your first house), which has an easy upkeep of 5 silver a week. From exploring Qeynos I found actually houses for sale, but they can get extremely expensive.
Your first 10 levels will be as your archetype and you'll do quests to learn about the classes that can branch off from that. At 10 each archetype branches into three separate classes (Fighters turn into Warriors, Brawlers, or Crusaders) and then at 20 each class branches into two different choices. Warriors can be Beserkers or Guardians, Brawlers can be Bruisers or Monks, and Crusaders can go Paladin or Shadowknight.
To gain your class you do a specific quest. For example, for my Fighter to become a Crusader I had to accept a quest where I had to storm into a run-down building, kill a bunch of brigands, and finally slay their leader to free a hostage being held. Each quest is unique to the class, and can only be done solo. I know someone playing an evil Gnome Wizard and to get the Wizard class he had to participate in a Wizard duel.
Upon hitting Crusader I began exploring a bit more and killing a lot more, at which point I discovered the cool titles you could get. By slaying a specific type of mob enough, you begin to go up in ranks. Slay enough Gnolls and you'll eventually earn the rank of Master Gnoll Hunter at which point you can assign a title after your name that says "Hunter of Gnolls". So far I've seen "Hunter of Gnolls", "Hunter of Goblins", "Hunter of Undead", and "Hunter of Elementals", so there are probably TONS of these titles in the game. I'd imagine "Hunter of Dragons" to be the uber title everyone will want.
Combat is fast-paced and fun, and works a lot like combat in WoW but they've done some awesome things with grouping. Now you do not ever have to stop targeting a mob to heal another player. If the main tank is getting pounded by your target and needs a heal, all you have to do is cast the heal while keeping the mob targeted and the spell will "cast through" the mob to heal its target. This works with assisting as well. Just target the main tank and cast your attack spell or combat art and it'll automatically attack whatever they are targeting.
Speaking of spells and combat arts, that's something else that's cool. When you level and acquire a new spell or ability, you automatically receive the Apprentice I first-rank version of the spell. You do not have to buy it. Higher level spells (like Apprentice II or Adept I on up) must be bought from stores, some ranks can only be crafted by players, and the highest level ones are dropped off mobs.
The more you use an ability, the better you get with it. These are shown via a "con" system like with mobs with Red/Orange being the higher, more difficult, things and Blue/Green/Gray being the easier. Spells, abilities, and items have their own difficulty and as you use a specific ability/item/weapon you'll gain experience with that specific type and eventually be able to use better versions.
For example if you get a weapon that cons light blue or green to you, you are well overqualified to use it and doing so won't really improve your ability to wield that weapon (or armor) type. A yellow or orange version would be a better one to use so you can increase your ability in that field.
I've barely started in on crafting, but that's a whole other game to itself. You have your "Adventure" class that you gain experience in by doing quest or killing mobs, but then you also have an "Artisan" class where you gain experience by crafting. The Artisan classes branch off just like the Adventure classes and you can level up in the Artisan field right along with your Adventure class, so you can be a level 20 Paladin and a level 15 Outfitter. Crafters can make weapons, armor, furniture, food, clothing, potions, spells basically anything a player needs can be made by a crafter and they are very much needed especially for spells.
The crafting system itself is awesome, and it's so cool that they made it so you cannot macro or bot it. While crafting, each stage has a "concentration" meter. There's a chance that you can become distracted by something random and when that happens you have specific crafting "special moves" that you can use to overcome the distraction and improve your final crafting result. I'll be diving into more crafting later on, as I am going to work towards Armorer.
Before I dive back into the game, I should mention that languages actually serve a purpose in the gameplay now aside from just being flavor or preventing you from doing a quest. For example, if you're fighting a group of Gnolls the leader of the group may start shouting tactics orders to the rest of the mobs. If you don't understand the language you'll just hear gibberish, but if you've completed the quest to understand Gnoll you'll know what the mobs are about to do and you can plan your attacks accordingly. I'm currently in Blackburrow working on the quest to learn Gnoll.
I haven't been this addicted to a MMORPG since the early days of EQ1.
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