So what do you guys think?

miir · Post by **miir** » November 17, 2006, 12:51 pm

After a couple days playing my Fae gimp warlock, I got to doing some real exploring on my wizard.

Spent most of the evening in LFay.
Was really impressed with the zone layout and the quest paths.
Slaughtered an assload of brownies, whacked a few nameds, got a couple of server discoveries. Was interesting to note that Treasured loot seems comparable or better than mastercrafted and just a wee bit weaker than legendary.

Loved the lore and got lots of happy flashbacks of EQ. The Nybrights, the thexian camps, brownie villages and even the odd clockwork contraption. Lots of off the beaten path pockets and hard to reach areas that require some creative jumping and climbing. I like how a lot of the EOF zones are very 3 dimensional. Lots of vertical obstructions, multi level cliffs and platforms. When you look up, there is actually something to see besides the sky.

Butcherblock or Steamfont will be the next zone on my list.

The combat changes didn't take much getting used to for me. It felt like I was getting more resists than usual but I had little trouble taking down mobs that were 4-5 levels higher. Even yellow uparrow nameds didn't pose much problem. Didn't take on too many heroics but could still solo blue heroics as easy as I could last week.

Another thing is AA XP... holy crap it just flies in EOF. I got nearly 5 full AAs in about 3 hours. A +3 level named gave me over 45% of an AA. The new wizard AA are pretty sweet.

miir · Post by **miir** » November 17, 2006, 1:41 pm

On the new EQ2players page, it has the stat for rares harvested.... my illusionist has harvested 542, lol.

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » November 17, 2006, 2:58 pm

[Intro: I played EQ from '99 until PoP, I played WoW from Beta until present, and I have never purchased EQ2 prior to Tuesday]

I created a Fay Fury based upon a cursory review of the classes, a quick check of the boards to see which classes were gimped, and a brief review of the class population for Permafrost server at EQ Census. My character's name is Illiill (pronounced: il-EE-il, spelled: I LL I I LL), and I play on Permafrost.

Things that I like:

The newbie area in GFay is fun and really guides you through the basics of the game. The quest to climb a tree and hail someone at the top is a nice touch to learn unfamiliar game mechanics. This section is very similiar to starting a night elf in WoW, or arguably more polished/fun.
The graphics are beautiful on my machine and run well in low population areas with shadows, etc turned on. (I have a 2.6GHz Intel with 2Gig DDR with a X1600 PRO AGP graphics card.)
GFay is spectacular. There are familiar landmarks, and it is my opinion that they have done a good job of making something "new" that retains much of the familiar aspects.
Good story arc quests at low level;
The familiarity is high enough to have good retention and the breadth of the quests at low level should give a fairly decent replay value just in GFay alone; I smiled last night when I got Orc Centurion Belt quest

Things that I dislike:

Stats on items are introduced too quickly; there is no ingame guide to what the stats do or what is valuable to a player and all items have a ton of stats on them from the start.
Lack of good ingame mechanisms to introduce tradeskilling, collecting, spell levels, etc; at level 10, I had to choose a Fay power, then which skill to advance, and now I have four alternative advancement points that I have no idea how I earned them, what I should spend them on, or what I would do if I changed my mind.

miir · Post by **miir** » November 17, 2006, 3:17 pm

Stats on items are introduced too quickly; there is no ingame guide to what the stats do or what is valuable to a player and all items have a ton of stats on them from the start

Hover your mouse over a stat on your persona window for the info.

Lack of good ingame mechanisms to introduce tradeskilling, collecting, spell levels, etc; at level 10, I had to choose a Fay power, then which skill to advance, and now I have four alternative advancement points that I have no idea how I earned them, what I should spend them on, or what I would do if I changed my mind.

Yeah, they don't really have any tradeskilling introduction in Kelethin.

For AA points, you get them from killing green or higher named mobs, completing blue or higher quests, exploring new areas and for looting particular items for the first time, for example, anything that examines as "Looted ***** treasure" and status items (scrying stones, documents, relics, amulets))

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » November 17, 2006, 3:33 pm

I was in beta for the last month or so and really enjoyed the time. Since release I haven't had too much time except to level my Fae Zerker to 10 (Marben on Lucan). Since I beta buffed to check everything out there I thought I would follow the storyline and have enjoyed it a great deal thus far.

I will mention though that I haven't really had anything yet push me towards tradeskills like the guys on the island offer and especially NOTHING like the old introduction you use to pretty much have to complete on the island which got you to level 3. Of course the TS are pretty easy now and much like WoW, nothing like they were back then.

When you get a chance check out Felwithe... IMHO it is the best looking zone in any game ever, hands down. The only thing close is the Island of Marr or whatever it's called in EQ2 as well.... absolutely stunning in places.

I will add though that they still need to make some adjustments to some of the MOBs. I was killing corruped saplings with my zerker who had good (not MC) but good armor and excellent weapons and I couldn't take a level 10 one when he was level 9... which is very odd and a level 9 MOB would sometimes die when I was at half health and other times they would almost kill me. Very strange considering I could take on 3 level 8 Orcs in the same area... I think those Saplings need to be modified.

Marb

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » November 17, 2006, 7:49 pm

miir wrote:
Stats on items are introduced too quickly; there is no ingame guide to what the stats do or what is valuable to a player and all items have a ton of stats on them from the start
Hover your mouse over a stat on your persona window for the info.

I understand the basic mechanics, but there are such a large number of stats introduced immediately that it makes the tradeoff matrix very complicated for new players. How does a lvl 5 newbie decide between +2 int + 1 wis +6 power and +2 int +1 wis +2 power (+20 save cold ...)?

WoW and EQ both solved this problem by introducing stats to items gradually as you level. It is much easier for a new player to choose between +2 int and +3 dex items based upon their class; more complex variations that require more shrewd understand of the stats can come at higher level as the player's sophistication advances.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear as though the stats have that big of an impact anyway, so making bad decisions doesn't really make a difference at low level.

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » November 17, 2006, 7:53 pm

Marbus wrote:I will add though that they still need to make some adjustments to some of the MOBs. I was killing corruped saplings with my zerker who had good (not MC) but good armor and excellent weapons and I couldn't take a level 10 one when he was level 9... which is very odd and a level 9 MOB would sometimes die when I was at half health and other times they would almost kill me. Very strange considering I could take on 3 level 8 Orcs in the same area... I think those Saplings need to be modified.

Marb

Coerced saplings are relatively easy to kill on by Fury: open with root/snare, HO-swarm-lighting, reroot, HO-swarm-lightning, loot the corpse. (Ok, I will acknowledge that they pound the crap out of me when root breaks far more than anything else nearby.)

p.s. much h8 for the Reanimated Nexus Scion; he hits for a ton!

miir · Post by **miir** » November 17, 2006, 10:56 pm

Coerced saplings are relatively easy to kill on by Fury: open with root/snare, HO-swarm-lighting, reroot, HO-swarm-lightning, loot the corpse. (Ok, I will acknowledge that they pound the crap out of me when root breaks far more than anything else nearby.)

Heh... I went around pulling loads of them and AEing them to death on my warlock.

much h8 for the Reanimated Nexus Scion; he hits for a ton!

And drops no loot

Calixte · Post by **Calixte** » November 18, 2006, 1:28 pm

I am LOVING this new expansion. Talk about nostalgia. The scenery is beautiful, and I especially like being able to climb up on nearly everything. It adds a little something extra to the gaming experience. I love the music in the new zones, and was tickled to hear how similar the Kelethin music is to the original.

I've heard a lot of people bitching about the combat changes, but I haven't seen that much of a difference. I feel like I am getting resisted more often, and I have seen grey/green mobs hitting a little harder than they used to, but it's not the huge deal that some people are making it out to be. Honestly, I welcomed the change. Hopefully it'll slow down some of the solo farmers running rampant on Nektulos/Lavastorm.

All in all, I think this is one of the better EQ2 expansions, and I'm truly enjoying myself. SoE actually did a good job.

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » November 18, 2006, 7:50 pm

Calixte wrote:I am LOVING this new expansion. Talk about nostalgia. The scenery is beautiful, and I especially like being able to climb up on nearly everything. It adds a little something extra to the gaming experience. I love the music in the new zones, and was tickled to hear how similar the Kelethin music is to the original.

I've heard a lot of people bitching about the combat changes, but I haven't seen that much of a difference. I feel like I am getting resisted more often, and I have seen grey/green mobs hitting a little harder than they used to, but it's not the huge deal that some people are making it out to be. Honestly, I welcomed the change. Hopefully it'll slow down some of the solo farmers running rampant on Nektulos/Lavastorm.

All in all, I think this is one of the better EQ2 expansions, and I'm truly enjoying myself. SoE actually did a good job.

Do you still have Female Troll?

Calixte · Post by **Calixte** » November 18, 2006, 8:28 pm

Sadly, no. I couldn't deal with the freaky gremlin-looking trolls in EQ2.

Kwonryu DragonFist · November 19, 2006, 4:32 am

The Trolls of EQ1 were the cutest tho!

(before Ykesha)

Seebs · Post by **Seebs** » November 19, 2006, 11:44 am

I am loving the expolring. It is a great expansion - I still have yet to figure out how to get into Unrest- that place may make me shed a tear of joy -

Crushbone castle is immense and fun, things appear so well thought out - which surprised me.

The Loping Plains are raping my 59 templar, but yet I still have explored most of that zone - I think I am down 5 gold in repairs.

If I find Karnor's Castle or Kithcor Forest, my day will be complete.

Calixte · Post by **Calixte** » November 19, 2006, 12:16 pm

I've heard rumors that Unrest isn't quite finished yet and will be opened in the next few weeks. Whether that is true or not, I don't know, but that would explain why you can't zone in.