Thursday, September 9, 2010

Played Lately: Everquest II Extended

  • I'm having trouble starting this blog post, so I'm doing things a little different. I want to tell everyone about Everquest 2 Extended, because I am enjoying the game. However I just don't feel like thinking all much. So, here's a brain dump of everything going on.

  • Five things I like about EQ2X

    1. New Halas is very good. At various points, I tried the newbie isles (can't remember the real name), Kelethin, and Gorowyn. I stuck with Gorowyn for a couple characters because it was the most polished, but New Halas is great. I'm enjoying the story and the quest flow. I'm not sure why multiple levels of quests are bundled together, but I haven't seen any difficulty problems, even with the different levels listed. (Um, have I really tried to play this game that many times? Wow.) I also think it's cool that there is a back door into New Halas if you want to skip all the questing zones. Bravo, SOE.

    2. I finally found the right class. After trying a something (from the Isle of the Trial, way too long ago), a swashbuckler, a warden, and a wizard, I decided to try out the inquisitor this time. Holy moly, that is class good. Nice ranged spells, excellent melee options (even is the right melee weapon for my stats is a staff), plate armor, and the occasional heal all add up to a class that does just about everything. I'm sure it helps that I finally figured out Heroic Opportunities. That only took several years, but it has helped the fights go faster.

    3. For some reason, SOE fixes the AA slider to divert fifty percent of all combat and quest experience to alternate advancement experience. Green Armadillo already has a post up about this and offers much greater analysis than I'm going to. But I will say that I actually like the idea. I was hoping to play with the slider myself, but 50/50 feels right to me. I am rather lost where to use all of them (I'm up to 32 AAs after the double experience weekend) but I've enjoyed trying things out.

    4. This is stupid, but I really like the armor available in the New Halas starting zone. Much better than just about anything else I've seen in the game. Will it look strange if I'm wearing that as appearance armor all the way to level 80?

    5. The double experience weekend was a real winner for me. I ended up at level 22 Inquistor, 21 Armorer, and 32 AAs. And there is still one quest hub between me and New Halas. I can't believe I did enough crafting to specialize. Crazy.

  • Three things I don't like about EQ2X

    1. I feel like a serious leech on my guild. There are enough things in the game that I want that require guild membership, so I have to be in a guild. But at the same time, I don't really know anyone in the guild, I'm seriously introverted, and I'm going to solo my way through the game anyway. The guild was up to level 16 before I started seeing status items drop, so I haven't been able to contribute at all. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute to the guild eventually, but it all feels like an extra line on my nameplate right now.

    2. The membership nags are getting a little old. It's easy to skip past them, but really, folks. I'm not paying $15 a month for a sub-par subscription just to make them go away.

    3. I'm still not sold on the payment model. SOE got ten dollars out of me because the silver membership seemed fine with me. But unless something really interesting arrives on the Station Cash store, they won't get another cent from me.

  • That's it. Go forth and game!



© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

6 comments:

  1. i've been thinking over getting into eq2x or lotro (again) but can't decide. eq2x sounds like the cash shop is terribly done, and like soe really doesn't know what its doing.

    i remember lotro for its exhausting travel annoyances. i hate traveling in that game and its all travel.

    what would you suggest?

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  2. @ Hunter - My honest suggestion? Try both. Figure out which one hooks you and go from there.

    The difference I see between EQ2X and LotRO is that Sony is trying to push you to subscribe and Turbine is trying to sell you a lifetime membership a piece at a time. As long as you can put up with the nagging and some limited options, EQ2X is absolutely cheap in comparison. Both they both cost zero to try out, so you might as well.

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  3. @Anjin - That is an awesome way to compare the two. I have been slacking with EQ2X because of WAR, and with Civ V just around the corner, I'm not sure when I'll have time to play other games again!

    Word Verification: bling. I laughed out loud at that.

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  4. Gaaaah, server bugged out and trashed my post. What is with blogger today? ADD version:

    Like New Halas, not sure why it's gotten a bad rap.

    EQ II has a lot of funky looking gear, if you have a set you like I'd say wear it. Regardless of their badass stats, I have no intention of showing off the baby blue pajamas i have equipped to the world.

    There is a tier II crafted plate set, blackened iron, that I quite like the appearance of. Unfortunately rare recipes from dropped books.

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  5. Hell, I don't feel like I am contributing enough, and I founded the guild. So don't fret it.

    Besides, we did get up to level 15 or 16 pretty quickly, but things have leveled off a lot now that the highest players are clustered in the 20s.

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  6. @ Jayedub - Oooh, Civ V. I am looking forward to that one a lot.

    @ Yeebo - New Halas has a bad rap? Weird. I quite like it. Thanks for all the info.

    @ Ardwulf - I appreciate you saying so. I'm sure my time to contribute will come.

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