boho posted:

drat, I'm tempted to start up again for Vado Sensim. Tsurupettan, what's your Enchanter situation like?

Tsurupettan posted:

This post is for end-game stuff. Level 100 heroics, raids, and the things that make them doable. This will be gear, it will be suggestions on things you should get, and so on.

First up, let's talk stats. You fuckin' love numbers, right? I love numbers too! EQ2 has a lot of them!



Wowee! Look at all them numbers. I would write a long paragraph about what each means, but the tooltips in game are pretty clear. There are a few things to touch on though.

These numbers HARD CAP at 100%: Melee AE, Reuse, Recovery, Flurry, Accuracy, Strikethrough, Hate Mod.

Melee AE is a misnomer. It's AE autoattack period, whether it's melee or ranged.

Multiattack scales like garbage over 200. Most people get their basic needs with green adorns and then let bards give them any extra. Some classes convert MA into other stats through their Prestige tree.

In the current state of the game, EVERYONE wants some sort of stats for their damage output.

Tanks have to stack mitigation/block stats on all or almost all of their gear. You'd best get your hands on some green adorns that provide DPS stats. Look into Eye of Draazak if you have some money. Make friends with bards and coercers too. Starting off as a tank is hard in this expansion because there are players who do 5-10 million dps and don't give a poo poo if you can keep it off them or not.

Priests need to be healing and doing as much damage/debuffing as they can when outgoing damage is reasonable. People will yell at you for loving up healing, but not being poo poo at DPS as a priest. If you have time, hit the mob! Some healers are designed to do this and even heal for it (like inquisitors). The stats in the picture above are on my Channeler. I shoot my bow at things and I heal people.

Scout stats vary. I'm not going to write a lot here because sometime this month they're overhauling how combat arts work. Once they fix that I'll flesh this out.

I'm not super knowledgeable on mages and they all vary a lot right now based on their type. If someone around knows this stuff please tell me what to put here.

Robo Reagan posted:

So does race matter that much or what? I want to make a human paladin because I like tanking and am boring as gently caress.

Also can I learn all the tradeskills or am I limited to two or three like WoW? I like crafting and exploring. Raiding gets a little samey for me.

Tsurupettan posted:

I'm Rilzyk in Vado Sensim and I know Givin is Idus. What's your name?

MrTheDevious posted:

gently caress running all over the place for no reason.

MrTheDevious posted:

Stonewalljack posted:

Is multiboxing a thing in this game? I've come to enjoy running duos in EQ like games such as SoD.

Stonewalljack posted:

Is multiboxing a thing in this game? I've come to enjoy running duos in EQ like games such as SoD.

Robo Reagan posted:

So those Vado guys aren't recruiting people who are a tank or healer? What should I play instead?

Sarah posted:

http://forums.ogregaming.com/index.php
http://eq2.ogregaming.com/wiki/index.php/NewUserWalkthrough:Page01

revenance posted:

Progression isn't my thing, but I have multiple 95s and would love to group with people if they stick around that long. I'll buy AOM (which I assume comes with TOV) if there are enough people around.


Since I know you'll put it to good use I can take whatever you want (*cough* SK *cough*) up to 95 first.

MrTheDevious posted:

The regular or "free" () version of ISBoxer also works fine if you want to 2box but not have one of them totally automated.

MrTheDevious posted:

Vado is on Antonia Bayle, not sure where YOGS is, and I'm 95% sure revenant is on Unrest since that's where the necro I played with him before is.

Dry Hump posted:

So I might give this a shot. I'm sorry if it was said and I missed it, but what server do whatever goons are left play on?

Catpants McStabby posted:

100k resists? Just holy poo poo. Are they REALLY needed, or just bullshit like EOF was. After Kingdom of Sky when most people (tanks included) thought 200 in resists was overkill, we were told EOF would NEED resists int he thousands. Then we were told 2 or 3 months into the expansion "we broke resists, so don't bother you don't need them", and then in ROK they were still kind of pointless (except elemental in Veeshan's).

I'm really shocked they're a thing now after so many years.

Dry Hump posted:

So I might give this a shot. I'm sorry if it was said and I missed it, but what server do whatever goons are left play on?

MrTheDevious posted:

loving really?

Glad everybody's on AB now!

Tsurupettan posted:

We got dinosaurs. Some of them are sick too. I don't just mean the players, either.

So what's the deal with this game?

Everquest 2 is now 11 years old, having come out near the end of 2004. It actually released a few weeks before World of Warcraft. Although at this point, we know who won that contest. Everquest 2 was a miserable game at launch, plagued with a lot of decisions that carried over from the prior generation. Now it is much, much better. It still has some 'old design' feel to it, and provides a challenging game in various areas, but it is much more accessible and user-friendly overall.

The game itself is massive. There's an enormous world out there, possibly one of the biggest on the market. Vanguard was comparable, but is now defunct. You've got thousands of zones, tons of quest lines, stories, lore and more. There are hundreds of hidden secrets across the world, and people still discover new things from time to time.

If you love lore and questing, there's plenty to go around. If you enjoy dungeon content and raiding, it's present here. PVP servers are pretty dead, but battlegrounds live on. Whether you're a solo player or someone who seeks groups, there's so much to do. The game also includes a fully fleshed out crafting system with its own leveling and set of quests, and most importantly, housing! If pretty princess dress-up is your jam, EQ2 has some of the best player housing out there.

Goons?

The goon presence here is woefully low right now. There's myself and Sarah, and a few others that are around. We have a guild, Ye Olde Goone Squade. It's pretty empty, but we've got a guild hall and amenities! I'm a loner and a rebel so I still sit in it, but realistically it might be better to find an active pub guild. With that said, I am happy to give advice, direction and help with hard quests. I'm also up for giving you a level bump when I'm free, though I still suggest exploring the world and seeing what it has to offer.

Some of us are also in Vado Sensim, which is a progression guild. They lock levels and do content in the order it was released and created.

If you're coming to the game for the first time, create an account by going to the main Everquest 2 site and clicking 'Play free' https://www.everquest2.com/home Alternatively, if you want to use a referral code, you can sign up here: https://recruit.soe.com/recruit/smlanding.action?iId=Q6UJ1HDAQ4NG9COWSKGM&gamecode=EQ2 I get some bonuses for it, and you get free exp potions, a teleport item and research credit for spells.

Everyone is on the Antonia Bayle server!

The guild hall can be accessed from the Antonica Docks under Restored High Keep Guild Hall Level 3. All of the amenities are in the front, aside from the crafting area. There is a teleporter pad that will take you to the crafting stations. Later I will move some of the other things around, probably. I'll update this post if that occurs.

My main character is Vellamorn, and I am usually on her. Send me a tell and I'll invite you, but everyone in the guild right now should have invite privilege.

New Players

Welcome to the game! This section covers general direction and advice up to level 95, where the free content ends. Also, there is an important note at the bottom of the Returning Players section that I suggest you read, even as a new player. Regarding classes, check out the classes/roles & crafting section below.

The first 20 levels of the game are done in your starting city zone. You will want to finish these zones, even if you are outleveling them. The final quest rewards a mount. I, personally, think that Timorous Deeps feels the best of the newbie zones, but I suggest checking them all out.

There are a whole hell of a lot of paths up to the level cap. I suggest that, for now, you don't worry about rushing to it. If you like questing and exploring, enjoy the world! It's god drat HUGE. Holy poo poo is the game world huge. There's tons of overland zones, instanced and public dungeons, and hidden areas all around.

For solo questing, you're going to start in your city zone of choice and then it will direct you to Butcherblock. Butcherblock is the start of a quest line called the 'Golden Path'. It basically directs you through a series of zones that they took the time to refine and make more accessible/player friendly. However, there's a ton of other zones (which are less friendly).

Here's a great breakdown of leveling timelines: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Soloing_Timeline This will help give you an idea of where to go. If you're ever at a point where you say 'well, where the hell do I go!', take a look at this. To go with it, here's a breakdown of zone level ranges: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Zones_By_Level This covers all overworld, instances and public dungeons.

If you want to play with other players, you can try asking in chat for like-minded folks who want to do some low level dungeons. Sadly, this probably won't work out too well these days, but it is worth trying. They also created a Level-Agnostic Dungeon system that you can access from Alt+Z. They've got 5 dungeons, which scale from 20-89 and are always on-level for you. You queue up, get dropped in with up to 5 other players, and just go.



The LADs are nice, but aren't perfect. You can end up with tank-less or healer-less groups. Depending on your group, that may or may not be an issue. You can also get dropped into a group that just killed the last boss and is leaving, or you queue and end up with 1-2 other people and just sit around. Some of them are harder and less popular than others as well; people generally don't queue Temple or Conservatory, as the other 3 are considered better exp for the time. When the dungeons work out they're great, though.

Once you're up to 90, the agnostics end. You can continue questing, although Withered Lands is slow as hell. If you want to keep questing, I suggest buying a set of level 90 handcrafted gear from the broker and going right into Chains of Eternity. Otherwise, ask in LFG for Skyshrine grind groups. These can take you to 95 (or 100) without issue. There's a flag in our guildhall that teleports you out there.



Beyond that, ask me for a level bump if you want. I don't mind PLing a bit if I'm on and not occupied

One of the other concerns that new players often have is getting money. The best way to do that is to SELL EVERYTHING that you get on the broker, if it isn't bound. Sadly, you need a sub to do that, but if you've got it, SELL EVERYTHING. Just because it's level 10 doesn't mean it's worthless. I sell lowbie 'crap' for plenty of gold or plat every day.

Here's some random things you can do to help your beginner experience:

Check out the /claim window! There's exp potions in here and other bonuses. You should have some by default even as a new player. Also bags, and housing items. The two most valuable things for the first 20 levels are a cloak that gives +25% move speed and a ring you can equip and use for another ~70%. Bouncing around at almost 100% move speed from the get go is great. Some people might not have these, I'm not sure what the criteria are for some of the claimables.

Consider leveling a craft into the teens, or up to 20. Some of the crafting AAs include bonus move speed and mount speed, which will save you a lot of time in the long run. It isn't hard to level them up in the guild hall. Talk to a crafting trainer to unlock it, level to 9 and then visit the same trainer to pick a specific one. At 19 you'll return for a final time. Crafting is its own game with its own questing stories and timelines.

When you enter the guild hall for the first time, turn to the right and find the thing with a black orb on it near the globe. It gives you the call to guild hall. The CD is half that of call to home. Also, if you're in one city, you can bounce into your house in any other city from the Housing & Leaderboards window.

Returning Players

There may be relevant information for you in the New Players section as well, depending on how long it has been. If you are a returning 90 or 95, this will be for you.

If you're 90, go to Skyshrine. It's a contested dungeon that will take you to 95 or beyond. If you hit 96 in there, you need to mentor someone 90-95 to keep getting exp. We've got a flag in the guildhall near the other travel stuff that will send you there. See above for a picture.

If you're 95 already, and you want to hit 100, you're going to have to buy the expansion. It includes Tears of Veeshan too. If you have the expansion, I suggest you go grab a quick level or two in Skyshrine and then go start the Altar of Malice timeline: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Shattered_Seas_Timeline

You want to do this because it gives you decent exp, entry-level gear* and two important things at the end: A mount with enormous stats and the ability to remove adornments from your gear without destroying the gear. It returns them to you as no-trade, it has no cooldown, you can do it anywhere.

*If you are returning from ToV and wearing jewelry with 10k resists, it is not acceptable in most cases for AoM heroics! Deal with losing your SICK PROCS and upgrade to the HC or MC jewelry from AoM. Instead of crit mit and crit requirements and poo poo like that, AoM is predicated on having RESISTS and HEALTH.

Read me! This is important!

In the past, you had to grind to 280 AAs to continue past level 90. This is no longer true, as the game will grant you free AAs from levels 10 through 90 until you reach 280 AAs. Set your exp slider to 0% and just go. Don't worry about it at all, you WILL be at 280 AA by 90. If you log in at 90, you will also be given AAs up to 280.

Classes/Roles & Crafting

There are a massive twenty-six classes in this game. They all bring something different and neat to the table. Don't even ask about balancing them. They are broken into four archetypes: Fighter, Priest, Scout and Mage. Each class, save for Beastlords and Channelers, is paired off with another. One is 'good' and one is 'evil', per se. This doesn't matter with the exception of four pairings: swashbuckler/brigand, paladin/shadowknight, mystic/defiler, conjuror/necromancer. These four pairings may only be good or evil. A Defiler may betray to a good city from an evil one. They will become a mystic. On that same note, a Guardian may betray to the other alignment, and they may choose to change to a Berserker or stay as a Guardian.

Some classes are better than others, but I don't think anything in the current game will get turned down as 'bad' for groups. Play what sounds cool to you. Try it out as a 'heroic' character (level 85, not free, but you can try as many characters as you want for a level) if you want. There's a lot of variety and neat things.

Fighters

Guardian/Berserker, Bruiser/Monk and Paladin/Shadowknight are the Fighters. These are your front line, beefy tanks. In the current state of the game, if you pick a fighter you WILL be tanking. You will very rarely be in a DPS role. You CAN, but you won't be picked for it primarily and if you build to dps people will question you. Tanks are in demand right now, as the current expansion is considered to be the most demanding expansion for tanks to date. The mechanics require a lot of knowledge of your massive toolkit and will punish you if you don't.

Bruiser/Monk wear leather. They're the 'evasive' tanks. Monks are great and Bruisers are fine! Monks have a ton of temporary buffs to keep themselves alive, and they can get loads of mitigation easily since they naturally bring a lot of block to the table. They are a bit lacking in the AOE department, which Bruisers cover better at the cost of a bit of survivability.

Paladin/Shadowknight wear plate. They're the crusaders, and are magic-oriented. Paladins have a lot of direct self healing and redirect threat from party members. They also have combat resurrections. They're regarded as the easiest and most valuable tank right now. Shadowknights have a lot of debuffs and drain health from their targets. They're considered very strong tanks too, as they have a lot of AOE threat and survivability. They are also masters of soloing.

Guardian/Berserker also wear plate. They're the warriors, and are completely physical. The Berserker is the more offensive of the two, comes with a boatload of AOE and provide self-healing from getting hit. Guardians are sword-and-board tanks with less offense and more defensive cooldowns.

Scouts

Chain-wearing sneaky pokey dudes, generally. You've got the Assassin/Ranger, Swashbuckler/Brigand, Troubadour/Dirge, and the Beastlord. These are explicitly all DPS-oriented classes, to varying degrees.

Assassin/Ranger are pure dps, the rest bring varying degrees of utility. Assassin has threat transfers, Ranger has literally nothing. If you want no responsibility except 'kills mans', play a ranger. If you play ranger very well, you will get groups and be respected. If you play like poo poo nobody will want you, because you only bring damage.

Swashbuckler/Brigand are debuffers. They put out solid damage, but bring big utility in the forms of debuffing the target. Brigand brings more single target debuffing, Swashbuckler brings a boatload of AOE damage.

Troubadour/Dirge are straight up buffers. Their damage output is solid, but what they bring to the table are some of the greatest group buffs in the game. They turn an already good dps into a god drat superstar. They are ALWAYS in demand, and if your first question is 'what can i play to get groups?' then try these guys out. Troubadours handle casters, Dirges handle physical. They cross over a bit on healers.

Beastlord is a jack of all trades that can build to dps or support with power restores/wards in exchange for less damage. Beastlords aren't bad but are out of vogue due to not being focused enough to fill any one role to most people's satisfaction.

Priests

These are your healers. They're made up of the Warden/Fury, Mystic/Defiler, Templar/Inquisitor, and the Channeler. In order, they wear leather, chain, plate and leather. Warden/Mystic/Inquisitor are melee oriented, Fury/Defiler/Templar are caster oriented, and the Channeler is an archer with a pet. Every healer is expected to contribute DPS, rather than sitting there playing health bar whack-a-mole mindlessly. Some of them do it very well, others do it poorly. Templar has the lowest expectations on damage output.

Every healer has a niche and a unique flavor. They are broken down into Wards, Heals Over Time, Reactives. The Channeler is a special case. Wards take priority over Reactives take priority over HOTs. These effects don't stack, so you will often want two different brands of healer in a party.

Warden/Fury are leather-wearing druids. Their niche is heal-over-time effects. Warden is melee, Fury is a caster. The Fury brings some huge caster buffs. It is very important to note that both of them contribute to healing through attacking their targets.

Mystic/Defiler are chain-wearing shaman. Their speciality is warding targets, which is putting up a flat damage shield on them. They are currently regarded as the strongest healers in the game. By no means are the others bad in any fashion, however. The Mystic is melee and the Defiler is a caster. The Defiler brings hefty debuffing and the Mystic brings more group buffs and a strong single target buff in Bolster.

Templar/Inquisitor are plate-wearing Clerics. They put Reactives up on targets, which trigger when they are struck and create a heal at that time. They're similar to wards in a way, but rather than block the damage, they heal it off immediately. The Inquisitor is a massive melee buffer and a melee dps itself. The Templar is a caster.

The Channeler is something special in its own category. They wear leather and they have a Construct pet that is unable to die. The Construct effectively puts up a flat damage reduction across the group, because it intercepts damage for them and places it on to the construct. You spend a lot of time shooting your bow and throwing percentile heals on your construct. They're considered the strongest raid healers, but have a harder time solo healing heroic content.

Mages

Cloth-wearing offensive casters. Your choices are Wizard/Warlock, Necromancer/Conjuror, and Illusionist/Coercer. All of them bring a degree of utility, although Illusionist and Coercer have the heftiest.

Wizard/Warlock are pure dps-oriented casters. I believe Warlock has more AOE, and Wizard has more single target. They're both very good and do extreme damage. Supposedly, Wizard has one of the most challenging dps rotations in the game.

Necromancer/Conjuror are pet-classes. They have an undead or an elemental pet. Both bring some group buff utility and solid damage output. I don't know poo poo about them other than Necromancer players are dumb and kill themselves with Lifeburn.

Illusionist/Coercer are utility casters. These are the cloth versions of Troubadours/Dirges. They put out respectable damage, but what they really bring to the table is power (mana) sustainability and various tank, healer and dps buffs for the group. Like the bards, they are ALWAYS in demand. Illusionists are better than Coercers but I don't know why.

Crafting

Crafting, I don't even know where to start. Crafting is a game in and of itself. It has its own set of 100 levels, it has questing and story timelines, it has gear. Crafting is great right now, it's relevant in what it creates, and it can make you some real cash if you put in the time. I can't speak to the end game of crafting, but for now I can direct you to where to start.

For a new player, early in your career as an adventurer you will encounter a few different NPCs who offer tutorials. They'll teach you about Collections, Harvesting and Crafting. The first time you play, I suggest you do them. On later characters, once you're more familiar, you can skip them by going right to a crafting trainer.



Here's a few of the tutorial npcs! These are out in Timorous Deep, but the other starting zones have them.



This is the crafting trainer in Gorowyn. Every major city has one. To start on the road to crafting, assuming you're just skipping the tutorial, come talk to this fellow and tell him you want to learn. You'll become a level 2 artisan. Buy his Essentials up to level 9 and then go craft.



I have a custom UI, so this may look a bit different to you, but the ideas are largely the same. Red outlined skills boost Durability. Yellow boost progress. Read the tooltips, too. The purple area is where you will see Counters. They will pop up with the same icon as one of the abilities below. Use it to counter and get a nice bonus. Green bars are durability, blue bars are progress.

The first 20 levels are the hardest. You're going to sit here and pray for counters to pop up. From levels 2-9, just stick to the left hand abilities, unless your durability is full. Once you hit 9 (don't try to grind to 10), you're going to head back to the crafting trainer. He's going to prompt you to pick a general school: Craftsman, Outfitter or Scholar.

Picking one bumps you up to 10. Once again, scoop up the essentials from 10-19 and head to a table. You're going to grind to 15. However, two major changes occur at level 10: First, your abilities get a bit more efficient, and second, you're going to get tradeskill AA. Your abilities will continue to get better every 10 levels, too.



You get one AA every 20%. If you have a default profile on, it's going to fill it out for you every level. You'll have all 40 by 17 or 18, and it makes a huge difference. For now, just grind to 15. Once you've hit that magical number, come find this guy in the Guild Hall. He's probably been standing behind you the entire time.



This is the 'slow' Writ giver. For 15-19, he's all you've got. That's fine, he's going to help you out immensely. Take his writ, go make everything it asks, turn it in. You're going to get a metric fuckton of exp. Now, if you've got tradeskill vitality, watch it deplete. Writs now use up your vit, meaning they give mad exp if you've got vit still. You should be 19 in 2 writs, maybe 3 tops. Once you hit 19, go visit the trainer again and pick your final class.

From 20 and on, tradeskilling gets a hell of a lot easier. You can just start mashing the Progress abilities and then give it a round of Durability of the green bar gets low. Watch for counters, hit them, and you're golden. You're going to want to ignore the slow writs now and just do Rush Orders. They're right next to the same guy, you get an 8 or 9 minute limit to make 6 combines. There's gear to get while leveling and quest lines to do. You can find all of that stuff in a few links below.

TRADESKILL OVERVIEW: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Tradeskilling
TRADESKILL GEAR: https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/index.php?threads/comprehensive-tradeskill-equipment-list.1294/
TRADESKILL QUESTLINES: http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Tradeskill_Timeline

Housing

Housing in this game is accessible and customizable as hell. Holy poo poo this game has to have the best housing on the MMO market still.



All of this stuff was created by a player, using the parts available in game.

Pricing

The game, up to level 95, is free to play, with light restrictions. Prior players are grandfathered in as Silver and have less restrictions. From 95 and on, you will need the expansion. Some of the classes cost money. There are some nice, non-essential features that cost money. Subscribing provides a variety of benefits, some of which are just nice fluff and some that are massive game-changers. The biggest is that f2p players can't fully utilize the broker (auction house, basically). Here's the features for subscribing: https://www.everquest2.com/membership

You also get bonuses for their other games, if you play them or want to check them out. I, personally, think a sub is worth it if you like this game. The biggest bonuses are probably broker access, -10% cost on Market, free 500 sc/mo and bonus alternative currency.

Dry Hump posted:

It wasn't there when I asked, so I don't really think it was a dumb question.

Anyway, probably going to roll some sort of Conjurer. See you guys soon!