EQ2 - How far will 2 boxing get you?

[Criels]

I'm taking a break from 5 boxing WoW and decided to head back to EQ2. I have 2 accounts but I am currently playing only one of the accounts. I'm currently in the 40's and I'm finding with a merc the dungeon content is doable solo but slow due to a lack of dps on my pally. I'm considering opening back up my second account and 2 boxing with 2 mercs and I'm wondering if most of the content to 95 will be doable or will I hit a wall and regret not going with 3 accounts?

[Lyonheart]

if you want to do end game content, you will be able to do all instances on "advanced solo" designed for a single well geared toon or two so so geared toons ( one can be a merc ). The end game is gear dependant, especially if your only playing a few accounts. the newest zone "Cobalt Scar" Is the hardest content to date, the outdoor named mobs are a lot tougher than previous zone, but you will be able to farm them as well ( with mercs ). Until your gear is top notch, i dont think you will be doing all of the group heroics.. mabey some.. but not all for sure.

[Alex66]

I have started EQ2 as a duo (swash+inq), lasted till around lvl 50, added dirge, went to 70, added fury :) This was before mercs. In the end I ended up with SK+Inq+Dirge+Warlock. Adding two mecrs (another inq for heals and necro for added noxious synergy) makes me quite capable handling all types of content doable by multiboxer.

[Criels]

I'm probably better off going 3 accounts / 3 mercs before I get to far along then. Leveling looks to be easier than WoW as far as multiboxing goes, grinding seems to get decent exp so I can avoid the ground spawn collection quest that caused me headaches in WoW and with the ability to mentor everyone is always getting exp. Dungeon grinding the fastest way to catch up lower level characters on teams?

[Alex66]

Yes, it is. Also, when you have a high level character later on, getting an additional team member up to level is a breeze via dungeons (mentor benefits, you are overpowered, etc). EQ2 is f2p so if your pc(s) can handle 4 accounts, do it. 3 is okish, but 4 may save you hassle if you feel 3 is not enough down the road.

Come to think of it, I have had most fun when I went about doing every quest available do achievemets, at the level. I stopped XP in order to not outlevel the content, done every Heritage quest up until lvl 90, visited every zone and completed every dungeon. I did all vanilla 60 and 70 raid dungeons with my team of 3 without any mercs or mentoring down. I'll always remember these times with a certain warmth. Then came Velious and its hard dungeons, and I had to reconfigure my team to include full time tank (swash just was not pulling it). I still box it on and off with my team at 92 (I dont wanna pay for latest expansion), but my latest love is Vanguard, what a lost beautiful game that is!

I agree with Lyonheart on gear-dependancy at end-game, however you can do well enough with experimented crafted gear for lvl 92 (mixed MK and MK epics)

[Lyonheart]

Yes, it is. Also, when you have a high level character later on, getting an additional team member up to level is a breeze via dungeons (mentor benefits, you are overpowered, etc). EQ2 is f2p so if your pc(s) can handle 4 accounts, do it. 3 is okish, but 4 may save you hassle if you feel 3 is not enough down the road.

I have been PLing a single ranger, this time I'm doing nothing but instant zones ( after level 20 ) I have 2 95s on the rangers account so I am getting +40% passive exp bonus, started him yesterday, he just dinged 70 8) Using my warden to do it, so getting around is a breeze! My druid can fly.. so i just port them to whatever zone the instance is in, and fly the druid to the instance. When the druid zones in, it auto zones the ranger in ( he cant fly yet.. so just easier to leave him at the druid ring hehe )

[Criels]

I'm adding a third account this weekend. I've leveled 3 teams of duo's to 50 to get a feel for the classes and the majority of that time I've had the adventure exp turned off so I don't miss all the content. I thought questing would be a pain especially after being spoiled by Jamba in WoW but I'm finding questing enjoyable and I'm loving the huge dungeons. Now I'm wondering if it's worth it to set up my own guild or if I'm better off joining an established guild. I'm not finding a lot of info on how hard it is to level a guild or if the perks are worth the effort of setting up my own.

[Meeo]

Now I'm wondering if it's worth it to set up my own guild or if I'm better off joining an established guild. I'm not finding a lot of info on how hard it is to level a guild or if the perks are worth the effort of setting up my own.

I was pondering that same thing last night. I am to the point that i like the game and want to continue with it, ie join other people who also enjoy the game. Im not sure if there are any active guilds on Guk that would take a 6 boxer.

[Criels]

I was pondering that same thing last night. I am to the point that i like the game and want to continue with it, ie join other people who also enjoy the game. Im not sure if there are any active guilds on Guk that would take a 6 boxer.

I'm on Guk too. Looking at the information I can find on guild perks it doesn't look like small guilds are going to be very advantageous unless you're active enough to counter the cost. The nicest thing is that you can have everything you'll ever need in your guild hall ( tradeskill NPC's, navigation bells, etc ) but they come at a cost and require weekly upkeep fees.

Hopefully someone who has actually started a guild for boxing can give us some input on the value of starting one or maybe direct us to one that doesn't care if we box.

[Meeo]

does it say anywhere what kind of cost all of this is?

[Criels]

http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Guild_Hall_Amenities

Coin doesn't concern me as much as the status upkeep requirements.

[Meeo]

I do see what you mean, im so new to the game im not sure how the status works 100% in terms of how many people are needed to main a certain income amount.

[Khatovar]

Status upkeep is easy, especially if you have a writ vendor as one of your early amenities. 10% of any status you earn, either from tradeskill writs, adventure writs or SP items is duplicated to the guild. You need to be guild level 30 to purchase the lowest tier guild hall. Your fastest option is probably chain-running kill-writs with your group, but completing Heritage Quests as a group can award a lot of Status too. If you're loaded, there's also the option of buying status items off the broker, but really, with a group kill writs are still probably going to be fastest.

Once you hit 30, you can get a tier 1 guild hall and 5 amenities. The first thing I did was to get the Tradeskill Rush Order vendor, Guild Fuel Merchant {amenities} and a Work Order Clipboard all the personal crafting stations so I could sit in my guild hall running back to back tradeskill writs, because I love crafting in EQ2. This gives me a fair amount of money and a ton of status, which you can donate directly to your guild hall's escrow account and use to pay for guild upkeep and amenities.

It should be noted that you don't lose anything if you stop paying. Well, obviously, you lose access to everything in the guild hall, but all you have to do is pay the upkeep, which is not additive, so you only need to pay for a week of use up front, not any of the previous time you missed.

The upkeep itself is pretty minimal anyway, it's the upfront costs that hurt. I've gotten my guild up to 39 so I've got a tier 1 guild hall with 7/7 amenities -



Amenity
Purchase Cost
Upkeep Cost


Fuel Merchant
10p 1,000,000sp
20g 5,000sp/wk


Gatherer Hireling
20p 2,000,000sp
40g 10,000sp/wk


Guild Hall Banker
10p 1,000,000sp
20g 5,000sp/wk


Guild Translocation Beacon
1p 250,000sp
2g 1,250sp/wk


Harvesting Supply Depot
25p 5,000,000sp
50g 25,000sp/wk


Miner Hireling
20p 2,000,000sp
40g 10,000sp/wk


Tradeskill Rush Order Agent
10p 1,000,000sp
20g 5,000sp/wk





Note that there's nothing that reduces the cash or status cost of guild halls like there is for personal housing. My upfront cost has totaled 146p {all the above amenities, even though you can only get 5 to start, + initial guild hall price} and 12,250,000sp. It also cost me an additional ~6p and 3,450,000sp for 7 elaborate workstations to do my tradeskill writs on, but that's a cost you can skip if you choose an Adventure Writ NPC instead of the tradeskill one.

Anyway, with all that upfront cost, my weekly upkeep cost is only 2p, 42g and 111,250sp. My level 92 Sage gets 19,591sp per Rush Order Writ, which takes me about 4-5 minutes to complete. So doing rush writs for about half an hour gives me enough status for a week's upkeep. My level 40 Carpenter gets 5600sp per, so it would take about 20 writs or about an hour and a half. Of course that will be significantly less time with several toons at once on kill writs.

[Ellay]

I think making my own guild is on my to do list eventually :) I don't want anything fancy but it sounds like fun down the road.

[Lyonheart]

Are you playing again Khat?

status is not hard, you can spend an hour a day or so and fulfil GH reqs. It helps if you have others in your guild share the burden, doing writs and such. Also, doing writs levels the guild pretty fast as well, if everyone is doing them, you can see the guild exp go up fast. Im also on Guk. I am in a raiding guild atm, but I am not sure that will work out long term. I will be moving back to Colorado ( i live in Virginia atm ) soon. But if you want to start a guild, i would gladly join and help with all my alts at least ( only one toon raids atm ).

I was in a guild on guk from long ago, there were a few boxers in the guild. But it died down, i was lonely and bored, so this guild I'm in now took me in lol. But they know I'm more interested in running my team than soloing. I do group with them from time to time, great peeps! Let me know if you would like to make a guild! ( plat is easy to get a max level now as well.. quest give 1p per and lots of items drop you can sell )

[Khatovar]

Are you playing again Khat?

Not really. I downloaded the f2p to test some script stuff on a few months ago, but I've only been doing some occasional tradeskilling on a solo toon so far. My husband is trying to talk me into playing something with him, but I've really been trying to avoid gaming and tend to some real life activities, lol.

[Ellay]

Balancing both or focusing on RL is important. I think it's the best mmo :)

[Lyonheart]

Balancing both or focusing on RL is important. I think it's the best mmo :)

I agree. I think one reason its not as popular as WoW is because it was rough around the edges when it launched. It was also not as user friendly as it is now. Questing was kind of a pain when it launched, quest NPCs were not marked ( no "!" above their heads as an example ) you had to remember where they were, etc.. A Lot of people want to play games on a reasonably high graphics settings, but EQ2 chugs on lesser PCs ( especially back when it launched ). That alone drove a lot of people to WoWs simpler PC reqs. But now, PCs are more powerful ( even cheaper ones ) and a lot of the games systems of been made much more user friendly.

I love the combat in this game, I love the mentoring system, tradeskills, the "appearance slot ( think transmog ) system.. just has become an awesome MMO!

[Ellay]

It really is... especially if your available time is less.. I log on and everytime I think.. why don't more people play this game? It's got so much history and offers so much. Not sure if I said this before but everytime I log on this is what goes through my mind.