Observations on life in Norath - part 2
Mastercrafted gear (+)
While there are sometimes intermediate gear upgrades available, right now I’ve been getting along just fine with mastercrafted gear on all my characters. It takes FOREVER to make all that stuff, and costs a big chunk of platinum for the rare hard metals, I only have to do it every 10 levels. I rarely shop for gear in the broker – I just make what I need and augment it with the odd heritage quest item.
Heritage quests (+)
Obviously, veteran players know all about these. But newer players may not be familiar with them. These are fantastic quests – in every sense.
First of all, the rewards are often VERY nice. This weekend, I completed the heritage quests for the Shiny Brass Shield, the Short Sword of Ykesha, and a dagger whose name I forget. These are all names of items from the original EQ, and sometimes represent pretty nice upgrades even from mastercrafted gear.
Second, the quests show you zones that you may not necessarily explore or even discover otherwise. I wouldn’t likely have gone to Nektropos Castle unless I had gone there for the Glowing Black Stone quest, or the Guise of the Deceiver quest.
Third, the stories behind these quests are often very interesting. It’s too easy – for me at least – to skip over all the dialog and just jump from ding to ding. But that approach misses much of the charm and depth of the game. I’ve really been enjoying the writing associated with these quests. Last night, for example, I was asked to venture deep into Deathfist Citadel to rescue three members of a group called The Green Hoods. They had been taken captive when their raiding group was overrun, and were being held captive for various sinister reasons. It was a FUN quest – and the awesome short sword reward (which was a great upgrade for both my guardian and troubadour) was just gravy.
Guilds (even when playing solo) (+)
I am not the most sociable person in the world when playing EQ2. I work with people all day, and spend a lot of time with my family and girlfriend’s family – so when I play EQ2 it’s generally to get away. Even so, I have formed a guild with my team of 6. Right now, my guild is level 21 – so I have a nice little guild bank available to share items. I would encourage even solo players to form a guild – you can get 5 other players to help form one and then they can leave again. That guild bank feature is really handy.
Macro engine (-)
The macro feature in EQ2 is much less powerful than WoW – particularly when it comes to casting the next available spell. I have my spells categorized by type (heals, buffs, dd, AOE, etc.) in a single macro, in descending order by recast time. Thanks to the excellent guides here that explain why this is necessary. Even so, it’s tough to make sure you utilize all those spells – it seems like I have a bit of “dead” time when my team isn’t doing anything. The various spells are so numerous, and many are very distinct in their purpose – so it’s tough to make use of all of them with the limitations in the macro engine.
Not enough concentration slots!!! (-)
This isn’t an issue that’s related to strategy, or team composition. It’s just frustrating to have cool buffs that I can’t use because I’m out of slots. For example, I don’t know if I’m better off using three buff slots on my illusionist to buff other characters (haste, extra mental damage on cast, etc) or the illusionist pet. I don’t have that ACT tool installed, so I don’t know how much damage he does. For all I know, that illusionist pet is a complete joke – but I’m using him most of the time.
Equipping 6 characters is expensive!!! (-)
Again, not an issue related to gameplay or strategy. It’s just alarming how much platinum I blow through keeping my team outfitted with masters and mastercrafted gear. I do a LOT of farming named mobs, and still just barely keep my head above water financially. I have literally done hundreds of quests, and sell the rewards almost exclusively, and I’m still really low on platinum. I guess that’s ok – it’s probably an indication that the game’s economy is well designed.
I’m no doubt forgetting things. I just wanted to share some of my observations thus far. I’m having a GREAT time playing. The game looks great, has incredible depth, and is just a lot of fun. I’ll try to post more often here – not so much because I have a lot of answers but just because I’m having a blast.
Thanks to all the pioneer posters here who helped set up the great wiki and stoke the interest of other players. EQ2 is quite different than WoW, so it’s been a nice change of pace for WoW burnout. I am having a ton of fun – and that’s the point.
