EQ2 - Server population

[moosejaw]

I got my collector's edition of EQ2 also. :thumbsup:

Frosty and myself are currently guilded together but our levels are still miles apart. I am about to make my first appearance in Blackburrow today which was my favorite lowby zone in EQ1. I just loved that zone and massive trains you could get.

But it is a completely different experience now. I remember starting as a priest then doing the class quests and picking the final class, what a chore. Questing sucked as there were so many linked mobs I couldn't solo sh!t. I started a DE Necro first and solo'd a few days to see how it felt and it was super. You straight up pick your class at character select now and the starter zone quests are very giving.

To make a comparison in populations of the two games ..... there is no comparison. There is a global chat channel and it is usually very quiet. I was running around Antonica last night and I felt like it was MY continent. The griffon flights inside of the continents is not useless but you can't follow up the ramps to them. Using the Bard's selo's is almost as easy sometimes.

I drag my mobs back to the blob (lol) so the bard can stabby stab. Note that your caster/healer can get melee style special attacks that are beneficial to use so getting the mobs close to the group is desirable. Back on the bard, he has ranged special attacks as well as the bow autoattack so leaving the bard at range is not a bad thing. The min range on the bow is 2yds and most melee max range is 5yds so there is a spot where you can melee and fire off ranged specials at the same time 8o . I think a bard of some type is necessary for any caster heavy group for the mana/power regen. I loved my bard in my boxed groups in EQ1, awesome utility and tons of dps.

Overall I am liking my experience so far. I even got a comment from another player that my group looked silly. I also mentioned in global chat that I was going to box and no one flamed me. Cruising the EQ2 forums you will find lots of people who 2-3 box. We need to get some of those folks heading over here to input knowledge also.

[Zerocool2024]

Could anyone post some EQ2 boxing videos?

I would like to see how it plays out.

[moosejaw]

If I posted a video it would be from my camcorder. Running 6 on my machine is quite the load and doing video would probably crash it.

[Khatovar]

Can you now box more than one toon on a single computer>? or is that impossible with EQ2?

Yup. Like Moosejaw says, he's doing 6 on one box, I do 5 on mine. Back in the day, I couldn't pull off 2, hehe.

Personally, I'm also really, really liking the fact that I can go ahead and upgrade to the Station Pass and play any SOE game. So if I start to get burned on EQ2, I can go to EQ or Vanguard. But I'm really enjoying EQ2 now. It's worlds better than it was when I first tried it, and there's just so much more to do now than there was when I first really spent any time playing it.

[Zerocool2024]

Back in the day, when I was... say 14ish, 15ish, 10 years ago, lol.

I was playing EQ1.

I got an account from a friend who left the game about a year into EQ, and from then, I two-boxed the hard way (Two keyboards, two mice, two Monitors) and Manually clicked, pressed, everything with both hands, (Ambidextrous FTW!).

Till I came across one person in the game, (Forgot time and person, but he sent me a pic of his setup).

6 comps, 6 monitors (Baddass setup at the time), but it took me that pic to be like OMFG I SO WANT TO DO THAT!...

So when it came to EQ2, I couldn't do that, (Main-Rig at the time had a hard enough time running the game single).

But all it takes is a good idea (Pics, videos, certain things) to intrigue me to the point of jumping into it.

I ran into someone Boxing WoW, a hunter, who had 4 other tards with him and I got hooked the second I saw it. ( I was already two boxing hardware style, but only because my guild needed a Healer and DPS), I never thought of doing it as my own group.

After seeing that tard, I was hooked.

So if anyone could get a vid of sorts, I would be much obliged.

[Noxxy]

Having to do all those class quests died a long time ago - as did sub-combines in tradeskills - roving packs of triple^s in ant/commons or any overland area tbh - proccing rings - wands (which were unreal on a caster - extremely overpowered), having to do those incredibly hard access quests to unlock places like EL (i.e., impossible to solo - Full group being a must), the incredible toning down of FG (used to be a real ball buster) and a lot of the other dungeons, the incredibly hard / long betrayal quests requiring a pretty full group - sheesh, when I think about it there is so much you guys didn't see / experience tbh - today's game is nothing like the original

As a matter of fact - a disctinction can now be made between 0-79 which is definately solo friendly (in most overland areas), 80 onwards ummm...no, that's when the game reverts back to 'old EQ2' albiet a toned down version

[Ellay]

I'm reading more and more that Guardians have issues holding hate... from their spell list it looks like they have a ton of tools to maintain it. With my setup, I'm not using a dirge or a coercer so I don't have any extra tools to hold it. Will this become a problem or are they over exaggerating the ability for the guardian to maintain hate. If it becomes a problem I may have to switch it up to Paladin ><

[Frosty]

I'm reading more and more that Guardians have issues holding hate... from their spell list it looks like they have a ton of tools to maintain it. With my setup, I'm not using a dirge or a coercer so I don't have any extra tools to hold it. Will this become a problem or are they over exaggerating the ability for the guardian to maintain hate. If it becomes a problem I may have to switch it up to Paladin ><

I'm not having any problems at all keeping agro on my Guardian. And I've been pulling mass groups of mobs on purpose.
But, I am not focusing on AoE either. (not that I don't use AoE).

I haven't checked into the benefits of damage shields, but I do keep thorns, fire shield and some other warlock spell on my tank.
Anyone know if those spells add to the threat for the tank?
Then I also keep him buffed with +damage melee spells.

I spam my DPS key like a mad man and have never seen any other toon go above about 46 on the threat meter.

[Frosty]

Frosty and myself are currently guilded together but our levels are still miles apart.

You are going to pass me. I have a 4 day weekend...and I just found out my "to do" list tonight! :P

[Noxxy]

One of the mistakes ppl make when going any heavy tank is basically spending all their AAs into such things as taunts and other aggro management tools - this leads to --> low dps tank --> poor aggro holding --> wipefest - idea is to balance between the two, and if a choice were to be made, go the DPS route - yes, I know that doesn't sound intuitive but DPS plays a pretty big part in being able to hold a mob/s attn.

When it comes to the guard, the easiest way to increase his/her DPS (and thereby aggro holding) is through spending up big on the warrior tree - in particular, STR for melee crits (4,4,8 ), WIS line for dbl attacks (4,4,8 ) then moving down the INT tree for hastes/attack speed. If you wanted, some ppl go 4 4 8 in the AGI tree for attacking multiple targets. At a later date, dumping points into the STA line will be required but at the start you can get away with it (plus, you'll have a healer under your control so can manage your damage pretty well vs a pug).

By doing this, your DPS will increase and, in turn, so will your aggro management

As for increasing aggro towards the tank - dirges and coer certainly help as do swashies - but all is not lost if you don't have one or more of those - it just comes down to timing you spells and maybe a little spell manipulation.

For instance, all tanks get a single target taunt plus an encounter taunt. So say you place the single on 3 and the encounter on alt+3. Make sure that your heavy hitting or casting chars either have detaunts on those keys OR something small like a debuff (check the descriptions as some debuffs certainly aren't small) this way when the tank taunts the rest detaunt or just cast little, but necessary, debuffs

Another method you can see being used is basically the 'start off slow' approach:
- tank pulls, throws a few taunts on inc, when the mob is close enough then the rest of the team joins in with a few debuffs, tank retaunts, throws in a decimate maybe even touch the mob up a bit via an infraction and there's a good chance after all that the mob will remain pretty interested in the tank

Don't forget also that some classes have hate control spells, as an example: gibe and sleight of hand which can be used in emergencys to protect the ultra-squishy