Everquest II

  i was a lucky soul that ask & got offered a free promo trial code of the EQ2 compliments of a web site member here.  So if i chose to subscribe i will get the most up to date EQ2 game & get to play for 2 months for $15 which is a great value if it's fun.  i'll be subscribing, but pass 1 month of paying i'm not sure the way things are beginning to look. 

  i chose a Sarnak Bruiser combination, which in hindsight there might had been better combinations for race/class.  i am level 42 now.  i will admit from the get-go i have never leveled ultra-fast nor been able to get lots of $ in any game, not sure why but i never have been able to do it. Dried up all my promo trinket EXP potions, had some incredible guidance & help from a couple of players which without i would probably be still in the level 20s to 30s.  & i'm still learning about the game let alone my class & there's lots to this game to learn.  Last couple of nights beginning the level 40s have dragged severly though, having my LFG hanging out there in the wind did in fact remind me of the original EQ of old. 

  Yes i can solo which the majority of the time i have done, but with higher levels is where that group Exp really excels & is needed.  Otherwise i have to boringly tip-toe through a level.  Still irritates me that quests don't offer a choice of item for each of the 4 class types like other MMOs.  If this game is approximately 4 years old the Broker Market seems to have a drought of items for these middle levels, beginning levels & higher levels seem to be having the most selections.  Getting good items for my current levels seems to heavily lean towards the Crafting venue. 

  So yes i'm going to subscribe just because it's still remaining fun at times, but that guage is depleting almost as fast as my power guage.  Am i playing my race/class combination as effictively as possible, heck no, i'm still learning & as i said this is a good game with lots of depth, mostly nice players, plenty to do, but in the forever fashion that is SOE seems transparent in certain areas how there is a grind just to be a grind with little reward.  There is a steep economy,  seemingly lack of class questing, but like me others ingame are having fun still.  i can say this seems to be a good game, wont say a great game, & am leaning towards the thought of WoW being a better more casual friendly game than EQ2. 

  There has been no break-through moment for me from the game itself, the few times a couple of the players guiding me & helping me has been the piviotal moments that still have me playing & SOE doesn't get credit for that the community does though that Mentoring feature was well thought of by SOE to offer an incentive of helping others.  i just hope these last few free days don't keep slipping to where i don't even feel like subscribing for next month, but i will because as always those EQ marketing Gnomes offered a great value ... this time! 

fort he level 40s i recommend going to the desert of flames.

i went there and shutup to 50 quickly.

especially when your high enough to go the city and do the instance court of tears quests.

its once i hit 50 that the pace seemed to slow down again.

becomes alot more raid oriented at 50.

well more dungeon oriented.

the most fun to be had at 50 i found is dungeons and the levelling has slowed down dramatically (feel like im grinding 30's again over at steamfont)

Good picks DOF areas at that level IMO

Trust me though it does get slower the higher you go 3 times to 80 now and in the 70's i seemed to get stuck at certain levels with no end in sight

But stick with it

  Thanks you two, i will try that Desert of Flames area.  i like the bonus Exp they offer for over the weekend ... too bad i have to work most of the weekend.  Wish SOE would've gifted the community another potion or something instead to allow better use of bonus Exp for each player based on their own time to play though.

  i am skipping the Master Crafted gear for level 42 & trying to save up enough for the 52 level gear.  i had research the Pristines & Rhodiums, but dang EQ2 economy is steep!!!  Hoping by the time i get to 52 i will have enough for the Pristine Scaled & Vanadiums along with all the skills.  i haven't looted anything Bruiserish since late 20s now LOL.  i can understand SOE could code it this way to coercing community interaction, at least Broker, but come on i can't spend 24 gold for every Adept 1 skill :-(

  It's definitely getting that old familiar feel of original EQ at these levels since solo grinding is BORING & SLOW, & having the LFG flagged for a couple of hours is no fun.  The group Exp is definitely way to go, if possible!

  Not a break through moment by any means but i did have my highest winning amount from the little Gambling Goblin: 2 gold 50 silvers :-)   

Putting a group together is actucally easier than cutting butter with a hot knife.

Too many people, and it looks like your one of them, rely too much on just truning on the "magic" LFG tag.

1)  Very few people ever use that.  2) ask in channels 3) spam the channels 4) Press your Y key search for players of the classes your looking for and start sending tells.   You group fills up very fast that way and since you're putting the group together people listen to you and go where you suggest.

Sorry, I have no simpathy for your whining about not being able to find a group.  Put in the tiniest amount of effort and you can have groups all the time.

It's not SoE/EQ2's problem everyone that plays their game is as lazy as you and none of them want to send a few tells.

and before you flame me, like I said, I've been playing this game for a long time and can put together a pick-up raid on a busy raid night in about 10 mins...thats 4 groups worth of people I can get to join a group in 10 mins...so don't tell me you can't find a group when your not trying to find a group.

Sorry to go off on this rant but this "I've got my LFG tag up for hours"  type of post just annoys me.

bruiser is a nice class for a first char, its rather easy to solo, and mastercrafted armor usually is cheaper for them than for plate/chain classes.

but its definitely true that there is level ranges in the middle of the game where mastercrafted items get very expensive cause people do not harvest these ranges that much. so often the highend raws can be cheaper than the lower ones. (and the rare drop rates are not that high like they are in the first 1-2 tiers)

the next gameupdate will also have a revamp of everfrost (think some new quests there too)  so that might help with leveling from 40 to 50.

40-50 actually has quite a few areas to go at the start you can go to feerrott/rivervale/steamfont - then later on everfrost/lavastorm (not much solo options there for most classes)/dof areas and in the high 50s you could allready start in lesser faydark too.

also there is lots of dungeons and instances for this level range sadly most are hardly ever visited anymore. But as suggested before try starting a group yourself if you are lfg for a bit and noone else does it.

personally i never had big troubles to get up to 50, but i hate the 50-60 range most (and don't like 70-80 too cause its too much solo questing)

  Thanks Quaiky for the suggestions.  i'll try to put them to good use.  i will have to read-up on that upcoming update too.

  Geeky, you just sound really bitter sadly.  Yours is a valid suggestion still, which i plan to try, but isn't that LFG feature suppose to the proper process?  Nonetheless thank goodness i've only ran into a couple players like you, otherwise that pretentiousness holyier than thou attitude could put some new players off of EQ2.  Your whole post was lambasting with a sentence or two that might be constructive.  But you managed to cutt me down, congrats, i'll just have to tilt my neck that much higher to see your level 80 mocking then.

  i still like the way SOE did this whole promotion thing, i benefitted, hopefully the player that gifted me the code benefitted.  i wish there was a way ingame besides that cool idea Mentoring that vet. players helping out of newer ones would benefit more too.  Give some incentives where deserved.

  As we all can read, Geeky would be the first to help out with grouping apparently.