Everquest II

Just wondering... what happends, why is it fun to be at level 80? I am trying to get there asap because I naturally hate leveling unless it's fun and variating at the same time but I never felt this while leveling in EQ2 so now I just try to "get it over with" and move to "the real game" where I'm not constantly looking for more up to date gear and buying the same skills over and over again to be updated.

The same damned thing that happens with every other bloody RPGMMO.... you raid and PVP. Honey, the point of the game is the journey, not the end. If you don't like the journey then RPGMMO's aren't for you.

I think the original poster said he didn't enjoy the journey in EQ2, not every MMO. 

Originally posted by Moirae

The same damned thing that happens with every other bloody RPGMMO.... you raid and PVP. Honey, the point of the game is the journey, not the end. If you don't like the journey then RPGMMO's aren't for you.

I agree the journey is a big part of the game but looking at it from my view it's only lame. The more you level the smaller the world becomes since you have less places to go a total since you don't gain anything being in them because of your higher level... what has to matter the most is the end because everyone gets there and it is the first goal to accomplish in the game and the reward should be starting to scratch the surface of what really matters with the game. The ultimum can't be reached untill you hit max level anyway.

Knowing that there's no pot of gold for fighting my way through 80 levels doesn't really feel good. You can't say mobs are fun to kill in this game since 99% of them are all the same and what only makes them different are looks and ^^^ arrows. And the more arrows only mean more health and more damage. 99% of all mobs insist in hitting you in melee even though they are mages or rangers and mostly what you encounter is just one ^^^arrow mob, two ^^ arrow mobs, three ^ arrow mobs or a huge bunch of mobs with no arrows at all.

Wow I didn't realize the text would be so long... time to stop!

Durahell, you just described every single MMO on the market. You might as well stop now. There is NOT, in ANY MMO on the market, a "pot of gold" waiting for you at the end, in any format. RPGMMO's (which THIS game is) do not have a grand ending to the fairy tale, they're an ongoing story. Thats the nature of an RPG.

Originally posted by Moirae

Durahell, you just described every single MMO on the market. You might as well stop now. There is NOT, in ANY MMO on the market, a "pot of gold" waiting for you at the end, in any format. RPGMMO's (which THIS game is) do not have a grand ending to the fairy tale, they're an ongoing story. Thats the nature of an RPG.

I heard one guy go all "oh there's HUGE amounts of content at 80!" but he never described the content he praised...

like in most mmos the differences between solo mobs are not that great other than the  looks most feel somehow the same. but the differences get bigger in group content and even more visible in raid conetent where you need different strategies for different fights (some of the strategies can be trivialized by enough brute force but not all).

back to your question about top level content, there is enough for some months if you don't play too hardcore.

For lvl 80 groups there are 6 instancees with a bit varying difficulties (some of these have nice encounters that are not just trivial fights where you have to think a bit to find valid strategies), 1 easier dungeon which is meant for lower-mid 70s levels, but deep inside it can still offer some challenge to a lvl 80 group, and 2 hard dungeons which can be fun with a good group (but they also can be quite frustrating if your group is not strong enough and you keep wiping). then there is raid content 8 different zones with increasing difficulty, the hardcore guilds just killed hardest raidencounter about 4 months after expansion release, while most casual guilds that raid are still stuck in the 3 easiest raids, or doing content of last expansion.

Then there is your epic weapon quest which starts wwith solo and group parts which sometimes can be very challenging and after these you get the first version of the weapon, to get the final version you have to kill some raid bosses too (the last bosses for this quest are from veeshans peak a zone taht is still far of for the non hardcore guilds).

So as i said if you are not too hardcore the highend content can keep you busy for multiple months, in hardcore guilds you can do it in just a few months.

Like nearly ALL MMOs. There's absolutely nothing at level 80.

Want to know how it really is? You work your butt off to get your epic. Cool. Now you have it. Now what? Max crafting out. Ok Done. Now decorate your house. Sure why not? Done. Now you can complete a bunch of collections or do some lore and legends for the hell of it. Done. This is 1 months worth of content if you play VERY casually. If you play hardcore. It won't last you more then 2 weeks.

EQ2 is fun and all, but once you've finished the content like any mmo. It just turns to a dang borefest. I recently got new wireless internet and can now play TF2, etc. online. Now that these new options opened to me. I've seriously quit all MMOs. I don't feel forced to play them anymore.

TBH, just enjoy the journey. Once you reach the end. Call it quits and move on to a new game. The only MMOs that can hold much interest at "end game" is games with good pvp elements. The reason I say this is because you are always being challenged. In PVE there is no challenge. You figure out the strategy and then it's cookie cutter from there on. PVP is ever evolving. New players. New strategies. So if you want my advise (4 yr eq2 vet). Play it. Have fun. Then quit when you no longer are having fun.

Personally I am waiting for AION or AoC to have a strong PVE element with good PVP focus as well. (Warhammer is TOO pvp for my taste).

I'll give you a straight forward answer to your threads title: A normal day is shouting for a instance/raid group. Get the group. Do the instance/raid. That's it. You waste time to obtain items you don't need (you get powerful enough items from solo quests or crafting to do perfectly fine).

thanks kyle. I get the picture. The only reason for me to enjoy being at lvl 80 is that I would FINALLY not have to CARE about LEVEL DIFFERENCES! I can't focus on having fun in PvP when EVERYTHING I encounter is differently colored than me and therefore considered easier or thougher by DEFAULT!

I'd probably have some PvP fun 1 hour a day or something... if even that. I don't really enjoy PvE either so far since, like I said, all mobs feels the same. You can be amazed at how good looking some dungeons are once in a while. But when you get to Temple of Kazic Thule or Everfrost you want to puke for looking at the most bland and awfully designed zones ever seen in a game.

You've actually hit the nail on the head.

Take a step back and look at MMOs, and how rediculous they are. All other genres have progressed, but in most mmos:

AI is NONEXISTANT, step into the "aggro" circle and whack a mole.

Fighting a lvl 20 at lvl 20 is the same as fighting a 40 at 40 or a 60 at 60, what's the point?

The economy is totally artificial, everything is Bind on pickup, prices are inflated, gold is worthless.

When you finally exhaust the treadmill, you get 2 things every time, PvP and Raiding, woohoo!!!

So, if you're like me and get tired of games that are just EQ all over again (really 90% of MMOs are EQ, simple things like aggro, the skill bar, raiding, grouping as we know it, ect are all from EQ), try one of the few creative games out there.

Unfortunately, because WoW is an EQ clone, and everyone wants WoW's $$, MMOs have kind of been thrown into a dark age. Just as MMOs were about to break out, we were thrown back to EQ.

Try Eve online, it's radically different, with no end game and gameplay that's more of a sandbox than an amusement park. You either love it or hate it, but try it.

The Chronicles of Spellborn also promises something different. They have a cool skill system, and lots of features that should set it apart if it work (let's hope)

Sadly thats about it. Guild wars 2 will be more MMO like (levels and character advancement will be more important. Guild wars is a great game, but it lacks the attachment to your character that other major mmos have), so we may have GW2 to look forward to as well.

Support creativity, don't put up with mediocrity! (well, have fun with it while you can, but it gets old)

We know MMOs are in a bad state when a boring unimaginative utterly uninspired game like LOTRO (Lord of the rings, they could have done so much more than another EQ/WoW clone!!) is the best we've got.