Everquest II

... actually EQ1 was my first love but that soured after a couple of years of SOE's control. i never gave EQ2 much a chance, but with this new free offer i think i might revisit Norrath--after a few questions are answered. please pardon my lack of knowledge and thanks in advance for your help.

1. i created a trial station account in april of this year. that makes me eligible for the 2 free month offer correct? is it also true that i dont need to buy a retail copy?  if so, how does one upgrade the free trial into a full supscription?

2. how does EQ2 handle instancing and to what extent does it exist? i know there is zoning as in EQ1--but is it as pervasive as in AoC? are there atleast common dungeons?

3. how good is the character development? is it as flexible as a diverse skill-tree? or is it more single-track as in EQ1? i understand there are AA's but are they something you basically amass or do they follow "paths" in which you distinguish your character from other players of the same class?

4. any gross imbalances in the game? i understand the core game is basically tank-healer-dps but are there any obviously useless classes or overpowered classes?

5. does EQ2 continue the challenge of EQ1? granted EQ1 had its share of needless timesinks but id hope that EQ2 is still as challenging and boss events are atleast equal to or more challenging. Is there also a good amount of 5-20 man sized events?

ok i know thats alot to ask. so i just thank you for your consideration and time in answering what you can.

cheers

1 - I don't know all the ins and outs of the program, but if you stopped playing before April 30th you should be eligible.

2 - There are quite a few instances in EQ2, especially as you get to higher levels. There are shared (contested) dungeons as well, though they are scattered through the levels and sometimes you might need to work to get people to go explore them. There is also zoning, although it is often done using a bell to travel, or boats, and in the newest expansion there has been an effort to increase the zone size to reduce the amount of zoning.

This should give you an idea of the rough split between instanced and non-instanced dungeons:

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

3 - I would say the character development is very good. There are AAs which are organized into skill trees, each class has two sets of AAs to work with and each set is broken up into multiple trees. There are common "builds" of course but you are free to do your own thing - for example most healer classes have a tree that lets them become much better in melee, so that option is available to you.

For example, the two trees that the Paladin class has:

http://www.eq2ref.com/aa/index.php?class=Crusader

http://www.eq2ref.com/aa/index.php?class=Paladin

4 - I wouldn't say there are any useless classes - all classes are very effective in what they do, though they all have strengths and weaknesses. In terms of any particular area (like raiding) you might find people who think some are better than others, but really I would feel confident in advising a new player to pick up any class.

5- Hard to say - there's no doubt that EQ2 has been taking a path in recent years that is making it more casual friendly, and there really aren't many of the long camps from EQ1. There are plenty of instanced and other dungeons for the normal 6 man groups, as well as raid encounters starting around level 55 for up to 24 characters.  I never did a lot of high-end EQ1 content so I can't speak to the difficulty.

Hope this helps. It's a great game overall.

Originally posted by Peregrine2

1 - I don't know all the ins and outs of the program, but if you stopped playing before April 30th you should be eligible.

 

2 - There are quite a few instances in EQ2, especially as you get to higher levels. There are shared (contested) dungeons as well, though they are scattered through the levels and sometimes you might need to work to get people to go explore them. There is also zoning, although it is often done using a bell to travel, or boats, and in the newest expansion there has been an effort to increase the zone size to reduce the amount of zoning.

This should give you an idea of the rough split between instanced and non-instanced dungeons:

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

 

3 - I would say the character development is very good. There are AAs which are organized into skill trees, each class has two sets of AAs to work with and each set is broken up into multiple trees. There are common "builds" of course but you are free to do your own thing - for example most healer classes have a tree that lets them become much better in melee, so that option is available to you.

For example, the two trees that the Paladin class has:

http://www.eq2ref.com/aa/index.php?class=Crusader

http://www.eq2ref.com/aa/index.php?class=Paladin

 

4 - I wouldn't say there are any useless classes - all classes are very effective in what they do, though they all have strengths and weaknesses. In terms of any particular area (like raiding) you might find people who think some are better than others, but really I would feel confident in advising a new player to pick up any class.

 

5- Hard to say - there's no doubt that EQ2 has been taking a path in recent years that is making it more casual friendly, and there really aren't many of the long camps from EQ1. There are plenty of instanced and other dungeons for the normal 6 man groups, as well as raid encounters starting around level 55 for up to 24 characters.  I never did a lot of high-end EQ1 content so I can't speak to the difficulty.

 

Hope this helps. It's a great game overall.

great info and a great help to my decision making.

thanks Peregrine2