Well this was an interesting thread, I do not know if most of the people realize that combat in EQ2 is faster than in EQ1 but it retains some of the same features, that is that you have several skills that are doing damage, but some of them are better in certain situations or against certain mobs. The system is at least supposed to reward those people who study their class and tries to learn how it works and how to act in certain sitiations. Is it perfect ...

No

But this thread at least proves that it is still more hardcore than most the stuff out there (but has it become easier, oh yes, does it retain complicated features made obsolete by changing other parts of the game, oh yes). But it is still the game for the person that looks for something a bit more hardcore and a bit more complicated than WoW. And did I say more mature players (at least in general).

I think that eq2 combat and general gameplay is very unfriendly to the average wow population that try it out, because of its subscription size and combat mechanics.

In wow you can be a douchebag all you want and you can cruise control to your gear upgrades, but in most eq2 servers if you develop a bad rep, it's very hard to do group content.

On gameplay mechanics, the classes in eq2 are very inter-dependant, magic users need brigands for their dispatch debuff, scouts love their bard/enchanter buffs, tanks work better with hate transfers, etc.

So even though it has become more solo friendly, the game still retains some 'old-school' inter-dependence of classes, that most 'fast-action' wow-ers find aggravating.

Peace.

I agree with the OP... EQ2 combat is probably one of the games weakest points.

EQ2 combat comes down to pushing buttons as soon as the global refresh clears.  There is a bit more too it like doing the right order to do debufs first.   Maybe coordinating with group members to let them know when you debuf something.  EQ2 does have a lot of class interdependancies.  For soloing though eq2 combat is rather boring.

Wow combat is quite a bit better.  Most combat has internal systems that make soloing a bit more fun.  However it doesn't have nearly the class interdependance that eq2 has.  Wow combat appears to be primarily oriented on solo play.  Not that there aren't some things classes do to help each other it just isn't similar to eq2.

Lotr combat is even better in some ways although it is slower.  LoTR combat is more thoughtful from what I see.  Group combat also seems to work pretty well.  I'd say that from a thinking and grouping point LoTR combat is even better.  However the pacing of it is kinda slow which might turn people off.

Vanguard combat is in my opinion the best.  Soloing you have a mechanic where you have choices about how to play out your combat.  It uses more of the energy management wow and various chains and reactive abilities that make paying attention to combat a must and also tends to mix things up more so you don't do the same thing every time.  For grouping it has some interdependancies and the weakness system.  All in all Vanguard combat is the best.

At level 20 you dont have 3 rows of spells.. This game is so much more complex than wow or aion and after the NGE they wont change it.. Theres people in this game who think its way too simplistic and easy.. I think its a nice system that keeps the player hitting buttons and timing spells/abilities to be sufficiently entertained while playing.  For some people Eq2 is too much to handle.. for those people theres always WoW and Aion..

Originally posted by metatronic

At level 20 you dont have 3 rows of spells.. This game is so much more complex than wow or aion and after the NGE they wont change it.. Theres people in this game who think its way too simplistic and easy.. I think its a nice system that keeps the player hitting buttons and timing spells/abilities to be sufficiently entertained while playing.  For some people Eq2 is too much to handle.. for those people theres always WoW and Aion..

 

Yep, that's it.  We gamers just can't handle the extreme difficulty of spamming 10-12 different hotkeys for every mob.  There is nothing difficult or tactical about having extra abilities to spam,   The fluid and timing of EQ2's combat just doesn't feel right, and I suspect most MMO gamers would agree with that since EQ2's subs can't get above 300k.  Because if EQ2 had great combat there would be no reason to play WoW or any other MMO instead.

Originally posted by ethion

Vanguard combat is in my opinion the best.  Soloing you have a mechanic where you have choices about how to play out your combat.  It uses more of the energy management wow and various chains and reactive abilities that make paying attention to combat a must and also tends to mix things up more so you don't do the same thing every time.  For grouping it has some interdependancies and the weakness system.  All in all Vanguard combat is the best.

I have to say I love Vanguard combat. It's a bit slow but what I like about it is that I have skills that I can utilize which don't always fall in the generic skill list.

I was once attacked by 3 mobs. I pretty much thought I was going to die (Dread Knight) and running away wasn't going to help me, so I used every skill I possibly could that gave me a fraction of health or essentially anything that could possibly help me survive. Was a pretty long fight but I actually came out with a sliver of health and victorious.

Love that game.

They were talking about updating the combat and combining alot of skills over a year or two ago, but so many people that play the game bitched about it, I think they decided not to change it.

Too bad, because it would have helped the game alot.

The thing is if you're going to redo combat and make it better then don't listen to the community because they're a bunch of annoying fanbois who don't know whats good for the game. However if you're going to do it and do a half hearted attempt like SWG and ruin it then no leave it how it is lol. Everyone knew SWG needed the CU and the NGE but it's a shame that instead of getting something that fixed the game they put them together in 5 mins without testing and broke the whole game lol.

Originally posted by Varny

Everyone knew SWG needed the CU and the NGE but it's a shame that instead of getting something that fixed the game they put them together in 5 mins without testing and broke the whole game lol.

Oh, stuff it. Everyone knew that SWG needed the Combat Rebalance that was in the works in early '05. What it very much did not need was the WoW-ification that some nitwit at the top of the SoE management decided to change the CURB into.

 I prefer EQ2's combat over WoW's by a long shot.

And, maybe more people would play EQ2 if they could..

You can't run EQ2 on a toaster. I contribute probably over half of WoW's subs/success to the fact that it will literally run on the worst of machines.