Originally posted by Adamantine

Err ... yes, where "some" = all. I think only raid trash mobs cant be bypassed with Stealth.

Invisibility is seen through by many mobs (like Undead, which need a special "invisibility to undead" spell instead). It doesnt slow you down though.

Stealth slows you down. On a ranger, anyway, I think Rogue can still move full speed. I dont know if Wolf Shaman is slowed down, or not. Those are the three classes that get Stealth in Vanguard (neither Bear nor Phoenix Shaman gets Stealth, though, so its more like 2 and one third classes).

 

P.s.: Oh, and Stealth can of course fail if you're too low level. And you shouldnt get too close to mobs with it (range dependency). And its really hard to level on a Ranger (havent tried neither Rogue nor Wolf Shaman, so I cant say about those, but I would assume Rogue is much easier to level).

There is a certain range where mobs will aggro. But its relatively easy to get skill gains, it doesnt matter what class you play that can stealth. In stealth mode you can creep near a mob and right when you see the blue exclaimation mark on top of its head, its letting you know that the mob can see you, but wont aggro. If you move closer to them then they will aggro. There is a certain range that you must stay in order to get skill gains without getting aggroed.

All I did to get gains was what I explained to you, and I went afk to go eat while still stealthed. 30 mins later I was maxxed out in hiding and sneaking. Also you can buy crafted jewelry and capes that gives you hide and sneak stats. There is also an armor set in Old Targonor that gives you sneak and hide stats. They drop off the various named bosses in the towers. The hardest by far to come by is the boots. I made a living selling the armor sets for 3.5pp back in the old days.

Of course! I haven't played for a long time, but one of your ability (critical shot?) does double damage or more damage when in stealth mode. Just mouse over your abilities and read the descriptions.

There are so many stats you can go off on crafting depending on what you want. Weapons that you craft is IMO always superior until you reach level 50 for the endgame weapons. Even at endgame, you can craft weapons thats about equal to raid gear, but yes the only thing is you have to raid for the materials.

Getting through lvl 51 - 55 is pure group based, if you try to solo your way through those levels it'll take forever. Just too much down time for killing 4 dot mobs for good exp and killing 3 dot mobs dont give enough to make a big impact.

Originally posted by Ganksinatra

It's awesome.....right up until you meet up with a cleric in the Abyss only 2 levels higher then you and your friends and he rapes all 5 of you in a few minutes. They may have changed that, but that ruined it for me. At the time I last played, there was no real guarunteed stuns or interupts...you could use a skill that had a CHANCE to do those things, but to be honest, they hardly ever did, leading to clerics healing themselves to full every couple of seconds, all while dropping their little lightning thingy that kills you. That alone was enough for me to say screw it and leave for another game.

ALL games have problems with balance as far as PvP goes, don't get me wrong, but when the guy that keeps everyone alive is almost unkillable unless you gang up on him, it kind of takes away from anyone NOT being a cleric, and there were a TON of them back then.

You're right there is a balance issue. Clerics who stacks HP manastones will last much longer than one with Magic Boost. But Obviously you havent seen a Sorceror killing clerics with 2 or 3 casts then. Every class has its advantages and weaknesses. I play on a private server (which I will not specify) I love playing the ranger class. But compare a ranger with any other class out there they have the least amount of HP, unless of course you stack HP manastones. But they have such a variety of skills available to combat the other classes its pretty easy to win. The only classes I have problems with are the Spiritmasters and Clerics. Only reason being rangers got 6-8 second silence skill compare to a sorc's 20 seconds to battle the clerics, you'll most likely run out of mana before the clerics do. And this is what really bugs me. Rangers have the focused evasion skill which will resist or avoid 1 magic spell or 1 attack against you (its a 7 second buff cast before you duel). Yet the Spiritmaster's instant cast fear spell overrides this buff, so by the time the fear wears off on you, you'll most likely get the AoE fear shriek spell casted on you or have about 1/4 of HP left to try and kill them.

Originally posted by Adamantine

Originally posted by csthao

[...] I think you'll end up liking the DIplomacy once you get the hang of it. [...]

Nope. Definitely not. I tried again and again and its just very extremely painfully boring.

I hate crafting too, but at least in the end I can CREATE THINGS. Thats a motivation.

I hate harvest as well, but it gives me ingredients to CREATE THINGS. Again a motivation.

Also, I can do crafting and harvesting without much thinking and keep chatting with people. Granted, there are some periods during crafting when you really need your concentration on it.

While: Diplomacy ? There are some benefits, like you actually get the lore of the game - but that is just not enough reason to go through all this pain and suffering. Was there ever be a more stupid idea than making a card game where the power of your cards define your chances ?

Diplomacy = Guild hall plots, faction rewards, regional buffs, and plays some major roles in dungeon raids.

Its a strategy game. Its a much better alternative to reading about the lore of places compared to doing quests. When people do quests there aren't even a lot of players that actually read through the text anymore. Its not handed to you. IMO its like doing EQ 1's epic quest lines, where you actually have to ask questions to be able to advance, but instead you're using cards to find out what kind of information you can get from the NPC.

A ranger IMO is the best solo class when they are outdoors.

If you can get the shaman phoenix mana regen buffs ahead of time before you venture out you're all set. Even with out them you're good, but with the bufs you can basically go at it non stop.

Once you get your first run speed buff and AE skill and buy a crafted bow with the mud slide effect (to slow movement speed), grab a few mobs 2 dotters for starters, just run at them and aggro them. Then all you have to do is for a forward side strafe motion going in a big circle and do your AE split arrow skill. If you can master that leveling up is quick and easy.

At level 45-50 All I ever did was go to Swamps of Rumug and kite every 3 and 4 dot mobs, pulling as much as 25 mobs at a time. All dps classes can do extreme amounts of damage, as long if you know how to cycle your skills. They have some hidden combo chains that you can develop as you get more skills. Back when I was still playing and raiding Rogues and Monks are usually on top of the dps list then rangers than sorcs. Although I did out dps some rogues and monks before but rarely. Too bad my old guild website has been taken down. They still had some old posts of DPS logs, but I never saved any of them. I'm sure some guilds out there still keep track of DPS output in their websites just gotta do a lil searching.

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Adamantine

 

Originally posted by Sovrath

As far as the starting area, the racical starting areas are very cool but they will have far less people than the isle so if this is your first time and you aren't one of those people who mind being alone for a bit, by all means try the isle.

Err, there is hardly any racial starter area that gets close to the nice story of Isle of Dawn.

There is absolutely nothing that stops you from starting on Isle of Dawn and doing your racial starter point afterwards, too. Just create a testing character to check out where your race starts - and there you go.

However, it doesnt work the other way around. Once you left Isle of Dawn - there is never a way back.

And only on Isle of Dawn you get an uber item that will help you with Adventuring, but especially A LOT with both Crafting and Diplo, until the end of the game. Also gives you a nice initial equipment, though you will fast outlevel it.

There is a way to get the same kind of item on a level 50 character, but its quite bothersome.

So yeah, there is NO good reason not to start on Isle of Dawn.

There is something that is very different on the original starter areas. It feels a bit more organic to me but also feels a bit "longer". Now, I haven't done every quest in every starter area AND I generally avoid quests if at all possible but I also play for my own specific reasons so not doing most of the quest is par for the course for my style of play.

There is very much a sense of "racial belonging" in the original starter areas. A sense that this starter space belongs to you and your race.

The trial Isle plops you down there with no sense of space and suddenly you are running around learning the ropes.

In any case, my thought is that some people might want to experience the world first hand as opposed to an area that is designed to funnel all players through it (not saying it's bad but there is more of a sense of community in the isle than the starter areas of the main world.). I know that I really like experiencing a world first hand as opposed to going through a very designed tutorial. Others might be the same way.

They would then go to the original starter areas, see that there are very few people and maybe even get frustrated.

However, looking over my post it appears I mispoke. I indicated "if this is your first time and you aren't one of those people who mind being alone for a bit, by all means try the isle."

But clearly that should read "try the mainland" as one won't be very alone on the isle. I'll have to change that.

If you're into the whole lore thing, I would definitely go with skipping the IoD and going to your home town. You'd be surprised at how overwhelming it can be. At one point, you're jsut doing some quests, then all of a sudden it drags you into the whole diplomacy and crafting thing. Which you can skip altogether, but all three spheres of leveling comes at you very quickly. I think you'll end up liking the DIplomacy once you get the hang of it. For me when a quest dragged me towards the Diplomacy system, I couldn't stop going at it.

I would highly recommend you to play one character in the IoD and then another in at racial town. When I first started up ( back when the game first released), every racial starting town was amazing. It'll give you a whole different and cooler experience than when you're in the IoD. The starting towns are what made this game really great. The history of each town is just amazing. Just think about how each great nation developed and how they fell like the romans and the greeks etc. Where as when you start in the IoD theres really no sense of reason why you're there other than the fact that it explains how to play the game. The only downside is that you're going to be stuck playing by yourself pretty much if you decide to choose a starting town. But there should be some thats kinda populated.

Make a new account

Maybe

I dont care about any updates, I just need more people in the game! I cant bring myself to play alone every single time I come back to this game. I've joined many so called "new player" guilds out there, even then you'll only see about 10-15 people logged in. I enjoy helping them out, but still its tough to advance your character when you're doing the lower level stuff and no one to play with to do the higher end stuff.

Even then the level grind from 51 to 55 is insanely tough. Definitely need a group to level up since the content for those levels are tackling some serious hard hitting mobs. Killing lvl 51+ 3 dot mobs doesnt give you enough exp to go solo besides you dont get to upgrade your gear killing entrance mobs and the quests and good rewards you want to do are inside Magi Hold and Hilsbury Manor.

At this point in time, I think even the high level players are burnt out on running the same daily quests over and over again in the Shores of Darkness ( I think thats what it was, the Kamelott Island place) you'll barely find people to even run those now days.

If enough players are playing I'll consider it. And I dont mean 100-200 people during prime time and weekends either. At least 1000 or more, the way it was back in the day.

He can still have it set at balanced and messed around with sliders. Take out shadows, grass, LoD on trees, clipping plane, the fog system, the clouds, the water, etc etc.

People gotta make some compromises, if they want to play a game smoothly.

Everything worked fine for me until I switched from wireless network card to USB. Now I wished I never gave my brother my old card.

Originally posted by eddieg50

After Hours he he, After hours is dead long live After hours

That guild only lasted for about 1 or 2 months before the server merge :(

Originally posted by sebbonx

I made 63 in 6 days played, in the old days, when it was "hard", the game was a joke and is more of one today. Instancing raids keeps people happy and provides raid targets for everyone, not just the lifeless dweebs. Now no one plays EQ, everyone plays WoW; thats one of the major reasons.

I call BS WoW "requires" rading, it does not and certainly less than EQ1 where gear is more important.

Whats your point? People made max level in 24 hours or less in WoW.

Stick to playing WoW, and we'll stick to playing EQ.

I can definitely agree with you that WoW is less gear dependant, do you know why? Because you cant raid if you dont have a certain amount of achievements, People will know how far you've progressed and just deny you any chance of raiding. Look at how 10 / 24 man raids are going. You basically dont need a guild anymore, find some random PuG raid. That's a super great way to build some real community aint it?

Originally posted by sebbonx

Try it with a Warrior and come back and tell us how great it is to play with inferior gear, if you can get groups. You sure can't solo. Velious will open a whole great divide between a raid geared warrior and group and end the warriors playability if not a raider.

I let you in on a lil secret. People who play warriors also multi box. No one in their right mind solos in this game anymore especially when you're a warrior. Thurgadin Armor (220 hp) armor pieces drops in Kael vs Skyshrine (335 hp) or Kael Armor (310 hp) armor drops in Temple Veeshan, you're losing only about 115 / 90 hp respectively. Give me 1 non raid target mob that a group of non raid geared can't do with the given set. The time an effort raiding for Kael / Skyshrine gear AND fighting for raid boss kills against other guilds is going to be over the top. The only thing I can see a big difference in comparison to raid gear is the weapons and spells. But when we're looking at raid geared groups killing non raid targets vs non raid geared killing non raid targets, the only difference is being able to kill faster. I would say 3-5 mins faster IMO.

My point is, you don't need to have raid gear to have fun as I have said in my previous post. You sure are sacrificing a whole lot of time to get that raid gear though. A warrior's playability just really depends on your experience and ingenuity. People are good at it or they aren't. But I sure as hell can bet you that a warrior using Thurgadin armor compared to Skyshrine or Kael armor can tank just fine, they arent sacrificing a whole lot of HP, and like I said the only thing raiding can get ahead on is basically the weapons with higher damage / delay ratio.

Originally posted by Heltern

There is no problem with raids.

Thats what I hear here; that and other BS. They could INSTANCE raids, but no, but that would "ruin" the game. The no instancing is one of many problems that drove EQ1s population into the toilet.

You're wrong and right, raiding ruined what was once a great game to play. It was good how they kept it "no instancing" because this should be an eye opening realization to people that you don't need end gear to do fun things. People are all too gear dependant now. I can do just about everything anyone else can with using LGuk and Sol B gear where as they are using Fear and Hate gear. This is what made the game fun, but as expansions open up the need and greed of gear became more apparent. That doesn't mean you cant have fun playing the game without having the top of the line stuff.

It always has been first come first serve. I never really had any problems playing it the way it was back in the old days. On my server, the top guilds usually took turns running the planes, if people can do that on the 2 TLP servers the GMs would never have to get invovled. People just need to stop being greedy.

Just wondering why they never thought about making froglok rangers, I think they would be a great addition and would allow more variety to being able to play the ranger class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2sUY2mRtf4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6-a8MyqwgY

Monster Hunter Frontier MMO it looks very promising!

I dont like his analogy either. So lets just say someone who works 4-6 hours a day compared to someone who works 8-10 hours a day. If that person who worked less time produced / processed / or basically did the same amount of work or more compared to someone who did 8-10 hours, I would be damn pissed if I didnt get paid as much if not more than the other people.

I dont know how people tend to spend their time in MMO's they play, but if I know that I have only 4 hours a day to play then I'd be damn sure to put that time to use. Raids generally doesnt take more than 1 to 2 hours now days. Even a casual player can invest enough time to do 1 raid a day and then spend the rest of the time doing something else.