Being extremely burnt out, i've decided to give Vanguard another chance. Grabbed the trial and the game felt extremely good, i loved the open dungeons, the diplomacy, crafting, the sophisticated and complicated way the things are. I've enjoyed the massive options when chosing gear and weapons, the loot... well everything on the IoD was awesome.

My question is, should i invest time and money in VG, based only on the IoD experience? Will the game maintain its quality after the Isle of Dawn?

I'm asking this because i've got a bad experience EQ2 some time ago, i've started in the "new" zone (i believe it was some lizardmen class they've added at the time) and everything was great, polished, awesome quests, nice loot, lots of crafting materials and recipes... then i've got past that nubi area and the game just went bad... i've used the starting zone lvl5-10 gear up to lvl 20 as it was better than what i found, the quests were more of a chore, sending me over whole continents, had to kill acres of placeholders to finish some quests and things like that. Don't get me wrong, i love complexity but i want it to have a meaning and to offer some sense of progression.

First after the trial you have three choices, I would suggest you start with Veskal's Exchange on the island of Thestra because it's kind of like the main players hub and a major gathering point. Many make this there home from level 11 to max level. It has trainers, banks and auctions. From here you can rift anyplace during your stay in Vanguard. Even if you quest on other islands it's just a good place to call home. It's also the home of the Spider cave, a small dungeon that can be done around level 11 with a very small group to get your hands wet, and to get used to playing with a group.

Asylum is another small group dungeon located in Cliftside Ruins on the island of Kojan for around level 12 and can be done with two or more players. You get to fight crazy people, so it's a little different change of pace and fun. Not many quest for this and the only quest giver I know of is located just before entering the Asylum.

Level 16 is an exciting time for the Vanguard players. You can began the Hunters league quest, and do one of the more popular dungeons called Khegor's End.

Hunters league quest line - I believe when SOE took over Vanguard they added this quest chain to allow players a chance to get better armor to make soloing easer. EVERYONE DOES IT. I think you can start it around level 16 ( maybe someone can help me with that ). The quest giver is located at a popular quest hub called Skrilien Point, and is located next to the Rift stone when you arrive in the zone. He will not give you the quest until you are the right level. Each quest in the chain will give you a good peace of armor. And the quest line last into the low 20's. Most all will need a small group, but if you hang around the quest givers you can pick up others, and make friends along the way. REMEMBER TO MAKE AND ADD FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY.

Khegor's End - It's possibly the most popular low level Dungeon in Vanguard. and can be started around level 13 or so, however I would suggest starting around level 15. This is a very deep dungeon that requires a full group. I say this because dungeons in Vanguard are a little strange. They most all start off easy and get almost impossible deep in. So bring a few level 19's with you and a good healer.

Khegor's End is located near the Village of Three Rivers, and All the quest are given on a Dam near the dungeon called Themnwars Shield ( about 10 quest ). I would suggest locating the entrance of Khegor's End and find the quest givers to get an idea of the area. Then use the Social panel and Spam players to invite them to group. Remember spamming in open chat NEVER WORKS in Vanguard or any other mmo. Don't worry someone in a full group will know the dungeon well to take over. BUT know enough to help others to locate the area for the quest and dungeon. Do some pre intel. and use some off web sites to do a little research. Believe me vet and noobs are eager to group and all welcome anyone that will take the initiative to get groups.....REMEMBER TO MAKE AND ADD FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY. Here is some help :

http://www.vanguardmmorpg.com/vanguard_dungeon_finder.php

I can go on and on about Dungeons in Vanguard. Each are hard, deep and un forgiving ( this game can be hard core ) But most important REMEMBER TO MAKE AND ADD FRIENDS ALONG THE WAY.

Don't rely on Guilds. There are just too many and chances are none of them have a low level player base to yield others of your level. Even the ones that say Noob friendly. WORK OFF A FRIENDS LIST !

Use the Social panel to it's max potential. Search for level and classes. Then spam others, be nice AND ASK IF YOU CAN COME AND HELP THEM WITH THERE STUFF. Dont expect them to come to you. Go to them and make a friend. Before you know it you will have 20 friends on your friends list, Vets and noobs. Everyone is looking or friends it's a duo or more game.

IOD has nothing on the main lands so much better looking.. I spent ages not leaving iod eventually I did and wished I had of done long time ago..

I completed the shadowhound mount quest not long ago and it was 10 parts or so of various quests with must of been about 1500 mob kills of various types as you go through it.. was very good.. Thinking of doing the unicorn mount quest line now also as that is supposed to be longer than the shadowhound quest line.

some pics :D no idea about sizing.. what a silly img layout.. right click view image will work anyhow.. :D

{mod edit - resized images to fit}

Ive made above post about two months ago ( post #2 ). Since then I new starter Guild poped up called Twylighte Song and it really is a good helpful Guild, search them out.

Now as you prob. know this game has a low population. HOWEVER everyone is looking for friends to play with in this game unlike EQ2 ( that game really sucks bad for community ).

Understand that you have to do a little work to find friends, like all mmos there not just handed to you. People are intimitaded when you ask them to do your stuff.  Instead DO THERE STUFF !....Even if it means not getting there quest, play with them, make a friend, click with them. Then you will have a friend. Do this and you will have a full friends list within a week.  

imo the group content in vangaurd is the best available pre-endgame .. hands down .. by at least 10 billion light years. The problem (sometimes) is finding people to group with.

the solo content is also good. not amazing, not quite what Isle offers, but it is good.

if all you want to do is solo .. it's harder to answer the question given the limited info you provide about what you like and dislike.

if you want to group a lot you will have fun .. but not always when you want to :) though at least through 30-35 you can usually find a group for most things. but it can be hit / miss as well.

depending on how much $15 dollars is to you, i find vanguard well worth a shot for $15.

Vanguard doesnt even get good till you get off the ISle imo ... Game gets better and better .. The Aisle imo is a bad starter area .. Telon is much better and immersive..

As to your question whether it will maintain its quality after IoD, it will to some extent.  The diplomacy and crafting will continue much the same with lots of quest lines to keep you busy.  The adventure quests and loot may change depending on your gaming style.  If you are wanting to mainly solo, quests will dry up in the early 20's and they begin to get more difficult.  Many quests tagged solo will not be soloable at all.  But if you are looking to do much grouping, group quests are plentiful.  Much of your gear will have to come from group quests, rather than the solo quests you enjoyed on IoD.

Vanguard is a great game but it really boils down to how much grouping you are willing to do.  At mid level it becomes heavily group focused.  If you don't mind grinding mobs the old EQ1 way, you can solo your way through but you won't be getting the great gear as you did on IoD.

Wow thanks a lot for all your answers! Proves again that the VG community is great, both ingame and outside the game. Even only for that i think the game's worth a shot. Got the "nice people" feeling from back in the days when i was playing EQ and Anarchy Online, and yea it feels good... So far, even on the Isle, everyone got a nice word, people buff you, wait for each other, go together etc. Even applied to a guild, had a real "interview" before being accepted, to find out that trial accounts arent allowed that feature, oh well :), didnt know.

Grouping i enjoy. In fact i am kind of a "group grinder", i love to just go to one spot, find people, kill stuff again and again, chat etc. If that spot is an instance with bosses and other sutff, even better. I did group even on IoD, for that Temple place, and i've enjoyed it a lot, even if it went so fast i didnt have the chance to see what is really going on. Gonna give it a shot and hopefully i'll find home here, tired of jumping between "2 weeks and one path till max level" games, i want something to hold me for a few months at least.

Originally posted by simmihi

Wow thanks a lot for all your answers! Proves again that the VG community is great, both ingame and outside the game. Even only for that i think the game's worth a shot. Got the "nice people" feeling from back in the days when i was playing EQ and Anarchy Online, and yea it feels good... So far, even on the Isle, everyone got a nice word, people buff you, wait for each other, go together etc. Even applied to a guild, had a real "interview" before being accepted, to find out that trial accounts arent allowed that feature, oh well :), didnt know.

Grouping i enjoy. In fact i am kind of a "group grinder", i love to just go to one spot, find people, kill stuff again and again, chat etc. If that spot is an instance with bosses and other sutff, even better. I did group even on IoD, for that Temple place, and i've enjoyed it a lot, even if it went so fast i didnt have the chance to see what is really going on. Gonna give it a shot and hopefully i'll find home here, tired of jumping between "2 weeks and one path till max level" games, i want something to hold me for a few months at least.

 I only play MMO's to group only.

Even if you don't know Vanguard well, use third party web sites to locate dungeons, find the quest givers ( set everything up ) then use the social panel to find players and ask them to come. In every case someone know the game well to lead.

Make friends as you do dungeons. Before you know it you will be getting tells from your friends before the game even loads up, even Vets, because they don't even know how to make friends.

Concern yourself with there stuff be outgoing, not your own agenda.

It's bull crap about the low population. You just have to know how to find friends, Spamming in open world does not work, I have to stress this !

Originally posted by page

It's bull crap about the low population. You just have to know how to find friends, Spamming in open world does not work, I have to stress this !

Well the LFG tool seems good enough, no need to shout in open world (i hate people who do that) it's not my style anyway (more of a shy player tbh). Yes i'll have to "learn" the game, places and all, but that's actually what i find fun.

Also, being able to do things at my own speed is a great plus. I've quit WoW a year and a half ago, came back  5 months after Cataclysm release (why? i dunno, boredom i guess), my old guild aswell as any other guild on the server were doing the newest "endgame content", no one was doing the "gearing up" raids for that content so i was practically left out of the game. Hopefully that's not the case here, i've heard that the best content is in the 1-50 and people roll tons of alts so, all seems great :)

I'm planning to give this game a serious go this week. I downloaded the trial 2 times in the past but I just couldn't look past the fact that there was no development. I'm going to forget about that this time around and just enojy the game. I see post after post of positive feedback about Vanguard on this website so I think its about time I dive in.

Unfortionately my g/f plays RIFT with me so I'll to tell her I'm moving onto something new and unique. I'm bored sick of the themepark crap everyone plays (AoC..Aion..WAR...RIFT...) and I own them all and still continue to buy MMOs even though I know I'll be bored of it in a month. Even GW2 and TOR I have no interest in, although I do have my eyes on Archeage.

I get the feeling I may be sticking with vanguard for along while if its as good as I hear. I'm sure I'll miss pvp somewhat but I'm at that age where I have no interest in competing with kiddies who play 8hours day. I may have officially turned into a carebear overnight lol

As someone who has been there also, "bored sick of the themepark crap everyone plays (AoC.. Aion.. WAR... RIFT...) and I own them all and still continue to buy MMOs even though I know I'll be bored of it in a month", my advice is to take a break for a week or two, and then jump into Vanguard.

I did once exactly what you're planning, and it proved to be wrong. Coming from a polished theme park (whatever it was at the time), i didnt give Vanguard the chance it really deserves. Played for like 1 hour, then instantly i've found "bad things": animations seemed clunky, game seemed to lack guidance, i found the quest tracker not efficient enough, didnt autoroute me exactly to the X,Y coordinates - long story short, i was in the easy-themepark-everything handed to you on a silver platter mindset. Made me delete the game. If you will find yourself in this position, just take a break from gaming, You'll find Vanguard extremely fun and refreshing afterwards

Now i'm playing for like 4 days, brought 3 chars to lvl 10 on the nub island, seems i cant get enough of it, even if it's the same area, same quests, same mobs on the isle, everytime i find something new, and every class is different from the other (at least what i've played so far). Also, the game is complicated, crafting minigames, unique diplomacy minigame, 6 different equipment sets (for fighting, crafting, harvesting, diplomacy, riding, appearance) plus what i rarely find in games nowadays, manual distribution of stat points. All this horizontal development keeps the player having that sense of accomplishment, everything you do means something, even if just a little bit. Also, being complex means the game suits a more mature community - i've read the guild adds, there was some guild saying "we're looking for people over 30", i remember adds in WoW saying "we're a mature guild so ya needz to be 15+ or act mature".

Hope it helps.

I didn't like the IoD personally, your restricted to a single sector of the entire two islands and there is only 1 fairly easy dungeon. It's worth going through though because the gear you get there is a lot better than what you would get on the mainland at low levels.

The biggest con about the main lands is the lack of players. Between 3 massive continents and several areas someone can go to level, it's not often you will come across other players, even rarer you come across someone your level you can join up with. 

Other than that though, the mainland has much more to offer than the IoD.

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

I didn't like the IoD personally, your restricted to a single sector of the entire two islands and there is only 1 fairly easy dungeon. It's worth going through though because the gear you get there is a lot better than what you would get on the mainland at low levels.

The biggest con about the main lands is the lack of players. Between 3 massive continents and several areas someone can go to level, it's not often you will come across other players, even rarer you come across someone your level you can join up with. 

Other than that though, the mainland has much more to offer than the IoD.

I think the reason I could never get into Vanguard was because I've never left IOD. Hopefully that will change here soon as I'm currently giving the trial a serious go.

One question. Am I better going a healer type class because the population is low?  I'm currently playing DK but I'm considering re-rolling so its easier to find groups. I'm assuming tanks are needed as well but I think DK the worst tank of the three? 

Tanks are also much needed in game at present...

Population is steadily increasing and you find a lot of healers and dps now...but some lower to middle level dungeon groups really find it difficult to find a tank ....DK should be fine..at least much better than my warrior since DK can heal themselves at higher level ..it makes them easier for them to solo..

Originally posted by sri_rishabh

Tanks are also much needed in game at present...

Population is steadily increasing and you find a lot of healers and dps now...but some lower to middle level dungeon groups really find it difficult to find a tank ....DK should be fine..at least much better than my warrior since DK can heal themselves at higher level ..it makes them easier for them to solo..

 I stopped playing Vanguard about a month ago because I'm taking the summer off from gaming.

However I used to spend a lot of time studying the player base using the social panel.  I spent many months studying this along with all levels.

Here are my findings :

30 % DPS

30 % Casters

30 % Healers

10 % Tanks, sometimes even less

Originally posted by Ethian

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

I didn't like the IoD personally, your restricted to a single sector of the entire two islands and there is only 1 fairly easy dungeon. It's worth going through though because the gear you get there is a lot better than what you would get on the mainland at low levels.

The biggest con about the main lands is the lack of players. Between 3 massive continents and several areas someone can go to level, it's not often you will come across other players, even rarer you come across someone your level you can join up with. 

Other than that though, the mainland has much more to offer than the IoD.

I think the reason I could never get into Vanguard was because I've never left IOD. Hopefully that will change here soon as I'm currently giving the trial a serious go.

 

One question. Am I better going a healer type class because the population is low?  I'm currently playing DK but I'm considering re-rolling so its easier to find groups. I'm assuming tanks are needed as well but I think DK the worst tank of the three? 

Dread Knights are arguably the best soloers of the 3 tanks, once they get their AE lifetap. Paladins are good for solo as well, but up against a bunch of adds their heals are prone to interruption, which is where DK's have an edge. Both make great group tanks due to heavy armor/high hitpoints and rescue skills.

If you don't want to play a tank though, I would definently recommend the Disciple class. They're the best soloer's in the game, and can naturally take the healer role in a group. Assuming you don't have a proper tank in the group, they can probably make do as one with their instant self heals/stance. 

Originally posted by page

Originally posted by sri_rishabh

Tanks are also much needed in game at present...

Population is steadily increasing and you find a lot of healers and dps now...but some lower to middle level dungeon groups really find it difficult to find a tank ....DK should be fine..at least much better than my warrior since DK can heal themselves at higher level ..it makes them easier for them to solo..

 I stopped playing Vanguard about a month ago because I'm taking the summer off from gaming.

However I used to spend a lot of time studying the player base using the social panel.  I spent many months studying this along with all levels.

 

Here are my findings :

30 % DPS

30 % Casters

30 % Healers

10 % Tanks, sometimes even less

 It's like that in a lot of MMO's tho. SImply because tanks are not that easy to play and the ones that solo well, like Paladins have horrible DPS, so they level really slow. So people get bored and give up on it.

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

Originally posted by Ethian

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

I didn't like the IoD personally, your restricted to a single sector of the entire two islands and there is only 1 fairly easy dungeon. It's worth going through though because the gear you get there is a lot better than what you would get on the mainland at low levels.

The biggest con about the main lands is the lack of players. Between 3 massive continents and several areas someone can go to level, it's not often you will come across other players, even rarer you come across someone your level you can join up with. 

Other than that though, the mainland has much more to offer than the IoD.

I think the reason I could never get into Vanguard was because I've never left IOD. Hopefully that will change here soon as I'm currently giving the trial a serious go.

 

One question. Am I better going a healer type class because the population is low?  I'm currently playing DK but I'm considering re-rolling so its easier to find groups. I'm assuming tanks are needed as well but I think DK the worst tank of the three? 

Dread Knights are arguably the best soloers of the 3 tanks, once they get their AE lifetap. Paladins are good for solo as well, but up against a bunch of adds their heals are prone to interruption, which is where DK's have an edge. Both make great group tanks due to heavy armor/high hitpoints and rescue skills.

If you don't want to play a tank though, I would definently recommend the Disciple class. They're the best soloer's in the game, and can naturally take the healer role in a group. Assuming you don't have a proper tank in the group, they can probably make do as one with their instant self heals/stance. 

 In later levels is there a class can do both healing or tanking depending on what the group needs? I'm assuming a healer type class will hold much better against bosses then a tank class no?

I'm playing DK currently but I'm considering re-rolling a healer (cleric or disciple) so I can effectively go on dungeon boss hunts and find groups easy enough. I'm assuming as a tank class such as DK or Pally I'll always be looking for a healer if I hope to run dungeons.

Originally posted by simmihi

Being extremely burnt out, i've decided to give Vanguard another chance. Grabbed the trial and the game felt extremely good, i loved the open dungeons, the diplomacy, crafting, the sophisticated and complicated way the things are. I've enjoyed the massive options when chosing gear and weapons, the loot... well everything on the IoD was awesome.

 

My question is, should i invest time and money in VG, based only on the IoD experience? Will the game maintain its quality after the Isle of Dawn?

 

I'm asking this because i've got a bad experience EQ2 some time ago, i've started in the "new" zone (i believe it was some lizardmen class they've added at the time) and everything was great, polished, awesome quests, nice loot, lots of crafting materials and recipes... then i've got past that nubi area and the game just went bad... i've used the starting zone lvl5-10 gear up to lvl 20 as it was better than what i found, the quests were more of a chore, sending me over whole continents, had to kill acres of placeholders to finish some quests and things like that. Don't get me wrong, i love complexity but i want it to have a meaning and to offer some sense of progression.

I far prefer the mainland to the Isle of Dawn. The game, after the trial, becomes so massive and beautiful it is hard not to get into the world. For you to truly get a sense of what Vanguard is, you will have to leave the Isle of Dawn. The scale and artistic beauty are unprecedented.