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Races of EQII: The Good
MMORPG.com EverQuest II Correspondent Vernon Reich writes this overview of the races available in SOE's EverQuest II. In this part of his article, Vernon looks at the Good aligned races.
With a new expansion freshly out of the gate, it's time to take a fresh look at this MMO and it's content to see if it's time to join it, or maybe re subscribe. With that in mind, here is one of several upcoming articles reviewing the many parts of EQ2.
This is part one of a three part guide to EQ2's races, broken down by alignment. This guide should give you a clear idea of what you want to play and what they can do.
First off, don't worry even a little bit about racial stat modifiers. The class-specific equipment you gain as you play more then compensates you for whatever minor deficiencies you have in the first few levels due to your race, so worrying too much about picking a bad race for a class shouldn't be a concern. Your real decision should be, do I like the race enough to keep looking at its back side for eighty levels? If the answer is no, don't pick it! Having said that though, there are some differences that may affect your decision beyond, 'will I look awesome in end-game gear?'
Secondly, a race in EQ2 is more then it's starting stats. Racial Traditions are a unique list of powers associated with a particular race that you can choose from every ten levels, i.e. 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, up to 80th, the level cap.
All the good races start on either the Isle of Refuge, the newbie-land for the good guys, or Greater Feydark, near Kelethin.
On the Isle, there are three collection quests you can complete, and plenty of content to level you up to sixth without much work. If your too jaded for 'tutorial island', you can leave at any time by taking the ship to your mainland. The trip will land dwarves in Greystone Yard, Halflings in The Baubleshire, Froglocks and High Elves in Castleview Hamlet, and Wood Evles in The Willow Wood. Each zone has a distinctive flavor, and the quests in each can help get into the head of your chosen race. Dwarves, High Elves, and Wood Elves can opt to start in Kelethin, along with the Fae, who have to. Kelethin is a great spot for any of those races and, while not giving as good of a low level racial role flavor, lead to plotlines and areas directly relating to those races' history and background.
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Dwarves are the stout protectors of justice and mead, and with that in mind have been given "stumpy's tonic", a strong alcoholic beverage that restores endurance/mana at a good pace and gives you a swirling spinning drunken view for a bit, so my advice is to use it in moderation. This racial trait will scale as you level to remain useful, like many other combat abilities. They also have Ultravision, a form of nightvision that turns the view to a high-contrast purple. Lastly, 'mining expertise' a one second reduction that automatically applies to mining attempts. Like all EQ2 races, they also gain more ability choices, called traditions, every ten levels. Dwarven traditions are mostly centered around survivability, combat or metal crafting. Lastly, Dwarves either start in Qeynos or Kelethin, so you can enjoy the newer content while sticking with an 'old school' race.
Dwarven Racial Traditions
- Fury of Blades: A low damage area affect melee attack, usable once every few minutes. Scales with level.
- Dwarven Fortitude: Adds 5 points to Stamina.
- Deffender of Kaladim: Adds 5 to defense skill.
- Rush Into Battle: Increases sprint speed by 10, reduces cost to sprint by 25% power.
- Body By Butcherblock: Buff usable every 10 mintues, raises strength and out of combat health regeneration.
- Short but Strong: Increases max health by 3% permanently.
- Strong Heart: Raises mitigation versus disease damage by 3 points.
- Aggressive Strike: Increases Heal crit chance by 2%, and the Ministration skill by 5 points.
- Master of the Tumpy Tonic: Increases Artistry skill by 5 points.
- Weapon Forger: Raises success chance of Weaponsmithing by 5%.
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Fae are the original inhabitants of Kelethin, playable with the Echoes of Faydwer expansion. Small and butterfly winged, the Fae start with a short duration speed boost that is quite powerful, slow fall, which allows them to safely glide down any distance, and infravision an ability that allows you to see the warm glow of a body against a colder blue background. Their racial traditions are pretty diverse, and reflect their otherworldly nature. They can only start in Kelethin, which can make low-level teaming with your human friend a pain.
Fae Racial Traditions
- Escaping Dive: Decreases threat from an aggroed mob, teleports fae to a random spot in 10 meters, only works in combat.
- Fae Fire: Low damage AoE damage over time effect centered on the fae, scales with level.
- Aerial Dodging: Increases ranged and melee crit chances by 1% and raises defense by 5 points.
- Magic of the Fae: Increases max power of caster by 3%.
- Glide: The Fae can jump farther and glide longer, doesn't work while mounted.
- Toxic Protection: Increases mitigation versus poison by 3 points.
- Fae Flight: Increases movement speed in and out of combat by 5%, stacks with magical effects, but not mounts.
- Fae Dexterity: Raises agility by 5 points.
- Magical Teachings: Raises Scribing skill by 5 points.
- Forest Knowledge: Raises Fletching skill by 5 points.
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Froglocks are natural born Paladin's, honorable and chivalrous to a fault. A Froglock's starting abilities showcase their amphibious nature, allowing them to breathe underwater, see without the water distorting their vision, and walking at a normal pace on the bottom of any sea bed, river bed, or lake bed you can find. All of these starting abilities are very handy when getting those quests to find who knows what at the bottom of any water way. Sadly, the Fae don't allow other short races to start in Kelethin, so your stuck in Qeynos.
Froglock Racial Traditions
- Marr's Glorious Blade: A low damage AoE melee attack, scales with level.
- Natural Acrobat: Raises Agility by 5 points.
- Astounding Leap: Reduces aggro from an attacking mob, randomly teleports user somewhere within 10 meters.
- Soft Landing: Reduces falling damage by 25%.
- Crusaders Respite: Buff usable every 10 minutes, raises strength and out of combat health regeneration.
- Spontaneous Metamorphosis: Raises health by 3%.
- Cold Blooded: Raises mitigation versus all elemental damage by 2 points.
- Valor in Battle: Raises heal crit chance by 2%, raises ministration skill by 5 points.
- Fervor of Marr: Lowers power cost of metal working skills by 10%.
- Zealotry of Marr: Increases success chance when weaponsmithing by 5%.
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Halflings are good natured, but mischievous, loving food only slightly more then practical jokes, and because of this their starting abilities revolve around eating. Halflings are always prepared with a pie they can summon whenever they need to fill an empty food slot, and they also get an increase of 25% to their food duration. Halflings also have Infravision which is the only ability not associated with food, but handy none the less. Like some of the other races, Halflings can only start in their home city which is the shire in Qeynos.
Halfling Racial Traditions
- Mischevious Strike: A melee attack that debuffs the targets crushing, piercing, and slashing skill by a small amount, scales with level.
- Wisdom of Rivervale: Raises Wisdom by 5 points.
- Protection of the Jum Jum: A short duration ward that protects against 15 points of damage.
- Poison Expertise: Poisons used can trigger 25% more times.
- Light on Feet: Buff usable every 10 minutes, raises agility and out of combat health regeneration.
- Jum Jum Regimen: Raises health by 3%.
- Rivervales Protection: Raises mitigation versus mental damage by 3 points.
- Vale Protector: If a Fighter or Scout, raises melee crit chance by 2% and piercing skill by 5 points.
- Pants Patcher: Lowers power cost of tailoring skill by 10%.
- Niami's Tutelage: Increases percent chance of provisioning skill checks by 5%.
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High Elves are one of the wisest and most magically gifted races in Norath. Their Fae ancestry allows them to safe fall from any distance (but this has to be toggled on), and their long lives gives them a reduced cost in power while crafting. The advanced traditions available to them focus largely around spell casting and crafting. High Elves can start in Either Qeynos or Kelethin, since Feydwer in their ancestral home.
High Elf Racial Traditions
- Fury of Felwithe: Ranged AoE fire attack, scales with level.
- Elven Wisdom: Reaises wisdom by 5 points.
- Graceful Movements: Raises Defense and Parry skills by 5 points.
- Harmonious Mind: Buff usable evry ten minutes, raises wisdom and out of combat power regeneration.
- Connoisseur of Fine Wines: Increases the duration of Drinks by 25%.
- Arcane Knowledge: Increases max power by 3%.
- Tenet of Takish'Hiz: Raises mitigation versus magic damage by 6 points.
- Training of the Koada'Dal: Increases damaging spell crit chance by 3%, and raises Disruption skill by 5 points.
- Esoteric Study: raises Scribing skill by 5 points.
- Gilding of Felwithe: Increases Artificing skill by 5 points.
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Wood Elves have a special bond with nature. Because of this, they have a natural "camouflage" that allows them to be invisible for a short duration, even within the cities. Being an expert in all things botanical they get a one second reduction in gathering time when foraging, which can really help speed things up when your searching for that one rare harvesting drop (i.e. rough coral, yarrow, and severed alder) to name a few. Like many other races, they receive Infravision. They have a fair selection of racial traditions for casting or melee once they level, and can start in either one of the good aligned cities, Kelethin or Qeynos.
Wood Elf racial Traditions
- Forest Fire: Ranged AoE fire attack, scales with level.
- Wisdom of the Faydark: Raises wisdom by 5 points.
- Light Footed: Reduces Slow effects by 25%.
- Natural Recovery: Buff usable every ten minutes, raises stamina and out of combat power regeneration.
- Elvish Spirits: Increases the duration of drinks by 25%.
- Vitality of the Fier'Dal: Increases max power by 3%.
- Shield of Nature: Raises mitigation versus disease damage by 3 points.
- Faydark's Champion: Increases ranged crit chance by 2% and ranged skill by 5 points.
- Gift of the Faydark: Reduces woodworking power costs by 10%.
- Faydwer Fashions: Increases tailoring success chance by 5%.
The alternate models (which EVERYONE uses) look much better than the old ones that Jon Wood Shows here. Keep in mind the ones that Jon wood reviewed NOBODY AT ALL uses anymore... /sigh /ignore jonwood.
Well, as hurt as I am about being fake /ignored... I will look into the model images... but I didn't actually write the article. Not that I mind the slander but it's just kinda sad.
You are quite wrong in your assertation that everyone uses the Soga models. Thanks for speaking for the whole subscription base without asking us all first.
You are an idiot. no one I know uses those Anime looking ugly assed models...
There is no good from this expansion. it's not new, exciting or award wining. It's rehashed, reused content from EQ2 and reused concept from EQ1. SOE has once again suckered it's fanboi base into buying nothing more than old content under a bright and shiny paint job...How many times are you fanboyz going to pay money for the same lame crap over and over...?
I'm not a huge fan of the alternate models either. But then, I can't stand anime either. I know it's a dead horse but I think the SOGA models were just an (failed) attempt to attract the kiddies now that a huge portion of their player base has moved on to bigger and better things.
I've always liked this game. In fact, it is one of my favorite MMOs to date. However, I've read the feature list of the new expansion. I'm sad to say that this will be the first EQ2 expansion that I won't be buying.
EQ2 is a dying game, no matter what SOE is trying to tell it's players. Literally hundreds of thousands of players have deserted them since release and it's loyal customer base has dwindled down to the point I can't see how they are making much in the way of profit. Hence things like LoN, a not so clandestine RMT system was introduced, no truly new content is being developed, and there is zero advertising budget. A friend of mine traveled to 6 stores to try to find copies of this new expansion. Now we live in a major city and stores like Best Buy ordered 2 copies per store? Their shelves were half full of the WoW expansion. Each store ordered 100 copies and most stores had sold at least half by that afternoon...3 of the store clerks didn't even realize that EQ2 was still in existence!
SOE is ripping their customers off. Reselling old, used content and concepts as if they were new. They should hang their heads in digusting shame. The sad part is, these SOE Fanboiz will continue to buy the expansions...And SOE will continue to treat their customers like $hit until enough quit the game...by then it will be too late...actually, it already is too late..EQ2 is doomed.
no game will last forever, but EQ I is still alive and kicking. EQII is not going away anytime soon. Heck, Ultima online is still going. I plan on the RMT server. The population is healthy.
Sure WOW won the numbers game by a large margin, but so what. A sucessful EQII expansion sells like 100,000 copies. This is a tiny fraction of wow.
As an EQII player, I'm ok with that. The game is imperfect, but I like where the game is going and the pace that it is moving.
There is one major difference between the makers of most MMOs and SOE. Sony Corporation is a publicly held and traded company. That means they have stock holders and a board of directors who's job it is to make sure ALL Sony products are profitable. Stockholders won't tolerate a company that has products that lose money, and especially one that loses market share to competition. Once EQ2 becomes non profitable and the board of directors gets an earful from the stock holders (and SOE has to report it's profit and loss annually to Sony Corporate and they in turn have to make it public) SOE may not have a choice but to pull the plug on EQ2.
As far as EQ1 goes, it has a much larger population than EQ2 does and EQ1 is pushing 10 years old...that says alot for it's staying power, but it also speaks to the failure of EQ2.
wrong. by "everyone" you must be talking about the anime fans? well believe it or not, a lot of us dont like that silly anime stuff. I know many people that dont like or use those models.
I much prefer the orginal models.
Finbar,
You seriously need to speak only for yourself so you don't look ignorant.
There are a FAR CRY more people who prefer the original models over the anerexic, smooshed face, no customization having SOGA models. Don't believe me? A trip to the Official forums in the Look and Feel board will back up *my* claim. The only thing I've prefer on SOGA models is the hair and the Dark Elf ears. But that's not enough to get me to use them.
So Stradden, please don't ruin your write up by switching to SOGA models.
Originally posted by Finbar
The alternate models (which EVERYONE uses) look much better than the old ones that Jon Wood Shows here. Keep in mind the ones that Jon wood reviewed NOBODY AT ALL uses anymore... /sigh /ignore jonwood.
You are an idiot. no one I know uses those Anime looking ugly assed models...
There is no good from this expansion. it's not new, exciting or award wining. It's rehashed, reused content from EQ2 and reused concept from EQ1. SOE has once again suckered it's fanboi base into buying nothing more than old content under a bright and shiny paint job...How many times are you fanboyz going to pay money for the same lame crap over and over...?
I guess just as many times as WoW players would buy WoW expansions, or LotR players getting the new expansion, CoH/CoV or Guild Wars.... etc etc.
There hasnt been a new ground breaking idea in MMO's for a long time.
You are quite wrong in your assertation that everyone uses the Soga models. Thanks for speaking for the whole subscription base without asking us all first.
I am 100% sure he is just another typical SOE hater who doesn't even play the game.
As on my server almost all people I know use the normal models. Wich is nothing wrong with.
I myself tried the SOGA models, but I just don't like the Asian look. As that was the purpose of the SOGA models. To please the japanese players when they launched the Japanese server back then as an attempt to market EQ2 in Asia.
Cheers
I use a mix personally. The elves and erudites are set to soga and the rest are originals.
I know i may be nitpicking but some of the lore for the races is wrong.
Fae were not the original habitants kelethin, Wood Elves were. Wood Elves created the city after they trek from there former home of Eldar forest. During the war of the fey the city was destroyed. Fea came and helped rebuild later to peacefully take over when most Eleves went to qeynos to defend the city and there ruler Queen Thex made Felwithe isolated from everyone else.
High Elves didnt decentd from the fae, High Elves are direct decendants of the Eldar Elves, Which as stated in there name are an Eldar race, they were part of the first "offical" wave from the gods after veeshan. The Fae are actually a fairly young race compared to the elves.
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?loadNews=12305
Enough said. If WoW can sell nearly 30 times the number of expansions in 24 hours than EQ2 has subscribers why does SOE continue to try to steal away market share from WoW instead of actually developing the game and using some imagination? The answer is simple. EQ2 has reached a point where SOE no longer wants to invest money into a failed product. They know they have a small and devoted player base that will continue to play, regardless how little SOE does to the game. The content of this game has changed very little since the KoS expansion. SOE throws a bone here and there, but the only significant change was the introduction of Sarnak since then. The game is in decline, a nose dive to mediocrity or less. What's the next expansion to bring? a "new" flagging system where you have to earn flags or keys to get to progressively harder raid zones? Or maybe velious will be "re-discovered" OR maybe we will go to the OTHER moon of Norrath and find it inhabited my more mini dinosaurs and mushroom men! I can't wait!
Ho hum....more of the same crap..See, it's easy to re use content when the entire premise and lore of the game was written in it's predecessor...
And all this time you thought you were playing something new and exciting...
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/212762
And now Blizzard out does SOE yet again with real advertising. Isn't it painfully obvious to you SOE fanboys that EQ2 and possibly SOE is dying? I would love to see the look on your collective little faces when you go to log in someday soon and find a big 404 error or a message saying "It was all a nightmare" now go play in traffic...or some crap like that....
SOE is failing. their games have lost huge market share and relevance in the MMO market. They can't compete because they have to live up to stockholder expectations of HUGE profit margins that aren't there to have. Now with the stock market crashing it's only a matter of time before Sony pulls the plug on anything that loses money for them.../wave goodbye EQ2 and possibly SOE all together.
Why do you want SOE to fail so badly.... why would you want the ppl who DO enjoy it to be on the same boat you are on.
Leave them alone....
They are happy with the game; just because you hate it doesnt mean everyone else SHOULD too. You make it sound like its your money they are using to pay their subs.
So you rather see SOE the company go under and have a few hundred thousand players lose a game THEY love and enjoying just because YOU have a beef with SoE... Dude grow up and stop being so selfish. Those ppl are happy and having fun...but thats not good enough for you. You rather see them just as mad and hateful as you.
Lame dude...lame.
blizzard cant outdo SOE on any level (certainly not quality), MAYBE on mindless f-tards playing their games.
im pretty ambivalant about SOE, seriously i have played their games and they arent great (nor are they the pile of dogshit that WOW is) there are JUST as many people who refuse to play blizzard games as there are that refuse to play SOE games. i for one would rather be associated with SOE than the tard-friendly blizzard any day.
pointless speculation does NOTHING but make you look un-informed. asif all the kiddies parents arent going to nix the fkn wow subs before they starve.
really what you posted up there is raw idiocy, and i HATE sony more than any of you can, i have hated them forever, shit i traded 1 of the first 500 NA psx's in for a 3do they are THAT crappy to me. but its nowhere near the reality that blizzard is retard farming. that is a fact! NO hard core gamers are playing WOW, only little pansies who wish they were.
dont post if you cant do it without looking like a total moron.
blizzard cant outdo SOE on any level (certainly not quality), MAYBE on mindless f-tards playing their games.
Really? well i think 3 million subscribers is out doing SOE in the market share level...and the profit level, and apparently at the advertising level , and possibly at the enjoyment level..but other than that SOE has them beat...
im pretty ambivalant about SOE, seriously i have played their games and they arent great (nor are they the pile of dogshit that WOW is) there are JUST as many people who refuse to play blizzard games as there are that refuse to play SOE games. i for one would rather be associated with SOE than the tard-friendly blizzard any day.
Um..really, then why does SOE have about 100K subscribers and blizzard has about 3 milion? I think you might want to re think this statement...
pointless speculation does NOTHING but make you look un-informed. asif all the kiddies parents arent going to nix the fkn wow subs before they starve.
I own my own IT company. My speculation is most vertainly NOT pointless. I have to watch market trends every day, it's easy to spot companies that are failing or have failing products. When SOE tanks because they cannot pay their bills, or when SONY gets the shits of funding an unprofitable busines unit they WILL pull the plug. It's easy to see from a business perspective that SOE is having financial issues, at least where EQ2 is concerned. They are spending very little money on talented developers, as is evident by their lack of creativity. I imagine they are using the same tactic they used to develop EQ1 after EQ2 was released. They turned to interns and students to "develop" while the real experienced ones worked in EQ2. What they turned out was rehashed, old content just like what is happening right now with EQ2. They have also released a money grabbing game with LoN that costs them virtually nothing and returns some profits to make up for what EQ2 can't bring in, while side stepping their unwillingness to allow RMT on all the live servers. This is another back door profit center for them, as players purchase card decks with real money and sell them for in game coin. Something SOE is supposedly against...then why are they allowing this?
really what you posted up there is raw idiocy, and i HATE sony more than any of you can, i have hated them forever, shit i traded 1 of the first 500 NA psx's in for a 3do they are THAT crappy to me. but its nowhere near the reality that blizzard is retard farming. that is a fact! NO hard core gamers are playing WOW, only little pansies who wish they were.
And you said I was speculating? This is total bullshit. I know many WoW players that play 4-5 hours 7 nights a week. There are FAR more hard core WoW players than hard core EQ2 players...But then how could there not be? Wow players out number EQ2 players 30 to 1.
dont post if you cant do it without looking like a total moron.
Well what you look like is just another SOE boot licker fanboy who wants to control those of us who hope EQ2 dies a fairly painful death rather soon. I don't play WoW, i actually still have an EQ2 account that my wife plays because she has friends that still play. I use to be like you, thinking SOE could do nothing wrong, but then they f*cked up the game, caved in to the hard core trade skillers and made it look and feel like a cheap WoW clone. they lost all creativity and they lost me as a customer. I got sick and tired of killing the same lame assed character models over and over, casting the same line of spells for 80 levels and the last straw was they refused to even consider giving us more character slots for free, even though we had maxed out most of our toons adventuring levels.
finally, I will post when I want to, how I want to and there is not a damn thing you can do about it. If you don't like it, then don't read it. If you read it and don't like it suck it up, because I will continue to come here and bad mouth SOE every chance I get. If I can make even one person consider how much time they are wasting playing EQ2 or stop one person from buying a subscription then I have done a good deed. Nearly any other company that runs like SOE runs theirs would be out of business and probably sued by now. SOE treats their customers like turds, but since most are mindless button pushing sofa king we tards they can't see that they are taking it up the butt..
LOL im not even reading your wall of bright text, but I can tell you you have spent way to much effort defending a company. Seriously, how long did it take you to prepare that?
Once again...
So you rather see SOE the company go under and have a few hundred thousand players lose a game THEY love and enjoying just because YOU have a beef with SoE... Dude grow up and stop being so selfish. Those ppl are happy and having fun...but thats not good enough for you. You rather see them just as mad and hateful as you.
Lame dude...lame