I started playing EQ2 in Okinawa when I was in the Navy in 2004 because WoW was sold out lol... I also heard the name Renfail either on the official SOE forums or in EQ2 Flames. I'm glad I found your channel years later.
Awesome! Never tried 2 but played EQ1 from ‘02-‘09 very heavily. Tough raids but finally dropping the boss was so satisfying. Had ~100 players in a Plane off Water raid once.
I still remember back in the day when Freeport (one of the main cities) was separated in sections and one day I logged in and they combined so many areas just made going to Freeport so much better I almost cried that day lol
Free......main reason I played EQ2 back in the day never really got into WOW myself I was already paying for DAoC, so yeah, free was the main reason I played and stuck with it til this day
What an incredible nostalgia rush that was for me! EQ2 is my most favourite MMO of all time and I still have the fondest memories of my time there (spent on Antonia Bayle too). I took a break from it for a couple of years but for various reasons (mainly related to what I regarded as rather poor game Dev decisions) I was never able to fully recover the ground I lost during my absence. But, even after 20 years, it is absolutely still worth playing with a vast amount of content. Thanks (especially for the goosebumps I got just hearing the background music 😀😀😀)
It's a great game! And on a side note, I've found the best way to enjoy a game is to let the developers do what they want to do since it's their IP and product, and simply enjoy what's being produced :) Once a person can do that, I have found that games are WAY more fun and can become part of our lives for generations (assuming they remain as a live service!).
Me too! My favorite MMO I've ever played, I played it for 12 years or more I think, I stopped shortly after SOE sold it I believe. Nothing has compared to it but I'm thinking Pantheon might try to :)
This video brought so mush nostalgia back. Talking about the heritage and legacy stuff reminded me of the Froglok quest to unlock them as a playable race, so much fun!
Awesome to find this vid, I also came from EQ1 and have played EQ2 for years, the memories I made there are one of the best I made playing. We might have met on the AB server, I played on Nagafen server too. Great game. Thank you for this video.
Nice video, I'm still finding out a tonne of stuff and figuring things out. Have just been wandering around doing stuff solo and watching a bunch of videos, reading up at Reddit's EQ2, etc. Quite different to what I was used to in EQ1 but I am thoroughly enjoying it and your EQ2 videos have been great.
Thanks for that nice Guide! :) I give it a try, I play Lotro with a Friend until we reach Mordor, but he had not much time recently, and I ever would give Ever quest 2 a try. And I was 7 years old when it came out.... So I did not play it back then. But now I want to take a look ^^
@@RenfailYes, I'm at the first steps with Level 16 now, and I always like MMOs where I can choose between good and evil characters! I Like my Sarnak Shadowknight :D
EQ2 graphics was way ahead of its time. I had a high end pc at the time. Intel p4 OCed to 4.8hgz and ATI 9800 pro with 4g of RAM. And it struggled compared to Lineage II and WOW.
One of my favorite things about EQ2 has always been the no class/race combo restrictions. If you want to play a Troll Assassin, you can.. Ogre Bard? Absolutely!! How many Dark Elf Rangers were created because of the R.A. Salvatore books? I think it's also worth mentioning that if you have a subscription to EQ2, that subscription also reaches multiple games, including EQ1 as well.
I LOVE this game. Played it since 2004. I love what they have done with it over the years. Its my literal home away from home. It is REALLY complex which is one reasons I love it so much. Definitely not for people with little to no patience. If you want quality in a game or in anything else you get what you put in.
I jumped into this game on Antonia Bayle late last year and played for a couple of weeks. I was surprised at how detailed and satisfying the world was to explore, it has some of the best overworld content I've experienced in an MMORPG I think. I played a Ratonga Assassin and sadly I thought the class design was abysmal and I'm given to understand other classes are quite similar. I ended up setting it down because I was too busy to commit to playing it but it was definitely palatable.
I just installed EQ2 this last weekend after not playing since something like 2011. Taking my time starting new characters and playing slow while dual-boxing so I can take on dungeons and heroic quests as I level. Just exploring the Qeynos areas has been such a fun nostalgic ride, can't wait until I'm ready to head out to Antonica. Only thing is I wish I could move my stuff over to a progression server as they do sound fun. But I'm never going to leave my old baby dragon and other nicknacks behind. If my house decorations can't go with me then I shall remain on the normal servers😊
Love this game! Didn't start til 2014 but had a blast doing the crafting epics on all 9 crafters, and even the 12 pack ponies I ended up with xD Very fun, so much content, beautiful world and fantastic housing
I was the 3rd biggest quester (caracter name Iliona) about 10 years ago. I don't even remember when I left EQ2 because of the time it took out of my daily life but I really loved it Just tried to check the website on which quest leader were listed and apparently it's gone now alongside all the website I knew lol... Even the game is not a SOE gain it seems.
Had some good times and raids with my guild and friends from all around. Been considering going back. Atleast pay the overdue guild hall rent 😅. Redemption always!
The Two oldest MMOs I play currently aside from others I still play as well. Is Everquest 2 and Guild Wars 2. Sense both games still get updates despite there aging graphics both still standing. The Server I play on is Halls of Fate.
A big yes I still play and have done since launch about 10 years ago I paid £250 for life time membership a bargain I mostly play solo these days long work hours mean I doubt have the time to raid these days still love the game this a great video and spot in
I hope you played EQ2 during the period you were playing it most, I never ever played WOW and the reason was I loved the PVP concept in EQ2 compared to what i heard about and had seen in other MMO.s where players chose to go in zone and just randomly hash it out or do capture the flag crap. EQ2 had dungeon you could do PVP but you also had neutral zones where you could even end up fighting during an intsance run. I loved that risk, I loved how the L10 - 20 meant a L30 could not attack you and just killl your entire team, was still tough if you ran into a team at 29 as you had just hit 20 but I just feel everything you have said so far as an EQ 2 player is exactly what made me so loyal to the game and community. Anyway I get to my point I have finally decided to return after many years break, I mean my L70 Paladin was max level when i left now it 120, I have a L48 dirge and L12 warlock i started when i last visited again years back. I am lost now with regard to the character point allocation and alternative points advancement as I have 188 points to spend in 1 tree 40 in another and i think 40 in another so would you advise i just start a player from 0 again to learn the newer elements and basics or do you believe that i could with the help of videos like yourself and one other youtuber's vid i have watched so far be able to pick up an go from my L70 paladin and if i stick it out join a good guild etc be able to soon get to grips with the game again. Also I cannot seem to call my mounts anymore in game, i had 2 horses and even though it has an icon in my hotbar that says call your horse or mount it just does nothing, did they delete certain mounts or am i missing something to with my points allocation i have not deployed yet
what you forgot to mention is something i haven't seen in any other MMORPG you can change your allignment with a quest so if you started with a good race you can swap to evil and vice versa there are some classes tough which are allignment locked and if you switch you might have change to the evil version of the class
My suggestion would be to multibox, it’s about impossible to find people at low levels as free to play. I am currently boxing 5 toons and enjoying exploring and being able to do content by myself…..sad ya don’t see anyone at low level as a f2p
LOL you just reminded me of my neutral zone 2nd character myself and a friend chose specifically to start in the lands of Fae and made ourselves as small as you could as someone being a winged Fae that were already a small race with a beautiful forest and tree type homeland. Myself I called Dracco, my friend called herself Vereen and then we made our titles or 2nd names each others first names to just add to the confusion when it came to targetting us, I went as a dirge, my friend went Warden and we really did cause mayham near the neautral starting zone when we were levelling from 1-30 attacking a full group of L11's while we were L19 and just basically being annoying pests and always getting the best mineral made armours each time we hit the L10 incremental jump ups where we could not longer attack players that were not between 1-10 / 10-20 and 20 - 30 I think was how sony stopped open world PVP being horrible for new players levelling up to the max rank and to stop players that L60 just bullying L30 players to death. Anyway back to your video
Graphics are still really good even by todays standards. I remember real early on Sony took a bet that CPU would be what games were played off of instead of GPU so they made this very CPU and ram intensive so you had to have a beast system to really get the good graphics at that time. I left about 8 years ago I think... I was raiding with a level 100+ defiler on a top tier Raid guild and was a sought after Defiler on my server for groups. There was a guy named Warcos on our server who was crazy good and Crazy was the main thing, but he always looked for me to heal him in zones because I was one of the few people that could keep him alive in his crazy shit. He was our Servers Leroy Jenkins haha. I would def come back to the game if I could get some good low level game play but I have heard that nothing new has been done for low level game play kinda like how it was absent back when I was raiding. I know there was a guy who was working on a Emulator but it has been in the works for several years and I am just not sure if it will ever get done and be something similar to the EQ emulator servers. Anyway great video. Since the downfall ( in my opinion ) of Pantheon I have been having withdrawals. Honestly I would be happy to put my Defiler and other characters in a casual grouping type guild.
I really wish lotro would show the level range on zones too. It seems super useful, especially as i need to check the wiki, so i don't overlevel....as im one of thosr that lock myself
Hey there Ren, you name seems really familiar to me. I bought the game a couple months after launch, and was on the Blackburrow server. Did you play on there?
@@Renfail Hmm, I wonder where your name is familiar from then ... unless possibly here on the 'tube, but I don't recognize your appearance. Ah well, forgetting stuff is yet another of the joys of aging. As for the amount of content in EQ2, yeah it's HUGE. I recently started playing F2P on the AB server again, and I have already done 565 quests, just by running the neutral / good starting zones, tradeskill timerline, and Butcherblock. Just now working through Antonica, and Commonlands is next on my radar. Of the new things added to the game, mercs and chronomentoring are my favorite so far. Since there are so few players n the old content, it means that I have options that a solo player never used to have.
Been feeling like revisitng EQII so I found this vid on YT to see if it's worth trying in the current year, but I have one question: One thing that annoyed me profoundly the last time I played (don't even know how long ago) was with a capped character(I think), and having TONS of gearing limitations because I was a f2p player. Are those still in place?
i know this is an older video but are some servers considered dead or empty? i know i played before and looking to play again and wanna make sure im not restarting on a server where i wont have anyone to do endgame with.
EQ2 is one of the least popular MMORPGS out there. Somedays even on the "popular" servers I'll see maybe 10 people talk all day in general. I casually play it but I raid and play every EQ1 TLP.
I find that odd. A potato could run this. So unless you are on like 15 year old tech, there's really no reason you can't play it. I've been gaming it on laptops since 2008.
Just an observation, but do you have any “Should you play” videos that conclude that you “shouldn’t” play it? Seems I already know what you are going to say with all of these.
I ran a sam goodies back in 04, Eq2 came out 15 days before wow as I reserved both lol. Unfortunately Eq2 never stood a chance to compete as they tried for years to replicate wow instead of doing their own thing and a lot of that is due to the mismanagement from Smedley's for sure... The game was extremely unoptimized for PCs at the time as well as having a sense of unpolished jank in comparison to blizzards signature polish. Also, blizzard was much more open about their game than soe was back then on top of blizzard killing it with their marketing. I'm really not trying to detract from eq2, Ive played both since launch and eq1 from 99 to 04, but eq2s launch window was a very very bad decision and should've been delayed until it could have a chance to actually compete.
EQ1 was the best social MMORPG to ever exist. I don't think either of them are worth playing in 2024, though. WoW was definitely better, and remains so. But the changes in MMORPG player demographics following the launch of WoW has forever changed the genre and the experience you get in these games. None of them really compare to what EQ was like prior to 2003/4.
any eq2 veterans can help me out? im so lost logged in after ....19 years? gosh.. lvl38 gnome monk at thundering steppes lol apparently my rawhide stuff became irrelevant? god so overwhelming
You don't need a population to play the game. It is designed to be single player and ONLY group-based at the cap. It's a 20 year old game with less than 25,000 paying players; of COURSE it will be difficulty to find players unless you are the cap or on a new progression server.
Returning player from way back until about 2011. Just downloaded the game and am messing with all the UI settings and other stuff. All my characters have a "w" at the end of their name..weird. Also, almost all my toons were lvl-locked at 39 for PvP battlegrounds. They all have tons of AA points and pvp gear. Is there a way to move them to the pvp server? Does it even have people still on it? I haven't paid for the subscription yet, but if it's worth it I certainly would. PvP EQ2 was the best!
You probably have w at the end of your character names because they probably did a server merge since you last played and someone on another server had the same name and was a higher level character and/or played longer (I think that was the criteria). That's what happened to two of my characters, one named after my niece:( You should be able to transfer characters to PVP, that's an option on each character. As far as subscription vs. free, the biggest differences are 1) five vs. 2 characters to have (though you can buy a slot for 10 bucks), 2) locked at master level spells (so no GM or ancient), 3) can't get mail anywhere (this only applies to items) nor send mail with an item attached 4) you get double rewards for some quests (like the daily challenge or the current darkpaw event) 5)can't sell on the broker unless you have broker credits and 6)overseer.
Appreciate the response. IDK about the 'w' on all my toon's names (they're pretty original names lol). I'm going to have to look into server transfers. I just decided to pay the $15 per month and get all the options that come with that. Starting slowly again, rolling a few new toons. Nostalgia hitting hard :) @@ratmaster2000
well.. made a character, played for a bit, logged off, went to play again and now my game is just stuck "entering world". Any suggestions? I can make new characters just cant play the original one I made earlier today.
I somehow got back in my account that i hadn't played in over a decade a couple years ago after finding the login info written on a piece of paper in a box while moving, ive only logged back in a couple times for nostalgia but haven't really done anything
iv got up to renewal of roe expansion but iv only reached level 20 and i dont want to speed run leveling through stupid dungoens i just want to know how the end game scene in this
"there is no low level population" - this is incorrect, there are plenty of us playing low-mid tier content as we're quest hunters rather than wanting to grind the stuff at cap over and over.
I played both and can conclusively say that EQ 1 is better than EQ2 in most ways. EQ2 tried too hard to be more modern and lost its EQ identity. EQ1 is simply better. I guess it's the same reason more people play OSRS than RS3.
EQ2 i dead. Daybreak is trying to make as much money as they can. So many p2w shit in this game so you cant max without paying money. I played it since 2004 with some breaks and last team 2 years ago. Daybreak destroyed this great game and its smaller than a shadow. I dont know how it is at us server but european server is dead. max 50 persons when raid is active. R.I.P
I just started playing it a few days ago , I think it’s pretty good despite being a little empty , but I know when I get higher lvl that will change , also I joined a guild , everyone in the game seems pretty friendly especially the people in my guild . Questing feels a little repetitive but that’s just how mmos are tbh when I’m grinding I don’t want to have to pay attention too much lol can’t wait to get higher lvl and get a house heard the housing system is amazing in this game so I’m looking forward to that , if anyone wants to add me in game I’m on the maj’Dul server I think that’s how it’s spelled and my name is actionboone
I started playing EQ2 in Okinawa when I was in the Navy in 2004 because WoW was sold out lol... I also heard the name Renfail either on the official SOE forums or in EQ2 Flames. I'm glad I found your channel years later.
I've been around awhile lol
Awesome! Never tried 2 but played EQ1 from ‘02-‘09 very heavily. Tough raids but finally dropping the boss was so satisfying. Had ~100 players in a Plane off Water raid once.
EQ2 is WAY better than EQ1 on almost ever level. You'll enjoy it if you haven't ever tried it.
I'm gonna say yes, ignore the fact that I've been playing EQ2 well over 15+ years now, yes you should absolutely play this game
I still remember back in the day when Freeport (one of the main cities) was separated in sections and one day I logged in and they combined so many areas just made going to Freeport so much better I almost cried that day lol
Free......main reason I played EQ2 back in the day never really got into WOW myself I was already paying for DAoC, so yeah, free was the main reason I played and stuck with it til this day
It's good
@@nemesisundead83I used to play the shit out of dark age thinking about checking out eq2 just played eq for an hour and it’s a little rough
@@DbooneTravels I do miss that game RR10 cleric mainly heals and 1, I repeat 1, solo kill in RvR Cuteainti SoIMustKill 🤣
What an incredible nostalgia rush that was for me! EQ2 is my most favourite MMO of all time and I still have the fondest memories of my time there (spent on Antonia Bayle too).
I took a break from it for a couple of years but for various reasons (mainly related to what I regarded as rather poor game Dev decisions) I was never able to fully recover the ground I lost during my absence. But, even after 20 years, it is absolutely still worth playing with a vast amount of content. Thanks (especially for the goosebumps I got just hearing the background music 😀😀😀)
It's a great game! And on a side note, I've found the best way to enjoy a game is to let the developers do what they want to do since it's their IP and product, and simply enjoy what's being produced :) Once a person can do that, I have found that games are WAY more fun and can become part of our lives for generations (assuming they remain as a live service!).
Me too! My favorite MMO I've ever played, I played it for 12 years or more I think, I stopped shortly after SOE sold it I believe. Nothing has compared to it but I'm thinking Pantheon might try to :)
Me and a buddy just started playing, we are addicted! Very lost but enjoying the game. Love the vids man keep it up. Its helping
Glad to hear it!
Newbie here. Just started playing recently and hooked. Somethings have no clue what I am doing but chugging along.
have fun!
This video brought so mush nostalgia back. Talking about the heritage and legacy stuff reminded me of the Froglok quest to unlock them as a playable race, so much fun!
cheers
Awesome to find this vid, I also came from EQ1 and have played EQ2 for years, the memories I made there are one of the best I made playing. We might have met on the AB server, I played on Nagafen server too. Great game. Thank you for this video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Nice video, I'm still finding out a tonne of stuff and figuring things out. Have just been wandering around doing stuff solo and watching a bunch of videos, reading up at Reddit's EQ2, etc. Quite different to what I was used to in EQ1 but I am thoroughly enjoying it and your EQ2 videos have been great.
Glad I could help
Thanks for that nice Guide! :) I give it a try, I play Lotro with a Friend until we reach Mordor, but he had not much time recently, and I ever would give Ever quest 2 a try. And I was 7 years old when it came out.... So I did not play it back then. But now I want to take a look ^^
Hope you enjoy it!
@@RenfailYes, I'm at the first steps with Level 16 now, and I always like MMOs where I can choose between good and evil characters! I Like my Sarnak Shadowknight :D
Very informative video, Thanks, possibly you can delve into Dungeons, Trade skilling, Overseer, leveling up Mercenary and Mounts. etc...
Cheers
Started last year, (played intermittently) I've been enjoying it considerably.
nice!
Me and my guild will be playing on the Origin server this Wednesday
Thank you! Showed your vid to my GF as a basic explanation - helped a bunch!
Glad it helped!
@@Renfail Yeah man, played a ton with her in a week - is a blast! Thanks again!
EQ2 graphics was way ahead of its time. I had a high end pc at the time. Intel p4 OCed to 4.8hgz and ATI 9800 pro with 4g of RAM. And it struggled compared to Lineage II and WOW.
yep
Obsessively played for YEARS! Haven't played in YEARS! Lol remember Heather Graham? Awesome times with this one
Classic
One of my favorite things about EQ2 has always been the no class/race combo restrictions. If you want to play a Troll Assassin, you can.. Ogre Bard? Absolutely!! How many Dark Elf Rangers were created because of the R.A. Salvatore books?
I think it's also worth mentioning that if you have a subscription to EQ2, that subscription also reaches multiple games, including EQ1 as well.
I LOVE this game. Played it since 2004. I love what they have done with it over the years. Its my literal home away from home. It is REALLY complex which is one reasons I love it so much. Definitely not for people with little to no patience. If you want quality in a game or in anything else you get what you put in.
I jumped into this game on Antonia Bayle late last year and played for a couple of weeks. I was surprised at how detailed and satisfying the world was to explore, it has some of the best overworld content I've experienced in an MMORPG I think. I played a Ratonga Assassin and sadly I thought the class design was abysmal and I'm given to understand other classes are quite similar. I ended up setting it down because I was too busy to commit to playing it but it was definitely palatable.
Enjoy
What a lazy answer
I just installed EQ2 this last weekend after not playing since something like 2011. Taking my time starting new characters and playing slow while dual-boxing so I can take on dungeons and heroic quests as I level. Just exploring the Qeynos areas has been such a fun nostalgic ride, can't wait until I'm ready to head out to Antonica.
Only thing is I wish I could move my stuff over to a progression server as they do sound fun. But I'm never going to leave my old baby dragon and other nicknacks behind. If my house decorations can't go with me then I shall remain on the normal servers😊
Yep, they don't transfer
Wow. I played this on release and off and on for years. I have so many great memories. I may check it out again.
Cool
Love this game! Didn't start til 2014 but had a blast doing the crafting epics on all 9 crafters, and even the 12 pack ponies I ended up with xD Very fun, so much content, beautiful world and fantastic housing
I was the 3rd biggest quester (caracter name Iliona) about 10 years ago. I don't even remember when I left EQ2 because of the time it took out of my daily life but I really loved it
Just tried to check the website on which quest leader were listed and apparently it's gone now alongside all the website I knew lol...
Even the game is not a SOE gain it seems.
Had to pee, clicked your video. Didn't pee for 26min.
Had some good times and raids with my guild and friends from all around. Been considering going back. Atleast pay the overdue guild hall rent 😅. Redemption always!
have fun :)
The Two oldest MMOs I play currently aside from others I still play as well. Is Everquest 2 and Guild Wars 2. Sense both games still get updates despite there aging graphics both still standing.
The Server I play on is Halls of Fate.
A big yes I still play and have done since launch about 10 years ago I paid £250 for life time membership a bargain I mostly play solo these days long work hours mean I doubt have the time to raid these days still love the game this a great video and spot in
I hope you played EQ2 during the period you were playing it most, I never ever played WOW and the reason was I loved the PVP concept in EQ2 compared to what i heard about and had seen in other MMO.s where players chose to go in zone and just randomly hash it out or do capture the flag crap.
EQ2 had dungeon you could do PVP but you also had neutral zones where you could even end up fighting during an intsance run. I loved that risk, I loved how the L10 - 20 meant a L30 could not attack you and just killl your entire team, was still tough if you ran into a team at 29 as you had just hit 20 but I just feel everything you have said so far as an EQ 2 player is exactly what made me so loyal to the game and community.
Anyway I get to my point I have finally decided to return after many years break, I mean my L70 Paladin was max level when i left now it 120, I have a L48 dirge and L12 warlock i started when i last visited again years back.
I am lost now with regard to the character point allocation and alternative points advancement as I have 188 points to spend in 1 tree 40 in another and i think 40 in another so would you advise i just start a player from 0 again to learn the newer elements and basics or do you believe that i could with the help of videos like yourself and one other youtuber's vid i have watched so far be able to pick up an go from my L70 paladin and if i stick it out join a good guild etc be able to soon get to grips with the game again.
Also I cannot seem to call my mounts anymore in game, i had 2 horses and even though it has an icon in my hotbar that says call your horse or mount it just does nothing, did they delete certain mounts or am i missing something to with my points allocation i have not deployed yet
Have fun
what you forgot to mention is something i haven't seen in any other MMORPG
you can change your allignment with a quest so if you started with a good race you can swap to evil and vice versa
there are some classes tough which are allignment locked and if you switch you might have change to the evil version of the class
that really only mattered back in the day. It's no longer relevant in 2024
My suggestion would be to multibox, it’s about impossible to find people at low levels as free to play. I am currently boxing 5 toons and enjoying exploring and being able to do content by myself…..sad ya don’t see anyone at low level as a f2p
You might have just swayed me to come back... still have my OG ranger from release day.... sigh...it will be attempt # 491 lol
Lol
LOL you just reminded me of my neutral zone 2nd character myself and a friend chose specifically to start in the lands of Fae and made ourselves as small as you could as someone being a winged Fae that were already a small race with a beautiful forest and tree type homeland.
Myself I called Dracco, my friend called herself Vereen and then we made our titles or 2nd names each others first names to just add to the confusion when it came to targetting us, I went as a dirge, my friend went Warden and we really did cause mayham near the neautral starting zone when we were levelling from 1-30 attacking a full group of L11's while we were L19 and just basically being annoying pests and always getting the best mineral made armours each time we hit the L10 incremental jump ups where we could not longer attack players that were not between 1-10 / 10-20 and 20 - 30 I think was how sony stopped open world PVP being horrible for new players levelling up to the max rank and to stop players that L60 just bullying L30 players to death.
Anyway back to your video
Cool!
Great Video. I'll check it out, thanks!
have fun!
Looking forward to the new TLE!
Some are :)
I tried to get into it a couple months ago and it just didn't hold my interest, but after watching your video I feel like giving it another go.
Hope you enjoy it!
Graphics are still really good even by todays standards. I remember real early on Sony took a bet that CPU would be what games were played off of instead of GPU so they made this very CPU and ram intensive so you had to have a beast system to really get the good graphics at that time. I left about 8 years ago I think... I was raiding with a level 100+ defiler on a top tier Raid guild and was a sought after Defiler on my server for groups. There was a guy named Warcos on our server who was crazy good and Crazy was the main thing, but he always looked for me to heal him in zones because I was one of the few people that could keep him alive in his crazy shit. He was our Servers Leroy Jenkins haha. I would def come back to the game if I could get some good low level game play but I have heard that nothing new has been done for low level game play kinda like how it was absent back when I was raiding. I know there was a guy who was working on a Emulator but it has been in the works for several years and I am just not sure if it will ever get done and be something similar to the EQ emulator servers. Anyway great video. Since the downfall ( in my opinion ) of Pantheon I have been having withdrawals. Honestly I would be happy to put my Defiler and other characters in a casual grouping type guild.
Have fun
The biggest problem I found is as a free player you only get 50% of your xp after a certain point.
Rest exp is a bonus for VIPs and should remain so. You want the bonuses, pay up and support the devs :)
@@Renfail Yeah I ended up paying for the subscription haha do not regret.
I really wish lotro would show the level range on zones too. It seems super useful, especially as i need to check the wiki, so i don't overlevel....as im one of thosr that lock myself
interesting
Hey there Ren, you name seems really familiar to me. I bought the game a couple months after launch, and was on the Blackburrow server. Did you play on there?
Antonia Bayle
@@Renfail Hmm, I wonder where your name is familiar from then ... unless possibly here on the 'tube, but I don't recognize your appearance.
Ah well, forgetting stuff is yet another of the joys of aging.
As for the amount of content in EQ2, yeah it's HUGE. I recently started playing F2P on the AB server again, and I have already done 565 quests, just by running the neutral / good starting zones, tradeskill timerline, and Butcherblock. Just now working through Antonica, and Commonlands is next on my radar.
Of the new things added to the game, mercs and chronomentoring are my favorite so far. Since there are so few players n the old content, it means that I have options that a solo player never used to have.
EQ 2 released two weekd before WoW actually and it’s mainly why it didnt succeed as much as it should have
Ayep.
They just don't make em like they used to, I swear there is more to do in new halas then all of diablo 4
maybe!
New TLE about to open, get in there!
I wish I could play this on my phone with a controller!
Been feeling like revisitng EQII so I found this vid on YT to see if it's worth trying in the current year, but I have one question: One thing that annoyed me profoundly the last time I played (don't even know how long ago) was with a capped character(I think), and having TONS of gearing limitations because I was a f2p player. Are those still in place?
yep. You gotta pony up and pay if you want full member benefits. Don't be cheap if you are gonna put in serious time
If you buy latest expansion do you get all previous expansions as well?
Their website has the full details.
Thank you
i know this is an older video but are some servers considered dead or empty? i know i played before and looking to play again and wanna make sure im not restarting on a server where i wont have anyone to do endgame with.
EQ2 is one of the least popular MMORPGS out there. Somedays even on the "popular" servers I'll see maybe 10 people talk all day in general. I casually play it but I raid and play every EQ1 TLP.
Yes, even though I can't play as they cut older computers out of being able to load it and I can't afford to get a new video card to access it.
I find that odd. A potato could run this. So unless you are on like 15 year old tech, there's really no reason you can't play it. I've been gaming it on laptops since 2008.
@@Renfail If your potato can run it, can you swap it for my desktop PC, as that won't and having been made redundant I can't afford to upgrade, ;)
Just an observation, but do you have any “Should you play” videos that conclude that you “shouldn’t” play it? Seems I already know what you are going to say with all of these.
My first impressions series often includes games that I choose not to play for various reasons.
I just started playing. So to get the other expansions you have to have a membership right?
The free to play accounts can play everything up to the most current expansion
Its been forever since I played EQ2.
get on it!
I ran a sam goodies back in 04, Eq2 came out 15 days before wow as I reserved both lol. Unfortunately Eq2 never stood a chance to compete as they tried for years to replicate wow instead of doing their own thing and a lot of that is due to the mismanagement from Smedley's for sure... The game was extremely unoptimized for PCs at the time as well as having a sense of unpolished jank in comparison to blizzards signature polish. Also, blizzard was much more open about their game than soe was back then on top of blizzard killing it with their marketing. I'm really not trying to detract from eq2, Ive played both since launch and eq1 from 99 to 04, but eq2s launch window was a very very bad decision and should've been delayed until it could have a chance to actually compete.
Peeps need to stop blaming Smedley for things that simply happened due to changes in the market.
EQ1 was the best social MMORPG to ever exist. I don't think either of them are worth playing in 2024, though. WoW was definitely better, and remains so. But the changes in MMORPG player demographics following the launch of WoW has forever changed the genre and the experience you get in these games. None of them really compare to what EQ was like prior to 2003/4.
Fine by me
any eq2 veterans can help me out? im so lost logged in after ....19 years? gosh.. lvl38 gnome monk at thundering steppes lol apparently my rawhide stuff became irrelevant? god so overwhelming
yeah ain't nobody gonna be able to help you catch upon 19 years of not playing. Dive in. Re-learn. Have fun
Whats the population like? I tried it a few years back and it was either dead in 90% of the zones or people didnt want to group with a lowbie
You don't need a population to play the game. It is designed to be single player and ONLY group-based at the cap. It's a 20 year old game with less than 25,000 paying players; of COURSE it will be difficulty to find players unless you are the cap or on a new progression server.
Returning player from way back until about 2011. Just downloaded the game and am messing with all the UI settings and other stuff. All my characters have a "w" at the end of their name..weird. Also, almost all my toons were lvl-locked at 39 for PvP battlegrounds. They all have tons of AA points and pvp gear. Is there a way to move them to the pvp server? Does it even have people still on it? I haven't paid for the subscription yet, but if it's worth it I certainly would. PvP EQ2 was the best!
I have no idea about PVP.
You probably have w at the end of your character names because they probably did a server merge since you last played and someone on another server had the same name and was a higher level character and/or played longer (I think that was the criteria). That's what happened to two of my characters, one named after my niece:( You should be able to transfer characters to PVP, that's an option on each character. As far as subscription vs. free, the biggest differences are 1) five vs. 2 characters to have (though you can buy a slot for 10 bucks), 2) locked at master level spells (so no GM or ancient), 3) can't get mail anywhere (this only applies to items) nor send mail with an item attached 4) you get double rewards for some quests (like the daily challenge or the current darkpaw event) 5)can't sell on the broker unless you have broker credits and 6)overseer.
Appreciate the response. IDK about the 'w' on all my toon's names (they're pretty original names lol). I'm going to have to look into server transfers. I just decided to pay the $15 per month and get all the options that come with that. Starting slowly again, rolling a few new toons. Nostalgia hitting hard :) @@ratmaster2000
It's actually beautiful, but just too much effort to get max level, and not possible solo.
You must not have played in 2024 because the game has been entirely solo and with the addition of mercs for more than a decade now
Just started, not sure what i'm playing but toying around with different classes.
ENjoy!
well.. made a character, played for a bit, logged off, went to play again and now my game is just stuck "entering world". Any suggestions? I can make new characters just cant play the original one I made earlier today.
I somehow got back in my account that i hadn't played in over a decade a couple years ago after finding the login info written on a piece of paper in a box while moving, ive only logged back in a couple times for nostalgia but haven't really done anything
lots of stuff to do if you want!
looking forward to EQ3
Not confirmed
iv got up to renewal of roe expansion but iv only reached level 20 and i dont want to speed run leveling through stupid dungoens i just want to know how the end game scene in this
there's really not that many end-game guilds, but your best place to find out is the official forums.
Do you have any suggestions for plugins? Thanks so much :)
No. I don't use them.
if interested in a parser check out ACT Advanced Combat Tracker
Should i box a bard with a healing merc ? Or is that a bad idea
I have in the past
Can you play progression solo?? When do they get mercs?
you really can't play progression solo unless you are certain classes
I hope you join Origin server and do another review. Thanks for this.
This review is for the live game, not the progression servers. Those are differnet entirely.
"there is no low level population" - this is incorrect, there are plenty of us playing low-mid tier content as we're quest hunters rather than wanting to grind the stuff at cap over and over.
No, I'm not incorrect. Statistically speaking, the VAST MAJORITY of players are at the cap.
EQOA ftw!! =P
for some :)
How is Eq2 different than Eq1
Far simpler to Google your question
I played both and can conclusively say that EQ 1 is better than EQ2 in most ways. EQ2 tried too hard to be more modern and lost its EQ identity. EQ1 is simply better. I guess it's the same reason more people play OSRS than RS3.
hahahahahahahahahaha
Taci is correct, EQ1 has far more players than EQ2 has for a long while now.
Absolutely agree.
Don't temp me to install EQ2. I will
have fun :)
@@Renfail Why I said Don't temp me (meaning I'm not installing it this year). You going Ok temp him to install & play.
How about addons?
nope
You lost me at single player RPG. I guess I am going to the EQ1 TLP.
That's what the TLPs are for. The live game is for the RPG fans. You won't be missed :)
No, you should play eq on p99 green
Ewwwwe ugh no
EQ2 i dead.
Daybreak is trying to make as much money as they can.
So many p2w shit in this game so you cant max without paying money.
I played it since 2004 with some breaks and last team 2 years ago.
Daybreak destroyed this great game and its smaller than a shadow.
I dont know how it is at us server but european server is dead.
max 50 persons when raid is active.
R.I.P
Thanks for the clicks and views, champ. It's how I make a living.
Nope eq 1 only
nope, eq2 only
@@Renfail Too many abilities
@@montanafreedomhomestead3949 get gud or go home, I suppose. Some of us can handle more than two button presses.
@@Renfail lol played a high level rogue sorry 50 buttons is dumb
@@montanafreedomhomestead3949 50? Looks like you can't count either. Good luck with that.
This game needs a proper sequel... I played this game back in 2004 and it was the only game to give a serious addiction.
with 25k players max these days, it's unlikely to get one.
@@Renfail I heard something about EQ3...... Not EQ Next.....rumors
I just started playing it a few days ago , I think it’s pretty good despite being a little empty , but I know when I get higher lvl that will change , also I joined a guild , everyone in the game seems pretty friendly especially the people in my guild . Questing feels a little repetitive but that’s just how mmos are tbh when I’m grinding I don’t want to have to pay attention too much lol can’t wait to get higher lvl and get a house heard the housing system is amazing in this game so I’m looking forward to that , if anyone wants to add me in game I’m on the maj’Dul server I think that’s how it’s spelled and my name is actionboone
have fun