I Didn't Like EverQuest 2 Until... 

Special Thanks to Bear Necessities for helping out with the video! Link to 4 Part Yelinak EQ1 Series: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LZbNzmz48sM.html

You couldn't imagine my joy when I finally convinced my dad to play P99 again after 20 years since we last played together. EQ is my game for life. Thanks for helping relive the glory days.

Man that nostalgic eq1 music is beyond real. the feels.

When EQ 2 first launched... it k.o.'d my computer even on low settings.

EQ2 Hypeeee

I'll never get used to Voice chat. Having someone breathing through their nose in my ear or hearing their insane families yelling and fighting in the back ground. Uugh.

I hated that EQ2 made the starting areas just 2. It felt so cheap (from a dev/money side), especially as there were areas where the denizens of norrrath lived outside of the two cities. There is no way all the races would have just moved in together like in EQ2 even if the moon rained down on it. I still fondly remember Kelethin though.

Love the EQ2 content .. more please!!!

I still remember everyone freaking out when the Ancient Cyclops would spawn in EQ1.

EQ2 has been my main MMO since 2004. I have played over 30,000 hours on it, done every quests, raids, expansions, etc. I would take breaks, but I would always find myself back to it months later. There was something to it that appealed to me more than EverQuest which I played from 1999 to 2004.

I tried EQ2 just for the hell of it a month or so ago. I was decently surprised at how many people there were grouping and how streamlined everything was. Looks great, has a more fleshed out plot, and has a nice class system. I didnt stick around but definitely worth a shot especially since it’s ftp.

It is good to see someone producing an Everquest 2 video in a positive light. The TLE is a lot of and the game really can be a blast.

As a 2000 EQ1 player who moved to EQ2 when it launched I agree with all the points that you brought up. I had a lot of fun in both games, but EQ1 was my more fun experience. It could be the guild I was in, but it just seemed more engaging and less of a walk-through and pull-everything game that EQ2 was/is. Although it is fair to mention the abilities being a plus for EQ2, especially for tanks and healers, for me it is a big minus as well. Later in the game, there are so many abilities, via AA/Prestige, that magically appear on your hotbar when you level up. A fast leveling player will just gets lost in all those choices. I think EQ2 would actually benefit from purchasing abilities and spell gems the way EQ1 does while offering the same number of spells. P.S As a EQ1 Bard I totally understand your point. Expecting the Dirge/Troubador to be a replacement of an EQ1 Bard will make anyone disappointed, but with my Dirge I was able to find my role as a Support/DPS in the MT group of my raid. The proudest I was of my Dirge was in a PoH raid back in the day, where I was late, but when I joined the DPS of the entire raid force went up from 40k to 50k. Just because I joined.

Each race having it's own starter city and newbie area was great IMHO. It helped flesh out the world. It gave each race a different introduction to the world and their particular peoples story and background. Your character should mean something and be a fun investment. That's been lost in modern MMO's where everybody is basically the same just with a different skin. Forgettable and replaceable.

Depending on the class you can actually get a lot done solo. As a conjuror I had a lot of fun finding challenges I could solo, dungeons and things like that....they were brutal but getting it done was rewarding af!

I was an avid EQ player and I was excited to play EQ II. My computer had no chance of running EQ II, though, so I became a WoW player. One part I disagree with you is on the amount of starting zones. I felt this added variety; starting an ogre in Feerot was a completely different experience than a human in Freeport. I think it was one of the things that EQ did better than WoW. It is good to see another EQ video from you, thank you.

EQ2 LETS GOOOO. I was worried when you said you were done with EQ but this content is just as good

Let's Go! Love you bro, keep the juice for EQ alive!

had great memories raiding eq2 during the destiny of velious era. Later expansions (Thalumbra and later) were not as much fun.

You called aLovingRobot Mandrake Farms. Mandrake Farms is the archivist but the guy in the stream was aLovingRobot

Glad to see you covering this. I just started on Varsoon a week or so ago.

- „EQ 2 runs a lot better now than before” *background gameplay in steady 10fps*

Love EQ2! I'd argue that it's still quite fun as a F2P account IF you are part of a guild and have folks to play with, connected through Discord. I had a blast with my guildees last winter! However, with the guild onto other MMO's atm, Antonia Bayle is a ghost town for me when I log in. So yeah, like you said, All-Access account and TLE is probably the way to go right now!

I think I will give EQ 2 a try again, thanks for the video.

I haven’t played EQ 2 since just after launch. I like that they used the Vanguard crating system

Funny you dislike EQ2 bards; I've found that people rarely like the eq2 versions of their eq1 mains; I personally loathed mystic/defiled because they carried almost none of what made me like Shaman. One thing though, both bards and enchanters took big nerfs to CC and charms in EQ2, after kunark launched. Apparently they were trivializing pve, and dominating pvp, so those abilities caught hard nerfs.

Loved playing a fury to lol 80. Lots of solo and one group-friendly early and mid game stuff too

Something to watch while I play my bard on EQ TAKP tonight! 👌👍

The one thing i dislike with EQ2 as opposed to EQOA and EQ1 is the insane amount of spells on your hotbar. I find it needlessly complex and turns the game into a cooldown sim. Less is best with abilities/spells imo.

Early computer problems for eq2 was memory leaking. That was server side if I understood correctly. You would run around and suddenly end up on the other side of the zone. It could have been processor related but I didn't have much issues after they did some patching

this video is super helpful ive been slowly getting into eq2 again after playing years ago when i was a kid im currently ftp but honestly it has been really fun so far. at some point i may go sub to exprience the more fast paced stuff

Yours a very unique viewpoint and experience that I totally vibe-with. As a young girl I was playing my own games while my dad and stepmom played EQ2 religiously. And now, literally one year off of 20 years later, I'm playing it on my dad's old account he still had the login for. Been playing for about a week now. The sounds of this game are triggering some of the most intense emotional memories I've ever had even though I've never even played it myself. I'm mostly a housing enthusiast with my MMO's of choice. It's why I decided to start playing again since EQ2 still boasts one of the best housing/decorating systems. But now I'm enjoying it all around!

Nope, still dont like eq2.

Just dropping a comment to tell you that I very much appreciate your Everquest content. EQ holds a very dear & special place in my heart. I lost someone very close to me.. we used to play daily. It was traumatic and I wasn't able to play/enjoy EQ anymore.. as the memories were always there and always deeply painful. I've been able to get back to playing it and enjoying it (on TAKP), and your channel was very influential in me being able to 'ease back into it'. I know it's cheesy.. but it felt like you held my hand through it. Just know, you've been a force for good in my life. May God bless you and everyone you hold dear. Thank you.

Played EQ1 for 5 years until EQ2 came out.

Hey what a nice surprise! I've always been curious about EQ2, I think it looks really good actually.. great review, thanks IB!

Great review. Glad to see the post!! Hope new dad life is treating you well!!

eq2 suffers from not being eq1 for sure. During release it was great back the way the class system was and of course it was changed. i left eq2 and went over to wow during that time period prior i was still getting it in on ff11

I was really enjoying Varsoon but picked a tank and could never find a guild raiding spot due to fewer thanks being required for raiding.

I started EQ1 moved to EQ2 in 2004 at launch. I was in many top WW guilds as an endgame Raid Assassin. Things that killed the game were things like DEVS being in guilds giving them the strats to get server firsts, allowing guilds to sell raid loot to people who wern't even in the raid! I tried to get the GDOH for years and it just never dropped, then I see it on a pleb that isn't in a guild buy it in chat from a top guild. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! Guild Halls is what destroyed the social aspect of the game. The game was AMAZING up until The Shadow Odyssey. Now Assassins can't come close to the beast lord so w/e. . . . . it's over.

Played EQ2 at launch and performance was fine. But EQ2 had really crazy graphic options that were never designed for computers of the era, so if you cranked up graphic options, you could tank your fps. WoW just ran well because it had simple graphics. But yeah, no performance issues on EQ2 if your settings matched your machine's capabilities.

It was actually really "refreshing" to go back (from action-packed MMOs) to just chillin in camp, having a puller or waiting on pops, sittin in discord with friends. p99 has been an incredible experience. I enjoy that it's really difficult and takes dedication... the progress I've made feels like it really means something. The scarcity of items means I really feel good about some of the items I've been able to get. The way you describe EQ2 kinda makes it sound more like WoW, but there's a reason I left: "it's a single player game where you just see other people" and it's very true. "Sitting still is intense" is a great quote from this vid! It is an experience unique to classic EQ and I felt it coming back... getting lost in the early levels and getting help from someone and it was meaningful, instead of the game itself just holding my hand the whole way. The world FELT dangerous, I was scared to go outside, that was a great feeling coming back to EQ. But yeah it's really hard to do in a group-based game trying to level on classes like a cleric or rogue. Ok sorry for rambling.

Awesome vid, and it really has me debating trying EQ 2. I haven’t been able to log on to yelinak for a month or so due to real life work stuff but I never knew anything about EQ 2 until now and this vid is great endorsement to try it. Oh and I totally agree and love the music and EQ 1 clips added

I had the same concerns you had at the beginning of your video when it came to JoshStrifeHayes video on EQ2. Using Steam as the data for players and FTP only, really put EQ2 in a "bad" light. But when I said something on it, oh boy Josh's fanbois came out. LOL

to be fair, on the voice chat thing, no one uses in game voice in any game I've ever played. They always suck and are terrible to use anyway. Things like Teamspeak, Ventrillo, and these days Discord are far better for communicating in games than any in game voice ever was. Even if the game had it, no one would use it.

Heads up, may 22nd 2024 the new tle server launches

How does Steam make EQ2 seem like there's a lot less people? Are Steam players restricted to playing with only other Steam players?

They removed train kiting for bards in EQ1 I lost interest. They added melody to bards I lost all respect. I think the best times I had in EQ2 was back in Kunark era. I was in a raid guild. Sadly it turned into an elietest ego stroke fest. So I started my own. Just for new players to the game. It grew pretty fast. We ended up having enough people to fill a full raid. I tried going back, for the progression server thing when it was added. I was met with nothing but elitists and quit. I must say I do miss being a Guide though.

On your point of lass social in EQ2, I totally disagree. I've had many hours of socializing there, and not just RPing.

I've been playing MMORPG since 2000's as well but I chose Ragnorak as my first MMORPG then FF11 online in 2002. I did had the opportunity to try Everquest. Heck, I remember holding both FF11 and Everquest box at the store deciding which to get. I eventually settled with FF11 and that got me for 9 years of my life until FF14 was being tested. Sometimes it makes me wonder what would have happened if I chose Everquest instead. Would I had picked up Everquest II?

I liked and still do like having race specific starter cities. It does work and it makes the world seem bigger and more alluring. I was one of the 1999 original EQ players and I was a person who camped 26 hours for the FBSS. That camp was brutal BUT it was well organized. Melee was on in a que and as a person won a FBSS or left the group you moved up the que for the next drop. The best thing about this is there was a lot of honor in this and ninja looting was a big deal then because leveling a character to 40+ wasn't a easy task and nobody wanted to risk their reputation by ninja looting a item. Also, if you wanted to trade the FBSS for another item you wanted with someone else you could, like a Ykesha blade or some other high value item. I liked the difficulty of the game, it really meant something to be level 40+ and to have a Yak blade or a FBSS, people understood the pain it took to get these items. A quest to get a rare item, nobody cares about that. The Epic quests in EQ which some could be a nightmare to get, like the Mage Epic 1.0 or the Warrior 1.0 epic, people where in awe when they saw you with those, these were the exceptions.

For people watching in 2024 I have to tell you there’s two kinds of F2P. Returning to my 20 year old account, the restrictions on several things a brand new account has, I don’t have. For one is the broker. I can buy and sell what I want without tokens. I don’t get add pop ups nearly as much as my free accounts. I’m 3boxing and the other two accounts constantly get pop ups.

I've played EQ2 on and off since it was first launched back in 2004 back on Lucan D'lere server and I have A LOT of memories from this game both good and bad. It's a game that really benefits from playing with others even one other person is nice but if you can get a proper six man group is best. That said this game is a vastly different beast than I remember and targeting can be... annoying to say the least but it's manageable. I think my biggest gripe as a returning player would be button bloat as it's very easy to have a wall of icons and AFAIK they're not easily hotkeyed as other games allow. That said it does have a very nice player housing system though the original mansions of Qeynos and Freeport will always be my favorites. edit: Also QQ for the lack of UI scaling in windowed mode lol.

Tubbins working his lil butt off in your vids I see. Good times they were indeed ! Currently playing EQ1 again as I rediscovered my love for it.

13:00 this is very true, especially in its first couple of months. I had a beefy rig in 2004 (1gb ram, 3.2mhz P4, ATI 9800xt 256mb) and it was known to absolutely chug at anything above low-medium settings, especially specific zones that acted as choke points for travel (Qeynos Harbor was legendary for running terribly back then). It didn't help that when it launched, they used old EQ1 servers to host the game before making a transfer. So bad it was that the game was down for nearly an entire month for maintenance during December of 2004.

There will never be another FFXi "level 75"where you did not NEED certain gear to progress.Sadly even FFXI became the same game as EQ2/Wow where it's all abotu gear GRINDING you cannot beat that next tougher Boss unless you have the gear and this is a LAZY way to design bosses.There is a LOT you can do with boss designs and you need the spells and abilities to make it more engaging. Mentoring is a great idea no question also done in FFXi I can't remember who did it first I think FFXI created that idea. "MERCS"a nice idea but not done nearly good enough FFXI's npc system of "TRUSTS"far surpasses Mercs and you can form a whole group from trusts while you only get ONE Merc in EQ2.

I agree f2p is not very good at all.They should open it up so that there is a healthy population. Oh it is definitely much more user friendly than EQ1 which I refused to play in the early years. One issue I have is it sure seems the modern gamer around the time of Wow's arrival THINK a mmorpg is all about RAIDS or Boss fights and that is all people care about. EQ2 is VERY much like Wow and many/most other mmorpg's in that the characters and combat feel VERY handcuffed like your not really a factor your GEAR is way more a factor than YOU are. Having played FFXi there is no comparison I felt like I could do a lot with my character's classes and the PET classes within FFXi far surpass anything EQ2 and Wow do albeit pretty much even at early levels. "timers" timers are awful because they encourage button mashing SPAM.Within FFXi get much longer timers a buff LASTS and you don't need 5+ hotbars like you already do within EQ2 already by level 20. Crafting is uniform and organized and with quests is really good however it is just basically a TIER system of 10 levels per tier repeating the same things over an over each tier.

I've kind of always wanted to give a TLE a try, but.. everything bad you mention about the game, are the things that really turn me off this game :( the ability bloat, the focus on AoEs, the lack of pulling and need for CC (although if I'm honest I do love a good dungeon crawl). Who knows, maybe I'll try it in 2024. I'm fully expecting they will launch a new TLE for their 25th anniversary and maybe I'll give it a good fair shake, but we'll see. I played this game when it first released in 2004 and barely made it a month before I quit, so my expectations are low, but I'm also more open minded now than I was back then I think, so... I guess we'll just see. For now, I'm really enjoying Oakwynd, haha.

I have been liking EQ2 on the TLP as well. I didn't love EQ2 that much until playing the TLP, and I really look forward to resubbing to when kingdom of sky comes out with the AAs and stuff. DoF is a bit of a boring expansion. I agree with all your points. EQ2 actually does the everquest name justice, it carries alot of the game philosophy that made EQ1 so good into a more modern itype of gameplay. That you CANNOT call "WoW" like because EQ2 released BEFORE WoW and was in development long before WoW. In fact alot of game design choices blizz made for WoW were LIFTED from EQ2 and WoW got all the credit. EQ2 TLP has almost inspired me to start making MMORPG videos because I feel like a lot of the games that were overshadowed by WoW are actually a lot better than the reviews give them credit for. There's so much more to them than people know and videos like Josh Strife Hayes video on EQ2 dont do them justice at all.

The problem with EQ2's abilities/spell system is they listened to that EQ1 feedback from melee of "I don't have anything to do I'm just watching auto-attacks go off" way way too much. What you end up with in EQ2 is each class has 4 bars of 12 abilities each to just spam in order or spam them every time they highlight. Every single ability feels the same, and so many DPS classes rotation is just "go down the bar hitting everything as fast as you can". Serious button bloat, it ends up feeling like spell whack-a-mole.

I'm a little bit late to the party, but that's probably the best EQ2 review I've seen ever. TLE somewhat the experience I had back in the day and it's nice to get a server full of people LFG for those old dungeons I used to spend so much time in. The only missing point here is the abysmal itemization on Kaladim and Varsoon (last two TLE servers) - heavily limiting the end game progression loops. It felt like DBG wasn't ready to put in the effort to balance character strength to this old content

Played EQ2 for years. We where there launch day, and it was simply amazing. I've returned many times, and it will always be "home" in my MMO games. I just can't play the game past 100, because I do not like what daybreak did to the game. Huge power creep, resolve stat ( worst thing ever added to the game), and you can only level in the new zones. "Play your way" , not anymore. I very much doubt I will play again. :(

EQ2 was a rip raorin good time. I played eq1 since launch, off and on, until seeds of destruction. Then, one of the old players 'recruited' a few people over to eq2 to join a guild of all people from the eq1 server. A veeshan guild on eq2. So I said sure, I'll check it out... Bit of a slow start but eventually, I would be crafting in eq2 when I was on raids in eq1 during downtime... til eventually, I just sorta stopped logging into eq1. This was during TSO. The expac just after kunark. The population was hopping (unlike eq1). I made numerouse random friends leveling up that I still see on once in a while. (Hi Cheddarton! Ya dirty rat) and the in game voice helped make those friendships just as tight as eq's. The combat was more engaging. The min maxing on math and stats more transparant, so you knew what you needed to work on. And the group game was miles ahead of eq's. Now, I mained as a tank, so maybe a little skewed from that, but I could log on, and be getting loot in minutes... when even during eq's height, ya could spend hours LFG in a zone before ya got one, and never see loot. There was always something to do, that didnt feel like a chore. EQ always has something to do too.... but ya get that feeling in yer gut like... "Man thats gonna take a while, I really dont wanna start that right now..." EQ2, ya just log on, "what do i wanna get done?" and whammor, ya go do it. Never got the boredom that comes from procrastinating. However, TOV "Tears of Veeshan" I see as the last good expansion for eq2. It was all down hill after that, and the last time i really played, I hated what they did to my toons. So went back to eq.

Get ready for Origins server in late June. 2006 EQ2 build, as classic as it gets without too much 2004-2005 broken things headaches

as a quarm player who appreciates the QOL features and heard horror stories from classic and P99, You have convinced me EQ2 is worth giving a whole hearted shot sometime From its unique experience as its own game and as a family member in the EQ tree.

I have played both games a lot. I would say that EQ1 is a more time sink (requires more dedication to get things done), while you can more easily do stuff as a casual player in EQ2. However, I think EQ1 have the more interesting group gameplay, it's just more engaging (yea, you sit....but it's also more unpredictable and intense), while EQ2 have more instances, once you have done the instance 1 or 2 times, it's no surprises, also crowd control etc isn't as powerful. EQ1 is more consistent when it comes to art style (my personal opinion is that I like eq1 art style better than eq2) while EQ2 is more a mixed bag (some mobs / zones looks awesome, while other mobs looks way too cartoonish). I think EQ2 raids are more interesting, but the 24 player limit makes guilds very picky about what class they want. While EQ1 with a higher player limit in raids, makes guilds more flexible about what they need of classes. Both games are fun to play, but in the end I would say EQ1 is the one I enjoy the most.

You know, I'm going to say that once again World of Warcraft copied EQ. Wow Retail today having so many buttons to press for a rotation is just a "simplistic" twist to EQ. WoW is the Sony Playstation of MMOs.

I'm all for balanced comparisons (I've dedicated years to both games), but I wish you'd at least given a caveat that your EQ1 comments were primarily applicable to TLP servers. Many of the things mentioned as big differences are far less prevalent on live servers, where a lot (but definitely not all) of the EQ2 QoL upgrades have been part of EQ1 for 10+ years now.

the biggest problem EQ2 had when it was released in 2004 is you basically needed a Department of Defense computer to run it. A lot of people were still on Dial up(myself included), you are NOT playing EQ2 on dial up

In old vanilla eq2 you definitely needed crowd control in public dungeons. Couldnt tell you how many times you'd get a respawn from a group that was ahead of you. That role was given to enchanters/coercers in eq2.

I played eq2 from 2004 - 2016. From it's release until i finally had enough of the cheaping down of the game. EQ was a good game because of the huge number of classes and races and how items were made for those choices. Eventually the dev team was so cut down and restricted, that the entire itemization got broken down. Wis used to be a factor for manapool and resist chance on spells. int for spell dmg, agi was for avoidance, str for atk and base dmg, and so on... As i said, quit in 2016, because asshole devs insisted on shitting on the lore of the game. 2 brawler variations, monk and bruiser. monk was the defensive version, bruiser the offensive. But for some reason SOE/Daybreak hated bruisers, and decided that apart from having way better defensive combat arts, monks would now also destroy bruisers on the dmg output with dragonbreath. just click the ability whenver it is ready, and up to or over half your dmg output will be from that one click. doesnt matter if the bruiser timed everything right with the VC from the bard. Fuck you bruiser, die in one hit because you dont have the base avoidance of monks. And also stop crying that the more tanky version of your arch class is also out dps'ing you. We don't care about bruisers. They're the Freeport version of monks, and monks are from Qeynos, which is Sony EQ backwards. So there, go fuck yourself. We hate Freeport classes, all classes that have a counterpart from FP must be better at the game !

EQ2 had so much potential but too many classes lost their identity, and that nerf stick came out so often. I remember the poor paladins that grinned 150 percent experience required for the class to be more powerful, only to have EQ2 to nerf the class because they thought no one should be more powerful, even if they did have to suffer that 150% experience penalty. Every few months a class would get nerfed and a lot of players would get mad and leave.

Theres no way people are going to play this absolute P2W trash when things like Project Quarm and P99 exist. EQ 2 is doomed, it has what the same 300 player base for the past years?

Bro It's merging with planet side 2 , is that a good thing? Will EVERY everquest item be useless and only the planetside 2 guns being worthwhile? How would a scimitar be as powerful as a plasma cannon? Unless it brings players

Separate starter cities not a mistake. Homogenizing and consolidating the starters would be a mistake. Its a bit too ling to explain here, but effectively EQ 1 dungeon design, offered a much better end result. Rather then the immediate grat of exploring and dominating a single dungeon… then running it 30 more times. Yiu had a situation in which the mystery lasted longer, building up slowly over time, making the eventual progress more impactful and rewarding. Additionally you shared the dungeon with a variety of levels, sparking cross level interaction, and fueling the imagination of what is deeper still within the dungeon. With “bosses” that are often requiring advancement of near raid lvl equipment and levels. I firmly believe this subtly added to the cornerstone of what made EQ so popular that no one has since recreated. Accomplishments that are long in the works and hard fought to eventually conquer. Making them feel substantial and legitimate. Very unlike running WOWs dungeons dozens if not hundreds of times. WOWs dungeons felt like game levels EQs dungeons felt like a living world.

I actually think EQ1 looks significantly better than EQ2. There's just an artificiality to everything that EQ2 didn't have: plastic looking characters and zones that are forcefully walled in.

The problem we're having now is the impact of live on Varsoon, such as wards being almost useless in raids cause of bleedthrough, and the fact that if your tank isn't fully 30 Krono costing plate armor he just gets ate by any significant raid boss. there is no cap on Ab mod making gear with any significant ab mod cost several Krono. The cloth gear for your highest dps classes drops few and far between leaving the caster's getting hit by aoes without the ability to resist it cause the mobs are hitting like they are in RoK during KoS. Never in my years of playing EQ2 have i ever seen a MT raid group needing 3 healers besides super hard fights like Twin Idols of Rallos Zek, Trakanon, top TSO raids, or King Tormax etc, etc. But now in KoS we have to drop several dps spots to load up another healer. They are tailoring it to only a handful of elitist guilds that have 0 raid members missing. I could keep going, this game isn't supposed to be this hard until later and end expansion raid bosses.

The game is good, but its also pay to win. You wont notice the pay to win until end game, but once you get there you'll realize if you want to be competitive in raids and groups you need high rank spells and leveled up mounts and leveled up familiars which take YEARS to get if you do the research for them for free. They will try to squeeze "pay to finish research" or "pay to finish training" shit out of you. You can get some of it with in game currency but you'll probably need to purchase in game money with IRL currency to ever get close enough to enough money to buy some.. That being said, if you don't mind having a mediocre character, the game is great.

This was a good review and I agreed with nearly all of it. The one thing I would add is that EQ2 has way too much pay-to-win in it nowadays. I understand that they need money but it is the slow acting poison that is killing the game, IMO. Being able to buy master spell upgrades and sell Krono for plat so you can just buy top level gear is incredibly toxic. Getting top level gear used to be an accomplishment. Now it is an exercise in cash.

Thanks for the video. I just started up EQ2 again on Varsoon. Haven’t played since 2009ish.

Still not a fan of EQ2. Played it off and on as I have all access to play EQ, which I have played continuously for 22 years now. There are definitely some things they did right in EQ2, but, it just never grabbed me like EQ.

Think about this aspect also THEY DUMBED DOWN healers years back, they were much more intricate in eq2's hayday.

Some of the features I agree are better that you talk about, some are worse. However the one thing I will say that I completely disagree with is that the game looks good. Both EverQuest’s as much as I love them are very dated. I honestly wish the EQ2 would have Went with a more stylized brighter and even cartoony world maybe not so much is World of Warcraft. On the cartoonist portion but it’s so dull in drab and boring and just didn’t age well.

I unfortunately don't have as much time as before for guilds or investing into the social aspect of MMO raiding, I wish I could see EQ2's content by my own in solo, if that's even possible. Maybe by overleveling stuff a bit?

As a long time player from release of both of these games actually think the gameplay of the Shadowknight class in particular is way dumbed down in Eq2 than it is in eq1. I do agree that the social aspect of MMO's is where they fail in the modern era, it seems they over corrected but in my view if you want to play a game solo go play a single player game. I actually prefer if some things were more hard core like they were in eq1. I would kill for a game that was eq1 reimagined with modern graphics but I know I am in a minority here because I experienced it at it's peak. I think another reason eq2 "failed" is because its way to similar to what wow was doing instead of being it's own thing for a more hardcore audience. the engine performance didn't help either.

Just a thought, I was there on the launch of EQ and the noobie zones were overflowing for months after the game launched. My point being that a growing healthy game kept those noob zones fairly populated for years and looking back at that game in its current dieing form and saying "there are too many noobie zones" is just kind of silly.

i can remember playing eq2 in like...2005..ish and it was lonely as a solo but i had the best grouping experience ever in the commonlands

Apolinus/lifesuportt was my characters you see me MT in the raid at the 23 min mark. I miss those days

Ahh yes, EQ2. The game where every class is more hectic and annoying to play than the EQ1 bard/chanter. The game where every class has 4 different skills, each doing the same damned thing. No thanks.

Biggest part of the whole review, you are on a time locked progression server, these are much more populated and more welcoming to new players. there is no rush to get to 120 to do current content and you can take your time and experience the entirety of the game. this is making me want to play again , i played for 10 ish years. and as for the crowd control comment, eq2 has plenty of classes that have good cc, illusionist, coercers, pretty sure conjurors have a group stun. quite a few classes

I liked the game back when my ranger could wear the Assassin hood from veeshan's peak. I had to do the quest to change my ranger to an assassin and then do the quest to change myself back to a ranger... then they patched it to be class specific instead of ranger/assassin after how many years? After that I put down the game and never went back.

I tried eq2 retail in the past, an enjoyable 20 level solo grind, but then it ends and it's a really shitty solo grind that I only made it to the 50's and burnt out. Tried tle, everyone was a veteran and had a toxic attitude more akin to wow. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Vanguard should have been eq2. Played eq2 for several years but the performance killed it for me.

You really need to somehow work on getting some higher framerate game captures...not sure what software you're using but I really think you need upgrade that.

kinda sad this games pay 2 win though...ontop of the subscription model...

Back in my day, when you died you lost your level. Not like nowadays with these whippersnappers

14:50 some people like myself prefer chat because I can do it at my own pace and I feel less pressure, I get anxiety when I have to talk to people and I'm a voice chat and there s a higher expectation to speak and whatnot. Typing lets you reply and think about your responses more.

Great video! I just left EQ2 again but i still love the game

I'm currently Playing on varsoon. Doing a decorator challenge run. I may only equip a new piece of gear after I place a new furniture item in my house.

I dont Like how they did the DPS classes. A Berserker should do damage Not BE a Tank.