WOW vs EQII

[Carlsberg]

Hi,

For the moment i play in WOW but yesterday i downloaded the trial of EQII for 7 days.
At first view i would say that EQII has an realistic graphics and are well animated.
In fact it's far from an easy choice.
So i would like to ask soem guys that play EQII what the big differnce are compared with wow.

Is there any goal besides leveling ?
Also how big is the differnce between good & evil ? are they in combat ? is there any battle for controlling grounds ?

Also how is the guild live ? like in wow you can just do quest togheter and helping each other with items adn other stuff.
Is there any guild goal ?
is to late start now with a new char ? as the other are 50 levels ahead ?

I just want some idea from guys that have some decent experience so they can tell how it's like further in the game ? and plz be honest pro & contra's

and need to start flaming between wow & eqii players. Think we are all old enough to just say what the experience is the game so other gamers have a correct and honest image of the game.


hoping on some decent reply's plz.

[Twiz]

I prefer EQ2 mainly because I played EQ1 for over 5 years and have a deep knowledge of the ethos of Norrath...a LOT of it carries into EQ2 if you are familiar with it. If you do a search for EQ2 or WOW here, you will find several long thought out debates (usually) of the pros and cons of each, so I don't know if anyone who previously engaged will repeat their opinions.

I did the beta for WoW and just didn't care much for it...mainly the graphics and the fact I was to lvl 19 in about a week...seems it would go awful fast to me.

As for your too late to join question...the EQ2 guilds (there are two, one good and one evil for TOG) have a variety of levels, and many have all their slots filled with alts, so it's not hard to find folks to hang with, depending on your playing time.

There is no PvP in EQ2, but they did put in new sabotage missions a while back where you go into enemy territory to slay opposite faction NPCs. I believe the concern is that if they introduce PvP it will unbalance the PvE...kind of like they did in SWG which took a couple years to fix.

It really depends on you which you prefer, as there is a good size TOG community in both...although WoW has significantly bigger guilds. Personally I found when EQ2 first took off, our original guild got way too big, didn't/couldn't really know most of the folks, and many eventually left because they felt we weren't meeting their personal needs. The core group left behind..probably 30-60+ folks...seem to find lots to do.

The other thing you can do if you have joined TOG already is check the forums below...there are 2 for EQ2 and 3 for WoW...they should give you an indication of guild member interactions...ENJOY!

[neimad]

I'm seriously thinking about giving WoW a go, having played EQ2 for about four and a half months. EQ2 was a lot of fun, the TOG crew are great and very helpful with quests and tradeskilling and even just general questions, so I'd certainly recommend it. The graphics are excellent but you need a top notch PC to get the most out of it.

On the downside I found I had less and less time to play and EQ2 requires a hefty time investment in order to advance. In addition most of the content is geared towards being part of a group. Not that that's a bad thing in itself however if your time is limited then you can spend a while just trying to find or put together a group. I get the impression that WoW is somewhat more casual gamer friendly, and its innovation in forming groups is a plus.

[Janus]

What neimad is talking about is what I found for EQ2 as well.

Played EQ2 about a couple of months, and got to a decent level (20). I've found, and have heard/read about that from then on EQ2 is fairly group focussed. As in, it will be difficult to level by yourself.

This is a major point of difference with World of Warcraft. There are solo-able quests and content available all the way to level 60. You could play the entire game solo if you so wished. You wouldn't be able to do any of the instances in a meaningful way - you could solo the lower level instances, but there wouldn't be any "good" loot drops or quest rewards that are worthwhile to you at your level, and the higher level instances would kick your butt.

This major point of difference translates to WoW being more "casual gamer" friendly imo. Being that you could jump on and play for an hour or so, and still get the sense that you've "accomplished" something in the game.

EQ2 is very pretty, however, not having had the history of playing the first EQ, I had trouble being drawn into the world. Having played all the Warcraft games, some of the landmarks and NPCs were instantly familiar. This familiarity helped me get some immersion into the game.

Lastly - I love WoW's sense of humour. I'm currently working on "Linken's Sword" quest line. You get it from a small gnome called "Linken" who needs help getting his sword upgraded - he's dressed in green leather, with a pointed hat...

Plus, there's a quest where you find a dwarf locked in an outhouse. He asks you to help him get revenge on the Dark Iron dwarves who locked him in there. Oh, and could you please bring him some silk cloth.. "for ... um.. nothing."

End of the day, I can only recommend trying both games for yourself. What works for me, or someone else, may not work for you.

[Anisha]

In some way I agree with the posts above, however I also see more options depending on how you like to play. This being that it depends on what you enjoy doing in the game. If you are looking to just level, you can do this solo (1-3 people) or with a group.. my husband and I have tested this more recently and due to the adjustments made by sony in the last patch we actually find that we exp faster solo than in a group now (they increased it by 300% in a recent patch for solo exp). They have added alot of solo content the last month or two that didn't previously exist, including more/better solo loot and solo quests.

However, if you want to do heritage quests "uber loot quest rewards" then yes these are definatly group oriented, at least for portions of it. Alot of the great reward quests are need a group either for the entire quest or at least a portion of the quest. I find i do most of these with TOG guildies without much trouble as long as i am patient to join when others need it too. But personally I enjoy grouping with people and hanging out with fellow toggers. Although yes, it can be time consuming in RL to set up groups etc.. although I find I loose track of time and don't notice it.

If you enjoy crafting stuff it's very time consuming to level and money intensive. That being said the richest people in the servers are people who don't tradeskill but harvest and do writ quests and sell it all. Tradeskilling is very useful now (at least for certain artisan classes) as the market is not flooded with re-usable great-stat items. But i know many people are on opposite sides of the fence on this subject both positive and negative.

as a side note, I tested WoW when it was in beta and I enjoyed it. It was great for casual playing and soloing. My impressions of the major difference is 1) graphics, 2) depth & detail of quests, 3) leveling speed, 4) depth of world's exploration, 5) pvp. I find that both are great games it just depends on what you enjoy most.

1) WoW has more cartoon graphics but easy on your PC hardware, whereas EQ2 is more realistic but needs a good card to get the full effect without lagging.
2) WoW's quests were much easier to accomplish but EQ2's had more depth of content.
3) WoW's great for the casual player as it's much easier to level and not as much of a timesink to gain exp, EQ2 takes more time investment but there is so much to do with questing and exploring that it has more involvment and can stay very intersting if you don't just "grind" to level.
4) Both games have large worlds, but it took me longer to explore EQ2 than WoW, so many nooks and crannies that even though I've already passed the levels designed for those areas I still am unable to explore all there is to see. Although depending how you play wow, it could do similiarly but i found it easier to explore in WOW than i was in EQ2, but I feel i'm still always finding and learning new places in EQ2 so for me at least I never have nothing to do or get bored, unless i'm just not in the mood to do anything new or unable to find friends to do things with that take more power than i can solo.
5) unlike WoW, there is no PvP aspect however as stated in another post there are sabatage quests to fight against the other faction npcs.


just my viewpoint of course and i'm sure others may agree or disagree

[shawn23233]

Ive played both to mid level and there are nearly as many differences as there are similarities. But the basic (besides art direction) is EQ2 is essentially a group oriented MMORPG (with some serious class balance problems IMO) and WoW is essentially a single player MMORPG, up to 60 where it becomes basically PvP (ala Guild Wars).

You can group an solo in both but WoW provides alot more solo content and it really is soloable up to the level cap 60. EQ2 sololing really becomes less of an option as you pass your mid 20s in level.

Eq2 has a truly amazing graphix engine, however after you wipe the drool from your keyboard ( a few weeks in) you will notice you spend ALOTTA time zoning in and out of places which realyl does hurt the experience. WoW doesnt offer nearly as much techno-eye candy, however it is completely submerssive (you hardly ever zone anywhere).

They are both built in the "newb" or simpler MMORPG mold, however in my opinion WoW succeeds more at this style of game because the frustration of dealing with others is very limited. Which means you can truly log on play for an hour or so an actually accomplish something, where in EQ2 they made the game realyl simple but still require you to group which adds too much complication for such a simple game.

One difference often citied is PvP (none in EQ2 - complete end game of WoW) but truth be told WoW has no death penalty, no item drops, no xp gain, so I feel it really doesnt offer much in the way of PvP.

[Twiz]

I have been canx from EQ2 for about a month or more now, so I can't say this from a playing perspective, but reading all the changes via the update thread at eq2 official boards, I am not too sure there will much difference in the these games in the future. It seems with every update EQ2 is trying to become more WoW (which is understandable based on WoW's market share). With Station Exchange, it seems they attempted to beat WoW to that punch (personally I think it is inevitable WoW will begin selling game items to players as well, or running the service for players at a Blizzard profit). I am doing GW atm, however it is a little too much hack n slash for my tastes, although I do find myself losing lots of time to it trying to finish quests. And the henchman option is great, because at least you know your healer will heal and your tank will attack what you tell it to!

But I digress...you asked about EQ2 vs WoW...my perspective is that soon they will be the same game, just in different settings. I am crossing my fingers for Vanguard...but I think I am a dying breed as someone who wants to actually roleplay some in an MMO R.P.G....

[Tuar]

Give Lineage 2 a try, great game, fun to play and where else can you be a high lvl Orc Mage Buffer... Plus we have castle ownership possibilities and a fantastic group of people that will help you learn and play the game...
Don't get me wrong, both WOW and EQ2 are good games and I'm sure the TOGers on every game are awesome people but nothing beats the shear joy of walking into a room of aggressive mobs, blasting them with several area of effect spells and then hacking them out of existance with your dual swords...all that while being green...lol... Anyway....play what makes you happy, whatever is most comfortable and gives you the relaxation and fun we all game for...



Tuar,OverLord, LVL 50 Orc Killing Machine and Nice Guy....

[Garain]

I left Lineage 2(loved it except for the major gankage) for EQ2(loved it except for the lack of solo content and miss it) and after a little while left for WoW (still playing and enjoying it) and have since picked up and tried Guild Wars(fun as can be but just not my cup of tea).

The thing that really kills my interest in these MMO's is the rush to get to the end game. Alot of folks in all of these games (Great TOGERS one and all) take it easy, but with the majority rushing their mains to the top level it makes you feel kinda left out when you really enjoy smelling the roses.

WoW is a very fun game it has some very silly moments and makes reference to alot of RL things, but can be serious if that's what you want.

EQ2 is a very fun game with wonderful graphics and lot's of story and I'm wondering just how "solo friendly" it really has become.

GW is a very fun game but is very focused on the more hack and slash element (IMHO only)

Lin2 was beautiful and fun also but became a bit of a grind and the gankathon was HORRIBLE for me.

It's all about what you want out of it. I'd love to be able to play all of these off and on.

[Samulayo]

I laughed to myself when within a month of the EU WOW release, scores of people are complaining that they are bored, have nothing to do etc, and my only comment is: Why get to 60 as fast as you could then?

I rotate my playtime around 3 or 4 characters, across a couple of servers, with TOG and rl friends alike, and I am thoroughly enjoying each class I am playing. My highest character is level 38 atm, and I am in no rush to reach 60 on any of them

As for comparing EQ2/WoW, I had decided long ago, that SOE wouldnt be getting anymore of my money, after seeing how they destroyed the original EQ, so I had made my plans there and then, that WoW would be the game I tried first. I'm not interested in EQ2 in the slightest, no matter how great a game it may be; A couple of friends raved about it, but when I showed them WoW, they changed allegiance, and cancelled their EQ2 accounts lol.

I have not seen EQ2 myself, but those friends have commented that WoW/EQ2 are very similar, except WoW it is possible to solo entirely, whereas EQ2 is slightly more reliant on grouping, to achieve anything.

just my 30c =)