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It's that time again. Over the past two days I've probably put 20 more hours into the game at levels 1-9, this time working through the surprisingly fun Priest archetype. I never played a pure healer in EQLive, in part because I don't think I could have dealt with the pressure  . As an EQLive ranger, the worst that could happen if I did not do my job is that the group would end up without a couple of stacks of Tumpy's Tonicss or Fried Pies (since my job mainly consisted of running back to town while the rest of the group exp'd). As a healer, your failure leads directly to the death of others... and boy do they hate it when they lose their precious experience!!
Something in EQII compelled me to this branch, however, and thus far, I'm sure glad it did. First, let's talk about some mechanic issues:
The number one thing I've noticed (and maybe this has changed in EQLive, but it's been so long since I've been there that I simply don't remember) is that there is a "smart" targetting system in EQII. Early on as a Priest, you've got some impressive offensive spell capabilities, as well as moderate melee skills. So it's natural for me in small group situations to be standing next to the mobs, whacking away. In EQLive, that required a constant switching of targets: when it was time to heal, you had to quickly target the player you were looking to heal, and that would prevent any further attacks on the mob you were attacking. That is understandable, in many ways: if you're focus is on healing, it stands to reason that you might not have time to focus on swinging a mace. But even more irritating, if you wanted to switch between offensive spell casting against the target mob and buffing or healing of your group members, you would have to switch again and again during the fight. In EQII, I can target the mob, for example, a vicious badger, and begin the fight offensively with spells or melee combat. If a group member needs a heal, I can simply target him and press one of my many "heal" hotkeys. But if I want to continue casting offensively, there is no reason to retarget the original mob. If I cast an offensive spell, such as Smite, then the game remembers my last target and casts on it. I can continue to melee attack, heal, and cast offensively without having to constantly switch targets. It's far more efficient. Perhaps that is something that has been changed in recent years in EQLive, but to me, it's one of the best changes they've implemented for EQII... especially if you are a priest.
There are new targetting aids in game that help you determine 1. who your targetted group mates are attacking and 2. which of your groupmates is being attacked by your targetted enemy. These seem to work well and are not intrusive. And as usual, they may be shut off at any time if you so choose.
The battle queue system is much improved now. You can easily queue and unqueue moves, and you can turn the system completely off if you wish. My complaints regarding the system are no more .
The quest journal is becoming incredibly useful, and in reality, a requirement. I've got so many active quests right now that without it, players would literally lose much of the quest content that exists within game. Right now at level 9, I've got 20 active quests and 45 completed quests. Early on, many of these are lore and exploration based, and there are the general types of kill tasks that you would expect to help you level. Right now, it appears questing is one of the best ways to equip yourself: you'll get armor and weapon rewards, and it often leads you to locations where item drops are fairly common among the mobs you'll be facing.
The spells you get as a Priest fit in with the system described for the past several months. You start out with a direct damage "Smite" spell and a minor direct heal. As you progress through the early levels, you gain a regeneration heal and a ward spell that prevents damage from being done. Priests will also get a self only buff that boosts various stats to aid with soloing. It's not a viable spell to use in groups (it uses 4 concentration points), so it isn't unbalancing. I intentionally went through much of the early levels (1-7) solo just to see how well a priest could do... and they were quite capable.
Priests also get a basic revive spell early on, and I can't really say much about it now. Fortunately for my group mates, I've not been in a situation where it's had to be used
The progression of spells in power is also something new in EQII. You'll be buying scrolls from NPC vendors, artisans, and finding them in your adventures. Currently I've moved up to apprentice II in all of my spells through purchases at local vendors. I'll need to continue to upgrade these spells as I level in order to remain efficient as a group healer.
The most common question (and no, I can't directly take Q&A's for my journals) I've heard over the past few weeks is "What kind of system are you running on and what kind of performance are you getting out of it?" Currently this is my setup:
AMD 64 FX-53 (Socket 939)
6800 Ultra OC
2 Gigs of OCZ PC3700 DDR
74GB Raptor HD
23" Apple Widescreen Cinema Display
I'm running the game at a resolution of 1920x1600, so that in itself is going to somewhat taint the impressions I can give you for what the game will be like on your machine. Right now I run on either "balanced" or "High Quality" settings, depending on the location. I get great performance out of "balanced," and the game looks brilliant. I was having some problems with the 6800 Ultra OC, which is overclocked out of the box, but I lowered the stock clock speeds a bit and the game ran 10x better. That's something for those of you with 6800 Ultra's to look for when you get the game.
I've removed the widescreen cinema bars from the top and bottom of the screen and am running the game in a full screen format on the widescreen display. It's certainly made me happy to have the Apple display. EQII looks fantastic in widescreen, and I can see plenty of the action.
Now, a bit more on exploring...
I've figured one thing out: you don't need to leave the general area of the city you begin in for quite some time. Everything you need is there, including plenty of adventuring areas. Each subdivision appears to be connected to at least two adventuring areas. Some of these areas have connections to multiple subdivisions. The city itself is very large, being made up of three zones that are probably each a bit larger than any city in EQLive. Perhaps the most impressive thing, however, is the scale of these cities. The zones are large, but the buildings are truly enormous. There are large shops with multiple floors, towers that are truly "towering," massive Estates and, of course, the grand Qeynos Castle. It's really breathtaking to run through the city streets for the first time (and you'll be running through them a lot as you do the various quests early on).
The subdivisions themselves are all quite unique. Each has its own flavor, with unique archetecture and style. Castleview Hamlet is reminiscent of the style found in Felwithe, while the Baubbleshire has a lot of the same traits as Rivervale; so those worried that the "racial flavor" of the old starting cities is forever lost, do not fear. Not all of the subdivisions are reminders of the old world, however. Graystone Yard, home of the dwarves and barbarians, is a great departure from the frozen land of Halas or the caves of Kaladim. But the architecture is exactly what you would expect: very rough, and created with little concern for outward appearance.
In terms of adventuring zones, there are a couple I will mention in detail for this journal: The Down Below and the Oakmyst Forest. You'll likely become very familiar with both during your initial play sessions.
The Down Below is exactly that. It's the revamped Qeynos Catacombs; a series of twisting corridors with various types of mobs. Within the dark halls are larger rooms with tougher groups of mobs, so there is plenty available early on for both the soloer and the group player. It's a relatively large dungeon, especially given that it is what I would consider a "noob" dungeon. There's plenty of room to get lost, and you probably will quite often, early on. There are several exits to various parts of the world in the Down Below, and I believe it connects to every subdivision and city zone in Qeynos. The second adventure area I've had time to explore thoroughly is Oakmyst Forest. Here you'll find plenty of types of outdoor mobs, both common in the real world (bears, badgers, deer, etc.) and those based in fantasy (dryads, faeries, mystails). It's a beautiful zone; you've likely seen screens of the sunlight breaking through the cannopy of trees that lines the forest. There are various NPC scouts walking through the zone, and it adds to the atmosphere of the zone. I haven't done any hunting in the area other than for quest related tasks, but it is one of my favorite zones to simply walk through. Perhaps that's just my old Ranger nature coming out .
A lot has also been made regarding the manner in which players zone from area to area. There are a series of waterways within the city of Qeynos itself; each has two bells located nearby. One of these bells will be for travel inside of Qeynos, one will be for travel outside of Qeynos. When you ring a bell, a pop up box will appear with a list of available routes. These will primarily include the subdivisions (for the inner bell) and a short list of adventure zones (for the outer bell). For travel within the city zones, the bells are a great move. With the size of these cities, the last thing a player will want to do is zone through 3 subdivisions and 2 city zones just to get to the NPC he's looking for. Given the connection through the waterways, it's a logical move. I'm a bit mixed on the outer bells, though. They only allow travel to a limited number of zones (basically just two), but I always liked the idea of leaving the city gates themselves in order to reach the outer world. Those city gates still exist, though, and you'll be able to reach those same zones in the traditional manner if you wish. It's really a matter of convenience, I guess. Players will take the path that is quickest for them. Sometims you'll want to zone into Oakmyst through the gates in Castleview Hamlet, sometimes you'll want to ring the bell from Graystone. Sometimes you'll want to enter Antonica through the massive gates of North Qeynos, and at times you'll want to take the waterways from Baubbleshire. Basically, there are going to be enough options for everyone. These exist primarily to facilitate travel between the massive centralized city areas. Once outside of the city (and into the larger adventure areas, such as Antonica), these will likely be far less important, and other means of travel will present themselves.
That's enough for now. If I can find anything else that I'm just dying to write about tonight, I'll give you another update. Until then, see you in game
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