Dephier

Here let me assist in this thread. I've experienced Molten Core(Wow) and now my guild is moving onto BWL. So, maybe I can shed some light on what WoW raiding is all about? We'll see. I'll start with something very basic like ragnaros. Rag is the final mob in Molten Core, and is a defining point in a guilds progression onto Tier 2. The fight is set up in a very simplistic way, requiring two tanks, ranged dps, melee dps, etc. He only has two things that make him difficult, his AE knockback that inflicts fire damage, and his sumbersion back into the lava spawning adds if you don't kill him fast enough. You might say, Dephier you're a dumbass thats just like EQ2, sounds gay! You couldn't be more wrong. My guild has killed him multiple times now and I still get the same rush I did in the beginning when hes down to 10%. Why? Blizzard knows how to make simple things and turn them into very exciting, fun affects. Example? Ranged DPS better not eat a Knockback from Rag or they're going to be knocked into the lava that surrounds Rag, basically getting owned within a few seconds.


Quick example of Razorgore before I jump into Itemization. Razorgore(first mob in BWL) is one of the most well thought out fights I've seen yet. You have a square room with 3 mobs on one side, and razorgore on the other. You kill these 3 mobs and then Have your MT Mind Control razorgore to make him Destroy the 30 eggs in his room. All while you have 4 groups, one in each corner. These groups destroy the adds that spawn, and hunters kite the dragonkin that spawn. All this lasts about 6 minutes....and thats only Phase 1 of the encounter.

Items are key to any type of progression in WoW Raiding. A group of people that have done end game dungeons won't stand a chance in hell if they tried to attempt Blackwing Lair. You have to have all of your guildmates in Molten Core(Tier1) gear to even bother attempting the next tier. Even better are Item set bonuses that don't just have Flowing Thought.

This post is far longer than I wanted, and I'm sure everyone will skip over it. Ah well, have a nice day.

Rampagious

Or you could just DI razorgore and go straight to him

Koenig

You can't convince people that wow is better than eq2, I used to be the same way untill I bought a new mobo and it came with a wow trial. I laugh everytime I think about the shit I used to talk on wow without ever trying the game. I havn't raided in wow but just reading about it is more exciteing than playing eq2. eq2 needs to quit throwing random content out that makes no sense and doesn't progress in anyway and just do exactly what wow does.

keldo

I used to be the same way as well, I really liked eq2 in T5 because it had so much more content than WoW. But since then, with teiring and inability to itemize they have systematically destroyed 80% of their content and the stuff that remains is only difficult due to a stupid combat system mechanic. Looking at WoW now as someone who hasn't played it at all, I wonder every day why I waste my time in EQ2.

Thinking about the creativity behind EQ2's raiding and item design just makes me depressed. Even compared to EQ1 it is pathetically weak.

Ledbetter

For the record, I have raided everything possibly in EQ2 before the latest SOE money maker, adventure pack. I now have also raided everything possible in WoW excluding most of Naxxramas. My guild is 3 bosses into Naxx and working at more every day.

If you want any insight on either game, please continue reading. If not, fuck off and diaf.

I was the same way, "blah blah blah WoW is for little children" "it looks too cartoony" etc..

Then I finally realized how dumb EQ2 raiding had become.

Let's break your average EQ2 raid encounter down.

90% of EQ2 raids (not sure about the gay new advpack) are won on the pull. I remember nights where it took Vagabonds over 2 hours to pull Lord Vyemm. Random agro changes on incoming, random resets, etc. Everytime that we made perfect pulls, we won.

5% of EQ2 raids are in the first 15% of a fight. If you stablized your tank, threw on your 1500 debuffs, bam, win.

4% was luck. Tarinax/Vyemm wiping hate 1 second before their frontal AoE anyone?

1% was the last 85% of the fight. Now and then you had a healer go LD or something and you couldn't kill something because one healer was the whole dam raid because buffs are group only making them retarded.

In WoW, everyone has a job, every class is useful, if one priest goes LD you can still win with actual player skill. Fights are based on skill rather than pulling luck. Fights last 20 minutes and mobs have such extraordinary mechanics that if they added any WoW content to EQ2 people in EQ2 would get totally owned.

Lets now talk about progression. Sure in the early days of WoW there wasn't much to do. Blizzard gave people time to earn progression. You needed to farm 5 and 10 man zones to even compete in Molten Core. You need to farm Molten Core in order to have a snowballs chance in hell in Black Wing Lair. You need to farm BWL in order to own up AQ. Then there's Naxxramas. This zone is quite possibly the best designed, most well thought out zone in any MMO ever. Every boss is totally unique. Every fight requires people to have the best of the best possible gear. Every fight requires people to actually do their jobs for 20 minutes and not slack off.

EQ2 progression? I don't see it anywhere. Shit, DoF is like the only expansion that EQ2 had close to any kind of progression and half of it is still broke. You had the stupid zone with the genies (the name eludes me atm) which was pretty easy, then you had the Gates of Aket Aken which was slightly harder. Into zones like DMP/PoS/FoL. The only problem with this was that none of the gear scaled. Most of the best gear came from the easiest zones. EQ2 itemization was so random it was pathetic. Oh, and don't forget about.. THE WRATH OF FURY!

Oh and if you want to talk opening day content. What did EQ2 have? Some contested spawns that dropped wooden boxes? Prismatic quest, was pretty much it for a long time until they released those 15 minute instances that you had to spend 10 minutes zoning around to get to EVERY FUCKING DAY (Zalak, MotM, etc.)

Graphics, well shit, WoW IS more cartoony. WoW is also a lot more clean. It's more crisp. You also don't need Jesus the Computer to run WoW. That aside, it's honestly a matter of opinion. Do you want to play a fantasy MMO with strigid and realistic graphics, or do you want to play a fantasy MMO with a huge spectrum of colors and a fantasy look? Oh and, every single item in WoW has a pretty much unique look. You equip a new item, you can actually see the difference on your character.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/items/armorsets/

And what does one in EQ2 do when raids are over? You all just stand around in a circle jerk watching the time go by? Shit in WoW there's always shit to do. You can run any one of like 10 high level instances. You also have the option of PvP, which in itself is a whole new arguement.

WoW also has the classic MMO feal to it. You go to any major city in WoW on any server, you will see hundreds of people chilling there. Standing around town, bullshitting with eachother, dueling, etc. EQ2 is 100% instanced, people run around their homes all day with no contact from the outside gaming world. It just didn't feel right.

Ah well, face it EQ2 people, the best times had were in T5. The T5 contested spawns in EQ2 > WoW. That's all EQ2 has on WoW, nothing more.

If you want to watch some real raiding videos goto http://www.warcraftmovies.com and look up "C'thun" "Razorgore" "Four Horsemen" "Anub'Rekhan" "Nefarian" "Ragnaros".

Have fun sucking in EQ2 bitches!

Xede

i played WoW....for about a total of 4 or 5 days....hated the game too much. Way too many kiddies and the graphics are way too cartoony for me. another thing i hate questing and grinding. Thats all you do in WoW til you hit 60. Fuck that noise. I cancelled my WoW account twice now. No way in hell im even gonna consider play again.

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Koenig

nuff said

Illuminator

Graphics and sound are everything. I don't roleplay but I still require a player character in my games that looks as I would if I were walking around in them myself. Otherwise I don't identify with it and don't care to succeed with it and it's like trying to give someone the wrong blood transplant.

Remember... like it or not, we live here.

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Bow down before the one you serve. You're going to get what you deserve.

yavanna

well in all fairness, its not like you can just start at the top. in every game you have to grind to the max level to start raiding=p cant be like " hey lvl 26 looing for raid guild pst!"

Koenig

The Bazzar server! :P