Lam

ok i'll try to keep this short.. i just started the game on Sunday. i got to lvl 16 last night, and i'm really feeling lost on some things. i do have major mmorpg experience from other games, so i don't know if that's helping me or hindering me

i noticed i keep leveling up and new abilities are getting added to my hotbar. they have different names, but seem to do the same thing. i noticed i can only have a defensive or offensive stance up at one time. i have this "hold the line" thing, or i think it got upgraded last night to something stronger. is that always supposed to be active?

i noticed mobs started hitting me harder the last couple levels, so i put my 2h sword and 2h mace in my backpack and got a 1h sword and shield, and i seem to be doing a bit better. man.. wth is with the gear in this game? i am still wearing several low level pieces. like level 1 and lvl 2 pieces, because either there is nothing on the auction house or it's a lvl 3 piece for 70 gold

what weapon should i be using? are there any "must have" pieces or gear guides i should be looking at? i'm a high elf guardian in a place called Kelethin(sp?) and it takes me a while to run to some goblins that are equal to my level, but i have no idea where to go after that. my girlfriend plays a druid and she's also lvl 16. the best way it seems to get exp is to jump a group of equal level mobs and shout, keep aggro, while she dots and nukes them

and things like kick, punch, the bleeding damage(forgot the name), etc. etc.... are we just supposed to hit all our abilities as soon as they become available on the hotbar?

i'm feeling like i'm doing something wrong, because i almost always have full power and i am fighting constantly and using abilities all the time.. is that normal? the mages are running out of mana a lot

Grind

Alright, its pretty clear your MMO experience stems from WoW.

Basically, WoW skills are based off your weapon, more often then not. That is not the case in eq2. This game is completely based off the quality of a skill.

When you get those new skills, you'll notice they are 'Apprentice I's'. You can talk to an Alchemist, whom can make Apprentice IV's for relatively cheap. That'll help your damage a bit.

Gear wise, due to Transmuting (aka, Enchanting from wow). All treasured items are extremely expensive, since they required to skill up. Go for hand-crafted stuff, and eventually master-crafted gear. The prices on those items should be more realistic, and closer to affordable. Crafters make hand-crafted and master-crafted gear. So try and find a crafter who is LFW (looking for work), armorer, weaponsmith, woodworker (makes bows), alchemist (your skills). Auto-attack damage is the only thing your weapon will affect, but having a good weapon is a good idea.

Buffs and the like are typically "Until canceled" durations, unlike wow where spells have time based durations. Guardians end up with nine buffs, not counting acheivement skills (more later).

You'll end up with three group buffs (background is blue).
1 - Hitpoints
2 - +defense skill
3 - +melee skills

You also have three self only buffs (yellow background).
1 - Your stances, offensive or defensive. Unlike warriors in wow, none of our skills require either stance. Offensive stance you'll take more damage, but have an easier time hitting a higher level mob, and thus doing a bit more damage. Defensive stance, you'll be able to avoid and mitigate damage better, but you'll miss alot more, since it innately lowers your offensive skills (slash/crush/pierce)
2 - Taunt stance, aka Hold the line. Everytime a mob hits you, you have a 50% chance to taunt him for a small amount. Handy for helping mobs stay agro'd on you.
3 - Stamina buff. Just another way to get you some more hit points.

You will also have three single target buffs that you can only put on group members (orange background) I dont know the low level names, or what level you start getting them.
1 - Block buff, you put this on someone who's app to getting hit periodically, it gives you a small amount of parry skill, and gives that person a % chance to use your avoidance. That player will see "Soandso (you) blocks the hit from somesuchmob" basically
2 - Moderate: Reduces the amount of agro the target generates, and also gives them another chance to use your avoidance to avoid an attack, just like the above.
3 - Sustain: Permanent intercept on a priest/mage class, this gives a permanent chance to intercept some damage for the target. They still take a small amount, but you take the bulk of the damage.

You'll also end up with a few temporary buffs, which are basically like "Oh craps". One is a self only mitigation buff, duration is 30s, and basically for those really tough fights, to help reduce the amount of damage taken. You also have a group mitigation buff, which'll help keep others in your group alive as well as yourself in a hectic fight. There are a few more, but those are the basics, which is all you need for now.

You'll also end up with several attacks that basically just do damage, with some minor effect attached. Also some taunts and the likely. Usually the description is enough to get an idea of what they are. Green icons means a skill is encounter based, which means it'll only hit a single group of attached/linked mobs. Blue attacks will hit up to eight targets near you. Red are single targets.

Achievements are another thing. At level ten you start earning achievement experience, and achievement points. You get achievement experience a number of ways. Discovering new locations, killing named mobs, looting special items, and doing quests. The only place i'd suggest you start spending those points would be on the warrior tree, in the stamina line (Gladiator/Buckler line). This skill requires you to use a buckler instead of a tower shield, but it will greatly increase your damage output with auto-attack. It'll basically make solo'ing and leveling alot easier.

Hope some of that helps.

Edit: Oh ya, Spamming your abilities is perfectly acceptable, eventually power consumption becomes an issue. You'll eventually find your rythme and what you need to do to hold agro off some groups.

Grind

About the quests. Do all the quests you can find, as you finish each chain, there should eventually be another quest to go talk to someone in the next area, which will have an entirely new batch of quests.

I havent done the new leveling in the Greater fay area. But i've heard that the quests are relatively well done, and give a good idea of what area you need to move to next.

There was something else i was gunna say, but it completely escapes me now.

maybe i'll remember later

obelisk79

Grinds hit the nail on the head on this... only thing I'd suggest is take a look at all the bonuses and effects your combat styles have and think/experiment with ways to order them at the start of a fight. Some you certainly want to save for those "oh shit" situations, but you'll learn more about what they are and when to use them from experience.

Crafted/Mastercrafted gear should keep you going through the levels comfortably.

As a side-note, try to complete as many quests/collections as possible, because they increase your Achievement points which will really make leveling a good bit more enjoyable. Turning off combat xp might not be a bad idea either since you'll still gain xp off of the quests you do.

Lam

wow.. that help a lot.. i really appreciate that!

can i get my points refunded? i believe i started going down the right side of the guardian tree because it looked to be the most similar to the protection warrior tree in WoW

and what about the trainer? should i be talking to my trainer as i level up? i spend half an hour again last night trying to find the damn person and had no luck. that Kelethin city is a pain to get around

obelisk79

You'll learn your way around....

You can get your points refunded, but I'm not sure where the NPC is located in Kelethin for that.

Something you should look into adding into your game is the EQ2Maps UI mod. Check http://maps.eq2interface.com makes finding things a lot better once you get the hang of sorting out all of the points of interest. Additionally you can find some quest walkthroughs at www.eq2i.com

Illuminator

Save this quote for reference when you start running into players who have no vowels in their names.

__________________
Oh shit I just had a memwipe, why is retarded uncle Roger still designing raids for this game again?
Some players might bot against encounters but it seems like he bots the encounter design!

Lam

i actually stumbled upon and downloaded that map already, thanks

my only problem with it is it seems to have placed 5 million dots all over every map with no descriptions of what they represent :p

Grind

You'll want to ask in ooc where the kelethin respec guy is. Its similiar to wow, where the first is tree, then they start to cost you. There is also a decay system similiar to WoW, but the lowest it will decay to is 10g.

The top left of the map has a drop down menu and you can deselect some of the dots. If you mouse over them, typically you'll get more information.


www.eq2i.com is the quest database i use. I find it the most clean and easy to find stuff.

Grind

Coming from WoW, odds are he's run into the occasional gold farming bot.