WoW vs. EQ2 - What you wish the other had

[Kolle]

For any of you that has played both maybe you have your own ideas about this.


One of the things I like about EQ2 that I wish WoW had was the buff system. As a long time shaman in EQ1, buffing became a thing in my nightmares. I still have flashbacks from raids prior to group buffs, extensions, mgb and all of that.

For those not familiar with how many buffs work in EQ2, each character has 5 concentration blocks. As a shaman, I have many group buffs that take up 1 block (some take more that are specific and more powerful, I assume it's the same situation at high lvls). These buffs last 12 hours. When you cast them, they hit you and anyone near enough too you. But, they also land on anyone in your group that comes in range of you or joins your group. This means you can log in solo, cast all of your buffs, and not have to ever recast them for 12 hours unless you die or they get dispelled (rare).

There's a rather large selection of buffs that do different things. I like the variety so far and I'm only lvl 22.

Of course, the drawback is that you must be within range (fairly big, not small if you're crawling). You must be grouped to have these kinds of buffs. This, however, is something I'm very willing to have in exchange for everything else.




I wish EQ2's quest system was more like WoW's. EQ2 does have more room (50 quests), but somehow they just don't seem as good. More often than not the quest reward experience isn't too fantastic. There's also a huge lack of quests for the solo player.

I like the way WoW uses the exclamation marks etc... as well. I really don't like having to run around talking to every single npc I see to make sure i'm not missing quests. I just find this more annoying than anything. If i want to talk to an npc to enrich my gaming experience, then i'll do it. I'd rather not be forced to when looking for quests.

Also the setup seems better in WoW. You start in your little newbie area and you can quickly and easily find quests as you progress and go from area to area.

It works somewhat like that in EQ2, but i've found a serious problem with finding quests that are either too easy or too hard. Many times you have no clue exactly how hard it's gonna be or even how good of a group you need until your standing in front of the mob.

In WoW, I could almost always be certain by the color and if it was elite tagged as to whether or not I should be trying it at my level.

Also a rather large portion of quests in EQ2 come from dropped items. Since you need a group for some of these, it's extremely annoying losing the lotto and eventually out-lvl'ing the area and not even having a chance to really benefit from the quest. It's also a pita that some group members roll and win when they already had the quest or did it before. They can't do it twice so it's basically a waste.

[xilsharn]

My question regarding all of these issues, which I share about EQ2 to be honest, is would we have noticed them had we not had WoW to compare them to?

Would we consider EQ2 a higher quality game without World of Warcraft to compare it to?

[Kolle]

I think so, but maybe in a different way. Both games have things that are better than the other. It's too bad we can't take all of those things and put them together in one game.

If we didn't have WoW, I still think people would have suggested changes or just whined about things like not enough solo quests.

Without EQ2, I know I personally would be whining about the buff system because I absolutely hate having to constantly recast short term buffs. I don't know that I would have suggested an EQ2 system, but I probably would have at least asked for the buffs to be several hours long instead of 30 mins or less and group only.

Take either away or leave them, they'll both still make tons of money and have hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

[Fluffya]

I wish WoW had the same worldwide release as EQ2. Seriously, I still don't see the point of delaying the European launch and segregating the servers. Being 3 months behind just plain sucks.

[namon]

Actually in EQ2 the NPC's with quests jump up and down and wave and stuff. The thing I wish WoW had that EQ2 does mainly, and if it were the case I'd be there so fast it wouldn't be funny.. is more grouping. To a much lesser extent the two sides being able to group us and stuff on blue servers.

[Fendryl]

/noxp switch, if you play with a regular group this is a fantastic feature.

[ArkturusMaximus]

Although i dont mind the exclamation marks for the regular quests in WoW, I do hope there are some harder to find quests at some point.

[Tasso]

the only thing I wish wow had that eq2 has is higher poly count models for toons. not mobs just the toons.

same skins just higher poly models with the option in game to go to what we have now on the fly.

what would make eq2 not so annoying.. no zones. for me that was the killer. next generation and it still zones was the nail for me.

ill allso agree the ? and ! system would of made eq2 better..

[Chan FeiHong]

The only reason there are zones is because many of them are instanced. With 5000 people on a server having 2 sides to choose from, the starting zones can get a little cramped.

[Gotenks]

The only thing I wish EQ2 had that WoW has is a game I can stand for more than 5 minutes.

[Stomp]

I wish EQ2 had the quest share that World of Warcraft has.

I like the combinations in tradeskills much more in EQ2 compared to World of Warcraft. It is actually fun to do the combinations in EQ2 compared to queue system in WoW where you just click "Combine all and alt + Tab to read the FoH message boards.

I wish EQ2 would fire the animation artist already. Watching anything run in EQ 2 is pathetic.

I also agree that running around Hail'in every npc to make sure you have every quest is annoying. There are some npc's that will jump up and down and wave you over in EQ2 when they don't have a quest for you. They might be merchants or something else.

I wish that World of Warcraft's raw materials would drop the locators that show you exactly where the resources are on your map. In EQ2, the nodes just pop all over and coming across one is not a rat race but more of a "ooo, look what I found." This might just be my personal taste.

I think that EQ2 could use the "fluid" feel of your character's control that World of Warcraft has. I hate having automatic facing and my character flipping around all the time just because I have something targeted.

[Grayson Carlyle]

Originally posted by Stomp
I wish that World of Warcraft's raw materials would drop the locators that show you exactly where the resources are on your map.

It doesn't for you? I just turn on Find Minerals and they appear as the golden dots that quest NPCs have when you can complete a quest. The range is considerably smaller, but it makes finding them easy.

[Malakie Torsade]

Much more exerience with WoW, and only level 10 in EQ2, so keep that in mind.

I would love to have the exclamation system in EQ2. Yes, some NPCs will hail you over, but not all of them. I've found a lot of quests from talking to NPC's who didn't call out to me. I'd love to see question marks on the NPC's you are trying to find too. It's SO damn frustrating running around Freeport trying to find the damn NPC you need to finish the quest. The quests which don't even tell you what area of Freeport that NPCs are in are awesome.

EQ2 needs to steal WoW's GUI.

Would love to see WoW have player housing. I know it's a minor detail, but something I've always really liked.

[ganthornx]

the biggest thing i woudl like to see them both take from each other is their quest log system. WoW has the share quest feature and EQ2 has the view all of your groupmates/shared quest feature. Now if they would both incorporate the others idea that would be rockin

[Haalen]

Originally posted by Grayson Carlyle
It doesn't for you? I just turn on Find Minerals and they appear as the golden dots that quest NPCs have when you can complete a quest. The range is considerably smaller, but it makes finding them easy.

I think he means they should get rid of the indicators on the map.