New to EQ. A few questions

[Gavving]

Originally Posted by Norello [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've been thinking about giving this game a try. There are a few things I'd like to know first to see if it right for me.

1. How difficult is it to find groups? Is there a healthy population at off-peak hours? I've been looking for a game where I would spend most of my time playing with others.

2. How sociable is the community? When playing most modern MMORPGs the communities feel rather antisocial compared to a decade ago.

3. How difficult and involved is the game-play? The last few MMOs I've tried have been simple, fast paced, and had little risk of failure which resulted in a boring experience.

4. What classes are most desired for groups? The last thing I want to do is end up investing time into a class that makes finding a group a challenge.

I've just started playing here in the last few weeks... newbie levels the activity is high compared to live EQ. In live EQ getting a pickup group on Orc Hill in Gfay or Crushbone isn't happening.

I think this server is self selecting for those who like to socially interact when they game. Sure some are solo only, but classic EQ requires cooperation. Melees must get casters to give them a bind for example. You're not getting gear upgrades without groups in most cases, etc.

EQ Gameplay.... Well. Combat can be simple at early levels. Its generally a game of choosing your battles wisely and killing things before they kill you. I don't really know how classic EQ is going to compare to current games, they're different animals. Classic EQ is grindy and not afraid to punish you. Dieing has consequenses. You get to do a corpse run naked, and you lose XP. No other game today has the balls to enforce that.

Classes, I would recommend starting a few different ones. Pick one that's more solo friendly and one that's probably not. Play them both. In classic EQ the group friendly classes are hard to solo and harder to advance because of that. But I would think that once you get a guild and a group of friends, they'll welcome anyone who pulls their weight. A group of necros can be a deadly thing in my experience from the old days.