EQDiva

Hi. Been a while since I’ve posted anything. I was a bard on EQI a until little over a year ago. Lost interest in the game after my guild split, but I still remember the fun I had leveling my main (and pulling corpses }:) ). I’ve been considering popping into EQ2 with the expansion packs now that it seems they’ve gotten most of the hairy patches out of the way (for the now) and there is enough content to keep my interest piqued. If I do, I will be playing on Lucan D’Lere (think that’s the spelling) with some RL friends so I was wondering: Of the two which is more rare: Troubadour or Dirge? I’d particularly like to have an LD bard answer this one. Which is more useful in large groups? Which is more useful in small groups? Which bard solos well/better? Besides cast quests, are there any specific quests, weapons, and armor that distinguish upper level Troubadours and Dirge’s from one another? What city is better to start with in which to reach the best potential in either class? At the moment, my researching suggests Troubadours for Freeport and Dirge dominating Queynos. Not specific to LD bards: do you feel appreciated by your groups and guilds? Part of my reluctance in coming back to MMORPGs stems from lack of guild support when I was still growing (they basically twinked me at level one and then let me to my lonesome). The OL friendships were solid and I never had a problem grouping when I power-leveled (though, I rarely grouped with my GUILD!), but getting people to help with item hunts and raids was a guild job…one I found sorely lacking in EQI. What guilds would you recommend I apply to, if any, or should I wait a while before committing to any tryouts? I hear the guild situation in EQ2 is still tenuous: is this true, or has it stabilized? Also, I’ve played on my friend’s account and got to 15 solo/questing. But this is not my standard fare for choosing the bard. I like grouping (and Selos…Pathfinding, ick!). But one thing I noticed was, when trying to start a Heroic Opportunity, my HO or someone else’s could—and did—cancel each other. I’m guessing experience, TeamSpeak, and just old-fashioned good groupmates will solve much of this, but I have several questions about HOs as well. Is there a list of Heroic Opportunities, their activations, costs, and effects? Is there a way to predict when their buffs will activate? Thanks in advance. Nlu

Not a lot of EQ2 bards that come here, I don't think. For the first day you are on the newbie Island and you can, at different times, do a /who all dirge, or who all /troub 50...etc and see what the populater is. You can also go to EQIIPlayers: http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/players_index.vm (Sony's expanded Magelo type site) and research LD. They will list classes and class counts, Guilds and memberships...and probably guild websites. Starting city makes little difference, other than, in general, there are more Qeynos 'goods' than Freeport 'bads', so the markets are a little more active in the good citys....its an easy work around either way..once in your 20's, if need be you can have alts in both and do business in both. There are now guild banks that can be use to exchange goods between cities. Qeynos troub can join an evil freeport based guild and vice versa. Both are equally useful, now, I think. Troubs and Dirges (to date) do the same quests, and many similar quests are available in both cities. If anything, its kinda neat to have a Ratongan Dirge in Qeynos (Ratongans can start in Freeport only and have to 'betray') or a Froglock (Qeynos start only) Freeportian Troubador. ***Edit...If I started a new alt today (3 accounts all full atm) I'd start an Iksar or Troll Troubador and betray to Qeynos. Although, if I was looks to experience the under 30 game over again, I'd may do the Froglock and betray to Freeport...while less have chose that city...I think it is really neat, well designed and to be honest, that honey-sweet 'istn't it a great day to be alive in Qeynos' crap get a little old. Nobody in Freeport candy coats it. Starting race matters only a little, but I'd probably choose one with night vision. Knowledgable players love bards. Guilds are guilds, different personalities, different goals, small family types with nbg, large dkp raiding types and many hybrids inbetween. It is very hard for a family type to make the transition....very hard. You'll get more support in a newbie family type guild, but the odds are a thousand to one they will make it to a serious raiding guild...most people level up and move on, also family type guilds merging into raiding guilds is not uncommon. In my opion, raiding in EQII doesnt really hit its stride until the mid 40's... Guilds vary on policy, some uber guilds will let you apply and join right away (or in your 20's)...but you would need a group of friends to play with to do a lot of the quests..(many are soloable). While you can 'mentor' in EQII, you probably aren't gonna find a lot of folks who want to, unless they are real life friends. The exception might be heritage type quest raids or heroic group encounters where it benefits the whole guild when you complete one. The guilds I have been in usually jumped to support a member on a tuff part of one of those quests. To be honest, you kinda missed a window of opportunity. The uber guild types were all leveling alts a month ago...their alts, for the most part are gathering dust now, with the race to 60 and a new batch of raids available. Its not a big deal, but I bet the 1-50 game has fewer logged on on every server now. Sony recommends a light population server for newbies....I don't necessarily agree with that...having started toons on both types. Regarding HO's...look on www.thescoutssanctuary.com. In general they are underused by most groups. The more PC's of different classes, the more complex. You can't predict them. There is often a common, an uncommon and a rare for the same combinations. If you play with the same group of folks and make an effort, you can develop a routine (ie, let the tank get his self, aggro ho off first, etc.) You learn HO's by doing them, reading about them almost always makes no sense. Scouts in EQII are kinda vanilla untill their mid 30's. All the above are generalizations, and your mileage may vary.... addl links: http://eq2.gamepressure.com/ http://eq2.ogaming.com/db/list/quests_A1.php http://www.clanwhitestorm.com/eq2info/commands.htm http://maps.eq2interface.com/ <<<< very handy!

Qutoe: "Not a lot of EQ2 bards that come here, I don't think." I've noticed that. Some of these page one posts have been up for months. That's a sad sight. EQDiva was the end all be all for learning to use bards in EQI (IMHO). It's unfortunate the transition didn't happen with EQ2; they helped a lot when I was growing. Who knows. If I choose to kick into EQ2, maybe I'll toss a few sticky worthy guides and spell lists this way. I made an account on Sanctuary last night, but the site seems to be down today. I'll keep trying; they seem to be the "place to be" if you're an EQ2 bard. SOE has always recommended new players try new servers. Three reasons: 1.) to populate them quickly. Older players don't often transfer to new servers. Besides the cost of swapping accounts to different servers, they want to keep most of their toons on the same server, so they have the option of twinking and tossing items back and forth between classes, or two boxing new toons up to steam (if mentoring is what I think it is, all the more reason to keep toons cloes to one another in EQ2). 2.) As the new servers open, everyone who enters are at the same level: 1. Better chances to group with people your own size; makes for a more rounded play experience. At least, that seemed the case for EQI. EQ2 is probably the same. 3.) I was a 26k dial-up bard with basic video requirments on EQI. Zone into Book of Knowledge on a busy night; need I say more? DSL, P4, gig o RAM and 256DDR vid-card now; that should let me power through crowded server hours (if this cruddy Radeon doesn't overheat!). If not, lemme know. If everyone has a level 20 XP slump, I shouldn't have a problem finding groups. Once the race to sixty subsides, that should become even easier. If not...i got to fifteen once by solo/questing. If I must, I can make it to 30 alone. Thats just...not the way I wanna play. Thanks for the info on HOs. It sounds like this is a kind of light procing attack. The buffs are nice...when you get them. Thanks very much for the link. It looks like the ratio between Troub and Dirge are even (near 400 toons of each on LD). Whether PLAYED troubs and Dirge's are even...remains to be seen. Upper levels though, it looks like ALL the classes get equal play. Most folks, it looks like, frequent Qeynos instead of Freeport on LD. Hmm... One thing I don't like is hearing that much of the bard's skill requirments have dropped. Is this true? A lot of people seem to be saying that a smart tank beats a savy bard now adays. I got into bard (as much for Selos) as for their inherent player skill requirments when twisting. Heaven forbid; could I actually get bored with the class? Please don't be offended. Keep in mind, I LIKED being a bard. It became my main character as much out of its abilities as for the abilities needed to play the character well. Nukes...blew stuff up. Warriors stood in the middle of a field and got wailed on. enchanters buffed before a fight and then tanked themselves while clerics sat in a corner watching peoples' health drop. lots of time to /gsay to each other. But a BARD with a chatty text mouth during a raid or group fight...obviously wasn't doing his job.

Tanks usually are the pullers these days, I am not sure what 'a smart tank beats a bard' means. The classes in EQII are very well balanced, there is something for everyone. At level 52 I have to choose 5 of 10 different concentration pt buffs..and the choices matter. After that I can drop 3 each 1 minute significant group debuffs on mobs (they all suck power per tick, so its NOT a no-brainer to add them each time). Then I choose my attack strategy, debuf magic resist and melee magic attack, or debuff disease and go with those. I have two ae's (magic and disease) that are at least significant. I can choose to fear (basically a crowd control type of mez) one or almost two mobs. I have to control my aggro. I am one of the guys who determines when to 'escape' to a safe spot. Against a significant casting encounter, I have multiple interupts, including an AE...that can help make or break a fight or raid. I can battle rez. The list goes on... Its the same think as in EQI....anyone can play any toon well, it takes some effort and learning to play your selelction well, and you'll run into good and bad, equipment matters, but its not the be-all-end-all. Its not the EQI bard, but its still a more complicated toon than a tank. They didn't dumb down the dirge (at this level, anyway...pre-40 they are all dumbed down)...they made the tank/wiz/cleric/other scout class a more complicated multidimensional creature. I could passibly 4-box in EQI...I can't 2-box in EQII as well, just because the toons are more compicate....everyone who is playing to the fullest is twisting and if they are good at HO's, coordinating that with others. My comment about servers, I found as many or more to play with my level on AB (moderate use) as I did on Faydark...a new split server...that was just my take. The people who leave EQII usually fall into two groups...not enough complexity or variety at low levels, or they hit 50 with nothing else to do.

Cujo seems to know his game well.... I just found 2 boxing on EQ 2 very easy. With the "q" you can only macro 2 spells, but you can macro 3 with the HO. I macro a tank taunt macro HO and a warlock nuke/stun macro ho. The I have macro's for group encounters and solo encounters on each. It works very well and smoothly. I did 3 box a bit on EQ1, but I actually feel like I'm getting more out of my 2box in eq2 than I did in eq1. Especially since you can target your "main" and detrimental spells will hit his target, while buffs/heals will land on him. You can't macro complex, multi step actions but I find the 2 actions last long enough to switch characters, start another action and switch back.