Questions from 2 new players

Delphwind

Delphwind

Dalayan Adventurer
I had found this gem of a game a while back but never really got too involved due to real life issues. Recently though my wife and I decided to try MMO's again and litterally get sick to our stomaches at the thought of paying blizzard a monthly fee again.

We were not so fond of the origional EQ due to the lack of story driven content (as it was more of a free roaming world where the objective was simply: Gain Leve/gear, Repete) so we are looking for a solid game (F2P helps a lot) that has some story driven content, a good community, and a solid end game for raiding (which is our primary focus)

So I hate to ask it this way, but I need a good arguement to approach my wife with to avoid another craptastic 2 years of WoW.

So my primary questions are:

Guilds:
1. How availiable are they to new players (once we level up of course)?
2. Are there any special benifits besides the ovbious that guilds bring to players?

Content:
1. Will there be stuff to do throughout the game besides grinding?
2. I am all for the occasional "Go here, Kill this, bring back 6 rabbit feet for my grandma" but are there more involved "Epic" quests to take up a great deal of time?

Raiding:
1. Simply, how is the raiding here?
A. Are all the bosses still world bosses where guilds have to fight over spawns, or are there instanced bosses as well on a respawn timer for each guild to take down at their leisure?

I am sure I will have more questions, but this is a good start I think.

Thanks!!
 
Most of this has a larger answer than I have time for atm, but...

Guilds:
1. It fluctuates depending on guilds moving up or dying and reforming, and available spots in guilds will also depend on class. Some classes have a much easier time finding spots. I'll let someone else expand on that.
2. Not sure, maybe an example of what kinda thing you mean?

Content:
1. Lots. There are plenty quests to do. There are adepts (level restricted raid mobs) as you move up. There are treasure maps. I'll let you look that one up. Tradeskilling, etc.
2. Yes. There isn't an epic quest for each class like there was on live, but some classes do have similar, and there is also a "Main Quest", the Vah questline, PoLore quests, and many others that are more story based than just about anything on live ever came close to.

Raiding:
1. There are differences, the biggest being raids here are 18-man (although there is quite a bit 6-man raid content), but I'll let you look those things up. There is plenty of raid content (imo) as you move up, especially in the lower tiers (a lot of which doesn't get raided much, so you shouldn't lack targets), and the recent Ikisith (pretty much Kunark from live) expansion with a ton more quests, raids, etc. I'm sure there's more to an answer to that question, but I'll stop here for now.
A. (2?) Yes, imo you don't have to race nearly as much as you did on live, but there is still plenty of competition for the best stuff raidwise. No, there aren't any instanced encounters.

Hope that helps at all for now.
 
Guilds: If your good at this game enjoy it and have high playtime you won't have much of an issue finding a guild unless your a tank.
There really arn't any "special benefits" unless you count a group of people who will go out of there way to help you progress your char.

Content: Yes theres some 6man stuff once you hit level 65, Theres also adepts you could try and hit all of them on your way up. AND plentyo quests.

As for long quests that are super involved and almost "epic" Theres the main quest that turns into refugee faction, Then theres.....the vah...most long drawn out quest ever. So yes theres plenty of time sinks out there besides grinding.

Raiding: Raiding is competitive there are no instances its first come first serve. Guild A Sees target B up but see Guild C forming, Guild A goes well lets form up as many people as we can and go claim. Theres nothing leisure about it its very competitive.
 
I've never been in a guild beyond the beginner's guild (Dalaya's Beginners 4 lyf) and have never done raiding before, so I can't comment on those. Though I believe that instances are not used for the most part in SoD.

Content:
1.Grinding is a big part of this type of MMO, but there are other things you can do for breaks in grinding. If you like tradeskills, there are many from fishing to smithing to brewing, etc. You can also do Treasure Maps which, although still being kinda grindy, are a bit different than standard. There are Adept mobs every few levels, from level 1 to 57, they are sorta a mini raid boss with a level restriction (the first one, Rabb the Rat can only be attacked by level 1s with no buffs from anyone higher and no outside players are able to heal or do anything that would put them on that mob's hate list at all). There are also events such as wars - the lore involves this world being at war, so the main antagonist sometimes sends his forces to try to conquor, and higher levels must be rallied to defend or retake zones. Recently there was a Lore Trivia event, and the lore of the server overall has been progressing for years by means of various events which the server can participate in.

2.There are quests. right from the start there are turn in quests in newbie areas, there are kill count quests, newbie gear quests, mid level item quests (Starfall/Thurgadin), tons of random quests, Dragon/Giant faction quests, gate neck quests, the Main Quest which you start immediately after character creation and spans all the way to max level and beyond, there are Faction Quests (an offshoot of the Main Quest, you can pick one of three major factions and then level up your standing with them by means of quests for some nice rewards), The Vah (huge questline that nets alot of nice rewards), Murk quests, Deity quests and more.

P.S. Wow, I must type slow, I thought I'd be the first to answer and suddenly there are a bunch of people that already answered lol
 
Last edited:
Excellent responces, thank you all very much for your help!

Another quick question:

I seem to remember the world being quite large (which is a good thing), are there any quests, or direction given on where to go to grind/quests as you level? I am sure the wiki will cover this, but I mean in game?

BTW, that wiki site is AMAZING! kudos on those that created, and update it!

For clarification, Guild Benifits in some games include increased mount speed, reputation gain, experience gain etc, etc. and from your confused responces I assume there is no such perk.

Raid Mobs as you level! thats pretty damn sweet! Question about that tho . . .
Is the newbie population really in a decent enough state to actually take advantage of these encounters?

A few of you mentions tradeskills, as I recall tradeskills in the origional EQ were horriable to behold! Any thoughts on these, I will also check the wiki on this, as it will likely anwser my question.

Thanks again!
 
World is big, but it "shrinks" as you level. Mostly due to knowing your way around better, and knowing more people that port. The Mansion of portals also helps, but can be an adventure in and of itself. Read the text from the attending wizard, trust me. ;)

Wiki is a community creation, and updated by many of us. If you learn something not shared there, feel free to update also.

No special benefits beyond having people with similar goals to hang out with and work with.

Adepts can be a hit or miss thing. It seems the lower level ones (the max 12 to max 25 or so range) get hit quite often, and then there is a lull until the 55-57 adepts. A lot of that is due to people burning through the 30's and 40's. But, those mobs have some really nice loots, and if you can arrange to join a raid, or form one, it will be worth your while usually.

Tradeskills are a time/plat sink as always. But the top end stuff sells quite well to players, and becomes a solid way to make cash. Also, each skill gained while tradeskilling (not the ones from your trainer) will give exp. So you can gain exp and level up while mining, fishing, or blacksmithing, even.
 
book

Delphwind said:
are there any quests, or direction given on where to go to grind/quests as you level? I mean in game?
Click to expand...
Sort of, but really the assumption is that you will make friends and generally be social on the way. Don't assume that everyone your level is doing this for the first time and ask where you should next in groups.

BTW, that wiki site is AMAZING! kudos on those that created, and update it!
Click to expand...

The wiki content is player input, but mostly under the guidance of GM-Rari. Who has done a lot of work on it.

For clarification, Guild Benifits in some games include increased mount speed, reputation gain, experience gain etc, etc. and from your confused responces I assume there is no such perk.
Click to expand...
No, the main advantage is social, which is a powerful tool. There is nothing you can't do here with patience, a plan, and your loot whore friends.


Is the newbie population really in a decent enough state to actually take advantage of these encounters?
Click to expand...

Yes and no, the encounters have devotees of players at certain bands, but sometimes the middle encounters don't get raided much. You find yourself leveling so fast that you end up leveling past the maximum level of the adept.

Guilds - You should be able to find one to suit you. Just look around and make contacts. If one doesn't suit, you can always roll your own. Though I should mention as a former raiding guild officer, that being cruise director is a lot of thankless work and you will want to find similarly motivated people to help.

Content- There are a lot of quests for rewarding items in game. These span your time from entry to end game. Some of the later items you will always carry. Many of these take a serious time investment. Like any MMO, some are brilliant implementations of the devs thoughts, amazing, and fun, and some are not.

Raiding - There is only one instance in game and thats HatesfuryA, the attunement for Ikisith Raiding/MQ content. It's not really a true instance in the WoW sense since it can only be done by one group at a time, but the mobs always spawn when its free. The other raid zone's bosses are on a variable spawn timer. Part of the fun is identifying whats up and getting there first.

There is a lot of content from T1-T??, the tiers being player defined and somewhat artificial). All created by volunteers who may be playing now in on an alt in DB or sadly moved on. There are some really creative expressions along the way through the tiers and I highly recommend not skipping any of it and as much as possible doing it on tier. Mainly because a trivialized encounter losses its context. Your personal mileage may vary.

On classes, there is a restriction called the three man rule, which restricts classes to 3 of a kind, and chance to get a bonus loot if every class is represented in raid.
This is basically to ensure the raid brings more then 2 tanks, 4 clerics, a bard, a shaman, a monk, a chanter, a wizard, and 6 rogues to every fight.
 
Well I think my wife and I are going to give SoD a try, but we have some concerns about classes to play.

We want to enjoy our time here, but also want to be important to a raiding guild when that time comes, so my question is NOT which classes should we play, because there are posts, on top of posts about "Best Duo" but what classes can still handle content, while still being important to a raiding guild?

We have always played a tank/healer duo to ease of groups, and to be the most helpful in raids, but this time around seems a bit different.

I know tanks are out, as most guilds already have that spot covered.

The ovbious choice here is cleric, but as a leveling duo other healing classes seem to fit better.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

We're planning on starting a Monk/Druid tonight, but would reconsider to a Ranger/Shaman, or even a stright tank class with a healer, if it would ever be possiable to play them in a raid.

Thanks!
 
Delphwind said:
The ovbious choice here is cleric, but as a leveling duo other healing classes seem to fit better.
Click to expand...

If neither of you are going to 2box and you plan on playing together as a duo and not with a full group, then go with druid or shaman instead of cleric.

Group members get 50% of mob exp regardless of whether there are 2 or 6 people in the group, so I'd personally recommend running a melee or pet class and a cleric and then OOC that you're looking for more for your group.

If one of you is willing/able to play a tank class as well, then you'd basically be a group ready-to-go with room for more at all times. Depending on your guild/raid goals, the difficulty of having the tank be a raiding character will vary, but you'd also have your non-tank character as an option.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom