Tattered Notebook: There's too much to do in EverQuest II!
For this latest Tattered Notebook, I'd already planned -- and in fact was in the middle of -- writing impressions of Scars of the Awakened, EverQuest II's most recent meaty update. I've collected a slew of notes taken from the adventurer and crafter questlines, including some tips and time-saving tricks. But amidst all that intense update research (I gladly sacrifice myself for you guys!), I got distracted. And no, it wasn't by a shiny!
You see, although the land of Cobalt Scar opened up just over a month ago, I've been pulled away and unable to complete everything I want to in that zone. Why? Because in that same time, there have been multiple city festivals, a round of Moonlight Enchantments (with new quests and brand-new housing items that were a must have), a double XP weekend that just begged for some serious crafting advancement, a commissioned housing project to complete, personal houses to decorate, old quests to finally finish up... and that was just to start!
As the guilt for not finishing the entirety of GU66 settled in, friends who weren't as high-level as I wanted to play together in areas they had access to, which coincidentally did not include the latest update. So off I ran through older zones and dungeons with lower-leveled friends. Needless to say, my in-game adventures of late have stretched all over the map of Norrath. Sounds busy, no? It was during all this that I had to finally lay my delusions of finishing everything I have planned before EverQuest Next to rest; there's just too much to do in EQII!
The sum of its parts
Right about now, some of you might be looking at me askance and disagreeing with my statement, especially if you have been in the game since launch. The same goes for those who are a single-feature kind of gamer such as a raider only; if that's your only interest, then you've been probably been through all the raids a number of times, probably with multiple classes! If you fit in one of these groups, I understand that you will probably be feeling that you have been there, done that for everything of interest to you in the game. However, I am looking at everything the game has to offer as a whole, especially newer or returning players.
The strength of EQII is in the fact that there are so many different system to take part in. While the game may technically be a themepark, it has had over eight years to build up content with regular expansions and updates. It also has systems for players who like to create their own content. EQII is like a giant buffet: Although there may be only a limited amount of any one particular item, there is such a large spread of choices that those who want to partake in everything will find it hard to do so. You might even be able to sample everything, but heaping large servings of all is more challenging, not to mention extremely time-consuming!
To-do list
If you are new to EQII, you might not yet know all the things that are available. Heck, even old-timers can forget how many things are out there to dive into. Just trying to describe them to a new person during a recent livestream left me in awe of what is still out there to do. So let's take a look at a general listing of activities available in game.
As the moniker implies, there are quests. And boy, are there lots of them! Sometimes I think that the game wasn't named NeverEndingQuests just because it was a bit unwieldy. On top of the general quests, there are also class quests, race quests, signature quests, and heritage quests. In fact, there are so many quests in-game that you will out-level your zone before actually completing them all. If that's the case and you move on, you actually miss a good chunk of content and lore. I have personally run into this problem quite a bit. And while I am not a pathological completionist, I don't want to miss any lore and story tidbits that might be nestled away. Luckily, there are mentoring and chronomentoring.
If you happen to miss out on content, you can always go back again! You can either mentor and help out some lower levels, or you can visit a chronomage and spend a few coin and status to have your level temporarily reduced to match the content you are returning to. Besides allowing you to see content you missed the first time through, chronomentoring is also good for clearing out those unfinished quests that are hanging out in your journal. You can also buy special items for completing daily chronomentor quests.
Dungeons. Yes, there are dungeons, and plenty of them at that. There are dungeons made for two and dungeons made for a full group. I think there are still a few that I haven't made it into even at this late stage of the game. Along the same lines, there are raids to participate in. Granted, some folks do the raid content with just well-geared groups, but it's still there.
Next up we have crafting. Thanks in large part to the efforts of Emily "Domino" Taylor, crafting is a much deeper and more rewarding system that can be done on top of or even in place of adventuring. There are is a whole tradeskill questline and even heritage quests for crafters. Of course, you can't talk about crafting without bringing up the in-game economy; while some crafters just create for themselves, their friends, or even their guild, others throw their wares on the market.
That leads us to playing the market. With myriad items both looted and crafted in the game, players can just sit back and literally spend their gaming time watching and taking advantage of trends on the broker. They can buy cheap and sell for profit. I have personally funded myself when returning to game just by running festivals and buying those goods to sell on the market for those who would rather just pay plat then spend the time themselves.
And since we're speaking of festivals: There is never a shortage of them in EQII. There are so many festivals you trip over them, and they're not just SOE's creations, either; there are numerous player-created ones as well. These celebrations often have various activities to take part in and even quests to complete for special rewards.
Many of the coveted rewards from festivals are the housing items. EQII's housing system is the one feature that is absolutely infinite. With more houses and decorations being added all the time, there are so many possibilities that even if this is the only thing you ever did in game, you'd still never come close to doing all there is to do. The only limit is the players' imagination.
Of course, for the design-minded, there is also Player Studio. Want to add something you think the game needs and possibly earn some cash while doing so? Flesh out your designs for housing items, armor, weapons, or cloaks and submit them to Player Studio. And now thanks to GU66, players can even sell fully decorated houses to other players.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the utter variety of class and race combinations available. And since all 25 classes are unique, playing them is a different experience. Even I succumbed to altitis in EQII!
For the roleplay-minded, there are also numerous taverns, guilds, and player-sponsored activities to bring players together for some RP goodness. Oh, and before I forget, there's even some PvP to be had in the battlegrounds.
A full plate
Gadzooks! Here I am out of space already and I am sure I missed something. Like I said, there really is a plethora of things to do in EverQuest II. Those willing to experience all that the game has to offer will find that the adage of "so much to do, so little time to do it" is quite fitting. Speaking of which, I have a task or ten here I'd like to try to get finished up...
EverQuest II is so big that sometime MJ Guthrie gets lost in it all. Join her as she explores Norrathian nooks and crannies from the Overrealm to Timorous Deep. Running every other Saturday, The Tattered Notebook is your resource for all things EQII and EQNext -- and catch MJ every 'EverQuest Two-sday' on Massively TV!
