Livelihoods
So I've been playing Everquest II for a couple of months now - not enough time to get any of my characters to a high level, but enough to get to low-mid-levels, and give the 'subgames' of crafting, housing, etc, a good poking. There's been a lot of commentary lately about EQ2, so I reckon I'll get my oar in. It's worth noting in advance that the guild I'm in a) is incredibly helpful, b) has lots of resources, and c) is full of bloggers, so my experience might be a bit smoother than some.
First, the actual character progress.
Ephrator, a white-tiger-patterned Kerra, is a level 33 Necromancer, level 32 Carpenter. He's in the process of converting from Evil to Good, and is currently at the Exile stage, which essentially means that nobody likes him. I have to admit that the nicer housing in Qeynos was the main reason he's converting.
Kepper, a brown and white ratonga, is a level 11 Coercer, and a level 22 Sage. He's Evil, and will probably stay that way.
Arlynx, a barbarian, is a level 12 Fury. I haven't decided yet what way I'm going to go with his tradeskills; he might wind up as a Tailor, or I might chase up the Woodworker end of things.
The Necromancer class is very close, thus far, to the Warlock in WoW - direct damage spells, DoTs, and pets. Eph will, however, become a Conjurer when he finally fully converts to citizenship of Qeynos. The two classes seem to be more or less similar, just with flavour differences. Ephrator's real future, though, is as a Carpenter; there is an amazing array of very cool furniture he can already make, and lots more to come.
The Coercer is a debuff/crowd control class - probably best in a group situation, I reckon, although Kepper seems to be fine soloing so far. The real point, however, is to have him as a Sage. Sages make improved versions of spells for other classes, and can also, at higher levels, make the new player-writable books. Crafting the sage stuff just doesn't have the interest level of the Carpenter, though, so while I'll be aiming to keep Kepper's sage level at or ahead of Arlynx' adventuring level, he won't be forging too far ahead.
Arlynx the Fury is going, I think, to be my 'adventuring main'. The Fury is similar in many ways to the WoW Druid, except that it's not incredibly boring. There are ranged damage spells, healing, decent melee combat skills, and shapeshifting. His Tailoring - if it happens; I may just create another tradeskill alt instead, rather than split the effort - will be secondary.
The thing that really keeps bringing me back to the game is the housing, though, and the activity around it. I spend some time every day looking around the guildhall, where our talented guild leader has done incredible work on the interior design, and then running off to see what extra stuff I can make and use in creative ways. Eventually, I want one of the big houses in Qeynos; ideally the Qeynos Residence, which has between five and seven rooms, depending on which nooks and crannies you count. That, however, at nearly 4 platinum to buy, as well as a status requirement, will have to wait. I've yet to work out if status works like rep in WoW, or like a currency. I suspect the latter, sadly, which means there's an ongoing cost in status for the house as well.
The activity around housing is the Carpentry - furniture making - and the whole rearranging of stuff to make the houses look good and work well. I've seen some very creative uses of goods, since some items of furniture can be re-oriented to turn them into surfacing for walls, or used as steps, and some others can be overlapped to make more complex arrangements. I'm looking forward to having the resources to play with that more.
Posted by Drew Shiel at July 29, 2009 11:22 AM
