It’s almost that time, the time when I feel as though I have ‘beaten’ EQ2. Thankfully this comes slightly before the next expansion, due out in February. I realize that a lot of people feel as though you can never ‘beat’ an MMO because of it’s ever evolving nature, but I certainly think that we all have personal goals and once we’ve accomplished them we’ve felt as though we’ve beaten the game.
For me, this list is quite short. 200 achievements, level 80/80 (that means maxed out crafting as well as adventuring) my mythical weapon, the best gear I personally can get (in my ‘mains’ case this happens to be T4 and instance jewelry), T7 mastered (spells), and that’s about it. As of last night, I am sitting on 199aa, and I’ve already got the other smaller goals taken care of.
Excited? Yes, I am.
On the other hand, that also means that all of the quests I do AFTER I hit that 200aa mark becoming a little less meaningful to me, because I won’t get any experience at all out of it. I’ve always hoped that EQ2 would adopt EQ’s method of alternate advancement, where you could dump points into personal run speed, food duration, and being able to train in more then one craft talent. I’d pay a good amount of aa in order to become a dual crafter, and not have to have a unique character for every craft available. I suppose my next ‘thing’ to do on the mystic would be tinkering, because it’s a pretty useful skill to have and I have guild harvesters who can take care of the basic ingredients for me. Aside from that, I think my mystic will be ‘done’. Which brings about the question – what next? Or rather, who next. I’ll still be playing EQ2 of course, I adore the game, but I’ll need to move on to a character who needs a little works. I’ve got lots of those (14 in fact, not including Ellithia) on multiple servers, so we’ll just have to see.
I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, no matter where you found yourself. Thankfully real life deadlines have come and gone for this month, and I have a little breathing room. I spent some time in WoW inching my priest to level 54, some time in Aion beginning the 20-30 grind, and a lot of time in EQ2 working on those achievements.
I decided to go LFG which is something I don’t typically do. As luck would have it, there was a Najena’s Hollow Tower group looking for more, I joined up and they had room for Hamal (assassin). I’m typically leery of PUGS, but I do like to meet new people.
This group was pretty amazing, we finished the entire zone within 15 minutes without any deaths. Hamal and I picked up the ‘sense of urgency’ achievement, and while we didn’t win any loot, it was still a fantastic clean fun run. Afterwards Hamal and I used the chronomagic feature to level to 50, and headed to Everfrost and Commonlands shard instances, not for the shards since I don’t really need any, but for the aa experience that came from completing the missions.
Over all, it was a great night. I also remembered that Maj’Dul has red shinies, and as I was on Lucan D’Lere running around working on my peacock quest I picked myeslf up a new house item. Couldn’t have asked for a better time in game!
You’ll have to stay hello on AB! :)
You’re beating the game and I’m just getting started! I tried EQ2 a few months ago for the first time but I felt so lost and like everyone was so ahead of me. I gave up.
There’s a group of people from a forum I visit frequently and they are doing an EQ2 revival in January. Everybody starting from scratch on AB. There’s a good mix of veterans and total new players like myself. Right now I’m just leveling a few different classes to 20, so I can have a feel for them and decide what I want to play in January. So far, I’m having a lot of fun, just playing it casually and being lost pretty much most of the time. :D
So I guess it’s alt time till the expansion comes out then. If I started playing EQ2 again, I think by the time I accomplished what you have done EQ3 will be out by then, there’s just so much content now.
You continue to amaze me with your multi-character prowess. I do agree with you that you can “beat an MMO” though. Once you achieve your own personal goals you win. I won EQ and EQ2. Now I’m just playing for fun.
Ferrel is getting close. She has full T2, a mythical and 175 AA. Just 25 AA to go! I don’t imagine I’ll be doing the T4 set but we have been doing some work on WoE.
I don’t think I’ll ever get close to feeling like I’ve ‘beaten’ EQ2. My primary goal for all games of this type (MMOs and single-player RPGs) is always the quests, and there are just too many quests in EQ2, and new quests being added faster than I can finish off old ones. My main is at 3404 quests completed, with somewhere between 1000 and 1500 still potentially available.
The upcoming EQ2 expansion has definitely pushed me in favor of working on other characters (including characters in other games). I don’t see much point in continuing to work on my main once I hit the level cap with an expansion so close, and that’s created an odd sense of not feeling any particular need to hurry to get there.