Thinking about playing, but have one question...Follow

Yep, you'll be fine. More memory wouldn't hurt anything, but it'll run fine.

I recently got an Nvida 9400 GT 1 gig for 50 bucks on Newegg. It's working like a charm.

I don't have as much memory as you (still running XP here) and I run my graphics on balanced, with flora on. You might be able to get away with that, or maybe one notch lower. Balanced looks pretty good, IMO. I don't use shadows, because that slows me down some, but they're working on a new shadow system that shouldn't be as taxing.

Antonia Bayle is the most populated server, it's RP, but I don't think a whole lot of RP goes on there. And I think Crushbone is the second most populated.

I play on Blackburrow, as do a few other folks that post around here. It's not a heavy server, but it's not dead, either. Lots of chatter in the channels and plenty of grouping going on. If you decide to start there, you could give me a yell.

Oh okay. Well I was actually thinking about upgrading to the Windows Vista 64-Bit. My roomate knows a guy who can update it for me for free. So will that really make that big of a difference? I was hoping to run the game on balanced or medium at a good frame rate. Will this be possible with my specs and if I had the 64-Bit Vista? I was thinking like 20-30 Frame Rates.

You should be able to run the game on balanced settings with no issues. I would suggest, as others have, to stay away from shadows until they get updated later this year. A year ago I had a lesser system than what you're getting, and I was able to run EQ2 with mostly balanced settings, and a few things on high.

If you can get Vista 64-bit then you'll definitely benefit fully from your RAM. Honestly, if anything, I would consider getting a better video card before a 64-bit version of Windows. But as you are, you'll be fine. :)

As for server, I guess that ends up being a personal opinion. AB is the most populous, but if you prefer a lower population, I recommend checking out Everfrost. I ended up changing servers last year because I enjoyed the atmosphere much more than my original server (which was Oasis). If anything, try out characters on various servers during your primary playtime and see how the population is and what the people are like. :)

Apparently, it's less '500 years later' than 'a later time on a parallel timeline', so SOE can still add new stuff to EQOA without having to put it into EQ2. /shrug

I've only played EQ2 though.

When the game was released, it was indeed basically Qeynos and Freeport (some suburbs and sewers, other zones at release were: Commonlands, Antonica, Fallen Gate, Stormhold, Blackburrow,Thundering Steppes, Nektulos Forest, Zek, Everfrost, Lavastorm, Enchanted Lands, some instances more). But over the years they've added the city Maj'Dul (can't start here though, with zones Sinking Sands and Pillar of Flames, several instances), Kingdom of Sky (no starting place, just three large zones in the sky), Kelethin (Butcherblock mountains and Faydark, Unrest and several other places), Neriak (no expansion, it just got added, really fun starting place for the evil ones), Kunark expansion (best starting place at this time, but evil only, even if good guys can run around the beginning areas) added a whole bunch of new zones and the latest expansion added one very huge (and laggy, at first anyway) zone, the Moors of Ykesha with Guk as instance, amongst others. (several Guks actually)

You'll recognise the names but the zones themselves have little to do with the original ones, layout wise and content wise, although Blackburrow ofcourse still has gnolls. In EQI Blackburrow could be a lethal maze when things went bad, now it's a lot more tame.


I'm not sure about Surefall Glades, but Klick Anon is still around in some form if I'm not mistaken.

I've entered those glades once, purely by mistake with my paladin.

That for me was the biggest joy of EQI, you could just wander around for hours, running through zones no one else was present (or only a few), just enjoying the scenery and npc's.

EQII can be soloed all the way up to lvl 80 by doing quests, I've done so myself. You will miss out on a fair amount of content though, at least you will miss out on the thrill of beating it while it's profitable, while it's not greyed out. And there are a lot of great instances definitely worth checking out, for instance Nektropos Castle which for me has the best story in it in the entire game, really good job.

There are basic elements to any group: healing, tanking and DPS. I wouldn't chose anything just because it's popular in groups, try out all the different things and find the one you like. You'll play it better and that always helps for getting groups later on.

Melee is fairly varied. There's the pure tanks, and then there's the hybrids. I've played and loved (still do) my Monk. It's perfect for solo and adds something to a group, however I'm not a pure tank nor a healer nor a DPS, I'm in between and that can hurt my chances of getting a group. I don't mind much myself, I can add some good buffs to a group.

If you like melee, try out the tanks: guardian, berserker and the hybrids: monks, bruisers, shadowknight, paladin.

Just remember, a monk will give you invisibility and feign death. A magnificent combination. It can lead to a fairly sloppy playing style though, I've died more than once by misjudging the number of mobs hitting on me and just being too late to FD.

As for camping, well it's changed. You can set it up so that the mob you attack can not be attacekd by anyone else, problem ofcourse is that no one will be able to help you either when things go wrong, unless you break the confrontation. Respawning has been improved, although there are still quests that can drive a player mad by the scarcity of hte mob needed. A lot of the instances are not contested, although some sill are.

But to be honest, if it's not a very new instance, the competition for it is minimal.

I've never been a bard or enchanter, so you lost me I'm afraid, what's PoT?

Yeah PoT is Power over Time. It is exactly what you said. It's like a pulsed buff. It makes your power come back faster, so if the player is good enough nobody in the group should really even run out of power.

Yeah, in EQ2 a bard is just a mana battery.

Ok, power, not mana... whatever.