Rise of Kunark - First Impressions [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

Ashford_Hawk

11-14-2007, 03:05 PM

I have to say that I am quite pleased thus far with the Rise of Kunark expansion. I managed to get a Sarnak necro to level 16 and 8aa last night, and the starting areas are well thought out and very playable. Lots of quests, none of which are overly hard but that is ok, particularly for people just starting out. Quest rewards for these initial quests are very very nice. If only Qeynos and Freeport had such rewards for levels 1 to 20. Tonight I intend to take some level 70's out to explore some more of the content, and if the level 1-20 zones are any indication, then I am in for a treat. A couple other things I would like to address is that I went in a bit skeptical as to the appearance of the Sarnak, but I am now fully a fan of the model. There was some talk as to "smallish hands" and "too large a head" but I found that the model is proportioned well and I love the posture when it runs. Also, do yourself a favor and turn on your combat music, if you dont normally. It is impressive and certainly can lend that sense of urgency or inspiration to get you through the battle.

Metafour

11-14-2007, 03:07 PM

Glad to hear it. I rolled up a Sarnak Bruiser this morning before work. Unfortunately for me, by the time I finished my download last night, it was too late to play. I'm very excited about jumping into the new zones tonight.

Morningside

11-14-2007, 03:14 PM

I'm going to Sticky this thread (for now) as it offers a nice central location for everyone to discuss their overall opinions on RoK. Please try to keep the discussion flowing in a positive and constructive manner. Thank you.

Kael Grace

11-14-2007, 03:34 PM

I like it too. I hit 71 last night, with a few aas by doing a ton of quests. and I only scratched the surface of one of the new zones -- Kylong Plains (sp?). you can fly a lizard up to the mountains, run through the snow covered pass, then down into a tropical gash/gulch etc. i think there is still a majority of that zone I haven't even yet -- including a bunch of group zones etc. -- not to mention several other zones i don't even know how to reach yet.This is going to be fun. Too bad I have to work for a living.

cdxrd

11-14-2007, 03:36 PM

You know, I wont lie. i've quit this game several times now due to boredom, and most recently went to wow. A friend reactivated my account and through RoK on there in exchange for some work I'm going to be doing so I figured I'd give it a shot. Rolled up a Sarnak zerker last night and had one hell of a time! The mean, downright ugly looking sarnak swinging those dual battleaxes was just the kick I needed I think. So, for now, excellent! Let's see if it will hold my attention tho, otherwise I have to grind my provisioner and woodworker to 80.. =)

Eviljoe2

11-14-2007, 05:36 PM

LOL,I have been reading several posts with usual complaints from usual whiners and I feel compelled to give my opinion.I pre-ordered the digital download of ROK. While the e-mail that I got after purchase stated I could incrementally download to prevent a long DL, I did not see an option for that, so I did not worry.Then, on release day, I could not play until 5pm, started DL and it only took 1.5 hours. (it must have been downloading on its own up to release day.)I had no errors and all went smooth. I know it did not go smooth for everyone and I feel bad for those it did not, but I had NO issues so far.Upon logging in, I was pleased to see I had a new ability....I have a dark elf Necromancer and I obtained Glide....woot!! now me no get hurt when me fall...lolUpon zoning into the new area, I was quite impressed with the look of it all. I arrived on the docks to see them full of NPCs with feathers over their heads. Further, I was pleased to see Drachnids!!! woot. I loved the Dreadlands in EQ1 and they kept some of the same look, but it was much richer and more detailed.It was nice to see yellow mobs and watch my pet go to work on them. I fell in love with my Necro all over again.I did several quests solo and with a couple of friends. I gotta say, within about 2 hours, I had 2 nice items, one was a lantern that goes in the secondary slot and the other was an awesome robe upgrade.I cannot wait to see what else there is and I think SOE did a great job on the whole thing.Keep in mind all to have fun....this is a game.....dont worry about how much xp a solo quester is getting compared to someone in a full grp, dont worry if class x can solo better than class y......in the end, the rules are exactly the same for all of us....you can roll ANY class you choose, you can solo or group or raid if you choose.....as soon as you get too concerned over what someone else is getting, it is too much like RL and you should turn it off.

Cullen

11-14-2007, 06:06 PM

I have played the expansion extensively since its release. I am still on the fence, although my initial impression is that the game has been dumbed down considerably. The quest rewards in the Fens are giving treasured lvl 70 items that are far too powerful for the crummy, easy quests required to get them. In fact, most of these rewards are better than the lvl 70 legendary items from zones such as ROV, COV, OOB, Unrest, etc from the least expansion. They even beat some of the high lvl 60 fabled items from raid zones! It makes no sense considering these new items are roughly of the same lvl. Also, from what I've seen so far, the expansion has a feel of a WOW copy about it; quests that don't really mean anything (like gaining faction but for little or no purpose), simplistic tasks, very easy mobs to kill at lvl 70-75. In additon, I have killed many named mobs by this point and not a single one dropped anything; some did not even give AA points. This is another close correlation to WOW. EQ2's strength, IMO, was the complexity and variety of quests and unique items that dropped as a result. Such quests and zones were challenging and required people to understand their toons and play them correctly. Thankfully, this tended to drive away the 13yr old annoying kids and ADHD grind type players. Unfortunately, it seems that EQ2 has now decided it should cater to those annoying types who lack the discipline to see through complicated questlines or pay attention while working in groups. Overall, I am disappointed at this stage and believe this was done to dumb down the game, lose its maturity, and bring more of the types of players in who many of us cannot stand.

Metis

11-14-2007, 07:59 PM

So far i love Kunark. I started a new Sarnak, the newbie area is nice, however i hate the new city. I find it unbelievably hard to navigate in it. I don't see how i'll ever gonna like having this character there, i think i'll betray to freeport.

Aviran

11-14-2007, 11:38 PM

For $40.00 a new account gets the entire game collection. An established account that has purchased all other expansions at full price pays $40.00 for one game expansion. This I understand and agree with, it is a way to try and bring in new blood. What I don’t understand and what I do NOT agree with is that the new account gets a month of game play included with the purchase prices of $40.00 and a loyal costumer has to pay $40.00 for the expansion and pay the additional $15.00 for a month to play it. This is a slap in the face.

yerasimos

11-15-2007, 02:43 AM

for me thet expantion started out well<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> till i seen alot of the ninja changes i didnt want to see. Like gimping dps on alot of CAs, im a guard only 71 and will be forever cause im finished witht he game after tonight...once in a group i found i could not hold aggro even with my uber 5+ aggro that ogres get(NOT THis is one of the biggest BS stats i ever seen in a MMO) def tanks should respec buckler to hold aggro that should fix the issue if you like to be a dps class, and not a def class.... the other thing is we cant change armor anymore in mid combat not even charms(cause you know charms are big peaces of armor so hard to change..lol) ... so much for mana stone 2.0 its now junk.. and the issue that pushed me over the edge was in "KC" no matter how clean the pulls are you always aggro mobs from a lvl under you are through walls that realy pushed me over the edge this is issues that was seen in beta but not fixed...ROK = BIG Peace of JUNK!

feldon30

11-15-2007, 10:19 AM

Aside from the pre-order situation and the complete shambles of trying to get the Burynai pet. Aside from going out of my way to get the boxed version because of the mentioned poster which turned out to be an oversize blowup of the dark elf box art and a huge ad for Legends of Norrath on the other side (would a map have been too much to ask?). Aside from not being able to start the race advertised on the box (dark elves) in the world advertised on the box (Kunark). The DVD set of Kunark seems to have very little of Kunark actually on it as indicated by a check of the dates in the paks folder and suggested by the near hour long download after installing RoK.That said, the content is great. The graphics are sweet. The combat music is a little minimalist but I haven't had any heroic or epic battles yet. An established group of us all rolled sarnaks (except 1 who couldn't bear to be a lizard <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />). The quests are very cleanly done (except one timesink -- placing acid on the arrows). The explanations given by all the "helper" NPCs seem great after a quick skimthrough (I've already leveled 2 alts into the 50's). Overall quite happy with it.I'm worried that the changes in tradeskilling have made it too easy and the balance has shifted from TSing being tricky to being expensive. If you buy materials on the broker, there is no way you can make your money back now. Maybe that's the point they were going for?

Kaldrin

11-15-2007, 10:43 AM

I wish I could say I've played it... my updater keeps saying it's completed the transfer and doesn't show the "Play" button lit.

MrWolfie

11-15-2007, 11:02 AM

Zones:They're too big. The lag, graphically and server-side, is quite bad. During fights I've noticed that I'm pressing combat arts/spells and waiting a few seconds to see them get cast.Just running around and exploring, especially in Teren's Grasp, I get loads of graphic lag ~ just like in Neriak (and they still haven't fixed lag *that* zone ~ it doesn't bode well for the long term playability of RoK). There's way too many NPCs, all being animated. I don't want to have to turn down my settings (on a high-end rig, I might add) just because there are a few places ~ that I'm going to be running in and out of ~ that are wall-to-wall NPCs.And the map. Great zoom-feature, except that the zone map is completely featureless ~ it's all just a white/grey smudge. I've seen some of the artist's maps of the area and they're far superior to the mess in the in-game map. Get new maps sourced and live ASAP. Mobs:I'm seeing mobs disappear under the world, especially where their pathing takes them onto inclined ground. It would be nice if they could have some code to stop mobs from disappearing.Mobs standing their ground.Uh, so you can't pull them to you without alerting their friends. Crap change. These are solo mobs I'm talking about. It wouldn't be so bad, but these buggers hit so hard that a caster stands no chance against more than one unlinked encounter.What are you encouraging; grouping for solo encounters now?Even if you body pull and then duck behind something so they can't cast on you anymore, they still just stand their ground. This is not the behaviour of aggressive mobs.You've broken body pulling which, for many classes , is the only method of single-pulling mobs out of large groups of non-linked, aggressive, socially aggro mobs. So you either need to reduce the difficulty of mobs, so we can cope, solo, with multiple encounters; or remove the stupid autistic, stand and stare AI.And that no named mobs gave me AAXP and never dropped a chest. <-- massive bug for a first day.Racial Traits:Inherent traits are assimilated as soon as you log in, not giving you a chance to even find out what they are or what they do. Not all of them are skills that are added to the knowledge book, leaving some players absolutely clueless.The traits and Master II spells are all reset automatically ~ this is NOT what I call giving us a "free respec". I've got 7 characters and can't remember which traits and master IIs I had before. I should have been given warning, and had a chance to check my current settings before clicking "ok" to respec and start over.For those inherent changes, why not have purple pop-ups that detail the skill you've just got?Obviously some races got cool stuff, while my Kerran Monk/Sage has no bonuses that help her career choices. Bah!I think it's disgusting that most Elves get feather-falling (and I have two 70/70/100 elves, high and dark). The only races that should have that ability are those with wings: the fae and arasai. It's a blow to their uniqueness, and shows a lack of imagination in respect of elves.On the upside:I like the rewards for four years, I like the house pet, I like the zone design (except of it being too big, could do with more actual zones to reduce lag). I like that there's quests for crafters as well as adventurers (it's a shame that developers who didn't know anything about the quests then went and broke them by placing extra roaming mobs in places where crafter quests update).I love that harvestables and fuel stack sizes has been increased. GREAT CHANGE!!But I hate that I keep being given objects to clutter up my inventory in order to "help" me with quests. Once I've looted Drachnid Heads and Silks, do they really need to be taking up two slots in my inventory? Do I really need to be carrying that jar of cleaner to gloop onto the piles of dirt? I've been given items from Teren's Grasp quests which I have no intention of doing immediately ~ so they're going to be sitting in my inventory for a long while. Hell, I've still got items from old quests back in EoF and KoS in my inventory!!Giving out items to perform functions makes the quest journal less flexible and limits a player's freedom of choice. I have five level 70 characters, they all want to go to Kunark and explore, but some of them haven't finished Bonemire and/or Loping Plains quests. I've got two 18 slot bags filled full of rubbish items that are needed for quests!Less clutter please!Finally, the pop-up messages: the font seems to have changed. Personally, and I know that this is just personal preference, I prefer the old syle pop-ups, big, rounded font to the new tiny Times Roman-looking font. I'd like to be able to switch it back.

DngrMou

11-15-2007, 12:08 PM

Overall: Love it.Equipment rewards from quests are great. I have two extra swap in sets for my swash, one set has heal group procs, the other, extra melee crits. I'm also wearing the regimental set in my appearance slot. Nice stuff, thanks!Mobs seem to hit awfully hard, making adds very dangerous, and my single target mezz is as likely to miss, as it is to hit.Some CA lag...mash the button, everything freezes for a tick or two...this has caused a number of deaths. I first noticed it during beta, but assumed it was related to the beta server, and did'nt worry about it too much, (it was absent on the live server). Since RoK has gone live, I've noticed this in older zones too. Needs to be fixed.Love the Burynai house pet! I was afraid they'd mess up collections...but with the price of plant food now, I'm not so concerned.Zones are expansive, love it.Sokokar, very cool. (our personal Sokokar pets should have some moderate benefit though)Plenty of Soloable stuff, but a little shy on group content.Lots of raids! ZOMG!On 'live' day, it went up...and stayed up. Nice rollout. DD pre download option never appeared though, and it might have helped a lot of people if they'd been able to predownload most of the expansion prior to it going live.

FimbulvetrXIII

11-15-2007, 12:18 PM

Having only played for the past month or so, and spending all my time thus far in Neriak, I'm really impressed with the new zones. Its a nice change of pace going from dark and evil to light and airy while still being evil. My only complaint really is the Sarnak themselves. The models are decent enough, but the combat animations are horrendous. I find my assassin's arms sticking straight out and swirling about, often times moving right through his big ugly head. I understand it would take a lot to re-design a new skeleton for the race, but come on. The animations are just downright sloppy. And what happened to the option of having a beak?Overall, I really love the new zones and I am very tempted to just roll another race as looking at the Sarnak is just painful.

cr0wangel

11-15-2007, 12:21 PM

RoK itself looks fun, if we could only play it. I wish RoK will be less buggy and less laggy so I could actually visit it. RoK zone is bugged, it's unplayable for some people (check the tech forum), and it's so laggy, I will go LD there or get an error.About the pets: I pre-ordered the digitial download and got only the RoK pets, where are my previous pets? Where are my 3 adventures packs? Another thing that is bugged.People have troubles with their purchase of RoK, troubles with the pets, crash in game, this expansion is the most bugged one so far, it's like nothing work right.

Paladin776

11-15-2007, 12:35 PM

I went to Kylong Plains with my 65 Paladin, knowing full well that, if I tried to do anything, I would probably get turned into a spot on the ground. I had been in the beta and, with a 72 in treasured, had an OK time against the blue con solo mobs, but still made for some pretty tense fights. Well, with the 65 and a bit better gear than the 72 treasured, I did get killed but not by all that much. An old friend logged back in after being gone for a while (66 Conj) and we did most of the Dreg's Landing quests we had as a duo, and fared a lot better. The fights we're fun and sometimes close, but as long as we single pulled, we were fine...adds usually spelled the end of us. (Well, me....for some reason, she never died. heh)Overall, I found I had a great time. Those initial quest rewards are very nice and the quests themselves relatively make sense. The music, as usual, is very descriptive of the zone it's played in and the new adaptive combat music adds a bit of life to combat (the old music was OK...but it got old after a while.) I haven't had much of a chance to get much further out from the docks area, but what I have seen looked great. I even got a bit nostalgic while fighting a drolvarg near Karnor's Castle, as in EQ1, I pretty much lived in the area for a long while levelling. Have to say that I like things so far and look forward to what the rest of the zones have to offer.

Kaliraja

11-15-2007, 01:02 PM

I love the new zones. They have a very EQ1 feel, which I didn't expect. And like EQ1 PVP servers, the zones are large enough for people to hide in and get some soloing and group XP without the kind of constant gankage that drives down the server population. Gankers have to go on a hunting expedition, or just bottleneck the docks. At least now, we all know where the gankers are, and they become the vulnerable ones, lol. I had forgotten part of the original EQ1 magic was getting lost in another world. ROK brought it all back.Now the only thing thats missing are a few different armor styles to choose from with a different custom look. But it's not a complaint, the ability to show attractive armor sets is a blast! For a guardian, *cough* helmet style change *cough.* Just imagine a dragon style gladiator helmet instead of the p----- one <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> More variety makes happy people, because everyone plays to look good! And now we have the awesome zones to look good in. Thx Sony.<img src="http://www.raisonsbrassband.com/images/Meximus%20Helmet.jpg" alt="" width="152" height="200" border="0" /><img src="http://www.devonmetalcrafts.co.uk/images/helmet.gif" alt="" width="150" height="189" border="0" /><img src="http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/3188888/2/istockphoto_3188888_gladiator.jpg" alt="" width="253" height="380" border="0" />

Archimagus

11-15-2007, 02:43 PM

I to really like the new expansion so far. Sure it has its issues but I am sure they will get worked out. I have seen a lot of complaints about the size of the zones and the lag. I am not sure it is the size of the zone that is causing it. I think it is more due to the level of detail put into them. There are plenty of methods for making zones as bit as you want withough affecting lag all that much. Again I am sure these things will be worked out in time.

Stuntie

11-15-2007, 04:19 PM

Thoroughly enjoying it as a returning player (kidnapped by other games and held captive in their dungeons of delight for far too long).The Sarnak are excellent, and the starting area superb. Quests are great fun too, keep doing more and more of them even when sleep is closing my eyes. I loved the grasgalor quest and pet. And indeed the whole Sarnak feel is magnificent.Problems are twofold:1) All solo so far. Nothing has needed a group. The only time i grouped so far was when two of us needed the same named and I asked the chap if he wanted to team up so as to not have him wait for a respawn just because I got there 5 seconds earlier.It needs more incentive to group. Make friends, get to know people. Check out propspective guilds etc. In a word - build community from day one, not max level for raiding.It doesnt have to be at the exclusion of soloing, but encourage it and it will add to the game.2) Rewards are way too good in Timorous deep.I crafted a full set of tin all ready and waiting for my new guardian. Took one look at the stats on the rewards and sold the lot as junk. Not even close. In fact it looks like the starting rewards are better than the tier 2 stuff.yes getting sweeties is fun, but too many spoil your teeth. Same here, they are too powerful too soon. I have yet to die. Heck I have yet to feel threatenened by any fight I have been in. The look and feel is great - keep that, but rein back on the uber phat l00t syndrome.This also affects crafting. Why make teir 2 armour when the rewards are so much better. Who is going to buy it?Overall a B.Could have been an A, but for those two faults.

JPARTDQ

11-15-2007, 04:33 PM

I love it!I couldn't be happier with this expansion, and I've only briefly ran through three zones so far. I've only scratched the surface of the quests in Kylong Plains, and I explored KC with my guild group last night. We were all 70 and the zone definitely kept us on our toes. Being around since launch, I don't remember having to be so focused on my healing as I was in that zone. The mobs definitely hit harder, and they are keeping us healers on our toes.I think my favorite part is the music. You guys hit a home run there. It fits the zones perfectly! Its very ominous and definitely lends itself to a sense of a huge empire or something. I can't really describe it, but it works.Bringing back Faydwer and now Kunark, the SoE developers are on to something, too bad it took them 2-3 years to realize that people don't really want new areas. This is Everquest after all. We want to see our old favorite places, but in a bigger, more beautiful scale. (But you HAVE to keep most of the original layouts in tact). Last night on AB there were 6 instances of KP up and 2 different Fens instances. Plus all the old zones were still packed as usual.Keep it coming guys. On to Velious and Odus! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Bucky70 WardenAntonia Bayle

Darkblademyste

11-15-2007, 07:31 PM

Sadly DISAPOINTED< I was an original day one player when this game went live, played a brigand to lev 40 and was the #3 brigand game wide at that time. Burned out due to the game in general. Came back about a month ago and re-rolled a toon leveled to 47. Over all Im in a love/hate romance with this game. I truley dont like SOE and the way it gouges money from the players ie. restricted slots etc.Anyway when I came back, I wanted to see the new areas added as Im an old eq1 player and wanted to see what they did. When I got RoK I expected the new race to level within Kunark, not be pawned off to old world once they reach 20ish. What I VERy suprised at was the catering to lev 70s. I took my 47 brig to the main kunark port and couldnt believe that the wandering mobs were 60+. Old eq1 Kunark had a full range of level areas. Im sadly disapointed that Kunark (with what im seeing) is geared for 70 players. I remeber KC being a lev 45-50ish zone and now 70s..... Oh well.... we'll c how long I keep interest this time......

GwenRelentless

11-15-2007, 10:01 PM

I was not expecting it but based on what I've seen this is my favorite expansion so far. Kylong planes is unexpectedly beautiful and colorfull and has more of an Eq1 feel then anything in the world including all of EoF (which is a good thing!) Perhaps this is because the zones are so huge and you feel overwhelmed by the size of it all which is how I felt in Eq1. The scale of Eq2 prior to this was too small and large zones like Commonlands and Antonica were boring. The solo mobs lvl 70 and under are decidedly more difficult then any mobs of their equal con anywhere in the world. While this is somewhat annoying its also challeging so I guess its a love/hate thing for me. Still, I honestly think RoK mobs could be turned down a notch on the difficulty scale and I would be happier. I wear full KoS fabled mixed with EoF gear and I feel like I should have a little easier time of it. I can't imagine how hard the mobs must be for others. The solo quests I have been doing in Kylong are easy enough to be fun but hard enough to feel like I accomplished something. There is a good mixture of different kinds of actions. In other words they are not all kill 10 mobs kind of quests. They also give good directions so I'm not frustraited looking for locations, and the rewards are very good. I like the direction you have taken with itemization adding effects to items that make them really worth wearing over something else which might have simelar or slightly better stats but no cool effects. The new racial abilies were a little dissapointing for me as a high elf, but I'm thankful for any kind of improvement. I think other races are having a lot more fun with their choices. Mine are usefull but not really fun. In general, good job on your best expansion yet. Can't wait to try out the raid content!

Beajay

11-16-2007, 03:26 AM

So far I've played RoK with a newly rolled lizard necro and my tried and trusty lvl 68 rat necro. I haven't had any real problems with my lizard but my little rat keeps getting her butt whipped by the lvl 60+ mobs. Those suckers hit hard and aggro like flys to carrion. For me to enjoy playing RoK with my lvl 68 the mobs are going to have to be toned down a little. The mobs my little lizard is fighting seem just fine and I love the quality items I get from completing quests.I am disappointed there are no new slots for the new race. I had to delete a toon and that was a real pain as it involved shuffling around a bunch of stored stuff. I plan to delete the Sarnak and reroll my original toon as soon as I've seen a little more of the lower-level RoK lands tonight.My overall impression is that RoK has lots of promise but needs some major work before I buy it for the rest of our family's accounts. Lag is horrendous and there doesn't seem to be anything for the 30-60 level toons which is the average range of our toons. Also, everyone has full accounts so they won't be able to roll the new race at all until SOE finally relents and give us a new slot for the new race. I give the expansion a 7 our of 10 rating.

Elf_Queen

11-16-2007, 05:59 AM

Initial impressions are positive, I am enjoying the quick questing and fast pace of the beginning area's..so far am only 72 but I have done so many quests, and I do think many quests are needed since many people have to catch up on their aa's, (especially old characters returning to the game) this is the place to do it! I love the large zones and the change of scenery in the same zone, like the snowy wintery area in Kylong plains, LOVE ITI like that mobs are a little more challenging, though they may be too challenging for some classes. My brigand is having to work in fights now rather then just quick kills without trying much. In this expansion a yellow con means just what it's supposed to, attempt at your own risk!but the LAAAAAG makes it much more difficult to solo the already hard mobs, when I cant time my stuns or CA's how I normally do.. and ive turned my graphics all down I think its server lag, i realllllly hope this is getting addressed soon, normally I love to fight but it's becoming a drag with that delay.. I have to pause in between combat arts to make sure they went off, so spamming does not work.. really bad when you need to kill fast and hard before you yourself die..I Also love the eq1 feel to the expansion, some of the graphics are very similar - although improved- and it's a real treat to see them again!Tradeskilling got easier again, I almost use no power to craft and do not need drinks, I can do a rush order in 4 minutes now.. plus now you can't fail a recipe, I think it's a bit too easy now I had no problem with it before..I wish there was another rare used for fighter or scout adept 3's, silicate loams are insanely expensive and everyone needs so many of them they are impossible to get enough of. No one much cares about the armor rares.. but those loams... And why is the 72 MC armor not that good? You would think everyone would be getting it but i've noticed a lot of quest rewards are better, and the lvl 70 legendary.. how come they have no special stats like all the new armor does? + to combat arts or melee crits, etc...

feldon30

11-16-2007, 11:12 AM

Ok, now that my newb character is in Gorowyn, can I say something?The maps SUCK!A shapeless brown blob? I call that a rush job. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" />I hope EQ2Map has plans to replace the map with one that has some features such as the outline of the city walls and a zone mark where the entrance and exit of each city can be found. It took us 10 minutes of searching to find the city's exit the first time.It's also rather odd that the housing is in a little zone by itself. Once I got used to it it's fine, just odd. Like the 1-room house. The window is great. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" />

Billywallace

11-16-2007, 03:15 PM

I really like the expansion so far... The beginner areas, housing and quest rewards are all great. The maps need some love, but then they always have. At least they are becoming functional. The one thing I would have liked to see is mid level content... it would be nice to level my Sarnak to 80 without leaving Kunark. I am pretty well burnt out on the rest of the midlevel areas, having rolled many many alts in the years I have been playing. I guess levelling in EoF will keep me from jamming a pencil in my eye.In EQ1, my favorite expansion was RoK and my Iksar Necromancer was my favorite character, and highest at level 56 when I finally quit.I am one of those rare individuals who never maxes a character, but rolls many, many alts. I guess I will have to work on maxing one of my toons now, to enjoy all of the high level content the game has to offer. I hope I don't die of frustration or boredom along the way.One of the most disturbing things I have experienced since my return is the difficulty in finding groups to complete heroic or epic quests, even easier ones. I have mostly enjoyed smallish guilds, as the more uber raiding guilds seem to have a tendancy to get a bit full of themselves or become motivated by greed for their next fabled items. I leveled my Sarnak Warlock to 21, and so I'm done with Kunark for the time being. I was happy to slap "The Zealous" tag onto my new Sarnak... I hope to continue to level my new favorite toon to new heights for me!

Ashford_Hawk

11-16-2007, 03:29 PM

Currently my Sarnak Necromancer is 27 and I have already left Kunark a few levels ago. I guess if I did have one complaint with RoK is that I cant level my new character between 20 and 60ish in Kunark, as is one of the points of the previous post.... EL here I come!

Lazaretto

11-16-2007, 05:37 PM

I'm currenty 40% into level 73 and have spent a considerable amount of time in many of the new zones & dungeons. For me, I think the expansion caters to the casual solo player who can take the next 9-12 months looking around, smelling the flowers and questing through all the new zones. For the more hard core, especially those who like to group up and hack and slash through dungeons fighting heroic mobs - the experience gain is downright sad. Karnor's Castle and Chardok are both a big dissapointment to date. You get 1/10 of a percent experience per heroic mob killed in those places at level 71. So it takes 1,000 mobs to gain a level or you could go grind through solo quests and hit level 75 in the same amount of time. I don't know why the devs didn't make grouping more of a focus in dungeons while still leaving the solo mobs out in the open as another advancement alternative. Not only does group exp stink in the early dungeons but the loot drops are even worse. Nameds didn't drop any chests and the only thing we got were some body parts and maybe an adept 1 spell. Where is the reward for grouping? Don't get me wrong - I think solo content is great, especially once the masses have moved on through a zone and you want to allow new players to level up at a decent pace but ROK sure seems to have tons of solo quest content and potentially tons of level 80 raid content. Why did the devs toss group content out the window? What's the point of spending so much time desiging places like Karnors and Chardok only to leave them ghost towns because you get better experience and loot killing 10 bats over and over and over... Please make grouping fun again (increase dungeon experience and loot) to bring back some of the risk / reward that made eq and eq2 (pre EOF) so much fun.On the positive side, big wins include adding color to the world, environmental blending, combat music, sarnak and all of the familiar sights. Just my 2 cents. Laz

LordDehumanizer

11-17-2007, 01:31 AM

Extremely disgusted with the insane download times and all the crashes. No technical help available due to live chat being down. Imagine that. And to think I paid $40 for 4 days of complete aggravation so far.

Mealaan

11-17-2007, 03:49 PM

I like the expansion sofar and everything looks great, however i have a major complaint. Its all entirely to easy and leveling is way to fast. Hows this exapnsion supposed to with hold its longitivity? I understand theres the casual players/Solo players but why would the game be altered because of them? So what if someones casual, it will just take them longer and they have a whole year to do it. The Solo content is way to dominant, its so dominant people are barely grouping. Only groups ive been in have been social groups, nobody is going to karnors; Mines of Nurga you can pretty much solo. What is up with that?Suggestion: Reduce the amount of exp from completing quests by half and put in the group content.

MoiraesFate

11-17-2007, 03:55 PM

I love the new expansion. Music is great, graphics are excellent and absolutely beautiful, quests are engaging and fun, and they're also well spread out.However, just two things.... the armor is way too good that you receive as quest rewards. I got to level 13 and figured I needed new armor, only the rare armor on the broker was actually worse than what I was already wearing.And, I know that a bunch of people were complaining about the zoning but since you removed the zoning, now there's horrific lag. I actually didn't mind the zoning so much because I knew it was a way to keep down the lag. I'll be in the middle of a fight and it will freeze for a minute (and I don't just mean the game, apparently something is freezing my computer too). The freezing doesn't last very long, but it has lasted long enough that I can't fight and I'll end up dead. Its taking up so much memory that I have to reboot by computer every hour or two, something that I didn't have to do before the new expansion.Unfortunately, of the first you can do something about, of the second (the freezing and lag), you've already created Kunark and that would be much much more difficult to fix unless you can find where the memory leak is.

Seffrid

11-17-2007, 06:35 PM

The new racial traits are great, except that I'm appalled that elves get freefall. No way should the unique characteristic that defines the two fairy classes be spread elsewhere. It has absolutely nothing to do with elven lore either traditionally or in terms of EverQuest. It smacks of the designers having run out of original ideas for the elves, which is a shame all-round.

Cocytus

11-17-2007, 06:45 PM

My first impression?It sucks. Horribly.Worst expansion in all of eq1/eq2. Only plus? It looks nice. But despite looking nice, zone design is [Removed for Content] poor.

Wyrmypops

11-17-2007, 08:35 PM

My not exactly first impression, but those of 3 sessions spent galivanting about. I rather liked my new sarnak. The /dance emote being the maori haka made me smile. The crouching as they run is a nice touch. There's a problem when they crouch in that their right leg and knee want to occupy the same space. Therre's another problem in combat with the animations jumping between a standing and crouching stance, that might well become something I can't play the character without seeing. But all told, I like them. I mostly like the look and feel aspect of the expansion. I tend to err on the realism rather than fantasy side of the seesaw, but even I was growing a little tired of the browns and grey content. This is more colourful, the mobs more fantastical, and they look and feel good. I'm less keen on that certain mobs seem to exist alongside others they don't appear to relate to at all. It's like a poorly designed D&D dungeon, with a teenage GM populating it with rolls from some kinda monster manual. Drachnids next to Skelebones next to Grolvangs next to Giants. That doesn't feel right and diminished what character and a zone could have. I don't recall that situation being the case in the EQ1 incarnation, but that might be my dodgy memory.I was undecided about the large zone schtick. But I've settled on I don't like it. Aside from the above population weirdness, the large zone must be helping to make this the case. Whereas a smaller zone could concentrate on presenting these races more completely, these massive zones seem a mishmash. And the size of them is a problem remembering where a quest giver is. Are they in the rop right corner? Is there a top right corner? The map isn't of a great help in this regard. I'd have preferred smaller zones, even though I'm slow zoner. I found a shiney that was required for two collections. I trust the EoF model has not been replicated. Where the rare of the normal collection was also the one required for the goggles collection. Thereby trivialising all the other collectables. If it has been replicated, then I'd be disappointed.I initially liked the mob placement. All those solo mobs milling about, but with an agro range small enough and distance enough between them that with some spatial awareness and working pair of eyes one could get about easy enough. But, I've to realise I have abilities I no longer get to use. Encounter based AE's and taunts. Single solo mobs alone are simply less fun. I really like the enhanced AI of mobs. Those ranged and caster mobs stay away, doing their damge without making it easier for us and closing to melee. It's clever. That, I suspect, could be a reason there are hardly any linked mob encounters. If we imagine a linked mob of blacktalon aviaks from KoS doing that, then a couple of them would close to melee while another pair of them would hold off - that could be weird for agro, calling other mobs into the fight, encounter taunts, AE's and mezzes. Mob strength is different. Not massively so. It's not so stark as the differences between an EQ1 Hynid and something of that level from another expansion, but there is a difference. It's as if they have an extra ^. It's given my zerker more interesting fights, but I fear for those classes whose soloability has always been less so. And where previously I would love getting an add for the chance of using my AE's, now getting an add can mean death. The quests requiring dropped parts is interesting. I'm not used to so much looking into my bags and seeing them filled by quest items. I've ever had one bag full of quest items, items that are significant. Now I've a bag with a load of quest related items that are comparatively trash items. I like that as a group we acquire them at the looting stage, as I've been able to help my friends by whacking a mob beyond their range to get an update from its death, but they've been able to get the update by eventually running over to loot it. But I'm unsure about it all really. It feels a bit like an overused mechanic, something the questy dev creators are playing with a little too much. Although I'm sure I'll cope, as long as I don't start to find a load of quest items that arent removed by the quest hand in stage.

dawy

11-18-2007, 12:41 AM

<cite>Asmotiz@Befallen wrote:</cite><blockquote>I really like the expansion so far... The beginner areas, housing and quest rewards are all great. The maps need some love, but then they always have. At least they are becoming functional. The one thing I would have liked to see is mid level content... it would be nice to level my Sarnak to 80 without leaving Kunark. I am pretty well burnt out on the rest of the midlevel areas, having rolled many many alts in the years I have been playing. I guess levelling in EoF will keep me from jamming a pencil in my eye.In EQ1, my favorite expansion was RoK and my Iksar Necromancer was my favorite character, and highest at level 56 when I finally quit.I am one of those rare individuals who never maxes a character, but rolls many, many alts. I guess I will have to work on maxing one of my toons now, to enjoy all of the high level content the game has to offer. I hope I don't die of frustration or boredom along the way.One of the most disturbing things I have experienced since my return is the difficulty in finding groups to complete heroic or epic quests, even easier ones. I have mostly enjoyed smallish guilds, as the more uber raiding guilds seem to have a tendancy to get a bit full of themselves or become motivated by greed for their next fabled items. I leveled my Sarnak Warlock to 21, and so I'm done with Kunark for the time being. I was happy to slap "The Zealous" tag onto my new Sarnak... I hope to continue to level my new favorite toon to new heights for me!</blockquote>I said it through the beta it does seem a bit wasted being a high level expansion and for me its a shame it looks so lovely but my kids and wife wont be seeing it anytime soon lets just hope the devs take the EoF route next time round and have something for everyone.Other than the bugs (and come on there are bugs) this issue is the only thing i can fault with the expasion so far

TheLastLogan

11-18-2007, 02:50 AM

i think its great

LaurnaRose Fauldorn

11-18-2007, 08:25 AM

My first impressions of RoK:THE WORLDBeautiful, huge, never ending. If only all areas in EQII could be like this. I love the fact that there is no actual zoning involved. This makes the area feel like a world rather than a bunch of different zones, which to me is a good thing.THE RACEI really like the Sarnak. However, I have found a couple oddities with them. First off, when my Sarnak female bends over, it looks like she has a "hmhm" between her legs. Very strange if you ask me. Also, when she is trapping from a nest, her knee implants itself into her shoulder. Very unatural. The fact that the forarms are not visable in the armor set when the race is wearing gloves is a little awkward ... some people actually like to wear forarms and for those who dont, there are "invisible" forarms.THE CRAFTINGWell, all I can say is "two-edged sword". I like the fact that the new arts are progressive rather than having 5m of each art in my knowledge book. Kudos to that. And I like the new "in window" crafting hotbar. This has helped a lot, though it took a little getting use to. However, I feel that crafting has been even more "simplified" in the process. If you talk to the crafting community (not casual crafters, but the ones who play the game to craft), they are looking for a more complex system that will bring them inline with the adventurers therefore justifying giving them recipes that can compete with the looted gear of the game. SOE, please remember that though non-combat is not the sole focus of most MMO's, there is a HUGE player base that enjoys challenging non-combat aspects of MMOG'ing. THE PETSIm talking about the quested pets that follow you around. Ive not got to any of the quests in KP yet. Ive been too wrapped up in playing in TD with my new baby Inq. However, I do not like the fact that we cannot name our Chokemon or our baby gorilla. I would have really liked to have been able to name my baby gorilla. I also do not like the fact that these are item summons rather than spells, and that they can be killed by enemies even when you aren't (despawn upon death). Ill be walking along, get in a fight, and the next thing you know my baby gorilla is just gone and I have to cast him again. Another thing I dont like is the fact that you cannot have both your Chokemon and your gorilla following you around at the same time. Only one pet at a time? I dont have any characters with mulitple pets other than my baby Inq, so Im concerned ... Is this a new change to the game or is it just for these particular pets? I know there are a lot of players out there that enjoy having all their furry friends (so to speak) following them around. Though it annoys some, it is fun for those who have them. Can anyone confirm this one way or the other as it regards to ALL pets or just the ones quested from TD/KP?THE CITYFor the most part I love the city. HOWEVER, and Im sure almost EVERYONE will agree, there need to be lift calling levers throughout Gorowyn. Please ... THE ACCESSABILITYKelething and Neriak are both accessable fairly easily by both good and evil characters. I have yet to figure out how to get my "goodies" into the questing areas. There are guards everywhere near the exit of Gorowyn and no way out onto the main Island. Im going to try today to swim around the city to another island ... not sure if this will work. However, I do not think it is fair that the gear in the area is so overpowering yet not all characters can access it. Because of this, they REALLY need to revamp all starter quest areas with similarly appropriate gear. **UPDATE** As for the comments on accessability, I am pleased to announce that my level 6 Halfling Mystic traveled without contest to the Isles of Timorous Deep. She landed at the Gorowyn docks inside the city. Rather than confronting the local guards, she decided to swim from the dock to the right up onto the beach, which conviniently lead her to the Gorowyn Griffon Station. From there she flew to the Chykori Island and found no trouble at all in reaching the area to begin questing in TD. However, I still believe that all starter areas should have similar gear added. The majority of the new players will not be able to figure out how to get from Starter City A to Timorous Deep, and the fact that if they do not start off at TD they are gimped until level 40 is absolutely unacceptable. ...Thats all I can think of at the moment. Time to try and see if the servers are back up from their "brief" downtime this morning (ya think 1/2 hour is enough time? Lets hope).

Spontz

11-18-2007, 10:55 AM

First impression: Wow, Kunark! Smooth rollout, new area, new quests, I have a sokokar (what's a sokokar?), I'm playing a giant crouching chicken-lizard (aka Sarnak), neat!Second impression: That's it? That's all? Seriously??One of the main problems I have with the new Kunark is that it's so lacking in content. Sure, there are level 70+ zones, which is great for people with level 70+ characters. But for my main, it consists of two zones to explore while trying very hard not to die, and nothing else. The level 70+ crafting content is a joke, because it's impossible to reach with a sub-70 adventurer. I died about thirty times trying to complete the crafting quest that had me refilling provision caches, and only finished through grit, determination, and sheer bloody-mindedness. Also a willingness to watch all my equipment break.I was also dismayed to learn that my Sarnak, in order to advance beyond level 20, had to leave Kunark and go to Faydwer. I remember the old Kunark, which had plenty of content for Iksar of all levels. I was further dismayed to learn that there's nothing for Iksar in the new Kunark! I had been considering making a Kunark Iksar, but I see that my options are still only Freeport or Neriak.Speaking of Sarnak, the crouching issue: It's possible to have too much of a good thing. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> The Sarnak model as a whole is horribly flawed. When my Sarnak runs, his horn-crest smacks into (and through) his back-spines. I've also noticed that several of his back-spines jab straight into his skull when he runs, which can't be pleasant and have probably lobotomized him. The strange need the devs felt to make the Sarnak hunched-over at all times also had a negative effect on basically every move they make. Every animation, from emotes to spellcasting to combat, looks strained and improbable. Were the Sarnak genetically engineered to fight millipedes? With their short range of arm-movements and inability to look up, they could only effectively attack things standing directly in front of them and no taller than their toes.The graphics in general are also a major problem. The lag is unbelievable in Kunark, even when no one is in the zone with me, and the graphics I see just aren't worth the extra lag. In some areas, such as the Sarnak newbie zones, the terrain textures seem like a step backward from what I see in Antonica. The colors don't look real, and the textures are very obviously tiled.It seems like a minor issue, but the Sarnak with non-Sarnak voices bother me greatly. I grit my teeth every time I have to speak to a Sarnak NPC, because they're sure to sound like dwarves, barbarians, or even elves.It's nice to see the racial traditions revamped and made useful, but some races were given the short end of the stick, so to speak. It's as if the developers considered only what they thought were the coolest races, rather than trying for balance, or considering the more common classes for a given race. As a Wood Elf Ranger, my main character is left rather cold by the new Wood Elf innate racial abilities. Camouflage? I have stealth, thanks. A reduction to gathering and foresting times? I can make or buy items to do the same thing, so it doesn't help much. My High Elven friend, on the other hand, gets a reduction to all tradeskill power costs and a slow fall buff. A Dark Elf... apparently, the devs are in love with Dark Elves. A speed boost in stealth and slow fall! What with everyone except Wood Elves getting bonuses to stealth speed, the race that practically screams "RANGER!" is now one of the less attractive choices for the class.It would also have been nice to have a few tidbits just for rangers from the supposed ultimate ranger-god, Karana. But then, it would have been nice to have a few tidbits for rangers from the other supposed ultimate ranger-god, Tunare.Finally, there's the often-stated issue that, as a player who has already purchased the other expansions and is paying the monthly account fee, the extra gifts for new players feel like a slap in the face. I could use a free month of game time, I really could. I also wouldn't mind a refund of the money I spent on other expansions and adventure packs. Or perhaps a half-price RoK expansion to make up for that.So in the end, my first impression is that Kunark looks nice from a distance, the smooth rollout was most impressive, and I like the new crafting interface. Other than that... for $40.00 I got a crouching chicken-lizard, a little bit of newbie content (the Deadly Whiskey Bottle did make me laugh <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ), and some zones I can't use. Also lots of stuff I'd already purhcased. Any chance of a refund?

Beajay

11-18-2007, 04:12 PM

It is a shame some people are having problems with downloading and/or playing RoK. I was unhappy about not having an extra slot and the lag but those are really small problems in comparison to those of you who want to play so badly and haven't been able to yet.I was finally able to work through some of the lag problems on my end and it looks like SOE did work on their end to. Now the expansion runs relatively smoothly on my two computers. I suppose it may get bad over holidays but this weekend has been fine.I did as many of the RoK beginner quests as I could before having to move on to Freeport so I could do the writs there. I gave up on the Sarnak necro and rolled a dark-elf necro in her place. It was a blast leveling her up in TD. The quests were great, the loot fantastic, and the graphics awesome.I found the main city very complicated. I will probably try to explore it a little at a time. All the levels, halls, and doors keep blowing circuits in my brain lol.I'm glad the expansion is turning out to be better than I first thought. I've been impressed enough to buy two more copies. If we ever get the extra slots I will probably buy two more copies so everyone in the family has the expansion.

Misiakpisiak

11-18-2007, 04:50 PM

Brilliant, I'm really loving it. The swimming animation on the Sarnak is brilliant. The models move beautifuly. The crafting window now having the relevant skills hot-keyed along the bottom is genius, although it now seems a lot harder to craft some of the nub items in the crafting 'quest'; I particularly had trouble making the chainmail coat and the Essence of Intervene. I had to literaly try and fail every step of the way until I was at 41 or 41 of 45, before I had a success there. Otherwise, crafting's fine. I think some people take it a little too seriously tbh. Not reached the mainland yet, so I can't comment on how the new zoning system is working, unless it's on Timorous Deep too, in which case I haven't noticed any problems. Quest names are particularly good this time out, they always make me laugh. So far, so very, very good, I would say. Thank you team, it was money well spent! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Makkaio

11-19-2007, 12:17 PM

I love it...but where to start...1. UI has been improved nicely. I like the new traits and AA screen and the zoom function on the maps.2. Timorous Deep is the best starting area yet. Too bad you can only play sarlak there. At least I think that's all you can play there. However, playing through to level 15 so far, I've kind of fallen in love with the horned little guy.3. I'm glad the overland areas have been spread out more. You have a little more freedom for travel without hitting aggro every couple of meters. You can negotiate pretty well to get from area to area without a lot of hassle.4. I like the solo quest lines and how they incorporate the entire map. The introduction of Teren's Grasp via the sokokar was excellent. I haven't had an MMO moment like that in a *long* time. My last point and the new quest lines kind of go hand-in-hand. The worst thing with moving forward in quests is having to deal with old content (i.e. aggro mobs that you no longer need, but are just in a way). So far, the progression has been a lot more fun and a lot less irritation.5. The placement of raw nodes is well done, as well. Ore and stones in rocky areas...lumber, bushes and hides in wooded areas. Just makes more sense to me.Overall, things look great so far. Of course, I'm only almost level 72, so I'm sure there is a lot more to critique.