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EverQuest II: Difference between revisions
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''EverQuest 2'' (2004) takes place 500 years after the original ''[[
Then came expansions. Well, first came "adventure packs", a concept sort of like a mini-expansion that didn't prove very popular. The continents of Faydwer, Kunark, Odus, and Velious would come soon enough, each continent having their own share of troubles.
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** In December of 2011, the entire game jumped over to the Free To Play model, which upset and frustrated returning veteran players with the fact that their fully Mythical-geared level 90 Sarnak Bruiser now had to be unlocked by buying the right to play as both the Sarnak race and the Bruiser class first, as well as paying $10 per character slot past the most recent 2 you used, as well as $0.30 ''per mythical item'' to use said gear. This was ''very'' quickly patched with a formal apology and a refund of any such packs that were purchased, as grandfathered characters no longer have to buy the packs -- but still have to pay for the item unlocks. (''New'' characters, however, require the unlocks.) The gold subscription is still a valid option to avoid having to worry about all these, as the (very frequent) popups are quick to remind you.
** One important note to this, if you are a Gold subscriber, you do get $5 in Station Cash each month, dropping the "net fee" from $10 to $15 a month down to $5 to $10, depending on how often you pay for the game. These 500 points of station cash a month can easily be used to stockpile race / class / item unlocks and the like, meaning that dropping down from Gold to Silver is not so bad with a certain amount of preparation. Alternately, this 500 points of station cash a month can be used towards the expansions to keep content flowing.
* [[All There in the Manual]]: A lot of the storyline that goes along with the expansions isn't readily available to players, or at best has to be pieced together bit by bit as you learn the lore.
* [[Amazing Technicolor Battlefield]]: Roehn Theer, the [[Big Bad]] of the expansion Sentinel's Fate, is fought on a flashing neon chessboard surrounded by a black and purple swirling acid trip.
* [[An Adventurer Is You]]
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** [[Fragile Speedster]]: Scouts in general, although a good Brigand or Swashbuckler can take a few hits.
** [[The Beast Master]]: Necromancers and Conjurors. They specialize in undead and elementals, respectively. The Beastlord class takes this to it's logical extreme, taking control of animals. To a lesser extent, Druids can charm animals (and some humanoids) to work for them but it only lasts for a few minutes.
** [[Squishy Wizard]]: Any mage class.
** Of course, anyone not listed in Stone Wall is probably going to find out the definition of [[Glass Cannon]].
* [[And Your Reward Is Clothes]]: Subverted. ''Technically'' yes, you get rewarded for most things with clothes, but since your gear directly affects your stats, it's entirely functional.
* [[The Artifact]]: EQ2 doesn't have it quite as bad as its predecessor. For one thing, there are fewer outdoor zones, and thus nothing to be "reliced". Also, Sony sometimes lowers difficulty of monsters, or an entire zone, from "raid" to "group", or from "group" to "solo". Still, some formerly high end dungeons like Solusek's Eye now have little point to them. Also, leveling is so easy now that the low end dungeons just aren't necessary anymore, as a player could gain five levels in less time than it would take him to find a group.
** With the Destiny of Velious expansion, EQ2 did away with weight entirely, rendering the big-but-super-heavy bank container suddenly something you can carry around with no difficulty, and a boss who's trick was teleporting 9999 lb stones into your inventory rather pointless.
** An unusual subversion in Everquest 2 is The Protector's Realm. As of the ''Rise of Kunark'' expansion, it was a high-end raid target. With the level cap raised by 10 and the stat bonuses conferred by gear vastly improved, it can generally be cleared with a single group (as opposed to four), and has found new life as a great area for money farming. A good "PR plat run" can net a player in the neighborhood of 30 plat.
* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: Most raid bosses.
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* [[Bigger Bad]]: EQ2 now has {{spoiler|Kerafyrm}} as the grand daddy of all Big Bads, being the prominent character found at the core of the Age's End prophecy that Norrath is now facing.
* [[Big Good]]: Antonia Bayle started as one. She still technically is, but like Lucan, her plot relevance is steadily decreasing.
* [[Big Boo's Haunt]]: Fewer than in EQ1, but EQ2 had Ruins of Varsoon in the original, ''Desert of Flames'' had the Silent City and related instances, ''Kingdom of Sky'' had the Blackscale Sepulchral, ''Echoes of Faydwer'' had Castle Mistmoore and the Loping Planes...
** Unrest in EQ2 is much scarier than the first envisioning. The zone is strongly story-driven. You're being watched and commented on by the [[Big Bad]] of the end zone as you discover the cause of the curse that rests upon the estate and how he brutally slaughtered the innocent family that lived there. Just before you fight him, he actually realizes that [[The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You|you are a player behind a computer monitor]], and tries to "jump" out of the screen at you when he pulls an [[Interface Screw]] on you before you approach him.
* [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]]: During one of the revamps, all the frogs and slugs and bugs in the newbie zone The Peat Bog were enlarged massively. Now the frogs are as wide across as a male barbarian, and the more dangerous slugs in the back of the zone are 4 times bigger than a human.
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** The best example of this might be Toxxiulla's Mound. No trash, just a ring event involving dragons. The other good example would be The Palace of Roheen Theer. No trash, just epic after epic. It's worth noting that many raiders prefer the boss-only zones because generally killing "trash" doesn't result in loot drops which makes time not spent working on the bosses time wasted.
* [[Bottomless Bladder]]: Played straight for players. Not always so true for NPCs.
* [[Born-Again Immortality]]: The fae and arasai. When they die, either of natural or unnatural causes, a spirit bud is created which regenerates the body until they are ready to be reborn. However, the spirit bud can be destroyed, which leads to the fae or arasai's permanent death.
* [[Breast Plate]]: EQ2 almost completely averted this trope. Unarmored characters wear peasant-like clothing rather than underwear. In fact, there is '''one''' piece of gear in the game that shows any significant amount of skin on a female character, and it's a rather expensive prestige item that only acts as clothing instead of armor anyway.
** Back with a vengeance as of ''Destiny of Velious'', as villaineses Cara Omica, Tserinna Syl'Tor and Sullon Zek all wear what amounts to armor in the shape of a bikini and stockings. Most PC armor remains reasonable and sensible, but as of LU63 female characters can wear halter top shaped breastplates.
* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: In terms of the lore and history behind the world of Norrath, things are split up into two categories. First is that anything actually found inside [[
** How evil Rallos Zek is has varied from time to time. At his best he's been an "a shade below Neutral" type evil who abhorred Innoruuk, Cazic Thule and Bertoxxulus and respected the Marr twins. At his worst, he's more of a "kill everyone until everyone wants to kill everyone" type.
* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: If your home city is Freeport or Neriak, all your pre-given dialogue when interacting with NPCs has you as almost a complete [[Jerkass]].
* [[Cash Cow Franchise]]: ''EverQuest 1'' was such a success that they took all the money from it and used that to create many new games (EQ 2 was just one of them), rather than improve ''EverQuest''. They mostly all failed. It's pretty obvious that the management has no regard for the original ''EverQuest'' other than to milk it dry.
** Besides ''EverQuest'' and ''EverQuest 2'', there is the online card game ''Legends of Norrath'', ''Champions of Norrath'' ([[PlayStation 2]] game), ''Champions: Return to Arms'' ([[PlayStation 2]] game), ''[[
** A new MMORPG called ''[[
* [[Catfolk]]: The Kerrans physically resemble large humanoid felines. Their bodies are covered in fur with colors and patterns denoting their lineage.
* [[Critical Hit]]: In the Destiny of Velious expansion, being able to critical hit (by building up your Crit Chance stat) is literally essential to completing any content. Enemies have a stat (that you don't get) called Critical Avoidance, which requires you to have a crit chance of over 100% - for high end raiding, you need around 240% crit chance.
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* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]: Players can float or jump right over lava without any problems. In the old days, falling into lava was an instant automatic death, but later it was changed so falling in gave you negligible damage.
* [[Culture Chop Suey]]: The monk guilds in the human cities seem asian-influenced, in what is otherwise largely [[Medieval European Fantasy]].
** While the city of Freeport maintains a largely medieval feel, the Freeport Militia have gained a distinctly [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] aesthetic.
* [[Damage Discrimination]]: Usually. Most monsters will not harm friendly monsters, though there are a few cases where they do. For example, in Tower of Nurga, there's a fight where you have to position a drake boss so that his fire blasts hit two goblins guarding an elevator.
* [[Death Is a Slap on The Wrist]]: You have to pay to repair your armor, and you get a small xp penalty which regenerates if you have the game turned off. When the game first started, it was a bit more painful, as you'd have to retrieve your "spirit shard" from where you died to get 50% of your exp back, but those were done away with years ago.
* [[Difficulty Spike]]: It's actually quite easy to solo your way all the way up to max level. In fact, the developers changed the game to intend for this. You will then be lacking knowledge on how to work as part of a group. You will also probably be undergeared, as all the better weapons and armor are obtained from "heroic" quests and boss mobs, both of which require groups to conquer.
** Will happen to you again if you decide to go from being a casual player to a raid player. Raid quality gear mostly only drops in raid zones.
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** The Obelisk of Ahkzul. Can be soloed at 90, and gives about 6-12 plat a run and some level 80 stuff to transmute.
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The Void Invaders. Roehn Theer qualifies. He is the Avatar of the Nameless. He has the power to kill the gods themselves. His weakness in a weird checks and balances sort of way? Mortals like us adventurers.
** Arkatanthis the Destroyer. He doesn't have a role in the story arc, but he's one of the Cthulu-inspired Amygdalans. After the Sentinel's Fate expansion came out, he had the distinction of being the toughest boss in the game.
*** As of ''Destiny of Velious'', it turned out that Roehn Theer wasn't that Eldritch after all. He was a deity who's specific Circle of Influence was being able to kill other Gods to prevent them from becoming too powerful or messing around with the mortal world too much. He was also specifically given no dominion over mortals.
* [[Eldritch Location]]: The Void.
* [[Enough to Go Around]]: It's not uncommon for the target of a quest to drop 3 or 6 copies of the needed quest item.
* [[Expansion Pack]]: Many many of these. They churn them out so often. As of now, EQ2 has 6 full size expansion packs plus three "adventure packs". The adventure pack concept didn't turn out to be very popular. EQ2 also release an amount of content that could be reasonably described as a mini-expansion pack about halfway between expansions, for free.
* [[Expy]]: Kerrans to the Vah Shir, sort of. Kerrans existed in EQ1, but not as a playable race. The Vah Shir race went extinct when Luclin was destroyed, but Kerrans were made playable to consolidate Vah Shir fans. Official lore states that the Vah Shir adventurers who were trapped on Norrath when teleportation was cut off from Luclin all decided to live with the Kerra tribe and mate with them. The Kerra we see 500 years later are the genetic result of the Vah Shir and Kerra.
* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Between the Kerrans and Erudites. Going all the way back to EQ1 where the Erudites drove the Kerra off the mainland of Odus onto an island that became called Kerra Isle. With the original release Lucan D'Lere proved how evil he was by making the Kerrans and Erudites share a slum. In ''Sentinel's Fate'' the old hostilities flared up, with the Kerrans hating the uncaring and disconnected-from-nature Erudites and the Erudites despising the backwards superstitious Kerra.
* [[Fetch Quest]]: By the bushel.
* [[Floating Continent]]: EQ2 looovvess this trope. The entire Kingdom of Sky expansion pack took place on floating islands. Part of the Swamp of Innothule, although technically not floating, was so high off the ground it could only be accessed by airship. In the ''Sentinel's Fate'' expansion, the entire continent of Odus is floating because it's now located in an alternate dimension entirely.
* [[Forced Level Grinding]]: Leveling up is easy compared to EQ1. Now go get your 325 AA's.
* [[Frankenstein's Monster]]: Flesh golems.
* [[Forced Tutorial]]: Controversially removed from the game. The original game started all players out as "Level 1 Commoners" in a zone called "Isle of Refuge". You learned to play by completing the quests there, picked your archetype (fighter, mage, priest, scout), and an alignment (Qeynos or Freeport). The whole archetype and class picking part was done away with years ago, "to make the newbie experience more unique", and the Isle of Refuge was split into The Queen's Colony (for good characters) and Outpost of the Overlord (for evil ones). But as the focus of the game shifted away from Qeynos and Freeport and the gear from the two tutorial zones became outdated, SOE decided to just get rid of them entirely.
** Tutorials now exist as a series of pop-up windows and they aren't mandatory. There's no reason a newbie can't just start level grinding and ignore the hell out of all the quests.
* [[From Nobody to Nightmare]]: Originally, Lucan D'Lere was just a paladin in the Order of Marr. Before EQ1 took place he [[Face Heel Turn|split from the Order]] and founded the Freeport Militia. Five hundred years later in EQ2 he's the unquestioned ruler and tyrant of Freeport. To this day, only Lucan's most trusted adviser, a dark elf named Tayil N'Velex, knows that he is actually an immortal [[Lich]], but even she doesn't know where he keeps the phylactery that contains his soul.
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** One of the holiday quests for the April Fools Day expy Bristelbane Day is literally called "Kill 10 rats". The quest deconstructs and lampshades MMORPG cliches in general.
* [[The Legions of Hell]]: The Nightbloods, despite being aligned with the Void Invaders, look much more like legions of hell than shadow monsters.
* [[Loads and Loads of Races]]: Twenty-one in total (twenty if you count Kerrans and Vah Shir as the same race, which some do and some don't). High Elves, Halflings, Dwarves, Wood Elves, Frogloks, Humans, Barbarians, Half Elves, Gnomes, Erudites, Freeblood Vampires, Dark Elves, Ogres, Trolls, Iksar, Vah Shir, Ratonga, Kerran, Fae, Arasai, Sarnak. Have fun making those [[Alt-Itis|characters.]]
** Mind you, that's only the ''playable'' races. Just for fun, here's a list of some of the non-playable races. <ref>Aviak, Bixie, Boarfiend, Brownie, Bugbear, Burynai, Centaur, Clockwork, Cyclops, Djinn, Drelock, Droag, Ettin, Fungusman, Gnoll, Goblin, Giant, Gruengach, Hua Mein, Kobold, Lizardman, Orc, Othmir, Ravasect, Roekillik, Shadowed Man, Tallonite, Vampire, Yah-lei.</ref>
* [[Money, Dear Boy]]: Many of the changes made to the game over the last few years were only for the sole purpose of raking in more dough and keeping the game alive. You can buy in game items with real life cash, and it just gets worse from there.
** For example, as of ''The Shadow Odyssey'', all subclasses got their own unique looking armor. Granted, there were only a few different base designs, but at least they bothered to palate-swap the armor. Ever since they started providing super-elaborate decorative armor in the Marketplace for real money, there have been five total armor texture schemes - plate mail, chain mail, leather armor, gi, and cloth armor.
** The Freeblood race was created just so players could buy and then play as a vampire race. The race itself has no lore behind it (though the developers ''tried'' to justify some connections with the ''Nights of the Dead'' Halloween events) other than that they used to be both Humans and Elves who were abducted by vampires, experimented on, showed resistance to sunlight, retained free will, and escaped from their captors.
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* [[Nintendo Hard]]: In general, SOE does a fairly good job at providing both easy content for the casual players and really difficult stuff for the hardcore ones. Sentinel's Fate originally had two raid zones. It took the game's best guild 6 months to defeat the 4 Rune Roehn Theer boss, and almost as long to defeat Arkathanthis the Destroyer. Then, so the top level guilds didn't get complacent, they released the Underfoot Depths raid zone in LU57...
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Way too many to list all of them, but here's a few...
** In EQ2, Za Za Lenska gives you a quest to get "potion ingredients to help her husband" that include snake venom (a reference to Zsa Zsa Gabor going through husbands).
** A character you're forced to fight one-on-one in a monk trial event is called Crush "The Icescale" Lizzard (shout out to Chuck "The Iceman" Liddel).
** The quest "The Number One Threat In the Butcherblock" requires you to kill [[Everything's Worse with Bears|bears]]. Given to you by Scout [[The Colbert Report|Colbear]].
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* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: The Sarnak of Gorowyn. They lead a fairly militaristic lifestyle, but decided it would be much more profitable to make Gorowyn accessible to good-aligned adventurers as a waypoint between their lands and Kunark than to follow the standard Evil practice of killing them for the evulz. The only reason why they practice more evil professions is because it was the best way for them to survive in their environment.
* [[Punny Name]]: Oh so many of them. There are whole web pages which list them.
** One example is the zone "Estate of Unrest" (State of unrest).
* [[Rainbow Pimp Gear]]: Averted. Players have the ability to equip armor and weapons in an appearance slot.
* [[Random Drop]]
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* [[Slobs Versus Snobs]]: Comes up every time the Erudites argue with anyone, but especially with their old rivals the nature-oriented Kerra.
* [[Some Call Me... Tim]]: Lord Doljonijiarnimorinar. Players call him Bob. The game even gives this a shout out - one of the achievements is "Defeat Lord Doljonijia... Bob"
* [[Stripperiffic]]: Antonia Bayle.
** SOE in general decided very deliberately to move away from using stripperiffic women to advertise the game. There's ''one'' skimpy dress (in various colors) that female characters can get in EQ2, but it's an optional prestige item. Antonia remains stripperiffic, but she isn't plastered all over the official art like Firiona Vie was in EQ1.
*** As of Destiny of Velious expansion they've been bringing it back. Tserrina Syl'Tor, Cara Omica and Sullon Zek all sport "armor" that is ludicrous at best.
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** ''Unbreak My Heart'': Toni Braxton (Returning Goddess)
** ''Thief of Hearts'': [[Madonna]] (Returning Goddess)
* [[Took a Level in Jerkass]]: Rallos Zek, the God of War, in the Destiny of Velious expansion pack and the subsequent patches "Children of War" and "The War of Zek". Rallos [[Retcon|was always an evil god]], and has tried to put his ambitions of war and conquest into motion numerous times in the past, including the Planes of Power expansion pack in [[
* [[Thong of Shielding]]: [http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/File:Sullon_Zek_rear_view.png Sullon Zek]
* [[Twenty Bear Asses]]: EQ2 pretty much revolves around this style of quest.
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* [[Vaporware]]: New Halas just kept on getting pushed back. It was finally released well over a year after the original planned release date.
** When ''Destiny of Velious'' came out, players exploring the old world zones with their new flying mounts found a few remnants of what appears to be unfinished content. Most notable among these is an air dock in The Bonemire that was never used for anything and left inaccessible.
* [[Villain Exit Stage Left]]: God ''dammit'', Maalus Shadowfyre...
** Tert Turganpuncher does the same damned thing!
** {{spoiler|Maalus came [[Back for the Dead]] with the Drunder update. Hopefully we'll get another shot at Tert as well...}}
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** Some of the weapons of a x4 boss in a contested zone also have a damage proc that only damages "those born of zek".
* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: Giants look very human-like, if not absolutely huge, and seem to behold at least some intelligence... the thing is, [[I Am a Humanitarian|you can kill them for meat]]!
* [[Wolfpack Boss]]:
** Ludmila Kystov and her party (Meldrath Klotik, Jracol Binari, Blorgok the Brutal, the Doomcoil) in the Protector's Realm
** Octis, Sslortis, Sunrise and Nightfall in Emperor's Athenaeum.
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** With Gold clusters being so common, they're extremely cheap to buy on the market, usually 1 copper per. This is just the player-created economy though.
** On the story side, the residents of Norrath themselves rarely ever make any mention or claim that gold is valuable. Goblins love the stuff, [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|but that's mainly because it's shiny.]]
*** On the flipside though, in terms of both the story and player economy, Silver clusters are extremely valuable. They're a high level rare harvest that players will pay a lot of platinum for, and some NPC's give quests that require them as various components for whatever they're doing. [[Fridge Logic|You'd think that someone on Norrath would just get the idea to smelt down all the commonly found silver coins and just use that instead.]]
* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: The raptors in The Withered Lands. They know enough to use the little glowing feather "this NPC has a quest for you" marker to ambush players, which would make them [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] - except they don't realize that this isn't an action movie, it's an RPG, and they're just trash mobs.
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