Not gonna come back to give Uldar a try?
Maybe.
Wasnt Vanguard a huge pile of poo? I was following the game for years before release but it seemed it was all shit and promises.
They've fixed it big time in the two years since it was out. I started playing for the first time since launch the other day and it's basically Old School EQ, but with some WoW-style improvements (specifically the quest system), and everything people wanted to see added to EQ (player owned and crafted ships, housing, no zones at all).
People "raised on WoW" won't be able to adjust. There's still exp loss on death (but it is handled like DAOC did where you can recover some of it at your tombstone), all dungeons except the big raid one are non-instanced so you compete for big spawns. The 19 races and 15 classes also are a lot compared to WoW, but the classes are basically updates on EQ ones with a couple new additions:
* Protective Fighter (tank, wears heavy armor)
o Warrior (mostly melee damage, some group buffs)
o Paladin (some healer abilities)
o Dread Knight (some magic damage abilities, some ability to drain health and add it to their own)
* Offensive Fighter (melee damage dealer, wears medium armor)
o Ranger (dual weapons, bows, stealth, some druidic magic)
o Rogue (dual weapons, some abilities based on use of daggers, stealth, poison, top damage per second [DPS] with Sorceror.)
o Monk (a class designed around the build-up and expenditure of 'Jin' points in battle, able to feign death, 3 subclasses)
o Bard (group buffer, crowd control, general utilities such as great speed of travel, invisibility, and levitation)
* Defensive Spellcaster (healer, has ability to summon others from a limited distance)
o Cleric (healing over time, wears heavy armor, some tanking ability, 5 subclasses)
o Shaman (healer and damage dealer with damage-over-time spells (DOTs), wears medium armor, some fast heals, 3 subclasses: Tuurgin = Strength, Fury, Resilience, melee damage; Rakurr = Swiftnes, Haste, and Cunning melee damage; Hayatet = Spell damage energy regen, powerfull DOTs etc.)
o Disciple (healer with good damage, able to use Jin to heal as well as energy, wears medium armor, able to feign death)
o Blood Mage (healing and crowd control, able to drain own health in exchange for magical energy, wears light armor)
* Offensive Spellcaster (magic damage dealer, wears light armor, has escape teleport)
o Sorcerer (Top DPS with rogue, invisibility)
o Druid (snare/root kiting, runspeed and other buffs, Fire, lightning, plant, wind, and star based nukes and DOT spells, rock minions ,limited healing abilities):
o Psionicist (mind and crowd control, illusions, DOT spells)
o Necromancer - (able to use pets, and DOT spells, able to feign death, 2 subclasses)
Basically they're updates to the original EQ classes, but in some cases they are awesome updates. The Necro specifically is really cool. At level 10 they gain a harvest ability where they can pick apart a corpse for body parts that they then equip on their pet for augments.
The Disciple and Blood Mage are the only really "new" classes. Psionicist is the EQ Enchanter.
The game just really feels like pre-Planes of Power EQ with new graphics, and a better crafting/harvesting system, and the addition of Diplomacy, which is an in-game card game that handles dialog with certain civic NPC. By leveling up your Diplomacy sphere you can access to buffs, Guild Houses, the Griffon Mount, and other stuff.
Since the world is huge, you get your first mount at level 10. Then faster ones at 20, 30, and 40. Flying mounts are in the game, can be used anywhere except a couple restricted flight areas, and you can rent a flying mount for 25 copper that lasts five minutes.
They are also in the process of patching in the first expansion for free (like WAR). They have a few more end-game raid dungeons coming, and are raising the level cap to 55 and adding EQ-style AAs.
