First let me state I do NOT intend to quit EQ2 yet because the game is outstanding in many respects. The graphics are astounding. The quests I have done so far have all be fun and challenging. I have had the chance now to play the game for a month however and here are a few items that I have noticed that are starting to wear on me.
/rant on
1. - If I solo I tend to stay alive longer (first death nver happens under level 16) BUT the mobs start to become MORE powerful or I am becomming WEAKER because I can not survive solo past level 16. If I group the same problem exist because mobs tend to pop on top of us while we are in combat. I had the opportunity yesterday to group with several different people (both groups were full) and we were wiped on more than one occasion because mobs litterly vanished in the middle of combat and respawned new higher level ones on top of us or the mobs were stuck in the walls/roofs/floors and we could not target them. We are talking mobs that were even con here and killing us.
2. - The locked combat is great BUT while in combat aggro is not locked out from other mobs so you are going to end up dead from adds anyway because players passing by just don't know which mob is free for them to take so they let you die and then take your mob (I experienced this fist hand 3 times in BB). Even if grouped the aggro is so bad you almost need a raid group to survive because of the respawn time which IMO is way to short.
3. - LOTTO sucks! While I grouped yesterday there were 88 dropped chests (yes I counted them after I did not get any item from the first 12 drops). I got ZERO loot (lotto request sent every time). This means I spent 8 hours in groups for ZERO cash, gained one level (with 94% experience debt) and need new/repaired armor. There really is no reason or incentive to group except to reduce death counts (MAYBE) and solo is impossible so IMO the game is not playable past level 16.
4. - PKing is NOT out of the game. People train ligh level mobs on you because they WANT the area you are hunting. I experience this first hand in the caves when I tried to take a few snakes. There was a level 28 cleric on the hill and a level 8 warrior wacking snakes. The cleric would follow the warrior. Anyway I drew aggro from one of the snakes and started combat. The cleric went to the top of the next hill where the dark paw guards were and pulled them down on top of me. They started aggro on me and I had to exit. I came back and tried another snake and this time I had Golem things all over me. I managed to exit again and though I would give it one more try just to see what would happen. Yes he was training mobs on me because this time I had the dark paws again. Camping and PKing LIVE in EQ2 just in a new and more dangerous way.
/rant off