First I would like to say that I am a huge supporter of SOE and I've had alot of fun playing their games. I started playing EQ live just before PoP came out and it is still by far the best game I have ever played. I was so excited when the announcement came that EQ2 was coming out. I posted in the forums for over a year before release and participated in the beta since Sept '04.
EQ2 is ok...but I find I'm not having as much fun as I did in the first one. EQ2 doesn't seem to capture the magic that EQ live did. I can't quite figure out why either. The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is smooth...but it seems like I'm running around a Candyland where there is hardly any risk and alot of stuff is layed out in an almost too orderly fashion.
I'm not a big fan of zone instancing or locked encounters and I could really do without the way mobs are considered. I walk around different zones and I'm not scared like I used to be. And I defintely never felt that 'newbie' feeling I was hoping to feel again with this new game. I know I'm not alone because alot of other people say the same thing.
There's alot of broken content...which I don't mind as much because the game is only a few months old and I have no problem waiting for the fixes to come. I can only hope that they do come and that the devs continue to work hard in making this game more enjoyable on all levels...and that they listen to the player base on alot of issues.
The biggest thing that is bothering me now is the DPS classes. I chose to play a Warlock because I wanted to be a pure DPS class and be a valuable asset to a group. Alot of my friends have been parsing and when the damage numbers come up I see that I am seriously lacking in the department I should be really good at. Tank classes such as Bezerkers, Guardians, and SK's are doing more damage than I am most of the time...and scout dps will always beat caster dps. This is mainly because melee classes are getting better weapons, sashes with haste, and all kinds of other goodies while casters are only getting minor upgrades to their high lvl spells. And our really high level spells don't even work most of the time. This has been brought up in the forums alot and nothing has been done to fix it. I understand that there is alot wrong with the game and alot that has to be worked on, but in the meantime I'm not having any fun. My dps is just above a priest on the list and it's becoming harder and harder to get a group. I'm installing WoW now and I think I'm going to play that for a while...maybe take a break until they fix alot of this stuff.