Remember all those features in FFXI that were neat in concept but were turned into such massive timesinks that they killed the game? Imagine them done right. I guess that is the best way to sum it up.
-Epic Quest lines at end game that actually have a story. Quests that aren't impossible to do, but are still challenging. Quests that give loot on par with raid gear.
-Alternate Advancement. Doing quests, discovering new locales, beating named monsters all give Achievement XP. You level achievement and earn points which can be used to increase character abilities, much like Talent Points in WoW (Kind of). Currently their are over 100 levels of Achievement a player can earn.
- Spells/Combat arts. Much like FFXI you have to buy spells. When you level you earn base spells, but can buy/farm upgrades. For example lvl 70 spell at Apprentice 1 may only do 'x' amount of damage, at Master it does 'x+500' damage. At first I was worried about this, but it is a great way to increase characters without pushing the level cap up.
-Crafting. EQ2 crafting just beats WoW. You level crafting. Each item you create gives xp, as you level up you get new recipes. Their are 70 levels of crafting. If you are a crafting nut this is the game for you. If you dont like crafting you can skip it but it is nice to know its their.
-Raids. Two expansions worth of lvl 70 raid content. Such a breathe of freshs air after WoW.
There is more but you get the jist, there is just much more in the way of advancing and fleshing out your character once you reach the level cap. I feel like I actually have a
character rather than just another Shaman, Lock or Pally.
I had played MMO's for years and thought WoW was fast, I mean a game of AB has you mashing buttons like a ****. However compared to the amount of work I have to do in a EQ2 raid environment it seems like WoW is slooow.
First off I can use combat arts while I am moving. If you are using a timed melee in wow and move it stops. I could never go back to that. Next I just plain have more moves to do. As an assassin I have 4 backstab moves, 2 deaggros, a hate transfer spell, 3 dots, a stun, 4 ranged attacks, 2 aoes, a poison debuff, def/mit debuff, and a number of other moves. It puts a rogues to shame. Crazy amount of button mashing, add jousting, and group interaction and it is a blast. Group encounters are much more entertaining. Tanks have better group aggro spells so you can find yourself doing multiple mobs at once which gets the heart pounding as well.
As for PvP. Well eq2 pvp is a little more intense. Killing other players gives you XP and Status. So you could hunt people for levels. Also you any money the person has on them drops (you can place money in bank in town so you dont have to worry about going broke). Their is a problem come end game raiding in that it is harder to raid when you only have good/evil type classes, compared to PvE where you can use both.
Oh and
here is a vid, not the greatest but if you look you can see how the guy is mashing his buttons during pvp.