My friend and I are thinking of starting an MMORPG, but we're stuck deciding between World of Warcraft and Everquest II.
Some background: I used to play EQ and loved it. Undoubtedly the best game I've ever played. Downside is that leveling took forever! I sank in hundreds of hours of game time, albeit much of it was questing, but the vast majority was grinding. We don't want that kind of experience because we're both in college, and this is just something we'll be doing to help stay in touch since he'll be 3000 miles away. I guess my question is whether leveling is easier in this? We're not looking to shoot to level 60 in 2 days, but neither are we looking for a day of grinding for a bubble of exp. Really looking for an old EQ vet's opinion here, how's the exp gain compared to EQ1?
The other issue is my friend is new to MMOs, which is funny because he was the one that suggested this. How steep is the learning curve? I beta tested WoW years ago and was not too impressed with how babyish it seemed to be. Was destroying multiple monsters I had no business killing as a warlock. The ease of use was very beginner friendly though, which is a plus. I'm personally leaning a bit towards EQII for nostalgia's sake, but I realize that it might be easier for him to adjust in WoW. I don't think he wants an overwhelming experience that requires learning a host of tricks and commands.
Also, what's the deal with the good/evil stuff? Does it severely limit exploration? Can you group with members of the other race? Are their neutral grounds that we could level in? This probably won't be much of an issue cause we'll probably end up making characters that start in the same city to save the headache of running across the world to meet each other.
And last questions, sorry to write an essay, but what's the new binding and corpse system? Do you still need a high level priest for resurrection with exp? And how much do you lose? I remember in EQ1 a 95% exp rezz would be mandatory cause otherwise it'd be a loss of hours of grinding. Since most of the time it'll just be us two, how big a deal is it? (I'm thinking of being a druid, which doesn't have exp rezz I don't think?). And with binding, is the spell still required, and do the old restrictions apply (casters could bind anywhere, fighting classes could only bind in specific areas).
Thanks in advance! I know this is really long and has a lot of questions, but anything would be of help.