Hi guys

This topic isn't a rant, just more of an insight in to how I play my MMO of choice - EverQuest 2. I thought it might be interesting for you to know how the hours were spent behind the avatar of the player.

How many characters do I actually have?

I have 5 characters. They are: Faeward, a level 32 Fae Warden and level 30 Sage. Temprar, a level 14 Erudite Templar and level 26 Tailor. Virge, a level 16 Wood Elf Dirge and level 21 Woodworker (probably higher, I can't remember). Stubble, a level 13 Ratonga Brigand and Level 10 Scholar and finally; Makes, a level 4 Defiler with no tradeskill yet.

Which one do I enjoy playing the most, and why?

At the moment, I enjoy playing Virge the Dirge. I enjoy playing as her because I have spent the most time making sure that she has the best equipment possible - full mastercrafted armour, weapons and jewelery, and lots of quests completed at her level resulting in huge amounts of achievement points.

"Why would you quest for achievement points, that's just stupid!"

This is something that Azraeleus said to me in-game. He currently plays Renzack, a level 15 Ogre Shadowknight (or at least that's what he was last night) with 14 achievement points. I am a level 16 Wood Elf Dirge with 14 achievement points. OK, so he has more AA per level, but how has he done this? He has done it via killing named creatures which offer no experience, but a fair amount of achievement experience. How much time has he spent doing this? Too much - it's just not fun waiting around for hours for named creatures to spawn and repeatedly killing the placeholders for no type of achievements at all.

Which one is your main character?

I would say that Faeward is my main character. You can probably guess because he is the highest level of my characters. I enjoy playing as Faeward because he is a healer, and I enjoy playing healers. It's great to be the guy on the side helping the guy at the front do his thing a little bit longer than usual. I don't mind being a finger wiggler, I can throw flames as well you see, and ice, and revive dead teammates, make portals to distant lands, and make spell scrolls for myself and other mage/priest classes. Quite a handy little guy to have really.

I haven't been playing him as much recently because he has absolutely rubbish armour. I can't fight anything my own level and I struggle to defeat things that are several levels below me without grouping with someone else.

The reason that this character has such poor equipment is due to the fact that I am constantly being asked and forced to level up in order to group with people and do higher level quests. Because of this, I haven't had the time to search for the rare materials required for superior weapons and armour and have therefore had to purchase poor low quality armour at a low price from the broker. I am not playing with this character until I get a full set of mastercrafted gear for his level (level 32) and a better weapon (he is currently using a 2-handed staff, but I need for him to use a 1-handed sword and a buckler).

His stats are also very unbalanced. OK, it works in my favour in a group, as long as nothing attacks me. I have over 300 wisdom points, which means that I can heal to high heavens and never need to worry about power usage, but when it comes to dealing damage, with a strength rating of only 60-something and an intelligence of 70-something... damage really should be left to someone else.

This guy is my harvester now. I don't PVP with him (he dies instantly in a PVP battle), and I am trying to get that point across to everyone - so much so that I have changed his surname to "Needstoharvest" just to let people know that's all I want and need to do. If I had the choice, I would change it to "Doesntwanttopvpandneedstoharvestsoleavemealoneplease" but that's too long.

What do I spend most of my time doing?

75% of my time is currently spent playing Virge. The rest of the time I spend on either Temprar or Faeward. I haven't had the time to play my other characters as they are stuck in evil land and need to be moved over in a group - which needs to wait for when other people are available.

What do I spend most of my time doing when I play as Virge?

Half of my time is spent solo, and half of my time is spent groupled with either Azraeleus or Kyhas or my girlfriend's characters. Azraeleus spends 90% of his life on this game so it's easy enough to group up with him, but I can't keep up with the pace that he levels his characters and gains new equipment - I just don't get the time in the day to do as much as he does.

Any time spent back in the city is spent tradeskilling, making totems and arrows and selling them on the broker for a lot of money. Each arrow tends to sell for 5 silver, and when you make 100 at a time, it's easy money, too. Totems are really handy for regenerating health and power out of combat so I have made loads of them for myself. Always handy after you get in a pickle and need to regenerate quickly.

I am proud of Virge - she has not only got the full set of mastercrafted armour, weapons and jewelery, she has a full set of mastercrafted adept spells that deal insane amounts of damage, and has all of the advanced craftsman and woodworker books for her level.

I am dubious to level her up without getting some rare steel through all of Faeward's hard efforts spent harvesting in Thundering Steppes, and perhaps some generous donations from friends... Steel costs 40g on the broker, and there's never much available at that price. Sure I can make a fair bit of gold from making arrows with Virge, but when you need 9 pieces of steel, you need at least 3 platinum and 60 gold and that kind of money is hard to just make all of a sudden...

What do I spend most of my time doing when I play as Temprar?

I don't adventure with this guy. His stats are so bad that he can hardly stand under the weight of his own equipment. All of his stats are under 70... compared to Virge who has most stats over 150.

This guy is my tailor. He can make some pretty decent stuff. I recently spent a lot of money with this guy making sure he had the most important Advanced Tailor books so that he can make mastercrafted level 22 leather armour, and 12 slot mastercrafted bags (10 slot normal bags too), 8 slot quivers, and some beautiful dresses too... I've got Virge in a dress created by Temprar.

Temprar is great for tradeskilling - he never, ever runs out of power because one of the Erudite racial traditions is hugely increased power regeneration when out of combat.

What would I recommend for someone trying to have fun on EverQuest 2?

Never try to keep up with somebody else. If you work 5 or 6 days a week, you won't be able to keep up with somebody that doesn't. Just take your time and enjoy yourself. Soak up all of the story and read all of the quests - there is so much to this game that people just skip over to try and progress quickly - these people are missing out on so much. EverQuest lore is very interesting, and extremely funny! The amount of times I have laughed at the dialogue and taken screenshots... countless!

Typical things I get told...

You haven't leveled up in ages! - Don't care.
You need to level up so you can join in on this raid! - Don't care
Why haven't you got mastercrafted gear on this guy yet? - Don't have time
Why can't you play for longer? - Don't have time
Why don't you target through me all the time? - You target too slow / I don't need to (Hah!)
Why aren't you playing your other toon? - I need to do something on this toon
Why do you suck at PVP? - Because I'm not competitive enough to do it, I prefer standing in front of my enemy /laugh'ing as much as possible

In short...

If i get around to ginut again i'll make you a nice sword for faeward if i get that high any time soon .

Hey thanks It'll need to be at least a Pristine Imbued Feysteel Long Sword (from Advanced Weaponsmith 30).

You missed something.

Spamming "hail" at every opportunity.