Character
Creation



I'm not going to go into
much depth regarding character creation in this guide, as the good
folks at Sony have made
it nearly painless to choose what you would like to be and how would
you like to look in the initial creation screens. Are
you a beautiful Rat, or an ugly Elf? The choice is yours.



Remember that your choice of Evil or Good dictates which city you will
be your home. If you have some pals you are planning to
play with,
make sure you all choose the same alignment. We would hate
to see Bobby Brainwhacker fending for himself in Freeport while the
rest of his friends live the good life in Qeynos. For you
politically correct types that aren't so sure about killing rats and
gutting them to find the gold in their bellies, (because rats evidently
swallow all kinds of thing, but gold seems to be a big
favourite.) I suggest you stop right now, forget you ever even
began to read this article and run, don't walk to the nearest juice bar
for a little vegetarian refreshment to soothe your aching nerves.




What's
Important?: Your choice of either Evil or Good. If
you want to play with your pals, then pick the same alignment. If
you want to trick your pals into wasting time have them choose the
wrong alignment.

What's
Not Important?: Your appearance, and to a lesser
extent your race. The fact that you aren't wearing any
pants is not important to the game, but is important to your
family. Put your pants on!

Tutorial



Once you choose your race and
pretty yourself up (or down) you will be sent to the
tutorial. You will find yourself nearly naked and
penniless (in the game, not at home. You did put your pants on
right?) aboard a ship crossing the ocean. Follow along as the
captain of the ship gives you instructions and everything will be just
fine. He's a happy sort of fellow, at least for a guy on a
ship with very few crew and at least two rats. Let's hope those
are gold eating rats! Now stay with me as here comes the
tutorial instruction for the game challenged and instruction
impaired. You
really should not need this, but I know at least a few of you out there
won't be bothered to read the instructions during the in-game
tutorial. Chances are you are the same folks who weren't wearing
pants earlier. On with it, and remember, just follow what
the captain says.

• Scroll your mousewheel forward and back to switch from third to
  first person view and back again.
  
• Hold down the right mouse button and "look around". This is
  also known as mouselook.
  
• Press the W,S.A and D keys to move you character around the boat.
  
  
• Hold down the right mouse button and press the A key to strafe
  left.
• Hold down the right mouse button and press the D key to strafe
  right. Left and right. Right and left.. you got it!
• Double click on the captain and he will give you additional
  information. He's a helpful sort, and likely lonely being on that
  ship with few souls to chat with.
  
• Follow along through the conversation with the captain, clicking
  the "continue" button when your fully understand and are ready to move
  on to bigger and better things.
  
• Move to the First Mate and double click on him to talk to him.
  
• Head to the front of the ship and click on the boxes until you
  find the one containing the First Mate's Hat.
  
• Move back to the First Mate and he will give you a reward for
  finding his hat. He's not too bright apparently, or perhaps
  is just incredibly lazy, as the hat
  was very easy to find.
  
• Move to Ingrid and talk to her. If you are a guy,
  check her out. If you are a girl think to yourself, "Why do they
  have to make the female characters look like that?"
  
• Move to the front of the ship and sell your item from the First
  Mate to the merchant. You ungrateful sod that was your
  reward, but then again the pretty girl might have a reward for you too!
  
• Buy the Luclin shard to impress Ingrid and hope that something
  good might come of it.
  
• Move to Ingrid and talk to her. Become disgruntled
  and disillusioned as your dreams of love and companionship go up in a
  puff of moondust.
  
• Move back to the captain and talk to him. You
  talkative types should be feeling right at home about now.
  
• What would an EverQuest game be without killing rats? Go
  kill the two rats on the ship and loot the items on them.
  What? No gold in their bellies?
  
• You are now familiar with combat and have progressed to level
  2. Ding! Don't yell "Ding", or the EQ2 correct police
  will inform you that "Ding" was an EQ1 expression. Go back
  and talk to the captain.
• A Drakota will attack the ship and free a goblin who was being
  held prisoner. He must have gotten aboard disguised as the
  First Mate's hat. Kill the goblin.
• Go back and talk to the captain. Tell him you wish to
  go ashore because there are not enough gold eating rats on his
  boat. He will send you to thee Isle of Refuge

What's
Important?: Folllow the instructions closely. This
is your chance to learn about inventory management, combat, character
interaction, buying and selling, etc. The tutorial is
pretty well done, so if you just follow along the basics should make
sense to you.

What's
Not Important?: Whether or not you are wearing
pants while
playing, or how fast you rip through this part of the tutorial.
The first time through I suggest you really take your time and enjoy
it, even if you are not a newbie. If you want to have some fun
with a pal, just invite him over after you have done the tutorial once
and rip through the tutorial as fast you can, clicking like a madperson
without reading and rushing off to do what was asked. You can
finish the tutorial in a couple of minutes at which point you can turn
to him and say, "And that is how I got to level 70 in EQ in three
days."





Isle
of Refuge



The Isle of Refuge is not be
confused with the Isle of Refuse. There is nary a trace of
garbage here, though many a newbie has been caught asking for
directions around the Isle of Refuse. What is it with these
words that start with "R"? How many times has a rogue been called
a Rouge? The isle is a peculiar place though, making one
wonder a) where do the population go to use the bathroom and b) how do
the
bloody goblins reproduce so fast?

• Talk to Garven Tralk by the
  dock. You will choose your archetype. This choice
  will dictate what class choices you have later in the game.
  It is an important one, and should not be taken lightly.
  For a full explanation of the archetypes visit our, get this crazy
  name, Archetype Section. In a nutshell, Mages are finger
  waggling, magic throwing types. Fighters are, well, if I
  need to explain this archetype you are best headed back to playing
  minesweeper or solitaire. Do this click Start, then All Programs,
  then Games, then choose either minesweeper or solitaire. Scouts
  are the rogues, bards, and scoundrel
  types of EverQuest 2, while Priest are the healers.
  
• You will be given some equipment and
  a quest to go kill a goblin. Perhaps a relative of the one
  who was disguised as the First Mate's hat.
  
• This is where the adventure truly
  begins, and no two adventures will be alike. Talk to each
  of the NPCs (Non Player Characters) on the island. They will give
  you quests and bits of not only interesting, but useful
  information. The quests will reward you with some decent
  newbie armour that will put you well on your way. Don't
  forget to check out the pretty girls. They really like it as in
  reality they are 50 year old men with beer bellies and greying white
  undershirts playing EQ2 on a laptop in their bed while they eat cheetos
  and asking their mothers, whom they live with, for a drink.
  Chances are they are also the ones not wearing pants.
  
• Get used to the User
  Interface. Right click on the menus and explore it as well as you
  explore the Isle of Refuge. The UI is incredibly
  customizable, so tweak it to suit your own personal style.
  
  

And verily I say unto you, go forth
and enjoy your time in EverQuest 2. It's a brand new
world! Well, it's an old world that got destroyed so it's kind of
like a new world.



Have fun folks!



BoomJack the Bard