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Not Perfect, but an Improvement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: March 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Kingdom of Sky is the second expansion for Everquest 2, and while it's not perfect, and many of the changes take getting used to, I like it. While some other games will possible release a near-perfect expansion in the future, how long will it take for them to release it? In the meantime, we have more content, an increased level cap, and some needed changes.

The Good:
1. More content. The new content is stellar. I love the views from the sky, and while I haven't been able to get into a lot of the content, what I've seen so far has been top notch, expanding the mythos of Everquest 2 plausibly.

2. The Tradeskill Changes. I definitely like the fact that even at lower levels you can craft useable items without going through iterations of making the smallest part for an item- they still have those too, but the other items give a good balance to make tradeskilling seem less tedious, and it appears that the use of skills against progress in tradeskill has been made more uniform- I see less of the endless periods of -50s with no chance to counter them on items that match your level.

3. The Harvesting Changes. I love the fact that you can actually tell with almost a certainty what you will get from a harvest point, instead of it being totally random. Imagine- you get coffee beans from a coffee bean bush! Who would have thought?

4. The New Class System. I liked the idea behind the branching class trees, but given that your city allegiance indicated in most cases what you were by 10th level, the implementation left a lot to be desired. If they were not going to change this, then a unique experience for each character was highly more desireable than the generic approach that levels 1-10 had become.

The OK:

1. Alternate Adventure XPs. They approximate talents in WoW, and I like the fact that they exist, and like the fact that you don't automatically get AA XPs. I like the abilities themselves, but I like the implementation of the trees in WoW better- these appear too static and linear for my tastes.

The Bad:

1. The Server merges: There are too many people on servers waiting for the same instanced monster to spawn. I've experienced very little lag, but waiting for monsters to spawn really sucks.

2. Broken Brokers: I was preparing one of my alts for Betrayal, and couldn't buy anything. My crafter couldn't sell anything. And there was no communication from SOE on the exact problem, except one little posting by an apparently insignificant member of SOE. Thank you for that little information. I hope SOE can learn from your skills at communication.

3. PvP servers full. I could already tell from their proposed 'plan' that this was going to happen. One Station Exchange and one normal server? For all of North America? Right. Can anyone say short-sighted?

The Ugly:
1. Broken quests because of changes. Test your existing quests before rolling out changes. Please! In the just annoying case, I completed an element of my profession quest only to find out that the quest giver would not speak to me, and I can't finish it. In the worst case, you had my level 17+ doing a betrayal quest and sending him to talk to not one, not two, but three NPCs in places guarded by level 25+ guards that were still aggro to him. If I had to sneak in and grab something, that's fine. But it ruins immersion to have to talk to people from across the room so that guards don't immediately attack you. Please!

In conclusion, I agree that this expansion is not perfect. But I can say that at least SOE is releasing something rather than just promises of an expansion- I'd rather have something solid that needs a few tweaks than waiting for perfect software.

May be a great expansion -- but only for veterans

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Much like Desert of Flames, you should not expect to be able to use this expansion if your character is not in the upper levels of the game. While the small part of Kingdom of Sky I could observe was beautiful and interesting, there is very little for those who can't adventure in it. The lowest level creatures, little plants and bugs in Tenebrous Tangle, are 56. There are little to no quests for low level characters to do, nor will exploration be as rewarding as in Desert of Flames. The Advancement system may be the one feature that characters of all levels can use, but be sure to do some research ahead of time to see if the Skill rewards for it interest you.

Time heals all wounds...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Sojoners review is probably accurate for the first week after the release of this game. Everyone is jumping to see whats new, and after all this excitement wears off the zones open up for some good play and very nice new visuals. It's a very welcome change and this is a required purchase if you want to have access to the new Acheivment Points.

Better than DoF, but still room for improvement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Kingdom of Sky is "ok". The better of the two expansions released thus far, but there is still much room for improvement in further expansions.

The world is not quite vast enough for my tastes. It is my hope that in the next expansion, they take the word "expansion" to heart, and make the new zone large, vast, open, fun to explore. Like much of the shattered Norrath, the islands of KoS are too restrictive. I have spent the majority of my levels 60-70 in dark dungeons. Not my favorite method of play, but it's where the xp and drops are, and the overland zones are just lacking imagination.

My other complaint here is with questing. There simply are not enough of them. I did all of the solo quests I could find, and that got me about 3 levels. The rest of my levels required the good ol' grind, which I detest.

Let's break this expansion into overland zones.

Tenebrous Tangle. Reminds me of the Feerrott. A dense green jumgle that wears on the eyes after a while. Small zones (made smaller by the greenery) packed with mobs. I have never been a fan of mobs overcrowding a zone.

Barren Sky. This place reminds me of a cross between the Sinking Sands and Pillars of Flame. IRL, I live in the desert, and not by choice, so this type of landscape represented here is uninspiring to me. And again, wander from the cloud pad, and you'd better have sprint ready, or be a monk with that yummy parry from behind and feign death, so you can train mobs.. because this zone is also jam packed with aggro mobs.

The Bonemire. This place reminds me of my least favorite zone.. Lavastorm. Funky neon blue water has replaced the lava. The aggro on most of the islands in this zone are a bit better than the previous two, but the landscape is so restrictive, it doesn't really matter.

The tradeskill changes are interesting. Definitely not a pita to craft anymore. Yet it has also lost "something". Crafting has become even more boring than before. My main is a provisioner, my alt an alchemist. While it is boring, at least I can make some sales, and my guildmates still desire the things I produce. I truly feel for weaponsmiths, armorsmiths and tailors, as most people use dropped gear (treasured and legendary) which far exceeds in quality anything that a crafter could produce.

But, if you play eq2 and want to continue playing and you wish to hit max level, there is no other choice than to buy this expansion, and hope for the best with the next one :)

Gorgeous content... though high level

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

What this expansion DOES NOT INCLUDE, here, that others seem to mention: all the tradeskill changes *ARE* *NOT* part of this expansion... they are part of LU24 (Live Update 24), which was mid-June 2006. You don't need this expansion to experience the decrease in the sub-combines for any level 10 + (or really more-so level 20+) crafted items. Overall, while it dumbs down crafting to a single combination of mostly harvested items (two combines for the advanced recipes, often of "rare" nodes), it was a much needed improvement to the prior system and overall it lessens "the grind" to which any old level 20+ crafter can testify.

What you will get, however, is the alternate advancement system (useable by any 20+ character) and the Kingdom of Sky zones. The alternate advancement (Aka AA points) are secondary forms of experience you get for discovery and exploration experience, completing quests, killing named mobs and other "blue" mobs or above, and by obtaining certain types of loot (largely the same ones the various city factions are based on, as well). It is important to note that you will ONLY receive this experience once you obtain level 20 (so some folks will hold off on doing certain things in-game until after level 20). With this alternate experience, you earn points that can then be placed in to alternate abilities or skills that is catered to your race/class line.

As far as the Kingdom of Sky zones go, they're largely for 50+ characters and contain some of the most gorgeous content the game has seen to-date. Though most of the mobs are 56+, there are still plenty of repeatable collection quests and other soloable kill-X-mobs style quests that are do-able to the solo player (and the rewards are good enough that it's actually *worth* repeating them time and time again). What this expansion also gives us is more of a dynamic quest... even though you share a quest with another player, it often differs at least slightly from their's if not only by number of items/mobs required, but often by the actual final requirements.

Overall, this expansion is worth having, if only for the achievement experience early-on... however, I'd recommend it more towards the player that was interested in getting to and exploring more of "the end game" than the casual player than just wants to spend a hour or two every few weekends.

Does SOE stand for Slipshod Online Entertainment?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 22
Date: February 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

SOE's second expansion is pretty to look at, but there's one problem: you're lucky to be able to enjoy it for more than 30 minutes at a time before your zone and/or server crashes. And if by some miracle you don't experience a crash, you'll be enjoying it in slow motion due to lag. This is one of many problems that Sony's latest expansion (and recent server mergers) brings - such as a breakdown in the broker system, class-breaking bugs, etc. On top of this, SOE has once again made sweeping changes to game mechanics, leaving one to wonder exactly what market SOE is trying to target and whether they even know that themselves. One understands that change is inherent in MMO's, but this is reaching the point of lunacy. I must strongly recommend against buying, at least until SOE figures what kind of game thery're trying to make.

Great game, Great offer.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: July 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

EverQuest is a well known title, u play if u like Questing a lot, and it got better with EQII, better GFX, new world ... etc, the expansion adds a lot of enhancements to the game and for the first time a worth playing PvP system, if u get both the game and expansion from Sony Store it will cost u 30$ (50$ if this offer expires), for 5$ less price AND the chance of having free and fast shipping from Prime u get it from Amazon, both ways it's a great value, and it deserves that price, and of course u get 1 month free play and a chance to try out the Premium features.

IMO, this game is one of the best out there right now, unless u want to wait till late 2007 for Vanguard or Warhammer or Huxley ;)

note: this bundle comes with 9 CDs, not a DVD, and with Prime i got it in 12 hours to New York for free (shipping only ;)).

Nice

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Now since EOF (Echoes Of Faydwer) came out, I would buy it instead of KOS because EOF has all the expacsion packs and costs only double of KOS. But I enjoy playing in KOS island...It's a lot of fun to see and explore new zones.

I am enjoying

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am having fun with this game. I am playing on the pvp server that have made and having a good time. Lots of quests to do and plenty of content. It is hard to begin as a new player though on the pvp server since you get ganked a lot hehe. But once you reach around level 25 you are ok to run around.

Worth it Simply For the Achievement Points

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is a good deal...simply for the fact that it packages the original game from Nov 2004 with the Kingdom of Sky Expansion added into the package. If you are a current player of EQ2, one who normally passes on many expansions (DoF was somehwat of a rip-off), this one is worth it simply for the achievement points (affectionately referred to as AAs in a salute to the old EQ1 game) that you start to get when your character is over level 20. The AAs are very useful for their resective classes!

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