This was taken from EQDRUIDS.COM (I'm assuming Spiritual wrote this!)
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Ok, lets start digging in to this Fan Faire.
There was a TON of EQ2 information given out. Let me tell you something folks, if this game lives up to what we were told and shown it is going to be mindblowing!
There was a gaming magazine given out that had a lot of the information in it, but more was said by the developers. I'm going to just hit both at the same time.
Character creation is going to be much more involved in the fact that your stats will mean much more to your character. If you are a fighter, you will find that a race that has more strength will actually give you bonus' beyond what say a weaker race will.
There are NO class restrictions by race! Yes, that means you can be an Ogre Druid. That doesn't mean it will be easy to be one, but if you feel the need you can be. The difference will be, that when you hit the point of specializing into a Druid, you will need to find a "trainer" that will teach you the way, and as an Ogre you may have a hard time doing this.
The initial class archetypes are Fighter, Rogue, Mage, Priest or Tradesperson. From there you will further define your character into a more specialized character. An interesting thing, all archetypes will have the same role, just from different directions. An example would be a fighter can have choices like Crusader or Brawler, then specialize from there. Each specialized class will have a definite advantage on one characteristic over the others, but will also have many of the other abilities within that archetype.
Deaths in EQ2 will be handled MUCH differently. Instead of losing exp, you will be put in experience debt. Those of us that play EQ Online Adventures will know this one. You continue to move forward with experience, but half of the experience goes towards paying off your death "debt". One major advantage is you will not lose levels when you die this way. Also when you die, you will not have to do a naked run to your corpse. Two options will be available. One you will be able to hover like a ghost over your corpse until rezzed, or you can "take" the death, and lose a level appropriate item from your inventory. They have said definitely that it wouldn't be a rare item, just one that makes you have some cost to the death.
Pathing is being completely redone, and the bad news is, they will be able to chase you ALL over without losing you  ">
Spell casting will be basically the same, however you will be able to train in your own "focus effects". This allows you to basically add damage or power to a spell if you have the required mental abilities.
Large mobs will all have their own little "pocket" encounters. This means that multiple groups will have access to mobs stopping the monopoly of some groups taking down the mob over and over.
You will also be able to communicate through serverwide chats with all the servers in EQ. So you should be able to keep in touch from game to game.
Tradeskills will now be a complete class. You can be a tradeskiller, that will gain experience by their work. And yes, there will be group projects similar to raids for traders to work on. One hugely nice thing, if you hand someone items for them to work their tradeskills on, they actually stay on your person while being worked on. So never a chance of lost items!
There will be a payment model announced for those folks playing both EQ and EQ2, but that wont be announced until E3.
The graphics are just incredible in the game. The shadows are beyond belief, and the models are just fantastic.
The movements are really nice! The characters have a definite flow to them that is lacking now.
The minimum requirements right now, is a Pentium 3, 512 megs of ram, and a geoforce 3 or higher graphic card. The game will be extremely scaleable, meaning you can turn off lots of options to make the gameplay move very easily on even an older computer.
These guys are making a really really kick ass game. It is going to just be an amazing game to play.
I'm sure there was more that I will remember later, but right now that is the big stuff. Just let me tell you, it was an amazing demo!!
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