Getting misty eyed over a MMO: EverQuest veterans unite!

I miss trains. Sure they were often used to clear out a hunting ground someone else wanted, or simply to be a troll. But to me they added to the wild west feeling of the world. Nothing was really safe and you needed to be aware and on your toes. Whether it be trains in Darkpaw or Butcherblock, griffins in The Commonlands, or even the last leg of the trek through the Karanas, if you weren't aware you could find yourself embarking on a corpse retrieval.

/cast crackling bones

I’m playing Everquest again. I really haven’t played more than a brief one week stint in the middle, since 2000.

I got back into it on the 20th anniversary.

I’ve ended up on Firona Vie which probably the most active live server and allows trading or almost all loot and has a higher exp rate. This makes the game accessible to me without being part of a raid guild.

If anyone’s interested in having fun with a “modern” Everquest live experience along with me, ping me.

This game is still going....and somehow I find it more enjoyable than any other MMO expiernece I tried over the years. I haven’t checked out the couple of throwbacks in development yet though.

I really enjoy playing everquest. Even without the increased xp, I found some tricks on simple quests for low level weapons with DPS that will last you until your mid 30's. At that point you can replace your gear for mid tier defiant armor.
Your mercenary helps out tremendously leveling. Unfortunatly leveling pace goes off a cliff starting at 45. You can scrounge around for blues and light blues until 52-55 but I have been all over and have yet to find comparable places to level after that. The highest level zone with rapid xp is Burning Woods which will get you from 35-50 that you can stretch to 54ish. Every other zone after that, the xp is cut in half.

My level pattern is Gloomdeep/tutorial up to a certain point (level 4-5) then Crescent Reach to 14. Then Blightfire Moors till 35. And finally Burning Woods. So I have several classes that are above 45 and a few that are stuck in their teens due to their inability to do enough damage to keep up with the warrior mercenary.

I am sure I could deal with leveling higher if I had journeyman mercenaries unlocked. But I am not subscribing for that. I already paid them $75-100 to unlock the races and classes I wanted. And then I can't remember what expansion I bought a few years back to get current nor how much it cost.

Still, I had probably well over a hundred hours of fun revisiting it a time or two over the past 5 years. The pet classes will certain give you an easier time getting back into it since your pet and your mercenary will provide you with all the fighting you will need. You can even take on multiple foes at once.

My wrists hurt just thinking about Everquest. Literally thousands of hours "twisting" songs and pressing 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4 and on and on during raids and farming Advancement Points. I played a bard in a high end raiding guild and that's all I did for hours, even days on end (Plane of Time I still hate you!).

Fondest memories are charm kiting dragons, camping Karnor's castle (hand room), obtaining Virtuoso and obtaining my Epic on the Povar server. Oh, and PvP on my Bard with Drums of Beast playing Selos, Resists, and doting everyone and no one could touch me. Took me forever to kill anyone but if they were dumb enough to stick around they eventually died lol.

Funny story. So I was pretty pro at camping Karnor's castle and kiting at the entrance (people would pull massive trains and I would just AoE burn them) and this monk shows up and asks if I want to group up with him and camp Hand room. This is one of the best exp spots at the time so I think sure, I think we could duo this. So we're having great success and then all of a sudden he's like, "Oh sh*t, I'm late for practice and got to go but we need to do this again". I'm like cool, send me a tell when you can play again. Next day I get a message asking if I want to camp room again. I agree and while we're killing we start chatting. I ask him what he plays and he responds baseball. I played baseball through high school and and ask if he had to run laps for being late to practice. His response, "No. I'm a pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks." WTF! I was playing with Curt Schilling. He and I played together off and on and one day he invited another monk to join us. After we grouped he informed me this other monk was R.A. Salvatore! I can't remember his character name as I never got to group with the other monk again but I can say I did group with him! lol.

I was working Software Etc(now called Gamestop for you whipper snappers) and got into beta because of it. Played it pretty much nonstop to the point my fiance threatened to break up with me(now married almost 20 years). Wish I knew how to get access to my old characters, had a high level human paladin(Rainthru) and a high level cleric(Whyyme). Tried playing it a couple months ago, started a human shaman, and just could not get past the dated grapics. I know its a 20 year old game, but I gave up after 3 levels in the tutorial/prison zone.

I'm more of an Everquest 2 veteran because I played it for years and only played Everquest for the first year, but with the All Access pass, I was playing a bit of Everquest again and had a lot of fun poking around with my mercenary in all the old areas and getting all nostalgic about everything. I never really did much raiding (which was why I stopped after that first year and went to DAOC) but there was a lot that was very fun and a lot that was very frustrating.

I wondered at first if R.A. Salvatore's monk was a dark elf before remembering that in Everquest, they could only be Humans or Iksar and that it was Everquest 2 that opened most classes for most races (or had evil and good versions).

If I ever get back to playing Everquest 2 again (no time!) I'll probably poke around in Everquest for a bit again too. In some ways I have more fun with it now that I can do more things on my own than I did back then.

Talk about nosalgia... I played EQ2 from launch for about 7 years before taking a hiatus from gaming. I just recently resubbed to play on the Kaladim TLE server. It's been a ton of fun starting from scratch in the newbie zones with lots of active players again. I missed out on a lot of group content when I first started playing back at launch. I am enjoying the chance to go back and play through some of the earlier group zones and instances I missed.

Anyone else from here playing there?

I love the old EQ2 zones! I've spent a lot of time with lower level characters (or higher levels ....forgot the term...leveled down to the lower level) to do quests and just have fun. One thing that's annoying on the regular servers if you start with a lower level character is that your levels come way too quickly and you outlevel many of the quests! Hopefully the TLE server slows that down a bit since doing the content as a group would be even faster. Would think I'd have gotten tired of that old content by now, but I have something like 13 characters at various levels and still like doing the old stuff.

What really grabbed me was the soundtrack to some of those early zones. I found a playlist on youtube and fired it up at work one day... Next thing, I was looking at the EQ2 Daybreak Games site and forums only to discover that a new TLE server was launching the following day. I subbed right then. Talk about timing.

Some folks have complained about the leveling rate on the server... There were some 50s running around within days (1-2) of the launch.

I've found the solo xp rate to be decent in some zones and frustratingly slow in others (Thundering Steppes). If you REALLy want to zip through levels, grab a group and run some of the dungeons.. BlackBurrow, Stormhold, Ruins of Varsoon. You can easily gain 1-3 levels an hour without using xp potions depending on how quickly the group moves. In general, I think you'll find it slightly faster than the original curve, but tuned right for a 4 month unlock cycle.

The truly nice thing is the population... There are actually people to be found in these low level zones. Almost everyone I have come across have been willing to help do things. In all, it's been a really positive experience. Lots of friendly old timers coming back after a long break to revisit the game with a smattering of new people hopping in for a day 1 experience as well.

I wish I had time to really dig back into Everquest 2. It's my most favorite MMO and the only reason I'm not currently subscribed is that MMO's in general just aren't feasible for me right now. Every time I go back to playing the game, it's like coming back to a second home that I haven't seen in a while. Love it love it love it!

I'm glad the experience of the new server is so positive and fun!

Isn't EQ2 F2P now?

You're welcome.

garion333 wrote:

Isn't EQ2 F2P now?

You're welcome. :P

Yes, it's been F2P for years, but my issue isn't money, it's time to spend on MMO's.

bekkilyn wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Isn't EQ2 F2P now?

You're welcome. :P

Yes, it's been F2P for years, but my issue isn't money, it's time to spend on MMO's.

Oooooooh, I thought you meant money. Gotcha. Yeah, especially an older, more grind-friendly MMO like EQ2 that requires more commitment than "hey, let's cake walk through the new WoW zones".

garion333 wrote:
bekkilyn wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Isn't EQ2 F2P now?

You're welcome. :P

Yes, it's been F2P for years, but my issue isn't money, it's time to spend on MMO's.

Oooooooh, I thought you meant money. Gotcha. Yeah, especially an older, more grind-friendly MMO like EQ2 that requires more commitment than "hey, let's cake walk through the new WoW zones".

I end up playing for hours at a time even if it's just decorating my houses! (Which in EQ2 is a game in and of itself!)

It is f2p for some things, but to access the TLE servers, you need a sub.

A sub is a pretty good deal if you are going to be playing Everquest 2 regularly and you get sub access to Everquest and other Daybreak games too all for the same sub price. The only thing I'm still really irked about is them shutting down Forgotten Realms. Loved playing that game and really wish they would bring it back.

It seems more and more lately I'm missing the old EQ days. Ironically, the things I hated the most about EQ turned out to be the things that kept me playing. WoW seems dull and boring to me now. I wonder if there's any MMO's out there that have the same feel as old EQ.

I used to hate the idea of losing XP when dying and having corpse runs, but now it seems those things are what made death meaningful in that game.

Every class having its niche and necessary skills, like SoW, mana regen, binding players.

The lack of quests and the sheer mystery about new areas with mobs that were able to kill you in one hit added frustration but a real sense of danger and forboding when you went somewhere unfamiliar.

Long regen times promoted discussion in chat, leading to more socialization.

Don't get me wrong, there's still stuff that was annoying, like waiting in line for rare mob spawns, but damn if I don't miss the feeling of ADVENTURE that EQ had. World of Warcraft never felt like that to me.

I'll just leave this here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3...

garion333 wrote:

I'll just leave this here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3...

Yeah, looking at that doesn't seem to have any of the stuff that makes me feel nostalgic for EQ other than the "not on rails" thing. I mean, that might be enough on its own, but apparently there's no death penalty?

Yes and no on the death penalty, http://wiki.projectgorgon.com/wiki/W...