Remember, way back when, when the thought of paying $$$ TEN DOLLARS $$$ for a permanent mount was considered insane? Then Blizzard introduced their sparkle pony for $25. Suddenly, $10 didn’t look so bad, and $25 became the new industry standard. You want a cool mount, you forked over a couple of sawbucks with a Lincoln chaser.
The Blizzard sparkle pony would be as fast as the fastest mount you could ride; if you could ride a flying mount, then your sparkle pony would take to the skies where the stars in its wings would blend seamlessly with the stars glowing in the firmament above Azeroth. Better yet, when you bought the horse, all your characters could use it.
EverQuest has just announced its own version of the sparkle pony (at the industry standard price). These four mounts are “fast, and if you have another faster mount, it will match speeds with that mount”. The normal, store-bought mounts run more slowly than characters normally run. The fast mounts drop from raid bosses or are won from Legends of Norrath loot cards.
These new mounts also come with boosts to AC, mana and health, godsends to the casters who normally stay mounted when they can, trading mobility (remember, horses are slow) for the ability to med continually.
EverQuest also sent word of their new DPS mercenaries. With two flavors, melee DPS and magic DPS, these new mercenaries join the ranks of the previously introduced tank and healer mercenaries. This means that in many normal groups, any three classes could fill out any missing roles with mercenaries as needed, though you’ll still want to be flagged through the Seeds of Destruction to gain access to the good ones.
It’s no exaggeration that EQ would be a far lonelier place without mercenaries; it’s common to see them in every group, and nearly everyone has one ready to go if needed. They are useful, but not so useful that they can replace a real, live player. Though I hear some of the melee mercenaries can outdamage a normally geared player….