I remember level 44. On my first character, my druid Etha, it almost certainly happened in the pits and warrens of Nagafen’s Lair, ridding the place of its kobold problem. On Tipa, I remember that level well; it was in the Dreadlands, and I was so excited because it meant I would soon be able to get Velk’s groups. Brita, my cleric – she was named Dera then – made 44 in Kaesora. We owned that place. ...
Because people occasionally miss our Nostalgia nights, those who make all of them have outleveled those who do not. I, alas, not only not missed a night, but I sometimes do quests and group with guildies on other nights. The result: Some people were still at level 30 when I hit 40 and 41. I wasn’t sure how to get back in level range. Dying a million times to delevel isn’t something I ever want to do. What I want to do is just turn off xp, or have it all go to AAs, but you can’t do that at 41. ...
We didn’t come anywhere near our level cap Friday, as Mistmoore Castle turned out to be pretty tough. Saturday, a few of us were on, not doing much, so we decided to just DO something. And so we did probably about the most boring thing you could think of – we went to a zone, broke a camp, and stayed there and chatted and just had fun for the rest of the night. In the end, it was probably my most … nostalgic … moment since I returned to EverQuest. ...
Something I’ve seen time and again as we revisit the happy memories of long ago: The more things change, the more they remain the same. Sure, we’re older, wiser, more expert players; but put a couple groups of characters in regular gear in an old zone and all the old problems are going to crop right up. There’s one of our smaller pulls in Mistmoore, up above. The place is a slaughterhouse. Tantalized by easy pickings near the zone, we moved cautiously in, not knowing that the main healer for one of the groups was AFK and the 25 shaman was doing his level best to keep people alive. Stargrace, who had leveled a rogue at top speed from 1-35 in about two days to join the group, had to sit her out and play her cleric. After many wipes and people having to leave, we eventually were down to just one group… and we did our best… but there’s just no way of pulling just two or three without a feign death puller. Well, I guess I could have invis’d up and gotten lull targets for Ishbel, but we were pretty frustrated by all the deaths. ...
I admit it. I was wrong about AoC. I said it would be a blip that would quickly fall to the high system requirements and the World of Warcraft juggernaut. I said that WoW would be entirely unchallenged by AoC, and was only mildly worried about Warhammer Online. I think I was wrong about every thing I said. Those people who called me clueless were right. AoC is having the most successful launch I think I have ever seen, maybe even better than WoW back in 2004. Back then, of course, the market was a lot smaller, and WoW’s launch turned then-MMO champ EverQuest into a niche game, something Asheron’s Call and Dark Age of Camelot had not been able to do. So I don’t see AoC booting WoW to the curb. ...
Able was I ere I saw Unrest? This zone has always been a killer and is a killer still. We came for xp and we got the most stressful adventuring night yet. These old world dungeons are nothing but punishment. But, a GOOD kind of punishment. Hakiko and I spent some time just sniping the occasional mob from inside the mansion as people showed. Aside from a lack of DPS, no problem! How hard could it be? Well, not really that hard… until we went upstairs to camp the Bar. The Bar was one of the first real Unrest camps back in the day – pro groups would camp the Tower on the floor above, and pull the Bar and surroundings there. Well, we camped the Bar and pulled Tower, so not that much difference. ...
My Tuesday night paladin, Sela, needed to work on the level 20 Crescent Reach quest armor, but she was already over the target level of 20 and shouldn’t be getting too much xp, so I had my cleric Brita farming the materials and patterns in Blightfire for her. This involved gathering up every gnoll in the area, turning on my 660 point damage shield, then looting the bodies. /hidecorpse looted hides corpses you have looked at, even if you have left items on them. Considering all the annoying non-stackable and no-drop stuff the gnolls carry, that command was a godsend. Bored with that, I wandered over to the Stonehive gardens because, well, I’d never been. I was as busy as a bee gathering up bixies and wasps (and remembering last Saturday’s Doctor Who, “The Unicorn and the Wasp”), when I saw Urtog, Nostalgia’s main tank, running past me naked and with some drones in tow. I did my best to pull them away, but he died – again, I guess – and then promptly went link dead. ...
Last Tuesday, the second progression gathered for our second time in Paludal Caverns. Back In The Day… I start out so many sentences about the EQ groups that way? And yet, you really can’t go to these old places without saying that a lot. Every camp we moved to carried with it a dozen memories. Here’s the place I ran into Jaasur who restarted on Stromm when it opened, same as I did, but didn’t stay with it. Over here was the bandit camp where I really learned how to play a cleric. Here’s the small rise where two groups would chain pull the bandits. Here’s that icky disease crud that made clerics (again) so incredibly popular in PC. In all the time we were there, we were the only group. ...
With my EQ2 raiding career at an end – I just don’t have the time for a six day a week raiding commitment any more – and the EQ1 guild up and running now, it’s time to start adding back in the other games I want to play. I love EQ1 and always will, but EQ2 is my home. I know I’ll miss raiding. But every night we would meet at 8pm, run to 11 or 12, and then I’d have to do my writing for the night if I hadn’t completed it before. Since just keeping up with my raid commitment meant more than 20 hours a week raiding, I stopped logging in at any other times because that was already too much time spent playing MMOs. So the group instances I loved – gone. Playing the alts I cherish – gone. All gaming but raiding wiped out. That’s the raiding trap. You raid casually, learn to enjoy being part of a larger group and trying to be as effective as you can be. That’s a lot of fun, but you want more, and so you join a raiding guild. Now you are owned. You have just voluntarily given away all your free time. Saturday was our only day off, and you can bet I played no EQ2 that day. Raiding sucked away all that I loved about the game, except raiding itself. ...
I feel a little like a relic at this moment. Everyone is talking about Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and Wrath of the Liche King, and I realized… I have no interest in any of them. I have a coworker in the AoC closed beta, but going around in gangs randomly ganking people wasn’t that fun in EQ2’s Nagafen from either end – seemed really pointless to me, though I did enjoy the feeling of danger and risk it brought to the game. ...