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Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Valithan posted:

Do rangers nowadays largely use bows exclusively or are they still mostly melee oriented? Despite the fact that they wren't particularly good on live I had the most fun with my ranger; I quit before PoP though so my experience with the game is dated.

From all I've read and tried (up to lvl 81), rangers mainly melee and use some very fast-casting nukes to do their most damage. I read that when you have the Trueshot discipline (and its higher level equivalents) running, archery will give more damage.

When I levelled a ranger recently though, I'd often plink arrows while my tank merc tanked, just for fun, even though the damage might be better with melee. I think rangers are great fun, and tracking kicks rear end, their only downside for me is the lack of true feign death. :) Their healing is also poop until level 62 where you get Chloroblast, then it's fine.

Pilsner fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Apr 18, 2012

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Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

I just got a new little baby son yesterday, so I've been playing a bit less lately. :) Will return sooner or later.

MrTheDevious posted:

81+ for HS. Until then, you just can't spit the arrow volume required to land a HS fast enough. I actually PLd a ranger purely for HS, and he's now rotting because my SK swarming just destroyed his xp rate. After watching a few high levels HS though, you'll definitely hit a point where it's awesome as hell...just not until 80+ :( I think the agreed-upon first "real" headshot experience is when you become able to HS Plane of Fire, which is somewhere in the low 80s
My experience is about the same, for those ranger-curious out there. At lvl 75, you can start testing the waters in Halls of Honor, but it's not good xp at all, and annoying non-HS'able mobs roam around. At lvl 79, you can start headshotting the C1 camp in Plane of Fire, which is the castle building up north in the zone. At lvl 81, you can move to C2, which is the castle area in the south. While it was fun to try, there were multiple problems:

1) Respawns in C1 are simply too slow. You're looking at waiting at least 15 minutes for respawns between pulls.
2) Respawns in C2 might be okay if you're alone, but again slow if there is as much as one competitor in the camp; you'll be sitting on your butt for at least 10-15 minutes between pulls. Everyone knows about PoF C2, and just the slightest competition ruins it.
3) Headshotting is seriously hard work. It's nowhere near as easy as small-time swarming (in my opinion), because at that level, you're looking at close to 10 minutes of full concentration to do a pull and execute all the mobs.

First, you spend a lot of time pulling, which is a pain because the aggro range of mobs in PoF is low. Pull, pull, pull, try not to train other people, and finally run to a large, open area. Now you need to run in circles to round the mobs up as much as possible, so you can finally stop and use the cone-effect AoE snare on them while they're all bunched up. Inevitably, many will not be snared when you cast the first spell, and you're in for more running around, often getting hit and at worst, stunned. Run around some more, and the snare you cast on the first mobs will now faded on some of them. Run around some more, snare again. Even though Vinelash Cascade's snare is supposed to last for 30s, I had to chain cast it as often as I could to keep the mobs in place. Then of course is the arrow plinking and targeting, along with frustration of getting streaks of no Headshot firing, the constant snaring, etc.

End result: A lot of frustration, around 5-10 AA for a good pull (depending on how many mobs you have to yourself), and then you're looking at waiting for ages for respawns. Bummer.

All in all, it wasn't really that much fun, so I strongly suspect you'll need at least lvl 85, if not 90, for it to be really fun and painless.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Dizz posted:

Do mobs usually start getting fat [HP wise] at 45+? the exp is pretty mediocre n Gorukar mesa but the giants are pretty sturdy and it takes time killing them.

Even worse when they start fleeing at hundreds of miles per hour and start getting adds :smith:

Giants have, since classic EQ, always had more hitpoints and hit harder than normal mobs. The giants in Gorukar are no exception, and I always recommend against xp'ing on them since they have so much HP and many of them have shaman buffs, including SOW.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Kudaros posted:

Is there a good place for a condensed synopsis of the background for all the expansions and what they add?

Starting from the "Lost Dungeons of Norrath" entry, this page seems pretty detailed:

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/eq:expansions

You can also check out Wikipedia's pages for each of the expansions.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Ante Christ posted:

IS there any good UI's to use on a laptop? My screen resolution is like only 1366x768, but everything I see on EQinterface is a minimum for 1650x1080.
You can always move and resize (some) windows. The UIs on EQInterface are usually setup with the windows in certain positions, so the UI configuration the author had in mind is pixel-perfect and often has the windows surrounding the visible area. But, just pick and choose the elements you want to use and move them as you wish.

cryptoclastic posted:

From a few pages back, but doesn't the mob in PoA death touch? How did you deal with that, if I might ask?
If you have a cleric merc, you can solo them. Here's a post I made on Zam:

Have a cleric merc ready. Stand behind the mob you wish to kill, and fire off your biggest one-hit attack. For example, an SK should use HT, a monk use their triple FK attack, a wizard should use his biggest nuke, and so forth.

You will die a split-second after the damage lands. Your merc should immediately begin casting res, which you accept, then click Ressurrect in the respawn window. Now you have around 35 seconds to kill the mob before it can DT again. A mana user will need to use some form of very quick mana regen, and a melee will need to use a form of endurance regen, such as Respite to get going. I managed to kill the Overseer this way as a level 88 monk. :)

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

heisenberg posted:

Well, any time I try to go to any forum.station.sony link I get a "problem loading page" error for some godforsaken reason.

Here's the error I run into:


[Fri May 11 23:24:09 2012]00251:Zone Connect -- 0 -- Received MSG_ZONE_ADDRESS
[Fri May 11 23:24:09 2012]00252:Zone addr [69.174.201.146:42246] received...
[Fri May 11 23:24:10 2012]00253:ZONING
[Fri May 11 23:24:10 2012]00254:Networking: Connection Closed [0] with 0 pending bytes.
[Fri May 11 23:24:10 2012]00255:Networking: using port [53858].
[Fri May 11 23:24:10 2012]00256:Networking: Connection Established [1]
[Fri May 11 23:24:10 2012]00257:Connected to 69.174.201.146:42246...

[Fri May 11 23:24:10 2012]00258:Zone Connect -- 2 -- Sending MSG_EQ_ADDPLAYER
[Fri May 11 23:27:12 2012]00259:TIMED OUT WAITING FOR MY Player (in GetZoneInfoFromNetwork())!! top = 0

[Fri May 11 23:27:12 2012]00260:Networking: Connection Closed [0] with 0 pending bytes.
[Fri May 11 23:27:12 2012]00261:nError is TRUE at C:\p4\EverQuest\live\EverQuest\EverQuest.cpp:21538

Tried checking 42246 and 53858 - both connected just fine.

Annoying as gently caress, lemme tell ya what.

Haha, EverQuest.cpp with over 21000 lines of code. That says everything about EQ.

Tolain posted:

Speaking of tradeskills, thats something I've never messed with but was looking into. To make the glorious cultural tradeskill stuff, it sounds like I would need tailing maxed (leather armor) and then smithing for the aug, then buy the cultural book from alara or something, and then I can make cultural armor for my race/class and a diety based aug?

Is that right? EQ traders seemed out of date when I checked, and I'm not quite sure how to interpret this.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/eq:Cultural_Armor#Symbol_Pattern

Anyone have a better cultural armor guide?

That sounds right, and I haven't found a better guide sadly. I dabbled a tiny bit in it (using my 300 Jewelmaking), but after a few failures I concluded that I'd probably end up burning through a ton of expensive ingredients, and just bought some of the stuff finished. Maxing tailoring is brutal beyond belief.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Ylide posted:

Thanks Tristero and Loon for the bits of power levelling the last couple days. I'm up to level 65 now on both dude, and only need to whack out 100 or so AAs to be where I was on Vox a few days ago.

Speaking of which, since AA xp is determined by max player level in the group, is there really a good way to get a boost on them from an upper level? It seems that DS killing might work but we're kinda to the level where things have too many hps and hit too hard for that to be reasonable. What do people do for this?

As far as I know, the fastest way to really boost it is to get within AAXP range of a high level mass-killer, such as a swarming SK (or ghetto-swarming Monk) or Ranger. If you find a lvl 95, you'll probably need to be level 80 for it to work, which isn't hard to reach. For you, a lvl 80 could do the job, but it won't be groundbreakingly fast.

You can still do the damage shield way, but you'll have to do it the "opposite" way as people sometimes do for plvling. The trick is to have a very powerful character, put the highest damage shield on him you possibly can (group him with a bard if you have it), and have him pull a boatload of mobs, as well as using non-damaging agro abilities (SK hate or AoE snare spells). All the mobs will slowly be whittled down as they hit him, but the high lvl character will get no kill credit as damage shields don't count. Now the low level just has to do one point of damage to each mob to get the full credit and xp. At level 65 you're at the point where it gets really slow and/or requires a seriously huge damage shield for it to be worth it, though.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Sgt Froggy posted:

If we then burn adventure pots does this =4x exp? heck even just 3x would be outstanding.

From my experience (hah) it's actually +100% per bonus, so it'd be 3x. Lesson will also stack with the double xp bonus, but I don't think it stacks with xp pots.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Edit: Nevermind, read wrong.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

I'm afraid I hit the burnout too. I'm not sad though, I think it's amazing that we had a goon rush going for close to half a year, in a 13 year old game like EQ. I'm almost certain that this is the biggest combined goon population EQ has had, and I had a ton of fun. That's nothing to cry about for certain! :)

But of course, I burned out just a few days after I bought 3 month subs for all my boxes and VOA for my bard box. :downs: Seriously, this happens every single time I buy a big subscription package for an MMORPG.

I will definitely be back at some point though.

JustJeff88 posted:

By the way, someone remind me of the buff rule... isn't it something like only buffs of spell level 49 or less can work on characters 49 or less, but any buff of any level can work on a character 50+ (maybe it's 60+)? It's fairtly straightforward, I just can't remember the bloody thing. On that subject, does it apply to mercs or are they exempt? (I doubt it, but that would be grand... my druid has a 55-point DS now)

Here's a table from (near the bottom of the page):

http://samanna.net/eq.general/buffs.shtml

Level of spell: Minimum level for character
1-50: 1
51: 40
52-53: 41
54-55: 42
56-57: 43
58-59: 44
60-61: 45
62-63: 46
64-65: 47
66+: 61

As jetz0r said, as soon as you're level 61 you can receive even the highest level modern buffs, which rocks.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Sup goons, just thought I'd post that I got EQMac working on my PC with very little fuss. Crossposting from the P1999 thread:

quote:

Follow this guide: http://www.fohguild.org/forums/mmorpg-general-discussion/38234-eqmac-now-free-play-79.html#post2289359

A few other random tips and fixes to bugs I found, which may or may not be necessary:

* In windows you can create a junction to a directory on another drive. For example if you want the actual files to be on D: create an EQMac directory there then run in a command prompt:
C:\>mklink /J /D EQMac d:\EQMac

* I was having very strange problems with this. The graphics were messing up very strangely, and I was running at supersonic speed. Fixed it.

You need to set processor affinity to 1. This is what my command line looks like...
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 eqw.exe

* IF you need to fix your FPS issues and your gfx card software doesn't allow it, there is a freeware program called dxtory with an FPS limiter. I have mine set to 60 and it works perfectly. Fraps has one also, but only works in record mode. Dxtory is always on without recording.

* crash upon patching:
That is what happens when your virus software deletes WSOCK.DLL from your program directory at launch. Reinstall "secrets patch" and disable your virus software before you start the program

I had to follow all those tricks, but now it works, with the classic UI.

And finally some amazing screenshots:



Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

meat gnome posted:

This is tempting as gently caress. Are you playing on it now? Are there people to group with at low levels?

I'm dabbling with it now, dual boxing a Druid+Enchanter. It is totally free to play with no bullshit, and it's actually refreshing how fast it is to login and zone, probably because the population is as low as it is. Installing it and setting it up was fairly easy; see this post by me:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3472675&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=44#post405313230

Since it's free, there's no reason to not at least dual box.

For all its flaws, there's something amazing about seeing the ancient EQ world still alive. You've got the old Freeport and everything there.

The population seems okay, I would estimate a couple of hundred people on nightly (probably 500+ when it's American nighttime), and there are typically around 100 people in the server-wide general chat channel. People seem pretty nice. I've seen some newbies here and there as I've levelled.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

meat gnome posted:

I read the FAQ on the EQMac forums and it looks like I would need to set up a dual-boot into Mac's OS, unless I want to actually get a Mac. Is that accurate? Can I get it going some other way? Apologies if I'm being dense and if the answer involves :filez: please ignore this.

Read the post I linked, it's how you make it work on a Windows PC, while logged into Windows, just like a regular PC game. You just need a copy of the EQTitanium edition, which is purchasable.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

By the way, my ambitious attempt at reliving nostalgia with EQMac came to a screeching halt already at level 5/6. Jesus christ, original EQ is brutally grindy. Literally nothing to do but slowly and painstakingly grind mobs, and even dual-boxing it is risky and cumbersome 100% of the time.

MrTheDevious posted:

I think I'm gonna move my crew back over from Luclin since Test is free and I basically only solo my bot crew anyway. I bet Test + Lesson + new AA curve makes AA fly

After all the trouble you Test->Luclin people went through... :suicide:

I'm contemplating gooning it up on Test when I return some day (I know I will!). Paying three $15 sub fees is just a bit drat steep, it's actually $50 total in my local currency. Plus, a there'll probably be a new expansion to buy on top of it all later this year.

Kodaji, can you post a quick tutorial on the Test stuff? Does *everything* get transferred with /testcopy, per character? After that, do I just run TestEverQuest.exe and wait for a patch to download?

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

JustJeff88 posted:

Overall, their F2P model is pretty piss-poor.

I agree, it's pretty much a trial. It's setup so that anyone remotely serious about playing will go "gently caress it, gotta go gold" and pay the $15 they paid before. I'm not really complaining because it'd be nuts to expect a completely free MMORPG with no restrictions, but it's bullshit to call it F2P.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

MAXIMUM SWEAT posted:

I just tried this too yesterday to relive all the old zones and stuff and I realized that I have no patience for the game at all. I wish I could just godmode myself and go see all the old zones again.

Then I went to the Test server, where all the zones are glossed over with trademark SOE shitshine and that killed any interest in replaying EQ.

That's not quite true. By shitshine, do you mean the texture revamp some old zones got? A lot of old zones are almost exactly as they were. Everything from Kunark and up is 99% original as well.

EQ today is almost perfect for godmoding and exploring it all within a reasonable amount of time.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

MAXIMUM SWEAT posted:

I started a monk and ended up in Freeport (which is not the same old Freeport) and then zoned into Ro, which had what looked like a whole new heightmap and then just went ugh and turned it off.

Playing EZserver is basically what I was looking for.
Well, you stumbled onto the biggest / worst of revamps, Freeport.

Ro and some other zones like Steamfont got more smoothed geometry/height maps, but I don't think it ruins them. Really, go visit any other of the dozens of classic zones, no changes in most of them.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

BJA posted:

So I want to 4 box w/2 mercs on test, and make max level as fast as possible just grinding more or less. what group makeup would you use? I've been thinking shaman, necro, mage, and maybe beastlord, with tank and healer mercs. This is just going to be for fun so I don't care too much. I figure all pet classes will be easier to handle and be awesome when casting swarm pets =P :effort:

Shaman slows, backup heals, panthers, buffs, etc +pet
necro for pulls/snares/emergency fd/rez, etc +pet
mage for dps, summoned goodies, ds, etc +pet
beastlord dps, buffs, etc +pet

beastlord i'm not so sure about, i'm thinking that other than fero/mana regen everything else is done better by shaman/mage (slows, buffs, dps) and no gate spell will slow me down if I want to gate more than once per hour.

I would rather use a straight up nuker instead of the beastlord, like a wiz or druid, which will also give you ports.

I know you're just going for fun, but a necro as puller isn't optimal; their FD isn't very good and they're fragile. Consider an SK or Monk perhaps?

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

I'm happy to finally see offline selling, that has been a huge lack in EQ for ages. Don't forget tradeskill ingredients and low/mid-level gear. I just hope they match the system with the slow pace of EQ so to speak, and allow an auction to run for maybe 7 or 10 days, or people will tire of having to re-list stuff every two days.

Level 100... almost sounds comical. I bet they had to wade through their code and take care of every little place that expected the player level to never exceed two characters. :cawg:

I'll definitely give the expansion a shot, should coincide with when my EQ cravings return soon. :)

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

larrydigital posted:

This.

Offline trading is a nice addition but hardly a game changer at this point. I've been sitting on 3 million for almost 2 years now. I'm maxed out in all trades, with no real alts to speak of. My guild provides me with spells and gear, who needs plat?

New players! When I returned a couple of years ago, it was very frustrating having to go through the trouble of having a bazaar mule running for days in order to sell stuff. Buying and blowing lots of plat is easy, but selling was very tough, so I pretty much had to make do with the raw plat and vendor junk I found.

Having an offline, central "AH" would also help equalize the prices people list stuff for. It's not uncommon to see the same item for prices that span 1000%, because people just have them sitting on your mule for years without checking the competition (which may or may not be online at the time of checking).

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Hah, just logged onto Test for fun. I saw a level 2 Ogre Warrior on there, and at first thought, "WTF, have I been hacked?". Then it slowly dawned on me that it must have been a char I had made ages ago. I logged in and checked the /played:

[Tue Sep 11 21:13:57 2012] Hjernesmadrer's birthdate: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 18:31:41.
[Tue Sep 11 21:13:57 2012] Total time playing Hjernesmadrer: 1 hour and 10 minutes

11 years old. So, anyone worried about Test being wiped, no worries there.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002


quote:

When wearing visible wrist armor, the right wrist is now the only wrist slot that affects appearance

:monocle:

I remember how I would often unequip and re-equip the best looking bracer I was wearing back in the day, in order to make it show.

I love these "about 12-13 years late" bug fixes that pop up now and then. Unironically, actually.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Boo, paying for gear? :(


Anyone notice the zone pages on ZAM has a new layout? For example:

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/zones.html?zstrat=44

It now gives a Wowhead-style overview of related stuff, in tabs. Pretty nice. Just browsing the huge amount of absurd quests in a zone like this is gold. EQ actually was quest-heavy, they just weren't meant for experience, and were hidden all over the place. It's so fascinating to think of all the NPCs you could chat up and get quests from.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Now I'm getting worried that SOE will crack down on Test being free with all expansions and Gold membership. It seems like there's hardly any downside to playing there.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Aww, shame the Luclin goon guild died out.

I'd like to say thanks for a good time earlier this year around March. I don't think there's ever been such a goon presence in EQ before, and likely never will be. It was good to keep the flame alive for a little while. :unsmith: I will seriously have the saddest face the day the last EQ server shuts down.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Kodaji was one of the driving forces of the guild, and a great initiator of groups and raids, so :getout:

Now let's get back to the lively discussion of the actual game. Uhmm... :tumbleweeds:

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Node posted:

I would be perfectly happy if they revamped the game from the beginning with all the expansions now, up until PoP. Those are happy times and why people still play the game.
I dunno, if there's one thing I love about EQ, it's that I can go to Kelethin, Plane of Fear, Mistmoore, The Karanas, all of Kunark and Velious, etc., etc., and see it in the exact same state as it was 13 years ago. I would scream if they overhauled every old zone.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

There is a small surge of goons playing Al'kabor (EQMac server) right now, which can be played on the PC, for free.

Thread here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3516757

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

2X2 Eyes posted:

Also, is there a way to reset AA's? I seem to have had poor taste in selecting them back when...
Nope. Don't worry though, you can always grind more (at a very fast pace these days), and at lvl 66 you can't have spent that many.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

2X2 Eyes posted:

Aye, its $25 to transfer... may just start a new character/class at this point.

Will probably do a necro. They weren't to sought after back when I played unless it was for summon corpse; but then again it seems enchanters aren't as big as they used to be either.

SK sounds fun too but it sounds like everyone has one and that they take a LONG time to get them where they need to be.
You will have fun on the majority of classes, so go ahead with the necro if they look appealing to you. The mercenary will contemplate you and allow you to play with your pets and spells with little risk for many levels.

A caster is also, as it has always been, less gear dependant, so just keep up with your key spells (bought in PoK) and get some cheap defiant gear.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

The new expansion is live. Some pretty neat changes, although I'm busy with EQMac right now. :)

quote:

New Rain of Fear Game Features:
  • Level cap increase from 95 to 100 – Achieve a new max level of 100 and set a new standard of gameplay.
  • Slayer System – Gain special rewards and titles for defeating large numbers of foes.
  • Aggro Meter – A brand new tool to help better manage your aggro. You can now see your aggro level relative to your group.
  • Collection System – Discover items throughout Norrath and collect sets for exciting rewards and titles.
  • Improved Brokering System – Sell items in the Bazaar while being offline! More flexibility as a buyer to search and purchase from anywhere in the world. 10 Expedited Delivery Vouchers are included with the Standard Edition and 20 are included with the Collector's Edition.
  • New Linear Item Progression – Stats on armor collected will increase as you move up from one tier to another.
  • Customization with non-visible armor – All non-visible armor in Rain of Fear can be worn by all. You'll be able to customize your stats for every encounter.
  • Class-specific stat distribution – Collect items that are designed specifically for each class's abilities.
  • More than 1800 New Spells (Ranks 1, 2 & 3) – Exponentially add to your spell arsenal.
  • More than 550 AAs – Elevate your power and abilities like never before.
  • More than 3500 New Items – Create your own identity with thousands of new items.
  • More than 3000 New Tradeskill recipes – Increase your value across Norrath by creating items only available by your craftsmanship.
  • More than 110 Quests – Challenge your skills and gather useful loot.
  • 13 Raids – Collect valuable rewards from all new adventures.
  • 9 Zones – Be the first to discover untouched lands of Norrath.
  • 19 Missions – Experience intriguing lore and immersive Missions.
  • Continued opportunity to kill off Halflings.
  • Legends of Norrath™ – 5 Digital Booster Packs.
Bold is mine. Here's how the system works:

quote:

After purchase, two delivery options will be available: delivery to the nearest parcel vendor (available for a modest fee* in game coins), or expedited delivery (via our new Expedited Delivery Vouchers** available in the Marketplace) which delivers the item straight to your cursor.
It's a good feature, but it sours the experience once again that a user interface action in the game is linked to spending real cash.

Pilsner fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Nov 29, 2012

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

2X2 Eyes posted:

Just curious. I thought I would try out the hole but it feels like I may be doing something wrong. AA's just come flying in when I kill stuff, but XP just seems to not budge. I am killing all light blues I can see.

Should I be doing something in particular?
The 60's is where it mentally seems to "slow down" with regards to normal XP. Normal XP is way, way slower gained than AAXP when you get to the higher levels.

If I remember right, the mid 60's is where you start getting to the "brutal" point where each kill doesn't always make the XP bar move a percent. Still though, 100-200 kills for a level is peanuts compared to the good ol' days. :)

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

It's not really that far from WoW, the latest raid content is wiped out within the day of launching by the top guilds, and the heroic (extra hard difficulty) modes within a week or two, if I'm not mistaken.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Meow Tse-tung posted:

Question: Did they ever change monks so that stuff like the 4-5 kicks auto-activate? I asked a dev once and he got snippy and said that it was part of the game and making flying kick auto-attack destroys a fundamental part of being a monk :rolleyes:. I don't want to buy into a new expansion just because I feel like I'm playing a whack-a-mole simulator on my monk at level 95 and I loathe that poo poo. I even set up a G-15 macro to chain spam like 7 abilities I use regularly, but that messed with my shaman bot when I switched windows and eventually the whole thing just became unfun to the core. Whack-a-mole hotbar gameplay is seriously the only reason I'm not playing now.
No, and personally I think it's fine. Even in WoW you need to actively use your special abilities, so I don't see how it would be fair that monks would auto-use all their kicks in EQ. You can also use most of them strategically; the triple-kick is a massive burst, Stunning Kick stuns (duh), and the endurance-using Shuriken ability isn't something you'll want to use constantly due to the endurance drain. Then you have the long-lasting boosts like Zan Fi, IoT, Drunken Money, etc. that you want to time.

There are a lot of skills, but we're lvl 95-100 now, and do you remember when monks and rogues were literally auto-attack and use one skill every 5 seconds? :) Quite an improvement in my eyes.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Devor posted:

Headshotting meaning using the ranger AA that gives you a chance to instakill? Does that become efficient as soon as they get that AA? I'm thinking of switching things up from my monk when I went to one of the hot zones closer to my level, and poo poo was hitting for 700+ damage. Jesus.

Edit: Actually probably not enough patience to roll up another character, but still curious.
Not right away, it's borderline worthless when they get it, but it starts getting doable around lvl 75 (Plane of Valor I think), a bit more efficient at lvl 79 and even more at 81 where you can headshot those castles in Plane of Fire. At higher levels you can wipe out large groups of really tough mobs that give good XP, using an AoE snare and then headshotting like nuts. It's the fastest XP in the game.

However, even at lvl 81 the XP isn't really amazing. You must have Plane of Fire C2 (castle 2) to yourself or there won't be enough mobs for you. Second, it requires extreme levels of concentration and focus for up to 10 minutes while you gather up the mobs and plink them down. You can only headshot in a few select locations, because the mobs need to be light blue or blue so they give decent XP, but not so high level that headshot doesn't work on them. Finally, remember that if you don't really enjoy a Ranger, it's not worth playing one just because they can gain fast AA. Same goes with any class with an XP farming advantage. I'm not saying rangers are bad by the way, not at all, but keep it in mind when you're jealous of other classes' farming abilities.

About the 700-hitting mobs in hot zones, that's how it starts getting if you go to the recommended hot zones. Extremely nasty if you're coming from The Hole with weak mobs hitting for 200ish. I highly recommend doing Paw when you get to the low 70's, mobs have less HP and hit for a bit less there than in the new hot zones. It's the best spot from the early 70s to lvl 80, both for XP and AA for a monk - I levelled and AA'd there myself.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

2X2 Eyes posted:

Since we are talking about farming, how good/bad are monks at it? Which classes are the best these days?

On another matter. Is it worth buying a mount? Or should i just be farming one at 66? Is there also a way to tell how fast each one is?
Hmm, by farming, do you mean platinum or items? Let me point out a few things:

- Platinum comes very easy. Power through the levels, and in the 60's when you most likely hit The Hole, you will be rolling in dough. If you stick to it, you will likely hit 100k platinum if you don't spend too much cash on gear. I don't think anyone has the need to farm over and over for plat.
- Items of use aren't really farmable solo until you reach very high levels. Defiant is random, so you can't farm it, and the next step up for you will most likely be the lvl 80 House of Thule gear (see my OP), which requires you to be in the late 80's, decked out, and at least dual-boxing to solo "farm".

Next, let's discuss monks. I've played one extensively to lvl 95, and my view is that monks are some of the best at "general trash killing". Monks don't care if mobs are outside or inside, whether they're casters or not, whether they're spread out of not, whether they're magic resistant or not. They plow through mobs, but they must not hit too hard though, as we are melees. Monks really shine once you get to the late 80's and get the AA that reduce the cooldown of Mend - down to 30 seconds at lvl 90. Monks can also do some ghetto swarming (killing dozens of mobs at once) at high levels with good gear, which is super fun, although not very efficient for much other than power levelling a bit.

Other classes have different strengths. SKs are the best swarmers, and can take up to 100 mobs at once in certain zones. Rangers have their headshot farming, which is very fast for XP, but requires strict level ranges, must be outside, and certain other conditions must be met. I don't know too much about caster farming, but what I read is that Magicians can solo extremely tough mobs due to their pets being super strong these days. Necros, Wizards and Druids still need space to kite, if I'm not mistaken, but I don't think they would be considered good farmers. Shamans are rather slow when it comes to damage, but that's how it's always been - slow and safe.

Mounts: As a monk, I wouldn't bother. They are cumbersome to use in EQ (accelleration and decelleration on stopping), and you can't do special attacks or feign death while mounted. Just keep investing in the run speed AAs, they go up to rank 8, which is fast enough IMO. You can read about the speeds here: http://samanna.net/eq.general/buffs.shtml (middle of the page).

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Devor posted:

What's the state of things with respect to dual / multi boxing? Is it explicitly allowed, allowed with sort of a blind eye, or could you get in trouble if your little tag-along group is too obvious?

And also in that vein, what interesting class interactions are there, particularly with monk? I remember seeing a lot of shamans back in the day, I guess it makes sense for the heals / slow. Plus that kickass DD proc buff - are there higher tier versions of that spell?

Was also thinking ranger might be an interesting pair for some afkish-dps from the bow autoattacks, and just rely on the healer merc if I need the heals.

Aside from that, it seems like it would be difficult to add other DPS classes without splitting attention too much.
Shaman remains a great boxer. Great buffs, haste and all that, okay debuffs, great emergency heals, rez, insta-cast levitate and invis, SoW, nearly unlimited mana due to AA Canni, and the DD proc buff continues up to maximum level for a good DPS boost. By far the best pick to box with a monk. I have a lvl 94 shammy that I was lucky enough to get in on the RAF program before they ended it. They also require very few AA to be effective, just a few hundred and you're off to a good start - 1000 and you're virtually capped for useful ones.

I wouldn't recommend a ranger box, bow DPS is not very good *except* when discing, and their melee engagement is actually filled with spells and abilities that must be used for extra damage, which isn't feasable at all at higher levels, as the monk will keep you quite busy pressing buttons.

You could add another DPS class (I would choose shaman though), but it should be a caster, and even better, a pet class like a Magician. They don't have to stand in range and you can control their nukes easily with ISBoxer. I also added a bard as a third box for a while, although they're really boring as all they do is sing. It just felt kinda lame. He added good DPS though, not only because of his songs, but because a 3rd box also indirectly adds a 3rd merc.

As for mercs, I recommend going to tank+cleric merc if you box monk+shaman. While a monk can tank, once you get to tough content you'll appreciate the tank merc greatly. It also feels less stressful that the tanking and healing is automated instead of having mobs pound on you. You can also dismiss the mercs when you don't need them, so they don't suck up xp.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Kinda getting the itch again to play live. EQMac is kinda, but goddamn the ancient client is a beast to deal with. I figure I'd play on Test to get free everything and 3 box or something.

Has anyone tried doing a /testcopy from a non-gold account? If I log in now, most of my inventory should be in that lovely parcel system, do you think that will get transferred with me?

JustJeff88 posted:

This may sound mad, but I would love to see a single-player, traditional RPG-type EverQuest adaptation - I would buy that in a heartbeat. Sixteen interesting, diverse classes, TONS of lore, and interesting locales (at least in the earlier expansions) would make for a great 6-per-party RPG. I know that it will never happen, but I would love to see it and I would pay full price for it and I NEVER pay full MSRP for a game, ever. It wouldn't even be that expensive to make if they didn't insist on blinging it up with top-end graphics. Just wishful thinking.
In theory, you could make an EQ emulated server act like that, you'd just have to run it locally on your computer/network, and you could play. It would, of course, require a shitload of work to implement the party structure and scripting all the quests, items, NPCs and such.

Pilsner fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Dec 6, 2012

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Boola posted:

I'm playing as Beep (85 ranger), Cling (70 Monk), and Zing (72 bard) on Luclin very sporadically.

Any advice on where to level the ranger and monk/bard?

I've tried several places headshotting with the ranger, most recently at Dragonscale Hills. Experience comes slowwww.

I got the two-boxing of the bard and monk together with cleric + warrior mercs down pretty well. Infected Paw is alright but I'm hoping for something better.
70 and 72 is just a hair low for Paw, but I think it's still possible. I never found anything better for my Monk than Paw up to lvl 80. Although it could exist, we've previously discussed several reasons why Paw rocks, for example: Few patrols, good money loot, mobs don't hit too hard and have few HP compared to newer zones, no runners, several casters that waste time casting spells (the only trouble are the cleric water elementals), and no time wasted running from mob to mob.

I *think* I did my early 70's in Plane of Tactics, killing those ogres that are super easy around the pit and in the basement, then I think I went to Paw in the mid 70's.

Pon de Bundy posted:

I hate all of you. Every single loving time I read this thread, oh man it sounds fun and BAM, as soon as I log in, I hate myself.
Haha, I can't tell you how many times I've done this. Got the itch, "oh man this is going to rock", then logging in... :effort: :smith:. At least nowadays you can log in for free as a F2P account so you don't have to pay $15 for two minutes of play time and disappointment.

Just yesterday I excitedly did a /testcopy, wandered around PoK for 5 minutes, realized that the server population is next to nothing (8 monks online in the entire game for example), and /camped. Eh, maybe in year or so. I'd like to roll up a new 3-box crew, but I dunno, I feel like I've close to completed the game with my lvl 95 characters. It's been a good run.

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Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

JustJeff88 posted:

I know that everyone will turn on me for this, but I still wish that they would just let people with higher-level characters start at about 60 or something. Whenever I say this, everyone says "It doesn't take that long to get a character up to 60 RABBLE RABBLE RABbLE!", but it's still a few dozen hours wasted to me and it goes a long way to make me not want to start new characters. I'd kind of like to have a character of every class, but I just don't have the patience to keep going through those tedious early levels.
If you multibox, you can "invest" in a few power levelling-capable classes and make it downright fun to plvl a new char up. It doesn't take more than an SK and a druid or magician with damage shield.

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