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RelentlessImp posted:I think my favorite is Bait Masterson, a fisher in East Freeport and Qeynos Aqueducts. what about Guard Reskin
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Jul 21, 2022 05:56
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That Little Demon posted:what about Guard Reskin I really should have shown off the guards in High Keep, they’re mostly named after composers like Guard Bach. Something to do in the guard killing update I suppose
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Jul 21, 2022 06:41
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do you play on live at all, or just on custom servers? in 2020 when the pandemic hit, I started playing on P1999 which I agree is super toxic but I managed to get a level; 56 necro (I gave up because holy gently caress those levels suck) but it was fun. I camped trees in karana for sooooo long lol. I'm thinking of playing again and Wayfayers seems cool.
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Jul 21, 2022 07:12
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That Little Demon posted:do you play on live at all, or just on custom servers? in 2020 when the pandemic hit, I started playing on P1999 which I agree is super toxic but I managed to get a level; 56 necro (I gave up because holy gently caress those levels suck) but it was fun. I camped trees in karana for sooooo long lol. I'm thinking of playing again and Wayfayers seems cool. I mostly play on TAKP (love love love love LOVE that era-appropriate client), but I pop on WFH when I want stuff past Planes of Power. Lost Dungeons of Norrath was a great time. I used to play on Progression servers - I had a full-on 6-box set of characters on Mangler (Shadow Knight, Cleric, Enchanter, Bard, Wizard, Magician) - and a little bit of live, but they started nerfing low level tactics specifically for Progression Servers (tactics that don't have high-level equivalents past about level 70) and I haven't been back since.
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Jul 21, 2022 09:52
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Let's talk about some mechanics that aren't completely obvious when you play EverQuest. Let's start with the concept of ZEM - Zone Experience Modifiers. Not every zone in EverQuest is created equal. While two zones may have equal-level mobs, those mobs may give wildly different experience - this is a result of the Zone Experience Modifier. Every zone in EverQuest has a ZEM ranging from 75% to 195% - that's a hell of a range. These numbers were undocumented for a long time, until people started using packet sniffers on EverQuest. Yes, you heard that right. This mechanic was discovered via packet sniffing. See, as I said before, EverQuest is a game that is essentially 50% client and 50% server; on a mob's death, the server does the experience calculation and sends it to the client to update the experience bar, and these modified numbers are easily findable via packet sniffing. One entire zone in EverQuest had 195% - that is Veeshan's Peak, the endgame raiding zone for the Ruins of Kunark expansion. Every other "high ZEM" zone topped out at 150%. These include popular leveling zones such as Kurn's Tower and Paludal Caverns. You would, in fact, find a slightly-higher-than-normal ZEM on every newbie zone - that is, starting zones for characters - to encourage quick leveling out of the level 1-4 range. So what does the playerbase do when they discover the ZEM? They create the Experience Highway - the fastest way to level your characters. The usual pathway, especially once Planes of Power came along and made traveling easier, was to go to Field of Bone 1-8, Kurn's Tower 8-15, Paludal Caverns 15-25, High Keep 25-52 (yes, all the way to 52 - the zone is that good), Plane of Justice Enforcer Camp 52-55, and then Plane of Valor 55-65. In order to encourage leveling in different zones, Sony (who had by this time taken over EQ and booted Verant) started switching up the ZEMs on a semi-regular basis, and then ultimately created the Hot Zone system - a rotation of high-ZEM zones that you could pick up quests to go to and earn some level-appropriate gear (usually non-visible slot items such as Rings, Necks, Earrings, Cloaks) with focus effects. Most emulator servers keep the classic ZEMs. Next up is the concept of Armor Class. Displayed AC in-game is actually a combination of your raw Armor Class, your increased AC via Defense skill, and your Avoidance via mitigation skills such as Dodge, Parry, Block. Raw Armor Class is every worn piece of AC, plus any AC buffs you have. To total up your ACTUAL Armor Class, you add up the number displayed on every worn piece of AC and any buffs you have on. This is your "Worn AC". Every class is subject to a soft cap on this number; after this number, you only get a percentage of AC over it that applies. Warriors have the highest worn AC softcap and softcap returns, followed by Knights, Clerics and Bards, then Rangers and Shamans, then Druids, Rogues, Beastlords and Casters. Monks have been in a weird place, classically, on this list; during the Planes of Power era, their softcap return was lower than even pure casters - this was to balance the fact that they got some incredible high AC items, like 60 (!) AC leggings in Scars of Velious. To put that in context, the highest AC item available in Scars of Velious was a plate tank breastplate at 59AC. It was a weird overtuning that led to Monks being nearly useless; they have since been restored to better AC softcap returns, but their place on the list has fluctuated over the years. I believe on WFH they have the same returns as Casters or Rangers. To get your mitigation AC, it's sort of a process. I'll let someone from TAKP explain it (taken from the TAKP Wiki, itself a summation of a developer post): quote:Add up the AC from all your items, including your shield. Ah, and the mention of shields. Shields are magical in EverQuest. Shields completely ignore the rules. You always get the full AC benefit of a shield; effectively, a shield raises your softcap by its AC bonus. Shields. Are. Amazing. But you'll hardly ever see them on any melee but a Knight Tank in the eras of TAKP and WFH. Warrior dual wield tanking is too powerful; moderate DPS and excellent aggro generation. Even most Knights will tank with 2-handed weapons in these eras. In modern EverQuest, however, all tanks use shields - they're that powerful. I may pick up a Beastlord-usable shield for Kella, however; there are many good shields a Beastlord can use, and a Beastlord loses very little DPS output by equipping a shield instead of an offhand weapon, since they lack native access to Double Attack and Triple Attack. More than that, though, there are a lot of caster and priest usable shields that shore up their AC; a charming enchanter, especially, wants a good, high AC caster shield. Next up is Aggro. Aggro, known as "Threat" in more modern MMOs, is simply your ability to move yourself up the threat list to stay on top. At its base, every point of damage you deal is 1 point of aggro; every point of damage you heal is 0.5 points of aggro. There are modifiers, of course, and the aggro calculations can get pretty deep. Misses still generate aggro, for instance. Being the first person on a mob's shitlist - pulling - is worth 100 points of aggro on its own in this era (in modern EQ and on progression servers, this is 1 point - no matter how you pull it). There is also a cap on how much aggro any one action can generate, and another cap based on your class and if the ability you used is native to your class. For instance - there is an item called Midnight Mallet that has an instant-cast click effect of Walking Sleep, a Shaman spell that generates a 55% slow. This is an item often used to spam all 10 charges at the start of a raid encounter to build a bunch of aggro on the tank so everyone else can go ham on the target from the get-go instead of waiting to build aggro. Were a Shaman to use the item, they would generate 700 aggro per cast; however, since most raid tanks are Warriors, they have a cap on this because the ability is not native to their class. The number is 400 aggro per click. Still, an instant 4000 aggro at the start of the fight is very good. (Please note, these numbers are taken from TAKP, and may be different on other servers; the core concept, however, is part of the base game.) As an aside, there are a number of raid targets that are permarooted - meaning they don't move from their spawn point, no matter what - that have no ranged abilities. A very common tactic for these is to have a Shaman cast a Slow, over and over and over, until they run out of mana, or have an Enchanter cast their highest Tash spell about 10-20 times - and then have a Warrior Taunt the mob off the caster, giving them an obscene amount of aggro that generally lasts the entire fight. Emergent gameplay! Debuffs generate a ridiculous amount of aggro. Slows, the Tash line for Enchanters, and Flame Lick for Druids and Rangers generate tons and tons of aggro per cast; a Ranger casting Flame Lick, which has a very small -AC debuff component, 3-4 times can ensure they keep a mob's attention for the entirety of a fight. Taunt, a skill available to Warriors, Shadow Knights, Paladins, and Rangers does not function in EverQuest the way you may be expecting; a successful Taunt simply finds the currently highest aggro on the mob, moves you to the top of the list, and sets your aggro value to that value +1. For the first five years of the game's life, Taunt was the only aggro control skill Warriors had access to. Come Gates of Discord and the discipline changes, they gained access to the Provoke line of disciplines, which added a flat amount of aggro when used and then a smaller amount over time. This made lower-level warriors much better at holding aggro. Speaking of Warriors, because of their access to just Taunt, they got a line of Warrior-only weapons, usually Primary-only, that had good ratios and either flat aggro procs or Stuns, which also generate a lot of aggro. Their Primary epic weapon was very useful for a long time because of this, as it had 100 damage DD effect, and a +500 aggro effect on the same proc. On the other side of the coin, Rangers were very, very good at generating aggro, but weren't the best tanks. In Kunark, they received the first in what would become a long line of spells, Jolt, which reduced their aggro number by a flat amount (and a proc spell called Cinder Jolt that allowed them to proc the same spell on melee attacks). Part of why they were so good at generating aggro was a mid-level spell called Call of Sky; this was a self-only buff that added a proc to their melee attacks that did 35 damage and stunned for 0 seconds (essentially, a free interrupt on a spellcast) that was later changed to a 1 second stun. Stuns, as previously mentioned, generate a lot of aggro. And just like misses generate aggro, so too do spell resists - and proc resists. Even better than generating aggro than Rangers, however, are the Wizards. Wizards are the supreme nukers of EverQuest. Their nukes are generally 20-50% more powerful than equal-level nukes of other classes. A Wizard who doesn't take care can quickly rip the aggro even off of a Flame Lick casting Ranger, especially if they use their nukes that have stun components. Hell, their strongest spell in base EverQuest - which required a quest to obtain AND a nearly maxed out Research skill - was Ice Comet; a cold-based nuke that dealt 1100 damage after a 6.3 second cast time. Magicians, for comparison, the second-best nukers in the game, had Lava Bolt, a fire-based bolt spell that dealt 810 damage with a cast time of 7 seconds. Beastlords don't get Taunt. But they do get Slows. And Disease DoTs. Disease DoTs are traditionally very good at generating aggro; Shadow Knights and Beastlords can use Disease Cloud (SK/NEC) or Sicken (BST/SHM), a humble single-digit DD and 1-point DoT, to hold aggro very well. And throwing multiple Slows is a surefire way to keep something on you. And their pet procs have a +aggro component. In modern EverQuest, pets can hold aggro over players; but this is not the case in older EverQuest. See, aggroed mobs will always prefer attacking a player over a pet - and if the pet is on the top of the hate list, they'll sit right there and hammer on the nearest PC next highest up their shitlist. Beastlords hold aggro just fine. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 12:43 on Jul 21, 2022 |
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Jul 21, 2022 12:12
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  *yawn* Good morning, darlings. Good morning, Gyyi, Kella. Bloop bloop bloop bloop bloop! Kella! What? That is a predator! She's not a predator. What are you-- We're bloopin'! Bloop bloop bloop bloop bloop! *holding back laughter* So what shall we do today, ladies? Well, if Kella can refrain from waving her feline's claws everywhere... I'm good. I thought we might venture to the tower she wanted to go to. Really?! *sigh* Yes. I feel confident in my abilities to destroy the undead. Let's goooooooooooooo! ...She's excited. Shall we follow? We better, lest she get herself killed without us. The way to Kurn's Tower is not the safest - at least, not the way I go. First step is taking the Cabilis stone down to the Field of Bone. Field of Bone adjoins Cabilis, home of the Iksar, and if you remember the race post, Iksar hate everyone. Thankfully, PoK Books are positioned in a way that they go nowhere near members of the guard forces of the cities they drop down into, making it possible for everyone to use them.  Welcome to the Field of Bone; a very, very good zone for newbies thanks to a high ZEM and a wealth of enemies. That area to the right leads into the Pit, a frequent grinding spot for low-level groups.  Scaled wolves are native to the continent of Kunark. A level 9 Iksar Beastlord's warder would look nearly identical to this pup.  The Pit bisects the Field of Bone nearly in half, making up a large percentage of the zone. In it roam enemies from level 5 to 16 - and we're going to cut right across it.  What sort of monster would leave that kind of skeleton? Dragon, I would think. The Iksar did wage war against the dragons, long ago, after all. Looks kinda... small. Dragons have small skeletons with thick bones; most everything else you see is the result of sinew, fat, muscle and scale. Bereft of flesh and blood, dragon skeletons are much the same as all of ours. How... cheery. There it is, in the distance! Be careful, darling, there are some quite powerful looking skeletons in here. We attract some attention on our way in. Run, darling. We'll be safe in the tower!  There's a long, winding ramp leading up the side of Kurn's Tower, and we bolt for the zoneline. Autofollow in EverQuest is kind of a bitch; I have to take this a little slower than normal to allow 1: the other party members to catch up, because if I round a corner and they don't round it with me, they'll either continue straight or take a very wide arc - these landings are wide, but not that wide, and 2: to make sure we don't fall off.  We made it... We did! Let's do this!Welcome to Kurn's Tower, a place to go from level 8 to 15 in record time. Kurn's Tower traditionally has a very high ZEM - 150% - and enemies ranging from level 8 to level 20. Kurn's Tower has two 'sections' - there's the section you see here, with stairs leading to upper levels, and a section down below. The upper levels are all undead; the lower levels are all burynai, which are essentially giant, fat, sapient pandas that like necromancy. We'll not be going downstairs - primarily because a horrific number of burynai are Shadow Knights, and every Shadow Knight NPC opens fights with Harm Touch, a huge instant damage ability.  We get started on the grinding. I'll make this quick.  There's a lot of skeletons even on the lower level here.  At level 11 we get this message. Originally, you didn't lose experience on death til about level 5; that was later extended to level 11. Around the same time, they delayed leaving all your stuff on your corpse, leaving you to respawn naked, to level 10 - prior to that, from level 1 on, you had to find your corpse to get your stuff back. Ah, naked corpse runs.  A bit later, Gyyi hits level 12. Oh, I've been waiting for this. For what? You'll see, darling. Give me a little time to pen the spells into my book. Ahhhh, Charm. Charm is a delightful spell line that has fallen out of favor in recent years in live EverQuest. While you can see the spell description for yourself, Charm turns any NPC you want within its level range into your Pokémon. You gain control of the NPC as if it were a pet, able to order it around, give it weapons and armor, and buff it. Charm is the core of an Enchanter's true power. And I am going to abuse it mercilessly. Charm immediately takes up Spell Gem 6 - and it, and its entire line, will never leave that spell gem. If I don't have Charm memorized, it means I'm raiding and need something else in that slot, since few higher end raids have charm pets available.  Ah-ha... ha... HAHAHAHAHA! Yeeeeeeees, my minion, come to me! Should we be worried about that? Probably. Let her have her fun. Yeeeeeees, destroy your fellow skeletons! I am concern. It'll be fine. YOU TRAITOROUS DOG!Here's the downside of Charm; it does not have a fixed duration. Charm and most Invisibility spells have a Maximum Duration, but every tick a check is run to see if the spell wears off early. When you cast a spell on a mob, there's an RNG roll based on a formula involving their Resistances to see if the spell either A: lands, B: is resisted and thus doesn't land, or C (for damage spells): is partially resisted and reduces the damage done. For Charm, every six seconds, the Resist check runs again; if the mob makes its resist check on these later checks, the Charm spell ends immediately, and the mob beelines for the enchanter, as Charm clears the aggro list and when it breaks, only the enchanter is on it. At these levels I can simply cast Charm again, it's fine; later, more dangerous mobs will require me to Stun or Mez them before I can recast Charm. But, as you can see, the charm wearing off message that popped up in the chat gives us a way to make three-boxing a charming character much easier.  This is GINA. GINA reads log files and produces text overlays and audio triggers. Let's set it up. First, we type /log on all three characters in-game to turn logging on, and then Add a character in GINA.   Logs are generally kept in your EQ folder under the Logs folder, with the format eqlog_CharacterName_ServerShorthand.txt. We add Gyyi's log to the program.  With Gyyi selected, we can turn individual categories of alerts on and off. We're just gonna add a quick trigger, so I can show you how it works.  We give the trigger a name on Trigger Name, then in Search text we put what we want GINA to monitor the log file for. Display Text will pop a yellow text overlay on-screen, while Use Text to Speech will give us a Text to Speech alert in whatever system voice our OS has available. I set it to have Microsoft Sam yell "Charm broke" at me when the log file detects the phrase "Your Charm spell has worn off" in the chat.  Here you can see the text popping on screen; trust me to say I added the Text to Speech bit after this screenshot.  Here you can see me using an Enchanter's safeguard against early charm breaks - the Tash line. The Tash line of spells are fast-casting, Abjuration-skill Debuff spells that lower a target's Magic Resistance. Higher level spells lower it by more, but generally, especially in Classic and Kunark zones, Tash puts an NPC close to or at 0 Magic Resist. You can further drop these resists with the help of a Magician or Shaman who have access to the Malo line of spells, which lowers Magic, Fire and Cold resistances. I did consider once again doing a Chanter-Mage-Cleric trio on this server, but I wanted a Beastlord. Tash spells all take 1.0 seconds to cast, and keeping Tash on your charm pet will hugely help keeping them charmed for longer.  Kella died at some point, so I decided to show off the fact that, yes, she is now naked at her bind point. Corpse runs are cruel.  Back inside, we find Kella's corpse. Now it's here...  Now it's at Kella's feet. This is the /corpse command, which allows you to drag a corpse, which is very useful for bringing a dead body to a safe space to loot and resurrect the corpse.  We pull it all the way down so Kella can safely loot near her friends.  God I love the Loot All button. It's a Gates-era QoL addition that quickly loots all your gear and puts it back where it was when you died. Prior to this, you had to click and drop or right-click each item individually to get them back into equipment slots. Loot All saves me a lot of clicking; I do a lot of Stupid Chanter poo poo™ that gets me killed at higher levels.  At level 13 we have our first gray con, which is an indication that we should move to the upper levels. Gray cons give no experience when killed, but do still give loot; in here, skeletons mostly drop coin, some leather armor, and bone chips.  I decide to start using some of Kella's mana by making a heal-spam hotkey. In EverQuest, you can set up text macros, as mentioned in the language-learning discussion, but EverQuest has slash commands that can cast spells. Here, the /pause command also delays between two actions. Putting /pause X, /cast X will put the pause AFTER the /cast command, simply as a form of covenience since these boxes are only five lines long.  After a little experimentation, I find /pause 35 to be sufficient for Kella's Minor Healing spell. What this macro does is it will cast Minor Healing five times in a row, pausing for 3.5 seconds after each /cast command to give the spell gem time to refresh. This allows me to tap the button, toggle to another window and do other stuff while Kella heals her target.  Upstairs, mob levels take a slight jump.  Further upstairs, Story hits level 14 and acquires her next heal upgrade - Healing. Thank Innoruuk, I was getting exhausted casting Light Healing so many times to keep you two patched up. Here's a lovely example of how good an upgrade Healing is over Light Healing. Here, Kella is at 72% HP; Light Healing would put her up to about 80%. Healing, though?  93%. Light Healing heals ~30hp; Healing heals 100. It's a significant jump, and her next upgrade, Greater Healing at 24, will be just as welcome by that time.   A bit later we come across a rare spawn whose only purpose is to have a quest drop for an Iksar quest. The "Iksar Skull with an 'X'" is for the Iksar Shaman questline, which gives them a steadily-upgrading mace. We take the Fine Steel Morning Star to sell; it's worth 5 platinum on its own.  It took us 3 hours to go from level 12 to level 15 in this session. Kella gets a new pet, and as soon as Gyyi hits 15, we're leaving. 15 is a very special level, beyond it being Kella's second spell level. You'll see.  Phew. Been a long session. Shall we call it, girls? Indeed. Absolutely, darling. Let's get back to the Plane of Knowledge and have some rest.But upon entering the Plane of Knowledge...  What... The... gently caress was that? I don't... know. But it rattled my skull. Telepathic communication? Mm. Perhaps we should follow up on this. Yes... and maybe I'll have the guards of Neriak throttle whoever awaits there. Alright, girls, here. Take the money we earned; get your next tier of spells while you're there. A lovely idea. Even if this turns out to be a waste of time, we'll have our scrolls.Next time: The Lost Dungeons of Norrath.
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Jul 22, 2022 03:06
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this LP rules, and makes me want to play EQ again so badly lol... I remember being in Kurns and getting that monk weapon Also like, the lore in EQ is unmatched, but its up to you to do the digging to get it.
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Jul 22, 2022 06:24
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and I still don't understand multiboxing and never will lol
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Jul 22, 2022 06:24
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Some more EverQuest mechanics: Haste and Slow Haste is a wonderful buff for melee, increasing the attack speed of melee attacks, effectively reducing the Delay of their weapons by its (multiplicative) haste percentage. Slow is its polar opposite, slowing attack speed to a crawl by its (multiplicative) percentage. So what happens when you have both a Haste buff and a Slow debuff on the same target? Slow takes precedence at all times. See, your base attack speed is 100%, and Haste spells and items increase it to their percentage. But when you tack on a Slow on top of that, your attack speed is affected as if haste didn't exist at all. If a person has 130% haste and they take a 20% Slow, their attack speed is now 80%, as if the haste didn't exist. Slow is godlike, and a core component of effective grinding - because the slower mobs attack, the less damage the tank takes, and the less healing they need. Haste has a hard cap of 100%, effectively doubling your attack speed, except for specific Bard songs that have what's called Haste v3 - colloquially, Overhaste. Here's a quick rundown of the types of melee haste: Spell haste (not to be confused with Spell Haste, a focus effect), Item Haste, and Overhaste. Spell haste is effectively a buff, which our Enchanter (and later, our Beastlord) gets access to. Spell haste encompasses most Haste buffs and majority of Bard songs that provide increased attack speed. Spell haste stacks with all other forms of haste, except other forms of Spell haste; the higher percentage buff will always overwrite the lower, unless the Haste buff also increases stats, in which case the Stat-increasing Haste buff always overwrites. Next is Item haste; this is a worn effect from pieces of equipment that applies a passive Haste effect. We'll be seeing some of that for our Beastlord. Item haste stacks with everything but other forms of item haste; if you have two pieces of gear with a haste effect, the highest percentage one always takes effect. Worn haste has a level-based cap; until level 25, you can only get 10% haste from items, regardless of their percentage. And finally, there's the aforementioned Overhaste, found solely in this era through Bard songs. In modern EverQuest, there are items you can get that have click buffs for overhaste. Overhaste does not care - overhaste stacks with literally everything, except itself. There is no similar capping for Slow, but the maximum amount of Slow found on spells is 75%, and some high-level mobs have a percentage-based reduction of those effects when Verant began to realize what a colossal fuckup they made with Slow in the game and how easy it made leveling. Along with the "partial slow" effect, many later game raid mobs (and a not-insignificant number of exp mobs) are straight up immune to Slow spells. Food and Drink Most modern MMOs have food and drink that work as quick-regeneration buffs, restoring health and mana at a rapid rate while you sit there and eat them. Not EverQuest. In EverQuest, food and drink plays a role in how your base regeneration works. So long as you have food and drink, everything's fine, and your HP and Mana regeneration rates are what they should be. But what happens when you run out of food and drink? Your natural HP and Mana regeneration stop entirely once you've gone a certain amount of time without food and drink. This includes even the increased regeneration of Trolls and Iksar, as those are "natural" regeneration. This includes the increased mana regen you get from Meditation, as well. A caster without a drink is just begging for death. Best hydrate before you diedrate, am I right? Not all food and drink is created equal, however. Food and drink last a different amount of time between eating/drinking periods. Every food/drink item has a text indicator of the general level of time they will last, and have a hidden Duration value. The levels are: 000-005: "This is a snack." "This is a whistle wetter." 006-020: "This is a meal." "This is a drink." 021-030: "This is a hearty meal." "This is a refreshing drink." 031-040: "This is a banquet sized meal." "This is a lasting drink." 041-050: "This is a feast!" "This is a flowing drink!" 051-060: "This is an enduring meal!" "This is an enduring drink!" 061-070+: "This is a miraculous meal!" "This is a miraculous drink!" Food and drink with a base duration of 1 (for example, Muffins and Lemonade) will have a "satiation" of 144 real-time seconds, but the game only checks for needing to consume every 46 seconds, meaning with the right timing a duration of 1 will last 184 seconds. Every duration above 1 applies a multiplier; the highest food duration is 130, and the highest drink duration is 240 (an estimated 9 hours, 36 minutes). But wait, there's more! Clicking food and drink to consume it cuts the duration by half. Sitting on a mount makes you consume food and drink three times as fast. Different races consume food and drink at different rates; at the most extreme, a Halfling consumes twice as much food as a Human (continuing the Tolkien tradition of Hobbits having 7 meals a day, or 6 if you don't consider Afternoon Tea a meal, while Men have 3). Players can also make food and drink via the Baking and Brewing tradeskills respectively. Roughly speaking, player-created food and drinks have massive benefits over store-bought; not only are they usually lighter (0.1 weight) and have higher durations (the best crafted drink has a duration of 240, while the best crafted food has a duration of 130), but a lot of player-crafted food can actually increase your stats so long as it's the top-level food or drink in your inventory; the Twice-Brewed Constitutional (Duration 240, no-trade, so you gotta make it yourself) gives +5 stamina and +5 all resists, while the Misty Thicket Picnic (duration 120) gives +5 STR/STA/WIS/INT and +20 HP/Mana. A common tactic is to frequently manually consume cheap food so as to only require a few of the highest-end stat-giving food/drink. Day/Night Cycle and Weather Cycles EverQuest has many features modern MMOs lack. This includes a cycling Day/Night cycle over 72 minutes, and a functional weather system. Some zones have changes based on the day/night cycle - Castle Mistmoore, for instance, has a group of NPCs (whose names I will not type because it is a slur - but think Romani expatriates with the slur intact) that, during the day, are human, but when night rolls around, they turn into werewolves. Similarly, Kithicor Forest is just fine during the day, but once night starts, the undead come out. The weather system really just consists of precipitation happening every so often - rain or snow, depending on the zone. This reduces the game's draw distance when it happens, and you get little graphics of rain or snow falling through the area. More modern MMOs should have day/night cycles and weather patterns. It's so very silly that they don't. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 11:51 on Jul 23, 2022 |
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Jul 22, 2022 22:19
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Let's start talking about EverQuest's lore. There's a surprising amount of it, though very little the game outright told you until Legacy of Ykesha brought the Story posts - a little pop-up window that gave you story beats. Today, we're gonna talk about EverQuest's gods. Deities One of the unique features of EverQuest is the collection of deities. Again, since EverQuest was based off older editions of D&D, certain classes are required to choose a deity, while most can freely go Agnostic. There are certain types of equipment in the game - mostly crafted - that require you to worship the correct deity, as well. Some very good craftable Warrior equipment can be had for not being Agnostic, the best pure tanking stuff requiring you to worship Rallos Zek, as can a very unique set of Innoruuk-worshiper armor that gives arcane casters a suit of chainmail to wear. By and large, however, your Deity selection is unimportant to the pure mechanical aspect of gameplay. The only mechanics involved in deity selection, beyond also sometimes influencing your starting city, is Faction. Deities apply a modifier to certain factions that care about that sort of thing, that all NPCs in the world are aware of even if you've never interacted with them. Certain factions hate certain deities, so if you're an Innoruuk-worshiping Human, don't expect to waltz freely into Felwithe, the home of the High Elves. These modifiers can also influence the maximum amount of faction you can gain with that faction; for instance, later on in life Sony introduced a quest to allow people to acquire a crown that let you cast a Wood Elf Illusion, but required very high (750+/1000) faction with the Frogloks of Upper Guk. Due to their massive negative faction modifier with this faction in particular, characters who worshiped Bertoxxulous, Cazic-Thule, Innoruuk, Rallos Zek and Veeshan could never acquire the necessary level of faction to do the quest, so Sony introduced an item that when worn applied a faction modifier sufficient to reach the required levels if you had otherwise maxed out your faction gains. The classes who require a deity are Clerics, Druids, Necromancers, Paladins, Rangers, Shadow Knights, Shamans and all Beastlords except Vah Shir. Beyond the mechanical aspect, however, the deities of Norrath are a very diverse lot, and provide a lot of lore. While EverQuest has a wide array of deities, I'm only going to be covering the player-choosable ones. We'll start with my favorite: Rodcet Nife. Rodcet Nife  Why yes, that is a Gray. How nice of you to notice. Rodcet Nife, also known as The Prime Healer, is from an extraterrestrial race of immortals obsessed with death and disease, to the point where they would kill any visitors just so they could study the corpse, often in inventive, plaguey ways. Rodcet Nife, however, sought to cure disease, and was ostracized from his people for it. He came to Norrath in a flying saucer as a disease ravaged what would become modern-day Qeynos, and brought the gift of healing magic to the humans there, teaching them to fight and combat disease. He left them then, for unclear reasons, but left his ship, which now serves as the Temple of Nife in Qeynos.  No, I wasn't kidding. The followers of Rodcet Nife battle disease, illness and death in every way they can, including picking up weapons to war against the followers of Bertoxxulous, the Plague-Bringer. Followers of The Prime Healer will often go on journeys to locate rare cures or to find the source of deadly plagues, and believe fervently that the ills and even death itself may one day be purged from the universe. His primary worshipers are Qeynosian Humans and Half-Elves, but any healer can be known to pick up the mantle. Bertoxxulous  Bertoxxulous, also known as the Plague-Bringer, is the god of disease. The only truth in the worship of Bertoxxulous is that everything dies. One of the few deities who has no true creations in Norrath, save disease, it could be said that the creation of Qeynos is His greatest accomplishment. The Oceangreen Hills, now a part of the great plains of Karana, suffered a deathly disease and a plague of zombies, which led to Antonius Bayle creating a massive army to war off Bertoxxulous' influence, which directly led to the formation of Qeynos and the renaming of the continent Tunaria to Antonica after his hard-won victory. But there remains a hidden temple to Bertoxxulous in the catacombs beneath Qeynos, where dark-minded humans and half-elves work to destroy all of Antonius Bayle's creations for the disgrace he brought to their God. A cult of gnomes dedicated to Bertoxxulous likewise inhabits the deepest parts of Ak'Anon, and while the most prominent members of these cults are their Shadow Knights, Necromancers and Clerics, no small number of arcane casters and warriors also venerate the Plague-Bringer. Despite this obsession with disease and death, however, don't think that the worshipers of Bertoxxulous seek quick deaths from His blessings - far from it. They seek to live long, diseased lives, spreading the touch of disease all across Norrath. For those familiar with 40k, no, His followers are not gleeful; they are actively malevolent and sinister. Brell Serilis  Brell Serilis, also known as the Duke of Below, was the first (excepting Veeshan) deity to touch Norrath with a portal from His plane of Underfoot into the depths of Norrath. From that portal, He seeded the twisted, expansive tunnels of Norrath with all manner of creatures. Later, He returned and crafted the Dwarves, to serve as watchers for what were then the dominant life-form on the planet, Veeshan's dragons. Followers of the Duke of Below believe that the surface world is a waste of space, full of naught but empty open air, while below the surface is full of wonders and discoveries. Brell Serilis, with His almost cambrian age style explosion of life, is worshiped by the most diverse group, all of which believe Brell created them. Not only does He have worshipers among the dwarves and gnomes, whom He crafted, but also gnolls, goblins, and so on. Almost any race that chooses to live underground has worship or ties to the Duke of Below. Bristlebane  Fizzlethorp Bristlebane, also known as the King of Thieves, is a relative latecomer; most gods came early in the Elder Age, but Bristlebane came late in it. He crafted the Halflings, whose worship is split almost evenly between He and Karana, but the race bears all of Bristlebane's hallmarks. To look upon a halfling is to see the face of Bristlebane; gregarious and fun-loving, nigh hedonistic, and lover of pranks, humor, and wit, charming and mischevious, but rarely ever malicious. Appropriately, Fizzlethorp Bristlebane himself inhabits the Plane of Mischief, a nightmare to any serious-minded individual and a playground for those of a witty bent. Bristlebane most often takes the form of a halfling, but none know his true form. Notable as being one of the few killable Gods in the game before the Planes of Power expansion. Cazic-Thule  Cazic-Thule, also known as the Faceless and the Lord of Fear, is not so much worshiped as feared. Crafting the Iksar, the Trolls and the Lizardmen, they are His primary worshipers, along with Ogres, who spread His will through terror, pain, misery, fright, and living sacrifices. They believe that only by spreading fear and destroying hope that they will be spared His wrath upon their deaths. The massive temple in the center of the Feerrott is dedicated to His worship, built by Ogres and later stolen by lizardmen, and an entrance to his Plane of Fear is also in the jungle, hidden behind illusory walls and guarded by fear-inducing spectres. Cazic-Thule, along with Innoruuk, is notable for being one of the first true pieces of endgame for EverQuest, with the Plane of Fear serving as the first truly high-level raid experience. While Lord Nagafen and Lady Vox were relatively simple affairs, one had to clean out the entirety of the Plane of Fear before attacking Cazic-Thule, lest the entirety of the plane come to His aid. Even breaking into the Plane of Fear could be a nightmare, as many, many creatures would wander past the entrance, and the only exit to the Plane besides teleportation spells lay on the opposite end, through a temple filled with harm touching amygdalans. Well, that and dying. Or teleporting out. Erollisi Marr  Erollisi Marr, also known as the Queen of Love, is the twin of Mithaniel Marr. Unlike her more zealous brother, however, Erollisi teaches that love conquers all. She, along with Mithaniel, created the first race of humans, the Barbarians, but it is Erollisi's touch upon them that guided them to becoming Humans. Erollisi's followers believe deeply in the power of love to defeat all things, but they are not so foolish as to believe that it can overcome war on its own. After all, Erollisi is still a Marr. Her followers are just as willing to pick up a weapon and fight for their beliefs as any other, so long as it is in defense of principles, people, or places they love. Erollisi is often overlooked, both in-universe and out, in favor of Mithaniel. Few are the people who wish to champion the cause of Love. Innoruuk  Innoruuk, also known as the Prince of Hate, is one of a few truly vile deities in Norrath. Even beyond Cazic-Thule, Rallos Zek, and Veeshan, Innoruuk stands alone as having no reasoning for His actions beyond His hate. Hatred of Tunare led Him to steal the royalty of Takish-hiz to warp them into Dark Elves, after all. Hatred of Prexus led to Him stealing the corpses of the Kedge, after they were wiped out, and warping them into the hateful luggalds. The Dark Elves are the most dedicated of His worshipers, who see Him as their father, but Trolls and Humans can be counted among his ranks, to the point where there is a secret underground faction in Freeport dedicated to His worship, and the leader of the corrupt faction of the Freeport militia is secretly a Lich empowered by Innoruuk's hatred. Innoruuk's followers believe strongly in Hate as the driving force of the universe, and that pure, unmitigated Spite is the only true way to conquer a foe. Innoruuk was the second piece of true endgame content. His home plane, the Plane of Hate, had to be teleported into by a wizard, who could take five others with them, with each teleport requiring a gem reagent that could only be purchased in Neriak, home of the Dark Elves, to the tune of 80+ platinum pieces per pop. Assembling a raid in the Plane of Hate sometimes took more time than the raid itself. The original Plane of Hate also had a very low view distance, and enemies had a very wide aggro radius, even through walls, meaning it was very easy for a raid to wipe due to an accidental overpull; especially egregious was the fact that it was multi-tiered, and you could aggro enemies on the upper levels with offensive bard songs, leading to massive overpulls as they pathed to the nearest ramp down, dragging every mob along the way with them. The first revamp of the Plane of Hate changed the structure immensely, giving wider paths and less through-walls aggro, as well as making it only a single level, while the second revamp simply made everything higher level with more hitpoints and to make it easier to acquire certain pieces for Epic weapons. Fittingly, fighting in the Plane of Hate did nothing to your Dark Elf factions; with so much Hate going around, killing Innoruuk could be seen as the ultimate veneration for one of His worshipers. Karana  Karana, also known as the Rainkeeper, is the god of the furious storm and the life-giving rains. Revered by farmers, halflings, and humans of a natureistic bent, his followers believe in the storm, both for its destructive qualities and the life it brings through rain. The plains of western Antonica bear His name for ancient worship given to Him by early Humans. He is also the most accepting of the two nature deities, the other being Tunare; where Tunare focuses on the elves, Karana accepts all worship, and even sponsors Paladins among the Halflings. Mithaniel Marr  Mithaniel Marr, also known as The Lightbringer, is a god of honorable battle and valorous war. Along with His twin, Erollisi, He crafted the Barbarians and the Frogloks; and while Erollisi's love may have shaped them into Humans, it can be said that Mithaniel's honor shaped the Frogloks into Guktans. Followers of Mithaniel Marr fight for all that is good and pure in the world, and believe devoutly in good, high morals and giving to and doing for the less fortunate. However, one could say that Mithaniel Marr's worshipers have a stick up their rear end, just like their deity; both Mithaniel and His mortal followers tend to be on the humorless side. Put a worshiper of Marr and a worshiper of Bristlebane in the same room and you just may end up with two dead devotees. Prexus  Prexus, also known as The Oceanlord, is the god of Norrath's oceans. He was one of the earlier arrivals, along with Tunare and Brell Serilis, and the three chose to divide the world between themselves to create new life so as to keep Veeshan's brood in check. Prexus took the seas, and filled them with life, including the now nearly-extinct race of the Kedge. When a disaster brought about by Phinigel Autropos nearly exterminated the Kedge, a small number of them were saved by the Combine Empire - who then proceeded to subject them to terrible experiments. In retaliation, Prexus raised the seas and sank their city into the sea, and that was the last Prexus' touch was felt upon the mortal world. His followers believe in the primacy of the seas, from which they say all life comes, and all life will one day return. While His primary worshipers are those who live and work on the water, the Erudites of Erudin have a temple dedicated to Him. Prexus is notable for being one of two only deities (along with Veeshan) on this list to have made no actual appearances in any EverQuest-related product. Most have appeared in EverQuest, and some others only in EverQuest II, but Prexus has remained unseen and untouched. Even his home plane is unknown. Prexus is also notable for having only one true enemy - Bertoxxulous. Quellious  Quellious, also known as The Tranquil, is the deity that has the least known about them as a god. Quellious naturally preaches peace, both outer and inner, and that enlightenment is the path to true, lasting peace across the world. But Quellious' followers are no shrinking violets or pacifists; they fight as brutally as any when the time comes for it, believing in defense of the self and of those they love. The only things truly known about Quellious are thus; She rules over the Plane of Tranquility, from which many other Planes may be accessed, and that she hates Cazic-Thule with a passion. It's said she's warred with the Faceless over the dream realm, and when they could not claim primacy over each other, they each sank a portion of their power into the realm, which merged and wound up spawning Morell Thule and Terris Thule; Lord of Sleep and Goddess of Nightmares, respectively. Quellious also has a story associated with the one time She lost her temper, and led directly to the creation of the Estate of Unrest. A Quellious missionary brought his family to Faydwer and set up shop on the shores of Dagnor's Cauldron, and set to spread the word of Peace through Faydwer. An insane dwarf named Garanel Rucksif, fresh off the killing of his family, found the family in his maddened flight from Kaladim and slaughtered the family. Quellious cursed him to be confined to the estate, only for an Erudite Cleric of Cazic-Thule to hear the story and make the journey. He exhumed the family's bodies and broke them into hundreds of pieces, and cast a spell to call upon Cazic-Thule, costing him his life in the process. Cazic-Thule was impressed by the devotion, and reanimated the carefully exhumed and scattered dead flesh into an undead army. Now Garanel Rucksif wails in madness at the bottom of the Estate of Unrest, surrounded by the dead. Rallos Zek  Rallos Zek, also known as the Warlord, is the god of war. Rallos Zek crafted the Giants, and with the aid of Brell Serilis, the Orcs, the Goblins, and the Ogres. His creations immediately set to war against the rest of Norrath, crafting one of, if not the, greatest Empire Norrath had ever seen. They were only briefly slowed by the Shissar Empire, the Shissar only survived because Rallos' creations turned their war to the Gods themselves. Unfortunately, they ran afoul of the Council of Rathe, the elemental gods of the Earth, thirteen immensely powerful creatures who could not be slain unless all were slain at once. The Rathe broke Rallos' war machine, only for Rallos to take command of the Empire and drive it back into the Council. They captured one of the Council, dragged it back to Norrath, and tortured it until it died, permanently this time. From its body came the Rathe Mountains, and from the tears of the surviving twelve of the Council came Lake Rathetear. Rallos had well and truly pissed off the entire pantheon, who cursed Rallos' creations with idiocy, shattering the Empire more than a war ever could. With their now limited intelligence, they could not comprehend the war machines they had crafted, nor the tactics that had led to victory time and time again. Only the Giants were able to regain some level of intelligence, eons later, while Ogres, Goblins, and Orcs are little more than brutish savages. Rallos Zek's followers believe in the survival of the fittest, and that only through war can they become enlightened and earn the favor of their God. The universe was born of battle, and will end in battle, and those who die in battle deserve no honor, for they were too weak to pass Rallos Zek's trials. His worshipers are primarily the Ogres, but many across Norrath hear the call of the Warlord, especially Warriors; only Iksar and Guktan Warriors are incapable of worshiping Rallos Zek. Solusek Ro  Solusek Ro, also known as The Burning Prince and Lord of Flame, is best known for being the God that most interferes in the affairs of mortals. Additionally, for being the only one on this list who isn't the greatest wielder of his portfolio; that honor falls to his father, Fennin Ro. Solusek finds disrupting the plans of his fellow gods to be of great amusement. His most acknowledged accomplishment was the creation of the Serpent Spine mountains that run through the center of modern-day Antonica, which was Tunaria at the time, and shifting the weather of the continent greatly. It destroyed the forests of Takish-Hiz, leaving only a desert in their wake, forcing the elves to flee to Faydwer, and beginning the Lost Age. And, much later, played a very important role in shattering Norrath's moon, Luclin, which plays heavily into the lore of EverQuest II. Solusek Ro's primary worshipers are Wizards. They believe in the supremacy of fire as an element, both for its destructive capabilities and its chaotic nature. They, like their God, believe that aggression is the only true path to acquire what they desire. They care not for kindness or empathy, only respect, and tend to be blunt, rude, and abrasive. He has one very large Temple in the Lavastorm Mountains, introduced very early on in EverQuest's lifecycle (about three months after launch) which contains followers of the Burning Prince from every race, and was a source of mid-game class armor and equipment for every class. Two very important pieces of equipment came from Solusek Ro's Temple; The Rod of Insidious Glamour and the Staff of Temperate Flux. The former was an Enchanter-only item, the latter a Wizard one. The Rod of Insidious Glamour was had unlimited instant-casts clicks of Alliance, a faction-boosting spell - but its primary use was forcing an early refresh of spell gems by tapping it twice after casting a spell, massively speeding up the casts of a class that sometimes had only seconds to get things under control. The Staff of Temperate Flux had unlimited instant-cast clicks of a debuff that reduced fire and cold resistances, useful for pulling but also for the same purpose. (Any instant-cast clickies could be used to reset spellgems; these were simply some of the easier ones to obtain.) Any Wizard worth their salt had a Staff of Temperate Flux in order to pull while quad-kiting. The Tribunal  This, but times six. The Tribunal, also known as the Six Hammers, is actually a collective of six gods with no discernible faces armed with sledgehammers. For the Tribunal, the only things that matter are justice and order. They are the ultimate neutral arbiter; a high elf may be condemned for practicing necromancy, but on the same hand, a troll could be condemned for showing leniency towards dwarven prisoners. The best-kept secret of the Six Hammers is that there is, in fact, a Seventh Hammer - the executioner and messenger of the Six Hammers. Worshipers of the Tribunal are the only ones with a bigger stick up their rear end than Mithaniel Marr's worshipers, but they're not frothing zealots - they know if they punish the innocent, they themselves will stand before the Six Hammers. Their primary worshipers are the Shamans of the Barbarians of Halas, but a great number of Barbarians also worship them, though seem to have more of a handle on how to not be giant sticks in the muds, because Barbarians know how to party. Tunare  Tunare, also known as the Mother of All, is the creator and mother of the elven races of Norrath, and the goddess of nature itself. Tunare was one of the triumvirate who seeded Norrath with life to serve as a defense against Veeshan's brood, and took the land. She crafted the Elves, faeries, sprites, treants and unicorns, as well. Her followers devoutly believe that Tunare is the mother of all life in Norrath, even in the face of other religious beliefs, and devote themselves to the protection and preservation of the world they live in. Most of Her worshipers are the elves and half-elves of Felwithe and Kelethin, who practice the arts of druidism, rangerhood, and clericism in Her name, but most elves revere Tunare in one way or another. Veeshan  Veeshan, also known as the Wurm Queen, was the first God to touch Norrath. Said to travel the universe, She marks planets she deems as promising and deposits her children, the immortal dragons, upon such planets. Veeshan is notable for being huge. Really, really huge. The 'mark' she placed on Norrath was dragging three of her claws across it - which left massive, gaping rents in Norrath. The Great Divide, a massive valley in Velious, is one of them - and is so huge that it actually splits the continent in half. The three rents are known collectively as the Scars of Velious. It was the seeding of the dragons that brought the other gods to Norrath, and started everything to do with EverQuest. Veeshan is followed by few non-dragons on Norrath, but the race of Drakkin all venerate her. She's notable beyond that for being the only deity to be a valid selection for both (Drakkin) Paladins and Shadow Knights, who are otherwise diametrically opposed, and can only otherwise be chosen as a Deity by Bards. Veeshan, like Prexus, has been seen in no EverQuest products; her size would make her all but impossible to render in-game. There are many, many other deities in Norrath, but these are the only ones, mechanically, that players may worship. I'll go into the other deities some other time.
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Jul 22, 2022 22:33
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RelentlessImp posted:More modern MMOs should have day/night cycles and weather patterns. It's so very silly that they don't. It says how few MMO's I've played when my first reaction was "But I thought they did". But then the only modern ones I've played is WoW and Wildstar.  And both had those features at least. Maybe not as elaborate as EQ but definitely day/night cycle and weather.Heck, I think both Planetside games has it too. I think.
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Jul 23, 2022 00:23
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On the other hand being a human at night in the rain in EverQuest is a special kind of blind hell.
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Jul 23, 2022 02:59
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This thread is bringing back a lot of fond memories. I started playing EQ shortly after Luclin released. After a relatively short stint as a wood elf ranger (bleh) I started a Vah Shir bard (which my avatar is based on!) I played for several hundred days total playtime. Dipped my toes into raiding, pulled off some truly stupid stuff in those generated dungeons (as a bard, with judicious use of lull, mez and Fading Memories you could pull the boss that was the objective all the way to the start. So my friends would sit out for 10 mins or so while I got the boss all the way to the entrance after which everyone would zone in and we’d finish the dungeon with a single kill). As the missus and I were quite skint for a bit, EQ was basically our entire entertainment budget for a while and I look back on it very fondly. While I will prolly never say I truly quit, I last logged in for a few months 3 or so years ago I think.
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Jul 23, 2022 03:50
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Bettik posted:
I very seriously considered an enchanter cleric bard trio for this specific reason, bards get extremely amazing when played to their full potential. Bards more than any other class get access to a huge pool of stuff to do stupid and amazing things with. But then updates would be “I kited seventy mobs and killed them after twenty minutes and got a ton of experience “.
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Jul 23, 2022 07:44
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RelentlessImp posted:Veeshan, like Prexus, has been seen in no EverQuest products; her size would make her all but impossible to render in-game. The only two gods smart enough to NOT leave a portal to their house laying around where adventurers can find it. Well, I guess Veeshan probably doesn't even have a home as such, always looking for more worlds to slap a bunch of dragons onto. She'd probably be more of a zone or several zones than a boss. Just ending up on her back as the zooms through space or whatever.
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Jul 23, 2022 18:47
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I always wondered what that thing in Qeynos was, but gently caress me that it's an actual flying saucer. EQ is a game I keep thinking of coming back to, but it feels these days the game and every private server is fixated in one way or another on multiboxing, and my interest in it is in the exploratory elements, not in tabbing between multiple windows to juggle my alts. I know P1999 has a no multiboxing rule, but what I'd really like to do is explore Luclin and the Planes and all the other new spots added.
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Jul 23, 2022 18:56
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 First things first, we're collecting spells. One of our spells is not on the typical merchant, so Gyyi is running to East Commonlands via Freeport.  The Freeport Book is through a fake wall that traditionally leads to the headquarters of the Dismal Rage - Freeport's Innoruuk cult.  Ah, good old, old Freeport. In more recent years Freeport got revamped to an ugly, ugly mess; it's nice to see it still lives on Emulated servers in its original form.  The East Commonlands, once the bastion of economy, adjoins the Northern Desert of Ro, which used to house the kingdom of Takish-Hiz, the original elven kingdom.  The southern side of the Commonlands, both East and West, are being slowly consumed by the spreading desert of Ro, so-called for Solusek Ro having arched the spine of the mountains seperating the Commonlands from Takish-Hiz, bringing the sun to blast Takish-Hiz into naught but a desert.  The East Commonlands Tunnel. Once where all the trading in the game took place. People would stand here, hawking bags full of wares, putting bags into the trade window to let you peruse in the days before item linking was a thing, denoting their location via the torches along the right wall. To this day, it serves as the trading hub of newborn Time-Locked Progression servers and of Project 1999. It also serves as a hunting zone for Freeport humans and Dark Elves from levels 4 to 12 or so.  Deeper into the EC Tunnel, we find both a camp we'll be seeing more of later, and Rushka Deklamoor. When Ruins of Kunark came around, Rushka here was added to the EC Tunnel. He holds a few Kunark-specific lower level spells for various classes. We're interested in two today.  Breeze is our Enchanter's first mana regen spell, adding +2 mana/tick regardless of standing or sitting. Summon Companion is a spell for all classes that summon pets - Magicians, Enchanters, Necromancers, Beastlords, Shadow Knights, Shamans, and even Druids (who get a very small selection of near-useless pet summons, but also animal-only charm spells) - that does exactly what it says. It summons your pet to you. This is because pet pathing in EverQuest has traditionally been, shall we say, difficult. And in the days where pets caused aggro, this could be an issue. With Summon Companion, you could simply have your pet sit at the zone line, run to your camp, and summon it to you without having any kind of pathing issues. It was a great spell. Too bad it's so high level for most classes - traditionally 39 or 44.  Gyyi Gates back to Plane of Knowledge and heads to Erudin, both for her spells and to investigate this strange voice in her head.  Unfortunately, Erudin is not the best place to showcase this on this server; see, when you enter the zone that contains the NPC you talk to to flag up for Lost Dungeons of Norrath, you're supposed to get a message directing you to them. I'll show it off in a minute, for now, Gyyi has a conversation to have.  This is Orwin Flintmaker, who will be our conversee today.  By all means, I'd be delighted to have some information.In EverQuest quest texts, words bracketed by [] are words that you need to include in any /say dialogue you have, while targeting the NPC, and usually requires a question mark at the end. Once, these words were completely unmarked, leading to long lines of trying every word in the dialogue as a question until you hit on the next trigger. Sierra Adventures be damned, finding out how to progress quests with EQ's text interpreter was worse. By the time of the Rain of Fear 2 client, they had gone a step further, colored the text, and allowed it to be clicked so you could speed through by tapping the colored text.  Sounds almost more trouble than it's worth. Why should I deal with them at all? You had me at 'loot'. What sort of work are we talking about? I am absolutely enthralled, dear. What more is there? Free travel between these camps? Intriguing. I assume they have harnessed some of Wizardry's more esoteric applications of Translocation. But go on, tell me about this interesting ore. Never fear. Perhaps this shall be more lucrative than we ever imagined. I'll gather my friends and we shall make our way to one of these camps immediately. Almost immediately; Gyyi fetches her level 16, 20 and 24 spells from Erudin Palace, first.     This is what it's supposed to look like. After having identical conversations with Vlarha and Torxal, down to the letter - I'll leave it to your imaginations as to their responses - and collecting spells for their next spell levels - 19 and 24 for Kedrustorii, and 22 for Kella - they head back to the Plane of Knowledge. So... We're doing it, right? Absolutely, darlings. Let's make our way to one of these camps; Butcherblock, I think, should be the closest to one of these marvelous stones. To Butcherblock! No, darling, Felwithe. F-Felwithe?! Calm yourself, Story. The book is far enough away from the Koada`Dal's city that you'll be in no danger. Still... the Faydark. We'll be fine, darling. Should we see anyone who means to kill you, I can shroud you in veils of invisibility. ...Fine.  Welcome to the Greater Faydark. We're not staying long. But isn't Felwithe pretty over the hill? We turn resolutely away from it and run along the path towards the Butcherblock Mountains. While, yes, it would have been faster to take the Kaladim stone, the path runs past several Dwarf guards who'd like nothing more than to gut poor Kedrustorii, so we take the safe path.   The entrance to the Lesser Faydark, which we will see shortly, and the wizard spires of GFay, where wizards port in and a Nexus Scion awaits to hand you a stone that will send you to Luclin when they activate.  Butcherblock Mountains. It's snowing! The camp is that firelight in the distance.  Hm. I believe he said Vual Stoutest... ah, there you are.  I believe they call them adventures, darling. Returning from Planes of Power, Lost Dungeons of Norrath uses the flagging system in order to flag you for access to Lost Dungeons of Norrath. That means all four of Vual's questions must be answered, as each one applies a different flag value. The favor journal, dear. Morden Rasp. Is this simply a rote recitation of facts gleaned from our conversations with your agents, then? *deep sigh* A farstone.  Introduced in Lost Dungeons of Norrath was the Augment system. Simply put, items gained slots - which we cannot see nor slot using the v3 client, which means I'll have to use the v2 once we care - that you could put items of matching slot into. Augment Slots ran the gamut from Type 1 to Type 8, all serving a different purpose. The most commonly cared about were the Type 4 and Type 8; weapons all had one or the other. These were the proc augment types, allowing you to add a proc effect to your weapon. Type 4 was found on most weapons; Type 8, weapons found on raids, but primarily those from Planes of Power, Gates of Discord and Omens of War. Type 8 was found on most raid gear in general; it was the "Raid" type augment slot. The Typing system goes as follows: Type 1: General: Single Stat - generally they improved one statistic. Type 2: General: Multiple Stat - Same as above, but more than one stat. Type 3: General: Spell Effect - Usually a focus effect or melee effect. Type 4: Weapon: General - Covered above. Type 5: General: Multiple Stat - Originally, and on this server, Type 5 is found on LDoN-purchasable weapons only. Their purpose is to add Elemental damage onto weapons - like our Scorpialis from way back when we first started, you could add augments that added +X elemental damage to these weapons, increasing their base ratio. Type 6: Weapon: Base Damage - Like the Type 5 above, augments also came in raw damage form. Elemental damage augs were generally a lot more free; Type 6 augs, however, were strictly locked down, often having a minimum delay requirement - any augment they wanted to go into a 2h weapon usually had a minimum delay of 30 required. Type 7: General: Group - Type 7 is the most common armor augment type; you'll find lots of dropped and LDoN purchased augs of Type 7. Type 8: General: Raid - Covered above. Come Dragons of Norrath, and later expansions, more augment types were added. I'll cover them here, but they're not really relevant to this server, save for Type 20. Type 9: General: Dragons Points - LDoN received an upgrade in the form of Dragons of Norrath, an entirely new set of themes and missions and of higher level (LDoN caps at 65). But to Verant, expansions should be self-contained, and so Type 9 was created specifically for Dragons of Norrath stuff. Type 10: Crafted: Common Type 11: Crafted: Group Type 12: Crafted: Raid - Type 10 and 11 go together. In Dragons of Norrath new Cultural gear was added, as well as general craftables, including augments. Between Types 10, 11, and 12, you could craft (or purchase) your gear and customize it however you want, within reason. Type 10 had buyable components, Type 11 had groupable mob drop components, and Type 12 required components from raid mobs. Type 13: Energeiac: Group Type 14: Energeiac: Raid - Like Dragons of Norrath, The Buried Sea brought with it some new slots, as well as a new equipment slot - power source. A power source was a limited-use item that powered Energeiac augments, giving extra stats. Energeiac Augments had Purity levels that determined what level of power the power source could provide to them; Purity ranged from 25 to 100, with corresponding power increases. Energeiac Augments continue to exist in modern equipment. Type 15: Emblem - Secrets of Faydwer and Seeds of Destruction-specific, Type 15 was found only on Chest armors. Type 15 persisted for a while, but is no longer in use in modern EverQuest. Type 16 and 17 were Underfoot-specific cultural armor slots, like Types 10, 11 and 12 before them. Type 18: Special: Group Type 19: Special: Raid were specific to The Burning Lands, Torment of Velious, and Claws of Veeshan gear. Type 20: Ornament and Type 21: Special Ornament were added to the game with the release of the Hero's Forge system. Essentially, you could find cosmetic augments, slot them into a piece of gear, et voila, they took on the appearance of the cosmetic augment. You have to pay real money, per character, to unlock the Hero's Forge system. Yes. Have. This is part of modern EQ's microtransaction system. We'll speak no more of it.  Here we see... well, here's the first indication that Wayfarers Haven is using a hacked-together version of Lost Dungeons of Norrath. You're not supposed to see EVERYTHING. You're only supposed to see what you've earned the Adventure Points total to potentially buy; to see the highest level, you'll have to earn 1492 Adventure Points from completing LDoNs in this specific theme. While points are a 'general' currency, used interchangeably through all the themes of LDoN, if you see the "Theme, Points" section in the lower left, this will keep a running tally of how many points you've earned in each of the five themes. Well, no big, so we can see things we shouldn't yet, it's not like it lets us buy them before we earn the requisite number of points. This is also why I, ultimately, chose to play on Wayfarers Haven. The Lost Dungeons of Norrath provides a concise gearing path to take while you level. Gearing in classic EverQuest, pre-LDoN, involved simply getting as much platinum as you could and buying gear from other players - or camping it yourself. Mobs do drop armor like cloth, leather, chain and plate, as you've seen, but LDoN was the first time you could actually acquire stat-increasing gear in conjunction with leveling, without having to dedicate time to specific camps hoping for random drops. We'll be buying a good amount of gear - forgive me if I don't document it all.  Here's the second inclination that they've made LDoNs custom. I do NOT blame them for this, the LDoN code is a giant loving MESS and getting it to work the intended way would probably take hundreds of man-hours of coding, and hundreds more testing. See, there's supposed to be an NPC you right-click, it pops up a window, and you select your options that way; doing it through dialogue choices is the same functionality, essentially. Let's talk about our Adventurer's Emblem for a moment, now that we've gotten that out of the way. It's an Augment that goes into a Charm, a new equipment slot added in Legacy of Ykesha. Charms are items that give stats in specific conditions - such as during night, when in an LDoN, or when in a desert. (As a side note, Legacy of Ykesha was only available via download; LDoN was also available this way, but also had a retail box that, when purchased and activated, allowed you to claim a weight reduction bag. This trend has continued into modern EQ - buy an expansion, get a claimable bag.) LDoN took it a step further and introduced a LOT of charms, a good number of which cost only 1 Adventure Point and increase a single stat. The Adventurer's Emblem, however, grows more powerful as you complete more LDoN adventures. It takes a minimum of 366 wins, spread across the five themes, to max out the emblem to its +10 all stats, +100hp/mana/endurance glory. As an augment, it you need to put it into an item to gain its benefits. Combined with the Intricate Wooden Figurine, introduced in Legacy of Ykesha but relevant to Planes of Power content, which grows more powerful as you complete the flagging process to the planes, you could have a single item that gave you 10 all stats, 20-30 to your class's relevant stats, and nearly 300hp/mana/endurance. The exact total number of wins you need to max this augment out are: Takish-Hiz: 78 Deepest Guk: 70 Rujarkian Hills: 74 Mistmoore Catacombs: 76 Miragul's Menagerie: 68 This is a time-consuming task. Our Emblem's going to give us some stats by the time we're done, but nowhere near max - primarily because of Takish-Hiz. Why? You'll see. You'll all see. Incidentally, Lost Dungeons of Norrath was not received well, initially. See, up until this point, all dungeons in EverQuest were open zones - meaning they were shared with every player in the zone. Lost Dungeons of Norrath, released in 2003, created these series of instanced dungeons, meaning you were the only people in them. This may or may not have had anything to do with the announcement of World of Warcraft and its instanced dungeons from the get-go. But this wasn't the first instance of instancing in EverQuest. In Planes of Power, Plane of Time B was instanced solely for the guild raiding it. This was because of certain story revelations that nobody was supposed to see unless they participated in the raid. I'll hold off on those revelations for a lore post. Along with various model changes, Lost Dungeons of Norrath was hated by a very vocal minority of EverQuest, especially those who were already max level and saw no point - LDoN gear couldn't compare to Elemental Planes, Time, or even Legacy of Ykesha gear. Still. I loved it. And I'll show you why. Except for Takish-Hiz.  For our first adventure, I just make it a simple Kill Count on Normal difficulty, and we get underway.  We get a little spiel that tells us our objective, how much we need to do or who we need to kill, and where the entrance is located. We run.  Here's the Lesser Faydark. This is actually one of the more dangerous runs; there are brownies (high-20s druids) and fairies (low tens to mid-30s) roaming free in the Lesser Faydark, all of which would like to murder Kedrustorii. There's also a corrupted unicorn called Equestrielle the Corrupted, about a level 40 mob, that would eviscerate us in short order. So we run carefully.  As you can see, an LDoN adventure adds a mark - the pink line - to your compass once you're in the zone the entrance is in, guiding you to it. LDoNs are supposed to have two entrances - from my testing on this server, there's only one, which means there's only one "type" of dungeon. Unfortunately for Mistmoore Catacombs, this means it's the underground caves.  And here's our entrance, a door into a mound. Clicking the door zones us in.   Welcome to our first Lost Dungeon of Norrath. Mistmoore Catacombs has lovely puslings like this... Also, our kill speed has jumped severely, with the level 15 Beastlord pet. Not only do we have Spirit of Lightning - which adds +75 Dexterity to the Beastlord's pet and gives their melee attacks a chance to proc 59 damage with every swing - but the Hand of Ixiblat we've given Sascha has its own proc. It's not the full 220 damage; at the pet's current level, it's 62 damage. Still, two procs for 59 and 62 are very, very good at ending the lives of mobs at this level. Once Sascha gets double attack and dual wield, however, and Kella gets access to higher level pet proc spells, Sascha's proc rate will go through the roof. Beastlord Pet Proc spells have a huge proc modifier that makes them proc more often than most players' procs. Beastlord pets dish out pain.  Vampires...   LDoNs feature chests that are supposed to be trapped and locked, which can be disarmed and opened by Rogues and spellcasters with the right spells. WFH's implementation of LDoN does not yet have traps or locks, so we just open it up and grab the loot - an augment with Improved Damage I, a focus effect that increases direct damage spell damage by 1 to 20%. All focus effects are random variables. We'll be slapping that into something Kella owns later.  Vampire bats...  I apparently didn't get a good shot of the Trueborn Conspirator. LDoNs can featured Named mobs, even outside of Assassination missions, which can have loot on them. This time we got crap loot, but more AC on the enchanter is fine.  Deadly whirlwinds...  Werewolves...  Lady vampires...  Enchanter vampires...  This is the most common sort of augment you'll find as loot - useless. 1 point of Cold Resistance isn't worth me logging out, logging in on the v2 client, and inserting it.  And skeletons. By and large, Mistmoore Catacombs has the widest variety of mob appearances; two vampires, male and female, two High Vampires (the cloaked ones), male and female, bats, werewolves, skeletons, whirlwinds, puslings, and mummies. The only one we didn't see are the mummies.  Also, LDoNs on this server drop vendor gems and high-value trash loot. The blue is 3 Sapphires, the bright red are two Rubies, the dark red is a Star Ruby, the totems and wishbone-looking thing are both worth 11pp per item. The gems are worth 80+ platinum, with the Rubies ranging in around 120pp as a sold item to a vendor.  Back at the camp, we have Magus Tira send us to Everfrost, so we can try out Miragul's Menagerie.  A hole into a hill. At this point I up the difficulty to Hard, to maximize our point and experience gains, and will be running nothing but Hard LDoNs until further notice.  And this is the only time I'm thankful that it appears that we have only one type of dungeon for LDoNs on this server. The other Miragul's Menagerie configuration is BRIGHT loving WHITE. Everfrost is bad enough - being blasted by bright white everywhere I look tends to do bad things to my vision.  In Miragul's Menagerie, we have a lesser variety, such as goos...  I'm doing a Collection. These are often shorter than Kill Counts, only needing ~20ish drops from mobs, and the drop rate is pretty high.  Different skeletons... also, Gyyi hit level 16 and is now casting Breeze on all of us. Mmm, sweet, sweet mana regen.  We run into our second loot-dropper named in the Depleted Manticore.   Ka-ching. This is actually useful. It goes right onto Kedrustorii.  Goblins... now let's talk about why people don't like LDoN. See, up until this point, all mobs of a certain "type" looked the same - save for giants, but we'll get to them when we get to them. This is an LDoN goblin model.  This is a Planes of Power goblin.  This is a Kunark goblin.  And this is a classic goblin. While goblins are the most populous model until this point, wait until you see the others that people were unhappy with.  A little later, we win. We only see goos, goblins, skeletons, and the manticore this run.  We head to North Ro next for the Takish-Hiz. Buckle up, this isn't pretty.  Takish-Hiz's entrance - a hole in the ground. Appropriate, because Takish-Hiz is a toilet.  Looks fine, right? I charm up the elemental, and we go to work.  Abort! ABORT! OUT THE DOOR, QUICK!The zone-out isn't working, however, resulting in...  That... could have gone better. It certainly could have. ...for a dead race, there certainly were a lot of Takishian elves in there... Let's try again. This time I lull the room and pull them 1-2 at a time. We have now spent more time on this LDoN, between lulling and corpse runs, than we did the entire Collection run in Miragul's Menagerie.  Only for things to go wrong AGAIN. I abandon this. Takish-Hiz is loving horrible. The rooms are stuffed full of enemies, with large aggro radii, and even peeking into the room to start lulling can cause a chain reaction that results in you being pasted. I'll go back when we're a bit higher level and can resist being pounded in the face more.  Now we go to the East Commonlands to give Rujarkian Hills a try. Before that, however, I send Kella to sell off the gems and vendor trash we've been accumulating.   Excuse me, I'm just gonna head to the Bazaar... Perhaps my most important purchase, this is a 1-20% mana reduction of all spells cast up to level 44. I put it on Kedrustorii, so she can heal longer before running out of mana.  I also score a Loam Encrusted Robe for Gyyi. This was once the second-best robe in EverQuest for casters - just look at that huge +mana! The only robe to beat it out was the Crimson Robe of Alendine from Plane of Fear, which had 15 Int and 50 hp and mana - but the Loam Encrusted Robe was much easier to obtain, originally from Master Yael but eventually from any elemental in the Hole. I pick up a few armor upgrades for Kella, too.  Our appearance now. We're starting to look like real adventurers!   We do an Assassination for Rujarkian Hills. Assassinations are technically the fastest - but on this server, are gated by kills. You only need to kill 20 mobs to spawn the boss and then kill it, bing bang boom done. To get to the Oasis of Marr, we continue through this tunnel to North Ro, and run south to the Oasis of Marr, and then halfway through the Oasis to get to our dungeon entrance.  Our entrance to the Rujarkian Hills.  Rujarkian Hills is a series of tunnels and bracings, full of goblins...  Bears... which originally looked like this:  Or this:  Or this:   Orcs... and before this, this is what orcs looked like:  An orc of the Deathfist clan.  An orc of the Crushbone Clan. They gained quite a bit of height and nose rings. And went from leather to chain.  This fight is close.  But ultimately, we win. Boss mobs spawned by Assassination missions almost never have loot on them, and Fendr is no exception.  I do another Rujarkian because I'm tired and don't wanna move to a new one just yet. We find a lovely scene, though.    Rujarkian Hills has some of the best looking setpieces out of all the themes - except Takish-Hiz, which can be gorgeous, but gently caress Takish-Hiz. A little later...  Bazaar again! MORE UPGRADES! MORE! This is my sole purchase, for 1995 platinum. A haste item for Kella! Prior to level 25, though, she'll be capped to only receiving 10% of this 22% haste. Coupled with Gyyi having gotten her first Haste spell at 16, though, and suddenly Kella's beating things up a lot faster.  Eventually we find our way to the Southern Desert of Ro, to try out Deepest Guk.  Deepest Guk has THREE entrances, usually - a rotten stump in scenic Innothule Swamp (pictured - Innothule Swamp), and two doors in Upper Guk.  Speaking of Guk, welcome to Guk.  It's full of frogs. Traditionally a dungeon suited for anyone from 10 to about 24, Upper Guk usually gets overlooked save for a few nice drops - Wisdom-increasing legs, for one. It's cramped, mobs like to run, and mobs like to have Spirit of Wolf cast on them. These three things lead to nearly as many trains as Blackburrow.  We have to cross a perilous bridge to get to the Deepest Guk entrance present on this server.  A boarded-up door in an out-of-the-way corner.   Deepest Guk has beholders - which are also a model upgrade, see:  Original beholder.  Froglok ghosts...  Bugs and undead Guktans...  Undead old-model frogloks - this model can be seen a lot in Lower Guk...  Froglok skeletons, and the reason I won't be doing a lot of Deepest Guk - soulreapers are Shadow Knights and open every fight with Harm Touch. As you can see...  Harm Touch HURTS. And the damage only goes up from there.   We eventually find and kill our Assassination target. And it's here I run out of my stack of starter food and drink, so we head back to Plane of Knowledge to fill our bags with delicious foods.  Vuli Ironstove has what we need.  Everyone's first Toolbox looks like this by the time I'm done.  Another Rujarkian Hills, and Kella hits level 22! Pet upgrade time!  Look, look! Sascha's gotten so big! All these orcs and goblins are good for her! I never said they weren't, I just said they looked fatty.Our first pet size upgrade is cause for celebration.  We're also now getting 16 points per win instead of 10.  You can see now that 500hp is only a little more than 50% of Sascha's HP total; her HP is going up with every pet spell upgrade.  Takish-Hiz wouldn't be so bad if it was like that. Good sight lines and the ability to target things without a face full of elf so we can lull and pull.  At 24, Gyyi upgrades her charm spell to Beguile. Her next upgrade is at 39, which will allow her to charm up to level 47. Kedrustorii also gets her next heal in Greater Healing. While healing did 100hp, Greater Healing restores a full 300. Once again, a delightful upgrade.  And finally, after finishing a dungeon and kicking around in it for the full fifteen minutes, we hit level 25 - which means we finally get Block on Kella.  We also encounter another loot-dropper! But...  Once those final 15 minutes are up, any mobs still alive depop, so you can't hang around forever grinding exp. We, unfortunately, did not kill him fast enough thanks to his two friends. We shall never know what he held. We've been at this all day. This has been fun, but I think it's time we take a break, ladies. I agree. I've been throwing spells at you all day; you're remarkably hale. Aw, shucks. Shall we adjourn? We'll take our platinum and get our next scrolls. Sounds good. Just lemme get some of that real quick, I saw some stuff in the Bazaar that'll make me more killy. Of course, dear. 2200 platinum. That makes over 5,000 platinum earned in the 10 levels between 15 and 25. drat right Kella's getting some weapon upgrades.   I grab these Fighting Gauntlets because they're better than our 7/24 mace and 5/20 h2h I'm using in primary right now, even with the recommended level lowering its damage/delay, and will max out quickly.   I also grab this Naraithus, which will max out later than the Gauntlets, but at 13/22 is a superior weapon to the 11/21, save for the proc; by the time we're 45, however, I'll snag a proc aug that puts it on par with the Fighting Gauntlet's damage, or surpasses. That does mean future Miragul's Menagerie and Rujarkian Hills, however, as they have the best damage proc augs; Mistmoore Catacombs has lifetap augs, which heal you as they do damage, but Rujarkian Hills has poison damage augs, which is very uncommon for mobs to have a high resist to. I also pick up a Stave of Shielding, a 17/28 1hb, for Kella to use in her offhand. In total, I wind up spending 2100 of our platinum on weapons for Kella.  And now that we have the platinum, I start buying up Gyyi's illusions. These are just for fun, for now. Enchanter Illusions run the gamut from player races to certain NPC race types. These are generally just a visual and night vision change - you get Infravision or Ultravision of anything you illusion into, and the lack of if you illusion into a Human, Erudite or Barbarian - but some give added benefits. Troll Illusion gives the Troll's regeneration, Iksar gives the same regen and an AC boost. Elemental illusions give various benefits - Earth gives increased Strength, Fire gives you a damage shield, Water gives you waterbreathing, and Air gives you levitation. Spirit Wolf, at 39, gives increased attack and cold resist; Scaled Wolf, at 44, gives you Spirit of Wolf speed so long as you're illusioned. Just Enchanter Things.  And finally, I haul Kedrustorii over to the Bazaar to a merchant named Jolum, for the first in a Luclin-added line of spells - the Cleric Heal-over-Time. These are extremely efficient spells - that's 460hp restored over 24 seconds. The only problem is they're not affected by Foci like Improved Healing, or our Improved Heal AAs - but they don't really need to be. Next time: More LDoNs, the supremacy of Block, and level 30. And possibly some Takish-Hiz. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Jul 24, 2022 |
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Jul 24, 2022 01:03
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Today, let's talk about the historical concept of Hell Levels. Hell levels were aptly named; they required about twice as much experience as they should have needed. Hell levels were a result of the coding used for the experience system in EverQuest - some curious artifact increased the amount of experience you needed exponentially every 5th level. At levels 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25, these bumps were comparatively tiny, and barely noticeable; at 30, however, people started to take notice, and by level 35, the term 'hell level' was coined. To understand what makes hell levels so hellish, however, you need to understand the experience loss system. When you die, you lose experience equal to 10% of the total experience needed to go from your previous level to your current level. Again, at low levels, this is a small amount, but by the time you're in your 20s, you're talking 8-10% of your experience bar vanishing on death. Experience rezzes were very, very welcome when they were available because of this. However, in the level just after a hell level - say, 36 - this could reach up to 20% of your experience bar. So not only did you have to slog through needing twice as much experience as you needed, you needed to be very careful on the next level to not die, as you could lose an entire night's worth of playtime in one stupid mistake. Come Velious, the experience curve was evened out and the bug of the hell levels was gone. Except for the fact that levels 51, 54 and 59 remained hell levels - 54 and 59 were deemed "double hell" levels, as they required an absolute fuckton of experience to get out of - and at level 60, every death was 20% of the experience bar. The post-50 Hell Levels wound up being smoothed out in Luclin - primarily because they adversely affected Alternate Advancement experience gain. But the method they used, both times, was rather clunky, resulting in greater-than-normal experience loss at the levels immediately following the former hell levels. At level 60, you still lose about 12-18% of your experience bar on death, while you lose around 10-15% on post-hell level levels. Hell Levels were aptly named. It took me a week to get out of level 35 my first time around. But part of this was just how crowded classic EverQuest was, and how camps were split up between groups; you'd have so many people in dungeons that you could really only have upwards of 10 mobs to yourself at the very most, meaning it took far, far longer to level then than it does today. Hell, you can see this for yourself over on Project 1999; now that the game's mechanics are better understood and people are generally on average better players than they were, you'll see people blazing through levels on P99 in ways that were only dreamed of back in 1999.
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Jul 24, 2022 01:15
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having never played past Luclin, this all seems very complicated, but I love the thread
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Jul 24, 2022 01:16
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I vant you to keel siiiix snow mooose. And why I am not the least surprised to learn that the Hearth of Azeroth from WoW was ripped from EQ1. Also I have vague memories of early WoW having its own equivalent of hell levels. I think the slog from 50 to 60 was always considered the worst, or one of those interim parts between the big level ups. Cooked Auto fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Jul 24, 2022 |
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Jul 24, 2022 01:42
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Cooked Auto posted:And why I am not the least surprised to learn that the Hearth of Azeroth from WoW was ripped from EQ1. Remind me to make a post about Evolving Items, later.
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Jul 24, 2022 02:23
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Oh these updates are a delight! I will share this thread with the missus, she’ll enjoy revisiting our countless evenings in EQ.
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Jul 24, 2022 02:50
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I got sick of looking at the Luclin models.
RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Jul 24, 2022 |
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Jul 24, 2022 03:30
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I first tried (and bounced off) EQ in the immediately post Planes of Power days so I vividly remember quests being virtually impenetrable because of the way they were delivered through dialogue with no keyword highlighting. I think my other try (far later, after it had gone F2P) they'd already moved to clicking the keywords, so I never saw the highlight system. Interesting.
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Jul 24, 2022 04:12
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I never played past PoP on live, so it is kinda neat to see stuff like LDoN that I did not experience.
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Jul 24, 2022 04:22
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thank you
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Jul 24, 2022 05:20
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The dungeons of Norrath system seems like a pretty smooth levelling experience compared to the usual methods. How much in-game time it took you to get to this point? It's difficult to appreciate how much grind you have been doing with an screenshot LP. Good stuff btw, keep it up.
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Jul 24, 2022 11:02
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The dungeons definitely smoothed out levelling and gearing as did all the easy use portals that got added in prior expansions, but there was something to be said for the sort of environmental storytelling you got from taking the slightly-to-moderately less efficient path of using your starting town's intended levelling zone trajectory. For example, there is a legally distinct gelatinous cube in the Qeynos Sewers with a unique drop that I recall from back in the day, etc. EQ was pretty massive and it's crazy how many different routes to cap that potentially didn't intersect at all there were. Of course, the zone XP modifiers tended to funnel everyone toward the same specific sequence (high keep...), a shame.
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Jul 24, 2022 16:22
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Angry Lobster posted:The dungeons of Norrath system seems like a pretty smooth levelling experience compared to the usual methods. How much in-game time it took you to get to this point? It's difficult to appreciate how much grind you have been doing with an screenshot LP. It's difficult to say. The /played command on this server is broken; it totals up all time since the character was created instead of just the time they were logged in, which would be my usual method of seeing how long it's taken to get to a certain point. 15-22 was one session, however, about ... 4-ish hours? 22-25 was about another 2 hours. Currently at level 31 and I've run less than 15 LDoNs total, and each one takes like 45 minutes since I'm staying after finishing and clearing out as much as possible before everything depops. If I was going the efficient route - ie, Paludal to High Keep - it would have been less time, but I wouldn't have made nearly as much platinum nor have remotely even as close as good as gear as I do from a combination of buying things and picking up stuff off the Adventure Merchants. There's also time I've spent dicking around without doing anything, and time I've spent in the Bazaar looking for the best stuff to buy, so I wanna say it's been about 12 continuous hours total to reach this point. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Jul 24, 2022 |
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Jul 24, 2022 17:26
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While I'm semi-AFK leveling up Kedrustorii's Abjuration skill (it's taking far too many fizzles to cast her buffs right now) I think it's time we talk about Skills in EverQuest. Skills govern practically everything in EverQuest. Spellcasting, keeping from losing a spell when being hit, dodging, blocking, defending, parrying, etc., every action in EverQuest has an associated skill. Every class gets a certain number of skills at level 1; these are usually the skills Defense, the skills involved with the melee weapons they're allowed to use (1H Slashing, 1H Blunt, 2H Slashing, 2H Blunt, Piercing, Hand to Hand), and in the Monk's case, Dual Wield. For all other skills, you receive access to them at a certain level, and in older versions of EverQuest, this involves having to place at least 1 point into them at one of your class trainers. Class Trainers are an older D&D idea brought to life, mainly from the old Gold Box series of Computer RPGs. In those games, you had to pay a pretty penny in order to even level; here in EverQuest, class trainers basically just serve as your access to your higher level skills and a way to increase them by paying money and training points. You gain 5 training points per level, and up to about skill level 15, training costs nothing; after that, the cost for every skill point goes up. This helps to tie in to the progression of class identities, as well. Most classes have a pretty well-defined Class Identity by level 10 at the latest; at the most extreme, Wizard's class identity is pretty well set in stone by level 4 - you blow things up and impede their movement to stop them punching your face in, then sit down and meditate until you can be useful again. Hybrids take a little longer to find their class identity, but generally by level 22 you have a pretty good grasp on what your class is meant to be doing. Skills, however, have a direct effect on your combat effectiveness. You need to keep them on par with your level for maximum effectiveness. If you're a Warrior who's used nothing but 1H Slashing weapons and suddenly find a 1H Blunt weapon that's better, well, buckle up for missing a lot as you build your 1HB skill by trying to hit things. Similarly, spells have a minimum skill in which they don't fizzle so regularly when you attempt to cast them. Fizzles, by the way, are when you attempt to cast a spell but get the message:  A fizzle is bad. Not only does your spell not go off, but you lose half the mana used to cast it without any reduction applied, such as Mana Preservation foci, AA mana reductions, or Specialization bonuses. You can very quickly run from Full Mana to Out Of Mana trying to cast a higher level spell with low skill. This especially impacts Hybrid characters, who often don't even get spells that use certain skills until higher levels. Rangers, for instance, don't get any useful Divination spells until level 15, and don't even get access to their casting skills until level 9; at level 9, they do get Glimpse, but if they try to cast Camouflage (the Druid/Ranger equivalent of Invisibility) at level 15 without spending 20-30 minutes chain-casting Glimpse to build the skill, they're likely to run out of mana before they even cast it. Shadow Knights don't even get an Evocation until 22; the only Shadow Knight evocations, in fact, are the Undead-specific nuke spells. It can impact casters and priests pretty hard, too. A Wizard's spells are primarily Evocation, but all their Teleportation spells are Alteration, so when you reach level 20 with your first self-ports, if you haven't been regularly Rooting things (which are also Alteration spells), such as by being in a group and not needing to keep things from getting in your face by making them stand still so you can nuke them, you can quickly run yourself out of mana trying to get places. A more pertinent example; they have hardly any Conjuration spells, so when they get their first Familiar at level 29 - summons a non-combat pet that can be dismissed but keep its +10 all resists, +2 caster level buff - it's very likely they'll have to spend a little time casting Eye of Zomm (8) or Halo of Light (12) to build their Conjuration skill up. Simply put, if you don't have a skill within 30 points of your level's cap, or the cap of that spell level, it's unlikely you're going to be very effective with whatever it is you're trying to do. Skills have a very easy to remember cap in most cases: (Your Level*5)+5. This gets a little wonky at higher levels with some classes having lower or higher maximum caps on skills than others - like a Monk can achieve 252 Dual Wield and Hand to Hand by level 50 and 240 in 1hb and 2hb, while most other classes' melee skills are capped at 200 at that level, and how Casters are limited to 145 Defense and 75 Dodge. (Post-50 most melee skills can attain 250 for melee-oriented characters.) As an aside, Beastlords sidestep most of the skill issues that face Hybrids; the vast majority of their spells are Alteration, even their Pet Summon spells, their DoTs are all Conjuration, their stat buffs are Abjuration, and their nukes are Evocation. By and large, a Beastlord only needs those four skills, and they get the spells to keep them up to date from the get-go. The only exception is when they receive Invisibility at 39; I'm going to have to dump a few of Kella's training points into it when we get to that level, because even though she goes rarely without Gyyi, being able to invis yourself is very useful. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Jul 24, 2022 |
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Jul 24, 2022 21:36
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I just wanted to chime in that I'm really enjoying this LP! I've never touched EQ before, my first MMO was Final Fantasy XI, back in my mid-teens somewhere. Reading about how EQ works and changed through the years is bringing back a lot of nostalgia, especially seeing old terms and concepts that aren't really relevant in modern MMORGPS, such as trains (and how they can routinely result in massacres of innocent bystanders), EXP camps, dungeons not being instanced... It's a real blast from the past! So please continue the good work and wonderfully informative info posts about the game's history, mechanics, and lore!
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Jul 24, 2022 22:06
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WoW having weapon skills you had to gain points in was so drat pointless and such a weird EQ relic. Kinda glad they realised as such later on and just removed it. Not that it stopped me from grinding unarmed at one point though.
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Jul 24, 2022 22:08
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Cooked Auto posted:WoW having weapon skills you had to gain points in was so drat pointless and such a weird EQ relic. Kinda glad they realised as such later on and just removed it. FFXI did it too, except each class had different ratings so they'd cap at sometimes wildly different levels depending on what level you were. People would make skillup parties where they'd wail on high defense mobs in an appropriate level range while someone healed them.
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Jul 24, 2022 22:23
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Cooked Auto posted:WoW having weapon skills you had to gain points in was so drat pointless and such a weird EQ relic. Kinda glad they realised as such later on and just removed it. Gotta love those Feats of Strength that required you to have 300 Skill in every Weapon Skill including Unarmed that are now completely unattainable.
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Jul 24, 2022 22:28
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RelentlessImp posted:Gotta love those Feats of Strength that required you to have 300 Skill in every Weapon Skill including Unarmed that are now completely unattainable. I think I got at least the Unarmed one. Can't remember if I was crazy enough to do 2handed as a rogue or not just so I could complete the bar. Can't really check anymore.
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Jul 24, 2022 22:46
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RelentlessImp posted:[skills] If you'll allow me a brief addition - the compass RelentlessImp showed off in one of the earlier updates was in fact a later addition to the game (from very vague memory it was Ykesha or LDoN or something?) - before that all you had to go on was a skill called Sense Heading. Even when they initially introduced the compass, it was still tied to the skill so it'd vacillate between two points near your actual heading, with the points getting closer to your actual facing as your skill improved. Yeah, a skill. That also started at 0 and slowly improved to whatever the cap was with use. This meant a scene like this was meant to play out: * I wonder where I'm going * Let me click my sense heading skill * Ah, my lack of skill made it hard to get an accurate answer, let me try again! And repeat the last step literally hundreds of times. There was a 'compass' item in the game (there probably still is) that, when right-clicked, would tell you your rough heading. The way everyone solved this was by binding a skill slot to either A or D (or both) so that every time you turned, you also used Sense Heading if it was off cooldown (~6 seconds or so from memory). Incredibly immersive gameplay! Bettik fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Jul 25, 2022 |
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Jul 25, 2022 01:26
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Bettik posted:If you'll allow me a brief addition - the compass RelentlessImp showed off in one of the earlier updates was in fact a later addition to the game (from very vague memory it was Ykesha or LDoN or something?) Sense Heading was a weird skill prior to maps. Directions through zones were, for this reason, usually "Turn left from the zone line and follow the wall". EDIT: Did my research instead of talking out of my rear end. The compass was added in the August 2002 patch, 2 months before Planes of Power launched. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 09:45 on Jul 25, 2022 |
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Jul 25, 2022 04:19
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 And we're back on another adventure. Things look a bit different; like a lot of EQ players, I absolutely despise the Luclin models. Surprisingly, Verant included a low-res, polygonal model for Vah Shir, despite also introducing them in Luclin and with the advent of the higher-res models. Everything's coming up polygons now that we've changed.  And surprisingly, our first adventure of today puts the lie to me saying there was only one entrance to each LDoN on this server. Thankfully, we can just hit up the Magus and port our butts to South Ro's adventure camp. But if I get that BLINDINGLY WHITE MIRAGUL'S MENAGERIE...  South Ro's Rujarkian Hills entrance is better than a literal hole in the ground.  We find this in a box. Ooh, Ultravision. That's going into Gyyi's gear immediately. We find a second one shortly after; now everyone's got Ultravision!  We find another named. It goes down slower than most mobs due to increased HP, but it goes down.  In Classic this would have been a great neck item. These days, it's a bit outdated.   This room is... interesting. Reminds me of home. I'm going to have to go see this Neriak for myself one day. You'd hate it. Which would be the point, I guess. At level 29, we get access to a special Enchanter spell, Augmentation. Here's the problem with haste spells; they have lovely, short durations. Ignore that 6m 48s on Alacrity, as well - that is the base duration, but you don't actually get that duration. Once, the base durations were correct. Someone, in their infinite wisdom at Verant, decided that most melee-oriented buff durations should scale up as you level, and low level buffing became an irritating task. Augmentation, however, does last a full 27 minutes from the get-go, meaning I have to rebuff less often. I'm using it for now, only until I get Celerity later.  Along the way to another dungeon we find a rare North Ro spawn. This is actually a classic mob that I don't think most people have seen.  He drops this, which is his rare drop. Score. It's kind of pointless for us, though. A bit later, I decide to engage in some of Lost Dungeons of Norrath's progression.  See, as you complete dungeons, you start to get some of the story of each dungeon theme. Each time you unlock these beats to their end, your Adventurer's Stone grows in power. Here's the text for Rujarkian Hills up to 15 wins:  Each spiel is separated by a Hail.       All that text, and we gain 2hp/mana/endurance on our Adventurer's Stone. Remember, we need 366 wins to unlock its full potential. We buy some 6-point Charms from the Adventure Merchants - +AC while adventuring in an LDoN for Kella and Gyyi, and +Wisdom while adventuring in an LDoN for Gyyi - and slot the gem into it so we get the stats for now. At 51, we'll move it into a different charm.  At level 34 - yeah, it took less time than I thought - we get this spell for Kella. It's a Beastlord-only nuke with a 30 second refresh. It's a decent chunk of damage at this level.  We find another named. Honestly, I assume seeing Rujarkian Hills over and over won't be very entertaining, so I'm cutting out all these dungeons.  Superior Healing isn't as huge an upgrade over Greater Healing as Greater Healing was to Healing, but it's still welcome, even though Celestial Health - which does 5 ticks of 110 healing due to the way buffs work, and Celestial Healing functions like a buff - is taking care of most of our healing needs for now. I think it's time for another break, darlings. Good. I have some business to take care of back home, anyways. Good business or bad? I'll let you know. Let us buff you up a bit first, just in case. Thanks, guys.And so Kedrustorii heads home to the Cleric Guild of Neriak Third Gate.  I am not looking forward to this. Hail, Perrir Zexus. I guess I might as well. Tell me more of the task to acquire the hemtatite symbol of Innoruuk. Killing halflings. Alright, seems simple enough. Out in Nektulos, we encounter some low-level halflings that each die to one level 14 nuke from Kedrustorii. Most, anyways.   Sergeants take a bit more to put down.  Oh COME ON! That's really the only way you can take me, isn't it? When I'm out of mana? Fine! I'll club you to death!KOS mobs, for the most part, do not attack people if they're much higher level - gray cons and green cons tend to leave people alone. Until you sit down. Like to meditate. Suddenly level 4s think they can take level 34s. Undead don't care, they'll attack anyone, which is why Invisibility vs. Undead (they can see through normal invisibility, you see) is so valuable forever.  That's right, run! Run you little gently caress! I'll keep hitting you! Get... back here! You little.... Hff... hff... I guess... I hit him a little too hard... his pelvis just kinda... popped out.These halfling body parts are for a lot of the newbie class armor quests added around the era of Legacy of Ykesha.  DIE ALREADY YOU loving TREE HUMPERS! YOU BETTER RUN! I'm just gonna sit for a second, THEN YOU'LL BE SORRY! Oh, sure, the skeletons don't touch the loving RUNTS but I have to deal with them? Nah, get hosed, stuntie. After about 25 minutes of killing, Kedrustorii collects the halflings' prayer beads and heads back to Perrir.  Here's your loving beads.  Fine. I'll just go upstairs and talk to Ithvol. More halflings to die, I guess. I'm an initiate of Innoruuk. Here's the symbol to prove it. Willing? Yeah, let's call it that. ...Gross. Alright. South of the river in Nektulos, we come across a shrine. How dare they desecrate these shrines with their tree-hugging ways. GET hosed!   It takes three shots to down Quester Dunden, who is the placeholder for Master Whoopal. Story takes a break on the hill to wait for the 6 minute respawn.  Meanwhile, Kella has taken up position in line for the Coppermart; this happens every Sunday at 7pm CST on Wayfarers Haven. People line up in front of a trader named Coppermart and take turns buying 1 item for 1 copper piece. These items wildly vary in quality, but is a good way to get some cheap starter gear on WFH. High-level players frequently donate random tradeable gear drops to Coppermart, just to fuel this. It's a nice bit of community.  Another Dunden kill. Unfortunately...   Why are you so hard to kill?!  WHY WON'T YOU DIE ALREADY--oh gently caress this.Most of the halflings are druids. Leatherfoot Medics are full-fledged Clerics, giving them access to better healing spells. At 14, this fucker has Healing, which allows him to completely erase any damage Story does to him. She gates away after he erases all the damage she does to him.  Still waiting in line.  There you are, you little poo poo. C'mere! Whoopal's about the same level as the Medic, but is only a Druid, and thus doesn't have Healing.  Hahahaha, run you little fucker! Run! I'm starting to see why other clerics of the Prince of Hate enjoy their lives so much... BOOM, fucker!  Eurgh. His head popped off. Back to Neriak with it, I guess. Do I want all this gore in my bags, though...? Neriak is pretty as gently caress as you enter.  The entrance to Neriak Commons, where Draxiz N`Ryt waits for the head.  Neriak has an extensive underground lake system.  Back in the Bazaar, we're nearly to the front of the line!  A lot of people come to see what Coppermart has every week.  This is the guild for the non-Necromancers of Neriak. Teir`Dal are pretty much the opposite of Erudites when it comes to magic; Erudites despise Necromancy while Dark Elves revere it, and Dark Elves ostracized non-Necromancers while Erudites venerate them.   I pick up this 2hb for Kella. Beastlords don't get a lot of use out of 2hb, but it's nice to have slow, hard hits every so often.  Here's your severed head. You WHAT?! Oh my gently caress I think I'm going to be ill. I have to put this FACE on my FACE?! Euuuuurgh... Here's West Commonlands. Like East Commonlands, part of it is consumed by the Northern Desert of Ro encroaching on it.  Here's the halfling we're looking for, all the way on the other end of the zone.  Ugh, here we go. Hrrrrrk... it's still sticky! What was the invocation, I need this off my face NOW and-- ...I think this is worse than wearing the skinned face.  Yeah, I'll assist you. BRUSSELS SPRO-- I mean, yeah, sure.  Most notes and books in EQ can be read by right-clicking on them. The Deeppockets are the Rogue guild of Kelethin. A spy in Neriak? Oh, those little runts have gone too far. In Neriak Commons, there is a waterfall on the way in.  There's a fake wall behind it at the top. Yes, you can swim up (most) waterfalls in EverQuest. We bind Story here for... no reason.  There's a spy here in Neriak. Here's the note from the halfling you wanted confirming it. Fun fact, we can hand him the SEVERED FACE and get it recharged with another click of Illusion: Halfling. We Gate back to our bind point, instead.  At the bottom of a fake floor straight back along the passage behind the waterfall, we find the spy. Get hosed, poo poo-for-brains. Story roots him so she can nuke him freely. She has to reapply it a few times, especially when he starts to run. Direct damage spells have a chance of breaking root spells, so she has to keep rooting him each time it breaks. The base Root spell only lasts 48 seconds anyways.  DIE YOU LITTLE gently caress! DIE! DIE! DIE! It's always the heads... Here, Ithvol. The spy's dead.  Well, I'm a disciple of Innoruuk now. What more needs doing? Obviously. I'll deliver the provisions.  Well, there's a good sign that I'll find someone named Slug in there...    Something I'm not doing a good job of showing off is just how atmospheric EverQuest's cities are. Slug's Tavern feels like a real tavern, with multiple bars, servers, and at the bottom, Slug himself. Hey, slug boy, Ithvol sent me. I have not been looking forward to this. Story runs back to Third Gate to spend some training points.  21 is the highest you can take a crafting skill up through training; all else needs to be done via crafting. Alright, let's get this over with; welcome to crafting in EverQuest.  First we hit Neriak Down Under in Neriak Commons. We need the wine bar The Blind Fish.   The Blind Fish is actually situated in Neriak Commons' lake, at least partially. And yes, you can see other players on the other side of those windows if they're in the water, just in case you thought it worked on modern graphics where they just simulate the outside. Anyways, merchants in the Blind Fish sell smithing supplies, and I didn't get any screenshots of me buying them, apparently. We're gonna pick up a File Mold, some Small Pieces of Ore, and a couple Small Bricks of Ore.  Just outside Neriak Down Under we find a convenient Forge.  This is a new crafting functionality; this lets you auto-craft, so long as you have the materials. However, we don't really need it, especially since we're only going to be crafting a little bit - hopefully. Let me show you the original crafting UI, reached by pressing the Experiment button:  That's it. That's the whole thing. You pick up items out of your inventory and placee them in the crafting station one at a time. One. At. A. Time. And don't you dare stack anything.  We start with two small pieces of ore and a water flask - this gets us 2 metal bits on successful combine. At 21 skill, Metal Bits are trivial, and thus have a 95% success rate.  Then, metal bits, a flask of water, and a file mold. This gets us a File, which is also trivial at 21. Files are used in many, many smithing recipes, and are returned to you on failed combines. The next combine is a File, a Small Brick of Ore (which are different from Small Pieces), and a Water Flask. We fail a few times, but eventually:  Our first Steel Boning. And no, you can't buy these from merchants.  We get our two Steel Bonings and head back to Slug. This took maybe five minutes, and my skill went from 21 to 24. I had two failures. Crafting in EverQuest before they added the new crafting UI you saw at the start was tedious as gently caress, if I haven't made that clear. You CTRL-Clicked stacks of ingredients to seperate them into one, put them in the crafting station, repeat til you had the recipe assembled, hit combine, and prayed it worked, especially if you had a small amount of ingredients. EverQuest's crafting also has a shitloads of subcombines, especially for things like Cultural Armor. This was a fairly simple process, in the grand scheme of things; make metal bits, make file (one-time deal), make Bonings. Some people loved crafting in EverQuest. An entire website, the EQ Traders Corner, was devoted solely to EverQuest's crafting. Oh, did I mention that skill-ups are entirely random? You can't skill up off something trivial, and it's influenced by the higher of your INT, WIS, or in the case of Blacksmithing, STR. Any one of those stats are chosen and rolled for to see if you get a skill-up. And not all materials are vendor-buyable. The new tradeskill UI was made available only in 2004ish. But I had long ago given up ever on doing tradeskills. Unfortunately, a few very, very nice quests involving tradeskills exist, so I guess I'll be getting over it if I keep playing on this server. Hff... hff... gently caress me this forge is hot, but I'm loving DONE. Here's your loving bonings. Give me the crate, you gently caress. Cue one run to Lesser Faydark later...  Welcome to a camp that everyone has died at least once to when running to Castle Mistmoore. It's along the wall on the way, and if you don't know it's there, these level 30ish mobs and the big level 50 Dragoon have probably erased your existence at least once.  Dragoon Szorn, I bring you your provisions. What do you mean, 'missing shipment'? ...I think I'm going to need a little help. Back in Plane of Knowledge, Kella and Gyii are just chilling. Hey, guys, I get the feeling I'm going to need your help. Feel like taking a trip to Steamfont before bed? Of course, dear. Whatever you need. Sure. Shall we? Welcome to Steamfont Mountains. It's full of small gnomes and large hills, making it treacherous for Kedrustorii given her KoS status and the inability to loving see them through the hills. We run north.  This is the location of the Observers, so named for the telescope on their hut. East of them, however:  Okay, guys, let me do the talking. Hate be my guide. Oh, great.Crusader Swiftmoon spawns immediately and jumps on Story.  HEY! You call yourself a paladin, attacking someone from behind? Get over here, you motherFUCKER! Sascha, KILL! When Swiftmoon is nearly dead, this happens, which is why his healthbar is now nearly full:  That is Lay On Hands. A Paladin-only, instant-cast heal that restores the Paladin's base HP worth of health to whoever they have targeted. It's the counterpart to the Shadow Knight's Harm Touch.  Hey, Paladin! Here's some of my HATE! Swiftmoon falls.  It's always the heads. Eurgh. Need anything else, hon? Hit me with another Spirit of Wolf, please. I have more running to do. You got it. I bring you the missing crate. Ugh. Sorry. Well, at least it's over and there's one less paladin plaguing the world.Story gates back to Neriak Commons, since I haven't changed her bind point from when she murdered the spy.  Here's me trying to give him everything but the right head; that's the skinned facemask, still. Ignore the accident; thankfully Verant, long ago, decided to have NPCs hand back items they don't need rather than accepting them. This is replicated faithfully on most emulator servers, because I'd hate to do this entire loving thing a second time. There was some irritation with the whole shipment, but all is done. Here's a high elf head and a few receipts.  And that is the snare neck available to Human and Dark Elf Clerics and Troll Shamans of Innoruuk. Total time: 2 hours-ish. You can easily start it at level 4 or 5 and work on it throughout your leveling career; the halfling spy is level 20, and Crusader Swiftmoon is about 28. And if you're leveling in Nektulos, you're probably killing halflings ANYWAY, so you might as well pick up the Woven Grass Amulets and move on to the higher-level halflings with Dunden and Whoopal around level 8 anyhow. And it's even better on TLPs, because in modern EQ you don't need to equip it for the click; here, I'll only be wearing it for the click when we need snare. And that's how you shore up one of the weaknesses of this trio. We now have access to snare via Clinging Darkness. Things in LDoNs don't run, though, so this won't see use for a little bit. Next time: We keep going. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Jul 25, 2022 |
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Jul 25, 2022 04:41
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Wow, I never knew there was a snare clicky! That'll definitely be critically useful later. Apologies if you mentioned it already, but is this a base game quest or a later addition? I remember doing my Vah Shir bard instrument quests as a newbie and enjoying them a great deal (still have those instruments in my bank somewhere). Also did the Lambent armour quest line at the time, and all the epics. Still, for a game named EverQuest, there's actually not that much questing in the day to day playing of it. Back when I first started playing wow I really enjoyed how there were all these quests that'd take you from place to place but in hindsight, the EQ model might actually be better to give you a real sense of a world that just exists, whether you're there or not. As wow refined its questing system more and more it became more of an on-rails experience, and it became more of a waste to engage with any aspect of its world if there wasn't a quest to do so. In EQ, by contrast, it is generally always at least useful to kill anything that isn't gray to you, and zone XP modifiers aside, there's many places to be and do Useful Stuff at any level. Feels much more free roaming and like making your own adventure.
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Jul 25, 2022 05:24
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The (Rank) Symbol of (Deity) quests are actually classic quests. They're not all equally useful - the Dwarf Symbol of Brell Serilis summons ale, for instance - but they've been in game since before Kunark. The most useful ones are the Regent Symbol of Innoruuk, the Warden Symbol of Tunare (Grasping Roots click with a 4 second cast), and the Regent Symbol of Quellious (Calm (Lull up to level 50 creatures) with a 4 second cast). The others are Bertoxxulous (Disease Cloud) and Brell Serilis (Summon Holy Ale of Brell), so 3/5 have some use. RelentlessImp fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Jul 25, 2022 |
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Jul 25, 2022 06:03
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