Tag: EQ

It’s coming up on EverQuest’s 14th birthday, this March (16th, to be exact). I always like to delve back in around this time of year to see what new things are going on as far as birthday events, and this year is no different. Well, it’s slightly different. I managed to convince a friend to also return to the game with me this round, and so we decided to start on a completely new server, from scratch.

I looked at the SOE status page to figure out where we should play, home server is Drinal. After a bit of debate we decided to go with Firiona Vie, the roleplay server. This server is a bit different than regular ones. Number one, characters are created knowing their ‘home’ languages, and no others. That means in order to communicate in group you need to learn other languages first. So the first few moments in game were spent making macros so our characters could talk to one another. There are some other differences on the server, like items not carrying the ‘no trade’ flag, and the ability to place those items for sale on the broker.

The general channel was bustling with over 400 people which was really great to see. A quick decision NOT to complete the Mines of Gloomingdeep (again) meant that we were off to Crescent Reach at level 2 (I wanted to stick around the tutorial long enough to pick up the skull charm that characters can get).

While we are starting on a new server without an influx of older characters to provide us with bags, gear, and coin, we do have the knowledge that we’ve acquired over the years. As well as veteran rewards. This really came into play tonight. We turned on our lesson of the devoted which is a boost in XP and hired two mercenary (one each). A dps and a healer. It wasn’t long before we were level 8 – and I purchased my first beastlord pet. Oger is playing a shadowknight.

Despite our knowledge of the game, and veteran rewards, things were still tricky. Oger died once due to an over excited bear, and I decided that I’d summon a miniature Bristlebane who promptly gave me wine and bread – and like a fool I took a bite of each. This poisoned me with a dot which normally wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but I had switched out my healer mercenary for a tank one, and I was unable to switch back unless I could be in the “resting” position in game. You can’t properly rest with a dot on you. I couldn’t cure it with my low level cure disease, so I slowly bled away until I died.

Still, it was a great adventure getting to level 8, and I’m excited to see where this takes us. EQ holds a very special place in my heart, and I’m constantly trying to get others to come back and play with me. Who knows, maybe this time it will stick.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

My apologies for the lack luster screen shot this morning, but I actually forgot to take a better one, so this was all I had in my folder, hehe.

I have been playing EverQuest off and on for some time now, and last night I decided to make some pretty big changes. Well, big for me in any case. The first thing I did was – apply to a guild. That’s right, even though I’ve been in a personal guild for years now I decided that if I really wanted to get back into EverQuest good and proper, the first thing I should do is find others to play with, or at least others to talk to. I checked out the guild lobby and noticed a few family guilds recruiting, and I also submitted an application to the boards. It wasn’t long before I found myself speaking to a member from Pak’Cafan, and before I knew it I had applied.

Once that step was taken care of, I headed out to a group in a zone I had never been in before. It was fun, but the experience was lack luster because we barely killed anything and spent more time debating how to pull a named than anything else. This may annoy some people, but I was quite happy. It reminded me of how EverQuest is played. You spend a lot of time talking and getting to know your group mates. When you are LFG again you tend to remember who you were with previously because of this. People are not just randoms who have joined your group for a few minutes, but folks that you’ve had discussions with, and shared many wipes with. Well, hopefully not too many wipes.

Anyhow, the group was fun and I had a good time getting back into the swing of things. I spent the remainder of my evening in Halas, harvesting mushrooms so that I can continue working up my brewing (286 and counting). There was one time during the evening where I was discouraged because my enchanter was having a very difficult time in Veil of Alaris trying to charm solo. My charm only works up to level 89, even though I am level 90. Most of the encounters in the beginner zones are also higher than 90. In the end I decided to stay determined. There’s a LOT to do in EverQuest and just because I’m not quite ready to run out and start soloing the current expansion (until Rain of Fear goes live next month) doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for me to do anything. House of Thule is still a great expansion to play in, and even the expansion before that. There are shrouds that I can use to do older content and SOE added a ‘heroes journey’ which grants achievements for completing zones like Crescent Reach and other 1-85 zones. I haven’t done any of that yet, especially not on my ancient enchanter (CR came out well after I created my enchanter) so there’s a lot to explore.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! If you happen to pop back into EverQuest you can find me as Kameeko on the Drinal server. Be sure to say hello!