Mrs. RickJay and I used to be into EverQuest bigtime, but we’ve been out for eight months or so. At least.
Anyway, what’s the current state of the game? With Mrs. RickJay finally out of school and employable, our financial state and her not having to study could allow us to play again. But, I’m wondering…
Has the social arrangement of the players changed? Is it less friendly, more friendly, etc?
At the time we left the economy was badly flooded with high level items. Has this gotten worse?
Is the game flooded with high level characters? Is there any new blood at all getting into it?
Have the three last expansions - Lost Dungeons, Ykesha, and whatever the really new one is - jacked the sys requirements up even higher? I’m running a PIII-1000 with 512MB RAM and an old video card and the game ran okay up to Luclin and Planes of Power. Is it harder on the system now? Will we be able to run it? (Mrs. RickJay’s computer is the same.)
And most importantly, what’s EverQuest 2 doing to the game, or what will it do? Supposedly it’s coming out this year - no date yet - but are people leaving EQ to prepare for EQ2? Verant wants to run both, or so they say, but will it really happen or is everyone planning to dump EQ the moment EQ2 is up?
There are many nice new items, some of which are nodrop, and can be acquired only by earning LDoN points, at a specific LDoN camp. A certain amount at each “LDoN camp” per item. Each camp has different items. There is an UBER breastplate at “Takish Hiz”, (North Ro LDoN camp) that I’ve seen the uberguild members striving for. They that can get Time items.
There are lots of high level people, but also many, many low level people. The high level people (on Lanys at least) are kinder to the lowbies than previously.
The requiremnts haven’t been upped.
EQ2 hasn’t even been launched yet.
There are rumors they are going to make level 70 the highest level available.
They’ve done some things to “dumb the game down” like added a targeting ring system. (Ha! Prey will no longer be hidden by snow, rain, or darkness!) Also a map system. (VERY nice to have for some zones. /nod) New characters start out with bandages and a backpack along with the food and milk, as well as a set of hotbuttons now. I can’t really think of anything else. Hope that helped.
BTW, my SDMB name is also the name of my main on Lanys T’val.
LDoN = lost dungeons of Norrath, the expansion that came out in September.
The big cool thing about LDoN is that it includes instanced dungeons. You get a group together, talk to an “adventure merchant” and get a mission to go to a dungeon. Once you enter, you’re the only group in the zone, and it stays that way. Monsters don’t respawn - when they’re dead, they stay dead.
You earn xp & plat like normal zones. If you “win” an adventure - typically by killing x amount of monsters or gathering x gizmos within 90 min or so - you get LDoN points. These points are then traded in at special merchants for nifty spells and lewtz.
LDoN gear is pretty good - the top end stuff is roughly equivalent to VT gear. That stuff takes a while to get, though - typically 28-30 wins for a level 65.
No, Clawbane because my character is a Vah Shir, it’s got a dual meaning, and is meant to be lyrical. (7 to 8 foot tall bi-pedal feline creature with a lynx fur pattern from Noratth’s moon, Luclin. Norrath being the “world” much of Everquest is set in.) My character’s claws are the “bane” of evildoers, and also I am the bane of “Clawed Ones”. Once you reach level 20, the option to give yourself a “Surname” opens. Often people will pick a memorable event or a humorous/apt last name. For instance, a gnome wizard I know of, who loves to tinker took the Surname of Tinkertoy, their first name is Izzypop.
Tinkering is something that only gnomes can do, it’s a “racial ability”, each race has one of some kind. Dark Elves can see in the dark very well, Iksars (lBipedal lizard creatures.) can swim very well, Vah Shir have “safe fall” automatically, Wood Elves can forage etc. Here are two sites that give a humorous veiw on Everquest. The first one also covers other games, but the second one is pretty accurate, though not very up to date, it’s a saga. GUcomics
Anyone who has played a Vah Shir gets an abiding hatred for creatures with the word “claw” in their name, because you die many many times to them before you get strong enough to kill them.
I forgot a nifty feature that you can use in some zones. It’s the “find” button. You click “find” and scroll down the list of that zone’s merchants and Guild Grand Masters, highlight the one you want to find, click “find” a final time, and follow the magical yellow trail that only your character can see. Once you reach the NPC, or merchant in bazaar, a glowing sparkly ring will appear around them.
Hmm, if it isn’t apparent by the picture, my character’s class is Beastlord. I get to melee in the early levels, and summon a tiger companion to fight beside me with magic. (She still gets to brawl some, if she’s grouped with a paladin who can chain stun to take agrro off her. She’s often called on to be a group’s “gimp slower” if no shamans are available. She’s also called on to add extre dps, which she’s very good at.) She also gets other druid/shaman type spells in her repotoire. Beastlords hit fast, and dodge attacks very well. They get to use 2 weapons, and can kick. They are a cross between a shaman and a monk.
