What Has Been Your Favorite EverQuest Zone?

Howling Stones (Charasis). Being a rogue, I was leading groups there, when it was current content the doors were locked, the content was challenging, and the exp and loot were great, the place was better for that than the (at this time) overcrowded Sebilis.

My favorite zones are anything up to and including Velious. There was a natural flow to the zones in terms of difficulty and storyline. But what I loved about them most was they were populated, vibrant, alive with people coming and going.

I spent the most time in the Commonlands... many levels in East Commonlands where there were groups at Orc 1, Orc 2, Undead, you name it. You could fill up your limited bag space and run to Freeport to sell to friendly merchants, then run back and find a group quickly. Once you had saved up enough gold and platinum you could run over to the tunnel and buy a new powerful item from more experienced players at Torch 1 or Torch 2, as well as picking up some buffs along the way.

As you leveled up you would work your way to West Commonlands to more powerful and deadly mobs. But what would hold the most fear for you was the evil Kithicor Forrest... Only the very brave, very stupid, or very powerful would zone into there at night. That was back when you frequently would use the /time command to know when the sun was going to be setting. I can't even remember the last time I cared what the ingame time was.

Favorite zone would have to be Stone Hive (off of Blightfire Moors). That place is so beautiful compared to the rest of the expansion. I rarely see anyone there when I visit with my lowbie toons.

Wow, I read this thread and sat in quiet contemplation for about 15 minutes.
Thanks for flood of great memories

After much consideration, I chose Lower Guk.
Massive zone with tons of named camps, undead/living creatures mixxed into a maze of a zone.
You look at the map and it seems overwhelming, but becomes second nature in no time.
Maybe i'm just a sucker for the good times i had there in classic, and again on the progression servers.

It's one of the zones you can leave the game for 6 years, and still know it forwards and backwards when you find yourself back there.....
Timeless is the word i'm looking for!

ToV

The environment and mobs there make sense
Dragons > all
the basepop mobs belong in the event
lesser mobs have a variety of abilities that are potentially dangerous and work with each other
yardtrash encountered in a dungeon crawl dropping armor made trash clearing more than just a necessary and expected chore

IMO the possibilities that PoHate and PoFear hinted at ToV delivered.

I vote for a ToV (extreme) and PoTime (harder-then-old-fabled) to make all these nostalgia feelings go away!

Wow . I am still working on this. Every time i thought I had a favorite zone . I think of 3 or 4. I went and made a list of all the zones through underfoot and removed all the blah or okay ones and widdled it down to about 125 zones.. Even looking at POR there was some great zones with every expansion.

Old Sebilis. Actually most Kunark zones need a revamped version. Hardcore heritage for Kunark anyone?

Raid wise it'll be ToV simply because of the awesome way faction worked back then (picking sides!) and it was my first real hard experience of raiding.

I also have a soft spot for butcherblock though, especially the chess board, simply because it was my first and most memorable experience of levelling up in EQ.

West Karana (the original) has to be up there for me.... Soloing the McMannus' with my shaman to work through hell levels.

Lower Guk is another, I spent about 10 levels there on my monk camping Raster, I got to know the whole zone so well I would give guided tours.

Raiding, NTOV has to be it... the feeling was just epic.

Dreadspire Keep all the way.

City of Mist. It was just perfect for my sister & I to duo there back in the day.

I have always enjoyed the old East Commonlands zone. Other favorites are: Karnor's, Vex Thal, Ssraeshza Temple, Muramite Proving Grounds, Riftseekers' Sanctum, Deathknell, and Ashengate.

Veksar hands down but velks lab is probably second for me. I would love to see a revamp of those two zones expecially Veksar!

After I posted Unreset and all HoT as my favorite, I remembered Dreadspire Keep. I agree, best zone ever.

The Elddar Forest. An overlooked and beautifully flawed zone. Being too out of the way to visit on a regular baisis as well as being a victim of a very weak expansion.

Tower of Frozen Shadow is by far my favorite zone in the entire game.

Second places are perhaps Befallen, Veksar, Charasis, and Crypt of Dalnir.

Although ToFS was pretty small for an open zone, the linear progression through, the different themes, the interesting storyline, and the general flavor of the zone along with a lot of undead targets is something I miss in EQ. It is something that the devs have left far far behind.

1) Old Seb
2) Lake of Ill Omen
3) Fironia Vie
4) Karnors Castle
5) Plane of Nightmare

High Pass
Crystal Caverns
Crushbone
East Karana

Most I liked for the complexity and danger involved. Karana was beautiful and good for pelt farming!

I just have to point out that like 90% of the replies on this thread are for Original EQ, Kunark, or Velious.
Hopefully the game designers/devs will get the hint that old-school trumps new-school where zone design is concerned.

EQ and it's first two expansions were (and still are) epic, everything else since then just feels like re-hashed content. Sure there are a few exceptions with later expasions, but overall it is generally... Meh.

How about a new expansion with tons of new zones without instances? Instancing may be a cheaper way to add more content, but it is just that... cheap content.