Yes, it does. No, they are not, but for new and returning players, those are often the only options. People who box can do it by themselves, at their own pace, but there is no getting around the repetitive time sink nature of heroic adventures.
Most of the boring time sinks in Everquest can be avoided. Nobody needs to have Artisan's Prize, Alaran Tear, Shawl, etc. Those rewards exist for people who enjoy time sinks. Trade skills are an excellent example of an optional time sink that most people never bother with. The developers understand this concept, which is why they don't require 100 hours camps for access keys any more. Saying that Everquest is all about time sinks is to completely fail to understand the game's development over the course of the last 20 years. It's like saying the game was better back when it took 50 hours to get a level. Levels are not optional. Levels are required for people to play the same game as other people, which is the entire purpose of a MMORPG. A MMORPG where you're supposed to spend 99% of the time from 70 to 100 in isolated heroic adventure instances is simply broken. This is not even like World of Warcraft where there's an automatic group find system in place so that people can run the game's instances with other people. The way heroic adventures are designed in Everquest, they encourage people to isolate themselves. You can claim Everquest isn't for everybody, that the game is built around time sinks, etc., but that's just an excuse for the fact that the 70 to 100 game is more or less broken due to the fact that the game has never had a proper rework of the middle levels. As I've said before, most people will agree that the 1 to 70 game in Everquest is, in fact, an enjoyable experience, whether you play it like classic or play it with the benefit of hero's journey. It's what happens after that is the problem - and there is no reasonable argument that the game should be built around running repetitive daily heroic adventures for months. That's like taking the worst of the World of Warcraft experience, and combining it with the worst of the Everquest experience, and calling it game design.
if your talking leveling only the same zones before or after ROS goes active then no. If your talking about AA's then maybe their might be another Free expansion AA's to default but I am not 100% sure. their might be a Fall Bonus EXP so that would help Pre ROS https://www.everquest.com/news/eq-fall-fun-bonuses-1-nov-2017 .
I could argue that nobody needs to get to max level just as you can argue that nobody needs epics, artisan's prize, alaran tear and so forth. I would also argue that the vast majority of people that have done any of those things did not "enjoy" doing most of it and most people don't enjoy time sinks but enjoy the rewards for their time invested. Playing the latest expansion is not a requirement and in fact I know people that have been playing this game since 99, buy the newest expansions but rarely ever step foot into them. You say I fail to understand the course of development of this game as far as time sinks go yet they continue to add time sinks that relate to decades old content or older. If you don't see this game as one huge time sink you in fact don't understand the development of this game. The reason these time sinks are in place is to keep people playing. Even if you are able to fly through a new expansions content you now have months of questing old crap to keep you busy just so you can keep up with BIS gear and stay relevant. Sure some classes can just get by with crap gear and hope nobody notices that all they have are levels and AA's but other classes especially a tank has to go through a lot of these time sinks otherwise it shows. Camping every tank aug in each expansion, making sure you have the best group gear, progression AA's from COTF through EOK and yes things like the Artisans prize, shawl and alaran tear are important. You can sit in denial and say characters don't need things that result from time sinks but the reality is the results of these time sinks add up and allow you to actually play the newest expansion. If this was not true than people would just be running around at 105 with defiant augs and other crap gear without any concern for stats because stats don't actually matter. As far as the 70-100 game being broken I think going from 70-100 today is significantly easier than it was 5 years ago. Hell you don't even need a group anymore to get your J5 merc and it takes a fraction of the time it use to take. With dailies, HA's, quests and grinding its not all that difficult. Just doing dailies alone a person can gain over a level a week from 90-95. They could always make things easier but on the same note if they made EQ easy mode from 1-100 how well do you think those players are going to fair when they hit max level? The only thing that is going to change most likely is people complaining about how quickly the game got difficult at end game for them. The one thing I think we can both agree on is there should be better mechanics for grouping in this game. I have heard of other games having cross server grouping options and I advocate for something like this if it is possible. Not only for grouping but also for raiding. I think something like this would be the most beneficial tool this game has ever seen and would make all the arguments about needing to make leveling easier or faster irrelevant.
I think those of you who think it's easy to be a new player and think that 70-100 is a non-issue, should start a toon on a Live server that you have never played on before, with no Veteran rewards, kronos, or help from higher level players. And play a class and race you've never played before, too. You'll still have an advantage from having done everything before, but it might give you a better idea of what new players are facing. Maybe report back with your /ach screens and show everybody just how easy it is. Extra credit: write a guide for others to follow in your foot steps. It would certainly add a lot of cred to your opinions that everything "is fine".
Thread totally off the rails. This started with a response to one player with numbers on how long he was taking to level. "easy" has nothing to do with it. The goal was to help him make it go faster. Advice was offered in how to speed it up, and there were questions about whether he was 3-boxing or soloing. Before we could see if that helped, he posted and basically said he was done with EQ. So the rest of this thread was pointless after that. Not sure if any of your other requirements (no vets, never played before, etc) even apply.
There you are. I rang, knocked and even tried to open the door but my rogue friend was not with me and it was locked. Your horse was parked outside so I know you were home. Are you avoiding me again? I told you I was sorry for consuming to much Elvish wine and mistaking your apple orchard for a group of hungry trolls and then watering your vegetable garden afterwards with said Elvish wine. The Elves have assured me that even in its post consumed state it is magical and will make your plants grow better than ever.
I've bit the bullet and pre-bout RoS on all my accounts, which means I'm boxing in EoK. It is true what they say, the xp there is redic compared to everywhere else. I will also say that leveling from 80-100 sucks for a couple reasons: 1) HA's are by far your best xp. I love HA's, but I hate they are the best xp. 2) Non current expansion zones don't get the xp bonus love and some may even be penalized. This is just stupid. EoK is meant for 100+, probably 105 mainly. Why in the world would they penalize, say RoF when no one would xp there anyway? Or, am I missing something? 3) The XP should be the same across the board, on all expansions, but that only works when each expansion is a level increase. With having 3 expansion with no level increase, that really buggered things up and causes people to skip entire expansions (they go back for the bonuses, but no need to level through them for xp). The HA's should be the equivalent amount of xp off a 30-45 minute grind at a camp. But, it is double, maybe even more when it is the daily, so why would anyone do anything else if their goal is to level? House of Thule, Veil of Alaris, and Rein of Fear all get completely skipped for the most part due to HA"s being far, far superior xp. That is so sad because HoT and RoF, specifically, were just awesome looking zones / content (at least to me). So to the OP's point - leveling is hard if you grind, but it shouldn't be nearly as hard as it is for you. To speed it up, go to the hot zones and stick to HA's. When you are bored of HA's, find a camp in the current expansion's level you are and kill for loot.
