Things that make for a great zone or expansion: 1. Offers some new feature/item that is a game changer. 2. Has new artwork/models/zones that are significantly different or compelling. 3. Has some new game mechanic that interesting. Game changers: 1. Which ever expansion rolled out MAPs. Anyone still have their binder of printed maps? 2. Bazaar. Anther game changer when it came out. 3. Extended Target Window. Huge difference in game play. 4. AdvLoot Window. Needs its own tutorial but amazing once you get the hang of it. Unique Expansions: 1. Planes of Power. For may this was the peek of EQ raiding. Having all the portals in plane of knowledge put a huge dent in the wiz/druid taxi service. 2. Omens of War: Epic 2.0's, amazing that the bard, shaman, and SK epic are all still must haves. 3. The Buried Sea: This expansion had self balancing quests which was pretty unique. Each quest was worth a baseline 60 or 120 coins and would scale 50-200% based on how often it had been run compared to the other quests. You couldn't just keep running the same quest over and over or you would drive the rewards down. 4. The Broken Mirror: This expansions art work was so different from everything else... Initially I rubbed me wrong but after a while I really liked it. Favorite Zones: Thulliasaur Island - I loved dino island. The art work was nice, lots of different things to do in the zone. Plane of War - Very hard zone that had amazing risk/reward. Still using the must have Circle of power clickies.
Best Top Ten - Planes of Power The Shadows of Luclin The Ruins of Kunark The Serpent's Spine Secrets of Faydwer House of Thule Omens of war Rain of fear Call of the Forsaken The Darkened Sea
Funny how people are leaving out EOK. -"Ancients" rewarded group players with unique items, upgradeable via raids. -Probably one of the most forgiving leveling zones in EQ (frontier mountains) -Massive amount of AA's (Focus Lines/Synergies) -Solid Raids (each tier felt appropriate)
I have always been a big fan of huge scenic atmospheric 3-dimensional zones that looks "epic". Convorteum(UF), Resplendid Temple(VoA), and Gnome Memorial Mountain(SoF, not familiar with that one yet, but it looks promising), Demiplane of life/decay(TBM) all qualifies.
I really liked House of Thule. It was fun to play. Great XP with easy tasks. Easy to get around to the zones tho SS sure was a long trip. It was the first expansion I completed all the achievements. I'm a Shadowknight and solo xp wasn't bad. Or should I say, Molo!
Best zone? Uqua, but I am one of the few people that liked GoD. Expansion? Seeds of Destruction was amazing, so was SoF. DoD has some great parts overall, but it also tripped on it's dork a few times. ToV could have been amazing if it was a whole release instead of half an expansion.
I enjoyed the darkened sea and HoT on my ranger doing hunters. Darkened sea was nice ran ha back to back to back was nice xp although my ranger is maxed now and havent been there in awhile. EoK went well too was fun expansion. Havent tried RoS yet but soon im sure. Andarriel
I enjoyed TDS group content. The raids were a disappointment IMO. Plane of war was a lot of fun. I'm pretty partial to RoF. I felt most raids (velishan excluded) were at the proper difficulty level as you progressed through the content with raids. I waited probably 8 months to finally get my turn to use the dagger in the shards landing raid.
Cool i dont raid so cant comment on that part. I did try plane of hate revisited by myself what a tough zone i died like 10 times and merc like 20 times lol was crazy got most the hunters then gave up. nm thats the broken mirror expansion lol. Andarriel I agro cazic and he death touched for me for 1.6m hps sadly i didnt survive. then there was the drake that was hitting me for 65k zam says he got like 650m hps lol raid zone with hunters no fun. i got 5 of the 10 so im half way there at least.
Best Zone: DSK/Demiplane. Everything about that zone is visually unrivaled. Closest to it visually is Thulisaur. Best Expansion: TSS the last expansion with well developed lore, and lore that actually weaved itself into the game mechanically and thoughtfully.
Lots of good expansions: PoP, OoW, DoDh, TSS, SoF, GoD (yes!), Luclin, UF, HoT, CoTF, RoF. There are way too many cool zones to name individually, but Dreadspire is one that comes to mind first. Plane of Knowledge feels like home. Really great QoL addition. The Tutorial is great, but probably underused. Shout out for the BiC quest in GoD and TBS Katta portal quest, as well as epic 1.5 and 2.0's.
My favourite expansions: 01. GoD (post revamp) 02. DoDH 03. EoK 04. HoT 05. OoW 06. CoTF 07. RoF 08. TSS 09. UF 10. PoP
TSS was the first time I remember the designers using the spell timer "creatively" - the task "The Agony of Uncertainty" ( https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=3844 ) had an NPC asking you to go to Ashengate and draw a picture for them, which was implemented as the item "Set of Sketching Tools" casting a spell that took 60 seconds to cast, and consumed the reagent "Blank Canvas", to summon "Sketch of the Reliquary", which at the time I remember thinking was a pretty neat mechanic
My favourite expansion is "EverQuest" from 1999. Its just the biggest one with the best quests, lore, music and atmosphere. 74 zones, can you beat that ? Favourite zone: Estate of Unrest Great map, theme and NPC design, and a huge level range.
