Current players, I don't doubt game is easy. Returning players, this game is a nightmare. Quit and go play another game that is more returning player friendly like Guild Wars 2. They keep making content for current players, but they advertise it to returning players, returning players come back, can't even get close to end game group game, and leave. Thats the issue with EQ these days. Then you have lvl 115s chest beating how easy they think it is for returning player to get to 115. They'll talk to you about getting to 90, but 90 to 115? Crickets. "Go and do hotzones, hotzone is a T4 raid zone, Arthicrex, Fear Itself" thats a wrong answer. Thats how you go from 90 to 89. Then they will follow up with, "what gear you got", oh your using gear you get via molo? Well you should be using gear you get from 3 boxing or from real groups, a full set of it, like you did nothing but farm for 90s gear while your at 85-90. What you think, this game is easy enough I can kill 93 nameds at lvl 88 to get myself ready for 90, molo?
The only issue getting from 75-115 is finding a group or someone else to xp with, outside of that I would argue that gear and xp wise it is easier than it has ever been. You can do the TBM quests to start getting gear with remnants of tranquility at 75 with 2 people and 2 mercs (maybe solo if you had the right class), and that gear is more than enough to get you to 105-110 at which point you will start seeing actual players that you can group with. 75+ you will definitely want to have at least 1 person to group with otherwise start a FTP box. I am a returning player that started back less than a year ago playing with a buddy of mine, we just adapted along the way, started with 1 character each (lvl 1), added a box each at level 85 (heroic), and have just been enjoying the journey rather than grinding to current content. I imagine if you are a returning player that doesn't have a friend in-game and for some reason refuse to box, TLP servers would be a way to enjoy the social EQ from days of old.
I guess new players don't know that at 85 you can do /overseer and although it would be boring you can literally level to 115 doing JUST overseer. Not optimal by any means but I know people who have had their boxes level that way.
Yes its easy to sideline. You had a friend play with you too, that's great. TBM quests, its hit or miss. Have you seen the threads about them where people say "that one doesn't scale properly and avoid it" Are returning players suppose to know which ones don't scale properly? There's no introduction to them either, its basically have to had learned about it beforehand. Teek will send me to Neriak 4th gate, I'll be fighting on step 2 with some mob that his HP never gets below 85% and he basically mops floor with the tank because he wasn't scaled properly, and thats just step 2. If you got the help, returning with friends, fine. Returning for sake of nostolgic, friends don't play nor want to play the game. TBM is out of the question. When they made TSS expansion, to help returning players. Its 'soloable to your way to 75'. When they made defiant gear it was great gear. It capped off at 80. They redo defiant gear 80-90, 400HP, meanwhile 90 gear is 2k HP. smh When they made TSS they thought worst case scenario, these returning players will be soloing. When they do any returning player content today, we going to assume they have a box, because they sure wont be able to molo their way up to 115. Mercs go bad when? 75? There's still 40 levels to go. What content do returning players know? Content 1-75. What content do returning players NOT KNOW? 90-115. 85 T1 gear is about 600 hp. 90 T1 gear is about 2k HP. With that giant jump guess what else has a giant jump? How fast mobs can sweep the floor with you for not having full set of 90s gear. 90s is when the game gets real and thats when returning players turn around from the game. Expansion 18 to 27 has been nothing but current players only content. Not 1 returning player content. Back in the EQ I remember back in those days. They'd make content for returning players. Lvl cap increasing to 70? No worries there will be lvl 40-60 zones for returning players. Expansion 18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27. Did they make any zones with level margin 60-90 returning players? Any zones with level margin 80 - 110 returning players? Nope. Everything for current players. YET they do advertising "Come return to the game and get to lvl 120, and play in lvl 120 zones" Returning player comes back, gets mopped by lvl 90s insanity a couple times, gets bad taste in their mouth, then turn around from returning to the game. I don't choose to solo/molo, but there's so many options of places to go at 90, 85, 95, 100. Its hard to FIND the other people struggling because so many options. Now if there was a zone 80 - 110, I'd be able to see all the other people struggling to 115. I'd be able to say "Hey can I team up with you" I'm going to guess expansion 28 is going to be nothing but a zone 115-120, nothing less. Then they going to send ads out to people to return to the game, and their cycle will continue, because the last time that returning player played was probably 70s or 80s. Time comes to get going to get past 90s and I don't even know what the 00s is like, nor if I will be around to get a taste of it. Because xping in 90s is very very long and dreaded grind. Heroic? 85, 900s HP gear? Guess what lvl 90 gear your suppose to be wearing is suppose to be 2k HP, why you wearing bad gear? Thats why 90s is hard, not wearing the 2k HP gear. Not gonna survive the dps checks, nor the mob dps check on you without wearing that twice as good as before gear. Mobs gonna go from 4k quads to 7k quads, gotta be geared and ready for it in 90s. Extravagant gear only drops in 90 Hotzone tasks, not even the 85s or 80. Enjoy the 400hp when your suppose to have 2k hp. Have a nice day returning players. I've been following this guide, https://www.reddit.com/r/everquest/comments/5gyani/guide_to_leveling_on_live/ Gribble's in dead hills they say to do repeatedly. 90s is not hard enough lets scale that HA up so its possible for mobs to get extremely lucky on killing 80s and 90s even IF they using 115 buffs. Then you have 115s talking smack to 90s because they didn't have 115 buffs back in their days and you shouldn't need buffs to get past scaled a bit too high HA's.
For the TBM gear you only need 3 quests (2 of them are just hail quests) in order to buy the gear, the remnants are tradeable so you can buy them in the bazaar (if they are more than 20pp each check general and people are usually generous with them). If you play on Cazic by chance I can hook you up with enough to get fully geared. I agree though, they should come out with a TSS style expansion to get from 75-100 solo. Considering the limited resources they have I think level 100/105 heroic characters would be the best we can hope for. Another thing that would help is removing the quest requirement to get a J5 merc. The apprentice mercs become useless at 75, and the quest for a J5 if I remember correctly takes at least a small group of level 85's to complete.
You can get one at level 75 and yes it would take a group to get the J5 rights. That one is from Korascian Warrens: https://articles.eqresource.com/mercoverview.php But at 85 it is soloable in Feerrott as it came out in that expansion with the level 85 Heroic characters. Sometimes it is tough at 85 so I will jump in and help folks if they need it. Only takes like 30 minutes. But the other one at level 75 is super long. Hours. Days. Only paid can have the J5 and it might not be the best idea to do away with a quest requirement to get him. After all they kinda give away most of the game now. Not much challenge left.
I'll look into this. This was confusing to me because when I see like fantastic silk robe template or whatever, I'm thinking to myself tradeskills and trivial 450. Not so much, just do combine with a 20pp item. From 1- 85 they drill into you, cultural items and templates, tradeskillers are only ones who can do anything, not so much put it in something and combine and bam 90 gear. They need to have a POPUP. ARMOR? Do this. Because I had no clue for longest time and I was looking around for it too. I looked at allah, but its too much info and maybe a GIF would be better than text. When I said 90s and 2k hp, I was looking at RoF gear. https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=107382 https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=107330 If there is gear for 90s and its 2k hp, that must mean there are mobs 90s that hit even harder harder. Perhaps the not so nicely scaled HA's have those harder harder harder not so nice scaled mobs. HoT isn't too much to handle, but some(most/half) HA's they make some of the mobs iiiiiinsane due to scaling. In HoT, I see a named, sure I'll try tackling it. In HA's, 80s and 90s, I've had more than my fair share of being mopped by nameds, I don't even look for them. Nameds sometimes WEAKER than trash mobs in other HA's and othertimes, they undoable. Is CotF and TBM the same? HA's the same?
(51) EVERQUEST LIVE - The FIRST quests you should do when you hit 75 (1080p) - YouTube That video is a bit long but explains how to get the TBM gear unlocked. Also if you can manage to get through the Gribbles quests you can use the marks of Valor to buy level appropriate gear in Ethernere West Karana. Going solo it will be slow but if you can even do the first gribbles the xp at the end is worth it, and eventually you can buy gear right up to level 100. Check out Marks of Valor - CoTF HA Currency (almarsguides.com) for more info on the Marks of Valor gear. Almar has lots of good resources on that site if you haven't been there.
It's been several years since I did the pure solo route but Gribbles certainly was not in the cards. Hot zones were doable and much better than the tough as nails zones they offer now too. I forgot what they were but the Grounds was one of them. I could knock Teeks quests out within an hour and burn a lesson somewhere for a nice chunk of daily xp, but it was still a slog of a journey I won't repeat solo. Adding defiant until 100 and boosting it appropriately 80-100 might help, same with the flimsy mercs. Still not sure why they haven't upgraded the heroic character to 100 either. Little things like that could help make one's solo journey a lot less painful or skipped for a fee.
Thats a good video, thanks for sharing. I saw bits and pieces of it, basically PoI, do 3 quests and I'm guessing you buy the currency? IF there was a 2 minute video of this that would be better, but that video was well done by that person, I just have to find the time for 2 hours to watch fully. Should be in a newbie guide to like 105. I'd say if I get to 105, I'll be happy, its not too far from end game unlike 80s and 90s. I've been following this guide. https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=107330 I'm guessing they BUMPED the difficulty of Gribble's. It looks easy on paper, just clear trash and no name fights. But the trash, I cannot express enough how LUCKY they get with breaking you down till you die. I can feel the difference between trash mobs in Gribble's compared to Bixie Warfront, Szaeriu's. That guide doesn't even mention TBM, so I been assuming everyone telling me about these TBM gear, was related to CotF gear. Is there a preference? I mean they both I assume have a gear path to 105. Also, when you say Teeks quest in an hour, are you talking about 75 and below? Because 80 and above, idk man. Going to MMM and FINDING specific rare trash mobs, or Fort Mech, these specific rare trash mobs. Yeah. Also, I haven't tried doing the 90s hotzone task, Arthicrex? I don't think I'm going try too. Usually what happens, on the way, I die. I get there, I die.8% xp loss here. Maybe after 3 runs of 6 deaths I'll know how to get there properly and what to look out for in Articrex or those other T4 raid zone group zones. I know MMM and I go there (I'm familiar with SoF zones), but I haven't seen any other people my level go there for Teek's quest. If Rathe Council Chambers was a hotzone, I'd probably die a couple times on the run and finding out who to avoid in that zone, I know for sure there is see invis in KW, its been awhile to know who to go around, but UF even tougher, Articrex I assume is even harder run than to Rathe Council Chambers. See this is what I mean. I'm pretty sure people don't do hotzones 90 and above unless they can already clear everything easy as pie. Being in 90s and going to 90 hotzone, usually its a T4 end game zone that has raid instances too, thats the 90s hotzone. smh I aint going to Arthicrex you got me silly. 90s hotzone is fun for 100s, but if your 90s and going to the 90s hotzone, nah you got to be kidding me. In the guide here it says, BEST (84-92): The Grounds/Erudin Burning (PoK>Feerott, the Dream>House of Thule, Lower>The Grounds/Erudin Burning) - I love both of these zones. In comparison to their equivalent in Underfoot, the mobs are vastly easier. Sadly neither zone is a hot zone. I believe it, UF is no joke, yet 90 hotzone UF T4 zone. I think with UF the issue is, adds, and the mobs they hit pretty hard, but its the adds that get you.
I hit level 51 , Fifteen times back in the ancient world of EQ.. ding, die, killl Ding, die, kill.. rinse repeat.. not even earning enough on rez to reding..
Yeah, thing was it was a different time. People valued other things more, and thats just how games were back in the days. Also, the max level wasn't that far off, at 51 I'm assume maybe the max level was 65? Your pretty close to end game. Being in 80s and 90s today, thats not close to end game. I feel like its the beginning of midgame. Then its a different time, people value time. And games these days, pretty much everyone wants to be end game. People value playing with each other too which happens at end game. I honestly wouldn't mind 80s and 90s IF there was other people going through it too. Back then a lot of people were experiencing that issue you had too, there was others going through struggle with you and friends to be made at those levels. 80s and 90s now, do TBM, do hotzones, do SoF, do SoD, do HoT, do CotF HA's. So many options, it spreads out other people if ANY in their 80s and 90s too. If there was a TSS like expansion. All the 80s and 90s goto that 1 zone 75 - 100, 90 - 110, one good option and it brings all the 80s and 90s IF ANY together, rather than being spread out with all these options. I know there is other 80s, 90s, 00s out there somewhere, but there is too many options, so it feels like I'm the only one.
Not a fan of the newer hot zones. Back when I did it solo Teek offered really simple in an out kill 5 in better zones. I recall the Grounds, Bloodfields and Valley of Lunanyn being a blessing. The last time I touched them they were stuck on stuff like the Underfoot, Fear and MMM with mobs being a pain to find. I think they've been in the same rotation of zones for years now and it is a major downgrade compared to some of the zones they used to offer.
CotF group vendor gear is gear from the older expansions that you can buy with Mark's of Valor from CotF HAs. There is a vendor for every 5 levels from 75-95 I believe then you can buy the CotF stuff at 100. TBM is not the same, the gear is level 75 and has almost no stats and you buy augments to get your stats, augs are every 5 levels from 75 to 105. The slotting augs is very tedious but the gear is the best bang for your buck for those levels.
I did a quick check of the hotzones. Hotzone 85 MMM (Raid zone, highest tier) Hotzone 90 Fear Itself (Raid zone, highest tier) Hotzone 95 Sarith, City of Tides (Raid zone, highest tier) This is what I mean by 80s and 90s is no joke.
I think your definition of raid zone and mine are very different. Fear Itself is just another zone, IMO. It's much less of a raid zone than the original Fear. Sarith isn't a raid zone in any way that I know of. In fact, it's a mid-tier VoA zone.
MMM is a tier 3 zone from SoF (highest lvl 85), Fear Itself is tier 3 from HoT (highest lvl 93), and Sarith is tier 2 VoA (highest level 96).
Those are not Raid zones. But anyway. If you keep getting killed in those zones, why not go to an easier zone? Where you can kill stuff and have your XP move in the right direction. There's always good zones to fight in where you don't die instantly.
I have a ton of 115’s, but if you don’t box and don’t get into the right guild the game is really difficult 75-105. After 105 it does get a bit better you can start grouping with people more easily. I think heroics need to be increased to 105 just because the gap is so hard to get groups and gear within.
