Genuine question from an outsider, please don't jump me. I only ever experienced EverQuest through P99 and TLPs, and I've never seriously played past Luclin. I'm wondering what the gameplay is like on modern EQ but I haven't had the time to grind an alt to max and see myself. Every time I get the itch to try it I'm visually assaulted with a million badly designed menu windows overcrowded with all kinds of stats that only make sense if you were following as they piled up over two decades and multibox raid balls of players afk at PoK and I get intimidated With multiboxing being so widely accepted, thoroughly power crept content, instances and whatever "mercenaries" are, I couldn't imagine there being much to do besides solo speedrun through all the obsolete old world to level cap and then stomp the yearly relevant raid tier. Is there a silver lining? Does it get fun? Are there stakes and competition at high levels? How's the community? Is the raid scene healthy?
Depends on how much you want to put in/get out of it, if you are newer it is probably a lot better to go through a TLP to live
I 6 box when I can. I don't login to EQ without a goal of what I want to get done. My plans get interrupted by guildies or friends wanting to do mission runs or finish their challenger achievements. So I login whatever class they need and run missions. My guild pharms NoS raids and we redo achievements for new people, including the old ToV stuff to max their Luminous Restless Ice augs, etc etc. All this leaves me little time to 6 box. In short, there is more to do in EQ than are hours in my day. I've never played on a TLP, ever. Nostalgia, I get. But I don't get the lure of replaying Everquest's first few expansions over and over ad nauseum. I don't understand starting over at all; not the character progression, not the character's reputation on it's server, not the wealth in gear/coins, none of it. I don't understand choosing to only play less than 1/3 of this game. On one hand, I'm glad TLPers pay to support my game. On the other hand, TLPers are not really playing my game at all. Everquest at max level on live has a learning curve. Jump on in, the waters deep, but if you really wanted simple, you'd have turned to WoW instead! Conq
I don't raid and I have no experience with any of the TLP servers, but...you could make a FTP account and try it on a Live server for a bit. If it doesn't suit you, then all that you will have lost is some time. My experience isn't your experience and this could get you some idea about it from your very own perspective. I play for fun and life on BB is still fun for me. Maybe it would be for you. P.S. I have a new Christmas wish.
I've been playing Live on FV since mid-2020 after returning from a long hiatus. Originally I played from Luclin to just before GoD. I came back because a friend from the old days was playing again and it was great grouping with people I knew. Sadly, real life stepped in and the 'gang' has mostly parted due to work and other life commitments. I dipped my toe into TLPs with the launch of Oakwynd, looking for a casual environment in a guild that isn't racing to the end but also to go through the expansions I wasn't there for as well as the few early ones I was. I'm looking forward to it for longevity, but I am also going to continue playing on Live in the remaining 'set' groups I have there. Mechanics-wise, EQ Live is closer to the gameplay styles of many modern games, with a lot of growing complexity. It's possible to just play 'decent' and eschew most of the deeper involved mechanics or delve into various layers of min/maxing and character choices (and I will never claim I am fully optimised or an expert in my class). EQ TLP Classic is incredibly simpler. Some of the QoL added over the decades has remained but some of the QoL specifically added with expansions is not (like no Defiant gear and tradeskills do not have a single location or even logical placements for the vendor sold components). It is a lot easier to play TLP Classic with fewer choices or variants in what a character can do but that builds, too, in small ways while leveling. On Oakwynd, I am playing a class I am extremely familiar with since it's my main at 120 and also a 90 alt, bard, a class I adore. I am eagerly anticipating certain milestones with my new character that I know about because of my other two. Getting Selo's was a thrill, as is watching it increase in speed. Getting the first lull and the first ranged damage so split pulling is possible again was like opening the tool box. I just got the first mez tonight, haven't used it yet, but just having it brings me delight (and yes, I am levelling slowly for those who know the level of that mezz. Slow is intentional, I am not in a race.) But your question is "is if worth it" and really only you can answer that. It's a playstyle thing and a people connection thing. I agree with the last paragraph of SpaceMonkey's post and with Nennius' suggestion to try it with a Free account or even, if you have All Access for playing on TLP, give it a try. Look for the server with a higher population when you log in, i.e. one that has a high pop for your game time. Check out the other players, join a guild, etc. If you want to jump directly to higher levels, get a Heroic to 85 or even 100, but there is a learning curve with each of the classes changing quite a bit 85+ with the utterly insane amounts of AA and, even with an expanded spell gem bar, so many AA abilities taking the place of a spell or song that would normally take up a spell gem slot. If you do get a Heroic bump, I suggest you give up on trying to organise the spell book and just use the Spell gem menu. If you do try just a free account, as Nennius said, you have nothing to lose and you might just find out you like playing both but for different reasons.
Only if you raid or box. Or if you know people on Live server. Boxing is just so you can keep busy, but basically theres no point because its an MMORPG you should be playing with others. You get gear to do better with things with others and to show off your progress. If your boxing your not doing anything with anyone. Farm the rare raids with boxes, krono farming with boxes. Really no point to this. You have 12 kronos now, so what. All they focus on every new expansion is raids. Group progress so you can do raids. Raiders don't need to box. So if you don't do any raids there's no point in being on Live nor getting the new expansion. Majority of the casuals are on TLPs.
Wow I been doin it wrong all these years according to Kongster. There certainly is a point to it. The rest is just a bunch of broad sweeping generalizations and opinion. You make of it what you want. I personally think it is a blast and one of the cheapest forms of entertainment out there.
there is more to do on live then there is on any tlp in an expansion, the only thing is with tlps you get new expansions faster. On live, there is raids and getting all achievements for them, xping for aas ( remember we spent aas on glyphs so you're never done there), doing missions for currency to buy augs, camp augs, camp nameds, get xp for evolving items, tradeskills, and help other people with the same stuff. so yes, it's worth it and when you find a guild that suits your playstyle, actually quite fun. and no, i dont box.
I have been back to live for like 5 years now and it's been awesome fun. The first six months I molo'd a pet class. Then I heroic'd a few 85 to box and more easily form groups with others. The last few years I've filled in a lot of the completionist stuff, like hunters, slayer, tradeskills. One definitely does not have to raid to enjoy and fill their time on live. Some of the nicest people reside on live server eq (across all online games I'd wager!).
Live is pretty much a solo game until 110 or so. It can be fun if you're okay with doing everything yourself, but the traditional EQ grouping game really only exists at the high levels. You can get to 80-90 without too much trouble with just a single account. After that, you're pretty much going to have to box to get yourself to the upper levels where everyone else is. You can buy a level 100 Heroic character, but you're probably going to need some help (a box or a friend) to level you up to a point where you can group with people. One place for help on live is to find the place in the PoK or GL on your server where people give out MGBs. Once you get to level 70 or so, you can park your character+merc at that spot and get buffed with lots of 110+ buffs. That really helps you level up to 90+.
Well yes and no. I feel like they have nerfed xp so much I find myself loosing interest once you get to 70. Hot zones aren't even hot like barely warm. I say bring back xp. At 60n your lucky to get 1.5% bon a yellow. But we understand new UI is more important.
For me, no. I played live '99 to '08 and came back in '15 to play TLP, enjoyed the run on Phinigel but going back to live afterwards was not so enjoyable, it really only served to highlight just what a pale shadow of itself the game had become. Technically the game is far improved, but now the game is 100% on rails wheras it used to only be 60% on rails, it has lost far too much of what made EQ the popular game it used to be by becoming way too narrow in scope & far too small in annual content offerings. And I found myself disagreeing with several of the directions the devs took EQ while also feeling like so much has become stagnated & dialled in.
It beats sitting in a tavern blowing my money! There is always something to do in Everquest Live. On a cost per hour basis, I don't know of anything that is so cheap for providing entertainment. Might sound trite, but you get what you put in. It helps to be an -retentive masochist though! The yearly race to finish raids can be pretty intense. Out guild puts in a lot of effort trying to ensure a respectable showing. Then we farm the hell outta them! It ranges from sweetness and light to wildly toxic but normally is at least somewhat positive. Caveat... I only have direct experience on the Luclin server. I've never played anywhere else. It's a routine, mid-population, aging-gracefully server. I suspect the average player age is up over 50 now.
For the most part, just look for HP and weapon ratio. Considering you can 1-50 in about 3 zones, I'd say the 50-70 experience is pretty good, minus how absurdly Mercenaries break the leveling experience. You're basically just watching them PL you. After that, it's grab a pet class to tank because solo players can't farm gear for upgrades.
I don't know how you can ask a "genuine question" and then throw out all those silly generalizations and hyperbole. If we're doing that then is TLP really worth it in 2023? Just a bunch of krono farming boxlords profiting off the nostalgia bots who will quickly get bored and quit.
Your post doesn't sound like you genuinely want to give live EQ a try. But in case you actually do, I'll try and help a little bit. Stats are actually simpler than they've ever been in EQ--there is a lot of legacy noise in there that can be ignored. (Fun fact--they probably would have removed a good chunk of that legacy noise if it weren't for TLP servers, but those are the servers that require all this stuff to keep working.) There are a few optimizations that matter at the extremes, but if all you do is work at stacking the most beneficial heroic stat to your class (side note: tanks actually get to make a strategic decision here; for every other class the stat choice is pre-determined), focusing on literally only that one number gets you 80 to 90% of the way there. You mostly don't even have to care about focus effects any more, because their slots are standardized and they will just automatically accumulate for you on gear that has the appropriate heroic stat. I'm being totally serious here. Just focus on literally just that one stat and you're more than good enough for all group content and entry level raid content. By the time min-maxing more than that matters, you'll have picked it up along the way. That's... what EQ is. If we're talking about what the game itself specifically incentivizes, you're right, that's all there is. And that's all there is for TLPs. And that's all there's ever been. EQ gives you a box of pieces, but not so many rules. It's up to you to go out and have fun. Want to dungeon crawl? Talk to NPCs and learn lore? Do some quests? Tradeskill? Hunt rares? Instanced missions? Solo old raids? Finish that quest you never could back in the day? There is a plethora of stuff to do, but EQ isn't going to lead you there. None of it is "required." You have to decide what you want and go do it. From a mix-maxing standpoint, nothing matters much compared to getting into max level raids ASAP. But again, that's also how TLPs work and how EQ has basically always worked since the first time people figured out how to kill Nagafen. I've written a lot already so I'll answer these quickly. I would say no, it does not "get" fun, but there is fun to be gotten, as I explained above. Yes. It's fine. Guilds are the place to go for most socialization and group-finding. There's not as much random LFG any more but with most (all?) servers having an active casual/leveling guild, that doesn't matter much in practice. Yes.
