I really shouldn't read these in the morning. I meant shaman instead of cleric. Maybe I just can't read.
I'm also a returning player and Fippy works for me. So far I haven't had many problems finding groups. Just ask in general chat and ye will find one within 5-10 min. LvL 10-20 go to Paludal caverns there's usually several people there. 23-35 try OT. LvL 40-60 try Acrylia Caverns your guaranteed groups there. I also recommend Fippy to any returning players if you feel lost and don't really know where to start
Vox is also very group friendly for returning and new players, can be played by F2P characters, and has current content.
I raid on my SK, but it wouldn't take me a year if I wanted it. I way prefer my sk the shaman was just to poke around on and goof with.
I played EQ a long time ago from just before RoK to just after LDoN and had a great time. EQ, the game I knew, is dead and the descriptions in this thread of game play on the progression servers are rather pathetic. A group of four in the OT? Tutorial gear on a progression server? About a year ago I reactivated my account and twinkled an Iksar Monk from my Shaman and got to work in the Field of Bones. A two days later a cleric ran past me with a mercenary, the first person I saw in game. When did clerics get pets? Also, I could not believe the experience I was getting, but hell, I had a fungi tunic and I was awesome, and then a haste item drooped off a trash mob in the Field of Bones and I thought I was going to puke. The game I had loved so much was obviously gone for good. Last week I had a conversation with a friend about EQ Next and it got me thinking about EQ again. With free to play, why not? My son and I have started on Vox, but my expectations are far different then in the past. I don't care if we ever catch up and I just want my son to have a bit of the EQ experience before EQ Next comes out. I would like him to understand how challenging EQ was and how good it felt when you achieved a goal that required a lot of personal effort and determination. I want him to know what it is like to equip that Jaundiced Bone Bracer for the first time, or to see those feathers dangling from his spear. However pathetic it might be, my experiences in EQ are part of my life. The first character I ever created was a Barbarian Warrior that lasted only a few minutes. It was night and I was mostly blind and I fell off the town dock and drowned. Twenty minutes later I was a High Elf enchanter, with better night vision, siting outside the gates of Felwithe. I was just siting and watching in wonderment as people cast spells on huge bats, wasps, and wolves. I did this for the better part of an hour as I tried to figure out how to memorize a spell. I want to share my experiences, the wonder and amazement, with my son, but that world no longer exists. It will never exist again. It was not just a new game, it was that we where all simultaneously new players in a dramatically new type of game. It was a unique moment in time that is not repeatable, not because there will be no new games, but because there will never again be a group of players who are also all new. So what do we do? Vox gives us the opportunity to form our own group with a pair mercenaries, but experience flows like water gushing from a fire hydrant. Last night I did the Penance quest just to get a weapon bad enough that I could work on 2hb without going up three levels. I think we will try a progressive server and I will pick a class that will support whatever class John chooses. He is now playing a necromancer in the tutorial, but sitting on your backside watching your warrior mercenary kill your mobs is not exactly playing a necromancer.
There is nothing forcing you to use a mercenary and all the problems you mentioned exist on the progression servers except the mercenaries. For now.
I don't think Hota is advocating the progression server. Not even a little bit from what I see. It was a great post though for those of us with nostalgia.
Post was a bit confusing but it sounds like he sure didn't enjoy vox and is willing to try the progression server to experience some of the excitement old EQ brought us
It doesn't sound like he has much hope for the progression servers either which are currently on Depths of Darkhollow I believe and therefore nothing at all like classic EQ.
Nothing will be the classic EQ but no mercenaries and people to group with is the closest you will get. And your comment on playing on Vox with no mercenary was pretty lame heh. Good luck finding a group without a merc and have fun soloing to lvl 60 lol
Well, for those of you Returning Players still reading, by now you have enough info to make your decision on what server to join. You know what your looking for by coming back to EQ Try the progression server, try the regular servers and see what you like. Both have different benefits it just depends what your looking for. I didn't create this post to have some big discussion on what's best and what's not.I'm simply making sure the progression server doesn't go unnoticed. It's not like your signing a year long contract that you must complete =P Have a Great Day Everyone =D
I think it is true when others have said that the game lives at the high levels. At least that is where the population is on most of the servers, and I can understand how most returning players just want to get there as fast as they can. If the idea was to make it possible for a new character to join the high level game with little effort then SOE has accomplished that end, but only at the expense of destroying the experience of the game at lower levels by adding mercenaries and gear drops that are just incredible compared to the gear available in the original content. Personally, I think it would have been better to simply let people choose their starting level up to about the maximum level - 20%. It would have been better to allow people the option of skipping the content they did not want to play rather than trivializing that content for everyone. It is certainly true that a person with self discipline could just refuse to equip the new gear and forgo the use of mercenaries, but then EQ is a community game and much of the enjoyment of the game comes from the shared struggle for accomplishment. There were friends present when I looted my tear in the Plane of Fear, friends to share that experience, and not just a robot. It is community that made EQ an amazing game. I think it is easy to say there "is nothing forcing you to use a mercenary", but if I am not going to be part of the server's culture then what is the point of playing? I had just over 134 days played when my Shaman made lvl 60 when lvl 60 was the maximum level. A friend with a warrior and I ground out that last level together, it took more than a month, but I had Malo and Torpor in the bank and a guild at my back constantly cheering for both of us. In any event, I am grateful to you in helping me clarify my own thinking. Safe travels, Hota
And thanks for this post Nick. The progression server is something I'm definitely interested in and highly considering.
I think what is lame is making a comment as stupid as the one implying there are no groups on Vox and that you can't get a group without a merc there. Have you played on Vox? You know the "Preferred Newbie Server?" I have. Let's be adults though.
The point of mercenaries and improved gear was actually because they weren't getting enough new players on the servers and those that were, were often unable to find groups. All older games are top heavy, and without a constant influx of new players it is impossible to keep enough people to group with at low levels. The progression servers and Vox are slightly different for the moment as Vox is a preferred newbie server and so draws a lot of new and returning players, and progression servers for people looking to try something slightly different from the normal servers. This makes it easier to find groups at multiple levels. Being part of the community and culture has little to do with your level, even on normal servers.
My son an I started on Fippy this weekend and we played quite a bit. He is playing an Iksar Necromancer and I am playing an Iksar Shaman. We both skipped the tutorial. I have a few observations. Experience is very fast even on Fippy and my Shaman is already level 20 despite the lack of gear. I think the experience should be cut in at least half. John's Necromancer is lvl 17 as his Mom makes him go to bed at a reasonable hour while glaring at his Dad with cold, angry eyes. This is very fast leveling especially considering that our activities includes a lot of work on quests and some work on trade skills, such as collecting silk and sharpening rusty weapons. John is working on his 4th Necromancer Scull Cap and I am working on the 2nd Shaman Cudgel quest. I failed a pottery combine (skill only 42) late last night and will need to hunt down another "a rogue shaman" in The Field of Bone. I did, however, get a fine steal mace drop in Kurns so I am no longer swinging a crudely shaped block of wood or poking with a rusty short spear. There are a lot more low levels playing on Fippy then on Vox and we saw a few people in all of the zones around Cabilis. This was not the case on Vox. We even got a few unsolicited invites to group in The Field of Bone and in Kurn's Tower. I am not reporting that there are a lot of low levels, but there are a few and defiantly more than on Vox. There was a discussion in Fippy general chat last night about tutorial gear and apparently we will see almost nothing but people in tutorial blue until about level 60. I saw a Jaundiced Bone Breastplate advertised in chat for only 1k. I think the tutorial gear has completely destroyed the economy for low level crafted items and drops on Fippy. It might be that the situation is somewhat better on Vox, at least with respect to drops at mid levels as people upgrade their tutorial gear with defiant gear. John died twice last night while solo hunting in the Swamp of No Hope for a Creeper Cabbage quest drop. The first time he had a frog beating on him and his leech spell brought him back up to his feet twice before he was killed. He could see a "man eating creeper" while he died. The second time was not long after and we had to have a short chat about rage and frustrating in EQ. We also need to talk about the Feign Death spell. This type of experience is old-school EQ, and, to a great extent, not available to any low level character on any live server with great gear and a mercenary. +1 Fippy. Fippy would be great if they would just get rid of the tutorial and cut the experience way back. The experience is so fast at low levels that there is almost no fear of death and the tutorial gear is terribly destructive to the low level economy. With tutorial gear, the primary motivation for grouping is experience as any equipment that drops is likely to be just vendor trash. Our primary source of income is Bone Chips which we are selling for a bit over 1pp each. The downside for me is that I had truly wanted to play a Monk and that would have been fine on Vox with mercenaries, but a Shaman is better on Fippy to support John's Necromancer. Also, on Vox with two characters and two mercenaries, I think it likely that we would have been able to do our 1.0 Epics with just our own group. +1 Vox. I am not trying to tell anyone how to play EQ, or what server choice might be best for them. I am simply reporting my experience so that others might have a bit more information to help them make a rational and informed server choice. Personally, I would love to see a new progression server with no tutorial and a significantly slower experience rate. Safe Travels, Hota
Hota, it's definitely great to hear your experiences. The one thing that probably has to be kept in mind, however, is this is a progression server which means as things occurred in real/original EQ in terms of progression, etc. so they will will appear here. (Your experience with the server would have been much more to your liking had you started at the very begining).
