Vet thinking of coming back with young child

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Endaar, Sep 3, 2018.

  1. Endaar Augur

    I played EQ for roughly nine years on and off, going back as far as May 1999. Founded a guild, raided casually, raided end-game, been an officer in multiple guilds, etc. Pretty much seen the breadth of what EQ has to offer, although obviously not all the content. Last time I played was during Rain of Fear, and at the time was mostly doing T3/T4 group content with a couple of friends. I no longer know anyone playing.

    My main is a 100 Wiz, well equipped for the RoF era but I'm sure far behind the curve now. Other than the Wizard I've only ever played a friend's Bard from roughly level 75 to 95 and have no experience with other classes.

    Anyway, I have a 7yo that has become an avid gamer, and the thought keeps crossing my mind to get him into EQ. I think a heroic character would throw too much at him at once, so I was contemplating starting us both over, something I've never done in all these years.

    Just wanted to get some opinions from current players as to whether it's worth the bother. I'm not really looking for a guild or even groups at this point, it would mainly be something for the two of us to play. Also would appreciate any duo suggestions, again keeping in mind his age. I was leaning towards playing a SK myself but am flexible.

    Appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

    Endaar Flaashpoint
    Wizard of Karana
    IblisTheMage likes this.
  2. ptah Augur

    i will be the first.. welcome back.

    On the real subject. If you secondary system or son has his own already.. I favor the attempt. EQ1 and starting at level 1.. you could run free to play for awhile.. a long while if that something your thinging of doing.

    I would love the time explaining the lore, relearning it myself etc. Filters in general and time limits are suggested but use your judgement... the mega quest here is get mom to be the healer.. lol.

    Enjoy it. and if its not fun.. move on. Omg I would so be that dwarf.. back in my day.. we
  3. Sokki Still Won't Buff You!!

    With mercenaries, the lower levels should be pretty easy for the 2 of you to progress through. I would say any of the DPS classes for your son if you plan to play a tank. Melee or Caster could be his preference. Melee is probably more straight forward at the lower lvls.
  4. bigpapa Augur

    well , with a mage you would have solid tank , dps and pulling ( via COH --->> call of heroes ) covered.
    and mage is easy to play , send pet and nuke.
  5. IblisTheMage Augur

    If you play on Euro time, I can hook you up with some pp on Antonius Bayle, the current Euro server (saw Karana in your sig, assumed it could be the server).

    I agree on the start-with-the-tutorial advice.

    Mages are complex and delicate flowers to play... but yeah, mage is a good choice for a 7 year old. :-D

    WB
  6. jeskola pheerie

    Don't do it. Take your 7 year old kid outside.
    Feznik, Thrillho and Xikteny like this.
  7. Dawdle Augur

    Mixed on this one. Doing the D&D thing, which is sort of what EQ is, can be a good in some ways but not if you if you don't manage the time spent on it every well.

    Going fishing, teaching your children how to camp, hiking, sports, mountain biking, skate boarding, sewing, real life archery, gun safety, gardening, ect. ect. and other life skills are probably more important.

    EQ does have an entertainment value that you can mold into life lessons such as dealing with @ssHats, how to be a decent person, conflict resolution, computer programing, social engineering... <---only 7 but kids these days are rocking DefCon at 12 years old.

    It's on you how you manage the time you spend doing anything but the time I spend in game would have to dramatically change if I was doing it with the presence of mind of being a parent. I say go for it but good grades are more important although so is being happy.

    I think you know the answer and there's no reason for you to ask our 2 cents here on the trollum/forum but maybe I have left you with some ideas to run with. Being a parent is a lot of work... GL&HH
  8. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    I'd go with a beastlord for the child and a shaman or a warrior for yourself. Shir Val is a beautful city to start in, with some very interesting quests (helps with reading if you can get them interested in the lore).The tutorial is a must, helps them to learn how to play and also gets them reading, if they are anything like my daughter they hate reading books at that age!

    My daughter really never got interested in playing EQ, though she was a little but younger than yours and really wasn't interested in games only wanted the TV. :rolleyes: Though she did enjoy her time running around plane of knowledge as a dwarf rogue, doing somersaults everywhere.

    While I've suggested a Vah Shir beastlord you may want to let your child pick which race/class they want to be and pick a class which complements it. Its no good making them play something they really have no interest in. Most kids though like the kitty race and the pet is just too cute to miss. :)

    I love the early EQ game, so many different leveling paths, something to while a way an hour or so while the weather is rubbish and going outside is not an option. :( Something different you can do together, but also something they can maybe do on their own with the help of mercs.

    Personally I'd set a time limit for each session and get a timer so you stick to it, it is far to easy to get carried away with EQ and play for far longer than you intended.

    Enjoy :)
  9. So Happy Augur

    Give test server a shot, you don't have to pay for all access and will have ex-pacs up to EoK. Can also run the tutorial to get acclimated then /testbuff to 25, with all your spells and some starter gear, if you like. Its perfect for what it seems you want to do. You can copy (not move) your toon from your live server by logging in and doing a /testcopy.
  10. Tucoh Augur

    If your seven year old doesnt get into EQ, play fortnite with them instead.
  11. Jumbur Improved Familiar

    There is nothing wrong with playing computer games with your kid, I have fond memories of playing "monkey island" and "eye of the beholder" with my dad, decades ago. Its probably what got me interested in computers in the first place. :)
    At the very least, it will be good reading practice.

    As for class/race choice, let your kid decide, and select something for yourself that compliment his choice.
  12. Scila Augur

    My smaller nephew (9) and I will sometimes play when he is over and we aren't doing board games or something else. His comments are ... why are all your toons girls and why all high lvl. He always picks the bst to play and does really well with it. Think its the combo tank, spells, and pet that he likes and the kittie look (more gender neutral than the rest). He picks up on what to do when there are more than one in camp which surprised me but he has other games he plays. I would suggest starting fresh like the rest say and let them try a pet class.
    Yinla likes this.
  13. Tiggold Augur

    I don't see this being something to hold attention from a seven year old but good luck to you.
  14. Scorrpio Augur

    Big question is: what does your kid play? Most games today are nowhere close to the complexity of EQ. There are a lot of underpinning mechanics to keep track of. My then-12 year old daughter who is into Minecraft, RoBlox, Dragon City and such expressed interest in EQ, I set her up an account in her laptop, along with a nice integrated custom UI that is far better than the default. But the whole system of inventory management, gear, loot, containers, what to keep, what to sell, need to buy spells, scribe, determine what to keep loaded (she expressed interest in a mage), managing skills, mana etc etc etc.... she found it too overwhelming and lost interest.

    See what your kid plays. What actions he needs to perform there, and what things he needs to keep track of. That should give you some idea.
  15. hellohello123 Lorekeeper

    I think EQ is too time consuming and addictive for kids. It's like giving a drug to your kid. Don't do it. Let him grow up in the outdoors and do fun things with some casual gaming on the side. Get him started on Divinity Original Sin 2 and good single player games, that way when he has something important to do, he can just switch it off. When he is older you can try him out on a new MMO. Maybe Pantheon will be out by then.
  16. Aurastrider Augur

    I think if its played as EQ bonding time where they only play with you it's not a bad idea. You can limit their playing time this way. Pick a healer or a caster dps. If healer also use a merc healer to offset the skill curve while they focus more on the bonding aspect and less on pumping out the next generation of EQ raiders. The key is to have fun with it and work as a virtual team. It's ok if they are not the best player you have grouped with as long as you are both having fun. Fathers take their kids fishing knowing at that age they are going to lack skill and ability. You don't have to replace other bonding activities with EQ you can incorporate as many as time allows. EQ could be that Saturday evening activity when the weather is bad and you would both rather hang out inside. It doesn't need to be a daily activity like most of us have come to enjoy and replace other activities exclusively to play.
  17. Grove Augur

    Our guild has a history of very young members, but just a few. In the distant past, there was a sibling set with father. They all left game for a while. Now father is back and son too. One of the things I do in game is assist newbies. In my journeys I met and invited to guild someone who turned out to be eight years old. A very good player. Understands well, communicates well. He has a real-life friend; invited him also. Regrettably, I cannot say as much for this friend; he just does not catch on as quickly. But I think I remember that he has some kind of disability. I am sad that this pair was in game for just a day or two and has not been around since.
  18. Gnomereaper Augur

    I had a guild where one of our main clerics, we always presumed he was an old man because of his maturity and tendency to not chat. We talked a bit and worked together, eventually one night people were talking about ages and he was being talkative said he was 10. Like everyone literally said nothing, and we then went on to praise his maturity level.

    Still to this day, I felt as a player he was one of the best clerics I've known. Not the most skilled, but in terms of team work, niceness, maturity, and spot on effectiveness as a package he was there.

    Also had an 11 year old raid as our main tank for a while in another guild. Worst thing that happened was when he stated his age, some of the parental figures in the guild got more "parental" and tended to get flighty with him. It was funny seeing a 30 something argue with an 11 year old in guild chat over game mechanics, mob placement, and raid strategy.... and him be right.

    I'd just stay with your kid, and keep close tabs on things that young. Seven is too young to raid, maturity wise 10 could raid if the kid is mature and able to handle the complexity of the game. Seven though would be too young to guild with some guilds as well because of the context of guild chat dependent on the guild. Some family guilds would be great, but I'd veer away from raiding guilds for the time being until the child became more life seasoned.

    Fortnite so far I just heard about and read a bit on seems like a good product that's similar to Goldeneye for the N64 is something to consider. World of Warcraft would have the better graphics and the better dedicated player base with an influx of teenagers into that game and young children being rare typically the child of a WoW player.

    Everquest is mostly older players, I don't really see in general chat the "raunchy chat" that you might've seen in guild chats years ago. The filter does a pretty good job of filtering swear words and such. Going the route of MMO's and anything online in general is that your child may can and will be exposed to concepts earlier than usual in some circumstances or have questions. The schoolyard is no exception or a child that plays with older children.

    In terms of classes, I would not suggest a cleric.

    Shadowknight is an excellent base class using a healer mercenary.

    Classes for the child:

    1. Warrior (simple and straight forward)
    2. Magician, I'd prefer this because he can solo when he wants to with a healer merc and goof off without really having to get in depth on mechanics. The complexity creep doesn't really happen until 80's but when you move through the 50's and 60's you get a lot of the class definition spells.
    3. Shaman-Shaman get buffs, can melee okay, take hits, and do a lot of cool stuff. I've met young players who enjoyed shaman. Plus with Canni dance might be hard to learn early on, the ability to go longer term in playing and more aggressive suits the play style of younger players as well.

    Mage and shaman are what I'd personally recommend. Warriors without gear in the later half of the game get more frustrating to play. Simple early on, but the lack of utility and tendency to require gear makes them unsuitable to casuals who want to top end faster. A Magician's basic needs are fairly easy and the pet gear means your tank is never without the best gear available. Shamans do amazing things.

    Berserker is straight forward melee dps but have to learn disc cycles. Rogue has Stealth of Shadows and might be an interesting choice and the complexity creep isn't too bad.

    Cleric is a great class, but it takes a special kid like the 10 year old I described earlier to play it. Once you get Complete Heal at 49, the game gets screwball and it's a horribly boring class until 75 when the healing tools catch up to the content to make healing interesting again. Granted with modern gear you can bypass the use of CH. Wizard you might as well play a mage.

    I would say Necromancer would be cool if they like the whole skeleton pet thing and that class can do amazingly good stuff through all the years and solo well with pet.

    I'd say personally:

    Shaman-Ogre for frontal stun immunity or Iksar for Iksar epic and AC bonus that's always scaling each level increase

    When you do questing get Scalp of the Ghoul Lord and use loyalty vendor points to buy a Golden Ticket and get a dark elf mask and do the Crown of Deceit quest. That bypasses most old world faction problems if he has his heart set on an old world task.

    Mage-Gnome or Drakkin

    Necromancer-Iksar (Demi-Lich Skull Cap) or Drakkin


    On the shadowknight:

    Play gnome if you want to have tradeskills otherwise play Iksar for the extra AC and Greenmist quest.

    I'd start in Crescent Reach (The Serpent Spine expansion/Drakkin starting city that anyone can start in) and just go through that expansion's progress and take some deviations to get 1.0 and 2.0 epics. There are ways to increase your iksar factions as well to do the cultural epics.

    DO NOT START HIM IN NERIAK. I'm just warning you now, I had to get a family member who wanted a dark elf was one of the most frustrating things.
  19. Aurastrider Augur


    You make some great suggestions but I have to strongly disagree with this part and here is why. Out of all of the classes available a cleric will be the most strait forward. Minimal movement involved. Minimal mouse clicking involved. Minimal number of complex button pushing involved. When we consider the age of the child the less complex the class is from these standpoints would provide the least amount of initial frustration and rage quitting which some children are prone to do especially at that age. A simple hot button setup to target the tank, a couple of healing buttons and a buff macro and they are set. Initially learning to move might be a challenge so anything melee or tank wise I would personally avoid. If the idea is a purely father son bonding experience and not producing the next end game raider a cleric is the best class imo. A mage would be my second choice but there is more room for error in terms of accidently casting or assisting to soon and botching a pull. With the use of a healer merc on top of the child playing a cleric initially at least they will learn the ropes with a safety net being another healer to correct poor timing and pushing wrong buttons. As they develop skill and become more familiar with the game they should then consider either dropping the healer or moving up to the next rank of difficulty in class choice. Just my two cents but overall I think your suggestions are rather good.
  20. Gnomereaper Augur

    Depends on the games the kid is playing as well, while they do not have the abstract reasoning capacity of an older child, the child does have mechanical understanding underpinning of games. The learning curve for Everquest at level 1-5 is low and progresses in complexity over time. Crescent Reach teaches all the basics ranging from finding quest NPC's to vendoring.

    Clerics from 1-50 are AD@D clerics. You either like them or you don't. And Complete Heal is a 10 second casting time spell that has lockout times for actually doing something. Basically, the Everquest cleric was the design choice of HOW NOT TO DESIGN A CLASS. Dungeons and Dragons had also completely redid clerics in 3.0 to attend to the healer bot problem faced by clerics as well. World of Warcraft designed priests and paladins with the intent to not create another EQ cleric.

    Clerics are very fun if you enjoy healing, but not until about 65 do the tools diversify when you get DVA and 2.0. The mechanical enjoyment of the class pre 39 is different post 39. While you can play without CH, you're still going to use it sometimes.

    A post 75 cleric is a different game than a 65 cleric, while the "Velious Era" mechanics of cleric you either REALLY love it or you don't. If the kid is into "click, click kill" which is the tendency in game design then the cleric class isn't for them.

    I'm just going to go with something different than mechanical complexity, the kid has a "virtual buddy" with the mage that he gets to command around the same with shaman pet in 30's. Shamans start off really simple, and grow in greater mechanical complexity as you level. Clerics are a wonderful class, but also simply do not have the utility of other classes. A shaman has all their utility by ten.

    Beastlord or Shaman:

    Spirit of Wolf-Kid gets to run around at top speeds around zones
    Levitation-Kid gets to "fly around"
    Invisibility-Sneak around
    Pet-"cool something I get to be in control of" plus it's a dog, which if the kid is into animals can play as one

    The races for cleric are kinda meh to be honest in looking at what children typically want outside of a froglock. If his son likes Cats, he can play a Vah Shir with a dog (shaman) or cat (beastlord).

    Plus ogres, trolls, iksars, vah shir, and barbarians would probably appeal to more of the child's imaginations. Ajani in Magic the Gathering isn't extremely popular with adults, he's basically a Vah Shir cleric-shaman in that game world, but the popularity among the kids who play the game love him. Because he's a cat and cats are cool to kids.

    I'm thinking personally Vah Shir Beastlord might be a thing starting in Crescent Reach. Kid can solo and has a special buddy that he can level with and watch grow. Each new spell level the cat gets bigger maxing out at around 65. Plus has all the utility effects.

    Cleric might be simple, but if the kid wants to mess around online while Dad is watching and doing house work he's going to get bored. Beastlord, Shaman, Magician are probably the best. Mechanical complexity isn't too bad, especially if the child enjoys that.

    And to be honest, if the kid can play Pokemon and defeat the Elite Four, this game isn't anymore complex than Pokemon 1-50.

    And clerics really suck at soloing early on, and are a co-dependent class. They're fun grouping with people, but if he's stuck lfging it's not fun versus a kung fu kitty with a buddy.