Top 5 worst zones ever (come make your own list)

Mine goes as followes.

Edgewater Drains:
Bad pathing and mob placement... expect to lose a good about of shards in this zone.

Blackburrow: Invisable mobs and sucky wandering mobs.

Stormhold: Well just about everything sucks here but nothing is too bad... just expect to lose several shards if you don't have a perfect group.

Crypt of Betrayel: Mobs coming out of no where and severaly bunched up.

Fallen Gate: Almost no safe spots in which to pull that don't quickly run out of safe rang mobs... Oh yeah quaters are too close for good scout usage.

My number one pick...Zek, just getting off the docks and out the gates is a test of wills sometimes. Lag is bad, area is glitchy. Then there's the Deathfist Citidel, good ol' DFC. Anyone who's been there knows the horrors of the DFC...major lag, causing linkdeaths, invisible mobs suddenly attacking or just appearing out of nowhere (at almost every step of the way up till the last stretch to the arena fight with Fyst). Never really thought much of Blackburrow and Stormhold was a fun zone just hated how mobs ended up in walls (an early lesson to how alot of zones would be later down the road). So, numero uno is DFC with Zek a very close second....for me.......

May not be very constructive to add this, but I have to second this post, DFC is absolutely the worst zone in game. Issues?
1) Extreme lag reported by all players I've grouped with in this zone
2) Frequent zone crashes
3) Mob pathing

All I can think of at the moment...I do appreciate the changes to SSOY Heritage Quest in the zone. Potential to be an outstanding zone, maybe one of the best in the game, totally ruined by the zone issues.

Here's a thought on two zones I'm not particularly fond of - DFC and Drafling:

1) When I think of a beehive, I think of huge swarms of nasties and the chaos that goes with it. Yet when I went into Drafling, nearly everything was a beefy single heroic mob. The social agro was also pretty annoying, and I think it was to give the hive feel, but a couple adds of mobs that strong and you're hosed. I don't mind that, except that the mobs often get lost in walls and ceilings, putting pulling and placement tactics out the window. In any case, Drafling should be swarms of little mobs, not a handful of huge mobs.

2) When I think of an orc stronghold, I DON'T think of hoards of little mobs running like chickens who've misplaced their heads. I DO think of lots of beefy orcish guards to contend with - guys who rose to the top of their class and have the glory of defending their leader. When you combine the groupx2 nature of DFC with the utter chaos and technology issues with 800 mobs coming at you at once, you lose the fun factor.

So I say this: Switch these zone concepts around! Change DFC into a place where 2 groups to fight big, beefy orcs, and change Drafling into a place where single groups take on screaming masses of bees and bixies.

I bet you'll see higher traffic in both zones if you do

Zek - For an outdoor zone, there are too many "walls" so to speak. It is very annoying to get anywhere in this zone, because there is only one way (path) to your destination.

Stormhold - Neat zone, but you have to have a deathwish to try and join an exp group there. Agro mobs around every corner, and the whole place is very tight corridoors.

Nektulos Forest - While it is a cool zone, and did a great job of re-creating the dark and creepy feeling that this particular forest is supposed to have, I have never found it fun to hunt here. The zone is naturally dark and foggy, and that is during the day. There are a lot of trees in this zone, and it is very possible that there is an agressive mob standing right on the other side of a tree, and you will not see him until its too late. Overall, I dislike this zone because of low visibility. Also, I have the same complaint as with Zek. There are too many "walls" in my way when I am trying to get around this zone, and the map does not accurately show where those walls are.

MajDul - A neat city. It looks great. Capturing towers for your faction is a nice feature. But I am so sick and tired of turning a corner and being attacked by some agressive NPC. Palace sweepers, dervish theives, guards, gamblers, etc. It is frustrating to have to use stealth/invis to travel around this city without frustration. Also, once again, TOO MANY WALLS in my way. The court of truth is not far from the entrance, but I have to take a round-about path if I want to go there. I am probably not alone when I say that I was VERY lost in MajDul, the first couple times I went there, despite being a small zone WITH a map.

Pillars of Flame - This is on my list because of the very dense populations of mobs throughout most of this zone. Everwhere you go, you are surrounded by lots of mobs, and they are almost all agressive. The most frustrating thing about this zone are the agressive solo mobs that roam around the group mobs. I form up a group of players to hunt level 57+ heroic encounters, and while we are trying to do that, we keep getting attacked by these level 50 - 55 solo encounters (such as those little fire tornados and snakes). These mobs serve NO function other then to irritate groups of players. The entrance door into Ancients Table has mobs spawned RIGHT THERE, and they will kill you when you zone out, even if you have invis up before you exit. I hate how half of the harpies are "jaggedfeathers" which can see invis, making that area extra frustrating to visit. Lastly, there four Carpet Routes in this zone, yet three of them all go to the same general area in the northern area of the map. What a waste. These should be spread out more around the zone.

I can't really say I have a worst zone, they are all pretty decent.

If I had to pick I'd mainly choose those that cause me to have to change my video settings to play in.

1. DFC - went there for the first time the other day. I was 2 boxing, my best machine was ground to a halt, while the low machine didn't skip a beat. Certainly something in the high settings that is not good for this zone, also seemed to happen in the outdoor areas only.
2. CT - When underground had cases of really bad framerates, but didn't appear to be as bad last night although still a zone I need to lower my settings on to get through.
3. Zek - getting off the docks is a pain and makes you dread going back there.
4. QH - same the dock area pulls you back to 3-4 FPS where the rest of the zone sits about 30FPS.
5. Nek - now I did alot of quests in this zone, the big gripe I have is the running you have to do to get from point A to B (alot of zones have this, just seems to annoy you more in Nek) Hopefully the Griffon towers will make this movement alot better.

Going to put Lavastorm in here somewhere becuase it is a beautiful looking zone, but you never see more than the first 100m of it.

Now for the best zones.
1. Drafling Tower - Loved the uniqueness of this zone, always enjoyed coming here. Some suggestions though, the bees outside to get there make the respawn slightly longer, at the correct level is you didn't have an optimum group was almost immpossible to get rid of them. Also Itemise the zone with some good loot or some more quests etc. Need something more to make people want to venture here.
2. Runnyeye - Even before it was improved it was a good zone. Plenty of named to go after, wide spaces but still had that dungeon feel, quests gallore. Actually starts out with solo mobs and moves to group, amazing not all zones follow this rule. Although 1 problem there, on the first bridge is a group encounter which puts a halt to any ability to get to the solo mobs on the other side.
3. Rivervale - Not sure but something about this zone is fun, could just be the halfling atmosphere.

Id first like to say glad ppl taking this as a truely constructive approach and i think will help the DEV make some much NEEDED changes

My experience of things that need a look at:

1.... DFC zone is laged bad mobs pop thru walls and makes it so ppl simply dont want to hunt there
2....RV very nice zone lots of places to kill but lag always keep me from going there even for quests
3....Dock area in Zek is insaine for Lag as well -- sure ppl wouldnt mind a hole new dock design to fix this
4....Lavastrom Great layout and idea just at times think not used do to TOO many mobs on paths trying to get to any decent camp spots --maybe decrease some the mobs on certain paths and add more areas of interset (ring events, maybe another instance zone, or something to encourage ppl to hunt here more-- same could be applied to Soleye)
5....CT zone is fine just think not many visit it due to long run
6....Lag in Clefts of Rujik some spots ok some its like ever step u think u gonna lag and fall off ledge
7...Bloodlines a very cool concept but the fact that it greyed out so fast before u finished most of the content made it only blah.. . make it scale in difficualty and increase loot this might bring it back to life


Overall alot of good zones just have lag issues and BIGGEST thing that would help fix alot of issues is overhalling some of the older zone by making them scale in lvl, difficualty, and loot all the way to 60.. this would give end gamers more content and bring life back to old world zones

1.) Nektulos Forest . The entrance from Commonlands is nice at first, with the grouping of skeletons. THis would eb conducive to grouping in the zone as its a nice spot to solo before heading in. THe problem lies in that to get deeper there are really only a few spots early on to hunt in your mid 20's. If your not hunting the stable Owlbear Heroics there is nothing else to do. Every other spot has groupings of aggro bats which fly up in the trees so you can not see them coming in the Forest. GOod atmosphere with the bats.. but its drives people away after the 3rd try of hunting and being aggroed by the bats. Also the spacing on mobs in the pockets through the zone is sparse. Above the ramp and below there are many places with hardly any mobs in large areas. Basically you can not travel anywhere in the zone to get into EXP spots as its extremely dangerous to travel. Compared to TS where at lvl 20 you have a few "options" for traveling to hunting spots often through lower aggro or spaced out mobs with a decent edge to roam past.

2) Stormhold. Fantastic zone!!! Love the atmosphere, but... You can not make it anywhere without having to deal with aggro mobs in a wall you cant see but see you fine. There are also a couple rooms where getting past is a nightmare. The 2nd level where you need to go deeper requires at one poitn that you clear 2 groups of skeletons at once, a feat not easily accomomplished by any level based group.

3) Edgewater and the zone right above it. Painfully difficult to get a group for these dungeons as there is really no location for people to solo stuff that within level range that you could hunt for a bit till a group showed to try the harder stuff. I would expect a few rooms at first of maybe one ups or non arrows at least. Maybe skip putting any down arrows so that a 2 man group could duo them for decent exp. I cant stand being in a nice duo group waiting on bigger group and all we can find is single down arrows.

4) To further strengthen the Stormhold thing, any dungeon where mobs slip into the walls because the halls are to narrow.. is painfull. I just dont see tons of people there. I found that Fallen gate was actually very populated with folks. Not always crowded but could often find 2 groups hutning the erly on. Nobody goes deeper than the first Triple up section of undead though. Just seems like there is NO safe area to pull as someone mentioned.

I would like to stres the fact that safe pulling areas are conducive to grouping. People need to AFK. people go Link dead. Zones that are chock full of roaming mobs like ZEK and having to constantly be "carefull" just dont get as much action as the more fun spot(often the ones with nice safe pulling areas with lots of mobs )

1: Clefts of Rujark - This would be an absolutly lovely zone if only there wasn't such an issue with staying active with good graphics in this zone.

2: DFC - The same as 1.

Humm, well I can't think of 3 other zones, I don't generally have much of an issue with most. Just those that affect your game play (for me at least these are CoR and DFC.).

Deathfist Citadel: Could be the best ever but WAaaaayy to many mobs cause it to clunk and cause more deaths then wins
Lavastorm: So hard to get where you want to go it's not worth the effort. quests in here get deleted because I'd rather go somewhere else and do better
Solusk Eye: Love this zone but it's rediculious to get to the good parts. While a teleporter was a good idea for lavastorm (kinda) I think one here could help but would need a level minmum so that lower level peeps (45 and under) can't just breeze past the content.
Crypt of Betrayal: By the time you get high enough to come here there's way better zones with way better quests, way better loot, and way easier to get to.
The condemed catacombs: Fine zone and the I like progression of how you have to do things BUT the 500,000 mobs makes it suck not only due to the chugging of the computer but because I want to do fun things and not repeatedly fight the same goblins over and over and over for 5 hours just to get to the end only to find a named mob that is going to require me to have a raid to kill (since the rest can be done with a single group this stinks and lets you down).

I don't have any least favorite zones per se (though I don't really like Nek forest and lavastorm), I'll just list my biggest annoyences with particulaer zones

Nek- others have said it, but to reitterate- there are numerous small hills that look climable but aren't. This makes the zone a right pain to move around in. The increase of daylight and griphon towers do make the zone much more enjoyable though.

Lavastorm- the default music sounds exactly like combat music. This is extremely annoying. The heroic pather at the entrance can be annoying, though I usually invis past him.

Zek- The geometrically closest revive point is often the geographically farthest away. For example- there are places near death fist citadel where if you are killed, you will revive at the green hood lake- resulting in a legnthy fight back to your shard as you have to go around the entire map. Otherwise I do like this zone, though it would be nice to see some progress made by the greenhoods and the far sees company. (greenhoods nead bedfing up- they are all down arrow verses a horse of heroic horde of orcs )

Nek castle- the epic nightblood can't move, so the encounter never properly resets, and causes people to get stuck in combat as near as I can figure (only place the problem still affects me at any rate). The billy spawn problem (a percent chance to spawn in an instanced quest zone !?!)- was this fixed in the HQ revamp?- made this zone an annoyance. An internal access quest to bypass the everling lockets (once completed at least once) would also be a nice addition. Alot of quests in there seem ment to be completed at the time you get them (fleshripper, the everling chest), and are not terribly clear on that.

Non zone specific- mobs that can't hurt you but aggro from exceptionally far away or aggro you and are more annoying than dangerous. Bears in TS. Shrillers in Nek. Wolves in Everfrost. Caimen on the beach in sinking sands (I swear, I was going to roll a tailor to deal with all the hides till I discoveredd there were no alligator shoes). Allowing a choice of the two closest revive points for zones with more than one would be good too, like on the island of refuge. Instanced zones without the choice of reviving inside are bad.

Favorite things:

Everfrost- this, to me, feels right for zone design. Excepting the sharks at the entrance area (fairly avoidable) the entrance area is geared towards solo/small groups and gets progressivly more group oreiented as you move away from the entrance. It does feal sort of cramped, but so does lavastorm, feerrot, zek, nektulous and all of the dungeouns, and adds to the atmosphere.

Thundering steppes- the area feels like high plains, and the music is very heroic. Only thing I owuld change about it isn't iin this zone- the gnolls in antonica affect centaur faction- for a character starting in qyenos or betraying to it, this trivializes the centaur/settler strife. The seperation of heroic and non heroic content is well thought out.

Storm hold- One of the most complex dungeouns in the game- aside from pathing issues and the scion quest (camping epic mobs in the low 20's late teens turns people off) this is a great dungeoun.

Blackburrow- I like the theme music. Decent design, though solo/heroic content mixed a little to much in the miners area (havne't been back since the dungoun was redone.


Desert of flames- not so much the zones (thouh sinking sands is a great mix of content) so much the long story arc quests that you get in the xpack, that you work on for all ten levels it provides.

**REMOVED INAPPROPRIATE COMMENTS**
Message Edited by Raijinn Thunderguard on 11-21-2005 10:24 AM

DFC is number one. It's a cool concept ruined by horrible lag.
Lavastorm is another really cool zone, but is totally devoid of any content, which greatly diminishes it's worth, especially now that DoF is out. I think there's more quests available at the docs in Sinking Sands than in all of Lavastorm.

According to Jindrack, you're quite wrong. But thanks for trolling.

Lower level player, but here's my .02:

- Edgewater Drains: the sewers could be cool places, but the end up being monotonous and boring. Same tiles, lack of interesting features. The old Freeport catacombs were a mix of dirt tunnels, underground rogue cellars, canals and old aquaducts (anyone remember the drowned citizens), plus a few areas opening into sea caves (with sharks). Edgewater (and Serpent Sewer) could be made more interesting by not recycling graphics as heavily, and adding in some alternatign design (first stone-lined tunnels, then hard-packed dirt and rock, then tiled aquaduct, etc.) with some interesting features and mob placement. Some verticle movement would be nice, everything is kind of flat. Down-Below suffers the same thing, too.
- Waling Caves: The 90 minute (at least) timer on the Advisor means that the entire lower content of the caves is closed unless you are lucky enough (or bored enough) to camp the Advisor. It would be far better if the door in this room was opened w/o a key and the key from the Advisor opened another, deeper level, or if the key dropped off any random mob, instead. Imagine if half of Blackburrow wasn't accessible unless you camped a mob (and I have sometimes camped the advisor for a long time without success, too..assuming the room wasn't already camped).
- Nektulos Forest: Potential to be a great zone, but for a few things. Visually, it is way too muted. Yes, it is indeed supposed to be gloomy, but it comes off as too washed out, with the colors just blurring to a grey-green. It needs something to jazz it up. Marsh wisps (non-combat) that glow orange, yellow and purple, floating around... more saturation on the trees... Also, the content is a bit rough on non-stealthers. It is one thing to have to dodge and time your movements as a non-stealther, and have your success in moving about. The run from D'Abth bridge to the docks is one example of how this can be done. However, to run from N'Marr's to Nektulos is virtually impossible - the patchwork men, treants, etc, are all extremely hard to avoid. I understand that Nek Castle is a heroic zone, and accessing it should be a big deal, but if mobs were placed to allow some form of skillful avoidance with patience, it might be more enjoyable. As it is, my Inquisitor cannot get up there without being invised by someone else, when half the other classes in the game have no problem doing so.
- Stormhold: Pathing is horrid inside here. There has to be something that can be done with collision with walls... mobs also spontaneously port into ceilings.
-Commonlands: One of my favorite zones, and yet, I can think of so many ways to improve on it. Graphically, it is a bit too monotonous.. all brown, and brown, and brown again. In EQ1, CL was divided into two sections - the northern half, which was a bit more verdant, had trees, was greener. And the southern half - which was drier, had sandy desert sections, and brown mountains. Also, the Dervish mobs are almost all universaly Heroic near the Captain's Deck, making it unwise or not possible to even attempt some blue or green quests until they grey out, or you can get a group together (and that's not easy, as most of the times, people want to deal with FG, ValMarr, etc). I'd also love to see Befallen, but as I know it's really Stormhold now, in principle, I don't expect it to happen. (But a Befallen expansion would be great!).
- Fallen Gate: yes, 6, but I have to comment: There is only one safe spot in the entire zone, in the tunnel after the first gong and the gargoyles. There should be a few more. One near the Pool of Purceil (sp?), one in Market 1, and one in Market 2. Groups do need places to rest, AFK, etc. I don't mind danger, but dang it, allow players to discover a few good safe spots, please

LAST COMMENT:
Most zones could be improved with more dramatic lighting (I have my lighting FX turned up). In Antonica, a bit boring. Even at night. Remember in the old Qeynos Hills zone in EQ1, there were those skeleton-inhabited ruins not far from Surefall zone? Lit up at night with eerie blue light? That kind of stuff. More sounds and visuals to set mood.
Message Edited by Wargod1968 on 11-14-2005 02:50 PM

I like how everyone ignored you. And then a dev even responded that this is a good feedback thread.

You got owned, dude =)

OOLS is my favorite zone - despite all the bots and bugged doors. I bet the OOLS bots exist on every server =/ which sucks. It's a lovely, lovely zone.

Okay, worst zones:

1 - Nek Forest - Does ANYONE like this mess of a zone?
2 - Peat Bog - Just a blah zone. Hate the color scheme too. Or rather, the lack of any color.
3 - Solusek's Eye - Kinda cool, but too hard to get to, and too large: a zone most avoid except for quests - that's the definition of a bad zone.
4 - Most instances - they are just... an area, a bowl mostly, with barely anything in it.
Message Edited by Sokolov on 11-16-2005 07:35 AM

Edgewater Drains: Too tough for people to go down there, there needs to be something decent down there to get people to risk a nightmare dungeon.

Fallen Gate: INSANE amount of aggro mobs EVERYWHERE, nice zone but mob placement is screwed. You enter the zone and there's aggro heroics either side of the corridor.

Lavastorm: DEAD zone, there's NEVER anyone up the top of LS because there's nothing up there worth risking the 100000 of aggro ^^^ mobs running around. This zone is basically now just a tiny area at the front where people do writs and the rest is useless.

Deathfist citadel - Nice zone, but to many bugs.
Solsek's Eye - Again, Very nice zone. But the lag is sooooo bad. Even a super computer lags here. Having to dumb down your settings just to make a run to Naggy for the 10th time, just gets old.
Lavastorm - I have to agree with the above poster. Nice looking zone with a poor layout.
Zek - Same as lavastorm except that the zone is ugly !
I'll go with Fallen Gate for the 5th choice. As the OP stated, there are no good camp spots. But that also applies to every zone in the game. The game designers put mobs all along the walls in a lot of zones. Look at Pillar of Flame. You dont dare wander off the road with out a full party.

1. Fallen Gate (for reasons mentioned above).
2. Fallen Gate (see #1)
3. Fallen Gate (see #2)
4. Fallen Gate (see #3)
5. Fallen Gate (see #4)

I actually liked Edgewater Drains. Unless it was nerfed, chests would drop every other mob down there with decent Adepts and gear. Need a good group to succeed there though.
Dont have a problem with DFC (other than the Orcs running around like they're on crack).

-Deathfist Citadel: Onslaught
-Deathfish Citadel
-Cauldon Hollow
-Lavastorm
-Nek Castle