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

what is your problem? Removing the sentry will allow people to gather a bit further or solo a bit more but there is no notion about heroic leaving the lavastrom, just this one which is pain in the butt.

i am very thankfull that the devs pay attention to this very thread and i was thankfull that eve people have different opinion, this thread was constructive without flames.

For myself, i hope that more changes will come to make many zones with very restrictive exploration options more enjoyable without full group or significantly overlevelling the content. There is still playe for heroic mobs and there are tons of group and raid experiences only - there is 100 zones in the games and i bet at least 1/3 is group/raid exclusive if we take away newbie zones and town zones, we can get to about 2/5 or even half of zones for groups and raids only with lots of group content including tons of named in overland zones. I may be off in my calculations of course and i would love to see ome exact numbers on this issue. just hope my point is clear even without hard data on this at its obvious that there are raid zones and dungeons on top of the overland zones abnd there is lots of group content there as well, right?

Well, I don't mean to start a fight. It's just that this was one of my favorite zones. And removing that sentry does not make the zone less restrictive at all. Best case it saves players 20S per trip by them not having to expend a Chameleon totem charge or run off one mob. Ooooooooh! Hooray! We're free!
This isn't the biggest deal in the world, it is after all just one mob. But that's just it. It's just one mob! And it makes sense that he be there and be tough. What's wrong with having a zone that's slightly different from the rest of the world in that you just can't go wandering around completely at will? What's wrong with making people either have a group, or have an invis spell / totem, or [heaven forbid] running off one single mob? It's just pepper flake taken out of the game to make it more bland and consistent. I think that's sad. The zone is still cool as a whole, graphically stunning and full of cool mob models and such. But geez.
I feel this is like adding the safety rails on the griffon towers. Yes, a few people got hurt and maybe some even died because there were no guard rails. . . . but there's a certain Darwinian characteristic to those deaths.

for you its one mob and your beloved zone being hurt, for me its sony listening to customers. There really is so much group content that restricting solo players to only one T5 (nt counting DoF) zone would be bit harsh - there is feerot but thats place for high 30ish low 40ish levels, then you have what?

For early 40ties the lavastorm beach, bits of everfrost which makes people frustrated at first because you need to swim quite lond track in sea full of heroics, and then you have splitpaw which is boring as hell when you went trough it few times. if you buy DoF, you have the sinking sands beach yet you need to be equipped to fight lvl 45+ mobs at lvl 40-43.
edit: forgot about rivevale - few solo mobs lvl 36-40 but mostof the content is guess what, heroic

the options for groups are much wider - there are overland zones with group content, there is at least one big dungeon in each of the zones mentioned there are heroic instances and raid zones, not to mention about half of the quests being heroic.

Maybe i missed some other places to solo/duo with at least a bit of control over whats happening. I would love to get some hints. I mean even level content, grinding green mobs isnt fun nor rewarding, you know.

i am sorry, this almost seems like whining. I preffer solo play, but i can play solo in EQ2 and i am not that bad at it. I just dont like the feeling of being restricted so much by many heroic monsters in overland zones while group content can be found in so many places i may not visit ever. And i carry one whole 14 slot bag full of totems made by friend of mine by the way
Message Edited by xentar on 11-24-2005 04:19 PM

In my personal order:

5. Fallen Gate (I still barely know my way around FG, far too many things see invis plus roamers are pretty terrible, a lot like Blackburrow)
4. Blackburrow (this place is just TERRIBLE in low levels, there is hardly any safe places to put a group for xp)
3. Death Fist Citadel (bug city)
2. Nektulos Forrest (up until recently it was a pain in the bottom to get through this zone, and it still can be a confusing place to get around)
1. The Temple of Cazic Thule (old school screaming mace plus there is STILL pathing issues)
Message Edited by Kilaelya on 11-25-2005 01:04 AM
Message Edited by Kilaelya on 11-25-2005 01:07 AM

Lag isn't an issue for me in any zone. It's the zones with pathing issues that should be fixed. Generally, it's ones with tight/twisty corridors (some parts of Fallen Gate, Stormhold, Edgwater, etc). where the mobs can maul you from safely inside a nearby wall.

These I think are actually a good zones, minus said pathing issues.

I do like the idea of the gauntlet you have to run in Lavastorm, although it does make it difficult to simply xp in there in this format. This zone is primarily more of an obstacle to the portal than an adventuring area, minus the front parts where everyone does writs.

Deathfist Citadel is probably tops on my list here. The pathing issues, piled on top of having to spend an hour tracking down one mob you missed somewhere in order to get Emperor Fyst who's standing in front of you to attack you is pretty annoying. The roaming adds here I like though, keeps you on your toes.

Blackburrow- some minor pathing issues, including those annoying bugs 1 level below that attack everyone topside.

Serpent Sewer should be adjusted so that folks betraying Freeport can actually reach the NPC they need to speak with. Qeynosians have this step much, much easier.

Runnyeye- pathing is often such that sometimes when mobs aggro, they will run a ways down the hall *away* from your group, then come back towards it.

Updating my list for DoF:
Deathfist Citidel: words can not describe how terrible this zone is, so i wont even try
Nektropos Castle: Same issues as DFC but less severe
Clefts of Rujark: VERY laggy
Oblisk of Lost Souls: Access quests are really annoying
Hidden Cache: total [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] for loot.

1.Nek forest- because to get to the dock or anywhere really you have to risk carpal tunnel
2.Nek castle- for the bugs. stuck in combat mode or invisible mobs
3. other than that the only problems i have with zones is when they are not filled with quests, i cannot stand having areas in a map with mobs that don't contribute to the story...and i am not going to explain further on that, if you don't know what i am talking about don't worry just have fun lol

THE WITCHES' COVE
While hunting undead near Nek castle my group got the key drop.
We went to the special instance of Cauldron Hollow, but we got wiped by some adds (after only having pulled three or four encounters). None of us can get back in, not even the person who looted the key ~ because it's been consumed ~ and we all left feeling a bit disappointed.
We'll have outlevelled this zone in a very short time, why couldn't the key provide permanent access to this instance?

Not only that, but why grant access to special instances (like The Witches' Cove and others) from drops, and then have them never allow that character in again ~ seems to be a waste of content to me...

(too bad some peeps cant avoid to flame or blame others even when a dev post to congratz on a constructive thread ...)

1) Zek : horribly lag zone, especially the docks and the fort . Never understood why it's so laggy here when the rest of the zone is ok.

2) DFC: could be a very fun instance for raidx2 , but actually with the bugs and the spawn rate of orcs only 2 choices - or spending 5 hours to kill,kill, kill ,loads of greenies rushing you ,- or taking a high level crew to grey the zone and rush the emperor ,killing all the fun of the instance. That could be an intermediate aggro radius, with sneak missions inside to avoid to wake all the castle at all. May be some coding , waking the orcs only when needed to avoid too many ones running and making lag even the most powerful comps.

3) LavaStorm : was a really cool zone to explore and harvest , it was possible to avoid aggros, having to watch roamers and ambush mobs . Now, every step u do without invi is aggroing bunch of mobs. Nothing fun here ,or it's a travel invi or it's death run . It was intended to make it more heroic and dangerous to travel, but that's making a dead zone, where ppl goes only to do Writs at entrance, or Heritages run in SE .

4) Clefts : same problem as DFC, too many roamers making this zone horribly heavy to load / unload on your computer and making a lot of others comps to lag to death.

5) heemm Croc caves ? too many crocs inside ? =p

I love fallen gate, thats where I do my best work, and some great camp spots for 20's solos.
The only zone I dont like so far is qeynos harbor, it just wont run on my machine, especially by the water. I dont have this trouble elsewhere, its just very annoying. One more reason why i love my naughty freeport characters. Course I think the entire qeynos city is layed out really poor compared to freeport. It takes at least 2-3 zonings to get anywhere useful, freeport seems a little more accessible. Lucan's floating fortress is up and out of the way while Antonia's fat castle thing is smack in the middle and no way through it...if you could go straight from qeynos harbor to north qeynos then I would be all better.
Edgewater drains is visually well done, but i hate having to go there for aq or the shadow knight quest. Theres nobody around and gobs of angry mobs all packed into impossible tight spaces. You make one mistake and you will be chasing your shards for hours. I think if they could just fix the shard trail thing so it didnt go through the wall or ceiling that would help. If they also created other reasons for people to go there so grouping is easier then the zone could be alot more fun.

Ok here is mine.

The Ruins of Varsoon
I like the idea but please make the tunnels bigger! Like 3x wider. I can't stand always being trained in the halls there with some silly person running through it. Plus it's too "clausto", it would be better bigger, since its a important zone to make it bigger, more detailed, bigger, and celebrate it!

The Brass Key Dungeon
This little closet full of priates under the Qeynos Lighthouse would be way better if it was bigger! Make it a big grotto at the zone in that winds around to a pirate hideout with docks! Make it EQ2's "Van Cleef" for level 15-20s and it would be awsome destination place for groups. Heck might even be a good expansion pack material, everyone loves fighting pirates.

Parts of Stormhold
I like this place, but some of the halls could be 3 times wider (think at a minium the width of the Qeynos sewers) to make the crypt seem bigger and more epic! Taking a full group through those halls feels so cramped I dread even going in there! The deeper you go, the bigger and more scary it should get. I want a creepy tomb with a little more "Z-Axis" bridges over pits and walkways overlooking huge rooms.

Rumbler Caves
Um, boring little tubes of death under the giants in TS. The tunnels need flat floors.

A Pirates Hidden Stash
Um, more tubes clogged with pirates.

Crypt of the Steelbone Family
The world most deadliest right hand turn - a L-Shaped dungeon. 4 pulls and you are done. Again see the Brass key dungeon make it a cool place to bring a group. I brought one once thinking it was going to be cool and we were dissapointed. (Hint: An adventure pack for the Freeport side fodder!)(Ok, oops, I did six)But you get the drift, a bunch of areas need to be made more Epic Looking, a little "ohh-ahh reach for the screenshot button" stuff. And bigger in scale. A full group should be able to play comfortably in the area and be able to get thier postional, CC, and AE attacks off using tactics and postion; not spammy-crammy luck.Take a look at some of UT2004 Game "Goth" levels to get an idea of what I'm talking about. The areas have a focal design point that captures the emotion of the area, such as a big central hall, temple, ruined castle, vast pit-chasm or tower and the rest of the level flows from that doublebacking, connnecting areas of interest, and Z-Axising. With room to play through, safe areas to rest and explore, lots of room for mutiple full groups to play in, and challenging pulls to clear the way to a new area. (I think Dulak Harbor and the whole Crypt of Nadox play area comes to mind as excellent areas to study flow and points of interest in an "EQ" setting.)I could go further, but I don't know how much info you are looking for.Hope that helped!

1. Antonica - For some reason as soon a newbie pops out there to slay gnolls all they find are heroic ^ to ^^^ gnolls...and these are even outside the gates of Qeynos. This should be as cool as commonlands if it got progressively harder instead of seeing heroics right as enter it. In Commonlands, orcs there are non-heroic down arrows making them easy and fun to kill and you kill them in groups. Also its cool to see the dynamic spawns for them there too like the Besieged towers. Antonica just has mostly heroic ^ gnolls..making it hard to kill for the newbie or solo'r
2. Blackburrow - Must pulls in the cave part end with a gnoll stuck in a wall or a roamer stuck in a wall beating on you.
3. Pillars of Flames - Sometimes running by the goblin camps you will get goblins hiding inside the cliff and they pop out of no where to hit you.
thats all I can think of now...

1a Nek castle: the return

Even worse lag then the original zone and insane mob difficulty for the so called recommended lvl

1b Qeynos harbor

For some reason i get insane amount of lag here. Trying to get from the bells to the carpets is an absolute nightmare for me.

2 Lavastorm

It has been said a lot of times but yes nice looking zone, little to do.

3 Freeport

very nice looking city, not much lag compared to Qeynos harbor, but the layout is horid, especially the North, south east and west parts (always use the sewers to travel between these zones)

4 Antonica

Compared to Commonlands it looks ugly, ugly ugly. except the parts around the tomb of Varsoon with the scarab like creatures, that looks pretty nice.
I want the sun to shine like in the commonlands, nice and bright.

5 Blackburrow

It has a lot of atmosphere with the music and all but the mobs that are stuck in walls or that are simply invissible make this a less then enjoyable zone.

I would concur with parts of Blackburrow being cramped. That is probably one reason why monsters get stuck in walls in some of these tighter zones in the first place (Stormhold too). They don't have room to path correctly and end up restng in a wall. If the hall was wider they would have a higher probablity of ending up in the clear and "snapping-to" a valid resting spot.

1. Runnyeye : bad pathing, KS galore and the worst buggy drop table imho around the whole
2. DFC : bad pathing, laggy like hell
3. Everfrost : very confusing zone, almost impossible to travel because of aggro heroics left and right
4. Edgewater / Crypt of the betrayer : lags, pathing
5. Qeynos Habor : dia show, no matter how low the settings .....

1. Clefts of Rujark - baaaad memory leaks

2. Qeynos Harbor - Area around Antonia Bayle

Maj'Dul has terrible memory leak problems as well. One raid on either of the dragons makes me have to restart even if i restarted right before the raid.

Top 5 worst zones ever..

1.) The instance you must do for the "In Service To The Djinn Master" quest. Words can't even express how poorly designed this zone is.
2.) Every dungeon in the game because mobs are always inside the roof or walls.
3.) Down Below. I have personally always hated tedious, time wasting mazes.
4.) Qeynos Harbor, Rivervale, Blackburrow. I almost lagged out of Explorer just naming these zones.
5.) Nektulos Forest. Proud owner of the worst zone map in the game (can't tell where hills or zone edges are).



There are some good zones in the game also that deserve a mention.

1.) Everfrost. Absolutely gorgeous zone.
2.) Zek. Dead bodies, arrows, craters, fortresses, things on fire, just a [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] cool zone.

A few other things. Nektolus Castle doesn't lag for me, nor is it confusing. The locket quest is stupid and tedious to have to due every flippin' time but other than that it's an OK zone. DFC does lag some but it's still a very fun zone, I like the idea behind it. The automatic doors in Poet's Palace 3rd floor need to go.
Message Edited by StaticLex on 12-18-2005 02:47 AM

Aqueduct Facility 1B
Just one question..........

WHY?

Hehe. Yep, one of lots of small pointless zones. Rumbler Caves is another.