To answer a whole lot of posts that did not include any questions:
EQ PvP worked reasonably well on Live servers before the merge of the Zeks, and for a while afterward.
There were always lots of balance issues, and the merging of the servers killed the distinct engagement rules each server had, leading to a more Quake-arena type of environment, definitely not good for server population in the long term.
But every class was either viable in SOME solo PvP situations and/or SOME group PvP situations, and as long as there were good guilds to join, people had teams of a sort to side with.
OoW/DoDH/PoR was probably the last era when PvP encounters had reasonable durations. TSS/TBS was probably the last era when they were remotely enjoyable. After that, too many classes could be too easily one-rounded by too many other classes. The increasing proliferation of pre-compiled hack programs was a serious nail in the coffin, too.
It's not clear to me that Red99 ever had a non-antisocial phase. We are talking about a server where the best guild was banned for a very stupid troll gesture.
|