When did Everquest start to really decline in quality of experience?

[greenspectre]

Originally Posted by Gustoo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Good perspective greenspectre I can see how the stuff they kept adding in the later expansions was a lot of fun for someone who kept their character at the top of the food chain. They made those expansions for you and it worked. All that stuff really does sound quite epic and new experiences rather than just nostalgia exploration seems like it would be great if I was the kinda player who kept at the top.

It’s almost like a battle manga where the main character gets so over the top awesome that all the old school stuff is indeed totally left behind. If the game kept attracting newbies maybe it would have had more focus on them, but they didn’t want to let you hardcore guys down.

I was HARDLY hardcore! When GoD and OoW launched I was like 15 levels below max. Quit for a while, too. Missed a few expansions and didn't actually push for max level until Secrets of Faydwer, when I finally hit 75 on my ranger, whom I abandoned shortly thereafter for my SK, who I took to 90 in HoT before I quit live for good. My guild always raided content that was one or two expansions back because we weren't good enough for the new stuff.

Most of my fun in later expansions was had exploring expansions I'd missed. Camping AC augs solo for my SK in Riftseeker's Sanctum, which was previously an endgame zone for OoW. But a little secret- the FUNNEST part of late-life EQ was soloing/duo'ing endgame bosses. I'd regularly solo Venril Sathir or Trakanon when they were up, and eventually could solo Vindi. Teamed up with my beastlord friend and we did a whole Sleeper's Tomb run including the Ancients for funsies, and even caught AoW when he was up once. THAT was fun EQ right there.