The blasphemous thread

[Aeolwind]

Breakdown in communication....greatest......quest............EV ER.

[Taminy]

Interesting replies so far. I'll add some of my own thoughts, especially based on what Ferok said.

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

SoL: The only thing wrong with the expansion were the horses, the models, and the bazaar. I'd keep everything else, honestly. Even the Nexus wasn't so bad. Acted as a decent way to get between the continents, but it hardly Elimintated the need for druids/wizard. Could have used some more interesting dungeons for people to kill in, however. Seemed like they were all deserted.

Agreed, for the most part. I did like Luclin. Like you said the Nexus wasn't horrible (kind of like waiting for boats, I guess). Remember before the Bazaar worked? That's when Luclin was good.

I did not care for the horses or models either.

Yes, the dungeons were underutilized except for SSRA and VT for raiders (single groups almost never used SSRA) and Paludal for lowbies. This could have been improved. Also, very important: no dragons in Luclin, just aliens [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] I guess one was "godlike" though.

Luclin AAs were good. There weren't absurd amounts of them, and were more about character customization than about required experience (see PoP and later).

I felt too that Luclin finally "completed" the world. Everything from the old world to Luclin could and was used (other than typical abandoned zones) from people leveling up to people AAing the farming. Hell you could still get AAs in SolB and permafrost at max level.

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

PoP: Take out Tranquility, Knowledge, and Spirit Healers. Everything else was great.

The raid encounters in PoP were awesome, and some of the zones were really pretty art wise. Killing gods was cool.

However, contrast what PoP was with my last paragraph about Luclin. PoP truly killed the old world. Nobody had any reason to use any of the old world (vanilla through Luclin) except for leveling up to 46-50 or so. With the ZEMs and item rewards there was no reason to stay anywhere but in the planes of power, and the old world died. Combine this with:

1. Instant travel
2. A true "hub" zone with PoK/PoT. Nexus, Bazaar, Shadowhaven, Freeport, and Thurgadin weren't nearly as much of hubs as PoK/PoT was.
3. Itemization well beyond the 125hp cap.
4. Needing a raid for pretty much every part of the flagging process. I never got to time, but it was really annoying just to get the entire guild into the elementals.

Also, required AAs to not get slaughtered as a tank or have pathetic dps or heals etc. And charm was way OP. Mobs hit like trucks but didn't summon and had low resists.

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

LoY: I don't really care for this expansion. Playable frogloks is cool I guess. Armor dyes ruined the game.

Didn't care for it either - felt like paying for a patch. And the zones I did visit tended to be quite laggy.

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

LDoN: Seem to remember some convoluted system where you could buy loot after so many times through a dungeon. Pretty lame. I'd prefer sweet drops. Otherwise a decent expansion, got ya going back to some old zones again.

SOE definitely tried to do something different witht his one but I didn't like it. Doing runs over and over was annoying - and it was supposed to be an alternative for casuals to gear up, but all the hp/ac and aggro augs for a tank made it almost "required", and running it over and over again 100 times for an aggro or hp aug was no fun.

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

GoD: Great expansion that too few ever saw. Had the very best raids I was ever a part of in EQ; and I did everything up until GoD. Really like this expansion, however the mobs/zones were sorta dreary. Also, I honestly don't remember alot of content for a non-time equipped guild (although, the content for a time equipped guild was quite terrific.)

Yeah it didn't seem there was much out there with GoD. It was also horribly buggy at launch, and that's pretty much when I quit.

[Gwence]

GoD was tuned for level 70 characters but it was released while the cap was level 65, people say it was bugged because you had to be full potime gear to handle most of the early tier stuff in that expansion.

But regardless, anything pre-Uqua was not that difficult.

Luclin was one of the best expansions for raiders because of group buffs, and mgb aa. The zones werent that xp friendly for grouping but alot of people liked to solo in UP, or Maiden's. Most people would still xp in Kunark/Velious zones during Luclin. Also aa's werent fast at all during Luclin, there was only a handful of people on my server that had 100 before PoP was released.

Luclin is classic imho!

[Tallenn]

I liked AA, and SOME of the Luclin zones. I also liked some of the spells (KEI!)

Bazaar, I can take it or leave it.
Horses, I can take it or leave it.

New models? SUCKED. I still like the old models better.
Aliens? SUCK
Nexus? Didn't much care for it, but if it had been on a longer timer, making using it comparable to boats, I think more people would have accepted it.

[Excision Rottun]

Fading Memories

/melody

....nuff said.

[Crone]

I remember loving LDoN because it was the first time in EQ that you had to be a mobile group to complete something. No more just sitting in 1 spot for hours.

[Trimm]

If I had to pick 1 addition that was Post-Velious, it'd be AAs. It gave you a reason to log in and join an exp group at max level. The rewards were great and really defined some of the classes (AM3 + EQ anyone?).

The (old) Bazaar I didn't mind so much, because you still needed to be physically logged into the game unlike Wow's auction house. Also finding spots on top of crates or on high-traffic corners to park bazaar mules was kinda fun. Why they changed it to the red and blue dragon hall portal bullshit I'll never understand.

Nexus made sense that you needed a way to teleport to the moon, and you still had to travel to the spires and wait for the timer. Also who never sat around at the spire waiting 15 minutes just to see everyone but you port up, because you forgot to hail the NPC and get a travel shard.

PoP in general I liked, if for nothing else the tiered content and gigantic boss models. It really felt like an accomplishment when you got to kill a god or two. PoK really was the beginning of EZ-Mode and the death of Everquest for me.

[guineapig]

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

guild window
raid window

I second both of these!!!

[Hildatoon]

I loved the deep. I spent a lot of time there when we were getting S.O.D. keyed for VT farming shards and sap.
The temple (ssra or something like that) was a good time as well. Nothing like butchering naga looking men while farming enough weapons for the guild to kill the emp.
Horses were a bit dumb. As a tank I never saw a need for one but the casters seemed to love them.

[guineapig]

I actually feel like AA's ruined the game for me (despite the fact that I miss many of the AA abilities I had).

My reasoning:

I quite enjoy leveling up all sorts of different characters. Once AA's were introduced, (especially after POP AA's) every time I decided to play an alt instead of my main I was essentially letting my main character fall behind the curve and it felt like shit.

The thought of essentially leveling up forever makes me sick. When I hear about people playing today with 5000+ AA's I literally want to barf and am so glad I quit the game when I did.

I enjoy having a high cap on things.
I like being able to semi-retire a character.
Save it for raids, helping out guildies, exploring new quests or whatever.
I enjoy having the time to play a different character and not feel like I'm gimping my main by doing so.