EQ1 - Best Left in the Past

Having no interest in the MMO's scheduled for release this year, I've been feeling a bit restless to play something different. Since we have Station Access and I came across Everquest - Secrets of Faydwer on sale, I thought I would pop back in to my old stomping grounds and catch up on all the expansions since I left.

I thought maybe some aspects of gameplay had changed and even perhaps had become a bit more user friendly. However, while there have been some changes, for the most part nothing has changed. After the release of the Luclin expansion, I switched mains to a beastlord and it was the most enjoyable class I've played. I thought about leveling her up and experiencing the new expansions. But the new expansions are pretty much like all the others after Planes of Power. At that point EQ became a raid-oriented game and the expansions that followed assume you are raid geared.

We did have some success hunting in The Serpent Spine expansion. This was the expansion that introduced the new Drakkin race. However, adventuring in other expansions resulted in mostly running to zone lines and a few deaths. I thought well ok so we can still hunt in one zone, let me go pick up my spells in advance. I went to bazaar and looked for beastlord spells through the 60's. There was not a single one. After a bit of research I discovered in order to obtain the spells for some of those levels, I have to hope someone loots a certain parchment off a raid mob, turns it in to a beastlord trainer to obtain a spell, and then decides they don't want it and puts it up for sale. Fat chance of that happening.

There really was no point in leveling her if I can't obtain her spells, so we rolled some new characters in the Drakkin area. There were some quests, but I just wasn't enjoying the experience at all and had no desire to log in.

This is still a game requiring much patience and not one that can be played casually This is still a game intended mainly for raiders. So......time to move on to something else. And now I've landed in Vanguard for the past few days. I'll wait a bit before saying much further but so far I'm having a heck of a lot of fun.

A Little Break

Seems the whole household is having a string of illnesses. It started with taking my son to the emergency room one morning, coming home and realizing he'd been misdiagnosed (thank God for the internet), followed by quick surgery the next day. I've got my own string of tests and x-rays scheduled. And to top it off we've all come down with some sort of virus that's lasted two weeks now.

I'm ready for warmer weather and healthier days. I'll be back then!