Everquest

Hi there!

My girlfriend and I played EQ back during retail release (March, 1999) all the way up through "Lost Dungeons of Norath" expansion. We left sometime shortly after that. We used to play on Rathe server but transferred with some friends over to Zebuxoruk server when the ability presented itself.

Anyways, our accounts have been inactive for years, but we've recently got an urge to try to log them in and see how the world has progressed. This, of course, opens up a few questions:

1.) Will our characters still be available for play on our accounts?
2.) Is the Zebuxoruk server still around?
3.) We were very well geared out in excellent end-game raiding gear for Planes of Power. How has the game progressed since this time?
4.) Are the old world cities, dungeons, and zones a ghost town or do players still populate them? Places like Befallen, Unrest, Freeport, etc?
5.) What would you recommend for very long time veterans returning to the game?
6.) Did they allow characters to keep very old items like the Guise of the Deceiver (the one that was usable by all)?

Thanks for any help you be able to provide!

Hi There!,

This is my first post to go easy!!,

In my opinion i would advise you not to go back, i spent years playing EQ, and i loved every minute. Ive since played every MMO i could get my hands on spending 6 months here and another 6 months there, but nothing seemed to grab me like the good old EQ used to.

So recently i decided that i would go back and see if the game can be as great as i remember. I downloaded it from the SOE website and the million or so expansions that there are now, fired it up and was incredibly disappointed. The world is i suppose how i left it just unfortunately i have evolved with MMO's too.  The graphics are awful, the user interface is awful. It just looks really dated. I lasted 10 minutes before i had to log out, and thats no joke.

Sometimes its best to let good memories stay as just that..... good memories.

Originally posted by Soldarith

Hi there!

My girlfriend and I played EQ back during retail release (March, 1999) all the way up through "Lost Dungeons of Norath" expansion. We left sometime shortly after that. We used to play on Rathe server but transferred with some friends over to Zebuxoruk server when the ability presented itself.

Anyways, our accounts have been inactive for years, but we've recently got an urge to try to log them in and see how the world has progressed. This, of course, opens up a few questions:

1.) Will our characters still be available for play on our accounts?

Most likely. They have said they only deleted characters level 10 and under that have not been played over a logn period of time.

2.) Is the Zebuxoruk server still around?

Lemme check....Yes. It was combined with Xegony so not it goes by the Xegony (Zebuxoruk) server.

3.) We were very well geared out in excellent end-game raiding gear for Planes of Power. How has the game progressed since this time?

It has progressed so don't expect to have top gear. I left shortly before Gates of Discord. I had some top notch items for a 65 druid. I have recently returned and I am finding that I can survive and go back to doing what I was doing before. I just now have a lot of gear to drool over and go after again. I just do not feel terribly affected by not having the newer stuff...not to say I won't be going after it all.

4.) Are the old world cities, dungeons, and zones a ghost town or do players still populate them? Places like Befallen, Unrest, Freeport, etc?

SOE has been creating HOT zones for almost every level range. They just changed it though and this list has not been updated yet. http://everquest.allakhazam.com/hotzones.html

5.) What would you recommend for very long time veterans returning to the game?

Find a guild. Ask questions. The community has proven to be helpful still. I am still asking questions but I've only been back for a week.

6.) Did they allow characters to keep very old items like the Guise of the Deceiver (the one that was usable by all)?

If it was changed then all of them were changed. They would not have deleted the item from your character though.

Thanks for any help you be able to provide!

It really is still a great game with a wonderful and thriving community (except on the Fironia Vie server). It has changed a lot...some for the better...some for the worst. But it still is better than the cookie cutter World of Warcraft. You just have to give it a chance...longer than 10 minutes.

Originally posted by Soldarith

Hi there!

My girlfriend and I played EQ back during retail release (March, 1999) all the way up through "Lost Dungeons of Norath" expansion. We left sometime shortly after that. We used to play on Rathe server but transferred with some friends over to Zebuxoruk server when the ability presented itself.

Anyways, our accounts have been inactive for years, but we've recently got an urge to try to log them in and see how the world has progressed. This, of course, opens up a few questions:

1.) Will our characters still be available for play on our accounts? Yes.
2.) Is the Zebuxoruk server still around? No, it was merged. I don't remember with which server.
3.) We were very well geared out in excellent end-game raiding gear for Planes of Power. How has the game progressed since this time? PoT gear is far past obsolete. There is less tedium on flags nowadays, but far fewer people to get them done with.
4.) Are the old world cities, dungeons, and zones a ghost town or do players still populate them? Places like Befallen, Unrest, Freeport, etc? Very much a ghost town. Don't be fooled. You will not get a group until 75+, and it still takes hours.
5.) What would you recommend for very long time veterans returning to the game? Try to join a populated server. I'm not sure which. Definately not Maelin Starpyre(I play on this one  and its a ghost town). Leveling up is extremely fast now. Much faster than WoW. You can be 50 with about 20 hours played time. Get the TSS expansion. It totally rules for leveling up and gearing a toon(awesome quest/rewards). Potions, potions, potions. Invest in DS, speed, and healing over time potions. One last tip. Tanks are in great demand, as well as, CLR, SHM, ENC. Very hard to find a group if you aren't one of these classes. Also, hard to even put a group together without one.
6.) Did they allow characters to keep very old items like the Guise of the Deceiver (the one that was usable by all)? It really depends on the item. if you have a prenerf GotD then you can still use it despite class. However, when most items are nerfed it usually changes all items. Not so with the Guise of the Deciever or Robe of Ishva.

Thanks for any help you be able to provide!

eqrankings can give you an idea of current best raid gear by looking at players profiles

www.eqrankings.com/

Originally posted by Soldarith

4.) Are the old world cities, dungeons, and zones a ghost town or do players still populate them? Places like Befallen, Unrest, Freeport, etc?

 

Well, you could have read the 200 other threads about this, but anyway lol.

No, those zones are dead. There will be 0 people there, in PoP there will be 0 people. In povalor, in postorms, in potactics, etc..there will be 0 people.

You will not find anyone to group with up until max lvl with little exceptions. And even at max lvl (LVL 80) it will be a challenge to find people willing to group.

It's really not worth playing EQ anymore, sorry.

Originally posted by candygirl6

 

Originally posted by Soldarith

4.) Are the old world cities, dungeons, and zones a ghost town or do players still populate them? Places like Befallen, Unrest, Freeport, etc?

 

Well, you could have read the 200 other threads about this, but anyway lol.

 

No, those zones are dead. There will be 0 people there, in PoP there will be 0 people. In povalor, in postorms, in potactics, etc..there will be 0 people.

You will not find anyone to group with up until max lvl with little exceptions. And even at max lvl (LVL 80) it will be a challenge to find people willing to group.

It's really not worth playing EQ anymore, sorry.

 

Its really a game close to death, though. Its no wonder they stopped making expansions every 6 mos. There is not many people left to fund the work. Only the diehard are left, and they are slowly leaving.

Well after my girlfriend and I installed the game and fired up the 21-day free play offer, we ran around just that evening. My mind was pretty much made up: Leave the memories as they are: perfect and unspoiled.

Running through the lands did take me back to very good memories, however, it just wasn't as I remembered it (nothing ever is). They've made some graphics changes to textures, like smoothing them out, but in the process the land lost some of the features I remembered. Of course the graphics are absolutely God-awful but we expected that, to an extent. However, the world was in fact a ghost town (for the expansions we had). Even the Bazaar was completely devoid of players or their vendors. It was sad and somewhat depressing to see the world dying such a slow and painful death.

I was a bit surprised and disappointed to see that SOE did not enhance the UI or features into the game, at all, since we left so many years ago. The UI was still clunky, there was still no minimap, you could only mem 8 spells, etc.  I was actually shocked at the same old issues still within the game, after so many years and expansions - I guess I assumed that SOE would have fixed things along the way...my fault for assuming.

Most discouraging of all for me was a run through HighPass Hold. Running through there at level 65, I would have expected the very low level Orcs and Gnolls to have just left me alone, or fallen over after one swing of my weapon. To my dismay, my Paladin is exactly what frustrated me during the years I played: Totally ineffective in melee; even against a creature that is in the high teens, very low twenties. This just should not happen but it does.

These experiences brought up some very deep-rooted buried feelings that just were not good toward the game or the character I played for so many years - I didn't want that. All-in-all, we logged and said goodbye to the world, never to see it again. I could not continue because doing so would taint and possibly destroy all of those very good memories I had of this game. Perhaps those memories are delusionary but nonetheless they are mine to keep forever.

Thank you all that replied to this thread.

Wow .. this brings back memories.

EQ is my FIRST MMORPG (I did beta-test for UO and did not like it). I played in the beta and jumped in when it was first released. I played for 1-2 years before I left.

I wonder if my char is still around. I am mightily tempted, like you, to go back in and see if I can take my char for a sp