Resource - Newbie Guide

EverQuest, in all of it's glory, has stood the test of time. It is one of the longest running mmo's of all time. It has proven it's worth and value to all of it's players due to the fact that it is a very rich and deeply engrossed game. With all of the classes and races that are available to the players, there are tons of possibilities for character creation, which is lacking in most other games. I don't think there is any other game that has had as many accounts logged onto it as EQ has. But that is all beside the point. What I'm giving to you is a look at the rich game play and deep character development that is involved in this game.

Well, let's start out with the whole "How do I start this game" question. Go to the store, buy a copy of the game that has EQ and all of it's expansions. Come home, turn your computer on and put the disks in. Simple enough eh? Let's get down to the whole creating an account. You'll need to register an account with Sony Online Entertainment. The website to do this at is http://soe.station.com or http://eqlive.station.com. Either or and you can set your account up there. Now, set up your payment plan. That involves either a credit card or an SOE All Access card which you can buy from your local game retailer. Not Wal-Mart. After you do all of that, you click on your little EQ icon on your desktop and start patching. Once all of that gets done, then you can finally get on and choose a server. There are plenty of servers to choose from, but if this is your first time playing EQ, do not, and I repeat, DO NOT join onto a PvP server. (PvP stands for Player versus Player, if you didn't know). The players on those servers are ruthless killers and you won't get anywhere in the game. Try one of those once you get a real good hang of the game. Once you choose your server, then you can create your character.

Characters are what defines a player in the EverQuest world. If you just randomly create something you know nothing about, you're not going to have much fun playing and getting into your character. Unless you do things like that for enjoyment. If that's the case, have fun. Otherwise, we'll go into some detail about the character creation. Your first step is picking a race. There are fifteen playable races (depending on what expansions you have) and they are all unique in their own ways. Some have higher dexterity than others, some have higher strength, etc. These races, which include but is not limited to, are Barbarians, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, Iksar, Ogre, Trolls, Vah Shir (Tiger people, rowr!) and Frogloks. Everything pretty much explains itself, except Iksar and Frogloks. Iksar are a race of Lizard people that are incredibly agile and strong. The Frogloks are Frog people that are quick and cunning. All of which are wonderful choices, but the ultimate choice is up to you now isn't it? The next procedure is picking a Class. Classes are occupations. You choose a career and follow it to the very end. Pretty simple huh? Well, each race has specific classes that they cannot use, I guess it's a whole deity, alignment issue with the races, but who cares, that's their problem right? Well, there are a lot of classes, fifteen to be precise by my count. They are Bard, Cleric, Druid, Magician, Monk, Paladin, Rogue, Ranger, Shaman, Warrior and Wizard, just to name a few. That choice is your deal, and don't quote me on this but Rogues are the best, because as Gabe from Penny Arcade once had on his shirt "Rogues Do It From Behind". Okay, enough of that, now on to Ability Points. Your primary statistics are highlighted bright green. Those are the stats that your class functions on mostly. The other stats that aren't highlighted aren't the most important stats, but they still matter to a degree. Do whatever you like with those, it's your character.

Okay, now onto the Facial Appearance. You can do this as you are creating your character, and you can do it while in the game. You have a lot of different faces, eyes, and hair to choose from (This includes facial hair as well). After all that mumbo-jumbo, you can name your character. You can be crafty and come up with a name, but most of the time you're going to end up using the "Get Name" button so that way you don't have to spend hours contemplating a unique and special name for your character. That's what I do anyway. Next, picking a Deity. This is fun, due to the fact that, all the races and classes limit the choices you have in choosing an ultimate ruler for yourself. There are sixteen different deities, and they all can have some similar traits and completely opposite traits. Most servers will have it to where if you are under a certain deity, guards will attack you when they see you, merchants won't sell to you, and other people just simply won't like you. Same with the creatures in EverQuest. It's pretty complicated but once you get to the point of getting on a Deity based PvP server, you'll understand it a lot better. Now, you should choose your starting city. OMG we're almost done creating a character! Yay! Oh, well back to choosing a city, race, deity, class, they all determine what cities you'll be able to start in. The cities that are highlighted white or yellow are the ones you can choose. Simple enough right? Right. Now, we can get into EQ and play for once!

Now, once you get into the game, you’re going to be all like “Whoa man! There are so many windows!” Don’t worry, it’s not that bad. The help window will help you a lot when it comes to questions about the game and the interface. Your first objective is to equip the limited amount of items you have, go to your guild and turn in a piece of paper that you have in your inventory. That will get you some basic armor and now you’re ready to go fight some of the local animals that live right outside the city gates. These range from bats, snakes, and spiders to skeletons and other weird things. But if you want to, before you go fight, you can adjust all the windows and close out the ones you don’t need. Let’s say that you created a warrior. You are not going to need a spell or song window are you? That’s what I thought. Okay, now that is out of the way. We can get down to controls.

The controls in this game are simple, but there is one key that you absolutely must remap if you want to survive. That is the auto-attack key. Its default is A, but in the options, you can remap it to Q. I suggest doing that first and foremost. Duck/Crouch is D, Consider is C, Tell is T, Hail is H, Inventory is I, and Jump is spacebar. Simple, yet exquisite…..oh I don’t know. Targeting is easy, Esc is cancel a target and F1 through F8 are your targeting keys. On your number pad, 8 is move forward, 6 is right, 2 is back, and 4 is left. The mouse can be used to target and pitch the camera up and down, it is easy to get the hang of. And also, auto run is 0 on the number pad. Just remember that. Okay, now that we are past controls we can get onto to how the game play flows.

It’s pretty easy in the beginning. Kill things, loot them and take the goods to the nearest merchant. That’s the way you make money in the early levels. You also gain some levels while doing this due to exp (that’s experience points for all of you peoples that haven’t played an role playing game ever). The more exp you gain, the higher in level you go. It is a simple concept. Now, later on, you can sell some rare items that you find in the bazaar on Luclin, that is some fun times right there. Also, when you gain levels, go to your guild master and train some of the skills that you have to make them more useful. Once you get new skills at higher levels, use the hell out of them. That is the only way they will get better. For example, if you have a Rogue, and once you get sneak and hide, set them to a hot key (which is one of the windows on your screen) and press the corresponding number as often as possible. The better you get at those, the more you can explore areas that others can’t.

Well, now that I have lead you through the beginners process of Ever Quest, I suggest you get to exploring and adventuring Mr. Adventurer! I wish you the best of the countless hours that you are going spend playing this game and exploring the world of Norrath! Have Fun!