EQII - All Around Norrath: Kunark Expansion

When a new expansion draws near, the servers are alive with excitement. Players have hopes and dreams for the upcoming world that are hard to suppress until release day. Some of them get into beta and very often-small tidbits of information slip out among the population. These small tidbits fuel the excitement of others so that by release day everyone in the lands are brimming with anticipation.

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Everquest II, at this point has a good record for developing great expansions. The last expansion, Echoes of Faydwer was the most grand of them all. Echoes of Faydwer took Norrath by storm, and not only was it well accepted by the players, it came out in the press with awesome reviews. It is hard to imagine an expansion that could come close to this one or even be better. Will Rise of Kunark stand up against its predecessor? Will its glory live in the shadow of the Fae? Only time will tell, and I can say that I have a hard time believing that it will.

Perhaps, for me, I just do not feel the same excitement because the Fae were a dream come true, and as for the Sarnak well, you wouldn’t see this High Elf associating with one! It could be that there are players out there that love to be evil, and the Sarnak are for them what the Fae were for me. Just maybe I’m no longer intrigued by a new race. Maybe it is time to go beyond adding new races and do just a bit more. What could beat out Echoes of Faydwer if Rise of Kunark doesn’t? A new class could do it. A new class or two would be something that we, the players, have not experienced before.

With the expansion just on the horizon, I traveled around Norrath and its many servers and I spoke with some of the people that I met there. To each of them I asked the same, simple question: “What are your hopes and expectations for the upcoming expansion Rise of Kunark?” Here is what they had to say:

Lucan D’lere

Sir Gilthanthalasa Telperion- “Interesting content more than anything else, I enjoy raiding most of all and although I like EOF, its raids are routine at this point.”

Kleitos- “Mostly I’m hoping for more diverse raid encounters, and more interesting encounters heroic-wise, and more options regarding loot.”

Everfrost

Enosh Chuzzlewit- “I don’t fear disappointment in any way whatsoever. My dominant feeling is one of profound anticipation. In general I feel the game has improved immensely over the last years with each update being most welcome.”

Morukta - “Wow- that’s a good question. Probably what I’m looking forward to the most is the increase in the level cap across the board. After that would have to be just the fun and excitement of exploring new zones.”

Befallen

Charri- “I expect that the content will be varying and challenging for all the various levels.”

Arus Ulno of Veesha- “I am hoping for increased run speed on my bards, faster more mobile mounts and improved interface updates/upgrades to start with. I am looking forward to the new AP’s and I am very excited about the new race. I am also looking forward to new armor and new graphics for armor appearance. I love all the hard work they have put into this game and I send regular feedback that I feel gets addressed and am positive it will show itself in the new expansion.”

Kithicor

Megadyen Luvnub, Destroyer of Undead- “They better not cheap out and run the expansion on the POS server hardware they are already using. If we zone into a Kunark raid zone and half the zone LDs I am going to lose my damn mind.”

Taipans Hurricane- “Well my hope at this point in the game’s life is to have it freshen the playing experience. Make it feel fun again, with a sense of adventure that I have not felt since the beginning. The last few expansions added some visuals and some interesting places, but overall I never felt a true sense of epic adventure, and being that this is going to be more focused on higher level content, I hope they put enough time into it to make it exciting.”

Oasis

Kyzmit the Distinguished- “Honestly I’m hoping it has enough fantasy feel that my wife will enjoy it and start playing again. She was disappointed by EOF because Kelethin didn’t meet her hopes. Beyond that I’m looking for a good mix of decent quest lines for solo and raid play.”

Loxx the Fox- “I would hope that the SOE team has put a lot of thought into zone/reward design so people willing to assume the challenge of doing the challenging content can reap appropriate rewards. I would also hope that greater attention has been paid to some of the neglected areas of the game. Like greater crafting development and enhanced design at all levels. I would hope some attention has been paid to the roles of individual classes. Players in general would like to simply know their role and be able to fill it whether it is DPS, utility, tank, healing, or hybrid.”