EverQuest Review - Page 2
Creating a Character
Character creation is a "good thing" as there are many excellent guides available on the worldwide web which describes what each class does, the skills and spells they will have and what you need to optimize them for your play style. Your stat points are distributed for you but you may select the advanced option to redistribute them if you so choose.
Character customization is not complex as there are only a few physical attributes of your character that you can change, such as hair, hair color and face. However, as each race and class has a different look, a group of friends starting fresh characters together could look quite different depending on gender and class, right from the start, never mind the myriad choices of armor available to you as you progress, and the ability to color them.
Tutorial System
For a returning player, the player interface was intimidating to me. For a new player, it must be doubly so. Fortunately, the tutorial system is comprehensive. It provides a voiceover so you aren't constantly squinting at the screen trying to read all the instructions, nor closing the wrong windows while trying not to fall into the pool - as your screen can get cluttered up very quickly indeed. It provides you a step by step walk through of almost all the various systems in game, although I was almost stymied when I was asked to "give" and item to an NPC. Yes, it's been *that* long since I played the game - but a few clicks with the mouse and I had it sorted out.
The tutorial starts you in the Mines of Glooming Deep and has an interesting storyline and a few quests that will equip your character with starting weapons and armors. You do not need to venture out into the bad, bad world until you are past the first few levels.
Character Development
There is little room for deviation in character development in EverQuest. Some specialization is available in that melee classes can develop certain skills over others, and spell casting classes can select specialization in one school of magic over others. The rogue can choose to wield slashing weapons, but being that their most powerful skill is the back-stab, they'd be better served raising their skills in piercing weapons. As a cross- utility class, the druid can choose to specialize in any of the spell casting schools depending on play style. For most classes, however, the path is straight and narrow.
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EverQuest is also "gear-centric." Even the most physically weak of the races, the diminutive gnome can be an excellent warrior as gear begins to make up for their lack in the areas of Strength and Stamina. Although beginning stats are helpful in the early stages of the game and early in the character's levels, the age of the game has also brought wider gear availability to the lower levels through the Bazaar and the coin rich mobs that now populate the newbie areas. Where once, a level 10 character was lucky to see a few gold pieces in their savings, the level 10 character of today can gather platinum by killing coin rich mobs of their level.
For the first 50 levels of the game, advancement is couched in terms of level and gear. Beyond 50, the badges of achievement are the ultimate gear, the class epic weapons, Alternate Advancement (AAs) achieved and flags for various high level zones.
Beyond levels, AAs and gear, there are trade skills. One thing nice about EverQuest is that you can learn all the trade skills available to you if you wish - except for tinkering which is limited to the Gnomish race. Trade skills are another area where players can shine and high level quests abound which requires you to have several skills at the highest levels possible. The badge of achievement in trade skills are Grand Master Trophies. EverQuest tradeskills are a fan addiction in and of it self. Entire sites are devoted to them and statistical analysis of the success/failure rate correlation to player skill and recipe difficulty discussed with the intensity one would normally associate with the scientific community.
Titles & Suffixes that you may select from depending on your achievements in levels, AAs and tradeskills provide a nice flavor but as double-layer names (name and guild) above the heads of characters quickly clutters up your viewable landscape, most players turn them off with display filters.
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Combat, Spell System and the Death Penalty
Detractors used to say that all EverQuest combat was about was "Hit 'A' and walk away" where the 'A' key was the default for "Attack." That comment is too simplistic. Yes, EverQuest does not have many skills that need to be activated during combat, but it does have a few that need player involvement for more efficient combat, such as kick, taunt and bash (for melee classes). Mobs at low health will also run away, and unlike some other games, EverQuest does not have a "stick" function to keep your character in swinging or spell range of your target. That said, combat can get quite repetitive until you are of a level where abilities come into play. At higher levels, skillful use of abilities can sway the direction of a hard fight. Allowing you to thwart the NPC attack or create openings to deal massive amounts of damage.
The /con or "consider" system informs you of the strength of your opponent. Targeting a mob will create a colored ring around its feet and typing /con gets you the "consider" text in the same color. A grey opponent is many levels beneath you and will not give you any xp. A Green opponent, you will be able to defeat easily but gives you no xp. Light blue is an easy kill, Dark blue are the droids you are seeking, White will prove challenging, but you'll normally win, Yellow is difficult without some assistance in higher level buffs or player assistance and Red's con message simply asks you what you'd like your tombstone to say.
Be warned though, the "con" is relative to your level, class, skill and party makeup. A party of three rangers, the often nicknamed "paper tank" may be a tad light in healing and lose a member to a White mob before it is all said and done. As players reach level 50, all bets are off as many a higher level player running across a summoning Light Blue mob may attest.
Monster AI is simple, but the "bring a friend" aggro feature is certainly one of the most feared aspects of adventuring in Norrath. Massive trains of mobs are remembered by long-time players with a wince and wry smile. In EverQuest, you can't tell which mobs are linked. There are no clues. It all comes from experience. Experience in knowing the aggro radius of a mob, from repeated trials, and deaths. Mobs will also chase you for a long time, picking up others in their wake until their hatred list is cleared by your death or your zoning. Sometimes, players may not even be aware that there's a train behind them if they have a speed buff on. Yes, it is foolish to go AFK at a zone line, and zone campers (those that play near zone lines) are well warned to keep an eye out for trains of nasties and the subsequent backwash as mobs return to their original spawn points.
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The EverQuest spell system is one the widest and most varied of all MMO games currently on the market. Spells are purchased from merchants, made by players using the research skill, traded for with NPCs, quested for and won from mobs as loot drops. At certain level intervals, over a dozen new spells may be available. Some are improvements over lower level spells, some may be new, and yet others may be useful over many, many levels. The role of a pure spell caster is defined by the spells he or she has access to, and their role in a group may evolve as they level. Similarly, the roles of some hybrid classes may also shift. The druid and shaman are two classes in particular that go through and can handle different roles, such as healer, damage dealer, buff/debuff as they advance through their spell tiers and as the situation demands.
The crowning glory of what makes EverQuest so effective is also that which causes the most anguish among players and developers; the class role. Every class in EverQuest has a specific role to play in combat situations. Although some have the flexibility to play more than one role, the most effective combat units have players in assigned roles, relying on each other to play their role to the extent of their skill. Class balance is always a hot topic and even today, tweaking continues as features, spells and abilities are introduced with each expansion.
Death is inevitable in EverQuest. From the first accidental tap of the 'A' key while you have your guild master targeted to the total party wipe or TPW, your character dies. You lose xp and respawn at your bind point naked. If there's a cleric nearby with resurrection spells, you may be in luck. Depending on the level of the cleric, when you are resurrected, you may regain some of the lost xp. Otherwise, it's a cold, lonely run back to your corpse before you can retrieve it and all your equipment from under the feet of the mob that killed you with a /corpse command that drags it to you.
For the first ten levels, you do not lose xp and you respawn at your bind point with all your gear, so the first time you respawn naked as the day you were created can be a pretty traumatic experience as you realize how much terrain you have cover, how many creatures you have to dodge before you get to your corpse and all your gear. Especially if you forgot to bind somewhere close.
Some higher level zones such as those in the Planes of Power expansion were designed with graveyards - areas near the zone in/out where your corpse would appear some time after you died. So if you died in some hellish area full of creatures which could eat you for breakfast in three bites, all you had to do was run to the zone to retrieve your corpse.
