Former EQ Addicts Sound Off

[Manic]

Before WOW, I played Everquest for a very long time, was guild leader of a large and ultimately semi-successful guild in retrospective general terms... I'm guessing now that Elemental Flagged is probably a check box on the EQ interface, but at the time it took a great deal of work to achieve it.

Ultimately for me it led to major burnout and an extended absence from anything online or computer oriented.

BUT... I still miss EQ sometimes, it was the MMO that I cut my newbie teeth on, made many friends and gained knowledge of gameplay that I am 150% sure gives me a huge advantage in Wow, such as group dynamics, trade skills and efficient use of time in game.

I played a Ranger (which like locks, was the most oft recipient of the nerf bat imo) and a Cleric (Priest) as mains.

So what I am asking is, did you play EQ, do you still? What class did you play, how far did you progress, any fond or not so fond memories, do you miss it? You get the point, now sound off

*sorry about posting this in the wrong spot*

[Kaymon24]

Ah yes. I am in the same boat as you there. EQ was what I started on. I was a total noob (First mmo) and knew nothing. I played my bros account and got a 29 dwarf cleric. I then got my own account and started a human. Totally lost in the town for half an hour and logged out. I then started a Halfling Druid. I got to about 56 and saw many things, met many people, and made many enemies.

I miss EQ alot, and wish I could play my old char. I had actually once started playing EQ again but I quickly stopped. EQ had become an unknown enigma to me. I was so lost, and just gave up at that point. WoW was no different. I was totally lost at first, but I gradually learned and became better.

Do I miss all the people I met on EQ? Yes, who wouldn't? Do I have any plans on returning to it? Probably not.

[Nekrotic]

Former EQ player here too, 61 Ogre shaman, level cap was 65 when I quit. I was in PoP advancing through. I started playing about 4-6 weeks after release. I had a million alts and should have focused on one character. Same goes in WoW - lol. It took me a while to find my lock and switched to him with a 60 hunter already. Plus a couple server switches in between didn't help much.

EQ was amazing when it came out. It truly was evercrack for a lot of people. I also played EQII for a bit, 31 barb berserker but that was while I was taking a break from WoW. Also played planetside in there. EQ did burn me out too, but wow rekindled the fire. I would like to log in my old char if I could but my server was merged. Hopefully I'm still there! I wish I was still the old char model.

[vae432]

Signed up for eq around the time of kunark expansion. managed to get my bard to 56 by the time i quit, i think 65 was the max. Was guild leader of a small family guild that never achieved anything. my most favourite memory was of kedge keep raiding, 2 full groups of 40s and 50s swimming around learning to "raid". good times.

tried eq2 for a few months, got a rogue something to 21 but got stuck at that level, really hard to solo.

i missed out on all the big stuff in eq. our server had regular Night Raids, which were like PUG raids for casual players. the toughest boss i ever got to see was naggy and vox, even lead a few successfully. i guess thats why im trying extra hard to get to 70, to for once see the what the end game is like, especially since its easy to solo all the way unlike EQ.

i reckon your first mmorpg is where you make real friends. ive found i havnt made any friends at all in wow.

doh now i miss my bard and his dragonskin super speed drums!

[Swoop]

Almost 8 years of EQ here. Played since a couple of months after release, then got fairly hooked into it. Went through a few characters, but ended up on an Iksar shaman for about 3.5 years. Took a break for 8 months or so and played DaoC and Earth & Beyond. Went back to EQ and levelled up a bard. Raided the planes, killed Quarm, got immensely frustrated at Gates of Discord, and finally made it into the WoW closed beta just after Omens of War released. That pretty much stopped EQ until, hmm, 8 months or so after WoW release.

After hitting 60, there was very little activity in my time zone, so I ended up going back to EQ and my old guild for almost 1.5 years. By this time, my guild had gone through a few setbacks what with server mergers, and my return coincided with a gain back in power. We were neck and neck with the top asian raiding guild on my server, E'ci. We went through server mergers again, and this time came out pretty much on top on Tunare. I stayed hard core raiding with them until just prior to the release of, erm.. 2? expansions after Depths of Darkhollow. Ended up 2-boxing raids with my ranger on a second account in order to help the raid proceed. The lower population meant I eventually would play 6 characters over 2 computers to farm upgrades, plat, etc.

Wasn't getting enough sleep, and was feeling badly rundown, plus my real life was suffering from too many 3-4 hour per night sleeps (we raided 5-7 days a week on Japan time schedule) and I threw the towel in and went back to the more casual feel of WoW, which my partner had continued to play. We both ended up jumping around servers until we found one we liked (Aman'thul) and have been creating numerous characters and alts since then.

I've hopped back on EQ now and then to say hi to people, but it no longer has the draw it once did, and most of my friends from there have quit playing now as well.

The EQ experience caused me to get immensely frustrated at the people in WoW, in particular, the people who just didn't understand what I considered basic grouping / pulling strategies. It still amazes me the number of people who, years after WoW has been released, don't seem to grasp fairly basic concepts. EQ was a harsh teacher in some ways, and punished mistakes a lot more severely. I think in many ways this forced people to become better. WoW is much more lenient, and any idiot can make it to 70 eventually, given enough time.

[Carke]

wow cant belive all the EQ players. i played for a little bit but the highest i ever got was a level 15 necro thinking about starting up again though as WoW has gotten kind of boring (and i'm not even 70 yet)

[Stanis]

I have some years of EQ on my resume too (UO as well)
Stanislao 70 Shaman with some plane of time gear on the great Drinal server (even thou I grew up on Stormhammer).
I do think that WoW is a lot easier to play but in a way is more enjoyable for everybody, from the solo player to the hard core raiding folks.
Just as an idea to how more difficult EQ was here are some examples:

- you die, you lose some experience and you have to run naked to get your stuff in your corpse. Sometimes it takes hours to finish the corpse run and get the group going again. Unless of course it's not a wipe and you get a res.
- a cloth class would die in a few seconds if aggro was pulled off the tank.
- on bosses, healers had to coordinate chain heals on rotation to avoid heal-aggro. (really, timed to the second)
- it was really hard to solo your way to lvl70 unless you are a particular class and only grind a few area suitable for you. (making it very boring)
- no raiding=no decent gear
- raids was 70+ people and most of those had to know what to do or the raid wipe, guaranteed. (wipe/semi-wipe very possible just clearing to the boss)
- some raid contents was 6+ hours to finish
- a long raid may really drop just a few items. meaning you may raid a month or more without getting anything eccept dkp.


I did enjoy EQ a lot but it's also more time consuming.
I can play WoW even for 20 minutes and still get something done.


-Stanis

[vae432]

weee a fellow Drinalian. i missed the old Drinal ezboard forums.

[Dreadcaster]

I played EQ on Lanys back when Velious had just gone live. I started a ranger because I had no clue about the game, and the class seemed neat..

I remember starting out with a stick and some cheap food, no bags, not being able to get past the guards because the snakes or rats would wtf own you for a while.

I remember the horrible corpse runs (SSRA CR anyone) or a CR in Seb, and I also raided into GoD and Omens content. But at this point, I had rerolled and soloed / grouped a necro to 69, it was a blast.

I was shocked at how spoonfed and easy WoW is, and I actually enjoy heroics because it isn't Ezmode, and I am still ammused when people dump groups or ninja log on a wipe or because the run is "too hard".

EQ made you play the game, travel meant paying a druid or wizard or you walked, or those horrid long boat rides. Experience debts on death, gear loss, all the while, we payed for that.

I like what EQ taught me about MMOs, but I know I would not go back, with the amount of xpacs being churned out, the only thing that seemed interesting would be the progression server, but still, no thanks.

If WoW gets better, that will be great, but if it goes bad, there is always something else out there.

So for Lanys (long dead to a server merger) it was Dreadcaster Nos'Goul 69th DE Necro.

Some things I remember, and love though:

- Item trading between alts
- Selling out of EC (all on me at T1....)
- Port whoring Druids
- WTB KEI or VOQ

Just some of the fun I can recall, the rest well, you know, you were there.

[Cessate]

ex EQ player here too. Mainly played a monk, but I also topped out a shaman, cleric & ranger.

The best time I had was pulling dragons in TOV after the the scars of velious expansion. Theres something about pulling dragons the size hotels in a labryrinth. Although Vindi was fun as well. For me it all went down-hill after that, until GOD came then I just quit.