Former EQ Addicts Sound Off

[NekiGnome]

LOL!

UO and to some extent EQ are OOOOLD school MMOGs. Glad to know I'm not the only one, I personally only got to level 60 on a druid in EQ; Luclin server. Started playing in Kunark, left with Omens of War I think, but I did see what the high end raiding were like, as my brother was in a raiding guild. You HAD to field anywhere around 40-60 people to down the big bosses, and of those, around 10% had to be clerics (not druids, not shamans).

Corpse runs actually MEANT something back then, and 2 classes had "evaccuation spells for when pulls went bad". Anyone remember Enchanters? haha, 1 class, all the CC you might need.

All the fun memories behind, who here agrees that playing a MMOG before WoW actually gives you an edge over the other players? (Or at least did at the very begginingof the game).

[Croxis]

Old School Bertoxullous EQ here also. I played from ~6 months after release until ~80% of the guild I was in jumped to WoW. We had progressed past Time, and were well into Gates of Discord, dabbling in Omens of War. I was one of our guilds 3 main Mages (level 70 Dark Elf Mage). Corpse runs could be...harsh...to say the least. You didn't get sent to the nearest graveyard (there were none), you were sent to your bind point (which could be on an entire different continent). I remember being on the Call of The Hero duty on several raids we did. Think, warlock Ritual of Summoning, but only within a zone, not from virtually anywhere.

Nothing beat a raid in the throws of a wipe, hearing /raidtells of 'CAMP A CLERIC!', 'NECROS FEIGN (DEATH) TO REZ A CLERIC!', and the requisite ensuing 'naked' run back. All the while chiding each other because the boss was down to 1% health when the last raider died.

Those were great days!

[Manic]

How about finally dinging a new level, getting great new spells, then dying, losing your level and rendering your new spells unusable.

and the requisite ensuing 'naked' run back.

Nothing says success like your entire guild doing the walk of shame after a wipe, especially if everyone was bound in POK (the central hub for all continents)

All the fun memories behind, who here agrees that playing a MMOG before WoW actually gives you an edge over the other players? (Or at least did at the very begginingof the game).

I think a huge edge... some examples:

Picking a character. Very similar classes to EQ, I knew exactly what I liked to play.

Group Dynamics: I understand the role of classes within a group. I stopped asking in groups who the "main assist" is because most people think I'm speaking Chinese.

Basic things like immediately setting up a trader mule.

The differences in guilds: Hardcore, casual etc. and where I'd like to position myself.

Grasping the concept of progression, farming (people ask me all the time what that means)

Difference in spell functionality: Dots vs. Nukes, agro management, etc.


Those are just to name a few

[valdor]

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

I was also on Lanys T'vyl. Alexara - 70 Enchanter (Mangina for the win!)

Started just after Kunark came out, helped form the guild Oryx, then came to Wow with the guild.

Issues I had with EQ:
Didn't like losing exp when you died
All encounters in the game could be Zerg'd
Complete heals ruined much of the strategy of the game, because most encounters could be won just by having a cleric heal rotation on the MT.
Soloing anything worthwhile was impossible
Farming was rediculous, having to wait 3 days for a spawn and then fight 10 other people for it

[Manic]

One of my favorite things to do in EQ:

Characters had weight limits based on equip. Money had weight. if you went over the limit by even a little, you moved very slowly.

EQ used copper, silver, gold and platinum. At the bank you could change currency denominations from one to another.

So when low levels would relentlessy beg for money in town I would tell them that I'd be more than happy to help, meet me in such and such area (far from the bank).

I'd then go to the bank and exchange a small amount of gold for the copper equivalent (15,000 copper let's say) and trade it to the beggar, turning them into an unmovable statue.

[Gritz]

I played EQ for about 6 months when Kunark came out. Got a Ranger to 23 and a Necro to level 12.

The last time I played, I was trying to solo with the Ranger (I hadn't leveled ranged weapons, so I couldn't kite :/ ), and had enough time for a smoke break every after every fight.

2 hour corpse runs, begging for SoW on the tunnel, etc; was no fun.

[Stanis]

I still remember the adrenaline rush when the wipe starts:

raid> zerg the mofo and camp a cleric..!


-Stanis

[Dreadcaster]

"I was also on Lanys T'vyl. Alexara - 70 Enchanter (Mangina for the win!)"

I remember Oryx actually, and I remember your name at least. I didn't do alot with Oryx, I was in Last Sanctuary with Myschief (loved that woman) then I went on to Riders, which was a freaking blast. Alot of people I knew from Lanys got real sick of WoW and moved beyond or went to EQII.

[leakin]

I played EQ from release until I quit right before Gates of Discord. I was a Monk (Leakin on Tribunal - Norrath Guardians of Honor)and I loved every minute of it. Having the whole raid depending on you to split pulls to single pull a raid boss was SO much fun. Also played a cleric (actually double boxed some raids, lol).

I have been playing mmorpg and morpgs for a long time. It all started with the original neverwinter nights on AOL (Harper's Guild GM...also in Aes Sedai, TCS, S0ul, and more). Then I played a string of games such as UO, Dark Sun Online, The Realm, and very brief stops in SWG and DAoC). But through all that, EQ was my obsession. Took all I had to finally quit...and wouldn't you know it, I picked up WoW...go figure. I only mention the other games to see if anyone else played?! Especially NWN...I played that for years.

[Siouxsie]

I too played EQ. I had a level 56 Erudite Wizard named Yzordderrex Blackrage (and yes, I still managed to drum up business for TP's and punts with a name like that ). I remember when the new raid management system came out and half of the guild I was in didn't have it because they hadn't bought the recent ex-pac ( That came out with PoP, right?)...it made our KK runs really interesting. Especially when they decided to lump all of the Wizards in one group and demanded that we not nuke unless necessary.

Never tell a Wizard what his priorities are, I always said. Pulled aggro on purpose we did and still burned down the mobs, all the while giggling in our own channel.

My favourite memory was "trying" to compete with the guild bard on how many frost giants we could kite at once outside of KK. I lost the bet on that one and gained a lot of respect for bards that were played really well.