I love being in an active guild in EverQuest Legends. Not for grouping, so much, since grouping isn’t a thing that necessarily has to happen, but just to see the notices flash across the screen: so-and-so has hit level 30; so-and-so has entered the Plane of Hate; seeing the loot linked. It gives me a real incentive to keep logging in and making my own way through the game.
But I like sightseeing.
And not just the sights, but the memories. Remember when everyone would hit 30 and immediately start working on the class-specific armor? People would be in weird mismatched gear, and then suddenly, bards would be whizzing by in deep blue armor, clerics would be shining in gold, shadow knights would be resplendent in their black and crimson darkforge, druids in their green leather. It felt a little like graduating into the real game.
There’s absolutely no reason to do those things in EverQuest Legends. The revamped Befallen and Crushbone will give you gear of equivalent quality much earlier, and that armor will take you through the dragons and into the planes. There is really no reason at all to spend the time, plat and especially the motes to do these quests and to power up the armor enough to make them comparable to the stuff farmed when your character was just starting out.
Well, there is one reason. If EverQuest Legends is for anyone, it’s for people who loved doing this stuff back in the day and wanted to speedrun those memories. I don’t quite remember when I hit level 50 on my main character back in the day. I am pretty sure it was some time after Kunark opened. I hadn’t been really working on my leveling, and druids really were expected to solo to max level back then. They, like necromancers, weren’t really group-friendly.
I (of course) did all these quests for my druid. And also every single one of my alts. You see why it took me so long to get to max level. When I hit 60, I did it quad-kiting spirocs in Timorous Deep. I’d learned the hard way that druids had jobs in raids, not so much in groups, by then.
But. I played a rogue in EQL beta; the class quest for rogues was the Burning Rapier quest, and so I did it.
For warriors, my primary class in EQL live, the class quest is for Crafted Armor. Centaurs in South Karana give the quests, which each requires a drop from some dungeon or other plus some expensive gems.
Money, I had from killing hill giants in the Rathe Mountains (and I had to go back and kill more; I didn’t have enough money after all). But now I had to camp rare spawns in North Karana, avocets in South Karana, Floating Eyes in Runnyeye, ice goblins in Permafrost, cinder goblins in Sol A, a named in Najena’s Lair (I also killed Najena for my first time in EQL Live while there), and some gypsy musicians (who are secretly werewolves) in Castle Mistmoore.
My last time in Mistmoore was during beta, while I was working on the Burning Rapier quest. I needed a drop from a certain mob. I snuck in, got behind her, gave her a good stab, and then tried to fend off her dozen friends who came by to call just at that moment. I killed her and got the drop and was immediately killed in turn by the adds.
This time, though, I couldn’t sneak, as rogue is no longer part of my combo. I could invis in, so I did, but some things see invis, and, well, I got jumped a few times.
Rogue is no longer part of my combo, but Enchanter is, and I was ready for AE stuns and AE mesmerizing. I’d fight things at my pace, one at a time. Coming into the castle proper, I must have drawn near the whole first floor. No problem. I can keep up to 30 things controlled while I take them down.
I couldn’t believe it. I felt so powerful. This overpull would have wiped a group that didn’t have an enchanter back in the day, and even then, the different way mana was used and restored would put a time limit on killing things or potentially dying.
But nope. Not this time. I worked my way through the mobs, keeping them mezzed, until they all were dead. I walked into the ballroom where the gypsy musicians were lounging around in their ears and fur, and I stunned them, mezzed them, killed them one at a time, and the third one had the drop. I left.
I’d have been begging for help with this, at level, back in the day. Or rather, as a warrior, I’d be expected to take hours leading a group there, and then being forced to stay for hours after I got my drop just to be polite.
That was the last bit. I went to the centaurs and got kitted out. I got my motes exchanged for better ones and leveled up each piece until it was at least as good as the piece it replaced. That took almost all my motes. But dammit, when people look at my character, they will see she is a warrior.
After dinner, Kasul and I went to Lower Guk, my first time there with this character, and we took down all the good nameds, several times. We both dinged 35. I think he hit 36 in there. Both of us got two Short Swords of the Ykesha — “yaks”. I’d been rocking the Blackened Alloy Bastard Sword for so long that I needed to get my dual wield and 1-hand slashing trained up, so these will be perfect.
Just like in Mistmoore, occasionally we’d want to pull one or two but get seven. Stun. AE Mez. Take them down one at a time.
I think this combo (warrior/cleric/enchanter) is really going to work out.
Reading all these posts about EQL, not just yours but several other peoples’ too, it’s interesting how everyone compares their experience to playing EQ about a quarter of a century ago. Indeed, unlike you, I think all the other bloggers writing about it only ever played for a few weeks before moving on. That makes me think two things: firstly, it’s surprising how much people seem to remember of their brief experiences all those years ago and secondly that they don’t really have much of an idea what it would be like to play through the same content now on EQ Live.
I haven’t played since the pandemic myself and even then I was playing a character in the 90s, I think. But my memory of the last time I went through the old, pre-Kunark content is that leveling was pretty fast and that all classes could solo pretty easily because all you needed to do was get a mercenary and they’d do pretty much all the work until at least level 50. I might be misremembering though so I’m very tempted to make a new character on EQ Live and test it. Probably not tempted enough to do it right now but maybe later in the year, when the nights close in. Obviously all the multi-classing and item-stacking makes it a different game entirely in terms of gameplay but whether it’s the only one to take a quick nostalgia tour through the Old World I’m not so sure…
Most of the people writing about EQL — Stargrace, The Friendly Necromancer — played EverQuest for years. I know there’s at least one newbie, but I think few people are actually picking it up for the first time.
Obviously they’re welcome if they are, and I do see some people in the General chat who seem new. The more the merrier!
ooh, there are class sets that look good?
I might have to go do those quests just for the transmog (illusion?), since I look less like a Shadow Knight than a clown right now.
I’m pretty sure you can find all the class armor sets with pictures for all races somewhere. Here, actually: https://wiki.project1999.com/Players:Fashion
At the time, those colors were on that armor and no other armor. Then they started with armor dyes and transmogs and stuff. But back then: you wore your history as a player. You wanted to be sure it told the best story.