EQuality?Follow

First off, I would like to state a couple of things.
1) I'm posting this in the Main and OOC forums. Not sure which is more appropriate, but would definitely like this to be seen at least.

2) I fully realize that the following "rant" just may be fueled by the fact I am relatively new (been playing for only a few months), don't play "rich" classes, and may even have a touch of envy.

That said, read on or turn back. . .

I currently bounce between two characters. A 38 Iksar Monk, Shukenja Oni; and a 16 Barbarian Berzerker, Omnioni (current lvls, Saryrn server). The only other classes I've tried are ShadowKnights, Beastlords, and Warriors. I'm a straight up fighter, so I couldn't click with the SK's and BL's. After many years of D&D, I niched with fighters that do things, so I got bored quickly with Warriors. I've been playing my Monk for about three months, until GoD came out. Since lauch, I've mainly stayed on my zerker.

Anyway, I guess that's enough backgroud, if any was really needed, but here's what really has kinda been eating at me. It seems to me that the game is geared more for the high lvl people. There are enough quests for the newly created characters to get started with; newb armor, errand-boy xp quests, etc. But what really is ther to do past, say, 20? It's almost like, "Hey, you got your last name. Now go find something to do until you reach a really high level to do something worthwhile." I mean, seriously...why can't you quest for a cool weapon at say, 30, or 40? I understand the general concept of "Epic," but still.

Another thing that just gets right under my skin is proc'ing weapons. Someone was kind enough to give my monk some Fireclaw Talons at around 20th level, really nice hand-me-down if you ask me. I fought with them for a good 15 levels before I got so annoyed with the "You will is not sufficiant enough to command this weapon." message that I was willing to just drop them somewhere. When I asked a guild member about them, they said that it wouldn't proc until I was 45/46. WHY!?!?! I only procs for 75 fire damage! Wouldn't EQ think that at 45/46 someone would find something (dropped, farmed, or bought) that would do FAR more damage than 75 fire? To me that screams perfect mid 20's to 30's type weapon.

One last thing. Maybe this is just me, but what is with people in the Bazaar? Ruined skins going for double digit platinum? For instance, the Fungi Tunic. From what I understand, it's one hell of an item. But to charge 65k pp and upwards? If I EVER pay that kind of money, I better be invincable! I think it's rather pathetic that people have to be so greedy and self-centered in this game to just blow up prices like that just because people will pay them. I understand fully that there are a lot of items that are difficult to get, but Christ almighty...wanting six, even seven figures for a farkin item someone could get their own selves? But, I guess that is the price for cheezy laziness.

For those that have read this, thank you. All comments and criticizims are and will be taken with an open mind.

Happy Hunting all!

Psycho I know exactly how you feel. This game is called EVERquest but really the quests are sporadic depending on your level, class and race. While I don't mind the level grind this time around (I played for a year right when Kunark was released and the grind then was MUCH worse), it's still a grind. There is no feeling of purpose in most things you do, and even when you find an item worth having at your level the creature that drops it is surrounded by so many other creatures of the same level that you have no hope of being able to get it. Or you do finally manage to kill it but don't get the item you wanted because it only drops it once every thousand times it spawns. Or my personal favorite is never finding the creature at all because there is some super secret combination of other creatures you have to kill to get that one to spawn at all. oh, and did I forget to mention that you have to kill those creatures in that order on the second tuesday after the first sunday of the month when there's a full moon?

All of that being said though, I have found that LDoN has done wonders for my enjoyment of EQ. Finally, there is something I can do that gives me a sense of purpose and a set of goals. There are ALL kinds of items I want from the Adventure Merchants. And I will have them, regardless of the cost. :-)

So my advice is to get out there, find some aspect of the game you enjoy and do it till the fun wears off, then find something new. Because the developers are not going to add any more content or fix all the broken quests out there for us lowbies, simply because we are a miniscule portion of the EQ population (and not nearly vocal enough) and the road to Uberness has gone from a muddy path that sucked you down to a super sleek highway that almost anyone can speed down. (Except me, I seem to perpetually get flat tires that leave me well behind everyone else I know)

Of course, YMMV but that's my take on it.

There are literally dozens upon dozens upon dozens of quests that you can do no matter what level you are. Some are class specific, some are not. When you hit level 30 or so, check out the Twilight Sea Armor quests for your class. I'm sure you'll see some zerker specific quests coming soon as well. One to get a much better axe.

The weapon that you have drops off a level 38 MOB in echo caverns. According to the messages on the bottom of the page for the talons, they will proc at level 37 (though that was posted a while ago.) The minimum level to attain, is 45 according to this site.

Really? And what about faction and being KoS? Can a Dark Elf do quests in Rivervale? No, they can't. Telling people that there are "dozens upon dozens upon dozens" of quests you can do no matter what your level is not true.

I did a Search on this sight for Iksar Monk Quests and came up with exactly twenty seven. Five are below level 20, four are in zones he is KoS, and at least one is a Shadow Knight quest. Do a search for Monk Quests between 30 and 40 and you get more but very few of the ones that say 'All' will get him items he can use.

So my point is, that while there are hundreds of quests in the game, not every class/race/level can do all of them. You have to be very careful when searching for quests in EQ.

And to top it all off, the reward for the vast majority of the quests (including the Twilight Sea armor quests) is a slap in the face when compared to the amount of work required to complete them. Especially when items dropped by the eternally camped/impossible to find mobs are far superior.

Again, that's just my opinion based upon my limited playing, and the searches I've done on this site and others for quests to keep me entertained.

If you take a cross section of all the players in EQ you'll see there's a lot more high level players than there are low level players. Also, a majority of low level players are alts/twinks of higher level players. With that in mind do you think Sony wants to allocate a significant portion of the quest development budget to a tiny fraction of their customer base?

One thing about mudflation and MMORPG's like EQ is lower level people don't realize how powerful they've become. It sounds to me like you want an epic quality item in your mid levels. Get over it and be happy you got what once was considered GODLY! Do you realize a 8/26 weapon was RARE when Lady Vox was taken down for the first time? And now you're whinning that it doesn't proc for you.

Saying 65k for a twink item is too much makes me chuckle. Do you realize how difficult it is for people over level 50 to make 65k? At lower levels a fungi is nice but for a tank class that's sporting 7k+ hitpoints that extra regen is worthless and then some. If you think that's bad, go check out ornate patterns. As for cheesy lazyness, you don't know what it's like at higher levels. I can easily go camp a place like Droga, get a few good drops with minimal difficulty and risk. Sell those items and make 65k in far less time than it would take to get a fungi myself. On Saryrn there's a few of people that have half of sebilis permacamped last time I checked.

If you want to do quests, go do some faction work then do the quests you think would be cool. Nearly any quest is available to you if you put a bit of time in to get your faction up. In fact, there's a really nice one in Chardok that a lot of people have done (myself included). However it does require killing lots (I'm talking in the thousands) of goblins in order to get your faction up. You can also start on your coldain rings quest. Have you started the footwork for your epic? How many headbands and sashes do you have?


This is probably one of the biggest crocks of crap I've read in ages. I'd be willing to bet you have far far far better gear than most people did three years ago. You my good boy are twinked by the economy in general. Carrying around an 8/26 weapon at 20th level.

Not to mention the old, well-worn clunker:

Its a game. If you dont like it, dont play it!

OK, I have some thoughts on this matter...please forgive me but I am once again jumping into the way-way-back machine.

In the early days of EQ, twinking was rare, and the level of twinking was just not what it is now. Oh it happened...but not every slot filled with a high lvl item. I remember making a newbie cleric to try out and passing a blood-forge hammer to him and feeling guilty about twinking.

Now we skip entire areas of growth that were originally built into the game...like armor acquisition. I saved and scrimped to get my full set of banded from blacksmith PCs...then moved to bronze, which was cool because you could hunt mobs for the stuff...then on a rare occasion a piece of armor would drop that was magical. Youd gladly put on something with a +2 sv fire...because what you already had on did nothing special.

That is why there is no good place to hunt for the 20 - 50 lvl characters...we are already wearing and using at lvl 20 what a 40th or 50th lvl person wore...so going to Unrest or Cazic or LGuk for drops is not done much anymore.

Where you hunted used to not just be an XP thing, but an item drop issue. Runnyeye had the BBS. Najena had the FBR. Etc. When you were the correct level you went with your friends and took turns getting these drops. And rest of the players were doing the same...very few were twinked.

Having said all of this...SOE should revamp the system and perhaps create some mid-level epics. Create cool items that take quests that everyone would want and throw them into the old dungeons and zones...unrest, splitpaw, befallen, lake rathe...etc. Get the mid-level player out into those places.

Another factor is, however, there are just not as many mid-level characters so going to many of these places is not feasible without a group and the members to group with are just not there. They are in the XP-correct zone for their level so they can robot-climb to the higher lvls.

I think it goes without saying that this game, as it is today, is geared entirelly towards level 65 players. EQ has been around a long time. I'd have to think that a vast majority of playerbase has hit level 65 a few times over if not more.

To the original poster, I understand where you are coming from. I've recently started back, and I remember the game long ago before the expansions. The game then was geared towards the lower to middle levels, because that was what exsisted.

It's just smart business, and smart game design by the EQ team. If EQ hadn't evolved and had endless amount of high level content added, you'd probably be the only one on your server if you server even existed. Without high end content, people would leave quickly once they ran out of things to do.

Personally, I'm at 45 right now, that's the highest I've ever been. My friend (all with multiple level 65 characters) keep telling me that 1-65 is about 5% of EQ experience.

IMO, we should be thanking the EQ team for maknig a dynamic product that has kept a massive playerbase of the last half-decade.

I appreciate everyone's response. I wasn't expecting so much so soon.

I must say, I have been enlightened a great deal. I had no idea just how much this game has evolved. I now have a much greater understanding of and for the game.

To whoever had posted the zones (sorry for not remembering your name), I will most definitely go there and try them out. Especially if it will help me avoid the permacampers and ninja looters.

As a clarification, My Monk's equipment is as follows: Wu's Collar, Fighting Shirt, Sleeves, and Pantaloons. Sonic Wolf & Orc Fang earrings. Fallen Froglok's Scepter & Bruiser Knuckles. To me, these items aren't much. But seeing has how they compare to when the game first came out, I guess one could say I am twinked. Currently, I have done the research and am doing my shackle quests. Also, I would greatly appriciate advise on how to be able to get into West Freeport to do my sashes. My Zerker has the complete Rabidwolf armor and a Drakkel Icereaver (gifted to my by a guildmate).

Thank you again for all the advice and the enlightenment. Glad to know there are those out there that still play for fun. Rock on yall!

Well, I had a well thought out and well written post about all of this, including comments on quests, faction, old world zones and the support provided to low level characters in today's EQ. Unfortunately, Allakhazam's filter wouldn't let me post it. Something about limiting silly posts with excessively long words and/or the words monk quest in it. :-)

So, here are my comments in a nutshell.

1. Iluien nice comments about old zones.
2. There are some zones an Iksar just can't raise faction high enough to get into, and therefore some quests are in fact impossible to do.
3. Sony has no incentive to fix low-level broken quests.
4. Quest items should far exceed dropped items in terms of power and usability, IMO.
5. Getting groups to go to some of the cool Old World zones is almost impossible. Even though they have some great items (for those of us that are on a limited budget).
6. Leveling to 50+ is so quick and easy any more that Sony has no need to work on anything related to characters of a lower level.
7. All of the above makes EQ more about getting to 65 so you can actually enjoy 95% of the games content than having fun along the way.
8. For those of us that only get to play around 6 hours a week, all this can make the game very frustrating.
9. Even so, I'm still having more fun with EQ this time around than I did when I played right after Kunark's release. Trust me, EQ is a MUCH better game now than it was then. Imagine running around in self-made silk armor through level 25 because there WAS nothing else a caster could get. And having your first item with stats given to you by a guild member. (And yes, I walked four miles to school everyday, uphill both ways, in the snow. :-))