Depths of Darkhollow ImpressionsFollow

First and foremost, the experience earned in this latest expansion is the best iv'e seen when you consider that you don't lose experience if you die during the mission, and successfully complete them. You can head over to a Plane and earn excellent experience, but can you guarantee survival? You don't have to worry much about rebuffing that KEI and Virtue, etc. if you die now.

This expansion gives all plyaers a chance to earn excellent experience and play as a race/class not normally allowed to EQ players. It free's up the boredom and complexity often involved in other zones. Hey, unless you're ultimatelly evil, how many times have you just ripped up West Freeport in the past? Now you can ; )

Enjoy peeps !!!

Krastus Deverun 62 Cleric, Drinal
Strommare Deverun 57 Magician, Drinal
Pitch Black 54 SK, Drinal

after playing the expansion in game now for a week or so I'd have to say I'm let down, the monster mission in BB where you raid Freeport is fun but one of the group members actually lost experience doing it, there was no information when we zoned in other then ?? in every part of what we were to do so we just ran around killing and looting. It wasn't until after we had done 3 I believe it was that there was actually information on what was required to win. Not that I'm complaining about the lack of information when you have a good group who really cares about that we were just having fun trying to figure out what came next.
As for the shrouds to play monsters I haven't tried those yet, even though I bought the game online it would appear that the shroud the news letter said I'd have actually is only available if you prepaid for the game before it came out.

Hows this for an expansion.
TIME TRAVEL BACK TO EQ "THE BEGINING"
(lets keep the fancy graphics)
-lose the crazy stats on gear. OMG a bronze helm (AC 8)!
-let have those zones back where you could explore, but if you didnt tread wisely ...SQUISH! or where you have to make a mad dashes to get to the other side(5 out 6 times you'll make it)!{and this time put mobs on the walls for those cheaters}
-those same zones where you could see a grp of level 5's taking on wolfs and a heart beat away a grp level 40's beating some giants.
- AA's what AA's - want a new skill go to your trainer and train..gain exp in that skill by sparing/chanting...and i am not talking about a 5 minute sesson gets you the ability...nope sorry you want it ....lets take a week or two... hour a day (max) allowed to earn it.
- Make things "precious" -You worked hard for that helm enjoy it...cause your gonna wear it for a long time!
-Cultured armour - Have it worth making again without the crazy stats and augs. When was the last time a Dwarf wore armour from his hometown smith with pride.
- No bazaar - lets get back to Faymart! or buy goods at East Common tunnel... Trade and Barter...NOT CAPITAILISM!
-Books vs Boats - sure the boats sucked back then..but whats the adventure if you dont see the land and walk it ever. Little Woodelf you want to see your Half-Elf cousin in Surefall....pack a bag and heft your sword...and start walking! I mean come on..Trolls and Ogers wonder Kelethin streets like its their backyard now! What happened to High elfs and wood elfs banning together and plundering Kaladim...over some fued!(PC created..A.k.a for fun)
-Expansions!- how about revamped zones every 10 months...folks move away...folks grow old and pass on...new folks move in...new kings.. new shops where old one were. New quests or old quests with different graphics (bronze sword with an emerald hilt next time bronze sword with gold hilt)
-stats- Get back to basics! Dont have magic boots...well you can't kick that willow-wisp then! Need a pair go to Faymart! or talk to your local smith on how to quest for a pair?
-leveling and factions- Grind babe grind! You want to be uber put in the time! But it is not all about killing for exp...designated levels you need to travel to a master of your class, in a far region and train with him an hour (max) a day for a week to gain the Right to your next lev...what you do the other 23 hours...well plenty of quests..changing or dissappearing every 10 or so months..the giants I hear have moved from there homes in the south to the new home in the east this month under a new king!
-colored armour- Well do the quest again...get a diff looking weapon this time...see your smith or tailor in home city.BArter and trade for the color you want! In other world work for a unique look and identity. Not dump a vial of dye on your armour.Hell have it so smiths can make custom orders on thier cultural armour.
-Chat channels- LOse it! do you know what is going on in china!
Let the stories reach you from word of mouth on your travels.
GM event in Commons...your in Kaladim...your clueless...as it should be
-GM events- YES PLZ!

But Sony wont make that one
Next Expansion EQ "BUY CONTENT"
-everyone gets jet packs - instant travel to any zone
-look at a mob- get Helm (AC 3487 hp875 str 456 blah blah blah)
-mobs dont quad they HEXOGATE you for 99999hp
-you can be a STONE and roll down hills- the more times you do it the fast you can roll! Work yourself to AVALANCHE lev!

Bah

When it all started... It was how about You and a world to explore..that thrilled you and scaried the crap out of you! You made new friends on journeys to new places ,new fights everyday.You walked the land. You knew every nock and crannie in your home town and the surounding areas. Why? Cause you had to Quests and kill your way out and thru it to see what was beyond it! Where looting a steel bracer (only one AC higher then your old one)was as momentous as the day you were born! Hell even the boat rides where fun when they worked.... got drunk...and fishing over the side(for food you always were running short on) with a buddie for an hour...talking about the adventures to come in the land over the seas. Where being good or Uber was not crazy stat gear and how many bots you had with you...but the number of people that you meet and if your name stuck in thier head as you parted ways after an adventure!

Heh...Greetings from EQ, circa 2002!

Al'Kabor has no expansions beyond PoP, so while we're not quite "back to the beginning", we're pretty close. The other thing that's really nice is that our population is too small to support plat farmers (ie: IGN-style) and since SOE does not allow transfers, we have never experienced the rampant plat inflation that struck y'all a couple years back. Experience is accelerated to a certain extent, since we have PoP, but no where near the rate with later expansions. Similarly, our top geared people are in Vex Thal gear. No one has Elemental stuff yet.

Hawkslove wrote (And sorry for picking on you, bud, but you just spelled it out so clearly!)


If by 'best experience' you mean fastest, sure. That's not the only definition though. Can you 'guarantee survival' in a regular (Planes) group? Well, why would you? These two points, to me, demonstrate to a 'T' why this expansion is even worse than GoD, which is a great pity, because in this one, SOE actually tried and came close to do something right. But to make an expansion where you get insane xp and loot with no risk at all and very little effort, is counter-productive. What will SOE do, when the 8-hours-a-day players have maxed out all gear and AAs about a week from now? At least the rest of us won't have to worry about lag, when we go explore the interesting zones. You remember: Those with a storyline, an impact on the 'real' Norrathian history and NPCs that actually matter. And with mobs that actually hurt you.

"It free's up the boredom and complexity often involved in other zones." Well, if EQ is too complex, I suggest you go elsewhere. If you find the world of Norrath boring, it may not be the fault of the world alone...

"how many times have you just ripped up West Freeport in the past?" Well, none (and I assume you mean East Freeport). It's a civilised city (more or less). Some of my best friends come from Freeport. Why would I want to rip it up? Besides - you don't get to rip it up, you only get to PRETEND to rip it up. You don't believe me, then go on your normal toon and check the place out, it's still there. Fooled you, huh? Maybe the fact that you ripped it up over, and over , and OVER AND OVER should have clued you in to the fact that these 'missions' have no impact on the Norrath the rest of us can see - so why bother?

/rant off

I would like the zones alot more if I could find a group there ....hehehe...the monster missions are cool but everytime I go to Undershore or other zones I can never find a group :(


Tart
Maelin Starpyre

They new zones are pretty cool, havent made it to the high end ones though. And many aa's per night is not unheard of. I made 4 aa's doing 4 Monster Mission in Naggy before they nerfed the xp in half. The BB pirate Monster Mission still gives great xp though. I was in BoT last night for 4 hours, died twice and made one aa point. The day before I did 2 BB pirate Monster mission, got 2 aa's and a new pair of boots. Took an hour and a half total. The xp vs reward is a little too much in my opinion, but then they just keep dumbing down the game to where it will soon be on par with EQ2. Learning the hard way is what true Everquest is all about, not just letting stuff be handed to you. I dont like the shrouds though. To weak for their levels, takes forever to get percentage up, and can never find equipment for them.

Edited, Wed Sep 28 13:00:56 2005 by Amonthule

A few impressions:

1. This expansion seems more balanced then GOD and OOW were. There is actual content that a non-uber casual player can use. The monster missions makes it easy for low levels to find groups and get xp but their skills will suffer. No worse then power leveling them I guess though.

2. Another buggy release! SOE you must improve your quality and testing of EQ in general and especially new content. There is no excuse to release a product full of bugs that has supposedly been tested. Although I do congratulate SOE on a fairly quick fix on most of the serious bugs in this expansion.

3. I found the graphics of the new zones very beautiful. They have depth and do not seem so 2 dimensional as some of the older zones. The roque shourds and slipgear quest allow you to explore the majority of this expansion without having to kill your way through it. I have used that shroud to go back and explore some places I never got to before.

4. The quality of loot I have seen coming out of this expansion is not comparable to OOW, GOD or even some elemental gear. It is more inline with DON gear but without the extra aug slots to pimp it out. This would be fine if the mobs were lesser then mobs in those expansions but getting smacked for 1k and the mob dropping a 90hp item is not right. I have been in many new zones where people keep OOC'ing anyone want this item come an get it before it rots.

5. The shrouds needed more instruction on how to use. The first week I had to walk several people through how to use them. People say the higher level shrouds are underpowered. They were meant to be used to allow people to group with lower levels. If they were powerful at high levels it could hamper the ability to find a group since people would turn to friends and guildies to use a shroud to go with them. Part of the game is to meet new people and interact although I know at times we don't want too.

I'd have to say the expansion sucks.


Ton of new required aa's for my tank.

Some new aa's required for my wizard.


Can't even see where to spend any on my cleric or my shaman.


The shrouds are a dumb gimmick whose novelty wore off before I could even figure them out totally. The complete lack of documentation for them was laughable.

Nice to put OOW spell drops in the DoD zones, but they should have upped the 69/70 drop rate if they're trying to help fill out year old spell lists.


Mobs that hit in the hi 1800s with double MPG hps...and drop loot in the 85 hp/mana range are a joke. Once anyone sees the loot they don't go back.

Over all, for sure, it sucks..

I've liked this expansion so far. I haven't dont much in it yet, but the charm aug is neat. Just explore the new zones and get a nice aug for it that is 10 million times easier to upgrade than the LDoN one. I think the shrouds just rock. There are times I want to play my main but can't stand the thought of hitting that complete heal button yet again and the shrouds give me a taste of what it's like to play a high level melee or caster.

And to the poster who thinks 7 AA's in one night is ridiculous, it's not. AA exp is based on level 51 exp so at level 67 when you kill a mob and are all on AA exp, it gives you the amount of exp you would have gotten if you were 51 and killed the same mob if I'm remembering correctly. So at level 70, in places like MPG and RSS the AA exp is unbelievable. I usually walk out of there with a minimum of 8 full AA's after a few hours of work on a weekend day. Hit the double exp vet reward and just watch them fly. And no, we aren't removed from the regular EQ players, we are the regular EQ players. Just that simple.

Anyway, I think this expansion has a lot to offer for everyone, each individual just has to find out what that means for themselves.



edit: spelling

Edited, Fri Sep 30 10:10:08 2005 by Xaltinye

Well now that I have learned a few things about DoD my feelings that this would be another end-user expansion are so wrong.

Now everyone in my guild can group with everyone else regardless of lvl or class.

If you cant get a group anywhere else you can always get one in Monster missions.

Oops! I need a few more aa's for that next ability before the raid this saturday. Give me an hour or so in Nek forest doin mm's and poof, good to go.

I dont particularly like letting my skills suffer so much while leveling up my lowbie alts but I use mm's primarily for AA.

But now also with the Monster missions I have been playing my alts alot more as well. They are all camped at Nek mm entrance.

Nearly all have either the Slipp's from fairy's or the Neck from Orc's that can use them and they are quite the upgrade too !

I think that DoD has been the best expansion since velious in that it helps gameplay. It allow's anyone to group with anyone else regardless of level or class.

If I wanted to play a online game like EQ and not interact I would play F10'd.

Thank you SOE for DoD!

Since learning how to get into monster missions I have been playing EQ more than ever. My alt's have been givin a new lease on life and I have been meeting new peeps and having a blast. And have only done fairy's and orc's so far....

I'm only scratching the surface of DoD.

Sofurious
http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=1149272