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Hi everyone! Over the last few weeks I've grown obsessed with EQOA. I remember back in the day of early MMO's hearing and reading about EQOA but never being able to afford more than 1 or 2 MMO's at a time seeing that I was still in highschool and very short on cash. Being an avid EQ and SWG player I figured that I would let EQOA escape my MMO collection. So why the current fascination with EQOA? Well after years of of playing games that are destined to be changed for the worse (EQ,FFXI, SWG, WoW) Ive decided to try a game that seems to me to be frozen in its original (or close to) state(perhaps not community wise and sure not what it was at release.) After years of playing WoW and raiding "high end" content i've sure lost a sense of challenge with the game. A month after Cataclysm release me and 24 guildies have cleared 12/12 and 2 hard modes. This of course was not the way the game worked in its golden days and has brought back some fond memories of my nostalgic EQ raiding, character advancement, loot, community. Thus bringing me to the on that got away. EQOA. This game appeals to me in so many ways that I have recently gone a new age MMO smear campaign with a few RL and WoW friends. The classic look, the different class/race combo's, non instanced raiding all shows so much character to a classic gamer like I and has recently pulled me into an obsession with this game. 2 days ago I ordered a new copy off of Amazon and hope it will be here asap. Now i know this may sound a little crazy considering the remaining population/content of EQOA but this fascination with game has grown immensely over the past week and I just cannot let this game fade away completely without giving it a go. Any help with leveling, choosing the right server, choosing a guild, ANYTHING that could possibly bring some success to a player joining the EQOA community in 2011 would surely be greatly appreciated by a long time MMO fanatic such as myself. The 27th is the delivery date marked and im really hoping to make some new friends either on these boards or in game come Thursday. Thank you.

Pfft in highschool I couldn't afford to pay one subscription...had to sucker my parents into putting in on their credit card.

If you're looking for a game that hasn't changed much from it's original state then you will find that, to a degree.

The original game was all about grinding, there were countless camps around all the starting cities. Eventually the population started dwindling and the grinding migrated to around one city and the higher level camps dwindled to only a few "mainstream" ones. Being able to find a good grind outside your city with members of your own race was the epitome of the experience and unforntly that can never come back. Now there is not enough population to grind the popular camps and in response to this sony threw in several hunt and gather quests that now are the only thing farmed for leveling. At the level cap there is still some grinding but it has been reduced to just farming instant spawn camps(another major element they changed, the most popular camp before and my personal favorite was all but killed because of these), and of course there is the "boon" which is a buyable(cheap) 4x XP boost that they added to the game. The first XP boosts were a seasonal deal that required a very difficult(or rather tedious and time consuming) quest, then they added in "pots" that you could buy but you had to have good relations with a faction and the location was out of the way, and eventually they simply threw in a "NPC" in each starting town that would sell an even larger XP boost for a minuscule 1000 tunar.

But much remained the same, the in depth and restrictive(to what race you chose) character building system is still there and something you wont find in any modern MMORPG that "casualized" and "balanced" them, and the raid zones are much the same, though I can't speak on the most recent one they added as I haven't experienced it much but I understand they also did things to make it simpler than other raids. And you do have to consider that with the easier leveling and XP boost that toons are a lot more developed and raids aren't as difficult as they were.

I don't play the game any more and at this time I don't think I will start back up(my B/C ps3 went completely kaput and I would still have to find the money and time to play), but if there is any advice I can give I would be more than glad to just give me specifics of what you are wondering about.

A quick one though is not to even try using the in game payment option, go the the sony online entertainment website and do it though there.

I also hope you ordered the Frontiers expansion version of the game.

Edited, Jan 25th 2011 1:25pm by SefanaPPO

I don't expect you to grind, I'd be amazed if you found a group to grind even a fourth of the way. With out a high level toons help it could take quite a while, maybe you could find someone nice enough to get you some HnG items and port/run you out to turn them in.

With the boon just doing the lvl 1-15 starting quests will get you to level 17, at which point I would recommend running or finding a port to highpass. There you should pick up the pickclaw hunt and gather quest, go down the road and find one of the camps with low level goblins and farm several stacks of them to level into your 20s. At level 25 you can start the roots and herbs hunt and gather and get to ~35 very quickly but you will need high level help to collect those. I think at 30 is the start of the dawn maiden which is very popular xp quest that people run with higher level toons. The normal pickclaw quests can done at any level, waves of varying level goblins will "invade" highpass and you kill the ones corresponding to your level group and turn them in. Those are the major quests now though siloth rings starting at 30 were still somewhat popular, need to be good or get good faction with Forkwatch to turn them in however. I doubt you will find any grinding group until at least your 40s, once you get 45 you will be able to group with 60s and they will probably invite you to pull trees(an instant spawn camp) for their pets to kill. You may find a PL at the lower levels but they are going to be looking primarily for Alchemists and wizards for the AoE spells.

For a necromancer the most popular race would be erudite, for the racial master class of Scholar which gets an ability to give power to yourself or others. The normal necromancer MC Lich is very similar in that it gets a faster recharging power spell, but it doesn't give as much and also does non-resistible damage to yourself. Human necromancers or shadowknights are also fairly popular, they and erudites are able to sign certain "good" coach ledgers that the other two possible races cannot. Ogre necros however are often picked for their high hitpoint and defense potential. Dark elf necros have no outstanding advantage but many pick it just for the combo or an evil elf and evil class.

Keep in mind that my last experience in the game was about half a year ago now, it may have deteriorated even more.

Truthfully though if you like the game and are dedicated to it, with the extra money, I would recommend investing in another ps2 and copy of the game to dual box, it will make getting through the levels with the current stage of the game much easier.

Edited, Jan 25th 2011 6:47pm by SefanaPPO

SOunds good. Just logged on for the first time and im in the Erudite starting zone. Learnign the controls and quests atm and just basically getting a feel for it before i embark on any sort of quests or leveling. Cant find this damn coachmaster to save my life lol.

Actually you can use the dockmaster from highbourne to odus and then back from odus to freeport. No need to runit, but you will have to run the other coaches. I'm usually on late at night to early in the morning EST. My character that I'm on the most is Wreckanize, currently 51 necromancer, if you need any help or have a question feel free to tell or mail me. Also, I have toons of all levels so if you need a group member I prolly have something in your level range.

Speaking of the dockmasters, and this wont be relevant since your an erudite but for other toons, outside of every starting town besides highbourne, freeport, queynos, and neriak there is an NPC named ____ Porter, a gnome, that up to level 15(if I recall correctly) will port you to freeport and either qeynos or neriak dependent on whether it's a good town or evil town.

You would want to take advantage of that as soon as possible and just use return home to get back after you sign the coach ledger.

But like they said the dockmasters in free port and highbourne will let you travel to arcadia/stone of morthalis and then back to either one, so you can get to either side of the continent that way to get the coaches. In Freeport and Hazinak for evil toons you can also use the dockmaster to go between the two. Evil toons can also take the dockmaster from SoM to a small fishing town on the NW side of the continent who's name I can't recall, it has no coach but it is a short run(but somewhat dangerous) to the north to Zentars keep which has one.


Edited, Jan 27th 2011 1:13pm by SefanaPPO