Remind Me Why I'm Doing This, Again?

If anyone needs an exemplar for the dictionary definition of a grind in MMORPGs, please direct them to EverQuest II's Overseer system. You may already know all about that, of course, from previous commentary on the feature here, although I find it quite unlikely, given the way posts on EQII are probably some of the least-read in the history of the blog, at least since the last few readers who still played the game moved on to other things.

I've certainly complained about it often enough, as I was reminded when I went back this morning to look over some of the more than forty (!) posts tagged with with the "Overseer" label. And guess what? I'm going to complain about it again!

I'm also going to wonder out loud what the heck I think I've been doing these last six months or so, which is roughly how long it's taken me to get where I am, my foot resting at last on the final rung of the ladder (Or is it?) Since some time back in the spring, I can't remember exactly when but I mentioned in May that I'd been at it for a month, I've been logging into EQII every day, pretty much without fail, just to set my ten allotted daily missions and collect the rewards from the day before.

Why? I don't know! That's becoming increasingly clear. 

The original idea was to get my lapsed Overseer levels back to the cap after a couple of years of not bothering with it at all so my necromancer, who I'm preparing to take the lead in the upcoming expansion later in the year, would be as up-to-date as I could make her on every front. I also thought at the time that it might be useful for her to have access to the gear from the at-cap Overseer reward chests because in the past I have made quite a lot of use Overseer items to fill in gaps here and there, when the right items just haven't dropped for me.

That, I can tell you now, is not going to happen. As I mentioned only recently, the current "Thank you for still playing this ancient game" freebie, the EverQuest II 2025 Subscriber Crate, contains a full set of Resolve 525 gear, a very substantial upgrade to anything any of my characters is currently wearing and a lot better than even the best stuff likely to fall out of a Season 7 Overseer crate. 

Granted, there's only one of those chests per account (Although you can also buy them in the Cash Shop for an eye-watering amount of DBC.) but in a few weeks the annual Panda extravaganza will begin, bringing with it further upgrades and then the expansion itself will arrive, complete, no doubt, with the now-expected Tishan's Chest on the ground next to the first quest-giver, from which we'll be able to kit ourselves out in everything we could possibly want, with stats that will upgrade anything short of current raid gear.

I can't even give stuff to my Mercs now. The last couple of xpacks have handed out full sets of Mercenary gear, too. And mounts. And familiars. And, for that matter, the damn mercenaries themselves, not that I've been getting any of those. Of which, more later.

Okay, then, the Overseer gear's a bust but what about all the other goodies? Well, let's see. There are the potions. I have literally hundreds,maybe thousands of those stashed away and I hardly ever remember to use any of them. I am terrible about using consumables. I pretty much only remember they exist when I hit some kind of difficulty wall and have to start scratching around for any possible toe-hold to scramble over it. 

Thankfully, there hasn't been much of that sort of thing in the solo timelines these last few years, long may it continue. It does make all those potions somewhat redundant, though, and even if I did need some, I'm sure the ones from a tier or two back would suffice. I'm not going to need the very best ones, not in the content I'm going to be doing. 

I also don't need more unlocks for mount barding slots. I already have plenty of those stored in the bank. They're all identical, season to season, and they've been popping out of the reward chests for years.

Ditto the very useful time-reducing potions that speed up mount, merc and familiar leveling. Again, I need them but I already have plenty. More is always good but I'm most likely never going to get through the ones I have banked. It's certainly not worth the trouble of keeping Overseer going every day just for those.

One thing that is worth it are the rare crafting mats. I would probably keep at it for those alone. I like gathering but it takes two rares to make each Expert scroll these days and just upgrading one new tier of spells for one character gets through sixty to a hundred rares. That's days and days of gathering even with all the boosts and bonuses and some good luck on rng and while I find it quite the meditative activity, there are limits even to my boredom threshold.  

Overseer pumps out a steady stream of rares, all the kinds too, so it's easy to sell the ones you don't want on the Broker and buy the ones you do. Takes a lot of the randomness out of the process.

The other thing I'd like to get from Overseer is Mercenary Tokens. You need one of those before most of the available mercs in each expansion will entertain the idea of working for you and there are lots of mercs I don't have yet. You need as many as possible to boost the stats of your Mercenary Battalion, about which do not ask because I don't understand it well enough to explain, but trust me, it's a thing. 

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I no longer seem to get any Merc tokens from Overseer. I used to get far more than I had any use for but over the last two or three tiers, although they're clearly there in the list of possible drops, I haven't seen single one from many hundred of crates. I'm guessing that's some kind of bug but who knows? Also, they used to be tradable and they sold on the broker for coppers, so I probably should look into just buying them next time I log in...

So, why am I bothering? Just for the rare mats and the hope, one day, merc tokens might start dropping again?

Well, yes, kind of... but mostly because, having seen just how fricking hard it is to get caught up, I really don't want to fall behind again. And also because I thought I was almost there. After today, I'm not so sure.

This morning I dinged 60 Overseer, something I've been very much looking forward to because I thought it would put me in the current season, Season 7. And it did... except now I'm not sure it is the current one.

It's the latest one there's any information about on the wiki and the gear looks like it's there or there about the right stats for the current expansion but I was a little disconcerted to see a new Achievement appear on the list for Season 8 Overseer, with the condition "Become a Level 71 Overseer to unlock Season 8". 

I'm hoping that's a placeholder and that Season 8 does not, as yet, exist. There's also an achievement for Level 65 Overseer, though, which reminds me that, even if there's no Season 8 yet, I do still have to grind another ten levels just to get to the end of Season 7.

It never ends. Or rather it does but never soon enough. And now, of course, I have all the "fun" of  logging in and out all day to refresh and collect my two (Count 'em! Two!) low-quality, one hour missions. They're on a half -hour refresh, so that means logging in and out at least ten times every day until I start to pick up the longer, better-quality missions and eventually build up enough options so it's back to once a day again.

That took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. last time or it certainly felt like it. [Edit: In between finishing the post and editing it, I picked up a set of rewards and got a three-hour, yellow Mission so that's rng working in my favor for a change...] Not looking forward to it at all. But I'll do it because the alternative - falling behind again - is worse.  I mean, what if they suddenly decide to stick something good in the chests for next season? Then where would I be?

And that, I guess, is how they get you.