Well, my good intentions for a return to OG EQ came to not very much, as I expected they might. I did at least get the game installed on the new(ish) PC and patched up, so that's something. Better yet, I logged in and claimed my free Level 115 but then I had no clue what to do with her, so after I'd opened all the goodie bags and gotten her dressed, I logged out again.
As for leveling up a new character with the big xp bonus, that hasn't happened and now it's too late. Not that I'm bothered. If yesterday's unexpected announcement means anything at all, I'd guess it signals the end of leveling random characters on live EverQuest servers just for the hell of it.
I mean, why would you do it the hard way, when you know there's a version of the game coming later this year that's designed specifically to make it easy? One thing I haven't seen discussed yet is what kind of impact EverQuest Legends is going to have on either the regular, "Live" game or the TLE servers but I'd bet it's going to be considerable.
The Game Jawn folks have been quite clear about how they're targeting an audience of people who either last played EQ many years ago or who've never played it at all - that's what all the quality of life improvements and UI tweaks are for - but it seems highly likely they'll also pull in a lot of people who still play. Maybe most of those will only come for a quick look-see before going back to their regular servers - sunk cost and all that - but there's still bound to be a hell of a population dip in the short term, at least. And who knows how long it'll last?
Presumably all of that is factored into the agreement between GJ and Darkpaw. I guess if EG7 get a big enough cut of that sweet subscription money, they won't really mind that some of it is coming from people who might otherwise be giving it to them direct. Then again, they did sell all those thousands and thousands of Lifetime Subscriptions a few years back. I bet the Accounts Dept. will be more than happy if some of those loyal customers move over to the Game Jawn servers. At least that way they'll get something out of them again.
So much for EverQuest. What about EverQuest II? That's the game I'm actually playing, isn't it?
Yep. It sure is. I played some EQII yesterday and some more this morning.
It's been lost in the noise of the EQL publicity blitz but EQII just got its big Spring Game Update. It's called Gerion's Reckoning and plotwise it follows directly on from the Signature Questline in the expansion. That did end somewhat abruptly. I almost expected a big To Be Continued sign to appear, only I thought we'd have to wait for the next expansion, not see it start up again just three months later.
Here's a summary of what's in the GU:
- 4 New Dungeons with Solo and Heroic Content
- 1 New Untold Heroic Dungeon
- 4 New Tier 3 Raid Dungeons
- 20 New missions
- 10 New collections
- Shiny Critter Collections
- 9 New Adventure Quests
- New Overseer Season 8
If you want more detail, like the names of the dungeons, which won't mean anything to anyone who doesn't play (And, frankly, not a lot to most people that do.) it's all at the link above.
It occurs to me as I write this that I don't even know who Gerion is, let alone what's being reckoned. Does it matter? I doubt it. I did a whole quest yesterday where I barely understood one word in three of the extensive dialog, most of which seemed to be names of places, people and things I'd never heard of - and I've been playing this game since there was a game to play! Who can keep track of all these names? Who even tries?
Ahem. Getting back on track...
I was looking forward to the GU because I thought the new quests might be enough to get me over the line to Level 135, the expansion cap. I still have half a level to go and I was very keen to avoid having to do another couple of dozen tedious repeatable quests at 2% a pop to get there.
Things looked bad on that front when I saw the update came with a caveat:
"The content in Gerion’s Reckoning is for adventure level 135 characters."
I took that to mean questgivers wouldn't even talk to me until I dinged 135, which has certainly been the case in other games I've played and probably in this one, too, although I can't actually remember for certain. Still, might as well go make sure.
My fears seemed to be confirmed when I zoned into Yon Gorroth, the opening zone of the expansion and there were no new quest-markers on the map. Luckily, I didn't give up right away. Instead, I went to check the update notes and the wiki and it was then I realized there aren't any new quests in Yon Gorroth anyway.
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| Button grayed-out because my Journal was full, not because I wasn't 135 yet. Phew! |
I checked the wiki and got the name of a questgiver in The Unknown. Then I went to see if he'd talk to me. At first things looked bleak. He wasn't turning up on the map as a flashing feather. Bad omen.
Luckily, once again I didn't give up. I flew over to see him in person and it turned out he'd just been too far away for the map to show he was looking for help.
I got the quest from him. He was fine with me not being 135 yet. He gave me a whole lot of verbiage about something I'd already done for him, which I'd completely forgotten, then he sent me to one of the new instances to do him some more favors.
He gave me a specific location but obviously I couldn't remember where it was was so that took some more research. Eventually I found the entrance, way off some rocky island, and in I went.
Now, here's the good part. Necromancers are awesome! I believe the class doesn't have a great reputation just now but that'll be from raiders and raiders have no clue how real people live. I can tell you that compared to playing a Berserker, soloing a Necro is EZ-Mode.
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| I'm glad Mord remembers because I sure don't. |
Usually I like to have the wiki open when I do a new instance so I can at least check which resists I need for which bosses and whether there are any special tricks I need to look out for. It's generally possible to figure all of that out from first principles but doing it the hard way often takes a few deaths or all afternoon. Occasionally both.
Either the first instance is very easy or my Necro is at least an order of magnitude more capable than my Berserker ever was. I just treated all five bosses in the instance as Tank&Spank and all of them died in 60-90 seconds. If they had any clever tricks, I missed them.
My Necro didn't die at all although she bloody would have if she'd relied on my Mercenary to heal her. He is so slow to pull the trigger on the big heals! Fortunately, Mordita can do a pretty bang-up job of healing herself, so that's what she did.
As for her pet, Midnight, he still seems to be almost completely indestructible. She has great heals for him, too, but since he's at 100% health about 95% of the time, she rarely needs them. On one boss I think I saw him lose about 5% health, just for a second or two, but that was about it.
The instance was fun, which was just as well because I had to do it twice. The first time, I killed the final boss before I finished one of the quests and it turned out the final step of that quest was to kill the boss I'd just killed. That's another reason I always like to read the wiki first.
I finished there yesterday and today I came back, reset the dungeon and did it again, even faster. Then I came out and went back to the questgiver and did the hand-in and guess how much xp I got? Two fucking per cent!
Yes, the same as for a repeatable quest where you just pick some grass and click on a few nests. A quest that takes maybe five minutes including travel time versus clearing an entire dungeon with five bosses. Same reward. Does that seem fair to you?
Okay, the bosses all drop gear that's an upgrade to anything I'm wearing plus a bunch of other stuff worth having so it's not like it was a total waste of time but still. 2%!
All of which means I guess I'll be grinding those repeatables after all. I need another forty per cent of Level 134 so that's twenty of the damn things. I might just do one or two a day and let it take another month. It's not like being 135 is going to make much of a difference to anything...
Oh, wait... yes it will! All that gear the bosses dropped? That I said was upgrades for Mordita? Well, it would be if she could wear it. It's all Level 135 Required.
You can't even add the shinies you pick up in the instance to their their collections if you aren't at the cap because those are level-locked too! It makes the whole Hot Zone - Bonus Shinies thing that popped up the second time around feel like more like a prank than a perk.
Such is the life of an EQII player. I should be used to it by now.
When's EQ Legends coming out again?
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