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To people considering progression servers
Hi.
Old veteran... or... I had a 56 iks shaman 2 years back...
I just started on progression servers 2 weeks ago. I can warmly recommend a comeback or a fresh start to anyone considering this.
EQ is as much fun as always... Only minus to me is that in the recent patch, SOE removed kick ability from snakes... =( Miss kicking snakes.
There are many ppl online at all times. More ppl than when I used to play I would say... Newbie areas are full of low lvl players... Very few twinks even though they still exist... "The Pit" in field of bone is full of low lvl iksar corpses who failed to kill a large scorpion or the iksar turncoats... 
Lake of Ill Omen is alive again... Sarnak Fortress is camped at all times and it can actually be hard to find a group there.
I can't wait to ding 29. Miss Frontier Mountains a lot. Can't wait to go group with random people at giant fort.
Know a lot of happy people don't post so I thought I would.
Will be a long time before the progression servers run low on low lvl players.
Andarian - 24 Iks Necro - Sleeper
I'm not really here...
Comments
Sounds awesome! You pretty much answered everything I wanted to know and saved me making a new thread.
I was considering picking up one of the Everquest packs (EQ+Expansions) and joining a Progression server. I've played DAoC, FFXI and now WoW, I regret never getting into EQ so this would be a good oppertunity for me to do so!
One question though, how end-game focused is Everquest? My main problem with WoW is the fact it is a race to 60, which is where the game truely starts. I hated the game 1-60, however once I hit 60 I loved it to death. FFXI on the other hand, while having a lot of end game focus, was just as much focused on progressing from 1-75 as it was focused on end game.
Anyway, I will be looking into it as I'm starting to tire of WoW (all I do now is PvP all day :P ).
I had the opposite problem with WoW. Found it fun levelling several chars to 60, but the end-game raids were just so mind-numbingly repetitive. Not much challenge or variation and the same few instances repeated over and over and over for months on end...
I too missed playing EQ though. Drooled over it when it was released, but was a penniless postgrad at the time. And I've been mmo'less since leaving WoW. Didn't think much of EQ2. But if EQ is still alive and kicking after all this time they must have done something right with it.
I posted some of this in another thread, but this thread seems more "on topic" for my post anyway - I just didn't see this one first. My apologies to anyone offended with a bit of a repeat.
I played EQ from March 99 (when the game went live) until late 2003. I left to go to DAOC. Played it for about a year, took a break (in which I tried FFonline and didn't even last two weeks of the free 1 month trial period) then took a break until WoW and EQ2 came out. Played both of those for over a year, then dropped them for DDO. I just cancelled DDO last week and in a fit of nostalgia, loaded up EQ.
I consider myself a "veteran" of EQ1. I was in "hard-core" raiding guilds that were among the top of the server I was on. I played 7 days a week, 8+ hours a day. You know, one of those addicts you read about from time to time.
One of the first things I noticed when returning to my old server... after going through the pretty-neato Tutorial (something we didn't have back in the "olden days") the newbie areas are, for the most part, deserted. This is both good, and bad, as you don't have to 'fight' for a spot at your favorite camp like you might have had to in the old days, but then again, getting a group really sucks. I quickly made my way to the Plane of Knowledge, and was relieved to see LOTS of people running around there. So, I cheered: I wasn't the only person subscribed to the game.
The next thing I noticed was that almost all of those people were 50th level or higher. Hmm, that wouldn't help my 12 level Druid much now, would it?
So I asked around and discovered that like the poster above said, there are certain areas that the newer characters "gravitate" towards to exp.
So I headed to Kurn's in Field of Bone, and instantly got a group.
I leveled up there so fast my head spun, and for a moment I thought I was playing WoW again! Soon, I found my way to Paludal, where again I found it very easy to find a group, and began 'grinding' there.
While there, some people in a group I was in had a discussion about the "Progression Servers", and it got me interested. So I went and did some reading and thought, "Wow, that sounds neat!" So, I created a character a few nights ago on Sleeper.
The first thing I noticed was that the newbie area was PACKED with people. This brought a smile to my face: seeing the ads for people buying/selling patchwork armor, Mino axes, orc scalps, orc belts/shoulders, people looking for more for CB, etc, filled my mind with fond memories. I quickly got cracking on my brand new bard (same class/race combo I created back in March of 99) and even got a group.
There was no shortage of trains to the guards, and corpses lying about the land - just like in the old days. I even helped a few souls find their corpses for them.
The chat channel for newbies or newplayers (or whatever it's called) was filled with all manner of discussion, from folks mourning the loss of Steve Irwin, to folks comparing EQ to WOW, to folks talking about crafting, asking for advice, etc. In essence, to me the place felt VERY "alive".
How long will this fit of nostalgia last for me? I don't know. A week. A month. A year. I've been beta-testing Vanguard and I have high hopes for it (though my machine cries in pain when I play it). All I DO know is, the Progression server has been a BLAST for me so far.
For the record: I do not consider myself a "powergamer" any longer. I have some interest in raiding (though not to the degree I did before). I purposely chose Sleeper because it was "farther behind" the server progression than Combine - I am hoping for something a little slower paced. Maybe it's just my old-age setting in.
Anyway, that's just my view of the current situation. Now, to find myself a guild.....
Tal
With four or more months still left until Vanguard releases, this thread may have done more to convince me a step into the past is what I need in the present, to pass the time until the future arrives.
I think that made sense...
Its not all cupcakes and sunshine on those progressive servers. Just like in the past 1-2 guilds tend to take controll and monopolize the best spawns, duel/tri boxing is rampant as is KSing and training.
People wanted classic EQ with instanced boss's and kunark/velious. You really need the instancing otherwise 1-2 guilds block everyone else. Once a week spawns for the LOSE.