Thinking of playing on red. What do I need to know?

[Logansrun]

Thinking of switching to red from blue. Never have played on a PvP server before, but it sounds like a lot of fun. Anything I should know before starting?

[Swyft]

Originally Posted by Logansrun [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Thinking of switching to red from blue. Never have played on a PvP server before, but it sounds like a lot of fun. Anything I should know before starting?

Always carry a pumice, trust no one, stay out of Unrest, MM and Guk

[Taboo]

Group xp far faster than solo so group!

[JayN]

its really boring and sucky and your alone if you play on antonica

[georgie]

Jayn can't vouche for anything on red. Hasn't made it past start zone. He posts as much on red as someone who actually plays on red, not sure why

[Concave]

TLDR inc -

Advice for Leveling:

Make your first class class one that's not heavily gear-dependent (e.g. if you insist on going melee, make a Monk or Rogue rather than a Warrior), & ideally something solo-friendly (Druid/Wizard/Bard/Enchanter really stand out). Red99 has a huge group bonus (290% or something for a full group) so groups aren't too hard to get despite the low server population (100-200 ppl), particularly during peak hours, but the zones where you're most likely to find a group (Crushbone/Unrest/Mistmoore/City of Mist/Lower Guk) are also magnets for well-geared, well-established ganksquads and/or griefers. These kinds of folks aren't ever-present, but they're there often enough to be a pain.

Despite the presence of gankers in CB/UR/MM, these are the fastest zones to level up in due to the massive group bonus, and due to the fact that this is where people happen to have clustered. They're simply the most common spots to find groups in levels 1-30. Antonica is empty; Odus is empty; Kunark has a lot of level 50+ and is otherwise mostly empty (with exceptions, e.g. not uncommonly there's a group at ramp in OT, or a Bard swarming in OT, or a few people doing giants in FM).

Once you hit level 29-34 and your groups begin to have porting wizards/druids in them, make it a point to persuade your groups to check out underused dungeons, particularly ones far from easy access to portals. Even if you haven't been to or don't know the dungeon. You'll make a lot more progress learning a new dungeon than you would going to the same old line and 5 times out of 10 getting tied up in fights and trains the whole time.

Unless you're looking for PvP, of course, in which case you should do the opposite of all of the above!

Given the huge grouping bonus, and the general strength-in-numbers rule of EQ PvP, it would be wise to get into a guild. I'd recommend a leveling guild when you're getting started; you could stick with that later, if you want, or switch to another if you find something else suits you better, or just go solo. But you'll probably want some back-up and an extra reason for people to seek you out and give you some kind of preference for groups.

Guilds & Guild Politics:

There are a few leveling guilds currently: <Red> (the guild I'm in), <Fish Bait>. Both seek to have large memberships and are very bottom-heavy. There are also some smaller crews on-the-cusp of organizing for post-50 PvE stuff; a few active ones are <Dysorder>, <Smoke Break>. Some guilds are essentially devoted to PvP ganking, often devoting their time heavily to killing people grouping in specific zones: <Islamic State in Norrath> (CB), <Knights Templar> (MM), <The Plague> (CoM), <Flowers of Happiness> (UGuk/LGuk/Innothule). I think <United Blood Nation> is both doing 50+ PvE stuff and ganking, though I don't know of any zone they try to call home. End-game PvE is largely dominated by <Azrael> and <Holocaust>, with some additional splinter guilds of well-geared level 60s running around, like <God's Work>; for several years end-game PvP was entirely run and access to end-game mobs entirely controlled by a guild called <Nihilum>, but it was recently disbanded and its leader banned for various reasons.

I'm not aware of a very well-maintained list of currently active guilds, which is kind of unfortunate. I think the wiki is badly outdated, and no one seems to bother to delete their old threads in the guild recruitment forum (e.g. <Nihilum> still had a thread in the recruitment forum, last I checked). Hopefully the above can give you a good sense of where to start. One major guild missing from the list I gave above is whatever <Hokuten> turned into; <Hokuten> was a guild of less-well-geared folks devoted to fighting <Nihilum>, but <Hokuten> was disbanded when <Nihilum> was forcibly GM-disbanded. Some of <Hokuten> went to <Azrael>; many of the remaining members reformed under a new guild-tag that I can't seem to remember right now.

Miscellanous PvP & Red99 Crap:

The PvP range is +/- 4 levels. A level 25 can fight players from level 21 to 29, but not lower or higher. This can give rise to "out-of-range" (OOR) healers/bards---players who can heal/buff/Selo's one player involved in a fight but are out-of-range to that players' opponent(s).

Red99 has a Play-Nice-Policy that enforces rules like Loot-n-Scoot (if you get pk'd, /ooc that you're LnS'ing as well as the zone name, and do this for each zone you pass through on your CR, and in theory players must allow you to safely corpse-run or else face disciplinary action), no training, and no kill-stealing from players outside of your PvP range. Keep in mind that there isn't an army of GMs on Red99, and while these rules are to be adhered to in practice, there are many people who try-and-do get away with violating them, particularly in ambiguous cases (e.g. was someone intentionally training you or genuinely, unexpectedly in danger?). I played here before the PnP, quit for a while, and came back after it; my general is impression is that it has made a substantial difference, and the population in-game is generally more helpful and less toxic than the boards make it seem.

There are way, way more people here who don't know and/or adhere to fairly basic EQ best-practices than I ever expected for a game this old. Don't be surprised if you find you have to coax people into /assisting properly, not breaking mezzes, etc. My impression is that the server seems like a strange mix of people who've perfected the art of EQ and people who played casually to level 30, quit, but figured they'd give it another go with Red99's huge exp bonus, without very many people in the middle.

When you inevitably do fall on the wrong side of PvP or a PnP violation whatever, don't worry about it so much. Don't flip out in OOC or tells; it generally just feeds whoever you're dealing with, and doesn't help your situation any. If worst-comes-to-worst (you're getting illegally CC'd by a de-leveled, bored 60-with-epic warrior who ignores all your insistences that you fraps'd him doing this and will get him banned, and this goes on for hours on end despite your having legitimately called LnS, say), just log out and go do somethin' else, or play an alt, or what-have-you. The fastest way to take the fun out of someone's twink stomping you is to walk away. Saves you time and irritation, too.

In PvP, each of levels/class/gear are tremendously important. Resists are crucial. MR is by far the most important resist, with somewhere in the 100-140 MR range being a good goal. Levels have huge impacts on resist rates, melee hit rates, spell lines, etc, and any of these can make a fight essentially unwinnable unless your opponent makes a major mistake. In PvP some classes are either unkillable or incapable of killing or both (e.g. Bards when outdoors, Paladins/Clerics almost anywhere) while others are solid gankers but are low-value in mass PvP (SKs---HT does the last ~30% of you work for you, instantly) and still others are crucial in group or mass PvP (BARDS! / DPS melees/clerics, AE'ing class if coordinated well), and gear makes or breaks melees a great deal more than casters, just like in PvE.

Levitate is an overwhelming advantage in PvP in some zones. You'll often find a <Knights Templar>, permanently-level-30 ganker sitting on top of the parapets of Mistmoore Castle, lobbing wizard spells down on ramp groups from above.

Learn to set up dummy buff slots to dispel dispellable DoTs, and to bury your important buffs.

Check /who constantly. Be paranoid. Almost always keep Gate up, if you have it.

Developing a cash fund to buy Shaman potions (for curing poison/disease DoTs & SoW, especially) is a good end-game move, but will obv take a while to build up the cash to do effectively. Buying Pumice for fast-casting dispels, and Crimson Potions to break any mez that lands on you, are also both really important, but again both pricey until you've got a decent bank saved up.

/ooc is server-global, but you can't access it until level 10 IIRC. Useful for finding groups.

Certain charged items are of special importance in PvP, e.g. golem wands, which allow you to quickly strip another player's buffs list very quickly, a major PvP advantage.

DS's are differentially useful in PvP against melee'ing Bards, Rogues (if you can twist to avoid backstabs), and anyone else who chooses to dual-wield.

But most melees who have a choice won't dual-wield in PvP. Most melee PvP boils down to jousting with a high-damage weapon of irrelevant delay, i.e. running back and forth and timing your attack so that the other player is within your hit-box while tricking them into hitting their attack key while you're outside of their hit-box.

When forming groups, don't announce publicly (here on the boards or in /ooc) where you're going, and be aware of the tags on the people with whom you're trying to group. Most often the other person's just looking for some exp just like you, but there's no reason to trust every person who asks where you're exp'ing isn't looking to gank you and your crew.

Speed is crucial in PvP. SoW/Selo's/strafe-running will be your best friends.

[cuffed]

You will be griefed by ppl who enjoy killing noobs. Don't take dying too seriously. Quick group xp means the loss isn't that severe.

[Eslade]

Make a cleric, everybody needs one and you can solo if need be. Pvp isn't bad either.

[Potus]

/ooc is your friend. You'll find a lot of good groups just by asking around. Also stay out of Unrest.

Less crowded dungeons are way better, anyways. Befallen, Runnyeye, Dalnir.

[Porz]

Originally Posted by Concave [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

TLDR inc -

Advice for Leveling:

Make your first class class one that's not heavily gear-dependent (e.g. if you insist on going melee, make a Monk or Rogue rather than a Warrior), & ideally something solo-friendly (Druid/Wizard/Bard/Enchanter really stand out). Red99 has a huge group bonus (290% or something for a full group) so groups aren't too hard to get despite the low server population (100-200 ppl), particularly during peak hours, but the zones where you're most likely to find a group (Crushbone/Unrest/Mistmoore/City of Mist/Lower Guk) are also magnets for well-geared, well-established ganksquads and/or griefers. These kinds of folks aren't ever-present, but they're there often enough to be a pain.

Despite the presence of gankers in CB/UR/MM, these are the fastest zones to level up in due to the massive group bonus, and due to the fact that this is where people happen to have clustered. They're simply the most common spots to find groups in levels 1-30. Antonica is empty; Odus is empty; Kunark has a lot of level 50+ and is otherwise mostly empty (with exceptions, e.g. not uncommonly there's a group at ramp in OT, or a Bard swarming in OT, or a few people doing giants in FM).

Once you hit level 29-34 and your groups begin to have porting wizards/druids in them, make it a point to persuade your groups to check out underused dungeons, particularly ones far from easy access to portals. Even if you haven't been to or don't know the dungeon. You'll make a lot more progress learning a new dungeon than you would going to the same old line and 5 times out of 10 getting tied up in fights and trains the whole time.

Unless you're looking for PvP, of course, in which case you should do the opposite of all of the above!

Given the huge grouping bonus, and the general strength-in-numbers rule of EQ PvP, it would be wise to get into a guild. I'd recommend a leveling guild when you're getting started; you could stick with that later, if you want, or switch to another if you find something else suits you better, or just go solo. But you'll probably want some back-up and an extra reason for people to seek you out and give you some kind of preference for groups.

Guilds & Guild Politics:

There are a few leveling guilds currently: <Red> (the guild I'm in), <Fish Bait>. Both seek to have large memberships and are very bottom-heavy. There are also some smaller crews on-the-cusp of organizing for post-50 PvE stuff; a few active ones are <Dysorder>, <Smoke Break>. Some guilds are essentially devoted to PvP ganking, often devoting their time heavily to killing people grouping in specific zones: <Knights Templar> (MM), <The Plague> (CoM), <Flowers of Happiness> (UGuk/LGuk/Innothule). I think <United Blood Nation> is both doing 50+ PvE stuff and ganking, though I don't know of any zone they try to call home. End-game PvE is largely dominated by <Azrael> and <Holocaust>, with some additional splinter guilds of well-geared level 60s running around, like <God's Work>; for several years end-game PvP was entirely run and access to end-game mobs entirely controlled by a guild called <Nihilum>, but it was recently disbanded and its leader banned for various reasons.

I'm not aware of a very well-maintained list of currently active guilds, which is kind of unfortunate. I think the wiki is badly outdated, and no one seems to bother to delete their old threads in the guild recruitment forum (e.g. <Nihilum> still had a thread in the recruitment forum, last I checked). Hopefully the above can give you a good sense of where to start. One major guild missing from the list I gave above is whatever <Hokuten> turned into; <Hokuten> was a guild of less-well-geared folks devoted to fighting <Nihilum>, but <Hokuten> was disbanded when <Nihilum> was forcibly GM-disbanded. Some of <Hokuten> went to <Azrael>; many of the remaining members reformed under a new guild-tag that I can't seem to remember right now.

Miscellanous PvP Crap:

The PvP range is +/- 4 levels. A level 25 can fight players from level 21 to 29, but not lower or higher. This can give rise to "out-of-range" (OOR) healers/bards---players who can heal/buff/Selo's one player involved in a fight but are out-of-range to that players' opponent(s).

Red99 has a Play-Nice-Policy that enforces rules like Loot-n-Scoot (if you get pk'd, /ooc that you're LnS'ing as well as the zone name, and do this for each zone you pass through on your CR, and in theory players must allow you to safely corpse-run or else face disciplinary action), no training, and no kill-stealing from players outside of your PvP range. Keep in mind that there isn't an army of GMs on Red99, and while these rules are to be adhered to in practice, there are many people who try-and-do get away with violating them, particularly in ambiguous cases (e.g. was someone intentionally training you or genuinely, unexpectedly in danger?). I played here before the PnP, quit for a while, and came back after it; my general is impression is that it has made a substantial difference, and the population in-game is generally more helpful and less toxic than the boards make it seem.

There are way, way more people here who don't know and/or adhere to fairly basic EQ best-practices than I ever expected for a game this old. Don't be surprised if you find you have to coax people into /assisting properly, not breaking mezzes, etc. My impression is that the server seems like a strange mix of people who've perfected the art of EQ and people who played casually to level 30, quit, but figured they'd give it another go with Red99's huge exp bonus, without very many people in the middle.

When you inevitably do fall on the wrong side of PvP or a PnP violation whatever, don't worry about it so much. Don't flip out in OOC or tells; it generally just feeds whoever you're dealing with, and doesn't help your situation any. If worst-comes-to-worst (you're getting illegally CC'd by a de-leveled, bored 60-with-epic warrior who ignores all your insistences that you fraps'd him doing this and will get him banned, and this goes on for hours on end despite your having legitimately called LnS, say), just log out and go do somethin' else, or play an alt, or what-have-you. The fastest way to take the fun out of someone's twink stomping you is to walk away. Saves you time and irritation, too.

In PvP, each of levels/class/gear are tremendously important. Resists are crucial. MR is by far the most important resist, with somewhere in the 100-140 MR range being a good goal. Levels have huge impacts on resist rates, melee hit rates, spell lines, etc, and any of these can make a fight essentially unwinnable unless your opponent makes a major mistake. In PvP some classes are either unkillable or incapable of killing or both (e.g. Bards when outdoors, Paladins/Clerics almost anywhere) while others are solid gankers but are low-value in mass PvP (SKs---HT does the last ~30% of you work for you, instantly) and still others are crucial in group or mass PvP (BARDS! / DPS melees/clerics, AE'ing class if coordinated well), and gear makes or breaks melees a great deal more than casters, just like in PvE.

Levitate is an overwhelming advantage in PvP in some zones. You'll often find a <Knights Templar>, permanently-level-30 ganker sitting on top of the parapets of Mistmoore Castle, lobbing wizard spells down on ramp groups from above.

Learn to set up dummy buff slots to dispel dispellable DoTs, and to bury your important buffs.

Check /who constantly. Be paranoid. Almost always keep Gate up, if you have it.

Developing a cash fund to buy Shaman potions (for curing poison/disease DoTs & SoW, especially) is a good end-game move, but will obv take a while to build up the cash to do effectively. Buying Pumice for fast-casting dispels, and Crimson Potions to break any mez that lands on you, are also both really important, but again both pricey until you've got a decent bank saved up.

/ooc is server-global, but you can't access it until level 10 IIRC. Useful for finding groups.

Certain charged items are of special importance in PvP, e.g. golem wands, which allow you to quickly strip another player's buffs list very quickly, a major PvP advantage.

DS's are differentially useful in PvP against melee'ing Bards, Rogues (if you can twist to avoid backstabs), and anyone else who chooses to dual-wield.

But most melees who have a choice won't dual-wield in PvP. Most melee PvP boils down to jousting with a high-damage weapon of irrelevant delay, i.e. running back and forth and timing your attack so that the other player is within your hit-box while tricking them into hitting their attack key while you're outside of their hit-box.

When forming groups, don't announce publicly (here on the boards or in /ooc) where you're going, and be aware of the tags on the people with whom you're trying to group. Most often the other person's just looking for some exp just like you, but there's no reason to trust every person who asks where you're exp'ing isn't looking to gank you and your crew.

Someone needs to sticky this.