Have any of you sucessfully leveled a non-twink alt?

[Hailto]

As the title says, im trying to re-ignite that nostalgia. I think my problem is that I always twink my alts, and I'm missing that classic EQ feel that I had with my first character. I just made a lvl 1 Eru Necro, im going to attempt to level him untwinked, have any of you done this to cure your burnout?

[NachtMystium]

I find the problem is you're grinding mobs at level 8 and youre mind just starts wandering, and you realize youre gonna be doing that grind all over again and the temptation to make it a bit easier is hard to resist ;)

[fan D]

i've tried it. I even created a guild for it, this was in 2014. I had a guild called <Talisman>. I made a big post on the forums explaining my goals and what I wanted my guild to be about. We were all leveling toons with absolutely zero twinking and outside help. I wanted to earn all of my items and gear myself through drops and quests. I allowed help from random people passing by who wanted to give an occasional buff, and I grouped with people, but I tried to keep the classic feel as much as possible. I had never played classic, nor played Everquest when it was new and completely mysterious.

I made it to maybe lvl 16? I was a dwarf warrior with a couple pieces of scarab shell armor and a screaming mace and maybe a.....dwarven axe? I thought I looked so cool with my plate bp, helm and boots, and my quested proc weapons. I had a fair amount of interest in the guild, there was alot of people who signed up or replied to my post detailing how they were going to make a toon just like me, follow my basic rules. We'd have a few people online during the day playing the same way as each other. I just burnt out after a week or two.

It was alot of fun, but I also gave up quite early because I was burnt out on the game in general and I was discovering how much I enjoyed the red server more than blue.

[fan D]

it was great for nostalgia, researching the race/class to chose, scoping out all of the starting cities for their newbie quests. Had alot of fun deciding which lowbie quests to do, plan out which future quests and drops I was going after.

the whole idea was to get a group of like minded people doing the same thing, crawling the old dungeons in gear only obtained through your own means.

[Zuranthium]

Necro and Mage are the least gear-dependent classes in the game, so it shouldn't be difficult.

[utenan]

Just hit 36 on my ranger who is completely un twinked - it's way more fun imo, i never understood twinking, kinda takes the meaning out of the game - like, there's no progression going on so why are you mindlessly killing mobs? I've traveled all over Norrath looking for items i can obtain or quests I can do to upgrade stuff, even a small ac upgrade feels like a huge accomplishment - I also have a memory or story ( and screenshots ) of some kind attached to every piece of gear on me : )

[Hailto]

Just hit 36 on my ranger who is completely un twinked - it's way more fun imo, i never understood twinking, kinda takes the meaning out of the game - like, there's no progression going on so why are you mindlessly killing mobs? I've traveled all over Norrath looking for items i can obtain or quests I can do to upgrade stuff, even a small ac upgrade feels like a huge accomplishment - I also have a memory or story ( and screenshots ) of some kind attached to every piece of gear on me : )

Did you go full non-twink or did you atleast give yourself some plat to buy spells, food/drink etc

[skarlorn]

Check out Ways of Yore. It's a guild doing what you're talk about. Most fun I've had on EQ in years

[Maliant]

Recently made a Druid and did this, by the time I got in my teens and went over to EC the temptation was too great though and had to pick him up a staff of the earthcrafter, so much more fun.

[Jimjam]

What does successfully levelled mean? as in got past level 1? :p

[Reguiy]

If you really want that nostalgic feel, level a melee alt. Necros really don't need gear to excel at leveling. When i leveled my monk to 60 it definitely got my nostalgic blood flowing :-p.

[ZiggyTheMuss]

Don't think I ever have. I usually exp in the same spots with my alts as I do my main, and I would rather get through it quicker the second time around. Unfortunately(?) when I started 55 days ago here, within an hour of creating my account I stumbled across someone doing a giveaway to a group of people and I won 2k plat! Was able to buy some hp rings and a few other low end items. No classic experience for me =(

[jolanar]

The first 12 to 30 levels depending on class can be incredibly boring your second/third times around. Once you start to get your complete toolset leveling becomes much more interesting.

[Axlrose]

*raises his hand...

All nine of my characters are not twinked. Yes, I have had people give me "gifts" over the past year. Or when a guild like Azure Guard had their random give-away, I was fortunate to have some high rolls. Usually I will work on trade skills in tailoring to stock my characters in either leather hides or raw silks. Or with the case of my melee characters, investigate what vendors have been sold - especially when my warrior bought a whole set of banded armor over time!

But if being a twink can be translated into buying a better weapon in the tunnel after saving and selling everything other people let rot on corpses, then I guess I must put my hand down.

[Freakish]

I leveled here on my necro without handouts. The first handout I took was in my 30s at the giant fort in FM. It's rough. You have no money for spells, bags and you sometimes think to yourself do I need that spell or can I go fill my bags with food so I can regen?

Then there's ec. You haggle for everything because you can't afford it. A lvl 34 pet that you need? Good luck getting that before 39 unless you pay more than what you can afford. I was buying old vendor bought spells into my 50s because I could only afford the bare minimum.

Casters might get lucky that they're not as gear dependant but they make up for it by needing to spend everything they make on spells.

[Thulack]

As the title says, im trying to re-ignite that nostalgia. I think my problem is that I always twink my alts, and I'm missing that classic EQ feel that I had with my first character. I just made a lvl 1 Eru Necro, im going to attempt to level him untwinked, have any of you done this to cure your burnout?

You are never going to have that same feeling back. Sorry to tell you but 17 years of knowing the game and playing it makes that feeling unable to reproduce in its entirety.

[myriverse]

Twinking is classic.

Why on Earth would I impose artificial restrictions on my gameplay?

[Sorn]

My druid started out as an alt! He was in patchwork/leather til his forties/early fifties because I gave him absolutely nothing and didn't want to tunnelquest. I'm sure most of my friends remember me asking at around 50-52ish if having 145 wis at that level was a bit low.

I do give spare junky equipment to my alts just because I randomly acquire so much of it (which I have no idea how that happens considering what I do 99% of the time), but most of the gear on Tadhg was earned. I just recently gave away my old Springwood Club that I got from CoM after many a gory battle. :)

[Dalven]

As the title says, im trying to re-ignite that nostalgia. I think my problem is that I always twink my alts, and I'm missing that classic EQ feel that I had with my first character. I just made a lvl 1 Eru Necro, im going to attempt to level him untwinked, have any of you done this to cure your burnout?

Outside of leveling and playing my bard with Asgard I think the last time my nostalgia was at peak was when we had that lowbie dungeon crawling group going. What was it called, <Grp Full Sry> or something.

Good times

eta: I've also been having fun on a custom progression server the last couple of days called Nagafen's Lair (http://nagafens-lair-reborn.proboards.com/). About as far from a classic server as you can get but has been scratching that EQ itch without having to invest hours in p99. More info (https://www.firesofheaven.org/threads/eqemu-nagafens-lair-reborn.443/)

[utenan]

Did you go full non-twink or did you atleast give yourself some plat to buy spells, food/drink etc

Full non twink! spells don't cost much as a ranger though : p Im gonna make a thread in the future with all my screenshots of gear collecting - should be pretty neat!

[Ivory]

Non twink only really lasts till 20 or so once you save enough PP to begin buying stuff from people in commons.

It isn't that hard for someone fresh on the server to begin gearing themselves by then.

[Buellen]

I have done this

but not on this server. Alkabor before it was shut down. Guild Vintage.

Hell of a lot of fun when you get a guild of 20 to 30 people to this style of play.

Money in that style of play is not really issue as west karana mobs /quests give you all you need for all your spells 1 to 50. Also can fund your trade skills from that zone too. The issue as many have pointed out is temptation. Just stay the hell away from the tunnel.


Unfortunately you could not a run guild like that here as there is way to much competition for all raid mobs even naggy and vox. In vintage we could not enter any content except original expansion until we killed naggy and vox.

I have tried doing this here in m meager hours of play on my shadow knight character, barley reached level 13 a week ago and still farming bandits so I can upgrade his leather armor to banded at some point. 6 back pack full of bandit sashes will generate around 140ish pp on average for me varies with what bronze weapon quest turn give me.

[fuark]

If you really want that nostalgic feel, level a melee alt. Necros really don't need gear to excel at leveling. When i leveled my monk to 60 it definitely got my nostalgic blood flowing :-p.

x2

As a caster, twinking hardly matters, especially necros and mages

If you want that nostalgia feeling at all, you have to do it on a melee which is actually gear dependent

[Bones]

You are never going to have that same feeling back. Sorry to tell you but 17 years of knowing the game and playing it makes that feeling unable to reproduce in its entirety.

this.

I played in 1999 - 2004 or so until WoW came out. Leveling from scratch on p99 when it released in 2009 was a lot of fun when everybody and everything on the server was brand new but it was still nothing like 1999 and it never will be no matter how difficult you make it on yourself. However you can still have more fun the more challenging it is so by all means level non-twinking if you want but you will probably burn out regardless. My first char on p99 was a necro and I made it to lvl 60 with him. I have 5 other alts and none of them have made it past lvl 40 without getting burnt out on playing them twinked or not.

Tbh the most fun you can possibly have on this server is when it was brand new. This is why I think the idea of the green server or the new server they were talking about sounds awesome. Its kind of like the same deal with diablo 2 and the reason they have ladder resets. After a while shit just gets stale and people lose interest. The only thing that brings anybody back is the fresh start on ladder resets and knowing everybody is back to square one and on an even playing field. Without the resets diablo 2 would be completely dead. With the resets at least there are some people playing for about the first 2 months after each reset. Fortunately this server is still very healthy population wise and it's not really a problem yet and there is still much fun to be had, not to mention so many people who come to play here who did not experience classic everquest. However, eventually it will become stale even if its not for several more years

[Decad]

I got a wizard to lvl 49 untwinked, then i gave myself runes I collected including Astral and frost to train research and make ice comet

Ice comet would not have been possible at level 49 without given runes or tunnel quest

[Jaleth]

I leveled and played nearly exclusively on live as a paladin from 2000 to OoW, then left for EQ2. That was a lot of fun, but I wouldn't start another melee character here without it being twinked unfortunately.

My 2 knights here have full quest armor, good jewelry and very nice weapons and shields they could take to level 50 and beyond, easy. I just wanted to play them at ease, without the harsh grind and trials that had gone with those classes specifically, especially with the then hybrid penalty.

Leveling a caster(wizard, necro, mage, enchanter, druid), monk or shaman, even a bard are probably the easiest starting choices without being twinked, others not so much.

[supermonk]

i tried...but i just can't. jboots is too critical.

[mr_jon3s]

Sure I have leveled non twink characters but I don't like to unless everyone else is. I feel that being a non twink in a group full of twinked out characters is pretty much just being a leech. You will have less hp, mana, stats, and dps then everyone else in the group.

[thufir]

I haven't ever twinked any of my characters. You don't really need to if they're casters or priests (the benefits you get are very minor unless you are a shaman with a regen item), and I don't play melee dps. My shadowknight was my first character, so twinking him was out of the question anyway. And I was too poor to twink my warrior and paladin when I rolled them, and never bothered.

I imagine twinking, or its lack, is most keenly felt on a monk or rogue. Probably warriors too; I never was a big fan of mine.

[lowner411]

I recommend Ways of Yore as well. Some of the guild rules seem a little restrictive, but they are well intentioned, the idea is to experience Everquest anew, and some exceptions have already been made. Never seen anyone excited to get Alligator Tooth Earrings or a Screaming Mace, but here we are rediscovering quests that we skipped because we bought other things in EC.

[skarlorn]

I recommend Ways of Yore as well. Some of the guild rules seem a little restrictive, but they are well intentioned, the idea is to experience Everquest anew, and some exceptions have already been made. Never seen anyone excited to get Alligator Tooth Earrings or a Screaming Mace, but here we are rediscovering quests that we skipped because we bought other things in EC.
As the guy who spent two hrs questing (and failing to get) that mace, I have to second this. My first toon on p99, and in many ways the first toon I played on EQ (back in the day I watched my bro play) was a warrior. I had nothing. I got a few handouts along the way that helped a lot, but it was under my own recognizance that I got gear via EC tunnel.

That was a very rewarding toon, since I went on to raid prolifically. 0 to 100, now we here.

But even with him, I bypassed 90% of old world gear and went straight to cheap Kunark drops like GJBS, which I bought around level 15, and seb scale armor.

It's extremely entertaining to do these old, beautifully written quests and use these old, obsolete items which suddenly have become more valuable than 100k on your raid geared main.

[Baa]

My first two chars back in 2010 - SK followed by Enc.

On my SK it certainly felt classic - I wore bronze until I hit my 30's and spent my time grinding out CT so I could quest me some Darkforge! I was lucky enough to get some spare drops and bought that elusive Mith 2h!

On a side note I remember randoming for bronze pieces in MM as we all wanted to upgrade from banded.

I was eventually hit with the hybrid hell level blues so I rolled an enc. I didn't have much plat so I bought him a crude stein, some 5ac/55HP rings and a flowing black robe. Once I hit level 8 I proceeded to smash out the stein of moggok quest for an easy 300pp and earned my riches one stein at a time!

I think 6 years on it would be hard to recreate that experience.

[krese]

i really don't get how people can say casters are easy when not twinked. my necro, for example, is hard when my pet gets chewed up so quickly by blues and i can't tank either. a few resists with no +int/+mana gear and oom then death or having to let a pet die while i fain death. i don't have a clue how people manage.

[Jimjam]

i really don't get how people can say casters are easy when not twinked. my necro, for example, is hard when my pet gets chewed up so quickly by blues and i can't tank either. a few resists with no +int/+mana gear and oom then death or having to let a pet die while i fain death. i don't have a clue how people manage.

Pick fights you can win even when luck goes against you. Or at least pick fights and have a viable exit strategy if you are unlucky.

Also, grouping up can help.

[maskedmelon]

i really don't get how people can say casters are easy when not twinked. my necro, for example, is hard when my pet gets chewed up so quickly by blues and i can't tank either. a few resists with no +int/+mana gear and oom then death or having to let a pet die while i fain death. i don't have a clue how people manage.

Play an untwinked anything else besides monk and report back ^^

[HallyVee]

All of my characters, which range from 1 to 11, are not only untwinked but buy and sell only from merchants, group only with other untwinked, and do not accept out of level range buffs.

Ive a few issues; merchants can posses absurdly OP gear, which i wont know is OP since i dont know the gear very well. Also ive not restricted myself regarding guides and maps online. Starting to regret that.

My only problem is a general malaise with gaming, otherwise id be joining these guilds!

[Zuranthium]

i really don't get how people can say casters are easy when not twinked. my necro, for example, is hard when my pet gets chewed up so quickly by blues and i can't tank either. a few resists with no +int/+mana gear and oom then death or having to let a pet die while i fain death. i don't have a clue how people manage.

Snare. Fear. How is your pet dying? Where are you fighting.

This is so sad.

[Ella`Ella]

For the true nostalgic feeling, I got a girlfriend. Now she yells at me to get off of Everquest like my parents used to when I was 13.

[FatMice]

For the true nostalgic feeling, I got a girlfriend. Now she yells at me to get off of Everquest like my parents used to when I was 13.

A+

My wife saw me on EQ; walked over said, "What is this?"

I immediately just slash 'q'.

[Hailto]

Damn if you have to hide a harmless hobby from your wife, yall need to look seriously at the health of your relationship.

[supermonk]

Damn if you have to hide a harmless hobby from your wife, yall need to look seriously at the health of your relationship.

if you have at least one level 60, then i'm sorry, EQ is not a hobby - you have an addiction, and it's besides the fact that it's 2016 and you're playing an elf sim from the 90's...think about it. you have a psychological problem; we all do. subconsciously, you are vicariously chasing that feeling of a responsibility free lifestyle that you had in your teens where you can indulge without catastrophic consequence. if your life isn't already ruined from your adolescent years, you probably are working in the real world and maybe have a kid or two. as you progress in the game from your 'harmless hobby', you slowly lose a grip of reality...all of a sudden, you're level 60 with decent gear and you lose a sense of how many real hours you put into this game. of course, this doesn't apply to everyone, but it does to at least 80% of the people on this server via pareto principle (in reality probably 90%).

I see you have one 60 account + several mid level alts..do me a favor and type /play in game then add em all up. let's not forget to add up forum hours too. if you still think EQ is a harmless hobby, then you are obviously still in denial. unless she's a real gamer too, if your wife doesn't get mad, then your relationship has already been dead. she probably already has sent her post secret note similar to this poor lad (http://imgur.com/9vDfyfv) which will show up in the 2017 edition.

A+

My wife saw me on EQ; walked over said, "What is this?"

I immediately just slash 'q'.
if you're smart, then next time you'll /q before it even gets to "what is this?" :)

[FatMice]

Ha! It's all in good fun. But yea... is it a hobby? is it a psychological problem? perhaps both? Right now my Raid Attendance for the last 6 months has been a solid 0%. Feels great.

[thufir]

if you have at least one level 60, then i'm sorry, EQ is not a hobby - you have an addiction, and it's besides the fact that it's 2016 and you're playing an elf sim from the 90's...think about it. you have a psychological problem; we all do. subconsciously, you are vicariously chasing that feeling of a responsibility free lifestyle that you had in your teens where you can indulge without catastrophic consequence. if your life isn't already ruined from your adolescent years, you probably are working in the real world and maybe have a kid or two. as you progress in the game from your 'harmless hobby', you slowly lose a grip of reality...all of a sudden, you're level 60 with decent gear and you lose a sense of how many real hours you put into this game. of course, this doesn't apply to everyone, but it does to at least 80% of the people on this server via pareto principle (in reality probably 90%).
goodness, this seems harsh, like a dad saying "video games aren't ever good for anything, son."

everyone puts a lot of hours into something. for most that thing is keeping up with the new TV shows or going out to bars. how this represents any less escapism than putting those hours into EQ instead is a mystery to me.

keep in mind, too, that I'm not one of the people you rail at. I play very casually, somewhere between one and three times a week. but your postulate is frankly ridiculous.

also, the pareto principle is, "20% of X is responsible for 80% of the effect to Y." it's not what you describe.

[Hailto]

if you have at least one level 60, then i'm sorry, EQ is not a hobby - you have an addiction, and it's besides the fact that it's 2016 and you're playing an elf sim from the 90's...think about it. you have a psychological problem; we all do. subconsciously, you are vicariously chasing that feeling of a responsibility free lifestyle that you had in your teens where you can indulge without catastrophic consequence. if your life isn't already ruined from your adolescent years, you probably are working in the real world and maybe have a kid or two. as you progress in the game from your 'harmless hobby', you slowly lose a grip of reality...all of a sudden, you're level 60 with decent gear and you lose a sense of how many real hours you put into this game. of course, this doesn't apply to everyone, but it does to at least 80% of the people on this server via pareto principle (in reality probably 90%).

I see you have one 60 account + several mid level alts..do me a favor and type /play in game then add em all up. let's not forget to add up forum hours too. if you still think EQ is a harmless hobby, then you are obviously still in denial. unless she's a real gamer too, if your wife doesn't get mad, then your relationship has already been dead. she probably already has sent her post secret note similar to this poor lad (http://imgur.com/9vDfyfv) which will show up in the 2017 edition.


if you're smart, then next time you'll /q before it even gets to "what is this?" :)

I'm pretty sure /played is broken on this server. But naw, I got a decent job, nice car, no kids tho cause I don't want to waste my money.

[maskedmelon]

also, the pareto principle is, "20% of X is responsible for 80% of the effect to Y." it's not what you describe.

The neckbeards are the reason we're all imprisoned in this fun house ;*<

[maskedmelon]

I'm pretty sure /played is broken on this server. But naw, I got a decent job, nice car, no kids tho cause I don't want to waste my money.

It is. It's like it looks at total time logged into account since character creation, whether logged into that character or staring at server select.

[Buellen]

For the true nostalgic feeling, I got a girlfriend. Now she yells at me to get off of Everquest like my parents used to when I was 13.

LOL you should try a wife they are much better at it !!!