PoP hit EQ down to 50% hp and it lost a lot of hp every expansion after

It's also possible that dev budget shrank following the drop in subs with WoW launch.

think this video pretty much explains how Eq live fell apart

Alright, I'm going to throw the unpopular opinion into the ring here, but I'll start with a disclaimer- I was not an active raider until Secrets of Faydwer expansion. By then they had removed the key requirements for both PoP and OoW, and I experienced both of those expansions from the point of view of a 75-80 character who mostly solo'ed and duo'ed the camps of interest in those expansions, and went on maybe one Time Raid and a handful of Anguish raids.

I had the most fun in OoW. Yes, GoD was a dumpster fire, and the only time I spent there (was active through House of Thule) was for AC aug camps as necessary for my SK. But OoW was super fun. Epic 1.5/2.0 was a much-needed addition to the game after Velious rendered some epics obsolete, the Anguish armor was very impressive and the chests had unique clickies, and the other gear still felt unique.

Wall of Slaughter, the 65-70 exp zone of choice, was a zone that kicked you in the teeth when you came in unprepared. Even Dranik's Scar, the 55+ entry zone for the expansion, was very hard for the new players coming in. The series of trials in Muramite Proving Grounds that permanently increased your character's resistance caps was a unique addition, and the Pyrilens especially looked awesome.

Then there's Anguish. I can't deny the awesomeness that was Plane of Time (I ran through the script a few times in Imperium Server and agree it was about as epic as it comes), but Anguish just felt more fun to me. Especially because people would walk away from there with orbs for their 2.0's. The boss gimmicks were very fun, including having to collect the masks throughout the zone to beat OMM's gimmick at the end.

After OoW I literally don't remember the expansion order. Serpent's Spine was actually fun since it gave newbies new areas to play in, and Seeds of Destruction was ALSO extremely fun because of the time travel aspect- nothing beat going back to the Field of Bone before it was the Field of Bone and talking to Trakanon and Jaled'Dar as quest NPC's, or exploring Qeynos Hills as humans had only just landed there and called it Oceangreen Hills/Village. The deep dive into Kunark lore especially kept me interested.

PoP was cool, and it was awesome getting to meet and in some cases kill the Gods you picked at character select and only read about, but I have to say OoW just did it for me better, with Seeds of Destruction a close second. The experience declined for some expansions but was better in others, and I think we were just spoiled by the consistent quality of classic-kunark-velious and PoP.

Kunark added 1-50 content.

Ever expansion should have added 1-50 content.

the level cap should have never gone past 60

Okay changing my answer to Luclin models and trannies

Good perspective greenspectre I can see how the stuff they kept adding in the later expansions was a lot of fun for someone who kept their character at the top of the food chain. They made those expansions for you and it worked. All that stuff really does sound quite epic and new experiences rather than just nostalgia exploration seems like it would be great if I was the kinda player who kept at the top.

It’s almost like a battle manga where the main character gets so over the top awesome that all the old school stuff is indeed totally left behind. If the game kept attracting newbies maybe it would have had more focus on them, but they didn’t want to let you hardcore guys down.

Agreed. I had some of the most fun in EQ during OOW. It was a fantastic expansion with some really fun raid design concepts.

Remember training up Alcohol Tolerance for the Hanvar fight?

At one point just being online with others and the ability to chat was enough. Later games came out of the box with more meat on the bone.

This.. is a dodge Viper. #5 off the assembly line. This car is special because its not special. There are no traction aids, stability control, air bags or even a roll bar in an open top vehicle. It came from the factory with a warning to be careful, because you can easily kill yourself. It's cheap, the original people interested in such a car (can't remove that from the time it came out and the circumstances surrounding it) didn't care about that stuff, they wanted to go fast for cheap. You don't even have windows or door handles.

I was HARDLY hardcore! When GoD and OoW launched I was like 15 levels below max. Quit for a while, too. Missed a few expansions and didn't actually push for max level until Secrets of Faydwer, when I finally hit 75 on my ranger, whom I abandoned shortly thereafter for my SK, who I took to 90 in HoT before I quit live for good. My guild always raided content that was one or two expansions back because we weren't good enough for the new stuff.

Most of my fun in later expansions was had exploring expansions I'd missed. Camping AC augs solo for my SK in Riftseeker's Sanctum, which was previously an endgame zone for OoW. But a little secret- the FUNNEST part of late-life EQ was soloing/duo'ing endgame bosses. I'd regularly solo Venril Sathir or Trakanon when they were up, and eventually could solo Vindi. Teamed up with my beastlord friend and we did a whole Sleeper's Tomb run including the Ancients for funsies, and even caught AoW when he was up once. THAT was fun EQ right there.