Project 1999 - I was wrong about Pantheon.

I've been a huge hater of Pantheon. I've been very vocal about how it looks bad and how it won't be anything like EQ. I was very wrong, honestly.

I bought the Early Access fully expecting to be disappointed, and mad, but at least I could tell people how much I disliked this game afterwards. To me that would be worth $40. What ended up actually happening is I got super addicted to Pantheon and now my friends are mad at me because the weekend is over and I completely ghosted everyone who wanted to play Black Ops 6 and Path of Exile 2 with me.

https://i.ibb.co/Xj6D4cS/pantheonz.png

It does not play like WoW at all. It actually reminds me of EQ in the sense that it's like, okay I'm just going to kill 1 more frog and then 5 hours later you're still killing frogs because it's super addictive. The noob areas can be crowded. I've gotten KS'd and accidentally KS'd several people. I've had other players train their scorpions on me (likely by accident). Players actually seek out buffs and heals from each other. I almost re-rolled after foolishly placing my torch in a bag so I could use a shield, and then died right before the sun went down and wasn't able to see anything since my torch was on my corpse.

It also has that very cozy feeling to it when you finally find a magical spot that has the type of mobs that are ideal for you, and no other players are around and you are just camping the same mobs like clockwork since sweet spots like this are still kind of rare or unknown.

The game is also actually scary because there is no maps, and you have no clue what is out there, or where you're going. This may be exclusive to Wild's End though. I feel like Thronefast isn't nearly as dark, and there are roads and merchants everywhere. Wild's End is the polar opposite. Trying to navigate through Wild's End feels like trying to wander through Trakanon's Teeth / Emerald Jungle without a map or a clue about what may be out there. And also the night time in Wild's End is dramatically darker than Thronefast. And remember, if you die, you may not be able to find your corpse or even have any clue where you were.

Also like .... even getting basic gear in this game is difficult. I had to choose between getting my spells or getting bags. Which is why I almost re-rolled when I thought I lost my corpse. Felt like I lost all my bags, and didn't even have money for spells. I also have a friend who I met in-game who spent an entire day straight basically skinning frogs just to make a set of leather armor with no stats on it. But other players are envious of them and keep asking them where they got it.

Also the mobs are really dangerous once you get out of the noob area. I joined a random group at the goblin camp in Wild's End. We had four people, but no tank. I figured since we had two healers, we would be fine, and told the Rogue to go ahead and pull anyways. He died faster than we could get a single heal off, lmao.

So far I've only played a Shaman, Cleric, and Enchanter. Ironically I had more fun on the Cleric than the Shaman because the Cleric actually nukes really hard, whereas most mobs die before the Shaman DoTs can do much at low level. + it may be because my Cleric is a dwarf, but he seems to do almost twice as much damage with melee than my Elf Shaman. But Enchanter has been the most fun class for me so far. You can tell they are trying to make it a finesse class. It has things like fixate and delayed wound where if you time everything perfectly you can kill a mob that is essentially mesmerized the entire time, but this relies on you being able to cast fixate and have it land a split second after delayed wound detonates. It's super fun and rewarding when it works, but I feel like a lot of casual players will find it too exhausting to use and that you'll probably only see try-hard Enchanters pushing boundaries with this. Also they made the runes that Enchanters had in EverQuest a passive, but you have to have the passive on your spellbar in order for it to work (you don't actually cast it since it's a passive, but you have to have it memorized). You periodically gain an absorb shield up to 3 stacks when you aren't taking damage, but only if you have this ability on your spell bar. I actually think it's more fun than the rune system on WoW, and makes the class more unique, given that they are super squish and don't have a pet like summoner or necromancer, or the firepower of a Wizard.

All that being said, the leveling / grind / camping / expensive spells & basic gear feels very much like EQ. Having to make lengthy trips to town to empty your bags etc. Really dangerous mobs. No maps. The super dark nights. The CRs. All very EQ-esque.

I am curious though, how much it will be like EQ at higher levels? Will there be really coveted items like the FBSS, SSoY, SMR, GEBS etc. that are really hard to camp, but super impactful and sought after? Or will the high level loot be more like WoW and super cookie cutter? I hope not. But I don't know.

There's other things I'm not really sure about. Like how long will mobs chase you? Until you zone? I've never lived long enough to find out. Also there's no guards in the nooby area for elves/halflings. Which BTW I highly recommend you make an elf/halfling when you try this game. Wild's End feels like a true classic EQ zone. Thronefast is much brighter, much easier to navigate, and I feel like the loot is even better (I got full cloth armor off of mobs by level 5, meanwhile I've never seen a single piece drop in Wild's End).

Wild's End though, is so much more fun to play in that I retired my Dwarf Cleric and made an Elf Enchanter just to get back over there because it's so much more fun and immersive. There is a compass in the game BTW, which can help you find your corpse, or locate popular camps. For instance, Goblin Camp is North East from Tree City etc.

But yeah, I was really wrong about Pantheon and it's been a lot of fun. The graphics kind of turned me off at first, but once it started to get dark outside and it started raining, it looked amazing. To the point where people who were watching me play it over Discord were asking me the name of the game because they wanted to play it. The only thing about this game that has annoyed me so far is all the noobs in OOC complaining that there's no map or that the game is too dark ;)

Edit: I'm also super curious to see what the dungeons are like. I'm really hoping they will be massive and have Unrest, Guk, Sebilis vibes to them.