[Danyelle]

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

Kunark and Velious were such perfect additions to classic EQ that anything after would receive an unfair level of scrutiny and criticism. Luclin's only major failings were inviting furries to the party and making the endgame a repetitive 5 hour farming experience.

But Ssraeshza was great. Luclin itemization was at least interesting and in some zones, the peak of loot design before the onset of "mudflation" and augmentation . Character and beast models were middling, but if you were willing to accept that events are taking place on the moon, then a zelniak shouldn't shock you. But sentient cats are never ok, just like they weren't on Kerra Isle. Beastlord, to my surprise, was a mostly functional addition to the class list, unlike Berserkers who performed like what warriors who weren't tanking always should have.

PoP was the gilded age of EQ and the last expansion worth mentioning. Obviously this is my opinion but it is also right in an absolute sense. I love that someone will have a problem with that and I will never know because I'm not going to read this thread after I hit post.

Finding ports was not enjoyable for anyone but wizards and druids and high ranking guild members. It is old-guy, classic EQ snobbery to imagine the PoK books did anything but improve the game for the majority of players. The same goes for the bazaar. Just because you are nostalgic for painfully boring hours in the EC tunnel doesn't mean they were "the good ol' days." It means you gradually developed Stockholm syndrome to rationalize your brutally dull reality. If you rank challenges in gaming in direct proportion to the category on the autism spectrum that most aptly performs the task, EC trading without item linking is full-blown seeing dead people. Allowing binding in PoK was regrettable, but passive translocation was inevitable and at least they made an attempt to fold it into the scenery and storyline.

PoP story line was epic because planes-travel had skipped two expansions and killing gods still seemed special. PoP also destroyed the specialness of god-slaying. The planes had unique environments and seemed truly massive, but the aura of the experience occasionally collapsed under its own scripting--at times it felt more like a console game with checkpoints. This was the expansion where alternate advancement began to show it's twisted side, telling us in no uncertain terms that we will never get to stop grinding. Even though it was the first expansion with enough high-level raid content to keep everyone occupied for the interim before the next release, PoP mined out the last of what we loved from the franchise and marked the beginning of EQs long circling of the drain.

Discussing what came after PoP is like talking about Beanie Babies or the XFL. Even if you make a valid point, the last person who cared already died in a masturbatory asphyxiation mishap, just like EQ. There are only two flavors of partial failure in EQ and they are Luclin and PoP. Draw the line at either, but nothing past the planes even resembles EQ orthodoxy.

While I agree with most of what was said here. What I bolded kills the validity of your post and your right to hold an opinion. particularly the part that I not only bolded but underlined and italicized.