Lake of Ill Omen was super freaking classic lol.

[Castle2.0]

No manastone. Not classic.

[Tethler]

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

Also that harrowing fucking gauntlet from Firionia Vie if you were goodteam, following your EQAtlas map along a creek in a forest swarming with red con spiders, some of whom see invis, root you, and run at sow speed.

That run sucked for evils too. That butthole wood elf guard that roams the zoneline to the tunnel entrance killed my dark elf warrior more than once back in the day due to him rooting me. I did get an earring while in a fort group though, which I was proud of.

[shovelquest]

I remember trying pretty hard to get a pair of sarnak earing and having to wait until project 1999 before I'd get any.

[Gilder]

I remember the LOIO sarnak fort groups very well. Good times

[Gustoo]

It was good times. I remember everyone telling me it was the place to go even tho exp was better for me wandering around the karanas as a ranger. I noticed the exp was trash but it was the new world and fun to see. And everyone was there.

[kaluppo]

Such good memories. My friend at work got me into Everquest in the fall of 2000. We were on the Tribunal server. I made a wood elf Druid but my buddy was a dark elf Shadow Knight. He had me take a boat to Freeport while I was still level one and we did a duo/grouping in EC to SRo to Oasis to LoiO.

We started at the windmill but soon moved to the sarnak fort where I leveled from 20-29 in a relatively short period of time. That place was so cool. From there we went to giant forts in FM then OT and then the Dreadlands for what seemed an eternity before I finally was high enough for KC groups. I was able to ding 60 in KC hands groups so it was my final stop back in those early days.

I tried to replicate that here on blur back in like 2015 but the sarnak fort was a ghost town. Turned out Unrest was the hot spot to get groups in the 20's. That was awesome too because I got to see zones the second time around that I never explored before.

Makes me want to log back in to P99 since I been away a few years. I lost interest after green and teal combined due to lack of population. Grouping became way harder.

[Wakanda]

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

It's both that and the ignorance and naivete of the player base at the time. Even if p99 had 2500 players at peak hours this wouldn't be happening like op remembers.

I remember it too, consider yourself one of the lucky ones if you got to be there for it

IDK if we were really that naive, at least my friend group. We were the level 9 players who were always pushing the limit to the point it scared most normies. Doing Unrest Trash at level 8, even solo if we had to etc. and remember a lot of people tell us we're nuts when we asked them to join us.

LOIO was just dramatically faster exp and the easiest way to level as far as we knew (granted, we weren't Necromancers, we were like Rogues, Warriors, Clerics etc.)

I don't think P99 experience is classic honestly and I think it misleads people about how fast leveling was 20+ years ago. I remember Unrest generally being a ghost town (no pun intended) once Kunark launched, and the exp being relatively bad compared to the LOIO > Frontier Mountains > OT > DL > KC > Sebilis train. Which is my fondest memories of classic.

[Wakanda]

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

Also that harrowing fucking gauntlet from Firionia Vie if you were goodteam, following your EQAtlas map along a creek in a forest swarming with red con spiders, some of whom see invis, root you, and run at sow speed.

I still have PTSD from this. I'm terrified of spiders IRL and can remember if I saw them casting it was a nightmare etc.

[Wakanda]

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

you had groups all over Overthere and on every wall and corner of KC's exterior in the Dreadlands. Man.... it was the shittiest XP on Earth.

The EXP was bad, but I think that was just classic and that these emulators have created a false idea of how fast exp was in other zones.

I'll give you an example. If you level on TLPs instead of P99, groups still regularly form in OT and DL doing the exact same camps. Nothing has changed. LOIO significantly less though.

[Wakanda]

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

That run sucked for evils too. That butthole wood elf guard that roams the zoneline to the tunnel entrance killed my dark elf warrior more than once back in the day due to him rooting me. I did get an earring while in a fort group though, which I was proud of.

Ironically he also saved me a few times since I was a wood elf [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] I remember having aggro from a mob and realizing I was going to die, and then mister plate wearing elf man showed up to rescue me !