My Opinion on EQ expansions.

[Rustybeard]

Velious was the golden age of Everquest. I have a ton of fond memories of Kunark as well.

[Bodeanicus]

Originally Posted by zianlo1 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

tofs and thurgadin = best zones of the entire eq game imo.

ToFS is mine, buddy. Keep you ass out if it. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Eternal-Elf]

ToFS was a beast of a zone. I spent so much time there

[Noleafclover]

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

Luclin gets slighted because it was the first expansion that introduced good AND bad elements. The bad:

* Ridiculously horrible player models
* Poorly implemented centralized market
* "We're going to the moon!" is goofy
* Playable cat people are goofy
* Boring / redundant zone design
* Instant travel (but imo still enough of a pain in the ass to not be that bad)
* Vex Thal is a piece of shit, perpetually unfinished end raid zone
* Paludal was too good for its level range, emptying classic exp zones

Many forget the good:

* AAs (somehow some people think these are bad) really fleshed out classes, added all kinds of new gameplay elements, and gave something to exp for at max besides death buffer
* Awesome dungeons that were criminally underused like Acrylia Caverns
* The first raid encounters that were completely epic, hardcore events (Ssra, Seru, Ring of Fire, even lower bosses like Shei had very unique elements)
* EQ really began to step up its scripted event game with not only raids but zones such as Hollowshade, which was always changing based on the race wars there.

QFT. I wouldn't blame you for making this as a separate thread. Honestly, I think we should continue to introduce live's raid content and progression features (AAs, etc.) without any of the bullshit - that whole list you posted, and for another example - in PoP, get rid of all the connections to PoK except like.. WFP (by EC tunnel).

[Reiker]

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

2) Whoever came up with the bane weapons and key grinds needs to be drowned. That timesink was so obscenely ridiculous, so far beyond what a guild should have to go through to see the game's content, and had absolutely nothing to do with skill or diligence. Countless guilds stagnated and perished not because they weren't good enough for the content but because they couldn't get everyone to spend hundreds of hours acquiring access to it. It was absurd and completely unreasonable. Access to content should be limited by your ability to defeat it. If there should be a key/flag/attunement thing at all, it should be something that takes a reasonable amount of time and a guild effort, not endlessly camping trivial things for 0.1% drop rate shards and crap like that.

a) Bane Weapons were not required, they only made the encounters easier. With maybe the exception of LISeru, every single extra body you add to his melee range puts a lot more strain on your healers. I still prefer the "safe and slow" method of 1 paladin tank + all ranged/spell DPS. Maybe because my shaman was usually one of the top DPSers in this fight.

b) VT key time/effort is overrated. I've completed 3. Really the worst part is the piece from the Ssra portal room, because it requires your entire guild to sit there for hours getting one piece at a time. The rest isn't too bad at all.

Actually I lied, the worst part is when you actually complete the key and zone in to Vex Thal and discover how shitty that zone is.

[Brut]

Yar, just about every zone past luclin started to look boring as all hell. Dungeons were always rooms and hallways, rooms and hallways, a couple more rooms and hallways, possibly an intersection every 3rd room. Ye behold the thrilling design of the end-zone of expansion#512: watch this wall tile and floor tile repeat itself while you mow down swarms of mobs with unpronouncable names all of which share the model you saw since the first zone of the expansion!

[azeth]

I vehemently disagree that Vex Thal was a poor raid zone.. actually VT/Ssra are in my top raid zones of all time.

[Reiker]

You can't defend VT. You went from the most epic fight in the game at the time (Emperor Ssra) to spending 10 straight hours killing shit that all looked the same and did the same stuff. And compared to the difficulty of Ssra, VT was a cakewalk. The only wipes came from extreme boredom/people falling asleep.

[azeth]

ya know im with ya actually, i think VT has a warm spot in my heart because I went into it as top DKP melee in my guild and got absolutely geared with whatever i wanted.

[azeth]

Actually VT and whatever zone that bitch with the rogue poker.. Shinra? or Shiv'vi were in were really interesting to me. I liked the look of whatever that race was called, and their language was neat.

I agree with you though Reiker, relatively VT was a step down from Ssra.