Your favorite newbie area?

[Kika Maslyaka]

What is your favorite newbie area for starting up from level 1 to say lev 10/15?
Whenever its good XP, good chance at grouping, good newbie loot or nostalgic affinity for specific area - take your pick!
(I did not list typical newbie dungeons like BlackBurrow or CrushBone, since they sort naturally follow some of the areas listed in the poll)

[Edame]

Field of Bone is hands-down the best.

[myriverse]

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

Field of Bone is hands-down the best.

[Estu]

Love Butcherblock, maybe because my first character was a dwarf. Always enjoy stopping by there for a few levels on my new characters.

[gotrocks]

Field of bone for sure.

All the others who are selecting kunark zones got it right.

For the Empire!

[Qubhed]

Innothule Swamp forges the very strongest newbies.

[tankh]

FoB is awesome, just which trooper tear was a bit quicker killing marauders [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Zuranthium]

Playing a Barbarian in 1999 is one of the most immersive experiences you could ask for. Everfrost is completely terrifying - it's a maze with close quarters for the most part + trains are very frequent + higher level undead wander the lowest level areas + you don't have night vision here as a Barbarian. Working as a team with fellow players was super important.

Everfrost is massive too. When you eventually level up some and find your way out of the frozen mountain maze and out into the expansive tundra, it's just an amazing sight and feeling. I played a Shaman back then, so it was at Level 5 that I was already fighting out in the Tundra against wayyyy higher level monsters. Teams of Level 7/8 Warriors would take me because you gotta have one healer and it didn't really matter what level you are. A lot of Shaman didn't realize back then that Inner Fire was actually a very efficient heal, so I was able to do great work. Of course I also didn't learn Meditate from the skill trainer until I was level 8...haha. After I figured that out it was such a huge power rush.

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I'll also always love Steamfont. It's a very, very unique zone and you can easily get into your teens there. The kobold camp nearest to the city was HOTLY contested back in the day...it was the only one near the city (way later they added a bunch more kobold camps in that area and those camps are still here on p1999...and while they shouldn't be, it's a good idea to have at least one more there). I have fond memories of playing there with my Gnome Magician and learning how to hold down that whole kobold camp down by myself with a Water pet, during one of the rare times I had it to myself.

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Butcherblock is pretty amazing too. Tons of content and the maze-like setup gives you a lot of adventures. It's probably the overall "best" newbie zone in terms of being able to make cash and having plenty of content to support a lot of players. I also really like Misty Thicket a lot; it has a cool setup and its a GREAT starter area. Greater Faydark is obviously a definitive Everquest zone as well, and I'll always appreciate it a ton, although it's a bit lacking in terms of actual content if you take out Kelethin from the equation.

I'd say the worst newbie areas are Nektulos Forest and Toxxulia Forest. Nektulos actually has a well-designed atmosphere, but it just doesn't have enough content. It's not enough to a support a significant lower-level playerbase. Toxxulia is simply shit.

Overall ranking, a mixture between how memorable and how "good" (but mostly the former):

01. Everfrost
02. Butcherblock
03. Steamfont
04. Greater Faydark
05. Misty Thicket
06. Commonlands
07. Qeynos Hills
08. Feerrott
09. Innothule Swamp
10. Nektulos Forest
11. Toxxulia Forest

I never played an Iksar, so I can't really comment on those newbie areas. They seem to have been well designed from everything I hear, though.

[Kika Maslyaka]

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

Playing a Barbarian in 1999 is one of the most immersive experiences you could ask for. Everfrost is completely terrifying - it's a maze with close quarters for the most part + trains are very frequent + higher level undead wander the lowest level areas + you don't have night vision here as a Barbarian. Working as a team with fellow players was super important.

Everfrost is massive too. When you eventually level up some and find your way out of the frozen mountain maze and out into the expansive tundra, it's just an amazing sight and feeling. I played a Shaman back then, so it was at Level 5 that I was already fighting out in the Tundra against wayyyy higher level monsters. Teams of Level 7/8 Warriors would take me because you gotta have one healer and it didn't really matter what level you are. A lot of Shaman didn't realize back then that Inner Fire was actually a very efficient heal, so I was able to do great work. Of course I also didn't learn Meditate from the skill trainer until I was level 8...haha. After I figured that out it was such a huge power rush.

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got to agree [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] One of my first "mains" was a Barbarian Shaman. I had other "mains" after him, but I always kept returning to Halas/EF on all my chars, as it always felt as going home. I am also particularly fond of Qeynos anf Gfay.

As far as good zones vs bad zones, Tox and Innothule are definitely on the loosing side. Tox area got better with Warrens, but that was far past Classic times.

Kunark starting zones are spoiled IMHO - they have tons of good loot and very high ZEM, I consider them classic era Paludal Caverns in a way [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[runlvlzero]

Tox is gamebreakingly bad until you can just use it to get level 4 than go to the warrens. It just lacks any content to get you past 6 easily.