February 2008

Trip Down Memory Lane

stargrace February 2, 2008 1Comment

Out of all the characters I’ve deleted over time, and yes I’ve deleted a few, I’ve managed to keep my very first EverQuestII character, which is the templar. She may have betrayed a few times, but I’ve still managed to keep her around. I found it amusing when I was cleaning out quests from her journal to spot the above quest still burried in there. A heritage quest I picked up in 2005. I have one other quest a few days older then that one, another heritage quest, lost legends. Just as an indication of how much I must have disliked those quests (and how rarely I ended up playing the templar in the end).

After browsing through the active quests, I took a peek at when I completed my very first quests. It was surprising to see that it took me two days to get from level 1-7. I completed my first quest on the isle of refuge – 11/10/2004. Ah good times.

When I first picked up EQII I had no intentions of playing. I was happy in EQ1 doing whatever it was I was doing at the time. Mild raiding and playing with my best friend, who had a troll beastlord. I had a cleric, enchanter (oh how I miss the EQ1 enchanter) and a rogue (SoS was awesome). I haven’t actually checked in to EQ1 in quite some time, but I was thinking of re-installing the game. I haven’t played / bought the last few expansions and have no intentions of it, but it would be nice to see the old places agian.

One thing I really miss about EQ1 vs. EQ2 is the way in EQ2 you can “out grow” zones and areas. They turn grey, making them worthless to re-visit unless you’re an obsessive quester. I realize it was probably to help prevent farming – after all who wants level 80’s killing your level 20 mobs for the loot and gear, but I dislike the method of trivializing areas.

In EQ1 nothing turns grey, so even if you’re max level you can still farm items, names, and areas. You can go back and re-visit them time and time again. You could argue that it’s do-able with the mentor system here in EQ2, but not really to the same extent. I remember killing things in so many old world zones in EQ1 thanks to my bestlord friend, zones I’d have never visited or even known about without his help. I imagine that EQ2 is almost the same way. Most of my ‘new’ characters now start in Gorowyn and quickly level to 20. This means they out level the Commonlands, Antonia, portions of Stormhold, Wailing Caves, Oakmyst Forest, The Forest Ruins, Sunkin City, and various others before even exploring them what so ever. They trivialize. Unless I mentor, or spend time doing gray quests, there’s no reason at all for me to ever set foot in those areas. As more expansions are added and the world grows, it also shrinks.

Anyhow, it was an interesting walk down memory lane. What’s the oldest quest anyone else has in their journals? What was the date you completed your very first EQ2 quest? Feel free to share!