I believe I started the day as a level 38 fury and 41, respectively. I was up early (always am) and had very little planned for the day (though some new living room curtains did get installed as well as a shower curtain) so I decided to spend most of it gaming. It’s not often I get those chances, this week has been work-free since my deadlines passed, and next week will be much the same (unless I manage to find extra work, who knows) until I get into gear to meet more deadlines. Ah, joy. Anyhow! I had time on my hands, that’s the point. I logged in and before too long Ultann woke up (way too early for him) and we decided to go play in Permafrost.
I’ve mentioned before about how I dislike that EQ2 zones can “grey” out, giving people little to no reason to ever revisit them unless they mentor down. I think it’s a poor game plan. You don’t want people to out level your content, you want to allow them the freedom to explore where ever they want – give them choice. EQ and WoW are both examples of this. Things don’t become trivial per say. As I entered empty zone after empty zone it simply reafirmed my thoughts in the matter. There was no one around and we gained quite a few levels. I believe Ultann’s inquisitor box was level 51 at the time.
Before long, Wpus joined us and we moved to new grounds. I don’t remember the exact order that the day went but by the end of it we had spent a fair amount of time in the Clefts of Rujark (we did the two instances within that zone) which is off of Sinking sands, we also hung around in Sanctum of the Scaleborn and Ultann had to head out for a bit so Wpus and I explored around Pillars of Flame gaining achievement points and exploring some dungeons I never knew existed before heading back to the Kingdom of Sky zones for a little lazy grinding.
Through all of these zones I didn’t see another person. I DID hear a lot of complaining on the 1-9 channel about lack of low level groups (especially on Kithicor) where the majority of the population is 70-80 and those who are lower level are alts.
When all was said and done, the paladin reached level 63, and the fury is level 60. I managed to stay on top of the paladins gear enough so that she can actually tank some places – though she has issues taunting with adept1’s I do get amends and that helps a great deal. I had a blast, we explored places we’ve never been and saw things that we’ve never seen even after 4 years of the game.
I hope everyone else had an amazing Saturday, and that Sunday proves to be just as interesting. Safe travels no matter what realm you find yourself in!
While this is true, and I even mention it in a recent article – it’s not ENOUGH to keep the zones with players. Every single zone I’ve been to from 1-70 has had no more then 1 other person in it – if that.
It’s only since I hit level 70 and started RoK content that I’ve seen 10+ people in a zone. There are over 100 level 80’s on every night, they’re certainly not hanging out in older content.
Going back to older zones also serves as no benefit if you’re already at 200aa (which a lot are) or if you’ve been an obsessive quester the entire time you’ve played and have completed all of the lower level quests offered. Since repeatables don’t grant achievement experience. (which even more have).
“I’ve mentioned before about how I dislike that EQ2 zones can “grey” out, giving people little to no reason to ever revisit them unless they mentor down. I think it’s a poor game plan.”
Though you won’t gain chest loot from trivial content and you can no longer gain adventure experience from grey encounters, achievement experience is not affected in the least. A level 80 with 190 Achievements earns the exact same amount of experience from a grey quest as a level 40 with 50 achievements. However, due to the curve involved with achievements levels, it will look as if less experience was gained by the character with 190 achievements as opposed to the one with only 50. However, the actual amount of achievement experience gain was identical – whether or not the quest is yellow, blue, or grey.
As players approach the 180-200 Achievement mark, grey-questing is one of the few remaining ways to consistently pull in achievement experience.