I've never experienced a sense of wonder in a game like I did in 1999 walking out of Felwithe for the first time into Greater Faydark. I'm not sure I ever will have an experience in a game like that again. There were very few first person 3D games at the time, then came EQ and it was a whole world with other people running around in it. Calling it revolutionary almost seems like an understatement.
There was a sense of danger, adrenaline, community, lore, wonder, music, vastness, real penalty, and even respect for basic armor, there was something very special about EQ. An experience I’ll never forget.
Lol I started as a wood elf druid and after falling off the city I made a human wizard lol :) at level 7 myself and a fellow wizard ran from freeport to qeynos and it took us 5 real days haha. No levitate, no port spells, no sow, no rez's :) great times !!!
I remember my dad saying "let's go to the store" when I was 9. We raced to future shop in the middle of a snow storm so my dad could buy this new game his friend just got in to. I seriously spent so much time in the world of Norrath, even spent many hours partied with my dad grinding giants. I've went back, level up to 50 on the TLE servers and it honestly felt like a legit recreation of my childhood. Hanging out in parties with people for hours grinding mobs, dying, corpse runs...it was great.
Corpse runs.... The last time I played, sadly, they were a thing of the past. But I certainly remember training zones and wiping unlucky travelers in the process to avoid a CR. Damn Spectres in Oasis were no joke
It's crazy to me that so many people remember and cherish EQ for it's unforgiving difficulty yet every single iteration since then is about dumbing down and speeding up.
Multifaceted issue, trolls weren't as common, the average American became abusive online, the average income HALVED over the last 30 years meaning people have to work twice as many hours to maintain the exact same quality of life as back then, making many people bitter or hateful to society
@@potato1919-j4e This is unfortunetly the correct answer. I attended my local anime-con for over ten years. Was a fun time with the boys, now it is an absolute cesspool of trans degeneracy. Its a shame I can not even engage with my community any longer. All the "nerd" groups pushed acceptance for so many years, when a threat showed up it was only a matter of time.
I played EQ Beta and then for 10-11 years after. When it went Free to Play I left, as did most of the guild I was in. Game just went to crap. Best MMO ever, don't give me your WoW comments.... EQ was the hardest game I ever played.
Yeah, its a strange dynamic where the difficulty of the game bred a really good community. But as the game grew and competition grew in the same market for MMOs, they just continued to add quality of life "improvements" to make the game easier for more people to play. Diminishing returns, the more qol additions, the more the community became transient
Just wanted to mention I played EQ on dialup when it first came out. It was painful but my love for the game was solidified. The best part was the community. I'm about to get back into the game and looking forward to making new friends. Thank you so much for the video! You are a wonderful content creator!
The best thing about EverQuest, is learning your role in a group, and getting into a group where _everyone_ knows their role and it's all clicking along optimally. This is mot rewarding because you know that a swift, brutal, and total defeat would occur if your group doesn't operate effectively.
There was nothing quite like hearing that ding sound on level. I remember leveling to be so difficult that everyone would celebrate if someone got a ding during the grouping.
played EQ years ago when it first came out, when there was almost no guides, or no help, on a PVP server. one of the most hardcore games ive ever played.
If you had asked me - an EQ vet - for advice on how to make your first experience playing EQ as miserable as possible, I probably would have told you to make an Ogre warrior on a progression server and stay in Feerot alone for 8 levels before going to say hi to the guards in Freeport. Thanks for not making your video limited to only that, and I'm glad you got a small taste of the game beyond those initial 8 levels.
@@xSoulShinigamix Even with a barb tho you have easy to find mobs out in front of the town gate that you can pull to the side, with ofc easy access to blackburrow and qeynos. The feerot's main issue if I remember right is that the mobs are so scattered and often you are fighting where other things might path. (It's been a long while though, so I might be wrong lol)
WhenI first started, my DE Necro was stuck in Neriak for weeks because it took me forever to memorize the landmarks in the zone. I died so many times trying to level up enough to survive the trip to EC.. I finally made it, jus to run into Freeport guards and learn about factions, and my favorite term, KOS
Flynn is definitely right with how much time EQ takes away from you. My dad dedicated so much time into the game it's astounding, I remember at one point my dad had asked me to help him while he multiboxed during a raid. He was a part of the Ascentia guild, he was a cleric that went by the name Fethdor Faithhealer.
When people ask me about EQ, I often arrive at the story when I was trying to get the quest pieces from Lord Grimrot for a cleric/paladin shield. I spent days getting my reputation up with Qeynos just to start the quest, then there was a spawn in a skeleton camp that had a 3 hour timer. It had three possible spawns, a generic skeleton place holder, a living version of Grimrot, and an undead version of Grimrot. You had to get the living man's heart, and I think the weapon from the undead. There was all sorts of theories on how to get the different versions to spawn, but in my experience, it was just random. I spent days doing nothing, camping that spot, just offering buffs to lower level people in the zone. Then one weekend, I spent 48 hours camping the site, at night, I'd have an alarm go off just before those 3 hours, and get some sleep between spawns. A guildmate would sit by me to make sure some random monster didn't come by and slowly kill me over that time. THIS was EQ, no clear, easy, path, long camps, and great friends who you've never actually met.
I really enjoyed the video. EQ was a big part of my life for many years. I was playing it a month of so after it came out and all of my friends were on the Test server. Oh the joy of a server coming down message when we were hours into a raid, but it was worth it for that Test Server community.
My dad started playing EQ the end of 99/early 2000, I watched him play for a couple months and begged to play, but I couldn't read yet, so he told me learn to read and type and I can play, so being 5 years old I quickly learned and started playing, played for a good few years and eventually moved on to World of Warcraft, I always say this game gave me a great ability to problem solve and has likely helped me out tremendously through life without even realizing it. Early Everquest was amazing and there will never be another experience like it.
I cant honestly thank you enough for this. It was a game I played when I was 12 with my Grandma and Grandpa... After they passed I'd forgotten about it and why they liked it. So I'm going to pick it up again and suffer through as I did way back with them. To explore the lands of Norrath again For the memories I made with them. From Kelethin in Faydwer to Antonica onwards. Keep making that glorious contant man. I enjoy it all. You also got me back into Guild Wars 2 with that video.... lol..
@bodega87 I actually started on Oak cuasr I seen it was just starting nearly. X3 I got a small mage in GF though mainly waiting on Luclin want my Vah Shir bard back... wasn't the best but hey.. I was like 13/14 xD if you Wana play I'd be happy too. Am older so harder to mingle with younger peeps. Am more calm now xD
I loved this video. I recently just stopped playing EQ again after around 5 consistent years of raiding and even reaching a number 1 ranking on magelo EQ wide! (like anybody cares) Its so good to see more content creators making EQ videos. ive been playing EQ on and off for 20 years, started when i was a kid and even got married because of EQ. I will forever love this game.
EverQuest has always been my favorite MMORPG ever, even to this day. It's the only online game that feels actually feels like a real world that is dangerous and challenging, with none of the handholding you see in all the modern games nowadays. Truly rewarding when you really put in the time, which sadly I don't have anymore lol.
Same here. Dark Age of Camelot as well. That was my first experience with pvp as a kid and it blew my mind with the big realm wars. Those 2 games never leave my daily thoughts.
@@velfaern1716 daoc was so good. the rvr is the best pvp ive ever played in any mmo. daoc pservers were great a few years back but now they are pretty dead too
EQ is one of the MMOs I has given me some of my most memorable MMO experiences. I still vividly remember my wood elf bard creeping invisible into Lower Guk past red mobs that could insta-kill me just for the chance to loot a Mask of Deception to make me look like a Dark Elf, all just so I could run the Stein of Moggok questline and not get murdered in the ogre city. Dungeons were terrifying. Travelling from zone to zone was terrifying. But the game was massive and magical. But it was also harsh. I think they've done away with corpse runs which were the worst, but I remember downtime being super painful with your health and mana only regenerating at a snails pace (like 1HP every 10s), and it didn't scale with your HP pool so it only got worse! I don't know what QoL features they've added since then but you've made me tempted to retry it.
I went back last year... leveled my horde of alts that were ignored back when leveling was... hard. Quality of life as a returning player is massively improved. From gear to leveling speeds it doesnt take long to get caught up with the still sizable pops on most servers. Granted a lot of that pop is going to be like one person running 6 toons. I eventually got my new ranger into a raid guild and did some EQ raiding! They decked me out head to hairy foot, and then said, "naw yer just too new on that ranger, get lost kid". I still had fun, saw the raid content, and got super well geared in the process, without having to devout the next 6 years of my life to never missing a raid (always find the silver lining!~) All in all, if you are feeling the nostalgia bug, go for it. Live servers are real easy to get caught up on, and they are full of people all to happy to help returning players. And ya never know, you, like me, might happen to log on and have a look at the exact same time one of yer best EQ pals from 1999 did as well (dumb luck there).
Well said. The amount of misery tied into hours of fun played out pretty good. Corpse camping.... Corpse runs or asking a necro to summon your corpse (from the hole maybe) made it a very social game. I played on Rallos Zek. Never a blue server. ~Sir Baron Jobel Dubstar, Leader of The Curse.
Go with project 1999, a classic EQ server that has been running and populated since like 2011. Content includes only the original vanilla game, kunark and velious and stops there
Nothing was quite as bad in classic everquest as hitting that brand new level, getting all the new spells and skills for it, then dying and losing the level, sometimes even having gotten rid of your old equipment, and no longer having pants to help you level again.
@@Redbeardflynn The way i played, every corpse run was pants-less, normally begging for SOW, and hopefully not after i found out that i had not bound myself at the local city.
Went link dead crossing a zone on the boat and forgot to put all my best gear in the bank. The GM refused to help after even a necro had no luck. Called him a a-hole and got parentally banned on the spot. Almost 2 years of endless grinding all gone in a second. Took out the CD. Got some lighter fluid a went to the backyard with the whole family in tow. They watched in horror as lit it on fire and put it out with a full-sized sledgehammer. Still play EQ a lot to this day and having a blast seeing all the new people...
My buddy asked me to join him on this game called everquest : frontiers . That day i bought a ps2 slim . Drove too 4 gamestops and finally the gamestop that actually had the game was almost an hour away . That day changed my life cause i lived in everquest for 8 months . Thats how long it took to finally have a lv 60 magician n my buddys necromancer . Our pet gnome build made some great memories . Ty for makin such a great video
You mentioned "Revolutionary for it's time". Think about that. Released in 1999. They had thousands of players online at once. 99.9% of them on dial-up. All connecting to a cluster of servers. That unto itself was mind-blowing. Yes there were hic-ups. Yes there was lag. But to even pull that off at all, back then, was truly amazing.
I still prefer the original character models. Started playing EQ about a month or 2 after launch and its still 100% hands down the best over all gaming experience ive ever had. Ive played alot of the modern MMOs and EQ is just more.... I have so many fond memories of this game that i love to share when i come across anybody that ever tried this Masterpiece of a game. Great video brother. Thank you for this.
What memories I have for this game! I tied up my family phone for years. Oh, the Soulfire Quest, to get an awesome Paladin Sword that wasn't really that good...massive raids with your whole guild...finding my first dungeon without knowing it was there, just stumbling upon a cave entrance the glowed blue...the horrors of Kithicor forest at night...wow. Eventually I switched over to City of Heroes, and then World of Warcraft, but as good as they were, it was never the same.
I played endlessly from 99-2005. Its still nothing compared to those days lol. I remember so many nights of no sleep doing corpse runs just to not lose my stuff and working like a zombie all day.
They were the WORST! And gods how I miss them haha! Was so glad I had a good friend who was a bard, as well as knowing a few necros. But some CRs were just tragic. I fell down into a huge crevasse somewhere once (escapes me where) and my bard friend came but then we had to go get him some feathers and come back and ... yeah it was a riot. I am definitely going to check out a progression server I think.
I played EQ this year for 510 hours consecutively before I stopped. I absolutely loved it, as a player from 99-07 it was 100% for Nostalgia and it didn't disappoint. I had a new account and played on Firiona Vie, the community and activity was amazing, I had lots of groups leveling once I hit 30+ and continued all the way to 120, I highly recommend it to anyone who want's an authentic experience of what MMO's were :) I played an Ogre Shadow Knight, it was a slow but fun grind!
Loved this vid - I played Everquest from 2002-2006, then WOW but came back to EQ in 2008 and am still playing today. Got to say choosing a Warrior to play solo on a Progression server was a ‘interesting’ choice but all the funnier for it - no spells, no abilities, playing a character that needs a team to work properly. Just a very funny video On a live server with a Merc you can charge through levels
The noise of those birds in Feerrot gave me a massive nostalgia hit. As hardcore as it is, nothing since has been as memorable. Of all the MMO's I've played my go-to legend when talking to other players is the 18 hour corpse recovery my EQ guild had to undertake when we failed to "break" the Plane of Fear. It feels like my entire life has been on easy-mode ever since!
Lol I know this is old, but I can remember my guild failing at breaking into PoF. I played a necro at the time. I would stand rez a cleric and help him by pumping him mana. Then after about 10 people got rezed someone always went a little too far and a whole new pack would come. I'd just fd again and watch everyone die. Ahh good times lol
Absolutely brutal recoveries in Fear. The agro would bounce all over the zone and the agro radius was so dang big, mobs that shadowstep you into agro, or fear you into agro. I participated in a similar one on live and in era (you had no choice, 6 hours after you logged out your corpse would poof with all your gear on it). Absolutely brutal, and some of the best memories.
One thing that should be noted is that this game was the OG subscription-paying video game where the servers regularly crashed and the forums were regularly full to the gills with angry players who dropped out of school and/or work to play the game more. This was also, basically, a rehashed commercialized Dungeons & Dragons that punished players for making bad decisions, like selling old unique pieces of gear that would later become legendaries, or putting points into Pottery because you have no idea the kind of suffering you need to go through in order to master any tradeskill, let alone a tradeskill that only serves other tradeskills like Pottery, or being confused over the concept of auto attack as your only real attack skill. Another thing that should be noted is that, unless an expansion changed the game, most of the time you're going to spend your LIFE camping in one spot. Camping in EQ is the same as spawn camping in WoW PvP - you and your group set up "camp" in an area where a rare mob will spawn, and you proceed to break the group up (more than one mob attacking will usually destroy the entire party), kill placeholders, and wait for HOURS before the rare mob spawns, and even then there's RNG over which item(s) get dropped. Most of the time, players have to juggle between joining a group for the purposes of making experience, and joining a group that farms rares for making profit; the former will get you to the level cap faster (so you can farm alternate advancement levels), but the latter will provide you with much-needed money and/or twink gear (like dropping lvl 50 gear on a lvl 1 alt and watching the levels FLY). Beyond grinding experience and loot/money, there's very little to do in EQ...you surely will never be doing any questing, roflmao. I like that they kept the old graphics for the game's races - the old ogre avatar is the fatty, the new one is tall and muscular. It's a real shame they "updated" their character graphics; EQ had the BEST trolls in video game history: warts, big sharp noses, pointy ears, enormous guts, big feet, long gnarled arms, big hands. It made for the most hilarious Beastlord animations (plus BL's had gator pets, which inexplicably got smaller the higher level they got, which made for a hilarious mismatch of big, bloated troll soldier-marching around with a tiny caiman pet). EQ was loads of fun and loads of grief. That whole concept of "running away" was made all the more bizarre when enemies wouldn't lose agro until you left the zone, creating "trains." Trains became so common that people would create elaborate text messages and spam them to warn players just entering the zone to quickly GTFO or die like a dog. Hell, clerics would regularly make a profit selling their resurrection services (90% exp return after death), and people would regularly line up, dragging one or more corpses along so they could make up for lost exp. Probably the best thing about EQ was how expansive it was, and the worst part of it was how there were ZERO instructions by the game developer, forcing players to support players and creating massive communities. EQ was nuts, but it's since become a hollow commercialized husk of its former self. I'd like to think that its spiritual sequel is GW2, which has much of the same qualities that I found so good in EQ. GW2 also doesn't explain shit, but they're getting better. XD
I tried explaining trains to a friend who started their mmo experience with WoW. I remember Unrest being the worst in my progression (I think CT was similar, but I never leveled there) being that the yard trash was around level 10, and the basement was around level 30. But it was okay, as long as you shouted "train to zone" early enough for people to clear a path, or zone out. If you didn't have that macro made, or get your shout out early enough, man would you catch an earfull.
I love when people are flat out honest about EQ, I been playing since 1999 and I have had tons of friends try it who just couldn’t get into it because of the difficulty and time investment. It’s serious lol
My mom to this day still will say. "Are you sure you do not have to go get your corpse again" to my Dad who would always tell my mom this before bed. He cannot got to bed yet, he has to help me get my corpse back.
When I talk about difficult and grindy games, EQ rules. Camping a spawn for 60+ hours night and day to get a drop only to have a KSer steal it was a nightmare, but it was a nightmare that I will always remember. I don't remember anything of worth in WOW but I can tell you story after story of EQ heartbreak and triumph. EQ is by far the best there is for a game you will remember.
The difference between EQ and MOST (MMOs) is that in most MMO's is that you're the hero. You're the chosen one, you're the player the story and world revolve around. You and the thousands of others are all the hero. In EQ, you're not a hero, you're not the people's champion, the chosen one, the warrior of light, you're nothing, just some asshole. If you want to kill a dragon you need to gather up a bunch of other assholes and try and do it. The world is alive and you're just a regular dude in it. Nothing special. Its the feeling of being nothing special that I miss from other MMOs. I don't want to be the chosen one. I want to make my own story. Find my own way and carve out my own existence. I've played MMOs for 25 years and I can still tell you some of the great stories from my adventures in Everquest. I don't think I could say the same about any new MMO out there. Maybe some from early WoW, but that would be it. MMO developers need to bring back the regular guy. Give the world life and let players life in it how they want.
Excellent video! Yeah Everquest is hardcore. At least to original players it used to be lol a lot of QoL changes on live and tlp. Over at p99 Green and approved by Darkpaw games is an MMO emulator to simulate classic EQ as much as possible. Imagine everytime Bonka died you had to run to your Corpse and loot your gear off your dead body (if you remember where you died) Having to run into dangerous areas to get your Corpse is hardcore. Imagine us original players dying before we got our corpse back, sometimes multiple deaths, each death losing XP. But the player base was so integrated that those extreme game play elements required us to interact with other players to get the Corpse back, or to get some XP back from rezzes. That's what people liked. The game was so hardcore it was designed to give you a better game play experience playing with other people. It still is but it was way more gruesome and challenging back then. I still play to this day. I got 12 more expansions to experience.
Made me remember how I made my first ally which lasted until the end of my EQ days, a necromancer that was lv50 at the time, who recovered my corpse for free which was in Lower Guk if I recall correctly. And my memory might be wrong but wasnt there also a brief period in which if you /consented someone to drag your corpse he could also loot it yet it barely happened....people were wholesome back then :p
@@Johnamekin Yeah it was that way for a Lil bit. But yeah back then when everyone dealt with the hardcore elements of the game people understood it and were respectful, it was way less toxic than a lot of things I read these days. Classic EQ was the most wholesome moment in the entire Era of MMO gaming from my experience.
@@Johnamekin Oh it wasn't brief lol, it stayed that way for ages! After some years though, they made it so you could grant consent permanently to people which did alleviate things some.
@@Johnamekin (thread necromancy) It wasn't consent to drag your corpse at the start, it was consent to loot it, there was no dragging at all at first. So, you'd have to either get back there yourself, or find a high level, and trust they'd bring everything back (which they usually did, because the community was awesome) Then they started allowing dragging to alleviate things getting stolen, but you could still loot. Then, eventually they took looting away completely.
games like EQ , Ultima Online , and City of Heroes seem absolutely legendary by modern standards just becuz they are built around worlds that need to be understandable/traverse-able without constant hand-holding ; so glad/grateful that we have so many awesome private servers running these masterpieces of MMORPG design
My buddy felt into "the hole" when we were arround lvl 10, dropping all his stuff down there. It took a whole day finding an experienced group to help him get his stuff back. Fabulous adventure
My first 3D MMORPG and I adored it. Then came the wave of pop culture weekend warriors and with them the addition of dumbed down gameplay like teleporters "because it's unfair that only some classes can teleport, I wanna be able to do EVERYTHING with my character! 😩" until the mainstream floodgates opened with WoW. The meaningful hardcore experience of EQ spoiled me for all other MMORPGs. Not even EQ2 managed to capture me that well. Now I can't do anything but wait for an MMORPG experience that feels similarly hardcore, deep, immersive and meaningful.
You can check your skills from your character inventory sheet. You can leave up the window to see when you've maxed a weapon skill and can switch weapons to train a new skill.
wow this was amazing :) This channel is so damn underrated! I always wanted to play everquest but couldn't get a pc back when it came out. This actually makes me want to give it a go after all these years!
EQ was my first MMO. I loved playing this game back in the day. The group experiences were just fun because it was mostly killing and then chatting with your party for a few while you waited for respawns. Something about that cycle just made the game more enjoyable. It was more of an experience.
You know, that's one of the things I loved about the game as well. People now don't understand this because in modern games you can't even take your hands off your fighting keys to talk during a group/raid/dungeon/what have you or you get left in the dust. In EQ you had to rest, for HP, for Mana, and that was when everyone sat and chatted (with someone always on the lookout for pats as well). Imagine that, talking to people. Wow, what a concept! I mained a pally and I was a great puller, so once everyone was ready, buffs were done, I'd go pull and we'd start all over again. You really needed to know your class AND other people's as well. And having downtime to talk about it and ask questions only helped you become a better player.
EQ has always put emphasis on the multiplayer in MMO. It's a crazy concept, I know. The game encourages you to seek out others for all types of services. Travel, quests, leveling. For better or worse other players help make the game and reputation WILL follow your character.
@@j.joseph5353 Oh yea, It doesn't matter anymore for many reasons. Cross server LFG is another one. Other players are more kin to NPC party members than people now. I was a Guide in EQ for 2 years. I miss the interactive events so much. Getting to play as monsters or make D&D style quests.
@@lordeggo Man, I remember on my server, one of the guides hated the fact that druids would kite treants (shouldn't druids and treants be buddies?) in SK, so he and a few others spawned themselves in as treants, and started fighting the druids. Word got around that an event was happening, and I went there. Most people were joining the druid's side, even though the guides were shouting things about how these druids are an affront to nature. I decided to roleplay being an elf, and joined the treants, as a cleric (and the only way I could, in a non pvp server) I continually healed the treants, and shouted along with them to stop these evil, misguided druids. I don't remember how it all unfolded in the end, but I remember the guide gave me a rubicite breastplate, this is after it was removed from whoever dropped it originally, and became a no drop item...So, it was kinda useless to me in game terms, but it was cool, cause I was able to wear a red breastplate that became my "fancy dress" armor whenever I sat around town, or selling, or whatever.
@@Gravy65 My Guide was a Bard on Bristlebane. I used to show up telling stories with some underline secret item knowledge in the story. It was more or less an egg hunt but they were my own thing and a lot of fun. Being able to re-invest my love for a game in that way felt great. To my knowledge I was the only guide allowed to carry a non-guide item which was a lute for RP purposes. I bugged the executive GM for like a month to let me have that lute =D It was crazy by today's standards how much power they gave Guides in that game. We had the same client as the people who worked at SoE and were just told "Don't use XYZ without permission". The server really loved that there was a Bard GM which did bard things. Well worth the 'tech support' side. I miss it.
*😆The epic adventures of Bonka!* 0:36 reminds me of one of the funniest moments I had in gaming. I was sitting in a safe spot in a gnoll dungeon to regenerate when some guy was yelling for help in the zone chat. About 10 seconds later a big barbarian show up "running slowly" towards the zone exit because he was low on health, spamming jump for tiny extra boosts... ...followoed by a long train of tiny gnolls chasing after him. That was such a hilarious scene, kind of like the meme of the kid chased by chickens.
Played quite a few of the TLP servers starting from Ragefire ;). I'd say that nowadays EQ1 is a very hardcore experience about getting server firsts and min-maxing raid sizes for more loot. When I was playing guilds would plant members to guard ground spawns 24/7 that were needed to get into zones. They'd pick up the ground spawn and destroy it to prevent other guilds from entering zones ;). People would also train each other to get popular camps. Very cutthroat. Very hardcore =P. I used to run parties for fun to do things like kill level 26 named mobs at level 7 or level 50 mobs at level 20 ;D. We tackled all of the hardest indoor zones in the game and did so as underleveled as possible =P. Even when people were losing exp per hour people stuck around just because it was fun to figure these zones out =). I also did a ton of no death runs on an ogre warrior as well as a naked run to level cap killing reds all the way up with 0 med breaks allowed and mass chain pulling on Enchanter ;D. EQ1 to this day is still the MMO I love the most. I just can't play it anymore because eventually you memorize every spawn of every zone and then it isn't really fun anymore :(. Here's to more new challenges in Pantheon yay :D.
Everquest was the most social mmo I have ever played. To this day the downtime in between pulls and just talking and getting to know the people i'm grinding random trash mobs with has been a far more enjoyable experience than any player created social event since. I started playing EQ right before kunark came out and finally quit playing after six years of being on almost every day and even a vox raid then felt more epic than any raid in an mmo since. From negotiating with other PC's in the tunnel to just sitting at a bar working on alcohol tolerance with other players the memories are still things I discuss with my brothers to this day while other mmo's we typically only look back at "that one quest was fun".
As someone who played Everquest at its release in 1999 I have to say this video is simply amazing and yet just a small glimpse of the pain (and joy) that was EverQuest. It's unfortunate that new players today won't experience the joy of running for 4 hours across a continent with your butt hole clenched and your fingers crossed that you didn't die 3/4 of the way there. Did anyone notice the "Soulbinder" he went to when he arrived in EC (East Commonlands)?? Yeah...that's a luxury. Back in the day, you could only be bound within the limits of a major city (i.e. Freeport) and to do so you had to either have the spell yourself or find another player who could cast it on you. If you died before you could accomplish that, it was back to the start and lets just say you became intimately familiar with the route. New players will also never experience the joy of making a Bard, pulling every mob in the zone and running around in circles playing your Area Effect DoTs over and over and over again, gaining 5-10 levels per kite. Oh EverQuest, how I long for what we used to have
You didn't even mention the part where it was pitch black while running across a continent for some races. I remember being a Human in the Qeynos region as a newbie, and got in this group with some bard. After our group split, he convinced me to run to Freeport with him since he had super bard speed song. Running through places like Gorge and Kithicor in the darkness was absolutely terrifying. Good times. EQ definitely had some fear factor.
EQ1 is the granddaddy of them all. I think I tried my hand at it back at the tail end of the Scars of Velious expansion. Shadows of Luclin came next. That is where you got the Nexus portals and a new planet/moon to explore. After Luclin came Planes of Power. That is when Druids were up in arms because they were no longer needed for taxi service. Its a great game if you are patient. Not so much if you aren't. While the mana and HP are fun to use, you have to rest up after big fights. Losing hard to get XP from dying makes you have to think about tough fights and how you get XP. There were no mercs this early. You had to group up just to grind mobs at a pulling spot. It was more efficient as you got a full group XP bonus vs soloing. Another great thing about the game is classes got exclusive abilities other classes can't get. Like necromancers with the Locate Corpse ability. Without a necro in the group, its a long walk to your corpse if you don't know where you died. Without an Enchanter in the group you don't get the best mana regen. In warcraft everyone gets the same spells, they just rename them so nobody is really exclusive except for minor duties like a summoning portal. Crafting. Crafting is deep and the items actually matter when you get high enough. Gear. Instead of everyone going for the same item, you could end up with any of many useful weapons and items. You could have another run with a new character and not get the same gear. Characters. Really it is about EQs complete list of classes. Including the bard. Casters aren't just cookie cutter either. Wizard for raw nuke power. Magicians a bit lighter on that, but they get a pet. Enchanters are weak on the DPS, but they can charm equal level mobs to fight for them as a disposable off tank. Necromancer. Instead of Wow's Shadowpriest or warlock, I like that EQ has the Necromancer which covers both classes. A true Lich when leveled. EQ has a Shadowknight, the counterpart of a Paladin. Paladins get Lay on hands for a big heal once in a while, Shadowknights get Harm touch which is a massive touch nuke. Wow has a Death Knight, which is kind of a Shadowknight, but not quite. EQ has separate Ranger and beastlord classes vs Wow's all in one hunter class. Beastlord focuses on the critters, Ranger focuses on the shooting. There are some WTFs. Like if you have a levitate spell on and you are a few football fields above ground. Mobs can still punch you from the ground. Spells wear off at the most inopportune times.
"So you want us to beat an MMO?" "Essentially." "F*** you!" "Woah getting a lot of hostility here. Don’t appreciate it." "Well, honestly, when was the last time you heard of someone beating Everquest?" "When was the last time you heard of someone PLAYING Everquest?"
EQ1 changed my gaming life. Basho, 54 Warrior Champion of Sarin and raid master of the Hooded Nomads. That took me over a year of nightly play and a full guild behind me.
Everquest was my first MMORPG and as I am an alt-aholic, I never really got to end game but enjoyed every moment. But you get a sub just because of the narrative and a memory that was once buried deep inside of my ogre, you have managed to spark that back, thank you.
I didn't even have to consider pressing that Subscribe button. Hit me right in my nostalgia. I have so many existing friends from playing this game. The outstanding community. Watching people de-level during raids due to deaths. Hell levels. This brings it all back :D Great job!
After watching this video I most certainly can say without a shadow of a doubt that I do not want to play EQ1. Holy crap. And I thought my start with FFXI in 2004 was tedious.
That brings back so many memories, todays gamers would not be ready for EQ1, it's just too hardcore. I remember doing 8+ hour raids only to fail and then to spend hours doing corpse runs. I remember my guild's first run at Quarm, the final boss of Plane of Time, we were so happy we beat it at the first run, but the journey to get there was long and hard. I have hopes for Pantheon to be the new EQ1
Long live EQ! I genuinely and unequivocally love the game, I met my first online friends in EQ who I have stayed friends with even into other games through the years, and met my hubby in EQ as well, 20 years ago. I haven't played for a while, but this video definitely hits my heartstrings, no other games have come close to the feelings, friendships & memories EQ has given me.
I feel this, I still have friends from EQ even though I've not played in a long time that I talk to when I can. EQ got me into gaming as more than just a side hobby, but showed me how great communities of people with similar interest can truly be. =)
@@tirendir It's always been something I wish other games had, a helpful, team spirit kind of community. Closest I've found is GW2, but it's not quite the same "we're all part of this" vibe.
I love EQ and have many very fond memories. I started playing in 1999 with my brother, we were separated by an ocean but still getting to hang out was awesome. He played a Chanter, I played a d0rf cleric then I mained a dark elf necro.
I've had enough of Everquest for myself for the timebeing. But will always say, it's the absolute BEST mmorpg to have ever been made. Still to this day.
I remember entering the world for the first time back in the early 2000's and feeling a mix of intimidation and awe. It had me excited for the future of video games.
At one point in my life i had 5 everquest accounts. Dating back all the was to day one the servers opened. Fast forward to today, i could not even re-activate any one of those 5 accounts because i have no idea of my usernames, passwords or the email addressed I had 20+ years ago.
I don't really comment much but just want to say that I'm really loving the content and always look forward to you're next upload! Always top notch entertainment from you and I look forward to seeing you're channel grow, so close to 100k now!!! Congrats on everything bro you deserve it truly, content speaks for itself
I had a friend that was one of those players that got to help out during GM events, My brother was a player chosen to help open Luclin, and earned a unique title no one else on the server could get. I have a LvL 60 druid, but quite playing years ago.
So, this is the first video of yours I've ever seen. This is also the first piece of Everquest content I've ever seen. The takeaway I got from this was the phrase "God bless you, Farthammer". I've been saying it off and on for a solid 20 minutes now in your accent and cracking up each and every time 🤣Fantastic content!
In the early part of the video, "human" you referenced, was a barbarian, not a human. The "mage" you referenced, sporting the forehead was an Erudite; it doesn't matter what class you pick they still look like that. Also: F8 targets the mob right in front of you, making it easier to target things. F9 also changes the camera, in case you want 1st person or some other far out camera angle.
i have such nostalgia for this game, was super hardcore back then, getting server firsts with my guild and blazing that trail. Would love to play again, but can't really afford the time anymore =(
About 6 or 7 years ago I decided to take the plunge into EQ live,I had played off and on for years but only casually. After 13 months of Leveling, Raiding, Questing, and Progression Grinding I became one of the top Beastlords in the game. It's the only MMORPG that properly rewards you for your time and effort, that being said it took me 13 months with LOTS of help from Raid Geared players to completely max out. Eventually life got busy and I had to quit but I did enjoy my time in EQ.
Every once in a while I get nostalgic about the difficult and unforgiving world of Norrath. I absolutely LOVED that you had pure support characters like enchanters and bards. I also love that corpse retrieval was actually something you could do as a rogue or necromancer for difficult dungeons. I have fond memories of camping the ancient cyclops all night long with my roommate to get us some Jboots. Also sneaking down into Lower Guk to get my little brother's bard the mask that would grand a dark elf illusion. Then I remember trying to get my corpse out of Unrest solo, and losing some levels. That was not fun. Also farming lizardmen to get parts for my SK's Darkforge armor. I did finish the set, but not sure it was worth it in the end. It looked amazing though. As much as I sometimes look back fondly on the glory days of EQ I know that for me it will never come again. I have similar feelings about early raiding in WoW. EverQuest was my first MMO though, and I still think about it once in a while. It was so ridiculously unforgiving that any success gave you a great sense of accomplishment.
The content and the narration, I couldn't turn away. I laughed and cried all at the same time. This is truly the best EQ video and to top it all off, you featured redbeardflynn. Rallos Zek is grunting down upon you this day.
I love this! I played everquest back in 2000 till EQ2 came out. So many great memories. It was all about that leveling journey. It was over a year maybe 2 before i had my first max level character, but it was so much fun. I never did complete my Epic tho =(
From what I remember, I don’t think I ever had a character level past 20. I’m talking the dialup internet days. But even today I still think of the experience fondly and actively search out content for it from time to time.
This was Dark soul of MMO back in the days before all the hand holding quests. Those mob trains would kill off even high level characters spend sometimes a good hour or two trying to recover your body.
Having played from launch for a solid 10 years or so appreciate this video greatly. EQ was the best gaming times I've ever had, and I don't think I'll ever top them. The people I met were honestly true friends even if only online. The game forced you to interact with your group and more so in raids. Spending an hour prepping for a raid wasn't uncommon. Spending multiple hours getting corpses back after the raid was just as common. It was amazing. Lakeland Seasky (Cleric long since retired) Mith Mar server Sabertooh Bear Clan Friend of Illuminati Huzzah!
God, the memories! I must have played off and on for 12 years, 2 accounts, 13 or more expansions for both, I think I sunk close to 8 grand into this game. No other game has ever captured my attention like EQ.
I played on a Red Server. I was a Bard and I used to do a ton of PVP in this game. Cheap gear, little armor, and I regularly got warned for training people. I defeated a Druid and a Monk at the same time when they jumped me and I was able to kite the monk while spinning songs until I had burned down the druid. Then I turned on the monk and absolutely demolished him. I remember them talking mad trash. I also trained the ability to speak "Gnoll" and would almost singularly speak Gnoll in text chat. I somehow learned it while fighting near Blackburrow and ended up loving it. My RP was that I was a bard that had been kidnapped and raised by gnolls and my only reason for being alive was that I had learned to entertain the beasts and they kept me around as a joke.
Your narrative is adorably hilarious! I hope you're having fun even with the challenges and hurdles. I played in the aughts and then was absent for several years only to return a few years ago. I play on both my old Live server and I played on Oakwynd for a few months to go back to the early game. For the Live servers, you can get purchase the ability to skip levels into the more recent eras of the game with a boost to 85 or 100 (current max level is 120) to to able to group with those who are in the higher levels. But there are some servers, Live as well as TLP, that do have players in the lower levels, just not as many as the high. It is insanely faster to level on a Live server vs TLP even playing solo. But, the game is absolutely better when grouping.
EQ at the time of release was known to be MMORPG for casuals due to the lenient death system compared to the competition (where absolutely everything would drop on your corpse for anybody to loot who wanted it.) Interesting how by today's standards, it's hardcore. Good video! Nostalgic.
@@EQ_EnchantX that's true, and in hindsight, those older games, such as Ultimate, have gear that is easy to lose but also easy to get. You can build a pure craftsman who can fit your warriors with weapons and armor that are only a little worse than the best magic weapons, so having everything drop to your corpse doesn't erase 40 hours of gear grinding. Completely different styles of games.
I remember sitting at a friend's house, he was showing me the beta (maybe even alpha) of Ultima Online, and we just happened to walk in on the aftermath of a huge pvp battle, and started looting all the corpses. One guy had a red sword that did fire, he caught us looting it, and chased us around telling us to give it back. I don't remember what we did, but I remember how rude it felt. I never got UO, cause I didn't have personal internet yet, and couldn't tie up the phones for a game, so I can't really speak more on it....but I did have my own phone line/service by the time EQ came out, and death during hell levels is the worst thing I've experienced in any game ever. (worse than having to level back up to get my corpse out of Fear, when I went in right after leveling to whatever level that was that unlocked it)
July 2000 was when I made my first toon, a halfling druid. Battling those first rats and snakes while running past all the corpses of my fellow adventurers is a memory I'll hold forever. Even the sound effects can still instantly trigger feelings of nostalgia.
I met my (now) wife in this game. I got this when i was a freshman in high school, and it took me a long time before i had a computer that ran it. I got hooked fairly quickly when i finally could, but i kept server hopping until i landed on the Veshan server. Met some cool people, fell in love with the Shadow Knight class, and finally had a reason to stay on. Met my wife when i wasn't even max level yet. She was max level and i met her through my brother, and 7 years later, we met irl and got married. I will never forget EQ - this game will always be an amazing part of my high-school and early adult life!
Even though I do not play anymore, EQ reigns supreme. I got tired of rehashing old content and quit just prior of going back to the Luclin expansion 2 or 3 years ago, but will always love EQ. Who knows, may be back someday
back in the day, my father would play a druid and I would play a necro. We also use to play on zek and we never ran into groups that could beat us. He and I dueled once to see who would win and I won because of my pet, without it though, he easily won. It was nice being able to kill people and take something from them.
Are you ready for Starfield? Enjoy the game to its fullest and check out AMD's new game bundles via my link here: rebrand.ly/MitchManix-YT
Still addicted to BG3 but at least AMD is a recpectable sponsor I usually get AMD when i get a new computer every few years.
Starfield is terrible. I refunded it.
it's too bad you don't get to experience rubicite camping.. train to zone!!
Please Do ShadowBane Next!
I was ready for Starfield to suck and I was correct. Glad I didn't drop 80 (!) dollars on it
I've never experienced a sense of wonder in a game like I did in 1999 walking out of Felwithe for the first time into Greater Faydark. I'm not sure I ever will have an experience in a game like that again. There were very few first person 3D games at the time, then came EQ and it was a whole world with other people running around in it. Calling it revolutionary almost seems like an understatement.
This. This comment is EverQuest...at least classic EverQuest
falling off the wood elf city, is the core of everquest. no railings, no handholding, and punishing enough that you learn things very quickly.
There was a sense of danger, adrenaline, community, lore, wonder, music, vastness, real penalty, and even respect for basic armor, there was something very special about EQ. An experience I’ll never forget.
Lol I started as a wood elf druid and after falling off the city I made a human wizard lol :) at level 7 myself and a fellow wizard ran from freeport to qeynos and it took us 5 real days haha. No levitate, no port spells, no sow, no rez's :) great times !!!
mine was walking out of qeynos and being terrified in the dark, quickly finding my first fire beetle eye.
I remember my dad saying "let's go to the store" when I was 9. We raced to future shop in the middle of a snow storm so my dad could buy this new game his friend just got in to. I seriously spent so much time in the world of Norrath, even spent many hours partied with my dad grinding giants. I've went back, level up to 50 on the TLE servers and it honestly felt like a legit recreation of my childhood. Hanging out in parties with people for hours grinding mobs, dying, corpse runs...it was great.
every time I play the game, nostalgia hits me hard.
Corpse runs.... The last time I played, sadly, they were a thing of the past. But I certainly remember training zones and wiping unlucky travelers in the process to avoid a CR. Damn Spectres in Oasis were no joke
The best part of this video is that I didn't have to do any work for it. Thank you so much, Mitch!
Love both of your channels. Thanks for what you do!
@@SaltyFrosticles Thank you!
It's crazy to me that so many people remember and cherish EQ for it's unforgiving difficulty yet every single iteration since then is about dumbing down and speeding up.
Multifaceted issue, trolls weren't as common, the average American became abusive online, the average income HALVED over the last 30 years meaning people have to work twice as many hours to maintain the exact same quality of life as back then, making many people bitter or hateful to society
@@potato1919-j4e This is unfortunetly the correct answer. I attended my local anime-con for over ten years. Was a fun time with the boys, now it is an absolute cesspool of trans degeneracy. Its a shame I can not even engage with my community any longer. All the "nerd" groups pushed acceptance for so many years, when a threat showed up it was only a matter of time.
I played EQ Beta and then for 10-11 years after. When it went Free to Play I left, as did most of the guild I was in. Game just went to crap.
Best MMO ever, don't give me your WoW comments.... EQ was the hardest game I ever played.
@@potato1919-j4e this might be the most braindead comment I will read in my lifetime holy shit.
Yeah, its a strange dynamic where the difficulty of the game bred a really good community. But as the game grew and competition grew in the same market for MMOs, they just continued to add quality of life "improvements" to make the game easier for more people to play. Diminishing returns, the more qol additions, the more the community became transient
Just wanted to mention I played EQ on dialup when it first came out. It was painful but my love for the game was solidified. The best part was the community. I'm about to get back into the game and looking forward to making new friends. Thank you so much for the video! You are a wonderful content creator!
The best thing about EverQuest, is learning your role in a group, and getting into a group where _everyone_ knows their role and it's all clicking along optimally.
This is mot rewarding because you know that a swift, brutal, and total defeat would occur if your group doesn't operate effectively.
There was nothing quite like hearing that ding sound on level. I remember leveling to be so difficult that everyone would celebrate if someone got a ding during the grouping.
I was so glad Mitch included it. I didn't mention it to him at all and to see that he organically came to love the sound is so great.
I remember de-leveling because you received an XP penalty when you died and I had quite a few ding-jo-jos because of that
Indeed, the Ding Drinking Game could easily get your entire Party... de-pixelated. Good times!
Gratz!
WOOOT was such a celebration to type out!
This may honestly be the best Everquest video ever made on youtube. You've outdone yourself, Mitch. Well done.
You were great too😊
@@brindle21 you're so kind, thank you!
You were awesome too flynn, your knowledge and experience proved valuable, and your company clearly brought much fun and many laughs! 😂
🥰@@MissFirefly11
Red!
EQ will always be my all time favorite game. Those early days were exciting, game play and friend creation.
I played RuneScape lol
played EQ years ago when it first came out, when there was almost no guides, or no help, on a PVP server. one of the most hardcore games ive ever played.
If you had asked me - an EQ vet - for advice on how to make your first experience playing EQ as miserable as possible, I probably would have told you to make an Ogre warrior on a progression server and stay in Feerot alone for 8 levels before going to say hi to the guards in Freeport.
Thanks for not making your video limited to only that, and I'm glad you got a small taste of the game beyond those initial 8 levels.
I disagree he could have rolled Barb
@@xSoulShinigamix Even with a barb tho you have easy to find mobs out in front of the town gate that you can pull to the side, with ofc easy access to blackburrow and qeynos. The feerot's main issue if I remember right is that the mobs are so scattered and often you are fighting where other things might path.
(It's been a long while though, so I might be wrong lol)
WhenI first started, my DE Necro was stuck in Neriak for weeks because it took me forever to memorize the landmarks in the zone. I died so many times trying to level up enough to survive the trip to EC.. I finally made it, jus to run into Freeport guards and learn about factions, and my favorite term, KOS
Flynn is definitely right with how much time EQ takes away from you. My dad dedicated so much time into the game it's astounding, I remember at one point my dad had asked me to help him while he multiboxed during a raid. He was a part of the Ascentia guild, he was a cleric that went by the name Fethdor Faithhealer.
Cool name 😎
There's a reason we always called it EverCrack. :)
quality time with your dad! But the time sink was real.
When people ask me about EQ, I often arrive at the story when I was trying to get the quest pieces from Lord Grimrot for a cleric/paladin shield. I spent days getting my reputation up with Qeynos just to start the quest, then there was a spawn in a skeleton camp that had a 3 hour timer. It had three possible spawns, a generic skeleton place holder, a living version of Grimrot, and an undead version of Grimrot. You had to get the living man's heart, and I think the weapon from the undead. There was all sorts of theories on how to get the different versions to spawn, but in my experience, it was just random. I spent days doing nothing, camping that spot, just offering buffs to lower level people in the zone. Then one weekend, I spent 48 hours camping the site, at night, I'd have an alarm go off just before those 3 hours, and get some sleep between spawns. A guildmate would sit by me to make sure some random monster didn't come by and slowly kill me over that time. THIS was EQ, no clear, easy, path, long camps, and great friends who you've never actually met.
I really enjoyed the video. EQ was a big part of my life for many years. I was playing it a month of so after it came out and all of my friends were on the Test server. Oh the joy of a server coming down message when we were hours into a raid, but it was worth it for that Test Server community.
My dad started playing EQ the end of 99/early 2000, I watched him play for a couple months and begged to play, but I couldn't read yet, so he told me learn to read and type and I can play, so being 5 years old I quickly learned and started playing, played for a good few years and eventually moved on to World of Warcraft, I always say this game gave me a great ability to problem solve and has likely helped me out tremendously through life without even realizing it.
Early Everquest was amazing and there will never be another experience like it.
I cant honestly thank you enough for this. It was a game I played when I was 12 with my Grandma and Grandpa... After they passed I'd forgotten about it and why they liked it. So I'm going to pick it up again and suffer through as I did way back with them. To explore the lands of Norrath again For the memories I made with them. From Kelethin in Faydwer to Antonica onwards.
Keep making that glorious contant man. I enjoy it all.
You also got me back into Guild Wars 2 with that video.... lol..
come to oakwynd, the next expansion velious is released next friday and super fun to xp in .
theres a classic private server coming out next month that replicates through 2002. no subscription. quarm
@bodega87 I actually started on Oak cuasr I seen it was just starting nearly. X3 I got a small mage in GF though mainly waiting on Luclin want my Vah Shir bard back... wasn't the best but hey.. I was like 13/14 xD if you Wana play I'd be happy too. Am older so harder to mingle with younger peeps. Am more calm now xD
@@estebanembroglio6371 name?
I loved this video. I recently just stopped playing EQ again after around 5 consistent years of raiding and even reaching a number 1 ranking on magelo EQ wide! (like anybody cares) Its so good to see more content creators making EQ videos. ive been playing EQ on and off for 20 years, started when i was a kid and even got married because of EQ. I will forever love this game.
YOU care about the number 1 ranking, that's what matters.
o7 to the #1!
EverQuest has always been my favorite MMORPG ever, even to this day. It's the only online game that feels actually feels like a real world that is dangerous and challenging, with none of the handholding you see in all the modern games nowadays. Truly rewarding when you really put in the time, which sadly I don't have anymore lol.
Same here. Dark Age of Camelot as well. That was my first experience with pvp as a kid and it blew my mind with the big realm wars. Those 2 games never leave my daily thoughts.
Tell me you've never played Anarchy Online, without telling me you've never played Anarchy Online
@@velfaern1716 daoc was so good. the rvr is the best pvp ive ever played in any mmo. daoc pservers were great a few years back but now they are pretty dead too
It's still the best mmo to date.
@@MalentorI played AO at release on a computer that could barely handle it. That game was a mess on day 1.
My first MMO. All considered, still my most enjoyed MMO experience.
Lvl 56 Shaman when lvl 60 was the max level.
EQ is one of the MMOs I has given me some of my most memorable MMO experiences. I still vividly remember my wood elf bard creeping invisible into Lower Guk past red mobs that could insta-kill me just for the chance to loot a Mask of Deception to make me look like a Dark Elf, all just so I could run the Stein of Moggok questline and not get murdered in the ogre city. Dungeons were terrifying. Travelling from zone to zone was terrifying. But the game was massive and magical. But it was also harsh. I think they've done away with corpse runs which were the worst, but I remember downtime being super painful with your health and mana only regenerating at a snails pace (like 1HP every 10s), and it didn't scale with your HP pool so it only got worse! I don't know what QoL features they've added since then but you've made me tempted to retry it.
I went back last year... leveled my horde of alts that were ignored back when leveling was... hard. Quality of life as a returning player is massively improved. From gear to leveling speeds it doesnt take long to get caught up with the still sizable pops on most servers. Granted a lot of that pop is going to be like one person running 6 toons. I eventually got my new ranger into a raid guild and did some EQ raiding! They decked me out head to hairy foot, and then said, "naw yer just too new on that ranger, get lost kid". I still had fun, saw the raid content, and got super well geared in the process, without having to devout the next 6 years of my life to never missing a raid (always find the silver lining!~)
All in all, if you are feeling the nostalgia bug, go for it. Live servers are real easy to get caught up on, and they are full of people all to happy to help returning players. And ya never know, you, like me, might happen to log on and have a look at the exact same time one of yer best EQ pals from 1999 did as well (dumb luck there).
Well said. The amount of misery tied into hours of fun played out pretty good. Corpse camping.... Corpse runs or asking a necro to summon your corpse (from the hole maybe) made it a very social game.
I played on Rallos Zek. Never a blue server.
~Sir Baron Jobel Dubstar, Leader of The Curse.
Go with project 1999, a classic EQ server that has been running and populated since like 2011. Content includes only the original vanilla game, kunark and velious and stops there
Nothing was quite as bad in classic everquest as hitting that brand new level, getting all the new spells and skills for it, then dying and losing the level, sometimes even having gotten rid of your old equipment, and no longer having pants to help you level again.
Pantsless corpse runs are peak EQ
@@Redbeardflynn The way i played, every corpse run was pants-less, normally begging for SOW, and hopefully not after i found out that i had not bound myself at the local city.
Haha! I love it.@@krazer9515
Went link dead crossing a zone on the boat and forgot to put all my best gear in the bank. The GM refused to help after even a necro had no luck. Called him a a-hole and got parentally banned on the spot. Almost 2 years of endless grinding all gone in a second. Took out the CD. Got some lighter fluid a went to the backyard with the whole family in tow. They watched in horror as lit it on fire and put it out with a full-sized sledgehammer. Still play EQ a lot to this day and having a blast seeing all the new people...
@@socratesrising This is such a pinnacle EQ story. Amazing.
My buddy asked me to join him on this game called everquest : frontiers . That day i bought a ps2 slim . Drove too 4 gamestops and finally the gamestop that actually had the game was almost an hour away . That day changed my life cause i lived in everquest for 8 months . Thats how long it took to finally have a lv 60 magician n my buddys necromancer . Our pet gnome build made some great memories . Ty for makin such a great video
You mentioned "Revolutionary for it's time". Think about that. Released in 1999. They had thousands of players online at once. 99.9% of them on dial-up. All connecting to a cluster of servers. That unto itself was mind-blowing. Yes there were hic-ups. Yes there was lag. But to even pull that off at all, back then, was truly amazing.
I still prefer the original character models. Started playing EQ about a month or 2 after launch and its still 100% hands down the best over all gaming experience ive ever had. Ive played alot of the modern MMOs and EQ is just more....
I have so many fond memories of this game that i love to share when i come across anybody that ever tried this Masterpiece of a game.
Great video brother. Thank you for this.
Mitch, do you just sift through my childhood memories to pick games to review?? Amazing
Man I want a whole series like this.
What memories I have for this game! I tied up my family phone for years. Oh, the Soulfire Quest, to get an awesome Paladin Sword that wasn't really that good...massive raids with your whole guild...finding my first dungeon without knowing it was there, just stumbling upon a cave entrance the glowed blue...the horrors of Kithicor forest at night...wow. Eventually I switched over to City of Heroes, and then World of Warcraft, but as good as they were, it was never the same.
Love EQ. Played it for 23 years and counting. Met my future wife in the game and, some 17 years later, we still play together :)
that remember me a story about a bard named lohengrin who meet his wife in the game is i remember good.
I played endlessly from 99-2005. Its still nothing compared to those days lol. I remember so many nights of no sleep doing corpse runs just to not lose my stuff and working like a zombie all day.
They were the WORST! And gods how I miss them haha! Was so glad I had a good friend who was a bard, as well as knowing a few necros. But some CRs were just tragic. I fell down into a huge crevasse somewhere once (escapes me where) and my bard friend came but then we had to go get him some feathers and come back and ... yeah it was a riot. I am definitely going to check out a progression server I think.
I played EQ this year for 510 hours consecutively before I stopped. I absolutely loved it, as a player from 99-07 it was 100% for Nostalgia and it didn't disappoint. I had a new account and played on Firiona Vie, the community and activity was amazing, I had lots of groups leveling once I hit 30+ and continued all the way to 120, I highly recommend it to anyone who want's an authentic experience of what MMO's were :)
I played an Ogre Shadow Knight, it was a slow but fun grind!
I made a Human Monk from Qeynos is 1999. Don't ask me how long it took me to find the 2 Werewolves for my Werewolf Skin Cloak! Loved IT.
Loved this vid - I played Everquest from 2002-2006, then WOW but came back to EQ in 2008 and am still playing today.
Got to say choosing a Warrior to play solo on a Progression server was a ‘interesting’ choice but all the funnier for it - no spells, no abilities, playing a character that needs a team to work properly.
Just a very funny video
On a live server with a Merc you can charge through levels
EverQuest was the OG MMOPG - Every game since is played on easy mode.
Imagine loosing experience every time you died in WOW!!!
The noise of those birds in Feerrot gave me a massive nostalgia hit. As hardcore as it is, nothing since has been as memorable. Of all the MMO's I've played my go-to legend when talking to other players is the 18 hour corpse recovery my EQ guild had to undertake when we failed to "break" the Plane of Fear. It feels like my entire life has been on easy-mode ever since!
Yeah fear without a well geared and well played bard was, well, a *nightmare*
Lol I know this is old, but I can remember my guild failing at breaking into PoF. I played a necro at the time. I would stand rez a cleric and help him by pumping him mana. Then after about 10 people got rezed someone always went a little too far and a whole new pack would come. I'd just fd again and watch everyone die. Ahh good times lol
Absolutely brutal recoveries in Fear. The agro would bounce all over the zone and the agro radius was so dang big, mobs that shadowstep you into agro, or fear you into agro. I participated in a similar one on live and in era (you had no choice, 6 hours after you logged out your corpse would poof with all your gear on it). Absolutely brutal, and some of the best memories.
One thing that should be noted is that this game was the OG subscription-paying video game where the servers regularly crashed and the forums were regularly full to the gills with angry players who dropped out of school and/or work to play the game more. This was also, basically, a rehashed commercialized Dungeons & Dragons that punished players for making bad decisions, like selling old unique pieces of gear that would later become legendaries, or putting points into Pottery because you have no idea the kind of suffering you need to go through in order to master any tradeskill, let alone a tradeskill that only serves other tradeskills like Pottery, or being confused over the concept of auto attack as your only real attack skill.
Another thing that should be noted is that, unless an expansion changed the game, most of the time you're going to spend your LIFE camping in one spot. Camping in EQ is the same as spawn camping in WoW PvP - you and your group set up "camp" in an area where a rare mob will spawn, and you proceed to break the group up (more than one mob attacking will usually destroy the entire party), kill placeholders, and wait for HOURS before the rare mob spawns, and even then there's RNG over which item(s) get dropped. Most of the time, players have to juggle between joining a group for the purposes of making experience, and joining a group that farms rares for making profit; the former will get you to the level cap faster (so you can farm alternate advancement levels), but the latter will provide you with much-needed money and/or twink gear (like dropping lvl 50 gear on a lvl 1 alt and watching the levels FLY). Beyond grinding experience and loot/money, there's very little to do in EQ...you surely will never be doing any questing, roflmao.
I like that they kept the old graphics for the game's races - the old ogre avatar is the fatty, the new one is tall and muscular. It's a real shame they "updated" their character graphics; EQ had the BEST trolls in video game history: warts, big sharp noses, pointy ears, enormous guts, big feet, long gnarled arms, big hands. It made for the most hilarious Beastlord animations (plus BL's had gator pets, which inexplicably got smaller the higher level they got, which made for a hilarious mismatch of big, bloated troll soldier-marching around with a tiny caiman pet).
EQ was loads of fun and loads of grief. That whole concept of "running away" was made all the more bizarre when enemies wouldn't lose agro until you left the zone, creating "trains." Trains became so common that people would create elaborate text messages and spam them to warn players just entering the zone to quickly GTFO or die like a dog. Hell, clerics would regularly make a profit selling their resurrection services (90% exp return after death), and people would regularly line up, dragging one or more corpses along so they could make up for lost exp. Probably the best thing about EQ was how expansive it was, and the worst part of it was how there were ZERO instructions by the game developer, forcing players to support players and creating massive communities.
EQ was nuts, but it's since become a hollow commercialized husk of its former self. I'd like to think that its spiritual sequel is GW2, which has much of the same qualities that I found so good in EQ. GW2 also doesn't explain shit, but they're getting better. XD
I tried explaining trains to a friend who started their mmo experience with WoW. I remember Unrest being the worst in my progression (I think CT was similar, but I never leveled there) being that the yard trash was around level 10, and the basement was around level 30. But it was okay, as long as you shouted "train to zone" early enough for people to clear a path, or zone out. If you didn't have that macro made, or get your shout out early enough, man would you catch an earfull.
I love when people are flat out honest about EQ, I been playing since 1999 and I have had tons of friends try it who just couldn’t get into it because of the difficulty and time investment. It’s serious lol
My mom to this day still will say. "Are you sure you do not have to go get your corpse again" to my Dad who would always tell my mom this before bed. He cannot got to bed yet, he has to help me get my corpse back.
When I talk about difficult and grindy games, EQ rules. Camping a spawn for 60+ hours night and day to get a drop only to have a KSer steal it was a nightmare, but it was a nightmare that I will always remember. I don't remember anything of worth in WOW but I can tell you story after story of EQ heartbreak and triumph. EQ is by far the best there is for a game you will remember.
The difference between EQ and MOST (MMOs) is that in most MMO's is that you're the hero. You're the chosen one, you're the player the story and world revolve around. You and the thousands of others are all the hero. In EQ, you're not a hero, you're not the people's champion, the chosen one, the warrior of light, you're nothing, just some asshole. If you want to kill a dragon you need to gather up a bunch of other assholes and try and do it. The world is alive and you're just a regular dude in it. Nothing special. Its the feeling of being nothing special that I miss from other MMOs. I don't want to be the chosen one. I want to make my own story. Find my own way and carve out my own existence. I've played MMOs for 25 years and I can still tell you some of the great stories from my adventures in Everquest. I don't think I could say the same about any new MMO out there. Maybe some from early WoW, but that would be it.
MMO developers need to bring back the regular guy. Give the world life and let players life in it how they want.
EQ was mostly DikuMUD with 3D graphics.
WoW was mostly EQ with the hard parts taken out.
Excellent video! Yeah Everquest is hardcore. At least to original players it used to be lol a lot of QoL changes on live and tlp. Over at p99 Green and approved by Darkpaw games is an MMO emulator to simulate classic EQ as much as possible. Imagine everytime Bonka died you had to run to your Corpse and loot your gear off your dead body (if you remember where you died)
Having to run into dangerous areas to get your Corpse is hardcore. Imagine us original players dying before we got our corpse back, sometimes multiple deaths, each death losing XP. But the player base was so integrated that those extreme game play elements required us to interact with other players to get the Corpse back, or to get some XP back from rezzes. That's what people liked. The game was so hardcore it was designed to give you a better game play experience playing with other people. It still is but it was way more gruesome and challenging back then. I still play to this day. I got 12 more expansions to experience.
Made me remember how I made my first ally which lasted until the end of my EQ days, a necromancer that was lv50 at the time, who recovered my corpse for free which was in Lower Guk if I recall correctly. And my memory might be wrong but wasnt there also a brief period in which if you /consented someone to drag your corpse he could also loot it yet it barely happened....people were wholesome back then :p
@@Johnamekin Yeah it was that way for a Lil bit. But yeah back then when everyone dealt with the hardcore elements of the game people understood it and were respectful, it was way less toxic than a lot of things I read these days. Classic EQ was the most wholesome moment in the entire Era of MMO gaming from my experience.
@@Johnamekin Oh it wasn't brief lol, it stayed that way for ages! After some years though, they made it so you could grant consent permanently to people which did alleviate things some.
@@Johnamekin (thread necromancy) It wasn't consent to drag your corpse at the start, it was consent to loot it, there was no dragging at all at first. So, you'd have to either get back there yourself, or find a high level, and trust they'd bring everything back (which they usually did, because the community was awesome) Then they started allowing dragging to alleviate things getting stolen, but you could still loot. Then, eventually they took looting away completely.
games like EQ , Ultima Online , and City of Heroes seem absolutely legendary by modern standards just becuz they are built around worlds that need to be understandable/traverse-able without constant hand-holding ; so glad/grateful that we have so many awesome private servers running these masterpieces of MMORPG design
My buddy felt into "the hole" when we were arround lvl 10, dropping all his stuff down there. It took a whole day finding an experienced group to help him get his stuff back. Fabulous adventure
My first 3D MMORPG and I adored it.
Then came the wave of pop culture weekend warriors and with them the addition of dumbed down gameplay like teleporters "because it's unfair that only some classes can teleport, I wanna be able to do EVERYTHING with my character! 😩" until the mainstream floodgates opened with WoW.
The meaningful hardcore experience of EQ spoiled me for all other MMORPGs. Not even EQ2 managed to capture me that well. Now I can't do anything but wait for an MMORPG experience that feels similarly hardcore, deep, immersive and meaningful.
You can check your skills from your character inventory sheet. You can leave up the window to see when you've maxed a weapon skill and can switch weapons to train a new skill.
wow this was amazing :)
This channel is so damn underrated!
I always wanted to play everquest but couldn't get a pc back when it came out. This actually makes me want to give it a go after all these years!
EQ was my first MMO. I loved playing this game back in the day. The group experiences were just fun because it was mostly killing and then chatting with your party for a few while you waited for respawns. Something about that cycle just made the game more enjoyable. It was more of an experience.
You know, that's one of the things I loved about the game as well. People now don't understand this because in modern games you can't even take your hands off your fighting keys to talk during a group/raid/dungeon/what have you or you get left in the dust. In EQ you had to rest, for HP, for Mana, and that was when everyone sat and chatted (with someone always on the lookout for pats as well). Imagine that, talking to people. Wow, what a concept! I mained a pally and I was a great puller, so once everyone was ready, buffs were done, I'd go pull and we'd start all over again. You really needed to know your class AND other people's as well. And having downtime to talk about it and ask questions only helped you become a better player.
EQ has always put emphasis on the multiplayer in MMO. It's a crazy concept, I know.
The game encourages you to seek out others for all types of services. Travel, quests, leveling.
For better or worse other players help make the game and reputation WILL follow your character.
Can't you pay for a name change or server switch? Reputation mattered once upon a time. I am not sure it does now.
@@j.joseph5353 Oh yea, It doesn't matter anymore for many reasons.
Cross server LFG is another one. Other players are more kin to NPC party members than people now.
I was a Guide in EQ for 2 years. I miss the interactive events so much. Getting to play as monsters or make D&D style quests.
@@lordeggo Man, I remember on my server, one of the guides hated the fact that druids would kite treants (shouldn't druids and treants be buddies?) in SK, so he and a few others spawned themselves in as treants, and started fighting the druids. Word got around that an event was happening, and I went there. Most people were joining the druid's side, even though the guides were shouting things about how these druids are an affront to nature. I decided to roleplay being an elf, and joined the treants, as a cleric (and the only way I could, in a non pvp server) I continually healed the treants, and shouted along with them to stop these evil, misguided druids. I don't remember how it all unfolded in the end, but I remember the guide gave me a rubicite breastplate, this is after it was removed from whoever dropped it originally, and became a no drop item...So, it was kinda useless to me in game terms, but it was cool, cause I was able to wear a red breastplate that became my "fancy dress" armor whenever I sat around town, or selling, or whatever.
@@Gravy65 My Guide was a Bard on Bristlebane. I used to show up telling stories with some underline secret item knowledge in the story. It was more or less an egg hunt but they were my own thing and a lot of fun. Being able to re-invest my love for a game in that way felt great. To my knowledge I was the only guide allowed to carry a non-guide item which was a lute for RP purposes. I bugged the executive GM for like a month to let me have that lute =D
It was crazy by today's standards how much power they gave Guides in that game. We had the same client as the people who worked at SoE and were just told "Don't use XYZ without permission". The server really loved that there was a Bard GM which did bard things. Well worth the 'tech support' side. I miss it.
*😆The epic adventures of Bonka!*
0:36 reminds me of one of the funniest moments I had in gaming.
I was sitting in a safe spot in a gnoll dungeon to regenerate when some guy was yelling for help in the zone chat.
About 10 seconds later a big barbarian show up "running slowly" towards the zone exit because he was low on health, spamming jump for tiny extra boosts...
...followoed by a long train of tiny gnolls chasing after him.
That was such a hilarious scene, kind of like the meme of the kid chased by chickens.
Played quite a few of the TLP servers starting from Ragefire ;). I'd say that nowadays EQ1 is a very hardcore experience about getting server firsts and min-maxing raid sizes for more loot. When I was playing guilds would plant members to guard ground spawns 24/7 that were needed to get into zones. They'd pick up the ground spawn and destroy it to prevent other guilds from entering zones ;). People would also train each other to get popular camps. Very cutthroat. Very hardcore =P. I used to run parties for fun to do things like kill level 26 named mobs at level 7 or level 50 mobs at level 20 ;D. We tackled all of the hardest indoor zones in the game and did so as underleveled as possible =P. Even when people were losing exp per hour people stuck around just because it was fun to figure these zones out =). I also did a ton of no death runs on an ogre warrior as well as a naked run to level cap killing reds all the way up with 0 med breaks allowed and mass chain pulling on Enchanter ;D.
EQ1 to this day is still the MMO I love the most. I just can't play it anymore because eventually you memorize every spawn of every zone and then it isn't really fun anymore :(. Here's to more new challenges in Pantheon yay :D.
Everquest was the most social mmo I have ever played. To this day the downtime in between pulls and just talking and getting to know the people i'm grinding random trash mobs with has been a far more enjoyable experience than any player created social event since. I started playing EQ right before kunark came out and finally quit playing after six years of being on almost every day and even a vox raid then felt more epic than any raid in an mmo since. From negotiating with other PC's in the tunnel to just sitting at a bar working on alcohol tolerance with other players the memories are still things I discuss with my brothers to this day while other mmo's we typically only look back at "that one quest was fun".
"Farthammer"
Such a classic rpg name xD
As someone who played Everquest at its release in 1999 I have to say this video is simply amazing and yet just a small glimpse of the pain (and joy) that was EverQuest. It's unfortunate that new players today won't experience the joy of running for 4 hours across a continent with your butt hole clenched and your fingers crossed that you didn't die 3/4 of the way there. Did anyone notice the "Soulbinder" he went to when he arrived in EC (East Commonlands)?? Yeah...that's a luxury. Back in the day, you could only be bound within the limits of a major city (i.e. Freeport) and to do so you had to either have the spell yourself or find another player who could cast it on you. If you died before you could accomplish that, it was back to the start and lets just say you became intimately familiar with the route. New players will also never experience the joy of making a Bard, pulling every mob in the zone and running around in circles playing your Area Effect DoTs over and over and over again, gaining 5-10 levels per kite. Oh EverQuest, how I long for what we used to have
Project 1999
You didn't even mention the part where it was pitch black while running across a continent for some races. I remember being a Human in the Qeynos region as a newbie, and got in this group with some bard. After our group split, he convinced me to run to Freeport with him since he had super bard speed song. Running through places like Gorge and Kithicor in the darkness was absolutely terrifying. Good times. EQ definitely had some fear factor.
@@yahootube90 🕯😄
Quad kiting is a beautiful thing.
Wow this was a blast of nostalgia! I might have to take a couple night break from Starfield to reinstall EQ and reminisce.
EQ1 is the granddaddy of them all. I think I tried my hand at it back at the tail end of the Scars of Velious expansion. Shadows of Luclin came next. That is where you got the Nexus portals and a new planet/moon to explore. After Luclin came Planes of Power. That is when Druids were up in arms because they were no longer needed for taxi service.
Its a great game if you are patient. Not so much if you aren't. While the mana and HP are fun to use, you have to rest up after big fights. Losing hard to get XP from dying makes you have to think about tough fights and how you get XP. There were no mercs this early. You had to group up just to grind mobs at a pulling spot. It was more efficient as you got a full group XP bonus vs soloing.
Another great thing about the game is classes got exclusive abilities other classes can't get. Like necromancers with the Locate Corpse ability. Without a necro in the group, its a long walk to your corpse if you don't know where you died. Without an Enchanter in the group you don't get the best mana regen. In warcraft everyone gets the same spells, they just rename them so nobody is really exclusive except for minor duties like a summoning portal.
Crafting. Crafting is deep and the items actually matter when you get high enough. Gear. Instead of everyone going for the same item, you could end up with any of many useful weapons and items. You could have another run with a new character and not get the same gear.
Characters. Really it is about EQs complete list of classes. Including the bard. Casters aren't just cookie cutter either. Wizard for raw nuke power. Magicians a bit lighter on that, but they get a pet. Enchanters are weak on the DPS, but they can charm equal level mobs to fight for them as a disposable off tank. Necromancer. Instead of Wow's Shadowpriest or warlock, I like that EQ has the Necromancer which covers both classes. A true Lich when leveled. EQ has a Shadowknight, the counterpart of a Paladin. Paladins get Lay on hands for a big heal once in a while, Shadowknights get Harm touch which is a massive touch nuke. Wow has a Death Knight, which is kind of a Shadowknight, but not quite. EQ has separate Ranger and beastlord classes vs Wow's all in one hunter class. Beastlord focuses on the critters, Ranger focuses on the shooting.
There are some WTFs. Like if you have a levitate spell on and you are a few football fields above ground. Mobs can still punch you from the ground. Spells wear off at the most inopportune times.
"So you want us to beat an MMO?"
"Essentially."
"F*** you!"
"Woah getting a lot of hostility here. Don’t appreciate it."
"Well, honestly, when was the last time you heard of someone beating Everquest?"
"When was the last time you heard of someone PLAYING Everquest?"
EQ1 changed my gaming life. Basho, 54 Warrior Champion of Sarin and raid master of the Hooded Nomads. That took me over a year of nightly play and a full guild behind me.
Everquest was my first MMORPG and as I am an alt-aholic, I never really got to end game but enjoyed every moment. But you get a sub just because of the narrative and a memory that was once buried deep inside of my ogre, you have managed to spark that back, thank you.
I didn't even have to consider pressing that Subscribe button. Hit me right in my nostalgia.
I have so many existing friends from playing this game. The outstanding community. Watching people de-level during raids due to deaths. Hell levels.
This brings it all back :D Great job!
You'll love Mitch's channel. He's incredible.
Imagine trying to explain hell levels to people in the modern games 😆
I have tried before, the blank looks. Corpse dragging being a skill also confused a lot of people :D
After watching this video I most certainly can say without a shadow of a doubt that I do not want to play EQ1. Holy crap. And I thought my start with FFXI in 2004 was tedious.
That brings back so many memories, todays gamers would not be ready for EQ1, it's just too hardcore. I remember doing 8+ hour raids only to fail and then to spend hours doing corpse runs. I remember my guild's first run at Quarm, the final boss of Plane of Time, we were so happy we beat it at the first run, but the journey to get there was long and hard. I have hopes for Pantheon to be the new EQ1
Long live EQ! I genuinely and unequivocally love the game, I met my first online friends in EQ who I have stayed friends with even into other games through the years, and met my hubby in EQ as well, 20 years ago. I haven't played for a while, but this video definitely hits my heartstrings, no other games have come close to the feelings, friendships & memories EQ has given me.
I feel this, I still have friends from EQ even though I've not played in a long time that I talk to when I can. EQ got me into gaming as more than just a side hobby, but showed me how great communities of people with similar interest can truly be. =)
@@tirendir It's always been something I wish other games had, a helpful, team spirit kind of community. Closest I've found is GW2, but it's not quite the same "we're all part of this" vibe.
I love EQ and have many very fond memories. I started playing in 1999 with my brother, we were separated by an ocean but still getting to hang out was awesome. He played a Chanter, I played a d0rf cleric then I mained a dark elf necro.
Really enjoyed this overview of the current state of Everquest, was a fun trip through nostalgia too!
Everquest is the best game I've ever played.
How it's not been recreated is actually mind-boggling to me.
Best game I ever played. Will never forget the friends and experiences from original - and so glad I got to re-live it again on P99 years later.
I've had enough of Everquest for myself for the timebeing. But will always say, it's the absolute BEST mmorpg to have ever been made. Still to this day.
I remember entering the world for the first time back in the early 2000's and feeling a mix of intimidation and awe. It had me excited for the future of video games.
Was truly an incredible time.
Who would have guessed back then that the genre would practically be dead in 20 years. Kind of sad to think about.
At one point in my life i had 5 everquest accounts. Dating back all the was to day one the servers opened. Fast forward to today, i could not even re-activate any one of those 5 accounts because i have no idea of my usernames, passwords or the email addressed I had 20+ years ago.
I don't really comment much but just want to say that I'm really loving the content and always look forward to you're next upload! Always top notch entertainment from you and I look forward to seeing you're channel grow, so close to 100k now!!! Congrats on everything bro you deserve it truly, content speaks for itself
Cheers mate. Appreciate that.
I had a friend that was one of those players that got to help out during GM events, My brother was a player chosen to help open Luclin, and earned a unique title no one else on the server could get. I have a LvL 60 druid, but quite playing years ago.
So, this is the first video of yours I've ever seen. This is also the first piece of Everquest content I've ever seen. The takeaway I got from this was the phrase "God bless you, Farthammer". I've been saying it off and on for a solid 20 minutes now in your accent and cracking up each and every time 🤣Fantastic content!
Ahh the old days of casting Fear on a mob in a dungeon and then regretting it shortly afterwards when it came back with half the dungeon.
In the early part of the video, "human" you referenced, was a barbarian, not a human. The "mage" you referenced, sporting the forehead was an Erudite; it doesn't matter what class you pick they still look like that. Also: F8 targets the mob right in front of you, making it easier to target things. F9 also changes the camera, in case you want 1st person or some other far out camera angle.
I was there in the beginning, 1999 I was in there. I don't play anymore but man what an experience it was.
I was addicted to this for years when it came out.
i have such nostalgia for this game, was super hardcore back then, getting server firsts with my guild and blazing that trail. Would love to play again, but can't really afford the time anymore =(
Oh man seeing those clips of my old guild in TSS on Phinigel. Those were good times. I miss that crew.
Icon the Bard
Sir Baron Jobel Dubstar, from Rallos Zek, Leader of The Curse, checking in.
Good game guys! Miss y'all badasses.
Was in House In'Visus here, good times
About 6 or 7 years ago I decided to take the plunge into EQ live,I had played off and on for years but only casually. After 13 months of Leveling, Raiding, Questing, and Progression Grinding I became one of the top Beastlords in the game. It's the only MMORPG that properly rewards you for your time and effort, that being said it took me 13 months with LOTS of help from Raid Geared players to completely max out. Eventually life got busy and I had to quit but I did enjoy my time in EQ.
I love it! I miss playing EQ. My first MMO ever was EQOA on ps2. It changed my life and I miss it. Nothing competes.
What a great video. This brings back memories from a time long ago.
Every once in a while I get nostalgic about the difficult and unforgiving world of Norrath. I absolutely LOVED that you had pure support characters like enchanters and bards. I also love that corpse retrieval was actually something you could do as a rogue or necromancer for difficult dungeons. I have fond memories of camping the ancient cyclops all night long with my roommate to get us some Jboots. Also sneaking down into Lower Guk to get my little brother's bard the mask that would grand a dark elf illusion.
Then I remember trying to get my corpse out of Unrest solo, and losing some levels. That was not fun. Also farming lizardmen to get parts for my SK's Darkforge armor. I did finish the set, but not sure it was worth it in the end. It looked amazing though.
As much as I sometimes look back fondly on the glory days of EQ I know that for me it will never come again. I have similar feelings about early raiding in WoW. EverQuest was my first MMO though, and I still think about it once in a while. It was so ridiculously unforgiving that any success gave you a great sense of accomplishment.
The content and the narration, I couldn't turn away. I laughed and cried all at the same time. This is truly the best EQ video and to top it all off, you featured redbeardflynn. Rallos Zek is grunting down upon you this day.
I was honored to be a small part of such a great video.
Great, now I want to play EQ again…. I will never escape
I love this! I played everquest back in 2000 till EQ2 came out. So many great memories. It was all about that leveling journey. It was over a year maybe 2 before i had my first max level character, but it was so much fun. I never did complete my Epic tho =(
Your videos are some of my favorite on youtube! Glad to see you back!
Mitch is absolutely fantastic.
From what I remember, I don’t think I ever had a character level past 20. I’m talking the dialup internet days. But even today I still think of the experience fondly and actively search out content for it from time to time.
This was Dark soul of MMO back in the days before all the hand holding quests. Those mob trains would kill off even high level characters spend sometimes a good hour or two trying to recover your body.
Having played from launch for a solid 10 years or so appreciate this video greatly. EQ was the best gaming times I've ever had, and I don't think I'll ever top them. The people I met were honestly true friends even if only online. The game forced you to interact with your group and more so in raids. Spending an hour prepping for a raid wasn't uncommon. Spending multiple hours getting corpses back after the raid was just as common. It was amazing.
Lakeland Seasky (Cleric long since retired)
Mith Mar server
Sabertooh Bear Clan
Friend of Illuminati
Huzzah!
God, the memories! I must have played off and on for 12 years, 2 accounts, 13 or more expansions for both, I think I sunk close to 8 grand into this game. No other game has ever captured my attention like EQ.
6:34 I nearly choked to death laughing at this! 10/10
I played on a Red Server. I was a Bard and I used to do a ton of PVP in this game. Cheap gear, little armor, and I regularly got warned for training people. I defeated a Druid and a Monk at the same time when they jumped me and I was able to kite the monk while spinning songs until I had burned down the druid. Then I turned on the monk and absolutely demolished him. I remember them talking mad trash. I also trained the ability to speak "Gnoll" and would almost singularly speak Gnoll in text chat. I somehow learned it while fighting near Blackburrow and ended up loving it. My RP was that I was a bard that had been kidnapped and raised by gnolls and my only reason for being alive was that I had learned to entertain the beasts and they kept me around as a joke.
Your narrative is adorably hilarious!
I hope you're having fun even with the challenges and hurdles.
I played in the aughts and then was absent for several years only to return a few years ago. I play on both my old Live server and I played on Oakwynd for a few months to go back to the early game.
For the Live servers, you can get purchase the ability to skip levels into the more recent eras of the game with a boost to 85 or 100 (current max level is 120) to to able to group with those who are in the higher levels. But there are some servers, Live as well as TLP, that do have players in the lower levels, just not as many as the high. It is insanely faster to level on a Live server vs TLP even playing solo. But, the game is absolutely better when grouping.
EQ at the time of release was known to be MMORPG for casuals due to the lenient death system compared to the competition (where absolutely everything would drop on your corpse for anybody to loot who wanted it.)
Interesting how by today's standards, it's hardcore. Good video! Nostalgic.
It was a PvE game, not a PvP game. The environment was the true enemy, trying to kill you at every turn.
@@EQ_EnchantX that's true, and in hindsight, those older games, such as Ultimate, have gear that is easy to lose but also easy to get. You can build a pure craftsman who can fit your warriors with weapons and armor that are only a little worse than the best magic weapons, so having everything drop to your corpse doesn't erase 40 hours of gear grinding.
Completely different styles of games.
I remember sitting at a friend's house, he was showing me the beta (maybe even alpha) of Ultima Online, and we just happened to walk in on the aftermath of a huge pvp battle, and started looting all the corpses. One guy had a red sword that did fire, he caught us looting it, and chased us around telling us to give it back. I don't remember what we did, but I remember how rude it felt. I never got UO, cause I didn't have personal internet yet, and couldn't tie up the phones for a game, so I can't really speak more on it....but I did have my own phone line/service by the time EQ came out, and death during hell levels is the worst thing I've experienced in any game ever. (worse than having to level back up to get my corpse out of Fear, when I went in right after leveling to whatever level that was that unlocked it)
July 2000 was when I made my first toon, a halfling druid. Battling those first rats and snakes while running past all the corpses of my fellow adventurers is a memory I'll hold forever. Even the sound effects can still instantly trigger feelings of nostalgia.
Very cool, thanks! EQ was my first and that brought back a lot of memories
It actually went live testing in November of 98. Me and half my family played it on launch and into live release.
I met my (now) wife in this game. I got this when i was a freshman in high school, and it took me a long time before i had a computer that ran it.
I got hooked fairly quickly when i finally could, but i kept server hopping until i landed on the Veshan server. Met some cool people, fell in love with the Shadow Knight class, and finally had a reason to stay on.
Met my wife when i wasn't even max level yet. She was max level and i met her through my brother, and 7 years later, we met irl and got married.
I will never forget EQ - this game will always be an amazing part of my high-school and early adult life!
Even though I do not play anymore, EQ reigns supreme. I got tired of rehashing old content and quit just prior of going back to the Luclin expansion 2 or 3 years ago, but will always love EQ. Who knows, may be back someday
back in the day, my father would play a druid and I would play a necro. We also use to play on zek and we never ran into groups that could beat us. He and I dueled once to see who would win and I won because of my pet, without it though, he easily won. It was nice being able to kill people and take something from them.
Rallos Zek?