man, kunark and velious have a charm for me that cannot be replaced by any game. that shot of field of bone at 5:28 just hits all the notes. thanks for putting this together: I'm loving your vids.
Yep, this is your typical accepted take. Anyone who even mentions Luclin or PoP/ykesha is immediately flamed and made fun of. The trashiest thing about this community tbh. Velious is okay, but luclin in my opinion is when the game actually starts. Traveling to the moon, fighting those big ice rhinos wherever that was.. I miss it. 9 year old me thought luclin was just fine.
Still can't get over the fact they didn't make Kunark goblins a playable race, the models looked so badass, I always wanted to be a goblin necro with an iksar skelly pet lol
The problem with Kunark is that it is an expansion with new starting zones and low to midlevel dungeons. For like 95% of the playerbase this didn't matter at the time. They came Kunark as level 50s and just went from Karnor's Castle to Sebilis. So it was basically a 2 dungeon expansion for them with one big dragon, Trakanon. That's why Velious was so much better. Everyone came to Velious at max level and the expansion was content for everyone.
Great video. My alltime favorite zone in Everquest is Chardok. It felt like, you had to have skill to go there(and stay alive) - As you said OS, is VERY cool. However you are just safe, running around, as everything is dead from pulls. The loot in Chardok, is also top dollar. Especially because they are quite rare, opposite OS loot. As the nameds just werent killed that often.
Glaring omission not mentioning and rating Charassis ( Howling Stones ). By far my most favorite zone in the expansion, and one I think the vast majority never experienced ... definitely an underrated gem.
I agree, I wish I could've covered it but I know so little about it. I've only ever ran through it on a GM server. Would've felt artificial if I tried to give my take on it.
Agreed, by the time I experienced it the zone was no longer a challenge... Also never got to experience classic Veeshan's Peak, only the revamp... Wish I had
I love hs, it's one of my first goals to get keyed and get in there. I've spent soooo many hours in every wing of that place. The mobs hit like a truck but have very low hp. 10/10 for me
After watching some interviews with the original Devs it's hilarious how good it was with how it was totally shot from the hip. Kunark's biggest issue was itemization. The zone teams didnt talk to each other so loot is totally skewed. Some very tough dungeons with very little reward compared to Karnors and Sebilis. During live I knew plenty of good level 60s and mid-levels players who wouldn't touch Howling stones, Dalnirs, Droga, and Kaesora. Iksars also got an easy path 1-20 with FoB and Kurns. Which by Luclin was replaced with Paludal. The lack of low-level challenge really started to ruin the beginner experience for EQ. When p1999 green launched 1-10 took practically a week. With Kunark you could do it in less than a day untwinked. Kunark was good but flawed. It successfully spread the population out so 1,000 players on a server didn't feel too cramped - however, nothing beats the original game 1-50.
The outdoor zones in general were a mixed bag for me. On one hand, it was cool how they started switching up the design of zones. No longer was every zone a rectangle with those little snakey valleys connecting them to adjacent zones. And all the stuff covered in the video was spot on: interesting architecture (contrast with "yet another 3 tent camp of bandits" from the old world), elaborate sub-areas within zones, etc. On the other, navigation was really rough in the era before in-game maps. There were connections to other zones that were super easy to miss because the zone line was at the top of a hill that blended in with the zone wall, or a tunnel opening that connected two zones was the size of a postage stamp. It was also really annoying to get around because so much random hostile trash could see through invis, even in more mid-level zones like FV and FM. I don't think players avoided Chardok because it was out of the way, but rather because nobody wanted to run through Burning Woods with all its roaming mobs hidden behind the zone's dense foliage aggroing on you. I thought another notable thing about Kunark was how it experimented with loot locations. Instead of cool stuff only dropping from named mobs that appeared in exactly one place, there were a couple places where phat lewt would drop from a more common mob that had multiple spawn points throughout the zone. That one monk staff in KC immediately springs to mind.
I ended up playing Iksar as my main, rerolled to Iksar shadow knight when Kunark released. I liked the evil/kos to everyone idea. Made coming home to cabilis cool. I intentionally played risky though and remember in 20s traveling to antonica and looking for someone to bind me there after surviving the journey, far enough away from city guards to not get into a death loop. But leading up to that Field of bone, kurns, lake of ill omen and warsilk woods were my main areas (all great). Also loved the dungeon in warsilks, can't remember name. It wasn't until 40s I think that I traveled back to Kunark and Karnor's was amazing and where I leveled to 50 or so. Then spent rest of time in Kunark after that: Sebilis, city of mist, emerald jungle, overthere, and once I got 60 went and experienced zones I missed like droga/nurga, kaesora, and some other places like the underwater dungeon in lake of ill omen. Going back and camping items in lower dungeons solo was fun, and still very challenging even though I out leveled things by 10-20
@@SageFreke1 You're right! I dunno about others but I liked that dungeon. I feel most people thought it was too hard (also kinda hidden), and this kinda goes for a lot of EQ dungeons at level they were intended, at least in Kunark era, so they camped the start and never had enough guts to venture deep in. There were so many dungeons I revisited solo just to see deeper in once I got higher level. I enjoyed going back to camp things at higher level. And as OGs know, even lower level dungeons could be a challenge to higher level players if they git too reckless
Great video, love the content, would love to see more like this! I'm also on p99 Green and diggin the game again after returning after 20 years, since the old days ;)
really excellent. I liked the sections on Iksar, Music, Trakanon, Epics, City of Mist. Never knew that City of Mist has a second level. Glad you went into music being a big part of the original, it was lacking in some of the later expansions. You are one of the few people still making in depth content on EQ. Love it!
Chardok needed a epic quest just for the zone. KC as well. Not like epic weapon in terms of grind, but a simple series of quests and a final helmit or something
Haha you were shouting your love for KC from the rooftops, and I agree! Don't agree with your stance on iksars though, that could be because i only played as iksars lol.
my favorite zone is CoM. I love that it doesnt have a greyish color like a lot of other dungeons. I love that you have room to run around in the courtyard, arena, and moat. The hole in the middle of the courtyard also is a big thing for me. If you have levitate you can run over it and escape whatever is chasing you. The 2 tiny paths next to the entrance and how you can float accross them allows for some cool plays. The most overrated part about it is the moat. There's not much there. You can get way better xp in the arena, temple, and stables.
Kunark zone designs were great, it's the best expansion, but every expansion hurt the core game in some way, because of problematic itemization and game mechanics, and continually increasing emphasis on static content and dumbed down gameplay and time sinks, instead of the wild adventure and roleplaying that was supposed to define Everquest.
So many memories of KC. Agree with the list overall. I will say this, you say rangers got kinda screwed on their disciplines, as a Ranger main back then, and then through GoD before quitting, Weapon shield (auto parry) was using for pulling raid bosses for so long through expacs. I WS pulled Rallos Zek for so long. Add in True Shot was some of the best burst dps in the game, beating out Rogues. I did a TLP, and in NTOV, the rangers always topped the dps charts.
Good discussion. It was the best follow up. EQ was lacking a variety of evil races to play as. classic is more good high fantasy. That whole expansion covered their needs and more. It was a necessary expansion and ups the risks to the MAX. Kunark was a very scary content. It's like playing classic EQ on hard mode.
Fun thing about Cabilis, I'm damn near positive that it was originally one zone but had to be cut in half. The maze behind the necro merchants lines up pretty perfectly with the warrior guild where there is a blocked off ramp leading down to it. There are also some remnants in both zones of the others geometry hanging around. I'm pretty convinced that his happened with a lot of zones. Droga and Nurga included. It was just a limitation at the time, so I don't think marking them down for it is fair. Edit: "Who wants to stay oin kunark for all 60 levels".... I've been playing Kunark only characters for like 3 years now. best continent. 75 is the base ZEM, anything above that is bonus.
People didn't do the lower Kurns because *1* kill gave you KOS faction with the badgers, and it COULD NOT be recovered. The upper floors were used a lot in both P99 and Live, but it only takes 1-2 people to full camp them.
One of the biggest regrets I have is not getting into EQ around when it came out; I remember like late 99/early 2000 some Warhmmer friends were talking about it, and I even bought it but my parents refused to pay a monthly sub for a videogame and they made me return it. I wouldn't start MMORPGs until many years later during Wrath of the Lich King, and I've regretted it ever since. I've tried constantly to get into EQ, whether on P99 or a TLP or even Live, and just can't do it :(
Just found this video and loved it! I was like 12 years old when everquest came out and really terrible at the game, but I loved it still! Though being that young and bad meant I didn't see most of end game content at all, so hearing about it has been fun, like I'm learning something totally new from the game I played 20 years ago. If I could make one suggestion or request if you do more of these videos, please voice over what the next topic is you're talking about rather than just flashing it up on screen. I was listening to this while walking the dog with headphones and my phone in my pocket, so I wasn't really seeing the title of the next topic unless I pulled my phone out to look. It's a little thing but just thought I'd mention it.
Back in the day i remember living in the dreadlands and then moving into KC. For months I grouped there. Hours and hours trying to get leveled up enough to go elsewhere. It took forever, but these zones were always packed with groups. You could get better XP elsewhere in Kunark. None of those zones matched the vibe of DL or KC. I was rocking a wurmslayer for a solid 15 levels back then as a Ranger. No other dropable weapons had that much dmg for a one-handed weapon.
Getting Trak to chase you for B roll was a really nice touch. Good vid. I'm super hyped for the next TLP... to the point of buying a new cheapo laptop to truebox 4 chars and OD on my fav game.
Seeing all those Iksar folk sitting about grouping together filled me with a beautiful dream, of AI, provided it doesn't destroy the fucking world, actually enriches the world of gaming. NPCs with actual AI personalities, wandering around getting into adventures, and you can team up with them and hang out. Like the AI in Blade Runner, only the scope of their existence is living in the game world, and they're totally content with it, because they're not full self-aware. All they conversations are rooted in the lore and being the characters they're supposed to be. I guess it's unlikely to happen, but I think people thought something like ChatGPT was unlikely to happen. It's a dream.
Loved the video! Definitely brought back many memories of what I loved in classic EQ, and especially during the Kunark era. On live, Dreadlands, KC, and Old Seb were THE places to be, and the zones were always heavily populated and fun. Even during Velious, these zones were still hugely popular. To me, Kunark was definitely the best expansion, and the peak of classic EQ.
Had a fungi and a Manastone... Power leveling was a cake walk for most classes. And main pally was a master fletcher, so all my low levels had crazy bows and jacked up arrows. Twinks were fun to play low level on a pvp server. Sir Baron Jobel Dubstar of Rallos Zek Leader of The Curse. P.S. pked the Manastone after it no longer dropped, off a cleric holding it in PoP back when disarm put the item on your cursor. Blind, root, spam disarm until it landed then kill. That got nerfed.
I was always behind in levels for new expansions but I remember the new locations being cool but I also remember stuff like the vellum weapons going from some of the best to obsolete very quickly.
32k hp was a technical limitation because people were still using dial-up during this period. Broadband was coming up rapidly but not every small town had a provider immediately like cities.
Great video, but I must strongly disagree that Iksars are overrated. My favorite thing in the game was to create an Iksar monk and get a port to Faydark and bind there. Then kill enough orcs to gain faction in Kelethin. Then on to the Warrens and kill kobalds until amiable in Paineel. Yes, it was a pain to return to Cabilis for training, but I after I got there I just put everything in the bank and death teleported back. The combination of Iksar regen + fungi is unbeatable. Did the same with a warrior and was actually able to train in Kelethin.
It's so weird to me how you guys started out with 3 continents yet in EQOA we started off with just Tunaria... 9 months later though they cranked out our ONE and ONLY expansion Frontiers, which gave us Odus, and finished Tunaria up by finally opening Oggok and the Rathe mountains area/Lavastorm. They also added in plane of disease, sky and war. They had planned to give us Underfoot ahead of you guys in 04 but cancelled it when it was very near completion, then they just flipped us over to maintenance mode for 8 years and funneled to $15 sub fee we kept paying into EQII, EQIII/Next and we all know what came of those turds. I just get salty at how crappy they treated us from a management level. The devs were all really sweet to us and tried to get our game ported over to PS3 but the suits would have none of it. We're trying to recreate our server now, it's in a WiP and can be viewed on my channel. Both EQ1 and EQOA were rather similar. EQII... an abomination lol.
Sorry for another comment. You just got me thinking lol EverQuest: The Shadows of Luclin tbh might be the most underrated. Planes of power might be the overrated. Luclin felt like a field trip lol. A lot of ppl skipped over all that rich dinosaur, alien, cat lore once POP came out. Luclin really took you to another planet.
Lol I'll take allll the comments! I actually totally agree. I think the lore of the Akhevans and Shissar is underrated, and Ssra Temple is underrated as a raid zone. PoP kinda ruined some of the mystique of the gods for me (check out level 10 of my walkthrough video where I deep dive Bertox). But these are unpopular opinions!
When Kunark came out, I was hiding out in permafrost farming various items there, and a friend told me to get my butt to Karnor's castle. "The singing steel is flowing like water dude!". It was not... lol
VP originally was very different in how it was done... You had to fight your way through the zone then, especially without quick things respawned. The lore there is amazing... Seeing Veeshan marking Norrath in the painting room. :) I think a lot of your perception of it isn't how it originally was done and designed.
@@SageFreke1 I totally agree with what Sage said about Veeshan's Peak. Back on live, during the Velious era, our guild wanted everyone to get their VP keys so that we could raid there with less competition, since the key questing was a big enough barrier to entry. Not only was it a huge pain in the ass to have enough folks get their keys, we ended up almost never going there for the following reasons: 1) The loot at that point kind of sucked compared to Velious gear, which was more easily accessible with much less barriers. I'm not even talking about Sleeper's Tomb or NToV gear. Vindi, Velketor, west ToV, or Velious quest armor were all very doable with just gathering up enough folks. Of course, VP gear would be the "best" gear during the Kunark era, but considering the zone design and headaches didn't change during Velious, this made VP quickly a dead zone. 2) Most of the loot was not worth the risk and coordination. I think the developers went a little overboard with trying to make this an exclusively hardcore zone during Kunark, and ended up from discouraging almost everyone from wanting to go there. I do remember the coordination of having to camp out together and to make sure to all jump back in at the same time the next day, with it being at least a two day event. And with all the clearing? Not fun, and definitely not worth it. 3) Not being able to port out. Once again, I see what they were trying to do here for the hardcore player base, but what the hell? I recall a time when my friend was playing on my account, and just camped out in VP without me knowing wtf was going on or the raiding schedule in general. Mortified of being potentially stuck there with no rescue (since the zone is never cleared from the rapid trash mob respawn and no ports) - I logged in to luckily find that he had to wisdom to camp me near one of the port out locations. I got the hell out of there immediately. Sorry for the long rant, but I easily see why they never duplicated this type of zone ever again in classic!
Good video! Honestly I never really got into Kunark much. Played an iksar in live for a little bit in FoB and maybe visited the continent a bit here and there but I probably spent most of its cycle in the old world zones. Just feels like everything is drab stone or ferocious jungle. You have footage of both Kurns and Karnors on the video, but aesthetically...what was the difference? Sorry to say but it was my least favorite expansion but I do hope to eventually see Sebilis and VP. I'm also not really a fan of iksar, mostly because they totally dominate the necromancer class. Makes me feel bad for wanting to be a human or a dark elf, knowing how inferior I would be compared to a stinky lizard. Just my thoughts on Kunark. Overall though this was a well put together video. :)
@@SageFreke1 Right? Human Bertoxxulous necros have probably straight up the most badass evil lair in the game, so it'd be understandable that someone would want to get into that RP. But Iksar blatantly outshine them in every way, one is left to feel bad about the choice throughout their career. It's to the point where I can't really even bring myself to play a necro anymore. At least as a wizard I'm not gimped by picking the race I want to pick. xD
65 ranger before I ventured off, trueshot was a hell of a disc, it just didn't show it's prime until they made better bows and arrows, we would have raid grounds of just rangers dps competing with groups of wizards for funsies
I agree with you 100% about KC. I never understood why it gets so much hate. I'd say the only downside is the negative faction hit for evil players. It's in a great spot, accessible to many, and the camps are easy to get to. It's just all around great. There's a reason why it is so populated.
couple of comments for the video: 1. Overthere is one of the best zones in the expansion, especially during launch. The City didn't have much going on, that is true you are in the land of the iskars; however overthere had a lot of great things going for it as a zone. There was a large diversity in the monster base, here we see the cockatrice dropping platinum coin for the group to split. Fear kiting was super friendly to your dark elves and there were many spots to group. Want to be safe as a good race? Well don't park your butt next to the zone line or a goon will get ya. having the opening in the middle was another eq kind of feeling thing that hey you best pay attention or death and a hard CR will await. Overthere is simply one of the best zones in the game also I seem to remember quad kiting. 2. KC sucks. Bad design and anyone who played classic wouldn't be in the CY without an enchanter and a barrel of whoop arse (in the form of a cleric who could rez or higher level friends at the entrance). They mucked up the exp bonus in the zone as well. IT wasn't fun unless you had the HAND or Warlord camp (which I think you end up combining if no bards going after epics). Outside of VS the loot sucked vs the train difficulty. You couldn't do moat groups because trains would agro no matter where you stood. It was an alternate to Seb when seb was full but it was like pulling teeth if you couldn't be at the second floor to get people to join. 3. COM is the best leveling zone in all of Kunark, maybe the game?. The reason is they made the mob glass cannons. If you had an SK or Pally you were in for some really fast leveling, taking down reds with a melee group was super easy due to the reduced hitpoints. COM is still an active zone today, mainly because of the hit point reduction. Super easy to kill the pulls are maybe 2-3 per pull and after breaking in 1 on one with no risk of multi pulls. 4. Necro epics have been adding to dots I think since day 1, might need a spot check there. the SK's were good for soloing. 5. Chardok is a good zone for raiding and was always interesting to me as a necro. The reason you don't go there is the ring quest which relies on having max faction there. I only ever did it on progression servers so I don't know if it was in live, however, I did have to go in here during classic era to get my necro epic and it was one of more thrilling nights I had (killing herbalists). My guild at the time refused to help so I got to do it solo (very doable). 6 VP was fun but the key sucked, and honestly the raid aged like the Plane of Fear aged. It was a similar concept you enter a raid zone you can't leave without completing. In PoF if you messed up break in it was going to be a long night, hopefully, your backup gear worked to get beyond break-in. THis was the start of gear not being great outside of the kunark expansion (if you were a raider). even looking past kunark a lot of stuff wasn't worth wearing, in velious. For example, necros always had the phase spider carcass thing that was decent and had better AC than some raid gear, the tunics got nerfed but for Shamans were baller. Dwarf gear wasn't great in velious but Giant stuff started upgrading anything you got and the raids, and the giant city was dropping good gear (Not talking AOW, think vindi). I feel like one of the points you made about gear being good was only true if you didn't raid and part of that might be because it was hard to get the dragon stuff from velious (and velious was the split of the original designers). By Luclin almost all of the kunark gear was crap: They mucked up a lot of quest gear in the luclin launched (then started nerfing it but by that point you were in SSRA or FG and had some decent drops)
The game is still going strong man. I just started on an emu server after being away for pretty much 20 years. You've got live, TLP, project 99 and some other awesome emu servers. Im on project lazarus right now and it is so cool. You can roll solo, or multi box up to 6. The multi boxing tools are great and the devs created custom content and regularly run GM events almost daily. It's great
also Fungi Tunic should never have existed. stupid overpowered, probably ruined or negated a million lowbie groups that never happened cuz "nah bra, i got a fungi i dont need ur damn newb group"
People didn't really digest content super fast back in the day, like I don't remember anyone on my server being able to kill Trakanon or Venril Sathir, it made it scary while pulling in said zones.
Agree, I hate that. You can technically hunt there without tanking that faction but you have to be selective about which mobs you kill, which isn’t practical in a PUG
I really loved old Seb...until I went there to XP in era (sorta) on mischief. Needless to say after about 10 hours of it, I was done!! all the roots, stuns, fast runners with sow...Spent 53 to 60 in Chardok which go REALLY boring, but was overall a better xping experience.
I Do agree its not a perfect dungeon, I think that Sebilis is a fantastic source of end game loot prior to raiding, and has lots of iconic camps. That being said, Lower Guk was a better design in that you could become non KOS to liveside. I think they should have pushed that angle more so you could swap between undead/liveside frogs and made more undead froglok camps around reputations.
Playing VP on live pre-velious was absolute shit. So glad ToV/NToV was so much better. But when you had all the dragons on farm and nothing else to do...
I was 13 when kunark came out and it was the first MMO experience I ever had. Hard to call something overated when so many people have rose colored glasses on for that first hit for MMO crack.
Yeah i would love to see that as well. Was some interesting new things that came about that expansion. A proper bazaar zone, (with the original rows of merchant stables that you needed to be online to sell from that I think is superior to the 3D round rooms nightmare they changed it to later) the vah shir race, the beastlord class and the updated character models (that current live still uses to this day). Just to name a few. Dunno the port for plat business was deeply hurt the portals activated only every 15 minutes. And then only served 4 locations NK, gfay, dreadlands and I think great divide or maybe it was tox.
I love P99 and have played since 2010, but I have to admit zone volumes will never be like they were in 1999-2001. LOIO was one of the most popular zones in the game, but that is completely different on P99. FM was also much more popular than it is today. Neither zone had an xp bonus and I feel that killed a lot of the desire to hunt there... Furthermore, servers like blue are pretty top heavy level wise, eliminating much use for mid-level zones anyway. :/ I recall hunting in LOIO when the GM made a game wide announcement that Da'kor slayed all the VP dragons for the first time on Erollisi Marr server. Good times.
Droga is low key the BEST experience on p99 from lke 30-47. You just need to get past the shadowknight mobs in the initial area and the rest are eeeeassy to farm
My fav xpac was luclin the moon was so dope the graphic buff ,mounts new spells ,weapons ,aa,s,and beast master vashir.eq didn't start to fall until varrent sold out to Sony and Sony launched pop.thus the start of the death of the game
This comment is year too late however virtually no one had grown restless for any reason(s), least of all due to completionisms. Most quests were still being discovered. Most had never seen Vox, Nagafen or the planes. Your average person had no idea what an Essence Harvester is in Sky. And we know this also simply by talking to persons on the classic emulated servers, who constantly say things such as 'this is great, I never got to see these raid bosses in the past, or go into Kedge Keep, or the library in Old Paineel/the hole, or the etcetc.
I was going to include in my comment about places persons have never seen, was the bear pits in Permafrost. And there you were! Part of why this commentary /opinion is a little heavy handed from your side is because you apparently have visited and done all the things (or you did them years later on a private /personal server). You don't then really represent the usual EverQuest player at the time. And all the while you say things that seem..unhelpful - Droga and Nurga for example, some of the places that persons don't visit often for the same frankly lame reasons you gave which is ignorance and laziness. These were places that for so many reasons that defined the EverQuest experience, all encompassing of challenge, risk, danger, reward, thrill, frustration and more. And I suspect you do value all of those things about the game, which leaves a lot of this either disingenuous or hard to reconcile as an accurate opinion, let alone depiction of things really were.
I've done a couple TLP's and chardok is now the go to zone for 55 to 60 maybe a little sooner. I know it was a lot different in the original game but now it is the go-to spot for leveling. I don't know if they change the ZEM. But I remember on Aradune chardok being better XP than seb once you get 54-55. The kennels we're crazy XP. If you have a group that can handle it.
Dude you are so wrong about VP being overrated. Ask around on p99 blue about the prevelious days... guilds raced to pull all the named dragons to the entrance resulting in massive and masterful trains. It was wild and fun and truly endgame raiding. Everything else you said was awesome though
id argue youre wrong on the Iksar faction thing. I mean for a new player sure but i think the high nostalgia and lets say the high "rating" people give the Iksar is specifically because of this. Making you feel like a total pariah. dont think any other game ever did this. Making you feel like the badguy in someone elses story, and overall it contributed to the vibe playign as one of these lads had.
Great video. What program do you use to view the zones like that? I love seeing the zones in that way. Well done. Maybe this will help answer your question for why people didn't camp Chardok more. There used to be a quest in Chardok that required Brood of Di'Zok faction. It was for a ring (Regal Band of Bathezid) with a clickable Damage Shield that was rechargeable if you brought it back to the tiny Sarnak guy (Herald Telcha) in the front of the zone. I never killed anybody in that zone cuz that ring was OP. If you were a raider or into pvp, like me, you would have wanted that ring. The downside was it required a massive amount of time to earn that faction and you needed to remain ally to recharge it. It was only for the truly dedicated. You had to go kill the goblins in Droga to earn it. Tons and tons. Enough to drive you crazy. I think all we ever really did in Chardok was Royals. Besides that, I liked that ring. I collected all those types of things in EQ.
Thank you! I have an EQEmu server that I use to film certain things. I appreciate the breakdown of that ring. I knew there was something in there that people quested for
@@SageFreke1 Anytime. I'm really enjoying the videos. I'd say that ring was good through Luclin at least, maybe even through PoP even cuz it was an instant cast clickable item. I don't know if you remember or not but it was pretty beneficial to have at least 4 clickies like that with buffs, for when you got dispelled so it wouldn't take away your main buffs in a fight. You could just recast your clickies once the dispell hit. Also amazing for pvp. The damage shield itself, if I'm not mistaken and I'm going off memory, stacked with all other forms of damage shields. Similar to the Dain's 10th ring and the Talisman of Vah Kerrath from Aten Ha Ra. As well as shaman pots, etc. My Shadow Knight back then was disgusting in pvp. Used to just sit in the arena in the bazaar and fight groups of people all day. So fun with all the clicky stuff like Eyepatch of Plunder, etc.
Great video, really well made and interesting. Thank you. (One minor point: the single thing I disliked is the use of the 'Properly Rated' voice effect. I personally think it's horrible, a bit naff and jarring) - hope you don't mind the constructive criticism.
Hey, love your videos and I'm a few years late, but I wish you'd say the name of each subtopic when introducing them. I watch your stuff in the background a lot and couldn't always figure out what ya were talking about. Otherwise great as always.
It was fine, in fact all of them were great up to their best (Lost Dungeons) then they sort of lost their way. Planes of Power was meh because it was almost exclusively end-game content but it was still better than the later stuff they put out.
It was the best expansion - assuming you were in a guild that got to fight Trakanon and raid Temple of Veeshan. SoV was the last top-notch expansion, but I think Kunark was better. EQ got a loft softer after that, and a lot easier.
The 1st Iksars models was beautifully designed. You gotta have the old model on with them. They swim funny too. And do that hissing dance. They looked sick in the robes. ....idk what happened down the line but, every model after that got worst and worst.
It used to be easier before October 2021, something weird happened to the EQ Emu servers. I'm still having trouble getting mine back up and running. But Google EQ Emu for instructions!
In 2000, Kunark was incredible. Leveling was insanely slow and there were no picks, so I remember going everywhere and it was my favorite expansion. Playing it on a TLP, it's extremely weak. I didn't even bother getting my howling stones key, and the raid content was pretty awful - no new plane, just 3 world dragons with a lot of bad loot, Trakanon was awful loot (and too little of it), and VP was awful. It was the biggest disappointment on a TLP for me.
Hey, a bit of advice for those of us listening but not watching, saying the name/titles of your list out loud when transitions happen. Sucks you hear why an item or something is good or bad and it’s never said out loud. Thanks for the video
Chardok is the best xp in kunark, velious, and luclin. 50-60 i want to be nowhere else. Several very good camps between Bridge, Over/Under, Bank, Herbalist, and ESPECIALLY KENNELS. I get out of Karnos ASAP and go to Chardok. KC is overrated in my opinion. I love Seb, but you really only have one viable exp option at high levels, where you have several in Chardok.
Kunark was huge and I still create characters as I have played off and on since 2001.
man, kunark and velious have a charm for me that cannot be replaced by any game. that shot of field of bone at 5:28 just hits all the notes. thanks for putting this together: I'm loving your vids.
Yep, this is your typical accepted take. Anyone who even mentions Luclin or PoP/ykesha is immediately flamed and made fun of. The trashiest thing about this community tbh. Velious is okay, but luclin in my opinion is when the game actually starts. Traveling to the moon, fighting those big ice rhinos wherever that was.. I miss it. 9 year old me thought luclin was just fine.
@@zStC1 yea no luclin sucked hard
Man, seeing Trakanon coming at you in those tiny corridors is nightmare fuel.
Still can't get over the fact they didn't make Kunark goblins a playable race, the models looked so badass, I always wanted to be a goblin necro with an iksar skelly pet lol
I actually like Kunark more than Velious... i never thought i was alone in that comparison either.
Underrated, for it's time it was mega underrated
The problem with Kunark is that it is an expansion with new starting zones and low to midlevel dungeons. For like 95% of the playerbase this didn't matter at the time. They came Kunark as level 50s and just went from Karnor's Castle to Sebilis. So it was basically a 2 dungeon expansion for them with one big dragon, Trakanon. That's why Velious was so much better. Everyone came to Velious at max level and the expansion was content for everyone.
Telendor, Severilous, Gorenaire?
Great video. My alltime favorite zone in Everquest is Chardok. It felt like, you had to have skill to go there(and stay alive) - As you said OS, is VERY cool. However you are just safe, running around, as everything is dead from pulls. The loot in Chardok, is also top dollar. Especially because they are quite rare, opposite OS loot. As the nameds just werent killed that often.
Considering it’s probably the only expansion to properly add low, mid and endgame content… this gets a 10/10 from me.
I had not thought about this is true.
serpents spine added lowbie/Mid/End. um depending on how u want to look at it LDON mid/end seeing as u have to be 20.
damn i actually enjoyed this and you echoed a lot my thoughts. do velious next.
Glaring omission not mentioning and rating Charassis ( Howling Stones ). By far my most favorite zone in the expansion, and one I think the vast majority never experienced ... definitely an underrated gem.
I agree, I wish I could've covered it but I know so little about it. I've only ever ran through it on a GM server. Would've felt artificial if I tried to give my take on it.
One of my favorite dungeons in a set of really good ones in Kunark
Agreed, by the time I experienced it the zone was no longer a challenge... Also never got to experience classic Veeshan's Peak, only the revamp... Wish I had
I love hs, it's one of my first goals to get keyed and get in there. I've spent soooo many hours in every wing of that place. The mobs hit like a truck but have very low hp. 10/10 for me
It seemed like one of the best expansions to an ongoing game of all time. Coherent theme, detailed zones, lore.
After watching some interviews with the original Devs it's hilarious how good it was with how it was totally shot from the hip. Kunark's biggest issue was itemization. The zone teams didnt talk to each other so loot is totally skewed. Some very tough dungeons with very little reward compared to Karnors and Sebilis. During live I knew plenty of good level 60s and mid-levels players who wouldn't touch Howling stones, Dalnirs, Droga, and Kaesora. Iksars also got an easy path 1-20 with FoB and Kurns. Which by Luclin was replaced with Paludal. The lack of low-level challenge really started to ruin the beginner experience for EQ. When p1999 green launched 1-10 took practically a week. With Kunark you could do it in less than a day untwinked. Kunark was good but flawed. It successfully spread the population out so 1,000 players on a server didn't feel too cramped - however, nothing beats the original game 1-50.
The outdoor zones in general were a mixed bag for me. On one hand, it was cool how they started switching up the design of zones. No longer was every zone a rectangle with those little snakey valleys connecting them to adjacent zones. And all the stuff covered in the video was spot on: interesting architecture (contrast with "yet another 3 tent camp of bandits" from the old world), elaborate sub-areas within zones, etc.
On the other, navigation was really rough in the era before in-game maps. There were connections to other zones that were super easy to miss because the zone line was at the top of a hill that blended in with the zone wall, or a tunnel opening that connected two zones was the size of a postage stamp. It was also really annoying to get around because so much random hostile trash could see through invis, even in more mid-level zones like FV and FM. I don't think players avoided Chardok because it was out of the way, but rather because nobody wanted to run through Burning Woods with all its roaming mobs hidden behind the zone's dense foliage aggroing on you.
I thought another notable thing about Kunark was how it experimented with loot locations. Instead of cool stuff only dropping from named mobs that appeared in exactly one place, there were a couple places where phat lewt would drop from a more common mob that had multiple spawn points throughout the zone. That one monk staff in KC immediately springs to mind.
Tranquil staff! I almost included it in the video, it was a game changer
I ended up playing Iksar as my main, rerolled to Iksar shadow knight when Kunark released. I liked the evil/kos to everyone idea. Made coming home to cabilis cool. I intentionally played risky though and remember in 20s traveling to antonica and looking for someone to bind me there after surviving the journey, far enough away from city guards to not get into a death loop. But leading up to that Field of bone, kurns, lake of ill omen and warsilk woods were my main areas (all great). Also loved the dungeon in warsilks, can't remember name. It wasn't until 40s I think that I traveled back to Kunark and Karnor's was amazing and where I leveled to 50 or so. Then spent rest of time in Kunark after that: Sebilis, city of mist, emerald jungle, overthere, and once I got 60 went and experienced zones I missed like droga/nurga, kaesora, and some other places like the underwater dungeon in lake of ill omen. Going back and camping items in lower dungeons solo was fun, and still very challenging even though I out leveled things by 10-20
Dalnir is the dungeon I believe you're referring to in Warslik!
@@SageFreke1 You're right! I dunno about others but I liked that dungeon. I feel most people thought it was too hard (also kinda hidden), and this kinda goes for a lot of EQ dungeons at level they were intended, at least in Kunark era, so they camped the start and never had enough guts to venture deep in.
There were so many dungeons I revisited solo just to see deeper in once I got higher level. I enjoyed going back to camp things at higher level. And as OGs know, even lower level dungeons could be a challenge to higher level players if they git too reckless
Great video, love the content, would love to see more like this! I'm also on p99 Green and diggin the game again after returning after 20 years, since the old days ;)
really excellent. I liked the sections on Iksar, Music, Trakanon, Epics, City of Mist. Never knew that City of Mist has a second level. Glad you went into music being a big part of the original, it was lacking in some of the later expansions.
You are one of the few people still making in depth content on EQ. Love it!
Thank you for watching! Glad you enjoyed it
Chardok needed a epic quest just for the zone. KC as well. Not like epic weapon in terms of grind, but a simple series of quests and a final helmit or something
Haha you were shouting your love for KC from the rooftops, and I agree! Don't agree with your stance on iksars though, that could be because i only played as iksars lol.
my favorite zone is CoM. I love that it doesnt have a greyish color like a lot of other dungeons. I love that you have room to run around in the courtyard, arena, and moat. The hole in the middle of the courtyard also is a big thing for me. If you have levitate you can run over it and escape whatever is chasing you. The 2 tiny paths next to the entrance and how you can float accross them allows for some cool plays. The most overrated part about it is the moat. There's not much there. You can get way better xp in the arena, temple, and stables.
COM was for Epics only time I went there. It was ok
Kunark zone designs were great, it's the best expansion, but every expansion hurt the core game in some way, because of problematic itemization and game mechanics, and continually increasing emphasis on static content and dumbed down gameplay and time sinks, instead of the wild adventure and roleplaying that was supposed to define Everquest.
So many memories of KC.
Agree with the list overall.
I will say this, you say rangers got kinda screwed on their disciplines, as a Ranger main back then, and then through GoD before quitting, Weapon shield (auto parry) was using for pulling raid bosses for so long through expacs. I WS pulled Rallos Zek for so long. Add in True Shot was some of the best burst dps in the game, beating out Rogues. I did a TLP, and in NTOV, the rangers always topped the dps charts.
Good discussion.
It was the best follow up. EQ was lacking a variety of evil races to play as. classic is more good high fantasy. That whole expansion covered their needs and more.
It was a necessary expansion and ups the risks to the MAX. Kunark was a very scary content. It's like playing classic EQ on hard mode.
Fun thing about Cabilis, I'm damn near positive that it was originally one zone but had to be cut in half. The maze behind the necro merchants lines up pretty perfectly with the warrior guild where there is a blocked off ramp leading down to it. There are also some remnants in both zones of the others geometry hanging around.
I'm pretty convinced that his happened with a lot of zones. Droga and Nurga included. It was just a limitation at the time, so I don't think marking them down for it is fair.
Edit: "Who wants to stay oin kunark for all 60 levels".... I've been playing Kunark only characters for like 3 years now. best continent.
75 is the base ZEM, anything above that is bonus.
People didn't do the lower Kurns because *1* kill gave you KOS faction with the badgers, and it COULD NOT be recovered. The upper floors were used a lot in both P99 and Live, but it only takes 1-2 people to full camp them.
Wasnt it impossible to clear all the islands in plane of sky before kunark?
One of the biggest regrets I have is not getting into EQ around when it came out; I remember like late 99/early 2000 some Warhmmer friends were talking about it, and I even bought it but my parents refused to pay a monthly sub for a videogame and they made me return it. I wouldn't start MMORPGs until many years later during Wrath of the Lich King, and I've regretted it ever since. I've tried constantly to get into EQ, whether on P99 or a TLP or even Live, and just can't do it :(
Another great spot in dreadlands is the caves. I solo'd 45-48 there on my rogue with a fungi on p99. Underrated spot not many go to
Just found this video and loved it! I was like 12 years old when everquest came out and really terrible at the game, but I loved it still! Though being that young and bad meant I didn't see most of end game content at all, so hearing about it has been fun, like I'm learning something totally new from the game I played 20 years ago.
If I could make one suggestion or request if you do more of these videos, please voice over what the next topic is you're talking about rather than just flashing it up on screen. I was listening to this while walking the dog with headphones and my phone in my pocket, so I wasn't really seeing the title of the next topic unless I pulled my phone out to look. It's a little thing but just thought I'd mention it.
Great suggestion! Was it at least fun trying to figure out what I was talking about by context? 👻 but thank you, I'll keep it in mind for next time
@@SageFreke1 haha for sure, some of them I was able to get pretty quickly from context, others not so much.
Great video! Any chance you're making one for regular EQ or Scars of Velious?
Yep! Planning to
Kunark Velious and Lucin are the greatest memories expansions ever made.
As always, love the content, can’t wait for Velious
Thank you!
Back in the day i remember living in the dreadlands and then moving into KC. For months I grouped there. Hours and hours trying to get leveled up enough to go elsewhere. It took forever, but these zones were always packed with groups. You could get better XP elsewhere in Kunark. None of those zones matched the vibe of DL or KC. I was rocking a wurmslayer for a solid 15 levels back then as a Ranger. No other dropable weapons had that much dmg for a one-handed weapon.
Had a lot of fun watching this, you should do classic and velious if you get time!
Getting Trak to chase you for B roll was a really nice touch. Good vid. I'm super hyped for the next TLP... to the point of buying a new cheapo laptop to truebox 4 chars and OD on my fav game.
Thanks! I slaved over that footage lol
Seeing all those Iksar folk sitting about grouping together filled me with a beautiful dream, of AI, provided it doesn't destroy the fucking world, actually enriches the world of gaming. NPCs with actual AI personalities, wandering around getting into adventures, and you can team up with them and hang out.
Like the AI in Blade Runner, only the scope of their existence is living in the game world, and they're totally content with it, because they're not full self-aware. All they conversations are rooted in the lore and being the characters they're supposed to be.
I guess it's unlikely to happen, but I think people thought something like ChatGPT was unlikely to happen.
It's a dream.
Loved the video! Definitely brought back many memories of what I loved in classic EQ, and especially during the Kunark era. On live, Dreadlands, KC, and Old Seb were THE places to be, and the zones were always heavily populated and fun. Even during Velious, these zones were still hugely popular. To me, Kunark was definitely the best expansion, and the peak of classic EQ.
Had a fungi and a Manastone... Power leveling was a cake walk for most classes. And main pally was a master fletcher, so all my low levels had crazy bows and jacked up arrows. Twinks were fun to play low level on a pvp server.
Sir Baron Jobel Dubstar of Rallos Zek Leader of The Curse.
P.S. pked the Manastone after it no longer dropped, off a cleric holding it in PoP back when disarm put the item on your cursor. Blind, root, spam disarm until it landed then kill.
That got nerfed.
Omg, I stole so many wurmslayers! Very common eventually, sold tons of them.
I love Sean but I also love KC, my dad and I did so much farming for the T staff there and so many more good memories
DL is where I grinded my mid 30 hell lvls LOL As a Shaman I really learned my class . DL was great . Always a group there back in the day.
I was always behind in levels for new expansions but I remember the new locations being cool but I also remember stuff like the vellum weapons going from some of the best to obsolete very quickly.
Great video really appreciate the in-depth look at the expansion
32k hp was a technical limitation because people were still using dial-up during this period. Broadband was coming up rapidly but not every small town had a provider immediately like cities.
Great video, but I must strongly disagree that Iksars are overrated. My favorite thing in the game was to create an Iksar monk and get a port to Faydark and bind there. Then kill enough orcs to gain faction in Kelethin. Then on to the Warrens and kill kobalds until amiable in Paineel. Yes, it was a pain to return to Cabilis for training, but I after I got there I just put everything in the bank and death teleported back. The combination of Iksar regen + fungi is unbeatable. Did the same with a warrior and was actually able to train in Kelethin.
It's so weird to me how you guys started out with 3 continents yet in EQOA we started off with just Tunaria... 9 months later though they cranked out our ONE and ONLY expansion Frontiers, which gave us Odus, and finished Tunaria up by finally opening Oggok and the Rathe mountains area/Lavastorm.
They also added in plane of disease, sky and war. They had planned to give us Underfoot ahead of you guys in 04 but cancelled it when it was very near completion, then they just flipped us over to maintenance mode for 8 years and funneled to $15 sub fee we kept paying into EQII, EQIII/Next and we all know what came of those turds.
I just get salty at how crappy they treated us from a management level. The devs were all really sweet to us and tried to get our game ported over to PS3 but the suits would have none of it. We're trying to recreate our server now, it's in a WiP and can be viewed on my channel. Both EQ1 and EQOA were rather similar. EQII... an abomination lol.
EQOA was trash.
Sorry for another comment. You just got me thinking lol
EverQuest: The Shadows of Luclin tbh might be the most underrated. Planes of power might be the overrated.
Luclin felt like a field trip lol. A lot of ppl skipped over all that rich dinosaur, alien, cat lore once POP came out. Luclin really took you to another planet.
Lol I'll take allll the comments! I actually totally agree. I think the lore of the Akhevans and Shissar is underrated, and Ssra Temple is underrated as a raid zone.
PoP kinda ruined some of the mystique of the gods for me (check out level 10 of my walkthrough video where I deep dive Bertox).
But these are unpopular opinions!
Great video. I thoroughly enjoyed watching.
When Kunark came out, I was hiding out in permafrost farming various items there, and a friend told me to get my butt to Karnor's castle. "The singing steel is flowing like water dude!". It was not... lol
VP originally was very different in how it was done... You had to fight your way through the zone then, especially without quick things respawned.
The lore there is amazing... Seeing Veeshan marking Norrath in the painting room. :) I think a lot of your perception of it isn't how it originally was done and designed.
That's fair. I thought I mentioned the fighting through the zone thing, but I definitely never played through the original
@@SageFreke1 I totally agree with what Sage said about Veeshan's Peak. Back on live, during the Velious era, our guild wanted everyone to get their VP keys so that we could raid there with less competition, since the key questing was a big enough barrier to entry. Not only was it a huge pain in the ass to have enough folks get their keys, we ended up almost never going there for the following reasons:
1) The loot at that point kind of sucked compared to Velious gear, which was more easily accessible with much less barriers. I'm not even talking about Sleeper's Tomb or NToV gear. Vindi, Velketor, west ToV, or Velious quest armor were all very doable with just gathering up enough folks. Of course, VP gear would be the "best" gear during the Kunark era, but considering the zone design and headaches didn't change during Velious, this made VP quickly a dead zone.
2) Most of the loot was not worth the risk and coordination. I think the developers went a little overboard with trying to make this an exclusively hardcore zone during Kunark, and ended up from discouraging almost everyone from wanting to go there. I do remember the coordination of having to camp out together and to make sure to all jump back in at the same time the next day, with it being at least a two day event. And with all the clearing? Not fun, and definitely not worth it.
3) Not being able to port out. Once again, I see what they were trying to do here for the hardcore player base, but what the hell? I recall a time when my friend was playing on my account, and just camped out in VP without me knowing wtf was going on or the raiding schedule in general. Mortified of being potentially stuck there with no rescue (since the zone is never cleared from the rapid trash mob respawn and no ports) - I logged in to luckily find that he had to wisdom to camp me near one of the port out locations. I got the hell out of there immediately.
Sorry for the long rant, but I easily see why they never duplicated this type of zone ever again in classic!
Good video! Honestly I never really got into Kunark much. Played an iksar in live for a little bit in FoB and maybe visited the continent a bit here and there but I probably spent most of its cycle in the old world zones. Just feels like everything is drab stone or ferocious jungle. You have footage of both Kurns and Karnors on the video, but aesthetically...what was the difference? Sorry to say but it was my least favorite expansion but I do hope to eventually see Sebilis and VP.
I'm also not really a fan of iksar, mostly because they totally dominate the necromancer class. Makes me feel bad for wanting to be a human or a dark elf, knowing how inferior I would be compared to a stinky lizard.
Just my thoughts on Kunark. Overall though this was a well put together video. :)
Totally agree. I made a human necro a few years back and players kept questioning me "bro, why didn't you roll Iksar? You should reroll Iksar!"
@@SageFreke1 Right? Human Bertoxxulous necros have probably straight up the most badass evil lair in the game, so it'd be understandable that someone would want to get into that RP. But Iksar blatantly outshine them in every way, one is left to feel bad about the choice throughout their career. It's to the point where I can't really even bring myself to play a necro anymore. At least as a wizard I'm not gimped by picking the race I want to pick. xD
65 ranger before I ventured off, trueshot was a hell of a disc, it just didn't show it's prime until they made better bows and arrows, we would have raid grounds of just rangers dps competing with groups of wizards for funsies
Great video love seeing all those different Kunark zones : )
I loved this expansion. It was amazing and difficult, fun and scary, everything a expansion should be
I loved Kunark. My wife's favorite was Velious, but for me it was Kunark.
I agree with you 100% about KC. I never understood why it gets so much hate. I'd say the only downside is the negative faction hit for evil players. It's in a great spot, accessible to many, and the camps are easy to get to. It's just all around great. There's a reason why it is so populated.
Good point about the faction, especially since evils can't realistically get FV faction
couple of comments for the video:
1. Overthere is one of the best zones in the expansion, especially during launch. The City didn't have much going on, that is true you are in the land of the iskars; however overthere had a lot of great things going for it as a zone. There was a large diversity in the monster base, here we see the cockatrice dropping platinum coin for the group to split. Fear kiting was super friendly to your dark elves and there were many spots to group. Want to be safe as a good race? Well don't park your butt next to the zone line or a goon will get ya. having the opening in the middle was another eq kind of feeling thing that hey you best pay attention or death and a hard CR will await. Overthere is simply one of the best zones in the game also I seem to remember quad kiting.
2. KC sucks. Bad design and anyone who played classic wouldn't be in the CY without an enchanter and a barrel of whoop arse (in the form of a cleric who could rez or higher level friends at the entrance). They mucked up the exp bonus in the zone as well. IT wasn't fun unless you had the HAND or Warlord camp (which I think you end up combining if no bards going after epics). Outside of VS the loot sucked vs the train difficulty. You couldn't do moat groups because trains would agro no matter where you stood. It was an alternate to Seb when seb was full but it was like pulling teeth if you couldn't be at the second floor to get people to join.
3. COM is the best leveling zone in all of Kunark, maybe the game?. The reason is they made the mob glass cannons. If you had an SK or Pally you were in for some really fast leveling, taking down reds with a melee group was super easy due to the reduced hitpoints. COM is still an active zone today, mainly because of the hit point reduction. Super easy to kill the pulls are maybe 2-3 per pull and after breaking in 1 on one with no risk of multi pulls.
4. Necro epics have been adding to dots I think since day 1, might need a spot check there. the SK's were good for soloing.
5. Chardok is a good zone for raiding and was always interesting to me as a necro. The reason you don't go there is the ring quest which relies on having max faction there. I only ever did it on progression servers so I don't know if it was in live, however, I did have to go in here during classic era to get my necro epic and it was one of more thrilling nights I had (killing herbalists). My guild at the time refused to help so I got to do it solo (very doable).
6 VP was fun but the key sucked, and honestly the raid aged like the Plane of Fear aged. It was a similar concept you enter a raid zone you can't leave without completing. In PoF if you messed up break in it was going to be a long night, hopefully, your backup gear worked to get beyond break-in.
THis was the start of gear not being great outside of the kunark expansion (if you were a raider). even looking past kunark a lot of stuff wasn't worth wearing, in velious. For example, necros always had the phase spider carcass thing that was decent and had better AC than some raid gear, the tunics got nerfed but for Shamans were baller. Dwarf gear wasn't great in velious but Giant stuff started upgrading anything you got and the raids, and the giant city was dropping good gear (Not talking AOW, think vindi). I feel like one of the points you made about gear being good was only true if you didn't raid and part of that might be because it was hard to get the dragon stuff from velious (and velious was the split of the original designers). By Luclin almost all of the kunark gear was crap: They mucked up a lot of quest gear in the luclin launched (then started nerfing it but by that point you were in SSRA or FG and had some decent drops)
One of the first real MMORPGs, it ushered in a new genre of online gameplay. And overall it was an amazing experience. I deeply miss this game.
The game is still going strong man. I just started on an emu server after being away for pretty much 20 years. You've got live, TLP, project 99 and some other awesome emu servers. Im on project lazarus right now and it is so cool. You can roll solo, or multi box up to 6. The multi boxing tools are great and the devs created custom content and regularly run GM events almost daily. It's great
@@the_based_boyHate the idea of multiboxing.. it goes against everything EverQuest was
Amazing expansion added without altering or watering down the game too much.
Agreed, Trakanon is very cool and badass looking
also Fungi Tunic should never have existed. stupid overpowered, probably ruined or negated a million lowbie groups that never happened cuz "nah bra, i got a fungi i dont need ur damn newb group"
also KC is shit compared to Seb.
People didn't really digest content super fast back in the day, like I don't remember anyone on my server being able to kill Trakanon or Venril Sathir, it made it scary while pulling in said zones.
This is literally the best expansion of any game I’ve ever played. 10/10 plus iksar :)
The only problem with Karnor's as an exp zone, is it stupidly tanks the evil characters faction with their Outpost.
Agree, I hate that. You can technically hunt there without tanking that faction but you have to be selective about which mobs you kill, which isn’t practical in a PUG
I really loved old Seb...until I went there to XP in era (sorta) on mischief. Needless to say after about 10 hours of it, I was done!! all the roots, stuns, fast runners with sow...Spent 53 to 60 in Chardok which go REALLY boring, but was overall a better xping experience.
however. fear (I think it was fear) was far far FAR worse to raid.
I Do agree its not a perfect dungeon, I think that Sebilis is a fantastic source of end game loot prior to raiding, and has lots of iconic camps. That being said, Lower Guk was a better design in that you could become non KOS to liveside. I think they should have pushed that angle more so you could swap between undead/liveside frogs and made more undead froglok camps around reputations.
Less of a cape feel, and more like a floating grandpa who left his bathrobe open and thinks you stole his newspaper.
Playing VP on live pre-velious was absolute shit. So glad ToV/NToV was so much better. But when you had all the dragons on farm and nothing else to do...
I was 13 when kunark came out and it was the first MMO experience I ever had. Hard to call something overated when so many people have rose colored glasses on for that first hit for MMO crack.
Luclin was good. I wish P99 would just move BLUE up to Luclin and keep GREEN at Velious. But a bunch of druids would cry.
I would LOVE that too
Yeah i would love to see that as well. Was some interesting new things that came about that expansion. A proper bazaar zone, (with the original rows of merchant stables that you needed to be online to sell from that I think is superior to the 3D round rooms nightmare they changed it to later) the vah shir race, the beastlord class and the updated character models (that current live still uses to this day). Just to name a few.
Dunno the port for plat business was deeply hurt the portals activated only every 15 minutes. And then only served 4 locations NK, gfay, dreadlands and I think great divide or maybe it was tox.
I love P99 and have played since 2010, but I have to admit zone volumes will never be like they were in 1999-2001. LOIO was one of the most popular zones in the game, but that is completely different on P99. FM was also much more popular than it is today. Neither zone had an xp bonus and I feel that killed a lot of the desire to hunt there... Furthermore, servers like blue are pretty top heavy level wise, eliminating much use for mid-level zones anyway. :/
I recall hunting in LOIO when the GM made a game wide announcement that Da'kor slayed all the VP dragons for the first time on Erollisi Marr server. Good times.
As a Necromancer I take offense to Iksars being "overrated"!
Droga is low key the BEST experience on p99 from lke 30-47. You just need to get past the shadowknight mobs in the initial area and the rest are eeeeassy to farm
City of mist broke me playing P99. I pretty much found myself saying three times hey this isn't adventuring and then I logged out forever
My fav xpac was luclin the moon was so dope the graphic buff ,mounts new spells ,weapons ,aa,s,and beast master vashir.eq didn't start to fall until varrent sold out to Sony and Sony launched pop.thus the start of the death of the game
This comment is year too late however virtually no one had grown restless for any reason(s), least of all due to completionisms. Most quests were still being discovered. Most had never seen Vox, Nagafen or the planes. Your average person had no idea what an Essence Harvester is in Sky. And we know this also simply by talking to persons on the classic emulated servers, who constantly say things such as 'this is great, I never got to see these raid bosses in the past, or go into Kedge Keep, or the library in Old Paineel/the hole, or the etcetc.
I was going to include in my comment about places persons have never seen, was the bear pits in Permafrost. And there you were! Part of why this commentary /opinion is a little heavy handed from your side is because you apparently have visited and done all the things (or you did them years later on a private /personal server). You don't then really represent the usual EverQuest player at the time. And all the while you say things that seem..unhelpful - Droga and Nurga for example, some of the places that persons don't visit often for the same frankly lame reasons you gave which is ignorance and laziness. These were places that for so many reasons that defined the EverQuest experience, all encompassing of challenge, risk, danger, reward, thrill, frustration and more. And I suspect you do value all of those things about the game, which leaves a lot of this either disingenuous or hard to reconcile as an accurate opinion, let alone depiction of things really were.
I leveled my monk in Droga/Nurga and ended up being an ally of Chardok - bank and merchants available in that city
Good point, that's a perk!
I've done a couple TLP's and chardok is now the go to zone for 55 to 60 maybe a little sooner. I know it was a lot different in the original game but now it is the go-to spot for leveling. I don't know if they change the ZEM. But I remember on Aradune chardok being better XP than seb once you get 54-55. The kennels we're crazy XP. If you have a group that can handle it.
Great video. I love this game. Just started on Quarm
Dope video keep up with the videos
making me wanna install p99 again
All part of my grand scheme 😇
Dude you are so wrong about VP being overrated. Ask around on p99 blue about the prevelious days... guilds raced to pull all the named dragons to the entrance resulting in massive and masterful trains. It was wild and fun and truly endgame raiding. Everything else you said was awesome though
id argue youre wrong on the Iksar faction thing. I mean for a new player sure but i think the high nostalgia and lets say the high "rating" people give the Iksar is specifically because of this. Making you feel like a total pariah.
dont think any other game ever did this. Making you feel like the badguy in someone elses story, and overall it contributed to the vibe playign as one of these lads had.
Great video. What program do you use to view the zones like that? I love seeing the zones in that way. Well done.
Maybe this will help answer your question for why people didn't camp Chardok more. There used to be a quest in Chardok that required Brood of Di'Zok faction. It was for a ring (Regal Band of Bathezid) with a clickable Damage Shield that was rechargeable if you brought it back to the tiny Sarnak guy (Herald Telcha) in the front of the zone. I never killed anybody in that zone cuz that ring was OP. If you were a raider or into pvp, like me, you would have wanted that ring. The downside was it required a massive amount of time to earn that faction and you needed to remain ally to recharge it. It was only for the truly dedicated. You had to go kill the goblins in Droga to earn it. Tons and tons. Enough to drive you crazy.
I think all we ever really did in Chardok was Royals. Besides that, I liked that ring. I collected all those types of things in EQ.
Thank you! I have an EQEmu server that I use to film certain things.
I appreciate the breakdown of that ring. I knew there was something in there that people quested for
@@SageFreke1 Anytime. I'm really enjoying the videos.
I'd say that ring was good through Luclin at least, maybe even through PoP even cuz it was an instant cast clickable item.
I don't know if you remember or not but it was pretty beneficial to have at least 4 clickies like that with buffs, for when you got dispelled so it wouldn't take away your main buffs in a fight. You could just recast your clickies once the dispell hit.
Also amazing for pvp. The damage shield itself, if I'm not mistaken and I'm going off memory, stacked with all other forms of damage shields. Similar to the Dain's 10th ring and the Talisman of Vah Kerrath from Aten Ha Ra. As well as shaman pots, etc.
My Shadow Knight back then was disgusting in pvp. Used to just sit in the arena in the bazaar and fight groups of people all day. So fun with all the clicky stuff like Eyepatch of Plunder, etc.
Great video, really well made and interesting. Thank you. (One minor point: the single thing I disliked is the use of the 'Properly Rated' voice effect. I personally think it's horrible, a bit naff and jarring) - hope you don't mind the constructive criticism.
Haha I pulled it from an external source, no offense taken! I thought the guy had a cool voice lol
thanks for the video. Do you think you will continue the gnome cleric playthrough?
100%! I'm not stopping until I hit level 60 💪
Hey, love your videos and I'm a few years late, but I wish you'd say the name of each subtopic when introducing them. I watch your stuff in the background a lot and couldn't always figure out what ya were talking about. Otherwise great as always.
OMG loved this video an the KC love this past tlp all my buddy's gave me a hard time for spending hours there lol 😆
You oughta try grouping in charasis MAN that zone is wild if i get a good group that can be fun
It was fine, in fact all of them were great up to their best (Lost Dungeons) then they sort of lost their way. Planes of Power was meh because it was almost exclusively end-game content but it was still better than the later stuff they put out.
It was the best expansion - assuming you were in a guild that got to fight Trakanon and raid Temple of Veeshan. SoV was the last top-notch expansion, but I think Kunark was better. EQ got a loft softer after that, and a lot easier.
The 1st Iksars models was beautifully designed. You gotta have the old model on with them. They swim funny too. And do that hissing dance. They looked sick in the robes.
....idk what happened down the line but, every model after that got worst and worst.
Loving your videos man. How hard is it to get a little solo server set up just to mess around on with dev commands and such?
It used to be easier before October 2021, something weird happened to the EQ Emu servers. I'm still having trouble getting mine back up and running. But Google EQ Emu for instructions!
That map is nostalgic.
Wasn't there also a windmill in plane of sky before Lake of Ill omen?
Ooh good call!
Crush bone was my most memorable zone 😢
I didn't think that Bee island in plane of sky was cleared before Kunark came out. Is the intro wrong?
Having done those things keep in mind it is called Ever "QUEST". just saying.
In 2000, Kunark was incredible. Leveling was insanely slow and there were no picks, so I remember going everywhere and it was my favorite expansion.
Playing it on a TLP, it's extremely weak. I didn't even bother getting my howling stones key, and the raid content was pretty awful - no new plane, just 3 world dragons with a lot of bad loot, Trakanon was awful loot (and too little of it), and VP was awful.
It was the biggest disappointment on a TLP for me.
Loved/Love Kunark ;-)
Hey, a bit of advice for those of us listening but not watching, saying the name/titles of your list out loud when transitions happen. Sucks you hear why an item or something is good or bad and it’s never said out loud.
Thanks for the video
Chardok is the best xp in kunark, velious, and luclin. 50-60 i want to be nowhere else. Several very good camps between Bridge, Over/Under, Bank, Herbalist, and ESPECIALLY KENNELS. I get out of Karnos ASAP and go to Chardok. KC is overrated in my opinion. I love Seb, but you really only have one viable exp option at high levels, where you have several in Chardok.