My return to Everquest

Almost 4 years ago, when I lived in Salem, I finally, after years of waiting, got broadband in the form of cable. The day I got it, I went to Electronics Boutique in the Salem Center(it's this fucked up looking mall) and bought Everquest. Every time I went to Salem Center, I would also get Chinese food in their food court. There is this guy that yells out "FREE SAMPLE!" whenever you walk passed him. According to my sister, he still works there too(owner I guess).

Anyways, back to the topic....

The guys at EB mentioned that it will take up all my time, which I said was fine, since I really didn't do anything anyway. So that night, I got home, read the manual, and then installed it. I went through the tutorial, and then logged on and created my first character.

I decided to start a Half-Elf Ranger. I started in the city of Kelethin, and spent about 15 minutes trying to find my way out of the city to go fight. Kelethin is a city in the trees. I finally found the platform that takes you to ground level. Remembering the key commands in the tutorial, I went to look for something to kill to begin the long trek to level 2.

I found a bat. I attacked it. It killed me. I then went to get my corpse, and could never find it again. I logged out, and ended the game. I then went to some of the EQ sites on the net to look up more info. A little while later, I decided to start a High Elf Paladin.

High Elves started in the city of Felwithe, which is in the same zone that Kelethin is in. A friend of mine from work also started a Paladin. I got the character up to level 5, which took 5 days and was a total bore and a pain in the ass. I found grouping to suck, and the character could not see shit at night. I went to the net to look up more info on other characters. My main interest was casters(magic users).

I decided to abandon the light races, and descended into darkness and started a Dark Elf Necromancer, Dark Elves are one of the most hated races in the game, and being a Necromancer made it worse. I loved it.

I leveled faster with the Necro, and could solo, which is something the Paladin sucked ass at. I was KOS(Kill On Sight) in most places, but I did not care. I knew that when I started the character.

I played this character for about 5 months. I managed to get to level 21 before I quit. The problems were that there were no places to hunt. Everything was very crowded at that level. The only way to get any experience was to group, and most groups were always full or looking for someone that was not a necro. Also, levelling was SLOW. It took hours to hit a level. So, I quit the game(I quit for other reasons to, but I will not get into those).

I was an EQ hater for over 3 years. There were things I missed about the game, but I was determined never to go back.

Well.. that ended last month.

I work with some people that play, and was told if I rejoined and got on their server, they would help me out. So I did, and the did.

After a month of play, I am level 27. The game takes nowhere near as long to level as it used to. There have been 5 expansions, which means there are a shitload of places to hunt now. 2 nights ago, I was the only one in the zone I was playing in. I owned it! They changed the game so that someone that can only play for a few hours at a time can see results. No more 12 hour sessions!! Yes... I used to do that.

Travel times are easier with the Plane of Knowledge. There are portals to different zones all over the game there, so you will not need to spend 40 minutes running to a zone. Experience is easier to get, and they eliminated the hell levels. Newbies will find things easier, since they will not lose experience when they die until they hit level 10. They will also respawn with all their gear. I made it from level 16 - 26 in three nights of playing in the Paludal Caverns. The longest I was logged on was over 2 hours.

If anyone reading this(HA!) plays and wants to find me, I am on Zeb, name is Tinlaan.