Waxing Nostalgic

[Dillgaar]

Well I was sitting around thinking this morning about EQ and the good old days of when Velious first came out. Some guildies and I were tromping around looking for the teeth you needed to pick up at the portals to be able to port there...

We had a blast and got the teethe for quite a few of our members.

I remember just seeing the mobs was cool. We ended up hitting sirens grotto (which I dug up on Illia's Beastiary since I was feeling nostalgic) and noticed a ton of mobs I hadn't heard of before...

Makes me kind of sad that the game has grown so much since I have been gone (left just before GoD).

The raids were fun (especially with a good group of friends), the camping for quests and keys and such was ok, again when with a good group of friends.

From everything that is going on with Vanguard I am looking forward to this again. I had given up hope after City of Heroes had disappointed me as I tore through the content within a month, WoW was the same... nothing really made me want to explore and have fun and meet people and just actually PLAY the game...

Vanguard does... and I look forward to being able to hop into Telon and see what all this hubub is about :D

[Orlun]

Neat post Dill.

I also daydream every now and then about how it used to be. I started EQ around the time Velious came out so I always felt I was a little dwarf in a big new world. It was also my first MMOG so I felt the awe of seeing a higher level player or the fear of hearing about some new higher level zone.

I remember the thrill as I approached level 10... with a few weeks of work behind me. It took a few weeks if you were a true newb without help from above or without previous MMOG experience. Thrown into EQ with a newborn calf and having to learn the game as you go. You spent hours just running around your newbie city hailing NPC's It makes me smile when I remember being level 5 or 6 and having people invite me into groups. I was so nervous that I politely declined do to not having a clue of how to group or what fun it would entail. I remember my first few ingame friendships and how much more fun it was to adventure with a few friends looking out for your back.

I remember my first ever "good group". We held the chessboard in Butcherblock with a mix of 8's, 9's and a ten. It was then that I learned that good groups are the best way to enjoy the game. You share jokes, learn new tricks, tackle mobs that caused you to run... each new step opening new horizons.

I remember my first boat ride. One of my first friends sending me a tell saying that he shifted over to north ro to adventure and that I should consider doing the same. Me, a level nine dwarf? Would I survive the lands far from Kaladim? Oh the fear and nervousness. But, I braved the boat ride... which took hours because I didn't know that the left boat went to Kunark ;) but before long, I was in Ro and learning that the world was indeed huge.

I remember my first plat to my name... then my first hundred... then later, my first thousand... all made by pottery of all things.

As a rogue, I dabled with poisons when they became available at level 18. Oh the frustration of trying a then broken aspect of the rogue. Balance that by the joy of hearing comments from your groupmates on how much damage your rogue could do. Bittersweet class to play.

I remember my first rez ever. It was in a pickup group in Unrest around level 15. After a wipe, one of the group said his older brother was going to bring his high level cleric over to Unrest to rez us. I had to have it explained to me. :confused: but oh did I fall in love with them after that.

I smile when I remember my first guild. To be a part of something even though it was just a social guild of lower levels. To hear the higher level members talking about their groups in the uber dungeons and zones... Dreadlands, Mistmoore and so on, knowing that it would be ages before I dare see those zones. Feeling the lose as they moved on to higher guilds even though us lower level players struggled to gain levels and catch them.

I remember grinding though a hell level. The first being 30 or so. This was the time I bought my first piece of UBER :o gear... a trak tooth for all my plat... 2500 at the time. Oh did the damage go up and the delay go down. I bounced around all the zones and content in the mid levels. I maxed my skills and learned what gear meant something.

I was involved with a new startup guild with some close friends. The excitement and joy of seeing it grow to over a dozen. The bitterness of seeing people move on to the bigger "raiding" guilds. The shame of finally moving on myself to join a few close friends in a higher end guild.

Then, this was the time when raiding and tactics started. Wow, did the dynamics of the game change. I became a bully sargent and had to sooth/disipline/lead groups in the guilds raids. Being a rogue and knowing how to culture a friends list, it fell to me to try and keep all the druids happy, slow the warriors down, help the mages feel usefull... all the bs that goes with trying to organize large forces. Our main targets were epic quest mobs and before long, I seemed to know everyone elses class epic mobs. We were good at the easier epics and got the druids their leafblowers and the rogues their ragebringers...
We became experts at raiding dark reavers in COM and even boosted a chain of black reaver spawns that ran to 87 in a row. Ended up with 7 or 8 jade reaver drops to the joy of our druids and rangers. As a rogue, I ruled those COM raids... picking locks and sneak scouting pulls. I took charge of our guilds Rogues and organized their epics for them if they needed help. We would do the General in Kith for 5-6 rogues at a time and months later, I was still getting tells from young rogues asking for advice or help in planing their attempt.

I remember when we got or first cleric epic... oh, we were moving now! ;) We dabled in Velious and Kunark but always in the shadows of the forrunner guilds and max level characters. SOL came out and we started to decline as our highest players migrated into SOL uberraid guilds. But, before we did, I was lucky enough to see all my closes friends get their epic... shaman, wizard, druids, rogues cleric and a warrior. All the needed kills being 'firsts' for our guild at the time.

It was duing this phase that I left EQ for awhile. I decompressed for half a year before attempting to rejoin the fun. When I returned, it was to a slower passed more social guild and friends list. I focused on trading and helping others and became a pretty successfull trader. At a million plat and not wanting to get into PoP raiding, I gave it all away and retired for good.

I left my rogue fairly well equipped but it was all bazaar bought items with only a few pieces earned the hard way. In the future, my goal is to be in a position to earn my items.

I did have a few items to be proud of. One of them was something I was very VERY lucky to have. It was a server first quest item that I got due to the fact that I was a packrat and had keep tons of worthless gear from my rogues past. They introduced a new quest for rogue grandmaster poisonmaker seals and had as part of the items needed, a bunch of old rogue items from the original planes that most players would have sold or let rot. I had them banked and finished the quest weeks before other rogues could. Blind luck but it was fun showing off my trinket to the curious for a month or so.

So, I was never at the top and far from the glory, but I am proud of the few years in EQ and look back on those memories fondly. A few will make me smile for the rest of my days.

Its amazing to think of all the players who have stories like mine. Each having poured a bit of themselves into those games and taken a bit of long lasting joy, frustrations and memories away.

/salute you all

[Dillgaar]

Heh, I first grouped up around level 3 in steamfont with a group of gnomes who eventually became what was to be Gnome Force, my first guild...

We hunted kobolds and skeletons and eventually moved to freeport where people ended up going their seperate ways...

I spent weeks in unrest trying to get a full plate of bronze armor... and still remember around level 21 when I was finally awarded my Bronze BP (note this is way back when mino axes were uber weapons and bronze was incredible armor and not vendor trash)... I was the Pumpkin Gnome for a time until my new guild Champions of Brell (all Dwarves and some Gnomes) we started going to places where I began my crafted armor quests... man blue and orange do NOT go well together... but slowly I got my crafted armor and became a blue gnome... I started collecting black armor (no dyes at the time) and for a non rogue it was pretty tough but I eventually got a full suit of black chain/plate armor... got the chain from runnyeye (blackened armor) and the BP from Guk (basalt carapace from a basalt gargoyle). We raided places like mistmoore and derailed many a train, we swept through runnyeye... some of us warriors got together and teamed up for the langseax and langseax of the wolves quests (my first magic weapons) we moved on to Highpass then permafrost and eventually Sol A and B where I ended up with PGT and a Painbringer... man that was a nasty combo... the damage shield from the PGT could have lasted a bit longer however with the aggro I drew with the painbringer...

man cool stuff back then... when kunark was released I was probably 35 or 36 and went with some of my friends/guildies to check it out and got our butts handed to us by venemous lampreys

shortly after when they had the server splits most of my guild left the server (I was away on vacation and didn't go with them) there was a small contingent of us left on the server (Bertoxx) but it wasnt enough and we slowly faded away... I eventually retired that character and started a hobbit druid on another server where I thoroughly explored all that was kunark and when velious was released I trounced around there leaving my mark too... lots of fun and all in the first three expansions...

man... those days are sorely missed at times...