Questions for the OldtimersFollow

Just curious again (mainly because of all the old-world/old school guild talk).

We are talking pre-Kunark here.

What was the max level? 60?

What was the best gear? Celestial Temper stuff like Fierce Heraldic or other cultural tradeskilled?

What were the top 'raid' mobs? Naggy? Vox? any higher?

Did most people run around in Banded or Fine Plate?

What were some of the uber weapons?

bah, Commodore 64's and the gold box AD&D games ruled ;)

a whole new meaning to Loading Please wait....

Emporer Crush was as far as I got the very first time I played EQ. Therefore I declare Emporer Crush was the end game of EQ pre-Kunark.

Yes, original EQ had level cap at 50. Kunark raised it to 60. PoP raised it to 65. OoW raised it to 70.

I started playing when Kunark came out, so not sure how it was before then. But even after Kunark, banded and fine plate were quite uber newbie armor.

PGT (https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=239) was constatnly camped and considered uber for until mid levels.

and for paladin, ghoulbane (https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=345) was uber

during my gimp attemp to learn blacksmith, I earned some silvers tuning rusty weapons for players by reducing the dly by one.


Edited, Wed Jun 15 16:57:36 2005 by Assailant

The original game...

Level cap was 50.

Fine plate didn't exist. Banded was the best trade skill armor out there. For the plate classes, you would eventually get a mixture of bronze and banded armor until you could do you class armor quests (Like crafted for warriors). Heck, the class armor quests were put in since the Rubicite was overpowering and taken out of the game. You didn't see other upgrades until you got your class armor from the Plane of Hate or Fear.

The best buff in the game lasted 28 minutes. There were no group versions of the buffs, so everything was single target casting. Made getting ready for raids impossible.

The "top" warrior would be the one wearing full Indiolcite (sp?) and dual wielding Yaks.

Lower Guk was so crowded with people exp'ing that there would be no mobs up.

There was no "raid" feature. So you had a bunch of groups using /auc, /shout and /ooc to coordinate everything. If you were lucky, you'd be in the "DPS group" on a raid and actually get some really good exp since the exp went to the group that did the most damage and not to the entire raid. If you were in this group, you didn't tell anyone about it since they'd break you up to share the exp.

If you could cast Bind Affinity or SoW, you could make money in a lot of towns by selling these buffs.

If you joined the server when it was new, you only saw your race in the newbie grounds. Gnomes in Everfrost Peaks were a rare sight, as were Barbs in Ak'Anon.

I think Fear and Hate were added to the game, so Naggy and Vox were the top dogs. Heck, just clearing to them was an adventure. After that, Inny and CT were tops.

Faction meant something.

Mention "break into Fear" and watch the old timers shudder. If the break in went poorly, you'd hope and pray that someone else's guild would be kind enough to break it for you, just so you could get your corpse back. A bad wipe at the break in could result in seven hours of trying to get your corpse back.

With /consent, you could loot someone's corpse. It was typical to see messages like "You can have all the cash on my corpse, but leave me my items" or "I'll hold onto your sword as insurance until I get all the items off my corpse".

SSoY (aka Yaks) were uber.

You had Doritos? You must have been a twink.

I had a walrus tooth and I was thrilled to get it, had to pay every pp I had at the time. Though I think that was later than you are talking about, now that I think about it.



Edited, Wed Jun 15 19:23:29 2005 by Kelti

Gonna kind repeat what others have said and add some stuff as well.



Max level as 50.



Depends on the exact time period. The original "uber" armor was Rubicite. The problem with it was that it was "all/all", so everyone wanted it, and it kinda mangled some of the class differences.

They removed rubicite from the game and added the class quests. Yes. I did indeed run around in an almost full set of armor of ro at one point.

There was "planar armor" that you could get from PoH and PoF. These were roughly equivalent to the Kunark armor that came out later. The differences really was that the Kunark stuff had click effects and the planar usually had stats and/or resists. Realize that by stats and resists I mean a piece might have +3 str and +10 CR. That was "uber" back then. And that's what you wore when you raided.



Naggy and Vox were still "top" raid mobs. Added to that were Inny and Cazic in PoH/PoF, with the latter being much tougher IMO.

As others have pointed out, raiding back then was *way* harder then it is today. There was no raid tool or anything, nor were there custom chat channels. In the planes, this didn't matter too much since you were usually the only people there, but it could cause mayhem for folks trying to hunt in the same zones as mobs like Naggy and Vox. Typically, you picked a channel and that was your raid channel. I distinctly remember doing the monk epic bit in LoIO during Kunark (still before raid or channels) and having many of the low level players hunting in the zone (it is a newbie zone for Iksar, right?) yelling for people to "stop spamming the zone in Auction!". Hmmm... Lots of fun back then.

Also, as folks have pointed out, there were no group versions of spells, and they didn't last very long. It wasn't that it was "impossible" to raid buff, it just took a lot of organization. What you did was prep for a fight by rotating groups through a "buffing station". As each group got their buffs, the group logged off and then logged into a chat room that was created for the raid. Once everyone was buffed (including the buff group), you all logged on at the same time, quickly formed up into groups for fighting, and ran in to engage the mob.

Trust me. This was a pain to manage. With some mobs, it could be really tricky to since you had to deal with respawn potentially. Vox was particularly annoying for that since there's no really "good" place to stop outside her lair to do this, and so you had to clear the giants from the door to her lair (including pulling all but her from her lair), then buff/logout, then log in and get to the lair before respawn happened. Getting this "right" often took many attempts, which is why those raids often took 4, 5, 6, or more hours. It wasn't that the fight was long, it was that with the gear of the day, you could not win without as many buffs as possible starting out, and with *no* adds during the fight. Having the right numbers and levels and gear to win the actual fight was really the easiest part. The planning and timing of the prep was the hardest.

Other mobs weren't that bad though. Naggy has that nice hall just outside his lair, so you realy only needed to worry about clearing maybe 5 giants between you and him. The planes had long respawn times on mobs, so once you cleared around your target, you really had all the time in the world to buff and engage. The problem with the planes (as mentioned above) was breaking them. It was ridiculously easy to wipe out just by zoning into the planes back then. PoH required some pretty meticulous clearing around the entry room, then scrambling to various "safe" spots, clearing some more, going up stairs, clearing some more, scrambling to another safe spot, clearing some more... I hated PoH (well named IMO!). Very time consuming, and very exhausting. PoF was just chaotic as hell. Not so time consuming, but if you wiped you *really* wiped. Back then noone had the gear to just break the portal area. You had to do some variant of the "dash to safe spot and camp" break. And that was scary as all hell, and inevitably resulted in hours of CRing after the "break" even if it went well (cause people died all over the place).

Yeah. You had to be organized as all hell to succeed at raiding back then. It was really not just about gear. If the players didn't know what they were doing, and the leaders didn't use just the right tactics, you were in for a world of hurt.



As stated, Fine Plate didn't exist yet. The "best" player crafted armor was banded. And the most common dropped armors were chain and bronze. You could purchase "plate" (regular plate). It sold off merchants and was ridiculously expensive. IIRC, it was no better then bronze. It was a different color though, so if you wanted to show off your twinking money, that was one way to go.

I'd say that prior to mid 20s, most characters were running around in banded/bronze/chain type armors (or equivalent leathers/cloth for casters). In your 20s and 30s, you'd typically work on your class armor, and pick up a few bits pieces as well (there were decent random drops scattered all over the place. You just had to look for them). In your 40s, you started raiding and getting better stuff that way. It was a tough but even progression IMO. It was nothing like today though where you can buy armor 10 times better then I was wearing at level 40 in the bazaar for a hundred plat.



Yaks were popular of course. Bladed Thulian Claws from CT were "uber" as well. At lower levels, the PGT was great. Mino Axes were big and cheap as well (easier to get, and aside from not being magic damage, they were pretty decent). I personally used a PGT, SSoL (shining star of light), and a bullsmasher quite often back then. I picked up a bone bladed claymore from Befallen, then later upgraded to a BIBS (not a BABS, Blacked *IRON* ******* Sword). Crystaline swords were good IIRC. Also, various planar weapons were "uber" as well. I eventually did collect a full set of the PoH pally weapons. Theologian Claymore, Darkmetal Holy Water Sprinkler, and Trueheart Shield. All totally crappy by todays standards (heck, by 4 years ago's standards!), but I keep them around for nostalgia's sake.


Back then, if a weapon had more then a 1/3 ratio it was considered "uber" (little bit higher for 2hers, but not much which was why they sucked for damage). So a 6/22 weapon kicked ***, as did a 15/34 weapon. There were *no* weapons in the game with damage higher then delay back then. Heck. I don't think there were any with damage even half of delay (but I could be mistaken). I just remember when Kunark came out and I picked up an Ornate Runed Blade and a Jagged Blade of Mourning, and thought how nice those were for the relative difficulty.

It was a totally different game.

I don't remember the damage on the Moss-Covered Twig. I just remember it was nerfed in early Kunark because the ratio was overpowering (and for the time it was).

Thanks guys! Excellent perspective of what it was like. Now I see why all those merchants in cities sell 'plate' armor and other stuff. A wee bit anachronistic now. They should have gone out of buisness long ago!

I can also see why it took 30 people to take out Vox or Naggy. We took out Naggy with about two groups in a 5 minute fight. All with decent gear, virtue, kei, (I had full stats and resists with veteran's reward) final fight was a cake-walk (initial clearing was still a pain though).

My warrior had a PGT - still has it, in fact. Must have camped that thing for a week. You couldn't buy one; nobody had that kind of plat.

Met the Findel brothers, Kaganfindel and Rowenfindel, during that camp and remained friends with them until, well, now.

Lol! Yup. I still have mine banked somewhere as well...

That was actually kind of a neat feature of the game back then. Good items were scattered around the game world. With my dwarf paladin, I picked up small Bronze armor in Unrest, as well as jagged bands, bloodstained mantle, and the boots (can't remember name). Wore the spiked collar from Blackburrow (had like +5str or something!). BBC was from Befallen originally, then later got BIBS from Runnyeye. PGT, that shield (can't remember name either), and sharlok pack from HHP. MM shield, electrum bladed watsit, and adamantine epulets from mistmoore. FFBS from Guk (other stuff too!). Claws from CT, and a few other items, but I honestly don't remember most of them anymore. Efreti boots from Naggys lair. Crystaline Sword, and Vox bracers from EP (must have for resists for fighting vox herself back then!). Sheesh. I've forgotten more items and hunting locations then I can remember I'm sure...

The game really did encourage you to travel all over the place exploring and hunting in order to gain a good set of gear. That feel has disappeared a bit IMO. Now, you just buy what you need in the bazaar from 1 to 60ish, and just hunt where you can get the best exp. There are a few spots you'll go for spefic no-drop items you might need (charms and augs mostly), but until you get into raiding, there's really no need to hunt for much of anything. Dunno. It does just seem like more of a grind today. That's honestly probably why I haven't really bothered working up an alt in years. It's just not as much "fun" as it used to be.

I started my EQ addiction on the Brell server in July, 1999. I remember the first mob I killed ( a froglok tad in Innothule Swamp) and the sheer amazement of finding a pair of netted gloves on it as loot after I right-clicked on it's corpse by mistake. And I couldn't understand why the people of Freeport just wanted to beat on my poor troll so badly:(

Looking back, I still recall the feeling of AWE when I met my first player that had, GASP, a surname! And he was wearing full banded! Banded sold for 1 plat per AC. And although I had heard of the amazing Rubicite armour, I had to take about a dozen screen shots of the dwarf that strolled past my group in CT in a full set. Now THAT was GODLY. My crew actually scored a set of Rubi greaves the night before the nerf, and presented me with them then next day. I have them still. Nothing says SEXY like a Troll Mama in hot red pants. As for Uber, I remember having to ask what it meant, it was that new to the /ooc lingo.

One thing peeps of this genre seemed to have forgotten: The cries if "SG! SG!" along the shoreline in OAsis, or even more frightening was the /ooc or /shout of "Lockjaw!!!".

Ahhh, the good old days. I confess, the original release is still my favorite. I love the Old World zones.

What a game!

I remember camping things like the Polished Granite Tomahawk, Crested MM Shield (to replace my Shiny Brass Shield), Dwarven Workboots...and Ghoulbane was the premiere paladin weapon (pre no-drop). I remember that the minotaur caves in Steamfont were always camping. The axes they dropped always sold and were not a bad weapon. I'm not sure if the Hero Bracers came before or after Kunark. The armor was banded, when you could find it {no fancy recipe selection for crafting back then so you'd have to pick up single items from a stack each time you tried a combine....crafting was a lot more tedious in those days. Thus, banded was not readily available. Magic weapons of any kind were not overly common...then again, at that time, many a magician sold Runed Swords for a lot of coin because most people had no concept of "no rent".

You also couldn't buy things from merchants in stacks...had to be purchased one at a time.

On Rallos Zek, the first two months (approximately...was a long time ago) if you killed someone you could loot ALL their items. After that you could loot any single item and all their coin.

One of my favorite aspects of the game back then, was that no matter what server you were one you could just about always play the game with role players. They were plentiful.

Back then if someone told you something cost 10k pp it would have taken 10 minutes to wipe the tears from your eyes and stop the laughing fit. If someone gave you a plat you got excited! (and walked uphill, both ways....oh...wrong story =P)

The thing i remember the most about pre-Kunark, which was the worst aspect of the game back then (imo)...well, let's the just that it took a pally about 3-4 hours to get from Halas to Greater Faydark...and only that quick if you caught the boat just in time. Was Halas - Everfrost - Blackburrow - Qeynos Hills - W Karana - N Karana - E Karana - King Xorbb's Gorge - RV - Kithicor - W Commonlands - E Commonlands - then 2 freeport zones - catch the boat - Ocean of Tears - Butcherblocks and finally to Greater Faydark....back then the druids were all busy soloing, so wasn't easy to find a ride. I didn't get into the high end game (only got to 31st with my pally by the time Kunark came out), but i was WELL travelled. =)