--- In
EQ_Necromancer@yahoogroups.com, "Howler D. Wolfe"
<howler@b...> wrote:
> Stuart,
>
> I play DAoC. I quit EQ well over a year ago. Personally, I REALLY
You should log into EQ and see how much it's changed in the last
year.
The interface has gone from one of the worst in online gaming to one
of the best. Windows can be transparent, you can move them and
configure them easily, you can have multiple chat windows and
configure them to each serve specific purposes. Pets no longer take
experience, even if they do the kill alone. You can quickly and
easily get around if you have Planes of Power, as there are Plane of
Knowledge teleport books in every semi-civilized zone. There are
soulbinders, so no hunting for someone to bind you in a new zone.
Raids can now share experience cross-groups. Actually, the number of
changes is so huge that I can't even begin to think of everything.
Oh, and I think the hot spell of the day is only a year old or
so...it's called Kodiak's Endless Intellect, or KEI, and it gives
you sixteen mana per tick plus like 30 INT and WIS. A lower-level
character cannot run out of mana, a mid level character never faces
downtime at all if he's careful, even soloing, and an uber character
has his downtime cut to a fraction, or none if in an effective group.
I dunno if KEI was around more than a year ago, but nowadays there
is /always/ someone casting it for donations in Nexus, so it's at
least gone from nearly unknown to something anyone can get with a
little effort...and it lasts over two hours.
What's more, with the all-download expansion (Legacy of Ykesha)
coming out in a few weeks, you can be a Frogluk, you have SIXTEEN
slots in the bank, there is an automatic (and a manual) mapping
system, you can dye armor SLOTS so that any armor put in it will be
the color you like to wear. There is a new item slot called Charms,
and a charm is a special kind of magic item which changes according
to circumstances, like growing more powerful for each of a certain
kind of armor you wear (like gaining HP for each piece of plate you
equip), or other things like growing more powerful the more PP you
are carrying.
Lee's see...you were around for Luclin, which probably is what drove
you away, but they fixed every single bug from back then. Zoning is
faster, and messages are never lost during zone, they queue up and
you see them after you get through.
They've put out two stable, very useful expansions in just four
months, too.
In effect, once Verant ceased to exist and it became officially
Sony, it seems they got ten times the development quality and funds,
and it's gone from an annoying game to being as good as anything out
there.
But for the coming expansion, the Frogluks have taken over my
original home town of Grobb, now known as Gukta, and the Trolls have
been relegated to hanging out in the foreign quarter of Neriak until
the new Troll city is built with the new expansion. That one thing
really annoys me.