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Kayak

Trakanon Raider
45
18
Where can I go to play something as close to OG EverQuest as possible? Don't care about end game, I just want to experience the first 20 levels in Halas and Kaladim again
TAKP is another nice alternative if you don't want to play p99. It's locked in PoP expansion, you can download the client entirely off their website. I solo box a 65 necro and had no issue finding groups, but know that most people 3 box there.
 
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Maul

Dental Dammer
3,327
10,207
Yeah the sk is working well. Still inferior to warrior in some respects, but I'll probably keep him for the next expansion.
Would that missions achivements have been doable with the warrior over the SK though the way that you did it?

I can't even kill Shei at the moment, but my box crew is only 115 and FTP
 
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Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
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Would that missions achivements have been doable with the warrior over the SK though the way that you did it?

I can't even kill Shei at the moment, but my box crew is only 115 and FTP
Yes. It would've been easier I think. Here's the full breakdown. I also have some other notes on the SK here too: Tuco's Setup (Critique Welcome!) Mk. II

This is the hardest achievements I've boxed live. Took me ~20 attempts over the last couple of weeks. This run was a botched job but a win is a win. I'm glad there is at least one fight in the expansion that requires some effort, though I really dislike fights against mobs that will port and then summon you if you have certain DoTs/Debuffs on them.

Basic strat:
  • DoT, feign death, Call of the Hero (CotH) to kill the illusion mobs
  • Have a mage gate out of instance next to the zone-in NPC
  • Slowly kill the real Jak to minimize image / tiger adds
  • Have the CotH mage zone in after Jak HP locks and summon ASAP after he teleports
  • Haul ass to teleport spot
  • Gate the mage again, repeat.
Things I found that don't work:

  • DoTs on Jak
  • swarm pets on Jak
  • a mage actively casting Host of the Elements on Jak
  • having an aggro over time spell (I unmemmed Parlay for Power in the middle of this run...)
  • having your CotH mage stand on the other side of the city (Images spawn on and attack the mage, this can be handled by having your mage actively running around as they spawn, but they miiiiiight share aggro with Jak even if they despawn without getting near him, making the mage unable to CotH).
I accidentally cast Blood of Tearac on Jak before the first port at 6:19 (I still don't know how this happened, maybe a keybind issue?) which caused him to summon me. I was able to recover by hitting deflection and then bringing my CotH mage over to the shadowknight and popping CotH. I had to do this twice because when I triggered /follow on my boxes they started running crazy which totally derailed my flow. Very sloppy!!

Initially I had a nice multi-macro that used a shadowknight and two mages to kill the three illusions at the start of the encounter. The mages would defensive buff their water pet, pop Frenzied Burnout and send the pet at the Jak illusion while the third mage would cast CotH. This was too unreliable because sometimes the pet would instantly kill Jak and other times it wouldn't kill him before CotH. DoT, FD, CotH using the shadowknight works well enough but isn't as fun or fast.

For a few attempts I would use the bard to pull the thugs away from Jak, CotH the bard and then pull Jak out of line-of-sight of the thug's path. This works sometimes but is unreliable so I just accepted having to tank one thug each time I fought Jak.

Jak's reset time is 40s, so after the third illusion or teleport you've got 40s to re-enage. It takes a little bit of time to CotH, invis up, get /follow working, but I can typically re-engage within this window even on the furthest port spot. The first fight location was on that spot and I got there 30s after the third illusion died. I have my pets attack Jak first so my shadowknight doesn't die while my group is moving in.


High DPS is counterproductive in this mission, so the two mages I have that aren't CotHing are basically useless. I considered swapping one of them for a healer merc. I probably will do that next time. Hell I could probably swap both of them for a player merc and the only time it'd be a problem is on the initial engage when I don't have pets to send in to take the first hit.

I shifted to a shadowknight for this expansion and he's been performing very well, however he is terrible for this mission because of the amount of time he spends being unable to lifetap. Jak spends 100 seconds in an HP locked state twice in the encounter while you have tigers/images/thugs beating on you. You can lifetap the thugs but that makes things awkward for me because my mages want to assist and nuke whatever my shadowknight targets. I didn't use all my defensive cooldowns during this fight, but even if I did I'd still have to spend a considerable amount of time fighting with minimal self-buffs. If I had my previous group with a war + sha + pal I'd probably try to just no-damage tank the adds. Most folks either off-tank or kite the thugs, which is way more reliable than what I did.
 

Kithani

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,032
1,266
Any reason you don’t use MQ2?

Some of the most fun I ever had in EQ was 6boxing using MQ2… so much fun optimizing their scripts and spell sets etc. almost like playing a CRPG on steroids.
 

Zaide

TLP Idealist
3,714
4,337
TAKP is another nice alternative if you don't want to play p99. It's locked in PoP expansion, you can download the client entirely off their website. I solo box a 65 necro and had no issue finding groups, but know that most people 3 box there.
TAKP was honestly so refreshing. The moment you start to log in you realize how authentic it feels. Like by the time I reached character creation I was sold on how great it was. The only downside is that it’s in PoP (I’d prefer a slow roll from classic to PoP over a few years) and that the population is low.
 
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Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
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Any reason you don’t use MQ2?

Some of the most fun I ever had in EQ was 6boxing using MQ2… so much fun optimizing their scripts and spell sets etc. almost like playing a CRPG on steroids.
I've never tried it for two sets of reasons:
  • I think it would remove a lot of the fun I have personally playing the game and would make playing EQ too similar to work (I work as a programmer).
  • I'm worried that I'd get banned and I wouldn't be able to be as public in how I play the game.
I enjoy the amount of micro needed to multibox with ISBoxer, which is sort of between unassisted boxing and macroquest, but if they said that MQ2 usage was fine (which they never will) I maaaaybe might try it out for an expansion.

I didn't watch this vid super closely but I think it illustrates my first set of reasons:

In it, he is fighting a fairly difficult encounter with a lot of dangerous mobs (The lethargy mobs) but is able to just kinda rest his hands behind his head and wait for loot to drop. The prep happens before the fight starts and the characters are executing logic that someone developed, but the actually fight looks super boring. Conversely when I do that encounter I'm extremely active beyond just hitting a bunch of spam buttons to keep my characters acting. He's also glyph'd and I think he has much better gear than me? I don't know, I think he starts the fight with 100k more health than I do, so maybe he's raid geared.

I wish he had a vid of his team doing Cut off the Head, it'd be an interesting comparison to what I do. I've never tried MQ2 so I don't know what prep work is needed for such a goofy fight.
 
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Secrets

ResetEra Staff Member
1,860
1,856
TAKP was honestly so refreshing. The moment you start to log in you realize how authentic it feels. Like by the time I reached character creation I was sold on how great it was. The only downside is that it’s in PoP (I’d prefer a slow roll from classic to PoP over a few years) and that the population is low.
The population being low isn't as bad as it used to be. 400-700 (most of those 300 difference are people raiding) With PoP being the best grind spots now, it's easier to find a key/group than ever before.

Boxing means you'll be able to run druid / mage / x and snare kite nightmare werewolves / valor fiends (once flagged) to catch up in about a week of solid grinding. Druid/Pal(orWar/SK)/Mage is a common setup there. You get Druid with fake CH / snare, Mage with DPS, and x as your tank with lightning reflexes / mit AAs, so you don't have to aggro kite.

I've leveled as a solo beastlord just by casting the disease dot like 4 times, running around in circles, and watching my pet murder mobs. It's stupid but it works.

Once you get your crew up, you can do solo stuff in the previous expansions which just exist as loot pinatas now, excluding VT / NTOV.
 
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gLobal

Trakanon Raider
112
130
So is there any sign at all of a modern EQ game in any form coming? Every so often I login and just run around w/ Selos, on my 72 bard in mostly Planes of Power gear. I miss EQ, but I can't play this. Occasionally give the alternate ruleset servers a go, but nothing sticks.

Ember's Adrift is an interesting (and recently launched) game that gives me the early EQ vibes. They recently had a free weekend, and I picked it up. It's light on the content, but it's scratching my itch for now.

In other news: it looks like EQ gets a UI update this year, and DX 11 porting!

https://assets-cdn.daybreakgames.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/257/961.jpg
 
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DickTrickle

Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
12,758
14,598
Ember's Adrift is an interesting (and recently launched) game that gives me the early EQ vibes. They recently had a free weekend, and I picked it up. It's light on the content, but it's scratching my itch for now.

In other news: it looks like EQ gets a UI update this year, and DX 11 porting!

https://assets-cdn.daybreakgames.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/257/961.jpg
They were talking about the improved UI for last year's roadmap and now they're only committing to a partial uplift... So I'll believe it when I see it.
 
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Zaide

TLP Idealist
3,714
4,337
Apparently RoI lost the expansion race today. First was Silent Redemption and second was Reckless Ascenion.
 
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Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
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Apparently RoI lost the expansion race today. First was Silent Redemption and second was Reckless Ascenion.
It amazes me that DPG doesn't put the effort in to make raid content that isn't iced on first attempts on unlock night.

My recommendation for them, since they couldn't balance a plate on a table, was to take whatever stats they got from their dart board and double them, then drop them by 10% of the base stats each week that a guild didn't kill it. Then when a guild kills it, lock it at that value for three months.
 

Kithani

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,032
1,266
It amazes me that DPG doesn't put the effort in to make raid content that isn't iced on first attempts on unlock night.

My recommendation for them, since they couldn't balance a plate on a table, was to take whatever stats they got from their dart board and double them, then drop them by 10% of the base stats each week that a guild didn't kill it. Then when a guild kills it, lock it at that value for three months.
I think you overestimate the average player in a raid guild outside of the top 5 in EQ although I haven't played in years.

Most people who are still playing have probably been playing for 10+ years, half of them are in their 50s or retired and EQ is basically their social life with raiding being like hanging out with their buddies at the bowling league or whatever. Are people actually asking for harder content? The one time I did play in an expansion that was "hard" (Underfoot) was somewhat miserable wiping to the same 1-2 fights every week because half the guild couldn't get it together.
 
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Ambiturner

Ssraeszha Raider
16,040
19,498
I think you overestimate the average player in a raid guild outside of the top 5 in EQ although I haven't played in years.

Most people who are still playing have probably been playing for 10+ years, half of them are in their 50s or retired and EQ is basically their social life with raiding being like hanging out with their buddies at the bowling league or whatever. Are people actually asking for harder content? The one time I did play in an expansion that was "hard" (Underfoot) was somewhat miserable wiping to the same 1-2 fights every week because half the guild couldn't get it together.

Pretty sure you could make something harder than 1 shotting everything the day it unlocks without it being "miserable"
 
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Zaide

TLP Idealist
3,714
4,337
It amazes me that DPG doesn't put the effort in to make raid content that isn't iced on first attempts on unlock night.

My recommendation for them, since they couldn't balance a plate on a table, was to take whatever stats they got from their dart board and double them, then drop them by 10% of the base stats each week that a guild didn't kill it. Then when a guild kills it, lock it at that value for three months.
I mean multiple top ten guilds wiped on launch day but remember everyone gets to practice these ad nauseum in beta.
 
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hory

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
1,624
3,395
Have the raids changed since underfoot? Move here, do this, dps In between. Bring 90% of the raid the best dps class that expansion the rest clerics and a tank.
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
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EQ is basically their social life with raiding being like hanging out with their buddies at the bowling league or whatever.
This is a good point. Never-the-less I encourage DPG to add challenging group and raid content to give people a reason to grind and sub all year.
 
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Zaide

TLP Idealist
3,714
4,337
I interviewed Quarken from IV/Triality/Realm of Insanity yesterday on my podcast. Check it out, especially if you were active back in the Triality vs CT days it if you played on Vazaelle.

 
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Pharone

Trakanon Raider
1,125
997
I interviewed Quarken from IV/Triality/Realm of Insanity yesterday on my podcast. Check it out, especially if you were active back in the Triality vs CT days it if you played on Vazaelle.

Vazaelle was my home server for many, many years. I recognize all those names.
 
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Mahes

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
4,621
5,217
I interviewed Quarken from IV/Triality/Realm of Insanity yesterday on my podcast. Check it out, especially if you were active back in the Triality vs CT days it if you played on Vazaelle.

Good ole Triality. I was also on Vazaelle back in the day with Eternal Advocates before they moved to WoW.
 
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