What follows are the highlights of my existence in EQ, which started over a
year ago. It's been an interesting journey.
I installed EQ during a lull in my consulting gig. Instead of staring at
the television screen all day, I thought perhaps I could stare at my
computer screen instead. I decided I'd get into one of these online
role-playing games. My first thought was to install Ultima Online - I'd
been part of their beta, after all. Also I'd received a free CD when Origin
sent out replacement CD's to all the people unfortunate enough to have
purchased Ultima:Ascension. However, when I went to install the software, I
found that somehow the CD had been broken in two. Oops.
I researched the online games a bit. At the time, UO was rife with Player
Killers - something I'd experienced in the beta. My personal preference is
that I don't enjoy causing other players grief, and don't much enjoy
receiving said grief. So I went to the store and bought Everquest, packaged
with the Ruins of Kunark expansion. I chose not to buy the Scars of Velious
add-on, since it was geared towards higher-end players and I was just
starting out.
I installed it and went through the process of creating a character. My
favorite kind of character has always been a wizard-type, casting spells of
destruction, etc. So I chose a Wizard. I scrolled through the various
races, and Dark Elfs started with the highest intelligence. I read their
description of being an evil race, but I figured I would role-play a Dark
Elf who wanted to be good. I named this character Sterman.
I spent the next two days struggling with my video settings. I would get
lockups whenever I changed resolution - for example, when I opened my
spellbook. I eventually got this working by locking screen resolutions,
which meant that the spell book was somewhat tiny when I opened it. (Long
term, a later release of my video drivers fixed the problem entirely).
Anyway, for those two days my wizard stood near the caster's guild in
Neriak. For hours while I struggled with this problem I heard the sound of
NPC's casting spells over and over again in a cavernous environment, which
was somewhat creepy.
Finally, I got moving. I turned in my note, got a couple of spells, and
went exploring. I wandered all around Neriak for an entire day, just trying
to find the way out. I saw other players running about, doing mysterious
tasks I couldn't even fathom. Finally, I worked up the courage to ask a
passer-by how to get outside, and he kindly showed me the way.
Merrily, I began killing things and dying. Dying a *lot*. I didn't know
you could loot your corpse, so my corpses littered the landscape. I found a
log where a bunch of other new characters hung out - dubbed the "Newbie
Log" - and used that as my base of operations. I quickly discovered how
boring medding was, but someone gave me a two-handed staff that I could use
to bludgeon things. With lots of dying, I managed to collect a few levels.
Quite often I would run back to Neriak to sell stuff, but the measely copper
and silver wasn't nearly enough to buy all the spells and armor and weapons
I lusted after.
Soon I discovered that if I collected bone chips, higher-level characters
would pay 2pp - two entire platinum pieces! - per stack of twenty. This
became my way of making money. Once, someone advertised from the zone line
to East Commons that they would pay *five* plat per stack. I sold her two
stacks and was in heaven.
I got root at level 4. This seemed like an exciting spell - I could root
the mob, run a safe distance away, then nuke it in comfort. Excited, I
decided I had to try it. I never did like that Priest of Discord anyway,
and he ought to have good loot. So I carefully positioned myself, and cast
Root.
This incident led to several "firsts" for me:
First time a mob *resisted* a spell I cast.
First time someone tried to locate my corpse with a spell.
First time I had to use /petition.
First time I talked with a guide as he pulled my corpse from underneath the
world. (The guide was actually very nice and explained to me that I
shouldn't be going about attacking NPC's like that at my level. Lesson
learned.)
At about level seven I ventured out into East Commons. The first thing I
came across were two empty huts with a banner proclaiming PLAGUE. I stayed
well away, convinced that I would die if I went near. I managed to run into
a lioness that quickly killed me. By this time I had figured out that whole
corpse looting thing, so I managed to recover my items. I had "learned"
early to keep most of my money in the bank, since at first I thought you
lost everything on you when you died. I ventured into Freeport, anxious to
see what goodies I could buy there.
I was quickly disillusioned. No one would sell to me. I went from store to
store, and no merchant would give me the time of day. I poked about,
morose. I went to East Freeport and stuck my head into a bar near the
docks.
"You Dark Elves have ruined your own lands, you won't ruin mine!"
And here I am back in Nek Forest. Hmm.
At first, I thought that insult was tailored towards Dark Elves - after all,
Nek Forest is constantly dark; that could fit the definition of 'ruined'. I
was slightly disappointed to hear the same thing said to everyone - even
humans trying to get into Neriak.
Anyway, the death in the dockside bar constituted my first really tricky
corpse run. I hadn't yet learned the nuances of the /corpse command.
(Nuances, heck; I didn't even know how to use it.) So I crept very very
slowly and carefully up to my corpse, looted it, and ran away. Whew!
My dreams of playing a "good" Dark Elf dashed, I soon gave up on Freeport. I
wondered if people in Rivervale were nicer. The map of Norrath that came
with the box showed Rivervale somewhere west of Freeport. I started by
trying to find my way across the deserts of South Ro. At first I joined a
Derv group there, but after the first kill I got no XP. I asked why, they
asked me what level I was... end of story. I was too low to get XP from
them. I voluntarily disbanded and contented myself with exploring. That
was *very* scary - my experiences in the dockside bar had made timid and
frightened. I kept running from monsters that weren't chasing me. And yet,
I was curious... I saw a strange structure, poked my head inside, and got
creamed by a drybone skeleton in less than a second. I ended up abandoning
that corpse altogether since I didn't know where it was exactly, and was
afraid to go looking for it.
I extracted some of the money I had in the bank and bought new equipment,
then decided to try Rivervale another way - through West Commonlands first.
I found the zone line and entered Kithicor Forest. At night. I tried
creeping along the walls watching all the scary zombies and things walking
about. Finally, one noticed me. WHAM! Dead wizzie.
I was positively grim; I didn't want to lose this corpse. I ran to the zone
line, then sent out a plaintive /ooc, asking if someone could help me find
my corpse. A twentyish bard (20! My goodness, that seemed so high)
answered my call and ran into Kithicor - still at night. She found my
corpse and dragged it to the zone line, commenting how scary it was for her,
too. I thanked her profusely and offered her some of my hard-earned gold,
which she refused. Even early on, I found nice people.
I also found not-so-nice people. I settled down for a bit and tried to just
gain more levels - first in Orc camps in EC, then moving on to WC. It was
difficult to find groups. At one point I teamed up with a Necromancer. It
was obvious that she knew how to play the game. Heck, she even belonged to
a guild! (As a side note, I found some of the guild names quite humorous,
especially "Cats in Hats", which made me chuckle when I first saw it.) She
led me from place to place - WC was very crowded that day - and we'd take
down a mob or two. At one point, a high-level player - a 50ish shaman - ran
by us, a skeleton chasing him. The skeleton ran directly into the necro and
began attacking her. We fought it down and killed it. Meantime, the 50
shaman came back and started yelling at us. Believe it or not, he was
accusing us of *kill-stealing* from him. He was *pulling* the mob; how dare
we take it from him! The necro and I tried to explain what happened. I
told him it had attacked us and we were merely defending ourselves. His
response: "Defend *this*", followed by "A_50_Shammy has challenged you to a
duel!" The necro happened to be in his guild and tried to settle it in
guildchat. Nothing came of it; he never apologized to us or withdrew his
accusation of kill-stealing. Eventually, he organized a raid of some sort
(which, to this day, I can't figure out - what raids get organized in WC?)
and left the zone.
The incident left me slightly hurt. 50+ people were gods to me. Is that
how they all behaved? Was I so far below them that I was beneath contempt?
Morose, I logged for the day.
Eventually Sterman reached double-digits. I was having a hard time finding
groups, so I solo'd a lot. I ventured into Lavastorm and began fighting
mobs there. Every once in a while I'd see a bunch of gods - er, 50+ folks -
organize a Naggy raid. I *so* wanted to go even though I knew it would be
many, many levels before I could.
In the meantime, I had started to form tentative friendships with other
people playing Dark Elf necros and Wizards. Eventually, one of them decided
to form a Dark Elf guild. He invited me into the guild. I accepted,
curious to see what a guild was all about. We only had a few members and
didn't actually do much - mostly it was a way to say hi and to ask
questions, which I found very useful.
As Sterman, I was getting frustrated. Soloing wasn't appealing to me... I
had to spend too much time medding between kills, which was very boring.
That spellbook graphic isn't very appealing. And no one wanted a wizard in
their group - I could advertise for hours and get nothing.
However, all the time I saw, "Orc group needs healer" or "Any clerics LFG?".
I decided that this was the way to go - as a cleric, I'd find all the groups
I wanted.
So I went back to the character creation screen. I chose "Cleric" for
class. My experiences trying to buy from the merchants in Freeport
convinced me that I wanted to be a human - after all, everyone likes humans,
right? And, finally, I scrolled through the list of gods and decided Rodcet
Nife was the best cleric god. I named him Monual and started off in Qeynos.
I spent the first couple of hours running about Qeynos, figuring out where
everything was. I'd just gotten used to Neriak and felt completely out of
place in this new city. However, by this time I had found maps online and
had printed a few out to help me navigate. Once I had my newbie spells
scribed, I began from scratch - Sterman was still relatively poor anyway. I
wacked newbie mobs. I actually learned my first monster spawning lessons
there. Kill a kliknik warrior, get a kliknik princess. Kill the princess,
get a prince. Kill the prince, get... the kliknik Queen! Scream and run to
the guards. Watch them kill the Queen, then start over.
I also learned the value of farming certain mobs. I killed all gnoll pups I
saw because they dropped money. All I wanted was enough to buy food and
water and start saving for spells. All my equipment was from what was
dropped by the newbie mobs - mostly cloth.
I did do one quest - Nerisa Clothspinner wanted me to take something to her
sister, waaaaay over in East Karanas. So I did, carefully running over
these *huge* zones. I found her sister, handed her the item - and watched
helplessly as she was killed by a Corrupt Guard of Qeynos. That made me sad
and angry - I was the one that had brought this on her. I vowed that when I
got to be higher level, I'd come back, repeat the quest, and this time save
Nerisa's sister.
Monual quickly rose through the early levels as I did less exploring and
more leveling. However, after I got my level nine spells, I decided I
wanted to go somewhere else. I read some online strategies and discovered
that the Field of Bone in Kunark was considered a good place for a low-level
cleric - lots of undead to use my undead nuke on. So my mind made up, I
bought my level 14 spells and stuffed them in a backpack, made the long walk
to Freeport - getting thoroughly lost in Highhold Pass, waiting until
daylight to cross Kithicor - then boarded a boat to Butcherblock. I did
very limited exploring there, then boarded one of the shuttles that would
take me to the boat to Firiona Vie. I waited, unsure if I was at the right
place. Then I saw one of the *other* shuttles begin to move. In a panic, I
ran towards it, jumped off the dock, missed the shuttle, and watched from
the water as the shuttle I *had* been waiting on began to move as well. Oh
well. I went back to the docks and began the long, long wait for the next
boat.
Eventually I made it to FV. I got bound near the bank, consulted my map,
and began happily running towards the Swamp of No Hope. I saw my first
Frogluk. It saw me, too. It was level 40; I was level 9.
Back by the bank, I ran towards where I thought my corpse was. I didn't get
nearly that far. A third time, a third death. Finally, a ranger saw me and
dragged all my corpses to me. She then buffed and camo'd me. I thanked her
profusely and chose another path - up the river. Camo dropped right as a
spider appeared before me. Another scary corpse run, then, finally, I zoned
into the Swamp of No Hope. Except now I had lost a level.
SoNH was much less difficult to cross. I crept close to Cabalis, wondering
if I could go inside. I had learned, however, how to /con monsters, and the
guards definitely hated me. So I gave it a wide berth and zoned into the
Field of Bone. A passing Necro was kind enough to bind me in the area
surrounding Kaesora. I had arrived.
The next few levels were very pleasant for me. FoB proved to be a good
leveling experience. I found the ramp into the pit that was closest to
Cabalis - dubbed the Newbie Ramp - and started killing mobs. Very often I'd
find myself running with a bunch of mobs after me and zoning inside Kaesora.
Sometimes I'd find scary ghosts waiting for me inside and I'd have to zone
out. Sometimes I'd have to ping-pong back and forth until either one of the
mobs wandered away or I died.
But that didn't happen very often, and the XP was easy for me. I got to
know the other newbie Iksar, and they got to know me - a low-level human in
Kunark was definitely an oddity, especially since it was clear I was
untwinked. And since my heals were much better than shaman heals, I was
soon sought-after for heals and buffing. I got lots of SoWs in return. As
I surpassed double digits I started exploring Kurn's Tower and killing the
undead inside. I even began forming groups with all the Iksar folks. This
sometimes led to some humorous roleplaying as the Iksar would chew on my
legs between pulls, etc. I was still learning about how to be in a group -
I'd wade into battle with the rest of them, only healing after the battle or
if someone was about to die. Usually we had a lot of downtime between pulls
anyway as the necros and wizzies medded, so I had no concerns about mana
management. But I did discover how good groups could be at killing yellow
mobs. Red were still a bit much.
Overall, my adventures in the Field of Bone really hooked me into EQ. I was
finding real fun in finding a place for myself in a virtual world. People
were glad to see me and sought me out for groups. And it felt *good* to
heal folks. They were usually grateful and helped me out in other ways -
like trading gold and plat for my silver and copper, since I couldn't bank,
or buying food for me, since I couldn't go shopping. It truly felt like a
cooperative venture, people from all around the world getting together to
make EQ fun for everyone. I was officially addicted.
I had two very high moments. One was when someone began roleplaying in
/ooc, sniffing and talking about where that human stench was coming from. I
found it amusing - as I'm sure it was intended - and laughed in /ooc. Other
people began talking in /ooc - "Hey, leave Monual alone, he's cool." Man,
that felt good to hear. Another time, just as I was beginning to think of
moving on, I ran up to the newbie ramp to see an Iksar shaman pounding on a
bandit. I targeted the shaman and saw that he was down to a sliver of
health. I immediately began throwing heals at him as fast as I could.
Eventually he killed the bandit and turned towards me and was *very*
grateful. He gave me a SoW and offered me free SoW's for life. That gave
me warm fuzzies.
I decided that the SoW was a sign from Rodcet. I camped, then the next day
logged on and used the SoW to run out of FoB and back to FV. I made it
without a death and caught a boat back to Freeport. I spent the next couple
of levels in the deserts of Ro and the Oasis. I had a couple of memorable
groups - one with a Dark Elf necromancer that was very good at roleplaying.
She kept muttering about "Silly humans" and making disparaging but humorous
remarks about the rest of the party. Another time, I was in the Oasis with
a group of people a few levels above me, but not so much that I didn't get
XP. Level 19 was approaching, and I was whining in the group that I didn't
have any plat for my spells, much less even being able to think about
getting equipment upgrades. Then, out of the blue, one of the other group
members gave me a Serrated Bone Dagger. I was positively stunned. I
couldn't thank him enough. After the group I ran back to Freeport and
started experimenting with /auction. It took a while, but I finally sold
the SBR for 300 plat - a fortune! That was more money than I had ever
dreamed of making. I used 85 of it to buy a Screaming Mace. And I still
had over 200 plat left! Wow!
I made some other armor purchases, including getting some player-made banded
to replace all my cloth. Now I felt like I was something other than a
complete noob - I had armor, I had a leet weapon, I was ready to go.
I decided to run back to Qeynos so I could buy my level 19 spells once I
dinged - it didn't occur to me that I could buy spells at the Freeport
cleric's guild. I used my new bind spell liberally, scared to death of
dying in the middle of nowhere, but I managed to make it back without a
death.
Back in Qeynos, I began my Blackburrow levels. I was introduced to the
concept of *trains* - large numbers of mobs appearing suddenly in front of
me. Not a fun experience. Again, I mostly soloed. I loved my Screaming
Mace and the Yaulp procs. As the upper mobs began to con green to me, I
delved deeper inside. I joined a couple of groups, which still consisted
mostly of "everyone rush the mob". Finally I dinged 19 and ran back to
Qeynos for my new spells.
I needed a new place to hunt. I briefly ventured back to Kunark and fought
in the Lake of Ill Omen, but didn't care for it much. I did get to
experience Wolf Form for the first time in one Goblin Mine group, which was
very fun. It was there that I chose my last name. After much thought, I
chose "Lifegiver", thinking it fit in nicely with my god and class. Alas, I
was soon to find out how unoriginal the name was - I've met no less than
five other "family members" with my same last name. Ah well. Anyway, LoIO
was too crowded and noisy. So I went back to Qeynos and, after consulting
some maps and online guides, decided to give South Karanas a try.
SK mostly consisted of camping the gnoll spires in groups. I did spend some
time soloing the Hermit, but he turned green quickly. I also began to learn
the concepts of playing a role in a group - that is, it was my duty to buff
and heal and to stay out of combat most of the time. This also was the
first time I began to earn serious - for my level - cash from a camp. Fine
steel weapons worth 2, 3, or even *4* plat each! I actually started
accumulating wealth. An enchanter jeweler set up shop in the zone, and I
used my hard-earned cash to buy WIS earrings from him. For the first time,
I was thinking about building up my Wisdom, and getting the equipment to do
that.
While SK wasn't as fun as FoB, it was steady experience. Eventually I
started moving into Splitpaw, and had my first encounter with - *gasp* -
Breeze! A spell that helps me regain mana! I boggled at the thought. I
also saw my first macros - "Mob is slowed" "Player is healed". I found them
annoying. I was wishing they would stop cluttering up groupsay with those
useless comments.
I also spent some time in other places - Unrest was creepy, but too
dangerous, too many trains. On my way to Unrest, though, I wandered through
Butcherblock Mountains, eventually coming across the chessboard. All the
mobs were green, but I wanted to try fighting them anyway. There was a
group camped there, so I asked if I could pull one mob for fun. They were
medding, so they were fine with it. In fact, they moved closer to me to
watch as I soloed three mobs. That was my first experience with "uberness",
and it was a heady feeling.
I was within shouting distance of thirty, so I broke down and bought Scars
of Velious. I wish I'd purchased it right away - the new interface was
simpler to use and looked a lot better. 1024x786, woot! At level 28 I
decided to take a raft to Iceclad Ocean. Then it was a scary run avoiding
wolves, giants, and those scary-looking dervishes. I had maps, so I knew
where to go, sort of. I ran across Eastern Wastes, then into the Great
Divide and into Thurgadin, all without dying. A far cry from my first run
across FV.
I explored Thurgadin, talking to everyone. I went into the castle and
talked to lots of folks there, too. There seemed to be a lot of quests I
could undertake if I wanted to. I ignored it all and finally went out into
the Great Divide and did an /ooc 28 Cleric LFG. Silencio. I tried soloing
Tizmaks and they were difficult but doable.
I decided to wait until I was truly 30 and come back. Back to SK, and there
I dinged 29. Finally, I could Revive! No experience returned, of course,
but at last I was getting a taste of what people really like clerics for. In
one instance, a guy from a husband-and-wife duo asked me for a revive for
his wife. I warned him that it was no XP, but that was fine with him, as
his wife was bound waaay back in Lesser Faydark. So I cast Revive, and the
wife was ecstatic. She did a whole series of emotes, from /kneel to /hug,
which made me feel warm inside.
Armed with my new 29th level spells, I decided to brave Velious again. In
Iceclad Ocean I met a guy named Uhrlastrator who invited me into a group.
Together with another guy, we began attacking mobs from the bridge in
Eastern Wastes. The first few were all right, then we got a griffin that
killed Uhrl quickly as I ran to the zone. Uhrl took it in good humor (he
took *everything* in good humor). He showed me the Ulthork Tree, a place
where many folks pulled to when hunting in Eastern Wastes.
I went to Thurgadin and bound there, then started participating in Tizmak
groups. These guys were easy experience and they spawned quickly. I shot
through 29 and hit 30, the first of the so-called "hell" levels. It wasn't
so bad, though; I shot through 30 merrily killing Tizmaks. In one of the
first groups I was in, Yaka Razerhoof spawned and dropped a Velium Etched
Stone Mace, a significant upgrade to my Screaming Mace. I was awarded it
outright, my first experience with "Need Before Greed". Again, I was happy.
Once, while participating in a Tizmak group, I suddenly got an invite to
join a guild. I blinked at it; I hadn't been planning on joining any
guilds. I had a vague notion of being a "free agent" for my entire EQ
existence. I let the invitation die without accepting it. The guy in my
group who was inviting me said, "Go ahead, you can always leave if you don't
like it" and invited me again. This time I clicked yes. Thus I joined the
Knights of the Wolfpack.
Here I met many folks who would become long-time EQ friends. Uhrlastrator,
Kayia, Liba, Dayrok, and many others. A bunch of people in their 30's and
40's, a lot of them druid and rangers. I got to know Kayia pretty well; she
was very helpful with the many things I was trying to do.
I had also begun to learn the value of macros and messages - the very same
messages I had scoffed at during my groups in Splitpaw. I now had messages
that said "Feel the healing light of Rodcet Nife" and the like. I also
learned how to "fizzle-proof" my macros, which helped quite a bit. I was at
last feeling quite comfortable with hotkeys and macros and all the little
things you could do with the interface to make things easier.
My thirties was when I started seriously questing. I stared on my Coldain
Shawl, which required much farming. Kayia and others in the KotW helped me
kill griffins in Eastern Wastes so I could get three eggs. Also, while
perusing online sources to find good armor, I found the Aegis of Life quest.
All I needed to do was kill the live and undead version of Lord Grimrot that
spawned in SK and I'd get a +10 WIS shield! Wow, that would be easy!
This was my first long, long camp. The placeholder for Lord Grimot would
spawn every four hours. I spent days, weeks, running by the spawn site,
sitting and waiting, gathering not much in the way of XP. Finally, I got
the undead version. I thought it was the placeholder - a putrid skeleton -
so when I clicked on it and saw "Lord Grimrot" I shouted excitedly in
/guildchat. I solo'd him and just about died. But he died first, and I had
the first part of my quest. Live Grimrot came a few days later, with me
shouting "OMG" into guildchat and begging for people to come help. This is
where I found a guild very useful; two guildmates immediately told me they
were on their way. Meantime, a high-level Necromancer started sniffing
around Live Grimrot, which sent me into a panic. I offered to pay him 100
plat (all that I had on me, and just about my entire net worth) if he'd help
me kill Grimrot. After a couple of responses along the lines of "You know
how rare this guy is, right?" he accepted. I buffed his pet, and together
we took down Lord Grimrot easily. I thanked him, apologized to and thanked
my guildmates who had just arrived at the camp, rushed back to Qeynos,
worked on my faction, and got my Aegis of Life. My first major quest, my
first major reward. I was on cloud nine.
This highlighted how helpful people can be in EQ. Another example was when
I was duoing with Kayia near the Ultree in EW. I died while she was
battling linkdeath, and I had forgot to bind myself in Thurg - I was in FV,
of all places. This was late at night; no clerics were available to rez.
However, a druid there - Coffeemilk, I still remember his name - offered to
come pick me up in Butcherblock and gate me to Iceclad. So I boarded the
boat to Butherblock... and my computer crashed just as the boat was zoning
into the Ocean of Tears. I ended up all the way back in FV. I told
Cofeemilk to forget it, I'd find my own way, no need to keep waiting. On
his own, and over my protest, he gated to the Dreadlands - a quite dangerous
place for a mid-30's druid like himself. He ran to the FV zone line where I
met him. He gated me to Iceclad Ocean - where, as irony would have it, a
rez pop-up box appeared in front of me. That didn't diminish my gratitude
in the slightest, and I forced some plat on him even when he didn't want it.
Yet another example: Once while I was in Thurgadin, I decided to explore
Icewell Keep very thoroughly. I saw the "ice well" itself and saw that it
dropped a fair distance straight down. Curious, I cast Divine Aura and
jumped down. I was immediately attacked by all sorts of scary-looking
monsters. With my invulnerability still going, I ran blindly, hoping to
find a zone line nearby. All I found were more mobs. I did see some
dwarves, and I ran to them, thinking they'd save me. Alas, they shouted
"Intruder!" and attacked me. Divine Aura faded and I died.
A passing druid responded to my plaintitive pleas for help. She gave me
levitation and invisibility. I floated down the ice well, carefully
drifting to one side as I cleared the bottom so I wouldn't land on any
monsters. Very cautiously, staying well away from any mobs, I crept towards
my corpse. Once, while contemplating a monster that looked like a skeleton
trapped inside a giant ice cube, it suddenly started moving. My heart
literally lurched; I thought I was dead again. But the mob was simply
beginning a patrol route and rolled right past me. After it was well away
and my heart had stopped beating so quickly, I got my corpse and dragged it
down an empty tunnel. Quickly I looted it and gated. I thanked the druid
profusely, who had stayed grouped with me during the whole corpse run and
had sent me encouraging messages. I was grateful for both; that was the
scariest corpse run I would ever go on.
As I rose through my thirties, I did other camps. At 34 I got Superior
Heal; in my first group hunting giants in Rathe Mountains, I was stunned by
how much health it restored. So was the warrior in the group, who had never
had SHeal cast on him before. I also soloed Cynthia in the Gypsy Camp
there. It was pretty easy... I'd buff myself up, med, root and nuke her
until she was dead, heal my wounds, then med until she popped again. Steady
experience for a level or two. It also proved to be the last time I would
solo for XP.
I keep mentioning Kayia, and for a reason: because I wasn't keeping regular
hours (I was eternally on the bench and only needed to carry a phone to pull
a paycheck), I was often up late at night and into the wee morning hours.
Kayia played these hours, too, since she worked second shift. So quite
often we'd hook up; she'd pull ulthorks in EW or giants in the Burning Woods
and I'd sit back and heal her. Sometimes we'd have other people with us;
sometimes it would be just the two of us. It was always fun to group with
her. She was easy-going and friendly. Once we decided to go hunting giants
in Everfrost. These giants hit pretty hard and had a lot of hitpoints, so I
had to manage my mana carefully. I'd wait until Kayia was at about 20%
health, then I'd cast Complete Heal on her. I had a Complete Heal macro key
bound to the 8 key on my keyboard. Alas, one time when I stood up to CH
Kayia, instead of hitting the 8 key I pressed the alt key and hit the 8 key,
thus casting the spell that was in my eighth spell gem.
I gated away.
Absolute horror washed over me as I saw "LOADING, PLEASE WAIT" appear on my
screen. After I finished zoning I sent frantic messages to Kayia, praying
she wasn't dead. Thankfully she was fine; after I gated, she snared the
giant and made an easy escape. She wasn't angry at all and actually found
the whole episode amusing, which helped my state of mind considerably. I
was even able to reflect that I had found the ultimate mana-management
technique: wait until the tank is low on health, then gate away.
I'd been reading up on my epic, and with Kayia's help, I began camping Lord
Bergurgle deep beneath Lake Ratheater. This camp I couldn't solo, since I
didn't have any Enduring Breath items. (I made a couple of attempts for
camp the Fishbone Earring, but it was overcamped and twelve hours was too
long to wait between spawns.) So I needed someone who could cast Enduring
Breath, and Kayia proved a willing helper. We spent hours and hour, days
and days, swimming underwater, killing Lord Bergurgle's placeholder over and
over again. Once he popped, but nearly killed us. We ran to the surface,
healed and rebuffed ourselves, but he despawned before we could get back to
him. When he finally spawned again, we went back to the surface to buff
ourselves to the max, then med. Kayia then went below, pulled him up, and
we then proceeded to kill him. The we killed the fire spirit nearby and I
went to Ocean of Tears to make the first turn-in. I'd done the first part
of my epic and I wasn't even 40 yet.
Thirty-nine was a big turning point; I had my first XP-giving ressurection
spell. I started getting tells asking for rezzes, making me feel important.
After I turned 40, Kayia guided me to the Dreadlands. I got into a couple
of groups, but I found the XP to be dreadfully slow. So I proceeded into
Karnor's Castle. While most folks were a few levels above me, I found no
trouble finding a group and settling in for good experience.
This was the beginning of a trend for me: going into zones that are
nominally too high for me. While I couldn't do much to the mobs, the
players could still use my buffs and heals. The most extreme example of
this is when I zoned into Velk's Lab - a 50-60 zone - at 45. I did a "/ooc
45 Cleric over his head LFG". This generated laughter - and an invite to
join a group in the Safe Hall. That was fun... VL was an interesting zone
to poke around in. At one point, a fighter just joining the group asked for
Heroic Bond. I told him I didn't have that spell. He said, all right,
gimme Heroism then. I had to give him Resolution as the rest of the group
chuckled. Still, I was bolstered by what one of the other group members
said after the laughter: "Monual's only 45 but a damn fine cleric."
Karnor's proved to be fruitful, as well as Lower Guk. After getting
hopelessly lost in Guk a few times, I learned how to get back and forth with
relative ease. Undead frogs were easy to nuke, and my Invisibility to
Undead spell made it easy to get to LGuk's Safe Hall. I spent a lot of time
in the Frenzy camp, not just trying to get a Flowing Black Silk Sash but
also just to make XP. Others from my guild often came with me. Kayia,
kiting ranger that she was, was amazed by how good XP was in LGuk. In one
group I was in, two FBSS's dropped in ten minutes. I managed to snag one,
and had my first piece of "uber loot". I ended up selling it to a guildmate
at a deep discount, but that was all right.
Perhaps the worst thing that happened to me during this time was my foray
into the sewers in KC. We went down below - and got wiped. I tried to
recover my corpse - and died, over and over and over again. In retrospect,
I should have waited for help to arrive. In the end, I managed to recover
my equipment - and lost about thirty blue bubbles of XP. I was very very
angry, at myself and at EQ in general. I didn't return to the sewers until
I was 58, by which time the mobs were pathetically easy. I still felt
uneasy down there, the memories still painful.
My mid-to-late forites was when I was beginning to accumulate serious cash.
I bought better and better armor, slowly pushing my wisdom towards 200. As
a human, of course, I had a longer way to go than anyone else. I also
wanted Traveller's Boots, because I was tired of running so slowly across
big dangerous zones. A troll shaman in our guild - Aziti - made cheap SoW
potions for me, which helped. But I had to use those sparingly, and of
course they didn't help at all when I had to make a long corpse run. So,
slowly, I put together 8,000 platinum pieces and then pushed on into
Solusek's Eye. I bought the TBoots, and now had a right-click effect that
allowed me to run faster - not as fast as SoW, but good enough.
Once, I traveled back to Qeynos an redid the Nerissa Clothespinner quest.
This time when the corrupt guard appeared to kill her sister, I intervened
and killed him instead. Nothing special happened, but I felt deeply
satisfied. Vengeance was mine.
For Knights of the Wolfpack, however, things were not looking good. Our
leader had decided to quit EQ. He'd passed the reins on, but that person
decided he didn't want to be guildleader any more. Lots of confusing things
happened, but in the end, one of the dynamic forces in our guild got so
frustrated that he left and decided to form his own guild. One by one a lot
of the (relatively) high-level folks in our guild left as well. With all
the confusion in the guild leadership, I decided to leave the guild myself.
It was a very painful decision for me.
I ended up joining the new guild: Lords of Honour. We were mostly a bunch
of people around level 50. Our leader seemed very motivated to having us
experience much of the high-end game. It seemed an exciting time.
I was still interested in my epic, so in my high 40's, after a failed
attempt to raid the Efreeti in Nagafen's Lair with my new-found guild, I
persuaded a few of my guild members to take down the Plasmatic Priest. That
was a very fun battle. I pulled the PP to the zone line - Divine Aura
coming in very handy - then had my waiting party attack him. It was a long,
tough battle, and I ran out of healing mana at the end, but we got him.
Thus energized, I decided to organize an Ixiblat Fer raid. I posted all
over the boards for a pick-up Ixi raid, then went from zone to zone /ooc'ing
for help. I actually took some heat for this, as a brand-new person in a
guild asking for help with an epic mob. The timing, I will now admit, was
bad. It just happened to coincide that my desire to complete the next step
in my epic matched up with the time I joined the guild. I certainly didn't
join the guild expecting it to drop everything and help me. If I sound
defensive, well, it still hurts a little to think of the backlash I received
over that. One guy in particular gave me lots of grief, and we argued for
hours in /tells that unfortunately bled over into /guildchat. Eventually we
made up, but it certainly wasn't a good first impression. I was fortunate
that a lot of people knew me from Knights of the Wolfpack and knew I wasn't
the epic-hungry loot whore I appeared to be. There was even a
counter-backlash against the guy who'd given me grief in guildchat, which I
did my best to ameliorate. I didn't want any festering conflict; yet at the
same time, it was good to know that there were people who were still behind
me. Anyway, lots and lots of people came to my pick-up raid. A huge
number, actually. One guild member - Aenene - even got a group of 60th
level folks to come. We ended up with eight groups and still some left
over. Needless to say, Ixiblat Fer was easily dropped. I was now
two-thirds of the way through my epic, and still not level 50.
Very late one night, hunting with some of my guildmates, I hit level 49.
This is known as the point where a cleric enters "tell hell", as I now had a
90% rez available. Excitedly I memorized it, very glad that I would never
had a serious XP loss after death again. Not ten minutes after I dinged 49,
I got a tell offering me 500pp if I would come to the Ocean of Tears to rez
someone. Alas that I was grouped and couldn't take advantage of the offer,
but I knew that I Had Arrived as a cleric on Drinal.
I had thought that with my new rez, I'd finally be able to make a reliable
income. I went to Eastern Wastes - a zone I was very familiar with by now -
and advertised that I would rez for plat. I soon got a tell, rezzed the
person, collected my plat - and felt mildly slimy. Part of why I'd come to
like my cleric is that it felt good to help people. The echos of the Iksar
shaman's gratitude as I healed him on the newbie ramp in FoB still resonated
in my virtual soul. I simply couldn't go around charging people for rezzes.
I left EW and, from that point forward, never charged for rezzes again. I
would actively refuse compensation, cancelling trades and all that. Every
once in a while someone would be very insistent, and then I would accept
because I didn't want to be rude. But for the most part, that money-making
scheme fell through for me completely.
At 49 approaching 50, KC had ceased to be good XP for me. I made occasional
forays into Velk's Lab, but there was very little loot to be had there. So
I ventured into Chardok, at the same time trying to cajole other folks into
coming along. This was shortly after Chardok had been re-tuned to be
slightly easier to camp. Most folks stayed away from it because of its past
reputation of never-ending adds and deadly trains. I, on the other hand,
wanted my guildmates to get comfortable inside Chardok because I wanted to
lead an Overking raid eventually for the next part of my epic. The first
few groups proved fruitful, with good XP and nice drops. My hopes for
getting to the Overking soon rose.
Alas, bad things were happening in the guild. The leader who had seemed so
motivated and eager to get us moving had dropped off the face of Norrath. No
one know where he was. The GM's wouldn't let us transfer guild leadership
to anyone else, and thus we couldn't create new officers. The officers left
over had some personality issues with each other that ended with a block of
people leaving in a huff. Something had to be done. We talked about it for
a while, and then approached one of our members - Sinistrad - with the idea
of making him the leader of a new guild. After due consideration, he
accepted. Thus I left Lords of Honour and joined Avengers of Honour. We
were a small guild, with many members still in our low 50's, but it had a
nice family feel I enjoyed - we still had many folks from the old Knights of
the Wolfpack days.
At this time I dinged 51 and had a title - Vicar Monual. 51 was a rude
awakening, though - I had become quite used to making a yellow or three of
XP every session that I was really trying to level (as opposed to running
around exploring or trying silly quests, which I still did a fair amount
of). Now, however, the same effort produced a blue or three of XP. It was
going to take me *forever* to level now - an awful thought. It took a long
time to readjust my thinking and be content with nabbing two blues when I
did an XP group.
I finally persuaded everyone to give the Overking a try. We charged into
the palace... and got wiped. Subsequently I have led or helped lead four
other attempts. Only once did we get as far as the hallway outside the
Overking's lair. Alas, several key people had to leave and we had
difficulty pulling from the Overking's room. We got wiped - so close, yet
so far. I still don't have my Overking drop, despite having started on my
epic waaaay back when I was in my thirties.
My guild did go back into Chardok another time to camp the Iksar Betrayer
for one of our monks. Here, I had my worst day as a cleric. I mistimed a
Complete Heal, and the Main Tank died. Someone started yelling at me; my
mistake was answering back, trying to explain what had gone wrong. While
trying to defend myself, I let another of our tanks die. Suddenly we were
underpowered, we got adds, and the raid got wiped. Recovery was easy, and
another of our clerics was able to provide 96% rezzes, but I felt awful.
Still, I put it behind me and resolved not to let myself get distracted
again during a battle. Alas, this event had repercussions that wouldn't hit
me until much later.
When I was 52, Shadows of Luclin came out. I bought it, installed it, and
ported up to the moon the day it opened. It was a giddy feeling, seeing
content that no one knew about. I worked on some faction for Shadowhaven
and became at least amiable to everyone there by running back and forth
doing various errands.
I also played with Alternate Advancement. I looked through the skills and
decided I *had* to have Innate Run, level 3. While my TBoots were nice,
they only worked outdoors and weren't available if I had to do a corpse run.
So I stopped leveling and poured all my XP into AA.
I had another motivation for staying at 52: I had yet to be on a Vox or
Naggy raid. I still remembered my days as a Dark Elf wizard sitting in
Lavastrom watching all those god-like people form Naggy raids that I *so*
wanted to be a part of. I wanted to kill at least one of these big dragons
before I hit 53 and they become unavailable to me. Twice I went to a Vox
raid, only to have it fall apart for various reasons. Finally, I got in on
a Naggy raid. Somewhat to my surprise, I was picked to be in the group that
charged Naggy - this was my first Naggy raid, after all. The fact that I
was the highest-level cleric there was probably a big factor. Man, that was
a rush - running into Naggy's lair, seeing that big dragon rear up and flame
us all. I died, and a couple of other people died, but Naggy went down. I
had accomplished what had only seemed to be a distant dream when I first
installed EQ; I had helped to kill a dragon.
When I got IR3, I abandoned AA, threw away my TBoots, and did regular XP. I
had a new obsession now with getting my wisdom up to 255. I bought
equipment, attempted a couple of camps unsuccessfully (Kayia and I attempted
the Cycle in Frontier Mountains before I realized that the Belt of the
Cenobit couldn't be worn by humans). I had about 16K that I wanted to use
on buying an Emerald Dragonscale Tunic, which added 20 WIS. One of my
guildmates bought a Fungi Tunic and sold me his Emerald BP for 15K, which
was a very good deal. I now had a green chest that actually looked
becoming.
I found a quest for something called the Cloak of Truth. Although my Aegis
of Life was still a better back item, the final mob in the quest dropped a
+6 WIS mace that I wanted. So I did the quest, which was easy until I had
to kill a gnome named Peqi in Shadowhaven. Alas, Peqi spawned randomly in a
sixty-hour cycle. I spent days and days just sitting in Shadowhaven,
staring at the spot he was camped at. Once, I left Monual staring at the
spawn point and left to play bridge. When I came back three hours later, I
scrolled back through my chat box to see that Peqi had spawned - and that
someone else had killed him. Argh! Finally, though, late one nite, when I
was about to log, I decided to give the spawn point a final check - and Peqi
was up. I quickly sought and obtained the help of a couple of my guild
members, and Peqi went down. The next day I got more guildies to help me
with the final battle. The final two mobs dropped easily. I got the cloak
and the mace. I sold the Cloak of Truth to a guildmate at a discount, and
sold my Dark Ember.
As a guild, we went to Hate and a pair of cleric leggings dropped, adding
more WIS. Unfortunately, Hate turned into something... bad. The raid
leader didn't assign me to the group that had either the Main Assist or the
Secondary Assist, despite the fact that I was the second-highest level
cleric there. I thought nothing of it at the time. However, it was later
revealed that the raid leader - who had been on the Iksar Betrayer raid with
me - didn't want me in the group with the MA because "Monual sucks". He was
telling this to other people in the guild and *not* telling me. Soon after,
he left the guild.
I was devastated to learn this. I began asking questions: was I that bad a
cleric? Were people just putting up with me because I was a nice guy even
though I sucked at being a cleric? I cross-examined a lot of people. Most
everyone assured me that I was a fine cleric, but I remained unconvinced. In
my sudden bout of self-doubt, I was saying to myself that they were just
trying to spare my feelings. Relentlessly I continued asking people, and
began perusing online cleric strategies.
I did uncover one flaw in my technique: Divine Aura. This first-level
spell makes a cleric invulnerable to attacks and spells (harmful or
beneficial) and stuns for eight seconds. The flip side is that the cleric
can't cast spells during those eight seconds, and it can only be cast once
every fifteen minutes. I'd found it nearly useless in my early days, and I
thought the spell gem was better used to hold other spells, so I never kept
it up. However, it has another use that only becomes apparent as a cleric
begins to settle into their role as a healer: aggro control. If a mob
begins pounding on me and I cast DA, I drop way down on their hate list.
They'll turn their attention to someone else, and I can back away. It's an
invaluable tool for keeping a cleric alive in places where mobs hit fast and
hard and can kill a cleric quickly. And I hadn't been using it.
With this new information, I now kept Divine Aura in a spell gem all the
time. I quickly found out how useful it was; I died much less often. I
slowly began to regain some self-confidence, although "Monual sucks" still
echoed dimly inside my skull.
I climbed through the fifties, sticking with Chardok mostly, but also
venturing to Sebilis. I did some groups in Maiden's Eye on the moon, and
then on to Umbral Plains and Akheva. I hit another high-water mark: level
56, and a 96% rez. Now even the highest-level characters began asking me
for a rez.
I found yet another quest to do: the Shield of Bane Warding. This was an
item that would give me 20 WIS and 25 AC. Alas, it involved some amazingly
annoying camps. I spent hours and hours in camps that gave me very little,
if any, experience. At one point, I spent fourteen straight hours camping
skulls in Tenebrous Mountains. Yet, the reward was well worth it. Once I'd
done the final battle - with help from my guildmates - I had my Shield, and
my WIS was at long last pegged at 255. Now I could concentrate on items
that gave me resists, AC, and mana.
As I hit 57 and on towards 58, I started getting more and more tells, people
asking me to join them in groups. Here I started in on Cazic-Thule and
Howling Stones, both excellent XP places. I also did some of the high-end
camps in Velk's Lab, which, although not fast, was very safe XP. I finally
shed the last of my "Monual sucks" doubts and began to feel good once again
about my cleric skills. I was even getting recruited to join other guilds
by the people I grouped with. All in vain; I had no inclination whatsoever
to leave AoH.
One day I was in North Freeport when I ran across a guildmate of mine I'd
never seen before. Naturally I stopped to say hi. Demamiany was anonymous,
although by her lack of equipment I assumed she was a low-level mule of
someone in my guild. She inspected me, then asked if she could borrow my
Emerald BP and Shield of Bane Warding so she could play a joke on Gandaulph,
another guildmate of ours. I'd have the equipment back in five minutes.
Since she was a guildie, I said "Sure", and lent her the equipment. I then
zoned into WFP to perform a quick rez. By the time I zoned back, Demamiany
had logged off with my equipment.
Gandaulph was there; I asked him about her. He said he'd given her his
Cloak of Crystalline Waters under similar circumstances. Slowly horror
began to settle into my stomach. I'd been scammed. And, stupidly, I'd
fallen for it.
I immediately petitioned. I talked with a guide who said he would escalate
my call to the head GM's queue. I didn't hear back from the GM. I
petitioned daily, each time being escalated to the GM queue, each time never
hearing back. That first day, I felt like quitting Everquest. All the time
I'd spent collecting that equipment, all the money I'd spent - gone in an
instant. I was inconsolable.
And here is where Drinal really came through for me. As my story spread,
people began sending me sympathetic tells. I got tells from very surprising
sources, with some very nice offers to loan me equipment or plat so that I
could replace what had been stolen. I was overwhelmed by the generosity
displayed by the Drinal community. I got out of my funk and went back to
playing, with the idea that eventually I would get new equipment to replace
what I had lost. I turned down all the offers to help, with thanks. I did
allow Gandaulph to lend me his own Shield of Bane Warding. For a while I
ran around without a breastplate (if you can imagine someone with mildy uber
equipment and a naked chest). After a week I bought a bloodstained tunic
(AC 13, WIS 4.... /sigh) to replace the tunic.
Two weeks after getting scammed, I logged on to see that the guild Message
of the Day was "Wuoshi raid, get to WL". Quickly I got a port to Wakening
Lands and participated in a join raid between our guild and Darkmoons. We
buffed up and bore down on Wuoshi. I spent much of the battle stunned or
out of control, but I did manage to get off a few heals on the Main Tank.
Finally, Wuoshi died... and dropped *two* emerald scales. I sent in my
tell, saying that I wanted to be in on the roll for the scales. Turns out,
only two people wanted the scales, so I got one. Eagerly I rushed to FP,
bought a Fine Plate Breastplate from a player smith and an Ulthork Tusk.
Sinistrad gated me to Cobalt Scar, I found the Othmir smith, turned in the
BP, tusk, and scale... and received a brand-new Emerald Dragonscale Tunic.
This made me incredibly happy, and my entire guild was happy with me. Truly
a great experience, one which managed to wash away the last of the taint
associated with Demamiany. I still sent in my daily petitions, but not so
much to get my equipment back as to make sure the account holder was held
responsible.
While I wasn't getting a response from a GM, Gandaulph - who had been much
more persistent - did. The account with Demamiany had been banned, but it
was an account full of low-level characters. Clearly the thief used that
account just to run scams, then transferred the items to other accounts. The
GMs, surprisingly, were unable to trace where the items had gone. I
resigned myself to the loss - easier to do now that I had a replacement
Emerald BP, of course. I hope eventually to help Gandaulph get a
replacement for his much rarer and difficult to obtain CoCW
After I hit 59, I became obsessed with gaining XP. I spent much of my time
in Velk's, killing spiders hour after hour. I began hooking up regularly
with a 60 Warrior named Medaman - whose usual greeting of "What you doing,
punk?" always made me smile - and forming groups that usually consisted of
other 60th-level folks. We'd roam around the deepest parts of Chardok,
coming across places I never knew existed and earning XP like mad. We went
to the rat dwellings in the Dragon Necropolis, which is annoying to get to
but wonderful XP once you arrive. I even participated in my first Area of
Effect group, where we killed 50 mobs at a time inside of Sebilis.
Finally, more than a year after I installed Everquest, I dinged 60. I had
achieved the highest level possible.
And yet, the challenge is far from over. There is *so* much of the high-end
game I haven't explored yet or participated in. I have to get some
Alternate Experience Points so I can get all those neat skills like Mass
Group Buff. I have fairly poor equipment for a level 60 character that I
have to get upgraded. Getting level 60 isn't the end of the road; far from
it.
But it is a significant milestone, one I am ecstatic to have achieved. I
am, at long last, a High Priest.
Gosh, Everquest is fun, isn't it? ^_^
-Richard Lawson
aka Monual Lifegiver
High Priest of Rodcet Nife
Human Cleric on the Drinal server
This page is Copyright by Skaarak; Everquest (TM) is property of Sony Online Entertainment
All stories and art work are Copyright@ by the origial owner/writer.
Most, if not all stories, were taken from newsgroup alt.games.everquest (AGE), I recommend that anyone who gets a chance to read it should!