First update in 15 months?

What an interesting 15 months its been.  Levelling wasn't so bad.  I did get to 50 in classic on both my bard and cleric, and to 60 in kunark.  I skipped the VP key.  Raided the shit outta everything else, but Kunark raiding kind of sucked.  There was like..no loot.  I was just banking DKP.  my new guild <Venerate, Inc> which morphed into <Mess> has no DKP decay.  Velious was a glorious time for loot.

Made tons of gear, got to Luclin, VT key sucked, got it done, emp key not so bad.  Ended Luclin in sweet gear, and Pop was awesome.  Been raiding PoTime for 5 months+ now.  Kind of over it.  Only need 1 more item though, I'll be 100% time/elemental geared.  And most of that is time geared.

LDON drops soon.  I pretty much only play to raid.  I do need about 200 more AA(have 140ish), but I just can't stare at Fire mobs any more for 3-5AA/hour.  I'd rather watch another season of Quantico or play Crisis in the Kremlin or something.

I haven't payed cash to play in a while, just kind of selling everrything I find to fund a krono a month to keep my 1 account open.

Staying motivated to keep levelling

Once I hit 46, I sort of lost interest in levelling.  I've been on a half-dozen raids since then, and only 2 xp groups.  I did get myself to 47 this morning.

47 is a good level because I get the 90% rez.   I felt like a major asshole giving people 75% rezzes on raids.  I have been able to solo for xp in lower guk.  Its slow, but not slower than a bad group. A little risky.  2 or 3 light blues can totally kill me due to stun issues.  And wizards chain casting lightning bolt really sucks, that spell has a stun component and casts faster then my heals or nukes.

Level 46 and first hate raid

Levelling:  The Hole and goblins carried me to 46.


Plane of Hate:  I was there for 2 hours in a raid of 15 people.  I got the Prismatic Shield.

I like doing open world hate.  Just need to get enough people up there to keep multiple instances up.

More Aqua Goblins? Really?

I thought I'd seen enough of these guys to last 10 lifetimes.  40-43 at Goblin Isle.  XP is slower because memorial day xp is over and because post 40 is just slower.

My guild has been raiding, and at 43, I'm close to joining them.  I'm sure another cleric will be a welcome addition.

7 days of everquest...level 40

Today is 5/30, and the server has been up for almost 7 days.  I'll be taking today off from playing to rest up and work on wife faction.

I did 11-29 unrest, and 29-40 in lower guk , with a brief 2 level interlude in solb at 35-37.

Its been too fast, to be honest.  1-40 in less then a week, with a job, and 3 small kids is pretty much rapid.  Its no wonder they killed the Gods already.  Neckbeards can certainly get much further along, and if they get together, yeah, no wonder naggy died 3 days into server.

Its been pretty good so far, I know that 40-50 can be slow due to low # of camps available.

I'm going to try a kedge group out.  I think I'd like to try that.

First 2 days.

Well, opening day was a blast.  We got to wait for about an hour to get logged in safely and get started.

It was nearly impossible to make a new char and get going, so I did not execute my plan to do erudin to qeynos mail quests to get smithing money.  I went with the slower armadillo questing.

I levelled my cleric pretty hardcore to 17, and my bard to 5.  The bard is doing all my smithing, and is up to 112.  I have several hundred platinum.

I slept 3 hours Wed and 3 hours Thu.  Today is Fri, and I'm tired.  Might not play tonight at all.

Levelling timeline

Here is my super optimistic plan

5-24  14th level
5-25  23rd level
5-26 27th level
5-27 32nd level
5-28 36th level
5-29 38th level
5-30 40th level
5-31 42nd level
6-1 44th level
6-2 47th level
6-3 47th level (Raiding)
6-4 48th level
6-5 49th level
6-6 50th level

I'm going to get extra patience from my family for the first week, and after that, its kind of a "only when they're all sleeping" thing

Looking at this, I do wonder about playing a cleric. It would mean each time I login I should a group fairly quickly.

Decided on class.....

It was tough deciding what to play.  There's so many fun classes and different playstyles for each.  I went with Cleric.

CH rotations, here I come!

I went with cleric because they can solo undead, they are the most desired grouping class they can wear smithed armor, which for some reason, I've decided I want to make lots of, and they have a critical role in raids.

Pre-Launch guild getting srs bsns

I joined a prelaunch guild named Zurdula.  It was like..focused for uh..family guys, so more my speed then the poopsocking raiding guilds I wish I was still 22 to play in.

I made a lot of informative forum posts, and shared some spreadsheets I made about each class, and they asked me to their information officer.  That sounds serious.  I haven't had a leadership role in a guild since <War Without End>, and boy did that one suck.

I've been updating my spreadsheets as much as possible, and trying to figure out what I want to do on the new server when it drops.

My new goal is to sell banded within 3 hours of server up.  I know I can do it.  Issues I am facing:  Class and race choice.  Still can't decide.

I mean, selling banded is going to be like...fun and profitable for a few days or a week at most.  So, what do I do the other 83 days of classic?  The point of that sentence is that I don't really need to make a class/race choice based on selling banded.

I'll probably have time for one character, so I want to be one that is fun to play and not sucking at any eras of Agnarr, especially PoP.

My thoughts are "Not Paladin, Not Rogue" as a start.

Agnarr Live on May 24th!

Here we go!
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/agnarr-faq-pop-locked-progression-server-coming-weds-may-24-2017.239813/

May 24th is go time!  I speculate server will go up sometime after Lunch PST, or about 3PM CST.

I'll take off the 24th and 25th.  I have off that coming Monday too.

My class choice is still up in the air.  I feel like I know all the classes, so I don't really need to research.

I understand SK and Enchanter have PITA epics.  Those are both classes I'm considering.

Agnarr or Bust

I sent my friends an email asking them if we were "tarded enough to play EQ again", and sadly the answer is yes.  So here we go again.  Class choice, etc.

Agnarr will be a POP-Locked TLP, which should help the whole "I can't keep up" mentality, since everyone will catch up eventually at 65.

• Agnarr is a time-locked progression server that will start at the base game and eventually lock at Lost Dungeons of Norrath… permanently
• We will refer to this server informally as "PoP-locked" even though it will eventually include Legacy of Ykesha and Lost Dungeons of Norrath
• Expansions automatically unlock 12-weeks per expansion
• Experience rates will be the same as Ragefire and Lockjaw
• True Box server rules apply (one account per machine)
• We will have a limited store that will start with lower-tier consumables (potions & buffs), appearances, and bags – and some mounts will unlock with Luclin, but marketplace offerings will not be too powerful for each expansion's era

Game over

I quit EQ about a month ago.  The pressures of keeping up with the leveling and raiding schedule were just not compatible with my lifestyle as an IT professional, husband and father.

Old Sebillis

I spend a LOT of time in Old Sebillis.

Let me briefly discuss the zone.  Its loaded with frogloks.  Those same filthy frogloks I never got tired of slaughtering in Upper and Lower Guk.  Same froaks.  Ugly nasty little bastages.

Remember him?  Before we could even visit Sebillis, we had to kill some trash in Trakanon's Teeth.


Anyway, there's lots of camps in Seb.  Most popular camp seems to be Juggs.  High level spells drop here, and some nice items.  King is very popular because he has a Fungi Tunic drop.  Lots of mobs there.
Then there's Disco.  Disco is only good to 55 really.  Juggs will take ya to 60.

Many people think that's it.  Seb has just those 3.

There's also Crypt, which requires a rogue.  Lots of good loot, plenty to kill.  Buggs.  Some loot, lots to kill.

Jail(Ibis) and Jail(upper).

Plenty to kill.  Its a big zone.  Don't see 30 people and say "crap, we can't xp here".  There's a camp, go find it.

Why new guilds should start on Phinigal

Ok, Phinigel has instanced raiding.

This means you get to kill naggy.  Not watch one elite geared 52 SK solo him.  You get 50 of your buddies and kill him.

Some would say "But the server is already in kunark, we'll never catch up".  Bullshit.  You start now, you level for 3 weeks, then you start raiding classic.  You can even get some Open World targets at this point, since everyone is doing Kunark, and interest in those classic mobs has waned a bit.  My guild just did its first Open World dragon last night.

There's plenty of time until PoP, and even then, new guilds starting later can get plenty of good gear and raids out of PoP without even hitting Elemental Planes, if they aren't ready(AA/Gear/#'s)

This is a great server to raid on.  Come try it out.

There's room for EVERYONE!

Pressure

"Daddy likes fighting things.  Daddy makes them lay down."

My 3 year old sees a lot more of me playing everquest then is good.

I'll have to think about this.

Kunark Opens Wed!!!

The Ruins of Kunark goes live on Phinny this Wed.  I am maxxed XP into 50, but I do have two raids coming up in which to lose some xp.  :)

My plans are to XP hard when I can.  My guild is hardcore about raiding, too fucking hardcore.  They want me to get 2 levels a week and do 3 raids a week, and key seb, hs, and vp.  40+ hours a week.

Bunch of lifeless 20 somethings is all I can imagine.

Anyway, assuming I manage to keep up somehow, I'm looking forward to some of it.  Most loot in Kunark does nothing for me.  No monk class armor(don't bring up crescent armor).

In my 72 hours of raiding, I've got 2 items of note to show for it, the Gauntlets of Fiery Might and the Runed Bolster Belt.  A handful of crap items such as Golden Efreeti Greaves, Treasure Hunter's Satchel, Darkwood Trunk, Whitened Treant Fists.

So, is it worth it to keep raiding?  One thought is to skip the VP key, and just not go to those raids.  Do Trak/other dragons/vs etc.

Guild help with Epics is a non-starter too.  My epic is a significant DPS boost.  I could always pay Krono for another guild to help me I guess.  See how pathetic that sounds?

Level 50 now....The Hole beckons

Dinging to 50 was great.  Now I'm pushing to max my XP bar so I can ding 51 once Kunark drops next week.

The Hole is always a great place to do this at.

Notable camps include Jail, Pit, Sword, Stables, Docks and Undead.

There are plenty of less known camps, including at the tunnel to Undead, on the live side.(no name for this one)  Another one is up some stairs from there, a huge temple with lots to pull.  I often see a group pulling between Docks and Stables.  This is not a problem as long as no group is running 2-3 chanters.  if they are, mobs become scarce.

Good news! Xp to be increased

Of course, it happens as I am approaching 50, but I'm glad.  It will add longevity to the server.  Especially from those at max level waiting for raids and reluctant to level an alt.

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/xp-updates-coming-to-phinigel-ragefire-lockjaw.230592/

I'm still plodding along, but I did put a decent XP group together on Saturday, and made about 35% in 2 hours(with XP potions).  That's decent.  its the difference between having some 50's who want to max out their bar, vs some low 40's with no raid gear.  Also, having a good enchanter is critical, and a good healer to keep the chanter alive when things go south.

Edit:  It was about a 25% increase

Cazic Thule..God of Fear..we fear you not..

<the broken wave> totally pwned CT.

We went in and did a pre-clear before the raid, so once raid force arrived, we had maybe 1/3rd of trash left and golems(and 2 dracoliches).  Finished up in about 2 hours and on to dragons.

We're getting pretty good at this.  Only issue really is PoSky has some really badass mobs, that are sometimes tough to kill with 40-45 raiders.  I look forward to growing our guild so we can have more like 50-60.

Innoruuk down!

We got Inny!  First for guild and me!

Also did my first Yael.

The Inny strategy was crazy, we had tanks dying constantly, getting 0% rezzes, and then taking aggro right before DT to die again.  That's a lot of XP bar sacrifice.  Thank goodness for the double XP weekend to help them fill their bars.