So having had a good old run about with the Newbie Alt Army, I eventually found the guts to haul out the big guns; my long abandoned 29 Magician. The Magician is a fragile easily smacked-down caster-type who essentially lives or dies on the success of his pet, one of four elementals. As detailed elsewhere, it's a solo class - a tank and healer rolled into one, and was chosen for independent viability, rather than any romantic notions of mystical forces and arcane knowledge.

Interestingly, the character creation screens now include help text that explains a bit about the class and how it works, but almost without exception, ALL the classes were described as '...works best in a powerful group!' The implication being that none of them can solo very well.

Magicianing (Magicianship?, Magicianology?) is basically a process of controlling the pet and balancing the nukes and pet heals so that the monster is focused on the pet all the time, but actually being ripped apart by you - a tricky balance at the best of times, and with death penalties being so steep, it took me a while to get back into the swing of things. And then it became easy, and then boring.

And here's the problem at the core of Everquest 1. Not that the fights aren't interesting in themselves, although EQ2 does a much better job of presenting a frenetic visual experience. No, it's that the sheer amount of downtime between fights is ridiculous. One fight takes maybe a minute at the most, and that minute is full of stimulus - picking out a target, The Pull, pet management, casting spells, monitoring the hit points of all concerned, maintaining a spatial awareness of the escape route if things go wrong, and so on. Busy busy!

And then you win, loot, and are forced to sit on your arse for the FIVE MINUTES it takes to recharge the mana pool to the point where you can fight again. I am not exaggerating in the slightest...I timed the recharge from empty mana, to full mana and it came in about 4:48 or so. Five minutes where your character cannot walk about, go shopping, even turn in place. Regeneration of mana does happen while just running about, but at a far far slower rate. (I'm sure it's been tweaked too...I distinctly remember waiting fifteen minutes for the same recharge, back in the first iterations of Everquest. Long enough to do housework.)

There are spells to increase this recharge rate somewhat, but typically belong to another class, adding extra downtime in finding one of these people, and then paying up whatever the going rate is for that one-shot buff. (They used to actually call it 'crack' last time I was playing, players become that dependent on it to make life bearable.) I prefer to try self-reliance, refusing to believe that anyone would be stupid enough to make a game actually unplayable without one class-specific buff.

Rationing out the spells and trying to get two kills per 'mana tank' is possible, but leaves no margin for error when it goes wrong. Of course joining a group is also an option, but finding any players at all are rare, let alone a group that understands that effcient groupwork is about reducing downtime, not increasing difficulty.

So I knuckled down, and dug in for an extended grinding session, just to see if I could. Over the course of about four hours of gritty determined camping, I managed to go from 29.2 to 29.6, around 40% of the total required to hit level 30. I looted junk-loot to the value of around 10 platinum pieces and one useful item my character could use. And read most two chapters of 'The Devils Alternative', by Fredrick Forsythe, which struck me as wrong, somehow.

At that point I got bored and went exploring, finding five entire zones I'd not gotten around to exploring last time. That's my problem all over really; I try to force the grind, but invariably wander off and look for interesting stones instead.

One of key things EQ2 does seem to have gotten right is the lessened downtime, which is nowhere near as long - one minute of not fighting is usually enough, even using shop bought food and drink, and in most cases, by the time you've jogged over to the next monster, you're ready to go. I don't mind getting less xp per fight, if it means I can actually be fighting more of the time. Sitting on my arse five minutes in six makes Van Hemlock sad.


On the otherhand, exploring in Everquest 1 seems a lot more accessable and satisfying than in the sequel. While everything is generally prettier in EQ2, and there is even xp awards for visiting places, the whole geography of EQ2 is very restrictive and linear. 'You are level X. You WILL like to hunt in zone B. When you reach level Y, you may enter zone C!' As it stands, around half of all the zones in EQ2 are physically inaccessible to the new player, until certain group-based quests are completed, in turn requiring a certain level, and a big group of strangers, to do.

I can see why this is; to try to ration content, and maintain a healthy player density, but I personally resent it. I'm an explorer, and have always been good at surviving in zones aimed at people much higher than me. Finding new and exotic locales is what makes me keep playing these games, but faced with a level grind before I can even enter a land, I'm probably more inclined to not bother.

Everquest has only minor level restrictions on a few key zones, and generally lets anyone cunning enough go where they like, and the sheer diversity of the various lands makes for great travelling; journeying for it's own sake, rather than just to get to the hunting spot.

It's this that I like most; six years in, with only 3 of 9 expansions, and I'm still finding new places, fascinated by this imaginary world.


So a week ends. I expect I'll keep it installed, since the Access Pass means I'm not paying extra for it. I'll not get anymore expansions, and only occassionally potter at it, touring rather than playing. I couldn't honestly recommend it in it's current top-heavy state to a new player, compared against any of the current crop of more fast-paced casual-friendly MMORPGs. For the existing player though, things do not seem to be as gloomy as that initial server closure news item indicates - theres still plenty to see and do, and a lot of people to do it with, but you've got to be near the top to take part in it all.