Editorial: Everquest
 

http://www.allrpg.com/editorials/butterfly.php3

My second article is finally up. Let me know what you guys think. It's quite a bit different from my first.

I can personally assure you that there are, in fact, Dragons in the game. I was nearly killed by one once. I was about four times the level you are now, and one breath attack nearly killed me.

If you thought the battle on the back cover looked impressive, consider this: in the actual game, dozens of players are neccesary to fight and win against a single dragon. The weakest two Dragons known are both found in Antonica, and require such groups of approximately levels 46-50 to take on (they have the odd ability to magically remove anyone over level 53 from their lairs, but not anyone weaker than that.) All other dragons require somwhere from levels 55 to 65. A number of notable Giants (though not all) require similar efforts, as well as various undead creatures of unholy doom. There's even an undead dragon!

Now that you're level 10, it'll be more than safe to head on over to Crushbone. Follow the trail to Greater Faydark, which is coincidentally elf central, and it shouldn't be too hard to find Crushbone from there (Hint: use backspace to bring up a map. There isn't one automatically for Butcherblock Mountains, but there is for Gfay, since there is an actual city in the zone. Crushbone is home to a clan of Orcs by the same name, and sworn enemies of Elf and Dwarf alike. Hell, they're sworn enemies of just about everyone, but elves and dwarves are closest.

I... um... haven't played EverQuest in months.

Thanks, anyways, though!

The editorial is written in present-tense, which implied that you had been playing recently.

It's great, as long as you don't play it the way just about everyone else plays it. I've been at it since early 2000, and I just recently broke level 50, which used to be the maximum. (Also, those two dragons on Antonica? They used to be the strongest foes in the game, outside of certain deliberately unkillable NPCs. A few of which were killed, just for the hell of it.)

I frequently hear of people who get the game and make level 65 in a few months. These are newbies, mind you, not the old hands who bring the new class to max level and a few AA's within a week of the new xpac.

If there's one thing I can't stand in online games... it's having to level up to kill insects. They're INSECTS. If a toddler can kill it, you should be able to as well.

They aren't butterflies. They are some kind of faerie from what I remember. Really tough as well, at least for someone of low level. Though I had good enough faction with them I was never attacked by them.

Probably the most interesting 'letal' creature in Everquest would be the skunk. I'm sure many adventures who just started out have been raped by the skunk. That puppy will have it's way with a 1st level character so fast it's just nasty.

PS. Any Newbie that makes 65 in a few months has either put in 8+ hours a day or has had some major support (twinking & powerleveling) to help him along. I put some major time in and I played an enchanter (easy to group) and it still took real time to get up there.

Don't trust any game that hassles you when you try to quit. If the only way they can get you to keep playing the game is to make quitting as annoying as possible, the game doesn't deserve to be played.

Thats the Sad part Priest, people take it waay to seriously. Sometimes I would just go all night and not camp, or stay in the same place with the intent to kill something over and over again until i gain levels. I'd cast Spirit of Wolf on myself and go exploring. Loads of fun but more often then not I'd find myself desperatly running towards the zone edge as I am chased by some horrible blasmphemy against nature (once in that swamp by the Ogre town I found myself locked in combat with over 30 Froglocks!)

Because of my overwhelming desire to have fun, I'm no longer competitve. I saw someone who was level 5 when I first saw them. The next night they were level 13. The night after that they surpased my level (around 17 or so)

I tried to try something new so i created a Tank. As a matter of Principle i never Twink, so as a result i am almost always outclassed by my peers, who at the same class are wearing magical full plate armor and waving some magical death sword from hell, while I'm running around with a couple scraps of leather armor and some rusty shortsword. It's kind of rediculous really.

I played the game for 4 years, and quit several months ago. I know just about every generic thing about the game(like lore, notable mobs, notable items, etc.), and have played every class to at least level 15, and 4 to above 30. So I speak from experience.

Yes, back in EQ classic Lord Nagafen and Lady Vox were the single most powerful enemies in the game. They actually were so powerful it took roughly a year before anyone could muster the strength, numbers, and strategy to kill them, and they were so hard to kill, the Devs hadn't even expected them to BE killed yet, and as such never gave them loot tables(HAHA). So they actually sent GMs out to serverwide announce a congrats to the people who killed them, and hand out special loot items to the people who were present.

Also, those "butterfly" things, are called Drixies, or Fairy Dragons(Fae drakes). They are essentially a pixie sized dragon with butterfly wings, and there are two types: Fae drakes(depending on which one you fight, they can be level 1-18 or so) found on Faydwer in the Faydark Forests, and Drixies(druid class spellcasters, highly dangerous, very large attack and assist radii, and roughly level 40 as I recall) found in firiona vie. The Fae Drakes are affiliated with the Quest NPC faction in the plane of Sky, and the drixies are part of the guard force of Firiona Vie, the elven outpost on Kunark.

Also, those skunks are jokes, firebeetles are harder than those. The only annoying thing about skunks is they spray you, giving you -30 CHA for a very long time, which makes merchant prices blow ass for the duration, and it's very hard to resist.

The funniest lethal creature? Nope, not skunks. It's actually one of the most reknowned and dangerous creatures in Faydwer: Brownies. In lesser faydark you will occasionally encounter brownie scouts. Contrary to the level range of 10-30 for the rest of the zone, these buggers are level 40-45 Druids, run faster than anything else, cast damage spells for over 500 damage, double attack for 100, can immobilize you, and, look like ONE FOOT TALL WOOD ELVES. Rather embarrassing to be killed by something whose shorter than your lower leg.

brownie scouts... ahh yes, i knew there was a reason i never stayed very long in lesser Faydark. Besides from being a rather boring and uneventful forest, there is AFAIK nothing of interest in lesser Faydark. Running from the Elf zone to the Dwarf Zone was the only reason for actually being in it