Of the four elemental planes, the plane of earth is the most unusual and certainly the scariest. Strange, silent, deadly creatures lurk everywhere; some burrow underground, and pop up to attack you as you pass. The Rathe Council has abandoned the plane to meet and discuss things in their own sub-plane, leaving their larger plane alone to grow strange.
All good news for us, though. The Plane of Earth was a reward, back in the old days. A gift to the serious raiding guilds. If you attended all the raids, a hundred times, in the right order, and the markings on your arm all glowed the same hue, and you had no lost memories, and your guild’s scouts had seen Rallos Zek the Warlord pop before any other guild, and your pullers had managed to get the two trigger mobs claimed and mezzed while the guild gathered, and after that, managed to do a raid that was not only timed but required almost inhuman teamwork and rarely-used abilities and outright sneakiness, well, then the planes of Earth, Air and Water would open for you, and the best experience in the game would be yours.
Getting to the Plane of Earth meant you were the best. Back then, you couldn’t sneak someone in. Being able to zone in meant you had done every single one of the raids that led to it.
Naturally, non-raiders were angry that the very best parts of the expansion were closed to them, and even raiding guilds resented having to redo easy raids for new recruits. SOE made up the 5/6 rule, which let one unflagged person into a zone for every five flagged people. Now anyone can zone in, and it isn’t quite so special.
It’s just as creepy, though.
Tarfu was having severe computer problems, so Elryndal, Kanad and I set out on our own, with our bots. I re-bought my bot to get a level 64 version, but I’m not sure I needed to. The one time I died, though, she put Virtue on me instead of the lesser Blessing of Aegolism she normally casts. I guess she felt guilty.
Named mobs pop from traps, so part of the pulling strategy is to find the traps and bring the mobs that pop back to the group. You’re never quite sure when you’re going to be suddenly joined by a new friend or two, but if you don’t try and trigger them when you can — no nameds.
There was one named in particular I was eager to meet — the Prismatic Baslisk. This croc CAN drop the ranger pet weapon — it summons a wolf when it procs that fights for a few seconds before it disappears; the more modern version of the Scimitar of the Mistwalker, that Lady Vox once dropped — and which was nerfed several times before finally being removed. The mostly-nerfed version is still available in the casino, but it has become useless. The weapon that drops in PoE from the Basilisk, though, is special.
We did spawn the basilisk, but it dropped its common dropped, the caster mask. It rotted. Nobody even bothered looting it to clear the mob.
Same with the other named we spawned, The Living Earth. Its corpse just laid there until it rotted in half an hour.
The experience was decent. Both Kanad and I reached level 65. Elryndal made 7 AA. I really missed being there ca. 2003, back when being there was something very special.
We made a new friend in Stompn, who joined the guild with his 75 warrior but intends to join Nostalgia with an entirely new character. The mercenaries make that possible, leveling a character from scratch, and we’re looking forward to having him in the group.
We have not gotten many of the level 61-65 spells and abilities, but since we’re heading for 70, those don’t matter so much — most will get upgrades. Unfortunately, we’ll have to struggle with the bizarre Omens of War spell rune system to get our 66-70 abilities. The 70 spells will be impossible to get. The Glowing Muramite Runes drop only from raid mobs in the Omens of War. Level 69 Greater Muramite Runes drop from lesser nameds, and are not uncommon in Riftseeker’s Sanctum. The level 66-68 runes drop from nameds in the lower level zones.
We won’t be grouping enough in OoW to get a significant number of spells in this range. This hurts melee far more than priests or casters, as the most powerful melee attacks come only from the level 69 and 70 runes.
The Serpent’s Spine expansion raised the level cap to 75 and also introduced a tiered system of spells, similar to EverQuest II — one of the few things EverQuest took back from its sequel. You can buy Mark I version of all spells and abilities. Mark II are found in appropriately leveled groups, and Mark III come from raid mobs.
There was some talk about heading to TSS and the level 65 hot zone, Sunderrock Springs, but we decided instead to visit Doomfire, the Burning Lands AKA the Plane of Fire when we meet again, the week after Thanksgiving.
The last time we went, we had to kite. Now, we’ll have Tarfu to tank and mercenaries to help heal, tank and dps, so we’ll be headed in deep, where the experience is absolutely amazing. The spot I’m thinking of even has some lesser nameds, meant for a single group. If we can defeat the 2K-hitting Prismatic Basilisk in PoE, these should be no trouble. Assuming we don’t lose anyone on the way through PoF. It can be a very, very deadly zone. Not Plane of Air deadly, but just less than that.
I finally fixed my signature program which had been broken since SOE changed the EQPlayers character page a couple of months back. So, there it is.
So you have a new member joining you from scratch? I’ve been toying with the idea of joining for weeks but once you guys surpassed my char’s level, I shelved the idea. I have a 57 Druid with a healer merc, would I be welcome to join if I transferred?
PS: He’s the original Fuan from Erollisi Marr, born June 1st, 1999. I recognize many of the character names you post about when you wax nostalgic — especially that uptight Ranger who was your guild leader, though I can’t recall his name without seeing it. He led us on a failed Kedge Keep raid. Trivia: Fuan invented quad kiting in the Commonlands with Griffons. But nobody believes me! I think there’s a Leibniz and Newton calculus thing going on….
PPS: I identify myself way too much with my character if you noticed the transition from 3rd to 1st person!
Hmm, I looked up some info regarding char transfers. An old Alla’s page reports that you lose all items/gear during a transfer, but I couldn’t confirm that officially. Is that true?
The EQ terms of service says that Veteran Rewards will be removed from transferred characters. Does that mean I’ll lose “Lesson of the Devoted” et al.? Or do I simply have to /claim it again after I move?
Thanks
Actually, I am lvl 60. I forgot.
Haha 🙂 His name was Tilian, and Westleey took over when Tilian retired.
You ARE old school 🙂
No, you don’t lose all items when you transfer, nor do you lose veteran rewards. Level 60 is a perfect level, we have lots of people at that level if they would log on ><. Level 60 is plenty high enough to go all the places we go, and we would love to have you if you want to transger 🙂 Elryndal and Tarfu are on a lot, and I was on for hours yesterday farming spells, which is as much fun as it sounds. We're also active on EQ2 and hope to start something in Spellborn, assuming it ever launches in the US!
Answer a question for someone who never played Everquest Tipa. I always heard that EQ was about slow levelling requiring thousands of hours to get to the end. Yet your guild of part time Everquesters appears to be breezing through the content in a matter of months. What gives?
EverQuest has shortened the leveling path substantially, sped AA accrual, removed most of the barriers preventing people from getting to the best xp zones, added a veteran reward which grants double xp for a half hour each day, sped up traveling, and added hot zones which give additional experience and new loot to people who adventure therein.
Modern EQ is not Old EQ by any means. Some people really are nostalgic for the old EQ, but without the community that made it great in the lower levels, it just wouldn’t be worth it. Modern EQ is far less painful.
Great post. I very fondly remember how “uber” I felt once I could zone into PoE and grind with friends. I never did make it through Time back then, but boy Earth rocked for exp!
Fast-forward to these modern times… As you level through the 60s, don’t forget that all those spells that are a pain to find/loot are generally able to be crafted. In my guild (Fizzle Fiends on Quellious) we very actively try to keep our spell crafters in supplies and cash to keep ’em progressing. Everyone wins in that scenario 🙂
We have nobody who is able to craft the spells :/ I’m hoping we’ll get a few more glyphs so we can at least get our 65 spells, but since at 71-75 you can just buy your spells again, I’m not that worried. I’d like them, they are just more or less unobtainable.