EverQuest Franchise Holiday Contest!

# Dec 31 2013 at 11:23 AM Rating: Excellent

Cyliena

Empress of News

2,350 posts

UPDATE: Winners have been announced!

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The contest has ended!

# Dec 28 2013 at 12:49 PM Rating: Excellent

Cyliena

Empress of News

2,350 posts

Thank you everyone for your entries! It's definitely been a trip down memory lane reading so many wonderful stories. The contest has now ended and we'll be finalizing the list of all qualified names before randomly selecting winners in a blind drawing.

Winners will be announced by 11:59pm Pacific Time on Tuesday, December 31, 2013 at the absolute latest. Winners will also be notified via Private Messaging (PMs) on ZAM that they have won. We will update this article and post a new one as well informing everyone of the results!

Edited, Dec 29th 2013 12:08am by Cyliena

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The Down Below of EQ II

# Dec 28 2013 at 1:45 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1609719439211

2 posts

As my charater's adventuring level grows up, there's more and more awesome zones...
so it's so hard to pick one XD.
But if you ask pick only one, I choose the Down Below, crypt of Qeynos.

It's already one year passed after I started playing EQ II.
I was running around busy to learn game mechanics, lores, zone overall of the game back then.
And while doing Qeynos citizen's quests I found a thing looks like gully hole and labeled as
'The Down Below'. Without thinking much I zoned in(because was into exploring) and there was huge sewer system filled with vermins!
Old and cracked pale greenish-yellow stone passages filled with skeletons and coffins,
strange marks(dagger and five juggleballs)on the top of corridor arches combined with the zone
music was impressive.
(you can listen it at EQ II folder>music>zones>GU64>qeynos_catacombs.mp3 !)

Soon I found out this crypt is so labyrinthical.
After circled around same way for various times, suddenly I found huge ancient hall with star studded ceilling and filled with ratmans. It really made me wonder what lore is behind this zone and other zones and kept me questing on from that day to this time.

Down Below
the Hall
hidden library!

Actually I went back to The Down below yesterday to take those picture and there was lootable books in the hall. It appeared I was forgotten about racial quest of the character and found secret ratongan library!
Now I know the strange mark is the symbol of Bristlebane and ratmans in there are related with
origin of Qeynosian ratongas but still there's unsolved things :
Why the mark is in there? What ratongas doing in there?
Maybe people already found them but I rather want find out it by myself :)

My favorite zone of Everquest II is The Down Below, because it holds many mysteries to me and
make me awe everytime I return to there.

My most favorite Places in Everquest

# Dec 28 2013 at 12:10 AM Rating: Decent

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2 posts

I have to say that my most favorite place in Everquest is the Plane of Innovation, why there do you ask? Well to be honest this zone has a lot of sentimental value to me. It is the Zone where I met my best friend for life after shouting in the zone chat "Android and Persocom". After annoying a lot of people, we decided to private message each other and I found out that we both shared the same love for Robots and Anime. Another favorite zone of mine would be Tower of Frozen Shadows, I loved how you had to find the keys in order to get to the next floor and how it got harder and harder the deeper you got in. It was very challenging and fun and those are the reasons these two zones are my most favorite.

My most favorite Places in Everquest

# Dec 28 2013 at 12:17 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1710116181020

Scholar

116 posts

JINZO NINGEN KIKAIDA!!!

arguably one of the best days of my life *hugs* :)

Cystal Caverns

# Dec 27 2013 at 11:40 PM Rating: Decent

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1 post

I have always loved crystal caverns. I love killing orcs, i loved the lay out, would crawl down with groups. I loved that a bank and vendor was in the same zone, no need to run back to town and I loved that I could come there at 25 and level up to 45 there. The loot there for the level was also great, loved me some stacks of velium!

kael

# Dec 27 2013 at 11:22 PM Rating: Decent

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2 posts

It was a couple months before luclin launched. It was me, a 60 sk, my gf at the time, 58 chanter, and a rl bud, 60 cleric. We had just joined a guild which raided the kael arena regularly for armor bits. sadly the guild merited loot unfairly so after a couple of month me and my friends only saw 6 piece of loot between the 3 of us. we decided to fix our situation. just the 3 of us headed to kael to see if we could do some damage. an officer noticed we were in kael and called us out in /gu.
"wtf are you 3 doing in kael, are you raiding with. another guild?" asked the officer
"were just grouping in kael seeing if us 3 can handle armor droppers" my bud the cleric responded
"lol newbs" answered the officer.

so now we're seeing red. oh were going to dominate this place to shut these fools up! well then **** hit the fan. we make our way to the arena, clearing slowly and carefully. unfortunately too slowly...

we had 3 mobs in camp, 1 rooted, 1 tanked by me, 1 tanked by charmed pet. then back roamer pops. cleric starts kiting, chanter is trying to root down the new add, i start making sure everything is snared. pet is tanking 2 mobs, all mobs slowed and snared, 1 mob rooted away and i am kiting 1. sadly my dumba$$ kited into another roamer. cleric roots new add, charm pet dies, and snares start wearing off, its a total mess. chanter charms the new mob, i get snares under control again but then hell breaks loose again, another respawn! here is the current tally, 2 mobs that were being tanked by the charmed pet, 2 rooted, 2 being kited by me. at this point we got dead quiet ( we were all in my apartment at that time). and then we pulled it out. the 2 mobs that were being tanked by the charmed mob were low and i finished 1 w ht, the charmed pet killed the other one. 2 down 4 to go! next we take out the 2 im kiting, charmed pet grabs one mob and i keep kiting and keep agro on the other 2 rooted mobs. charmed mob take care its mob then we finish off the last kited mob. at this point were running on fumes. im basically using my worst snare, cleric and chanter under 20 mana. then i die! ch landed too late!

im sweating out, waiting on a rez, but the chanter was theft of manaing the entire fight and she needed every drop. 2 slowed mobs being tanked by hasted pet, cleric lands a ch on pet and tosses me a quick res. cool im back in the game, and honestly it was easy finishing off those last 2.

so now after catch our breath we loot the mobs. 2 armor drops! silk legs and hat and a very happy gf( which made me a happy bfriend that night;)). we find a relatively safe spot and we go to work. we end up spending like 4 hours there and had iirc 9 drops. it was a great feeling announcing every drop in guild.

the aftermath of all that was we eventually grouped out a full set of thurg armor and left that guild. we found a guild that totally loved us and we totally loved back:)

Simpler Times

# Dec 27 2013 at 11:07 PM Rating: Good

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1 post

My favorite zone in the Everquest franchise has to be Eastern Commonlands in the pre-Kunark era. As a lowbie starting out, that zone was frightening! I still remember the horror that came with catching the aggro of Sgt. Slate! So many people jamming up the tunnel and hawking their wares brought a certain sense of community to the game that has been lost since the adoption of auction houses. It was so much fun to hustle and barter for starting gold. I really miss those times in a MMO, but I also appreciate the advances the genre has made in the last 15 years. Here's hoping that the next 15 brings even more spectacular leaps forward! Happy new years everyone!

crushbone

# Dec 27 2013 at 10:45 PM Rating: Decent

theboneman

Scholar

68 posts

My fav is crushbone. As a young wood elf I hated them there orcs for attacking our peaceful village. So its my goal to KILL them all from lvl 11 on. im my 50's I fished their streams for boar crap to work on trade skills yummy times. and it was a fun time there with low lvl fableds and zone revamps. crushbone will always hold a special place in my heart.

Can't pick just one =/

# Dec 27 2013 at 10:19 PM Rating: Decent

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1 post

I played Everquest from launch until the Dungeons of Norrath. I have several spots i love in the game, from fishing drunk in freeport to watching NPCs roam around the great divide. But if i had to pick one i would be torn between Mistmoore and Crushbone. Crushbone was cool because the ambassador would kill EVERYONE if trained, and a high lvl could look like a knight in shining armor (if they didn't die in the process). For Mistmoore castle i liked it best with Mayong in game because it REALLY increased the difficulty of the zone until he'd bug by the zone in and murder anyone trying to come in or out. Most of these places were difficult when i started as a High elf Enchanter (yes i got harassed in the beginning) but then my hard work payed off and my class went from shunned to revered when i left the game. I am excited to see what is coming down the path with landmark and EQ next since EQ was the original social network for me and everyone else in the golden age =) .

Favourite Zone

# Dec 27 2013 at 8:44 PM Rating: Excellent

KC13

Sage

756 posts

I started a High Elf Paladin back on Sat, Dec 29, 2001, 06:52:43. The friend that recruited me had a 54 Druid and immediately ported me to West Commonlands and ran me to East Commonlands for "easy leveling". This was of course back in the corpse run days. Well, a few days later I suffered a death and ended up back in Faydwer. I had no idea how to get back to EC on my own, so I also suffered my first lost corpse. Many were to follow in the next few months. I guess the sense of accomplishment I felt when I finally got myself back to EC is one of the fondest memories I have and thus EC (alas it no longer exists) remains a special zone for me.

EverQuest Franchise Holiday Contest

# Dec 27 2013 at 7:25 PM Rating: Decent

fboneman

Scholar

32 posts

I started playing EQ back in 2003 when SOE released EverQuest for Macintosh. Until they decided to shut down our server back in November 2013, that was where I logged most of my time. My favorite zone (raid) ended up being Ruins of Lxanvom (Crypt of Decay) and the Bertoxxulous encounter. You see, on the Al'Kabor server most of PoP was in version 1.0, most of which went unbeaten on the PC side until things were tuned up. Bert was the first of those untuned events we encountered, and eventually beat. This was a raid where everyone needed to be paying attention and react to anything the zone threw at us, from Bert warping all over (he didnt stay in one spot as he does on the Live servers) to respawns swarming us while fighting an unslowable Bert. Our first kill left 4 druids alive in the zone from a 55 man raid force.

On the PC side, I'd have to say I've enjoyed exploring zones over the past 3 years of playing on Xegony which I never was able to on Al'Kabor since we stopped at PoP. I look forward to what Landmark, and ultimately EQ Next, has to offer.

____________________________

Utdaan Twoswords
65 Forest Stalker of Al`Kabor, Macintosh server
http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=834254

Muramite Proving Grounds

# Dec 27 2013 at 7:22 PM Rating: Default

__DEL__1614557793098

16 posts

I should clarify, the magician was my first ever character I played from Qyenos, before I discovered the fun of my Halfling rogue, which the rest of my post is about. :-)

Muramite Proving Grounds

# Dec 27 2013 at 7:19 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1614557793098

16 posts

My favorite zone was hard to determine at first, as I fondly recalled my baptism as a magician from Qeynos earning his lumps in Blackburrow, and my first guild invite while fighting underneath some stairs in Highpass Hold, and seeing my first green chat! However, I have to say it is the Muramite Proving Grounds. I spent SO much time there, camping with anyone and I think everyone on Zebuxoruk/Xegony. It was about the time I had really immersed myself into the game even keeping a silly fan site, posting the silly things folks said and the things that happened. There were the various projections you could fight to in order to do the actual trials. They were good old fashioned "dungeon crawls" that lead to a high paced and at the time, challenging instance that lead to special loot and keying. So just about all aspects of the game were encountered in those grounds, and plenty of proving when on. I still had to drag many corpses, and had geared up and earned the AA's to save the day when the tank or healer went down as I could slip into a pretty nice slice and dice mode, or a fairly resilient chain tank to buy the time for us to avoid a wipe. It was during this time where I felt not just a connection to my guild but to the server community as a whole. Many folks would OOC a hello, and I would have group invites even before I had finished zoning in from the walls. It was my "Cheers" of MMOing, EQing, and just HAVING Funning! I grouped with guildees endlessly here, but I really miss the pick up groups, getting to know complete strangers while dodging discordlings, and dancing to the song that my blades made while bringing the pain to a lightning warrior (I loved the hollow "tinging" sound you made hitting them, and I dug the lightning graphics too.)

Zones

# Dec 27 2013 at 7:12 PM Rating: Good

Rukkuss

Guru

701 posts

Wow so many great stories and places, some familiar and some not. I have a few places near and dear to my heart. Once in Kael Drakkel the guild I was in at the time Sunrise we were camping the arena side loved that spot. Anyway after downing Vindi and running roughshod over all other mobs round there, everyone was being ported out. Well the druid one group used the self port not the group port. man it was so funny and she never lived that down.

Another great memory and one of my first of this game. I started playing in march of 2000. So my guild raided Plane of Hate and im sure all know that at that time there was no raid set ups. Only a "break in" group. well that group finally broke into hate and we all got to go zone in. man what an awesome zone. I think I was actually nervous going forward and killing things in there. It was so amazing.

Though my Favorite of all time has to just velious in general. Shawl quests, Velks, Dragon necropolis, great divide, I mean the list goes on I love love love velious so many great memories.
thank you EQ

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EQ acct
Rukkuss 71 Iksar SK 1.5 Epic
Mokkas 70 Halfling Druid 1.0 Epic
Turfidor 70 Barbarian Shaman 1.0 Epic
Simplid 71 chanter
Trembledon 72 ranger
Rumblesx 70 monk
Bertoxx server

Good times, good memories!!

# Dec 27 2013 at 5:21 PM Rating: Decent

NecroPost

Sage

122 posts

I got hooked on the game in 2000. My NCO (boss in the Army) would let me off work early so that I could go raid! Anyhow, my fave spot in the entire game is Greater Faydark. It took me forever to learn the city. I would run through it while staring at the map in a book trying my best to not get lost or fall down. I spent my first 20 levels hovering next to that city, afraid to leave. I met new friends, learned to play the game, found goodies on the ground to make my armor pretty colors. I learned the game. It was awesome.

Lost friends and fun places!

# Dec 27 2013 at 5:05 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1652660336821

8 posts

I have been on everquest long enough to have lost several friends from the game in real life. When I go to certain spots in zones I am always reminded of the good times/battles that we fought in the location. When I go to EW I remember being taught how to Quad Kite in the south west corner of the zone. I remember many EPIC battles including how the whole of FLoO with Behhar leading got my rogue Hecktor his Ragebringer killing the general in Kit woods. I remember sitting with my friends Uberglo, Xumpy and Erlain camping epic pieces and spells in Skyfire. Sneaking with my halflings into The Hole under the door by twisting between the rocks, or through the bars in cells in NL to get the key to get the fabled Journeyman boots. The many raids in Great Divide and Iceclad for the shawl quests for Kitty and learning of her passing a few weeks later. Some friends like Janitor and Arrythmia who left the game that were the greatest leaders in Chadok and Griegs. How my rogue Hecktor would let everyone into the royal chambers and target the mobs in the King's room so that Arrythmia could use her ***** to single pull all the mobs back up the ramp to the guild. Sakli and I in the plane of storms killing giants, but he got married and had to quit playing for RL. The Dark Ages from the big split when EQII came out took its toll on the game. I hope that Next doesn't have the same terrible impact.

Favorite Zone

# Dec 27 2013 at 4:31 PM Rating: Decent

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1 post

There are so many zones that I often come back to while I took a break from everquest, The hole, Old Seb, Nek Forest, and Blackburrow. However my favorite zone I determined was when I finally tried out everquest again my first zone I went to was the Hive. Countless hours I spent grinding away DON missions and refining my classes that it was the first thing I wanted to experience coming back. I quickly gathered some random help and bam I got tier 5 the first day back. Every day I play I just keep going to an old zone that I have fond moments of. Reading though these comments on multiple times I have found my self saying aloud "oh yeah". Truly a huge game with so much lore. I'm glad to be back.

Newbie Memories

# Dec 27 2013 at 2:23 PM Rating: Decent

Dynamis

4 posts

This has been a wonderful contest. It brings back so many memories of zones which I have not been to in years (including some like pre-revamp Freeport which are now gone). Since I tended to start lots of different alts I spent lots of time exploring newbie zones. My barbarian Shaman memorized the twists and turns of the Everfrost Peaks. My wood elf ranger learned the land marks which would get her back to the Kelethin lifts (long before in game maps and find made this easy). My erudite necromancer finely discovered how Paineel elevator and key worked and found decaying skeletons to kill. Today the quest rewards for Crescent Reach are so good it is hard for the old zones to compete, but there is a variety and detail of the old newbie zones which no one zone could ever match.

Ruins of Varsoon

# Dec 27 2013 at 2:13 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1610929046001

6 posts

I remember running the Heritage quest that started with Stiletto's Orders. I had to go into the Ruins of Varsoon so many times looking for things, and then the final boss was in an instance inside the RoV in the Chamber of Immortality. I still have that manastone on my main character. There's also a philter in the game for mana regen but I can't quite remember the details on that one. I loved EQ2 until I got to level 80 and I'd like to get back sometime to continue but subbing for me is out of the question in my current state of employment.

Friends create a memorable place

# Dec 27 2013 at 2:05 PM Rating: Decent

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1 post

I began playing Everquest when it was first released, and put any years into the game. I haven't played in the last 3 years due to life, and professional needs coming into play. But ever since the day I stopped playing I have been in search of a game tha could take me back to the fun that I got throughout those years in Norrath. Everquest Next is like a granted wish for me. I can't wait.

Thinking back to those days I would have to say that my favorite place was created due to events that happened there.

THE PLANE OF HATE IS MY NUMBER ONE ZONE.

Back in the day when the original epic weapons were the benchmark for a player to be honored I was working on mine, as a dark elf shadow knight. One of the most difficult ingredients (of any of the epic weapon ingredients) was the decrepit hide from an ashen bone drake in the Plane of Hate. I gave up weeks of playing time trying to get this item, or just to get the mob to show up since it was such a rare spawn. I camped out at the entrance to the zone. Then signed in almost every hour (while awake) for almost 3 weeks and shouted to all in zone looking for the mob. When he wasn't there I left and restarted the cycle.

One lucky day I came in and he was spotted. As a Master flethcher it cost me 2 months of servitude to the group in the area to leave the mob undisturbed while I gathered my friends to take on the mob. A number of my in-game friends came to my aid in an instant and helped me gain the ingredient which dropped from the mob on the first attempt.

This allowed me to complete my quest and be one of the first few on the server to finish my epic sword. The glowing skulls were just a massive status symbol at the time, and I couldn't have been more proud of an in-game accomplishment. Many of those friends that helped I still talk to to this day, and from time to time our EQ days come up in conversation and this is def one of the topics that arises.

Thank you EQ, and the Plane of Hate!

Favorite Location

# Dec 27 2013 at 10:33 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1658103471829

3 posts

I have been playing on and off for many years and one of my very favorites is still one of my first zones, Lavastorm. My first toon was a dark elf necro and this zone was the first that enchanted me and took me completely out of the real world and into something magical. While dark in nature I loved hunting for imp's in particular, up and down the sharp mountain walls, around the lava lakes, and for me in the beginning with no sense of direction, easily getting turned around and finding my way back to the entrance :0 just loved it good memories.

My mother started me playing EQ when I was 23, she had cancer and this game gave her so much freedom, to run even when she was tired, to make and craft things, she loved to camp goblins and talk to new people or get frustrated with others if they tried to invade her camp lol, but most of all it took away all of her worldly worries and turned her into a hero of sorts, climbing mountains, swimming lakes, buffing and answering questions, leading and protecting newbies who had no idea what they were doingâ€¦She was the greatest and I play today because it makes me feel closer to her now that she is gone.

If I had to pick another it would be The Barren Coast, very new to me and lots of mobs, but I love the scenery and the wide open feeling I get when I arrive here. The weather feels as if it would be perfect and all the different plants and trees, I think I could survive stranded here. The smooth hills and lots of places to hide just for a moment to mem a new spell or heal p a bit but be careful because things are always wondering around to sneak up on you. :) One of my new favorites.

Favorite Location

# Dec 27 2013 at 5:40 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1647821979231

Scholar

2,926 posts

Everquest will always be special to me. The first time I logged into the game was so much fun. It was my first experience with online gaming and it was addictive, so very addictive. I've met lots of pople from all over the world, talked with them about just anything: the game, zones, real life... I've walked through empty zones for hours, completed epic and mythical quests, hunted down Lucan D'Lere for the last piece of my Soulfire (yes, I was a Paladin), roamed zones for an elusive quest. Yet my favourite time was in Everquest II. The first zone at the time of the launch was the island. Everyone started there at the beginning, good or bad. Ques5ts wts were new, mobs were new and it was all special and fun. People came together, joined up to take down the final bad guy. (Still a Paladin, some things never change)

For me, it will always be the beginners island in Everquest II, no contest!