Top 5 Favorite Zones

[Knovo]

Suppose my top 5 are:

1)Unrest - Chaotic zone that really showed if you knew what you are doing or not
2)Sebilis - Upgrade to Unrest
3)The Hole - Had some fun, really a test to see how far you could go though few rarely ever did.
4)Dalnir - A friend and I really worked over this place.
5)Nothing really strong for the list, Kaesora or Howling Stones were close I guess.

[Thiklan]

My list at first blush:

1) Seb, hands down, who wouldn't know this about me?!?
2) Plane of Hate
3) Siren's Grotto
4) South Karana, Quillmane and the other cycles have been a pet project
5) Lots are tied here, still thinking about it... (TT, CoM, The Hole, DN, VP, Velks, PoFire, PoFear, PoDisease, PoNightmare, Halls of Honor, PoTactics, PoStorms, PoJustice and even PoValor a little bit tbh, so much time there it is admittedly less loved, but...)

Thik

[hemper]

4. Western Karana - This is sort of a strange one. Again, I started way back in 1999 as a Human Druid. I still remember being smacked with the feeling of "Oh...so the world is fucking massive."

First time I found it was first week of launch, a few days in, I had gotten my barbarian warrior to level 8 or so and I had to run him over to Nro to get the guild tag for my UO guild. I just remember thinking Q hills was kind of large but W karana I had the same feeling as Judah, except I thought I would never get to N Karana.

Here I am 11 or so years later.

[Jerumiah]

Truth be told, were there any bad zones in classic eq? I really liked most all of them. Kunark there were a few bad zones, velious a couple more. Luclin and Planes of Power zones were like "work", you went to them only if you had to (raids, grind AA), but you did not enjoy the zones for what they were.

Beyond planes of power I have no clue. Did ANY of the later expansions capture the zone quality and attention to detail that the first three expansions had? (I may play this new "progression server" part time when it comes out, just to do due diligence on the rest of EQ, i'll need it fed to me piece meal, progression style. Trying to go back and jump into 15 new expansions at once.. not gonna even try that)

The only "meh" zones in classic looking at the list for me would be:

- North Karana (I like the Karanas, but it what is up with North Karana? I always seemed to me not to have the little quirky places and oddities the other three Karanas have)

-Dagnors Cauldron (blasted volcanic crater type zone, boring as the later skyfire mnts, filled with random mobs wandering around)

-The Warrens (does nothing for me, feels like a filler dungeon made up on the cheap)

Beyond those other three, I really like every other classic zone. I can walk through any of the other zones and still see things that make me stop and say "thats neat".

Someone put a lot of love into classic EQ. And this is not nostalgia speaking, to this day I run alts through zones just looking around and killing whatever gives xp as I roam.

[Judah]

Well, the Warrens were made AFTER classic EQ, so that's why it feels like that.

Gorge of King Xorbb kind of sucked.

LFay was largely worthless.

But you're right...you can tell the time/detail they put into classic. Really was a work of art.

[Wookie]

My faves, not necessarily in order:

1. Blackburrow - Spent a crapload of time here on E'ci way back in 1999. After a while you got adept at dodging the massive trains to zone. It was drudgery then, but when I started on AK, that's where I went first from the newbie area. It was like coming home.

2. Estate of Unrest - I am hugely amused to this day by the pun in it's name. A zone that could jump you even when it was full, you have to be on your toes. I always liked it. Every toon I leveled spend some time here.

3. Qeynos - Full of NPCs that aren't vendors or trainers. It had story, and things going on. No other starting city was as fully fleshed out. Runner-up was Neriak, just because it was trippy-looking and has a bar with a window into the swimming pool.

4. PoN/PoD - Once upon a time I levelled my cleric in PoD with a good group of people during the North American day. It was a good time while we mindlessly killed bulks. Later, I spent a ton of time here as Karry, swarm kiting everything that moved in both these zones. These zones were the highest level zones that bards can reliably charm in. Swarm kiting was my favorite time-waster. In the end, there's not a whole lot of difference between these zones in my mind.

5. Kunark Zones in general - I just liked a lot of the Kunark zones. Trak's Teeth, Emerald Jungle, Field of Bone, Kurns, Karnor's, the Cebilis starting zones... I think Verant learned from the classic zones, and were able to put some extra time into these zones, and it showed.

[Wizman]

Not really in order:

1: Maiden's Eye

Taught me about movement, got you introduced to summoning mobs, depending on how you mix mobs has very easy to very hard quadding. Not great loot by any means, but early on made a small fortune selling centi weapons to a server that hadn't seen them yet.

2: Skyfire

Teaches aggro radius, if you haven't quadded skyfire you'll be limited to patterns or specific paths, in skyfire you can quad almost everything almost everywhere.

3: Fungus Grove

Experience there for quite the level range, before the upper PoP tiers were opened one of the few non PoP zones to get decent XP. Shadel Bandits with crap gear up to 61 or 62 were extremely fun, no margin for error. Timing areas to clear to quad bugs, ... about the only excuse for being in echo was to get to FG.

4: South Karana

Big, open, good XP range at lower levels quadding. The big damn skelly, gnolls, aviaks, lions, etc. Safe quadding when you're young.

5: OOT/TD

Two big sparse water areas, ships aren't enough so you have to take the time to explore, gets you out of that 'have to get XP' attitude. Sirens young (doing reds at 8-9 root rotting), Raptors later, plus a lot more.

--

I should mention Umbral, way underused, some interesting loot (hi druids), much of it obviated by the higher tier planes these days.

[Burrito]

Not really in order:

3: Fungus Grove

Experience there for quite the level range, before the upper PoP tiers were opened one of the few non PoP zones to get decent XP. Shadel Bandits with crap gear up to 61 or 62 were extremely fun, no margin for error. Timing areas to clear to quad bugs, ... about the only excuse for being in echo was to get to FG.

I had totally forgotten about FG bandits. Pre-PoP that was the best exp spot for AE groups. I loved doing that.

[Bragon]

1 ToV, hands down.
Halls of testing, enough said.
West ToV if you wanted quick ST keys that no one farmed (lendi was easy, but faction hit which wasn't a problem due to active giant farming)
Getting past aaryonar for the first is to this day the best moment of my MMO raiding career.
You dropped down the pit and looked around and god damn, this was place made by dragons for dragons, it gave you that feeling of.....greatness, and made you feel so tiny.
Then the first flurry drake was pulled by accident on your raid and hilarity ensued with a long string of OMG and WTF in guild chat.


2-Kael.
So many good raids to be had in Kael.
AoW is one of those mobs you will remenber forever, you never forget his name when talking about EQ, the kingpin of velious, the motherfucker that separated the boys from the men.
You could clear ToV and be top dog and talk a lot of shit, you weren't nothing untill you tried AoW!

3- Sebilis.

IMO the most well thought zone ever.
So vast, yet not boring, and so many camps there.
So many memories, this zone used to have 70 people in it and all of those groups could actually actively XP, damn!

4- Dragon Necropolis

Because i know this zone inside out and used to xp there.
Because it's (was) unforgiving and hard, and pretty much like the hole no one would go there cause there were better safer places to xp in.

5- All of the end tier of PoP.
That means anything elemental and time.
Fuck, everything PoP.
The progression, the keying, the story (appart from the end and the bullshit Zeb pullls on you: SURPRISE TIME WARP), fighting EQ gods ....EQ GODS DAMN IT!
I love everything about PoP, there isn't one zone i would throw away.
Except PoAir, and i'd throw raven away with it! :eek:

Honorable mention to VT, not cause it's a cool zone, it sucks giant donkey cocks, but because it was the shower of loot to reward you after going through this abomination of an expansion that was luclin.
Cats on the fucking moon, what?

[Knovo]

Haha, I agree with you Bragon, that they made a weak end to PoP. Basically - 'OH! It Was All A Dream!'

[Zahla]

Cats on the fucking moon, what?

<--- I got your cat moon right here big boy
:p

[Slouch]

yeah, eff the whole "and then he woke up" ending to PoP. /sadtrombone

my list is kinda myopic since I mostly just played EQ in the Luclin through PoP eras, but here goes:

5. PoTime - so I'm a loot whore, shut up! at least the Time encounters are tricksy and exciting, unlike VT snoozefest. (oh wait, another mob that gfluxes?! in a zone without lev?! how will we ever deal with THIS!).

4. Sebilis - agreed.

3. Tactics - because no other zone has so consistently and creatively fulfilled the dark fantasies of the deathwish gnome.

2. PoWater - you haven't lived until you've charmed in PoWater. so, I guess.. most people.. in the world.. haven't lived? pretty much just me and Raven have lived, I think.

yep.

1. Ak'Anon - because if you're not a gnome, then you're little people.

[wemsler]

2. PoWater - you haven't lived until you've charmed in PoWater. so, I guess.. most people.. in the world.. haven't lived? pretty much just me and Raven have lived, I think.

yep.

.

I've died doing this. At the time my gnome was made of paper. He has since since upgraded to cardboard so i may give it another shot.

[Zygor]

I've died doing this. At the time my gnome was made of paper. He has since since upgraded to cardboard so i may give it another shot.

Oh I've lived alright, to my death tho

[Redleaf]

1. Lesser Faydark — This zone has everything. A camp of nasty dark elves, three hot sisters on a camping trip, fairies, zombies, shadow men, a unicorn and a big badass black horse that will attack you if you even think about it. (I swear Equestrielle attacked me in PoK!) Exciting as hell for a n00b.

2. The Grey — People loath this zone and understandably so as it has a lot of strikes against it, like: You need Enduring Breath at all time since there's no air, there are traps all over the place, bad lag, and if you hit the "dead zone" you'll crash to desktop. Oh, one last thing, it looks like a big poo.

But! There's a lot of good stuff for a Druid to solo there, so I love it. You can quad skeles and spawn the uber rare Heirophant Grazan, Crusader Kezzal, or head to the temple and earn phat lootz from the golems or snakes. Not to mention you can pick up a VT shard while you're there

3. Plane of Fear — Weird-ass monsters that dispell, jello cubes, Harpies and Gods! What the hell else could you want. If you're new to EQ and run into this place as one of your initial raids (like I did) then you'll never forget your experience here. The Saturday afternoon Temerity went (6 years ago?!!), Mechaike wasn't in attendance, so I ended up getting all the uber Vermiculated gear drops that day!

4. Temple of Veeshan — Looks cool as hell, has dragons out the ying-yang and was such an important step for Tems as far as gear upgrades were concerned. Gotta love raid dodging AEs for the first time. Maybe the perfect raid dungeon.

5. Plane of Fire — Finally, the tables (no pun intended) were balanced. A group could finally hit a zone on Al'Kabor where the effort was equal to the reward. Mini's out the patooty, sweet exp camps, TS items and the ability for a Druid to get his quad on. Something we hadn't been able to do since the mid 50's.