Everquest 2 Player Diary Level 55 - 60

Level 55 to 60 provides players with their first chance to reach the content brought by the Kingdom of Sky expansion, though it is probably one best not to take immediately. The mobs there start at around level 57, so I thought I'd best wait until then before I headed up into the Overrealm. That meant I had to find two levels either in the Desert of Flames or in Faydwer; luckily I almost immediately found a group being put together for the Mines of Meldrath, an instance in the Steamfont Mountains.

Admittedly, I was probably a couple of levels too high for the Mines of Meldrath at 55, but the wonderful thing about Everquest 2 is that the Achievement Exp you get for running a dungeon the first time will make up for that. The Mines themselves turned out to be inside an extensive tunnel system in Steamfont, but thankfully all the monsters were grey to me until I actually got into the instance (which took a while, as I had no idea where I was going). Once inside, I realised that I would be mostly facing clockworks, and I probably should have done it before running Klak'Anon - it seems to be intended partly as an introduction to its bigger cousin.

Anyway, the basic setup of the dungeon is that you have to kill a number of bosses and harvest a power stone from each, which are then used to activate a clockwork robot that will build a bridge to the final boss. Along the way a ghostly gnome appears, telling you a small part of his story and luring you onwards, but sadly I did not really get to listen to what he had to say - the group seemed intent on getting through everything as quickly as possible. That was a bit of a shame, I thought, because I do enjoy those little touches that add some background to a dungeon. The final bossfight was relatively challenging and we actually wiped, though that was largely due to my own stupidity (I pulled aggro while AOEing the bodyguards, then I decided to Feign Death to clear the aggro while forgetting I was still assisting the tank - so I FDed him instead, which got everyone killed). In general the zone was actually surprisingly hard, with the monsters hitting much harder than their non-EoF counterparts, so if you're not on your toes you could quite easily wipe. But on the plus side, the Achievement Exp was good, the loot was excellent and it was a fun way to spend forty five minutes or so (it's a relatively short instance).

After that, I figured I'd give the Lesser Faydark another try. I always had quite liked the (admittedly very different) Lesser Faydark from back in Everquest 1, so I wasn't entirely happy leaving the updated version with my previous conclusions of 'worst zone ever'. In fact, at level 55 the zone turned out to be a lot more accessible and, remarkably enough, quite good fun. That's not to say that I don't think the zone is not still badly designed, because it is - frankly, it's like a maze. The wandering hostile heroics are also still a complete nightmare, particularly near the Butcherblock Mountains area. However, at level 55 or 56 you don't instantly die when you get an add while fighting, which makes the zone somewhat less frustrating. The fact that the horse stations have been added makes the zone MUCH easier to traverse too, though naturally you've got to have found each of the stations before you go there.

Once you get into it, though, you'll find the Lesser Faydark quite an interesting zone. The quest lines are plentiful and actually kept me more than interested as I played through them, and the fact that there's an outpost in the zone with a mender and broker there (along with lots of quests) made me very happy. There's also an area in the zone that's been overrun by otherworldly attackers like Shadowed Men, which I really enjoyed fighting in. The Shadowed Men look very impressive with decent graphics settings on (apparently they look similarly good in the Obelisk of Lost Souls, but I always turn my graphics right down in dungeons as you can't afford to lag while tanking), with really cool smoky effects around the edge of their portals. There's also some weird void creatures that look vaguely humanoid while standing still, but then split apart and become very distinctly alien when they move. I spent half a level soloing around there to hit 57 after I'd done the quest lines and I really quite enjoyed it. Thus, I've upgraded the Lesser Faydark to a mediocre zone - it's far from well designed or beginner-friendly, but it's a lot of fun when you get into it. I really wouldn't bother going there till 55+ though; stick to the easier DoF zones instead.

Once I hit 57 I headed up to the Kingdom of Sky using the wizard spires in the Commonlands, ending up in a zone called the Tenebrous Tangle. But even after extensive leveling there, I'm still not sure if I like it, as it is quite an odd design (like much of the KOS that I've seen). Basically, the Overrealm consists of several zones, each broken up into numerous small islands connected by teleporters. While this does allow each little area to have its own distinct theme, usually dictated by the type of monster that lives there, it does strike me as somewhat lazy. Much like the original release zones of Everquest 2, they appear to have come up with a few ideas and then not bothered filling in the blanks, the empty sea between the islands in this case being replaced by empty sky. The graphical style in each zone is generally similar between each island, too, the only difference (as mentioned above) being the monsters that reside there. Having said that, the Tenebrous Tangle and the neighbouring Barren Sky were visually very distinct from one another - it was just pretty monotonous within them.

Putting aside the structure of the zone, though, Kingdom of Sky has some neat ideas. To reach the friendly outpost in the Tenebrous Tangle, for example, you have to leap off a waterfall and fall about five hundred metres into a big pool of water. It's nothing too major, but it is quite a cool touch. The zone is also quite clearly designed as a 'newbie' zone, as it's packed full of repeatable quests that make leveling towards 60 a breeze. I picked up two levels in TT before the easy repeatable quests ran out, and I didn't get bored because it went by so quickly. In terms of monsters, there's a new dragonkin race called the Droag that make up the majority of the enemies, as well as the standard dragonflies/snakes/wasps/hostile plantlife. Some of the islands are quite good for grinding, too, though finding the right teleporter can be a nightmare. The other thing worth mentioning about TT is that it contains the Sanctum of the Scaleborne, a dungeon that starts at about level 60 that I'll cover in my next entry, but I'll say now that it's very well designed and a lot of fun to play though. Overall, Tenebrous is quite a good zone that gives good adventure and achievement experience, though I do find the fact it is literally a series of unconnected islands with different creatures on them rather underwhelming in terms of zone design - had I paid good money to buy the expansion separately, I might have felt a little shortchanged.

To get up to 60 after I had grown tired of soloing in Tenebrous, I returned to Faydwer and did some grouping. My first port of call was New Tunaria, formerly Felwithe from EQ1. This was the home city of the High Elves back in the day, but over the last 500 years they had become a little more insular and now the place is a level 60ish dungeon. First up, it's worth noting the zone's visual style, which is very striking with a lot of gold and white marble. Sadly the exteriors of the buildings are actually quite badly textured when you get close, but the interior areas of the zone look very nice. The creatures you will be fighting are just average looking elves, mixed in with the stone statue mob models that you'll have seen before in countless other dungeons, but it's in the EoF mold and therefore a pretty tough zone. The mobs hit hard compared to those of similar level in other expansions and drop slightly better loot, but the zone overall is pretty badly done despite the potential it had for being really good. I was honestly expecting something special once I'd seen the striking white towers, and I was really hoping that they had done Felwithe justice, but sadly it was not to be.

The main problem with New Tunaria is largely that there's nothing to do. There's not many nameds and almost no quests at all, coupled with little loot worth remarking about (unless you're particularly keen on repeating the word 'average' to yourself). There was one quest, but to get it we had to pray at an altar while being beaten on by four non-heroic mobs. This wasn't too much of a problem once we'd worked out what to do, but then it turned out we couldn't pray at the altar because it was nighttime. A quest that you can only get half of the time? Yeah, great idea...

After getting rather bored of New Tunaria, my group decided just to head to the Court of Innovation instead. This is an instance within Klak'Anon, aimed at those in their high 50s, and it was a complete contrast to New Tunaria. Though by this point I was getting thoroughly sick of fighting clockworks, I had a really good time in the Courts - fighting through the dungeon involves a series of puzzles as well as bossfights, and it was challenging but not impossible. It felt well-balanced in that the zone felt dangerous but doable, and it taxed your head a little more than just hammering your hotbar keys. It was also cool because there were no respawns as it was an instance, meaning that the clearing of trash mobs was not much of a chore - you knew you'd only have to do it once. The final bossfight was pretty climactic (you really felt like you were fighting a final boss) and the loot was excellent, as was both the adventure and achievement experience. Overall, a very polished instance that shouldn't be missed by anyone.

To wrap up, level 55-60 was fine. It took a while to do but, with the release of the Kunark expansion, the level progression pre-70 is being made easier and therefore this is somewhat of a non-issue. I get the impression that the trek would have been quite dull without Faydwer, but being able to alternate between zones in Faydwer and the Kingdom of Sky kept things fresh and meant I didn't have to spend so long anywhere that I became sick of it, and that can only be a good thing. Next time, the Loping Plains and the rest of the KOS.