4 Reasons I Regret Playing Classic EverQuest

[@icarus-wings]

The thing about EverQuest is that it is so hard, you can’t just play it for an hour a day and expect to enjoy it. It necessitated a lifestyle; 8 hours or more a day to advance, form community connections, and obtain rare drops that define your class. The people who committed to EQ back in 1999 are now on their 40s with families and can’t commit that sort of time to a 25-year-old game anymore.

[@bobthor9647]

If you do want to check out Pantheon it's in open testing now, $50, includes beta and full game . 2024

[@storbokki371]

I never played P99, but I did subscribe to EQ starting in 1999 to about 2004 or 2005. I've since started playing free on live, but where I use to be heavily involved with a guild back in the day it's mostly solo play now. Honestly I prefer it that way as I don't have the time to devote to raiding. EQ back then definitely had a huge impact on my gaming expectations. It's still the greatest gaming experience I ever had.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for sharing that Stor :)

[@storbokki371]

@@IonBlaze1 Update. I'm now on P99 Green, and loving it. It's good to be back! 😀

[@boi9842]

@@IonBlaze1 First time playing this game, got stuck for 4 days killing repetitive mobs in a dwarven fortress entrance area. Horrible boring grindfest of a game, whoever thinks this game is good is nostalgia blinded or just like boring grinding gameplay, and i say that for all mmos in general, terrible genre. If i wanted to play a grindfest game at least i want engaging gameplay, there are none in this game, just a target and wait combat, no strategy, nothing.

[@brooke4743]

@@boi9842 Try playing as a caster class. Much more going on to keep things interesting.

[@brooke4743]

@@boi9842 Otherwise if you get annoyed over a game, probably it's just not for you and move on

[@brickhouse6533]

The everquest melody brings back a bag full of emotions and memories.

[@vannthybun2546]

No matter how many games I immerse myself in, the EQ music always brings me right back to the year 2000

[@IonBlaze1]

Yeah it's a great soundtrack :)

[@anotheryoutubed]

At torch 2.

[@larrykiddyjr161]

Bs dude you sound way to young to have played this in 1999. P.s. no one cares about your whining.

[@davidlambert8531]

Everything about this reminds me of my late teen years playing EQ. I almost always leveled in Crushbone and have personally experienced most of the things you mentioned here. Love the trip down memory lane. Thank you!

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for watching & the kind words David

[@chrismartz9891]

Huge thank you for these videos. I played everquest for a bit as a kid (right when the tiger race was released) and pretty much forgot about the game. Fast forward to last week I see an Instagram ad for velinak. Holy shit! People still play. I subscribed a few days ago and I am having a blast. It's a damn shame there aren't many content creators because the game still kicks ass. Thank you for the videos.

[@kurticusmaximus]

This video was the quintessential nostalgic Everquest storytelling. Crushbone trains, grouping, PLing, and deaths. I hope when I introduce my friend to Everquest, we will have the same tears of joy and sadness.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for watching Kurt & the kind words.

[@glitchhop]

The reason I like 1999 is because of the difficulty

[@fhoofe3245]

same. i played as a middle-school kid, and couldn't get past level 20. when i returned in a high school and college, i got to 65 (max) and made some good AA achievements. EQ is a hard game, until Plane of Knowledge!

[@djockom]

Too hard game for no reason, needs to get reworked for new players.

[@MRcoolman702]

​@@djockom It already has with Project Quarm, Progression, and Teek. How much more noob friendly can you get?

[@machinech183]

...and to think all he had to have done after that bolt spell was to immediately zone and everyone would have been relatively ok. He did the one thing to ensure complete and total chaos. Pull aggro, sit somewhere the mobs don't path well, then go wait at the zone line. Pretty much guarantees the entire zone is now coming. Love it. Miss the old days when this happened at least ten times or more a day. Good times.

[@defconone1498]

I can't believe you pulled that stunt while GM's were in zone... but I totally get the kick you got out of it :) Trains can be fun because you got to figure out a way to outwit them and dying does suck big time. Great story telling, very much enjoyed your video.

[@slyolepup]

Castle Mistmore was by far the worst zone I've ever seen trains in... graveyard camp gets ballsy and pulls castle mobs and one fatal mistake leads to the entire zone camping for about 5 mins.

[@douglaswilliams6834]

Mistmore was horrific. Worst pathing in the game. Good times!

[@ryanlewis9953]

Ah yes, the trains from EverQuest. Choo Choo indeed! So many memories.

[@IonBlaze1]

They're entertaining to watch so long as you don't die :)

[@elevatormusicirelia9043]

The dedication it takes to raid on p99 is intense. And props to anyone who gets it done. The competition of open world raid bosses is purely for the most die hard of players. I prefer pickzones, agents of change and the plethora of QOL changes that Live progression servers offer. The most recent changes to Druid class alone has me so pumped for the 25th. Better dots, can cast our Dismiss line of Nukes on Constructs, Elementals and summoned creatures. Even clockworks! And plus the charm changes you mentioned. We can charm underbulks and all sorts of exotic critters that used to be enc/brd only.

[@IonBlaze1]

I 100% agree with what you posted. What you said is exactly why I quit raiding on P99 blue to go to a TLP.

[@clickmcclick2675]

this is why i liked pvp... 1st you had to guild fight for a few hours over the boss spawn then the French would log on at 3am and take the boss lol

[@TheNybling]

Did they buff druid dots?

[@bmo5082]

I never had much interest in competitive raiding. TBH, the classic mechanics aren’t really friendly to anyone that’s not hardcore. I don’t remember the last time vox, nagafen, or trak lasted more than an hour before they were dropped. Basically you have a large contingent of people with no life, just waiting for spawns so they can get what they want for their 8th level 60 char. Fun game though.

[@elevatormusicirelia9043]

@@TheNybling On official servers they consolidated DOT spells years ago. What this means is that you cannot stack the same dot lines anymore but you do roughly the same damage with less dots on targets. It's much more mana efficient and less time to consuming so in groups you aren't just barely getting your dots on the target when its at 20% health. It's more efficient, you cast less spells and do similar damage. For druids this was a huge boon because the lvl 45 click DOT elder spiritist vambraces has the IMPROVED version of the spell and does roughly twice as much damage as before. More recently they made it so the banish line of spells now lands on Elementals, constructs and summoned creatures. Even clockworks. No more having very few mobs to use our best line of nukes. They also just recently made it so druid charms work on more than twice the targets they used to including insects.

[@nataraja3030]

The problem with p1999 is that all things can improve. An updated version of p1999 every year would be cool. It would include solutions to problems in older versions of p1999, which would create new, hopefully smaller problems. Rinse and repeat every year until nobody wants to play any more.

[@OmghaxRaven21]

I remember playing eq1 when i was very young, and what caused me to play eq2 was the social interactions we have along the way. EQ2 was my main game for 15 or so years, and the social part of the game was what kept me playing. Whilst I no longer play either of those games anymore, I do enjoy watching other peoples experiences similar to mine. Having the new format of showing us the social side of eq1 and the random adventures, both good and bad is what really makes both of these games special. Thank you for bringing us this new series, it's wholesome, funny and informative at the same much. (even though I played eq2 more, it's nostalgic seeing and hearing old places and old music)

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you so much for the kind words. I actually played EQ2 for a couple years also. I used the EQ2 music in this. Troubadour! The Kunark expansions was AMAZING!

[@OmghaxRaven21]

@@IonBlaze1 I did hear quite a few EQ2 pieces of music in this video and some of your others. I presumed that maybe there was some cross over pieces, but hearing EQ2 music definitely made me smile. Has anyone ever picked you up on an EQ1 video but featuring EQ2 music?

[@IonBlaze1]

@@OmghaxRaven21 yeah some people caught it :)

[@OmghaxRaven21]

@@IonBlaze1 You can't go wrong, because some of the scores for the game are so nostalgic and amazing that you can't be mad ;) - but as a EQ2 primary player, hearing the eq2 music in your videos is super chill - Again, thank you for this series.

[@Hylebos75]

Lol at the "I can handle P99, I gotta swarm kiting bard on Blue"

[@martialharpistmatthew1837]

😂😂😂

[@bippityboppity496]

It can’t be that the type of players a rules-heavy, 16 hour watching a wall for a raid to start competition draws is hardly sociable.

[@IonBlaze1]

Oh yeah that's raiding. This is more a jest about how hard it is

[@Treklosopher]

To whatever extent what you wrote can be made sense of, I disagree. It's people that have a compulsive need to break or not be subject to rules that are typically antisocial jerkoffs. Can't be mature adults part of a community.

[@bippityboppity496]

Of course you disagree. The autistic spectrum kids need rules. Look up why rules make autistic spectrum people comfortable instead of the fluidity and dynamism of social situations. You can’t even understand what I wrote above. It’s not bad being autistic but there will never be peaceful play with all of you autistic people huddling around an online community bc you all lack the ability to communicate and demand strict rules and not just strict rules but rules on rules on rules on rules on rules on rules on.

[@robertfugate2232]

I recently quit p99 due to the terrible end game raiding experience. On blue if you don't have an alt to swap to at boss spawn, you're not getting the high end contested mobs.(MotG, Vulak, etc.) My own guild will have a tracker ping the spawn in discord, they all swap to their alts that are camped at that particular boss, and engage the mob before I can even hammer to HH for a port. The alternative option is camp my main in the zones while waiting for the boss during spawn window. Which can be various mobs in different zones with the same 12 hr window, so total shot in the dark. It's a terrible experience. Green is probably somewhat better for now, but surely headed towards the same trajectory.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for sharing your experience Robert. I totally get you there. I left Blue for a tlp just so I could raid at a convenient time.

[@BuangAmerikano]

roll enchanter, solo hs / chardok / sebilis as a challange, sell the loot and be rich, anyone can 'raid' and accumulate dkp, youre playing the game wrong.. raiding is lame

[@BuangAmerikano]

check out p99 solo challanges

[@robertfugate2232]

@@BuangAmerikano I appreciate the suggestion! I've looked into it before, rolling enchanter and trying solo challenges would be something fun to do between raids. To me, beating the game is acquiring best in slot gear, and bringing down the biggest and baddest mobs. Soloing in some hole somewhere to get rich would be fun during downtime but not something I'd have fun with for too long if it were all I was doing.

[@robertfugate2232]

@@IonBlaze1 Thinking of doing the same when Yelinak comes out!

[@DaleStrife]

As someone who played original EQ from kunark to ldon, WoW for every expansion, and p99 blue (60 druid) and green (50 mage and druid), I thoroughly enjoyed the story-telling of this. Also did not know the mail quest. I usually tried to collect cb belts and shoulderpads. Edit: I'm really glad Druid's harmony lull is unresistable.

[@thevoeltzwagon5166]

My first EQ experience was a few months after it came out. I just remember playing a human monk and my first day me and another player spent the better part of 3 hours training the same bear onto one another in Kithcor forest. Good times had by all.

[@kennethterrell1167]

Everquest is not a sprint, it is a marathon.

[@JamesShelnutt2]

I wouldn't even call it a marathon, cause that implies it will come to an end. Everquest never ends.

[@kennethterrell1167]

@JamesShelnutt2 it does end though, just not for normal people like you and me. Lol

[@yippeethreeeight]

Great video. That brings back some memories. Your Mage training all of Crushbone story reminds me of a time when my wife and I traveled all the way across the continent to go to Blackburrow. We were low level, so only doing the entry area. We were doing fine, and were only taking about 1/2 of the mobs. Then this group came in and started killstealing the entire entry level. I wandered over to the hole, and pulled out my bow, and shot a Gnoll as low as I could. It trained the entire zone. After the aftermath of that, things went back to normal, and I immediately did it again. This time, the group left, and only the friendly people were left. Nobody knew that I did it except for my wife, and she couldn't type because she was laughing hysterically.

[@KubaxKristallmond]

15 years EQ1 here (2000 - 2015). Barbarian Shaman only, never been loving a Character this much in any game before or after. Loved to create Trains in the Crypt of Nadox inviting people to the Party and making their AA Exp go through the roof. Wonderful memories.

[@erniehubbard3195]

I remember, on Prexus, groups of players in direct competition for the orcs in Highpass, just in from the Kithicor ZL. It was an exhilarating experience, at level 17, to be involved in a group, trying to outdamage all the other groups, in order to claim the kill for each mob brought down. With as many as four groups wacking on the same mob(s) at the same time, it was great chaotic fun. Then, we suddenly became civilized, and for the most part, claiming a camp became recognized, but took away a great source of fun. With the release of Luclin, the game lost it's luster, particularly as they started dumbing down the game, along with making a lot of thing easier, like travel, corpse recovery, banking, etc. Project 1999 is fantastic for those of us who miss the "good-old-days".

[@GeorgeTropicana]

Yeah the game was great before they dumbed it down for people like the person that made the video. Having to wait for the boat because I couldn't find a druid to teleport me, long corspe runs. I miss corpse runs. Nowadays it doesn't even matter if you die

[@Surfbogie07]

I mean, EQ is not an easy game. It was hands down one of the hardest games I ever played. It consumed thousands of hours a week in my early 17-23 life. I definitely had a moment where we were binding outside of Vox, we went to fight her got about 75% through the fight and the server crashed. As we all came back in we wiped, GM's came in helped us recover our many bodies. Then we port over to Naggy, I had to remained bound in Vox to help port people out. We get to Naggy, and before I could re bind someone aggroed Naggy wiped the spell casters and sent me in a 6 death loop because giants had respawned near Vox. I lost 5 levels and this was when you died with no items your corpse would disappear. I uninstalled EQ, walked outside smashed my CD's and cancelled my account. Only to be a fool and come back a month later. This game was far from easy, and still isn't "easy" by comparison today. I love EQ, I met a ton of great people and have tons of fond memories. I wish I could go back and re create. No game since EQ has ever provided an experience like it, most other MMO's were "easy" by comparison. And didn't form a close knit community, the rushing to kill things before other guilds etc. It's what made it fun, the competition and farming made the items feel more valuable. Newer MMO's try to appeal to a larger audience, where EQ excelled at finding people who didn't mind a challenge. Anyways I could go on, I love this game and will always but I have a hard time going back to play.

[@IonBlaze1]

Last episode: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z3_cqp-Brdd4jNE Not a list against P99. It's about 4 bad things that happened while playing in this 2nd episode. Also I didn't train anyone. That was a story from reddit I shared lol.

[@RecruiterMan81]

Now everyone imagine farming mobs in CB in March of 1999 on dial-up, with much lower-end computers, when the servers just launched and they were constantly crashing and there are 100 people in CB at the same time. It amazes me anyone was able to level at all back then. D'Vinn would go on murderous rampages through the zone all the time. It was all worth it though when i got that mace.

[@IonBlaze1]

Oh I had no idea what it was like. Dang that sounds horrible! Thank you for telling that.

[@RecruiterMan81]

@@IonBlaze1 It was frustrating at the time but kinda miss the danger now everything is so safe these days.

[@dremias]

Nothing like zoning in and you are dead.

[@timgargac2766]

Yeah, I had a run at p99 recently myself. Once the nostalgia ran out I was faced with the realization that grouping and raiding were never gonna be like it was then.

[@IonBlaze1]

Yeah that's the unfortunate truth there. Just make of it what you can :)

[@Khurzan72]

Grouping can be exactly like it was back then. Raiding however, nope

[@RichardEKranz]

What I hated about p 99 was the uni-guild taking over the whole game.

[@IonBlaze1]

Like a zerg fest? Yeah it was hyper competitive when I played blue

[@RichardEKranz]

@@IonBlaze1 It stated off Great though, a lot of people were happy to help one another, someone gave a full suit of banded as soon as I created my rogue. The EXP boosts were wonderful. Then the guilds started.

[@Treklosopher]

I leveled a bard to 34 on Green and I definitely had to stop because of tendinitis in my hand. I felt that part in my soul. 😆

[@IonBlaze1]

Oof yeah it's tough. "My Dr prescribed the mmo mouse lol"

[@SvenS2]

1 - "Ha, got em'. No regerts, lull lull lull"

[@blackwaltz3135]

its nice seeing the old GUI of Everquest from back then, I love the way it looked and how the menu was layed out

[@VenkmanPhD]

I remember the LAUNCH GUI. God it was only like 40% playable screen. Everything else was menu etc

[@blackwaltz3135]

@@VenkmanPhD yeah there wasnt much play screen left lol but still nice to see again.

[@innocentorphan1213]

Can't be best Bard, not even strafing to go faster through Kelethin.

[@GeekyGizmo007]

Oh man I *miss* infinite aggro range. THIS is what made enchanters and bards so important...

[@KayossSZ]

P99 just makes me feel depressed now. Always wanted to raid and see some dungeons but I doubt I'll ever be able to with the top guilds basically locking everything down. I just don't feel welcome anymore. Recently subbed to live, gonna jump into Yelinak on day one.

[@IonBlaze1]

That's a good choice for raiding. It's family friendly too

[@tinfoilhat6343]

P99 at the top end is a dead end server full of people who think they are elite for solving problems that have been solved a million times before. The levelling experience can be fun tho.

[@bmo5082]

Very true. It’a sad, all they need to do is decrease the spawn times on key dragons like vox nag and trak and a lot of the problems in end raiding would go away. But currently there is a group of players that lock down every damn dragon including the lesser dragons, to a point where most of these guys have alts that are level 52 parked at Nag and Vox just so they can get look on their umpteenth toon.

[@karlharvey601]

Bards are just one of the harder jobs to play too,so much work.

[@IonBlaze1]

I wonder how they compare to modern button smasher mmos

[@michaelluciano1980]

Dude you telling that story with that music in the background had me in stitches. Haven’t laughed like that in a while 😂😂

[@direravenext3815]

My father introduced the game to me when I was around 4 years old, since then I’ve been playing. Him and my mother have been playing since release and were big ultima fans. Met many friends and long time friends at that on the game. Trying to get my parents to play again haha.

[@IonBlaze1]

Sounds very familiar :) thank you for coming by to watch

[@chefnstrike]

I remember when the bazaar first opened. You could Levi someone and push them into the arena as it was in the same zone. Kill them and take what they had.

[@Prinny9000]

I have my own reasons why I quit p99 but my main one was open world raid targets just i don't want to see grown adults fight like children over raid mobs heck my co-worker who used to play Everquest back in 1999-2000s told me a story that his guild was wiped during a lady vox raid by another guild who sent a mob train through the raid and dropping aggro on Fegin death

[@IonBlaze1]

Oof that's a nasty experience to have. The competitive raiding scene is a funnel for toxic behavior. It's why I'm going to a tlp just for end game.

[@sixten7920]

It always blew my mind how insane people acted in the simulation of a 20+ year old game with only a few hundred people on it. I mostly stayed away from raiding. I never even bothered with epic for most classes because the same few people would monopolize the mobs, and either corpse epic pieces or just flat out let them rot or delete them just to keep prices inflated for selling MQ's. Absolute madness. People with millions of plat, best in slot gear, and still insanely greedy over epic pieces.

[@Shakfu86]

You can group with and get experience with someone 1.5X your level. So a level 20 can group with a 30 and still get xp. Level 30 with a 45, etc

[@IonBlaze1]

Oh thank you for clarifying that Matt :)

[@fuzzynugs5644]

Take the highest level and multiply it by .67 you will get the lowest level possible for the party.

[@Aro2220]

As for the Warlord death, there was something you could have done (if you watched it for a bit). The warlord runs into the castle, to the throne room, stands there for a few seconds, then runs back out again. If you see him run into the castle you know he's going to come out again in like 10 seconds so you should just wait for him to come out and run off before pulling.

[@Waggabagaboo]

I know this sounds farfetched but I currently play board games with a man whose son figured out how to dupe items and plat in early EQ. He would set up computer farms in his dorm room to sell items/plat, dropped out of college, and eventually "sold" the dupe method for about half a million USD to a Californian "investor" months later.

[@IonBlaze1]

Holy smokes that is a crazy story. Thank you for sharing that.

[@cactuss33ds]

early internet was just a different time, holy shit

[@michaelswenson6599]

@@cactuss33ds when will we get TLP servers for the internet?

[@ericfiske9343]

The death to full health glitch has nothing to do with bard health song, I've had that happen a couple times while soloing on my druid. It's just a weird bug, that is SUPER awesome when it happens :)

[@VenkmanPhD]

Come to think of it, it happened to my warrior once or twice in a group when I thought we'd wipe and then SUDDENLY THE TANK IS BACK

[@mjd3879]

The truth is, P99 is Everquest as it was. That's the people that play it, you are certainly entitled to complaining about it, and I've been "raging" or annoyed from character deaths on and off for 20 years. It is not a game that will reward you simply for playing it, it is a punishing experience, that has a steep and difficult curve. Overcoming that, is the satisfaction of playing, and a shared social experience of "we made it". It also allows the fun of making "OP" low level toons after you've made it, thats really fun as well. That being said, P99 will always have a tight ball of players that came there to relive the glory days of the late 90s early 00s everquest, and it certainly isn't for everyone, and I am fine with that. One last point, P99 has some of the best and worst of all MMO communities, the helpful people can really make your day or week, their that nice. The toxic people can genuinely ruin your experience. I've been on both ends of the spectrum, but am firmly entrenched in the help others camp for the last decade.

[@DrewLonmyPillow]

1) original EQ was such a time sink

[@IonBlaze1]

That's is absolutely true. Would have been 30-40 by now

[@colinfaust3058]

The things that annoy you make me love this game. No zerging dozens of npcs like other mmos. It trains you.

[@IonBlaze1]

I love how you put it. The frustrations make the successes feel better.

[@colinfaust3058]

@@IonBlaze1 Only the most dedicated were rewarded.

[@justindadswell8610]

You do realize that zerging as a MMO term was coined in EQ? Early day Naggy and lady Vox fights could only be done zerglike. To use what was mentioned in the video, dial up cause half the people to crash. I use to run those raids when that was end game (pick up raids, when that was a thing). You tried to balance groups (trying to have a bard and cleric in each), and you tried to have them go one group at a time to avoid lag, but in the end it was a zerg fest. And you only won if a GM noticed and I am guessing gave the zone more band width. I say that as the only times we won was when a GM was in the zone and lag seemed to be lessened (so a guess as to what happened I guess). Side note, what made EQ great. Is people could actually be trusted back then. Who else remembers giving loot rights to your corpse. And realistically, if a CoF was end game loot today it would never stay on the body (and I rolled off 3 of them, back in a time when anyone could loot things and "raid group" was not a thing).

[@christopherrackham5802]

@colin exactly... The Lguk trains were hilarious.

[@Mizarrow]

Highkeep trains are pretty funny if you're grouped with evil races and the guards aren't camped. The evil races got their revenge on those who laughed when the group moved to Skyfire ramp in Overthere. 😂

[@koopakape]

"Why I regret playing on P99: 25-minute-long video talking about how challenging but overall fun and rewarding it was, in addition to a tidbit about obliterating everyone leveling in Crushbone" I can only see reasons to NOT regret playing P99.

[@woodengamer]

Karnor had some amazing trains, especially if the person zoned out the wrong way (zone out was always exit right on CT, a few people would panic and zone left, where everyone was sitting LFG)

[@IonBlaze1]

Oh yeah KC! The loading screen used to joke about those trains.

[@lurchmoney512]

Haha that it did

[@randyle1006]

haha man this is the video that got me into EQ, we2low here again, so I wanted to see it again and actually know what you are talking about. some good content here man

[@adamjoys2616]

It's funny, Ive never done CB. Always went to Blackburrow on my bard (as a human no less) The thing that killed p99 was how they changed the buttons so you couldnt use binds from different bars, only the current bar. Made Twisting so much more of a pain. Also that comment about grouping or just going solo to ding, Swarm kiting is just such amazing xp, its hard to stop once you get the hang of it. (Im guessing your ping is less then 60 so easy mode if you do decide to do it) Thanks for the vid

[@IonBlaze1]

Ah I have so much nostalgia for the Qeynos side but I'm more of min-max player now to start there :( .... I'm feeling the annoyances at playing bard here. Wouldn't so bad if duxaui was allowed. Constantly resetting hotbar that deletes slots 7-10. Sluggish instrument swapping. I feel slower.

[@adamjoys2616]

@@IonBlaze1 Yeah, all of that is exactly why I stopped. Bard is already such a high skill class in OG EQ, and after 12 years of Duxaui and the hotbars working they finally said it wasnt classic and removed it.... I hit 57-58, had arguably BIS for a non-raiding bard, and like you had taught a bunch of others the tricks and the trade. Time to move on right? I do hope that if you get back to it that it works out for you. Ohh and min-max? you mean as a half-elf? or that crush is better? I always find the gnoll teeth is the way to go, no one is usually around and stacks of teeth make you money AND xp until 14-15, then switch to the bandits, then 18 you can swarm beetles/or hit the OT until 25-26. Then its a bit of a pain finding a spot to go to 27-28, then HHK until 34, then back to OT until 44. :) Anyways Im rabbling, your content makes me nostalgic.

[@IonBlaze1]

@@adamjoys2616 oh I didn't think of those quest pathways. I need to try them out. Thank you for that. Min-max I mean where the fastest lvling & grouping is.

[@adamjoys2616]

@@IonBlaze1 Ahhh yeah (also cuz half-elf is arguably the "best" bard, and as a human one I got some flack haha) I just found Crush had lots of compition, whereas blackburrow doesnt, and if you want to take it easy even the baby lvl 4-5 gnolls drop teeth which is still xp until midteens. I havent tried crush though (or when I did I was just LFG for a bit and left) thanks again for the content

[@ehliaskarim1520]

Awesome video, not just saying that cause of the shoutout lol. But seriously crazy story about crushbone! That was pretty insane! P99 is rough but you took the punishments like man, kudos 👏 By the way... whoever found that mail delivery quest from Felwithe to Kelethin, huuuge round of applause. Levels 4 - 8 were soooo easy, great great info.

[@IonBlaze1]

I was glad to have you in there Ehlias. Thank you for being apart of the video.

[@Kellett781]

I played classic EQ from launch nearly daily for 4 years. I play occasionally on the live servers for the past 3 years. There is no way I would go back to EQ 99. The quality of life upgrades on live servers is the only thing that makes this game playable for me these days.

[@EQOAnostalgia]

Ohhhhh MAN! I did this with my Mage in EQOA only it was because i didn't have my pet on a leash, it glitched up into the boss room and yeah... a few moments later everyone was wiped out LOL! Now in EQOA, we had no loadscreens so... knowing when you zoned out was a matter of opening the menu to check your area. Do that a few times and you're dead. Plus everything in EQOA seemed to have SoW... for whatever f'ing reason lol. This video is legendary! Awesome!

[@jschram84]

I remember when P99 first came out, I think I did enough Kolindi fish quests in Qeynos to get to level 5 which is when Mage gets their first pet IIRC.

[@IonBlaze1]

Oh yeah those fish! Don't those wreck your faction though?

[@xkallubar]

level 4

[@tipsysmichigander6483]

I was banned a few weeks ago, P99 GM said me and my roommate were double boxing after I was granted access for me and him to play through numerous E-mail conversations with them. After 3 years of us playing together both with numerous raiding characters, a GM appeared and said 'You're boxing, now you're banned' literally no explanation or due diligence on their part. Went right back to playing live fulltime. We did not share accounts or cause server drama.

[@IonBlaze1]

Ouch that sucks. All that work lost for nothing.

[@faverodefavero]

No way to appeal?

[@SwishEQ]

@@faverodefavero He (not "they") would have failed the boxing test the staff make you do. Or he saw the GM then happened to crash and not log back in. It's a running meme that people who get caught always play with their "brother" or "roommate" so he's fallen in well here. Definitely more to the story I think.

[@oldrin1876]

Awesome pvp video, you love to see it gang!

[@murrayallinger2830]

I played p99 for about a year, and really loved it. Talk about a nostalgia hit!! But I always hit a wall with all of my toons at around level 35'ish. Two reasons. By that point, it is really really difficult to solo, and groups are really hard to get in to, as there are zones that are on the ZEM list (zone experience modifier) and there are always lineups outside of those zones waiting to get in. My relax/play time is limited, and I hate to waste it sitting outside of a zone waiting for a spot to open. The 2nd reason that I found, is that I found the player base on P99 are largely multi-year veterans, and they have developed a play style for each class. In fact, almost every veteran player there has a high level in each and every class, and so is a pro at that class. I came in expecting to play my particular class like I did from 1999 to 2004, when I had last played EQ, and found that group expectations, especially as you get to higher levels, became totally different. For example, when playing my enchanter, it was simply expected that I would keep a mobbed charmed constantly. I was even told what mobs I was expected to charm, and in some cases got berated because I didn't charm enough, or let the charm break, or even charmed the wrong mob. Many veteran players were great to play with, but others were, in my estimation, complete and utter a**holes, and ruined any fun that I might have gotten from my time there. So, to conclude, I really enjoyed P99 from level 1 to about level 35 or so, but after that it became a dreadful chore and I often decided to go play something else rather than log in .... wait a long time for a group ... and then deal with some know-it-all telling me how to play my character. After about a year I finally packed it in for good.

[@jrgeezy5028]

Just yesterday i rode the boat to OOT to pick up some mage spells, thought id stop by the gargoyle island to maybe pick up a few gargy eyes to pay for my spells but i took on a few too many and got killed. luckily i was able to get a rez but forgot my corpse was underwater and when i got rezzed... i drowned while looting my corpse, spent another hour running back and catching the boat back to collect my corpse cause i couldnt find another rez.... i was pissed lol but now looking back it was a funny adventure that i could have avoided if i wasnt such a horrible player :D

[@darczee1]

Double pie face! Laugh out loud, that was so funny! I'm not brave enough to go back to p99, kudos to you! You smashed this upload, great video mate ☺

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you Zool! Miss seeing ya on thornblade

[@darczee1]

@@IonBlaze1 you too mate, maybe we will cross paths on yelinak ☺ all the best.

[@spencers4121]

I made it to level 31 on my bard on blue, big chunk was just swarm kitting. Even then F that noise, way to much work. Also the UI and other QoL things they removed for Green can suck it.

[@IonBlaze1]

I getcha there. I miss duxaui so bad & hotbars that don't get rid of slots 7-10 every time you zone.

[@chrisf3827]

Lol you intro made me laugh -- when I started playing EQ on dialup in '99 I remember one day overhearing my Mom and Dad wondering out loud :"Why don't we ever get any phone calls anymore??" They didn't know that my playing EQ all day tied up the phone line!! :D

[@IonBlaze1]

HAHAHA! They didn't know?!

[@chrisf3827]

​@@IonBlaze1 Nope, they had no idea! Back then I would constantly go LD while zoning, and often end up stuck in the world somewhere after finally getting logged back in. Dialup sucked!

[@IonBlaze1]

@@chrisf3827 LD on a boat? I think that's the worst nightmare.

[@coryk564]

Project 1999 is the way to go

[@IonBlaze1]

One of the best ways to play :)

[@aakla]

Ahh blocking the zone out and waiting for the train to get to you while pretending to be stuck until the last second, then zoning out. I miss Sol B

[@IonBlaze1]

Ogres were the best for that haha!

[@aakla]

@@IonBlaze1 I was a troll (before they became skinny) roleplayed as an overweight gnome though

[@voodooutt]

If ur a bard and wanna mess with people... Goto velks. Must have your singing steel helm tho (eye) Cast your charisma faction tune on a mob, go up to the glass looking into castle, log out in front. Log back in (aggro to zone) then cast March of the wee, get small, then push yourself into the glass, right click your singing steel helm, eye pops into castle area. Grab agro from mobs.. The whole castle runs out. Cast charisma faction tune on mob right around the maze.... then you can safely goto zone ent (no agro) ... Wait at ZL until you see the 1st couple dogs round the corner, then zone out.... Can pull castle sents and gargs to ZL.

[@annslow41]

I do remember this terrible tower of orc bugginess, despite having last played 15+years ago. Trains for days. What a shitshow, what a legend

[@clintfsu]

This video has inspired me to go back in time and relive some miss spent youth. So I spent some time getting the game installed and ready to play. Unfortunately, I'm now waiting for the verification email to come from the forums before I can get an actual login. It's been hours, so I guess their system either isn't automated or it's broken. All I know for sure is that the email hasn't showed up in my inbox or spam filter. Very irritating.

[@fairytail4055]

If you think that crushbone story was mean, I played on vallon zek as a necro. I used to hide behind a bolder down the ramp to the hole and sit there until a group came down and cast fear on them to watch them slowly walk off into the hole kicking and screaming. Then change them a fortune to summon there corpse since it was the only way to get there body back.

[@Vindaven]

Loved the video! Probably your most entertaining one yet! Hahaha that was some funny stuff!

[@IonBlaze1]

Awww thank you for the compliment Vindaven. It's nice to see you here.

[@MrLiangyuwei]

I gave up p99 2 years ago... Can't keep up with Seal Team's dedication. Got my bard to 50 and Necro to 50

[@JerryDechant]

I had a bard, the blue armor was the thing we all strove to get. I liked my bard and my druid until they took away the need for people to need a druid to teleport them around. What if they updated the graphics and combat but kept the game play substantially the same? Not sure if I'd come back though. Like you said, it is brutal.

[@nerderthings8608]

I played this game when it went live. Bards used to be judged by being able to keep 4 songs up, and we didn't complain. No macros. And yeah, I played on dial up.

[@ramgladore]

That Emperor Crush train story was golden. A GM couldn't tell who did it but threatened a permaban! lol

[@IvoryOasis]

p99 great, be gnome, eat muffins, profit

[@runepetersen5698]

1. Don't have time for the slowest gaming experience in the world. 2. Life is too short to ignore all the very good QoL changes that EverQuest has to offer. 3. Unable to progress in the game - I know, i love the Classic - Velious era, but i also love Luclin and PoP, but i won't ever experience them on P99. 4. Unable to fire up just a single box, so i can get things done on my own when i can't commit to a group. Definitely a dealbreaker for me. Just the first things that came to mind, when i think about why i don't start up on P99 again. TLP's will give me a much better experience than P99 could ever do these days and that is despite me disliking both of the two new rulesets coming up.

[@IonBlaze1]

4 reasons right there! Thank you for the input Rune. This is more about 4 bad things that happened to me when I played

[@runepetersen5698]

@@IonBlaze1 Ah okay, well, cant see the video yet, so i went by what i thought the title referred to :P

[@bippityboppity496]

lemme guess - you got gaslighted by someone, realized video games are a waste of time and quit p99

[@Razman.99]

@@bippityboppity496 Who mistreated you so badly Bippity? And why are you even here? lol

[@sheasolo8507]

What is this bad fake stories? I made it 10 minutes...

[@robertmartin1254]

No version of any game can compete with starting at launch and going for years. People change get older which causes adult issues like work. Time consuming things. Then we got the ksers and spoiled kids playing. Different generations I reckon. Mmos like EQ were people working with each others at launch not against each other like now.

[@darylwilliams1692]

Back in 1999 on Povar, I was playing my ranger (still do, now and again). I was low 30s and caught 'Ruby Fever', that is the overwhelming desire to acquire rubicite pieces from cazic Thule (in its original iteration). The trains were absolutely amazing - nothing compared,. Some dude pulled the Avatar of Fear, the zone boss, to the zonheline where it, and about 10 lizards (justicars and nasty ones), smashed every player that zoned in or tried to zone out. At the same time (and obviously part of the same idiotic stunt) someone pulled 4 spectres from the Plane of Fear portal to the other side of the zone line, meaning you got wacked going in and out. It was carnage. The only way to survive was to perpetually zone in and out, which some of us did for a good 20 minutes, lagging the server to oblivion. So weird did things get that the dragoon dirk that I was still using in my range slot, morphed into a Crown of the Froglock Kings, still in the ranged slot. Later, I removed it from the slot and soldd it for a healthy wedge of plat, such was the rarity of it at that point. Old Cazic was a hell for trains. Great memories though.

[@MrSpazz502]

Literally just got trained at CB zone line as you start describing trains. Good times!

[@IonBlaze1]

That's a bad coincidence

[@louisms5068]

I’m not gonna lie I feel regret every time I play eq seriously lol. When I go get nostalgia fixes I’m ok. But if I commit as I did on Thornblade, instant regret. I’ve done it on p99 too but not as bad.

[@IonBlaze1]

No one ever quits. They just take a break ;)

[@brunlin6629]

bone chips in kaladim for 1 through 8 is good, especially if you have the bone chips saved up from another toon, Cb belts are always good, but Df belts to turn in Wfp is very good for 1-12 plus evil can do this quest as well if they did some faction quest in efp. BTW Blue p99 is easy mode compared to green.

[@MichaelCampbell01]

The XP level diff is 1.5x the lowest level (or 2/3 the highest). You have to be in that range or the lowbie gets nothing. All fractions are truncated, not rounded.

[@bplup6419]

Crushbone and Blackburrow hold a special place in heart. PTSD. PTSD is located in my heart.

[@davidburton9690]

good sport regarding the punishments, way to go!

[@JamesShelnutt2]

you mentioned the mail delivery quest. well in the normal free to play game (not p99) there is a mail delivery quest series you can do involving the bards in several locations (Freeport, Rivervale, Qeynos, Erudin, Surefall Glade, West Karana, and a few others) it's called the Postmaster's Challenge. it's a total of 18 deliveries and if you finish it you get rewarded with a 20 slot, giant size capacity, 100% weight reduction bag. pretty damn nice bag for delivering a bunch of mail. but it's not available in p99.

[@seangotts6470]

TRAIN TO ZONE CHOO CHOO MOVE IT OR LOOSE IT ... chaos ensues never gets old if you safe and watch it

[@jspur6]

Damn lol, that into is me. We were still on dial up when I was playing this game at 9 years old because we lived out in the country lol, 28 now

[@davidwholly5209]

The original Everquest... the only MMORPG I've ever played that I can actually tell stories about. Like the time a ranger friend and I (playing a wood elf druid at the time), were in Kelethin (located in Faydwer), and he decided that we should visit the ranger guild in Surefall Glade... in Qeynos Hills... at the far side of Antonica. We were both level 7 at the time. We weren't going to ask for a teleport, either. We were going to hoof it, not counting the boat ride from Butcherblock Mountains to East Freeport. We did get SoW's (Spirit of Wolf, a run speed spell) along the way from generous druids and shamans (and a lot of "good luck guys!"). Quite the adventure. Especially during our trek through Kithicor Wood (thankfully, this was before they added the REALLY dangerous monsters at night). Highpass Hold was especially challenging. The whole area was a giant maze (we got lost a couple of times) infested with aggressive gnolls. Luckily, there were enough people around camping them that we could avoid confrontations with them. Then the run along the cliff (don't fall off!) in East Karana, where we wondered who's faces were carved onto the opposite wall. Avoiding lions and worse, griffins once we reached the stunning huge bridge and crossed the river. Watching a giant lose a fight he decided to pick with the druids at the "druid circle". He got a couple of them, but they got him in the end. But we made it. We got plenty of binds (spell that zoned you back to the spot before you died) provided by kind mage types in the cities that we stopped in along the way, just in case, but we both made it alive. Honestly, this is the kind of experience that EQ was all about. The places you saw, and the people you met. That was way better than any actual quest I did.

[@PNW_Sportbike_Life]

That first run across Antonica sure was something wasn’t it?

[@quinlamintheshaman9222]

Better Title, "I regret stopping playing P99"

[@IonBlaze1]

Haven't you been in some videos somewhere. I feel like you're a famous ogre

[@quinlamintheshaman9222]

@@IonBlaze1 hardly famous, but i have been in a couple of perry love whistles videos and i have a guide on the p99 wiki

[@dobermanownerforlife3902]

I played a bard from kunark till omens. The most oddly broken thing I did was with a wizard buddy of mine. mezz recast is 6 secs obviously but strike of solice is 6 sec cast. once timing was done with us, mezz would hit immediately after the nuke. We called it one step killing.Graphicly that's what it looked like. we duod ldons this way....

[@sixten7920]

There are a lot of really creative things you can do with bards. Mez/charm/fear etc being on a predictable timer can help with this, even though it's often viewed as a "down side". I used to fear kite down the halls of Sol B due to this. You could yo yo the mobs up and down the hall within safe distances from other mobs. It also added a layer of CC tactics for group content.

[@Keleneki]

I used to play a bard in 1999 but my main was a monk. I started in the beta and met a bunch of nice folks and we all played on the same retail server, Tarew Marr.

[@immutablecantrip]

havent played EQ in 20 years but these kinds of videos really bring back the nostalgia

[@randyranderson690]

I played EQ back before the release of WoW and I used to delight in training CB and BB (Blackburrow) by either shooting Dvinn / Emperor Crush or shooting the gnoll at the bottom of the pit in BB from up top. I would normally do this for fun on rare occasions or if someone kill-stole a mob I was camping hours for. LGuk and Runnyeye were other bad train spots regularly.

[@IonBlaze1]

I get it. The evil grin you get when watching the carnage. It's pretty entertaining

[@grocksauce7422]

This video is the most accurate depiction of what EverQuest was actually like in 1999

[@robcny74]

I miss that game .. was so much fun . I was on clan seventh hammer . My main was a mage but also had a pretty strong druid. Started just before kunark came out and played for almost 10 years .

[@craskpillord]

I never played EQ back in the day was too feckin’ young, only reason I got into the game at all was cause of P99 in 2016 haha. 😅 I think the game is just fine as is, and we need more niche MMOs that are as rewarding and dangerous to explore as exploring EQ is. Breath of the Wild is probably the best example of how you can take that danger and apply it to an open world singleplayer game, Breath of the Wild is almost a more streamlined modernized version of the EQ formula on a pure world feel basis, and maybe some of the more survival mechanics too. If there’s ever an EverQuest 3, merging the scope and freedom and charm of Breath of the Wild along with the streamlined nature of it, and then meshing in the class synergies, crafting, dungeons, raids, rare spawns, and you got yourself a solid modern EQ that’s still rewarding and dangerous.

[@ricolove8255]

I played original. Best game ever . Original blew wow out box

[@GuiltyKit]

Let's be real. There is not a single Bard on p99 past level 30 who doesn't use a macro program like the ones that just come with 'gaming mouse software' to melody for you. Absolutely everyone does it.

[@Ryan-do6vr]

Where can one find a macro program like this?

[@IonBlaze1]

I mean I went without but I didn't know people even used stuff like that

[@GuiltyKit]

@@Ryan-do6vr I mean literally google any macro software. Or if you have a razer / logitech / any gaming mouse from a name brand, I guarantee it comes with software to do that by default.

[@GuiltyKit]

@@IonBlaze1 Man you're a saint cause every Bard I know actively admits to it in discord. It's not like they have any way of knowing, and even with a gaming mouse that can induce some nasty carpal tunnel eventually from the thumb clicks or side keys, even if you don't feel it just yet. I'm getting older and I'll take anything I can get. It's not like it's a big deal. The staff doesn't honestly care. Especially if they don't give a poop about stuff like GINA. Great video btw!

[@IonBlaze1]

Ah thank you for the kind words. Appreciate all the support Guilty Light :)

[@troybilko]

The rogue joined the purple club. He lost red HP and fell into the purple bleed out HP where you fall down. Your regen brought him back up over 1 hp so he stood back up. Had a cleric who would intentionally do this to tanks and complete heal them to full back in the day. Dude was frustrating lol

[@Enfors]

Call me crazy, but I enjoyed the chaos that ensued during Crushbone trains. Everybody got up and either ran or tried to fight them off in a tense battle.

[@BerraLJ]

I still enjoy seeing my level go from 1 to 15 instantly but that is on live server with some prep work, still fun, then the fun to catch up on skills :) I enjoy doing that in random zones with Shaman, Cleric, Druid or even changer to give out buffs to low levels, a nice DS(damage shield), haste, clarity or perhaps just run speed can help a low level a lot, and at say lvl 6 a Temperance(cleric hit point/armor buff) is massive taking your hp from maybe 200 to 1000 (it adds 800 hp) and this buffs lasts like 2 hours or more.