EverQuest , often shortened to EQ , is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost. It was developed by Sony's 989 Studios and its early-1999 spin-off Verant Interactive. It was published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). Since its acquisition of Verant in late 1999, SOE develops, runs and distributes EverQuest .
EverQuest has earned numerous awards, including 1999 GameSpot Game of the Year and a 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Award.
EverQuest's development is ongoing, and the 16th expansion, "The Underfoot," was announced at the 2009 Las Vegas Fan Faire.
EverQuest II was released in late 2004. Set in an alternate universe similar to that of the original EverQuest, this "sequel" takes place 500 years after the awakening of The Sleeper. The game has also inspired a number of other spinoffs.
Business model
The game's business model includes:
- Sale of an account key which allows a new account to be created, or a trial account to be made permanent.
- Sale of keys which allow accounts to be upgraded to access the content in expansions. Some keys allow access to only an individual expansion, others to all expansions up to a certain point in time. The newest expansion, Seeds of Destruction, includes access to all current content including the original game.
- Subscription (by the month, quarter, single year, or 2-years) that allow a specific account to be active.
A game client allows any player with an active membership to connect to the game content and other players on the game servers of SOE.
As of December 2007, SOE offers free 14-day trial accounts which do not require a credit card.
Gameplay
Many of the elements from EverQuest have been drawn from text-based MUD (multi-user dungeon) games, which in turn were inspired by traditional role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons .
In EverQuest , players create a character (also known as an avatar, or colloquially as char or toon ) by selecting one of 16 "races" in the game, which range from elves, dwarves and ogres of fantasy, to cat-people (Vah Shir), lizard-people (Iksar), and dragon-people (Drakkin). At creation, players also select each characters adventuring occupation (such as a wizard, ranger, or cleric - called a class --see below for particulars), a patron deity, and starting city. Customization to the character facial appearance is also available at creation (hair, hair color, face style, facial hair, facial hair color, eye color, etc)
Players use their character to explore the fantasy world of Norrath, fight monsters and enemies for treasure and experience points, and master trade skills. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, prestige, spells, and abilities through actions such as defeating capable opponents, looting the remains of defeated enemies and completing quests (tasks and adventures given by non-player characters (NPCs).
EverQuest also allows players to interact with other people through role-play, joining player guilds, and dueling other players (in restricted situations-- EQ only allows Player versus Player (PVP) combat on the PvP-specific server).
The geography of the game universe consists of nearly four hundred zones.
Multiple instances of the world exist on various servers . In the past, game server populations were visible during log-in, and showed peaks of more than 3000 players per server.
EverQuest is loaded with features that promote, even demand, collaboration among players. Fighting alongside someone makes combat much more interesting. Chatting with that person passes the time during 'downtime'. When working together you are much less likely to perish. Healers must back up the fighters, fighters must back up the magic users, and the magic users can keep the healers safe from harm.
Classes
The fourteen classes of the original 1999 version of EverQuest were later expanded to include the Beastlord and Berserker classes with the Shadows of Luclin (2001) and Gates of Discord (2004) expansions, respectively.
The classes can be grouped into those that share similar characteristics that allow them to play certain types of roles within the game when grouped with others. One way of grouping classes is described below.
"Tank" classes
"Tank" classes are those that have a high number of "health points" for their level and can wear heavy armor. They also have the ability to taunt enemies into focusing on them, rather than other party members who may be more susceptible to damage and death.
- Warrior: the prototypical "tank" class, able to avoid and mitigate more damage than any other class. In a way, this is offset by their inability to cast spells. Warriors were often designated as main "tank" due to a discipline they receive called Defensive Stance which mitigated all incoming physical damage for a set period of time.
- Shadow Knight: a durable tank class; this Warrior/Necromancer hybrid has vampiric and damage-over-time spells. Shadow Knights also have the unique ability to Harm Touch (do direct damage) every 72 minutes, the power of which increases in absolute terms but decreases relative to enemies' hit points as a player levels up. Since this class is a hybrid, they begin to get spells at high level that a necromancer had at much lower level. In most cases the level difference in spell aquirement is +25-30 levels. For example a Necromancer might learn a certain spell at level 4 that a Shadow Knight is unable to learn until level 34. Eventually - Shadow Knights are able to summon a weak skeleton pet, summon players' corpses who are in the same zone as them, and cast the spell feign death. The feign death spell allows the Shadow Knight to function as a "puller" for a group. The feign death spell is not to be confused with a monks feign death ability. The spell version has a cast time where the ability is instant.
- Paladin: the 'virtuous' counterpart to the Shadow Knight, a Paladin is a hybrid Warrior/Cleric. They were originally able to Lay on Hands (heal themselves or another player) once every 72 minutes (real-time); Lay Hands must now be earned through spending Alternate Advancement (AA) points, still with the same time delay between each use. At mid-levels, paladins also can purchase some resurrection spells. Paladins are tough in melee with some healing, protective, and stun spells. At mid-range levels, they also can purchase a "pacify" line of spells that allows them to function as a "puller" for a group.
Damage dealers
The following classes are able to deal high corporal damage to the enemy. Within the game, these classes are often referred to as 'DPS', standing for Damage Per Second. It must be noticed that there isn't a single overall "best dps" class, as depending on many factors which vary from one encounter to another (such as the enemy's armor, its positioning, and its magic resistance), one among Berserkers, Rogues, or Wizards may be the better dealer than the other two in a specific instance.
The melee damage dealers have a medium number of hit points per level, but cannot wear the heaviest armors and are less likely than a "tank" class to be able to survive direct attacks for a sustained period of time.
- Beastlord: The Beastlord is a unique class which combines some powers from the Monk and Shaman classes along with a powerful pet. Beastlords can imbue their pets with powers and combat enemies with hand-to-hand skills or with weapons. They can also "de-buff" enemies with spells, and possess modest healing abilities. This diverse array of skills allows Beastlords to be effective solo adventurers at many levels as well as being handy in a group.
- Berserker: A specialist form of the melee type, the Berserker is primarily a medium-armored, high-damage dealer that uses two-handed weapons and who can hurl axes and other thrown objects in the form of spells.
- Monk: As masters of martial arts, Monks are the hand-to-hand fighting experts and are a powerful melee damage-dealer. Monks get many, if not all, combat skills (dual wield, double attack, triple attack, etc) before any other class. Monks have the ability to feign death with a high degree of reliability and other skills that enable them to be a strong "pulling" class. They also have the ability to heal themselves, with a moderate cooldown, with the ability Mend.
- Ranger: A versatile hybrid class combining some of a Warrior's ability with a Druid's spells, Rangers are able to deal large amounts of damage both from a ranged distance and in melee. Their most unusual ability is to track unseen NPCs, for which they can be used as "pullers" in outdoor zones. Rangers also have the ability to "taunt" and can play the role of "tank" to a limited degree. They can make use of archery better than any other class, and their line of snare spells (which slows enemies' run speed) is very useful in XP groups to stop enemies from running away when seriously injured.
- Rogue: With their backstab ability, which multiplies damage done to an unguarded enemy's back, Rogues are able to inflict a very high rate of damage, if they a
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