I have never played Magic the Gathering or any other trading card games.  In addition to wanting to experience a trading card game, I also think that Legends of Norrath will also be fun to play whenever I am waiting for something to do in Everquest 2.
These mini-games are great for MMORPGs.  The more activities that players can engage in the better.  Who else is looking forward to Legends of Norrath?

Why levels 1 through 14?

Many players on PVP servers have three goals for levels 1 through 14.

• Levels 1-9: From levels 1 through 9, players cannot engage in PVP. PVP is not allowed until level 10.
• Levels 10-12: Beginning at level 10, players can now engage in PVP and can be killed themselves. Additionally, at level 10 players begin to gain advanced achievement experience. Once a player hits level 10, most PVPers have one leveling goal. That goal is to get to level 12 so that they can wear mastercrafted gear.
• Level 12-14: Once a PVPer can wear mastercrafted gear, he can start competing in PVP. However, since the PVP level range is 4 levels in the T2 zones (Antonica and Commonlands), in order to maximize effectiveness most PVPers level to level 14 to dominate over level 10 players. Therefore, the first level that PVPers "lock" in at is level 14. Future posts will explore PVPing beyond level 14.

How to Maximize AA points (As a Qeynos toon)?

• Levels 1-7: For levels 1 through 7 I recommend that leveling on the newbie island. This is the fastest xp for these levels.
• Levels 8-9: For levels 8 through 9 do the quests in Oakmyst Forest. However, once you get to level 10 quests, stop completing them until you hit level 10. You only get AA experience for level 10 and above quests. Therefore, to maximize your AA, you want to complete all of the quests in Oakmyst Forest up to the level 10 quests so that once you hit level 10, the remaining quests will provide AA experience. You do not want to complete level 10 quests before hitting level 10 because you will not get AA experience for it. Additionally, you do not want to complete quests below level 10 once you hit level 10 because you will get adventure experience but no AA experience. Remember, this is about maximizing AA points to be more effective for PVP.
• Level 10: Once you hit level 10, disable adventure xp so that you will not gain adventure xp when you kill mobs. You will still get adventure xp for completing quests and discovering new locations.
• Level 14: Once you hit level 14 and assuming you want to stay at level 14, you need to stop gaining adventure experience. With adventure xp disabled, that means you need to stop completing quests and discovering new locations.

What Quests to Complete from Levels 10 - 14?

Once you hit level 10 I recommend that you follow the following questing plan:

1. Finish the Oakmyst Forest quests.
2. Do the quests at The Caves.
3. Do the quests at the Hunters' Cabin in Antonica and Dancer's quests at the Claymore Monument. Do not do the Matsy Rollingpin quests because they do not give AA experience.
4. Do the "History of" book quests sold by the librarian in Mage Tower in South Qeynos.
5. Do the quests at thewizard spires in Greater Faydark.
6. Do the quests at Windstalker Village.

Once you finish these quests, you should be at level 14 and ready for PVP.

As your guild levels, you will have the ability to customize and buy additional rooms. These rooms you specifically assign them a use. For example, you can purchase an additional room in the guild and assign NPC teleporter, guild vault, Menders, Brokers, Bankers, Tradeskill machines, etc…. You will also be able to customize your guild banner and travel via boat and bells from your guild home.

Travel:

The travel systems that will be part of the guild housing are the most interesting to me. And, I am sure they will be the most controversial. Everquest 2 is making travel easier and easier. By allowing teleporters, boats and bells to be in guild houses, SOE is clearly stating that they do not want travel time to detract from the playing. I agree with this, but start by making travel to Greater Faydark easier.

Tradeskilling:

I love the idea of having tradeskill equipment in guild houses. It will be nice to be able to go to the guild house and hind a crafter who can make you an item. I always hate asking people to make me stuff because they have to stop what they are doing and run to the tradeskill instance. With the equipment being in one central location, it will be much easier finding a tradeskiller who is crafting at that time.

Broker, Banker, Ect.

I like the idea of having all of the city functions available in the guild hall. This will help ensure that guild houses are used and valuable. It would be cool if you could set two prices for items. One for guildies and one for non-guildies.

Well, it is nice of SOE to whet our appetite. Guild housing was promised two years ago. Hopefully it will not take another two years to develop it (probably not). What would you like to see in guild houses?

*MACRO TIP*

To get the loot table of your target using in-game browser, put the following macro on your hotbar:

/browser www.lootdb.com/eq2/mob/%T

Paikis@Venekor wrote:

In reply to the article posted here.

1. Accessibility of PvP - Rubbish, level-locking BLOCKS casual players from PvP because they dont have the time to dedicate to getting the gear and masters to compete with the twinks. If there was no level-locking people would still level slower than on PvE servers because they understand that AA=good. This then means that there would still be PvP in all tiers. The only difference is that there wont be twinks there to completely destroy the non-twinks. Watched a level 12 templar kill 3 level 15 toons in darklight wood a couple days ago. 1 level 12 killed those 3 level 15s 3 times (they zerged him) Twinks are OPed and are BLOCKING your average joe from being able to participate in low-level PvP.

2. Tradeskilling - Again, garbage! The markets for T2 through T6 mastercrafted will still exist, because PvPers realise the importance of having good gear. Without that gear your toon is only sub-par, even with full masters. As for people not spending because they aren't staying in those tiers for long... see my last point about slower levelling.

3. Use of more content - Again, would still happen even if there were no level-lockers. Like you said, people are encouraged to hunt in every zone to get more AA. How does not locking your level mean you suddenly don't care about AA? Also, you know those other 50-odd levels you aren't using? Guess what, there's extra spells and abilities that YOU DONT HAVE in those levels. That is CONTENT THAT YOU AREN'T USING. Let's put some thought into your arguements before you post this drivel please.

4. Equipment strategy - The lockers aren't experiencing more of the game, they're experiencing more of THAT mob, you know, the one which drops that uber-1337 wrist piece that is so covetted by the lockers? Even if you said that the lockers experience more of the loot, I'd have to shoot that arguement down in flames as well. Lockers do not experience ANY of the game at all, beyond level 30-40. Solely because they ARE lockers, they dont experience the end-game, so they dont see most of the loot, they dont see most of the mobs, they dont do most of the quests.

5. Proliferation of Alts. Again, having twinks DOES NOT create the need or want for alts. People create alts for a variety of reasons, and I'm willing to bet your life that the biggest reason is NOT so that they can twink out at level X and experience easy-mode 2-shot kills on n00bies. Me personally? I create alts so I can see how other classes are played, so I can experience more of the game content (cos you know, all those abilities the other classes have? All the ones your class has, but you never see cos you wont unlock? That's content.)

Overall, i rate this fan-site post as an F-. Absolute [I cannot control my vocabulary]. This post isn't even good enough to be used as toilet-paper in an out-back toilet that gets used once every 3 months. You are DEVALUING any piece of paper you print this trash on. Not a single relevant point about why level-lockers should be allowed to continue to play in easy mode. Not a single benefit to the economy that wouldn't be there anyways just from being players wanting good gear while they level. All-in-all this is a post designed to justify your want to be a play-ground bully in Norrath.

You sir suck.

Rating: 0/100 (If I could give you a negative, I would)

Here is my response to Packis.

Dear Paikis,

I am glad that you are such a great fan.  There is nothing that keeps me motivated to keep posting on this blog than engaging in debate.  I understand your points here, however, I believe that they are irrational. The way I see it people who pvp in T7 are angry at the level lockers because it means less pvp at T7. I absolutely agree with you that healthy lower tier pvp does reduce the number of players at T7. However, most of the problems the are raised about lower tier pvp and level-locking also exist in T7. For example,

1. Accessibility of PVP - Casual players are also blocked from being effective at T7 pvp. For one, casual players have a hard time leveling a character to level 70. Unlike people who play for several hours a day, the casual player might only play for 30 minutes to 2 hours a day. Therefore, if the critical mass of players who are pvping are in T6 or T7, it will take the casual player forever to get to pvp consistently. In fact, many casual players never get to level 70. Should these players not get to experience great pvp action? I think that T7 pvpers are just diappointed with the number of people pvping at T7 and they are irrationally blaming the level-lockers.

Secondly, you mention that the twink level-lockers hurt the accessibility of pvp for casual players. I strongly disagree with this. Casual players have the ability to twink T2 and T3 characters very easily. However, gaining awesome gear at T7 is harder. Most casual players never experience a raid. This means that they will not be as well geared as the "hardcore" T7 pvpers. Therefore, the "twink" problem exists both in T2 and the T7 pvp.

2. Tradeskilling - I absolutely agree that there will still be a market for lower tier tradeskill items, but I guarantee that the market will be smaller. I know that I would never buy MC crafted T2 or T3 gear. I would just out level it too quickly.

3. Use of more content - You raise a good point about levels 30 - 70 having great content. But I think that a lot of level lockers are also experiencing this content with other characters. For instance, I have a toon for T2 pvp, T3 pvp and one for leveling up to 70. Most level-lockers are doing the same as I am. And guess what, as soon as I get to T7, I will pvp up there too. This is not an all or nothing thing. Instead the game experience is just more diverse.

4. Equipment strategy - As noted above, your argument assumes that level-lockers do not have other toons at higher levels. Additionally, many level-lockers would not ever experience raid content because of lack of time.

5. Easy Mode - One thing that I have noticed in a lot of the responses here against level-locking is that this is "easy mode." Or another often used comment is that people should level to level 70 to "play with the big boys." While I must admit that I do not have a level 70 character, my experience with EQ2 suggest that everything is "easy mode." Let's face it, this game is not that hard. I am glad that you are a "big boy," but I will have to face the reality of being a casual player due to my responsibilities of being a "grown man."

1. Accessibility of PVP - Allowing players to lock their level earlier in the game allows players to participate in PVP at a much lower cost. If there was no level locking, the amount of pvp at lower levels would be dramatically reduced and players would have to level to 7o to get to consistently participate. The time it would take for a casual player to reach 70 would be too great for them to even consider playing on a pvp server. Level-locking allows casual players to participate in pvp.

2. Tradeskilling - Level-locking has added new markets for tradeskillers. On the pvp servers there is a very healthy market for T2 through T6 mastercrafted armor, weapons and spells. Unlike on pve servers, because people are staying in these tiers for longer times, they are willing to spend their plat on lower level mastercrafted gear. This has created a very healthy tradeskill economy on the pvp servers.

3. Use of More Content - Unlike on pve servers, pvpers hunt in almost every zone in a given tier in order to maximize their AA points. This is great for the game. On pve servers, players really don't have an incentive not to fly through the levels. However, for a level-locker, it is very important to maximize the number of AA points they have gained by the time they reach the level they are going to lock at. These AA points make a huge difference in pvp effectiveness.

4. Equipment Strategy - Level-lockers also get to experience more of the game because they camp mobs to get that uber T2 bracelet. A non-level-locker would not care about the Howler Bracelet dropped in Blackburrow. The non-level-locker would not waste their time camping Howler for this level 17 bracelet because they would be reaching level 22 quick enough not to make camping worthwhile. However, for the level-locker this 17 bracelet is really uber.

5. Proliferation of Alts - Not that Everquest II players need a reason to create more players, level-locking certainly adds another reason to create alts. In my guild, players create an alt for each tier of pvp. When someone wants to pvp in T2, they roll out their T2 toon. If a T3 pvp group is forming, they roll out their T3 toon. I love the diversity of gameplay that this allows.

What do you think about level-locking?

Broker Changes:

• You can now sell items on the broker with more than one character!
• All characters on an account can list items for sale at the same time.
• Items remain listed as long as you log in with any of your characters at least once every 7 days.

This is the best change. I am so tired of having to transfer all of my loot to my mule. Additionally, you can put up a lot more stuff now.

Travel Changes:

• Griffon travel services are now being offered in the Butcherblock Mountains. Mount stations can be found near the docks, Greater Faydark and Lesser Faydark.
• Horse rentals are now available in the Greater Faydark to reduce your travel time. Hitching posts can be found near the Old Kelethin Acorn lift, Crushbone Keep and the Butcherblock Mountains.
• Citizens of Neriak may now use the power of the Sea Gate to travel to the Nektulos Forest and Thundering Steppes docks. Check it out at the Neriak docks.

The griffons in Butcherblock are much needed. It takes forever to travel from the docks to Greater Faydwer.

These traveling options are great. Many comment that quicker travel makes a game less immersive, but I think that it just increases the accessibility of the game. I do not play MMOs to simulate real life. I play them for fun. Are long travel times fun? NO!!!

Quest Changes:

• More quests in Antonica, Nektulos, and The Bloodline Chronicles now grant Achievement Experience.
• Items now show in their tooltip and examine windows if they offer or update a quest
• The first time you complete a repeatable quest it will now grant achievement experience.

It is so annoying when you turn in quests and they don't give AA. Now more will this is a great change!!

The tooltip addition is also nice.

Achievement Changes:

• You can now respec your achievements and spend the points in another tree.

Next to the broker change, being able to respec your AA and spend the points in either tree is the best change. When I start a new class, too ofter I regret starting with one AA tree and not the other. Now I will not have to worry about this.

Tradeskill Changes:

• Crafters now gain tradeskill experience from completing tradeskill writs.
• Crafters who have respec'ed their crafting class and wish to exchange their crafting tool from the Village of Shin quests can now speak to Rai Faela Nurwin near the Village of Shin brokers.

These changes are kind of funny, because (i) I did not know the tradeskill writs did not give tradeskill xp and (ii) I did not know that there was a quest to get a crafting tool. Now I know!!

UI Changes

• You can now re-purchase your 10 most recently sold items at the same price.
  • No time limit!
  • Even after logging out or zoning!
• The intro movie will only play once when the game is installed. There is a new ‘View Intro' button at the character select screen to allow viewing of the intro movie.

These two changes are great. It is so frustrating to realize that you just sold that legendary item for 1g. It is also frustrating to have to click through the into movie. Finally this has been removed.

Hopefully all of these changes get implemented into the actual game update. For some additional commentary about these GU 37, check out Stargrace's blog.

Rogue AA Tree:

Swashbuckler AAs are broken into two main trees with branches coming off each tree. The first tree that I want to describe is the Rogue Tree. I feel that this is the tree that beginning swashbucklers should add their first AA points.

Every swashbuckler who chooses to put AA points in the rogue tree is forced to put an AA point in this ability. "Pickpocket" allows the swashbuckler to steal money from a humanoid npc whenever the swashbuckler attacks a monster from behind. I have not found the money gained from this ability to be that great, but it is free plat.

The rogue tree has five branches that come off of the "pickpocket" AA ability; the strength line, agility line, stamina line, wisdom line, and intelligence line.  For every AA point you add to one of these lines you gain a certain number of attribute points in that particular attribute.  For example, for each AA point that you put into the strength line, your strength increases by 4.

Strength Line:

• Torporous Strike - Once a swashbuckler has put four points into the strength line, a swashbuckler can put points in the "torporous stike" ability.  The torporous strike ability decreases the casting speed of the target, inflicts a medium amount of melee damage on the target, and decreases the recovery speed of the target.
• Blackguard's Defense - Once a swashbuckler has put four points into the Torporous Strike AA, a swashbuckler can increase his defense skill by putting AA points into this AA ability.
• Blackguard's Luck - Once a swashbuckler has put four points into Blackguard's Defense, a swashbuckler can increase his melee chance to inflict critical damage by putting AA points into this AA ability.
• Traumatic Swipe - Once a swashbuckler has put four points into Blackguard's luck and a total of 22 points into the strength line, a swashbuckler can decrease the reuse speed of his enemy by 50% by putting two AA points into this ability.  The traumatic swipe ability also inflicts 118 - 197 melee damage on the target.

The strength line is one of my favorite lines on the rogue AA tree.  It is great for soloing and for pvping.  Please subscribe to my blog to make sure that you do not miss any articles within this series.