My buddy and I are playing our own "Al'Kabor" style progression on Firiona Vie (live servers) because we couldn't find one like it. We're stopping at PoP. We prefer not to box or merc. My questions are: How healthy of a population does this server have? would we be able to find groups? Is there an experience bonus so I"m not sitting at level 7 for weeks? we're very very casual gamers. Are drops classic? or is there defiant gear. Can we expect to find a manastone? Are there translocators or soul binders? can we get by without boxing a cleric to res or wiz to port.
Server population is growing but is top heavy. I have recently seen people around level 10-20 using /ooc to find groups in popular locations such as Kurns. There are often people leveling toons in HHK and people generally group if there is room. There is a flat 20% xp bonus compared to live servers of the same era. Drops are what they were in the PoP era of the game. No manastone but no defiant gear either. There are soul binders. There are no translocators. There are PoK books that make traveling in classic zones easy.
Definitely try out TAKP. I did something similiar to you on the Test server on EQ Live. My friends and I went through POP only using classic gear and no mercs. The amount of defiant gear and so many other changes to the game really made it less than ideal. It's so much more fun here. There will be groups here on your way. There are a good amount of folks who don't box and are in their 50s, so it certainly is doable. Especially if the two of you play together. Just pick two classes that compliment each other that you're both excited to play. The timeline here is slow, so you'll have plenty of time to see and do most of an expansion before the next is out. Even as a casual. I play 1-2 hours a week, sometimes more, mostly less. I easily got into my 30s in a couple months.
Etris, I found the original Al'Kabor server the way you found this one. ( tried to start a progression style guild on Live, but found all the "goodies" to be too much of a distraction. ) As long as you know how to do /who all X Y , and are willing to travel a bit, you can find people to play with !
Hmm maybe we'll give it a go. As long as experience is faster than live and we can use PC's. We'll just be duoing though - so can't solo naggy Any guilds recruiting newbies?
Xp will be 10x worse than "live" now. Live is heavily watered down. But what you have here is not about the destination and more about the adventure to get there. Come try us out. You will love it.
But my concern is if the destination and adventure involves just me and my buddy for 45+ levels that'll be very very slow and boring, no?
If you are willing to box, your buddy and yourself could have an entire 6 man group. I found it the opposite of boring, being able to relive any part of your nostalgia and not having to compete for it. If you are not willing to box, you will still find people to play with. Sometimes that will require going out of your way -- but that's EQ!!
As far as I know, Senbus, our 57(?) rogue, did it all the way without boxing - and that as a rogue. So it is possible, you might ask him about his experience.
Can't forget the near immediate response usually and direct interaction with the staff via chat up there^ in the navbar
The server population is fairly low, so if you are ok with that I think this is the perfect place to play. Assuming you are civil people are probably more than willing to give you a couple noob weapons and money for spells to make your life a little easier. I will warn you that if you expect to group in uncommon zones you will be disapointed. Probably not very many people killing in Dalnir for example.
will you even find people on FV to group with 1-65? if you and your buddy just single box then a good duo is awesome... you'll find people to group with sometimes, and if you are only 2 then someone 3 boxing would love to have you, and when you cant find a group then you got each other. 20% exp bonus and the proper dungeon ZEM can get you fast exp, there's no way you wouldn't get 10+ in a week even if it was 1 hour every other day. the client alone will satisfy you and your buddies nostalgia.
If you tend to die a lot like I do, then definitely a cleric is good, but still not necessary. If you're a ranger or bard however, you should be able to get on fine without a cleric. If you don't enjoy the cleric class and only would have one as a rezz machine, maybe go the pally route for rezzes and a different healing class. Shaman go well with paladin.
I got to 60 without a cleric although I 3 boxed so it is easier than soloing, just gotta try not to die . The pok books make travel easy too so don't need a porter. I think if you were by yourself it might be a bit solitary, but seeing as you have a friend I think it would work great. Even if you just play 1 character each you can do fine like that. Even better if one of you adds a bot to help heal or buff or whatever. Also one of the best things about this server is that even multiboxers can only use up to 3, so if you find someone hunting somewhere fun, you have a good chance of just joining them because they will have room, even with their boxes. And as well as the 20% extra xp, there is also another xp boost for having a full group.
