EverQuest in detail.

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

You have to do over 50% of the damage or you get no XP and the corpse goes poof. You can't just let your pet fight for you. Mages suck. They mostly exist as mana batteries on raids.

I thought they stopped that bullshit ages ago. Don't you just need to tag it with some damage to get the kill?

Not on P99

This is inaccurate. If you do less than 50% of the damage to a monster, you get 50% xp, if you do more than 50% you get all of it. I still think it's stupid, but it's not THAT stupid. In groups the pet never takes away XP even if they do all the damage.

On P99, I play an enchanter sometimes, most of the time my pet does most of the damage. I typically tag them with an attack speed debuff and a dot, then sit down and regen mana while my pet beats on the monster. I don't get full XP per kill, but I can pretty much just keep killing one thing after another without any downtime. Plus this leaves me with spare mana in case of unexpected adds or what have you.

How long it takes to regen full mana depends on a few things, but at lower levels it's not too bad. You certainly don't want to spend all your mana every fight though. But the amount of mana you have depends on your int/wis and level. How much you regen depends on your meditate skill. (Meditate skill level / 12 = mana regen per tick, + 1 base regen)
A level 10 caster with 100 int probably has ~220 mana, and has 55 meditate skill max. Call that 5 mana per tick, with a tick happening every 6 seconds. 220 / 5 is 44 ticks, * 6 seconds is 264 seconds, or 4 minutes 24 seconds.

But, if that same character has a bunch of int or mana increasing items, it'll take longer to regen it all. Of course you'll also take longer to spend it all.

On top of that, there are the enchanter spells like breeze (+2 mana regen) or clarity (+4-7 depending on level). There are other spells and such as well, but those are the common sources.

 

[GhostCow]

Sounds like pet mechanics have changed since I last played. Kind of lame. The 50% thing was to keep mages from afk grinding. Sounds like they can afk grind again.

 

[JamesDixon]

So I'm looking at Imperium-EQ. They say it's for solo/duo play and that is intriguing to say the least. They let you play up till Omens of War expansion. Would anyone be interested in playing it together?

yes i 'm looking for someone to play with. are ypu from US or EU timezone? the fact btw i would have liked if there was a codex group, the more the better

I'm in the US. I'll send you a PM with my Discord server so you can join it.

 

[JamesDixon]

I would play with you guys but I despise everything that came after Velious. It's p99 or nothing for me

Imperium is a progression server. You go as far as you like.

 

[JamesDixon]

Upside to Imperium is that you can create bots and have two of them with you at all times. It definitely makes things a lot better when all you have is just yourself in a zone.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

Are there any other servers where you start in a normal hometown rather than those stupid tutorial mines? I could see the upside to servers that allow/encourage multiboxing, but they all seem based on this terrible postmodern version of everquest where they just slapped a new game on top of the existing one.

If I could play p99 but with my own party that would be the ideal.

 

[JamesDixon]

The tutorial is opt in by clicking the Tutorial button to highlight it during character creation. If it's not highlighted you're dumped into the world normally.

 

[Tweed]

HOw many decades seconds takes from a wiz to go from 0 mana to 100% mana in p99?

Oldschool? A very long time, this is why you learn to quad as a wizard so you can get the most xp out of each full mana bar. In a group you learn how to balance your mana, keeping enough in reserve for fast nuking or evacs. In a raid you just throw the occasional nuke to make it look like you're working and then all the other int based casters get pissed off because wizards get first crack at int gear for being pure DPS.

 

[anvi]

At low levels you could regen 100% mana in under a minute. At higher levels your mana pool is many times bigger so it could take a few minutes. I don't think it would ever be more than about 5 min though, it just seems a long time when you are staring at the bar. Also with the bigger mana pool (and high level regen) you could be playing for an hour or two before you need to sit for 5 minutes. And at that point you are usually glad of a 5 minute break.

But the game was designed for grouping, and in a group you usually have an Enchanter or Bard that can regen your mana quickly. And Mages can summon you an item to recover mana too. Also in a group the others do half the damage, and Wiz is only really required to land 1 or 2 nukes once the mob is half dead, that and save some mana for teleporting out of danger. So there's not much medding in a group.

Of course solo you get none of this :D You are just Wiz vs World. So you better learn to live with resting for a few minutes after you are spent. But yeah like Tweed said, later on you get a snare that hits 4 enemies and nukes that hit 4, so you can run around kiting them in batches of 4 and blasting them down.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

wizards are for teleporting me around when I need to go places, not for killing things
silly dress wearers

 

[Tweed]

Wizards also get harvest. 10 minutes per cast, instantly restores about half a bar or so of mana, but it stuns for a brief time.
Something to keep in mind is that a pre-50 wizard is very different than post-50 at least when I used to play. You go from just a basic set of nukes and rains to two different sets of nukes. One set are slow-casting, expensive, but hard to resist nukes while the other are fast-casting, cheap nukes. 51 also gets you Atol's Spectral Shackles and then you can really do some quadding.
It used to be that the difference between a good wizard and a bad one was someone who knew how to budget their mana and not pull agro, but I know they eventually changed mana regen to be more like EQ 2 where you get it all back fast after combat is over unless it's a raid mob.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

On p99, I solo pretty much exclusively. You can definitely solo as an enchanter, magician, necro, druid, monk...
A wiz can root and nuke, but it's gonna be a lot of sitting around waiting for MP to refill if you're trying to solo.

Back in the old days, I solod a troll warrior up to like level 20, but it was a slog lol. Don't recommend.

If you're interested in soloing with a pet, and are concerned about slow mana regen, enchanter might be a good call. Plus they get all the illusion spells so they can travel the world pretty freely. With mesmerize you can really control what you pull, and it's a great "OH SHIT" button for when you get jumped. At level 12 you get charm and that opens up another whole method to solo, higher risk but higher reward than just using your pet. Unfortunately, you can't have a pet plus a charmed enemy.

 

[Cryomancer]

Interesting. Is truth that charm/domination in p99 is insanely stronger than retail?

Also, in retail, where I should go to level up after lv 50? Lv 48 at moment. Already tried to access the plane of nightmares and disease but the game doesn't allow me for some reason. The idea of a "planescape adventure" seems amazing. And yes, I've subbed to this game(first mmo which I sub in my life). The centaurs of Goru'Kar are pretty powerful. I can't "safely' farm them...

 

[anvi]

Charmed pets are better than any summoned pet but it's risky because it breaks randomly. Dire Charm lasts forever but has a level limit. Both are great but it's buffing the pets that makes the biggest difference. If you get a charmed pet and give it Cleric buffs and haste then it becomes really strong. But when it breaks it tears you apart if you aren't well prepared. Fun way to play it's just stressful.

The Planes are great but tough depending on the plane. When picking places to hunt I usually just go with the easiest mobs, which means finding the oldest zone with mobs at your level. Check out this list of zones. https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/zlvlchart.html (the only high level stuff in the classic zones is quest npcs and traders and stuff. Because 50 used to be the cap.)

So the nearer the top of that list, the older it is, and the easier the mobs will be. (There was huge inflation in terms of player and mob power over time) You might wanna check out the classic dungeons while you level. Lower Guk is amazing, that's for levels 30-50. Solusek B is amazing too, has a raid in the back end of it that lower level players don't see. (Back in the day those dungeons had almost 100 players in each of them because they were the top end.) Then at 50+ there's the Kunark dungeons, Karnor's Castle, and Sebilis! The last one is amazing. There's also Charasis which is probably more trouble than it's worth, cool though. Oh and Chardok which is huuuge and incredible. Also The Whole (ruins of old paineel). Once you start reaching about 60, all those first few expansions are basically obsolete. It's a shame. Although if you do the Epic weapon quests you visit some of these old haunts again.

 

[JamesDixon]

Alphard and I have been playing on Imperium-EQ together. I reached level 11 with my paladin. Things I like is that the server is designed for solo/duo play where you can create bots to help you. I run with a cleric and a wizard. You can set the bots up how you like on follow distance, gear, and even their stance in combat. If you have a bot that can cast Bind Affinity they can use it on you freely. You can have a max of two bots out at a time, but can create as many as you like. You gear them up as you would yourself.

We did the tutorial together then headed to Greater Faydwer. I decided to visit Butcherblock Mountains to see how things were. It's pretty nice.

 

[GhostCow]

Alphard and I have been playing on Imperium-EQ together. I reached level 11 with my paladin. Things I like is that the server is designed for solo/duo play where you can create bots to help you. I run with a cleric and a wizard. You can set the bots up how you like on follow distance, gear, and even their stance in combat. If you have a bot that can cast Bind Affinity they can use it on you freely. You can have a max of two bots out at a time, but can create as many as you like. You gear them up as you would yourself.

Stuff like this is why I can only do P99. It's not EQ if it's not super serious hard mode

 

[JamesDixon]

Alphard and I have been playing on Imperium-EQ together. I reached level 11 with my paladin. Things I like is that the server is designed for solo/duo play where you can create bots to help you. I run with a cleric and a wizard. You can set the bots up how you like on follow distance, gear, and even their stance in combat. If you have a bot that can cast Bind Affinity they can use it on you freely. You can have a max of two bots out at a time, but can create as many as you like. You gear them up as you would yourself.

Stuff like this is why I can only do P99. It's not EQ if it's not super serious hard mode

Okay grandpa.

 

[Cryomancer]

After about 38 hours I finally reached lv 51 as an necromancer. Now I need to understand WTF is this "alternative advancement". Some more questions.

1. If took 38 hours for me to reach 50s in retail EQ, how much time should I expect to reach such high levels in p99?
2. IF I buy the wand which allow me to transmog into a vampire(illusion) and then cast "lich" spell, what would happen?
3. Which progression server is running the oldest expansion case I wanna a more "classic" experience?
4. Does Magician pets change the appearance after leveling up?
5. How this "alternative advancement" works? Should I play with no XP to AA till I get into higher levels?

Anyway, a interesting screenshot. A mere lv 2 spell(Fear) saving my life

 

[Alphard]

Alphard and I have been playing on Imperium-EQ together. I reached level 11 with my paladin. Things I like is that the server is designed for solo/duo play where you can create bots to help you. I run with a cleric and a wizard. You can set the bots up how you like on follow distance, gear, and even their stance in combat. If you have a bot that can cast Bind Affinity they can use it on you freely. You can have a max of two bots out at a time, but can create as many as you like. You gear them up as you would yourself.

We did the tutorial together then headed to Greater Faydwer. I decided to visit Butcherblock Mountains to see how things were. It's pretty nice.

this morning i logged in and went exploring Faydark. i saw all grey mobs and then a red named . i assumed since it was a low level zone i could kill it... NOPE, she onshot me. i proceeded to look for some yellow mobs in crushbone. found one and killed it, i tried to aggro more than one grey mob there and i see my pet disappearing from existence. i target the mob and i see AVATAR OF CRUSH in red. one second later i join my pet .
then i figure i should look for a more chill place and i explore Crescent reach. very nice questing there. i'm lv 13 now with a badass staff.

 

[JamesDixon]

Alphard and I have been playing on Imperium-EQ together. I reached level 11 with my paladin. Things I like is that the server is designed for solo/duo play where you can create bots to help you. I run with a cleric and a wizard. You can set the bots up how you like on follow distance, gear, and even their stance in combat. If you have a bot that can cast Bind Affinity they can use it on you freely. You can have a max of two bots out at a time, but can create as many as you like. You gear them up as you would yourself.

We did the tutorial together then headed to Greater Faydwer. I decided to visit Butcherblock Mountains to see how things were. It's pretty nice.

this morning i logged in and went exploring Faydark. i saw all grey mobs and then a red named . i assumed since it was a low level zone i could kill it... NOPE, she onshot me. i proceeded to look for some yellow mobs in crushbone. found one and killed it, i tried to aggro more than one grey mob there and i see my pet disappearing from existence. i target the mob and i see AVATAR OF CRUSH in red. one second later i join my pet .
then i figure i should look for a more chill place and i explore Crescent reach. very nice questing there. i'm lv 13 now with a badass staff.

I'm in Crushbone at level 13. I was in Crescent Reach for a bit to get better armor.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

After about 38 hours I finally reached lv 51 as an necromancer. Now I need to understand WTF is this "alternative advancement". Some more questions.

1. If took 38 hours for me to reach 50s in retail EQ, how much time should I expect to reach such high levels in p99?
2. IF I buy the wand which allow me to transmog into a vampire(illusion) and then cast "lich" spell, what would happen?
3. Which progression server is running the oldest expansion case I wanna a more "classic" experience?
4. Does Magician pets change the appearance after leveling up?
5. How this "alternative advancement" works? Should I play with no XP to AA till I get into higher levels?

Anyway, a interesting screenshot. A mere lv 2 spell(Fear) saving my life

It will take much, much, much, much longer to reach those kind of levels in P99. Much.

P99 has up to velious, which is pretty old, I think it's the closest you'll find to the classic experience. It's gonna feel like a real big step back after playing modern retail, but you get used to it.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Anyone playing on Mischief (the random loot progression server) ?
Started a Druid, level 11 at the moment.

 

[GhostCow]

People who aren't obsessed with EQ often took over a year to hit level 50 in classic

 

[anvi]

After about 38 hours I finally reached lv 51 as an necromancer. Now I need to understand WTF is this "alternative advancement". Some more questions.

1. If took 38 hours for me to reach 50s in retail EQ, how much time should I expect to reach such high levels in p99?
2. IF I buy the wand which allow me to transmog into a vampire(illusion) and then cast "lich" spell, what would happen?
3. Which progression server is running the oldest expansion case I wanna a more "classic" experience?
4. Does Magician pets change the appearance after leveling up?
5. How this "alternative advancement" works? Should I play with no XP to AA till I get into higher levels?

Anyway, a interesting screenshot. A mere lv 2 spell(Fear) saving my life

1-
I think p99 would take about 3 or 4 times as long. But it depends on your speed though. When I played on p99 I luckily found a group of other newbs that started around the same time played the same hours. So we levelled up together and it was pretty fast. I think I got to 50 in a few weeks. 50+ things slow down though.

2-
Illusions will either not stack or overwrite the other one. The lich illusions are a bit different because they are related to your mana they often take precedence.

3-
None of the Live (legit servers run by Daybreak) servers are anything even close to the classic experience unfortunately. Even the ones that are locked at an earlier expansion, there was no effort put into making them legit to that era. So they all contain a huge amount of overpowered stuff that the modern game brought. Not sure which one is the oldest era, I think it's Agnarr which is locked at LDON but even that was several expansions into the game and again, none of the tweaks to make it legit were done. There are some good aspects of the live servers though, depends what you want from the game. For a more classic experience the Emu servers are much closer. P99 is the closest although even though it's not that close. Then there are others with various rules. But the emu era is older so generally more classic. The main thing is finding one that suits you. Some are for multiboxers who run their own group of characters, so you wont get people to play with on those servers. P99 and maybe a few others are focused on single characters so you have a good chance of grouping with that. There's one called The Al'Kabor Project which is very legit, locked at an early time and is very legit in terms of no map and no 3rd person view and stuff. Very good server, but it's for 3 boxers so you wont find many groups and most people are just focused on the raid content.

4-
Yeah Mages get the four different pets that do different stuff, and then there's the Epic pet which is like a huge version of the Air pet. And then after about level 50 they get pets that are a random mob from the zone you are in. And they also get swarms of smaller pets that they can use every 15 minutes or whatever, best saved for desperate times or against a tough enemy. They also get a few utility pets like one that aggros everything for a brief time while you escape.

5-
AAs are amazing, they give really powerful upgrades, some passives, some you can use. They make your character many times stronger. So it's basically just like levels. So after 55 ish you have to do both. Some people just rush to max level and then focus on doing the AAs. But you can earn AAs faster at lower levels so some people go 100% on AAs at level 60 ish or 65, and then get about 1000 AA points. Then do the remaining levels but it's much easier because the AAs made you strong. Either way, reaching max level is far from the end. Earning all those AAs is a long term thing. The hunt for better gear is just as important though too.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

P99 and such are closer to the real experience, but I value the QoL features above 100% historical accuracy therefore prefer the progression servers.