Over Two Years of Everquest 2

I was inspired by Rao’s recent post.

I decided to look through old screens I had of the game, and see what exactly I had that people might actually want to look at. I decided that a time-line of sorts was in order. I still have shots from my beginnings on Butcherblock the 2nd time through, all the way up until now. My experiences on BB when I first started the game back in ’06, and my experiences on Nagafen (essentially my first 6 months with the game) were never screen-shotted. Pictures and descriptions to follow after the break.

Shortly after starting off fresh on the Butcherblock server (didn’t like certain aspects of the pvp, and wanted to play with people I knew again), me, my room-mate, my (now) wife, my Dad, and some online friends formed a guild. I came up with a huge amount of acronyms and other names/themes for the guild, and my Dad finalized the name, deciding to combine two of my ideas into one. LSoN was born. I ended up creating a webpagefor the guild, along with a forum, but it never really got used, as our guild never really got off the ground. Here’s the banner for the main page:

 

After making my Paladin, Thalinos (my first toon made after coming back to BB), my wife took interest in the game, and my first alt was made, a Ranger, named Xaandir. Her first toon was a Templar, named Freyaa. Here they are in the Willow Wood.

And since you couldn’t see Freyaa’s face in that last one, here she is:

Not too long after forming the guild, we formed our first raid. Here’s our primary group, preparing for combat against the Scarecrow King.

And here we are taking it out. Our tank, Legari, was already a level 70 Paladin, so we didn’t actually need two full groups. We had Myself, Afriend (my room-mate’s Assassin), Etoep (my Dad’s Fury, who was also higher level than us), Fony (our online friend, a Warden), Yohdii (Fony’s husband, a Ranger), along with Legari’s RL mom who was a mystic, and one or two others. Can’t remember names off hand, so sue me.

Here’s another shot of the action.

Here was part of the reward, a Jack-o-lantern mask. It was pretty cool, and the quest line was fun over all (not to mention being something not everyone experiences).

Some early adventuring in the Thundering Steppes, myself and Criin (my Dad’s Monk) killing Giants.

A neat ambient event that happened in front of me near Thundermist Village, Centaurs attacking, and Guards defending.

Myself and Afriend farming parts for Lore and Legend quests. Here Thalinos is holding off all of the ghosts present in the village in Fallen Gate at bay.

More early adventures, here’s Afriend practicing his climbing and safe fall skills outside of NektroposCastle. Here’s my view from the ground.

And here’s my failed safe fall attempt… someone should have told me that Paladin’s don’t have safe fall…

For those of you who missed Thal’s vocabulary in the last screen, here it is again in sign…

A very eerie peek at the edge of the world… or is it? A cookie for the first person who can guess what it really is, and what zone it takes place in.

Anyone smell something burning? Dancing on the fire in Nektropos Castle.

Also in Nek Castle, Thalinos in Droag form.

Thalinos, after I discovered SOGA models. Yes, I like them, though most of the races I like best were never SOGA-fied, so there.

During our Heritage Quest spree, Here’s our one group preparing to take on the Lightbringer Raid. It was really grey at this point, so no worries about the one group.

Hail! From Thalinos and Afriend.

Sitting with Yoru the Old, attempting to get the Flowing Black Silk Sash HQ on the road.

Taking down Emperor Fyst. He was cake. And yes, this is when he was still an Epic.

 

That about brings and end to my oldie shots, the following are more recent shots, taken within the last 6 months or so.

Following a short hiatus (I took about a month off from the game), I returned, andthis time I created a Brigand, named Izlain, a Ratonga from Neriak. My Wife got herself her own computer and a copy of the game as well (previously she played with Afriend’saccount, when he wasn’t on). Having grown fond of Neriak, I convinced her to roll a toon there. She decided on an Arasai, and to match I made one as well. We both rolled Bruisers, and along with my Dad and one of his friends (who is now one of my guildies as well) we did some grouping. That’s Dahnzig in the front (my Bruiser), LadyMarilyn to the right (my Wife’s Bruiser), Nins on the right (my Dad’s Wizard), and his friend’s Defiler in the back (who was later deleted).

A solo shot of Dahnzig, in Crushbone Keep.

Another solo shot of Dahnzig, this time off the docks in Butcherblock.

Here’s a post LSoN shot of Thalinos, in Fabled/Legendary t7 gear, pre-Kunark.

A shot of Izlain in street clothes, with his new deity pet “Tubby”. Tubby is awfully big for a “mini-giant”, taller than his owner even.

I spent a lot of time soloing questlines I had never done before this secondtime around. When EOF was released, Thalinos was already in his 50s or 60s, so he didn’t run through many of the EOF lowbie zones, save for discos. Here’s Izlain hitting level 37 in Steamfont, at the Gnomeland Security Headquarters.

Here’s Izlain in Neriak, showing off his new Xegonite gear. This was probably 2-3 weeks before ROK released.

Iz again, this time sporting his shiny new Hooloh’s Thuggish Hat. The coolest class hat in the game in my opinion, he still wears it (albeit in his appearance slot) today.

One of the last accomplishments made on Iz before my longest break from the game to date (some other MMOs piqued my interest, at least momentarily). Here’s he is with his Rallos Zek cloak, after finally finishing the Deity Quest Line.

Finally, Rise of Kunark was released, and there were new places to go explore. Here’s Izlain in the Fens of Nathsar, looking straight at one of the new contested raid mobs. The Tangrin is a level 86 x4. Thankfully, he couldn’t see stealth.

After coming back from my short break (PotBS really sucked, and Hellgate London was ok, but no real lasting appeal there), I rolled an Iskar Guardian on the Unrest server, to play with my fellow blogger, Rao. Here’s Drykscar hanging out in Neriak.

With news of the release of the new Epic Weapons, I finally logged Izlain back on for a brief moment. Just long enough to finish one of his pre-requisites, the War and Wardrobe HQ. Here he is flying around Butcherblock, working on updates.

And here he is in Crushbone, camping mobs for updates.

My more recent adventures with Izlain have included some named hunting, including a huge shark named Megalodon, off in the waters of Jarsath Wastes. Here’s Iz with some of his new guildies (more off-screen)preparing to attack.

Adventures in ROK involve a lot of Sokokar riding. Here’s Izlain following Criin around for quest updates.

And then some more…

And here’s Izlain camping Murgurgl, a named Yha-Lei at the lake ruins in Fens. This guy got camped multiple different times, but finally got killed shortly after this screen was taken. The named for the Thugga line were sometimes elusive, but the fabled reward was well worth it.

During my first trip to the Crypt of Agony, we had a good run. We cleared the instance with few problems, and after finishing up, we headed back into Sebilis. Unfortunately the named standing right out side the door had popped, so I had a headache waiting for me. If you look closely in the following picture, you’ll see Izlain’s dead body on top of the entryway to CoA, where the named’s knockback placed him. Ouch!

That’s about all the screenshots I could findthat had nostalgic value. Somewhere around two years of memories, all crammed into one post. I hope you enjoyed the ride, I know I enjoyed the trip into the past.