now that you've won eq....?!

[Chenier]

/sigh

So, I have 250 in everything, I have the 8th shawl and AG earring, I made a gnome and have tinkering nearly GM'ed. What now? I have no interest in starting a shaman and doing alchemy nor a rogue and doing poisons...

I want something new and hard to work on. I wanna have something to post about here, to have rants to have "omg I finally made X!".

Any suggestions?

[iasmin]

Solo The Sleeper while drunk by strangling him with a necklace you made using gems you chipped off a demi-sec champagne bottle you created to create the champage you used to celebrate your 1750, all while wearing only reinforced leather armour that you smithed the boning for yourself after having a wonderful meal of mature cheese and beer braised lion that you killed yourself with arrows you'd whittled while waiting for your hair to dry from the swimming you did after fishing in Cobalt Scar? (I'm sure I missed a tradeskill in there somewhere.)

In all seriousness though, I have no idea. Wish I could help. Being the relative noob player I am in relationship to your experience, I can't suggest much. I still find something new every time I play.

[Rewde]

Do the Oracle and Phylactery quest!!

[Sylphan]

Rants and projects are still possible.

How about 'OMG I searched the bazaar for three months, spent 50k on Drops of Pure Rain and now I can't even sell my Hurricane Breastplate for 30k!'

Or 'OMG I'm the uber-jeweler and I only succeeded on 8 out of 20 gem studded chains!'

Or 'yay I made my brewing trophy on the first try'.

...

A lot of end-game folks finally get around to portions of the game they skipped while rushing to the end. Mayby you need to look past tradeskills.

Explore zones you never saw before, or solo mobs you never killed before, or try quests you missed before.

Or work on faction. Can you raise your Neriak faction enough to walk into the necromancer guild... without trashing your faction in Felwithe or Ak'anon? Are you KOS in Overthere? How about Chardok? Oggok? Cabilis? Kael Drakkel? Qeynos sewers? Freeport underground? My character is safe in ALL of those places.

Or fashion. Can your caster dress in platemail and carry a longsword (daggers and shortswords don't count)? Chainmail and dual-wield maces? Robe and carry more than two items with particle effects at the same time? My character can. Are there any particle effects you don't have yet... or sword shapes you don't own?

Or stamp collecting. How many different types of robes do you own (only ones your character can wear count). Mine has about 150. You're a baker.. how many types of baked foods have you collected? Does your character have a wine cellar (an alt with bags full of every type of wine in game, including GM-created types)? Do you have all the research components for every researchable spell, including all four caster types (enc, mag, nec, wiz)? I have.

You could start your own guild... or just organize open raids. And maybe roleplay while you do it.

Yes, there are all sorts of projects and accomplishments and improvements for your character that don't show up in the skills window or the AA window. And then there are the standard 'grind' answers: Get all your PoP flags (and keys in older zones like CoM, ToFS,HS, Vex Thall). Improve your gear til you're in full time gear. Powerlevel your own alts. Get your last AA point. Max your Adventurer's Stone.

[Kaidian Blade]

Jeeze Sylphan. And I thought that I was a packrat! LOL

[Cantatus]

I thought this was going to be a post about you going to Disneyland or something.

[Chenier]

I'm not much of a big mob soloer - doesn't hold a lot of fascination for me as it does others.

I thought about working on maxing my languages, but feh...

Oracle quest - yeeah, but actually, I think i'm gonna work on Secret of the Planes quest. The upgrade for my secondary would be far larger than the upgrade to my bp (and I ain't getting the whorl shield from Quarm anytime soon!).

I was also thinking about working tradeskills on my enchanter for her shawl, but...I'd rather work on stuff for Chen.

Collecting items (robes, wine cellar, food types), I did for a while on Prexus with druid equippable weapons. But I lost interest...

I think Secret of the Planes....yah. ("And it's got some tradeskillery stuff!")

Oh, and might as well do the rest of trophies as well. /blink

[Silverfish]

Walkabout and Other Endgame Hobbies

I agree with Sylphan about end-game pursuits, and especially travelling. There are so many places on Norrath and Luclin that many people never see. Doing a walkabout is a wonderful way to spend some time, especially if you go places where there's some danger involved. Did you know there's a glowing lake at the end of the glowing river in Fungus Grove? Many people I know, even level 65 people, have never left the settlement there. You can walk through there to the Twilight Sea, if you're careful, strong or lucky. It's possible to walk up to the Overking in Chardok and say "hail" if you kill enough goblins (Sylphan mentioned this). Heck, there's a large number of good-aligned folk who have never walked the "evil" route from Freeport to Qeynos, and who have never visited the Arena. Some places you may want to visit, which will require more or less effort to do include the aforementioned Chardok (and the Sarnak fortress in the Lake of Ill Manners), Skyshrine, Veksar, Sanctus Seru, the deeper portions of Mistmoore castle, the temple of Cazic-Thule, Kedge Keep, Grieg's End (getting into the castle is an amazingly fun challenge, I was told by a group of friends who did it), Old Sebilis and a host of other such places. Sure, some of those places are hard green to you, but that's the point. You can explore at your leisure, with very little to endanger you.

Also, there are lots of avenues that many end-game folks don't address that can be great fun. Like...

Have you ever gotten with a group of other 65ers and gone to a PvP area or zone? Last-man-standing duels are great guild-builders, because you can PvP without the annoyance of some Ub3r n00b hacking on you about it afterward. Trying to duel and defeat at least one member of every class, including your own, is tougher than you think.

Flag and key raids are a great pursuit, too. Get your group of neo-Wayfarers and get your keys to Veeshan's Peak or Vex Thal. Go elemental, or all the way to Time if you're that ambitious.

Pick a monster-tough quest and shoot for it. Heck, if you're really into challenging yourself, get your epic, or if you already have, get an epic for some other class. You can't use it, but what a trophy it would make!

Try to forage or kill or fish or just visit as many different zones as you can. Catch one of every kind of fish there is. Collect items (like Sylphan's wines). Hunt one of every knd of mob in the zone. In that vein, try to be present to kill every different dragon there is, or every kind of giant.

The simple point is that getting to 65 is an end-goal, as is getting into the 1750 club. There are other goals to pursue, though, and they can be really rewarding and quite fun as well.

[Krazick]

Just to toss out an idea...

Garzicor Quest

It has some tradeskills (given you have the Grimel Earring you are beyond trivial on all the steps)

And the final earring for a druid is not likely an upgrade for you... but hey... if you want a goal...

[Sanna]

lord sylphan. be my friend. if you have that much time on your hands, i've got some stuff i could use some help with... heheh. I like the way you think, tho.

faction.... o_0... Remember the picture of the iksar monk standing on the pod lift platform in Kelthin?



But, take it from someone who is suddenly afraid she will never 'finish' eq... Being at the 'end' is not a bad thing.

And more philosophically... the 'end' does not necessarily mean that the journey is over.




-- Sanna
Listening to "Morning in Norikia" from Last Exile makes me think I can do anything. ^_^ Even finish what I've started...

[Chenier]

Re: Walkabout and Other Endgame Hobbies

Originally posted by Silverfish
[B]I agree with Sylphan about end-game pursuits, and especially travelling. There are so many places on Norrath and Luclin that many people never see. Doing a walkabout is a wonderful way to spend some time, especially if you go places where there's some danger involved. Did you know there's a glowing lake at the end of the glowing river in Fungus Grove? Many people I know, even level 65 people, have never left the settlement there. You can walk through there to the Twilight Sea, if you're careful, strong or lucky. It's possible to walk up to the Overking in Chardok and say "hail" if you kill enough goblins (Sylphan mentioned this). Heck, there's a large number of good-aligned folk who have never walked the "evil" route from Freeport to Qeynos, and who have never visited the Arena. Some places you may want to visit, which will require more or less effort to do include the aforementioned Chardok (and the Sarnak fortress in the Lake of Ill Manners), Skyshrine, Veksar, Sanctus Seru, the deeper portions of Mistmoore castle, the temple of Cazic-Thule, Kedge Keep, Grieg's End (getting into the castle is an amazingly fun challenge, I was told by a group of friends who did it), Old Sebilis and a host of other such places. Sure, some of those places are hard green to you, but that's the point. You can explore at your leisure, with very little to endanger you.

Just because I'm a 1750 doesn't mean I'm a KEI baby who zoomed through levels. The only zones I haven't been to are VP, VT and ST and only because I don't have keys.

I think I could give guided tours in Castle Mistmoore, Sarnak Fortress and KK ("Bus to Phinny leaving in 5!"). And while I can't hail the Overlord King Sarnak dude, I think I've killed (either in group or raid) every single spawn in that place and gotten dubious helping friends faction.

Working on faction is mildly interesting but being that there's very few places I wanna go that I can't go invis (I can get you all the way to Neriak 3rd gate...love going LFG in there and making people go "huh?!"), handing muffins/batwings/bottles of red wine to NPCs or killing 40 million faction_mob01 doesn't seem very challenging.

Fished everywhere I could, swam all around every body of water I could and yeah, I could guide you from the settlement in FG to the lake to Twilight Sea, etc. etc...

[/quote]Have you ever gotten with a group of other 65ers and gone to a PvP area or zone? Last-man-standing duels are great guild-builders, because you can PvP without the annoyance of some Ub3r n00b hacking on you about it afterward. Trying to duel and defeat at least one member of every class, including your own, is tougher than you think.[/quote]
PvP holds absolutely no interest for me. It requires a different skill set and gear which I don't have nor do I want.

Flag and key raids are a great pursuit, too. Get your group of neo-Wayfarers and get your keys to Veeshan's Peak or Vex Thal. Go elemental, or all the way to Time if you're that ambitious.

VP and VT...yeah, but what would the point? And I am TIme enabled. =)

Pick a monster-tough quest and shoot for it. Heck, if you're really into challenging yourself, get your epic, or if you already have, get an epic for some other class. You can't use it, but what a trophy it would make!

Did my own epic twice. Dat's enough of that! lol

Thanks for the suggestions tho. I do think maybe looking at Garizor (sp) quest sounds interesting, especially since it's tradeskilly related, or maybe the Coldain ring quests.

It's just hard for me to think about working on something that doesn't have a point other than the completion thereof (besides tradeskills 1750)...

[Sylphan]

Heh, that's just the beginning of my wasted time, the part related to my main character in-game.

Out-of-game EQ also counts. I've also designed some popular windows and put them on EQInterface. Corrected some maps at EQToolbox. Submitted item stats to EQTraders and other web sites. I never gained a single level while working on those things.

Hacking counts too (real hacking, not the vile kind). For instance the AC formula used by Magelo, Allakhazam, etc. is the one I discovered. I've uncovered various bugs at various times (which got fixed), and parsed to find how the new LDoN focus effects actually work (not quite the same way as older focus effects of the same type). All without cheat programs of any sort (although they could have made it easier). I never gained a single AA point while working on those things.

Exploring zones is about a lot more than seeing all the rooms or discovering which creatures you can 'own'. Really learning how it all fits together, from factions to drop rates to background story to aggro radius, can be interesting. Sometimes it devolves to mere trivia (like counting how many bankers there are in EQ), but there are also some well-crafted zones with backstory, setting, and character that are worth knowing. You'll visit plenty of message boards and spoiler sites in the process, in addition to what your character can do and see in-game. I never gained a single skill point while discovering all of that.

Then there are in-game diversions. They won't fill your schedule for the next few months, but they can be fun for awhile. If you ever see a NPC scarecrow wandering around Freeport, or notice that some of the rats are much larger than the others, it's probably my doing. Or if you find that some of the goblins in Droga or giants in HoH have gained the ability to see invisible (or ARE invisible), I've probably been there. Mages use Monster Summoning and run around to scare newbies with their pets, enchanters turn into bags and watch as people try to pick them up... there are lots of little tricks. They don't accomplish anything, but should at least make someone pause and wonder whether Bristlebane is nearby. Short events are good too... brewers offer prizes for drunken Kelethin races, rangers hold archery contests, sometimes a 65 cleric will gather a dozen level 7s, buff them up and raid Crushbone.

Finally I must mention role-playing, both in and out of game. I won't go too much into my guild, alliance, etc., except to say that 'playing house' (much like 5-year-old girls do with dollhouses, but in a MMORPG) can really integrate all the other elements of the game. Have an in-game marriage... go house-hunting in Sanctus Seru (some of the homes are unoccupied)... bind there and call it 'home'. This could last a long time, depending on how many posts you write about it on RP message boards. After awhile you might have kids (low level characters with the same surname)... Sylphan's first child for instance was a half-elf, since he'd married a human. More roleplaying involved in that whole storyline.

Then all the other things tie into that. That 'wine cellar' mentioned now has a location. The wedding ring was one I crafted myself, and as a baker/brewer, I helped with the catering too. If you need a white dress for the wedding, you might need to do a quest. To do the quest you might need to work on faction. To raise the faction you might need to explore a new zone. To get to the zone you might need to visit a spoiler site, get maps, and ask your guild's help. It all goes together, with a purpose. It's still a guild raid and it still takes three hours... but now you're essentially fitting faction, quest, fashion, and roleplay into those same three hours.

In my view, gaining levels and AAs and tradeskills is just one small aspect of playing EQ. And it's caught up in the other aspects, not something seperate and apart. Even playing the game itself is only a part -- spoiler sites, message boards, interface design, and all that www stuff are as much a part of EQ as the game itself. If you haven't tried your hand at all of that, you aren't even halfway done with EQ. Many people just aren't into roleplaying, or just don't care about interface, or some other part... but the same is said of tradeskills. I don't think they're pointless at all.

[Arrica]

Robe and carry more than two items with particle effects at the same time?

How does one pull this off? I can see a particle effect in primary and secondary... but I don't think I've ever seen a character with more than two particle effects; short of an epic'ed monk.

[Lilosh]

Originally posted by Sylphan
Or if you find that some of the goblins in Droga or giants in HoH have gained the ability to see invisible (or ARE invisible), I've probably been there.

This is not harmless fun. :-(

This is very mean.

-Lilosh

[Grenoble]

How about making some guild events?

I've come up with scavenger hunts for my guild. They need to get 8 items. I don't tell them the items; I make a little poem or riddle so they have to figure out what they're getting. Some items are drops, others are forages/ground spawns, some are tradeskilled. I send off 2 or 3 teams, give them 2 hours to complete.

I also do trivia contests, a la Jeopardy style, where I come up with 5 or 6 categories, and 5 questions per category (all EQ based). Each question has a plat amount assigned to it. The team with the most cash wins that amount of plat (I usually give the runners up assorted drops to sell or a lesser plat prize as consolation). One rule: I catch you in the bazaar, and your team is disqualified (my guild is good peeps tho and haven't tried to pull that on me )

These things make a nice break from the usual grind, and the scavenger hunts kind of force people to hit zones they wouldn't normally. And the trivia opens up a lot of knowledge about the game, including other class abilities, Norrathian history, etc.

Both events go over pretty big.