Last time around I reported that I had meandered my way to level ten in the game with my druid/warrior combo and that I was now being called on to make some decisions.
EverQuest Legends
The game does at least pop up something to tell you what you need to do, even if it is in the tiny, eye-straining dialogs of the original game.
Level 10 announcement
That would probably have been perfectly readable by mid-30s me on my 17″ CRT monitor back in 1999 running at 1024×768. Early 60s me on a 3440×1440 34″ LCD monitor has a different opinion. But with my glasses on, face practically touching the monitor, and a bit of squinting, I was able to divine that I needed to do things.
I need to pick a third class, I needed to do something with the loadout tab, and I needed to be ready to commit at level 11.
Levels 1 to 10 are basically the free trial period where all classes level up as you go and you can go back to town and swap them around to try them out. I never actually did that, staying committed to the druid/warrior combo I had picked… and also pretty much never going back to town.
For a third class I initially though that maybe paladin would be good. I like smite and lay hands and all that routine. So I created a new loadout and chose it… and then spent a bit figuring out where all my gear went.
It wasn’t like I was wearing that much, but it all stayed with the default loadout and I had to figure out how to get it back on my person again, which seemed a fairly manual process.
I took that combo and headed out in the world, playing with that a bit. I found some willowwisps in Qeynos Hills and even delved into Blackburrow a bit, gaining maybe half a level.
The Splitpaw Sentry at the top of Blackburrow
Then I slept on the idea and woke up thinking I really needed more offense, that you don’t need lay hands if the other guy is already dead. So I went back to town and edited my loadout to remove paladin and add wizard. That erased my half a level of xp because your constrained by your class with the least xp, and everybody stopped at 10. Still, half a level wasn’t much. I’d have felt worse if I had waited until level 30 to try that and found myself back at level 10.
From there I went back to Blackburrow, where I was going to try to focus on leveling up.
Blackburrow in the Qeynos Hills
Like so many early EverQuest zones, I wrote a whole piece about Blackburrow back at the 25th anniversary in 2024 which included maps, images, and vague reminiscences about the place and where it sits in my memories of the game.
Right there in the Qeynos Hills, it has always been an early destination for those starting on the unfashionable western end of Antonica.
As noted above, I had visited the place already… a couple of times really. But I had found it crowded and a bit chaotic. That was before I had finally found the not-red button in the lower right corner of the screen.
Button
While it has a difficult to read label that says, somewhat ironically, “Difficulty,” the real magic is that you can use it to spawn your own solo (or perhaps group… do people group here?) instance of a dungeon area. You can choose difficulty as well as whether or not you want mobs to respawn. Still sitting at level 10 I figured I would leave myself at the lowest level of difficulty and turn off respawns if only to avoid awkward encounters with mobs I had already burned down.
In I went… and things at the top level were as chill as could be. There are a few mobs scattered about, including a named mob in the form of Tranixx Darkpaw who drops the onyx earring. With respawns I suppose I could put him on repeat and farm that item, continuing to use each drop as a merge to upgrade the original. Maybe something for the future.
However, once you get through the door and down the ramp into the first major area of Blackburrow you end up with a bunch of level 18-19 mobs who will absolutely do you up a treat if you’re just level 10.
Bouncers and Elite Guards pounding me
I took a couple runs at trying to bypass them, then trying to solo just one, and neither worked out. That is possibly due to me not understanding stances, though I do think that not being able to tackle mobs that far above your own level isn’t an unreasonable barrier.
The real problem was that these red con mobs were an effective cordon between me and the rest of the zone. In the modern MMORPG era one might stack a place like Blackburrow with the most difficult mobs at the bottom. But 1999 logic put them up top.
So I did what I used to do back in the day, which was just jump into the pit.
The top level of Blackburrow
Seriously, I did that back in my retrospective post as well.
The pit is the big open hole that new players absolutely used to fall into back in the day, then possibly drown if they hadn’t figured out the whole swimming thing and how to get out of the water, because the fall won’t kill you. There is water at the bottom. Just don’t drown. Doug recommends it.
Read this, remember this
Anyway, dropping into the pit puts you at the bottom of Blackburrow where the mobs are much more reasonable range if you are only level 10. In fact, initially I ran into mostly level 8 or 9 mobs, which I dispatched easily enough even when they came at me in groups of three or four.
I managed to get myself up to the snake ledges, where the giant snakes live, who were always a good time back in the day. Ringing in at level 12 they were handing out decent xp.
A giant snake pull… or something
Also, the keen eyed amongst you might note that I have a different chest piece on in that image. Blackburrow actually drops gear, unlike those cheapskate beetles in North Karana. I was actually starting to fill some of the many empty gear slots I had been wandering around with for ten levels, and even getting some merge upgrades. Not enough to make much of a difference most of the time, though the tunic has a proc that assists casting now and then, but at least I felt better not being completely bereft of gear.
After moving and clearing the lower levels, trying to take care, I hit level 11 and got the dialog to commit.
Lock your class choice now
I thought my primary class was druid in this lineup… I am not sure a half-elf can be a warrior… but I didn’t have a lot of time to sit and think about what that meant because this happened during a fight where I opened up a door and the three yellow con mobs on the other side rushed to attack me. I leveled up when the first one died and felt I had best commit to whatever in the moment. So I did. I am locked in now.
Having committed, my character leveled up and I immediately got bombarded with the now familiar skill up spam as the fight continues.
Signs you have leveled again…
I don’t think it mattered all that much. If I decided to roll another character I would probably level up more quickly. I’d probably not start in Qeynos, for openers, it always being the poor relation on xp allocation.
I kept on going, running into some of the notable rare mobs, which see to always spawn in EQL, so we have that going for us.
The Splitpaw Commander with his dual whips
I eventually worked my way up to the point where I ran into another host of red con mobs… where I was at least now able to defeat one before I died.
Cornered again by elites
That sent me up to the zone entrance, which was fine. I had hit level 12 by then and my bags were full. I keep holding onto “maybe that will be useful for an alt” things, like the commander’s dual whips, though I am not sure we have shared storage or anything that would allow me to pass items off to an alt. Or that I would make an alt.
Mostly an old habits sort of thing.
But there I was at level 12. I picked up the all important spells, Spirit of the Wolf and Bind Affinity. I had at least two good wizard spells, including a nice AOE. I felt pretty good at this point. Not knowledgeable. I’ve still not watched any of the videos about the game. But I have enough clues to work with.
It might be time to travel. I am, above all, a tourist back in Norrath. I have no real goals beyond seeing the world and stoking some memories. I kind of wish I had kept the paladin because I am keen to go visit the Estate of Unrest. But I have a ways to go before I see that.