Welcome to the first edition of Halfling Hodgepodge RiffRaff, THE place to get to know your fellow EQ Community members better! If you would like to participate watch the EQLive Forums for information about this feature every month.
Obsqura
When did you start playing EQ? October, 2000.
Do you play EQ on a laptop or desktop computer? 2 Desktop Computers.
Do you play on dial-up, cable, or DSL? Cable.
What was the race and class of your very first character? Wood Elf, Female Ranger, even though I am a male in real life. I made only males after that, since my brother told me to make a female, only because when they beg, they get more money.
Was EQ your first online game? Yes, although I still play a first-person shooter game, named Counter Strike.
What is your highest level in EQ? I play two characters at once on two computers. 70 druid with 750 AA's and a 70 magician with 150 AA's.
Do you prefer to solo or group? Group, but I sometimes solo Wall of Slaughter named.
What do you like the most about the class you have chosen for your main character? I chose a druid. I like the druid, since they can cast decent direct damage spells or heal in a group. Even if they can't find a group, I can manage to solo in places such as the Wall of Slaughter, the Ruined City of Dranik, or the Plane of Fire.
Is your main character in a guild? Yes, Raging Fury, on Antonius Bayle.
How many characters do you have on your main server? 3. My 70 druid, my 70 magician, and a 39 Beastlord.
Does your main character worship a deity? Karana, but I prefer Cazic-Thule for my druid. =p
Which classes in EQ have you NOT played? Bard, Berserker, Shadow Knight.
What is the most platinum you have ever spent on purchasing a single item for one of your characters? 238,000 platinum, on a Gold Ticket from the casinos.
What is your favorite expansion? Velious, since I started raiding there, first.
What is your favorite zone? Cabilis, since my druid is liked in about half the zone, but raid zone is probably the Temple of Veeshan.
What is your favorite npc? Vishimtar the Fallen, since it is one of the hardest encounters.
Which expansion do you like the least? Lost Dungeons of Norrath. It did introduce augments, but there was no worthwhile raiding content.
Which zone do you like the least? The Nexus. It is too small, and it was the beginning of the teleportation things that all players could use. So basically druids and wizards started to be less useful.
Which npc do you like the least? Zun`Muram Mordl Delt, but only because it is an annoying encounter.
Do you have an item you no longer use but keep around for nostalgic reasons? If so what is it and why do you keep it? I have so-called "toys" such as the Tri-Plated Golden Hackle Hammer, but my most prized possession(s) is my iksar illusion potions. I try to be an iksar in every aspect. I only have about 88 charges left of my potions. Also, I keep old gear from previous expansions, until I run out of bank space, then unfortunatley, I have to delete some. Every piece of equipment I have has a story behind it, and there are great memories.
Parks_Hyperlight
When did you start playing EQ? 3/15/02
Do you play EQ on a laptop or desktop computer? Desktop
Do you play on dial-up, cable, or DSL? Dial-up
What was the race and class of your very first character? Halfling Ranger
Was EQ your first online game? Yes
What is your highest level in EQ? 55
Do you prefer to solo or group? Equal preference (depends; group if with fiends or guildies, solo if only pick-up groups available)
What do you like the most about the class you have chosen for your main character? The ability to track.
Is your main character in a guild? Yes
How many characters do you have on your main server? 8
Does your main character worship a deity? Yes
Which classes in EQ have you NOT played? Berserker, Druid, Beastlord
What is the most platinum you have ever spent on purchasing a single item for one of your characters? 15k
What is your favorite expansion? SoV
What is your favorite zone? Unrest
What is your favorite npc? Sheriff Roglio (sp?) in Rivervale.
Which expansion do you like the least? GoD
Which zone do you like the least? Fungus Grove
Which npc do you like the least? The Great Saprophyte
Do you have an item you no longer use but keep around for nostalgic reasons? If so what is it and why do you keep it? No
Pizzicato
When did you start playing EQ? Well I started playing towards the end of 2001 but didn't create Pizzicato until March 2002
Do you play EQ on a laptop or desktop computer? Desktop computer...not uber but does the job
Do you play on dial-up, cable, or DSL? I play on a 512KB cable connection
What was the race and class of your very first character? Barbarion Warrior
Was EQ your first online game? Yes and it will probably be the last because I get far too addicted sometimes :P
What is your highest level in EQ? Level 70 with 217 aa's currently
Do you prefer to solo or group? Group, it’s very rarely I solo
What do you like the most about the class you have chosen for your main character? I love everything about being a Bard :) I like the fact I can mez, charm (limited now I know but it was superb in the 50's LDoN's), slow, haste a multitude of other things and pulling is great fun when you make people go 'WOW!'
Is your main character in a guild? Yes I am a member of <Old Continent> which has many people I have known over the years and is a wonderful bunch of nutters :)
How many characters do you have on your main server? I have my Bard, a 58 beserker who was an experiment when they went live and a bunch of sub 30 chars who I never play and probably never will lol
Does your main character worship a deity? Yes he worships Tunare, and no he has never killed Tunare either. He even paid homage to her graceful beauty as he waved goodbye to her on Xev only to meet her re-incarnation on Druzzil Ro
Which classes in EQ have you NOT played? I have never played a Ranger, Rogue, Monk, Paladin or Shadowknight
What is the most platinum you have ever spent on purchasing a single item for one of your characters? That would probably be the ingredients for the improved dodge 3 aug I have, think it cost me about 100k in total
What is your favorite expansion? That’s a very difficult question to answer as I love most of the expansions but for different reasons. I have a lot of nostalgia for the 'old world' expansions, quests and lore while LDoN was great for grouping and PoP brought about many changes in raiding. I didn't have much experience with GoD until more recently when I joined all my friends in my current guild but I am having a blast and loving it. OoW brought us the second half of the GoD expansion which I am enjoying immensely.
What is your favorite zone? That’s an easy one :) Blackburrow all the way!
What is your favorite npc? I would have to say the corpse summoners in the guild
lobby lol
Which expansion do you like the least? The only expansions I haven’t been so keen on were LoY which apart from the ability to use in-game maps and the one song I bothered to get there has had absolutely no use for me whatsoever and DoN which is in all truthfulness a great expansion but for some reason that escapes me I don't like it... I know it’s a perfectly great expansion with many features and so on but I just can't get into it for some reason.../shrug
Which zone do you like the least? Temple of Ssraezsha easily. I fought there and raided there for probably 2 years. It took me over 100 hours to get my emp key alone (my luck sucks in that zone) and have killed so many rhags and arch liches my housemate might have got worried for his pet snakes safety...
Which npc do you like the least? A Jester of Bristlebane
Do you have an item you no longer use but keep around for nostalgic reasons? If so what is it and why do you keep it? Unfortunately no...
RaolinX
When did you start playing EQ? Late summer of 2001 Right after I was finally able to get DSL
Do you play EQ on a laptop or desktop computer? 2001 Era PC no hardware upgrades.
Do you play on dial-up, cable, or DSL? As mentioned Dial Up
What was the race and class of your very first character? Barbarian Warior (is now in mule status)
Was EQ your first online game? Yes
What is your highest level in EQ? 55
Do you prefer to solo or group? Group then solo (been leading Ldon's basically for group Leadership. And I can ALWAYS find a group to do these. Usually less than 15 minutes.)
What do you like the most about the class you have chosen for your main character? As a bard I injoy the flexibility and the speed. Running slow sucks
Is your main character in a guild? Yes
How many characters do you have on your main server? 1 main 3 mules (casual player FYI.)
Does your main character worship a deity? Bristlebane
Which classes in EQ have you NOT played? All but bard really. The mules aren’t even level 10
What is the most platinum you have ever spent on purchasing a single item for one of your characters? 65k for the lute of the howler besides that Im cheap nothing over 5k
What is your favorite expansion? Velious (only have the first 7 though. Should grab DoN one of these days. Seems cool.)
What is your favorite zone? Great Divide
What is your favorite npc? Hmmm Gotta be The Jester. He doesn’t just sit there. More npc's need to talk. I like the Fisherman in Abysmal as well.
Which expansion do you like the least? This one is hard, as each expansion does improve the game.
Which zone do you like the least? Any underground where I can’t use Selos
Which npc do you like the least? hehe Right now Its Maligar's Enraged Doppleganger. But will always go back to Fippy.
Do you have an item you no longer use but keep around for nostalgic reasons? If so what is it and why do you keep it? Probably The Mask Of deception, hHaven't used it in ages. I keep it Because my toon is a Bard and I like Illusion items.
Raxtull
When did you start playing EQ? December 12, 2000
Do you play EQ on a laptop or desktop computer? Desktop
Do you play on dial-up, cable, or DSL? Cable
What was the race and class of your very first character? My very first character that I made was a Human Warrior that I used for the sole purpose of learning the controls. My first actual play character was my Halfling Druid.
Was EQ your first online game? Yes
What is your highest level in EQ? Gwaelin, my 61 Dark Elf Magician
Do you prefer to solo or group? Grouping with my friends. Pick-up groups are like playing Russian Roulette with 5 of the chambers loaded and soloing is boring (not to mention being impossible for any class that's not a pure caster, at least for experience).
What do you like the most about the class you have chosen for your main character? My Magician can do some good damage and my Shadow Knight can actually take a few hits without eating dirt (at least in pre-PoP content).
Is your main character in a guild? No. I was always guilded with friends, but since all of them have quit I haven't bothered with looking for another guild.
How many characters do you have on your main server? I have one of each class, but I generally play my Mage and Shadow Knight.
Does your main character worship a deity? Yes, whenever I have the choice.
Which classes in EQ have you NOT played? I've played them all to some extent, so I'll just list how far I've gotten each: Magician (61), Necromancer (60), Rogue (59), Shadow Knight (57), Warrior (57), Enchanter (54), Druid (53), Shaman (53), Monk (51), Wizard (51), Bard (31), Beastlord (24), Cleric (24), Paladin (13), Ranger (13), Berserker (5).
What is the most platinum you have ever spent on purchasing a single item for one of your characters? 50k for a Crown of Elemental Mastery for my Mage. Usually, they're being sold for 100k+ and I have no means of camping (or even getting to) 7th isle of Sky, so I had to buy it when I found it cheap enough that I could afford.
What is your favorite expansion? LDoN could have been, if the devs had given it more attention than just dumping it on us and forgetting about it. So, Kunark would be my favorite expansion, since it had content made for ALL levels of the game, by far the best dungeons in the game, and most importantly: Iksar.
What is your favorite zone? Crypt of Dalnir. So many people were scared to death of that zone for some reason, but I've had some of my most fun times in there. I still level my characters through it.
What is your favorite npc? Grandmaster Glox. Most powerful of all Iksar, and the first Iksar I saw in Cabilis.
Which expansion do you like the least? Planes of Power. Itemization began its meteoric rise into ridiculousness, adventure was completely removed from the game in order to make everything more convenient, mobs became way too overpowered, and raid content became the only thing the devs worked on. The adventure is no more, bring on the ph4t l3wts.
Which zone do you like the least? Powerlevel... err... I mean Paludal Caverns. I've seen the worst attitudes being displayed there, so I avoid it entirely now. But then, the quality of the community has gone down the toilet over the years, so it doesn't really surprise me.
Which npc do you like the least? Raster and Quillmane. I spent 50 hours camping Raster before I gave up. Quillmane has spawned for me only 4 times in the 80+ hours I've spent camping it, and still has not dropped the damn Cloak. If it wasn't the last piece for my Mage's epic, I would have given up on it long ago.
Do you have an item you no longer use but keep around for nostalgic reasons? If so what is it and why do you keep it? I would say an epic, if I could ever manage to get one for one of my characters. I can never seem to get the last item or two. But I do have a full set of Crescent armor and a pair of Fighting Batons in my Monk's bank, because that was THE Monk equipment back in the day.