They were just so boring. It started with Fear and Hate but nobody knew how to do it, so there were horrific wipes that took HOURS to recover from. Fear was the worst because the aggro range was massive so as soon as someone zones in, about 5 or 6 tough mobs aggro and then if they go to west wall, it is more like 15. Raiding back then was a total chore and it was also not even worthwhile. The loot was really bad, there were mistakes with the items like cleric gear with int etc, and generally it just wasn't very good anyway, and it was rare to drop, and if you have to share it with 10 other people on a raid, it was just tedious as hell.
Also, although it was too brutal at first, it became far too easy later on. With Hate people started porting up and then instantly evaccing to a safe spot and breaking in from there which was really easy. And Fear you just have everyone run to the safe spot and die and then rez people in. Clearing the zones from these safe spots was actually really easy. A single group could easy clear the whole zone minus bosses and after Kunark, that would drop to just 2 people clearing the zone safely. It ends up where a guild would just raid it every few days and it gets so boring and repetitive. There are no surprises and nothing is random or varied, it is just the exact same boring routine every time. And then when epics were added, we had to raid these places constantly, not just for the loots but for the epic components.
Sky was a more interesting zone but it still amounted to the same repetition but was far more tedious because it required so much clearing every time you raided. Ridiculous several hour raids to reach the top levels of sky. I did like that the bosses on each tier were quite interesting though. Naggy and Vox were better I think because they didn't take that long, although there wasn't much loot either. Just a few items on the journey and then a few items from the dragon.
The most challenging thing I've ever done in EQ was soloing bosses that I shouldn't have been able to kill. I used to solo the AM and GL in Lower Guk at level 50 which I don't think anyone else could ever do. It was hard work and dangerous but v exciting. The next best thing was grouping in dungeons, doing Chardok or Seb was really dangerous at a certain point. It got too easy in the later 50's and once you had lots of raid gear, but when Kunark was new and people were going to those places, it was extremely tough. I've never seen any other game before or since that had combat that tough and rewarding.
Also in later expansions there were more great group dungeons. A highlight for me was Ssra temple, but also on a custom server there was an amazing dungeon under Mistmoore which had scripted bosses that were more fun than any raid. A massive spider that spawned 2 unmezzable adds every 20% life it lost. So if you tried to kill it fast you would end up 8 really tough mobs on you and wipe. And if you go too slow everyone starts running out of mana. It took real tactics to win that.
Group content is the best by far. Also Vanguard had more tech for dungeons, like the one that had minerals growing out of the walls that would drain a group's mana if they stood near it. So the group had to huddle together and rush into groups of mobs or end up fighting in an area that drained their mana. Also more interesting mobs that did more like mobs that would die and then respawn as a ghost, mobs that would go invis, flying drakes that would swoop down to 'add', etc. Basically if they make it with EQ's challenge and balance, but with Vanguard's better classes and more advanced dungeon mechanics, this game will be awesome. Then just don't ruin it with raids..
Casual trash fag confirmed.
You know nothing about me eh?