Qeynos, Freeport and Gorowyn: First Impressions
by paul on May.20, 2010, under Everquest II
What brought me back in recent weeks was the news that the next patch to EQ2 would remove the ability to start characters in Qeynos and Freeport (I am not entirely clear on exactly what the change will be). I wanted to run a set through the newbie areas while I still could.
So far, I have a 21 bruiser in Gorowyn, 20 monk in Qeynos, and 20 shadowknight in Freeport. In previous years I have run through low levels in Qeynos and Kelethin; I will make more characters in Kelethin, Neriak and (when released) Halas.
I have been mostly ignoring trade skills, completely ignoring the broker and marketplace, and ignoring racial abilities and AAs. My interest has been in ease of levelling, and the general way in which new players will experience the game.
I will probably make separate posts on the different newbie areas, but I’ll try to cover general background here. I used eq2maps (the mod), eq2i (the wiki), and Allakhazam exclusively for information.
Gorowyn was very smooth compared to the older areas. The starter area, for the first few levels with tutorials, has a smooth join with higher level areas. There are very few (possibly none?) linked mobs and epic mobs in the basic quest line. This makes for a smooth experience, and there are enough easily found quests to gain experience quickly.
The zones leading to the city are very linear; however, Gorowyn itself is a maze. It is very hard to find your way around, even with guard directions to NPCs. It doesn’t have the problem that Qeynos and Freeport have, of being split into an excessive number of zones with complex interconnections.
In the two original zones the multiple zones of the cities made it very hard to find things, even with guards giving directions and the map mod. Something similar was true in later zones, especially in Commonlands. Many quests direct you to run from side to side of this massive zone.
Another problem was being directed by the quest lines into extremely tough zones for levels 10-15, with heroic encounters.
Overall, the newer zones are a lot smoother and give a better experience for new characters.
