This zone was almost always empty back when it was new content, and it was the ultimate proving grounds for a level 28 monk. The complexity of the zone, the flavour of the lost dwarves, and the overall danger of the zone made it an ideal place for me to hone my skills playing a monk.
I felt a real sense of sadness when I hit level 40, and it was time to move on.
It's great that it was re-vamped in HoF, and I always jump at the chance to go back and re-live the old days.

My favorite place in Everquest II is Lovers' Look. It's located on the top of the cliff halfway to the peak of the mountain overlooking Chrykori Village on first Island in Timorous Deep. It's very quiet and atmospheric. Suits melancholic mood to stand/sit silent while looking at the ocean.

I have always loved Echo caverns an shadow haven just loved it from the first time I saw it way back in the day when it was a busy zone to even now any time that I am leveling a lowbie I always try to hit echo on the way up . Just really liked the area don't know why but even at this moment I have one of my char's camped out there fun zone wish more people would hang out there !

For me i think the Isle of Refuge was the best zone. I have be playing from day one. From the fight you had to even get there and that it had a storyline from start to finish. my best memory was a death that happen when I way crafting at the forge my brother and I say I jump in to the forge. We though it was so funny that you can die way you where crafting. I still from pepper that you could only get on the isle. There was so may Names for you to go after on The isle. The King beetle was the first one I kill. http://www.ign.com/wikis/everquest-ii/The_Isle_of_Refuge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PTKM98dzzQ

Edited, Dec 24th 2013 10:56am by stardast1

Edited, Dec 24th 2013 10:58am by stardast1

Like all the other old timers I started when EQ was released. Creating a wood elf ranger, I literally did not see the light of day till I was level 15 and went into butcherblock. After seeing daylight I explored more, started on a ship to New lands. However some where a long the way I must have made the crew made by poking around in the ship and was thrown overboard half way through trip to Freeport. Learning that I could actually swim I tried to follow the ship but dog paddling was not enough. I kept going and soon another ship passed by and being nicer then the other crew they picked me up and took me to Freeport.
Not being over impressed with the way humans kept their city, I headed to a place called Oasis. Sounding promising and the chance to hunt other monsters besides orcs would be a nice change. Traveling across the sands was depressing for one who grew up with trees, and plants every where I finally made my way to Oasis.
Trying to get a better view of this new landscape I saw a white platform that I could run onto and see what was going on. I started looking around from elevated area and suddenly I started moving. The platform was moving towards this lake. People started shouting for me to move and run to the shore. Thinking that the platform was some sort of evil magicians trick. I jumped off the platform and started running. Suddenly I was being attacked, not knowing what was hitting me I ran to the zone. As I started to outpace what was chasing me I changed camera angles and notice that the white platform was actually the top of a Turpin for a Sand Giant.
After regaining my calm, I continued to explore Oasis to find out that despite the lack of a forest it is my favorite place and I still enjoy going back to take a look around and talk to the residents there.

I can remember in the youth of my characters having to trek halfway across the world to sit for hours sometimes to try and find a decent piece of gear or a rare spell for my character. Of course no one could really go there with much more than a thousand plat, because that platinum was SO heavy. LFG was so much easier in those days, even without worldwide chat. There were only a handful of zones for your level range and unless you were totally incompetent, most people were willing to give you a chance regardless of class.

Well I played a month of EQ2 and haven't been back since. My favorite zone would have to be Qeynos then since its about the only zone I can remember playing. Looking forward to seeing EQ Next and what Sony can do with a sandbox.

I am old school so the old original zones are my favorite. I go back to Phase III and IV beta of EQ back in late '98. I hung around Surefall Glades/Qeynos hills and Everfrost/Halas (oh and Blackburrow). My favorite expansion was the Ruins of Kunark. The story line was blending well. Now if you ask me what my favorite EQ bar is then I would say the Blind Fish in Neriak Commons :)

Karana Server forever....

About 7 years ago I was going through a pretty rough patch in life. College full-time and a job that worked me long and hard to pay for it, with nothing left over for rent. I moved everything I owned into a 5X5 storage unit and into the 02 Kia Rio wagon that now served as my home. I'd been playing EQ for around 6 years at this point and, since I had it on my laptop, I figured sneaking in a little EQ between classes wouldn't be too hard. Sadly, the performing arts building that 90% of my classes were in was a legitimate 1950's certified bomb shelter. Cell phone reception was almost nothing (good for not going off during a show) and the wifi varied wildly. Like "If I sit on this ladder in the corner of the room on a Tuesday I MAY get 2 bars" level variance.

The stress of work, school and homelessness slowly, inexorably pushed out the time I could spend enjoying EQ. My annual membership was coming to an end and I knew I needed to let it go. I never made it a point to do some sort of laundry list of going away tasks or messages to send people announcing my departure from the game. My one and only guild, that even today I'm the sole active member of, had been long ago shattered by the trifecta of fail that was GoD, WoW's launch and the repeated failures to kill RZ to break into the Elemental Planes. I had very few friends left to say goodbye to.

About a week before the membership ended, I took a few days to tour the places that most resonated from Xenariel's early days. I visited the north hills of West Karana, where I once came within 2 hours of permarot thanks to some bandits that agroed just before an IRL trip I had planned. I once again saved Baby Joseph Sayer and saw him safely home. I dismounted and made the still long Qeynos to Freeport run. I rode the boat to Erud's Crossing where I first led a trusting group of characters to an long and profitless corpse run.

Were there raids I'd not done? Factions I'd not maxxed and quests I'd not finished. By the dozen. But in Norrath, as in our world, we don't always finish all the work we set out to do. I came to terms with that and decided it was time.

At that time, the enormity of the situation I was in kept from any thoughts that I'd every return to Norrath. I just couldn't see that far and needed to go. It wasn't until the last night that I really thought about where to end it. I thought about camping in the Knights of Thunder encampment in South Qeynos where I spent my single digit days. I thought about boarding the boat sailing west from Qeynos and /q'ing just before it zoned so Xen would be forever sailing, on his way to some Norrathian Fiddler's Green.

And then the answer came to me. I was clearing out old items in the bank when I spied the Fiery Defender. How many months had I worked toward that flaming sword? I took it out and equipped it. Forged from AOL-era code it still manages to be one of the most striking swords in the game. I had ridden then length and breadth of Norrath saying my goodbye. And with this sword in hand, I decided the last place to go was up.

Plane of Sky keys on me, I moved from island to island until I saw that lonely windmill on island 4. Inside stood no one, I having opted not to spawn Inte Akera, giver of the paladin epic weapon. I looked out over the island and knew it was the time and this was the place. I'd gone from running from gnoll pups outside the gates of Qeynos, to standing in the sky. I knelt and the next 30 seconds seemed to stretch on forever. By the end I felt alright about leaving the world. Sad, but knowing that it was the closing of a very special part of my life.

However......

As I'm sure many of you know, the call of Norrath echoes long and loud and doesn't take kindly to being ignored. To bastardize Jeff Goldblum, "Everquest finds a way." 3 years, a degree, a condo and the best job in the world later, the call became too loud to ignore. After installing the game on the new machine I really wondered if Xen would still be there. I logged in and almost didn't recognize anything. Seriously devs, you guys do great work, but the default ui setup must have been done by a temp on his last day. It was like recovering from a stroke. Learning to walk, talk and use skills again. It took some doing, but eventually I was functional.

In the end I walked to the edge of the island and looked down. Down there were good times. Down there were friends, new and old. Down there was a large part of my life, that, even if I took not one more step, would always be cherished and thought fondly of. Down there was adventure. Down there was fun.

And I jumped.

Favorite location in EQ original would have to be Upper and Lower Guk. The place was very well thought out and the camps at it were fun and exciting! Although, Nagafen was also a thrilling raid when it was first introduced. I mean, who doesn't remember their first raid on a dragon?!

My wife and I just returned to EQ2 after playing EQ for many years, one thing I remember is her falling nto the lava on Sol and freaking out, swimming through a tunnel to someplace no one could see/summon her, being stuck on a ledge there for about an hour until rescue by a friendly admin lol

Im new to the series but would like to visit The Thundering Steppes, seems to be a area that I like. An area with drought and mountains all-around is awesome and would be cool to visit. Enemies like the Centaurs and Gnolls seem to be most fun mobs to kill.