Vallon Zek / Tallon Zek Emu Server - We're Open for Business

[TheLieka]

Originally Posted by Tornsys

Ive had difficulty with logging in while my roommate is dual boxing his monk/shaman, we've decided its likely that this server wont allow more than 2 of the same IP to connect to the server, is there any way around this so that I can also play with him and another friend on the server?

Yep, tell your roommate to stop dual boxing so you guys can play together. We put this limitation in place to foster the teamwork and comradery on which EQ communities are built. It's worked pretty damn well so far; I hope you guys enjoy your stays. =)

Dax

[Throttle]

I played here for about two weeks or so last month. As far as server stability and playability, it's pretty good. Not too far from the original game in regards to content, with the exception of massive exp boosts in dungeons, and the database seems pretty accurate for a server based on PEQ. I got to about level 40 with two characters and never participated in PvP a whole lot - the constant moaning, gloating, whining, name-calling and harrassing in /ooc was a fierce discouragement. I actually stopped playing because of this, fully expecting that if I didn't join one of the elite guilds, my PvP career would consist of a lot of ganking and CR-killing coming my way, as well as some very one-sided fights against people in dragon/planar gear. This is no different from Live, however, so I suppose it's only a bad thing if you're a more casual player.

There seems to be some massive class imbalance issues. While I haven't participated enough in PvP to speak from experience, common sense and forum-reading gives me a clear impression that certain classes are utterly dominant while others are practically unable to ever win a fight. This, again, was pretty much the case in Live as well, but since this server is clearly not trying to stick to canon in regards to its PvP balancing, I think it's a shame that it doesn't do a better job in this department. Resists have been messed up for as long as I can read back, melee damage has gone from insane to lousy and possibly back again, and it appears that certain classes are so useless that literally nobody plays them - I did at no point in my time playing there see a single bard or cleric.

Most of this server's playerbase is the core of the hardcore PvPers (and gankers and griefers, often but not always the same individuals) from the four original EQ PvP servers. Such concepts as "honor" and "pride" are laughed and scoffed at by most, and it usually has a very bitter mood about it. I could count on playing for a full two minutes before seeing my first "thanks for killing me on CR, fa**ot" or "lol Soandso zoneplugged, f***ing tw*t" and other such loveliness on the global OOC.

Having played for a long time on the original Sullon Zek, I am certainly not averse to less polite methods of conducting PvP, but I have never seen people so eager to grief or to avoid death on a server where there are no real consequences for losing or rewards for winning. There apparently was itemloot at one point, and there seems to be some discussion of implementing moneyloot or something else. As much as I enjoyed dirty PvP back when I had the time to put in for endless chains of CRs and corpse campings, I don't like it when served with a side dish of unplayable balance failure and a playerbase of which the majority will gleefully spend hours dunking your head in the proverbial toilet. It's just not for everyone, and I grew out of it when the Live PvP servers died. On SZ at least, and possibly on other Zeks where I didn't play, it served some purpose or illusion thereof.

[MNWatchdog]

Throttle, although I cant disagree with everything you said, I have to give this Emu credit for actually being FAR more fair PvP wise between classes than Live ever was.

On live, casters are worthless in PvP, especially Enchanters, because theres so much resistance on every piece of gear making all spells resisted. I played on SZ too, and it had been years since any half way decent geared player didnt resist most every spell cast on them.

VZTZ has definately moved from class to class being far superior to most every other class, but class total superiority has largely been eliminated.and surely will continue to be worked on when needbe; something Live never bothered to deal with. So, I have to totally disagree with you saying theres massive class imbalance.

Peoples biggest bitch lately has been Mages being overpowered, which just happens to be my main, and I can tell you that the real issue is most people dont know about to PvP a Mage and it has little to do with Mage superiority. Theres litterally only 1 person on there who does it right and I dont even bother to try challenge him.

There was a time I was virtually the only mage on the server as they were so broken, Earth pet didnt root, pets moved so slow they couldnt catch a snail, etc. Luckily, these things have been fixed and made mages viable in PvP finally but certainly not the kill all people whine about.

You mention resists. Theyre far better than live IMO and have been adjusted several times in the past and probably will be again in the future. Personally, I think its already starting to be to easy to resist spells, but if these resist levels were on live, casters wouldnt have a chance of landing a spell There was a time when melee to caster PvP was really pointless for casters and the total played caster base consisted of only about 5%. These changes to resists were needed to give casters any sort of chance and there has been a reasonable increase in players playing casters now.

You are correct about the player base though. This is as hard core as SZ was and is not the server for the feint of heart. But then again, the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice.

I do wish they would change how PvP CR is handled so people who die in PvP would just pop with their corpses. I think this would fix a lot of issues and certainly the lame CR griefers. PvP servers tend to have a higher percentage of jerks and this server definately confirms that.

As for OOC, some people just cant help themselves/shut up. Eventually it all just becomes white noise and you barely even pay attention.

As for Griefers, I think once Kunark opens up, the Griefers will have better things to do for quite a while, plus the fish bowl will a lot larger and a LOT more tedious to just run around griefings as theres lots more places to hang and a lot less near by ports. To say nothing of the fact that zones are a lot larger so being able to surprise people will be a lot tougher.

Clerics were just arent a great PvP class. Their spells just dont have a lot of punch and their melee isnt much help. They are a bitch to kill though. Bards on Emu are just broken. Their DOTs hit their group members as well as other issues Im sure, so theyre just not played. Theyre a good PvE class on Emu, but PvP wise theres just to many issues Im guessing. They really werent a good PvP class until after like Luclin anyways.


Basicly, just hang in there. Things will get better.

[XebeknSZ]

I've been playing pretty much since the beginning of the server and I have no complaints of GM corruption. I always thought that they were being one sided with me or my guild but when all the information came out, I realized I was wrong. There probably are some imbalances (I hear mages can nuke through walls now as per their bolt with its innate no LoS, which is pretty ridiculous if its true).

I played a wizard all through the melee dominance period (in which I was literally one of a hand full of people who played a pure caster) and I can attest to the fact that most of the imbalancing whine is made by people who are a) too lazy to figure out how to get around it or b) people who don't know any better. There are ways around every imbalancing issue and as a PvP'er, you should know how to get around them, ie I just never went into dungeons as a wizard because it meant an instant death.

There are ways around everything and every PvP'er should take pride in figuring out ways around it.

[HurtinuDaily]

If you like to pvp this server is a lot of fun, I have been playing here for few months now and it has been a blast. Have I gotten pked alot?? YES, Have I pked alot of people??? YES. PvP makes it more challanging to camp items, exp because you have to watch your back. To the guy that was saying you can't pvp here thats very wrong. If you kill someone and they come back with a group for you just remember that there will always be a time when you catch them alone and can exact your revenge. I know I have a few people on my /who all playername hotkeys. I keep them handy and when I find them alone blam!!!! Revenge is sweet.

As far as balance goes, there always seems to be one or 2 classes that are on top but the GM's seem to adjust (nerf if you want) the over powered classes to bring them more in line with the other classes. I have stuck with the same 2 classes (monk and shammy) since I started playing and I have done fairly well in both pvp and pve.

As far as GM service and hacking, this has to be one of the best EMU's for anti hacking tools, the warp detector does go off when it shouldn't some times but if it wasn't there hacking would be rampant especially because this is a pvp server. For a free server I think that gm's respond fairly quickly, we had an incident in plane of fear one of the gm's helped us get our corpses within an hour. I also had a bugged character one time, it took a day, but once NULL was online he spent 2 hours of his time troubleshooting and fixxing my toon, when he could have spent 5 minutes rolling me back. In my eyes this is pretty decent free service since these guys have jobs and lives.

Anyway, I just had to post soemthing about my experience after reading some of the not so favorable reviews, so if you like pvp and enjoy a little drama instead of the same old camp / lvl / quest grind come try this out.

Oh yea should mention the guys just added a few custom loots / mobs for us while we are waiting for Kunark to be released.

[TheLieka]

This video was created by one of our players (and no - we didn't commission him to do it :P ) - I thought it was really cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNrTcR0wetk

Dax

[TheLieka]

Dax