Update 2001-09-07: Well, I've been playing again somewhat regularly since May. In July Verant started allowing people to move their characters from one server to another for a fee. Since one of my characters was nekked and the other had mediocre gear I decided to move them over to where my friends now play, Rodcet Nife. Even though they are low level characters they have many hours invested in tradeskills and factions. Additionally I am somewhat attached to them. 22 days and a wasted pile of money later my 18th level rogue and 18th level ranger were on Rodcet Nife. Before I moved I sold everything I had in the bank and on them and spent it all on raising up their tradeskills. The rogue didn't have much in the bank and was naked so just ended up with a dozen skill increases or so in pottery. The ranger ended up raising fletching by over 20 points to like 150 or 160 something. I dropped enough money on the dark elf rogue to go purchase a pile of small armor moulds in Neriak and had full banded for each of them courtesy of a good friend of mine. I then spent every plat I had left on my 20th level rogue and 12th level enchanter to pick up a pair of weapons (SBD and blackened alloy long sword) for the rogue and a single weapon (crystal fiber whip) for the ranger. Yeah, the ranger needs a second weapon but like I said I spent every platinum piece I had. It took me quite awhile to find the deals I ended up getting because I wasn't exactly swimming in cash. Special thanks to Kohyomi, a total stranger, for selling the alloy sword to me for cheap and then giving me a bit of gear when she saw that all I had was banded.

As I already mentioned my original Rodcet Nife rogue was at 20th level. I had totally lucked into a couple of insanely good deals on her gear. I found a pair of Shimmering Terror Hide boots on a vendor for like 180pp. I bought a Tombcarver for 100pp and an SBD for 150pp. Hence I had some decent gear. Note: I love the new economy where you can sell a stack of silk swatches or HQ bear pelts for good plat to another player. Gods, the game is so much better when you can afford to own better than half-assed gear. I discovered that I really did enjoy playing the dark elf rogue more than half elf rogue. Once I hit 20th level I headed over to Lake of Ill Omen to see what an easy outdoor zone was supposed to look like. Just before this I found a Ravenscale chestpiece for 300pp in ECmart. I borrowed the money from a friend and was the owner of my first piece of rogue armor. I also traded boots between the half elf and the dark elf because I was playing the dark elf far more. Now the dark elf rogue is in about half banded with the aforementioned chest piece, boots, and random other half-assed gear such as a turtleshell helm.

Lake of Ill Omen is a great zone. I went from just into 20th to 23rd in a couple of weeks, mostly soloing. It may make me the world's most patient person soloing a rogue but I really doubt it. Actually I like it because I can be doing something else while the rogue heals up such as cooking dinner, eating, working on another computer, browsing the web, reading, whatever. That way I don't feel my EQ time is wasted. It's amazing how much code I've written while waiting for my character to heal up. Another thing nice about LoIO is that I'm highly entertained by the faction game. I love getting from KoS to warmly liked with a group that should dislike me in the extreme. It took almost 4 levels and the deaths of many hundreds of goblins both blue and green trash to get up to dubious with the Iksar Legion. I'm still at threatening in Firiona Vie but should be up to dubious by the time I hit 24th I think.

Speaking of Firiona Vie, damn does this zone suck for a dark elf. Every single thing in the zone wants to kill me. The best part is some things such as drixies can see invisible on occasion which means I'm totally dead if one catches me. Currently I'm bound in FV beside the bridge. I absolutely dread when I die and have to do a naked sneak from the city clear to the Lake zoneline. I think I've had to do that about 4 or 5 times so far including once last night. I can hardly wait until I get up to dubious there with the other elves.

Anyway, I'm playing a couple of hours every other night or so. The game is still entertaining me and isn't pissing me off like it used to. My dark elf rogue, created on March 23, 1999, is up to 23rd level. The ranger is still at 18th level. The half-elf rogue is somewhat redundant since I have the dark elf and will probably be at 20th level for the forseeable future. The 12th level enchanter isn't doing much right now either. I may head over to Velious with the enchanter to see if the baking recipes over there have been nerfed the way the old world ones were. (I made a few hundred platinum and wore out a mouse baking with the enchanter right after I restarted back in May. I'd already given up on it for making money when Verant nerfed fishcakes since it was killing my wrist, and I could make more selling silks and pelts to players.) Eventually I'll get around to using all of the eggs I collected to try and get my skill up a bit more, no rush though.