In the latest episode of The EverQuest Show, I counted down my picks for the Top 10 expansions in EverQuest.
And yes, I know you’ll disagree with me.
Expansions were ranked on player and guild feedback, the amount of content provided, and some of it is just personal opinion.
Having said that, let’s count down the top 10 expansion in EverQuest.
NUMBER 10 – SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION
Already, I can feel some of you pulling away.
The introduction of mercenaries has been a double edged sword in EverQuest, but I stand by putting this in the Top Ten.
And who doesn’t love time travel? Ok, maybe some of you.
“Keep your time travel out of my high fantasy!”
You get to visit Qeynos before it was Qeynos. It was called Oceangreen Village. I love that.
The Kithicor War. We even went to the ancient ogre city of Toskiraak.
It had a level increase, lots of new zones and content, and the void ambiance music is still one of my favorites.
NUMBER 9 – VEIL OF ALARIS
Aliens. You put aliens in EQ.
Game over man!
Did we learn nothing from Luclin?
I’ll admit I was skeptical about this expansion, but the lore was well thought out, even down to the pronouns the Alarans used.
And I played through the entire group content. Yes, even finishing all of the Sepulcher of Order quests, even the Triune God.
It was the most difficult mission I’ve completed in all of EQ.
It’s a really good storyline, though it does veer off the “Is This Everquest” track slightly.
The zones and creatures are just beautiful. At times it has an Avatar feel to it.
Quests are well designed, the loot and spell distribution were fine tuning the standard that is used more most of the latest expansions.
NUMBER 8 – OMENS OF WAR
After the debacle that was the gates of discord, it’s surprising that such a strong expansion followed.
The idea of a different “planet” that Veeshan also populated with creatures was an interesting one.
And it helped reign in the Discordian and Muramite lore.
But it just had great eq zones.
Nobles Causeway.
Walls of Slaughter.
And next to plane of time, Anguish is one of the early well developed raid progressions that players remember fondly.
And of course, there were epic 1.5s and 2.0s.
This breathed new life into both the grouping and raiding game that was needed after we licked our wounds from Gates of Discord.
NUMBER 7 – HOUSE OF THULE
The standard of level cap increase established by this expansion has really set the standard for most of the level cap increase expansions to follow.
In addition to tons of content, it also introduced player housing.
That may evoke a “meh” response from some of you, but there is a dedicated housing playerbase.
The expansion used a common movie theme for an EQ expansion, what if it were all a dream?
And some of the zone design is still hands down some of the most brilliant.
Al’kabors Nightmare is a brilliant zone, triggering that nostalgia sense again, stuck in a twisted zone made up of bits of Misty Thicket, Kelethin, Dreadlands and Everfrost.
I can (and have) spent hours in that zone.
NUMBER 6 – SCARS OF VELIOUS
I think the only players that would argue about velious being on the list is that it isn’t higher closer to number.
I’ll give you that, for some it is the best expansion in the game and the favorite of many.
The different factions, the huge number of zones created, and they are just huge zones.
And there’s Othmir!
EverQuest’s 2nd expansion had plenty of group content and raid content as that part of the game really began to blossom.
And dragons! Lots of dragons! Zones and zones and dragons. Dragon cities. Dragon temples. Dragon graveyards.
And did i mention there are Othmir!
My vote for next playable race please!
NUMBER 5 – THE SERPENT’S SPINE
The idea was an entirely self contained expansion. Almost its own game : being able to level from 1 to cap solely by using content in that expansion.
Well-designed quest arcs, progression quests with great loot rewards even at low levels.
And a new starting city.
Not to mention a new starting race, the Drakkin.
Yes, the haters will complain about Crescent Reach and the emos, but overall you can tell the expansion was well thought out and provided a wide variety of zones to explore, quest and raid.
NUMBER 4- SHADOWS OF LUCLIN
If I were basing the top ten on content alone, this expansion would probably be number 1.
A new race, the Vah Shir. Kitties!
And a new class – Beastlords
We went to the moon where there are so many zones.
The light side, the dark side, the underground. The Combine, the Inquisition. Tons of lore.
Ok there is the occasional alien, but we covered that.
And though most of the raid content was mobs with ridiculous hit points, they are still some of my favorite raids.
Thoguht Horrow Overfiend, Lord Inquisitor Seru, Ssraeshza Temple, Vex Thal.
Playing on progression servers these are still a blast revisit.
NUMBER 3 – LOST DUNGEONS OF NORRATH
Instanced content changed the game of EverQuest. And “LDON” was built solely around that.
It also introduced the augmentation system into the game, to take your armor and make it even better.
It’s hard to think of the game without that now, some 20 expansions after LDON came out.
It also revitalized the grouping game and pick up groups.
A quick and simple dungeon or two may be all that you had time for in an evening, and I can’t tell you how many long-term friends and guildies I made from LDON pick up groups.
The adventure point system and merchant-bought gear was also an idea that was novel at the time, but remains a staple of expansion content in today’s era.
NUMBER 2 – PLANES OF POWER
The pinnacle when it comes to content.
There’s progression. Group content. Lots of raid content.
And gods! You get to see the gods!
You kill them, but you get to see them.
And if it weren’t for Druzzil Ro setting things straight and splitting the timeline, we wouldn’t have EverQuest II.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
The Darkened Sea
Secrets of Faydwer
NUMBER 1 – RUINS OF KUNARK
It was the first expansion for EverQuest at a time when the resources for the game could allow putting out so much content.
An entire (very large) continent.
A new race, the Iksar. And talk about lore. Just Iksar lore alone can be a source for 10 episodes of The EverQuest Show.
And there are more dragons! Before Kunark, the only dragons we saw were Lady Vox and Lord Nagafen.
Kunark brought us so many. Trakanon, Gorenaire, Severilous, Talendor and all the lords of scale in Veeshan’s Peak.
Great dungeon crawls, and quintessential fantasy creatures.
And don’t forget epic quests!
Its nostalgia has been the source of two of the most recent expansions, Ring of Scale and Empires of Kunark
But when it comes to expansions, it’s hard to beat the original.
So what do you think? Do you agree with my list?
What were your favorites?
