EverQuest’s insta levels scheme, the Heroic Character options in the cash shop, will have a new variation next week that will prove once again how out of touch I am with the meta in Norrath.
It says EverQuest on it…
Starting on May 15th you will be able to buy a level 50 Heroic Character upgrade for 2,500 Daybreak Points. Given that those points cost about a penny each, that is effectively $25 to get to level 50… in an MMORPG where the level cap is 125.
This joins the $35 level 85 Heroic Character option, which has been around since 2014, and the $40 level 100 Heroic Character option that was introduced in 2022.
As has been patiently explained to me, the meta in EverQuest is different and apparently nobody wants to get into the current content, preferring to jump in to content that is 5-10 years in the past… and with the level 50 option, content that is a good 24 years old, since the level cap was raised from 50 to 60 with the Ruins of Kunark expansion back in April of 2000.
Or maybe they want to jump straight to the original raids that came with launch 25 years back. I couldn’t tell you. I am clearly on the outside looking in.
That out of the way, what is it you get for your $25? The announcement says:
- 2,500 Platinum
- Horse Mount (Fast Speed)
- Two 16-Slot Bags
- Spells
- Full Set of Equipment, including weapons, armor, and a charm
- Food, Drink, and Ammunition
I mean, that isn’t nothing. It is certainly more than you would end up with if you rolled up a fresh character and ran to level 50… and I can at least speak from experience on that front, having done just that back at the 20th anniversary.
But it also is not a lot. That much platinum in the mudflation hellscape that has been Norrath for the last 20 years will keep your mercenary paid for, but won’t buy you anything nice at the bazaar. You would be better served buying some Krono and selling that at the bazaar… if you can figure that out, which is an adventure in and of itself compared to selling PLEX in EVE Online or WoW Tokens in World of Warcraft… and netting high six seven figures in platinum. I haven’t checked recently, but the last time I did it the price of Krono was only capped by the maximum sell price at the bazaar.
The only upside I can think of is if you don’t want to bother with the grind from 1 to 50… which is a barren and lonely journey in the original content, and still pretty sterile in the alternative, which is The Serpent Spine content… but you don’t want to be completely overwhelmed by suddenly gaining 600+ spells and 14K AA points, which was the case when I collected my free level 100 heroic character last month.
I kid you not on the spell thing.
The spell book at page 86 with 8 spells per page…
And maybe that is enough of a hook… though, maybe not as much as you might think. Going and looking at all the druid spells available on current live servers at level 50 and you come out with well over 300 spells possible. You don’t need them all, and a bunch were added by later expansions, but I suspect you will get them all when you do your heroic upgrade.
I mean, half as many spells… 40-ish pages in you spell book versus 80+ pages… is better I guess. It is still going to be overwhelming given a UI that was built on the idea that you might have 80 spells… 10 pages… with a spell heavy class like a druid back at launch.
Anyway, if this was what you were looking for in Norrath… well, it will be here soon!
Related:
- Daybreak – Level 50 Heroic Characters are almost here!
The Ancient Gaming Noob 