What happened to Nek Forest?

[Kizee]

I have fond memories of this place as a huge death trap and went back there yesterday with a alt and my jaw dropped when I saw what they did to it.

I know they changed it a long time ago but never realized how bad the killed this zone. I think 5 mobs are agro in the entire zone. I could probally shut my eyes and run from 1 side of the zone to another without dying at level 15.

Are people that bad at playing these kinds of games that they really needed to gut this zone?

[Mareth]

Agreed, when you can go to Nektropos Castle on a level 7 character, they've gone too far I miss the old Nektulos Forest! That place was scary when I was a newbie.

[bensilvi]

Nek forrest was reduced to a soloers grind area. No groups needed for the most part and no real reson to go there except Necropolis Castle. I remember back in the day being deathly afraid of that place no more though.

[Toredorf]

Pls move this thread to Zone and Population forum...... ohhh wait there isn't one

[interstellarmatter]

I miss the old Nek Forest.  It was great for getting groups and traveling to the dangerous north area for adventure.  Now, most people don't seem to be grouping in their 20s anymore.  Sony decided to make it a more solo friendly place.  /shrug  Guess it happens.

[Dasto]

What are you guys talking about?

just cause the gargolyes on the way to nek castel dont argo, there are tons of stuff in that zone that argo and need a full group

the undead will agro on the way to the castle and just last night there was a 31 ^^^ named blocking the path

Skeletons near the citadal ^^^ with named

texians and the texians camp

there are aqua goblins

the pirate and bandit camps on the beach

the mobs outside the castel are ^^^ heroic

there are tons of undead near the griffon tower on the accent that are ^^^

there are tons of stuff that agro there, persoanlly I like the fact i can run 5 feet without getting attacked by every snake and spider there.

 talking about making an issue from thin air

[steelbadger]

Nektulos used to be one of the most frightening zones to move through.  To get from Commonlands to the docks would take very careful manuevering, a few deaths, and a lot of time.  Triple up aggro owlbears, triple up aggro bats, snakes, skeletons patrolling the paths. Now I can wander across Nek with a lvl 1 character, I tried to get across with my assassin when he was created, with the help of 2 level 30's, and I died and they died. Sure, yes, there ARE aggro mobs, there ARE triple ups, but they have all been pushed to the extremeties of the zone, into corner, and hard to reach glades. Nektulos is supposed to be forbidding and untamed, somewhere where people dissapear routinely.  Now it feels like a dreary thundering steppes.

[Balic]

Yes, it has gotten way, way too nice.  I keep looking up expecting to see blue sky every time I'm there now.  I'm suprised they didn't add comfy chairs at various points throught the forest in case you get tired walking around.

[Riot-Girl]

I'm too new (early Jan) to remember the 'old' Nektulos Forest, but I can confirm that my lowbie (now 13th season) character tried finding the docks a week or so back, and ended up exploring [Removed for Content] near the entire zone! I found the Keeper of Secrets, found the Castle, received a lot of AA points from discovering new places. I did die twice or three times - one was to a rather good trap (obvious, if one thinks about it), and the others were simply not looking where I was going, particularly as some of the undead are VERY hard to spot. Aside from some of those Shade Spinners and wolves (cannot remember the names) wandering across the path, stick to the path (mind the 30 odd ^^^ heroic) and it's really not too hard. Does not compare with travelling from Kelethin to Qeynos in EverQuest. Now that WAS an epic adventure! Running through Kithicor at 7:55 pm was a hair raising moment. Any player who performed Kelethin to Qeynos run in EverQuest will find traversing through Nektulos a relative doddle. Regards, Riotgirl

[StevusX]

when soe really nerfed this zone to make it "easier" it was i think was a huge mistake.

On my first character i used to hate this place - because it was scary, dangerous and deadly.

But there was a sense of adventure and acheivement getting anywhere !

After the "nerf" i went back with a couple of alts i was leveling and - ho hum - what a boring zone /sigh

where were all the aggro mobs ?   

Soe should stop lowering things to the easiest common denominator. 

We need a mix of difficulty to make things interesting - whole zones - not just bits that are easily avoided........

[interstellarmatter]

Who remembers having to run it in the old days when you wanted to betray?  Stupid bears...omg..I hated those bears....  That nipped at my feets all the way across the zone.  I must of died 10x.

[Kizee]

interstellarmatter wrote:

Who remembers having to run it in the old days when you wanted to betray?  Stupid bears...omg..I hated those bears....  That nipped at my feets all the way across the zone.  I must of died 10x.

Pfft. The bears you could see a mile away.....the snakes on the otherhand

My very first character was a woodelf assassin and I did the betrayal and died about 4 times by the [Removed for Content] snakes trying to get my first shard before I gave up and just took the hit on stats and exp. (when losing your shard hurt your stats and gave you exp debt) I had to suffer thru killing 250 orcs with a double stat hit and 4 deaths and 2 lost shards worth of exp debt. (the lsot shard in Queens room and the shard in nek)

Then after undergoing all that my daughter was on my lap when I was making choices on one of the NPC's and hit the wrong responce and had to pay 5gold to continue the quest. 5 gold was ALOT of cash not even a after the game first released

Ahhh the memories. :p

[Moongloom]

Remember when the zones first opened and the agro fish from the river would become land fish and chase people to the CL zone.  So when you zoned in you could get ate by like 5 fish sitting there.  This was an understandable fix when they took these fish out of Nek.

Going and hunting the giants way up north.  Had so many wipes from groups of giants just spawning all over and rampaging on your group. 

You couldn't just follow the path for safety.  There would be things wandering around all over. 

Was a fun place.  Now all the fun things are pinned up.  There are only a few giants now that are on a hilltop.  The agro shrillers are on another hilltop.  And all the owlbears are pretty much in 2 little valleys.

[tass]

Ya I remember doing my first betray waaaaaay back. I got lost and ended up god knows where in there. If anything saw u, you were as good as dead. Made betrayal that much more hard. Of course now betrayal is [Removed for Content] anymore as well.

[Jerr]

Used to take strategery to get from Dock to commonlands.  Now you just need a pulse.

I hated those shrillers with a passion.  Now I am sad they are gone.  Excitement went way down with the zone revamp-sigh

[Bramwe]

Riot-Girl wrote:

I'm too new (early Jan) to remember the 'old' Nektulos Forest, but I can confirm that my lowbie (now 13th season) character tried finding the docks a week or so back, and ended up exploring [I cannot control my vocabulary] near the entire zone! I found the Keeper of Secrets, found the Castle, received a lot of AA points from discovering new places. I did die twice or three times - one was to a rather good trap (obvious, if one thinks about it), and the others were simply not looking where I was going, particularly as some of the undead are VERY hard to spot. Aside from some of those Shade Spinners and wolves (cannot remember the names) wandering across the path, stick to the path (mind the 30 odd ^^^ heroic) and it's really not too hard. Does not compare with travelling from Kelethin to Qeynos in EverQuest. Now that WAS an epic adventure! Running through Kithicor at 7:55 pm was a hair raising moment. Any player who performed Kelethin to Qeynos run in EverQuest will find traversing through Nektulos a relative doddle. Regards, Riotgirl

Lol, Qeynos to Freeport in EQ1 was death to me a lot.  Especially since you had to go back to retrieve your corpse.....

[Ganlu]

I actually enjoy the revamped Nek a lot more than what was previously there... I recently levelled up an alt through the quests there and had a lot of fun.  The zone is still more confusing to get around in than Thundering Steppes, but is much more enjoyable now.

[interstellarmatter]

Bramwell wrote:

Riot-Girl wrote: Lol, Qeynos to Freeport in EQ1 was death to me a lot.  Especially since you had to go back to retrieve your corpse.....

/sigh

I remember my poor little Wood Elf Druid running the Qeynos to Freeport route.  I remember the sigh of relief when I finally hit Kithicor and I could bind myself in Rivervale.  I then made the mistake of trying to run across Kithicor at night.

[IrishJen]

I've just returned to the game after about a year off and was utterly surprised to find Nek forest changed.  I can remember dying so many times due to those shriekers and owlbears that my armor would break completely.  My jaw dropped when I took a lvl 10 character through there to get to the Commonlands.  Unbelievably amazing how simple the area is in comparison.  Part of me is happy to find I don't have to fight 30 mobs of owlbears just to get to the Docks - but another part of me is a little nostalgic for it.

[Rijacki]

I am firmly in the camp of "they went too far with it".  The original at-release Nek Forest was way over the top dangerous.  The first revamp and toning down was jsut about right.  The last revamp changed the forest completely.  It used to be frightening and spooky.  Now it's too easy to avoid anything that could in any way impede you at all.  I want the owlbears back *sniffle*

[Devout Disciple]

Fingerbang wrote:

What are you guys talking about?

just cause the gargolyes on the way to nek castel dont argo, there are tons of stuff in that zone that argo and need a full group

the undead will agro on the way to the castle and just last night there was a 31 ^^^ named blocking the path

Skeletons near the citadal ^^^ with named

texians and the texians camp

there are aqua goblins

the pirate and bandit camps on the beach

the mobs outside the castel are ^^^ heroic

there are tons of undead near the griffon tower on the accent that are ^^^

there are tons of stuff that agro there, persoanlly I like the fact i can run 5 feet without getting attacked by every snake and spider there.

 talking about making an issue from thin air

Another I'd like to add to add to the list is:

 Heroic skellies that can still gank ya when following the road after climbing up the ascent...check...bing!  still there to waylay ya.

 Plenty of spiders and treants to waylay ya also if you're positioning yourself in a duo to do your Armor Quest on the Freeport side. 

Was trying to hit the 23 heroic elder ash owlbears with my 28 conjuror and my brother with his 25 defiler.  He must have been the recipient of 12 poison dots on em.

 See don't worry....people are still dying in Nek forest....if that's what makes some happy.....

 Edit:  Added wording

[Selfea]

Aaaaah this explains why when I went to N'Marrs to get my griffon egg, trembling as a little lowbie Fae, I encountered not undead up N'Marrs ascent, but Freeport Guards who were non-agro whether I was invis or not.

I hadn't realised they'd revamped the zone until then.

[Araxes]

I posted this same sentiment shortly after the revamp, and, in that thread (gone with the rest of the old forum threads, now) one of the designers responded in justification.  Despite the reasoning, I think the 3rd pass was heavy-handed and I don't find any use in going to Nektulos, now, whereas before it was usually a good place to find adventurers post-level 20 and get into some trouble.  There are areas that are difficult, yes, but they are so far removed from the beaten path that most players would never see them.  The sense of foreboding, the stifling darkness (I think they removed a portion of the trees, or at least made them less dense in areas), and the constant aggro threats were what made this zone bother frustrating and fun at the same time.  I understand that the overall goal of the design in this game, with both overland zones and with the classes themselves, is to have some sort of yin-yang balance ... Antonica to the Commonlands ... Freeport to Qeynos ... Everfrost to Lavastorm ... Enchanted Lands to Zek ... Thundering Steppes to Nektulos ... but quite frankly I don't like that philosophy much as I feel it dumbs things down and makes for generally more boring experiences due to everything being less diverse overall, and I think it was more fun when Nektulos was the far more challenging zone it used to be. 

[Caliga]

Yeah, I got all ready for my frightening trek up Nmar's Ascent so I could get griffon access.  I didn't have invis so I was gonna have to train all those skellies.  I wasn't looking forward to it at all but it had to be done else I would be forced to walk across Nek time and again and that was a far worse fate.   So I get there, I hold my breath, get ready to run, and...[Removed for Content]?!?!?! It's nothing be Freeport Guards!  Those are my buddies, I just strolled on up and got my eggs.   They pulled the teeth out that zone big time.

[Belaythien]

I don't really see why running through Nek was tough before the revamp. I betrayed 3 times and had to run through there before the revamp. Sure it takes a bit of running zig zag but nothing really challenging. In my opinion Nek would be even less visited today if everything was still group only. You hardly find groups in that level range. Even if you do nobody these days fights in overland zones. Dungeons offer more loot/nameds and easier access to mobs. Twinks level so fast that you only hop from dungeon to dugeon. New players level much slower and can actually visit Nek Forest. So I'd say the change to a solo zone didn't hurt as this leaves something for the few of us who like to see other things besides dungeon (without having to search for hours to find a group to go there) The only thing I don't like are those flowers and the slime in the water you always run into. The idea itself is nice but their graphics look bad ... and as far as these slimes are concerned there are far too many of them.

[Beldin_]

I must say i like it much more now. Ok the old Nek had its charm with all the aggro fish and whatever, hoewever i really seldom played there, now my last twinks directly go to Nek when they hit 20 and are there most the time until level 30+ because there are so much nice quests now there

[Roriondesexiest]

LoL, my whole guild betrayed when we got to lvl 17 the first month or two after the game came out (can't remember when exactly) but the entire map was black, and this was long before eq2maps.

Was terrifying trying to get through there, I think we left 4 or 5 shards there plus the one we lost for betraying...

[Allisia]

I think what many of the posters here are trying to say is that Nektulos was so intimidating to cross at low levels that they hated it. More importantly, they LOVED to hate it. I tend to agree really. The zone now is too peaceful and anything really interesting is on the edges of the zone. If feels sort of hollow.

[VacuousDragon]

Wow I was just thinking of coming back to EQ2 because WoW is getting old did they mess up EQ2 that much the fun part of the game was how tough it was in WoW you lvl like nothing in EQ2 evertyihgn was dangerous on pvp server getting ganked was way more dangerous did they change the mechanics ?

Someone please tell me Was EQ2 made easier for lowbies and if so how drastic was this move?

should i start playing again for 15 dollars a month?

[Ruut Li]

I dont know about pvp but the pve lowbie levels are Much easier, its hard to describe how much easier it is...Ok got it: Im surpised if I die even once before lvl 20 on my new alts. And Im not a very careful player, Im lazy and tend to train through yellow mobs even if I could invis