With the release of EverQuest: Gates of Discord, Sony offers new challenges for those players who are getting tired of playing their high level characters. That said, this expansion pretty much caters to the already “uber,” which is somewhat unfortunate but on the other hand probably necessary for EQ’s continued survival.
EQ: GoD offers some new zones, new NPC models that are interesting and very well rendered, new tradeskills, armor quests, Alternate Advancement abilities, and new level 65 spells. Again, the biggest disadvantage is for a large number of players, this will not come easily and some may get tired of the game before even seeing a GoD spell or ability.
In addition, there is a new class, Berserker, which is basically another dps class that provides additional damage to the group using 2-handed axes or throwing axes. They are generally great for support to increase the overall damage of the group.
Another new feature is the tribute system, where rather than selling crap loot that has no other use to the vendor, if they have a decent money value you can give them to a tribute master in your home town. You can even turn in GOOD stuff to them, but of course why would you want to do that I’m not sure, unless you have all the elemental gear you want I guess. Anyway, you gain points from tributing, and you can use these points to activate certain skills and focus effects, like extra hit point or mana regen, but they are on a timer once you activate them and your points get deducted at a certain rate depending on the quality of effect you activate. This is not so nice for non-porters or gaters, since you have to activate them at your tribute master in your home town, and this is not always in a convenient location, but if you build up a load of points it might just be worth it to you.
Leadership abilities is also a new feature that encourages people to lead groups more. Nice things such as special targeting circles to aid the group in targeting the correct mob for fighting are one of the many leadership abilities. Some even give beneficial effects to the party (kind of like how tribute points work, but without points deduction). You gain leadership points in a similar way to gaining AA points (they are deducted from the regular experience you gain from a kill) and it’s all managed for you in a nice little window.
Of course, if you are one of those high level players sick of the game and looking for new challenges and nice equipment drops, the new zones are a great place to do all that. The graphics of the zones are quite striking, with grand ancient stone temples and the level of detail has improved over old zones. There are also tiers and flagging for the GoD zones, a nice map of the progression and some strategy discussion is here. The best way to get to the GoD zones is via the Magus at the adventurers camps from the LDoN expansion, but it’s also possible to get to Nedaria’s Landing from Jaggedpine Forest, and then take a boat to Natimbi and the Abysmal Sea (currently, the boats aren’t quite working so they have installed “boat gnomes” to transport you directly).
Also, GoD extends the augment system that was introduced by the LDoN expansion. Augments are pieces (often depicted as gems, shards, etc) that fit into slots in your armor and weapons to improve their stats. These augs drop off of creatures in regular GoD zones, while in LDoN you have to do an instanced dungeon or buy with points from the LDoN vendors. The GoD spells also drop from creatures in these zones. These are all no-drop (untradeable) items so you pretty much have to be of the caliber to handle fighting in these zones.
Natimbi is probably the most accessible zone for experience lower levels (50+, being lower levels!), though you have to be a bit higher level to really explore the entire zone. The biggest disadvantage is the easiest zone-out is the magus, which can get hairy if you are trying to type “Nedaria” while getting beat up by a gigantic turtle.
May 2004: With the latest patch they have modified a lot of the GoD zones to make them more accessible to more players. Though still quite difficult it’s not like you need elemental gear to be able to handle the zones. More details here, and here. So enjoy, until – of course – the next expansion comes out in July.