Need some help with the raids? Check out our guide!
EverQuest: The Planes of Power is the most recent installment in the EverQuest series. This expansion focuses mainly on allowing the highest players to become more powerful.
Despite the fierce competition with new and similar games, this expansion shows that EverQuest is aging gracefully. The game is now more than ever extremely time-consuming, where players spend most of their time fighting in troublesome battles that can only be done with a considerable number. And when before you fought with a group or two, now you will need the force of an entire guild to complete some of the most challenging trials.
Planes of Power doesn’t need the previous expansions and comes with the original EverQuest, so new players can start enjoying it right away and buy the other expansions later. This expansion offers up to 18 new planar zones that will test your teamwork abilities to the limits. Hundreds of brand new weapons, armor, monsters, spells and new and harder challenges await even the most experienced players. Further character progression makes players much more powerful and customizable. The level cap was raised to 65, and the alternate advancement system was decked out with additional high-level skills that will allow EverQuest’s elite to customize their characters to their liking with more detail.
Some of the other features introduced are a new raid system as well as a much more polished user interface. The raid system allows an entire guild to band together and gain what is called “raid experience” (which is just like group experience but in smaller amounts, considering the number of people participating) while carrying out huge epic battles. It is also a good way to keep track of loot drops during such big events. Unfortunately, this feature is still a bit buggy and every now and again people will be booted off the raid while the raid window will still list them.
As for the user’s interface, The Planes of Power uses semitransparent windows that can be customizable. There are also several downloadable interfaces available, some of them extremely useful. My personal favorite allows me to see how much mana I have left or exactly how many hitpoints someone has before I heal them. If you take the time to really search for them, there are several interfaces out there with really amazing graphics. You can have new spell books, buff boxes, spell gems and icons, make it transparent or not, change the texture, you name it. Of course, the objective is for the interface to be the most functional and compact as possible. Here is a link with tons of great things you can use, from spell bars to inventories, and some nice class animations: http://www.eqinterface.com/
The planes are easily accessed through several portals scattered throughout the world. The Plane of Knowledge is available to players of all levels and is also a source of many quests. In this zone you will find many useful portals which make travel throughout Norrath and Luclin far more fast and convenient (hell, I still remember all those hours spent on boat rides), and a very impressive library where every class will be able to find all their existing buyable spells. All other new planar zones require players to be level 46 or above to enter, and they will all be connected to the Plane of Tranquility. With each new plane comes a new quest that must be completed in order to advance to the next one. These quests all linked together one way or another into a single epic quest.
Though most of the new planes are highly dangerous, they have designated areas where the corpses of fallen players will appear after a time limit, making corpse retrieval less of a nightmare. You will find these ‘graveyards’ near the zone in to each plane.
Spells for levels 61 and up will be quested for. You will have to find special parchments that will have to be handed in to your class representative at the library in Plane of Knowledge, but don’t be so sure to get a new spell everytime. And be patient about the parchment drops, after the recent nerf, they became a bit harder to find.
This expansion counts on some impressively produced orchestral tunes such as new version of the EverQuest’s opening theme, new combat themes, as well as new music for the game’s numerous new zones.
Planes of Power fills in the gaps by allowing players to raid the remainder of Norrath’s alternate planes and come face to face with their deities. There are many planes waiting to be discovered and defiled. Plane of Innovation, a mechanical place ruled by obsolete robots and machines. Plane of Justice, home of the Tribunal and host of many trials that will give you access to harder and more impressive planes. Halls of Honor, a plane filled with classical temples and gardens, where three more trials await you in order to allow you into Mithaniel Marr’s Temple. Ruins of Lxanvom also known as Crypt of Decay, a foul maze of corridors wrapped in spider webs and others that as if you’re inside a huge monster. Plane of Disease, where plague and pestilence join forces against any visitor. Plane of Nightmare, where Banshees and Hobgoblins lurk in the dark waiting for a distracted victim.
EverQuest: The Planes of Power will take you to places not meant for mortal eyes, realms of ancient power, where legendary creatures and the Gods of Norrath themselves guard long-hidden secrets and treasures. So whether you choose to battle nightmarish creatures and save someone from a permanent haunted dream, or help Karana regain control of the Plane of Storms, prepare yourself, the mighty challenges of the Planes await you!