Lemme say first that i generally do enjoy nek castle, the new zones, the new content, the new loot. The team did a good job overall, so this is not a rage or disgruntled post. Its just my personal opinion as a classic EQ vet, and someone with 800hrs into EQL.

I thought the quest to enter was pretty fun, and most of the bosses are enjoyable and the keying process was neat. It kinda felt like a zelda dungeon, and i enjoyed that.

My main trio is a SHM/ROG/SK, with around 700 AA's, +10 in all weps and core spells, and I can handle all raid mobs up to this point in D4 without issues. Sky/hate/fear/dragons, np.

I started Nek Castle on D4 and couldnt beat the library/librarian to save my life. Tried many different tactics and just couldnt burn the adds quick enough (to be fair my trios biggest weakness is adds, so this didnt surprise or bother me) so i dropped down to D0 just to explore the zone and complete the quest.

On D0 the library was still a bit of a nailbiter but i did it first try pretty easily. I then proceeded to fight and complete the rest of the zone and bosses with no issues. That is, until I got to the final basement boss. This is where my main point and biggest frustration with the nek castle rollout is....

This dudes WAY too hard for a D0 mob. I died 5x in a row, and unleashed all my tools on him. I think him being tough is fine, but in D0?! It just feels a bit overtuned for a D0 mob.

For the encounter,

I made sure to burn his golems down then go to him. I stacked all my dots on him(all +10), slowed him(+9), spammed lifetap(+10)used my CH (reaper of the dead) click in my bloodmoon+10, vox heal clickies, ive tried defensive, evasive, offensive, nothing works to defeat him. Im using inversion for those fast cast taps. Pet and I fully buffed, puma on us both. To no avail.

My last two attempts i got him down to 7% and then 5% and idk what else to do in order to get this build over the finish line. I understand my trio may not be ideal for the fight, but on D0 id hope every trio would be capable of defeating the content. Especially one with so much +10 gear, spells, and AAs.

Anyone else feeling similar? I know some might say "git gud" and I can honestly say ive tried lol. I dont have any issue with D1-D4 being hard, you expect that when you raise the difficulty. But D0?! Ive got nowhere to go from here. I dont wanna cancel my sub, but if the new content is unmanagable at the lowest difficulty then what is the incentive to stay? I play EQL for casual solo EQ. Not to beat my head in the wall like im playing a souls game.

TLDR: D0 feels too difficult. If well geared players with 700+ AAs cannot complete on D0, they will have no incentive to stay subscribed or to keep playing.

EDIT: Thanks for the tips/tricks and suggestions for the encounter! You guys are excellent, i appreciate you. I do think that this was a realization for me that this game (primarily its custom content) is clearly no longer targeting players who want EZ solo EQ where you can power fantasy a trio of classes and steam roll content. This example of custom content has made it abundantly clear that the ethos, or vision, of EQL has shifted. That the direction of the project is clearly no longer aimed at the casual solo player looking for an easy EQ experience, but rather instead focused on people looking for more difficulty and more complex encounters. So for the vocal majority clammering for that, I'm excited for you. For me tho, I'll unsub and look for another game that isnt trying to turn EQ into Dark Souls. Thank you all for your input, suggestions, guidance, and help! <3

I had unsubbed because my duoing partner quit. I have a few days left, so it gives me a chance to try the new zones before my sub expires.

I had a decent enough time playing it last night. I will probably log in again tonight. Possibly again on the weekend, but I’m pretty busy and it’s not good enough that I’m going to be making time to play it.

The fetch quest to get into the castle was fine. It’s not far off the kind of thing you see in later expansions. The writing was very poor, but EverQuest was never known for good writing. I ran around the lake zone a bit, but within 15 minutes or so I had seen everything. There was nothing particularly interesting about it.

Once I got into the castle, it was good enough to kill a little time. The keys and quests aren’t hard to figure out. I didn’t care too much about the bugs. I expect stuff like that will be ironed out quickly.

The library encounter was neat. The concentration of rares was good. The loot wasn’t overtuned, but I also found myself auto selling it without much thought. Overall, I wasn’t bored with the content, but I wasn’t all that engaged either.

One of the biggest issues I had was that the level design was very shallow. It felt like a C-tier Skyrim mod. Hallway, boxy room, hallway, boxy room, etc. A couple pieces of furniture thrown in.

The problem is that all this makes the extended wait for Kunark seem not worth it. If I had access to other expansions, Nektropos would literally be at the bottom of the list of zones I would be spending time in.

I don’t need new content if it’s just going to be mediocre and forgettable. I was max level when Kunark first dropped, and every time it’s dropped in a TLP. Veksar would be new to me. Droga would be new to me. VP, Crystal Caverns, Acrylia, a lot of PoP, these would all be new to me. Or at least, being able to slow crawl it rather than rushing through with a guild would be new.

I get that they have a small development team, but if they don’t have the resources to make custom content, then they shouldn’t be trying to force it. It’s okay to pivot to releasing expansions as they are and treating custom content as a side project. A product roadmap is not a bible, it‘s supposed to adapt over time.

If I could be leveling in Nurga for the first time, working on those epics that used to gated to me, or dungeon crawling Kaesora, and this add-on dropped, I’d be on here praising the dev team. As a side passion project it’s commendable. But as an indication of what they’re withholding existing content for, it’s disappointing.

Ive been hailing every other Froglok and using /find to proceed with my quest. I got to the point where I talked to the elder and he told me to talk to the quartermaster or commander for quests. Quartermaster has nothing to say to me when I hail him, and I cant find the Commander. Help? Pretty please? Ribbit!

What an insane combo this is. Practically invincible as long as you don’t overreach.

Anyone else?

Servers down

Hope they aren’t nerfing drop rates on the goodies!

Dammit I knew I should have visited Nek yesterday!

So this is a last ditch effort for help, I’ve contacted support and none of their suggestions corrected the issue. I logged off Tuesday night just like I normally do, I’ve been playing issue free since launch.

However I go to log in on Wednesday and am met with Error 1017: Cannot log in to the EQ Legends server. Your client likely needs updating.

I’ve validated game files, cleared the launcher cache, tried to run with a clean boot, checked permissions on antivirus, tried running it without antivirus or firewalls, tried using a different internet source, and finally last night I did a full uninstall and reinstall. Much to my dismay, this error message persists and I have no idea what else to do.

So if anyone has experience with this or suggestions to fix it, I’m all ears. Because at this point it just feels like I’m out of options.

ETA: this occurs after making it past the launcher, when pressing play on the server select screen.

Let me preface this by saying I really like this game. And more than that, I like the new boss mechanics. Are they perfect? No. Are there some kinks to work out? Sure. But overall, it makes the fights more interesting and I'm here for it.

That said let's get to the elephant: the Rik fight is not properly tuned for D0. I kill the golem, I try to root the son of a bitch and keep away, I've got motes in toot, I have the root AA, I burn through zombie phase, I have gear and I can clear D4 planes without issues. My mana and stamina give out long before my health does, and it makes no sense.

Rik simply requires too many resources at D0 to get your foot in the door. Period, full stop. The stamina and mana requirements are astronomical.

I'm certainly not playing the most meta trios, but I can do literally everything else well enough. If I have to play the exact same 3 or 4 trios everyone else plays exactly the same way everyone else plays them, what good is having classes?

This is an RPG, I want to play the character I want to play and so far it's been fine. Ideal? Probably not. But possible, yes. I'm not asking for the world, I'm asking for the game that was sold to me as solo-content-first can be done at the lowest difficulty without changing my entire gameplay to accomplish it.

I know I'm going to get down voted for this, but I'm really fucking frustrated with the current state of the fight. I've never asked for anything to get nerfed in my life, I've beaten a lot of difficult games, and I've spent a lot of time on my character. I just want to be able to do the content.

Most discussion is about end-game stuff, naturally. Lots of people enjoy going right to soloing D4 planes, and that's a perfectly fine way to play, in fact I love that that's possible with EQL. And as much as I wish I could go back to original EQ like it was when it first came out, I love the improvements of EQL far too much to ever go back.

But anyone else enjoy just leveling up and exploring zones slowly? I love visiting the chessboard in Butcherblock, or leveling up in Ocean of Tears, and being excited when a Fine Steel 2H sword drops.

What rules do you like to set for yourself to help make the experience more like original EQ? Any tricks to avoid outpacing content or overgearing yourself to the point where higher-level drops are a disappointing downgrade instead of exciting?

I used to run NeverWinter Nights persistent worlds. Indeed, I went from playing EverQuest to designing my first NWN world after years DMing worlds for other, better coders. Those other, better coders had a policy I carried on into my own world: Never accept a dime of donation, because (on top of it being shady on the legal front, it's not like we owned NWN) it changes the relationship with players from gratitude for the devs time into expectation, even justified entitlement. That's a paraphrase, and a summary, but the concept is solid. That was in the early, very early 21st century.

I eventually shut down my world because WoW eventually existed and I couldn't honestly ask anyone to prioritize a AAA MMORPG over my rinkydink, EverQuest-inspired (and so somewhat brutally interdependent) world that served a dozen players with maybe half of that number online at once. My game was a free service, and paid services were emerging that just eclipsed the "internet-is-new-still-and-wondrous" novelty that was fading fast.

EverQuest legends, in 2026, kinda has to charge money because it has at least one full time dev who has to live, eat and have shelter in 2026. I feel like there's this expectation from GJ that we understand that, temper expectations, and "be reasonable" in that understanding. I feel like there's this unspoken, can-never-be-spoken sense of "it's only 10 bucks, come on," and honestly, in the greater context of online gaming and its expenses, that's almost not insulting.

The thing is, there comes a point when it's not about the money. It's about competing for player time and attention. Now, in EQL's defense, it's intelligently designed to hold and entertain, like, ONE player if it ever boils down to that. Opening with "It's solo EQ" means what we're really paying for the bare bones "it still exists to solo in" state to maintain.

If GJ/DB are ok with that paradigm of attention span farming, and staying afloat with vanity/organization whales buying cosmetics and storage, fine. We may need to accept that that's where we sit, and we can't really pull the usual MMORPG customer line of "I'm cancelling my sub, so help me god!"

They crossed the line: They accepted money, and people are going to take that seriously. They need to accept that. We might have to accept that this isn't a whole-ass MMORPG, and GJ don't need all of us all the time. It's a solo game with optional multiplayer.

I am currently unsubbed. I expect to return with Kunark, or I might come back earlier if I can play a post-40 enchanter trio who isn't pushed to be a werewolf at all times. For me, it's not about the money, it's about standards and expectations for an RPG where I like my character enough to wait until I can see her, and the cosmetics I have purchased, to play the game. It'll ideally happen eventually, and when it does, I'll be back.

In the meantime, those are my thoughts on the perspectives both sides likely will adopt. It's just my opinion, and I'm ultimately "only human."

It's not free

I did the entire nek castle quest, it leaves my quest journal and...that's it? No item? Nothing? Nobody can seem to answer this question. I ask in discord, in game. Seems like an easy question.

I submitted a bug report, but I was curious if anyone else has run into this bug or knows a work around.

I teamed up with. Bard/Shaman in the basement for the Juggernaut and Lord fights. Those went well, so we went back to Plimptos. We were curious if we could both advance the quest, so we stayed grouped. When Plimptos spawned he said "End". His quest advanced, but mine didn't. Oh well, no big deal, we went our separate ways as I waited.

Now Plimptos won't respond to me when he respawns. My quest won't advance, I'm stuck on this step. Has anyone else run into this or know a fix for it?

Currently leveling bard shaman cleric trio in befallen at level 11 but having nektropos FOMO

Should I head over there with my 50 SK Wiz Enc?

Just wondering if there’s a way to unlock the new race without paying for it. I know there’s quests apart from the main questline, maybe completing all of those?

Name one original EQ dungeon that Nektropos is better than, I can think of none, Nektropos is like an amateur mod

he is tough and thats fun!! thanks devs for this.

i tried with my main : RNG / Shm / nec and got smoked... paper tank its bad here.

then i went with SHD / SHM / ENCH and was better.. but couldnt go beyong 50% ran out of mana.

wondering what you guys using for him

few tricks i found :

Dont DOT him... the boss himself has litle hps.. not dotting allows for a more controled fight.
kill the golem ASAP.
when the zombies spawn, burn the boss, they despawn at certain % of his life.

with this is kinda doable,.. but my shd shm ench build is not really optimized so i think i need to either work on it or find a better loadout.

Ok, I killed Lord Nek and returned to Plimptos and said "end". He vanished and I got the yellow flavor text. My quest "The Betrayer" updated and shows as complete in my quest log. My quest "The Tragic Tale of House Everling" did not update and still shows as "Bring final death to Plimptos 0/1". When I return to Lady Everling, she won't talk to me when I hail her but if I "dead" and "confess" she will respond but not attack.

I have tried this sneaking, not sneaking, in public, and in both regular instance and dungeon crawl. Still stuck. I was hoping this morning's patch would fix it but it doesn't appear to have. I tried dropping and redoing "Tragic Tale" but it didn't fix it. I can't drop "The Betrayer" because it's completed. Judging by the Discord, I am not the only one with this issue.

Any tips?

WTF?

how do i get the enchanter spell color skew ( ae stun) ( cant fins it in the vendors 0 and do i have to do the quest " coin of tash" for tashania /

Thanks

I have been farming the undead in the basement on D4 all night.

I made a build just for it; Pal, Nec, Zerk. I got undead slow. +10 undead nuke. +10 life tap. +10 Cudgel. Pacify for splitting packs. The build rocks for this section. I am just clearing left and right.

But I am getting like 3 motes an hour. Something seems off.

I feel like I am just better off going back to Fear and DDD farming.

Which is a bummer, because I was enjoying the harder fights. I liked that I had to make a build to try to tackle it. But the motes just don't seem to be there for some reason.

Is anyone else seeing the same thing? Do I just have crazy bad rng tonight?

Cheers

Is there a trick for dealing with C'Rate's 'Feed' attack?

It does 32k damage on D0.

I tried interrupting (Bash and Skull Bash) many times, but it never takes.

I used my Paladin Divine Aura to get through one, but it recasts a few seconds later

Thanks

So I got the basement key from the Juggernaut, then did miserably against the boss, going back to try later, but my question is this, is there a shorter way to get to the boss now with the key? Or do I still have to go through the bookcase and battle all the trash on my way back?

There I said it.

DDD bards only can respond to this post.

Haste only = Cloak of Flames +5 and Alacrity

Buffs: these are the ones that matter (haste, str, atk, and dex)

MAG buffs = Burnout III and Frenzied Burnout (10% overhaste, 20 Str, 200 Atk)

NEC buffs = Augment Death

BST Buffs = Yekan’s Quickening, Spiritual Brawn, Raging Strength, Spirit of Monkey, Hobble of Spirits (75 dex), Strike as One (30% Frenzy) and Spirit of Vermin XIII

ENC Buffs = Boon of the Garou and Swift Like the Wind

Shaman Buffs = Infusion of Spirit, Strength, Dexterity, Spirit Quickening, and Spirit of the Puma

Pet equipment, in order of preference based on slots: Belt of the Four Winds +5, Indicolite Breastplate, Indicolite Vambraces, Pauldrons of the Blue Sky, Indicolite Bracer.

All MAG/NEC pets were rank 9 w focus, BST/SHM/ENC pets were rank 10.

This doesn't use anything from Nektropos. Haven't had the time to farm but really wanting a handful of Doll's Fangs.

Running out of steam to do more tests. I want to do SHM and ENC but we'll see.

My thoughts:

This shows attack is a great stat to shoot for on pets. The stronger the enemy, the more important it is.

Water pet is frustrating. I never want to use it again. CT spamming mana detention and roots dropped its dps by 5-10 just realigning him. Had to restart a parse after he mana detonated and rooted a pet as well, and of course it was water.

Frenzied Burnout puts in great work! The basic mage pets aren’t that much better but that attack buff is huge.

Outside of minimizing the need to heal your pet, or if you wanna use Monster Summoning, 2h isn’t worth it. Too much of a loss and an equipment slot isn’t even worth mentioning.

Shadowknight pairs well w pets for the torrid exaltations. I almost always use SHD in my trios. If i can muster the energy I'll do parses on most pets w bloodmoon/dagas.

Obviously mixing these classes will result in stronger pets. I don’t think I have the patience to test the combos, but basically it’s best to pair w shaman, then mage, then beastlord for buffs. The others don’t provide specific benefits to pets.