Returning To The Lands Of Norrath

I guess it's an inevitability, but I've returned to playing EverQuest II. After about a seven month break, I've come back to the lands of Norrath with a refreshed sense of adventure. I am by no means a hardcore player (c'mon, you should know by now of my casual nature!), but I've played this game on and off since EQII's release back in 2004(?), after having moved on from the original grindfest of EQI.

It seems there's been some changes since I last played. Freeport's in disarray, a new expansion, a new good aligned starting city, and some new Marketplace mounts. It's nice to know that SOE is continuing to support the game after 5+ years in the MMO market, not to mention having to follow in the shadow of a certain leading MMO during those years.

As soon as I returned, I set a couple of objectives for myself which I had just fell short of acccomplishing when I took my last break:

Veroth: My main, the Barbarian 'zerker from D'Lere, needed to get over the 40's hump into level 50. When I last played him, he was in his mid 40's and had just moved on from smashing orc skulls in Zek, and contemplated a move of residence from Freeport to the desert city of Maj'Dul. Veroth was halfway through 49 before I had stoppped playing, so getting him to 50 was my main goal. With the double XP meter accumulating during the break, I was able to easily accomplish this goal. Now I'm just working towards faction building in order to get a residency permit. Of course, being the 'zerker for hire, he'll court the Order Of The Blade for the permit.

Verminiculos: My main alt, The Ratonga shadowknight with aspirations of serving on the side of good, had just exiled himself from the clutches of Freeport. My objective for the diminutive rat with a heart of steel is to gain the favor of Qeynos. But this first entails having to perform menial, mundane, and booooring tasks such as smashing rocks! I guess this is to prove my worth, but, shit, is it mind-numbing! Oh well, all for the glory of Qeynos!

It's actually pretty fun getting back into the game after a break. Everything's new again, and I guess I'll see how far I'll get with these two characters with this go-around of the game.