Review of the Serpent's Spine
by Loral on November 04, 2006
Nearly two months have passed since the release of the Serpent's Spine and with one major patch and a few minor ones released, now is the perfect time to review Everquest's twelfth expansion, the Serpent's Spine.
The Serpent's Spine is the largest expansion since Planes of Power in the number of zones and the variety of content. It offers content at all levels of play from brand-new level 1 players all the way to high-end level 75 raid zones. The Serpent's Spine is a huge contrast to the smaller and heavily instanced content in Dragons of Norrath and Depths of Darkhollow.
The Serpent's Spine includes thirteen large non-instanced zones and two instanced raid zones. The zones are huge, rivaling those found in Omens of War, Scars of Velious, and Shadows of Luclin. Unlike many large static zones in older expansions, most of the zones in the Serpent's Spine are well-used. It isn't uncommon to find a dozen players in each of the zones and many more in the higher-level zones at any given time. This is a great change from Prophecy of Ro where many new zones sat deserted and empty shortly after release.
As a new starting city, Crescent Reach is the first zone to let younger players see powerful dragons up close, but it lacks the same power and awe as the rebuilt city of Freeport. For example, all of the guild masters for every class all reside in one large hall. The cleric guild master and the necromancer guild master stand right across from one another. It feels like a college career day instead of a guild hall. The graphical lag in Crescent Reach is also the worst found in the expansion.
The new Drakkin model gets mixed reviews but it is clearly nice to see a model that sits correctly, has armor that reflects light properly, and doesn't fall apart when it sits on a horse with a shield. Hopefully this new model will lead to the rebuilding of player models for all races in the future.
What Crescent Reach lacks in awe it gains back in quests. There are tons of quests throughout the city for every level. These quests don't end with Crescent Reach either, one will find dozens of quests throughout all of the zones in the Serpent's Spine. There are quest arcs for exploration, hunting, and an arc that can follow a new player from level 1 all the way to level 75.
The Serpent's Spine offers piles of huntable content at all character levels and equipment power. The designers intended to bring many of the techniques they use for higher-end content in recent expansions down to all levels in the game and they succeeded in this. Lower level players have many "single-group raids" they can experience as well as common quest arcs found typically at higher-end hunts in older expansions.
For high-end players there are between four and six huntable zones depending on levels, Alternate Advancement points, and gear power. Direwind, Icefall, Vergalid, Valdeholm, and for some, Frost Crypt and Ashengate all offer good challenges, good experience rewards, and good loot for those hunting there. Most importantly, the zones are very popular making it much easier to find a group and get to hunting.
There are no instances for group content in the Serpent's Spine. Some players complain that this lack of instancing has returned the game to the dark ages of spawn camping, kill stealing, training, and other vileness that accompanies large amounts of players piled into one space. However, instanced content would likely have made the new static zones much less popular. With so much instanced content in the game already, there is little reason to include it in every new expansion. Instanced content, however, is the only clear feature missing from this expansion.
Equipment rewards are one of the big drivers for players to experience new content and the Serpent's Spine includes a lot of it. There are many new armor sets at all levels except a level 60 set. The level 75 single-group armor comes in multiple pieces, is clearly more powerful than Qvic class armor, and rivals the class armor found in Theater of Blood. Ashengate and Frost Crypt include many high-end items close in power to the high-end raid items of Gates of Discord and the non-Anguish raid armor in Omens of War. Tier 2 spells also act as a solid catalyst to get players hunting in various zones.
The high-end spell system is the best ever developed. Instead of making high-end spells simply dropped and increasingly more rare at the highest levels, spells in the Serpent's Spine are broken down into tiers. The lowest tier includes nearly every level 71+ spell for every class and can be purchased from merchants spread around the new zones. Tier 2 spells add a bit more power and drop across the higher-level hunting zones. Tier 3 spells drop off of raid targets and use a system similar to the Omens of War rune system.
Overall, the spell system lets players power up quickly upon leveling, I added five new spells to my spell book seconds after leveling to 75, without removing the desire to hunt for more powerful versions in the new hunting zones.
Any expansion that includes new levels will quickly become popular. Leveling is the fastest and easiest way to increase in player power. The level increase opens up older high-power content to new players. For example, the MPG single group trials and the Depths of Darkhollow spell arcs are much more easily done at level 75 than it was at level 70. More players will be able to defeat older raid targets and older content that was extremely challenging at lower levels. New piles of Alternate Advancement abilities also increase this power and give players new reasons to hunt for experience.
Along with the large amount of lower level content and high-level single-group hunting areas, The Serpent's Spine has the largest amount of high-end raiding content since Gates of Discord. The Serpent's Spine includes two full high-end raid zones that rival Anguish in the number of raids. This doesn't even include the static raids and the instanced Vergalid raid. The large amount of high-end raid content gives high-end raiders a wide range of content above the Demiplane of Blood and Deathknell level. These high-end raid zones include a new tier of class armor as well, something not included since Anguish.
One big complaint I have with the Serpent's Spine is that it does nothing to address the power gap between raiders and non-raiders. Yes, the level 75 non-raid armor is a good step up from what was available before, but it could have been more powerful without hurting older raid content. I will cover this problem in more depth in a future article.
When beginning to ponder this article, I tried to think back to older expansions to determine how this one compares. From the factor of raw features and usable content, no other expansion compares to the scope of the Serpent's Spine. No expansion since Luclin included level 1 to max level content. No expansion since Omens offered a level increase as substantial as TSS. No expansion since Gates offered as much high-end raid content. The Serpent's Spine sits high on the list of expansions and towers above the expansions released over the past two years.
The Serpent's Spine is an extremely strong expansion that offers new levels, spells, AAs, equipment, and huntable content at all levels of play. It is a great breath of life in a game that continues to grow well beyond its seven year life. At $30, it's a steal.
Loral Ciriclight
4 November 2006
loral@loralciriclight.com
Comment Posted by: Ladwenae_AB on November 5, 2006 06:40 AM
Nice article Loral.
I can agree that TSS have a lot of potential, but I think it have some flaws that will be detrimental when we look back at it in a few years.
First of all I think it can be questioned if adding sub level 60 content adds anything to the game that achieve to bring new players into EQ, especially considering that this is an expansion with a level increase, which to a very large extent make all old content obsoleete in regards to xp hunting, and in the end this means that a level 75 player have 2 or 4 hunting grounds, Icefall, Direwind and Ashengate, Frostcrypt for the better geared players, zones like Sunderock and Steppes offers to little xp rewards to be really viable as xp grounds imo.
I personally dont think the low level zones gets a use that makes them valuable, or even usefull additions to the game, and I would much rather have seen them at a lot higher level so players could get more options to go to for the 75 xp content.
One thing TSS have managed so far with success is a far higher player vs player interaction, which is to some extent due to new levels and AAs and also because of the non instanced content so we both have far more with a desire to play and zones where we have to interact with others. The limited amount of new AAs and the low cost of them means that many of us are close to or allready maxed again tho, so the desire to xp outside of raids will be a lot lower fast.
As a highend raider I gotta say that the flagging for the endzones this time gotta be seen as the worst ever, not that it took a long time or that it was hard, It was simply stupid to an extent where it kept many from logging on in frustration or even made a few stop ( that always happen with new expansions tho ).
The itemization so far is abysmal in quality, the group highend armor looks pretty decent, but still lacks 50hp/mana and some ac to be really usefull and especially the group droppable weapons are so incredibly bad that still to this day the best weapon a dualwielder can get drops from a 4 expansion old group trial, it just doesnt make sense at all.
TSS had potential to be the best ever, so far it is above LoY, DoN and PoR for me, but still far to be anywhere close to one of the better expansions for me.
Comment Posted by: Loral on November 5, 2006 08:38 AM
Level 70 to 75 players have six different zones in which they can hunt - although this narrows depending on the power of each player (back to that equipment gap problem again). These include Direwind, Icefall Glacier, Valdeholm, Vergalid Mines, Ashengate, Frost Crypt, and to a lesser extent, Sunderock Springs and The Steppes.
I would agree with you about the lower level zones - Tunare knows a level 75 version of the Stone Hive would be neat - but they ARE seeing a fair bit of use, more use than the static zones in POR ever saw. If lower and mid-level players are using them, they are worth having in.
Comment Posted by: wilhelm2451 on November 5, 2006 12:01 PM
I would have to disagree with Ladwenae on the sub level 60 content.
On a purely anecdotal level, I would not have reactivated my account and purchased the expansion if TSS had been nothing but 60+ content. I gave my original account to a friend ages ago so had to start fresh again about a year ago when I decided I wanted to look back into EQ.
Speaking on a higher level, for EQ to continue to be viable in the market today, it needs to be friendlier to new players. I would say that EQ today is already mostly about level 60+ content. If somebody new wanders in, they are not going to stick around if they have to slog through levels like we did in 1999. The tutorial added a couple of years back helps, but when you can play EQ2 or WoW, both of which hold your hand through 60+ levels, you have to admit that EQ needs to be more inviting in order to bring in new players. Being more accessible to new players appears to be one of the goals of TSS, and I applaud it.
Right or wrong, there is also the question of how effective it will be. Will it be enough to bring in new players? Since it won't be available as a retail box on the shelf at your local store, that is a big question. I hope they are looking into a full EQ box for the future the way EQII is going with EoF.
I plan on going through the noob experience in TSS so I can write about it on my own blog. I am only a day into playing in the TSS content with a newly created character and am happy so far.
Comment Posted by: Ladwenae_AB on November 5, 2006 03:37 PM
"If lower and mid-level players are using them, they are worth having in."
That I can agree on, but its just not the case on AB at least, seems to me that most of the zones are pretty much deserted except higher level players doing tasks, and while I know the fact that a lot of players want to level up a Drakkin its just to few who are doing it in the new zones from my point of wiev. My personal favorite zone to have had a high level would be stonehive as well btw, and its such a shame that I have been alone there the two times I have been in the zone. Ohh well whats done is done, perhaps its time to make a twink to explore the new content.
" I would say that EQ today is already mostly about level 60+ content."
I will agree that most of the players are in this category and a large reason for this is that all the changes since original EQ have made the sub 60 content very easy, and mudflation means that you dont have to worry about gear in the lower levels either, you get gear during the tutorial, and the bazaar have lots of older gear that still are far better than the best gear during the early EQ which is quite cheap, and dont forget the huge impact a spell like Temperance have also, my ranger on the combine hit something like level 35 before she had more hp than that one spell adds, and that was with fairly decent original EQ gear. Gear like the newest hot zone added to the old zones might make them more usefull in a longer term, but the fact is that until level 60+ most new players will rush there simply because they have no reason to stop to get gear or do quests, so the real question will be if TSS actually managed to achieve excatly that, to achieve toons leveling from 1-75 and getting approapriate gear during that.
Comment Posted by: Softcore Nonraider on November 6, 2006 04:39 AM
I too have to disagree with Ladwenae on the below level 60 stuff.
My main is a level 62 beastlord, but my wife had a level 16 druid (24 now) at TSS launch and I rolled up drakkin warrior to group with her.
The higher level quests in Crescent Reach and the lower quests in Blightfire Moors is what we have/are tackl(ed/ing). It is by far the most fun we have ever had playing EQ together.
My warrior is now level 23, and he only had to leave TSS because I wanted cultural armor (jade shards(baz for an arm and a leg), warbone chips(had to farm these... noone does unrest anymore it seems)), small mammoth tusks(baz, decently priced)) and because I needed some weapons with at least a 2 to 1 ratio (delay to damage ratio).
Apart from that many people in our (small family) guild played a new drakkin toon, or reactivated old low level alts to play in the lower level TSS expansion. Those night alone were imho more than 30 dollar worth of fun.
Comment Posted by: Sunshadow on November 6, 2006 04:04 PM
I initially also thought TSS had an itemisation problem on the group item side as 200+ hp Attunable items flowed into the Bazaar like candy. But now as most raiders have moved beyond Icefall and Direwind this flood of items has stemmed and they are becoming rarer, this is forcing the prices up but it is also forcing players to got out and earn their gear rather than buy it, as some stuff is rarely for sale.
There are a few easy quests which give some nice items and can be done solo with a bit of effort. There are also a lot of group required quests which keep people in these zones.
The ability to now preview a reward is great. I can now decide if I want to do a quest before I start. The only issue with this is that most quests are in an arc so the reward is not visible until 3 or 4 preliminary quests are actually complete. I did quite a few arc's early on, only to skip the last bit because I had no use for the eventual rewards.
Comment Posted by: SomeoneNolrogIsGonnaFlame on November 7, 2006 08:19 AM
All told TSS is an interesting expansion. TSS would be a ground breaking release, if it was the first release, that is to say the First offering by a new MMO company.
TSS offers support for every class/race, it offers guided advancement, and quest lines. All within the TSS zones.
The immersion level of TSS is 50/50. The art is good, not great, but good. There is no sense of good vs. evil though. The Necromancer guild master seems to be on good terms with the Clerics and the Paladins look like they probably have lunch with the Shadowknights.
Gone completely is the sense of factions, and conflict.
Gone also is the sense of being part of a "world". The existance of the zones outside of the TSS release is all but non-existant. The wars on distant worlds, and planes has somehow skipped over the world of the drakkin.
In a nutshell, if SOE had released TSS as a stand alone game, and had never made a MMO title before I'd say they'd deserve some lorals, however as thier latest in a dozen expansions to a game that defined a genre, it's somewhat bland.
Comment Posted by: RosesAreRed on November 7, 2006 09:45 AM
I wish SOE would take a couple of pages from the WOW book and make their new zones brighter so we aren't endlessly slogging along in the dark.
The clunky F9 system of getting to 3rd person view is badly in need of an overhaul also. Being able to scroll in and out to look around adds to the immersive feeling.
I also think SOE should include the zone maps so we don't have to go out of the game to get them.
Comment Posted by: menleniel on November 7, 2006 12:20 PM
Slogging in the dark? I keep my gamma set around 60 and its plenty bright. Have you checked your settings?
Comment Posted by: Armarant on November 8, 2006 01:02 AM
Rosesarered wrote:I wish SOE would take a couple of pages from the WOW book and make their new zones brighter so we aren't endlessly slogging along in the dark. The clunky F9 system of getting to 3rd person view is badly in need of an overhaul also.
----
I partly agree about the WoW book. I do not think zones need to be "brighter" but I do think they need to be more scenic. and TSS did a good job of going in that direction with often large vistas and some grand views.
I definitly agree that third person mode needs to be revamped in EQ so its more intuitive to the player right now I dont use third person mode because its clunky compared to other games.
Comment Posted by: Glormane on November 8, 2006 08:28 AM
Compare the following;
Supple Crimson Choker
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE
Slot: NECK
AC: 30
STR: +20 DEX: +15 STA: +20 WIS: +15 INT: +15 HP: +205 MANA: +195 ENDUR: +195
SV FIRE: +15 SV DISEASE: +15 SV COLD: +15 SV MAGIC: +15
Shielding: +2% Attack: +20 Regeneration: +2 Mana Regeneration: +2
Required level of 68.
Effect: Ferocity I (Worn)
WT: 0.8 Size: SMALL
Class: WAR PAL RNG SHD MNK BRD ROG BST BER
Race: ALL
Slot 1, Type 8
Amulet of the Scarlet Legion
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE
Slot: NECK
AC: 29
STR: +16 DEX: +16 CHA: +16 WIS: +16 INT: +16 AGI: +16 HP: +265 MANA: +265 ENDUR: +265
SV FIRE: +30 SV DISEASE: +15 SV MAGIC: +15 SV POISON: +15
Recommended level of 75. Required level of 73.
Effect: Ferocity III (Worn)
WT: 0.7 Size: SMALL
Class: WAR PAL RNG SHD MNK BRD ROG BST BER
Race: ALL
Slot 1, Type 7
Both drop in groupable content. The first is from a group mpg trial the latter from Ashengate. Gains on the newer drop in one of the end zones of the newest expansion are 60hp 70mana 70 end, Fero III and 15 saves.
Losses on the newer drop are 1 ac,Shielding: +2% Attack: +20 Regeneration: +2 Mana Regeneration: +2
I wouldnt call this an upgrade I would call it a concession.
Also ToB armour is not better than Qvic armour,it is comparable, and the time saved missing qvic and going straight to ToB is negligible (if even possible).
TSS tier 1/2 armour has less AC and saves than Qvic, but higher hitpoint and new foci.
Again to me this seems like concession rather than advancement.
Comment Posted by: Sunshadow on November 8, 2006 04:22 PM
This was done in order to keep the GAP between group and raid gear. Can't have the group gear getting to good.
Comment Posted by: Sunshadow on November 9, 2006 04:43 PM
While the itemisation issues in TSS only really affect 5% of the playing population. The issues of spell selection affects a lot more. Almost every casting class is complaining about how the spell list from Beta was cut to create the 5/15/25 spells each class got. Although other spells were promised to be added later after release this has yet to happen 2 months down the track. Should these arbitury numbers been ignored would a wizard actually care if a mage got 1 or 2 extra spells?
Personally I feel it was daft to cut any spell that worked, if it didn't work then thats different but the majority of what is being whinged about are simple upgrades to existing spell lines.
Being a necro, I would of liked the new pet illusions but the fluff we are told is now no room in global file. BS, they just added heaps of models to the golbal file for Halloween including the ones we were supposed to get. Also if the "Illusion: Skeleton" spell used a different model to every normal necro skelly pet then the smart thinking would be to change it to use the same model for the meantime and then lots of people would be happy.
But I see Pally saying their symbol line was cut, Rangers saying their Haromt line. The mind boggles at why this arbitury decision was made.
Comment Posted by: Keisa on November 9, 2006 05:00 PM
The purpose of Beta is to test things out. It seems appropriate to me to develop several spell lines for beta, more than you plan to use, then trim near the end to a specific set. I think a lot of people assume that if it shows up in Beta, it will be on live, even though there are numerous disclaimers that things will change before going live.
I also think that if you are actually expecting that the developers will add spells after things go live, you are delusional. They may adjust the spells that have been released, but I've never seen them go back and release additional spells on any release. It is unlikely that is going to change on TSS, regardless of whether a dev stated that he will review the spells and whatever. I would look for additional changes to be implemented in future expansions.
I know that there are some pretty obvious holes, and some of the lines that did make the cut seem silly in comparison. If I were making the choices, I would make different ones, but I'm not making those choices.
I could be wrong, but I think you're wasting your time and effort complaining about spells that didn't make the cut.
Keisa
Comment Posted by: Sunshadow on November 9, 2006 09:44 PM
The complaint is that there was a cut in the first place that no-one was aware of. Hey, if something didn't work then drop it. But don't give me a bunch of tools and tune content to those tools and then wonder why I complain when you take half the tools away on release. If I knew spells that worked would be cut then I would have complained more that DPS suffered big time as I now only have 6 spells to stack instead of 7. Pallys probably would have complained more that they loose to much HP when not grouped with a cleric and so on...
There was no Beta forum item for people to nominate the best "x" number of spells for each level.
Comment Posted by: Blakyce on November 10, 2006 02:16 AM
Sunshadow you say that itemization only affects 5% of people whereas spells affect a lot more. As a non-raider I dual-equip an Omens sword and a Depths of Darkhollow weapon, which cost 350,000pp. The next best two weapons that I could actually get are another Omens weapon or a GOD weapon. I think if spells hadn't changed in as long a time as I have had the same two weapons that you might sing a different tune. For non-casters, which appear to be 5% according to you, our weapons are somewhat important to us. Unfortunately the current itemization master at SOE is an ex-wizzie.
Comment Posted by: Wolfkinder on November 12, 2006 12:28 PM
"While the itemisation issues in TSS only really affect 5% of the playing population. The issues of spell selection affects a lot more. Almost every casting class is complaining about how the spell list from Beta was cut to create the 5/15/25 spells each class got. Although other spells were promised to be added later after release this has yet to happen 2 months down the track. Should these arbitury numbers been ignored would a wizard actually care if a mage got 1 or 2 extra spells"
I suspect they were thinking of adding them in the next expansion. We got tons of spells in this expansion. They always work under the fact that there will be another expansion rolling out (probably) in 6 months after this one. Why give us more stuff when they can hold off and consider putting it in the next? Casters got TONS out of this, especially wizzies. But I don't expect them to just add those beta spells in a few months later. Past experience says that won't happen. Petitioners should be forcing the issue of putting them in the next expansion or give up, because it seems unlikely based on past experience that they will suddenly decide to just put these in.
Yes, I know it's unfair, because they gave you a taste of more and then pulled it away. But as a realist I just don't think it will happen. It could with the next expansion though, if someone pushes for it.
--Wolfkinder
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Email Mike at mike@mikeshea.net for more questions or comments.