Dynasties & Dungeons

Burgundy Ascendant: The Campaign That Almost Was There are campaigns you finish, and there are campaigns you build . This was the latter—a run defined not by a final screen, but by a system so complete it scarcely needed one. And then, without warning, it was gone. What follows is not just a record of progress, but a reconstruction of a campaign that had already crossed the threshold from success to inevitability. The Opening: Controlled Aggression From the outset, Burgundy rejected passivity. Rivals were chosen early—France and England—while alliances with Austria and Castile provided the diplomatic backbone. The opening war against Provence accelerated everything. Burgundy seized key territory across Lorraine and the Empire, but more importantly, it established a pattern: expand quickly, but never carelessly. Even in these first years, the campaign was not about land—it was about positioning. The Early Twist: Maine Surrendered Europe descended into chaos sooner ...

If you are returning to EverQuest II after several years away, you may remember the broad outlines of your character but have forgotten some of the smaller systems that once formed an important part of everyday combat. One of those systems is stances . Stances are combat modes that change the way your character performs. Depending on the class, changing stance can shift your character towards offence, defence or another specialised form of combat. For a returning player, the important thing to remember is that your character may not always be intended to fight in exactly the same configuration. Choosing the appropriate stance can be part of deciding how you want to approach an encounter. What Is a Stance? A stance is an ability that places your character into a particular combat mode. Unlike a temporary combat ability that you activate for a few seconds, a stance generally remains active until you cancel it or select another stance. The effects vary by class, but th...

If you have been away from EverQuest II for several years, there is one rather obvious problem waiting for you when you return: what happened while I was gone? The answer is, quite a lot. EverQuest II has been receiving major expansions and smaller adventure packs for more than twenty years. New zones, level increases, classes, systems, quests, dungeons and raids have been added year after year. If you stopped playing in 2008, 2012, 2016 or even 2022, the game you return to can feel very different from the one you remember. The good news is that you do not need to learn twenty years of content before you can start playing again. What you do need is a rough understanding of how the game developed, which expansions belong to which era, and where your own memories fit into the history of Norrath. Expansions and Adventure Packs Are Not Quite the Same Thing One of the first things a returning player may have forgotten is that EverQuest II has traditionally ha...

Returning to EQ2? What you might have forgotten - Part 2 : Fertilisers EverQuest II has a long history of turning seemingly ordinary loot into something much more useful.   If you are returning to EverQuest II after several years away, you may find yourself picking up strange pieces of loot that you have completely forgotten about. Some are collectibles, some are status items, and some are ingredients for systems that you may not even remember existed. Fertilisers are a particularly good example. In EverQuest II, fertilisers are not simply items for growing crops. They are part of a long-running system involving house pets, shiny seekers and special NPCs who will exchange sets of fertiliser items for collectibles. The system has grown over the years, with different expansions introducing new versions of the items and new ways of using them. If you have been away from the game for a long time, the important thing to remember is simple: don't automatically vendor stra...

If you are returning to EverQuest II after several years away, there are plenty of things that may look familiar while still working in ways you have forgotten. Some systems are obvious as soon as you log back in. Others are much easier to overlook. Status items belong firmly in the second category. As you adventure through Norrath, you will occasionally loot items that look like ordinary pieces of treasure but are not intended to be equipped. Relics, scrying stones, amulets and sealed documents can all be status items. They are effectively another form of reward from killing creatures and exploring the world, and if you remember what to do with them they can become a useful source of personal status. If you have been away from EverQuest II for years, you may well have forgotten the entire system. So this is one of those things worth remembering before you start throwing unfamiliar loot away. What Are Status Items? Status items are special pieces of loot that can drop from ...