Rating: 
Summary: PoP is god
Review: Okay, well, a lot of people have been whining about PoP, especially druids and wizzies, who feel that this expansion has killed their porting business. Got news for ya... this expansion does not make druids and wizzies expendable. Pop lets you port to CITIES. Druids can still port to places that PoK can't get you to directly (Emerald Jungle and Cobalt Scar, for example,amongst others). Plus, in a group, druids and wizzies are still essential for evac if the situation gets ugly. Druids are still needed to buff, and Wizzies are still awesome nukers. So I don't know what the whining is about. For your info, my main is a druid. Besides the ease to get around Norrath, PoP adds spells, great quests, and higher-level hunting. This is a GREAT expansion, no matter what class you play.
Rating: 
Summary: EQ soon to be replaced by EQ 2
Review: Planes of Power isn't bad, its nice to see Verant has addressed some travel time constraints with potports. Used to be you'd spend several hours if you wanted to get someplace, waiting on boats etc. Verant took their complaints seriously and three and a half years later we have PoP. If you're not high level, there's nothing in the Planes for you. If you are high level you've probably heard what you need about it from your guild. If you're thinking of starting Everquest, don't bother. Verant will be coming out with EQ 2 soon enough and even then with their habit of nerfing classes (monk class was made into gimps with most recent nerf), I'm in no hurry to play EQ2. Star Wars maybe. Though expect to see jedi knights nerfed three years down the line.
Rating: 
Summary: clarification of PoP's capabilities
Review: PoP is crucial if you want to participate in any raids (events that have more than six people for which everyone participating in the raid gets raid experience based on the difficulty of beasties killed) -AND- it gives you more playing zones if you are over level 55. I just made level 50, but hear in our guild chats all the time about raids the upper level guild members are going on & I can't wait until I can join them. Lots of nifty NO DROP items can be found on the various planes. In addition to PoP's raid capabilities & additional zones for those higher level players, the easier transport to different locations (opposed to waiting for the nexus spires to activate or having to pay a druid for a port) saves you a lot of time, giving you more energy & time to get experience. Regardless of what another reviewer stated, you can't use Planes of Power (PoP) to get to ALL the cities in EverQuest. There are only a select number of stones for you to click that can take you numerous places within the game, making your run that much faster (again if you don't want to pay for a port, if you aren't a druid, etc.) I have all the expansion packs for EverQuest, including the just "released" (2/24/2003) Legacy of Yeshiva (or however you spell it). If you're worried about money you might want to make your purchases piecemeal. I'd recommend purchasing the packs in the following order: EQ Trilogy (save $$ this way over purchasing EQ Classic + Kunark + Velious separately), then Shadows of Luclin (gives you access to nexus & bazzar & some other zones), then LoY, and then PoP. If you can afford it, then get all of them at one time. (Note: I do not work for SOE nor have any stock in any of their holdings) IMHO SOE has a TON of work to do on their support, but the game is entertaining & addictive. It's a great way to make new friends. I'd recommend this game easily & I've only been playing since 30-Nov-2002. I do hope that the stmt from another reviewer is true & that's for the game to be less addicting over time (tho I do plan to stay in touch w/the friends I've made)
Rating:
Summary: Addicting
Review: Pros:
- The added city of the Plane of Knowledge (PoK) has abolished the necessity of porters. PoK has stones marked with city names that are right-clickable, and right-clickable books have been added in many existing cities as well. No need to get assistance to get somewhere. 'Course, this could be a 'con' for those with mains as porters. Many will feel their pocketbook hurting due to endless income from 'taxi' service.
- Character levels 60-65 added.
- All high level (55-65) zones added. Yes, I consider the new cities to be high level too because if one is not high enough, the NPCs will not communicate with you, and one cannot even port into PoK below level 50.
- More AA skills added.
- Exp is much better/quicker compared non-PoP zones for levels 55-59.
- Graveyards! If a character dies, instead of attempting to drag, summon or get a cleric to whatever /loc it's at, PoP has graveyards. Two minutes after death, the corpse disappears from its death point and re-appears at a graveyard at the zone in. Typically a safe place for any Cleric to zone into, rez, and leave. This saves a lot of time on raids.
- Some non-PoP zones were pretty deserted because the mobs hit too hard for their level and many found better exp elsewhere. PoP mobs are very well balanced in this department. They simply have more hps.
- Incredible graphics! More detail everywhere and very creative work done with the new mobs.
- Added trade skill combinations and a new cap of 250.
- Almost all new drops are for casters. Although this seems pretty one-sided, I believe melees have been taken care of in the past compared to casters... so they are making up for lost time.
- Smaller guilds are now hitting large mobs in older zones that they were unable to occupy before. Everyone is exploring in PoP and lower level characters are getting better opportunities to get to areas and upgrade equipment due to zone balance. Cons:
- Careful about leveling past 63. Many mobs turn light blue at 62 & 63 in PoP. So, level to 63, then put AA at 100% until desired abilities are max'd out. Otherwise, it's back to hours of grinding exp if one levels to 65 first.
- If one does not belong to a high level guild and is not at least level 55, it is almost impossible to get a group anywhere in PoP. Don't waste your time.
- Parchments drop from specified mobs and when turned in to like classes will return a level 60+ spell. Sometimes a duplicate of what one might already have. This can be very tedious for some when there are groups made up of mostly casters all looking for parchments... and one can typically exp for 3-4 hours before just one drops.
- Some zones are available immediately upon install of PoP, while one needs a flag (similiar to keyed zones) for others. Flagging is done by completing a series of single group and multi-group missions. It's the usual, if one person fails, everyone fails.
- Watch your faction! There is a prison in Plane of Justice (PoJ) that has its prisoners on different factions.
- Any new drops for melees aren't much of an upgrade to bother with. Enchanters/Casters:
For those that felt Enchanters were never wanted, needed or used, PoP has changed all that. It is difficult to play PoP without an Enchanter in the group. PoP mobs have a much smaller agro range and heal agro is pretty bad in some zones. Mez should be mem'd at all times. In PoP, casters swear by their horses. If you don't have one, get one. KEI is not enough. Die once, and it's gone. New to EQ:
The only thing PoP offers to the new user is the ease of transportation PoK offers. This is new a feature many now cannot live without in EQ, but it will be up to you how much it's worth. Considering how long it takes to learn all the ins and outs of the game, there is no doubt PoP will be low on the purchase list as a low level character.
Rating:
Summary: If you play EQ, you NEED this one
Review: Quite simply, the PoP expansion changed the way the game has been played for years. The ability for non-wizards/druids to move around the world in a brief period of time has changed the landscape of the game. The increase of maximum level to 65 also changed the game. If youplay EQ, you HAVE to have this expansion.
Rating:
Summary: Snore...Not another expansion!
Review: Seriously, how many more monsters do you need to kill before you get totally bored with this whole genre? All these games are nothing more than a extrmely slow First person shooter. You and your "team/party/clan/guild" fight the Monster/other party so you can get new weapons/armor/magic items to go and fight more powerful monsters/party and so on and so on. A lot of reviewers after me will probably flame this review say there is more to it than that and I ask you what? Interaction with other characters? Why not just join a chat room? It sure is a lot cheaper. There hasn't been any real new inovation since Everquest came out, and no realm vs realm isn't an inovation its just a variation of race war on Everquest PVP servers. I mean "real" innovation, like the abillity to actually affect the game, like if you kill the big bad dragon/monster/god that it dosen't respawn 15/30/60 minutes later with the same items and the same location it spawns. Instead of offering new lands with new monsters to kill why not add some new features like the abillity to become a king or queen of the land and the abillity to control NPC's that own a shop or something to that effect. Until then it's just filler to make more money, Really so now your a 70th lvl wizard with the most powerful DD spell in the land where does that truly get you, can you do anything new other than fight a more powerful monster? I don't know maybe I'm asking for too much but we are paying a monthly charge after all. And belive me I love the idea of the MMORPG and I really want it to work but I think that we have a long way to go. Maybe when the hardware becomes more powerful we can expect more content to the game. P.S. Just so you know I have played EQ,DaoC,Ultima Online and all my characters made it to at least 40th lvl before becoming totally bored with doing the same thing over and over and over and over.
Rating:
Summary: I'd rate 0 if it allowed it.
Review: Sony Online Entertainment has once again released yet another incomplete expansion full of bugs, character imbalance, stupid time sinks and VERY FEW working quests (strange considering the NAME of the game)...You pay close to [cost] US for this game PER MONTH, shouldnt they at least answer customer service issues? Purchase this game at your own risk, 2 thumbs down once again for Sony Online Entertainment and Everquest.
Rating: 
Summary: Might have been great.
Review: The graphics are out of whack and with this expansion. SOE decided to hose the monk class so if you plan on purchashing
POP and play a monk, your wasting your money. Otherwise, this
expansion might be ok. Dkj
Rating:
Summary: Big...Huge waste of money
Review: The recent nerfs have taken a significant amount of fun out of the game. This includes nerfs to the wizards, monks and mod rods. This game is a pitiful way for Sony to suck more money out of you. It offers nothing more than more time sinks, which in turn adds more money to line Sony/Verants pocket books. I play a 60 wiz and have purchased this game, and have played in the the new "planes", Dont waist your time, and money folks. This game has become more of a frustration than anything.
Rating:
Summary: I find this game still fun, if no longer quite as addicting
Review: This game is truly wonderful. It is a shared experience in fantasy swords-n-sorcery role-playing where you can team up with others from across the world. The graphics are very nice, the music now works well and the character models are quite detailed. Most of the quests have quite a bit of thought put into them. And the classes are getting more balanced. (Don't listen to some of the long-time players who have become disenfranchised. While the content design and class balance decisions may not be popular with the classes being "nerfed", I feel Verant is doing a fair job of balancing availability against quality.) I do have some minor complaints: laggy zones, over-equipped alternate characters (this a real problem in PvP servers), and some unrealistic NPCs. For example, vendors are always open and always available and always have the same core set of wares. Also there are no regular townsfolk and few young NPCs. As a role-playing vehicle, the environment is still intriguing. Unfortunately every server seems to have a few immature players who don't even try to roleplay, or worse talk out of character to the whole zone regularly. Even with its shortcomings, I plan on playing this game for the next couple of years until I tire of it. I don't think I'll tire of it soon.
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