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Player of the Week: Ueuil 
Real Name: PatrickAllakhazam Name: ChanterTime Character Name: Ueuil Character Race: Dark Elf Character Class: Enchanter Deity: Not applicable (Enchanters should always be agnostic.) Server: Prexus Guild: Valorious Guild Website: http://www.valorious.org Guild Rank: Officer/Banker Length of Time in Guild: Collectively, about 2 years. Real World Location: Tampa Bay, Florida Career / Employment Industry: Massage Therapist/Healthcare/Bachelor of Fine and Performing Arts, Licensed Massage Therapist Hobbies: EverQuest (obviously), biking, working out, rollerblading Besides EverQuest, what other MMORPGs have you played? Briefly played on World of Warcraft, which I always thought looked silly. How did you find out about EverQuest, and when did you begin playing? When I got a new computer, a friend of mine introduced me to it. I got hooked, and while my friend is kind of a MMORPG whore, playing all sorts of games, I'm strictly an EverQuest afficionado. Do you know anyone in real life who plays EverQuest? Yes. How did you come up with your main character's name? Ueuil is my first and main. I kept messing up with the name selection, and accidentally ended up accepting a game-generated name for this toon. What factors affected your choice of race / class for your main character? I've always liked the Drow of Dungeons and Dragons, a fascinating race of subterranean evil elves. And my friend who introduced me to this game gave loaned me some guide books on Everquest. One of the things urged by the guidebooks was not to make an Enchanter your first toon. And as anyone who knows me will tell you, the quickest way to get to me to do something is to tell me not to. Besides, I consider myself a reasonably smart guy. I understand that the Enchanter is a hard class to play, but there's no reason I couldn't pick up on it. I made a ton of mistakes as a low level Enchanter, and was frustrated no end by this class, but I didn't give up on it. And I consider myself pretty good at it. About how often do you play EverQuest, and how long is a typical playing session for you? Generally, about 4-6 times per week. My sessions are average around two hours. How do you spend your time in game? Ueuil is out to get all his AAs done. So, I generally solo stuff. I like charm kiting the restless alligators in Loping Plains or the Lieutenant camp in the same zone. (I'm not sure why it's called "charm kiting." You aren't kiting at all.) What other class/race combinations have you levelled past 35? Besides Ueuil, the Dark Elf Enchanter who is 80th, I have a Wood Elf Ranger (currently 38th) that I enjoy playing. Approximately how much of the EverQuest world have you experienced? I would say that I've at least passed through almost every zone, save the high-end raiding content. What is your favourite expansion? Secrets of Faydwer, because it really is an Enchanter's expansion. Charm kiting has never been safer with this expansion, thanks to the addition of the Enchanter AAs, Beguiler's Directed Banishment and Beguiler's Banishment. It's made Enchanters into a viable solo class, as well as given us the tools to bring charming back into groups. I solo nameds all the time now, and have given many good items to my fellow guildies. What is your least favourite expansion? Omens of War..."Charming must be nerfed." What is your favourite zone? At the moment, I would say Loping Plains, which I have affectionately dubbed "Warping Plains," for the mobs' annoying habit of arbitrarily winking out of existence or to another part of the zone, sometimes just as I have targeted them and am in mid-cast. Despite these and other problems with it, it is a charm kiter's haven. There are undead camps for the Necromancers, such as the Zombies near the zone in or the Skeleton camps by the Hills of Shade. For Druids, they have animal camps, such as the Alligators at the southeastern corner, or the Grizzlies and the Pond Hoppers by the Goblin fort. And of course, as the most versatile charm-kiting class of them all, I can take any of those camps or others' besides. I like the alligator camp mostly. It's good experience, although that, along with the drop rates, has recently been nerfed. What is your favourite NPC? Master Scribe Uklo of Gukta. Illusion: Guktan was a totally cool quest with a neat story, and a very touching ending. (Although despite his assurances that I would always be welcome in Gukta, I'm still KoS to the lousy Frogloks unless I'm wearing an appropriate illusion.) If the war between Firiona Vie and Lanys T`Vyl erupted again, which side would you take? Hard to say. I consider myself an outcast of Dark Elf society, so probably Firiona Vie. Describe your most memorable moment or proudest accomplishment in game. Probably killing the All-Seeing Eye. Although we were holding our own with 1 and a half groups, the other toons seemed to all run out of mana at around the same time, including the Cleric (bad news). So, I gathered mana, cast Mana Flare on myself and burned down the mob the rest of the way, as my Shadow Knight tank held him off. What is the largest amount of platinum you have ever had at one time, and how did you go about accumulating it? I'm not a very rich Enchanter. I don't take payment for buffs, for one thing. But I would say I've had about 200K at one time. I don't have a trader in the bazz, so I use the barter system to sell off the good stuff. Also, as one who has 300 in eight tradeskills, I can generally do combines for a tidy sum. What are some things you would change or implement in order to improve EverQuest? Increase the number of spaces in the guild bank and add another one, just for tradeskilling supplies. I get tired of filling up my bank with the stuff all the time. What types of spells, skills, disciplines, and/or alternate abilities would you like to see added to your class? As far as Alternate Abilities go, I think with the SoF expansion, Enchanters are pretty much set. I'd rather see some kind of progress made in the areas for which Enchanters were made. For instance, as you look at a Wizard nuke spells, you'll find that they get faster cast times and phenomenal resistance checks as they progress. But Enchanters are still stuck with the 2.5 second cast time on our mezzes and our 5 second cast charm, which only come with negligible resist checks, if any. I realize we now have a "flash" line of mezzes with a Chromatic resist, plus a penalty that starts at 100 (and a huge recovery time), but why is this a separate mezz? Since Wizards now have faster cast times and higher resist checks as standard on their nukes, shouldn't Enchanters also have this as standard on their mezzes? Also, a couple of years ago, the spell Dementia was a slow nuke with about six seconds casting time, it had a huge recovery time and a large mana cost. Then it was changed. The cast time was dropped to 4.5 seconds, mana cost reduced and recovery time drastically reduced, the damage lowered from 650 to 571 and a one second stun was added. I applauded the change and submitted feedbacks, praising this to the skies, hoping that all our nukes would be revamped like this, but no such luck. I'd rather have a fast, efficient nuke with less damage, than a sluggish nuke with higher damage. The same with our DoTs. They took away the debuff with our DoTs and the stun with the nukes, so I'd like to see us get something that would compensate for the loss of the stun and the debuff. So, in general, I think the cast times of our mezzes, nukes and DoTs should be faster. It makes no sense for the most mentally acute of all classes to be burdened with sluggish spells. I'm not asking for an improvement in DPS. With the right charmed mob, Enchanters can be the royals of DPS. I just think we should be faster on those casts. If you were responsible for organizing and running a GM event, what would it be and how would it play out? Instead of assembling everyone in the arena and having them PvP --gee, how original -- I would probably assemble everyone, and arbitrarily assign them to groups, based on needs to create a full group. Have each one complete a mission -- could use already created instanced missions, but with a catch. Assign a time limit, or add an NPC (played by a GM) to give a reward for their "rescue," Then when all the pieces are recovered, the item is used to defeat some ultrapowerful menace, and PoK (or whatever) is saved. Of course, it's unlikely that I would get the right combinations of players and classes to create groups complete with tank, slower, healer, DPS, etc. But I could also use kite missions or solo missions to give those "extras" something important to do.. If you had to start over from scratch, what race/class combination would you choose? I think I'd do what I did. Although I think a Wizard might be fun, too. But I love playing a Dark Elf. Terrific race! They can be any type of pure caster, they have two tank classes they can be, and they're the only evil race that can be a Cleric or Rogue. How do you describe EverQuest to your coworkers or computer-illiterate friends? Dungeons and Dragons online, complete with the visuals. You don't sit around a table while the Dungeon Master describes it to you...you see it for yourself. What is next for you in the world of EverQuest? Gaining the ability to do cultural tradeskill combines. ** Pick the winner in a battle between... Qeynos vs Felwithe - Qeynos. I'm KoS in Felwithe... just because I'm a Dark Elf. Innoruuk the Prince of Hate vs Cazic Thule the God of Fear - I have to side with Inny. Giants of Velious vs Akhevans of Luclin - Akhevans of Luclin. Mean little buggers. Muramites of Discord vs the Drachnids of Darkhollow - The Drachnids. Tradeskilling vs Questing - Those two are not mutually exclusive. Doing one often involves the other, but I would say questing. Skill ups in tradeskills are tedious going. Instance Zones vs Static Zones - Definitely instanced zones. They generally have a purpose and a goal to be reached. Static zones are just pull and kill, pull and kill...BOOOOOORING! Monster Missions vs Project M (PvP as Monsters) - They're both terrible, but I would say Monster Missions. Soloing vs Pick-Up Groups - Soloing. You can leave at any time. Guild Raiding vs Grouping With Friends - Grouping. I hate raiding. Seven hours of "Haste, please..." "Seer's, please..." Shoot me now, please. GM (real people) Events vs Scripted (computerized) Events - Scripted stuff. The GM events are rather disappointing in their lack of creativity. "Oh, no! PoK is in trouble! And the only way we can save it is through PvP!" That's so interesting, I just might yawn myself to death... Arena Royal Rumble vs 1-on-1 Duel - Neither. PvP is a pointless waste of time. Faydwer vs Odus - Faydwer. Kunark vs Velious - Velious. Planes of Power vs Gates of Discord - Gates. Quite the challenge in its time. Depths of Darkhollow vs Omens of War - Depths of Darkhollow, despite the creation of those godawful Monster Missions. Omens emasculated the Enchanter. Bard vs Enchanter - Enchanter, as of the SoF expansion. Any time prior, I would have said Bard. Monk vs Rogue - Monk. I love Rogues for their usefulness, but they're only major DPS when striking from behind. Paladin vs Warrior - Paladins. They tend to hold the aggro better. Allakhazam vs Illia - Allakhazam. If you would be interested in being featured as a Player of the Week at everquest.allakhazam.com or would like to nominate someone else, see this thread on our EverQuest Forum. |
