Everquest: Gates of Discord Expansion Pack

by Sony

Product Features

• Expansion for the massively multiplayer online role playing game, EverQuest
• 100 new Alternate Advancement abilities with new and unique skills to master
• 20 new zones, 10 new instanced zones, and 10 new traditional zones including a huge ship city zone
• New Berserker class empowers you to ravage your enemies with two-handed axes or by hurling large objects
• Note: this online game charges a monthly fee and requires an Internet connection

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001AS04C
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: February 11, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,724 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The greatest threat to the world of Norrath has been unleashed in EverQuest! The lost continent of Taelosia has been discovered and a massive assault force, the Legion of Mata Muram, is creating chaos and devastation on this once peaceful continent! Experience EverQuest: Gates of Discord and help protect your world while adventuring in many new zones, including a stony city, sprawling temples, a myriad of catacombs, and a maze of sewers. And meet the Berserker, the newest EverQuest character class and perhaps your closest allies in melee combat against the invading hoard of fearless, deadly monstrosities from the chaotic Realm of Discord. Features:

• 100 new Alternate Advancement abilities offer more options for character progression with new and unique skills to master.
• Gain leadership experience and unlock many group- and raid-enhancing tools.
• 20 new zones, 10 new instanced zones and 10 new traditional zones including a huge ship city zone, complete with merchants, tradesman, and quest-givers, where you can gather your party and launch expeditions. The new combat zones are for characters level 50 and over.
• New Berserker class empowers you to ravage your enemies with two-handed axes or by hurling large objects.
• Discover the newly found continent of Taelosia, which holds the secrets of Norrath's future.
• 20 all-new NPC models make for hundreds of challenging encounters unlike anything seen before in EverQuest.
• New Tribute System enhances gameplay by allowing players to choose beneficial attributes, skills, or effects through offerings at their home cities.
• Dozens of new and exciting story-driven quests and content for the hardy adventurer.
• New tradeskill recipes to produce hundreds of new items.
• Unearth arcane spells, mighty weapons and other hidden treasures!

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars GoD is mainly targetted at uber players, April 23, 2004

By 

Keith Vaglienti (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everquest: Gates of Discord Expansion Pack (CD-ROM)

I've been playing EverQuest since the very beginning. Over the years I've picked up the various expansions as they came out. Gates of Discord is the first one to make me seriously consider asking for my money back. Most of the content is aimed at uber players with 65th level characters that have tons of AA points. If thats not you then there are exactly four things in this expansion that will be of interest to you.

1) The new berserker class. I've toyed around with one of these and found it to be a fun addition to the melee classes. Not sure its worth the price of the expansion though.

2) New tradeskill interface. They've come up with a new and vastly improved tradeskill interface for this expansion. It allows you to look up most common tradeskill items, see if you have the necessary components to make them, and turn them out with a couple of clicks of your mouse button. With the old interface it would take me 6 mouse clicks to make Celestial Essence, an item needed in large quantities for high end tradeskills. With the new interface it only takes me 2 clicks. Its great if you're into tradeskills. If you're aren't into tradeskills, the new interface isn't worth it.

3) Leadership Points. You earn these by leading groups. They do take away from regular experience though its a small set amount and only when you're actually leading a group. They allow you to do things like place visible markers on NPCs so that your group knows who to concentrate on in a fight. If you lead a lot of groups, they might be worth it. If you don't lead a lot of groups, you'll have no use for them.

4) Tribute System. The gods of Norrath are unhappy with their creations. As they become less responsive to their followers, people have looked for alternatives. This is the tribute system. The way the system works, you go to your home town and donate items or money to the tribute master in exchange for which you recieve tribute points. You can then expend tribute points to have the local mages send you power wherever you are to temporarily boost various stats, resists, haste, etc. Note that you can only turn them on in your home town and once active they burn tribute points at regular intervals until you either turn the power off or run out of tribute points. If you turn the power off you have to go back to your home town to turn it back on. Interesting concept but it leaves a lot to be desired. Basically its a thinly veiled system for removing money and items from the game and, in my opinion, not worth the price of the expansion.

The new AA abilities added with the expansion also deserve some mention. There are a couple that are available in the 50s but for the most part you'll have to be 61+ to take advantage of them.

If you're an uber player or a tradeskiller I'd say the expansion is worth it. If you lead a lot of parties or you want to play a berserker, you might get your money's worth out of it. For everyone else I suggest you give GoD a pass.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Some Good - Some Not So Good, March 3, 2004

By 

Therese M. Woolley (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everquest: Gates of Discord Expansion Pack (CD-ROM)

I have had the GOD expansion for a little under a month now and have had the opportunity to explore the new zones with my 63 warrior. Not all of them mind you, because there are some zones in which the mobs quad for 1K and my group and I barely escaped with our lives. But the first two zones Natimbi, and Qinimi are nice zones full of dark blue mobs to kill. But, and this is just my opinion, the xp in these first two zones is average. I get better experience in the planes.

The tradeskill interface is awesome. You simply click on the appropriate container and the new UI is displayed. The user searches for a recipe, and then clicks the appropriate one from the search results. The interface will show you what items are needed and if they are already in your inventory they appear green, and any missing components will be red. Assuming you have all the necessary components in your inventory, you simply click the combine button and the UI takes the neeeded components and does the combine. Saves a lot of clicking.

The Tribute System is weak. Basically you purchase a "skill", like additional fire protection or an increase in hit points, using plat or old gear (can't use no drop gear). That new skill is activated and is now on a timer. Once the timer runs out your skill is gone. This system is only useful if you need a temporary upgrade of stats for a raid or a hunting session in a high end zone. But considering the cost, the return is minimal. Also, you can ONLY get the Tribute Points in your home city, which is just a pain for those of us who do NOT have the ability to port or gate.

My only experience with the new Berserker class is in an LDoN adventure playing my 31 cleric. The Berserker was our MT and had problems holding aggro (since they can't taunt) but did dole out a lot of damage. Time will tell if they are valuable in a group situation.

The expansion introduces Leadership Experience, which is ON by default. Experience is diverted to Leadership to earn some new abilities, so if you are more interested in leveling or working aa make sure to turn off Leadership Experience. Some of the new abilities are Mark NPC which allows the leader to mark a specific NPC and give instruction on how to handle the NPC. Or the Find PC ability which enables the leader to use the find command to display a path to a targeted group member. Since these abilities can only be used if you are a leader in a group their use is limited and I believe players will continue to work regular and AA xp long before they turn Leadership XP back on.

The new expansion also offers some new aa skills. For example, Swift Journey, which increases your run speed. I'm not really sure how this stacks with the existing Run3 aa or if it is a replacement since Verant does not include any type of documentation in the boxed version of the expansion. Rather you have to visit their website and download the manual. This pdf document provides only a cursory overview of the new expansion and does not really provide any in-depth detail.

The new aa abilities are again broken out into general, archtype and class specific abilities. For example, Clerics have a new class ability called Exquisite Benediction, which is an activated ability, and creates a stationary ward that continually heals everyone around it. Warriors have a new class aa ability called Strengthened Strike, which is a passive ability, and increases attacks done by kick or slam.

So bottom line. Is the new expansion worth purchasing? Well, the new zones are for level 55-65 players and can only be accesses via the boat or Magus. This is short sighted and makes hunting difficult. The Tribute system has limited use and in my opinion needs a complete overhaul to make it worth the expense in RL dollars for the expansion, and the plat spent for the short lived skills. The Berserker Class has yet to prove it's value or make it's mark so it not a reason in itself to purchase this expansion. The Leadership Abilities are useful in limited situations and not a significant enough upgrade to warrent purchasing the expansion. That leaves the new Tradeskill UI. If you're into tradeskilling the new UI and the new Absymal Sea zone, in which you can find just about everything you need to work your tradeskills in one convenient location, is the ONLY outstanding upgrade included in this expansion. Is it worth the cost of the expansion just for tradeskilling alone? That is a question only you can answer.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If you aren't in a raiding guild you will be disappointed, February 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Everquest: Gates of Discord Expansion Pack (CD-ROM)

The expansion was advertised as being for Everquest players in the 55-65 level range. The expansion is for level 65 players with elemental and time gear in raiding guilds. Berserkers may be interesting, time will tell, but as far as the game goes, the zones are structured to have a progression like Planes of Power. If you are an average non-raiding guild player it will be a long time before you do anything beyond the tier 1 zones if you can even survive the ones beyond the Abysmal Sea and Natimbi. There is very little content for the average player - very much like the Planes of Power expansion. You may as well wait a bit for the bugs to be worked out, the price to drop, and see if they do anything to make the expansion a bit more worthwhile for most players in the level range.