As I said in my last post, my walk in the wilderness of Norrath is at an end. It’s been almost a month since my last EQ2 shortiez update … mostly because for a while we didn’t play much. Illness, travel, etc got in the way. But we’ve gotten in three solid weeks now. Three really, really, fun weeks. Why, just yesterday we were in the ice-carved halls of Miragul’s Menagerie dinging level 50 … but I’ll get into that next time.

The past few weeks, we’ve been back in the zone of Rivervale. After our time hunting the demons almost to extinction, we turned our attention to the instanced dungeon in the middle of the area known as Drafling Tower. In short, it was one of the best experiences I think we’ve had yet moving through the content in Norrath.

While I’ve enjoyed most of our questing experiences over the levels, Drafling set a new high water mark for me in the game. It’s this great rambling building that has this ruined, bug-chewed motif. The big old building has been invaded by bees and bixies, and there are a number of quests associated with clearing it out. A few of them you get wandering around in Rivervale, but the thing that makes Drafling so wonderful is that you obtain a bunch of them right there in the instance. You’re bopping along, killing bees, and you find a clickable book or candelabra. That click nets you a quest that has you kill things down the hall, and you get your reward instantly, just for finishing the quest.

Actually, the deeper I get into the design of EverQuest 2 the more I see that Warhammer is pulling elements from this game as well as DAoC and WoW. The only downside to the dungeon is that the story elements are kind of weak and the quests themselves are kind of samey. “Big danger, kill x, get loot, blah blah.”

But considering some of the teeth-pulling frustration of other zones and dungeons, this is seriously good business. The end boss is kinda weak sauce … maybe a C+ … but it doesn’t have to be super great. It’s like a nice after-dinner mint. The design of the tower itself is really what I enjoyed most about the experience. The whole instance is geared to keep groups moving through it quickly and effectively. It’s a level of pacing that I haven’t seen in any other EQ2 content so far, and shows up frequently in the best of WoW’s dungeons. Actually, for some reason Drafling Tower reminded me a bit of the Dead Mines, minus the story and scripted events.

Now I want to play Dead Mines. Hmm. Next time: the joys of level 50 and haunting the Menagerie! After that we’re bound for Lesser Faydak (this time with quests!), and then on to the Loping Plains. Can’t wait to get me Warg! Oh, and that said, is there a quest to get a Rhino? Or someplace to buy a non-horsie mount without guild points?