Everfrost  Zone Review

Is it Frostfell yet? No, not really, but still I would recommend some warm mittens, today I'm going to take you to Everfrost.

Everfrost, accessed through the Thundering Steppes, is a unique zone. Its name is the perfect match; it's snowing, it's cold, it's winter all year long. As you arrive for the first time you find yourself at the docks on a small island in the middle of the Everstorm Bay. Put your mittens on and take a swim but be careful, Dreadwake is sometimes on the loose and his teeth are sharp.

If you head to the left you come across two smaller islands, each with an npc; one starts the Heritage Quest for Tobrins Mystical Eyepatch and the other unleashes Dreadwake. As you go past those little islands you will get to the shore. Ahead of you will be the icewolfs and some members of a mysterious Expedition, both however are needed for adventure writs so going there is often worth it even if there are no quests that would reveal what exactly that Expedition is doing. The quests in Everfrost, well, there aren't many to be honest but there are plenty of other things to keep you happy.

If you swim in the other direction you will find a small tunnel entrance. That tunnel will lead you to the instance Miragul's Menagerie or shortly before it you can go through another tunnel to a large open area with stags, numfoots and various other creatures. Further up is another tunnel filled with spiders and an even larger open area with bears. However, the bears are not the only thing to watch out for, in one corner of the area the Krat'huk is laying in wait for unwary adventurers to get too close. The Krat'huk, oh the memories… hard but rewarding; that's how to best describe that ancient beast.

If you follow the giants you will soon find out what way to go to reach Permafrost, one of the major dungeons for those adventurers in the upper 40's. What's that? Yes, another big open area just to your right as you head towards Permafrost. Yes, Everfrost is a really big zone!

There are plenty of tome collections in Everfrost. Also the zone is good for harvesting some raw materials, but personally I prefer the Feerrott for harvesting.

In short: Everfrost is one of the biggest zones, filled with all types of creatures of varying difficulty with the level range spanning over a full tier. It's a bit a shame though that there aren't more quests there. In all it still has a place in my heart as one of my favorite Old World Zones.

I must admit that I'm a sucker for eye candy, and as far as this zone goes, the eye candy is great! I much prefer it over Lavastorm because the ice flows and snowy peaks appeal to this high elf more then the red hot scorched land of Lavastorm. I love the layout of the zone. It doesn't feel contrived or blocky and the back portion of it near the entrance to Permafrost is simply breathtaking. The shame is my guild pretty much always would train through there to get to Permafrost and I would rarely get to enjoy that really gorgeous part of the zone. The entrance to Lavastorm, which is basically like a dock on an iceberg, is pretty neat. I actually liked having to swim across the bay to get to the rest of the zone. No other zone in Everquest II actually forces you to swim like that. Getting away from Dreadwake the giant shark always added excitement too.

As far as harvestables, I did used to do a lot of gathering in Everfrost. While nodes certainly were plentiful, I found that I would arrive at the zone to find the whole place covered in roots or bushes or whatever it was I actually didn't need! I much prefer the new method of distributing harvest nodes which is to clump nodes in certain areas and only have one or two types of harvestables spawn in that area according to logical placement ideals. (For example wood nodes spawning in the forest or ore in a mine) It would be really nice if Everfrost's harvest nodes could be re-done in the new style.

I do wish Everfrost had more interesting solo quests. It really is such a beautiful zone I would love to have more excuses to tarry there. Sadly, I gave up on most of the quests there because they were either too difficult to do on my own or I got fed up killing quest mobs and not getting updates, or just not being able to find the mobs I needed up at the time. My boyfriend and his friends preferred Lavastorm and Rivervale for T5 hunting. I couldn't get them to come help me in Everfrost so I didn't get much content done there. I did enjoy seeing the interesting and beautiful creatures that live there though and enjoying the frosty climate and views.

My overall review for Everfrost: A real gem physically that is underused because of content. I give it 5 out of 5 stars though because I really like the way it looks and the way I feel when I'm there. That's saying a lot because there are probably only about 10 zones that I would rate that high. I guess it reminds me of one of my most favorite zones in Everquest which was the Great Divide. Everfrost is the only frosty zone in the whole known world of Eq2 and for that reason it's definitely a gem.