One of the things about playing EQ again after several expansions’ worth of mudflation is that old raid targets are just begging to be slapped around to gear up low level alts, and being on a low population server means that many of the non-instanced ones are actually not too hard to catch up.

So, since I’ve discovered that I can clear Plane of Time, and kill anything in Qvic and Txevu (barring the charm ikaav, because unresistable charm can die in a fire) and even much of Tacvi, I’ve been gearing up a 65 paladin so I can hang out in older zones for the sake of nostalgia.

This has been going very well in all aspects, except for getting a bloody 1-hander for when I want to go sword and board.

My record so far:
Tallon Zek (25% drop rate): 3 kills, 0 Hopebringers.
Zun’Muram Tkarish Zyk (20% drop rate): 3 kills, 0 Longswords of Execration.
Iqthinxa Karnkvi (17% drop rate): 5 kills, 0 Glowing Hammers of Disdain.
Krziik the Mighty (9% drop rate): 2 kills, 0 Gem-Encrusted Axes

Obviously I’m trying to get some rarer drops here, but you’d think that I would have seen ONE knight 1-hander by now. My only conclusion is that the RNG has developed sentience and a personal dislike for me and paladin alts in general.

As an aside, this,has really driven home to me just how badly group weapon ratios were allowed to stagnate. The worst of these – yes, admittedly raid-content – weapons is superior to anything that can be gotten with a group, up to and including Secrets of Faydwer (9 expansions later), which had the last knight 1-hander usable by a level 65.

Followup:  One more Kriziik down with no luck but a fourth Tallon Zek kill netted me a Hopebringer.  I can leave the raid mobs alone for a while. 🙂