Rezalt in Unrest

Having died many, many times in the Iksar-only (lizard-only) guild I'd been lucky to be a part of, I realized there were limited resurrection options with the classes available to the race. It isn't always the easiest to find someone willing and able to go out of their way just to help correct the mistake you made or glitch you suffered from that ended with your death. It's time and resource consuming. Always wanting to be useful, I made a Cleric. And when it comes to the class of Cleric, it isn't always the most fun to play.

EverQuest wasn't known for its combat system. It was one of the originators of the tab-targeting system, with spell abilities and a very limited selection of combat abilities. Clerics are the ultimate healers within a group, and have the ability to bring back players who have recently died. My character's name was Rezalt (rez-alt, very creative I know), and it was around this time that I also read an interesting post about alternative ways people were playing their classes.

One user even outlined a leveling path they took at a Battle-Cleric: a self appointed sub class based around style of play, that turned what is normally a group healer into a bane of the undead. Paladins were already a class that existed in the game, but they (in)famously neither excelled at combat, or holy spell casting. As I played with this emulated style, I came to love it. This kind of role flexibility is not common in EverQuest.

When I think of other games in the genre - like classic World of Warcraft whose druids could fill every role required in a group with their shapeshifting - I could see how talent trees and skill point allocation could really create some varying builds depending on the player. It made me appreciate the evolution in the genre in that respect. Although I have historically criticized the MMO genre's move towards ease-of-life decisions, as well as systems over experiences, the talent tree was an upgrade all around.

However, for the Cleric, with great spellcasting comes great down-time to recharge mana reserves. Hence, this piece - a result of my meditative efforts of sitting in a house, surrounded by skeletons and ghouls, with nothing but a spellbook open and a watercolor pad laid flat. It's faster, messier, and more cartoonish than most of my other work, but it was fun.