Ancient Heroes

Ancient Heroes: Old Man McKenzie, a frequent patron of the taverns in the Plane of Knowledge, thinks you adventurers have it too easy these days! Back in his day they didn't have all this fancy armor and magical weaponry, they relied on their wits and not a little luck to survive!

Think you've got what it takes to survive in McKenzie's Gold era?

Now's your chance to prove it! Enter McKenzie's world and take on the denizens of Nagafen's Lair, Permafrost, and Guk as they were meant to be played, at level 50!

Transform yourself into a character built to mimic the classic EQ experience before even the lands of Kunark had been discovered. Prove your mettle by besting the Undead Frogloks of Guk, or the Kobolds of Nagafen's Lair, with up to 5 friends. Or if you're feeling especially gallant, gather a raid force and take down Lord Nagafen or Lady Vox! With all new rewards you'll want to conquer them all!

On September 15th, 2009, Old Man McKenzie stumbled, half drunk, into the tavern in Plane of Knowledge and started telling anybody that would listen (and those that wouldn't) how things were back in the good ol' days.

Now you can join in on his stories by reliving the classic content via Monster Missions. For each mission you shroud into a level 50 in gear representative of the time and go after the group nameds or the dragons. Each win earns you some brews which can be used to buy high powered versions of the gear of yore.

After the October 12, 2010 patch, the missions no longer gave any experience reward. Since the February 19, 2014 patch, they reward a small amount of experience upon completion.

Group missions

 * Pak'Cafan: Old Man McKenzie (Missions)

There are three group missions. Each group mission has an ~18 hour lockout.

Group tasks require a minimum of three adventurers to obtain and all three must be present to open the chests. You need to open the chests in order to complete the task.

Your group's average level must be at least 80 in order to request this task. Players under 80th level can participate as long as the average requirement is met.


 * Ancient Heroes - Nagafen's Lair
 * Ancient Heroes - Lower Guk - You must have completed the "Ancient Heroes: Nagafen's Lair" task in order to request this.
 * Ancient Heroes - Cursed Guk - You must have completed the "Ancient Heroes: Nagafen's Lair" and "Ancient Heroes - Lower Guk" tasks in order to request this.

Raid missions

 * Pak'Cafan: Old Man McKenzie (Raid)
 * Daybreak forum thread on the best way to obtain the Staff of Forbidden Rites

Raid tasks require a minimum of six adventurers to obtain and six must be present to open the chests. You need to open the chests in order to complete the task. It originally took twelve but on April 11, 2012, the number was changed from twelve to six.

Your raid's average level must be at least 80 in order to request these tasks.

You have to impress Old Man McKenzie with your accomplishments before he will allow you to start a Nagafen or Vox raid or see items that come from them. People who have completed more than seven raids from Solteris, Meldrath's Mansion, Crystallos, or all but the first tier of Seeds of Destruction Easy Mode, or any of the Hard Mode Seeds of Destruction raids will impress him. You must request a Nagafen or Vox raid from him or attempt to join one in progress for him to check your accomplishments and allow you to see the raid items.

There are two raid missions. One to kill Lord Nagafen and the other to kill Lady Vox. Each mission has a 3 day lockout.


 * Ancient Heroes - Lord Nagafen
 * Ancient Heroes - Lady Vox - You must have completed the Lord Nagafen raid (above) to request this raid. Lady Vox will leash to her spawn point should she find herself outside of her room.

Rewards

 * Ancient Heroes visible gear
 * Ancient Heroes miscellaneous gear

Completing each task causes a chest(s) to appear. Group mission chests contain one item of loot, raid chests two items.

Each mission also rewards you with experience, cash, and "McKenzie's Special Brew". McKenzie's Special Brew is a currency with you can use to buy items from Old Man McKenzie. Group missions earn you 1 Brew and raid missions 2 Brew.

The items in the chests can also be turned in to Old Man McKenzie for 1 McKenzie's Special Brew for group items, 3 Brew for raid items, if you do not wish to keep them.


 * A listing of the gear Old Man McKenzie will sell you. This is also the loot that the chests may contain.

October 8, 2009 patch changes
With the October 8, 2009 patch, several changes were made. Some of them are listed below:


 * Many of Old Man McKenzie's items have faded from memory. If you have one of these faded items, give them to the Old Man in Plane of Knowledge and he will return your Brews.  If you had augments in these items, be sure to put them in bags before you zone.


 * Most items from Old Man McKenzie's group missions have been upgraded in power. They have also had their required levels reduced to 80.  These items do not need to be turned in to see the changes.


 * You will now have to impress Old Man McKenzie with your accomplishments before he will allow you to start a Nagafen or Vox raid or see items that come from them. People who have completed more than seven raids from Solteris, Meldrath's Mansion, Crystallos, or all but the first tier of Seeds of Destruction raids will impress him.  You must request a Nagafen or Vox raid from him or attempt to join one in progress for him to check your accomplishments and allow you to see the raid items.

September 2010 changes
SOE has posted in this post on their forums some changes coming:

We have decided not to give Old Man McKenzie a sabbatical, but changes will be coming to what he does.

The major issue we have is that he gives a HUGE amount of reward, both in experience and items for absolutely zero risk except possibly a small amount of wasted time if you somehow manage to fail.

A smaller issue is people not learning how to play their own class, but this is only a small issue in our opinion, and probably not widely prevalent. We are sure it happens sometimes, but it is not the majority of the cases.

So, in the September patch, we will remove ALL experience rewards from the missions that Old Man McKenzie offers. We may bring the experience back in a modified form in the future, including requiring that you actually participate to gain the experience, but that particular point is still under discussion.

This will leave the monster missions as no risk way of gaining high value items. We continue to have no plans to raise that amount of brews given. If you think the item is valuable enough, then you will need to repeat the mission enough times to get the item. We still consider it too easy to get these items, even with the requirement to grind for a while to get some of them.

Road to Underfoot
'''The "Road to Underfoot" was a way to gain early access to Underfoot. It is now over. This section has been left in for historical purposes only.'''

This is the second event in the Road to Underfoot.

"Old Man McKenzie, a frequent patron of the taverns in the Plane of Knowledge, thinks you adventurers have it too easy these days! Back in his day they didn't have all this fancy armor and magical weaponry, they relied on their wits and not a little luck to survive!"

"Think you've got what it takes to survive in McKenzie's Gold era?"

"Now's your chance to prove it! Enter McKenzie's world and take on the denizens of Nagafen's Lair, Permafrost, and Guk as they were meant to be played, at level 50! Transform yourself into a character built to mimic the classic EQ experience before even the lands of Kunark had been discovered. Prove your mettle by besting the Undead Frogloks of Guk, or the Kobolds of Nagafen's Lair, with up to 5 friends. Or if you're feeling especially gallant, gather a raid force and take down Lord Nagafen or Lady Vox! With all new rewards you'll want to conquer them all!"

"Below level 80? Seek out Franklin Teek who's hiring adventurers to slay creatures in the 'Hot Zones' of Norrath. Some say he is a 'fixer' for some unknown party, while others think he seeks to live vicariously through the exploits of others. All we know for sure is he always seems to have work for those in need, and he's willing to pay well to have it done! Completion of any one of Franklin's 'Hot Zone' quests by December 1, 2009 will qualify you for the Ancient Heroes Road to Underfoot event."