So, full disclosure, it's been a LOOOOOOOOONG time since I last played (Think original PoP). Obviously just a *few* things have changed in that time. So! With that being said. Looking for advice/opinions to get me back onto the path. I'm going to roll a brand new character. The question is what, and where. I played a Cleric back in the day, and I am tempted to re-roll one. Are Clerics still solid healers? Are they currently more for raid healing, or group healing, or can they shine in both areas? As to where to play, I'm looking for a good home. I'm an EST player, so ideally looking for folks who play on EST times. Thoughts? Am I going in the right direction?
IMHO: Spend what ever time it takes to get your old account back. Give customer support anything you can remember like your email at the time or character name. It would even be easier if you could remember your account name and password as they are probably still active if you got a character on your account to level 10+. The rewards for being a veteran are that good that it would be worth it to spend a week getting the account back. If you want to start a second account for your new character go right ahead. Boxing with multiple accounts is considered the norm now. Start in the Tutorial and it will get you decent equipment that should be good to level 50 or so. Clerics are still good but with mercenaries they are less critical now. Your appointed/purchased mercenary healer will even resurrect you if need be. With a two box using two mercenaries, one healer one tank, leveling is almost automatic. You just have to keep from doing something remarkably stupid i.e. hail a Hill Giant. Mercs start flatting out at around level 50 and by level 70 as a Cleric, you should be able to outplay them.
I would suggest Agnarr server if you want to play EQ closer to like it was in the old days. Agnarr is a timelocked progression server and only has the first 3 expansions unlocked, and will stop unlocking them at PoP I think. Lots of people in starting zones and everywhere else in the world. Regular servers have so many zone that the population is very spread out. You are likely not to see another souls in any of the starting cities and older content like Classic, Kunark and Velious.
It also depends on where you want to start. If you start on a live server, being a cleric is not as important as it once was. With mercenary clerics, the only time you really need a cleric is on raids where you can't use mercs. That's not 100% true I guess but probably close to it. If you were to level something new, you could pick anything and use the tank merc and level to 50+ quickly and with no problems or need for much downtime for healing. If you restart on a progression server, they have different rules based on which expansion they are on. Agnarr is currently in Scars of Velious and it will never go past Legacy of Ykesha so they will never have needs. Clerics in high demand always there. I'm enjoying the hell out of Agnarr myself. I'm in a casual guild that raids 2 times a week and we recently took down Vindicator and Statue of Rallos Zek. That's no big deal to raiding guilds but I personally never got to raid the first time around so they were both first times for me.
Thanks for the info. On my realllllly old account, I believe I either traded/sold it back in the 90's when I was desperate for cash, so recovering it is a nonstarter. So it will be a new account for me! I'd probably go with a non time-locked server. I'm not necessarily only playing for nostalgia, but I wouldn't mind seeing the newer content, while doing the older things (completing the cleric epic weapon quest, etc). I am open to trying other classes. I'm looking for a class that can always be useful, vs situaltionally useful
I don't know if my fingers/mouse could keep up with what a bard does. Maybe back then, unless it's all totally macro-based.
They added this /melody thing many years ago because so many bards were lost to carpal tunnel. https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...oper-care-and-feeding-of-heroic-bards.209160/
And don't forget healer mercs are widely used everywhere but raids. They are not allowed in raids and some other situations so a cleric is handy here and there or when you can't solo a lower level raid without a healer.
Recover your account if you can. They were very helpful when I did so, even if I had to dig out bank statements from 2005 to confirm my last payment method. My wife got her account back through the automatic process using her old email. In addition to getting your old account back just as you left it, there are various items, bonuses, and account perks you'll get if you recover your old account rather than making a new one. I used to box a cleric and bard, and as mentioned above, when they added /melody, it became much simpler to keep up a twist (especially while boxing). Also as mentioned above, mercenaries can more or less fill the primary roles of tank/healer/damage very easily into the later levels. Bards on the other hand are a very versatile if complicated class, and there are no mercenaries to replace what they can do in solo/group settings. If you go cleric, you'll do fine group/solo... especially if you follow an undead leveling guide. I came back ~2 weeks ago for similar reasons and from a similar background. It's too bad you missed the exp bonus; but even so, exp can still go a lot faster than it used to depending on the server. Finding no one I knew on my old server, I eventually re-rolled a new bard on a new server and later added a box team... because why not? Good luck & have fun, whatever you choose.
I'm going to roll a cleric (at least to start), and I'll figure out the rest from there. Thanks for the info!
