returning player after over a decade so seeking suggestions

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by DijonCyanide, Mar 1, 2020.

  1. DijonCyanide New Member

    Hello,

    I'm a returning player after over a decade. My scenario is: (1) I want to create a brand new character (2) I don't plan to subscribe, at least not at first while I re-learn EQ (3) I do have a couple thousand Station Cash/Daybreak Coins or whatever the currency is now (4) I want to progress at a "decent" pace but no desire to be a top player nor PvP (4) I mainly want to play for nostalgia purposes & hopefully finally see zones which I couldn't access back when I played (4) Back in the day I was subscribe from SoV to GoD or a little prior to GoD when I unsubscribed (5) Are there ever any sales to use my currency on for non-subscribers?

    That's all I can think of currently. I appreciate any/all suggestions about how to play & enjoy EQ better. I'll scan these forums searching for tips. And thanks in advanced.
  2. Fluid Augur

    1) Even if you create a new character, try to get your old account back. There are a lot of bonuses like faster leveling and ability to call a vendor or banker to your location.

    2) You probably don't have to subscribe until level 50 or so and only if you need Mercenaries. Plenty of game available for those levels of course and you can level to 80ish solo if you know the game. Above 80ish, the AAs are throttled so you can never accumulate enough to be viable.

    3) There is a vendor in PoK for loyalty tokens. I don't find loyalty tokens to be huge in game but they do let you do stuff like housing. Once again, this part is mainly about recovering old account. You may be talking about Station Cash? That lets you buy things like SoW potions or Breeze/Clarity potions. I find them useful and fairly cheap.

    4)(4) Do the tutorial. It takes a weekend of fairly casual play to complete and will give you good'nuff equipment to last into the 50s. Ditto for running quests around Cresent Reach.

    5) Only vendor is in PoK and you can use the 'Find' function and look for ~loyalty vendor in job description.
  3. DijonCyanide New Member

    Thank you very much for the suggestions! I had kept my account name & password all these years so just the downloading & logging in weren't difficult. Still reading trying to catch up on big changes about EQ & going through the servers trying to find my old characters if they're still there. My 2 mains back then were a Ranger & a Monk in their 60s/70s. I do remember that "Find" feature lol I always liked that mystical stream leading the way to the destination.

    Thank you again.
  4. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    On the other side:D

    Your old account is called Silver - this entitles you to be in general chat - as opposed to normal free accounts which cannot. Good place for asking questions in game.

    Don't worry about subscribing. They way they have upgraded the game on live servers makes it very easy to solo well into the 90's, for example you would have no problem solo'ing all your epic at around level 75 nowadays. Characters are much more powerful with the new armor and equipment.

    You can run a merc or not. I usually don't on my lower level guys so I get a sense of how to play them then around level 60 I will start using a healer. But we all play different so mess around and see which you like. Hitting those old zones and quests is a blast now that you don't die just cause you got attacked by Bazu's in WOS. In fact you can prob solo Shadow Hunter - I do - over and over. That mob killed me so many times he deserves it.

    There are two loyalty merchants, one that was mentioned in POK and another in the housing area in Sunrise Hills. You will have 5760 max tokens there and until you spend you will not gain any more. So spend away. Then you will earn 120 more each week. You can buy Tokens of Resurrection which are nice since you can rez yourself or others with them. Vicious rabbit is fun and ads a small amount of dps. But most folk go for the gold ticket. You can go for the casino mount doing that. Scroll down on this post to the one by Byren on Jul 2011 which explains how to do it https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=25424.

    As for the tutorial - it will really only take an hour or so. That is if your doing the basic quests from around the middle. Those will get you free merc, haste totem, charm, armor, food, etc. If you want to go further in the mines then it will take a little longer but at the end you will be around level 11. After that go to POK and continue with the "out of gloomingdeep" tutorial. These are given by Selcana Galnor and are very short https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=5787. She is right next to one of the loyalty merchants and is on find under tutorial (without an S). While you feel you may not need the tutorial it really is beneficial if you do it - just for the free stuff alone. Plus the second one give you access to a guild with use of the guild portals for getting around but no officers, raid or drama. Just a generic guild run by the game.

    Now you need to find out if those few thousand currency you have is DB Cash which will only show if you open the marketplace window (The large DB icon on your screen) or if its Loyalty Tokens (listed under alternate currency tab on your inventory screen). There are no sales for Silver and Free accounts on DB Cash items - you pay full price. This brings up the next thing a lot of people do:

    Get to level 80-90-100 and subscribe for 1 month (don't forget to cancel if you don't want to go past that ) and while your subscribed go and do "auto grant" this will give you all the AA up to what ever level you do it at. You keep those AA when you return to Silver. This helps since Silver is limited to 1000 AA or how many ever you already had from before. You could also take this month to buy stuff in markeplace at the 10% discount for all access members. It works even better if you time all this around a sale - they are random throughout the year.

    I highly suggest that returning players do not buy armor or weapon upgrades especially in the Bazaar. Most of it is overpriced and drops frequently from mobs or can be made. I shop the baz - find what I want and then google it to see how to get it - either killing or making. You can get 3 free pieces of armor every 5 levels by just doing the daily hot zones from Teek guy in POK outside the lobby. You will get bonus exp also doing those kill 5 tasks and can sell back to merchants repeats of the armor.

    Finally have fun! Its great for returning players!
    KarmaKitty, Yinla and DijonCyanide like this.
  5. DijonCyanide New Member

    Thank you so much for the lengthy & highly detailed suggestions including links! I created a Drakkin Monk yesterday on Tunare just to take a quick look around & I did notice it said I have 23 or 24 out of 26 or 27 expansions. Excellent point about waiting to spend my DB till I would subscribe for a month. Those AA points were a bane of mine I remember trying to keep up pace, the not being able to keep pace nor catch up is a primary reason I ended up giving up on EQ. I wish DayBreak would have some sort of "Welcome Back" bundle but I've been gone for so long I'll probably do the complete tutorial & still be lost. Again, many thanks.
  6. Fluid Augur

    Make sure you type /veteran on what you decide to be your most likely to be used character. That opens up most of really good perks like a buff monkey familiar that will follow you around casting beneficial spells. You also can use /claim for a lower level series of rewards.

    If you do decide to subscribe at some time, you may want to save some of your loyalty tokens for a bag of platinum. This is only available to subscribers, cost about 450 loyalty tokens, and yields ~15,000 pp. For most of my low level characters I have used it on, it is essentially a lifetime supply of cash. At higher levels like you have, you can always thump hill giants for cash. Most people just hunt in areas with a lot of gems for loot and unless you are a equipment fashionista, you will do fine.
    KarmaKitty and DijonCyanide like this.
  7. DijonCyanide New Member

    Thank you again. I already jotted down the /claim & /veteran commands to try out at some point. If/when I locate my old characters I probably am not going to use them to reacquaint myself with EQ. I want to create a brand new character. Thanks for the loyalty tokens heads up too for if/when I do subscribe.
    Fluid likes this.
  8. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    We get a lot of returning folks in our guild and I usually share this link with them.

    Fallfyres and DijonCyanide like this.
  9. DijonCyanide New Member

    This was a GREAT video. Thank you very much. It brought back so many memories too lol. It also reminded me I didn't quit around Gates of Discord but Omens of War. Wow that had lots of information. I been popping in & out of the servers trying to find my 2 main characters, a Ranger & a Monk but to no avail :-( I do remember being interested in a Beastlord for the pet back in the day & that Berserker seems nice since a bit OP, according to the video, & straight forward in playing, but replaying my favourite, a Monk, but as a Drakkin this time is tempting & would hopefully be more familiar.

    Thank you again for that YT video, that was just awesome. I appreciate the sharing of it, & after I check out the different server rules I'll keep in mind your Xegony. I was never into PvP & hoping there's now maybe a server that is better suited for playing catch-up on all of EQ. Thanks, Corwyhn Lionheart, & thanks to that Telkiney, that was great being informative & nostalgic.
    Fallfyres likes this.
  10. Yemeth New Member

    So Vex Thal and Time I reckon?

    Alas, friend, on the normal and free servers you wont find what you are looking for, trust me (sure you can go there solo once all mobs are grey) , I started playing exactly for those reasons almost a year ago, having stopped playing when Warhammer Online and WoW launched (which was around GoD if memory serves), if you are back for nostalgia, the only place you will find that, will be at the TLP servers (https://www.everquest.com/guides/eq-what-is-a-progression-server), specifically the Agnarr server - as it is a Ldon Locked server (which was the expac prior GoD)

    Be warned though, today that server is a bit deserted, but there are still active guilds that raid Time there, there are open raids for all the raids leading up to Time as well as Vex Thal raids (if you have the key fixed) , as the video showed, lots has changed which you w/o doubt can see every time you log on, if you are after nostalgia, it wont be found elsewhere.

    But Agnarr is not for all, certainly not me, once you hit 65 and has access to both Time and Vex Thal, the only challange was to get best in slot gear and that is frankly to time consuming so if you would be considering a TLP server, Mangler is the way to go - it is the most populated of them all at the time, they have recently moved into the PoP expansion.
    DijonCyanide and KarmaKitty like this.
  11. DijonCyanide New Member

    Thanks for the insight, especially since we envisioned similar paths with nostalgia in mind. So much has changed indeed!
  12. DijonCyanide New Member

    Wasn't sure how to approach this, but I wanted to shout-out my thanks to a couple of players on Firiona Vie server: Zozz & Rexha, I appreciate! Which also introduced me to the RP element I had forgot about with this server lol in-game languages, I just hope I was able to convey my thanks. They gifted me some items during my time in Gloomingdeep which made such a HUGE difference in progressing & enjoyment. I wanted to accomplish & complete all of the quests in the tutorial before I left & I think because of their generosity I succeeded.

    I know currently there's free-time on those TLP servers which were very tempting, but after trying to research I decided to begin on that FV server because I didn't want to progress on a TLP server then lose my progression if I didn't subscribe afterwards. Probably a more difficult decision if a brand new server was currently beginning to add that "real" brand newness. Also, neither allowed Froglok Monks :) & I know Iksar have the statistical advantage, from what I read, but I sort of wanted to try something that wasn't around way back when I played so it was the Froglok or that Drakkin & a Monk since it seems more straightforward while still familiar. But dang a lot seems to have changed or my memory isn't as good lol. So now onto exploring this Crescent Reach.

    I also noticed there's some DB market sale currently. I've apparently had some, used to be, Station Cash but now DB currency on my account from around a decade & a half ago. :) Although it still seems expensive to me on sale but is that big BIG bag bundle in the DB Store an okay value? They're at the top in a bundle of 4 bags something called Journeyman's Pocket Rucksack Large Bundle. I'm considering buy this so wanted some insight. From my memory Monks want little weight so these seem ideal since I've read FV in-game pricing can be really expensive overall & I might as well use-up all of my DB I have.

    Thanks again to all that have replied here with any tips/tricks, huge appreciation to those Zozz & Rexha, & also thanks to YouTube's Flatts & Ion Blaze!
  13. Magickon Augur

    Firionia Vie pricing won't effect you at all for a long time. The kinds of items that will be serious upgrades to you at the time being, are the kinds of things people only really have accidently, that usually get destroyed or sold to a vendor.
  14. DijonCyanide New Member


    The pricing does seem VERY steep. Yesterday when I visited the Bazaar for the first time since over a decade ago SO much has changed & it seems more spread-out than I remember. I remember stalls where you had to be online, I think, to sell & now it seems spread-out & confusing to me lol. But, I'm relearning & that will take time & not sure how old this FV server is but usually the older means higher price, it just sucks for starters. Oh yeah, after the fact visit, I learned I don't have to actually travel to the Bazaar lol & I'll research what that Barter thing is but there does seem to be plenty of restrictions in use for free-players of course. I'm just going to look for good Monk items, level-up, then get good enough to explore regions I never got to before. These Mercenaries are such a nice idea & somewhat keeping me alive lol.
  15. Magickon Augur

    Being able to have the bazaar stuff delivered to your parcel is nice, but I would recommend just dragging a level 1 character to bazaar to make your purchases. The 10% tax can add up pretty fast.
  16. DijonCyanide New Member

    Well I just got into my 80s now. The majority of it was aided by some gracious FV community members & guilders which I'm thankful. I'm considering subscribing at 85 for at least a month, even though a whole year is a better bargain per month, but I'm finding what is offered with a subscription confusing. So I had a few questions hopefully someone wouldn't mind answering if they come across this:

    1) The spells/skills ranks of tiers1-3 I know as a free-player I only access tier1 but as a sub I can access tiers1-3 but if cancelling a sub would I still have access to what I already own if any tiers2-3? I also understand that tiers2-3 seem to be only through maybe quests & loot drops.

    2) The AA auto-grant system excites me since I remember a major reason I quit EQ 16 years ago was I wasn't able to keep pace with all the AAs. I mean there's thousands of AAs now which is VERY intimidating. If I subbed at level 85, do I get 85 AAs or more than that? I don't understand how many AAs it means per level or should I wait till a higher level to sub? Is there a chart somewhere on the internet showing how many AAs one would receive at which level subbed?

    3) Are Loyalty Tokens a worthwhile reason for consideration. I haven't seen much discussion about them.

    4) Another priority besides the AAs to me are the Mercenaries. I think this is a good concept. My little healer Merc however began noticeably falling behind in the early 70s & still is but even more now lol. I understand there's: Apprentice then Journeyman, & also Master but that latter no access currently apparently. Then there's tier1-5 with free-players only having access up to tier2 I believe. So if subbed only have access to tier3-5 why have tiers3-4? Wouldn't someone always want the best being offered? Is there a significant difference in quality of the Merc between free-player status (tier1-2) & subbed status (tier3-5)? Also again, if after not being a sub does one still have access to their higher tier Merc that they've employed or does it lower itself back down to free-player tiers?

    5) Lastly, I understand Prestige items are only for subbed players. So of course I have to ask, if someone is subbed & loots then applies a Prestige item then unsubs are they still allowed to use it?

    If I subbed at level 85 would it be a reasonable assumption to be able to level up to 100 during a month's sub? Or dare I say 115. Understanding the AAs & the Merc pros & cons are important to me because having "access" to something I know doesn't necessarily mean I'll even be remotely able to achieve or acquire it. If anyone knows the answers, I greatly appreciate any/all suggestions regarding my questions.
  17. DijonCyanide New Member

    Argh, what a waste of a day, Daybreak supposedly cannot find my old character to restore since I couldn't answer all their questions but provided plenty of information, but then again I guess it doesn't benefit them too much neither.

    Then the dang Hotzone daily armor quest is in Silyssar, New Chilseth which, unless outdated information, is behind a locked portal via a quest(s). At least the exploration was a little fun.

    Also, Mercenaries still suck with the higher levels even as subbed. I guess the only efficient way to play EQ nowadays is 2+ boxing the game since "Moloing" putters out pretty bad in the 70s.
  18. yepmetoo Abazzagorath

    Mercs are mostly ok. Did you release your old merc and get a new t5 journeyman merc? Just subbing won't make your merc any better. Also, still have to do one of the two quests for access to those better mercs (sod progression in that one zone, or the new easier task in feerott).

    Silyssar is NOT locked anymore. It opens up after X expansions or whatever, but its definitely not locked.

    As to the account thing, it is what it is. If you can't provide the info they require, they can't just give you a pass. Anyone could steal someone else's account that way. The onus is really on you to remember your old info or get them the info they require. Stinks sometimes, but is what it is.
    DijonCyanide likes this.
  19. yepmetoo Abazzagorath

    1) If you go ftp, your spells go down to rank 1, but you don't lose them. As soon as you sub again they are back to rank 2/3. Not sure if its still there, but there was a cheap option in marketplace to let ftp accounts use rank 2 spells. Maybe look into that.

    2) What aa autogrant means, is that they grant you ALL aa except things like tradeskill ones, and a few other special ones. So at 85, you click auto grant, zone, and BAM, you just went from say, 100 aa to 1500 aa or whatever. If you go back to unsubbed you keep them all, but can't earn more (in theory you could spend thousands of dollars on the 100aa unlocks in marketplace, but that is insane). So a lot of people either buy a krono or pay for 1 month, autogrant, earn whatever aa they can in that month, then unsub, if they intend to stay unsubbed.

    Autogrant will give you in the range of 9000-14000 aa at level 105 (where it currently stops, its left at X expansions behind current, so keeps going up).

    3) You get loyalty whether subbed or not. But I do think you have a higher max velocity if subbed. Not really a consideration for most people. Can get perfected augment distillers to remove destroy only augs, can get some small bags of plat (about 14k plat each), can get rez tokens (clicky 96% rez items ANY class can use), gold tickets for the casino, a different 16? slot bag every month, and permanent increase in number of character slots on your account.

    4) As I mentioned, you have to do a quest or quests to get access to the higher tier journeyman mercs. You'll want to do that as the lower mercs are much dumber, weaker, and have low confidence (they will literally run away if you get too many mobs on you, for example).

    5) If you have a prestige item equipped, when your sub runs out it will still be worn, but you won't get any of the stats from the item. It will be shaded yellow/purple (depends on if its the item or the aug) to let you know. So if you intend to spend a lot of time as ftp or silver, you want to invest in non-prestige gear to keep available.

    T1 is usually non-prestige, and T2+ is prestige. Same for raid or group gear. But if there is only 1 tier of gear, its going to be prestige for that expansion. So there are some gear oasis ranges out there, and some really good spots. Like, this expansion, droppable T1 group gear is non-prestige and is very close to T2 group gear.

    There are at least SOME augs now (most of the quest augs, hotzone augs) that aren't prestige, but almost all augs are prestige.
    DijonCyanide likes this.
  20. DijonCyanide New Member



    Just sucks since I know not all that many participated in that Stormhammer server back in the day, compared to EQ's popularity, so there couldn't had been, if any others, too many Human Monks with my character name lol. I even remember after a few months moving back still holding a couple of the bluish wand orbs that could resurrect lol. I didn't think they'd be exhuming my old character initially anyways, long shot, & rummaging in the attic for any & all EQ that I still had was sort of fun while I found other things too.

    Thank you very much for the information regarding my inquiries. I definitely need to complete the quest for the top notch Mercs. These starter subbed Mercs are mush 70+ & seem to only be a few hits better than the free to play Mercs. The autogranted AAs are really helpful & definitely improve my character which compensates for my lack of refined gameplay lol. A helpful guilder explained to me about that Prestige & I like that there's a filter for it on /bazaar. So my goal will be to try to get to 105 for the autogrant optimized AAs while subbed. Dang, then there's my epic to try to do lol.

    I made my way to Silyssar, New Chilseth. I felt good making it there on my own & was fun exploring, but never could operate properly that portal device on the ground nor find info on how to on the internet so that was a bum trip. I'm going to begin looking into the whole boxing endeavor since it seems to be the mainstay on how to play & progress now.

    Thanks again for the answers & suggestions.