Everquest was the first online game I ever played, but I took a decade break. When I quit, the froglocks had just become a player race, the Irkar and Var Shir (lizard folk and cat folk) were still new races, and EQ2 had just been launched. The 'Mines of Gloomingdark' (the new tutorial) had just been started. There were only 8-10 expansions(not really sure how many anymore). Now, there are 26 expansions and one does not have to take the tutorial past 5th level. I am wondering... What is the highest level possible (the level cap) now? Is it different for the separate races/classes? How long can a player expect to play a character before reaching the level cap (as it stands now)? I now have 11 characters at level 9 or level 10 (after leaving the mines at 5th or 6th). I expect both the level caps and the expected times will increase before any (much less all) of my characters hit it.
If you have all of the expansions, the maximum level is 115. If you have not purchased any expansions since you returned, the most recent two will be unavailable, and your maximum level will be 110. As for the time to level . . . that will vary wildly by person and how they choose to play. There are no differences in the level cap when it comes to races or classes.
Thank you very much. When I stopped playing a decade ago; the cap (with all expansions) was around 50 (so long ago, I'm not sure). And I'm pretty sure the 'expected time' was just over 400 hours per character.
There are multiple ways to level quickly as well as the Heroic Character option. The difference today is simply going to be that group prospects below 75-80 are going to be rare, and you'll have to make due with just a mercenary (npc you can hire to group with you) and yourself for parts of it. After 80 you'll start seeing more players regularly, and post 95 you there are usually a fair number of people. But you will need to be proactive and make groups yourself, and more importantly the whole time be making friends, even if you just talk to them for the time being. Once you get to the higher levels, having friends to help find groups is great, and they can also help you get into guilds or other organizations which can help with finding groups or even raiding.
Not sure why you want to leave the tutorial at level 5 when you can stay till level 11 and gain more exp and rewards. But bottom line is you do not have to do the tutorial at all. Only if you want the haste stick, charm, free merc etc. On you character creation screen you can choose to turn off tutorial and it will by pass that and put you in the game.
