20+ years and I have yet to see the end of any raid, LF advice.

I vaguely know about the Artisan's Prize. Don't know the details but I have genuinely worked on my tradeskills and hoarded materials in my bank. It's something I'd like to go for one day.

As far as paying for gold though I am genuinely poor IRL so that will be something I'd have to really scrounge for.

My first raid was in Crypt of Decay with After Hours on the Rathe whe PoP came out. Raid leader had no tolerance for new raiders. Turned me off on raiding for ever. Other than guild raids for epic 2.0 orbs I haven't raided since. Never had raid level armor or augs. Never missed them. I'm happy being a casual player.

Yep I gotcha. I've been playing on P99 for the last few years. Playing around, exploring, rerolling multiple times trying to find my main, and so on. Came to realize that I don't really have a future there though. The raiding content being non-instanced there means an incredible level of toxic competition that just isn't fun, and the people you're required to kiss up to that leads those raids are not at all good people. Decided recently it wasn't for me and that I'd try to finally see my goals through on Live solo.

I sent you something in parcels, use it wisely. Also, I deleted the toon that sent it, so you can't send it back

Oh, yeah I see your forum account is from 2015 so your a Silver free account. Not a F2P. But many of the same restrictions. Silver get access to general chat.

You would not be in newplayers unless you joined it manually. Which might still be a good idea to find others like yourself.

I feel many of our suggestions are redundant for you.

I am...utterly blown away. Thank you dude, thank you so much! If there's anything at all I can do to repay you for that Krono, please let me know.

Yup I have put money into this account before, it's just not something I can do regularly. I will have the ability soon though to go on a AoC killing spree thanks to Sissruukk.

I appreciate the responses and advice you guys gave me in this thread.

Meanwhile, you can clear PoTime, it is an instanced zone (i.e. it's not contested by others) and Innorruk is in there, waiting to be murdered by you. And all other dieties next to Inny.
A level 85 heroic mage with a mercenary can clear Plane of Time with no trouble. It's just an initial phase will need some running around back to clear the separate pens.

Once you able, you can start going through AoCs.
Here is what you can do all by yourself, not needing any help from others (if you have to):
Create 2 new separate accounts (free, of course). Create 2 new characters on each account. Names, classes, races - everything can be slected randomly, or as you are pleased.

Start a group with your main lvl 85 heroic mage by inviting into the group those 4 new characters using command "/invite CharacterName" so they do not even have to be in the same zone to form the group.
Once the new character number 4 is invited and is online, log off your mage and log in our alt on your mages account (if you don't have an alt yet - create one). Invite that alt into the group, and then log back in with the mage.Log off your new characters.
Here is the group you should have at that time: your main mage is online and is the leader of the group, with 5 more members being offline.
When your mage requests AoC instance here is what EQ checks for: that your group has 6 players in it. And no other checks for offline characters. This allows you to request an AoC instance.
Once you zone into the instance - drop one of the new characters from the group, pop your mercenary and kill away.

Few zones will require lock-picking skill at some level, a rogue alt will get that skill at level 5. It's somewhat an elaborate endeavor, but doable. Meanwhile, PoP zones do not require it, so you can enjoy clearing Planes' AoC instances and perhaps work on the rogue alt later.

If you want to get the "feel" of raiding those bosses in era then you want to plan ahead and join a TLP.

If you want to just go in and WTF own the old raid bosses because you are 20-40 levels above them then being on a live server is not a bad option.

Even on the non FV live servers its going to be rough finding anything that is non instanced up.

The other piece of advice is learning to play a class. Mage is a good solo class. You will be limited on gear and AA's though. Put some time in and read over what all of your spells and AA's do. Then ask around for a mage 'how to' and practice on light blue or even green mobs until you know your limit. Then work up from there.

Just doing /pet attack would be enough for most of the level 60 gods, but its really selling the class ( and yourself ) short.

Good luck.

For sure. I plan on an "AoC World Tour" with my sister at some point in the near future. She's playing a rogue with a tank merc, and I just started an enchanter with a healer merc. She'll put in a month for the game while I activate the krono that was sent to me when the time is right. Should be a lot of fun and I look forward to finally seeing the epic content of this game.

I'm not 100% settled on enchanter though, just seemed like an interesting choice and I'd like to explore the class a bit. Still have the 85 mage to fall back on.

I tried a TLP a while back when Yelinak first came out, and quickly learned it definitely wasn't for me. It was my first TLP and it felt overwhelming playing with folks who were probably on their 8th TLP. Was slower leveling than the rest of my guild and despite claims of being "noob friendly" they were anything but. On top of that, even when I found out about something good I could try to go for, there were the professional krono box armies I had to contend with. It just felt like a hopeless endeavor.

As much as I'd like to I don't think I'll ever get to experience the raids the traditional way. Learned over the years that i'm just too atypical and socially awkward of a person to fit in with any kind of guild. But at least there is the live option to duo with my sister and clear through them.

I am not sure if mercs count toward having the required 6 characters to spin up an instance via the AoC. If they don't count, what you need to do is create some level 1's on your account, then have your sister invite them into the group. You camp out each toon until you log in the last one, the toon you are going to use for the world tour, to get into the instances.

For instance, when I was running AoCs, I had my main toon and a toon on different account set up the group. I have 4 characters with easy to remember names (using my main's name at the beginning):
xxxxtwo
xxxxthree
xxxxfour
xxxxfive

Log onto xxxxtwo, have your sister invite that toon, and camp out without dropping group. Repeat with xxxxthree, xxxxfour, and xxxxfive. Then log in your main character and have her invite that one. The other toons will show as in group, but offline. This is ok, and you will be able to request the instances from the AoCs.

I think you could test copy and do AoCs on Test?

They do. I've done a few PoP progresson runs using AoCs with my main's merc and, from my other account, two grouped offline characters and their mercs. Every once in awhile it bugs out when inviting the third character and their merc, causing the merc belonging to the offline character to drop and leave me with only five, but this is rare and easily worked around. I haven't tried this with every AoC, but it hasn't not worked yet.

come to luclin I usually run retro raids with some friends most are boxable or even soloable nowadays

+1 for me, I love doing old raids for fun. I like the new vaniki server too for the same reason since all req levels are gone you can do older raids at lower level solo.

go do your epics and yes they are raids

You're on fv, search for anyone in Emerald Alliances Reborn. I've recently returned yet again and have been in guild a couple weeks or so. Very nice group of folks. Very new player friendly and helpful. My suggestion is to reach out and find an invite there.

If you can get a group for Plane of Health and do in defence of health as a mage at 85 you will need some friends and kill named for EM12 earring
Oozing Bone Spike