Returning casual - Too late to start on Oakwynd?

Sorry if this has been answered, I’m not a regular forum poster. I love EverQuest and every so often I get the urge to play. This most recent urge I tried p99. While I appreciate its authenticity the lack of low level population to group with I found to be difficult. In addition some things like future hell levels, hybrid /evil xp reductions, low level corpse runs, lack of maps just seem like unnecessary anti-QOL.

I literally just found out about Oakwynd, and my question for the community is this: is it too late to start on Oakwynd. Here are my goals to perhaps answer this question.

Play a troll warrior - I know ogre is best, but I like trolls
Find regular leveling groups
Attend a raid at least once before the expansion ends
Join a guild with active members that can raid but isn’t pushing the limits

I’d love to hear feedback from the community before spending money on a sub. Thanks!

The honest answer is that warrior is going to be one of the hardest classes to do this with. Most of the grouping activity at low levels is going to be around commons area into Unrest and then Guk / ToFS after that before finally Velks.

You could do it but it's going to take some grinding. I'd recommend starting up a shaman box if you have that capability / desire as it will make your life 100 times easier.

Finding groups will be an issue if you play Off peak hours (population is very bad/low during that time, especially lower levels).

I started a few weeks ago, I'd say it's not too late. Most of the time I've found groups as a druid. Had to form one or two. Tanks seemed to be hard to find. Innothule will be a little lonely, but try and get to unrest asap. People usually have a high level to help the group level. You can probably hang around the tunnel in commonlands and find some buffs.

Like others said, warrior will be tough as first char, but if you join a guild people will help you get started I'm sure.

Definitely not too late. Oakwynd has a decent population of people levelling alts for the alt-max-level bonus. On top of that the upcoming double exp bonuses will have even more people rolling alts.

And once Luclin hits, there will be plenty of people rolling beastlords, so you can join them.

Unless you are boxing to level yourself or paying for power level, I wouldn't bother.

The xp is insanely slow and group options below top level are almost non existent.

Now by comparison Mischief is still kicking and it's much easier to level yourself because of mercs.

Plus the game is more exciting with harder raids, more mechanics, more abilities and harder hitting mobs.

Also I would hate to be on oakwynd with that slow xp during SoL, the AA grind is going to be utterly brutal.

Oh boy beastlords and ultra slow xp combined with a long and grueling key quest for VT!!

Sounds like a great time!!

Play with a friend? No problems there.

I had no issues , I just did my 3rd toon on the server 1-60 in the last two weeks as a tank.

Update: So I decided to go for it. I have been having a great time! So far I am level 19 Troll Warrior, my name is Knifewolf please feel free to add me in game. Currently leveling in unrest.

I do think it is worth mentioning what has added to my enjoyment and I will be 100% honest. When I first started I noticed I had some station cash, not too much like around 2k. This was likely due to past times subbing to play back in the day and the occasional times I tried EQ2. I was soloing in Innothule swamp and it was going well but slow, to help I used that station cash to buy regen potions. This dramatically increased my ability to solo and decreased my downtime. I read the TLP "read first" post here and downloaded Brewall's maps. What a massive difference that made. So far so good I kept grinding along till about level 7.

Now here is where I think it may get controversial. I bought a Krono. But really I did so to give me options, with 1 Krono I was able to get decent weapons, a regen tunic, some cheap armor pieces etc. This made soloing viable. I know it wont last for ever but it did give me the option to solo untill I can get to a decent level with more group activity. In some ways this has already happened. At 19 I am able to level in unrest and that zone is PACKED with people. I've seen as many as 40 picks.

I have to say I am enjoying myself, I can't lie, and being 19 already is better than I expected. I do feel a little small tinge of guilt for buying the Krono but it seems so integrated in the market now that I suspect many people are buying Krono. Would I prefer the game didn't have Krono? Yes. Did Krono help me and keep me in the game, able to play the class I want? Yes.

All in all I am going to continue playing through my month of sub and see how it goes. Thanks again for all comments. Just some feedback from a casual.

Tip 1 : Use player rewards on eq2 for bag of gold ... convert gold to krono on eq2 and use here.
Tip 2: If you are in a plat split guild on eq2 (avatar +) see above it's 10x faster then eq.

Started earlier but worked kicked up in the summer. In the same boat and probably jumping back in around winter time. It wont be too late, especially if you're jumping in now at Velious. Shadows is hella fun and ofc the final death throw of PoP will be there for you, like every sever.

Huh? Do you even play the game anymore? XP isn't that slow, and the VT key has been made much easier to complete.

Don't feel guilty. Play the game game like you feel like and have fun. Twinking can be hella fun, and it will let you catch up in levels faster.

Good to hear you are having a great time! Welcome back to Norrath.
There is absolutely nothing wrong in buying Kronos from DPG for in game trading use!

Send me an in-game email to Meleegibson. I will parcel you any war items I have.

AA xp in luclin era is always very slow. It's going to be very slow on oakwynd unless they do something to make it faster.

VT key was easy on mischief because of random drops, now you can't contest the shard mobs because of FTE, so enjoy bot armies monopolizing those to sell for loot rights.

Bonus AA exp unlocks with Luclin if I'm not mistaken. (125%) How much it will help remains to be seen.

Make it faster? You mean like the AA bonus that phatmattfu mentioned? What about the people who maxed up multiple characters to get a bonus? What about that massive bonus for the charity event that will be open for a week right after Luclin opens?

And for VT, have you heard about the update where random mobs in the zone can drop the key parts? Kunark VP, for example, could be done in a couple hours.

I don't know anything about a luclin xp bonus.

AA xp in luclin era was always very slow until the PoP bonus.

As far as the heirloom bonus for AA's it really won't be worth doing it considering that you have to have multiple max level toons. In the time you had to level those up you could have gotten the AA grind done already instead of having to do regular xp on multiple toons.

Also no I didn't hear about that update, as far as I knew that was only a thing on mischief.

I'm fairly certain you are referring to the PoP AA xp bonus.

Unless there was something new since mischief was launched, because I remember the AA xp being just as slow on mischief during luclin, until PoP launched.