Heroic Characters Begin Their Adventures in Norrath on March 12

I agree that the game favors bots now, but this does at balance the leveling abilities of the various classes. It would be really nice to see a much higher (as in noticeable) experience bonus for full player groups.

Yes, rank 1 to 85.

Somehow, I just knew the treant warder was going to be nothing more than a trunk with twigs sticking out and completely and utterly leafless

It's their clever way of enticing players to spend SC on Petamorph items. Which I will do.

Well played, SOE. Well played.

just a little clarification, i live with a roommate, who i got hooked on EQ recently after returning. my account was created in 01 and is gold, his is still F2P and was created recently. will one of us get screwed over by the 1 HC per household because his was created ~1 month ago?

will he have to delete his account, change households and create a new one from a different IP if both of us want a free heroic character?

I wonder how many people (I probably will) will waste the free HC upgrade on their level 100 mains with max aa just so they can get a big bump in their begging skill hah (I never pushed mine further than needed for bic and trying recently I spent like an hour for 1 skill up).

There should be a discounted price to upgrade a character that already exists depending on their current level. I don't think it should be the same amount to get a brand new level 85 character with equipment and all skills/spells than a character that gets upgraded from like 70 to 85. That was 70 levels of spells and skills raised and AA's worked on. I understand there should still be a charge for it...you're getting advancement for a price. But why should it be the same price as a character from scratch.

Roshen:

If we upgrade a currently existing character to a(n) heroic character, if that character already has high tradeskills, will these be affected? Heroic characters come with tradeskills set to 25, and I want to make sure that it won't mess with the tradeskill levels of any character that I might choose to upgrade.

I feel like there's no reason to play until Mar 12. Lvl 85 and 4000+ aa and full gear for free.

I logged in and .... stared and ..... some hours later I come back and stared again. /camp.

And for me anyway this means I probably won't bother with the Creepy Concerto quest. Thats' what I wanted to do just because it's undead and I haven't seen it and for the experience, but now there's no point.

Even though the extra levels and aa are welcome, a part of me feels like something was lost. I mean, my two guys are lvl 70 about and low aa's and I had planned out what I was going to do for ~10 levels. Now all that planing means nothing.

I'll receive flack for this, but I think it shouldn't have been free. More than likely I'll use this on Mar 12 or soon after, but you know what??? If it had been 3500SC, I'd be playing right now. Frankly, if it had never happened, I wouldn't give a ****. How can I miss something that never happens? This game is about the planning and execution first before it's anything else. This announcment effectively means I have to redo things. I'll probably eventually enjoy it, but I"m not enjoying it right now.

My suggestion is htey should have made it free for Gold members.

Could that not be changed, so HC would be able to swap it on AFTER they made the char and played ?

If you have a newer account in the household, that only qualifies for the one per IP, have them claim their HC first, then claim on the older account(s). I did a testcopy, and logged in there, the characters show an Upgrade button, so I expect that the same thing will show on live, make a new race/class if you want and log it in to upgrade or upgrade one of your already created characters. As the live option is not until next week, folk have time to consider what character they might like to bounce to 85.

No real point to continue on about this. Seriously, its here now and it isn't going away. We have a choice to either take advantage of the free 85 toon or not; same as the choice to pay 3500 SC for the 85 toon or not. Its up to you.

I've already made my mind up that I am not going to take advantage of the free toon; nor will I invest in something that is pre-built that I have no personal vested interest in.

I see this as something that will benefit boxers more than it would the player that enjoys the 1 - 100 journey.

So I don't think I have seen anyone say it yet, but 3500 station cash for a level 85 character is just insane. It takes approximately 6-7 hours to power level a character from 1-85, even after the "Power level nerfs". My point being no one in their right mind will pay that much. realistically this service should be 2500 SC tops, I hope you reconsider your price guidelines since you went through the trouble of nerfing power levels to make money on these.

I'm in the 8/8 boat. don't have room for another toon. since 6 of my toons are much lower than 85 (my 2 mains are both 100) I'll probably use this to raise my lvl 2 vendor to 85. hoping he will be able so sell stuff for more profit.

Rather important question. I have a number of chars that got good level TS, and this would be a nono

If I have 8/8, and I buy a HC, would I then get 9/9 or would I have to delete an old char first (or transform an old char to HC) ?

If I transform an old char and it has full inventory/bags/bank and such, would the new items be put into the "parcel" thing, where i can get the items ?

My wife is interested in playing, and has a Freerealms account (created when Freerealms just was released). She just activated it for EQ and is able to login and create a character (hooray, she now can yell at me in game as well as..oh, I said that out loud. Never mind. /hides).

Is the account check made per station account creation date, or when the account was EQ-enabled?

(Yes, she can start at 85..but she can practice killing me in a group and learn a bit before I let her go kill the rest of you people! /flees)

When you upgrade a current character you keep anything you've already earned. Epics, gear, skills, tradeskills etc

Has any lvl 100 tried this on test? It's a big risk for a lvl 100 main char to do this and encounter a bug, losing levels, AAs or gear.

I'll really like to do this if there are no bugs discovered.

Already answered the second. You get a window that you take what you need (but have to have space to claim it.)

There has been no indication that everyone would get an extra character slot with this. However, if you're already maxed in character slots, you can buy another using the loyalty points or station cash.