How hard would it be to catch up on Mischief

I played when Mischief first released, made it to like mid 50's on my Bard before my work got in the way and I had to cancel my sub. Now the server is older and far more expansions have been unlocked, how hard would it be to catch up with the times? Plus I am not super experienced with the game or even a Bard lol tbh - I'm more of a casual player for the most part I think. Does the server still have a good pop? Just looking for some insight on how rough it would be returning after this long.

Why not just play on Teek? Same ruleset but much earlier in expansions and a much higher player base.

Teek is not the same. Mischief is Random Loot drops and tradable no drops.

It love the confidence with which you incorrected them.

Yup not the same you will be fine on mischief, enjoy

Teek is a mischief clone. Newest TLP to celebrate 25 years.of EQ.

In what way do you think the server rulesets are different?

Wow....there are a whole lot of people that keep saying this.

https://www.everquest.com/guides/eq-what-is-a-progression-server

Teek

• Launched: May 22, 2024
• Ruleset: Random Loot, Free-Trade Timelocked Progression - Loot from rares and raids is randomized so that NPCs/raids of similar level and expansion can drop any of their loot. New expansions unlock automatically every 8-12 weeks.

Its the same rules...find me a link that says different.

However, Teek is filled with a lot of toxic pl'ers and kronoquest farmers. Mischief filled with a lot of boxers not grouping, so pick your poison.

It's not different I just want less idiots on teek

Mischief is in a bad place for new players. The population is super low and top heavy now as is the norm for later EQ TLP servers. The "best" expansions everyone does are years ago at this point, and Teek has come in and wiped out a good chunk of the population who want to play those again.

There are plenty of top end guilds still clearing content though, so if you want a later expansion EQ experience it's still probably the best.

Catch up is... not gonna be great. Getting to 75 wont be too bad, but after that it slows down a lot. Zones are more designed around just doing quests for levels. As a bard in particular it sucks. Your dps is terrible without aa and gear and your healer merc will barely be able to keep you alive.

Once you get to the robot (look it up, the main grind at this point) you can grind there for many levels, but however way you do it will be solo and very boring. Mobs still hit crazy hard without AA to tank them in the robot and your gear will suck. Autogrant really doesn't shower you with enough power to keep up.

This is mitigated a lot if you just box 3 characters and have a dps and tank with merc healers, but the grind is still going to suck.

We are 4 days away from RoF expansion launching, which means people will come back, but most will just buy a powerlevel, box, or group with friends. If you can find some way to get to 95 in the next few weeks, people should be leveling to 100 in RoF for at least 3 weeks. After that, these expansions tend to be a ghost town as people just raid log and do lesson burns occasionally.

This game is honestly just badly designed at this point in its life cycle. Amazing if you bring a group of friends. Good if you box and are antisocial. Horrible if you are solo as it's still not really meant to be solo'd unless you don't mind killing crocodiles for .3% xp a kill for weeks. The people that fly through the levels every expansion launch have characters in full raid gear and capped AA. A bard using autogrant with group gear will be paper that hits like a wet noodle.

I'd recommend just going teek.

Uh, the population is not "super low". I'm still regularly seeing 2-3 general chats on Mischief. Plus we are getting the TB merger in 2 days.

As for the other statements about leveling...a lot of that is true to an extent. However, I know we usually have guild members who will group with and help new guildies who are trying to level up. We've had quite a few newer folks join recently and get to max level.

I'd just recommend finding a guild, and don't be afraid to ask for help.

all the rmt farmers went to teek

Don't confuse the OP, they already said they lean toward a more casual style of gameplay, and this is not hard to explain.

Imagine an apple. That's Mischief.

Now imagine an orange. That's Teek.

Stop misleading stuff, Teek and Mischief only gradually overlap on the new "merging ruleset" guidelines from the 2021 dev note. It's set up so there are lots of surface similarities b/c DPG has to think about keeping the codebase reasonably consistent. But gameplay is totally different, not least because of the pop numbers.

Psst. They have identical ruleset. The only difference is Teek has lots of people in an earlier era that you can still group to level, and Mischief doesn't.

It comes down to what era of EQ do you want to play.
If you like the early era, play Teek,
If you would like to play some of the expacs not normally seen on a TLP, then play Mischief.

Both are viable... less pugs on mischief, but more established guild groups
Teek has more pugs, but more toxic players playing EQ for $$

As for catching up, no problem, all gear (including raid gear) is tradeable, and i think has a double drop rate, so most guilds are awash with the stuff... .applies to both servers.

As a bard you'll be welcomed with open arms... everyone loves a bard.
One thing someone said to me that always stuck...

A bard is not there to make themselves look good (DPS wise)... they're there to make everyone else look GREAT!!