Hello I haven't played the game in awhile, the last serious time was back when Drakken were added to the game... I had been playing since 2001 before then, so I kinda have a good idea of what to do for 1-65 at least from poor memory of those old glory days. I do 3 box, seeing I am an alt-o-holic and enjoy getting epics. My guild imploded, I expected that though. I do not care if one class is best for worst for DPS. My questions I guess are... It says I own 21 / 23 expansions, what does that mean I have access to? The little window isn't scrolling with the list of what I have, so I am a bit confused on that end... Any perks I should know about from serpent shrine - the 21st expansion? What is my level / AA cap with 21 expansions? I know they added houses, guild halls / lobby, more levels, AAs, spells/CAs and achievements (I am most interested in trying to get some of those ). Is there anything else I should know about?! I do have some err..daybreak coins (I guess they are called now?). Is there anything on the cash shop I should look into? I did get a mount or two for some of my casters I did spend some of my loyalty on those huge bags, and a character slot or two, was there anything else on that vendor I should look into getting? Is the game viable on the F2P model? I noticed you can only get a limited number of AA (250 I think?) I used to have 230 AA back before Drakken were added, would anyone even want to play with me later on with only 250 AA over someone who has thousands?! At what point do you think I should be able to take on epic 1.5s as my Trios are concerned? ( I assume max level and max AA would be complete overkill for this older content, or maybe not?! :O ) I know I was working on epic 1.0s for a few classes with little to no issues on my 65s. As far as my 3 boxing goes, are these good match ups, should I swap something around? Will they be viable in later content (what ever the 21st expansion's content is I suppose). Used an alphabet system for groups, A with A, B with B, etc, etc, blank ones are undecided. G. 56 Wizard, Froglok, 1.0, White Puma A. 62 Necro, Froglok, Shadow Wurm - 51 Druid, Drakkin, Spotted Leopard C. 52 SK, Gnome, Lava Braxi B. 72 BST, Vah, 1.5, Ornate Horse F. 67 Bard, Vah, 1.0, Bard Drum D. 65 Shaman, Iksar, 1.0, Sokokar E. 54 Cleric, Froglok, 1.0, Celestial Horse - 85 Zerker, Vah, Raptor - 2 Chanter, Drakkin, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A. 62 Mage, Drakkin, Silver Horse G. 51 Cleric, Froglok, Tiger B. 85 Druid, Woodelf, 1.0, Raptor F. 55 Monk, Iksar, 1.0, Shadow Wurm E. 66 Zerker, Vah, 1.5, White Puma C. 63 BST, Iksar, 1.0, Geko D. 63 Warrior, Iksar, 1.0, Sokokar - 2 Bard, Vah, needs drum ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ G. 85 Bard, Vah, Raptor D. 43 Ranger, Drakkin, Puma F. 9 Shaman, Froglok, Celestial Horse C. 55 Rogue, Froglok, 1.0, Geko E. 38 Paladin, Froglok, Spotted Leopard B. 65 Enchanter, Drakkin , Shadow Wurm A. 57 BST, Barb , White Puma - 14 Mnk, Froglok, Komodo - 2 NEC, Iksar - 2 SK, Iksar level 37 with 55 level 40 with 60 level 45 with 67 level 50 with 75 level 56 with 85 level 75 with 100 ^Are these numbers correct for grouping up? I also read they are giving everyone a free 85 again with the 18th anniversary event, what should I seriously look into boosting on my 3 accounts? I do have a 4th account, that has an 85 enchanter on it, but he was just for buffs, and for the life of me I cannot recall the account name at all lol I am sure I had more questions, but this is all I can remember at the moment... Thanks in advance for any responses!
I'm not going to answer your questions in order due to some of them being linked to one another, so here it comes. As of the time of writing, the only two expansions that you havw to play for, meaning The Darkened Sea and any other expanion prior is available for free. What this means is that you can hit the current max level cap of 105 without buying the latest expansion. With that said, The Broken Mirror added a lot of useful ways, as did Empires of Kunark. As a matter of fact, EoK added a handful of thousands of extra AAs per class, meaning certain classes cap at over 25k AAs. Knowing the above, I'm sure you already know what I'm about to say about the F2P model in regards to its viability, and the answer is that F2P is NOT viable in any way, shape, or form if you plan on hitting the level cap. Being F2P not only limits your AAs and mercenary access, but it also limits your access to any items tagged as Prestige, which is a good majority of items past a certain level. There won't be an option of somebody picking you over somebody with thousands due to this. As far as features go that you didn't mention in your original post, there is now the bazaar, where you can set up an offline trader/buyer if your account has an All Access Membership. There are also keyrings you can buy from the Daybreak Cash store to store Mounts, Illusions, and Familiars that have been introduced one by one with the three newest expansions. Latest patch has seen the addition of the capability to add timestamps to chat. Mercenaries were added as a companion NPC for solo players. I'm sure there's a slew of more features I'm forgetting to mention, but here is the biggest perk of having membership for returning players: AA Auto Grant. What this means is that up to a certain expansion, you will get every single AA without getting the AA experience by simply leveling your toon while having this feature turned on. As of right now, anything Rain of Fear prior gets auto granted, so the four latest expansions are the only one you need to grind AA for. In regards to the experience for grouping, the correct formula is minimum level = 2/3 of the highest level in group with a maximum of 30 difference. This means that at 75, you can group with a 105. Epic weapons nowadays are only used by most, but not all, classes for their clickie effect, with the sole exception of Necros, who still wear their 2.0/2.5 to this day. The reason for this is that every other worn/clickie effects have become outdated, but the Necro's Epic still has an effect that is still useful for modern content. Daybreak Cash is mostly useful for the Services portion of the Store, though there's a few exceptions here and there, like Mounts and the potion that helps with Tradeskills, to name two. Besides what you mentioned, Loyalty Tokens can also be spent on Perfected Augmentation Distillers, Unattuners, and rez tokens. Now, a couple things regarding your group line-ups... it's always about group synergy. -Group A has no real healer or tank, though you could have the pets tank and use healer mercs. BST also doesn't synergize that well with Mage and Necro. -Group B would be much, much better if you had an SK instead of a BST. Reason being that SK relies a lot on spells, which both Druids and Enchanters can boost the SK's damage output and thus survivability. -If Group C is the group you want your BST to be in, you'd benefit more from a Shaman than a Rogue, since Shamans are the best ADPS healer for melees. -Group D would be a better fit for your Zerker than your Ranger imo, but neither would be a bad pick here. -Group E is nothing spectacular, but nothing bad, either, besides a relatively low DPS output. -Group F is very similar to Group E in regards to the relatively low DPS output, except it has no tank, which is a moderate issue diminished by the Monk. -Group G desperately needs a tank and more DPS. Druid would be better for Wizard by a landslide. Most importantly, despite all I just said about the groups, remember that it's all about having fun and playing what you want to play and how you want to play. Happy Everquesting!
Thanks for all of that info! I was planning on some combos to use mercs to fill in for a healer or tank if needed. I think I recall epic 1.5s and 2.0s, I had no idea about 2.5s! I like to collect them even if they aren't still in use today. Sounds like not having the more current expansions might not be to bad, I should have plenty to keep me busy for awhile. Some of my groups I also kinda put togeather for race / lore reasons ( I am weird I know). I also like the idea of just logging into all 3 BSTs and seeing how that goes, cause I always loved that class lol! I kinda thought the mage (toys), necro (pull/kite), bst (buffs/pet dmg) would work cause of pets, with the necro aggro or fear kiting, or can they not do that anymore? If I do end up at 105, find a new guild, and want to take part in end game stuff, I might upgrade 1 account, and make it all access. I would love to play the newest expansion, anything involving Kunark makes me squeee, but I am currently broke lol I was also thinking of going back into the Guide program, but I heard they removed the free expansions perk, do they still even get all access free each month? It kinda sounds like F2P has no plat making path? If the broker / bazaar stuff is members only? Is it possible for me to earn the Krono things? Oh is the mount keyring you mentioned character only, server wide, or account wide? I do love mounts ^.^ Oh, what do you think would be worth boosting to 85? A good trio, or something to help level other classes up, I recall druid could PL pretty well. So I do have one of those to 85 already. Oh, I forgot all about crafting, I know back in the day it seemed kinda...meh... I did level something to make myself an army of 8 slot hand made backpacks though Is crafting worth taking the time to level? Is there a catch up for newer crafting levels or is it going to be really hard to go from 1 to ...what is the crafting cap now (with Darkened Sea) anyways? Sorry, new set of questions, some are all over the place!
Turns out I have silver accounts, I looked up what they get over basic free ones now days, I guess my AA cap is 1000 not 250? Also one of my accounts had the mount keyring thing unlocked on it. I assumed you put a Marketplace mount in that and it would show that mount on your other alts on that server too, but I guess not? Why isn't that a feature, gets a bit annoying to have to chuck mounts into the shared bank to swap Heirloom mounts around.... Still a few questions I had in my other post above, that have yet to be answered, if anyone can enlighten me on any of the subject matter? I also decided to boost my beastlord on my first account, I mean she is my oldest surviving character, and I always loved the class, Gentledew, also said SHM synergies with that class really well, so I boosted that character also. Wasn't sure what to do with the middle account, so I went with the Mage, I hear they are still the best soloers, So, I should be able to use that class to farm, yes?
Oh, is there any perks to being in a guild (aside from people to talk to, bug to death about questions, and party / raid with) ? I remember something about guild halls, and umm guild house being added? If you form your own guild does it cost a lot to unlock a guild house? Same question about a normal player house too I suppose, is there a reason to get one? Can a silver account have one? Are they just for show, or do they have perks? Also, I checked out the http://www.almarsguides.com/eq/gettingstarted/guide/ . Should I follow that, or stick to hotzones? Because what is on that guide seems to be out dated for his hotzone info? Some of my other posts questions are also still un answered if anyone has any insight
There is a portal within your guild hall, which can send you to various locations for a reagent. Depending on your level and hunting grounds, that might be beneficial. Also have a guild bank, which might be useful if you find yourself transferring items between characters/accounts and find your shared bank slots constantly being clogged up.
