Greetings, I played EQ1 from December 2000 - December 2001 (e.g., until Shadows of Luclin came out). The game made quite an impression on me during my childhood, so much so that I've decided to try it out again, 3 MMOs and 12 years later. I have three questions: What should I expect when playing a Half-elf Bard? I played an Iksar Shaman and Shadow Knight years ago, but was always intrigued by the bard character, due mainly to their ability to cast spells whilst moving. Will I be ok solo'ing the content with a few mercenaries? Is the game Pay-to-Win, or Pay-to-make-life-easier-while-leveling? I seem to have silver level access on this 12 year old account upon logging in. Are there many players on the Cazic-Thule server? This was my old server, and I've read that many servers have merged over the years. Thanks!
One more question - what does MOLO mean? I've seen it all over the forums regarding end-game. Is it Solo'ing with Mercs?
1. You can solo up to 60s on any class basically easily with tank merc, from there you can swap over to a different one. You can solo up to max level as well, but it will start taking longer (and you will likely have to fight older content instead of the current most stuff for your level) 2. With free to play silver, you can play for a long time, up to level 90 with 1k AA (without having to buy an expansion), after that though you will want to invest in the newest Expansion + Go gold (or get it free with Krono if you can farm enough plat per month) 3. Most servers are pretty similar population and should be fine unless you want to PVP (go zek), are European playtime (go Antonius Bayle). Trakanon is the only really low one. Yes
Soloing any class to 70 with a merc is easy. After that, all classes can still solo (with a merc) to max level, but may have more restricted content than others. The old solo classes still have it easiest. Bards are fun, with a different playstyle from other classes; /melody has eased up on the old RSI problems. But they fall into the harder to get from 70 to 100 grouping. Race choice doesn't make a lot of difference now. As Riou says, you can easily get to 70-80 while silver. Getting any higher will require careful planning of what AAs to select. Gold lets you hire better mercs, use better gear (restrictions on augments make the most difference while levelling), and have more space to pick up trash. As for pay-to-win, well, you can buy experience potions and some gear to help you level/AA. But that's about it.
Thank you both for your responses. I will play at the silver level until I reach end-game, if the game keeps me interested long enough. I hope it does - there seems to be tons to do!
1. I use a bard as a box, but you will find /melody a helpful command if you can't figure out the twisting. You can make a macro in the last tab of the Actions menu, usually page 2. Right click a blank square, name it Melody or whatever, then in the first line put (without the quotes) "/melody # # #" With the # being for each spell gem. So if you have all 9 gems full you'd make it "/melody 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9" 2. You can play all the way up to level 100 w/o paying a cent. The only difficulty will be your AAs as they are (IIRC) capped at 1000 on a Silver account. Other than that I am not sure if it affects gear. 3. Can't say on CZ as I'm on Vox. You can always come over though as it is busy and crazy all the time! And you can always ask me questions too! Welcome back to EQ and hope you stay and have fun!
I started running two instances of EQ<boxing> and I would suggest you try doing that if you have a computer that can handle it. You don't have to of course, all the benefits are available from other players. Just a few reasons to go this way. #1 is, did you ever have a problem grouping? I mean I remember being grouped with tanks that would stop tanking in the middle of a fight to start looting before the fight was over. I was grouped with rogues that would tab out of combat and just stand there for an entire fight trying to raise their pick pocketing while everyone else died. No problems at all with the mercs. If you use your silver account to make a merc tank and your free account to make a healer, just group the accounts and all your tank and healing problems disappear. /follow is your friend. This lets you start and run just about any character and work on that role. If you want to run a tank or healer, one of the other merc types or two of the same will help. Simple stuff like maxing taunt w/o taking all the damage because your merc tank is doing it too and drawing ~half the damage. #2 Special functions like regeneration and breeze. Of course your Bard will be able to do both of these and more. Some of the desirable ones like druid and wizard ports don't come standard for a Bard. #3 Really, you want to upgrade the second account to Silver. This is a win all around. For $5 you get lifetime 4 slots and tier V mercs. The level V mercs will eat a free account mercs lunch. You get much more potent line up with more characters and better mercs while SONY gets $5. Any thing that contributes to the success of their new pricing model has got to be a good thing. IMNSHO: Right now the $5 lifetime silver with EQ is the best buy in gaming.
