I played EQ heavily for several years in the early 2000s around the time of Kunark through Luclin expansions. I eventually quit as the realization came that my addiction was impeding on other areas of my life. I've logged in occasionally over the years to get a hit of that sweet nostalgia but never find I stay more than a few hours. Maybe this will pass as it usually does but after logging in recently I find myself longing to get back into this game in a more consistent capacity. Life has gotten busy so I doubt I would have much more than a few hours a week to play. In an ideal world I'd love to be able to log in to my old main character who I am stubbornly attached to (level 56 Wizard who currently resides on Prexus-Rathe) and group up with some friendly folks for casual leveling, item gathering, socializing from time to time. I really miss the social/teamwork/friendship aspects of this game and long for that as much as the gameplay itself (if not more). Some day I'd like to get my Wiz to max level and deck him out with some sweet gear but I realize raiding is likely not in the cards for my lifestyle/commitments. Are these realistic goals? or are my expectations way out of line? I realize this is not that same game it was 20 years ago and I am also not the same human... maybe I am just chasing a time in my life that I remember fondly as being simpler and carefree? Is it possible to transfer my main to one of the other servers with a healthier casual/family grouping population? Prexus-Rathe seems pretty dead every-time I fire up the game at stick my LFG flag up. Do I just try to get past my emotional attachment to my main and start up again from the beginning? Maybe choose P99 or one of the locked or TLP servers that are mentioned in some of the other posts? Can this sort of thing realistically be done with a free 2 play account? if I'm only spending a few hours a week on this game I don't know if its worth shelling out the sub fee (although I could afford it at this point in my life). If you're read this far thanks for entertaining the musings of a lonely and longing wizard
The days of putting up "lfg" and finding a group a LONG gone. TLP is not in your wheelhouse as you are F2P. I suggest you create a toon on various servers during your normal play times and do a /who all 55 60 and see how many players are around (excluding the bazaar). On most servers there will be VERY few in that range. When you find a server where there is a population, you can move your toon there but you will need to create your own groups.
Many changes happened in EQ since Luclin time. One thing has altered grouping environment - Mercenaries. Now a character can hire an automated mercenary npc, which come in 4 classes: a wizard, a warrior tank, a rogue melee dps, a cleric healer. And tank mercenaries are good well into 70's levels, really good - they tank nameds just fine. Since then groupping took a dive, people became self-sufficient and boxing became a main thing. I.e. there is lots of people playing multiple characters at once, with or without assisting software. Expect the lack of groupping. Although, all you need is to befriend just 1 other player and 2 of you can progress nicely: 2 real toons and 2 mercs can do most of the content in EQ. If you wanna socialize - every live server has a large social guild with many players online often. Join one, chat with guildies, find a good friendly group on occasion. Also, many ppl are willing to help newcomers, just ask for what you need and you may receive it and more. TLP servers have a tendency to have the active population reduction after first few expansions, people migrate to newer TLP servers or go to live. Although, picking a TLP server is a fine choice.
Thanks for the tips! I think I will try making some low level characters just to try out some new classes and get a feel for the game again. Maybe scope out a friendly person or two along the way, hopefully connect with a fun guild. If I think more about it maybe this lack of groups is not such a new problem for me as I even had a hard time finding groups as a wizard back in the day... did an awful lot of quad kiting in kunark in my 50s maybe if I get the hang of the mercs I can also go back to doing a bit of that.. .it just got to be such a grind after a while. I tried do do one of the so called "hot zones" the other day with my apprentice tank merc and she couldnt handle more than one mob at a time... also not enough space in that zone to do much kiting.
Overseer is a feature that allows level 85+ characters to advance slowly (but surely) from anywhere [e.g., Plane of Knowledge of Guild Lobby] for very little time investment. After a few months of play, you should be able to get a few percent of a level per day in a few minutes (assuming subscription). Free to play characters above level 85 can have 2 active missions going. Subscription players above level 85 can have up to 5 going concurrently. Missions last 6 hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours. The missions are autonomous and the timer runs even while you are offline. There are a number of different type of missions (e.g., plunder, trade, crafting, research, military, recruitment, etc.) and each is leveled up by doing more missions of that type. You need to collect/recruit agents by doing recruitment missions and at first you can't do a lot of different missions because each agent has different mission types and levels of their own. Some missions only require three agents, but some [higher lvl ones] require five agents. Some missions require higher level agents. I've done about 1500 missions so far and have just about every agent now (so that's less than a year doing 5 per day). Today I got about 5% experience from doing 4 missions (the 5th one for recruitment didn't give xp). Research missions at tier 5 [24 hour mission] yield 1.8% of a level. My understanding is that the percentage doesn't change as you level up. If you are a patient person, this is a viable route over a long time assuming you are lvl 85 or higher. As you have more time (e.g., weekends) you can add adventuring to a hot zone and get some more or see if anyone at your level is doing heroic adventures. If you are really lucky, you'll find someone to help powerlevel you which will make a few levels fly by in a few hours (or faster). Also don't forget that since early last year, all characters are awarded all veteran rewards as Alternate Advancement [AA] abilities. Notable among these is "Lesson of the Devoted" which grants 100% xp boost to regular xp [not overseer] for 30 minutes per day. Someone else may have said it already, but TLP servers require subscription to play. I get being attached to your original character. It is possible, for a fee, to boost that character from its current level at around 50 to 85 by using a purchased heroic boost. It comes with gear, a mount, a couple 100% weight reduction bags, a few thousand AA, all spells up to that level, etc. I did this, but found the content at that level difficult for a little while (until I found some other players and did some quests and got a little better gear).
There are a few casual guilds on Tunare that are constantly and recently recruiting. Ohana, Tormented Angels, Avenging Storm to name a few. Don't be afraid of general chat, Sumk isn't always awake... Conq
Thanks for the reply. I've heard of two of the three you mention. General chat is not very useful for me. When I'm on, I'm >doing< something, so don't keep tabs on what's going on in General. The only time it gets my attention is when I ask a question, and then wait for replies. In fact, I keep it in an out-of-focus tab. The times I have kept it in focus and monitored it, I haven't seen any recruitment messages for any guilds. Though, I have paid enough attention over the years, that I know who you're referring to (and have them on ignore, ftw!) One minor point of contention, this board has a guild recruitment forum. Haven't seen any of the three post there. In fact, the only guild from Tunare who ever posts there is the top (or one of?) raid guild.
I'd recommend doing the heroic boost. And get into a guild immediately. They will help level you up to 100+ fast. A good 4+ person gropu can level you to 100 in a matter of a few days or less. It's very fast in fact. At first you might be bored, and you might have trouble making friends when you feel like you don't understand what's going on and you don't feel useful yet. And you'll have to get over the hurdle of when you initially start, you';ll be clueless and no friends at the start. Even the level 85 and 90 zones are not great sources of gropuing, and you'll be hard pressed. When I was younger I liked to play through the early levels for nostalgia and. I was always survival-oriented and challenge-oriented. However it's so easy to be burned out doing that. And when it's over you don't have many friends because you've been playing in the lower level zones mostly solo. You need to be in the high level range to find the social atmosphere and grouping. Once you get to 105+ it slows down more and those same groups that were able to level you so rapidly aren't as effective. This is really where you can start re-experiencing how this game used to be; as-in a mmo where you played with others and lots of people were in the zones. Gl.
Gameplay will be what you make of it. If you are in search of nostalgia, I highly recommend subscribing and joining TLP. If you are stuck to FTP, the advice above is more than sufficient. There are literally years of content and quests at your disposal on a free account to keep you busy. If you are searching for EverQuest of yore, your search is fruitless. That EverQuest is a relic of a bygone era.
