Last time I played was 2003 . I had a 65 Druid on torvonilus. No idea what this character progression and heroic character stuff is talking about. I see a lot of guys saying they are doing progression . But what exactly is it ?
Its basically doing all the mercenary, partisan and hero quests within a particular expansion and then moving on to the next expansion. Do /ach and you'll see the list of expansions and sub tabs underneath that have lists of all the quests. There are rewards for completing each of these that include stats, gear, trophies, etc. If you're just starting back up you might want to do /ach and look at the Hero's Journey. Its near the top of the list. This is a good path to re-familiarize yourself with the game and gives you a logical path to do some gearing and leveling.
Heroic can be either: A) A character you purchase or get free that is instant level 85 with all spells, AA, couple bags and some plat. Example https://www.everquest.com/news/heroic-character-faq B) A journey you take by using the Heroic guide on the left when you click Achievements. That is on your character inventory screen down at the bottom with the other buttons. This is called a Heroic Guide. Anyone can do it...not just Heroic Characters.Example: https://www.paullynch.org/eqguide/guides/heros-journey/ C) there are heroic stats in the game which make your character better. You earn these by doing progression (see below) example here: https://www.almarsguides.com/eq/gettingstarted/HeroicStats/ Progression can be: A) Your journey thru zones - starting at the first quest and progressing thru to the end of quests for that zone. Some expansions have higher zones that are "locked" until you complete quests in lower zones of that expansion. Example: https://ros.eqresource.com/progression.php B) Progression Servers which are pay only servers and most start like the old style EQ with few of the benefits on Live servers. Most are locked at certain expansion releases to slow the game down in an attempt to make it feel more like the old days. One recent one however will start you at level 85 and the you progress up from there. Live servers are plain old servers that you can play if free or paid. Example https://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/eq:Progression_Servers So if someone says they are doing "progression" it probably means they are doing the quests in whichever zone to "progress" thru it to the end, to complete the Hero's journey or to complete required quests to unlock the rest of the expansion.
