Returning player here. I came back to the game recently and decided to give a heroic character a try. So in 3 weeks ive been able to lvl from 85-89. The thing is that its getting slower and slower to lvl and im thinking its going to take another 3-4 months just to get max level and start raiding and pvping. I don't like it but I could accept it and move on but even with a merc healing me I get hit for nearly 50% of my hp... from regular mobs. This is ridiculous. Ive tried The Feerott (dream) ive tried House of Thule and old bloodfields. everything hits too hard and it takes forever to level. completely unenjoyable experience. This is really just player feedback in my opinion. Takes too long to level, killing just one mob is a hassle and its just not fun to play a character that feels weaker than one regular mob.
I also have returned after a 2 year break from game. The level of the content has progressed quite quickly and even with raid gear from HoT expac, I had found that the encounters were quite tough. I play a bard, and my wife a shaman and have no difficulty getting groups, and this has helped with gaining experience and better gear over the past few weeks. It took approximately 5 weeks of weekend grinding to go from 90 to 100 with a couple shots of Double XP days in the mix. The group gear in the newest expac has improved the characters abilities, but if it were not the help of some old friends in game we would still be hurting. Spells are quite expensive to obtain, gear is difficult to cultivate. If I had to start from fresh and did not know anyone, i would have became a Smith to at least build my own gear, as it may have been the fastest way to do things. The heroic adventures get tedious after a while but if you can bear with them you can get some pretty nice gear in the end, but still not on par with the raid gear. Welcome back, but it looks like we got some more work to do.
Xaretix really gave you the key to everquest, it's not designed to be a solo event.. but a group game. If you really want to get into things, you're going to either need to box your own group or start making friends. Look for an active guild, start with one of the family style guilds and they'll help you catch up to current content. You'll also get to learn your class and how to interact with other classes in the process. The game seems hard but at the same time, once you figure out your role and the role of other classes.. it all clicks and falls into place.
We could offer more suggestions if we new what class you are playing. Some classes are really geared for burning through light blue mobs. Do you have the J5 merc? There is an easy quest to get the J5 merc in Feerott the Dream. In PoK there is a guy that gives out (5 kill) tasks that are great exp. If you do a task you have to wait 18 hours to request the next. The trick is to request all of the tasks within 15 levels of your current level at the start. Be cautious of taking tasks above your level if you are already having problems with mob damage. You should be able to complete three/four of his tasks in about an hour. A lot depends on how fast you can move from zone to zone. Some of the zones are way off the beaten path. All of the zones for the tasks are HOT zone with additional experience per kill. There are also augments that drop in each of the zones that you can use to fill slots in your armor. Typically, one of the these HOT zones works really well for your class/play style. After completing the tasks I usually go back to that zone to get more experience. Once you know which is your favored HOT zone, you can do the tasks in an order so that the last task puts you in your favored zone. Now that you have found "THE" zone, what can you do to maximize experience gain? If your account has a few years on it you might have an Alternate Ability called Lesson of the Day. When you activate the AA, it increases the amount of experience you gain from each kill. If you don't have Lesson of the Day, you can click on the SC button and check to see if have any Station Cash available. I know my Gold accounts automatically get 500 SC every month. You want to look in the potions for ones that increase the amount of experience you gain. The ones I use are like 100 SC and increases the amount of experience 25% for 4 hours. Getting into groups and minimizing the number of mercs used will reduce the amount of experience the merc soaks up. With just you and your merc, the merc soaks up 50% of the experience per kill. Add a real toon to your group and the single merc only soaks up 33% of the experience. Conversely, if you can solo without a merc you get 100% of the experience. Tell us more about what class you play and your play style and we can provide more detailed information.
