Will you be 50 before Kunark?

This is a really weird argument to me. The number of people who have raided classic during the classic era or Kunark during the Kunark era is smaller than the people who have raided classic during the Kunark era or raided classic/Kunark during the Velious era. People want to raid content in era. Even if you don't agree with that (?), you should understand that because it's a simple mathematical and psychological concept.

While I don't know if I agree with your first statement about the number of people, I certainly understand the appeal of raiding content in era and would never recommend something as silly as going to a live server and enforcing a level restriction. Let me perhaps put more substance around my comment:

Classic and Kunark have leveling hurdles that must be overcome to raid. These expansions are best suited for hardcore players who are willing to crank out the levels to ensure they hit the raid scene as soon as possible. The less intense players are disadvantaged as it takes them longer to reach max level and start raiding.

Velious flips this on its head. The advantage enjoyed by the hardcore folks (willingness to level to stay ahead of competition) goes away. A casual player who reached max level the day before Velious opens remains on equal footing (level wise). Velious favors the casual player as they can enjoy in-era raiding for the duration of the entire expansion without having to spend a day leveling.

In the end, it's a balance. Classic/Kunark favors the hardcore while Velious favors casuals. Right now the casuals are up in arms because we are in an era that does not conform to their play style. Similarly the hardcore folks would be very upset if everyone in EQ reached max level day 1 and could raid high-end content with minimal effort. It partially reminds me of the dynamic that occurs with class nerfs and power boosts over EQ's history. The weakest class is always complaining about balance issues until they are the strongest class and the roles flip. In the end, nobody is ever satisfied, but everyone gets satisfied for a part of the time along the way.

This!

Aurmoon, we're currently in the wake of several other progression servers with xp rates at least twice that of Phinigel. People aren't upset because Classic and Kunark are historically hardcore-friendly expansions, they're upset because the experience requirement was increased (with no prior notification) even though the time in between expansions was shortened considerably. In your words, the "leveling hurdle" got bumped twice as high and now there's only half as much time to get over it.

If the leveling speed had remained the same, you wouldn't have nearly the same disparity between hardcore and casual players, casual players would have plenty of time to raid in-era, and there would be almost no complaints on these forums.

There's plenty more places to level than KC, Seb and HS from 51-60....you just have to look around.

As for the original question, no I will not be 50 before Kunark. Last night I finally dinged 4, may hit level 5 tonight. I'm playing a class that I've boxed a little bit but have never mained. I'm also hunting in a zone that I've never really played in (ran through many times). On top of that I'm doing baking using/making things that in my 15 years have never done.

Believe it or not there are some of us having fun that have no aspirations to being a raider or even close to end gamer. I currently have an extremely rewarding but difficult job. I play EQ to relax at the end of the day. Yes it's gratifying to thump a snake or spider on the head after a day of work. I really don't care to be end game. If that was my goal I'd be playing Tweelis with the end game raider guild tag over my head.

I have 2 days, 5 hours, and 55 minutes /played as I post this. I am halfway into level 15 as a wizard. I have only ran an exp pot twice in that whole time. I haven't been exping the whole time either and even went to bed and left my character logged in over night. I have worked on skills to bring them up to par after leveling a few levels and that takes about 30 minutes. But a large majority of my time leveling has been in a full group to get that exp bonus.

I plan on raiding regardless if it's in era. Just make sure your guild is a progression guild that beats every event in each expansion. It doesn't matter what levels and gear you have, the fun is just doing the events. We have the chance to raid old world mobs now guys thanks to instancing. You think this server is bad, you should have played on The Combine. I did and RoI destroyed expansions back to back in far less time than 90 days.

Plain and simple, if the XP rate had been kept the same as RF/LJ, none of these threads would exist and about the only complain people would have is with the Mage pet nerfs (if they played that class or abused its power).