How do you start this expansion

I have been away for about 5 months - so HOw do I start on the adventure part of this expansion. My character is 100. All the mail I received was to start the crafting Timeline in Mara. Did I miss a en E-mail or what?

Here ya go:
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Terrors_of_Thalumbra_Timeline

And for the crafting questline, http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Terrors_of_Thalumbra_Crafting_Timeline

I got a Norrathian Express message that started me off on the tradeskill questline.
Someone suggested I go to Kelethin (Greater Faydark) and talk to some gnomes there: that started me off on another questline.

I have to admit to being a bit puzzled by both. But: does that help?

This may also be helpful:
http://eq2wire.com/2015/11/18/eq2wires-terrors-of-thalumbra-frequently-asked-questions/

I got that too, but it seemed to start the Crafting Questline and I am not interested in that. I will follow your advice and go to Kelethin and see if that helps.

Giving you a crafting quest is a poor way to start an adventure quest lines.

I looked that all up but never got a quest Underdepth Saga nor could I find the NPC in Neriak. I hope this poor starting info is not a forerunner of poor quest design since Daybreak got this game.

Are you level 100? Do you have the expansion? Those are prerequisites.

But don't sneer at the crafting line, either. The big relic item you get from that is very nice indeed.

I agree. At least for previous expansions we get a summoning letter or some such. This time if I wasn't on beta I wouldn't know how to start adventure.

It should be somewhat obvious or hinting without reading wiki.

Over-reliance on beta has (in my opinion) plagued everquest2 for some time. Too many assumptions are made about Norrathians' knowledge, which translates into a poor experience for those who haven't taken part in the beta. It's even more apparent in this expansion; the lack of guidance towards the entrance point, as here, is one example. No clues at all about 'tithe', 'infusions', and the new deity thingies (I still don't know what they are) are other ones.

Good design would have introduced all of these things in the prequel quests that lead into the new content. This time around, especially, these quests were largely incongruous.

I feel you, OP.

When the expansion launched, everyone was saying to go to the portal near neriak docks or kelethin pad. So I went to Neriak, took the portal, and then wandered aimlessly around Thalumbra until I did some mushroom stuff and started all of the side quests.

It wasn't until I had completed every single side quest I could find, done a bunch of AS dungeons, geared up with a new level 100 piece in every slot, and had a bunch of fun, and also finished the new tradeskill timeline for a sweet new relic, that I heard the adventures signature also gave a relic item. I was like, uh, did I miss something?

So then I learned that there was a guy in the Neriak Spire that starts the new signature quest. I never ever ever go to the Neriak spire, especially since I had changed my home city to Freeport a long time ago. If I hadn't pestered my guild mates and hadn't happened to hear that stuff about the relic, I never would have known and would have just thought that I was doing the 'right' stuff. Now signature line is done, and it is VERY worth it to complete the quest.

Just find the appropriate person in Neriak or Kelethin, and you're good to go. Wish we had received a letter or something, though. Like others have said.

I thought we covered this already, and they were going to introduce some kind of bridge to point people in the right direction?

The fact you're not even receiving a letter to point you in the right direction like previous expansions did, pretty much stands for the quality of the entire expac - or lack thereof. I can appreciate that the development team is smaller than ever, but selling off the lack of pointers and guidance as an immersive feature looks like a lame excuse to me. The first two dungeons in the signature quest both just re-use the new city map, two of the dungeons are just corridors with 3 or 4 rooms attached and two dungeons consist of exactly one big room, each. I don't know about the quality of the new raids, loot feels nice and powerful throughout the new zone, but item infusion and deity points seem half-***** at best (again, zero explanation) and the entire thing doesn't offer much value for money.

I'm grateful for the hard work folks are putting into EQ2maps and the Wiki. I just wish EQ2 wasn't such a pain in the neck to play without them. Perhaps if they stopped wasting so much time "working" on EQ Next we could put a little more love into future content.

In the game's defense, they seem to want us to use our brains a little more. I mean, we knew there was an expansion out, so it would stand to reason that we would look around for a person with a purple feather to talk to, to start it. However, they put the portal right at a dock, but they did not put a feather (at least in the Neriak case) anywhere remotely close to it. And since you can get to Thalumbra without actually starting the questline, and you can do everything in Thalumbra except the questline for the adventure relic and other things... it left a few people like me feeling like a sig line just didn't exist. Or that it was gated behind one of those quests that take you into a heroic zone to complete it (which once I did complete it, only took me to a raid quest...)

But, other things they did purposely, like not shading the map with blue wherever you had to go kill things, they said they did intentionally. So i think the start was done not out of laziness or bad design, but because of a decision they made to make it purposefully NOT so straightforward.

Personally I have been so brainwashed by most other games that lead us by the hand. I kind of like having to figure things out with a little help from others and with a bit more reading closely. But...put the feather person closer to the portal. That is my only complaint of the new expansion.

I love the new content and am having a lot of fun with it. The start was the only glitch, as far as I'm concerned.

Pull out your credit card and apply digits followed by a few clicks.

the point was they had 2 prelaunch events. both of them were good/evil aligned, dealing with the expansion, and both if you bothered to read anything they said, let you know that at the end of it, those folks were still looking into the situtation. the expansion launched, and low and behold, those two npcs are the starters for the sig line.

they do a lot less of the hold your hand and lead you by the nose stuff in this xpac. you actually have to pay attention to what the npcs tell you.

So far I have found this Xpac to be one of the most boring and tedious that EQ2 has ever put out. It certainly is not fun to do. I miss the blue spots on EQ2 maps and there is very little even when you get a quest as to what you are supposed to do. Looking for the books in the thurgadin Library has to be one of the least fun things I have even done in a game. I am wondering if this is worth playing as I never never finished the questline in the previous Xpac - I got bored and left the game for about 6 months as it got tedious and boring.

I'm all FOR using my brain a bit more. But I dunno about yours; mine needs a hint, something, to get it started.

Yes, the start is the glitch. Bit tricky crossing a tightrope when you're blind and have no clues at all where the beginning of the rope sits. But maybe the foundering around and relying on others to offer links to out-of-Norrath info sites is the new design paradigm. If so, to me it smacks too much of "What do you mean you're lost, just download EQ2maps, you loser".

Well some .. well many spoilers are available on EQ2 Wiki... Some strategy as well... Honestly - scripts DO add some interesting aspects into the game but beat them w/o spoiler sort of very not trivial.
As for AoM Sig line ... well it been worth while to finishing at least for 1 char to get adornment dislodgment skill (and you can buy it for all other chars for 10pp) mount is also very nice and so is 66 slot bag....

The nice thing about the wiki is that it's there if you need a little help, but you don't have to use it. I keep the main questline page open so I can sort of keep track of where I am on the current alt