hello dear EQ2 family! I've been flirting with the idea of playing EQ2 for a long time as I've always been reading up on the various features and new expansions but I've only just now decided to actually get on board with an all access membership. I was hoping that some kind souls would read this and answer some of my questions (possibly not all of them, I have many). I'm super interested in the lore of the game and I've never been a competitive player, so I'll mostly be focusing on solo play and questing - it's what I enjoy the most, zone by zone, experiencing the stories and the development of the game's lore. now, I'm currently doing this on a live server and, as you can imagine, the dozens of different systems are a lot at once. hence my questions: 1) solo play since I prefer solo play, does it make sense to go with a necromancer/conjuror? or perhaps a coercer or channeler? or can any class solo through harder content with mercenaries? I don't mind pet classes but I certainly would pick another mage/priest with more appealing skills if I knew that they could solo just as well. 2) mercenaries speaking of which, at what point can I get mercenaries (and, umm... where)? I understand that these can take on many roles, so I assume, as a mage, I should go for a tank merc? or would a solo scenario work better if I was a healer with a tank merc? 3) "old dungeons/raids" EQ has an insane amount of zones and dungeons/raids due to its expansions. I'm super interested in finishing all kinds of elaborate and narratively rich questlines to "complete" older expansions. I assume this will take me to raids as well at some point (like, raids from 10 expansions ago, not current ones). at what point can these be attempted solo? could I do a level 50 dungeon/raid at level 70? 80? or only at max level? 4) AAs i understand that all these confusing AA trees work like talent trees in some similar games. I haven't done a lot of research on these so far, but I assume they come in a variety of A) stat increases and B) new skills. I also know that you can set a bar to convert quest exp into AAs. since I'll be doing several zones and will probably quickly outlevel the lower level ones, does it make sense for me to say, slide this to 100% at level 30, do all level 20-30 zones, then get to 40, slide to 100% again, do all 30-40 zones, etc... ? would the early accumulation of AAs help with soloing? 5) overseer I love the overseer function! I got the first, umm... hero? I've sent him on one mission, then got the second hero, then I sent both of them on one-hour missions and now nothing new comes up. how does this system progress? does it make any sense for me to continue doing these missions at lower levels? I think they're fun, so I don't mind, especially if they lead to rewards other than tradeskills resources. how do I get new missions? can I get any that are applicable to lower levels/earlier content? 6) mounts/pets/achievements I'm quite the collector and enjoy working on longer projects to get collectibles - anything apart from transmog, the aesthetics of my gear is one thing I don't really care about. can I get mounts or pets as rewards for completing achievements? do they drop from raids/dungeons? or are all of them bought, always? thank you to everyone who takes the time to read all of this and reply with some tips. any response is welcome, also more general tips for a newbie. thank you, looking forward to sharing this game with you!
Any class can solo, so I'd recommend whatever feels fun to you. Note that healers will probably be slower in solo settings, with DPS and tank classes closer to the top. Conjuror and necromancer are solid choices all around. Between levels 1-100, mercenaries are uber-powerful and can make up whatever you're missing. Basic mercenaries can be found in both Qeynos and Freeport. Some rare mercenaries are found out in the world. Starting with the Blood of Luclin expansion, each expansion added new mercenaries that came from Overseers or from dungeon missions. These mercenaries give a buff, even when they're not active, and this buff is basically required in heroic/raid content. Your mileage may vary with what kind of mercenary you want. Healers are almost always a good choice, because they can cure most detriments, but a tank may be better if you are a healer. From level 90 onward, most storylines can be completed solo, with very little unique happening in the heroic or raid dungeons. Before level 90, nearly all major storylines involve heroic and raid content. As I recall from my own attempts, a level 100 player can reasonably solo all raids level 90 or lower. A level 125 (current max) can solo everything level 100 and under (excluding the Kunark Ascending expansion). Some of these dungeons may have "anti-solo" strategies like holding two mobs apart or flipping two levers at the same time. Ask around, and I'm sure you'll find someone willing to pop-in and help out. AA points will increase your power, regardless of level. Note that the best AAs have level restrictions, but you can get most of them simply by gaining points. If you want to lock yourself to a particular level range (to best experience its quests and contents), using the AA slider to convert XP is a good way to slow or even prevent levelling. The extra points will then help as you try to solo content previously intended for groups. Overseers were added in Blood of Luclin, with a new season added each year following. The rewards are mostly intended for players who are/were max level (for whatever the level cap was at the time). You progress simply by doing them over and over again. Each quest has the chance to reward another quest, another agent, or something else. Each quest also rewards XP. At certain milestone levels, your overseer quests will disappear, and the new season will begin being rewarded (you keep all your overseer agents). I'm not sure how useful those are at levels below 120, but it certainly won't hurt. Mounts come from all manner of sources. Some are purchased from city mount merchants, others purchased for real money. Yet others come from dungeons or raids, and some come from achievements. You can check out the Wiki if you want to find a specific mount.
My first recommendations for a new player would be a necromancer or a shadowknight, although with a merc any class is soloable, some are just easier and/or (in my opinion) more fun. A channeler is definitely fun, but has extra mechanics with the extra spells and dissonance. I recommend an inquisitor merc unless you are playing a healer, in which case you could go with the shadowknight merc. It might be easier starting out to play on the evil side, since the low level inquisitor merc is hired in seafarer's roost in freeport, and the shadowknight merc is hired in neriak, both evil citites. You can still hire them if you are good aligned, if another player will use call of the veteran or a guild rally banner to get you to their location. You can hire mercs immediately, when you are level 1, provided you have the coin to pay them. You can also get familiars, and you should, they give buffs to your character. If you like collecting, there is a daily level 5 quests to get a familiar, and you can collect various ones. The quest givers are Steward Kres in south freeport and Steward Aelin in south queynos. If you want to explore a lot of content and you have a paid subscription, you can slow your rise through the levels by adjusting the slider bar in your AA window to funnel more experience into AA, which is also beneficial because it makes your character stronger at lower levels. If you are on a free account while you try out the game, your slider bar is set at 50% and can not be changed, but you can still slow your level rise by right clicking your experience bar and turning off your combat and/or quest experience for a while. In case you are not aware of it, this site is a good source of quest walk throughs and other info: https://eq2.fandom.com/ And this site has a company allowed map add on, which has a lot of info marked on the maps, plus maps of dungeons, which the game does not provide: https://maps.eq2interface.com/ The newbie quest line (starts at level 2) in darklight wood gives a mount by the time you are about level 17 for evil characters, and a similar quest line does the same for good aligning in frostfang sea. Live events allow you to earn tokens to purchase mounts, Bristlebane Day is currently active, and you can earn tokens to buy a mount, as well as a quest that gives a color-changing horse. Look it up in the wiki for more details. Welcome to our beloved Norrath, and may your adventures be many!
