Greetings fellow mages and other non-finger wigglers! I've just re-downloaded the game for another go at EQ2 (last time I played was beginning of 2013 I think). Just finished playing a bit of SWTOR, but was greatly missing the depth of Norrath. I started playing EQ2 at release and actually helped create a guild on the second or third day of the game going live. Granted, I'll be the only active member, but I shall keep Eclipse alive (Butcherblock server)! Anyway, I've decided to come back to the game but am in need of your vast knowledge! I'd love any pointers or suggestions you might have. Basically I'll be soloing with my necro (link to gear and AA's below) and trying to get to 95. I'm not in a real rush, but I have a feeling I'm pretty well under-geared for the current times. I'm in the Eidolon Jungle solo quest line, but not real sure how far into it. I do have a couple tradeskillers (tailor and sage - around lvl 92) who should be able to make mastercrafted items when I need them. Oh, and I have every expansion (incl Chains of Eternity) except the Tears of Veeshan. My questions are: What are the great resources out there that I should be looking at instead of asking everyone for their help on this forum? Any kind of a "Hey, I just resurrected my never raided level 92 character and it's been 18 months since I logged in... Things have changed a bunch and I don't know where to start to make heads or tails of anything!" guide/blog out there? Is there a set of gear I should be looking to get that won't take months of time to acquire? I remember the grind of trying to do the void shards... Was pretty painful but I'll do it again if I need to. Do I need to get Tears of Veeshan? I don't know where else to begin asking questions so anything you might be able to provide, I'd greatly appreciate it! Thanks for your time to read all this and offer up constructive help... and if you are on Butcherblock shoot me a tell (Gnax)!
Welcome home! For tradecraft, I'd go to look at DenMum's EQ Traders site, it's got sooo much info on crafting, holidays, and news. You could easily spend days there, gleaning good info. http://eq2.eqtraders.com/articles/news_page.php It has a ton of know how and guides, and it's written in a very accessible and open way, very user friendly. Be sure to look at etyma, on her site, and search the ZAM site too, it's the 'new' currency for the ToV expansion, and is used to add gems (purple, yellow, etc) to level appropriate gear. We earn etyma via crafting and dungeon writs. (You can earn etyma as a crafter, but you cannot use it on anyone below 95 adventurer, before you hit 95 adventurer, it remains in a sealed scroll case.) If you want to go past 92, then you need ToV. That takes you to 95. For a peek at gear these days, head on over to Freeport or Qeynos and to the loyalty merchants. The big guy in Freeport has the Vesspyrian Loyalty gear, glancing over that you'll get an idea about stats and such for 95 gear. NOTE: This is low-middle range 95 gear, not top stuff. It's good, but not -great-, I wouldn't count on seeing any raiders in it, but for getting through a lot of the advanced solo and overland in ToV? It'll do ya just fine until you get quest rewards as you go, that are better gear. I think, as a rough ballpark estimate, most 95 casters are shooting for 300k-350k+ life for overland and early dungeons.
Everything on the Loyalty merchant can be gained from the Vesspyr Isles solo quest lines. It's absolutely low level stuff, not even up to the level of the advanced solo dungeons. All that said, it's better by far than anything that precedes it.
Fantastic info so far! Thank you both for chiming in. I appreciate it! Please keep the info flowing! If any primarily soloing necros happen to read this, can you please link your AA builds? There are so many avenues to take (and it's almost overwhelming when looking at all of this again), I just want to make sure I'm getting the most bang for my 320-340 AA bucks! Thanks!
Welcome back! I find the best way to restart is to just start. When you get oriented you can pick up old characters. Here's a top page to some progression guides: http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Progression_(EQ2)
Don't really think much has changed since 2013. I recently came back after being away since 2012. We still have 3 useless pets. Our Mage and Scout pet are identical in the end (Appearance) AA mirrors are just for decoration now. You can have near unlimited AA specs saved to your computer so just try them all. Don't stick to a cookie cutter build.
The pets aren't as useless as some might say. The trick is to watch certain AAs chosen for pets until a fix comes along for this nagging bug, where the pet's base set of abilities won't cast. Out of Minion's Mark(Shadow), Wrath of the Undead Servant(Shadow) and Minion's Soulstealing(Necro bottom line), pick only one and the pet will function just fine. I went for wrath, since it does the most damage.
Thanks all for the replies. I've gotten to play a little more and things are starting to come back to me. The whole AA "build and leave alone" thing is really odd, but I'll get used to it. I need to keep playing and re-adjust where I have points. I just hit 93 and should get to play a bit this weekend and get near 94/95. I know I'll be moving into the ToV content pretty soon (and I did buy it)... but I realize there are soooo many stats/mods/bonuses on the gear I'm having a hard time figuring out where I need to go with things. I see % to DPS, casting speed, reuse, potency, etc. I know I need to have my STA and INT up as high as I can get it, but what are the other "stats" that I should be focused on? Are there theoretical caps? I realize this is a HUGE set of questions and it basically is an enormous part of the game. I'm sure there are a couple guides, but I'm having a bit of a difficult time finding something 'up to date' or focused on necros (and some of the posts I have found use so many acronyms I can't make out what they're talking about! And I work for the government and we use nothing but acronyms!). I'm not a raider and I never will be. So, I know I'll be focusing on solo or small group content. Thanks again for all your comments and continued help. I truly appreciate it!
Once you've completed the Vesspyr Isles quests gear will sort itself out. In short, you'll get a complete set of gear from there. Any gear you get prior to L95 will be far, far inferior to what you'll get there.
