So I played EQII at the beginning, mainly soloed, never exceeded 24th level. My thoughts on coming back are 1. beginning from 1st level until I relearn the game is a good way to go. 2. Playing a solo class makes sense, not sure how much if any grouping there will be at such low levels. 3. I remember crafting was a big deal ,so I will likely be spending time at it. 4. When I went back to EQ I moved to the FV server and found that to be a good place for a person with limited time with the no-drop trading, I assume this will be true with the Free Trade server. 5. I do want to go to a populated server, not sure if that is the free trade server. 6. I cannot remember how important the goo/evil race, good evil class thing was. Seems it had some impact? 7. I like PvP, but I imagine returning to that as essentially a brand new player would be frustrating at the very least. EDIT: After reading the Free Trade server rules, I think I will opt for a standard server.
1) Good idea 2) There's not a lot of grouping at low levels, but I'll always group with you 3) Yes, crafting is important if you don't have access to the broker. Make sure to start your crafting at a low level, otherwise you end up like me, 76 adventure level, 53 tradeskilling level. 4) Honestly can't tell you 5) Same with 4 6) Evil has some of the arguably better soloing classes, but are almost the same as good. The only evil-only classes are Necro, Defiler, Shadowknight, and Brigand. The only good-only classes are Conjy, Mystic, Pally, and Swash. 7) I don't play a PvP server so I can't tell you how it is. Welcome back!
1. Excellent idea. I had gone to a galaxy far far away for maybe three ye... it was a long time ago. Anyways, I've been back almost a year and still haven't gotten to a point where I am ready to learn the ascension aspect of this game. There is a lot of new stuff, LOL. 2. I'm too shy to group after my guildmates abandoned the game. I'd join another guild but for the fact I like having an entire t-3 guildhall to do whatever I want with, LOL. However, you might find an active guild that has plenty of active players who would be more than happy to mentor/group with you for those low level groupings. 3. Without a doubt. Being primarily a soloist, I have a crafter for every skill, and with my guildhall's amenities, I am able to easily keep harvests in a central location and have rapidly leveled crafter's up that way. Of course you can always purchase tokens to advance a character's crafting skill to level 110 (but those are expensive). 4. There are rules for that? Yeesh! You made the right choice while trying to get back into this game, LOL. 5. Server population is an important factor. Most of the time, and I tend to login at random times throughout the week, Skyfire is not the most populated. For me, server pop was never much of a consideration. The only reason I ended up on Skyfire is because of server merges. All my characters began life in EQ2 on the Freeport server shortly after they began testing out FTP. Now I have too many characters with Prestige housing to even think of moving to another server. *edit* Although today Skyfire, HoF, & Maj'Dul all have medium population levels as I login at this hour, LOL. 6. Not entirely sure what you mean by importance. There are races that cannot start out as certain classes, but they can Betray their evil/good cities so that they can move to a city that will allow/force them to become another class. Though that option can be time consuming as certain cities require min level before sending you to Haven. 7. I'm like Nazy. I've never been good at pvp. Hope a pvp'er shows up to get you more info on that aspect. Welcome back to EQ2!
1. Definitely a good idea. 2. Not going to be much, if any, grouping in lower levels. 3. Crafting definitely has value whether you enjoy crafting or are just doing it to support your character. 4. N/A 5. The free trade servers are the least populated. Population levels on the other servers, though, can totally depend on your time of play. Of the US servers, I believe Maj'Dul and HoF have the highest populations, but try them out and see what the population is like when you play. Those servers may be dead or they may be just right for you. 6. It really has little or no impact beyond what you prefer. 7. There is no PvP.
Generally, you learn the basics of playing a class by level 20-30. If you feel you have it mastered AND you still like the class, then boost the toon. All classes can solo all the way to end game, and faster if you hire a mercenary. And all classes can play in groups. On the Live servers, most people are playing at end game. Antonia Bayle is probably your best bet to find a guild with either level locking at low levels, or lots of alts playing at low level on live. The Time Locked Expansion servers (TLE) are great for low level groups, especially when one is freshly opened. I'm not sure what expansion Kaladim is up to currently, but if its like Fallen Gate was, then there are still some people grouping at low levels, but most people are at higher levels. Crafting is seriously useful, right up until the Blood of Luclin expansion. mastercrafted gear and spells are very helpful.(In BoL, only Scholars have much usefulness for making Expert spells, but you'll want to level your tradeskiller to 120 anyway because there are a few recipes that don't use any specific tradeskill that are useful, such as for mount tack. I recommend going as soon as possible to the Isle of Mara, and find Quo Augren, the demented little boy swimming in a pond fully dressed between the village and the rice paddies. Quo has a quest series, A Gathering Obsession, that will give your crafting XP, help you level your harvesting skills so you can get rares that you need to make stuff with, and the cash rewards are pretty nice for a lower level character. You will also want to level Transmuting, Adorning, and Tinkering. In your city's crafting headquarters there's a guy named Londiar Inygad who gives out a daily quest for each. These require nothing from you but fuel (I think) and about 10 minutes of your day. Londiar's little quests also give tradeskill XP. Adornments go on your gear and add stats. Transmuting is used to break down junk loot you won't use for materials to make adornments. And Tinkering has recipes along the line for some very helpful doodads. These skills are very useful, even in BoL. Isle of Refuge is, by my experience, really sparsely populated. You have to be in a guild if you want to group, and good luck finding that guild. I have seen people griping about the other Free Trade server, Rivervale, where you can start as a level... ?95? toon. You must be a paid member to roll a toon there, and you can't transfer on or off the server. Perhaps a current resident of Rivervale can speak to the server population. grouping, and such? At this point, good and evil characters can speak to one another, group with one another, and be in guilds together. Some characters are classed as Good, and may only start in a good-aligned city. Some are likewise considered Evil, and can only start in an evil city. Then some races are Neutral, and can start in any city. Similarly, some classes are Good, Evil, or Neutral. Play the class and race that you will enjoy the most. Starting stats aren't a big deal, because gear overrides that pretty fast. Some races have racial abilities that you may find helpful, such as Safe Fall, Evac, Lockpicking, etc. We have no PVP at this time in EQ2.
