it's not fun to play

Unfortinately the OP was basically asking for a redesign to turn this game into another one. Some expectations simply can't be successsfully managed.

maybe so Tkia

It would help if they just totally removed the forced AA spec that they automatically give you because it is utter trash. That way new players were forced to ask how to spend their AA. Because all that had to be done is put your first 10 points into heroic ability mod and congrats you're a beast, at least till like level 30. And for wizard, then you go shadows flat damage reduction, thunderclap, flat phys mit, hailstorm, the thunderclap upgrade, ethernere chains, and then all the defensive stuff like 10 point ward in wizard, dragon aa line with regenerating ward and death save, and sta line in sorcerer and now you're laughing at people who use a merc.

you can , you can create your own AA tree with the abilities that are available to your class .and there are many choices .
The AA tree that your given by the server automatically are only for people who don't want to bother with this .
On Kaladim there is no automatic AA tree and people have to create their own .

I know you can, since I am describing the order to put your points into, but a new player isn't going to know that, or how

ok Matik .
I don't put my thoughts in to order before I start typing in the message , one thought might follow another and they are all mixed together .
There is a whole forum section for new players with a wealth of information and tricks , where people who are more organized put up well constructed posts about just about everything a new player could want to know ,
besides maybe " how can I get a date with that gorges Ratonga lady over there "

Cescon. L18 Wizard. Thurgadin

I'm just setting up EQ2 because I was basically gone and trying out FFXIV and both liking it and not liking it every few minutes.

I've read the comments; with some players saying I haven't a clue what a mmo or an rpg is and that I don't understand spells and the difference between apprentice, adept, master et al is and others saying I wanted Everquest 2 to be "reprogrammed".

The mercenary part seems to have people saying they're not needed (are you kidding me). When I was in The Caves (where I got quite a bit of treasured items) the Wizard is both a rock and hard place if you get too many on you. I am geared up to what I am getting from the bigger treasure chests only, they go back and forth by 1 in the stats. The stat Intelligence bounces between 30-40% increased damage because of that. The Grandmaster selection at L14 for solar flare hardly made a difference if I'm hitting one at a time and you defintely can't handle named (at least, I couldn't).

The only reason I'm talking the way I am saying it is that I initially started a L100 heroic Necromancer (with a youtuber Ro-Ro M-something or other) I was watching when I finally - and completely - deleted everything to do with Blizzard on my PC. That. Is. Over. When they said that stuff to Asmongold, that was it).
It wasn't because I was overwhelmed it was because I wanted to try out. As I was trying it out, you're sort of thrown into a hole in the ground with no real adventure travel or feeling of place in the game... at all. So I started the game in Isle of Refuge (which was awesome by the way from start to finish) until I got to Qeynos.
At Qeynos, I started going around it and killing rats and wolves for quests and by L12-13 I was in The Caves and noticed a serious problem. I wasn't enjoying it at all. We could go into this a bit more but that's the truth and it's just what I noticed it.
By the time I got the grandmaster of the solar flare and then started with the qeynos mercenary, it felt absolutely, 100%, no different than when I was still struggling from about Level 9. I though the grandmaster was going to "blow s* up". The mercenary had 12,500hp to my 500-600hp... I didn't like that at all. I'm using crutches and flicking crumbs at mobs with ^ nevermind at ^^ (the worse time was the zombies at 22^ (admittedly, orange) and the mercenary at L17 almost died to two of them (mob encounter). 12,500hp! I've got 600hp. I didn't even find out what would happen without the merc.

Back the the L100 heroic necromancer I was first playing.
I removed all the items on it until I just had the charm it was wearing with all the right stats to find out what was going on with this game. I'm not going into that right now because it's too negative and too whiny about Eq2 (which I don't do) and then I figured that that was what was needed to start the game (solo perspective) and play Eq2 the way I would like it. You've got potency, health, ability, resist (I think), cast speed (I think) - all that awesome stuff that wasn't there in any way when I was playing the game from L1 (and still isn't at L18).

These stats are separate from the spells (and you as a class) and the spells you've got (and the grandmaster I got) don't match up in any way the difficulty of some of the mobs without feeling like you're throwing stones at them and hoping one of them doesn't bounce off of it. It's that sensation that I didn't like. I want a lightning bolt (solar flare) to come down and knock something off its feet and the next one... dead at my feet). Not a hp bar bit by bit crawling from one location to another or travelling back and forth (in Antonica avoid badgers to get there quicker without simply grandmaster solar flaring them in 1 shot without a merc).

The spells in general are just dots that I can see take about a pixel off of enemy hp until my solar flare seems to hit a max damage point some of the time. With the merc, it's just there so I don't get interrupted and I don't have 3 or more gnolls knocking me about constantly). I noticed the merc also allows me to handle red normal mobs (but I don't want a merc to play this game- I want spells to blow enemy faces off of with).

I'm not a group player or a raid player (though I used to). I'm just looking for a game to play solo, adventure through it and blow s* up. I don't want help. Assistance. Support. Hand-holding (I do look it up online for quests if it's taking too long).

This long winded thing probably doesn't help with the interpretation of whether I am smart enough to be a "dedicated mmorpg player and understand it all" from 10 years doing it from 2007 (can't believe it's been that long, but there you go with mmorpg playing).

Well. OK. Will try that. So we're saying, "Antonica has a problem for solo players starting from the beginning".
I've got a solution I came up with just for that problem!

I thought Antonica was awesome. I didn't stop playing until I went to every corner of it... but it was getting slower and slower especially even getting to l15 (and the back and forth is insane with the quests but the zone is great. Kept me playing).

That's not the part I disliked however; it's my wizard not flash-frying stuff and me waltzing out of there with my cane twirling over my bowler hat. It's more like, "get the mercenary", "no don't do that you'll start playing it like that", "no do it, you're weak" and so and so forth.

Probably not selling this idea I had very well... but I'm sticking to it!

look at your AA tab, open the editor, right click the first aa in every category and rollback and commit so that you have a clear AA tree with none spent and none planned. you won't have enough points yet but this is your guide and the first 10 will be a big boost anyway.

first 10 points - heroic tab, ability mod
next 5 points - shadows tab, whatever in first line
next 5 points - shadows tab, magi shielding buff in mage line
next 1 point - shadows tab, the nuke on the right
next 5 points - shadows tab, magi shielding buff in sorcerer line
next 1 point - shadows tab, thunderclap
thunderclap is now your best spell for a while, scales with level and has a 15 sec reuse
next 5 points - shadows tab, physical mit in wizard line
next 5 points - shadows tab, ice spears in wizard line i guess because the one that adds elemental mit reduction to immolate will cause ability mod to not apply to immolate cause this game is buggy trash
next 1 point - shadows tab, hailstorm
next 10 points - heroic tab, reuse
next 10 points - heroic tab, thunderclap upgrade
thunderclap now one shots everything
next 10 points - heroic tab, mystical overflow
next 8 points - potency
next 2 points - ethernere chains
next 31 points - dragon tab, 2nd column, 10 regenerating ward, 10 max health, 10 mition, 1 death save
next 10 points - wizard tab, 10 points magi shielding regenerating ward

almost forgot also put 1 point in static discharge in sorcerer tab

the problem now is spell upgrades, the game was originally not designed around the current uber fast leveling and less-than-expert spells are lame, but thunderclap will carry you, and hailstorm and thunderclap will kill some random 3 arrow heroic if you need to kill for some reason. you are tanky enough to mass pull and aoe trash with some mystical overflow procs and firestorm

I am happy you did not give up Fluffyshute , the Wizard is one of the highest ranking DPS in the game at least for mages
and if you follow some of the advice you too will get there .
you have to watch out Antonica is full of heroic mobs , they look like easy picking but are a lot hard to kill than regular mobs .
In EQ2 wizards are the kings of fire and ice those Furies ( healers ) do the lightnig thing ( we sometimes call them the wizards of the healers )
But REAL wizards can freeze-fry an opponent , give them frostbite and send him in to a Furness right after , and we use violent storms .

Please if you started a toon on the Qeynos side be carful in Darklight Woods , the guards won't like you , you can do quests but you have to get them from as far away as possible
My favorit zone to level up " good " toons is Frostfang seas .
Or Timorious deep .

Don't listen to those guys that have nothing better to do than dismissing other people .
Listen to people like Matik who will give you useful advice .
One more thing , it does not matter how big the chest was the gear came from , there is a difference between the zones how good the gear is the beginner zones around Qeynos are not the best .
And make sure your wearing level 10 to 19 gear , nothing below .

DO quest in antonica, or whatever makes you happy, because that is what the game is about and the only redeeming quality in this game is the old quests imo

I want you to stay and get really good Fluffy and enjoy yourself .

Your EQ2U link is https://u.eq2wire.com/soe/character_detail/3010789879160

Right off the bat, you are wearing two pieces of level 1 gear, which means you might as well have nothing in those slots. You need another charm and another earring.

Go to the broker and search armor equippable by a level 10-18 wizard, and look at Mastercrafted stuff. I think you will see a huge improvement with better gear. For example, an Imbued Mastercrafted chest will give you some small heals, while Imbued Mastercrafted legs will do damage to your attacker. You need rare roots, so start harvesting as you travel... if you find mastercrafted on the broker, the prices are likely ridiculous, but generally you can ask in the Crafting channel for a Tailor to make you new cloth armor if you have the rares on hand, then pay fuel costs plus a tip.

You probably should also try to get all your spells to Adept or at least Journeyman. Having one or two good spells and a bunch of useless ones won't be as good. I would try to get Shackle to a high grade of spell because root-and-nuke is a wizard's lifeblood. Again, ask in the Crafting channel, this time for a Sage.

Are you trying to nuke heroics? Heroics would need a merc, but the solo trash *should* be fairly face-roll. Or it used to be anyway. I've only played on the progression servers at that level since about 2015, where the monsters have been buffed to be tougher. Before that I remember the mobs popping like balloons. Though if you want to mow down monsters en masse, try a warlock or a shadow knight. The warlock is the aoe version of the wizard. The SK is like a warlock wearing platemail once you've gotten all of your aoe spells.

Just set this up to the point I've got the 5 +1 in Shadows: Wizard Line as the last I can get at L16. I'll do this for my other L18 Wizard in Antonica at some point.
I've got Thunderclap.
Hailstorm looks good (but you don't mention that in the list).
Set almost everything in the initial setup (Heroic, Ability Mod) bar a few things. I did try "Weave" with the 48.0 Disruption and Subjugation but it got resisted by l20 skeletons at l15 and still at l16 (was pretty disappointed with that).
I've been getting killed most of the time by l20 skeletons at l16 (they seem to really hit hard sometimes) and it's as slow-going as Antonica (I'm just being honest here; it's a slog). It's fun now and again but there's this sudden drop in what you can do at l15 (just like I had in Antonica); like I haven't progressed. Never though I'd die in Neriak as it was pretty easy going until "The Tower of Bone".

I've just done this right now so I'm about to go to The Tower of Bone and see if- "I don't die".

Adept spells were dropping when I started anew in Neriak (they never did in Antonica except a master spell from a completely normal enemy) and by L13, that all stopped and nothing to do with Adept spells has dropped for my spells. It's just dried up so that everything else that isn't Wizard, seems to drop.

I'm wearing stuff that I've gotten from quests and playing the game and most of the time, you get quest items that are lower than what you had on awhile back.

This isn't the problem I'm having with the game, though. There's a lot of stuff I don't know and "Matik" in this thread has just shown me an "AA" setup that I'm about to try out. I sort of flinched when Matik said, "bugged" in a part of the AA though!

Well no, but I did in Antonica when a quest took me into Thundering Steppes the one time; two-arrow-down skeletons l22 almost killed a L18 mercenary with 12,500 hp and I was chipping at diamonds by the feel of it (no spell would hit). So, no, I'm not "heroic-hunting mindlessly" from that point.

I can take on a "no-arrow" heroic l15 in the "Neriak Highlands" with the dragon-type things (or the mage skeletons that had them as the encounter-pet) and it was fine (same level). But normal mob skeletons at l20 on my l16 are killing me (The Tower of Bone, Neriak). This is before Matik's advice on AA however, so hold that thought!

I'm a "Wizard Guy". I did watch this guy Ro-Ro-somebody on youtube with a necromancer L110 (I think) obliterating the screen in a mentor-state (L50).

It's OK. I was using the standard default solo template which doesn't seem like it's good for solo.
About to find out if Matik's thing works.

I am sure they do , he sounds like he knows what he's talking about
One more thing ,about that grand master spell , about every 10 levels your spells get upgraded ,
and the rank is reset to apprentice so don't be surprised when solar flare gets upgraded to apprentice .
I still use the old ability till I can get the higher level ability ranked up , so it again is more powerful than the last one .
you can do it this game would get old fast if it was to easy .

L19 , Wizard, Bumaest (when I got to Nektulos Forest to do one or two quests there).

Completed Neriak. Got the robe items which seems to be the last quest item you get in there.
Walked into Nektulos Forest, got the griffon to get to the bridge outside of Commonlands and got a few quests there. There's nothing there when you leave Neriak and that was disappointing I thought.
The quests for the spinner spiders I did without effort which then got me "Hail Storm" in Shadows AA; not even used that yet! Just came back here to mention the progress.
The other quests are red (haze stalkers). One is orange (owl bears). The spinner spiders were yellow and orange.

Matik's Shadow AA Line makes you nearly immune to white and yellow mobs and resilient to no-arrow heroics (so far). I could stand up to the Tower of Bone skeletons that were l20 orange normal (at l16) and it was easy enough (though they could get you into the red if your spells got resisted (which did happen several times). Before that I died almost every time. The Shadow AA line for the magi shield is fairly potent but the resists is what throws you off if the spell damage doesn't land, so I never contemplate just taking on anything in the zone I'm playing that's orange or a mage.

The problem I still see is that Neriak is no different than Antonica in terms of quests and moving about (though Neriak is just moving forward and then centralizing quests at certain locations and going in either direction into the corners of the map).
I still see a horrific itemization problem (but I already knew that but didn't have an experience of it). Every quest you get is no upgrade that's even worth looking at (like the Bone Staff in Neriak I got that didn't go above what I had since l10). That stung, I gotta say.

You need a merc in this game to keep stuff off you when you want to just blast anything you want (like orange and red or heroic's without an arrow or just ^ the one). I'm not expecting a default Wizard to tank but I do expect to survive by damaging something long before I have a problem.

It's still very, very slow (all day in Neriak for hours and hours just to get to L17; I'm not L19 just doing anything I can but it's completed in Neriak and now I'm back in Antonica repeating the same thing I did on the first Wizard because... there's no quests I can do safely and quickly.

The sort of feeling I still have is that the class is underwhelming when it should be overwhelming to anything I want to tackle and just get stuff done and move about quicker (I'm not talking about mounts or speed; progress and getting through without too much obstruction.

It's not unobvious to me that eq2 players like the time it takes and the difficulty (although I don't think you see it that way like I do). Difficulty to me is doing something and the reward is equal and above it, not that it was intentionally difficult because you're underpowered and blow stuff up in one or two spell hits.
That's apparent at high levels, but from starting at the beginning it's not there at all. New players are always going to want to start from the beginning and if it's not solid enough throwing yourself into the end-game is not a lot of fun for a lot of players.

I already know it's going to repeat like this in each zone without a merc; I just know it.
I'd rather have something else than a "follower" and have that durability and resilience and twice the power (to be honest here).

Right. Hail Storm. Should be good I hope.