New EQ2 Player - Old MMO Player...

Hello, I'm completely new to EQ2, although I have played nearly every other MMO developed but I've always avoided EQ and EQ2 only because at the time I was always involved with other MMOs like UO, AC, AC2 DAoC etc etc and until now have actually made an account and am ready to give it a try. So if anyone could give me some awesome advice and help I would really appreciate it as coming from some more modern MMOs I imagine I will get frustrated or lose interest faster than I should and honestly have no other MMO to go at this point as I've played out all content in several MMOs twice over now.

Thanks in advance!
- W

oh one of my first concerns is which servers are still populated well and what class would be a better starter class? In your opinions I mean which would be the easiest to play until up to speed with EQ2's environment? Same question with crafting and such too and anything else you can share from your experiences.

- W

Welcome to the game!
You can find a lot of helpful information and quest guides at eq2.zam.com, and at eq2.wikia.com. You can find a lot of tradeskill information at eq2.eqtraders.com. There is also some great information at eq2wire.com. There are a lot of resources available to you to help you on your new adventure.

Ahhh yes seen the guides and such and am not a big fan of them really any more. I prefer a bit of human interaction so I can get what I want to know and not have to search for it or read through it. I'm also not a fan of quests any more, so tired of the go here and get this or kill that. If I do any more of questing or reading guides I'm going to freak out and scream and never try another new MMO again. Well maybe GW2 but I've heard people say it's the same old stuff just a different flavor so I dunno.

Just jump in and play the type of class you think you would be most interested in and have fun. You don't have to use external research, but it certainly helps to speed things along when you get stuck and in many cases, can make you a better player. Since you desire human interaction, find a good, active guild for people interaction and help, it will make your gaming experience much better.

Ahhh yes a guild.

Many of this game's systems are centered around being in a guild. Guild's actually have levels the same as players and as members work to level the guild up, they can gain access to new perks, like access to larger guild halls, better hall amenities, city merchants, etc. Belonging to a level 95 guild with a tier 3 guild hall has its benefits

As you seem to burn through game content(I've done the same) at least you'll have 7 years worth of expansions and updates to play through here.

Level all of your harvesting abiilities like mining and fishing as you level and keep them maxed out. You'll encounter several important quests later on that have harveting components. Selling rare materials is also an easy way to raise cash.

Harvest every shiny "?" you see. They are components to collection quests, and aside from having some questionable rewards and house items, the rarer ones are worth money on the broker.

Once you hit level 10 you can start gaining Alternate Advancement points. These are gained by completing quests, killing named monsters, discovering new areas, and straight up funneling a % of your exp into them. They are just as important to your character as actual levels and gear, so don't neglect them. Many choose to level lock and funnel 100% of their exp into AA development every so often. I personally find that level 14 is a good level for this. Others will have their own opinions on this.

Like any older game, grouping through dungeons in the lower levels is sketchy at best. The Age of Discovery expansion comes with mercenaries, which are essentially NPC sidekicks to help you kill stuff. This will make your life way easier.

AA Development? Not heard of this. interesting...

It's in your character development window. Hit "L". Think of them as being similar to the spec trees in WoW and Rift, except that you gain them independently.

Oh still my basic question would be which servers have the higher population as I can't tell myself. Also which class would be better for someone new to EQ2? I assume tanks are still in demand in EQ2 or have they gotten rid of the need for a tank like some other games?

Will I be able to leave the starter areas at level 10 or sooner? I created a character but then server went down but did not see any other people and a very lonely feeling came over me.

EQ2 is a meat and potatoes MMO in terms of adventuring. Tank + Heal + DPS, the Holy Trinity.

The standard starting areas go from 1-20. However, if you want a different leveling experience than the typical linear quest-for-gear model, take your good toons to Qeynos or your evil toons to Freeport. You'll have several low level adventuring zones in the area to choose from. Caves, ruins, forests, graveyards, swamps, sewers, catacombs, etc. The gear isn't as readily forthcoming, but some, myself included, find it to be a more interesting and immersive way to start a character. Also Qeynos is located in the Antonica outdoor zone, a very large level 10-20 area with non-linear adventuring. The Blackburrow dungeon for levels 12-20 is there. Freeport is located in the Commonlands, also a large 10-20 zone. The Wailing Caves dungeon is there with a similar level range to Blackburrow. Going the Qeynos/Freeport leveling route will make you more reliant on the broker or crafting your own gear.

Antonia Bayle and Crushbone are good servers.

You can leave the starting area at any time by using one of the world bells (usually found near a dock). But I would suggest you complete the quests in your starting area to the end because one of the quest rewards is a mount.

Honestly, I've found you can usually just end up getting one sooner by buying one from a city mount merchant. Do the quest mounts have stats?

This is good stuff thx all!

My toon's name is Vonzack on the Permafrost server.

I can say that the heavily populated servers in order by most is Freeport, Nagafen, Antonia Bayle and Crushbone. good luck!

I'm not sure if they have stats or not but I was suggesting it because it sounds like the original poster is new and the lowest priced mounts I found when I first started were at least 2 plat. I was well above level 20 before I had the plat to purchase one.

I'm on Permafrost, look me up as Snowhaze or Snowfist and I'll check for you tonight. Even have space in the guild if you haven't found one and are interested.

So any of you have room in your guild for a new player?

I'm going to go ahead and subscribe for a month at least too see how that goes as I want to try some of these other classes and hate being limited.

Oh Awesome Snowhaze, I appreciate it! I'm going to make a few other characters after I subscribe here in a bit on various other servers too. I want to check out the other races and classes.

- W