Old player trying to return... despite soe.

hello, i've played eq2 from 2006 to 2010, my last expansion has been Destiny of Velious and i have 4 toos at lvl 90.
Now i would like to return (not with free to play).
What i have to do ?
Someone has told me I have to pay Age of Discovery + Chains of Ethernity + Monthly Subscription.
But.. it's about 95$.
Of course, i can't believe it !!!
Where I was wrong ?
Is this the way soe welcome back old and returning players ???

That would be the correct $$$, you need all of that to re-sub and have all current xpacs and content.

they haven't said anything but logic makes it highly likely that aod will come down to 19.99 when coe comes out

Age of Discovery had many nice features, but you're not gated out of any content if you don't have it. You could hold of purchasing it entirely or until later if you wanted. As people have hinted in this thread, it is also possible the cost for AoD will go down after a bit since it will no longer be the most recent expansion once CoE is live.

I don't think this is a warm "welcome back" and i can understand because 99% of the old players won't return.
I'm very sad about Soe behavior

As above... by not having AOD or the next COE expansion you're not going to be penalised out of content. You just wont be able to have mercs, level beyond 90 (I think) and enter the new zones CoE brings. Why not sub for a month or buy Krono for 1 month to try it out

(side note - I can't believe CoE doesn't include all expacs to date... didn't it always used to be that way?)

Why is this not a warm welcome back? They aren't saying you can't play the game and all the content that you had when you left, just that if you want to see the new stuff you need to purchase it. You have missed a new expansion, and the one that about to come out in some 2 years. When the level cap increased in a MMO the standard format is you need to buy the new expansions. I don't understand why you are giving SoE a hard time on this....

If you already own DoV you can come back without paying and be a silver member. The level cap is 92/300 because GU63 was a free update if you owned DoV.

However if you don't wanna pay a 14.99 sub fee any gear legendary and above will be locked to you and also the AA slider is locked at 50/50.

Age of Discovery does cost 40 bucks and is only required if you wanna roll a Beastlord, use Mercs, or reforge gear.

If you wish to play the newest content then buy Chains if Eternity when it comes out next week. New level cap of 95 and more Prestiege Points.

If you are looking to do end-game content (heroic and raid) you are really hurting yourself by not having the ability to reforge.

Don't be fooled by what people tell you, reforging makes a huge difference in the end. There's quite a big difference between a player with reforged gear, and non-reforged gear.

I agree though... CoE needs to include all previous expansions (and feature packs like AoD)

i can't play end game content, i can't play as anyone else, this is not a penalization ?? Seriously ???

In 5 years i've paid more then 800 dollars to Soe and it's ok. I don't want to play free, but 95 dollars to play again as enyone else is NOT a warm welcome.
With many other mmorpgs (title via pm if you need) in case of return i have to pay about 30-40 dollars the last expansion and i get 15 or 30 days included. after i'll start to pay the monthly. This is a welcome back. 95 dollars don't.

How many old 'veteran' quitted in the last years have you seen again ? Ever asked why ?

You can level to 92 with velious. Withered Lands/Skyshrine content granted level 92. You wouldn't be able to use Mercs.

You are perfectly capable to just pay a sub (which you've stated you are willing to do) and if you want to be current you would need to buy the new expansion that comes out Tuesday. Age of Discovery would be completely optional. You don't HAVE to have mercs & beastlords and by most accounts the 20 token aa given with it don't make or break anyone with many people struggling to find somewhere worthwhile to put them.

And of course, you don't have to pay anything at all to come back and see if you still want to pay.

I don't know what game's you've played that gave you a free month with expansion purchases, but I've never played one that gave a free month to anyone other than new players. I know Turbine & Blizzard sure didn't.

*Rift did keep giving me free months after beta because I wouldn't buy their game, but that's not the same*

I pay to play the "end game content". You should too, and not get everything for free-which is what you seem to imply that SOE should do for you. Sorry, games don't work like that. And even tho you say you don't want to play free, there is plenty of Free-to-Play content which you can access. No MMO has to do this. It used to always be that if you didn't subscribe, NOTHING of any game was available to you except on the rare 2 or 3 day trial you might get every so often.

If you want to "play again as Anyone else", then you need to PAY like Everyone else. Simple, really. "...warm welcome"? No game promises anyone a "warm welcome", but if you act like a Friend in-game to other players, then chances are you will get some friends in-game. Those who create games don't guarantee anything like a "warm welcome." You pay, you get to play a game, they take your money. It's like buying groceries: you buy what you want, you go home. How you prepare your groceries is up to you. Simple really.

As for "how many old 'veteran quit[] in the last years", well, people hurry hurry hurry to get to the "End Game Content", play through that super-fast, and then are bored and move on to something else. It happens to every MMO.

Not sure what you think SOE is going to do for you, but I am sure they're not going to pay for more content for any single person that everyone else has to pay for. Sorry....

Adaora @ Freeport

Chains of Eternity includes DoV ($40) + 1 month sub ($15 normal - $17.99 with all access pass) so you really paying $55 to $57.99 to come back to the game at top tier.
when you think about it isnt that bad coming back to a game if you dont already have DoV

So far I am new here too and enjoying this game

I think the complaint is mostly about not having access to mercenaries, the extra 20 AA, reforging, and tradeskill apprentices without adding another 40 to the cost of the expansion.

AoD really screwed things up for many people, though I myself paid for it and have no complaints, others want EQ2 to go back to the old policy of newest expansion gives you everything. I would be accepting of SoE giving Chains purchases AoD as well, though many others would complain. Not that it would happen or that everyone would be accepting, perhaps bundle in AoD and give those who purchased already a free month or two of gametime as an appeasement that puts the game back on its original expansion ideology.

I just came back a few months ago, paid for AoD and the latest expansion before CoE (DoV?) both at half price, I'd be a little disappointed if they just started giving out AoD after I just bought it. I also bought it all for my wifes account, so was $80 for us to get back into it and its given us plenty to do so far and looks like there is plenty still to do. Another $120 for 2 special edition CoE packs. Now it cost us around $100 each, so while, not cheap, its been fun and the mercs from AoD have been worth the $ imo.

> others want EQ2 to go back to the old policy of newest expansion gives you everything

Everything *eventually*. IIRC the adventure packs weren't included in new expansions until TSO, so they existed for a good 3 years before being included without shelling out more money. That's not to say that AoD and CoE aren't oddly mismatched such that not including AoD in CoE is silly (notable is the merc you get for purchasing CoE that you can't use without also purchasing AoD), but the assumption that an expansion gives you everything isn't universal throughout the history of the game.

Unless they've changed their policy, Blizzard requires you to buy *every* expansion of WoW individually if you don't have it to get caught up. So starting anew is a massive expense. I don't think having the latest expansion and the latest feature pack (which is how SOE defines AoD) separate is unreasonable when the expansion includes everything else.

I have a couple of friends in the same boat...They subbed to gold and now they want the Chains of eternity expansion. They will also have to buy AoD to get the merc and dungeon maker. It does hurt when you are laying it all out at once but really you can just wait AoD to come down in price, which I assume it will after the expansion comes out.

SOE is actually very generous when you compare it to other games like Runes of Magic (who charges for basics like mounts and housing space) and Lord of the Rings which makes you pay to quest in areas even after you have purchased the game.

This is the issue im running into as well.

The population in EQ2 is just too small to not have mercs. This game has a MASSIVE amount of completely useless leveling content without them, and leveling is one of the best parts of this game.

I will be all over this game if they unlock mercs/reforging for CoE purchasers, as its near impossible to talk my friends into to coming back and play with me, especially with this price tag in their faces. We are WoW players who would feel awful not reforging for the best of what we can, you can't charge people 40 bucks to actually have the ability to do it. It's pay2win all over the place.

95 bucks is too much. And yes, you could say you can buy a krono and unlock gold for 15 bucks off, but i only have 1000 plat to my name in general from my SF days. and it's still 80 bucks

And hell, they dont even give you the best mercs, you have to drop another chunk of money to get "elite" ones.

The pay to win is sad here.

Returning player here as well, in exact same boat.

I figured I'd download the game, poke around, unlock my equipment with old leftover cash shop money and resub once I got used to the controls again, but frankly, I feel lost. The amount of money they're asking me to invest to return is frightening. I went ahead and bought CoE to see if any of the previous expansion content came with it, but it's sounding more and more like I'm going to be investing at least another $40. And I haven't even resubbed yet.

I wish they'd at least had the courtesy to leave my AA alone until I figured out if I wanted a respec or not.