I left this game during the Velious expansion. Back then, the critical mitigation mechanic was universally DESPISED for making combat excessively difficult, and all gear drops had to center around it because who cares about flexible playstyles, right? Did they ever do something about that that didn't make things worse? Anyway, I want to pick up where I left off from 8 years ago and progress through the expansions in their release order, which means the Terror Thalaumbra content or whatever it's called will be the next area to explore. Anyone know how I access these areas, and which one I should start with so I can progress the quests in order?
Luclin launches in December (no exact date yet); preorders go up Nov. 5th. You will get most of the previous content free when you preorder, so you'll be able to progress through all expansions including Chaos Descending from Nov. 5th on. Alternatively, you could buy the current expansion Chaos Descending now for half price (like $18 for the most basic edition) and get all the expansions through Chaos Descending right now. Then you could wait to buy Luclin until you have no other content left to do.
If you left after Velious there are several expacs you could adventure through if you want to do them at level. I've always enjoyed Tears of Vesshan and Altar of Malice (though others did not). There were also experiences in Cobalt S car and sme other areas as well, not sure which expac they are part of though. If you want to jump into lev 100+ then you need to get ToT et al.
meh. the venue has been ever increasing in Monty Hall: super tough beasties to super subtle scripting that requires third-party automation to even glean details which are beyond human ken. A vast increase of stat bloat on gear to mitigate the vast increase of beasties' abilities and hit points. Not a complaint, mind you. as the stat bloat as allowed casual players as myself the opportunity to venture into areas previously impossible to venture into, and fully experience content I paid for. I am uncertain this directly answers your specific questions, but rather gives a "from orbit" view of Norrath,... and no, the pun of views from Luclin were not intentional,... or were they?
Critical Mitigation has been long since gone from the game. If you last played in DoV, you have at least 7 expansions worth of content to go through. You'd be starting in the Chains of Eternity expansion. Your best starting point will be here: https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/The_Eidolon_Jungle_Timeline . You may have a couple prerequisites to do before hand, not sure. But that will set you on the path, assuming you want to do everything in order.
I turn off my combat XP and only level up from quests, locations, collections, etc. I enjoy the story more than the grind, so I want to hit up the expansion where Firiona Vie returned to Norrath just to end up dying and leading us to figure out what happened. I need to look over the release list. Long story short: I want the story to eventually lead me to Luclin. I plan on buying it, first sure, but I have a lot of catching up to do first.
wait a bit and buy luclin once u need it to advance , there is no rush if u are leveling at your own peace.
If DoV was the last you did, we had the mini-release of the Withered Lands after. Then Chains of Eternity, Tears of Veeshan, Altar of Malice, Terrors of Thalumbra, Kunark Ascending, Planes of Prophecy, Chaos Descending, then as earlier stated we'll be going to Luclin sometime in December. If you are 90, you may have to do the Withered Lands content before heading to Chains of Eternity (it used to be locked before level 92, it's been years since I've done it so not sure anymore). In any case, you get mail that gets you started on the CoE signature quest line, Shades of Drinal. https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Signature_Quests_Timeline
