Potential new player with a few questions.

As the title says I'm thinking of trying EQ2. I've played numerous MMO's before with my biggest amount of time spent in Dark Age of Camelot. I tend to enjoy pet classes as I like to solo a lot, explore and see what kind of crazy stuff I can beat on my own. As an example if anyone is familiar with DAoC Midgard, I once spent about 5-6 hours fighting my way to the bottom of Trollheim and besting Nosdoden by myself dual boxing my summon spec spiritmaster & healer bot. Nosdoden(which was my favorite house trophy & why I tried this in the first place cause I wanted that trophy) took roughly 4.5 hours to kill by itself. The other roughly hour or so was the time just to fight my way to it in the first place. At that time(this was like 8 years ago or so) and to the best of my knowledge to this day I am the only player to solo that encounter as well as the only "group" to beat it with only 2 toons used, though I have heard of another group of 2 players with 3 total toons used that managed to best it as well. Even just playing on my spiritmaster without having to use my healer bot, I could solo many encounters that normally required a full group or more. So long as any particular encounter isn't scripted to require a certain number of players, I like to see just what is possible with enough patience & testing.

So all that out of the way, looking over the class list I see that the primary pet classes are the Conjuror & Necromancer. I also see the Coercer appears to be able to charm or create essence pets. Reading these boards I see that both the Conjuror & Necro appear to be equally able to solo higher end content in the hands of competent players. I haven't seen much regarding Coercers though. Of these 3 classes, 4 if you consider Charm & PE Coercers separately, which class would you consider the better for a player who wants to be able to solo as much as possible...and some that may not actually be possible but we'll try it anyway.

Also I'm a west coast USA player who plays a lot of late night/early morning any server suggestions that tend to have a decent pop during those times.

Finally I saw something about collectables and shinies. I went ahead and grabbed the collectables PDF so I know what is considered the more rare stuff I may encounter as I go. But if anyone has any low level stuff they are looking for that a new player may come across while learning the game, feel free to add your server and contact info to this thread & I'll PM people on the server I select in case I happen upon the stuffs peeps want.

Thank you to any who take the time to answer & help a new player get started.

Edit: Just to mention I'll be playing as F2P to start. I basically understand the limitations that incurs. I do play a lot of PlanetSide 2 atm though, and with the upcoming membership changes to 1 membership for all SoE games I will probably pick up a membership at some time. I'm also quite sure I'll be trying EQN when it comes out so I'll want a membership before then at any rate.

There is a lot of older content that is perfectly soloable (Or doable with a Mercenary) Current content is usually not soloable. (with exceptions for the actual solo zones) Conjuror and Necromancer are quite durable casters (Necromancer due to self healing capability and Conjuror due to stoneskins) and they are quite good DPS (top tier DPS depending on encounters)

For your server questions, Antonia Bayle and Freeport are the highest population servers period. Oasis has an australian raiding Guild called Mojo Rising that raids late night (11:30pm-3:30am PST) if you're interested in that. That's quite end-game however.

Collectibles are a great source of fun AND income. you run the risk of becoming shiny addicted. The collectible PDF is a little bit outdated but it should get you through about level 70 or so.

Also, on your F2P statement, playing Bronze (completely free) is perfectly doable however you will not be able to access any of the public chat channels nor buy anything off of the broker. I would highly recommend paying the 500SC for a silver level which will allow use of chat and allow you to BUY things off the broker. To be able to sell on the proker you will either need broker credits (purchasable through the Marketplace at 50SC for i think 25 credits) or an active gold level sub (be it from credit card or Krono). This is quite nice. The gold membership also includes 10% faster mount speed, 10% more coin gain and DOUBLE alternate currencies (So any tokens/shards/etyma etc.) which is quite worth it. Added in with the fact that soon the sub will be All-Access for the same price it's quite a good deal indeed.

Thanks WafflesnCyanide for your input.

I've seen Freeport mentioned a few times on these boards as a generally good server so I think I'll probably create my first toon there sometime later tonight and have a go at it. I've still got some more reading to do before I jump in.

I most certainly will have to be careful of becoming shiny addicted.

Welcome to eq2!

I played daoc, Midguard was beautiful.

A ton of stuff here can be soloed and moloed with no problem at all. I'm on Antonia Bayle, myself, but I hear good things about Freeport. It should be a good home for you.

With everyone referring new people to the highest population servers, it's no wonder the other servers are shrinking If you are going to be soloing anyway, hit up permafrost

also, conj and necro are both fun to play. I have a 95 necro myself and am raising a conjy as well - pets are not the smartest, but they do what i need them to most of the time

I just read that Illy's get a pet too. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Thanks Avahlynn.

What is moloed? That's a new term for me.

Edit: Sorry Treiko I do still like the option to group if I feel like it so I'll probably play on Freeport.

Molo, solo with a merc!

I see, thanks.

Next question. Reading here & checking the wiki I'm not quite sure what info is dated and what is current. Regarding Coercers and charm. If I charm a mob do I get exactly what I charmed, ie same HP skills etc as what was standing there or do I get a modified version. I'm not talking about stat sharing which if I'm understanding correctly all pets get bonuses based off the player's stats.

I think I may like the ability to pick my pets per zone based off what is available & what is best suited to the task at hand rather than a "you are this class so you get the same pet every player of that class has" default pet.

As Avahlynn indicated, it is a portmanteau of the words mercenary and solo*.
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If you like the concept of pet classes, then they come in a lot of different "flavors". There are the Summoners, such as Necromancers and Conjurors. There are also the Enchanters, which include both Illusionists and Coercers - although if Coercers want a pet, they pretty much have to keep charming mobs. Shamans, such as Mystics and Defilers, have a pet (but I don't remember the level at which the pet is gained - it has been quite a while since I played my Defiler or either of my Mystics).

Additionally, Beastlords (which require the purchase of the Beastlord feature or the Adventure Feature Pack from the Marketplace - if one hasn't previously purchased Age of Discovery, and since you said you are considering giving the game a try, I'm guessing that you have never played it prior to this point) can have a wide variety of pets (each with slightly different skills). Finally, there are the Channelers, which require the purchase of Tears of Veeshan (AFAIK). Channelers have only one pet, but they gain the ability to draw essences from different creatures out in Norrath, allowing a degree of customization to one's construct (which is what the Channeler pet is called).

If I missed any pet classes, then I apologize. I know that there are some that I didn't mention that can cast limited pets, but I was referring to the ones that persist.

* The -ed at the end is merely a suffix indicating past tense**.
** Which will be the case at the time of completion of the content in question.

Ok, there are two different ways Coercers charm. Personal Essences generally are modified versions of a mob. (read they give you a tank most times) Charming a mob however gives you that mob with all(most) of it's abilities/level intact. However there is a chance for a charmed mob to break out of it's charm when it takes damage.

Ooh, that's right, they removed the level restriction on the AA, so the OP could potentially get PE at level 10 with enough AA.

My bad. <Smacks self in the back of the head.>

Ya I saw on the wiki that PE basically just gives you the appearance of what you cast it on but that the pet is just a generic fighter/mage/priest/rogue dependent on what basic class the mob you PE is. Charm actually gives you that mob as I understood it.

I also understand charmed pets can/will break at some point. That is the general trade off to being able to potentially charm really good pets or picking up a different pet on the fly as needed.

Sorry for double post, was to late to edit.

If I'm managing my aggro so that it stays on my charmed pet & the charm breaks will the mob I was fighting instantly aggro to me or will it still be aggro'd on the now non-charmed pet?

It will instantly aggro to you. (Or whoever was next on it's threat list)

Ok thanks. I figured as much but wanted to be sure.

I'm a bit of an altoholic. After more reading and a better understanding of the general game I can see at least 1 or 2 more characters in my future. I also like playing as a healer in group situations...though sometimes tanking is fun too..maybe a necro on the side cause well its a necro.

Say hello to Cearissa the Iksar Coercer on Freeport. I'll start working on her to learn the game with for now. Feel free to say high if you see me dashing around all wide eyed and newbie bewildered in a town near you.

PE is a level 65 spell. It is not upgradeable except to master level. You can put extra aa into both charm and PE though, the Prestige tab allows you to add 30% dmg reduction to your pet too. You will also want to use the aa options to upgrade your root spell so the mob you are trying to charm doesnt come and kill you while the (slow) charm spell is casting

To the OP, there is a good coercer pet strat guide here although it's a little outdated.

Not wanting to put out your fire, coercers are a lot of fun to solo/molo but over the years there have been a number of nerfs that render your pet much less powerful than before , I play a coercer that raids and have a lot of fun with it.

Good luck!

It has been a long time since I played my Coercer. I was remembering Possess Essence as a skill you were able to cast at level 80 due to AA. But like I said, it has been a long time since I played my Coercer (and even longer since he was under level 80*), so it is possible that I could be mis-remembering the origin of that skill.

Regardless, although I didn't mention Possess Essence in it, the rest of my initial post in the thread** was generally factually correct. The reason I didn't mention PE in that post is that I remembered it as not being available until later levels (which apparently was correct) due to AA (which apparently was not correct).

To the OP: Although I'm a confirmed Alt-o-holic myself, and that should be taken into consideration with any advice I give involving creating multiple characters, I would suggest trying out more than one. If there is one that you just absolutely hate playing, you can always just shift the stuff that isn't no-trade to one of the other characters (provided they are on the same server), then delete the character that you hate, thus opening up a character slot.

* Several years. He was created when RoK was current content.
** Hint: not the one you quoted.

You have always been able to cast PE at 65. The aa enhancement you remember was being able to remove the concentration cost with AA. That is no longer required. Changed in GU66 iirc

Is this the best Coercer charm pet guide atm? http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Coercer_Pets

Also where do I find Possess Essence to buy as a AA skill. I think I'll want both charm & PE to be able to swap between the 2 as I need/depending where I'm leveling?