Returning from the...dead? (10+ year hiatus)

Hi all!

I recently re-instated my old EQ2 account on a lark and began playing again after waxing poetic with my family over how much fun the spouse and I used to have running around Norrath together. (We 'met' in EQ1 many years ago, and will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this year, so don't let anyone tell you that you need to get off the computer to meet people!) The problem is that it's been a bit over 10 years since the last time I played, and SO MUCH has changed in the interim. I've now played a week or so to try to get my feet back under me and have stumbled across some stuff (Fast Travel - what the WHAT?? Greatest thing ever!) but there's been so many changes that it's super overwhelming.

Is there already some sort of guide or timeline of things to know or do to try to 'refresh' characters? If not, what are your top 10 things to know or do if you hadn't played for 10 years?

Some more specific questions:

- What in the heck happened to the broker economy? When I left, hundreds of plat were considered extravagant purchases. Now I see individual shinies up for like 22 million plat!?! Does everyone just have hoards of plat now, or is this some sort of thing from all the server merges?

- Speaking of server merges, is there any way to find out whether it's possible to remove the excess letters off the end of my characters' names? I used the free rename from server merges to get a lot off, but it still wouldn't take that final 'z' off some of them. Is there a way to work with a guide or dev to know whether that account without the 'z' is inactive and might be ok to flip-flop the names? (Is this just wishful thinking?)

- I hit my cap of AAs this past week playing (350) on one of my characters, but I've seen posts mentioning builds with more...My highest character is only level 100. Do I get access to more AAs after a certain level? (I don't want to use the 'boost to 120' thing until after I've relearned how to play well.)

- What sort of gear should I be going for? I found an NPC selling a box of gear for free that (after turning 100) I was able to put on and put all my old stuff to shame. I went from ~300k HP to about 3.3 million. Clearly, I am way behind on my gearing if free stuff is so much better than things I spent a lot of time dungeon crawling for!

- How can you tell what expansions you are considered as having? I had some item (I think from the above ^ NPC vendor) that you had to be level 100 and have a certain expansion to be able to use the item, but it wouldn't let me use it, despite being level 100 and having purchased the latest expansion on the website and getting an 'all-access' account.

- What 3rd party resources do you all use for up-to-date info? A lot of the ones I remember using seem to have been abandoned or have older info that doesn't always apply anymore.

I can't think of anything else at the moment, but I am sure more will come up as I wander about. Please feel free to drop any other useful things we might need to know!

You "lost" your name as someone else had it and was active when the last merges happened and additional letter(s) were added to the end of your name.
/rename followed by the new name (example /rename Elmer) You will only be allowed this once to rename your character after merges. Just know that you will not get to use "Hawke"

350 aa's is the max, what you earn after that is prestige and that is only gained from achievements, signature quests, etc. after level 90.

EQ2maps and Darqui are good add-ons you can find them at https://www.eq2interface.com/

OK cool. Thank you for the response!

Yes, I understand the mechanic behind the extra letters, and don't fault the system for it happening, since I was inactive. I was just curious if there was any way to determine if the current account with the name I desire was still active, and if not, whether that could get flopped. I used the free rename to remove most of the letters. I thought there might be a rename I could purchase in the store as well if that were a possibility.

I guess I'll try to hunt down which quests give prestige AAs. I've done several achievements and signature quests since returning, but haven't gone past 350. My prestige section shows 25/25.

I'm glad to hear EQ2maps is still functional. We used to use that a lot! I'll need to look into Darqui.

Welcome back!
The changes are indeed a lot to wrap one's head around. Fortunately, most of the expansions have fairly detailed guides on wiki and zam. Though admittedly the number of contributors with accurate info has been dwindling, you can still search the forums for any missing tidbits of info that wiki or zam lacks.

This unfortunately, seems to be the new standard. At least on appearance. About the only thing devs have been able to do to combat the exorbitant prices is to limit the max sell price on what can be sold on the broker as well as limit the number of days items can be listed. Any itmes currently priced for more than 50 million plat or seem to sit there for months and months were items posted before the limitations were set, probably by players that are no longer in the game.

The fastest way to earn that kind of plat is to buy kronos and sell them in-game via auction. However, for those of us not able/willing to fork over real world money just to increase our plat accounts, harvesting rare resource materials and collectibles is the next best alternative. If you can figure out which zone they come from and can run through it safely, it is possible to earn a few million plat.

With the next expansion's release coming up in just a couple months, making sure you have a couple characters that have completed the "A Gathering Obsession Beyond the Grave" from Qho Augren in Isle of Mara and also do the Kunark Ascending Crafting Timeline. These will get you the Fully Trained Pack Pony and Obulus Frontier Garden. You may or may not need to buy the standard edition of the newest when it releases (guildhall harvesters require ownership), but you will be able to send the pony out and collect harvests from the OFG once per day to easily obtain rares that will easily sell for multiple millions of plat during the first couple months of the expac's release.

Wishful thinking, sadly. I've only had to rename a couple of characters due to a server merge but can feel the frustration of not being unable to use a favorite name.

I'm unsure which expansion started doing this, though I am fairly certain it was only a couple expansions back, and that you can only earn those bonus AA's in those zones. Apologies that I cannot be more specific, but in all honesty, I've not felt that lacking them has hindered my ability to play in the zones that I've been focusing on. While I cannot say how I earned them, I did notice my character did get them when adventuring in VoV, so I'd say it isn't something you will need to become overly exhausted trying to obtain.

Tishan's lockbox is great for getting the best starting equipment available when your character hits the level of the equipment. Just note that a couple expansions did not add to the max level but offer significantly better equipment in the newer expac (VoV is superior to RoS). The General Gameplay Discussion forum has stickied tutorials to walk you through the best ways to upgrade those armor sets with the best adornments. For the best adnorns, you will want to complete the Panda Panda Panda/Days of Summer quests (easy run around through various zones) on one character, but you do have to have a sub in order to do the quests or even to buy the rewards. Only one character has to complete the quests in order to unlock rewards for all your characters.

Creating a new character and then /claim is the fastest way to figure that out.
I vaguely remember another way to look that up, but cannot honestly say how. However, asking CSR is a viable option.

Quick response from CSR regarding how to determine which features your account has enabled, while in game 'try /show_account_features". The info it provided me on my account was fairly basic; overseer, beastlord, every expac (having bought the last one). It does not indicate whether the account had purchased CE PE or standard versions of each expac. That's where you have to examine the /claim to see what toys you get or have already gotten.

Yes, we discovered that shinies and rare harvests sell very well. I just....can't bring myself to sell them for more than 1k plat each. Maybe I'll get numb to it, but until then, if you're looking for shinies that are not in the bleeding edge zones, you can get some steep discounts at my broker!

I currently have the Artisan's Pack Pony and the Artisan's Gathering Goblin, and vaguely remember doing Quo's quests. A quick check on my completed quests list shows I finished "A Gathering Obsession Beyond the Grave" in Nov 2013, so maybe my current pack pony is from that. I do NOT recall anything about the OFG, so I might need to look into the Kunark Ascending Crafting Timeline.

OK. I'll just try to keep an eye out, then. I was concerned I was missing something very basic, but perhaps I just haven't gotten into the quest lines that give those yet.

So, I found and equipped some gear from a lockbox in the Plane of Magic. Is that the Tishan's lockbox? I also have done all the panda quests from Sundered Frontier (that was a great trip down memory lane) so should have that all available. I will need to review what adorns to put on, since I currently have none!

Odds are the broker vultures will see your price, buy up your stock only to resell it at the exorbitant prices. It is possible to bring prices down to levels more friendly to new players, but that requires a decent amount of stock on hand that you can price at just high enough to frustrate the vultu8res who would otherwise attempt to turn a profit from your lowballing prices.

The OFG is well worth the effort, though you have to give up your goblin. Even though it is only daily versus the two hour timer, it always delivers rares with greater frequency than GG. Plus, GG does turn into a hirable mercenary, and the icon that summoned him will instead grant decent harvesting bonuses.

iirc, PoM is the first place Tishan's Lockbox appears, but it can be found and referred to by that name at the beginning of every starting zone of pretty much all other expac after that. As long as your character is high enough level, the gear will be visible. At the very least you should see ammo and a mount.

Well, I've been doing the 1k thing for a couple weeks now, and they still aren't moving at a great speed. I'm really trying to hold out, though!

I will definitely look into this, then!

Is the gear the same at all locations? I don't think I can get into any zone past PoM yet.

Yep. Those are the ones I did the quests for and got access to their full range of items (minus stuff that I'm not high enough level for yet). That was where I had gotten one of the items that I mentioned I couldn't use, above. Turns out, it wasn't due to level or expansion, but since I had not started any Ascension class, it was giving me the vague messages that it couldn't be used. I can use it now, but have no idea what 'Guided Ascension' items do. I haven't noticed anything happen when I use one.

Guided ascension is gone now, it was the original way to level your ascension class.

Well boo. You'd think you wouldn't be given items that no longer serve any purpose. :/

Not at every location. I don't recall specs to each expac, but can confirm that while you get level 120 gear in RoS City of Fordel Midst(sp?), the level 120 gear you get in VoV Svarni Expanse has superior stats. However, I am not 100% sure if there are any zone specific constraints that affect where you can actually benefit from stats.

Oh, if you get the scrolls just use them, they do help level it. They just aren't something you have to run around and get anymore.

Oh buttercup, another thing we forgot to tell you...
PANDA quests! Especially since a new panda quest is coming soon (they do a new series each year).
Head to sundred frontier via a wizard spire or fast travel there and start the Panda quests. There is a write up on wiki. You need to be current on the panda quests in order to do the new one that's coming out. They are all pretty fast to do and you should be able to get caught up in a day or two. The panda merchant has items like familiar level buff, boost to ascension levels, adornments and house items. Once you do the quests on one character, other characters can make purchases from merchant based on their level.

I have done every panda quest available. It looks like I did everything through 2022. Apparently I missed this year's? Maybe those will show up next year.

Well, I'm glad I used them, then. I didn't notice that they did much, but later ones that looked similar would give me a level when used. I think I'm up to lvl 13 geomancing now?

Nice. The levels actually come rather quickly now. My suggestion is you will want to get them all eventually, level one to 10 then change...get that one to 10, and so on. Then you can start working on getting them to mastery. You are going to want them all at the highest level eventually. Then you can work on leveling each spell in the one you prefer to use (that comes from your knowledge book where you research your abilities). Thankfully after you start each one you don't have to go all the way back to Obulus to change, there are trainers in the cities/hubs starting in PoP so you can just go to them and change. Good luck!

This year's Panda quests have not been released yet. Soon?

Thus year's panda quest is coming soon, either next week or a week from Tuesday? I just wanted to make sure you were caught up on that!

Yikes. I wasn't switching back and forth, just was on geomancer. I'm at lvl 13 - how high do those levels go?

They just changed it and I don't remember how high it is now (25? I'm a little brain dead today). Basically get them to 20 and you're good to go. Then you can pick the one you like the best and keep that one active.