Old Just Starting? Been Away and Returning? Read HereFollow

"Paladins of Norrath - Paladins (defunct?) " Yes, this domain is gone.

I noticed that The Spirit Realm has an active Paladin section: http://crucible.samanna.net/viewforum.php?f=53

I also recently returned back playing EQ after many years. Comparing to my active EQ days (first half of 2000s) the game now seems bit deserted. Let me share some observations.
1. In the past players were having difficulty finding spawn to kill. Now you have a lot of options and thats not a problem anymore. I guess decline in population, new content and avarage player lvl (most players are high lvls ) are important factors. Anyway, I would be surprised to see people arguing over KSing these days.
2.Mercs have huge impact on game. In the past you had to get in a group if you wanted to make headway. You could solo but the exp gain (due to many factors) was not good compared to grouping. Now depending on your class you can hire a merc and you can solo very efficiently. On the other hand, players seem to tend grouping much less compared to old days. Maybe it is because my level but I can hardly find someone to group with. Most people box (paly more than 1 toon) with mercs and you would see full groups of toons played by same player.
Having said that, mercs are the main reason I returned back playing EQ. My current real life status would not allow me burn time for trying and finding a group and then staying in it for a dedicated amount of time, as I did in the past. Now I solo my beastlord with my healer merc and I play whenever my time allows me.
3. One of the first things I noticed is that it is a lot easier to gain decent or above decent gear as you play. In the past that was out of question.
4. Spells, for one thing, are very easy to obtain now. As a beastlord I go to PoK and there spell merchants even categorized according to spell levels.
5. You can buy some importans potions from vendors, ie. mana / HP regen pots, haste , heal pots etc.
6. You can buy good stuff from vendors in PoK, like rings, earrings etc.
7. You can also obtain cool stuff via quests. I think Serpent Spine twist has huge impact on EQ since it is a very newbie-friendly content.
8. In some ways EQ has similar defects as it had in the past.
For example I read beastlord lvl 62 / 64 warders can *still* not benefit from pet enhance foci due to some technical issues (that is another story) But hey, what are the devs doing right there ? Isn't it their responsibility to handle this issue and repair whatever the issue is ? Nine years ago you wouldn't surprise to see such things but now I am surprised to see such carelessness still persists in EQ.
Another example; Durings yesterday's patching, server status at Everquest home page showed all servers as "up", but you wouldnt be able play EQ. How am I supposed to track the servers to see when they are up and when they arent if they don't show the correct information ?
These are my initial observations. I am sure there will be a lot more. Well, I am eager to witness them myself with my beastlord as I walk the land of Norrath :)

New thing they added while I was away is a "level" tab in the vendors window. Very useful when trying to buy spells after getting a level. They also fixed the default total to buy for some things (spells for sure) so you have 1 instead of accidently getting an entire stack.

Long lost returning players should also spend some time touring Plane of Knowledge as they have semi-tutorialed it by placing all sorts of labelled NPC such as "auras" (by the north/nexus bank). These NPC explain in brief key features or additions to the game.

Editing this in after saying it on the main forum to a person coming back (that hadn't played since Luclin) that wanted plat, gear, haste item and advice:
The Crescent Reach levelling chain is compact and great xp compared to older content. If your a complete fresh start on a new server, it is also (in my experience) the best way to level and make money at the same time without having to stop and farm a lot. There is a lot of high-value vendor trash in the Serpent's Spine (the expansion this zone & levelling chain is from). Most low mobs have 1 drop that is worth significant plat rather than the usual copper from the low levels. Mobs in this chain of zones also have the /con of "weaker than..." so you can kill higher cons (especially with a tank merc) and get faster xp. Example: spiders in Goru'kar Mesa which a beastlord can likely handle somewhere in the 40s, certainly by 51 where my ranger was eating them up.

By level 20, if you want variety, go to Plane of Knowledge and visit Franklin Teek as he will tell you the "hotzone" (area with xp bonus modded put on it) and offer you a task. The rewards from the task are better at level 20 than what my Ldon era level 65 chanter had managed to earn... and the belt has haste on it (just make sure you pick the appropriate melee or caster version). The tasks can be redone daily (iirc).

If the hotzone is too hard you can usually get amazing xp killing light blues in the previous level bracket hotzone.

If your account is old then visit Alerynal kind of south of the Nexus stone in PoK. The bag of platinum is about 14000 plat so if you need a $ leg up... I just claimed 2 for my "broke and alone on Luclin server" ranger.

If you have a decent baz then skinspikes of various levels will be reasonably priced... using them can make levelling 1-60 very fast depending on class.

The various Defiant armor bits are world drops. Sometimes they are cheap in baz. Some pieces get really overpriced. Honestly, unless you purposely level slow you will end up somewhere around level 55-60 with a mismatched set in different slots and amazing stats compared to old gear. Under /claim the one 999 count claim Gift of Legacies Lost can be used once per character. Note: I usually save this until higher levels when the baz defiant gets expensive and the difference in focus effects can be important as what you get depends upon the level you open the box at.

Also, if the account is older... you will have the yellow text message on login "you have veteran rewards available for this character..." the first reward "lesson of the devoted" is a 30 minute xp gain buff that persists through death, refreshes every day. Veteran rewards are limited (you can't claim it on 30 alts) based on the age of your account. My account was old enough that I had earned another set of rewards so my ranger got to be a veteran. You can look at these abilities in the AA interface (press V is default to view iirc).

Edited, Aug 5th 2013 2:47pm by snailish

Heroic Characters (Presently boosted to level 85) are now an option for the returning player. From the Allakhazam news post:



Some other things about Heroics:

-You have several pieces of clicky gear with really good effects on them
-If you have been away awhile, they make most clicky gear clickable from inventory now. You can move the icon onto hotbars. All of the Heroic gear is hotbar clickable.
-As a gold sub I couldn't pick Kelethin or Rathe as home city for the new wood elf beast or Froglok monk home cities. Since they put trainers in these home cities, I expect this is an oversight that will get fixed. (Silver/bronze accounts can only set Crescent Reach as home city)
-You can boost any old character with the heroic feature. I did a level 51ish necro I had lying around. I also created a new mage. It works out the same either way, except the necro had a bunch of old gear I had to trash.
-Both my heroic characters are augmentless, so hitting old hotzones (as a returning player) is one fast/easy/cheap way to put on some.

I dont know what to play. I prefer pve raiding. Which classes are needed or not needed in a raid? Could you write pros and cons?