I need to know what is new.

[Tar~Palantir]

Ahoy hoy all.

I have come back now after I left aroundnovember 2004.I really stopped playing after the sept 1st 2004 combat/game overhaul.

Since then, I have played everquest II since nov 14 and am getting bored fast with my 50 wizard. Don't get me started on SOE incompetence.

What is bringing me back most is this game's high level of maturity, and its openess. If you greet a random person, you won't be treated like alvl 3shall we say reproductiveoffender. EQ2 has ZERO community. Everyone is in a clique that they have no interest of breaking out from. Moving on....

I need to know what has changed. I was losing interest with my lvl 30 battlemage and lvl 16 or 17 dragon. Their anmes were Feandoro(Elf battlemage) and Calion the Golden(dragon).Onseptember 1st, the game began to feel like a grind.Also, money came in at a snails pace and the world was sparsely populated, the withered aegis was in very few spots, many above my level.

I was a great explorer, trekking from one end of the world to the other for the sake of it. I encountered many people in that time, and by god, they were all friendly and surprised a 30 Battle Mage made it into lvl 80 zones.

The only names I remember is the account with the characters Bright and Eothien.

[Pharcellus]

What has changed in the last year?

Plenty. Far more than can be contained in a single post.

Rather than waiting for me to spend an hour racking my brains trying to list a bunch of stuff you may not even care about, why not pony up for a month and see it for yourself alongside other folks?[:)]

Probably would be more fun than you can get for the same price at your local cinema. [;)]

[Tar~Palantir]

I am just looking for a few basic things. In fact 2 things....

1) Has money become more availabel, I will deal if it hasn't, but I will stay if it has.

2) Xp, this is a huge determining factor, while I dont want to be lvl 100 in 2 wks, has the amt of XP gained from a kill your level gone up suince last year?

[Pharcellus]

1) I can make 200sp an hour right now. However, I am a topped-out Dragon.
2) I can't answer that, as I don't have a table comparing XP in the past to XP now. There's more stuff to fight, and more ways to gain XP, so I would venture to say "yes", but your milage may vary.

Either way, if that is what you feel is important, it boils down to grinding. However, if you don't like grinding, then those considerations don't hold a lot of merit, no?

There's more to the game than coin/XP. Try it. Love it or hate it, you're only out $13.

[oluviel]

well firstly it's best to find a guild. Exp is always slow, but for dragons nowadays it's faster due to the fact that we are more efficient killers :)

When you have a group of friends it's even easier.

as for gold again there is the guild thing it's easy to get a helping hand from a high lvl, but beyond that you just need to know where the easy npcs with coin loot are. Since the merge only certain types will have it

Guruks, pygmies, ogres, all undead, i know i'm forgetting a lot.. anyways it will also help if you tell us your current server i can't say what to do if your not on a server i'm familiar with.
also any npc has a chance to drop a "bag of coins" you "use" it and get a random amount depending upon it's size and level.

I would also suggest downloading that map pack if you want to know where the mobs your level are, but they have also redone the tutorials to help with newcomers.

i could keep going but it's dinner time so gl with everything if your on chaos darkmyth can give you a hand if your on at the same time.

[Vizharan]

As others stated, a lot has changed. Ancient RoP is in now. As for the exp grind.... Well, in terms of dragons, they tend to be underpowered at first. Then they start to even out..then they get slightly overpowered. Example, at level 63 I solo'd Cinderfist(level 73 named Flame Ogre). Like the others said, I'd just drop the $13 and give it a shot. It's really too difficult to explain, plus theres a lot of different point of views. The only right answer is your answer!

If you play on Chaos, send me a /tell. I'll help ya out with what I can(best if your a dragon = ))

[Goriax]

Experience is definately better then pre-merge at the high end. At level 100 there's all sorts of things you can kill which give greater then 10K experience. Pre-merge there wasn't anything even close. But that's just because there are some higher level mobs now.

[Gliding Frost]

There have been lots of changes, if nothing else, you'll be able to explore the land all over again.

Unfortunately bright has recently left, her goodbye is on the goodbyes page.

[imported_Robins]

Theres also the Trophy hunters quest. When you are hunting things in your level range just collect 5 of the trophies and turn them in for alot of extra exp and cash.

Check here for a good list of them: http://community.istaria.com/Web/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=8551

[R`aven_Sky`Dash]

Whats new? well...heres the archived patch notes, read away from where u left off :) this is a great info site for HZ nowaday.

http://horizons.gamersinfo.net/notes/default.php

[Tar~Palantir]

Wow, dragons really got some love from the devs, I remember people dying for ancient form. My little baby Calion will now need some cash and some help to get him up to speed.(he was my first toon, and like other first toons in any MMO I play, they are underpowered.)

I think I may come back and stay. Even though EQ2 looks like the characters are straight from Vogue magazine, this world has alot more charm, story, and a really help community. EQ2's forum community would brow beat me into silence if I asked this same question over there.

[Kwinn]

If ya decide to live on Order Server pop into Guild CoH channel. Usually someone there, usually both dragon and biped. We'll be happy to answer any questions you have. This aint a recruiting ploy, it's just an invite to drop by and yak. Sometimes MP can be impossible to get a word in edgewise...

[Kulamata]

If I have my chronology straight, you left not too long after the merge. Yeah, there were a lot of very ill-advised changes made then, and, like you, many left.

Since then:
The great restrictions on earnings and drops eased up quite a bit. As mentioned above, the razing of Istaria is being corrected, the most neglected classes are being given attention, hoard leak is gone, dragon armor is up, more mobs and smarter mobs are being introduced, (there are tier VI mobs ingame now) and tier VI crafting is being slowly introduced.

Most importantly though, is that Tulga has stable funding and finally! subscription numbers are on the rise. I understand that playing time is up as well.