Returning Mage

[ahzryal]

hello there!

I have been out of the game for almost 2 years. Near as I can guess 2 expansions have come out since then.

I have decided to give EQ another chance and am downloading HoT and all previous expansions now and reactivated my account with an 85 mage headlining it.

I have seen a few posts/comments from others returning after a long absence and it sounds like much might have changed and I would appreciate any tips on what I should aim at doing first to try to catch up:) Checking EQplayers my toon is still listed and showing as still guilded so...if the guild actually still exists and is populated, at least I should have that much of a start heh.
I know I lost my previous server, prexus..shows me as on the Rathe server now (feeling like a rootless orphan, this is the second server merger my toon has suffered and lost both his previous servers).

[svenalo]

You wanting to solo, group, or raid?

[ahzryal]

Well, preference would be first to group, solo by default..eventually raid. The guild I had belonged to did some raiding but wasn't heavily into it.
I doubt, after a 2 year hiatus, that I am geared for mid to high end raiding so will have to gear up for it. From the little reading I have tried to do, it looks like underfoot has new armor sets that, it sounds like, takes groups to get the basic tier, and I guess raids for higher tiers. Or perhaps should only do enough underfoot to get the class spells then skip ahead to house of thule? Not having a lot of luck yet finding comprehensive guides to either; but probably haven't looked hard enough:)
Are the underfoot spells worth going for first or are they superceded by house of thule spells?
I left EQ after seeds of destruction, having gotten about all I could solo/groupwise out of it. My guild at the time wasn't up to the raid zones in that expansion.

[svenalo]

I would skip UF all together unless you join a guild raiding there. Mages only got 4 spells in UF, none of which are really worth getting now, and if you are doing the group thing you won't find many groups at all in UF as everyone is off in HoT now. Group gear starts at roughly 950HEM in the first tier of HoT and most of it is attunable, so you can probably find some of that in the bazaar if you have cash left from before you left, and if not, you can probably get this stuff rotting as not a lot of folks are claiming it now. The top end of HoT (tier 4) is 1450HEM roughly. HoT progression, if you know someone who has unlocked all the progression tasks, is only 10 missions, and most of them are pretty fast (one of em can be done in 15 minutes, most of the rest take maybe an hour or so if you got someone along who has done it before giving pointers, the only one that seems painful is the one for Fear Itself).

For guides, go check out Raspers or Allakhazham. Note that there are errors in both, but they are good enough to give you a good idea of what's what.

Raspers guide to HoT: http://home.comcast.net/~mathadon/Guides/HoT/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Alla's HoT Wiki: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/eq ... e_Overview" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ahzryal]

Thanks a bunch! I rather suspected gear/spells in underfoot might be superceded, seen that all too often in earlier exansions. It is a shame really, so much content is skipped over as useless once someone has leveled past it...so much gear that was fought over and much sought is considered worthless now.
My account is almost 10 years old so I had seen a lot of evolution in EQ and hope to find it enjoyable again:)

One thing, you mention a statistic called HEM? Don't think I have seen that before...ummm, health, endurance mana total of the armor set perhaps? When did this rating start being in vogue?

[Merlaina]

There are a few things worth picking up in underfoot, namely the mana return augs. One is from boomerang missions (Ulgroth's Sooting Stone or something like that) and another is from a named in Fungal Forest (Transcendent Fungus). You'll need to do progression tasks to unlock Fungal Forest, but the boomerang one is fairly easy to get if you can find people to do the task with. They give a chance to return 225/250 mana per DD cast respectively. Also almost any item with agreeable alleviation return more mana than their HoT counterparts. Basically Ngreth decided they went overboard with those items in UF and toned them down in HoT. If you're a tradeskiller the new coldain prayer shawl is nice and has a similar mana recourse effect once you get to the 4th tier of it, but you need to unlock T8 for that as well (never mind the crazy TS requirements).

Also I'll respectfully disagree with Svenlo in that I think Thaumatize Pet is still worth picking up, at least to use until you hit 90. It has a decent mana recourse effect, but it is eclipsed by gather potential and the new AA mod rods once you start working your way towards 90.

As for gear you can get nice upgrades just running HoT progression tasks and hitting the bazaar. The cultural armor from both UF and HoT is also nice, though a bit pricey when you have to buy the armor piece, seal, and symbol. I suggest doing the prerequisite tasks for Feerrott and House of Thule Lower so you can request those progression missions yourself. Both are easy to farm with a friend and you can get some 86/87 spell runes and possible armor upgrades, not to mention the XP from tasks in HoT is excellent. Also some of the armor from T1 isn't even attunable, it's just plain old tradeable, so you should be able to find some decently priced.

Once you hit 90 you shouldn't have a problem moloing pretty much any mob in HoT you can get single, except maybe some T4 named.

[nako]

If you're a jeweler, or have access to one, make some Feymetal Trio + Round Cut Miragestone items. They scale from 85-90, starting out at about 1150hme and ending up at 1350 or so. Pretty much the equivalent to T3/T4 HoT but with lesser heroics and no foci (not really important to mages as we don't have useful stuff on many of those slots). They are cheap too, I upgraded wrists/fingers from T3/Tower to Feymetal for about 2k pp. Think I gained about 500hme per slot.

I have stayed away from HoT just because the prereq's are perma-camped (yeah lets force the entire progression population to kill the same 5 mobs, that'll be fun), so I can't really comment on UF vs HoT.

If pp is tight, I wouldn't jump on any baz purchases just yet. The market for T1 stuff is going to crash hard in the next few weeks.

[Merlaina]

The prereq mobs for T1 aren't nearly as camped as they used to be. Just depends on when you're on I guess. Now T3 mobs... well good luck with that.

[svenalo]

On Bertox about the only place you get held up on tasks/missions is if you are wanting to do something in T4 (Morells or Sanctum) - everywhere else is pretty much wide open a good part of the time.

As for UF and Thaumatize Pet, true, that is useful for a short while, but there is no need to camp it - most servers I would expect are like Bertox and have it for sale somewhere in the bazaar. And sure, Boomerang for a mana return aug...or even as a side project to get the 6 missions done so you can go to fungal and camp Fungalshock for a fungus one. But you don't have to focus on UF for that, and to get back up and going the quickest with the biggest bang for your buck I stand by my comment to focus on HoT and not bother much with UF. Does that mean there aren't useful things elsewhere? No. There is Twyene's out of LDoN to go for, the mana return augs as pointed out, the odd nice clickie to grab here or there, and so on...but that's something to do as a break from the main focus which these days imo should be to get your HoT progression done so you can pick up gear rotting in T3/T4 (which at least on Bert is quite a bit and will only increase as people are after the rares and don't need the rest).

Of course that's all my opinion!

[ahzryal]

Looks like all good suggestions and thanks all!

I am thinking I might do a bit in underfoot, if only to get back into the swing of things, after being gone so long. Best not try my hand with tough encounters til I am comfortable with the system again heh. Lots of lord of the rings online and some EQ2 habits to change methinks.

Mana return augments and such are definately new since I left, will have to check into those. I did do the coldain prayer shawl as far as it went many a year ago, shudder to think what the skill levels required would be to do the newer version..or is it a reworking of the old version? Something else to check into...

Oh, and I got into the game this morning, long enough to play with the UI, try to remember what I had in my hotkey slots. etc. Saw I had 102kpp so have some coin to play with, though I will be slow to spend it...having gone through a bunch of expansions and seeing the rapid deflation of prices months after a new release, I don't intend to pay premium bazaar prices again:)