Thinking of Coming Back...Where do I start?

[kaltho]

When I left I was one of the top raid mages in the game, I'm just wondering if I'm going to be dissappointed coming back. I think I have somewhere around 16k hp/mana and last expansion I have is TSS, which I only played for about 4 weeks. I came back during that Legends deal and played for a few weeks and got to lvl 80 I think and have about 1600 aa. The last thing I remember doing is soloing in Loping plains but could only handle 2 mobs at a time, the 3rd would usually kill me because I had that old gear and would run out of mana too fast. I do have about 1mil pp, not even sure if that matters anymore, it didn't when I left.

My main Questions would be
1. How long does it take to get a decent mage again? (equipment wise)
2. Where should I start to get regeared?
3. Is the content of EQ worth coming back? ( I've heard a few negative things)
4. Where should I start?

Any additional comments would be appreciated, Thanks
After reading Jaytee's thread, I've been getting more excited. Found my old magelo aslo, http://eq.magelo.com/profile/84392" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Redius]

1. Not very long. Couple weeks with good friends, couple months solo/molo
2. t3 SoD until you hit level 85. Start in Field of Scale; that armor is useable by level 80 toons iirc.
3. UF is challenging, so yes
4. Joining a guild is a great place to reconnect.

[kaltho]

After all my reading, I decided it's time to try things out, we'll soon see how much work I have in front of me. If anyone can point me to the quick list to get going again, that would rock. I basically have anything a raid mage would have plus a few things they wouldn't have from the prophecy of ro era. pretty sure I'm level 80 and have about 1.2 mil pp. Just curious what i should buy/camp for the first week? I should ding 81 with my first kill. Any mages on povar that want to say "hi" I'll be arriving soon. Or if any of my old friends from the nameless are around let me know, I lost all my old channels so it may take me a while to get in touch. I think I remember the old password for raidmage if it's still around.

[Goranothos]

Welcome back! I wouldn't spend that plat on anything other than spells. You being a former top end raid mage means you have the drive/time/commitment to gear up via grouping/raiding.

[Merlaina]

If there is the availability on your server once you hit 85 you can deck yourself out in a set of the new cultural. You can wear the armor and augs at 81, but you won't be able to use the focus seals until 85, and without the focus there's not much point. Quick and easy set of +800 HME gear, which should hold you until you can resume doing some good raids.

[Zacatac]

If there is the availability on your server once you hit 85 you can deck yourself out in a set of the new cultural. You can wear the armor and augs at 81, but you won't be able to use the focus seals until 85, and without the focus there's not much point. Quick and easy set of +800 HME gear, which should hold you until you can resume doing some good raids.

Well, the new stuff might take awhile to catch on.

1. People like me who have the skill to make the stuff, but haven't done the quest yet.
2. People who are making it only have enough supplies for friends/guildmates or maybe just themselves.
3. The prices in bazaar for raw components are already hitting 50k each, just for 1 piece of 1 attempt at 50% fail rate.

Each piece requires the armor + main aug + focus aug. That's 3 different combines. That's 24 items for 8 visable armor pieces. Take into account the huge amounts of variables in the items in regards to race, diety, and focus choices, and you'll most likely never find it for sale in the bazaar. You must find somebody to work with and place an order. Nothing "quick and easy" about it really.

[Merlaina]

Each piece requires the armor + main aug + focus aug. That's 3 different combines. That's 24 items for 8 visable armor pieces. Take into account the huge amounts of variables in the items in regards to race, diety, and focus choices, and you'll most likely never find it for sale in the bazaar. You must find somebody to work with and place an order. Nothing "quick and easy" about it really.

Well the armor and seals aren't variable on deity, just the augs, so chances are decent you can find the armor and seals for sale (though I admit to seeing no erudite cultural and only one seal (melee) available in the bazaar on my server). But yes, if you're anything besides agnostic you're probably going to need to contact someone to have the augs made for you.

And ever since they revamped tradeskills so you don't have to manually put everything in the container, 24 combines is really not that bad. I do hate the price gouging going on in the bazaar for components, but that's the free market for you. Just don't buy them until they lower their prices. If people buy the components and they make money at these prices there's no reason for them to lower them.

[Zacatac]

Each piece requires the armor + main aug + focus aug. That's 3 different combines. That's 24 items for 8 visable armor pieces. Take into account the huge amounts of variables in the items in regards to race, diety, and focus choices, and you'll most likely never find it for sale in the bazaar. You must find somebody to work with and place an order. Nothing "quick and easy" about it really.

Well the armor and seals aren't variable on deity, just the augs, so chances are decent you can find the armor and seals for sale (though I admit to seeing no erudite cultural and only one seal (melee) available in the bazaar on my server). But yes, if you're anything besides agnostic you're probably going to need to contact someone to have the augs made for you.

And ever since they revamped tradeskills so you don't have to manually put everything in the container, 24 combines is really not that bad.

Armor = race, must be made by somebody of your own race.
Augs = diety, can be made by anyone, but has to match your diety to use. If you are agnostic, you still have to buy specific ones for agnostic.

The new armor recipes will require you do the combine manually to learn the recipe first. So you must find all the recipes, then do them until you succeed at a combine, and then you can use the quick UI method. So, since this is all new, it still takes awhile.

And it's not 24 combines, there are lots of subcombines to do. Plus you have 500 trivial items, so will fail often. In order to make 24 actual items you'll be doing 100+ combines.

[pandax]

I have a full set of cultural made for smithing and tailoring and I have had 0 buyers so far.

[Merlaina]

It seems on my server at least the big bottleneck is pottery. If you go into buyer mode and do a search for soloist seals there have been exactly two different ones for sale in the bazaar on Luclin. Ever. And both were melee focus seals. Without the seals, particularly for a casting class that really needs the focus, the armor is pretty worthless.