Recent returnee to the game

[MrJekylls]

<p>This post isn't going to break any new ground. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> We've all seen its like before - a player who hasn't played in two years returns to the fold and asks what is new and exciting in the land of EQ2. What has changed? What do I need to know? And so on.</p><p>Well, I don't want to disappoint, so here goes - for whatever reason, after leaving EQ2 a year and a half ago (I think I last played seriously at LU13?), I had a strange feeling in my gut. At first I thought it was cramps, but it turned out to be a longing for Everquest 2. Weird. So, ever impulsive, I ran out (not literally, mind you - it was more of a mosey out) to the local Future Shop and picked up the new EoF expansion, installed it, ran the patch, watched a movie, came back and saw it was still patching, watched the end of the Raptors game, came back and saw it was done. By then I was tired so I was off to camp my pillow, and then, finally, this morning, I made my triumphant return to the shattered land of Norrath.</p><p>So what's new? What's changed? What do I need to know? And so on.</p><p>To briefly provide some background, I never got into the high level game, nor was I ever part of a guild. I currently have a level 35 Iksar Bruiser, 28 Dark Elf wizard, 27 Wood Elf necromancer, and 20ish Wood Elf Scout. So that's 3 baddies and 1 goodie. I'd like to start up a new Fae for giggles and to see the early level game, but I'd also like to continue playing my current characters as well. So that's where I am right now ... a bunch of low-mid level characters and no clue what's new in the game.</p><p>My first task was to download a UI - I picked up the Fetish one, which seems the best. I played my necromancer for a bit this morning in the Thundering Steppes, just to get used to things. The first real thing I noticed was that the engine has either REALLY been optimized, or dual core processors are catnip to the game. When I left, I could sorta play on Quality mode, but generally went for Balanced. Now on my laptop, I'm running in Extreme mode with hardly a hiccup. The game itself seems to be showing its age a bit, even on extreme, but it's still a very pretty look world.</p><p>Anyway, enough prattle. On to the meat of this post - my plea for help. To make things easier, I figure I'll toss out a numbered list of questions that you can choose to answer or not at your preference. I do appreciate all replies though, as I'm really quite happy to be back in EQ2. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>1) First in-game thing I did was perfectly set up my UI on my necro. All the UI pieces are exactly where I want them to be. It's a thing of beauty. And one that I really don't want to re-do for every single character I have. So my question - Is there an easy way to 'copy' my UI to my other characters? Renaming an ini file or something?</p><p>2) Is there a handy list of zones in the game and the level ranges they support? Obviously because of my character situation, I'm really hoping there's a bunch more 20, 30, and 40 level zones to mess around in.</p><p>2a) Are there 'popular' zones by level? I'd like to group a bit, so would naturally want to head where people tend to hang out.</p><p>3) Any new tradeskills?</p><p>4) Any recommended game sites to read up on EQ2. I'd like to not be a burden on any group I join, so I was hoping to read up on class strategies and that sorta thing.</p><p>5) Any particular posts on this board (which is really a great board, especially compared to other games) that I should read?</p><p>6) Will my evil characters be welcome in Faydwer? And how do I get there?</p><p>7) Is the next expansion the rediscovery of Kunark??? Oh please say it is! <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p><img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I'd like to take up some of those 'epic' quests I've heard a bit about, but have no clue where to start, which one would be good to persue for my characters, etc. Is there a good web site for quests?</p><p>9) And, you know, what's new? <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I'm sure I have more questions, but I'm equally sure I'll be able to discover a lot on my own in game. *grin* So thank you to all in advance, and see ya in Norrath.</p>

[Jrral]

1) The "/load_uisettings" command. You'll get a dialog listing other characters, and can select which one to load the UI settings from. Note that joined chat channels will also be imported, but there's a bug there: you won't be allowed to join any channels the source character's subscribed to that the current character doesn't have access to, but they will occupy channel numbers. Since you aren't joined you won't be able to see them in your /channellist or leave them, but since they occupy numbers you won't be able to move channels to those invisibly-occupied numbers. All you can do is move them (using "/setchannelnumber <old> <new>&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> to  high numbers you won't otherwise be using to get them out of your way. 2. The new ones are all in EOF. Greater Faydark (containing the city of Kelethin) is the starting T1/T2 zone (1-20). Butcherblock Mountains (containing the docks that provide access to TS and Nek) is a T3/T4 zone (20-35). Off of GFay is Steamfont (T4/T5, 35-50), Lesser Faydark (T6, 50-60) and Loping Plains (T7, 60-70). There's also several more attached zones and instances, you can check <a href="http://www.eq2i.com/articles/Category:Echoes_of_Faydwer_Zones" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.eq2i.com/articles/Catego...f_Faydwer_Zones</a> for a more complete list including levels. Yes, most of the EOF zones are multi-tier and split-tier zones. 3. There's tinkering and transmuting, which you can pick up at the Butcherblock docks from NPCs. Both make additional items outside the previous tradeskills (transmuting mainly adornments for items, tinkering stand-alone items). 4. eq2.allakhazam.com and www.eq2i.com. Allakhazam took over the OGaming site/database. 6. Kelethin is a neutral city allied with Qeynos. Freeport characters aren't KOS there and you can use the merchants, but you won't be exactly welcome and you can't make it your home. There's rumors of a neutral city allied with Freeport, parallel to the Kelethin situation, in a future expansion. You can get to the Butcherblock docks via a ship off the end of the TS or Nek Forest docks. It runs about every 5 minutes. To get to Kelethin you need to either run across Butcherblock from the docks to the GFay zone line, get a druid to open a portal for you to the GFay druid ring or a wizard to port you to the GFay spires. 7. Ruins of Kunark is the rumored name for the next expansion, so I'm thinking Kunark will be involved somehow.  What cities will be included hasn't been publicly announced yet. 9. There's been a bunch of combat and game-mechanics changes. One big change for movement is the opening of the druid rings and wizard porting to the spires. Wizards can port themselves and group members to the Antonica, Commonlands or Greater Faydark spires (the ones used to access Kingdom of Sky zones). You won't need anything special to be ported, but the wizard consumes a 60s token every time. Druids can now open portals to the rings in Antonica, Commonlands, Greater Faydark, Butcherblock and Steamfont. No token's needed, but you have to have visited the destination ring and harvested a special bush there before you can use the portal to that ring.

[Novusod]

The biggest change to the game since LU13 has been the addition of the two AA (alternative advancement) trees. Your charactors will each have a KoS tree and EoF tree which can be accessed by typing the letter 'L'. The new game mechanics assume you will have a certain about of AA at a certain level. If you do not have the approriate AA your charactors are going to feel very nerfed. The first thing you should be doing if you are going to play your old charactors is getting them up to the proper AA. You get AA every time you discover a new area, kill a named, or complete a quest. You should try to shoot for 17 AA on your 35 bruiser so you can do a 1-4-4-8 STR build on the KoS tree. Not sure how to optimise AA for your other charactors but I would sugest reading up on the class apporiate sub-forums.