Questions from a new player

[Short.]

<p>I bought this game back in december 04, after the free month I didnt play anymore. So with this free 45 days I figured why not give it another try.</p><p>Well first off, my account says its 4 years old but on the sony site it says i registered in 2004? The only reason at all I even care about this is because I'd kill for that 7 year veteran mansion. Did they stop counting inactive days toward your veteran rewards or something? maybe its cut in half?</p><p>Do grey mobs drop chests? I wanted to get the DFC blood armor, but I need the ore and recipes to craft it. The Unrest server isnt very booming at the lower levels so I havent been able to put together a group for this place. now that I passed its level I went back to see if I could solo in there. I'm 51 so they were all grey and I wasnt getting any drops. If they dont drop chests what is the reasoning for this?</p><p>I could understand 6 years ago why, so no one could run in to places like DFC and kill the names skipping everything for loot.. but these places are virtually untouched day after day. just seems like a totally wasted zone that I cant even go back and experience. I wouldnt even complain if it was just crafting stuff that drops. Maybe it would help us broke new players. If you cant get AA from grey named, and they dont drop loot.. all these lower level dungeons are being untouched except by the random alt runs.. and all weekend I saw maybe 2 or 3 groups doing crushbone and that was it</p><p>I dont see how this would effect the economy at all. From what I have heard plat is very easy to make at the higher levels, but at the lower levels I'm finding it hard. Most of my income has come from rare harvests</p><p>while crafting, I see the 6 spells listed and I understand how they work EXCEPT for the 2 and 5 ones. They say they decreas the chance for success by a certain amount. Is this number overall success chance? or just for that certain progress tick? So say if i hit that button 10 times and it decreases 10%. would that mean i would fail?</p><p>Also do stats effect crafting at all? my dirge is an armorer and it seems to be very easy. while my beserker is a carpenter and it just seems like I have more failure ticks and have to actually work hard to make something on it. I remember reading something about crafting with no gear on or something.. is this still beneficial?</p><p>and speaking of numbers. something that raises harvesting by 6.. what does this mean? I know it raises the chance to get a rare or even harvest or whatever.. but 6 what? 6% or +6 to a random number they programmed in</p><p>Is there a special place I need to look for update schedules? nothing is posted on these forums or the main site.. I had to look around for like 20 minutes before I found the button on the server status page that said it was downtime. "all servers currently up" then next to it.. "details". Click that and it says maintenance is going on.. really? maybe this is a normal maintenance day, but it actually took me a while to find this out</p><p>Is status super easy to get later on? I see all these items that cost status and at 45 armorer I can make like 5k per writ. Does this keep scaling? so at 90 armorer would i make something like 10k per? And other than heritage quests (doing the journeyman boots now, awesome quest) is there any other easy way to get status?</p><p>Most of the info I look up is outdated and I just wanted some clarification I guess. This game is huge and has tons of stuff to learn so its a little daunting</p><p>Other than that this game is pretty amazing. The graphics are awesome. Makes me wish I would have stuck with it back in the day</p>

[Griffildur]

<p>There's a chronomage in most cities which can mentor you down to whatever level you want so you can run any zone you want and the mobs won't be green. There you go , problem solved.</p><p>Simply ask a guard for chronomage and they will direct you to him.</p>

[Stylish]

<p><cite>Short. wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I bought this game back in december 04, after the free month I didnt play anymore. So with this free 45 days I figured why not give it another try.</p><p>Well first off, my account says its 4 years old but on the sony site it says i registered in 2004? The only reason at all I even care about this is because I'd kill for that 7 year veteran mansion. Did they stop counting inactive days toward your veteran rewards or something? maybe its cut in half?</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">Inactive subscription is to blame.</span></p><p>Do grey mobs drop chests? <span style="color: #ff0000;">No.</span> I wanted to get the DFC blood armor, but I need the ore and recipes to craft it. The Unrest server isnt very booming at the lower levels so I havent been able to put together a group for this place. now that I passed its level I went back to see if I could solo in there. I'm 51 so they were all grey and I wasnt getting any drops. If they dont drop chests what is the reasoning for this? <span style="color: #ff0000;">You can chronomentor down to any level now.</span></p><p>I could understand 6 years ago why, so no one could run in to places like DFC and kill the names skipping everything for loot.. but these places are virtually untouched day after day. just seems like a totally wasted zone that I cant even go back and experience. I wouldnt even complain if it was just crafting stuff that drops. Maybe it would help us broke new players. If you cant get AA from grey named, and they dont drop loot.. all these lower level dungeons are being untouched except by the random alt runs.. and all weekend I saw maybe 2 or 3 groups doing crushbone and that was it</p><p>I dont see how this would effect the economy at all. From what I have heard plat is very easy to make at the higher levels, but at the lower levels I'm finding it hard. Most of my income has come from rare harvests</p><p>while crafting, I see the 6 spells listed and I understand how they work EXCEPT for the 2 and 5 ones. They say they decreas the chance for success by a certain amount. Is this number overall success chance? or just for that certain progress tick? So say if i hit that button 10 times and it decreases 10%. would that mean i would fail?</p><p>Also do stats effect crafting at all? <span style="color: #ff0000;">Adventure stats do not affect crafting.</span> my dirge is an armorer and it seems to be very easy. while my beserker is a carpenter and it just seems like I have more failure ticks and have to actually work hard to make something on it. I remember reading something about crafting with no gear on or something.. is this still beneficial?</p><p>and speaking of numbers. something that raises harvesting by 6.. what does this mean? I know it raises the chance to get a rare or even harvest or whatever.. but 6 what? 6% or +6 to a random number they programmed in</p><p>Is there a special place I need to look for update schedules? <span style="color: #ff0000;">Tuesdays are usually maintenance days. They usually post it here.</span> nothing is posted on these forums or the main site.. I had to look around for like 20 minutes before I found the button on the server status page that said it was downtime. "all servers currently up" then next to it.. "details". Click that and it says maintenance is going on.. really? maybe this is a normal maintenance day, but it actually took me a while to find this out</p><p>Is status super easy to get later on? I see all these items that cost status and at 45 armorer I can make like 5k per writ. Does this keep scaling? so at 90 armorer would i make something like 10k per? And other than heritage quests (doing the journeyman boots now, awesome quest) is there any other easy way to get status?</p><p>Most of the info I look up is outdated and I just wanted some clarification I guess. This game is huge and has tons of stuff to learn so its a little daunting</p><p>Other than that this game is pretty amazing. The graphics are awesome. Makes me wish I would have stuck with it back in the day</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">Welcome back!</span></p></blockquote>

[jblackfox]

Wow, that is a lot of questions. I will try to answer some I can. Grey mobs do not drop chests. But you can chronomentor down to the level where mobs are at least green and get drops. Crafting using the 6 buttons, use whatever set of 3 to help the blue lines progress. Most especially hit the buttons for the special icons that show up. I usually do the first set and then try to concentrate on the second set until the top line gets short. The server status pages are pretty useless. They never seem to keep them updated properly. Status is pretty easy yes. At higher levels either adventure writs or TS writs give about 18K.

[Cyliena]

<p>Account age: Some expansions (until TSO, 3 xpacks ago) gave +90 days to your account. Inactive accounts did gain age but at some point they stopped it. I also haven't hit 7 years yet between all of that so I understand how you feel, I'd love the house too!</p><p>Grey mobs only drop chests if it's a quest starter/quest update item. I can't think of any other exclusions. I'd say try to mentor down to the max possible level you can to keep the DFC mobs from greying out and see how you do, or check on level chats if anyone wants to do a run... lots of people have alts and might be game for it.</p><p>Stats do not affect crafting. Some races have traits that can boost certain crafts/progress/success etc, and there are <a href="http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Crafter_Specific_Gear" target="_blank">various items</a> you can get to boost skills as well. Crafting without gear on doesn't matter as much anymore, I think that was back from when you could actually die when crafting.</p><p>The "something that raises harvesting by 6"... do you mean like, +6 mining? That would add 6 to your mining skill in that example. Otherwise I'm not certain what you mean. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Higher skill means better chance to hit the secondary harvesting table and have a chance at a rare.</p><p>The <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/forums/show.m?forum_id=9" target="_blank">official news and announcements</a> forum normally has downtime announcements the night before. If there's unlocked threads on there, which there currently is, a new post about downtime isn't as obvious unless you go and actually check the forum. Generally speaking, every Tuesday around 7am PDT there's a one hour downtime. Sometimes there's extra downtimes throughout the week, sometimes it gets pushed off a day, etc... just keep an eye on that forum. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> You can also check the <a href="http://everquest2.com/serverstatus/" target="_blank">network status</a> page.</p><p>Yes, you get more status as a quest becomes higher in level. A level 90 heritage quest rewards 84k-ish status and a level 90 rush order rewards umm... 18k I think. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Adventuring city tasks would reward about the same as a rush order I believe.. been a while since I've done one. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>It's a lot to take in and a LOT has changed since the game first launched. Don't be afraid to ask questions and welcome back!</p>

[Trellium]

<p>I would also check your /claim items, and Legends of Norrath packs that you might have accumulated. You can redeem them and have a chance at getting the Halas mansion (two of my alts got them).</p>

[Kizee]

<p><cite>Trellium wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I would also check your /claim items, and Legends of Norrath packs that you might have accumulated. You can redeem them and have a chance at getting the Halas mansion (two of my alts got them).</p></blockquote><p> You have 100% chance at the halas one since you get to pick any loot card from the current lon release.</p>

[Trellium]

<p><cite>Hissyfit@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Trellium wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I would also check your /claim items, and Legends of Norrath packs that you might have accumulated. You can redeem them and have a chance at getting the Halas mansion (two of my alts got them).</p></blockquote><p> You have 100% chance at the halas one since you get to pick any loot card from the current lon release.</p></blockquote><p>Great! I didn't see it in there since I took the free character slot right away (plus I find it's pretty easy to get a rent free house through items these days).</p><p>But thats a great option for those who linke huge housing with no rent. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>