Returning player - How close to the original experience?

[ryeandi]

Hi All, I played exclusively one character for many years and absolutely loved the game. A couple of years back I logged into the Daybreak game and got my old character back (a 60 something ranger). I found the experience rather hollow. It was too easy. Recently I bought a progression server account, created a new character, and gave that a try. It was better but still less than the experience I was hoping for. Call me sadistic but I missed corpse runs, slow XP, and the grind of the original game. Groups were easier to find but I felt completely useless with my cloth covered back swinging my rusty sword in a group full of twinks in raid-level gear, gear 40-50 levels higher than their characters could ever come close to obtaining on their own. I play by a self-imposed rule of only carrying what I craft, kill, or quest. Will I have fun in this environment or is it over-run with a "my sword is bigger than your sword" mentality? Thanks in advance.

[bodenn]

join the happy new year guild

[Ruhtar]

There aren't a ton of pissing contests in early group leveling unless it's an AM alt or something. You will run into or group with people that have some pretty nice gear and that's mainly due to the server being up for 9+ years. However, P99 is one of the closest you can get that gives you that nostalgic feel that you're searching for. EQ live (TLP or not) doesn't even come close. The only other server I've heard is pretty good on that front is TAKP, but there's some quality of life changes to P99 because of the titanium client that I prefer.

If you really want that original experience, you could join a guild like Auld Lang Syne (ALS) where you can't get outside help (twink gear, buffs, PLs, etc.) and you pretty much wear what you find. They have an in-guild economy and everything.

[bigjeff100]

There aren't a ton of pissing contests in early group leveling unless it's an AM alt or something. You will run into or group with people that have some pretty nice gear and that's mainly due to the server being up for 9+ years. However, P99 is one of the closest you can get that gives you that nostalgic feel that you're searching for. EQ live (TLP or not) doesn't even come close. The only other server I've heard is pretty good on that front is TAKP, but there's some quality of life changes to P99 because of the titanium client that I prefer.

If you really want that original experience, you could join a guild like Auld Lang Syne (ALS) where you can't get outside help (twink gear, buffs, PLs, etc.) and you pretty much wear what you find. They have an in-guild economy and everything.

This...... This is your answer.. Join ALS! They are such an awesome group of people. Their guild is also part of an alliance, which will get you involved with raiding! Never once have i ever been judged, or done the judging on people with gear. My first character got hooked up with gear on day 1 from a nice player. 2nd character i made i twinked. 3rd character is on his own though. And he's my favorite to play! P99 community will 100% make you comfortable playing with gear or without... Play this game exactly how you want you experience to be, all the pieces will fall into place perfectly. You'll realize the best part of this game is discovering all the crazy quests, lore, and amazing friends you'll meet!!

[ryeandi]

Thanks for the responses. Reading threads in this forum gives me a good feeling about the people I'll meet. Playing EQ in the "olden days" I mostly played solo, never feeling comfortable in groups, and, when I was grouped, feeling like I wasn't playing my character correctly, which is probably the main reason I wasn't comfortable grouping. This time around I'm hoping to play mostly in groups and utilize my character's (TBD) strengths to get good at a specific group role. Is the P99 community fairly tolerant of players learning how to play the game even if they screw up from time to time as they learn?

I'm intrigued by this ALS guild. When you say "can't get outside help (twink gear, buffs, PLs, etc.)", I'm assuming that's the code of the guild and not something programmed into the game. Either way its very aligned with how I personally believe the game should be played.