Velious is EQ at its greatest.

Dragons, Giants, and Dwarves! Sounds like a helluvah time to me!

There's a little bit of everything in Velious. The outdoor zones keep kiters happy; the dungeons keep the casuals happy; and the loot keeps the raiders happy.

Rings wars...lots of fun and madness there

Velius is the best expansion ever, lots to do and great fights, the 10th ring fight is great! NtoV! Only place i realy hate is Velk, great exp but nada loot, rare gems for armor and just tons of frigging silk and nasty trains. But Velius owns!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do remember that Velious was also somewhat of a turning point in Mudflation terms. The gap between casual and raider really started to widen.

With Kunark you could buy the best gear (to an extent, excluding Veeshan's Peak). Even then, the best gear in the Kunark doesn't totally trump planar quested / dropped gear. But eventually in Velious, raid gear stats start to become really high. Some of Vulak's items replace epics (like ragebringer becomes range item) and would last until the Planes of Power.

It's an interesting observation how there really is something for everyone in this expansion. Thurg gear is groupable or mini-raid worthy whereas NToV and such will really test the best players / zerglings.

The only problem we'll have on this server with Velious is the sprawl it creates. You won't be able to walk into DN and find a group on this server like you could on live IMO. But places like Kael, Velks, thurgB, WL, CS, and SS will be pretty busy with people farming gear/items. But then again the sprawl is what helps guilds of all calibers get to see some raiding action. Anyone can raid PoG or the roaming dragons in WW for some decent armor.

Other than that, Velious was my favorite, and I can't wait to see some of these encounters again. Things like Vyemm/AOW/Eashan rampage/flurry rape, Dain/Phase spider TP proc, the traps in DN... there are so many new mob abilities.

While NTOV loot may have seriously increased mudflation, it wasn't as bad as VT. Also, there is the other side you mention in your own post: There is something for everyone: Dwarf armor is fairly easy, but an upgrade from planar while Dragon/Giant is nearly BIS except for raid drops from NTOV. Its like LFR/normal/Heroics in WoW, but without recycling the same exact content.

like the OP i quit before i really got to experience velious, sounds like its gonna be freaking amazing tho

Velious is definitely worth sticking around for. Its fun to explore and the dungeons are great.

Just as it was to Live, Velious will be the Golden Age of Project99.

That said, there's no harm in playing on Red, too. If you're going to play around on Red though I'd recommend you do it sooner rather than later because the population can be a little flaky and you never know when half of them are going to get irrationally upset about something trivial and split. Personally, I dedicate my limited playing time heavily in favor of Blue, because it's just more fun. I dig PvP, but in EQ it is just kinda cumbersome in its half-assedness, in my opinion. Honestly though, when I play I do so for nostalgia rather than any sense of achievement, so I think it probably depends more on your own goals in-game and what gratifies you.