[LethClaypool]

Most of my experience with EQ back in the day was with Velious and PoP. I was active during Luclin but I didn't do anything too heavy (where I raided in Velious and even more in PoP).

Most of this is just saying what's already been said but with my own opinion:

- With Luclin you got AAs which I personally loved. I wish more games used Alternate Advancement systems. I feel some of the classes got some game changing abilities that I felt required more investment than originally required but that's besides the point. It panned out to a lot of balancing factors by the time PoP came out. It was a more subtle way for developers to redefine the classes and push them towards specific roles without a sudden dynamic change.

- At the same time, portals/books. Luclin added a few timed spires that would teleport to four different areas in the game. They weren't so convenient that they made porters absolute. The PoP books didn't make them absolute either, as porters still had uses, but it did bite on one of their major defining abilities.

- Luclin DID make certain old world leveling zones much less populated. Paludal Caverns in particular was a mad house - becoming the new Crushbone up through High Hold Keep. You could go in one end of the zone (over by Shadoweaver's I believe) and level off monsters in the 7-10 range, and go in the opposite end of the dungeon by the bandit camps and do the teens off fungal fiends and 20s off bandits. It was a sort of one stop shop for a leveling range. I didn't really care for this personally, but that's just me.

- The bazaar was a good idea. Everquest is a time sync, Tunnelquest is a time sync. People have day jobs. This aloud them to at least get rid of shit while at work.

- Luclin added horses. I still feel the mechanic of sitting and meditating at the time was horse shit (hah, see what I did) but I think it was nice to provide travel and movement speed for players, plus the Paladin and Shadowknight AA mounts were cool during PoP.

- I didn't raid much during Luclin, nor play a Vah Shir so I can't speak for that. I do remember the shissar temple zone being fun, and I remember leveling some in Acrylic Caverns plus the Grimling Event.

- PoP had some fun raiding, the level cap increase was nice, the added AAs were nice. Could've done without PoK centralizing everything and the books, otherwise loved it. Loved the lore. Loved the zones. Reaching Plane of Time and the lore behind it in itself made the expac worth it to me.

TL;DR - AAs, some older content getting middle child treatment, Vah Shir, horses, oh and those ugly character models. Some fun content though.