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.