Sooo ....

[Mcarm]

... I got a bug up my rear about trying out EQ again after a loooonnngggg absence. Assuming I can figure out how to reactivate my account and wade through the download and reinstall hassles I'd love to see my old friends here again. I was wondering if anyone had any tips for someone returning. I assume that old characters are still saved so I should be able to restart my old monk, is that correct? Anyways hope to see everyone soon, glad to see the old Public team is still around.

[Eagles]

Your old monk would still be there and not deleted, but considering how MUCH group gear has increased as compared to old raid gear, and how easy it is to level up now I would recommend a different class.

Rangers are PROBABLY the top class right now, monks have not been near the top since Prophecy of Ro.

[Xslia]

Bah monks are top dps - don't listen to eagles.

Characters should still be there - see you in game!

[Eagles]

Bah monks are top dps - don't listen to eagles.

Characters should still be there - see you in game!

Xslia,

90 times out of 100 Gringo is top DPS.

The other 10 times are when Zawryn shows up.

[Augustas-]

Bah monks are top dps - don't listen to eagles.

Characters should still be there - see you in game!

Xslia,

90 times out of 100 Gringo is top DPS.

The other 10 times are when Zawryn shows up.

havent played in awhile but it seems like this has about nothing to do with their class.

[Eagles]

havent played in awhile but it seems like this has about nothing to do with their class.

It has to do with both.

A paladin no matter how well played is not going to be top DPS on a raid.

A perfectly played wizard will always be top DPS on raids (now).
On a fight over 2 min, a perfectly played ranger will be the highest melee/hybrid on a raid (unless he is in a subpar group).

Honestly Gringo and Zawryn tend to play their classes pretty darn close to perfection.

As a monk I should NOT be dpsing in the top 5 (we have more rangers and wizards than that) but Gringo and Zaw are the only two people to consistently outdps me.

Others sometimes will, those two consistently do.

[Windyn]

I will agree that Gringo plays his toon more efficiently that any other ranger I know. I have been trying to match him for some time now and still don't have all the kinks worked out. Besides he has maxed every possible way to do damage on the mob as well. Most of all though he works with his group to maximize the senergy of others to increase his damage output.

If everybody could do the same, I am sure we could get a 25% increase on raid DPS while enaged with Boss mobs. Example is the last stage of Fippy and how we coordinate burns and Auspice cycles. Just need to have the right AA/DISC sequencing down pat.

Windyn

[Mcarm]

Well it looks like my old monk is gone. I was abad boy the weeks before I quit and got slapped with a ban. Anyways I'm in the process of installing again and looking forward to logging in again and seeing if what I remember about the game matches reality.

One question I have is that since I plan on rolling a monk again, how is the Drakkin race? I'll likely play human though since Human >> Iksar, but I wondered if the new race offered some spiffy new bonus that would make switching worth it. Any insight would be great.

[Xslia]

.....

Sent you a PM you might want to review.

[Mcarm]

Many thanks to Arylana for the help levelling today. Mcarmx (aka Mcarm the Second) is now level 18.

With any luck and the pace at which I level on my own I should be raiding again in like 12 months. So much has changed in the past 5 years that it will in all likelyhood take me a little while to get used to everything. Anyways see ya all in game.

[Mcarm]

/cast Resurrection on a long dead thread

And I'm back again. Only hung around the last time long enough to solo up to level 22. Playing solo most of the time just didn't work for me. Went back to playing WoW for a while and realized that I am simply not built to put up with the drama/attitude of a cutting edge raiding guild in that game.

I was wondering, since I know I am going to be playing my monk again on a regular but casual basis, is there any good guides for old time returning players that could be recommended? I accept that I will need to solo with my merc (molo'ing?) for a while. From what I can gather a Tank merc is the best idea for that. I think I am also going to need to stop at certain points while leveling up to pound out some AA's but not sure exactly when I should stop and for how long. I'll continue my Google searching over the next few days but finding good and concise info about the current state of leveling and playing a monk has been difficult so far.

The other thing I am hoping for is to find a guild of good people who wouldn't mind having a low drama, friendly and mature player in guild chat while leveling. I have been away so long that the only guild name I have seen that I recognize is <Infinit> but that is likely due to a combination of the length of time that y'all have been around and that I was one of the people invited back on the first day Ashorty got that ball rolling. If anyone could recommend a guild that might be a good fit for me I would really appreciate it.

Anyways as always I am happy to see this site still up and running. I hope you all have a great day and I hope to see some of y'all in game on my monk, Mcarmx.

[Gringo]

Let's get back to the part about how awesome I am. Your check is in the mail, Mcarm!

[Xslia]

Mcarm,

Couple of guilds come to mind - Ohana (very large casual guild), Living Legacies, Forsaken Visage - some of their players raid with us. For Sheer #'s Ohana - even seen Manjuk on from time to time and he's in that guild now. Fingerlickin on - he now plays a rogue named Watchyaback.

If you seriously want to play a monk - then do so but be warned your class has been hit with the nerf bat several times over, if you want a dissertation on the issues of the monk class - talk to Eagles next time you are on.

The Ashorty channel is still active - feel free to join it and visit. BTW I totally understand your WoW comment. I play wow on a casual basis have since it came out. Tried to do the PVE stuff but even on a casual basis I found drama in trying to simple instance runs - to the point I stopped doing anything that required groups. I solo for the quests and then stick to pvp - gnome killing is fun.

[Mcarm]

Heya Gringo, I eagerly await your check.

Xslia, thank you for the info. I definitely remember Manjuk and if I remember correctly he was in Reconstructed back in the day when I was with them (back in late PoP, Elemental Planes through PoTime).

I appreciate the heads up on the nerf bat and is something I will need to consider. At the moment I am really looking to play/group and was hoping that a monk would still be good for that. I had seen rumblings about the issue with Monks getting into raids and I will keep an eye out for Eagles.

As for playing WoW there really seemed to be an issue for me of enjoyable difficulty versus enjoyable play time. I miss playing an MMO that required skill but not a total life commitment to play in that difficult content. It also seemed that personal maturity level of people who were willing to play WoW hardcore was so far removed from anything I wanted to associate with that I couldn't pretend to want to do it.

Like any old school EQ player I have talked to I have a mountain of fond memories of Evercrack. I know I am choosing to remember the fun times:
1. "Ding"
2. First time in ToV
3. Coldain Ring War
4. Getting server first with a public raid crew. This was the big one that I've tried to tell people in other games about and it was impossible to convey how different it was to play in an ever changing group of raiders and beat content that dedicated guilds weren't beating first.

I am afraid that I am choosing to forget or gloss over the bad:
1. The sloooowww level grind back in the day.
2. Camping rare spawns (Raster in LGuk still makes me want to murder kittens)
3. Raiding for days/weeks on outright broken content (Looking at you Rathe Council)

It will be interesting to see how things go over the next week. It would be great to get to lvl 80 in a snap just for the fun of running around and sightseeing.

[Daroorn]

That's probably because Gringo is level 120, according to the standings page.