im a noob, and need some adviceFollow

hey im a returning noob to everquest. i need as much info a noob would need. like do certain items have hiden effects, where to lv 10-20, what the game has to offer in endgame. what weapons are best for certain classes, or if it even matters. im a lv 12 ranger, any ranger advice is certainly welcome. is there an easier way to cast spells on yourself? anyway to make macros that you can put in your hotbar or actions bar? what are adventures and what do you raid? there is pvp but how do you join and how does it work? why dosent my armor appear on my character until i zone and sometimes instantly shows up? is it usual for mobs to run and aggro the whole dungeon? is there anyway to stop that? what makes a mob aggro to you? any advice is welcome. thank you.

Edited, Jan 24th 2009 12:09pm by spencerock

Edited, Jan 24th 2009 12:11pm by spencerock

Edited, Jan 24th 2009 12:19pm by spencerock

I don't think any items have hidden effects, everything should be clear in the item description.

It's pretty easy to get up to around 18 or so in Crescent Reach first just outside, then the puma cave, bear cave, undead farm, and undead cave.

Once you're about 18 head one zone over to Blightfire Moors. Kill the rats and snakes near the entrance and pick up blightfire-infused stuff, you'll need the chain links for your ranger, but the other pieces sell for a couple of plat to merchants. Also, sections of pancreas are nice vendor trash loot.

Killing lots of rats and snakes will cause either Mossback or Plaguebringer to spawn, keep using your track ability to see if they're up and find them. They're harder, but will drop patterns that you turn in with the blightfire chain links to get some level appropriate armor.

Scout Zerak will gives quests that involve killing gnolls that result in a nice weapon. The armor quests are given by Kimem Saydel on the second floor of Crescent Reach in the forge. Smithy Bronson near him will give some quests that also involve killing gnolls, so they're good to do at the same time at Scout Zerak's

Try to find a decent 1H slash, 1H piercing, and 1H blunt(Scout Zerak will give a 1H blunt) and keep those 3 weapon skills high. Once you're around level 30 you can head up to the northern part of Blightfire Moors and find a wolf named Duskfall, may need help to take him down, but he drops a good bow.

As for your other questions, try the returning and new players thread at the top of these forums.

Yes, mobs will run away at low health and sometimes this will get you lots of aggro. Fortunately you're a ranger and you can cast Ensnare. Cast that spell when the mob is getting low on health and when they turn to run they'll just stick in place.

A bit about endgame and raiding. There is a lot of endgame content in EQ, some of it is group content made for about 3-6 people, and some of it is raid content for about 45-54 people. Current expansion raid gear will always be better than current expansion group gear, and raid gear several expansions old is usually better than current group gear as well, though the newest group gear has seen a huge leap in quality. My guild is working on the later raids of the last expansion and we've done the first one from the current expansion, and I have to say they're a lot of fun. I've done a lot of grouping over the years and only recently joined a raiding guild. There is a lot of great endgame grouping these days, and the raiding is even better. Don't rush to 85 to get to the top though, enjoy where you're at and have fun, it's a great game at lower levels too.