Returning player need advise on items, AA, zones, etc.Follow

1:
Defiant is the way to go for equipment, buyable or farmable. If your tailoring skill is up there, you could also do the cultural route, as it's easier to farm the supplies needed for your level vs. the defiant gear, but the defiant is quite a bit better, unless you have some Omens of War or other augs for the slot 12s. Weapons for melee / hybrid is the only failing in defiant gear. As a druid, I wouldn't worry about it, just use the defiant as it has lots of hps and mana, and mod2s. 1.5 pre-quest and quest are good to do for weapons at 65, and 2.0 at 70. Nice focus and clicky on the druid epics. Not till 70+ at the minimum should you worry about anything but defiant or cultural. Cultural at 80+ is still an awesome way to go as well, if you're maxed tailoring (and well off in other tradeskills as well).

2:
Defiant is globally dropped from level appropriate mobs. Same with cultural supplies, although, smithing supplies are more common on golems and humanoids, while pelts are more common on animals, and silks more common on spiders, but all can drop from just about any mob of the appropriate level.

3:
See druidsgrove or other druid-specific forum site (some listed in the stickied thread). For the best AAs. It depends alot on your tactics and primary play style. With UF, you should get a tank merc, and prob focus on healing and dot AAs, as well as aggro lowering ones.


4:
Get a tank mercenary, it will make soloing much easier and faster.
EQ:Mercenaries
Make sure to set it's role (Right-click name in group window | Roles) to Main Tank.

The stickied thread is always good and will probably cover 90% of what you need to know.

My wiki page has links to alot of intermediate / advanced topics.

Impressions 2 weeks back thread might be useful, and although 9 months ago, not much has changed since then for returning players.

Some recent threads with returning / new player questions, that may not be covered in the stickied (also they have links to other threads / pages, with even more information):
Self-defeating Expansions and a Question
One toe
Have not played this game for a long time, need help

EDIT: Oops, typed the My wiki page link in wiki format instead of forum one :-/ Fixed not now, but on 2nd try!

Yther Ore.

Edited, Oct 16th 2010 5:07am by Yther

Edited, May 31st 2011 6:59pm by Yther

Whenever I've came back from long breaks, I usually try soloing greys (non-experience) mobs for a bit, just to get a feel for the toon, and what buttons / spells I need up and available. After that, I move some to some light blues.

With mercs, I go with mercs once I'm comfortable with operating the toon. Journeyman Tier I tank mercs are very powerful til the 60s, then it starts to wane being needed to upgrade by the 80s. But you can start upgrading them by the 70s.

For solo, I can't remember any good spots for druids, but I haven't played one for years at those levels. Maybe Natimbi, as you should be able to fear kite alot of the animals. Burning Woods might be another option.

With a merc, places such as Greig's End, Old Sebilis, The Hole, and the Broodlands should all be good, the Broodlands being a current hot zone (Hot Zones have an experience bonus). The other three have dungeon bonus, and GE is an outdoor dungeon.

You can find more zones via the Database - Zones - Levels menu.

Cached thread from thedruidsgrove about AA recommendations.

With some upgrades, you should be able to move to even harder zones.

Yther Ore.

Zones for a 56 druid. Bloodfields, careful pulling and you can kite.
DSP, Griegs end. Natimbi as mentioned, Plane of Nightmare.