Tips/Advice for a newbie former-WoW player?Follow

Basically the same as this other recent thread so I would just start there.

WoW is very linear and endgame focused, with it's little pockets of PVP (battleground, arena, etc.) sideshow.

EQ can be endgame raid focused (if you want) or you can spend years doing whatever else amuses you. It is not easily summarized, aside from asking "What do you want to do, and how much time are you putting in?"

There are a lot of similarities and there's a reason for that. Much of WoW's core is basically EQ with all the "inconvenient" bits taken away. At one time, EQ was also a very raid focused game and that time period just so happens to coincide with the core development period of WoW (2002ish). The main difference is, EQ's model made you EARN your way to that level (through slower progression/longer time between levels) whereas WoW went the 'casual friendly' route of basically pulling you right to that part of the game (i.e. "MMO on rails"). The "problem" with EQ now is an embarrassment of riches. There has been SO much content released over the 13 years of its life that a new player can often drown in the sheer number of options available to them.

You could do the hotzones from 1 to 90.

You could do some of the quests for the more interesting items (Dire Wolf totem, 10th Ring War, etc).

You could try tradeskills and find out how WoW did it was exactly right (one of the few areas I believe this is true).

You could hunt for items/gear while they're still useful (Shadowy Student in Dreadspire who drops non-lore 25ac, 25hp multi slot aug, as an example. Flameshield Stone in Riftseeker's is another).


I mean, there are SO many different ways to play EQ nowadays, it's almost 'sandbox-lite'. I'd recommend you do the hotzone route while you learn the game along the way. Then, when you're comfortable with your knowledge of basic gameplay, go look for those different paths and try 'em on for size.

You should enter Crescent Reach when you leave the Tutorial (Mines of Gloomingdeep), though I'm not 100% positive since they changed it some for the free to play, but is probably the same. You got to CR via the black hole in the wall in the safe area. This is probably where you should go next until close to 20, then head to Blightfire Moors (next zone off of Crescent Reach), then follow the hotzones as you like. The current hotzones promote the old TSS (The Serpent's Spine expansion) path of progression, from CR to Blightfire to possibly Stone Hite to Goru`kar Mesa to Blackfeather Roost to Steppes or Sunderrock Springs, etc.

Might read the Twinking a new Ranger thread for some more suggestions and tips.

Yther Ore.