chucko2010 wrote:
Hi I am casual player due my time I can put in. I am wondering since the new expansion is coming out they are going to lvl 100. I kinda feel like I will never be able to catch up. Part of it is because I play on the test server and there hardly anyone left on the server. I really don't want to start over.
As a casual player, you should not be concerned with "catching up". The people who are sitting at the cap with "nothing to do", by and large, are not "casual players" (despite their declarations to the contrary). You'll never catch up in gear level (because they raid and thus, get better gear than you are able to), given enough time, you can catch up in level but catching up in AA is probably also not in the cards. This isn't said to discourage you, but it's a dose of reality. Despite the changes made to EQ to streamline things, the game still requires prodigious amounts of time invested in order to accomplish certain things. As Yther said, it also requires efficiency. You have to learn how to use your limited time to maximum advantage. As an example, I'm not a casual player (by playtime). I play at work, I play at home, but I also waste tons of time. I'll be in bazaar constantly looking to upgrade my tanks' armor, I do tradeskills, I decorate my houses and guild hall, and other massive time wasting activities. But I also box, so I don't waste time with my LFG flag up. When it's time to get XP, it's time to get XP and that's what I focus on. I'm probably a 2 in 10 player as well as, even though I have a handful of level 95 max AA/max LAA characters, the vast majority of my characters are under 95 (some with abysmal AA counts). So I always have a goal to pursue but it's usually not level based.
EQ, at its core, is still not casual friendly (at least not in the way all the newer games are). You still have to spend lots of time to achieve goals, and the going is typically a lot slower.