Some questions before I go out and buy EQ2...Follow

1) You get four, unless you pay for the All Access pass to get all SOE games on one $20 monthly fee, then you get 8 slots.

2) No, but you can do heritage quests in the game to get the equivalents of old EQ1 items.

3) You can use the same, or make a new one. Up to you.

4) I quit EQ years ago (after playing for two years), gave up on SWG after only 3 months, and absolutely love EQ2 (after beta testing the last 4 months). They really did a good job with it, which I admit suprised me. They exceeded all my expectations by a large margin.

Before you get it, know that a lot of players are dropping out - i.e. not re-upping after their "free" 30 days expire. Is this a trickle or an exodus? We don't know yet.

The game's novelty and looks still have me playing some, but not w/ much enthusiasm. Player mechanics in general are much better - smoother game - more player friendly in a lot of ways.

If you like to group and "do your job" - i.e. you're a healer, you heal. You're DPS, you get on the target's flank and do special attacks. Etc. Then you will love this game.

If you like tradeskilling you might like this game - except that enforced interdependency on other players can be a huge pain. The player merchant system is awful, just awful. You can't sell off-line, and you can't hire an npc to sell for u. You have to stand there on line in your apt. as a static merchant to sell, i.e. not playing. Was this a sneaky marketing trick to coerce us into buying extra accounts? Smells like it. If so, boo. Still, tradeskilling is fun so far for me, but getting tedious.

If you liked soloing where "wide open" tactics were an option, you probably won't like this game. Any class can solo if you upgrade armor, upgrade your spells/abilities, and figure out how to use HOs. But each fight is largely the same. Buff, pull, and with the critter wailing on you, HO, HO, HO, HO, it dies, you loot. Mages tend to root and dot, root and dot, nuke to kill, rinse and repeat.

I read a post where an enchanter said he felt he had more options - but mage types can die really fast here. Given that my setup ain't perfect and I lag some, I got tired of dying as a soloing mage. If you are not "burning to get this game" and if money is an issue, you may wanna hold off and see if they make it better. My mantra for eq2 is "having gotten so much of it so right, how could they have gotten so much so badly wrong".