First, to find the EQ customisation file, it is eqclient.ini inside your main Everquest directory.  Most guides out there are pretty old, but this one seems to be reasonably comprehensive on the standard values (which I am now going to ignore).

Everyone should change this first setting – screenshot type.  A BMP screenshot is going to be 5 MB or so; converting to JPG will bring this down to around 500 KB, which is a good saving, especially for those times you fat finger the keyboard and take an accidental screenshot.

In the [Default] section, add:

ScreenshotType=[BMP|JPG|TGA|DDS|PNG]

In this case, therefore:

ScreenshotType=JPG

Next, you may have heard of the April Fool stick figures?  Well, you can enable them for fun, or for faster performance on raids:

StickFigures=1

There are times when it may be worth messing in the [VideoMode] section, but be careful, as a mistake can easily make things worse.  The time to do this is when you swap a video card, and the options offered in the settings dialog need a little tweaking.

I know that this next config tweak isn’t for eqclient.ini, but it’s worth knowing.  If you want to set individual auto join chat channels, you can do it, of course, using the /autojoin command in game.  But if you can’t remember the password of an old channel and don’t want to lose it, just take a text editor to your character’s ini file.  The file name will be of the pattern:

UI_<charname>_<server>.ini

For example:

UI_Borek_antonius.ini

Look for ChannelAutoJoin, and edit.  There is another character file, with the pattern:

<charname>_<server>.ini

Take a look if you are curious.

Earthcaller ranger epic 1.0

Serpent of Vindication Time Tallon Zek enchanter

Truncheon of Doom warrior, Sebilis from Froglok Armsman

Willsapper from Vaniki in Dragon Necropolis – has a fabled version

Amulet of Necropotence from golems in Fear

Neriad Shawl (bard/enchanter) water elemental, Siren’s Grotto

Veil of Flames mnk/brd/bst/rog/ber fire elemental, Diabo Xi Xin, Vex Thal – and has a fabled version

Ball of Golem Clay Korascian Warlord in Plane of Earth, has fabled version

Girdle of Living Thorns spikecoat, Tunare in Plane of Growth, fabled version

Abashi’s Rod of Disempowerment Abolish Enchantment, mnk/nec/bst/ber, Vulak’Aerr, Temple of Veeshan

Wristband of Secrets Devour Enchantment, casters, Aten Ha Ra, Vex Thal

Defender of the Ancestral Spirit Immobilize, Chamberlain Escalardian, Plane of Air

Shield of Striding priests, Levitation, an enranged disciple, Cazic-Thule

Shield of the Immaculate Cure Disease, an eerie chest, Plane of Hate

Symbol of the Planemasters Pestilence Shock, Sarryrn, Plane of Time

Gloves of the Crimson Sigil Call of Fire (proc) melee, Aten Ha Ra, Vex Thal

Akhevan Shadow Shears +15% tailoring, Shei Vinitras, Akheva Ruins (fabled version)

Hammer of the Ironfrost +15% blacksmithing, Xerkhizh the Creator, Ssraeshza Temple

Umbracite Swarm Orb shrink, +15% alchemy, shaman, Diabo Xi Va Temariel, Vex Thal

Shadowsong Cloak Harmonize, bard, Shei Vinitras, Akheva Ruins

Voice of the Serpent Resonance, bard, Disiple Yelwinz, Ssraeshza Temple

Tiny Cloak of Darkest Night Shroud of Stealth, bard/rogue, Katcha (Tarmok event) Fungus Grove

Memory enchanter, memory Flux (replaced at 83); Vyzh’dra the Exiled, Ssraeshza Temple

Shiny Brass Idol single charge of Divine Aura, Hagnis Shralok and Vopuk Shralok, Highpass Hold

Divine Hammer of Consternation Divine Aura, cleric/paladin, Praetorian Myral, Grieg’s End

And a few more from the thread, including some specific Fabled versions:

Circlet of Disguise, Vex Thal from Kaas Thox Xi Aten Ha Ra, human illusion, has fabled version

Anklesmasher, Loremaster Piza`tak in Chardok, snare

Swarmcaller, Sentry of Sathir in Karnor’s Castle, RNG only, slow (Tagar’s Insects)

Fabled Willsapper, Vaniki, Dragon Necropolis, 20% slow

Fabled Journeyman’s Boots, Drelzna, Najena, run speed

Fabled Mana Robe, Trakanon, Sebilis, mana clickie

?? Fabled Shield of the Water Dragon, Faydedar, Timorous Deep, mana pres focus

?? Fabled Secrets of the Planes

Fabled Fire Idol, Fiery Thought Leech in Mons Letalis, AC 25 slot 7 aug

?? Fabled Chrysolite, Azureake in Cobalt Scar, aug

?? Fabled Wurm Meat, Shardwurm Broodmother in Great Divide, aug

Fabled Rockhopper Spirit Fetish, Ancient Rockhopper, Mons Letalis, aug

Fabled Obtenebrate Short Sword, Crypt Devourer and Crypt Wurm, Charasis, snare WAR/RNG/BRD/ROG

Fabled Shrunken Goblin Skull Earring, Grachnist the Destroyer in Warsliks Woods, atk buff

Fabled Ball of Golem Clay, Korascian Warlord, Vegarlson, the Earthen Badlands

Fabled Girdle of Living Thorns, Tunare in Plane of Growth, Spikecoat

Some of these I would now consider obsolete, notably most of the augments.

Arrows can be for pulling, which needs maximum range and nothing else, or for damage. For non-rangers (and rangers without Endless Quiver) arrows also need to be cheap. The cheapest 150 range arrows (1 damage, non-magical) are Class 2 Wood point arrows (field, wooden, parabolic, small; trivial 56); these will be good for pulling, especially when you need to do no damage. The highest damage magical arrows made from vendor components are 8/100, Class 6 Steel Silver Tip Arrows (silver tip, steel, ceramic, small; trivial 202). And the highest damage 150 range arrows are Class 2 Steel Silver Tip Arrows (6/150 magic; silver, steel, parabolic, small; trivial 202).

Now for ranger arrows. These are expensive to make, so you need to have endless quiver. The damage arrows above are a good start, but there are two stand-out arrows: Mithril Champion Arrows (11/150 plus 3 fire damage); and Class 7 Drakebone Drakespine Arrows (13/125). Blessed Champion Arrows have higher damage by a very minor amount (+4 fire instead of +3), but require Tunare deity. The alternative to Champion arrows are the Guardian arrows – exactly the same, but cold instead of fire, and deity Karana. If anyone is skilling up fletching by making these arrows, they will have a lot left over, so it’s just fine to use them for pulling or damage, or just selling in the Bazaar.

Update: it seems that the current best is CLASS 8 Steel Braxihorn Arrow (17/125).

New players to Everquest should play the Tutorial, at least once. The tutorial consists of the zone called “Mines of Gloomingdeep”, which is actually two zones. The first is a private instanced zone, containing Arias and the Kobold Jailor, and is where your character first enters the world of Norrath. The second zone is part of the open world, and has a quest arc that will guide you from level 2 (you ding 2 just as you complete the initial familiarisation quest in the private instance) to levels 10 to 15.

At 15 you will be forcibly expelled to the Plane of Knowledge, and you can’t reenter this zone after level 10. But there’s no real reason to stay any longer, as Crescent Reach has better facilities for growing your character from level ten upwards, and some would prefer it from level 2–4 onwards as well.

This latest version of Mines of Gloomingdeep has been revised for the launch of Free To Play. Changes are to add a new quest that links together all the main quests in the zone; a few new NPCs are added to explains topics that were omitted before; and some of the gear drops are updated to be identical to Defiant. In addition, there are additional items on the vendors (Gate spell, hurray!), and there is now a mercenary liaison in the zone.

Gloomingdeep was taken from Everquest sometime around the Dragons of Norrath era; although there was an earlier version with much less content and a simpler layout, and some other aspects are obviously added from Depths of Darkhollow. There are only a few potions (Divine and Celestial Healing I and II), … There are also no guild masters, so you can’t spend training points.

Installation
Install using the Everquest Launcher; the size (of EQ, not the Launcher) is approximately 8 GB, so allow time for it to come down. This launcher is significantly faster than older Everquest patchers.

and… Installation Problems
Make sure that the shortcut is pointing to Everquest.exe, and that you installed to somewhere other than ‘Program Files’. If you have problems with the display window size, edit eqclient.ini, look at the [VideoMode] section near the end. Otherwise, it’s liable to the same installation procedures as full Everquest – you will need to have Direct X 9.0c installed, and you may need to jump through some hoops to get multi-core CPUs to work properly.

Character Creation
Once you get past the log in, you’ll want to create a character. You can allocate statistic points, but I suggest you don’t bother; with modern gear, stats are mostly irrelevant (the exception is if you are playing on a Progression server, which is Gold tier only). You have a choice from 4 races (16 if Gold) and 4 classes (and 16 if Gold). The automatic name generator will only rarely find an unused name, so be prepared with original names!

First you can watch an intro movie, or press Esc to skip it. The movie is just static images, each very blurry. I’d advise skipping it.

There’s a chance that you’ll hit the messages about “That zone is unavailable” and “Your personalized tutorial zone is still loading. Please click on Enter World again in a few seconds”; just keep trying – it may take some time if the servers are loaded!

You zone in to a private instance zone at level 1, and run through a series of pop-up windows that are intended to explain the interface controls. You start with one task: “Jail Break!”, once the initial pop-ups have been read and dealt with. This requires you to move around and find the Kobold Jailor, melee and kill him, then loot the corpse and give the key to Arias – which is covering a lot of essential ground.

If you don’t like the layout of the windows, and the default layout isn’t great, feel free to drag them around, and start the conversation with Arias. When this is complete, you will know to click on an NPC to target it and for conversations, to press ‘h’ for hail (which will get you some introductory text in most cases), and how to auto-attack and loot.

Your inventory contains the usual bread cakes, skin of milk (both x20), Bandages (x20), Backpack, Gloomingdeep Lantern and guild note (of no use to you until you leave Gloomingdeep). You may also have a melee tome, which you can right click to learn.

As you enter the main mines after completing Jail Break!, you will find two tasks in your quest journal: The Revolt of Gloomingdeep, which is the big task that collects together all (or almost all) of the tasks in the mines; and Basic Training.

Your bank has another Backpack – and has 24 slots, plus the two shared slots which are only available if you are Gold. You can equip the backpack straight away.

What To Do?
Start by completing “Basic Training” (I give details of all tasks below).
In the main cave, pay attention also to the optional tasks: hail Poxan to be told to fetch his sword (Poxan’s Sword, 1HS 4/28, which can be useful in some cases); he returns you a Kobold Leather Mask (AC 2). Frizznik can give you the rat steaks task, too – but ignore what he says about right click to eat and increase your strength; you can’t sell them, but they are free food and add 5 HP, but only while they are in your inventory ‘above’ any other good (like the bread cakes).

Remember to re-equip your weapon after handing it to Absor for an upgrade! (part of Basic Training)

You then want to connect with Rahtiz and collect your next tasks: “Cleaing the Vermin Nests”, then “Spider Caves”, followed by “Arachnida” (see below).

Details: press ‘q’ to auto-attack. Scribe in your spell book any spell or tome that Rytan gave you, and check the spell vendors for any other spells that you can use; you may also find some on the vendor (Wijdann). You create a hot button by pressing ctrl-o, right clicking on a blank button, giving it a name, then Accepting it; you can put it on your hot keys bar by left-click and hold on the button, then click on a blank space in the bar.

You can add combat abilities (which you learn from tomes) to your hot bar; first right click the tome to learn it, then bring up the Combat Abilities window (either from your EQ menu, or by alt-c) and assign the new ability to a button by pressing the “S” button; drop the new hotkey on a hotbar or the combat abilities window. This is explained in the Basic Training quest; repeated here in case of information overload.

While you are in the rats and bats caves, use your /open hotkey to check all the targetable barrels. The bows you find will sell for more than 1pp, and you can sometimes find bags and even backpacks in them. Once you have some money from selling to the merchant, check to see if any of the spell merchants have anything you can use (i.e. spells).

Back in the main cave, and every time you return, go to Rytan for the “bless” buff.

At this stage, hailing Rahtiz again will offer you two tasks: “Rebellion Reloaded”, and “Arachnida”. Take both. You can also take two tasks from Guard Vyrinn (next to Rahtiz): “Spider Tamer Gugan” and “Spider Caves”; again, take them both, although they are significantly higher level. Vyrinn also gives “Arachnophobia (Group)”, but you need to be level 4+ to see it. Finish Spider Caves and Arachnida.

At this stage you should be level 4–5, and have a full set of Stitched Burlap, and you can move on to the kobold area. Save Gugan and Arachnophobia for later, and check out the guards leading to the kobold mine: Guard Hobart and Guard Maddoc. You can get tasks from Hobart at level 4, and Maddoc at level 6; save Hobart’s group task to last. If you don’t already have a full set of Stitched Burlap, either collect more silk for Vahlara, or buy some from Wujdann.

Start with the first kills for Battle of Gloomingdeep; you will need to be level 7/8 or in a group to finish this, so start with the easy ones around the pit. Work your way to Dig Site 2, which is where you will find Zajeer and Kaikachi with some more tasks for you. Take them all.

If you can invis or are a race (like ogre) that has good kobold faction (just con them – target a kobold and press ‘c’; so long as it doesn’t include “scowls” or “glares”, you can move around in complete safety), you can easily complete “Scouting Gloomingdeep”, “Sabotage” and “Busted Locks”. If not, you need to level up first.

You will want to get to level 7 or 8, depending on class and friends, before completing any more tasks. Just kill anything that is dark blue or higher – spiders, lurkers, warriors, grunts, diseased rats, and goblin slaves.

It is probably easiest to finish “Goblin treachery”, then “Spider Tamer Gugan”, then “Arachnophobia”, then “Kobold Leadership” – and if you can do that, you will have finished “Sabotage” and “Scouting Gloomingdeep” as well.

Grind some more by killing until you are level 9 or 10. At this point you should be able to complete solo “Freedom’s Stand”, “Flutterwing’s Dilemma”, and “Pit Fiend”.
And after all that? Try seeing how high you can level. There will come a point where even Krenshin doesn’t give you any more experience.

Gearing Up
You need gear to build up your character to handle tougher mobs, not just levels. Start by getting the Kobold Skull Charm from the initial quest (Basic Training). Then you should get a set of Stitched Burlap, which looks like leather when equipped. You get chest, legs and arms from completing some of the tasks (“Spider Caves”, “Cleaning the Vermin Nests” and “Basic Training”); the rest come either from handing in Gloomingdeep Silk to Vahlara, or buying back ones that other players have sold to the merchant, Wijdann. Which means that starting with the spider cave quests is a good idea.

You can get bags, a bow, and arrows from opening barrels, so make that /open hot key. Melee can get a haste item for range (Spiritweaver Voodoo Doll; only 5% haste, or Kobold Quicksteel Orb from Slavemaster Ruga and Overlord Grikan – 10%) dropping from named mobs, and casters can get a Mana Preservation item (Spiritweaver Nexus). Tip: Rufus can also drop the two main range items, and he is much lower level.

Your next step will be to upgrade your visible armor. Some of the tasks (“Freedom’s Stand” and “Battle of Gloomingdeep”) give chest and leg items appropriate to your class – plate, chain, leather or silk.

Other visible armor items drop from random kobolds, more frequently from named mobs.

For weapons, you will get your first upgrade during “Basic Training” from Absor. After that, you need to find a Chunk of Bronze (random from mobs) and/or a Chunk of Iron (same) to hand in to Absor in return for a better weapon. After that, weapon upgrades drop from named mobs – Ruga and Overlord Gnikan.

Money
There’s not much you might want to buy – spells, potions, and just possibly Stitched Burlap early on. The answer is easy – open barrels. The Forlorn bows that drop sell for more than a platinum, and the staffs that drop from Spiritweavers sell for over 4pp (with high charisma!).

Quests/Tasks
Basic Training
Hail Arias and Learn About the Find Path
Hail Absor and Learn About Weapons
Hail Vahlara and Learn About Armor
Hail Xenaida and Learn About Maps
Hail Rytan and Learn About Spells
Hail Prathun and Learn About Communication
Hail Arias to let him know you have completed your training

This is pretty much self-explanatory – but remember to “/say others” to Vahlara, people seem to misread this step; she gives you some Gloomingdeep Sleeves appropriate to your class (and same stats as the basic Defiant sleeves). Remember that saying “bless” to Rytan will rebuff you at any time (every 26+ minutes). On completion, ding level 2 and get the Kobold Skull Charm.

Hot Bars
Speak to Basher Alga
Learn About Hotbars
Reward is A Worn Totem, which can be clicked from inventory and has a small run speed effect.

Mercenaries for Hire
Optional task from Elegist; you have to both hire a mercenary and hail him again afterwards, with your merc unsuspended, then kill a nearby kobold.

Achievements
Optional task from Scribe Farquard.

Kickin’ Things Up A Notch – Augmentations
From McKenzie the Younger, in the rats and bats cave. He gives you an aumentation (henceforth called ‘aug’), Steatite Fragment, which gives your weapon extra damage when used against kobolds. As you are likely to get a weapon upgrade while fighting spiders (Chunk of Bronze/Chunk of Iron), save this for then. You can move augs between items by removing it using a distiller, but as this costs 1pp, you can save money.

Cleaning the Vermin Nests (Guard Rahtiz)
Kill 8 Cave Rats
Kill 4 Cave Bats
Destroy 4 Vermin Nests
Speak with Vahlara in the slave revolt camp
(Opt) Speak with Wijdann to sell your loot
This can all be done in the first, non-aggro, section of the tunnels and first chamber. Bats are level 1, rats level 2. Destroy the nests by creating a /open hot key and using it; remember to loot the nests and use or sell the contents. While doing this, you should also look for and look the barrels and piles of bones. When the task is complete, Vahlara should give you some Gloomingdeep trousers.

Rebellion Reloaded (Guard Rahtiz)
Deliver 1 Class 1 Wood point arrow to Guard Rahtiz
If you have been looting barrels, you should have (at least) one of these, so give it to him. You get a quiver and 9 gold, plus some experience (more than for some of the earlier quests). Sell the quiver for 1p4g2s9c. Remember that the bows from the barrels are also worth more than 1pp.

Spider Caves (Guard Vyrinn)
Gather 4 pieces of spiderling cocoon silk
Deliver the silk pieces to Vahlara in the slave revolt camp
Combine this with the next task – you need to /open the cocoons to collect these. Your reward will be a Gloomingdeep tunic.

Arachnida (Guard Rahtiz)
Kill 12 Gloom Spiders
Kill 4 Gloomfang Lurkers
Return to Guard Rahtiz with News of Your Success
Carry on into the spider cave – directly south from where you were before. Kill spiderlings (level 2) as well, to collect the Gloomingdeep silk needed for armor from Vahlara; they also seem to count as spider kills for the task. While killing, you should find a Chunk of Bronze – hand this to Absor for a weapon upgrade. Try to complete the spiders (level 3) and get some armor before moving on to the lurkers (level 4). Again, you should reach level 4 while doing this, and then level 5 on hand in. Another weapon upgrade, from a Chunk of Iron, is a possibility while doing this. Reward is some experience and 1p7g.

Spider Tamer Gugan (Vyrinn)
Find the Anti-Venom Violet
Deliver the violet to Vyrinn
Gloomingdeep Violet drops from Gugan, who is level 6. Approx 20% exp at level 7.

Arachnophobia (Vyrinn)
Kill Queen Gloomfang
Speak with Guard Hobart to receive your reward
Probably need to be level 4 to request this, and the queen is 7. Reward is 5 Celestial Healing potions, some exp. There can be a chest to open next to the Queen.

The Battle of Gloomingdeep (Hobart)
Kill 5 Gloomingdeep Grunts
Kill 10 Gloomingdeep Warriors
Kill 5 Gloomingdeep Slave Wardens
Kill 1 Gloomingdeep Spiritweaver
Speak with Guard Hobart to receive your reward
Work on this one first, at least until you level and can get tasks from Maddoc. Spiritweavers are level 6. The reward, eventually, will be a pair of class specific leggings.
While killing around the mine, you can work your way towards what is marked on the map as Dig Site 2. East of there is a pool with two more revolt members with a mission: Revolt Scout Kaikachi and Revolt Scout Zajeer. You can also swim underwater from here back to the main revolt camp.

Freedom’s Stand (Group) (Hobart)
Kill Overlord Gnikan
Speak with Guard Hobart to receive your reward
The Overlord is level 9; your reward will be the class appropriate chest item; he can drop random armor, weapons, or range item. You should be able to get Gnikan with just one add, from the side room, if you fight him at his spawn point; it will be much harder if that is a spiritweaver, so try to kill it first. The two others in his building can add, and a spiritweaver in the other side room will heal him, so best to take that out first. There can be chest to open next to him.

Scouting Gloomingdeep (Zajeer)
Go east down dis tunnel until you gets to Dig Site Two
Head south until ya spys da main pit Dig Site One
Follow da eastern wall along da rim o’the pit, den enter da next tunnel ya cross
Contine goin’ east, den take da first left into da north facing tunnel
Report back to Revolt Scout Zajeer with news of your reconaissance
If you can invis, this one is easy; or if you have ok faction – I was surprised to find that an agnostic ogre did. Otherwise, you’ll have to fight various Gloomingdeep Captains (level 6) along the way. Combine this with sabotage. 30% of a level for completion.

Sabotage (Zajeer)
Set the makeshift lantern bomb in the kobold supply crate
You are given the bomb when you take the task, so defer this until you do scouting if you are short of inventory space. Give the bomb to the crate just as if it were an NPC, then watch the effects. This gave about 60% of a level.

Goblin Treachery (Kaikachi)
Kill 10 Goblin Slaves
Kill Rookfynn, the Goblin Shaman
Hail Scout Kaikachi with news of your success
Level 5 goblins and the named is level 7. Killing slaves reduces your faction with the kobolds. Reward is a Potion of Invisibility and some exp (20% at level 9).

Busted Locks (Kaikachi)
Infiltrate the Gloomingdeep Jail
Find the locksmith’s master key
Deliver the key to Revolt Scout Kaikachi
The key is in a chest in Slavemaster Ruga’s room, and drops from the Gloomingdeep Locksmith. You don’t need to kill anything to collect it, so long as you are free of aggro to loot the chest. Gives you about 30% of a level.

Flutterwing’s Dilemma (Rashere)
Find Flutterwings’s unhatched sibling
Deliver the egg to Flutterwing
There should be three eggs when you kill Slavemaster Ruga (in the jail). Reward is probably about 50% of a level. When you pull Ruga, his two guards will spawn, and will attack you if you don’t pull him far enough away. The simplest approach is to kill the warrior at either side, then pull Ruga to that spot. I have also seen people pull Ruga to the jail cells next to him.

Saving from Slavery
Escort the slave back to Arias
You get the quest from the various (non-goblin) slaves in the jail area. Reward should be a chunk of iron (for Absor weapon hand-in).

Kobold Leadership (Maddoc)
Kill 4 Gloomingdeep Captains

Pit Fiend (Group)
Destroy the demon lurking in the central mining shaft
Probably need to be level 8 to get this task. You need to go to the bottom of the pit, and kill Krenshin, a bazu type mob; level 12. He can drop a range item (there are three possible).

Other Rare Named Mobs
Rufus – grey rat, level 3. Drops range items; PH cave rats.
Sliver – kobold
Selandoor – kobold, probably level 8; drops ?
Brokenclaw – kobold; level 8.
Ratasaurus; up to level 7; PH is diseased rats.

Bugs
No fire beetle eyes (for druid Flame Lick, etc).
Gloomingdeep counts as indoors, so Camouflage, Harmony and Spirit of Wolf don’t work.

Useful Customisations
Use the Options panel (alt-o) to turn off – auto-duck and, if you prefer, turn off show helm.
I also turn of Voice Chat in the Options window, as it never works for me.
“/assist off” to disable auto-attack on /assist.
“/toggle inspect” stops you from inspecting yourself by clicking.
Rebind attack key from q to something better (I like num pad 0); again, in the Options panel.
Put forage/track on movement key binding.
Hot keys for bind wound and open.
F11 to show the lag meter.

Current subscribers will be classed as “Gold” tier under the new scheme. $15 per month, 8 character slots per server, 10 bag slots, 2 shared bank slots, etc. Gold users also have access to in-game support (/petition), and the two TLP servers (Fippy and Vulak). Recurring subs (not month-by-month) get 500 Station Cash per month. Only Gold accounts can use “prestige items”, which are high end group and raid items from recent expansions, as well as most augments (!).

All accounts are given House of Thule for free, no need to buy extra expansions just to play. Veil of Alaris must be bought if you want to access its content or features – like level 90+ or to purchase the new guild halls.

All Free and Silver accounts are limited to four races (human, erudite, barbarian, gnome) and four classes (warrior, cleric, rogue, wizard). They can also use only rank 1 spells (level 71+). Additional races and classes can be purchased in some way. They will also receive some forms of in-game advertising.

Free accounts can have 2 character slots per server, and 4 bag slots. They are also restricted to 250 AAs, 100 platinum per level, 30 Loyalty points per week and Apprentice tier 1/2 mercenaries.

There are other restrictions on house/guild hall/guild ownership and use of the “broker” function in the Bazaar (setting a character in the Bazaar as a buyer), and also on use of mail and chat functions, as you might expect.

Silver accounts can have 4 character slots per server and 6 bag slots. They can also have 500pp per level, 1,000 AAs, 60 Loyalty points per week, and any Apprentice mercenaries (but not the better Journeyman ones). Use of housing/guild halls/guilds is unrestricted, as are chat functions.

You can convert a Free account to Silver for $5, or the equivalent in Station Cash. Any previous subscribers or purchasers of any expansion will automatically be Silver, and any previously created characters will be allowed, even if they aren’t one of the allowed races or classes.

Most restrictions can be unlocked through a purchase; this presumably will work through a Station Cash purchase in the marketplace.

Content Changes

When you use the find command, as well as seeing a wisp trail in game, there will also show a trail on the map. You can also create a destination for your wisp by right clicking on the map. Zone lines have been added to the find command and you can request zone to zone paths, including Hero’s Journey zones, your bind point, and various other options.

Player made maps will be stored in separate directories that won’t be over written.

You can now search individual zones for specific label text.

The Mines of Gloomingdeep tutorial quests have been revised, with 13 new tutorials added and an overarcing task, and a new tutorial NPC in the Plane of Knowledge, located near the Loyalty NPC (near the Crescent Reach stone), which will cover topics like AAs, power sources, etc.

The Hero’s Journey (sometimes called Golden Path) is a development of the Achievement system, starting with quests in TSS zones – Crescent Reach onwards, which has 5 new achievements added. It is mostly existing quests, but with improved spawn and drop rates, and some rewards have been adjusted (up to level 70 quests). It will take you up to level 80 through TSS, Dragonscale Hills, the Buried Sea and Seeds of Destruction. There are some achievements for things like the Dragons of Norrath progression, the Skull of Den Lord Rakban from Depths of Darkhollow, Breakdown in Communications (GoD), Jonas Dagmire’s Skeletal Hand (TBS), and the augment quests (presumably from SoD, but possibly the SoF one as well).

On first login, players will received a book on their cursor. This you should keep and it will give you level appropriate information about Hero’s Journey zones, quests and starting NPCs.

This takes the data from the new SOE status page at http://www.soe.com/status/ and displays it on your phone; you can select data for a single game and refresh that display if you wish.

It runs on iPad as well as iPhone – it probably won’t run on iPhones using OSes older than 4.1. Now that it’s shown up in the store, there’s a couple of minor tweaks I will make and resubmit. Any suggestions or bug reports are welcome.

ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT:

My priority AA routine is like this:

First – Get anything that will help me live longer. Rationale? You can’t do (expletive deleted) if you are dead.

Second – Get anything that directly or indirectly grants a power that is unique, awesome, and / or abusable like beguiler’s directed banishment, enhanced forgetfulness, fog of memories etc.

Third – Get anything that helps reinforce the likelihood or strength of your most used or necessary spells.

Fourth (or as needed) – mana regen. yes i know mana total will get you on leaderboards but i’d gladly give up 3/4 of my mana bar for double my current mana regen.

Lastly – convenience aa’s like perma lev or mass group buff etc.

*and as a rule, passives before clicks.

LIVE LONGER AA’s:

I highly recommend combat agility, combat stability, natural durability, shield block if you use a shield, and general sturdiness. All of these are passive aa’s and either give you more hit points or keep the ones you already have from disappearing as fast.

Veil of Mindshadow, Hastened Veil of Mindshadow:
keep this buffed below all your other runes since it takes longer to refresh it.

Friendly stasis:
since self stasis lasts its full duration whether you need it to or not, I made this social so i could use Friendly stasis like a slower bard fade:

line1 /tar blurred
line2 /pause 1
line3 /alt activate 8702
line4 /alt activate 8702

the pause is necessary or you end up casting on your previous target. now click off friendly stasis and go back to (expletive deleted) things off.

Mind Over Matter / Mana Draw:
These two work great in combination for when your healer is dead and you are taking massive ae damage, or accidentally tanking.

Utility AA’s:
good passives to have are:

Mezmerization Mastery: this allows permanent lock down of an infinite number of mobs with the blue gem ae mez.

Earthen Allure, Dreamlike Allure: anything that helps lessen the chance of mez resisting should always be considered.

Quick Buff: This i got primarily so rebuffing runes would be faster, but it also is beneficial for rebuffing battle rezzed allies.

Auroria Mastery, Total Domination, Spell Casting mastery,

Clicky aa’s:

Bite of Tashani, Dreary Deeds

2nd spire of enchantment, 3rd spire of enchantment.

Whenever you go to use one of your spires, please announce it in the chanter channel which spire you are casting and on who before you actually cast it. If two chanters notice same cleric needs mana we do not want to waste a spire by tagging the same person in the same 10 seconds.

I am assuming starting with a human agnostic enchanter, level 10+, and so has both Alliance and Illusion: Dark Elf.  Bound in Freeport.

Take boat: buy a Kiola nut from Cleonae Kalen on Sisters Isle, OoT.  Although, given the problems with zoning on boats, it’s better to use the translocator, which is active in East Freeport to Ocean of Tears, and takes you directly to Sister isle.  Watch out for the KoS pirate there, who often hangs out by the docks.

Run to Rivervale:
Honey jum, Rivervale: Give Kizzie Mintopp (use Find) three honeycombs (Misty Thicket) and 30 gold pieces for the Honey Jum.  The northernmost tower on the wall has a decent static spawn of bixies.

Run to Qeynos:
Koalindl (No Trade) – use a level 1 SK in N Qeynos for HT.  Can do the Regurgatonic quest in Ak’anon, but life’s too short without a port.

Run to Erudin:
Erud’s Tonic (No Trade) (Erudin): buy Innoruuk’s Kiss of Death (5s 6c at 115 charisma) from Geoard BlueHawk in Bluehawk’s.  Give to Sinnkin Highbrow in the Library, upstairs.

Gate back to Freeport.

Hand 4 items to Gregor Nasin in Seafarer’s Roost, EFP.  Run to Oggok (NRo, SRo, Innothule, Feerrott).

Faction: use Alliance on a non-quest NPC..? Or:Pickled Froglok – give Chef Dooga 3 picked frogloks (froglok meat, jug of sauces, vinegar – trivial 51)12 – 100 Lizard tail to Horgus, then 40 lizard meat to Kogna (4 at a time).30 – 40 Lizard tails to Grevak.

Hand bartenders compendium to Clurg (Oggok); needs amiable/high indifferent faction.  Use “what special book” phrase to verify that you can complete the quest.

Okay, so, boomsticks for a 71 cleric:

Time Lapse procs (750pt magic dd)

Wrapped Glass Shard – From DoN miniraid (Shogurei, Guardian of the Sands), soloable by a t4 geared SK, provided you’re not really under-AAed. Can’t take a merc in. Proc mod 0.

Void Mace – DoDH 70 spell mission (The Shattered Seeker), mercs usable in here. Proc mod 0.

Wand of Dark Waters – Ruins of Illsalin (A Forgotten Guardian), open zone so have at with mercs. Proc mod 0.

Illuminated Hammer – Yxtta, old raid mob (Primals), but it’s an open zone- I’d use the SK for it. Proc mod 0.

Hammer of Hours – Plane of Time, Terris-Thule. No merc, but your SK should be able to handle it. She’s a damned sight easier than Vallon Zek, too, who has a stupidly long stun and an FD, from a soloing perspective. Proc mod 0.

Conflagration procs (622 pt fire dd)

Wand of Magma – Tirranun’s Delve (Fire Goblin Scribe), easily doable. It’s not no-trade, but I doubt you’ll find one on the bazaar, since no one goes there. On the plus side, that means the mob might already be up. Proc mod 0.

Scepter of Forbidden Knowledge – Txevu (Ikaav Nysf Lleiv). Once again, technically a raid mob, but it’s a static zone, so you can merc in there. Proc mod 0.

Dustdevil proc (582 pt magic dd)

Aged Smoldering Cudgel – This weapon has a 188% procmod on it, so it will fire more often. Xygoz fears, so use your SK- easy solo for him, run through the zone, feign off aggro, solo Xygoz, and hopefully pick up an Aged Left Eye of Xygoz for the SK while you’re at it. Hardest thing about this mob for you will be finding Xygoz up, since people still go to get the ALEX. Proc mod1 188.

If, what you are, in fact, after, is a spam hammer (so called because they spam you with messages like crazy due to the increased procrate), I would try to hit the bazaar and look for:

Templar’s Censer – It’s from the brief Cazic-Thule revamp (Tae Ew Templar), but unlike the weapons from the entire Secrets of Faydwer expansion, which have no mod, it has a procrate modifier of 275%, if not quite as high as the standard spam hammer of 500% in modern times, and 530% on the PoP-to-TSS raid ones. It also has heroics. Proc mod1 275.

Marrowfall – Oceangreen Hills (Putrescent Bonelord), easy as pie for your SK to kill, if you can’t find one in the bazaar. Proc mod1 500.

The Time spam hammer from Vallon Zek (Hammer of Holy Vengeance, Hand of Retribution, 75 – 100 dd, proc mod1 530) would probably be a fairly sucky solo, as I said, due to the stun and FD, but that’s another one.

THe below section is now obsolete, as the Community Leaders have been replaced by a Community Round Table (new name, but same old..): see Community Round Table Members List for members.

Active posting (followed up a thread in the SOE Veterans forum):

*Chanaluss_of_Kunzar – SK
*crystilla – cleric
Hulkling – paladin (mostly retired)
*Jyve – bard
minimind – berserker (inactive)
*Nolrog – tradeskills/ranger/druid
*Tadenea – ranger
*Tnexus_Prexus – ranger
*Tulisin_Dragonflame – mage

Others (mainly dragged up from the CL apps thread):

*–CinexaDH– – wizard
*Naladini – mage
Nanyea – enchanter (not playing) – TR
*OrmusTR – druid – TR
Rahzeael_ – mage – Triality (not playing, gone AWOL to EQ2)
Rasper_Helpdesk – rogue/mage (quit?)
Samanna – shaman (retired)
*Saroc_Luclin – cleric
Tharkis – shaman – TR
Unmei – enchanter (retired)
*Waring_McMarrin – shaman – TR
*–Xislaben– – necro (not playing? – but posts) – CT

* means that they are members of the Community Round Table – as also is Tharkis.

Turns out that some of the original list have been removed from the programme; as there is no official list of the CLs, and the only way to find out if someone is a member is to track their posts on the SOE forums, this is laborious work. Thanks to Zatozia for pointing out that some people have been removed – I would never have found out otherwise.

Ex-CLs. There were in the CL programme at some time, but have been removed; some have active accounts, but it is impossible to tell if they are playing or not (thanks to Station Access accounts).

Andorra_Bell – mage (not playing)
Brael – SK (not playing)
Chanus – cleric (not playing)
Rawlden – mage (retired)
Crovack – wizard – Triality (not playing)
Coii – druid (not playing)
Mindrix-Triality – mage – Triality
–Sincro– – rogue (not playing)
-Wycca – monk (not playing/semi-retired) – Triality

Class totals:

Bard – 1
Beastlord – 0
Berserker – 1
Cleric – 2
Druid – 1
Enchanter – 0
Mage – 2
Monk – 0
Necromancer – 0
Paladin – 1
Ranger – 3
Rogue – 0
Shaman – 2
Shadow Knight – 1
Warrior – 0
Wizard – 1