Returning after more than two years...

[Ruoroni]

Hello all, long time reader first time poster =P

I played EQ from basically just before Luclin was released to just after DoD was released with a few breaks. I played WoW for about the last two years but since I heard rumors of a new progression server I've been thinking on coming back to EQ for it. Then I see that I have all the expansions and almost 2 months of free play time so I guess I'm going to start playing for at least a while again while I wait for the new progression server.

My problem is that after two years of playing an MMO for preteens I'm a bit lost in EQ. I honestly don't know where to go, what spells to use, weather to root rot or pet tank solo, what changes they have made to AAs and such (new AA menu is annoying to me) I'm level 70 with around 400 AAs mismatched raid gear from Time (only the TA, actually)through DoN gear and all spells up to but not including the DoD spells. Any refreshment or even a simple point in the right direction would be much appreciated. Also, apologies if this was posted on the wrong board. Thanks =)

[Samanna]

Welcome back. I don't have any specific advice for you, but there are writeups on gear and spells at http://samanna.net/wiki/index.php/Category:Shaman

Really, your playstyle will determine what spells you need. Although reading about letting the pet tank made me laugh.

[Ruoroni]

Hey, it actually used to work fairly well for soloing in SolRo's Tower. =P

[Vasei]

I came back fairly recently and was able to root-rot 75-80 in dragonscale hills for xp, spell drops, and faction necessary to get Ward of Resurgence and Preincarnation. The gear jump in that last expansion trivialized anything I was wearing (DoD/Anguish-ish), and the attunable non-visible armor pieces seem pretty commonly available in the bazaar. Cash drops in that expansion are kind of boggling, as well, for someone who used to deal in gp.

I guess it depends on whether you want to progress through missed content, jump into raiding, zoom up to 80, take your time, etc. The Reference links to the right were ginormously helpful for me to catch up, and samanna.net/wiki is growing into something pretty fantastic.

They removed they keying requirements for a lot of zones, too, so I'm planning to tool around in VP or those goofily-named OOW zones that I missed.

I can't really help on the raid perspective atm, as I'm having entirely too much fun doing groupable stuff with my husband to take any time out for raiding just yet.

(oh, and welcome back! I had a lotta fun tooling around in WoW, too, but being back in EQ is something else)

[otakuryoga]

made use of the legacy thing....

quit when the purity/power source stuff was coming out...anyone can give me a refresher on how that works since the claimed armor has it?

[Samanna]

The stats on the armor will change depending on the type of power source you use as well as the purity level of the armor you are wearing.

See http://www.eqwiki.net/wiki/Combine_Power_Sources ... slow to load.

[Brohg]

Any armor with the Purity stat can gain a bit extra in the ac/hp/mana dept from power sources. Purity stat governs how much that piece gains from each power source, and also how fast it drains that power source. 100 Purity items will get twice the benefit as 50, but empty a source twice as fast. What stats the armor has added on to it (or taken off of it) depend on the type of power source. For non-raiders, Elemental Orbs are generally the strongest since they add the most ac/hp. Other sources have mana on them with less ac/hp (that's Light, another reasonable choice), or lots of hp at the cost of ac, or tons of mana with -everything else, or resists, etc.

edit: sorry, response apparently sat on my desktop all day, missed Sam's answer

[Cromagnon]

Just to make things a bit more clear:

"Infusible" tag next to the "Magic" "Lore" "No Drop" type tags means that it will gain/lose stats based off the type of powersource that is equipped in the powersource slot (worn).

"Purity #" is where the number of purity = the percentage of the powersource stats you will gain/lose for that. (Example being Purity 50 = 50% of the full stats from that powersource.)

Another often asked question is what types of augs are type 13/14? Easy answer, type 13 are purity augs for group armor, and type 14 are for raid armor. These will further increase the purity (aka %) for that armor piece. Most of the type 13/14 augs are vendor purchasable in TBS, and cannot be safely removed (are destroyed when you take them out of the armor) although there are now a few quests from SoF that offer as rewards purity augs that can be safely removed (series of 9 tasks from Loping Plains in SoF).

Hope this helps!
-Crom