The Spirit Realm

Hello there all longtime no see .
I took a 'short' burn out break almost 2 years ago and never got back into the game (I had a busy couple of years), and I'm toying with the idea of playing again. I've got a few questions i was wondering if you could answer.
Can you guys tell me, have things changed much?
Would you guys reccomend my coming back at all?
Have the populations dropped off much?
How much is a monthly subscription now?
My 3box team were all 85 when retired, how badly under geared are they likely to be, and how difficult to upgrade will it be?
Is there anything I should know before coming back?

I'll likely think of more questions but i think that'll do it for know.

Thanks in advance, and I hope you've all had a good couple of years.

Things have changed some, but you'd recognize everything pretty quick, I imagine. I think you'd have fun, as there are still a lot of folks playing. There was a round of server merges, while hectic at first everything settled down rather quickly.

Price is still $15 a month, and I think on Steam you can find Veil of Alaris (latest expansion) for around $20, which will flag you for all expansions and a bunch of goodies.

Gear would come by pretty easily I think, for HoT and entry level VoA.


Welcome back!

Thanks, it'll be a few weeks till I'm back in (if i do decide to take the plunge again), I've got to rebuild my PC again, and then make the call on whether to reinstate both Norik and Henlans accounts.
I am kind of looking forward to exploring norrath again, meeting new people, killing new uglies, and seeing if I've still got it.


I do have another couple of questions,
Whats the script on this RaF thing, and would it help someone returning as apposed to a new start?
Houses, what's the deal with houses?

Thanks again, and I might see some of you guys around on AB in a month or 2.

OK, I've been reading up and i think I've got a handle on the whole RaF thing.
As someone who is coming back from retirement, the only way for the to get any good from this would be to 'recruit' a new account, and then transfer my pocket bot to that account.
Has anyone had any success with that, and how much is a transfer per PC?

And then there is the fellowship XP thing that looks like it could work.

Houses are player generated instances where you store your stuff (only items tagged as placeable) and decorate as you see fit.

Gear is fairly easy to obtain. VoA T1 gear is attuneable and available in the bazaar for a decent amount of plat. It is roughly on par with HoT T4 gear at the 1370-1400 hme range (HoT T4 gear is about 1420 hme). The benefit is you don't really have to camp anything to outfit a couple toons with decent gear. However you need a decent amount of plat. (100k per item but those prices may drop)

I was in beta for VoA and wasn't impressed with the exp. Others love it. I prefered HoT. The main difference is the lack of locked zones in VoA as opposed to anything beyond T2 in HoT being progression locked. In VoA you are required to learn the language in order to complete armor, tasks and various other things primarily class-type AA. Nearly all class AA in VoA are locked behind a language/progression requirement. I don't know the exact task/language skill requirement since I didn't have to fool with it during beta and I retired shortly before VoA lanuched.

I believe the account change per character is still $50. It used to be for up to the first 2 characters but now it's $50 per character.