Hello All, My wife and I last played EQ in ~2003. We recently tried P99, and it's a great service but possibly a little too time consuming given our priorities and available play time. We looked into TAKP and I think it may be a better option for us. If nothing else, my wife perfers to play a BL and the PoK reduces the impact of traveling on our limited play time. I have a few questions / concerns regarding the current stat of the server. Is there enough of a player base / economy that we could buy and sell lowbie items, profession items, etc or should we expect to approach everything before end game as solo self found? I understand all the benefits to boxing but is it possible to find others leveling / doing group content while leveling if we were solo boxing? Is there a player base knocking out older content that's open to filthy casuals? Thanks for any insight.
Don’t expect to find a bunch of groups in Unrest, Crushbone, Mistmoore, etc. Most days those zones will be empty or maybe one powerleveler bringing up a new alt. Id suggest you and your wife pick a duo that works well together, and just go with that. You may find people to group with occasionally but I’d say pre-50 your groups will be limited. Beastlord + Druid would be a good combo to go with. If you want to add boxes as someone not too interested in boxing I’d say add one character each of very low impact. Like your wife doing Beastlord as primary and mage as secondary with a single hotkey to /assist beastlord, /pet attack, /stand, /cast 1 Nuke, /sit to med. One button press per time a mob enters camp, straight forward and decent impact. For you whatever you want to play and probably a cleric or something. Again if you’re not familiar with boxing hotkeys are your friends. A hotkey that /stands, casts 3 heals, /sits is a great starter hotkey for a heal box that you can use inbetween pulls to recover large chunks of HP. Listen to the alliance channel when people announce MGBs. These level 60+ buffs help ease you into the low end game by giving you huge HP pools and mana Regen so even those you’re doing content with only 2-4 characters you aren’t struggling immensely even with no gear: You can find a decent number of items in the bazaar but a bunch of classic items are probably just not going to be available since people don’t camp them anymore. There’s enough gear to get you by, but don’t expect to be able to find a full set of Kunark armor etc. What older content specifically? Everything Classic-Kunark is basically 1-3 boxable right now, so no guilds are really doing that content. Velious content like Kael, Dozekar and Sleepers tomb is still rotated and the five guilds on the server do it weekly. Stuff like Tunare and Vulak almost never get done anymore. Luclin content like Vex Thal, Ssra and Seru also are rotated and killed weekly. Lower tier stuff in Luclin is either killed casually or left up. PoP raids people will do backflag runs occasionally and elemental/time raids weekly depending on rotations.
The server is great and there are people around. It's hit or miss as to people leveling up at the lower levels. Usually not. Boxing is great once you get used to it. If you box a little, you and your wife can be self-reliant. If you bump into some others that are around your level, you can ditch the boxes and play with your preferred solo style. Ultimately, boxing allows you to maximize your time when you are online and minimize dead time. The economy is also pretty good, so if you farm up some tradeskill items, there will be a market for it. Come on out and give TAKP a try!
Groups will be uncommon until you’re in the 50s but they can happen especially if you use /who all <level range> a lot or ask in Alliance if anyone wants to join you might find some higher level people with alts that they might play with you. I second the recommendation to play Beast/Druid if you’re going to solo box, or add some combination of SK/Pal, Mag, Enc or Bard to that combo you feel like boxing 2 each!
"Filthy casuals" can very easily join an endgame raiding guild on this server. Which isn't anywhere near as hardcore as it sounds. A TAKP "endgame raiding guild" is just a group of 20-50 people who spend a few hours per week replaying 20-year-old content. I'd recommend picking classes that you both think are fun and interesting, and just playing the leveling game for a while. If you both get hooked, you can join a guild and get community, events, gear, etc. No chance of getting there, though, if one or both of you gets bored in the initial leveling game. IMO, pick classes that interest you (and form a self-sufficient team) and leveling zones that have some character. Otherwise your TAKP experience will end before it really begins.
It's great here. Take your time enjoying all the earlier expansions and PoP will be there waiting when you are higher level. Dark Bank in PoK for buffs can make a big difference at earlier levels and highly recommend binding nearby DB at first and then you can gate in for buff calls in Alliance. Welcome aboard.
