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Thinking about coming back, but I have a couple questions.
KingGator
Member UncommonPosts: 428
in Everquest II
1.) How bad is the item shop in terms of p2w. How much gear, what levels, and how much better is it than drops, and do drops happen slower than before f2p?
2.) The mercenaries thing. I don't know much about it other than a paragraph I read. But this sounds like it makes grouping less frequent, or that population is so low you have to have them to get anything done. tell me if i am wrong.
3.) What is the highest pop server.
I miss fantasy mmorpgs, hate wow, so hopefully the answers here will be good. I have a hankering to roll up an ogre brawler 
Comments
1. Item shop is not remotely p2w, assuming you are subbed. The only thing that comes close is heal potions, but even those cant be used in raid zones and Ive never met anyone that has bought one. Do note that the game is designed to be a subscription game though, so you might call it sub to win. You can see 95% of the content the game has to offer without paying a cent, but to do the max level stuff your options will be sub or to buy gear/spell unlockers. The gear/spell unlockers are cheap, but youll you will use a lot early on. As time goes by if you are only playing one toon it will average out to be pretty cheap. But really, if you enjoy the game subbing is the way to go. There is no actual gear in the item shop though.
2. Its an 8 year old, top heavy game. The population is pretty solid at max level on any of the servers, but below max level its as you would expect from a game EQ2's age. If you play on AB or Freeport and are social you can get low level groups, but being social is a must, they wont fall into your lap (the ingame dungeon finder is garbage). But EQ2 is very much a solo friendly game and there are even solo instances (that are actually fairly tough for non raiders). But there are plenty of group options too.
3. Antonia Bayle and Freeport are the two high pop servers. at 12:20 eastern time all the other NA servers besides those two are medium. The EQ2 population appears to be growing, or at least stable. The hardcore raiders are unhappy with the game's last few expansions, but the rest of the population seems to be having fun
There is a guild on AB called I N S T I N C T made of mostly MMORPG.com posters that started 2 weeks ago with everyone as level 1. I was running around the other day and saw a bunch of em headed to crushbone, so guessing good group opportunities there.
I saw your post in the INSTINCT thread, but ill add this here:
Expansions: There are 3 expansions not included for free. they are: DoV, CoE and AoD.
DoV and CoE are a bundle now, and they are the 90-95 content. AoD is more of a 'feature pack', which contains the Beastlord class and the mercs, as well as the dungeon maker and (I think) tradeskill apprentices. The mercs are nice but hardly essential, so really its up to you if you want to buy any of them at all. You can wait til you are 90 and make your decisions then
Everquest 2 is really a gem and still after years of playing other mmorpgs (also tried over 50+ others), this game is my favorite! It has everything! Great community, top-notch atmosphere, awesome dungeons, housing, roleplay, events, dungeon-making (make your own dungeon!), raids, crafting, a huge world and much more! I am really in love with this game and have been that for over a year now, which is VERY rare for me!
So, back to your questions!
1. The itemshop is not P2W at all, but as the other said, more like Sub2Win. The shop can provide you with fancy looking gear, cool mounts, housing items and other fluff items. Nothing you need to enjoy the game fully!
2. Mercenaries (Age of Discovery expansion) are not needed, BUT they are very helpfull! I am a healer, so my dps is not that good, but the mercs nuke them down for me, while I heal them or stand beside doing some damage. The expansion also includes the dungeon maker. For me, it was well worth the money!
3. Freeport and Antonia Bayle, are the most populated servers and the population is almost the same, on both servers. I have met some great people over the year on the Freeport server and only 3 douchbags/idiots, which also is VERY rare! I don't know how Antonia Bayle is, but I guess those servers are pretty much the same community-wise!
I hope you will have a great time in Everquest 2, even what path you take!
PS: If you take Freeport, send a messege to Sulfury and I can help ya out!
Good luck!
could try using SOE live chat for assistance -- operational Monday thru Friday
http://www.soe.com/services/help/customer.vm
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