LevelingFollow

Hi I am casual player due my time I can put in. I am wondering since the new expansion is coming out they are going to lvl 100. I kinda feel like I will never be able to catch up. Part of it is because I play on the test server and there hardly anyone left on the server. I really don't want to start over.

Yes the cap is being raised to 100. Hexeez pretty much covered the rest. Alot of the time is dependent on efficient you are as a player. EQ is a game easy to waste time in, even when you think you're not, like buying spells at low levels is mostly unnecessary, other than every 10 levels or more, then don't get them all, just the bare minimum. Lots of similar activities, like equipment, don't waste time looking for equipment, other than a good weapon as melee / hybrid class at low levels. Even then anything dual wield of 0.5 ratio dmg/dly is plenty good till 50s or low 60s (mid 60s you can buy some SoF Weapons or do Epic 1.5), or two-handers of 1.0 ratio.

I'm probably one of those 2 in 10 now-a-days. I still prefer to be at the top, but don't spend that much time in game to keep up or even to feel I'm comfortable with the game any more; 1-2hrs per week, on average. I'm hoping before my SC purchased time runs out in Dec, I'll be able to play more, and will resubscribe, but I'm not sure.

Ooops, some how I got to talking about myself :P

EDIT: It can be very fast, but realize that some super fast times are due to either PowerLeveling or some prep work, and/or at the sacrifice of keeping skills up and having to burn up some time getting them back up to par. With that said, you can still do 1-60 in an 8-hr day, and upto 65 and several 100 AAs in another one, without PowerLeveling. Add in some PLing, and you can make 30+ AA every 15mins and/or some regular leveling xp in the 60s. Personally, I generally just go along at a steady pace and don't worry about it, and try to enjoy the time I'm playing.

Yther Ore.

Edited, Oct 23rd 2012 7:17pm by Yther

As a casual player, you should not be concerned with "catching up". The people who are sitting at the cap with "nothing to do", by and large, are not "casual players" (despite their declarations to the contrary). You'll never catch up in gear level (because they raid and thus, get better gear than you are able to), given enough time, you can catch up in level but catching up in AA is probably also not in the cards. This isn't said to discourage you, but it's a dose of reality. Despite the changes made to EQ to streamline things, the game still requires prodigious amounts of time invested in order to accomplish certain things. As Yther said, it also requires efficiency. You have to learn how to use your limited time to maximum advantage. As an example, I'm not a casual player (by playtime). I play at work, I play at home, but I also waste tons of time. I'll be in bazaar constantly looking to upgrade my tanks' armor, I do tradeskills, I decorate my houses and guild hall, and other massive time wasting activities. But I also box, so I don't waste time with my LFG flag up. When it's time to get XP, it's time to get XP and that's what I focus on. I'm probably a 2 in 10 player as well as, even though I have a handful of level 95 max AA/max LAA characters, the vast majority of my characters are under 95 (some with abysmal AA counts). So I always have a goal to pursue but it's usually not level based.

EQ, at its core, is still not casual friendly (at least not in the way all the newer games are). You still have to spend lots of time to achieve goals, and the going is typically a lot slower.