OK, my main character was a necro for a VERY long time (ca.1999). I bought the Titanium pack and registered it this week. Now, I have an alt druid (lvl 24) that I have had on the shelf for a long time. I think I would prefer to make the druid the primary for a while and do something besides pet pulling and feign death pulling... Quad-kiting might be nice!

OK, so here's the question... It's actually more of a request for advice... All my prior play time was based on old-school progression. Kill, loot, upgrade where you can via quests and drops. I did buy a few things on the bazaar, but not a lot. So, I am WAY behind in gear. Now, I know how to use Allakhazam, so I don't need details on all of this, but I would dearly love for someone to tell me the basics about the expansion-based armor upgrades. Since I am old-school, I never kept up with things as they expansions came out. For example, I had never even heard of the tribute system until today! So, any information you nice folks can give would be greatly appreciated, particularly brief "overview" advice about how an old-school returning player can get their heads wrapped around all the new cultural and other weird gear upgrades! Attuneable???? What's that!?!?!

Many thanks!

Darmina Burana
24 Druid
Erollisi Marr

There is a help forum... I hope that is the best advice you get on this section of DG....

I have relocated this thread to the HELP forum for you :)

Hopefully some folks will step up with some suggestions/explanations but I would also like to invite you check out the DRUIDIC EQUIPMENT (http://eq.forums.thedruidsgrove.org/forumdisplay.php?f=14) forum

Some thoughts off the top of my head...

Attuneable means an item will become NO DROP as soon as it is equipped (so it can't be resold).

In general, your gear progression will probably look something like this, assuming you're not starting completely from scratch:

Bazaar: There are some real bargains out there. You should be able to get by on bazaar gear through level 60 or so, even if you don't have a whole lot of money to start. (For example, you can pick up a Jeweled Belt of the Lost, a belt with 80 hp/85 mana and a required level of 56 for under 100pp. Better gear will cost significantly more, but at least you can get a decent baseline level of gear for a relatively small amount of money.)

DoN merchant gear: You can buy some halfway decent gear using crystals from the DoN expansion. (They are sort of like LDoN points, but tradeable and much more useful.) You can either buy the crystals outright or do various instanced tasks in the DoN expansion to earn them.
DoN cultural gear: If you're lucky, you can find someone to make this gear on demand if you provide all the parts (or even just the rare parts). You'll want both the cultural armor piece itself (race specific) and the corresponding type 11 augment (deity specific). Note that there are multiple levels of cultural armor and augments; you'll be interested in the Master level initially, and the Grandmaster level later.
Making the armor yourself is also an option, but it requires high tailoring skill and the completion of a couple soloable tasks.

DoD and PoR tasks: Single group instanced tasks frequently result in some nice gear. DoD in particular can gear you up quickly, since everyone in the group receives an item upon completion of a task. Most of these tasks will require a well-balanced group though.

Obviously there will be gear that you can acquire in other places as well. Many people use the 70 hp and 70 mana earring/ring augments from Riftseekers, for example.

(Many would argue that it's more rewarding to earn your own gear through quests and such. I don't disagree; however I'm assuming that your goal is to rejoin the high level game quickly.)

Thank you for that informative summary! That gives me some idea of how to view the new armor scheme. When I say I'm old school, I mean it... My first char was a gnome necro in early 1999. The first weekend I played, I hung around the Watchmen in Steamfont and looted FS weapons from the corpses that some other guy was leaving behind. At that time, a /who all 30 would ring up about ten people or so. No expansions, just the three continents. So, as I learned the game, I stayed around the main areas of the game. There was always plenty to hunt into the 40s. The expansions came out just in time, and I started exploring a little, but I never got settled into the new gear changes.

Your info makes it a good bit simpler! I appreciate your time! I read through some of the information on EQPlayers, but it was a bit too poorly written to garner any simple understanding from.

Thank you very much!

Oh, I probably should have given some more information about actual gear quality. "A/B" armor is shorthand for saying that armor has approximately A hp and B mana; these are by far the most significant stats. Focus effects should be the other primary consideration.

But first, some augment type info:

Type 4: Weapons only. Typically proc augments go here.
Type 7: General purpose augment for "basic" gear.
Type 8: General purpose augment for "high end" gear (though this includes some of the more difficult single groupable gear as well).
Type 9: DoN "bonus" slot; typically allows you to add a second DoN augment that is relatively expensive but further improves your DoN gear.
Type 11: DoN cultural augment slot. Found only on DoN cultural armor.
Type 12: Also found on DoN cultural armor. Normally reserved for a special type of tradeskill-produced augment that requires a raid drop; those augments will bring DoN cultural gear on par with high end raid gear. However, some DoN "bonus" augments will fit in here as well.
Type 1,2,3,5,6: Mostly used in LDoN, and largely irrelevant today.

(Almost every item has either a type 7 or type 8 augment slot. Some weapons only have a type 4 slot. A few items, such as the fungi tunic, have no augment slots at all. Others have multiple slots.)

Now, back to the gear...

Bazaar: 0-100 hp/mana, depending on required level, with the occasional expensive piece up to 150ish hp/mana. Good up to level 60ish; some pieces may be good beyond that. Focus effects are rare. Certain clickies may be worthwhile, such as Elder Spiritist's Vambraces and a Luminescent Staff.

DoN merchant gear: Several tiers of gear; divided into visible and non-visible pieces. Roughly 30/30 at level 43, 40/40 at level 48, 50/50 at level 53, 70/70 at level 58, 80/80 at level 63, 120/120 at level 70. Focus effects can be found as type 7/8 augments (and occasionally on the gear itself). Most gear has an extra type 9 augment slot; type 9 augments cost a lot of crystals but can boost gear by another 30/30 at level 70, as well as adding a minor bonus such as avoidance.

DoN cultural armor: These are tradeskill-made, and generally expensive (if you don't farm the rare component yourself). The armor itself has type 7, 11, and 12 augment slots; however, the armor piece plus the special type 11 augment (also tradeskill-made) should be considered a single piece of gear. You can mix and match tiers of armor and augments (for example, master armor with a grandmaster augment).
Master armor (level 55+): 30/30
Master augments: 70/70
Grandmaster armor (level 65+): 40/40
Grandmaster augments: 100/100

OoW tier 1 armor: Quest pieces drop from relatively easy named mobs in Ruined City of Dranik and Wall of Slaughter. Typically 100/100 gear with some focus effects; requires some faction work. The same named mobs drop other miscellaneous 100/100 gear and level 66-68 spells.

PoR tier 1 armor: Quest pieces drop from relatively easy named mobs in Arcstone and Relic, I think. Typically 130/130 armor with some focus effects. The tunic has a clicky nuke.

DoD and PoR tasks: Quality varies widely, but most of the gear is 150/150 to 200/200, typically with a required level of 68 or 70. Focus effects are uncommon but not rare. Clicky effects are rare.
A good reference for the rewards from these tasks:
http://samanna.net/gen.info/prog.dod.shtml

MPG trials: More single groupable instanced tasks; these are short but challenging. The resulting gear is typically 200/200. One belt has a great clicky mana regen effect.

Epic 1.5/2.0 fights: You may want to help as many people as possible with their epic fights. Any fight that is designed for more than one group will result in an item at the end of the fight; typically 130/130 for epic 1.5 fights, and over 200/200 for epic 2.0 fights. Focus effects are common; clicky effects are uncommon.

Dreadspire (DoD locked zone): Requires 4 single groupable tasks to get inside. With a solid group you can pick up some 200/200 gear, some of which has decent focus effects.

Theater of Blood (PoR locked zone): Requires 7 single groupable tasks to get inside. It's not easy, but 230/230 single groupable gear is the reward.


Midlevel raid guilds are probably looking for 100/100 to 150/150 gear in all slots and basic focus effects. High end raid guilds are probably looking for 200/200 gear in most or all slots as a minimum (some, but not all, will look for midlevel raid gear).

Some servers have "open" raids. Open Time raids, for example, may be a good way to pick up one or two special 150/150 to 200/200 items with interesting focus effects or clicky effects (such as the Orb of Clinging Death).

Oh! Some advice that may be of more immediate use...

There is a set of quests in the Plane of Knowledge designed for low level characters. They result in level 2 focus effects (good up to level 44 if I remember right). One such quest:
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2203

...and the reward:
Fine Cut, Diamond Inlaid Mask
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO TRADE
Slot: FACE
AC: 3
STA: +3 WIS: +3 INT: +3 HP: +10 MANA: +10
SV MAGIC: +3
Focus: Spell Haste II
WT: 0.6 Size: SMALL
Class: ALL
Race: ALL
Slot 1, Type 7

Palarran posted an amazing summary of equipment upgrade paths for returning druids. Sticky for you!

A quick update with the TSS release.

* Bazaar gear extends up to roughly 200/200 now. Some pieces may be surprisingly cheap due to being found in popular hunting spots. Most such pieces have few if any bonuses (spell shield, stun resist, etc.) though, and focus effects are still rare on tradeable gear.
Example: Hoop of Regrowth
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=46560

* No drop single groupable gear seems to be between 150/150 and 250/250 (or even approaching 300/300 in a few cases).

* TSS tier 2 armor (240/240) is single groupable as well. More info on that can be found here: http://eq.forums.thedruidsgrove.org/showthread.php?t=14408

Also missing is augment progression. I'm not sure I remember enough about it though, someone else want to tackle that?