For backstory
So I'm returning to EQ after a long hiatus due to WoW mostly, which I'm now tired of. I thought I'd check out EQ again and see what's new. Well looks like most everything, and seems I can have a good old time again.

I've got my two accounts activated, because just messing around I saw if I chose a solo class I didn't *need* to box again, but I think it'll 1)make it more interesting and 2) faster/funner. I don't have the serious time to dedicate to the game like I used to, so I won't be after the raid game. But wouldn't mind hitting some of the new stuff.

I haven't bought the expansions yet, and am activated up through GoD, I'm going to hold off on those till I know I'll stay, but the question is:

How well will a druid / ranger combo work, for leveling up from start to ?

I know they somewhat clash with having the same spell line, but I'm hoping it's somewhat of a concept I want to run with. I know I could probably find a better partner for each, but also as far as I can see this shouldn't be a terrible duo.

I've got like 5kpp which shows that I pretty much just don't have to worry about spells till the high lvls. When I left 5k could decently twink a guy, now it seems it can't. All the low level stuff is terribly high priced, but high lvl stuff is cheap. I guess that's just the nature of the game though.

Any tips, strategies etc? I'll be doing mostly old world, because that's where my fond memories of EQ are, and while I won't truely experience them over, it'll be fun to go back and see what's up, whats the same, and what's different.

Also my choices were: RNG/HUM Karana HFL/DRU Karana
I know Tunare, at least when I left, was the way to go for Rangers, but I don't really care too much. I'd rather do it this way. I think i'm going to take up fletching on the RNG, any tradeskill I should consider for the druid?

Ranger + Druid works reasonably well. I can't so from "low" level, but most of my 65+ time was spent duoing with a friend.. and these days i have another ranger friend who i duo with a lot also.

If you're going to be hunting in the old world, pretty much any combination should work; modern bazaar gear is, of course, far better than gear that was available "back in the day". Raising money for gear shouldn't be difficult, especially if you manage to get a Legends of Norrath Booster Pack or something along those lines (will rarely drop from any mob that /cons light blue or higher; people will spend ridiculous amounts of platinum for it).

Completing the ranger's epic 1.0 will go a long way; a 50% slow is extremely helpful if you plan to melee (which you'll need to to get the most out of your ranger).

As for tradeskills, I'd say only do them if you enjoy them. If you want stat boosting food and drink, baking and brewing are easy skills that might be useful (although stat food and drink is usually readily available in the bazaar). Tailoring for the druid and smithing for the ranger will let you make useful armor, but those are _very_ expensive and/or time consuming skills to master.

For races, halfling is the only choice that provides a clear advantage from a gameplay perspective: the sneak skill and cultural tailoring/fletching. Wood elves benefit from cultural fletching too. The benefits are small enough that I'd say you should choose whatever race you prefer to look at, as you'll be looking at your characters for many hours. :)

HUM/RNG and HFL/DRU should be fine choices, as long as you can deal with initial night blindness on the ranger.

One of my old characters had a Crown of King Tranix (I think, gives nightvision when worn) so my ranger is sporting that.

They are not super twinked by any means, but powerful enough that they should make it to 20 at least before I really need to start looking for gear.

Actually Ranger/Druid is a nice combo but you will hit some tough levels where the druid healing is underpowered for tanking.

At 55 you get Chloroblast which heals for about 1k with a cast time of 3,75 secs, at 58 you get Tunara´s Renewel which heals for about 3 k, but takes 10 seconds to cast. Before 55 it will be hard healing the ranger when tanking.

A wonderful way to hunt together is fearkiting animals. Ranger pulls, ensnares, druid fears, dots, sits, ranger beats up the fleeing mob. Less downtime then tanking and quite easy to box.

Btw, the TSS expansions is a very nice expansion with lots of nice quest which yield great rewards and zones full of animals. This would be a perfect expansion for this duo.

Ah, about the booster pack. If you happen to loot one, its like a lottery win. You can sell them in the Bazaar for an more then 500k plat. I sold mine for 590k yesterday.

Another thing is: Both chars can forage. Gather everything, there are some zones where tradeskill stuff is foraged, which you can sell nicely in the bazaar. Look up Eqtraders.com for that. Nice zones for that are Gfay, Stonebrunt, East Karana, for example. Ah, and Dreadlands for nodding blue lillies.

Enjoy the journey!

Well I started out. It seems Halflings still have an exp bonus, as he leveled just a bit faster than my human. But that's ok. At first it was a bit rough, the druid was always OOM and his heals were doing not too much for the ranger. Then I decided to move to slightly easier mobs. Blues instead of yellows,and it was gravy. I think this combo will work out pretty ok.I'm thinking about buying the lvl 10,20,30 etc weapon buffs for the ranger that proc heals, just for that extra bit of free healing. Where do I get the solvents to remove those augments though? I've completely forgotten how you get those. (TBH I don't know if I ever actually knew)