THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER

This is a great little starter guide to the world that is EQ II, you will find most of this information in greater detail in the various links on the EQ2 Info page.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Groups

/invite [name], the command that invites someone to a group works across-zones. So you can invite someone to group with you even if they are somewhere else in the Shattered Lands. Note that if the person you want to invite is currently zoning they may not get the invite request. In this case you'd just have to invite them again.

You can group with someone who is a maximum of 6 levels or 33% higher in level than you, whichever is greater, and still get experience. (For example, a level 32 character could group with a character of up to level 42, since 32 x 1.33 = 42.56, which is rounded down to 42.) If you group with someone of too high a level, you will get neither exp nor quest credit for any kills made.

You can select yourself by pressing F1. Pressing F1 twice or Shift+F1 will target your pet (assuming you have one). You can select your groupmates by pressing F2-F6. Pressing it twice or pressing Shift+(F2-F6) as appropriate will target their pets.

Press alt-w to bring up the waypoint window, which will have a list of your groupmates. You can then click on them and get a waypoint to their location.

Using an offensive spell on a group member will cause it to land on whatever mob they have targetted. Using a beneficial spell on a mob will cause it to land on whichever group member they have targetted.

You can click a group members name in the group window and you will usually see their name highlighted in the world, no matter how far away they are in the zone.

To have a more clear indication of your (groupmates) target and which groupmates your target has targetted, enable 'Target Arrow' and 'Implied Target Arrow' in the options menu under "user interface>target arrow"

To enable lotto as the default loot option for all groups you start, change the corresponding item in the options menu under "group options".

When grouped, you can see what quests your groupmates have. Press J to get to your quest journal, and on top there will be a tab marked "group".

When joining a raid, the raid window can obscure a lot of your view. There are two things you can do about this. The first is put your mouse cursor over the bottom edge of the window, and change the height of the window so it exactly matches your raid size. The second is you can toggle display of the raid window with a hotkey, so you can show or hide it at your leisure. To do this, click EQII>Options>Controls>Windows Keys. Set a hotkey for "Raid Window" (I suggest ALT-R).

In Options>Group Options there is a default auto-lock option. Checking this box will make it so no one outside your group can attack a mob you are attacking. The benefit of this is that once you have engaged a mob, no one can "help" you by killing something you were intending to make a pet or holding for some other reason. The downside is that if you are over your head, no one outside the group can help kill the mob or heal your party unless you break the encounter (by typing /yell or clicking Call for Help), thereby losing all xp and quest credits for the mob. Note that no one can steal a mob you have engaged whether this is checked or not. As long as someone in your party hit the mob first, your party will get credit for the kill, even if someone outside the group helps.

Group leaders can change options for the current group at any time. Right-click on any group member's name and select "Group Options" - a window will pop up which allows you to change auto-lock, looting, and yell options.

If you and your group are in different instance of the same area, you can be teleported instantly to their instance by right-clicking on their name in the group window (specific command text needed from menu, please). This only works in static areas that have split instances due to overpopulation. It does not work in instanced dungeons.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Commands

/load_uisettings will bring up a list of all characters you have ever created for EQ2. Selecting one will set your current ui (window placement and settings) identical to the character you selected. You can use this if you decide to overhaul your UI layout on one character and want your other characters set identically. When you first create a new character, the load_uisettings window will pop up automatically.

Use "/mood [mood]" to set your mood. "/mood none" resets it.

The 'f' key performs a "double click" on whatever your mouse is pointing at.

The Esc key will clear your target, cancel spell casts, and close your top window - ie, the last game window you were working in. On the plus side, this is a quick way out of npc conversations and closing inventory. On the minus side, you may lose hotbars, chat windows, or other game windows. You can reopen any windows lost either by using the appropriate shortcuts (hit the EQII button, pick Options, look under Controls) or, with hotbars and chat windows, by right-clicking one that's still there and selecting "Open New Hotbar" and "Open Existing Chat Window" respectively.

F7 will target the nearest PC in line of sight. F8 will target the nearest NPC or targettable item in line of sight. Tab will switch between NPC targets, starting at the closest and moving through every NPC, harvest node, and targetable object in line of sight. Note that this will not target mobs or items which are obscured by terrain or structures.

You can set yourself to go AFK automatically in Options > Controls > Keyboard Settings. This will place you AFK after 5 minutes idle time (no keyboard or mouse activity), and take you out of AFK automatically when you are no longer idle.

Chat text size can be changed under Options > User Interface > Chat Window.

You can use %t to place whatever you have targetted in an emote. For example, "/gsay Here comes a %t!" would display "Here comes a skeleton!" to your group if you had a skeleton targetted. Other commands are:

%t - name of current target
%r - race of currect target
%s - gender pronoun of current target - he, she, it
%g - gender of current target - male, female, neuter
%o - gender object of current target - him, her, it
%p - possesive noun of current target - his, her, its
%m - displays the name or your current target's pet. If there is no pet then the word "pet" will be displayed.

Using a capital letter in the command (%S, %P, etc) will capitalize the word (He, She, etc).

Use /e to design your own emote. These are text-only, no action. When you use it, remember to stay in third-person present text. For example: "/e pours himself another drink." would say in the emote channel, "EbanAcka pours himself another drink."

You can use /hide_illusion to hide any shapechange spell effects. i.e. if you are a fury and don't wan to look like a lion any more, or don't want to turn into a wolf by using a Spirit of Wolf totem, but you still want the benefits of the spell itself, then use /hide_illusion. Riding the griffin will automatically hide illusion while you are on board.

Once you hit level 20, you can use /lastname to set your last name.

Use "/friend [name] to put a friend on your friends list. Use /friend [servername].[name] to friend someone on another server. Use "/who all friend" to see which of your friends on your server is online.

To stop automatically cosuming food or drink, open your inventory window (press I), right click on the food and drink slots, and select "Turn Auto-Consume Off". This is useful when doing things that do not require health and power regeneration for extended times, like harvesting in grey zones or turning in quests/getting new ones in the city. Auto-consume of food and drink must be turned off individually.

You may have special items or titles waiting for you in-game as a reward for playing a certain amount of time or for purchasing an expansion or adventure pack. To claim these items, type /claim. You should see a big yellow message reminding you of this when you log in. Keep in mind that you can only /claim many things on one character! So make sure to do so on the primary character you intend to play.

The /showhelm command will toggle the visibility of the helm or hat in your inventory "Head" slot. /showhood will toggle if the hood on a robe (such as those worn by casters) is up or down. This can also be set in the Persona window, under Options. This affects how everybody sees you, not just how you see yourself!

You can see all languages you know by typing /language or checking your Skills window under the Utilities tab. You can change the language you speak in /say and /shout by typing /set_language [language] or right-clicking on the chat window, picking Select Language, and selecting from a list. "/set_language Common" is what you use to speak "human". Note that capitalization is important.

You can hit F9 to toggle between 1st and 3rd person. If you scroll wheel into 3rd person and then hit F9, it will remember how far you were scrolled if you F9 again.

For most commands, you only need to type in as much of the command as is needed to make it distinct from any other command. For example "/stopc" works the same as "/stopcreation" (to cancel crafting an item). If you do not type enough of the command to make it unique the game will pick one as default - and it may not be the one you want. For example, a variety of commands and emotes begin with /w, but typing just /w will default to /who, a list of all PCs in your current zone.

You can use tab completion to complete unique commands, or display all the commands that start with the prefix you have typed. For example, typing "/stopf" and then hitting tab will autocomplete the command into "/stopfollow" for you. Typing "/stop" and hitting tab will list the commands /stopcreation and /stopfollow. You can use this to figure out what certain command actually are when they don't behave as expected -- for example, /list is actually short for the /listen emote.

Type /channellist to see a list of all server-wide chat channels you are in. Next to each channel name will be a number in parenthesis; use this number to talk in that channel. For example, if one of your channels is Level_10-19 (2), you can chat in that channel by typing /2 [text]. This command will not work if abbreviated (/chann will cause an unknown command error message), but can be tab-completed.

Type /weapon to get a quick list, including stats, of your equipped weapons. Non-weapon items like symbols or tomes will not be listed.

You can get your numerical location in the world by typing /loc, or hovering your mouse cursor over the compass. Some players find it helpful to create a /loc macro to assist in retracing their steps after fleeing.

Going from smaller to larger, the loc numbers refer to: east-west, down-up, south-north. So to get from 1028.06, -21.50, -600.47 to 1043.67, -19.07, -797.32 you would need to go west, up, and north.

You can create a trail to an arbitrary location by typing in "/waypoint X, Y, Z", where X, Y, and Z are the coordinates of that location (obtained by using /loc or hovering your mouse over the compass).

Camping takes 20 seconds and is interruptable. /camp takes you to the character selection screen. /camp [character name] logs out of your current character and onto the named one (on the same account). /camp desktop closes the game entirely.

Quitting is immediate and not interruptable; however, your character will remain in game for up to two minutes, so if you use these make sure you are in a safe place. /quit takes you immediately to character selection. You may not be able to get back into the game for 20-30 seconds, and the character you quit on may still be in-game when you get back in. (This is a fun way to confuse your guildmates). /quit desktop closes the game entirely.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - User Interface (UI) and Chatting

Press 'r' to respond to the most recent tell you've received. Press 'g' to say something in groupsay. Press 'to say something in say (heard by all in immediate vicinity). Press 'enter' to enter a command or type something in your default chat channel (set by pressing the chat bubble icon at the bottom left corner of the chat window). After presssing 'r', you can press the up-arrow to scroll through a list of people who have recently sent you tells. This comes in handy when talking with multiple people simultaneously. If you press enter, you can press the up-arrow to see the things you have recently said. Hitting enter again will repeat them as if you retyped it. This is useful when auctioning something, or looking for a group in /ooc (zone-wide, non-rp chat).

You can create macros for common things like incoming messages, assisting the main tank, etc... To do this, click on the EQII button, then choose "Socials>Macros". These macros you create can be dragged to your hotkeys.

You can have multiple hotbars for your hotkeys. To do so, right click on your main hotkey bar and choose the appropriate option. You only get keyboard shortcuts to the first three hotbars. By default these are # for primary, Alt-# for secondary, and Control-# for tertiary hotbars. You can set one of these to function keys instead (F1, F2, etc), but you will lose the ability to target group members via hotkey.

You can place links to items in text such as /ooc, /auction, or /g. To do so, open your inventory and find the actual item (note this means you must accept your quest rewards before you can link them to show off to all your friends). Click on the item and drag the icon to the line of text you are writing, and the item name will insert itself. Other people can then click on the name to get a description of the item as if they had examined it.

Many things in the game (from UI windows to mobs) have right click contextual menus. If you are not sure what something is, or want more information/options, try right clicking on it. Note that some things may not be activatable via a double click -- in this case, right click and use them through the menus.

If you place your cursor over something (like a piece of furniture, or a barrel) and it glows, you should right click and examine it. There are MANY quests started this way, particularily in dungeons and outside of the cities, so make sure you cursor over everything you see at least once to see if it glows. Also note that some things will only glow after you have finished the prerequesites for it, such as reaching an appropriate level for the quest, having completed a different quest, or having a certain item on you.

When you see a person's name in your chat box, you can click on their name to select options such as send them a tell. This can save having to spell complicated names if you want to respond to someone.

For those of you who are keyboard averse, you can auto-run by holding down both mouse buttons at the same time.

Be careful what you double left click on. When using the broker, double clicking on an item will buy it, not examine it. Right click and choose examine from the menu to examine an item, or click the examine button provided at the bottom of the dialog. Also be wary that the default double click action for many NPCs is attack, not talk (Heritage Quest NPC K'naae is notorious for this). When you mouse cursor over these NPCs, the cursor will change to crossed swords instead of the usual chat caption. If you wish to talk to them, right click and choose hail from the menu. If you double click on them, you will attack them and they will probably serve you up your butt on a platter.

It is no longer possible to change settings to target yourself by clicking on yourself in 3rd-person mode through the Options window. If you wish to target yourself, your best option is to either press F1 or click on your Player Window (the one with your name, your health, and your power displayed).

Consider creating multiple chat windows or tabs and filtering the content of each. You can do this by right clicking on your primary chat window and selecting "new chat window" or "add new tab". You can right click on each of the windows created and filter the content that the window will display. This is an excellent way to ensure that important communications, like the group leader yelling "EVAC!", don't get lost in battle text.

You can use alt-enter to switch between full screen and windowed mode.

You can lock UI windows to prevent them from being inadvertently moved or closed. To do this, right click on the window, select "window options", and check the "locked" box. I highly advise locking your chat windows and hotbars, as it's easy to inadvertently close or move them. If you need to move them around later, you can always unlock them temporarily.

You can set windows so you can click through them to something they may be covering (a mob, treasure chest, party member, etc.). To do tis, right-click on the window, select "Window Settings", and check the "Click through enabled" box. This can also be done with windows that only show up temporarily, such as Heroic Oportunity window or the casting timer, so long as you right-click the window while it is showing.

The Heroic Opportunity (HO) window can be unlocked and moved while a HO chain is progressing. Just start it up, right-click on it and unlock the window. I recommend moving it to a prominent place on your screen. This way, it is very clear when a HO is occuring.

By default, many of your game windows are not hideable. If you wish to hide things like your quest journal helper, maintained spell effects, or Player window, go to Options > User Interface > Game Windows, and uncheck "Keep Main HUD Windows Visible." You can then toggle these windows on and off using the key settings found in Options > Controls > Window Keys.

If the game is too dark for you, you can turn up the gamma on your video card, or buy a torch. You can actually carry two torches, and the light they produce stacks! Torches are not consumed.

There are specialized chat channels that you can join. Right click on the chat window, go to "chat options", and you will see pre-set channels for your home city and for your level range. The traders channel is particularily useful if you are looking to exchange crafted goods or find new commissions from other players.

It is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a white (even) con and a grey (trivial) con because the colors are so close, and this can be a deadly mistake. Fortunately, you can change them! Go to EQII > Options > User Interface > Game Colors, and you should see a list of the various con colors (towards the bottom of the list). Consider changing either the white or gray to brown, purple, pink, light blue, or tan.

If your play server is down, the game will try to make a best-guess at what your character looks like to show you at the login screen. Sometimes this guess does not include your latest updates, so do not panic if your level is wrong!

The game's user interface is highly customizable. While it is not trivial to hand-modify your own interface, it is quite easy to utilize modifications that other people have made publically available. Some of the mods I have found to be the most useful: an inventory screen that displays your attributes, a compass that displays the name of the zone you are in, an exp bar that shows both your adventure and tradeskill exp at the same time and has a decimal readout, a larger quest window, and a font that is more easy to read than the default one. See the end of this guide under "Other Great Resources" to find more information about modding your UI.

You can copy and paste text into your chat window from outside EQ2 by using the conventional Ctrl-C (to copy) and Ctrl-V (to paste) key combinations. Just make sure you click on the chat window text entry area or hit Enter first to activate the cursor there. This is useful for say, copying a URL out of your browser and pasting it into your chat box to tell someone in the game about a cool website. This works in a limited way in reverse - you can copy text from the chat line of your chat window and paste it into a window outside of the game.

If you try to send a simple emoticon msg like ":)" or are trying to start your msg with a slash but you don't actually want it to be treated as a "slash command", use the / chat command, such as /s for say or /gu for guild. This keeps the game from thinking what you are typing is some kind of command and it treats everything on the line as just text. Just putting a space before the text will keep the game from assuming it's a command, but the : or / symbol will be deleted along with the extra space when the chat is sent. If you start every chat msg with /t or /gsay or some other /-specifier this may not be relevant. But if you are like me and constantly change the default chat mode button in the bottom left corner this may be helpful.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Spells, Skills, and Combat Arts

AE skills or spells with green backgrounds on their icons will only hit mobs that are part of the same group. AE skill or spells with blue backgrounds will hit everything around you, regardless of whether or not it is engaged. Be wary with these, as you can quickly engage a lot of otherwise non-aggro mobs when they are caught in the AoE effect.

You can upgrade your spells and combat arts. They start at apprentice 1, commonly abbreviated as "app1". App2 skills are sold on vendors in town. App3 and App4 skills are made by tradeskilling players using commonly available materials. Adept1 are found in chests off mobs. Adept2 does not currently exist. Adept3 is made by tradeskillers using rare materials. Master1 drops off raid level mobs and very, very rarely off normal mobs. It is definitely worth your time to try and acquire app4 or adept1 levels for your skills. Look on the brokers to see what's on sale.

Class Trainers can be found in the same area as their archetype's writ-givers in whichever city allows that particular class. For example, the Coercer Class Trainer is found in the Academy of Arcane Science in North Freeport, since only Freeporters can be Coercers. The Dirge Class Trainer can be found either at the Elddar Tree in Elddar Grove (Qeynos) or the Seafury Buccaneers' ship in South Freeport, since both cities allow Dirges. The exception to this is Monks, who's class trainer is in the dojo in Elddar Grove.

At level 20, you can purchase a "fun" spell that is based on your class. These spells are generally insignificant things that do not affect your efficiency in-game, but are meant to provide humor or an "ooh aah" factor. More of these become available at later levels.

Some spells or combat arts can only be found through certain Adventure Packs or Expansions.

If you are looking on the broker for spells and combat art upgrades, try using Advanced Search. Set your class, the minimum level to either 1 or slightly below your current level, and the maximum level to your current level or slightly above. Along with a keyword such as "adept" or "app", this will bring up only the skills relevant to your class and level.

The concentration bar is the 5 little bubbles which appear directly underneath your name. As you use abilities that require concentration, these will light up. If you hold your mouse over an active bubble, you will see the name of the spell/effect it is linked to. Right clicking on it will allow you to cancel it. You can also cancel these effects from your maintained effects window. If you lost the maintained effects window, press alt-m to restore it.

If you are a melee based character, concentrate on upgrading your armor and weapons before your skills. Upgrading melee skills adds little effectiveness to your character. If you are a casting based character, concentrate on upgrading your skills -- going from app1 to adept1 will make a huge difference in your effectiveness.

Combat Arts and Spells above level 50 are not given automatically when you level - they must be crafted, looted, or purchased from Class Trainers or other players. Class Trainers can be found in the same area as their archetype's writ-givers in whichever city allows that particular class. For example, the Coercer Class Trainer is found in the Academy of Arcane Sciences in North Freeport, since only Freeporters can be Coercers. The Dirge Class Trainer can be found either at the Elddar Tree in Elddar Grove (Qeynos) or the Seafury Buccaneers' ship in South Freeport, since both cities allow Dirges.

At varying levels, you will be able to customize your character with traits, tactics, and training. Here is a chart of when you receive these abilities:

Character Traits
Level 8 - 1st
Level 18 - 2nd
Level 22 - 3rd
Level 28 - 4th
Level 36 - 5th
Level 42 - 6th
Level 46 - 7th
Level 48 - 8th

Racial Traditions
Level 10 - 1st
Level 20 - 2nd
Level 30 - 3rd
Level 40 - 4th
Level 50 - 5th
Level 60 - 6th
Level 70 - 7th

Enemy Mastery
Level 12 - Gnolls or Orcs
Level 16 - Ghosts, Skeletons or Zombies
Level 26 - Centaurs, Giants or Treants
Level 32 - Bixies, Fairies, Goblins or Golems
Level 35 - Bugbears, Kobolds or Minotaurs
Level 38 - Elementals, Lizardmen, Nightbloods or Shadowmen
Level 49 - Brownies, Clockworks or Werewolves
Level 52 - Cyclopses, Djinn, Harpies or Naga
Level 62 - Aviaks, Droags, Gazers or Ravasects

Specialized Training
Level 14 - 1st
Level 24 - 2nd
Level 34 - 3rd
Level 44 - 4th
Level 54 - 5th
Level 64 - 6th

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Harvesting

If you can't harvest something, your skill is not high enough. Generally speaking, you need a 20 skill to harvest in Antonica/Commonlands and a 90 to harvest in Thundering Steppes/Nek Forest. If you right-click and examine the harvest node, it will tell you the minimum skill level required to harvest it and your current skill level.

Harvesting hotbuttons can be found in your skills and knowledge book. Press K and look under Utilities, you'll see icons for gathering, fishing, mining, foresting, and trapping. You can drag any of these to a hotbar and use them to harvest a node you have targetted. This leaves your mouse free to look around and make sure you aren't about to be attacked.

Harvesting tools can be used starting at level 20 (either crafting or adventuring). These are made by Woodworkers of common woods, and take 1 second off the harvesting time. While this may not seem like much, it can make the difference between getting the harvest before the approaching mob gets in range or getting chomped.

If you find a ? or a ! on the ground, left click on it and pick it up. These items are generally for collection quests and can have some pretty nice rewards if you can collect an entire set. Look on the brokers for the pieces you are missing.

Rare harvested items are REALLY rare. If you harvest something with a different name from an ore/rock/roots/wood that you haven't heard of, you can get special items crafted with them, or sell to other players for a good price. Note: Glowing/Glittering/Lumious/etc. items are considered rare, but for the most part can only be used to imbue crafted armor, weapons, and jewelry with an additional power. Some of these items are required for heritage quests.

Harvesting etiquette generally states that you a) do not harvest a node someone else is harvesting, and b) harvest all nodes in the area, not just the one type you need. The more nodes harvested, the more respawn, so this is actually the fastest way to repopulate the nodes you do need. Unwanted harvests can be sold on the broker or deleted, and there's no telling what will give you a rare item.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Tradeskilling

Do the Seeking a Tradeskill Profession quest in your starting hamlet, whether you intend to be a tradeskiller or not. If you have maxed your harvesting on the newbie isle, you likely have all the supplies you need besides fuel. The quest gives you all of basic tradeskill books through level 9, as well as some coin and useful items. Most of all, it advances you to level 9 artisan in about 20 minutes. This is important because several quests, including some Heritage Quests, require a minimum crafting level 9.

You get a crafting xp bonus for crafting pristine items for the first time. When leveling your crafting skills up, it is worth it to create one of each new recipe you receive. Creating pristine items also grants more exp than other quality levels.

If a particular crafting attempt is going badly and the first progress bar has not been filled, you can cancel the attempt without losing any components except fuel.

You must specialize in a tradeskill at level 10, and specialize further at level 20. To do so, speak to a Crafting Trainer NPC, found at the entrance to any crafting zone in the starting villages, as well as Qeynos Harbor and West Freeport.

The tradeskill instances have a merchant who sells fuels and some basic components. In Qeynos he is downstairs near the base of the stairs, in Freeport he is at the top of the stairs.

Crafting stations can be found inside many shops in all city zones. Vendors close to these stations will sell the appropriate fuels - though close may be the next building over. Work Order clipboards hang on the wall near these crafting stations.

Tradeskill recipes can be made into hot keys by dragging the icon to your hotkey bar. This may save you lots of time if there are recipes that you find yourself doing repeatedly, like arrows for Woodworkers or certain high-stat foods for Provisioners.

If you want to know which tradeskill recipe books you have already scribed, here is how you do that. Type N to open your recipes. Press the edit button at the top. Use the big scroll bar on the far right to view the last window. This window contains the titles of all the recipe books you have scribed alphabetically.

You can check the stats on an item before you actually craft it. To do so, examine the recipe, then examine the icon of the end result in the recipe window. This is the stats for the shaped quality level of the item. Stats on other quality levels may vary.

In crafting a recipe that can use multiple components for an ingredient (eg. imbuing tier 3 items can use any "Sparkling" harvest), the game will default to using the smaller stack of components you have in your inventory. If you do not want a specific item used (such as sparkling flowers, which are specifically required for a HQ), it might be worth your time to split a large stack into two smaller stacks so it will default to using the component you want. Better yet, leave the component you don't want used in the bank.

You can change which components are being used in a recipe by clicking the "change" button, removing the currently selected items, and adding the ones you want. As of the 1/6/05 patch, the game WILL remember your change when creating multiple items from the same recipe so long as you do not close the recipe. (Another way to ensure that imbuing item needed for a quest isn't accidentally used elsewhere.)

You can right click on your exp bar to swap between showing adventuring exp and tradeskilling exp. Alternatively, you can download a UI modification to show both simultaneously.

You can start crafting by double clicking on the icon of the recipe instead of clicking "Create". You still need to click on begin to actually start the crafting.

Tradeskill writs become available at level 20 and have both timed (Rush Orders) and untimed (Work Orders) versions. Make sure you have at least one stack of every component you use for the tier before starting a Rush Order, as well as the appropriate fuel. You will have 8 minutes to make 6 pristine combines, which does not give time to run to the bank for something you forgot.

If your guild is of appropriate level, Crafting stations can be purchased to place in your home from City Merchants in Qeynos Harbor and (I think) West Freeport, for a combination of coin and status. There are four different versions of each crafting station, each making better quality products. ONLY the work stations which can be purchased when your guild is level 25 can make pristine quality items!

Work Order clipboards for in-home use can be purchased from Coalition of Tradesfolk (Freeport) or Ironforge Exchange (Qeynos) faction merchants, found inside the tradeskill instances in North Qeynos and (I think) West Freeport. You must have amiable faction with them to purchase these.

Use tradeskill event counters proactively! For each crafting tier 1-5 you will receive a new set of event counters. Tier 1, 3, and 5 counters can be used at any time to increase progress, while tier 2 and 4 counters can be used to increase durability. Examine them all as you get them, and hotkey the durability and progress counters which give the best benefits (this will not always be the highest-level counter of that type). While crafting, use these abilities to speed progress or to recover durability, thereby keeping the end product pristine. Also, if you have successfully countered an event, that particular tick is guaranteed to be successful, so it's a good time to toss on a couple extra counters for maximum effect.

Some event counters cost a percentage of your power to use, so it's a good idea to strip off any gear that increases your power pool, while using the best drink you can get and power-regen abilities or totems. While the percentage of power used by an ability will remain the same, the number will be much smaller, and so will regenerate faster.

Rare Metal: Buy CLUSTERS, not ingots. Clusters are used to make armor and weapons; ingots were a byproduct of the refining process pre-LU24, used to create arrows. Though they are no longer created as by-products and can no longer be used in recipes, there are still some out there on the brokers. Buyer beware!

Crafting recipe books: DO NOT BUY any recipe books until you check your Crafting Trainer outside the tradeskill society. Secondary skill books (weaving geomancy timbercraft apothecary) no longer have any use or recipes - they are easily recognized because their level to scribe is 200. Also, tier 1 advanced books are available on the Crafting Trainers! Other than that, most advanced tomes are looted items. Be careful before you buy one you DO need from the broker; be absolutely sure it says ADVANCED in front of the name of the item you have highlighted before you click. (Some of the pre-20 books have some weird names other than advanced; just doublecheck your merchant first.)

If you are buying raw materials off the broker, make sure they are flagged no-value. Some mob-dropped pelts and meat have the same names as the harvested/craftable versions, but only the harvested, no-value versions can be used for crafting. The mob drop versions are vendor trash.

Secondary tradeskills of Tinkering and Transmuting can be learned in Kelethin (Echoes of Faydwer expansion required). These skills allow crafters to create special items like clockwork menders that can repair your gear wherever you happen to be, and adornments you can use to customize the stats on your gear. You must already have a primary tradeskill before learning one of these, and you can only learn one, not both.

Crafters can imbue and adorn attuned, No-Trade, and Lore items via the secure commissions system. The player requesting the commission MUST be online when the work is being done, to hand over the item and receive the upgraded end results. Diety altars made of rare wood can ONLY be crafted for other players through the secure commissions system, as these altars are no-trade lore.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Attributes, Experience, and Death

Drink replenishes your power, food replenishes your health. Generally speaking, the more expensive the food and drink, the faster you will regenerate. Some foods also have plusses to stats. Player-made food and drink generally have better regeneration rates than store-bought, and last longer as well. There is a cap on how much you can regenerate -- eating high tier food will not help you if you are not high enough level. Summoned food is even worse than store bought.

There is a cap on how much you can regenerate -- no matter how high level the food/drink is, you will only get benefits equivalent to one tier above you. I.e. if you are lvl 42 and are consuming lvl 60 food/drink, it will only be as effective as lvl 50 food/drink.

Sitting does NOT replenish your health or power any faster. If someone says otherwise, ask them what server they're on in EQ1.

Your exp debt will go away with time when you are logged off. The longer you stay logged off, the more debt will dissipate. Reports are that debt disappears at approximately 1/2 percent per hour.

The attributes in the manual for the various races are wrong. Look on the web site (http://everquest2.station.sony.com) for updated ones. (Unknown if these have been updated in more recent manuals.)

When priest classes hit a certain level, they can make an essence which allows other players to revive the priest if the priest dies. Make sure the player has the essence in their activatable slot to use it. If the party priest does not summon these for everyone when the group forms, ask for it. You never know who might survive the fight that kills the priest.

Death damages your armor and weapons! Generally the item's durability drops by 10%, though HQ rewards will only drop by 5%. If an items durability reaches 0%, it will be unuseable and moved to your inventory automatically. Menders are available in starting hamlets, some city zones, Antonica, the Commonlands, and the Nektulos and Thundering Steppes docks. Don't wait until you're running around naked to get your armor repaired!

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Combat and Creatures

When sprinting away from a battle you are losing, press the "Call for Help" icon (it looks like an exclaimation point) or use the /yell command (or /y for short). This will do three things. First, it will unlock locked encounters so people nearby can pull the mob off you if they are feeling nice. Second, it will remove you from combat mode so you can run at normal speed (and reactivate any speed buffs like Spirit of Wolf) and not auto-face the mob. Third, it will cause you to start regenerating at the rate you normally do when not engaged in combat, and thus increasing your chances of survival.

When you have engaeged more than one group of mobs, make sure you target yourself (use F1) before yelling. That way you yell all the mobs you have engaged, otherwise you only yell the group of mobs which has your current target in it, making you still be "in combat" and thus have a lower health- and power regeneration and a reduced runspeed.

Mobs that are naturally aggressive but grey to you will generally not agro you (they know you can kick their butts). However, if the mob would normally be green or higher con to you, but is grey due to average level of your group being high, it will still come after you. Conversely, if a mob is normally grey to you, but is green because the average level of the group is lower than your level, the mobs will not attack you.

If you are stealthed or invisible, most aggressive creatures will become non-aggressive (lose the red border). If a creature still has a red border around its name, it will attack if you get close. Most named mobs, some scout types, and some caster types can see through stealth and/or invisibility.

You can turn off combat experience by right clicking on your exp bar and selecting "disable combat experience". You can turn it back on by doing the same thing. This can be useful when you want an item from a chest and the GREEN conning mobs you are killing are just about to grey out because you're going to level up. Note: you will still gain experience - and therefore level - from exploration discoveries and quest completion.

When you have killed a certain number of a particular type of mob, you will receive a title. Note that these titles are NOT the suffixes you can attach to your character! After going through several intermediary titles, though, you will receive the "Hunter of X" suffix at 500 kills. At 5,000 kills, you will receive the "Slayer of X" suffix; at 10,000, you will receive the "Destroyer of X" suffix. To add a suffix to your characters name, press "P" to go to your profile and select the suffix you want from the dropdown list. To check how many of something you have killed, you can use the posters provided in the cities. In North Qeynos, there is a poster near the gate to Antonica. It is hard to target (use the left edge), but it will show you your kill totals. In West Freeport, there is a lamppost at the lower end of the road that leads to the Commonlands Gate. Killing gray mobs counts in these totals.

25 kills -- title: "Killer of X"

100 kills -- title: "Initiate Hunter of X"
250 kills -- title: "Accomplished Hunter of X"
500 kills -- title: "Master Hunter of X" -- SUFFIX: "Hunter of X"

1,000 kills -- title: "Initiate Slayer of X"
2,500 kills -- title: "Accomplished Slayer of X"
5,000 kills -- title: "Master Slayer of X" -- SUFFIX: "Slayer of X"

??? kills -- title: "Initiate Destroyer of X"
??? kills -- title: "Accomplished Destroyer of X"
10,000 kills -- title: "Master Destroyer of X" -- SUFFIX: "Destroyer of X"

The creatures which can earn you titles are:

- Aviaks
- Brownies
- Bugbears
- Clockworks
- Cyclopses
- Djinn
- Droag
- Elementals
- Fay (not Fae!)
- Gnolls
- Goblins
- Harpies
- Kobolds
- Orcs
- Ravasects
- Satyrs
- Undead
- Vampires
- Werewolves

Learn how to use Heroic Opportunities (HOs), especially when soloing. They will make your life a lot easier. There is a link to more information at the end of this guide

If you are not the main tank in a group, try to attack your enemy from behind. This will prevent the mob from parrying and riposting your blows since they can only do this from the front/side.

To see if a creature you are running away from is following you, find a nice straight area with no mobs nearby, hit autorun (numlock), make sure you are in 3rd person camera (if you're in first person, mousewheel backwards), hold down the left mouse button (or use the / and

keys), then swing the camera around using the mouse. Your character will keep running forward but you will be able to see behind you. If you are looking in a different direction than you are running, you can change to running in that direction by pressing the forward key (w, arrow up, or 8 on the numpad). Also note, if you have them targeted when running away, as soon as they stop chasing you, you automatically untarget them.

Creatures get a boost in strength every 10 levels. Whereas a level 19 creature is only a little more powerful than a level 18, a level 20 creature is much more powerful than a level 19.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Inventory and Banking

Elm strongboxes can be fairly easily made via the tradeskilling system and will give you a 5-8 slot (depending on quality) container you can put in your bank. Fill all the slots in your bank with them and you will be able to hold quite a bit of stuff. They are too heavy to lug around on your character, but bags can be crafted from harvested hides in a similar way. Bags have less slots than boxes of the same tier.

You can not directly move money via the shared bank slot (the manual is wrong). Coin can be mailed though, at a cost of 10c. (Unknown if more recent manuals have corrected this.)

Coin has weight in this game. Make sure you go to the bank and convert your copper to silver occasionally, otherwise you will become encumbered. If you are encumbered, try sprinting -- it will help you get to the bank a little faster.

A way to reduce money weight when you don't want to run to a banker is to buy something costly from a merchant and sell it back (without closing the window). Most items will sell back at the same cost as long as you have not closed the window. This should allow you to convert most of your small coins to bigger ones.

A few items cannot be sold back at full price, I don't have a complete list of these but they all seem to be stackable items. So when you buy something just to resell it immediatly, pick something that hasn't a number in its lower right corner. At low levels, torchs are handy for just that purpose.

At times it can be useful to open all your bags at once. To set this up, select the EQII button, then go to options>key commands. Choose a hotkey for "open all bags" (default is B). Pressing that hotkey will open all your bags, and pressing it again will close them all. Alternatively, you can use the /togglebags command. You can create a hotbar button to togglebags by creating a macro (EQII button>socials>emotes>macros), then dragging the macro to your hotbar.

You can pick up a single item from a stack of items by holding down the control key and clicking on the stack of items. You can pick up a specific quantity by holding down shift and clicking on the stack of items.

You can downconvert coins in your bank by using the /bank_withdraw command. Go to your banker and open your bank. Then type /bank_withdraw ### (where ### is the amount of coins in copper you want to withdraw), and it will make change for you. The command is smart enough to convert 100 copper to silver, and 100 silver to gold, so if you /bank_withdraw 266, you will receive 2 silver and 66 copper, not 266 copper.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Items, Equipment, and Loot

If you find an item that seemingly has no use, it's generally one of three things: 1) A tradeskill component 2) Vendor trash (sell for cash) 3) An item involved in a quest (particularily if it's marked as LORE). Make sure you right click and examine any strange items you find (especially if they dropped from chests or you found them from a ? on the ground), as they may start quests. Note that some items used for quests will not be identified as such until you already have the quest (for example, the enemy lore quest items are like this).

The game has a trivial loot code. Look at the text in the targeting box. This will say either solo, group, group x 2, group x 3, or group x 4. This does two things. First, as part of considering a mob you can look at how difficult they are. Second, it tells you at what number of allies at which this mob will become trivial and give no chest loot or quest items. 7 for solo or group, 13 for groupx2, and 19 for groupx3. You will notice a little chest icon with a red circle and line through it (no smoking symbol) when a mob will not drop loot for your group/raid.

Make sure to attune any attunable items you have equipped, otherwise they will not give you any benefit. This is particularily important with weapons, as you will always miss with an attunable weapon that has not been attuned (and you will not get a warning telling you why you are always missing).

Equipment which is greyed out will not give the mitigation and resists listed, but will give the listed stat adjustments. Red armor is not useable by you because of either level or class restrictions.

Mobs that are grey to you will not give you exp or drop chests. However, they will still drop items on their bodies, and you can still use them for any kill quests you may have in your journal.

You can group with someone who is a maximum of 6 levels or 25% higher in level than you (whichever is greater) and still get exp. If you group with someone outside this range, you will not get exp nor quest credit for any kills made. (The level spread has been adjusted, but exact numbers on the new limits have not been determined).

If you are lottoing for an item in a group, make sure you have at least one inventory spot open. Lotto items you win will NOT go into overflow. If you have no room for them, they will have to be lotto'd again!

Once a chest's timer expires, the chest becomes open for anyone to loot. Note that unlike EQ1, opening the chest does NOT lock the chest to the character who has opened it. It is possible for another player come along, open the same chest, and grab the loot before you do. Therefore, if you are opening a chest with an expired timer, do not hesitate when putting the loot into your inventory.

Equipment removed a short time before death (possibly 2 minutes, need confirmation) will still be damaged when you die. If you have changed equipment within that timeframe, the more expensive-to-repair of the two items will take the damage. If you plan to do something with a high risk of death and do not intend combat (harvesting in areas where mobs are red to you, practicing safe fall, testing commands for a TIWIKE guide, etc), it's a good idea to unequip everything before you go.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Inn Rooms and Housing

When you reach your starting hamlet, speak to the Innkeeper. He or she will give you a short quest, after which you will receive a couple pieces of furniture and a merchant board. You can also buy a merchant board from any general goods vendor and place it in your inn room. This will allow you to manage your items for sale on the broker from your home.

The highest default access to your house is visitor, which will basically allow anyone to come in and buy things from your vendor boxes without paying broker fees. You can choose to set specific people to friend or trustee. Be careful with this! Trustees can help pay your rent if they like, but they can also remove and/or destroy your furniture, pets, and other household items.

You can rotate furniture when placing it in your inn room by using the mouse wheel when moving it. You can use this function to line up books, place chairs the correct way under your tables, etc... If you do not have a mousewheel, you can use the + and - keys to rotate your furniture.

You can take a tour of houses in the cities by right clicking the door and selecting tour. You can also visit other people's furnished houses by right-clicking on the door, selecting "visit", then picking a person from the list. Some of the expensive houses are really cool (and a lot of players take great pride in how they furnish them). Maybe someday you will actually have enough money to live there.

If your rent is past due you cannot enter your house, but none of the items inside will be lost as long as you do not relinquish ownership. Also, once past-due, rent will not continue to accrue. So whether the rent on your inn-room rent was due 3 days ago or 3 weeks ago, it's still 5 silver to get back in.

If you are paying for part of your inn room with personal status, you can reduce the status cost by outfitting your room with expensive/rare furniture. In theory, it is possible to reduce the status cost to 0 status points per week. It is not possible to reduce coin costs.

Your basic inn room can hold 100 items and has 2 vault and merchant slots. To hold more items or slots, you need to move to a bigger room. And yes, most books count towards your item limit.

If you relinquish your basic inn room before it is time to pay rent on it, you can buy another basic inn room for free and get a fresh 7 days. This saves you from having to pay the 5 silver rent. Note that you will have to collect all your items from the inn room (which can be done by right clicking on the door from within your inn room and selecting "collect contents"). Anything you do not collect will be destroyed when you relinquish your room.

To access your house vault, enter your inn room, right click on the door, and choose the appropriate option. You can put boxes in these slots to increase your storage.

House vaults are particularily useful for two things: 1) Storing furniture you do not wish to display in your current inn room, and 2) Temporarily storing items that you are trying to sell that you do not have room for in your store.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - NPCs, Brokers, and Merchants

Use the brokers to see what people have for sale. There is a broker in each major city zone (for Qeynos, this is Elddar Grove, North Qeynos, South Qeynos, and Qeynos Harbor), and brokers in each of the wholesaler tradeskill instances (near the entrance in Qeynos, at the base of the stairs in Freeport).

If you want to sell things on the broker, open the store, click on the sell tab, and put a box or bag in the vendor container slot. You can then put things in the container to sell. The default price listed is the most you could expect to get from an NPC merchant for the item - generally you want to sell for higher than this. Use the "Search the Broker" button to see what the going market value is for the item, then you can set your price accordingly.

You can only have one vendor per account active at any time. You can set up as many characters with items on the broker as you like, but only the one who has most recently accessed their store on the broker will have their items listed for sale.

Specialty vendor boxes can be made by Carpenters out of rare woods (except bone or alder). These have MANY more slots than regular boxes. Once in a vendor slot, these boxes can also be placed in your home, allowing people to buy directly from your house without paying a broker fee.

Some merchants are greedier than others and will pay you less for things that you sell to them. Check with a few merchants and you will generally be able to tell which ones are greedy and which ones aren't. Merchants in "convenient" locations (such as out in the middle of popular hunting areas) are generally more greedy - except for a "Gratified Merchant," who will give you the best price possible every time. These are spawned from a "Distressed Merchant." See the "Out and About In the World" section for more information.

Brokers and fences take a commission based on where the item you purchase comes from. If the seller is in a city with the same faction as you, the fee is 20%, if on opposite faction the fee is 40%. All brokers and fences now sell items from all cities.

If you try to access your bank or a merchant and get the message "you are too busy", there are generally three possible reasons why. Either you have your attack mode on, you have a trade window up, or you are currently interacting with an NPC. Hit escape a bunch of times, make sure you are not in combat mode, and then try again.

If an NPC speaks to you, or waves at you as you get near, they may have a quest that they want you to do. Note that they may continue to wave at you even if you already have their quest. Also, some NPCs will try to hail you for quests that are no longer in the game, particularly in the starting hamlets.

If you need help finding a particular NPC (perhaps to finish off a quest) but have forgotten where they are, click on a guard, type in the name of the NPC and you will be given a waypoint path to that NPC. Note: you often do not have to type in the full name. This is particularily helpful when you want to find and NPC with a crazy unpronouncable name. Job titles, such as mender or broker will also work. If there is more than one NPC in the area who matches the partial-name or title you type, the waypoint path will guide you to the closest one.

If an NPC speaks to you in gibberish (with a symbolic font), you do not understand the language this NPC is trying to speak. In the various starting hamlets, you can find language primers on the scribes for 12s. As soon as you purchase the primer, you automatically learn the language. In the hamlets, most (all?) of the NPCs who require you to know their native tongue give quests. There are quests to learn languages for some non-starting races (like Gnoll).

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Questing

You can only have 75 quests active at any time. Yes, that sounds like a lot when you start - it isn't. Collections do not count towards this total.

If you are not getting quest rewards, check to see if you have a green + in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. If so, you need to click it and choose your bonuses first. (Unknown if this is still in effect.)

If you do a quest that starts from a book, do not delete the book until you have finished the quest. Some quests have you read the book many times throughout the quest, and others have you reread the book at the end of the quest. If you've deleted the book, the quest will be uncompletable. Once you've finished the quest, it is generally safe to delete the original book. Many quests that start from books give a copy of the book as a quest reward. This copy is meant to be either sold, or placed in your in room on a piece of furniture.

If you accidentally deleted/lost your "Welcome to Qeynos/Freeport, Citizen!" book, you can buy a new one from the sage who sells books in the mage tower. These towers reside in South Qeynos and North Freeport.

You can double-click on the current quest (in the upper left corner) to open the quest log to that quest (if you forgot the location or some other detail). Also, when you get a quest update for something other than your current quest and the quest helper changes to that quest for a few seconds, if you double click the quest helper during that time, the quest journal will open to that quest.

Some quests are repeatable. When you complete a quest, you can find it in your completed quests journal, and it will say "repeatable" if it is. Unfortunately, most repeatable quests are not worth doing more than once.

Hwal Rucksif is in the Keep of the Ardent Needle. To find it, exit North Qeynos to Antonica, follow the path to your left, and go under the aquaduct. He will be in the keep to your right that is surrounded by a moat.

Some NPCs have level requirements on their quests. Other NPCs require that you have completed a particular quest before they will give you a quest. If you have completed an NPC's prerequesits for their quest are within 10 levels either way of the quest level, a glowing quill will show over the NPC's head.

If you have completed an NPC's prerequesites for their quest are within 10 levels either way of the quest level, a glowing quill will show over the NPC's head. They will also be marked on your map with a flashing yellow circle if you are close to their location.

NPCs that will advance or finish a quest currently in your journal will have a glowing red book floating over their heads, no matter what the level of the quest.

You can find lots of purchasable quests from the sage in the mages tower in South Qeynos, or the mage school in North Freeport. These cost anywhere from 1s to 12s, with the more expensive ones generally being higher level quests. Many of these quests that require you to find "missing pages" by killing mobs want you to read the book after each set of mobs you kill, so you might want to bring the books adventuring with you rather than leaving them in the bank.

Quests that start from (or are progressed by) items dropped in chests will be much harder to start (or complete) once you have leveled up too high and grey'd out the mobs that drop the chests. However, there are a few ways around this. First, although chests will only be dropped by non-grey mobs, they can be looted by anybody once the locking timer expires. So you can start or progress the quest if you can get somebody else (or an alt of yours) of appropriate level to get the chest to drop for you. Second, occasionally these quest pieces are tradeable -- you might look on the broker to see if you can find what you need. Third, through mentoring you can lower your level to that of a group member, possibly making a mob that was grey to you green.

If you can, it is better to complete the last step of a quest after you have been logged out for a while and your exp debt has had time to dissipate. That way all the exp you get from the quest will be applied to your exp total, not shared with your exp debt.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Guilds

Guilds do not have their guildnames displayed above their heads until the guild reaches level 5. You can get your guild to level 5 by doing city writs or heritage quests and accumulating status points.

Completing heritage quests gives a sizable amount of personal status points, as well as guild status points if you are guilded.

Guild status points contributed by a player become permanent to the guild after one week. If a character leaves the guild, any GSP they have contributed which is less than a week old will be deducted from the guild total.

The amount of GSP a person contributes to the guild from a writ, HQ, or status loot item is 10% of the personal status gained.

Status housing and most items from the City Merchants can only be purchased when a guild reaches a certain level. If you are not in a guild, you will not have access to these items.

Writs also increase your faction with whatever group gave you the writ. Each city faction group has items they will sell to people with high enough faction, regardless of guild level.

If you are an officer in a guild, you can send mail to the entire guild at once. Open a Norathian mailbox, click the "Send" tab, and where you would normally place the name of the person you are writing to, put "Guild". This costs 5s, no matter how many members the guild has.

Guilds can design Heraldry cloaks for their members. At level 15 the leader can customize the background color and the heraldry icon for 5 plat. Available customizations increase at lvl 30 and 60, with the price to change the cloak increasing to 20 and 50 plat respectively.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Out and About in the World

If the zone you are in is overcrowded, try zoning out and back into another instance. If there are 3 or more instances, choose one that is not the first or last instance, as these often tend to be less crowded.

If you see a "lair" object in the world such as a rats nest, snakes nest, sabertooth tent, etc... with the appropriate type of mob around it, this is probably a dynamic adventure camp. If you kill everything in the camp, the next time it spawns it may spawn harder creatures, named monsters, etc...

Distressed merchants are NPCs who are sometimes found at a dynamic adventure camp. If you kill all the creatures around them, they will turn into gratified merchants, and you can then buy/sell with them. They offer good prices, and sometimes carry items you can't find elsewhere. Also note that gratified merchants are useable by all players in the area for a short time before they disappear, not only the players who freed them. If you see someone freeing a distressed merchant, hang around until it becomes gratified and then use it.

Once you leave the starting Isle (Queen's Colony or Outpost of the Overlord), you can't return. If you're a questaholic, make sure you've completed all the quests before you leave because you will not have a chance to come back and finish them later. The Isle is also a good place to work up your harvesting skills, as the newbie zones tend to be more crowded.

Do not forget to use the "Call of Qeynos" or "Call of the Overlord" ability to teleport yourself back to your bind point (default in starting hamlet). You can use this once per hour. If you are out in the wilderness, you can save yourself a long run back to town this way. There are NPCs near the Lighthouse in Antonica and in the Commonlands who give a quest that allows you to change your bind point.

It is possible to sneak into the opposition city! For a Qeynosian sneaking into Freeport, I recommend going Commonlands>Sprawl>Serpent Sewers>Thieves Way>Freeport. For a Freeportian sneaking into Qeynos, I recommend going Antonica>Peat Bog>Vermin's Snye>Down Below>Qeynos. If you are high enough level to grey out the guards in the starting hamlets, you can walk through those areas without concern. When you are in the opposition city, most NPCs and merchants will not speak to you, however, a few will. Guards WILL attack you unless they are grey. Most guards can be snuck past if they are not red, though they will still wave their weapons at you. If you are a Qeynosian looking for Fallen Gate access (but are too high to kill Kizdean Gix), you can sneak into North Freeport and the access quest giver will speak to you.

If you are entering Antonica or Commonlands for the first time, you can ride the griffins in a circle to clear out large patches of black. As long as you do not leave the griffin towers, you should be relatively safe. It is worth flying the circle both ways (clockwise and counter-clockwise) as the griffins generally take different paths in each direction.

Griffins in the Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest must be unlocked by an access quest before you can ride them. Speak to the griffon trainer in the tower to get the quest.

/invite, the command that invites someone to a group works across-zones. So you can invite someone to group with you even if they are somewhere else in the Shattered Lands. Note that if the person you want to invite is currently zoning they may not get the invite request. In this case you'd just have to invite them again.

If you duo often with someone (friend, spouse, etc) make sure you both have a follow macro:
/follow name

but, be careful if the person you are following is a scout that likes to practice safe-fall ;)

Druid rings in Antonica, the Commonlands, Greater Faydark, Steamfont Mountains, and Butcherblock Mountains have a "Blessing of Tunare" bush growing within them. Collect a leaf from one of these, and you can take a druid (fury or warden)-created portal directly back to that ring at any time.

Sorcerers (warlocks and wizards) can teleport their groups to wizard spires in Antonica, the Commonlands, and Greater Faydark using a portal stone reagent (vendor bought, 30s each).

Boats transport players from the Nektulos or Thundering Steppes docks to Butcherblock. These are actual boats that pull up to the end of the dock, NOT bells. The boat will wait at the dock for 1 minute, and the journey itself takes about the same amount of time, so the round trip is less than 5 minutes.

Stable hands in the Lesser Faydark will let you borrow a horse for a quick trip to another stable in the zone. You must have spoken with the stable hand at a stable before you can ride there from another stable.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Miscellany

If you discover a bug in game, use the /bug command and report it. This will help it get fixed faster. Your opinion on game mechanics is not a bug.

If you have a question, utilize the search option on the message boards. To do this, scroll all the way down and type something into the search box. It is amazing how many questions have already been answered! If you utilize the search box from the main forum listing, it will search all forums by default. If you utilize it from within a specific forum, it will search only that specific forum by default.

If you want to keep easy track of a particular thread on the forums, you can "sticky" it to the top of the forum. To do this, click on the grey box with a blue arrow on the right column of the thread listing. The thread will then be stickied (for you only) until you unsticky it.

Most PC races have two graphic models, the standard and the alternate or SOGA models. To pick which you'd rather see, go into Options and select Alternate Models. Whichever model you use for character creation, you'll have a one-time chance to set the character's appearance in the other model at no cost. To do ths, go to the character selection screen and pick the character you want to set. Next to the delete button you will see either "Set Appearance" (to alter the standard model) or "Set Alternate Appearance" (to alter the alternate/SOGA model). Go into Options and switch the model to the type you want to set now. Then click the set appearance/set alternate appearance button and pick your character's new look.

Other Great Resources

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - The EQII Button

Inventory (press I) - Opens your personal inventory window, which shows all items you have equipped, your coin, your bags (double-click each to open individually), and the paperdoll image that will be taken if you use Shift+Print Screen.

Persona (press P) - Find your stats, detail settings, factions, and personal options here.

Knowledge (press K) - Utility abilities, Spells, Combat Arts, and Tradeskill abilities can be found and sorted here. I find it helpful to sort them by type, going vertically, so I can verify quickly that I have the highest level ability of each type in my combat hotkeys.

Recipes (press N) - Opens your recipe book.

Skills (press L) - Achievement points for the Kingdom of Sky and Echoes of Faydwer expansions can be found here.

Quest Journal (press J) - Open your quest journal, to see what quests you have, what to do, and where to go to progress them.

Waypoints (press Alt-W) - brings up a list of default waypoints you can find in the zone. Click on one to get a glowing path to that place or person.

Map (press M) - Opens a map of your current zone. If no map is available for the zone, it will open to the city or world map instead. City zones have "map fog" which greys any areas you have not been in and can be turned off. Adventuring zones have a black "fog of war" which can only be cleared by exploring the area.

Guild (press U) - Opens the guild window if you are in a guild.

Socials (press O) - Game emotes and customizeble macros are found here.

Community (press Y) - Friends and Ignored lists can be found and maintained here. Also the ability to search for players by various criteria.

Options (press Alt-O) - Game settings for display, key controls, sound levels, models, user interface, etc.

Claim Rewards (type /claim) - Lists in-game rewards you may have earned.

Help (type /help or /petiton) - In-game reference area. Includes searchable knowledge base and the ability to file petitions if the knowledge base search provided no answers.

Report a Bug (type /bug) - Report bugs with in-game mechanics, graphics, broken quests, etc. here.

Camp (Logout) (see camp/quit commands for more - gives options to camp to character select or desktop, or to quit EQ without camping.

See this link for more information on in game commands

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THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER