does it take forever to lvl?Follow

I've never played EQOA, so can't say if it's that speed or not. I've played casually in the beta due to RL commitments but in a few weeks have a lvl 16 rogue (Qeynos), lvl 10 rogue (Freeport) and a lvl 6 mage on the Isle of refuge. You can do the first 6 lvls in a few hours on the IoR once you get to know the layout.

As quests give decent xp at low lvl, it's simple to lvl even solo. Group xp is faster but more chance of group death penalty. In a good group this is no problem as it's quickly recovered. A group of ppl all doing the same quest, all get quest journal updates for each mob killed or item collected, so it makes sense to group with others if possible as it cuts down competition on rare spawns.

Camera angles can be either 1st or 3rd person. In the 3rd person you can rotate the angle and distance of the camera.

Combat is more involved then in EQ1, you can't just click autoattack and leave the pc to it. All classes have special combat abilities and Heroic Opputunities Wheel's. As I've mainly played a rogue, I will give some examples of this class.

To engage in combat, you can highlight the mob to con it, then either double click on it, use a ranged weapon, spell or my preference, a ability, such as backstab or ambush. These abilities do a large amount of damage. During the combat you can cause the HO wheel to activate. This is activated by using your special abilities, in my case, Quick Strike activates it, then Dirty trick or Evade to get it started and Quick strike or something similar to trigger it. The wheel takes a while to figure out but makes a huge difference when your soloing, it's much harder, IMHO, to use in a group as with six ppl mashing thier ability keys, it tends to get cancelled or the wrong effect used.

The 3 results I have so far managed as a rogue are Ringing Blow = Extra damage, Swindlers Luck = Enhaunced rogue abilities and Bravos Dance = A self haste.

The wheel is hard at first but when it was disabled for a while in beta it's absence was very noticeable, at least if your soloing. The same with specail abilities, they give combat much more flavour and mean you can take on even con and yellow mobs. Tanks can no longer turn on autoattack and go and make a coffee while thier toon fights a mob.

Sorry if this didn't answer your question about lvling but there really is no rush to do so. There is a tonne of content at all lvls, mini raids and instanced encounters, rushing to high lvl would simply mean missing so much of the game.

Aammer

Cleric 65 on AB
Rogue 16 on beta1

I'm not sure that I understand your statement and think it's more of a question of how you will go after your EXP... For instance....

If your big into soloing there will be quests and zones to accomodate you and your leveling needs. While in contrast if your into the group thing they are group quests and zones that will be better suited for a group. What this prevents is one zone be loaded up with tons of groups fighting for that great EXP. Rememeber in EQI if you could tweek a low level char and head to the a group zone and pull away...It really seemed to upset groups that were camping an area. Just a humble opinion...any thoughts from some seasoned players swictching to EQII?