long, boring questionsFollow

I played EQ from Dec. 2000 (pre-Velious) until late 2004 (before the DoN release). I got a cleric to level 70 on a PvP server. I thought I had quit MMORPG's for good, but I again feel the call. WoW is not an option. I just bought EQ2, and I have some questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(1) Playing a cleric for 70 levels got me very jealous of the abilities possessed by the melee classes. I would like to play a tank, but also something with decent DPS. The Berserker seems an obvious choice. However, I have heard that Berserker DPS was recently nerfed. Is this true? Also, I know the combat system is about to be changed. When exactly is this change supposed to happen? And when can one expect reasonably accurate results on the effects of the patch?

(2) I am interested in trade skills. I do not believe that there is any one stat or attribute associated with tradeskill progression (like INT and WIS in EQ). Please correct me if I am wrong. Does race or class affect tradeskill progression (other than racial-trait modifiers)? Is there any one tradeskill that is a surefire moneymaker? Also, in EQ, tradeskills for the most part made sub-par items (relative to raided items)... except for a few rare cases, like food and drink (notice how higher-level EQ toons would have all kind of raided gear... but still very nearly all be carrying Kaladim Constitutionals). Is this a trend continued in EQ2, or are all of the tradeskills viable for reasonably-useable high-level items?

(3) One of the big turn-offs for me about EQ2 was the lack of PvP. I know that the new expansion plans to introduce PvP... in an arena setting. Are there any plans for there to be PvP-based servers? I know that the general spiel from EQ2 devs is something like "EQ2, as EQ1, is based primarily towards PvE, blah, blah, blah..."

That's all I can think off right now. Any help, as I said, would be greatly appreciated.

I'm just gonna take this one, (since it's pretty meaty!):

You are correct, there is no benefit to or penalty for not having the "right" stat while crafting in EQ2. Anyone can forage, (called harvesting here), and anyone can craft.

In a word, no. At this time there is no cultural armor or anything of that nature so being a specific race has no real bonus. There is one racial trait that can be chosen as a half elf... or is it a wood elf... anyway it boosts your fletching skill by 5 points which is helpful only if you happen to be a woodworker... There is also one that improves your jewelery skill... if you happen to be a jeweler...

Not really. Early on, there was a concept attached to crafting called "interdependency". It forced crafters to depend on other crafters for subcombines from outside their specific area of expertise. For example, a carpenter needed to purchase metal goods like studs and struts from an armorer. Without them, he couldn't make strongboxes and EVERY carpenter makes lots and lots of strongboxes! This concept resulted in rampant price gouging on basic commonly used items. This in turn led to whining on a massive scale and eventually the abandonment of the aforementioned interdependency!

That being said, several skills will still provide you with a fine living wage. Provisioners seem to do well since everybody needs to eat and drink. I also have both a T4 tailor and a T3 woodworker and do very well with each of them. My tailor makes a very good living selling both leather and cloth armor while the woodworker makes all kinds of bows & staves, and also the totems mentioned in an earlier post.

I also suspect that any of the 3 spell crafters, (Sage, Alchemist & Jeweler), have good potential although I have not yet taken one above lvl 15.

Player crafted goods in EQ2 tend to have much nicer stats than mob dropped goods of the same name and so are in greater demand and fetch a higher price. The only place this doesn't hold true is in the area of very high end boss mob drops. These items tend to be prized, (and farmed), by the end game raiding guilds.

The good news is that it will probably be a while till you need any of that stuff!

Personally, I tend to outfit my toons in player made gear and only use mob dropped or quested items early in the toon's life or as a temp fix when I can't find the player made item I need.