I'm not really sure what the problem is myself. I took a two year break until
recently, and while it appears that some items aren't circulated as much as
previously, there does seem to be a lot of new things As a relative lowbie, I
rarely do eq. And I'm fine with that. Any eq attainable by someone my level
wouldn't really be worth it anyhow. Much better to do cash and save to buy.
When I can finally get "that" item I've been saving for, it gives me much more
satisfaction than tagging along with 8 highbies and dicing for the same piece,
because I know I didn't "earn" it. I think that Duke is right about the 3
layers of the game. That's part of what is so attractive about bat. But it
also means that it's hard for a lowbie to judge if the balance is right for
the highbies, and vice versa.