I played 6 paladins. Once you got enough AA to get the damage reduction talents it was faceroll easy, they literally became invincible by taking 0 damage when hit. I didn't do any pvp so I can't help there. When EQ2 first came out the Heroic Opportunity system was very important and cool. As far as I can tell now, they are not even used at all other than luck spam that triggers one. It's all about timing a spell that doesn't conflict with your auto attack to maximize dps. I wasn't able to get to the end game, the sticky combat and slow combat was just too different to get into compared to wow, and unlike wow, they have not reduced the xp required to catch up to the current end game. So unless your going to spend money on xp potions, it's a long ass grind.

However it's a fun game don't get me wrong. I've put in thousands of hours off and on since it's release. If you're going to play with one account, it's far cheaper to buy the gear tokens and bag upgrades than it is to sub. SOE is constantly doing double/triple SC weekend specials, followed by 50% off anything in the SC store. I think my primary account has like $120 in unspent SC cash on it from the last triple event.

The way to stack the SC is to use the game cards. Most cost $15 and come with a bonus 500sc. That's $20 worth of SC. Apply the card on a triple weekend and for $15 you get $60 worth of credit. Wait to spend it on a 50% off weekend and you can see where this is going. You can buy a LOT of upgrades and unlock tokens for single months worth of a gold sub.