Alright, so i know i already have a thread, but it's more so to find people to play with rather than ask questions about the game.  I will be asking about PvP, PvE, Endgame, crafting, and limitations to my trial account.

Let's start with PvP.  What is this like and how often is it seen in the world?  Are their raids on cities, open areas where everyone is always fighting or is it something not often seen in the game?

Second let's talk about PvE and i mise well throw Endgame into this as well since it will be my main point in talking about PvE.  What is PvE like as you level up?  Is there tons and tons of quests to do and will i be grouping more often than not as i level?  As far as engame goes what is in store for me at level 80?  Will i be going on epic raids to take down big boss guys or am i looking at small groups to go out and kill stuff?  If there are raids what are the about and are they story driven or just "Hey, he's bad...why?  Who the hell knows i just want his loot!". 

Crafting has always been something really fun to me in MMOs so what will i be making.  Now i read a book they gave me when i entered the world with my dark elf assassin, but i don't really know what to go with on professions or where to even start with it really.  Will i be making really awesome gear that i will be proud of?  Also, as i level, will my profession be able to give me good gear to wear along with my quest items?

Now lastly i want to know exactly what i am limited to in my trial.  I have heard a lot and i know i can only speak in /say, /ooc, and /shout, but what else can i not do.  I've heard that i can't group, join a guild or even send a PM to someone ingame so how exactly am i really supposed to get a feel of the game before buying it?  I would just like clarification on all this.

Well, that's the end to my questions.  I do hope at least some people will clear some things up for me and actually read past the first paragraph lol.  Thanks in advance if you reply!

The trial is useless,simple as that i've said it many times,back in the day spam farmers would use them for thier own use so SOE rightly imposed heavy sanctions on them

PVE is very easy to slo level nowadays till about level 60 ish and things slow down a bit,as someone who's had a level 80 toon since november time i can say theres very little to do sadly other than run the few instances that came along with ROK( my advice get married and get your wife playing ;)).

I dont raid so i wont comment on it,crafting is something else i dont do but my wife loves it

yes trial has really heavy limitations cause of plat spammers, but i still think that you can group (not totally sure about that). its mainly there to give you a first look how it runs how the combat is like and how it runs on your computer.

pvp is limited to the few pvp servers, on non pvp servers you can only duel other players or go to arena but both these features are not often used. on pvp servers its faction based pvp with level limits based on the zone where you are. You can allways attack anyone higher level than you, but lower levels are regulated.

In newbie zones level limit is 4 levels (means you can attack players that are max 4 levels below you, or you could be attacked by players that are max 4 levels above you), in most zones its 8 levels and in endgame zones there is no level limit. in city zones there are special rules that protect citizens of the city from being attacked till they attack someone themselves (after that they are attackable for a limited time). but i never really played pvp in eq2 so cannot comment how good it plays.

PVE endgame has options for grouping and for raiding. for lvl 80 groups there are 2 contested dungeons and a few instances. for raiding at lvl 80 there are 8 instanced raidzones of different sizes and difficulties, some of these have to be unlocked by beating the easier raidzones. There is lore about most of the bosses if you look for it (some of it builds on old eq 1 lore), but the lore its not really integrated in the raids.

Some of these zones are just short runs with one boss in them (that doesn't mean these bosses are easy some of these one boss zones are quite tricky to do), while on the other side there is Veeshans Peak with more than 10 dragons in it. But the tiered system which needs unlocking the harder raidzones also locks out most of the casual guilds from some content.

Crafting is compleetly independent of adventure levels, you could theoretically take a lvl 1 adventure char and level it to 80 crafter of any kind without ever adventuring. Its based on a small minigame but once you get how it works it has no real challenge other than getting the materials together. 

There are basically 2 kinds of crafted items handcrafted (only uses non rare resources) and mastercrafted (needs one rare for each craft). handcrafted items usually have stats below quested and dropped items while mastercrafted often are better than good dropped items on lower levels, only high level instances and raids award really better items. So for leveling your character most people rely on a lot crafted equip.

if you decide to level crafting you start as artisan and get access to all kinds of recipes for levels 1-9 after that you have to specialise as outfitter, scholar or craftsman. and at lvl 19 there is one final specialisation which lets you pick one of the 3 professions form the class you selected at level 9. Outfitters can become armorers (metal armor and metal shields), weaponsmiths (metal weapons) or tailors (cloth and leather armor). Scholars can become Sages (spell upgrades for mages and priests), jewelers (jewelry and spell upgrades for scouts) or alchemists (potions, poisons and spell upgrades for fighters). and craftsmen can choose between woodworker (wooden weapons, bows, arrows, totems), carpenter (mostly furniture for houses), and provisioners (food and drinks).

Leveling a crafting profession to high levels takes its time so thats nothing for everyone, but you should be able to give it a try even on trial and see if its interesting for you. There should be a quest that teaches you the basics about crafting which you can pick up in about any newbie area.