Hey there Oakstaff! I actually ended up returning to AC the following day of posting this thread, lol. There's A LOT of improvements made to AC since I had left the game - like 2 handed weapons, Aetheria, Gearcrafting, 3 new races so far (Shadow, Gearnights, and Undead) with another 3 on the way (Empryean, Lugian, and Tumerok), & Colleseum to name a few. Oh, in November patch they're adding Olthoi Monster Play for PVP. I'm currently level 166 so I'm still too low for the 180+ content, such as the Society stuff.
Anyways, I may end up quitting AC again for awhile because of Lord of the Rings Online is now free to play
I just started playing LOTRO and am having a blast with it so far! Since I end up soloing a lot in AC the high level grind is kind of getting to me, tho the XP from quests has greatly improved. If I do happen to cancel in the next week or so I'll be still lurking around in Dereth till mid November, hehe.