Hey Sic, I guess I'm hesitant due to the things outlined in Doc's post. I've been playing off and on since 1999. It just seems to be a hard wall around level 70 if your not boxing or have people to play with now days.
I've always looked at it this way.
If you're otherwise not going to play the game because you can't function at a level that the game demands in order to complete content and the game has lost it's luster...then MQ is for you.
Using third party software with any online game has it's risks. Understand that MQ is against the ToS and it's use if found out has it's punishments by the makers of the game.
If you feel like your world would end if you got removed from the game on your current accounts and couldn't fathom the idea of losing them, then this isn't for you.
We understand the risks involved and despite that choose to use it anyway. Much like Algar said, we wouldn't even play the game without MQ, so either we suspend/ban ourselves from the game because it's no longer fun for us, or they do...eventually...maybe? Might as well try to enjoy the game and see what you can do with group of yourself that isn't going to have you sitting around for hours LFG. You won't need to take a random stop every 20 minutes because the group members you've finally found need to afk for 20 minutes because they need to go take care of a thing, or they need the restroom, or gotta make dinner for the kids etc. You just get to log in, form your group with yourself, and go do what you want to do. All the loot is yours, if you want to work on your epic, then your group members are going because they are you. If you want to do hunters for all expansions for a week then you can do that.
With MQ and a group that always wants to do what you want to do you can accomplish so much more in a much shorter time frame simply because every member of your group wants to accomplish the same thing on your behalf.
MQ could have the side effect of,
Making you wish you did this sooner.
Actually completing quests.
Actually completing Achievements.
Actually gearing your characters.
Getting augs for all your toons.
Cause you to realize you need to upgrade the amount of storage space available on your characters.
Allow you to kill named mobs by yourself.
Allow you to be in a position to help others with their tasks.
You may start your own guild.
May make you decide to upgrade your computer so you can box more characters.
You could start your own raid force and end up 54 boxing.
Depending on the resources you decide to use, you could accidentally learn how to program in
Lua or C++.
Become more knowledgably about the game because you're able to do everything solo, and as such had to learn all the mechanics so you could do them all.
etc.
MQ adds a ton of Quality of Life to EQ. Boxing is certainly a big perk, but there are other tools available and Redguides has a vast sea of resources created by the community for the use of the community. Even if you decide not to use MQ the members of Redguides are knowledgably about the game. Though their advice may be MQ oriented, a lot of members know a lot of things about quests/gear drop locations/best routes to take to get around, best options to gear various class toons, and any number of other general knowledge things related to EQ.
An example Quality of Life feature is MQColors plugin. This colors the items in your bags with a tinted background so you can identify the type of item it is at a glance.
Spell data built into spell links so you can see more than a basic description of the spell when you look at them.
MQ2AutoSize will resize pc/npcs near you as if they are shrank, but only locally removing the need to actually shrink toons if you don't want to, or deal with large crowds so that you can navigate through the sea of people in lobby.
MQ2XPTracker will track how much EXP you've earned in a session and how much XP/hr you're earning.
MQ2Headshot that will put a title under NPCs names that can be headshot so you know without taking the time to con every single NPC.
Remove invis / levi with a command. So do you don't need to hunt down the buff and remove it manually.
These are just some examples.
For boxing,
MQ2Status you can use to get information from your boxes, such as if they have an item even in the bank when doing quests/tradeskills/collectibles. Get the status on evolving items, how much money they have, find out if they currently have a task/quest and what step they are on, if they have parcels, what their % xp currently is, what zone they are in, etc.
MQ2Relocate, which you can use to relocate your entire box group at the same time using things like gate pots, anchors, AAs (Throne of Heros/Origin), get the wizard to AoE teleport, etc.
a few different loot tools, one of which I made called MQ2LootManager that will let you use the ingame AdvLoot window to grab all the loot on your master looter that you have set as Always Need/Greed, and automatically dismiss items you don't want set to Never, as well as allow you the freedom to manually distribute items that you haven't assigned an AN/AG/N option. There are other looting tools that others will swear by that also have the ability to automatically distribute items to other group members after some setup.
Commands such as /yes, which will accept something on all toons at the same time.
The ability to broadcast commands, such as saying a key phrase to get a mission, or enter an instance.
Then of course there are various options for automating your group. Kissassist, RGMercs, CWTN Plugins, etc that will play your boxes for you so you can pay more attention to the character you're driving. You're boxing, but the boxes are basically group members that do what you tell them to do and never argue with you.
This is just a short summary of tools available. So consider the risks, and the above potential rewards. If you decide to give it a go, at least you have a list of things to look into and try out.