Answers:

If you ignore that PoP has new content, and that there have been other recent improvements to EQ - What part of PoP supply the best argument for re-activation of an account and purchase of PoP?

        Planes of Power offers a lot for players of all levels, though most of the new zone content is targeted at the high end of the game.  Lower level players can look forward to the portal network that connects the Plane of Knowledge with all starting cities, a large variety of quests,
linked-grouping, as well as planar trade skills and items. 

Is there any truth to the rumor about "spawnable encounters"?  For example, can my raid group be fighting lord evil boss in one version of his plane while raid group B is fighting lord evil boss in their version of his plane?

        Some areas of the Planes include spawnable sections that allow several groups to fight the same encounter simultaneously.  This isn't done by giving each group their own virtual plane, but it does provide access to some content more easily for players.

Are there any plans to round out the Beastlord class with Luclin Alternate Advancement skills and give them the hybrid casting haste like other hybrids by the time PoP is released?

        We've been working quite a bit on Beastlords lately and they've seen some significant improvements.  We've improved their pets abilities, added additional spells to give more value in a group or raid, implemented alternate advancement abilities for Beastlords, and fixed some bugs like the lack of hybrid casting haste.  We're very interested in making sure Beastlords are a fun and rewarding class to play, and you'll continue to see improvements before and after Planes of Power is released.

Magicians solely depend on their pets. Unlike other pet classes, we do not have root, snare, fear, and so on. As such, are there plans to give magicians any "utility" spells to "balance" things out?

        Magicians have enjoyed a decent bit of power growth lately with upgrades to pets, and can expect to continue to do well in Planes of Power. Overall, though magicians don't have access to a wide variety of utility spells they are a very strong class.  Top quality pets and excellent damagespells make magicians a strong contributor in most situations.  I wouldn't expect to see magicians getting additions of totally new abilities to their class, though they'll certainly continue to improve with the new spells and alternate advancement abilities being offered in Planes of Power.

The magician AA abilities are undesirable to me. Are there plans for new class AA abilities across the board, or for individual classes?

        Planes of Power is going to offer a very large number of new alternate advancement abilities for all classes.  We've tried to find the higher value abilities from Luclin and improve upon them, while also offering many brand new abilities that should be very useful to each class. We feel the alternate advancement selection in PoP is excellent and expect it to be well-received.

Will PoP advancement only be available in PoP zones, or will it be an across the board enhancement of our characters as has been done in the past?

        Advancement gained in PoP will be persistent in the old world as well as the planar zones. 

Will there be more trade skill related quests like the Solstice Earring? That quest was so much fun! I would love to see a trade skill intensive quest which resulted in a (Karana only, of course) upgrade to Raincaller and the Orc Impaler.

        We're definitely adding more quests using trade skills for those who enjoy them.  Trade skill based quests have proven to be very popular and you can expect to see more of them in the future.

Will there be more challenging, single-group, high-level encounters that will encourage high level "party-style" play, as opposed to high level "raid- style" play?

        There are both raids and rewarding single-group encounters throughout the new planar zones.  While we recognize that many people enjoy raiding, there is also a large group of players who enjoy spending time in a smaller group fighting challenging encounters.  We've included content to satisfy both groups of players in Planes of Power.

Will there be more quests that result in rewards for all of those partaking in the quest rather than just the person doing the actual "hand- in" or interactive part of the quest, to try to encourage people to work together for rewards?

        One key feature of Planes of Power is an overall quest that links all the planar zones together.  Several sections of this quest will require players to work in groups and accomplish large goals together.  We'll be rewarding all participants in these events, and everyone who helps will benefit from them.  

        Players will be able to gain five more levels in the traditional way, and also have a much increased selection of new alternate advancements to choose from.  While you can concentrate your effort in either area, you'll achieve significant benefits from both.

Will shared experience points on raids be released in PoP?

        Yes, linked grouping, including shared experience gain on raids will be included as a feature in Planes of Power.  Our new raid grouping system should make managing that aspect of the game more convenient for everyone involved, and should solve problems with only a single group getting the majority of experience on a raid.

Are there going to be any planes where only a Druid can port to in order to gain access?

        All of the planes are accessible without needing a specific teleport spell.

Will there be content level maximums, like the Nagafen and Vox encounters, to prevent farming from as people level past 60?

        Currently there are no plans to level cap things in this fashion. As players grow in power, most will move on to fighting things that give reasonable rewards for the effort involved.  Each expansion has indirectly made previous content easier, but overall players have moved on and outgrown older content.

In all expansions, there was said to be content for all types of gaming styles (passive to the Power Gamer), yet Luclin fell short of these expectations for me. What content will be available to the casual gamer with only a few hours each day to play?

        While Luclin had areas that could've been improved upon, there actually was content for all level ranges and play styles available in it. Planes of Power should greatly help the casual gamer by speeding up travel times, providing new areas to quest and fight, and bringing new and interesting items into the world to be purchased.  We recognize that the casual gamer makes up a fairly large section of our players and don't want to leave them out in the cold with any expansion.

Since the level of people playing the game is growing more then ever, why not change the level of monsters in the old world to accommodate them?

        We do plan to continue zone updates and revamps in the next year. Many of the recent revamps such as Cazic Thule have been well received and helped take some of the congestion off the more crowded level ranges.  We'll certainly be continuing this trend.

The armor selection in Luclin was lacking greatly for the ranger class as far as high end equipment, will PoP help to fix such issues?

        We've adopted a new method of creating and distributing items in this expansion, and we're definitely working to not leave any classes out when it comes to having reasonable item choices. 

Will the Plane of Mischief be re-released as part of the expansion? Not like we have to buy it, but meaning it will get an upgrade from the expansion.

        Plane of Mischief is scheduled for a zone update, though it won't be arriving at the same time as the Planes of Power expansion.  We expect this update to take place in the next few months, and it will appear first on Legends, and then move as a free zone update to all live servers soon after.

Will there be any new class/race combos? I've always liked the idea of a wiz/warrior - hybrid-balancing would be tricky, but eh.

        We're not introducing new classes or class/race combos in PoP. We've concentrated on the level cap raise and the new alternate advancements to provide new options for players

How will you decide the high end fights? IE..Velious you gave them pure hoards of hitpoints..in Luclin..they had somewhat high hitpoints with ungodly AC....

        Major fights in Planes of Power are going to have a lot of variety in the different play mechanics they use.  We've benefited from some new tools and options available to us for the first time, and we're excited about some of the things we've been able to add.  Overall, boss fights will be much shorter in duration than they were in Luclin, and concentrate more on having your players work well together instead of focusing on getting a massive force together to throw yourselves at a monster until it dies.