I know exactly what you mean... I switched from ping pong to tennis last year but I can't stand tennis rackets so I still use my ping pong paddle!!!
Now then, doesn't that sound silly?
First things first... don't fear change... change is good. You are about to move into a much more complex and sophisticated game, (that is, unless you pick WoW), and you will get a lot more out of the experience if you don't start off by trying to shoe horn it into a package that fits your last game... which, by the way, you left...
You will find the keyboard and mouse system very helpful for carrying out a multitude of opperations, not the least of which is chatting with other players. And don't forget, you are able to enter the EQ2 UI interface through an options page and re-map any key command from the default to any other key you prefer so comfort and convienence is never an issue.
All that being said, I actually do use an "alternate" style of controller, but it's not the kind you're thinking of. No wonky little hand held console style controller for me! I use a Nostromo N52 left hand controller from Belkin with a Logitech trackball for mouse work. It is USB and comes with the software to set it up and program it for any game. You can see it
HERE .
The Nostromo N52 sits on the desktop to the left of the keyboard and features fourteen user programable keys in three horizontal rows as well as a mouse wheel, a fire button and an eight angle - disk style directional controller. All of these are mapable to any function(s) you like. To sweeten the deal, there is a thumb button to step you through the three available banks of controls so you can have 3 different button setups and cycle through them as needed.
I have been using this rig for for over 2 years and for EQ2, I have mapped a variety of hotbar and keyboard commands to the 14 push buttons. The mouse wheel is set up to swing the camera in and out and the disk control is set up for movement. The red fire button is of little use outside of an FPS so I mapped it to activate the push to talk function in my ventrilo voice-com setup.
I highly recommend getting one of these but don't get me wrong... When I play on my laptop (without the N52), I still enjoy the game. I just don't counter crafting events or fire off HO's quite as fast!