December 2006

Bullies are still Bullies, and Frostfell Excitement!

There are bullies no matter where you go, and the same can be said for the mmo worlds out there. Those people who derive pleasure from picking on others, degrading them and making fun of them. On Lucan D’Lere (also called Lucan D’Drama, for pretty obvious reasons) there is a handful of these people. You see them every day, spamming the 60-69 channel with their words of ‘wisdom’, rallying for the popularity of whatever other gamers happen to be listening at the time.

I can’t help but feel sorry for them. They must have some huge issues if they’re picking on others in an mmo, to make themselves feel better. They’re escaping their real lives (much like we all do) and feel the need to exert their power over others. It’s a shame really. Had to vent that out. Along the same lines, my guilds forums have been spammed nicely by members of another raiding guild, trying to stir up unnecessary drama. For what purpose? Well, none of us are really sure. As far as I know our members don’t go posting on their personal guild forums (in the public section that most guilds have) but I could be wrong. Again, just random thoughts and observations. In WoW you would experience the same thing, but it was much more childish and unrefined, and almost easier to excuse. Where as the comments that some times fly out of the 60-69 channel are just down right mean.

Frostfell update is going in today! Fireplaces are the word on the … channel? I’m excited. I missed out on the Christmas events last year, so it’ll be new to me even if they’re repeated. I want to see if the music boxes are back, the snow globes, little cute hats, and house items! Expect lots of screen shots later today of all the new stuff if I can manage to get any of it.

Stargrace is catching up fast as my new main. I was pretty far behind on aa’s but they’re not going too badly now, she’s sitting at 58 with plenty of quests and zones yet to adventure in. Most of the guild is around 80, but I’m not worried. She’s also gotten a few pieces of gear upgrade, also a good thing. I was almost completely broke after betraying to Illusionist (I never have very much money, it doesn’t bother me though my characters are all pretty well geared and can fend for themselves), so I’ve been trying to make some coin. The quests in Lesserfay are great for that, both the Nybright family ones and the ones from Fae Court. Mentored yesterday for my turn ins granted me 3 aa and about 3 plat in coin, with only a small portion of them completed. I’m absolutely loving the illusionist class wise, I find it much more fun then the coercer. Not sure why. I respec’d my aa’s and went full out dps, with perpetuality and crit spells, most of my spells end up being almost instant cast with that line up, it’s wonderful. Still no raids lately in guild, but holidays and all so it’s understandable.

T6 raids, random quests, and Christmas

Since it’s still pretty close to christmas, not a whole lot has been going on. I was invited to raid with Marauders, some tier 6 things mostly for achievement points. I went with Silverstep since Stargrace is my new main. We did Courts, which I love (and also dinged my little guild level 7), did Lockjaw (awsome aa), and Poets Palace: Return. Which is actually a raid zone I’ve never been to. There’s a reason people avoid this zone, the trash mobs (and there are about 1,000 of them) have a billion hit points. They’re not hard, but they take forever to kill. We spent 3 hours clearing the zone, a very long time for something that’s T6. Ended the night with 3 aa’s and a lot of guild exp, it’s always fun and relaxing for me to get a chance to play in the other zones besides the new ones.

Been doing some quests on all my girls as well, and managed to get 4 crafting levels on Misako, who’s now a 24 tailor. Going to get her to 25 today so she can make the new cloaks. Nice for my lower level characters.. well.. just her I suppose, the rest are higher level and will get their cloaks in time.

Farming is still annoying, roots are hard to come by. Not in a rush though. Sorry for the lack of posts lately, tomorrow’s should be slightly more entertaining!

Illusionist, Coercer, back to Illusionist.. (and the best guild ever)

Mail, from Citizens for a Free Freeport

First of all, I apologize for the christmas colours, I promise they’ll be gone… after christmas *grins*

Restless. Bored. Repetitive.

Words I use to describe my end game healer (fury) in EQ2 on raids after playing her for about a year now (I played a templar as my main before that, and experienced the same thing). Why do I play healer classes? Well, first of all. I’m good at it. Without tooting my own horn, I know I’m a good healer. I know what to cast and when to keep the tanks alive (or my group of mages if it’s a raid). Secondly, healer has always been needed. Most of my friends either play a dps / support class or a tank. So that leaves a healer position open in a group.

So after taking a break from EQ2 to organize some real life things (see previous posts about too much play time) I decided I would take the plunge and attempt to situate myself with a new main. A difficult task, especially if you raid. It’s not simply a matter of logging in and deciding, ok, now I’ll play this character. I had to first discuss things with the officers and leaders of Torrent Knights – explaining why I wanted to change, what I was contemplating changing to, how it would benefit the guild, how it would be detrimental to the guild, etc. After a few days discussion I was told I could switch my main – in my mind, it is much more important to play a class you like, rather then a class you are simply good at. So my fury said good bye to her home (sighs, 127k of guild status lost by her name, but our guild has a policy of only one “main” in guild, and no alts), and my (at the time) coercer joined the ranks.

Now, TK already had two coercers. In fact, they used to have three but one recently left for another server that was more suitable to their play times. So I offered to betray to an illusionist, covering the costs of the betrayal myself. What costs are there? At level 70, it’s not a cheap thing to betray. You need to replace every spell that’s 55+ pretty much. With the prices of acrylia going for 1p-2p and needing 20 of them, + 7 pieces of Vanadium (as a mage), yeah, it’s an expensive ordeal. Then finding a T7 sage (since ours was the guildie who moved) to take care of such a large order without also charging you an arm and a leg for them to be made. Thankfully, Meepers offered to help me out in the sage department.

My poor wood elf.. she betrayed way back when, at around level 10, and went to coercer. I can’t even remember why now, it was probably right when they were given charm as a spell. Now she’s betrayed back to her home town of Qeynos. I actually don’t mind betraying or the whole process, I think it’s quite fun. I can betray from Freeport to Qeynos in a matter of two hours, the only drab part is repeating the blasted faction quests. Easiest one I’ve found is to sneak into west Freeport and collect the schedules from the tradeskill instance. The zone is right off of Commonlands where the quest giver is, and the guards don’t see invis. Rinse and repeat x 12.

So, hopefully I’ll find the game slightly revitalized playing a “new main”. Then again, maybe not. Worth a shot though. I also dropped my station access account (again) so I’m limited to 6 characters. Which should be more then enough. The necromancer hit level 50 earlier on in the day and could finally wear the robe I’d saved up for all those months back from Poets palace.. .You know the one, legendary with some FT on it? Looks awesome on a gnome.

QoTW: Koada’Dal Magi

Quest walk through from EQ2i

Get the base shield in New Tunaria at (-315.30, 53.81, -858.44). It looks like a regular tin buckler on the wall in the east side of the Hall of Truth, facing the huge tree that houses the Temple of Growth.

    1. Return to Fethinal. He tells you he now needs the god-given Symbols of the Four Elements, scattered across Norrath.
    2. Slay the element of water, located off the far northwest shore of the Enchanted Lands at (440, -11, -1087).
    1. Once you have the Symbols from the four elements, it is back to Fethinal again.
    2. Go to Antonica to find a tower (-2036, +7, +218) on the hill north of Keep of the Gnollslayers. There you will find the grave of Kryfru the Enchanted. Inspect the gravestone and talk to the ghost.
    3. Search the grave dirt to find Kryfru’s journal.
    4. Take the journal back to Fethinal.
    1. Find the 4 spirits:
    2. spirit of death – Somborn Graveyard in the Loping Plains
    1. Return to Fethinal for your reward

    I found the health and power on this item, slightly lacking. To say the least. Looking back though, it’s a very very simple quest that you can solo easily, the mobs are solo ^ and it doesn’t take much time. So if you’re wandering around wondering what to do, stop in and visit Fethinal located in a tree close to the New Tunaria entrance, and pick up this quest. I’m not sure I’d ever actually use the shield, but if you’re fond of items with procs, snag it!

    So You Decided You Needed a Break…. From What?

    Lack of posts over the past week are one sure indication that in the MMO world, not much is going on. That indication would be correct! After taking some time to look at my life (lack of one?) I decided very spur of the moment, that I needed a break from EQ2 for a little bit. Why?

     Well, I’m blessed (cursed?) with having the life of a house wife pretty much. I have no children, I stay at home, I cook clean and do all that fun stuff. I’m 25, so fairly young. The life is not a bad one. It’s not always an easy one though and anyone who tells me other wise I will swiftly give a great boot to the head. There are reasons life is the way it is right now and without spewing my emotional garbage all over my blog that should sufice.

    Anyhow

    I have a huge amount of free time on my hands. My boyfriend and I decided to try EQ1 5 years ago, and have been playing MMO’s together (in some degree) ever since. There comes a time though when everyone at one point or another can think of someone or themselves and know, hey… they play too much. I’m one of those people. Not even ashamed to admit it. It was getting to the point where I’d just log on for the sake of logging on, not even acomplishing anything. Granted, I still did all the things in real life that needed to get done, but even I know when too much is too much.

     So I wrote a quick note to my guild letting them know I needed a break for a bit (it is the christmas season anyhow, most of our raiding if not all has slowed to a stand still as various people are on vacation / visiting family / drunk) and have been EQ2-free for… *checks the calander, ignoring her shaking hands* 6 days now.

    Are MMO’s addictive? Sure. They draw you in and can keep you there, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with admiting that. When you have the free time to devote to it (and hell, even when you don’t) it can become a pretty powerful thing in your life. So does this mean I’m giving up my MMO’ing ways? Naw. Just means that I took a step back, and decided I need to limit my playing a little more then I had been in the past. Sounds sort of weird to write about, but I’m sure there are those out there who understand exactly what I’m saying and where I’m coming from.

    On the flip side, finding 15+ hours of something to do has been a huge challenge. I shopped. Worked on Christmas presents, read, did some drawing, did some writing, and whatever else I could find to fill in the empty gaps of time that seem longer some how these days. I decided to limit myself to 4 hours of play a day. Longer on weekends since… well, this is a major form of (cheap) entertainment these days for myself and my boyfriend. I’ve braced myself for all of the “WTF Get a Life!” comments, and “OMG L0Zer!” and all the rest. It’s all about the moderation.