2006

A follower of Tunare, and a new cloak

stargrace November 17, 2006 No Comments

Silverstep in her home before the alter of Tunare, proudly displaying her new guild cloak

Torrent Knights recieved the heraldry for their first guild cloak two days ago, and I must say I quite like it. There’s also nothing quite as imposing as standing together in a raid all wearing the same unique design (unique to your own server at least). While I don’t typically like the actual bat-man-cape type graphics on the cloaks, they are another form of unity and I do like that general idea.

I had hoped Silverstep would be able to follow Sol. Ro, the burning prince, as her God. However, after looking at the rewards offered. Tunare was really the only way to go for a healer. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to work it into my role play yet, but I’ll find a way. Creativity knows no bounds after all!

The entire Tunare chain was solo-able at level 70, and I had a lot of fun doing it. Typically I am the first one to look for a walk through with any quest I think, especially ones that make me figure things out. I’m just not patient enough with them. However, this was one of those few quests that I took the time (along with fellow healer Mard) to figure out and complete. Well worth it, as the Tunare cloak gives +30 to my healing spells.

I also managed to complete two quests in New Tunaria with Xani, it took us about 8 hours total to figure these quests out though, and we received discovery for completing them. I progressed a level 65 signature quest that I’ve been working on as well, I don’t know what the reward is but they’ve sent me to find some satyr in Lesser Faydark and talk to him about a void shard, very interesting.

Did my first two instances yesterday as well, one is located on the top of Crushbone Keep, in Greater Faydark, and was about the same difficulty as the KoS zone “Nest”, but more unique encounters with interesting twists. I also did the new Obelisk instance, completed a quest for that zone as well. All in all, pretty fun thus far. With the ravamp though I’m not exactly overly enthusiastic about raids tonight.

Oh, also got to 17 in tinkering. I’ll rant more about that later, the craft from hell. Not quite as difficult as transmuting though, which I keep hearing horror stories about from Eleyn. More ranting to follow I’m sure.

EoF is here, and .. wow..

stargrace November 15, 2006 No Comments

No pictures to post quite yet as the last 24 hours in game at least has been a whirlwind of quests, discovery, more quests, shinies, and various other tid bits. So here is my first general impressions since the expansion has gone live, and what I think.

New Tunaria.. is.. oh my goodness. SO beautiful. It is perhaps the most beautiful zone I have ever seen before. I love it. Granted, the mobs in the zone don’t like me, nor me them, but uh it’s still so pretty. Expect some screen shots to follow.

Quests. Are EVERYWHERE. A few that I’ve started, two signature quests, a few new heritage quests, my deity quest for Tunare (I’ll have to do some fancy rp’ing to wiggle Silverstep into that one since I had every intention of going the Sol Ro rout until I found out Tunare rewards). Learned the new fae language, and have yet to make a fae. Lots to do.

Lesser Faydark horse stables ROCK. These are like griffin flight paths, but instead you mount up on a horse and take off across the zone. SO MUCH FUN! Spent some time having Faydai mentored as well and farmed some named in Steamfont, which brought back so many memories.

Klak’anon hurts at level 49!

The expansion was up ahead of schedule, there was no down time at all last night, and while they are understandably patching this morning, it seems to have gone off without a hitch. I still have not created my fae character yet, but that’ll come today perhaps. I’ve decided to go with a ranger. Other random tid bits.. they’ve combined the markets, not sure I care for that quite yet, means a LOT more competition between players. Tinkering, fun! Transmuting.. EXPENSIVE. More thoughts once I’ve slowed down some. Prayed to my Tunare alter and stocked up on God status points. Miracles inc!

Careful, crafting can drive you insane.. Godking raids, and manastone 2.0

stargrace November 10, 2006 No Comments

Silverstep diligently crafting away, trying to reach that elusive next tier

Finally, ding 59 woodworker. Out of all the crafters I have, or have ever had, the woodworker has got to be one of the worst ones out there. The provisioner was pretty bad as well but I managed to get by and hit 70 before they removed sub-combines. The woodworker, is lucky if she gets two new recipes a level. Level 55 rewarded me with one. So to keep some sanity I’ve been grinding out those wonderful tradeskill writs, working my faction with the Ironforge Exchange. I think I’m at about +3,000 now or so with 11 more levels to go. Thankfully, I’m out of vitality, and I use this excuse to end the madness.

With EoF just around the corner, I’ve been busy getting collection quests ready for turn ins, and playing my alts some. Raids as usual and generally keeping to myself and avoiding the horrendous drama that is known as Lucan D’Lere Server. Managed to pick up a few pretties last week in labs, go figure I had been hunting for a new hat and breast plate forever, well, since betrayal at least. Low and behold BOTH dropped on the labs raid. I passed on the breastplate having already won a very nice belt and the relic hat.

Relic leather hat (Fury) and the Sash of Perdition

The guild also decided that we would farm eyes over the past two weeks, and do the Godking raid, which is the final mob needed for prismatic 2.0 as well as manastone 2.0. I had already completed my prismatic quite some time ago, but I had neglected to do the manastone as the named I needed wasn’t up. So this was a good opportunity for me to finally get it done.

Manastone 2.0

I use this constantly on raids, even the non-legendary version that I had for almost a year now. It can be a life saver when you’re low on power. It does have a recast timer of 30 minutes though which is slightly annoying, but as long as you know which fights to use it in and when to save it, it’s still very nice. You turn into a wraith type mob when it’s used. Over all a pretty slow week, but I’m actually enjoying it. The bardling snagged level 41, though she’s still an exile and hanging out in Haven until I manage to get her to level 60 or so. No point in going troubadour quite yet!

The anticipation of EoF

stargrace November 7, 2006 No Comments

Silverstep, standing in Lesser Faydark

I was accepted into EoF beta about a month ago, but honestly, I played very little. I perfer to leave most quests / zones a surprise, and just wanted to know a little about what to expect with my characters. I think I spent more time looking at fae and exploring the lowbie zones and Gods then doing much of anything else. Since the NDA has been lifted, I can post a few screen shots of the expansion and ramble a bit. It’s an absolutely BEAUTIFUL expansion, despite what bugs may be around currently. There is literally something for everyone, from level 1-70. There are new raid zones, new instances, new regular zones, a new obelisk even. New lore, a new race. Two new crafting subclasses, new aa’s, a second earring slot, a new cloak slot, new guild levels.. it’s quite amazing.

Some people are of course upset that there is no level cap increase. I can see why SoE did this though. The one thought on everyone’s mind is whether or not there is enough content to last until the next expansion comes out. With Vanguard coming out in January (unless it’s been pushed back, I never know) there’s lots of competition around.

Standing outside Castle Mistmoore

Contested mobs should keep raiders interested, along with the new raid zones. The fact that there’s a new race is appealing to those who have wanted to start a new class and had no motivation. Not to mention there are new starting zones, and you could level from 1-70 in EoF zones alone and never leave. It’s certainly one expansion I’m really looking forward to.

QoTW: The Battle of Cauldron Hollow (Tunare Quest revealed)

stargrace November 3, 2006 No Comments

The prophets foretold of two more Gods who would soon be walking the lands of Norrath this day. One was Tunare, and while some may consider this an obvious choice due to the fact that I am a druid, it is not so. None the less I listened to their woes and eagerly aided them in their trials, but do not doubt for a second that it was because of my own selfish curiosity rather then a desire to walk along the path of Growth.

I was told not to question their methods, and that I would be able to inhabit the body of Gandari for this battle. I rode astride a mount so glorious. I could smell the fear in the air. We rode and the calls of battle echoed through the air. It was glorious.

The reward for aiding them was a small fountain for my home, which has a spot in the back yard. It may look slightly out of place amongst some of the other… pieces.. I have out there, but it looks wonderful none the less.

(( Absolutely *amazing* quest, very fun to do, and a new turn on things here in eq2. Those who have done the monster missions in eq1 will be very familiar with this form of quest, and I have to say it’s sort of fun to see it here too. I would certainly recommend this quest for anyone who enjoys questing or house items or both! The starter can be found in Antonica, by the druid rings just past the wizard spires. The evil version is found by the priest guild in NFP ))