March 2007

Face to Face with Venekor and other musings

stargrace March 20, 2007 1Comment

Silverstep, sitting on the throne in Kaladim, doesn’t she look purdy?

Yesterday was another fun day, I was invited with the same raid group from Sunday to do HoS (Halls of Seeing) with them. Now, I had already attempted HoS on Friday night with my templar, I posted about my experiences there being less then impressive, in fact they were quite painful. Due to the fact that I was with what once was a ‘hardcore’ raid guild, I expected far more from them. So when I went again on Monday night, it was a huge relief and a whole lot of fun. I joined their ventrillo channel to listen in, and partake in a few conversations. I use ACT and my G15 keyboard to time AoE’s on encounters, so I called out the AoE’s where I could to warn people that they were incoming. I was also parsing 3-5 the entire raid which is always nice for an enchanter.

Today I’m going to work up my transmuting *shudders* and not looking forward to that at all. My characters could really use some adornments, and it’s so much cheaper then having to buy them. Especially if I get gear upgrades and need more, or just want different adornments for different gear. I’m going to spend at least 40p working the skill, and see how far I can get it on that money. I’m at 150 currently (Just able to do T4 items) and I’m hoping that coin will get me to T6.

I also have a lot of L&L to complete, and a lot more quests. I’m still sitting at 93ap and I’d like to get 100 (on the Illusionist). It looks as though I may be able to raid Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday with this new group that I’ve been raiding with, and I hope it continues. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

One of these days I’d also like to work on the fireknight pages. A long annoying quest that I’m really not keen on starting. I think I’ve gotten a few general pages as I hung around Loping Plains and New Tunaria, but none of the harder ones quite yet. Ewies.

Lyceum and Labs, and a whole lot of fun

stargrace March 19, 2007 0Comment

The ap distribution between Illusionist (91 ap total) – Fury (83 ap total) – Templar (48 ap total)

Sunday was a great day in EQII at least. I was offered to raid Lyceum with some people that I didn’t really know that well, boxing my fury and illusionist, but at the last moment as I was clearing through the remainder of Valdoons, a friend asked if I wanted to come raid with their guild and clear Lyceum and then Labs afterwards. I was also asked if I wanted to give Banished a second shot and raid with them on my Templar – I declined after Fridays raid experience.

So the Illusionist headed to Lyceum, a zone I remember fondly. I frowned at myself for not having yet completed to speak as a dragon. I need draconic in order to acquire the quest located outside the zone just up on a ridge. I’ll have to get that done this week maybe so that I’m ready to do the quest next week. Both raids went off painlessly, and it was a lot of fun. I declined from using ventrilo, wasn’t really needed having been there so many times in the past anyhow. I was also invited back tonight, to do HoS (Halls of Seeing) so that’s a plus. Their guild leader is on hiatus at the moment, getting settled into a new place I believe. Their back up tank is fantastic at his job, and the raid was quickly filled, even over-filled in fact. It was the type of raid experience that I miss having in Torrent Knights. They’ve got a close family atmosphere, and everyone had fun.

The Illusionist finally got her Time Compression ap. A huge bonus. It’s a buff that can be placed on anyone in my group (other then myself) and reduces recast timers, as well as casting timers, and recovery timers by a portion that’s fairly significant, wizards love me for it. I’ve also got illusory arm, which is a permanent buff for 25% double attacks – both melee and ranged. Match that with my own dps (which is not too bad for an enchanter), power regen (which at times I wish I had less of – if I’m below 20% power I do 20% more dps) mezing, and various other tricks of the trade that illusionists have, and I’m a pretty nice support class.

As I looked over the ap set up for each of my level 70 characters, it surprised me to see where they sat. The fury has actually completed the most quests out of the three, but she has only recieved ap for a small portion of them. The templar who was my main for the first two years of the game, has barely any ap at all. The Illusionist, who was my new(est) main has the most ap out of all three characters, and most of those are from quest turn ins – even though the fury has been mentoring for a majority of quest turn ins. I wish I could see that list broken down even further, a list of quests I’ve recieved ap from, a list of items I’ve collected giving ap, and exploration events so I could see what I was missing. Is there even such thing? A list some place of exploration events so people can check each one and see if they’ve gotten the ap for it? Not sure, sounds like a fun (and time consuming) project though. Now that the Illusionist has TC I’m not sure where to go next. There is the Fireknight pages that both fury / illusionist really should be collecting, as well as the various signature quests that neither has done, and the illusionist needs to complete some more claymore steps – she’s on the final SoS portion now, and can move (finally) to PoA shortly. She also needs to work on DT access. The only difficulty with working more then one level 70 up. I’m sure once the newest expansion comes out I’ll slack behind on the fury and just work up the illusionist, but in the mean time they’re both fairly up to par (the fury already has her claymore as well as DT access) so I’ve got the time.

Euktrzkai Amda– who?

stargrace March 18, 2007 1Comment

Dasie listening to Euktrzkai Amdaatk – who has one of the longest speeches (besides Valdoon!) ever

I’ve had an influx of raid invites lately, and it’s nice but also a bit overwhelming at times. Especially because I get individual invites on separate characters, for different days. Yesterday a former guild member was taking his alliance through labs (which they also did the previous week) and asked if I’d like to come along with my templar. I was a bit hesitant simply because of the bad raid experience the night before, but I said sure, I love labs. The raid could not have gone any smoother. There was one wipe, and they were back up and ready to fight again in a matter of seconds (the whole room including a far reached named was accidentally pulled) – Vyemm died on the first pull, always a good sign. The tank did an amazing job even if he did die a few times, the backup tanks were superb (I was in the backup group with an assassin, illusionist, a guardian, shadowknight, and a fury who went LD and was replaced with a defiler). The loot system was random nbg (need before greed) – one fabled and one legendary per person. Which means that you could technically be unlucky on every single roll for months and never win a thing – but the possibility for upgrades is at least there even for the newcomers. It’s something most raids don’t have. If you’re a guest you should never expect to be getting any loot.

Once that raid was completed I relogged to my fury and was asked to a clockwork raid right away, it was too late for me though I was just checking sales and heading out for the night. My fury and illusionist were invited to a Lyceum raid today, the templar was invited to a different Lyceum raid today, and also invited to a Freethinkers Hideout (with the guild who’s raid experience I was less then happy about on Friday night) raid. I am not going to go to all of them, thank goodness, but in the mean time it is nice to be raiding again. I wish it were with my own guild but I’ll take what I can get.

I’ve been trying to figure out which classes (if any) I’d like to level up, since I’ve got the two separate accounts now, and I think I’ve decided on the mystic (who is going to betray to defiler) and a troubador. The troubador will also be a carpenter, since I’ve wanted one forever. I’d like an armor smith as well, but I’ll just wait on that. I still have issues with the server population, especially vs. other servers but I’m making due and it’s not always so bad. One thing I have noticed, hanging out on random teamspeak and vent servers with everyone I’ve raided with – everyone makes fun of everyone else, and gossip, is the key word. I’ve heard so much general ‘stuff’ about other people from other guilds over the past few days, it’s just astounding. People making fun of people and random tid bits of who’s staying who’s leaving who’s doing what with whom. People are interesting to say the least.

Brew Day in the Bar of Brell

stargrace March 17, 2007 0Comment

I shwere, it wash only one.. mebe two.. drinksh

I’m not one for drinking much in real life, but Stargrace and Silverstep have no such reservations. This Friday saw the start of Brew Day, in coordination with St. Patrick’s Day. One thing I do love about EQII is their ability to play upon little real life holidays and include them somehow in the world of Norrath with special rare events and house items (typically). Last year I’d already received the Everlasting Keg (at least on Silverstep) so this year it was time for the party keg. Looking through the world of Norrath as a drunk was very painful on my eyes. I’m glad it did not last that long. The effect is nauseating at best, but what can I say, I’m a sucker for house items. Silverstep recently lost all of her house items in a fire (also known as me miss-clicking the relinquish house button.. sighs..) so she’s starting from scratch. An excuse to decorate I say! She’s now the proud owner of four books, the new party keg, a monkey, and a robot. OH! Market board as well. Can’t forget that.

I’m planning on working up a new carpenter, perhaps one I can actually level over level 20 (since I’ve started a few) and I’m hoping this will innovate me to become more creative in my decorating. Not that I ever lack for housing ideas. Stargrace remains with the 5-room house, Dasie with an Inn room in Baubleshire where she’s refused to leave, and Silverstep with a new 3-room.

This weekend – joined a raid on Friday night that I wish I’d never joined. All sorts of warning signs blinked off before we’d even started. I was playing my templar, who is not as well geared as the other two level 70’s I have. I was the only healer in my group, and I was in the off tank group. I had no power regen (neither bard nor enchanter) and it just all went down hill from there. I was grouped with a guardian (who surprisingly enough was not the main tank) a zerker, an assassin, and a bruiser. Tough on the poor templar to say the least. I always prefer my fury healing groups rather then the slow casting templar. Templars are great for hp buffs, they’re great for mitigation buffs, they’re great for reactives, but when the MT goes down and the off tank has to step up to the plate, a lone little templar is not going to do squat. My second sign that something was wrong, was when I was 1-2-3 on the parse list for every fight. Templars should not be out parsing the MT healers, especially not shaman, and rarely druids. Not in an off tank group. I wasn’t even geared up vs. the raiding guilds actual healers. Granted, she does have M1 of all of her heals, but in an off tank group I can’t use any of my single target reactive spells or they’ll over write the inquisitor ones needlessly. There were only 6 healers, so I suppose being 3rd on the list below the mystic and inquisitor was not that bad, but I’ve played every single healing class in EQII, and I’ve raided for quite some time. Parse lists (if healers are doing their jobs) shouldn’t typically look like that – of course there are always exceptions, and the MT healers should typically be out parsing everyone.

I worked on various quests in the EoF zones, getting 91 ap on the illusionist, and 83 on the fury. They’re slowly finishing that portion off. The fury is also at 120 transmuting now, I mentored my 29 mystic and farmed Ruins of Varsoon for a while, collecting any adepts and masters I could find, as well as legendary. It’s slow going (to work the skill up) but it’ll be worth it for me in the end. I refuse to pay the outrageous price adornments are going for. I’ll have to start farming for tinkering again on the illusionist, I’m waiting for GU (game update) 33 to go in though, so that the resources needed are halved. Going to be nice.

Back in the swing of things

stargrace March 16, 2007 0Comment

A new pretty for Dasie

I’m slowly getting back into things in game, besides working up the lowbie quests in order to find supplies to cater to my transmuting needs, I’ve been edging my way into some small raids. I did the alliance raid for Deathtoll last week, and then a few days later was asked if I wanted to join in a Lyceum raid this Saturday night, as well as a Labs raid next Saturday. Last night having a small itch for a simple raid Shadowgeist set up a quick and easy courts run. Courts is T6, and can be completed almost with one group. We had about five guild members on and invited some random pick ups to fill the second group. There was only one small hitch.

I played both of the healers in the main tank group, and our only other healer was a fury for the second group.

Surprisingly enough, we only had one wipe, at the very end on the Queen. There was no power regen in group one, so fighting both named with out a power regen break proved to be a bit more then we could handle. We quickly rebuffed and finished her off, raid successful. Everyone ended up with something, which is the great thing about T6 raids. Between upgrades for alts, and crafting supplies that dropped, the majority of people ended up with a master or fabled item of some sort, and two crafting items each.

Since I was playing both the fury and the templar in the main tank group, I had my doubts. First of all could my computer even handle me raiding with two accounts? (answer to that is yes, on balanced settings none the less!) Could I keep the main tank (and the rest of my group) alive? There were a few fights that were close, it’s very hard to cure and heal at the same time, but we managed. I do not think I could play both MT healers in a T7 raid, especially not with the cures that are required (trama in labs for example). Was it fun? Yes! Stressful as well though.

Dasie’s second pretty of the night, a new belt

I know I’ve done the zone before with her, she’s gotten the hoop of endless time (a templar/inquisitor earring) in the past, it must have been before aa’s were awarded though, as she pinged two full aa while there and finally hit 44. Which is way far behind where I’d like her. On the plus side, she did get the aa ability called “blessing” which grants her group a 25% chance at more procs from items. A very nice aa. I’m hoping to get her to at least 50, I’ve not raided with her hardly at all since T5, she used to be my main character and I switched out quite some time ago. I’ve done a labs raid or two with her, but that’s about it. She hasn’t even started claymore, so unfortunately it looks as though I’ll be trying to at least catch her up to the illusionist and then I can proceed to work on it with both characters at the same time. She is my ‘old school’ EQII character, she has her prismatic 1.0 completed, the scepter of the scale (I think it’s called, I may be mistaken) and fought Darathar when she was level 45. That was pretty scarey way back when. She’s almost completed her Godking weapon, though I rarely ever see people doing that raid any more (mostly due to the huge hassle of farming eyes. If you’ve ever done that raid before you know exactly what I’m talking about). Again I think it’s a shame that the older quests get pushed behind and people rarely ever see that content any more. Even if they wanted to, it requires a raid.

Tonight I’ve been invited to a Freethinkers Hideout raid (with Dasie), I warned the guild who invited me that she’s not exactly geared up for that sort of raid (I should know, I played both the Fury and the Illusionist in Freethinkers in the past) although all of her heals (except one level 70 group reactive) are master quality at least. She also has a master of her hp buff, holy redoubt, which gives almost 1k flat hp. Playing a templar is very different from playing the fury. Where the fury can concentrate on group heals and fast casting times, the templar heals are exceptionally slow. It frustrates me some times because I’m used to fast casting times on my heals. The templar can heal a huge amount though, it just takes some time. They also have some of the nicer mitigation and hp buffs. The fury has one mitigation buff (that does not stack) and has no hp buffs at all (though they do have power buffs, where as the templar has none).

So we’ll have to see how tonight goes. Apparently this guild is looking for a raiding templar. Could be an opening for me if all goes well.