March 2007

Tarinax eats dust and the necromancer moves to Qeynos

stargrace March 10, 2007 No Comments

Stargrace standing on the rock to the left, amidst the Lucan D’Lere Raid Alliance

I don’t typically do pick up raids, for numerous reasons. They usually end up being huge disasters that leave me with large repair bills and a sour taste in my mouth. So last night when I was randomly sent a tell on my illusionist asking if I wanted to join a Deathtoll raid, I surprised even myself by saying sure I’d tag along. The Lucan D’Lere Raid Alliance is a mixture of mostly Legends of the Tundra (with wonderful coercer Rorion leading that night’s raid) with some unguilded, and Salarionn acting as tank for the night from Forsaken (which is a fairly acomplished T7 raid guild). There was a member or two from HoE, as well as myself from Torrent Knights (which died once Vanguard came out, but there are 4-6 of us who still frequent the guild and don’t want to see the level 60 home dashed so easily). It was a fun night, even if we didn’t accomplish killing the corpuscle (also known as the splitting drake, and a pain in many people’s arse) and we also called it a night on the diseased based snake who has a nasty AoE and port / root deal. Tarinax did fall on the third pull, having some issues with him clambering his way into the wall in behind the raid force and then AoE’ing us all with his frontal when ever he could. Meanie.

It was a change, from the raids I’m used to. A bad thing? Not really. I did enjoy myself. Will I make it a nightly ritual? Probably not. As fun as it was, I missed the polished feel from my previous raids. In my opinion it went very well for people who perhaps don’t raid together all of the time, and who are still working their way through the lower end of T7. One small pet peeve I had this time was the amount of noise on the vent channel. I actually liked the method my previous raiding guild used, on teamspeak (the alliance used Ventrilo) during the raid, only the raid leader / officers / tanks had access to voice. Which meant people were paying attention to the raid, and not breaking out into the latest sports scores or discussions on breasts as we’re going over the strats for a particular fight — that is purely situational though, I realize that interaction with people is what makes these mmo’s thrive and succeed, it’s the community and bonds you form. I’d just rather only hear one voice at a time instead of 10, and have it be on the situation at hand so I can do my job as a raider (I know, I know, raiding is not supposed to be a job) rather then have to listen to a whole lot of other stuff that I don’t have any input in. Maybe that’s weird of me to say, but I like to raid and know I do a good job, and pay attention and get that job done. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and makes me feel good. Just my weird twisted views.

As another first for the evening, I betrayed my 52 necromancer over to a conj! Oh, and I also run a second account now. I moved my 70 fury and the 52 necromancer conj over to the new account, so that I could box them (and anything else I decided to make) along with the characters from my original account. Worth it? Well, here’s how me and my boyfriend rationalized it.

• Already paying for station access (price hike had not occurred yet) for EQII and Vanguard, but have no interest in playing Vanguard. This basically meant I was paying for 4 character slots, and adventure packs, and that was it. I don’t play anything else on their play list.
• Play frequently enough and can box smoothly enough (I play the 2nd account we had along with my account to level up alts and what not) that the account would not go to waste.
• Having a Call of the Hero character, as well as a character who can port, on a 3rd account, would benefit both his characters and mine (Can always park the Fury in Sinking Sands and port to all the EoF zones just fine, as well as dragging the conj to the basement of SoS or even Nagafen if needed and port people down).
• Gives us an extra 2 character slots compared to station access, for a total of 12 characters vs. 10.
• Veteran rewards to a larger amount of characters (the new account came with 6 months of veteran rewards, as well as the boxed rewards for each expansion since release, including the DoF statue, the KoS house plant, the EoF whirly clockwork pet thing.

So in the long run it was worth it. It also resolves my issue about the lack of population. I can box myself when I don’t feel like grouping (which is frequently) and I have extra character slots to create more characters (for example if beastlords come out with Kunark, or that Fae that I haven’t made yet). I’m pleased with it so far and don’t regret giving up Vanguard in the least. I figure perhaps when the first expansion for it comes out, I’ll give it another shot, but until then the bugs and glitches and over all beta feel, was just not what I was looking for.

The “Forgotten” zones – Introduction, and other ramblings

stargrace March 9, 2007 6 Comments

Dasie, standing in Everfrost near the Numbnuts — er, Numbfoots

Traveling through Norrath yesterday, I was surprised to see such a decline in the population of certain zones. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that EoF offers content from 1-70, as well as the fact that a lot of people are already 60+ and are adventuring in higher end zones. Just as an indication, I ran through at about 4:30 EST and the populations were as follows: Nektulos Forest: 5 people in the zone. Enchanted Lands: 8 people in the zone. Thundering Steppes: 4 people in the zone, Everfrost: 0 people in the zone (besides myself).

Have the original zones to the game become obsolete?

I figure once a week (or more if I’m feeling up to it) I’ll do a feature post on a specific zone. Outlining a few of my favorite quests, along with screen shots of course. Maybe (if I can get my hands on any, I’m horrible for it though) some information on lore. I’ll keep it to the original zones in the game, the “forgotten” zones so to speak. I’m trying to work Dasie’ achievement points anyhow (ew, she’s sitting at 38, such a slacker compared to my other two level 70’s) so the travels through the zones will be a good thing, she can brush up on old quests and mentor down for turn ins. She’s the only one of my characters to have completed the prismatic 1.0 quest with Darathar, which I’m not even sure guilds do any more. That’s one bad thing about being able to ‘outgrow’ the content so to speak. Unless you have a large amount of people working on the quest, chances are the majority are never even going to see it once a few expansions have gone by. The gear gets out dated and is no longer of any value to have at that level, you can find crafted and dropped gear that surpasses the raid stuff.

Looking through her quest journal I was ashamed to see I only had room for two more. Not only that, but she had a level 18 quest from Antonica that had been there since July 2005. I hate deleting quests, I’d much rather complete them if at all possible. Especially if it’s to a chain or perhaps a quest that I may not remember to get again. I really wish SoE would impliment a system where if you chose to, you can see the quest icon (a yellow feather) over the heads of everyone who has a quest at all, no matter if the quest is grey or not. Maybe that’s a feature that they could add eventually, I know I have submitted it as an idea before.

So Dasie hit level 68 in jewel crafting, did an order for a few moonstone pieces, I didn’t charge for the combines because she still gets fairly nice experience off of them, I’d have wasted the coal on crafting a few apprentices anyhow. I also got her two aa’s, working on her Tunare deity quest. I had her mentored down for the earlier turn ins and netted about 20-25% experience each quest. There are 4-6 quests for each deity, so that’s always very nice.

Cancelled my station access, there was no need to pay $29.99 a month when I’m no longer interested in Vanguard at all. Maybe when the first expansion comes out and the bugs are fixed I’ll go back to it, but in the mean time EQ2 will remain my home. Especially because I’m already looking forward to the Kunark expansion. SoE will continue to get my money though, as I’m probably going to invest in purchasing a second account for myself (making this three total accounts for the household, since my boyfriend also has an account) and eventually transferring my 70 fury and my 52 necro (who is going to betray to a conj) over to that second account. Why bother? Well, number one my computer can handle boxing flawlessly, on balanced settings. So when I need a port, or a CoH (Call of the Hero) it’d be nice to be able to use it for my own characters. Plus then I can play a DPS or a healer or both to the 70 Shadowknight on the other account. One of my friends on Najena and her husband actually 4-box, and each have a second account that they play. It makes up for the lack of population or the desire to group with others.

Why bother playing an MMO if you’re not going to group up and be friendly? Easy, for the community. I don’t have the patience most of the time to deal with people. I hate waiting around. I don’t enjoy teaching the game to someone. That doesn’t mean I’m a bitch nor am I rude in game I’m actually quite nice, but I value my ‘alone time’ so to speak. I group with my guild mates and those I’ve met who know how to play their class. I do on occasion join a PuG or two, they’ve not all been bad, I will admit. But at the end of the day no one else pays for my subscription except me, and I should be able to play the game exactly how I want to. If that means not hanging out with a tank who couldn’t tank their way out of a wet paper bag, then so be it. I do like to chatter to people though (especially on the crafting channel) and I can be helpful when I put my mind to it.

So, we’ll see how things go from here.

A little sanctuary

stargrace March 8, 2007 3 Comments

A little garden sanctuary in Stargrace’ house, complete with fountain and roses

Yesterday being the first “real” game update of Vanguard and not just a build patch, I expected servers to be down for quite some time. I was not wrong, last night attempting to play around 6pm EST resulted in the message that servers were down. Around 8pm EST I began the longest download of all time to reinstall all of the graphics that were for some reason missing / needed to be replaced from their earlier patch. I didn’t log in for more then 5 minutes when the channels were flooded with people complaining, those threatening to leave for other games, and various random insults. So I logged off and headed to EQ2.

Above is a screen shot on the upper portion of Stargrace’ 5 room house. I decided she needed a little get away up there, complete with comfortable benches, roses, and a fountain for that quiet gurgle sound that we all adore. Banzai trees and bushes complete the little nook on the upper level. All I need is a few books placed I think, I did add a box of chocolates to one of the benches. After all, what’s more relaxing then curling up by a fountain with a good book and a box of chocolates hmm?

My mystic hit 26 yesterday, playing in the Ruins of Varsoon. I love that zone when it’s empty. Other wise it’s typically packed with farmers (not that I’m any better, running through the zone hitting as many named as I can). I was a little too small to handle very much, even though I was boxing a 70 shadowknight who was mentored down to her level. Trying to decide when I want to betray to a defiler. Probably not until T6-T7 I think, if I even get her that high. I bought the templar a buckler of blight, which drops from Obelisk of Lost Souls, I could have probably tried to get one myself, but there’s really not much to spend coin on in game, so I decided to splurge and drop the 5p on it. It’s a huge upgrade from her past one. Maybe later today I’ll do the final grind to level 70 jeweler for her.

Since they’ve added a bunch of new Lore and Legend books to the game, that’s one of my goals, each one of my characters actually need to work on it. The clockwork one is located in Steamfont Mountains close to the Klak’anon entrance, Werewolf is in Loping Plains, in a bookshelf in Somborn, Brownie is in LesserFaydark in a tent in the lower grove area, Minataur is in Steamfont in a bonepile near the southern crater in Smokehorn Baison, Bugbear was in Kaladim in a wheel barrel near some goblins, and Kobold is in Butcher Block in the same hut as the transmuting vendor. Sadly enough, my illusionist only has 10 of the L&L’s completed at all, there are over 30 in game right now. Ouch. Pieces are at a fairly reasonable price on Lucan D’Lere — except for the new ones. Or werewolves at least where the pieces can go for anywhere from 1p to 10p depending on what you need. Gives me a goal at least to work towards though, and something to do.

Hip hip hooray!

stargrace March 7, 2007 1 Comment

Not sure where this cheerful guy is from? Hint: In order to spawn some named, you place him and his friends

Yesterday was very much an EQ2 day, remembering all of the reasons that I fell in love with the game to begin with two years ago. It was nice to get away from the bugs and lag and just, everything, from Vanguard. My mystic (who’s going to go defiler eventually) got two levels from 23-25. She also got a tailoring level to 31. My jeweler (and 70 templar) Dasie has been sitting at level 65 forever, so I decided it was about time I at least get her to 70. Using some of the three year veteran crafting experience rewards, she hit 85% through 67. It’s about one potion a level, so I can hit 69 before I’ll run out. Of course now she’s out of vitality, so that really sucks. I figure I’ll wait a day or two before getting the last two levels. Then I’ll have the 70 illusionist / 70 provisioner, and the 70 templar / 70 jeweler. Next? The fury is level 70 in adventuring, but level 60 in woodworking, so I’ll try to get her to 70 as well. The sage (level 52 adventurer) is at 60 too. The alchemist (42 assassin) is sitting at 50, where she’ll stay for quite some time.

I did a run through the Shimmering Citadel, which is where the screen shot is from. It’s still one of the best zones to farm the high end T6 masters (which are still far too rare), even if you get no masters at all you’re guaranteed a platinum in vendor trash, and typically a few crafting rares (on very difficult setting, which lets face it, is not all that difficult at level 70). A level 58 defiler ancient teachings spell dropped, but there’s one on the market already for 8p, so mine’s up there for 5. The legendary robe also dropped, another 50g or so. If you’re looking for shinnies, specifically the ones for the moppet house pet, the roof top of shimmering citadel is fantastic, there are about 6-8 shinnies that spawn around the roof top where the mirror is for the citadel, and you can just run in loops farming them (everything is grey).

I also did a fast Acadechism run, nothing interesting dropped but it was fun none the less.

One huge difference between Vanguard and EQ2, is that when you run around from place to place in Vanguard, you get a sense that it is a world. It’s huge, and there’s huge spaces of running with nothing around. It can take you a real life hour to run from one place to another on the same continent. In EQ2, it feels like zones. Antonica is a zone, Thundering Steppes is a zone, Feerrott is a zone. It doesn’t feel like the world of Norrath, it feels like a bunch of zones of Norrath. It’s great that we can all buy these 50% speed mounts, but they’re hardly ever used, because there’s no real place that you need to run (with an exception of quick jaunts through zones). It’s one thing Vanguard really did right (in the mix of so much stuff that they did wrong).