April 2007

Where in the World of Norrath

stargrace April 30, 2007 7Comments

Any ideas? One hint.. Rat Queen.

I spent the weekend relaxing before the server transfers go live (which I think will start on Tuesday now, since the EU PvP server merge is a 24 hour ordeal). I took everything out of my shared banks so that it wouldn’t get left behind, removed all my items from broker including the containers, and made sure my characters actually physically own everything in their respective homes, incase anything got lost along the way. I’ve had some issues moving once before and losing a few small house items, so I took care this time around. I’m hoping the move goes smooth. I did join a nice Labs raid, it went well, no wipes.

I also worked a bit on the new library and lore section of the site. It’s something I’ve had in the past, typed out the tomes collected in my library by hand for others to read, also describing where the book came from. Blame my obsession with house items. So once the raids were done, and my banks cleaned, I worked on book quests.

There are three type of book quests really. There are ones that are sold by merchants. The Sage located in the mage towers for Qeynos and Freeport, then there are also mob dropped ones. These ones are the most annoying for me, as I’ve pretty much out-leveled any place that has these drop. Examples would be Obelisk of Lost Souls, where there are at least 7 mob-dropped-only book quests, I tried farming as many as I could with the defiler, she has six on the go now I believe. There are also collection books, where you can find the pages scattered across Norrath, they can drop from mobs as body drops or they can be found on the ground as pages fluttering in the wind, marked by a shiny explanation mark. These ones are just as annoying, as you’ve no idea where to search for the specific pages that you need. My favorite by far are the ones sold by the sages. They’re interesting stories and send you all over the place. I wish that each side could complete the tomes, but since the sage in Freeport won’t talk to my Qeynosians and vice versa, I’ve betrayed characters just so that they could obtain books on both sides.

There are a LOT of book quests out there. I am missing so many of them, it’s sort of an inspiration for me to try to gather more, keeps me motivated. On the down side, I did not play the defiler at all this weekend (though maybe that is a blessing?) and saved up her vitality. I logged her in to make a set of tailored gear for a stranger (who was new to the server, I also gave them a plat to play around with) and that was about it. I need to do more farming for her at some point or another as she’s low on T5 stuff.

Other then that, things are quiet. Look for an rp-related post later in the day hopefully!

** Edit ** News about the transfers here! Looking forward to this.

Strange happenings in Nektulos

stargrace April 28, 2007 2Comments

Hmmm. This looks new. Thexian Gatecallers and a whole lot of.. something.. going on

Yesterday I took my (now) 56 defiler, and decided I’d start claymore. The first few quests were really easy. I managed to get to the SoS ones, and realized I don’t have the druzaic language quest completed. In fact, I have no language quests completed, nor any Lore and Legend quests done. I need druzaic to speak with the ghost in Sanctum of the Scaleborn, so I decided early this morning that I’d head out and start working on that. It’s a very simple quest, run around to four shrines which can be in one of two locations, and click it. While searching for the first shrine in Nektulos Forest.. I stumbled into something.

Wow. What IS that? Surrounding it are Thexian Gatecallers, busy at work. It’s located in the North East portion of the zone, close to where you pick up the Dragoon heritage quest. Anyone have any ideas what’s incoming? I also noticed another strange occurrence that I’d yet to see before, or perhaps I’ve just never noticed it. In Antonica at the spires that take you to the KoS zone, there is a scroll on the ground, next to one of the spires that reaches for the sky. A brown scroll, that pulses with mist. You can’t interact with it, but it looked new to me none the less.

Is Neriak on it’s way back to being rebuilt? What are those Thexians up to? I tried to prod Silverstep for information (my dark elf fury) but she was reluctant to say anything. Personally, I don’t think she knew what to make of it.

I’m glad to be almost out of the dreaded T6 with the defiler. Though it’s going slow and even slower with no vitality. Using one of her 54% exp potions yesterday for an hour only netted me 30% experience over all. I figure I’ll just keep grinding and questing, it seems to get more experience over all.

It’s a slow slow grind, but I’m getting there!

stargrace April 27, 2007 2Comments

Misako grinding the level away in Pillars of Flame, her home for a few more levels

Level 55 and counting. I’m going to use a leveling potion tonight in the hopes that I can get to 56.. and then over the next few days, I’m hoping to be out of the dreaded T6 and into T7 with the defiler. I’ve been doing a few odd quests here and there, yesterday Silent City access was completed, and today since Pillars of Flame was relatively bot-free, decided to do some of the easy quests in there. It worked out fairly well. A lot of the ease of leveling has to do not only with the 70 shadowknight I use to mentor (though now my defiler can group up with 70’s and get quest credit finally! That’s a huge bonus) but also to do with the 56 ranger who’s been coming with me on all my adventures. It’s great company and the dps is a blessing.

Last night I also took the defiler through Poets Palace. Things there are level 65, which means they’re red to her, but she got the discovery and the ap points for the named none the less. The zone is fairly easy for any level 70. One down side is that she can’t quite cure the dots that mobs use, nor can she cure the awful traps that get set off from treasure chests, but she does have her 55 rare that she can use every 2 minutes and removes impairments up to level 74. Better then nothing I suppose! I haven’t progressed the Godking quest any further yet, nor have I progressed Claymore, but those are on my “to do” list. I imagine I’ll start more once I’ve hit 60.

I also did a quick nest run, which was a lot of fun. I took the illusionist, no healer. A master dropped and ended up getting transmuted, it was only selling for 2p on the broker, and that’s pretty much just change now. I love what Gaff has been doing lately with adding old screen shots and having people guess where they’re from. There is also a WoW site that does that called AFKGamer, so I think I’m going to have to swipe the idea, once a week. I’ll post a screen shot to some location or an item some place (hopefully unique.. I can’t promise though!) and see if people can guess where it is.

I found this post interesting, where Ogrebear talks about their dislike of people solo’ing poets. I made a reply to it, because I didn’t agree. There are plenty of people out there who can solo things that I can not do. Be it due to my gear (or lack there of) or some other factor. I don’t expect people to do things exactly like one another. It is a combination of skill and other randomness. I don’t hold it against those people either. It would be almost as if I complained about a level 70 crafter making more money from their crafting profession then I did at mine. At least that’s what I relate it to.

It… drools?

stargrace April 26, 2007 2Comments

Stargrace, sporting her new warg, which I’ve named Spit. For obvious reasons.

The new update went in yesterday with very little issues at all. I headed to Loping Plains (along with the majority of the server) and did the quests for the new wargs. Easy, simple, fast quests that paid some coin and a lot of ap experience. I did the quest on all three level 70’s, and I’ll head there and do it with the rest once they hit 55 (which is the lowest level you can be to get the quest). All you do is run around close to Somborn and charm three types of warg, you can complete it in less then five minutes. The wargs cost 5p each, and are 45% speed. So they’re slighty faster then the free carpet you can quest for, but slower then the guild level 60 mounts (which also cost status, and 14p each). There was a note on the forums stating these will not be the last wargs you see, nor the fastest. More will come.

They’re… interesting. The run graphic seems to be a bit off for my liking. They also drool. A lot. I do like the jump graphic. I decided to trade in my two 50% mounts and purchase this new warg, saving myself 5p on the return of my old mount, as well as getting the status back. Not that I need status for anything, but it’s always nice to have a little extra coin in my pocket.

Misako got level 54… I quested a little, and decided to do Hidden Cache with a friend. She also almost hit 52 ap, I’m heading down the int line for some nice debuffs.

With the new update yesterday was also a better chance for useful items to drop on your instance runs. Some people were complaining, because it does not seem to be 100% chance for a useful item to drop. More like 90% chance. I did Obelisk of Blight, where shadowknight boots dropped (and the tank was a shadowknight from guild who could use them, thankfully) and I also did Valdoons, where ranger forearms dropped, and low and behold, we had a ranger in the group who could use them. I had Dasie tag along on all these runs in the hopes that a piece of templar gear would drop… of course it didn’t happen that way but oh well I’ll just have to keep trying. I’m looking forward to being able to bring the defiler on these adventures.

Level 52, 53.. and it’s time for new digs

stargrace April 25, 2007 2Comments

Misako, sporting her new cobalt armor and a matching spear and buckler set

I slacked with the defiler, I admit. I leveled her to 52 wearing level 20 gear. I did upgrade her spells and she has adept1 of everything, made adept3 of everything important (which so far has been nothing except her 52 ancient teaching’s spell). I used her as a heal / buff bot and some dps with her doggy, but she rarely quested or did anything more. I didn’t join groups outside of my guild specifically because there’s no way she’d have the capabilities to keep up a “regular” player in her icky gear. So when she hit 52, I decided to go all out, and get her geared up incase opportunity ever arose that I actually wanted to, you know, PLAY her.

So I splurged, and spent about 11p. It was well worth it though. I bought 7 cobalt clusters and had a friend make me a full set of brigandine armor (which has +12 stam / int / wis) leaving them with a 2p tip for their prompt service. Then I bought 8 pearls, and made myself earrings, bracelets, rings, a necklace, made myself a belt with a scaled pelt, as well as a tome for ranged. Bought a cobalt spear for 1p50g since I don’t know any weaponsmiths, and made myself an imbued ironwood buckler with one I had sitting in the bank. Also bought her some level 50 food and drink, even though I have a provisioner, I had no supplies and wasn’t really in the mood to craft. Besides, what’s the point of even having money in game if I never spend it. My three level 70’s don’t need any masters any more, and their gear is no-trade stuff from raids and instances. There’s nothing to shop for.

I spent the day working quests in sinking sands and wondering why I had put off questing with her for so long. Probably because boxing two characters through quests is not actually something I enjoy. Especially because I box on one computer with one monitor. So I have to constantly toggle back and forth between characters while questing, checking for updates and seeing which part I’m on next and what I need, etc. I use the defiler screen far less, since I pay the most attention to the tank character. I managed to get almost 51 ap, and she’s 66% into her level from those solo sinking sands chains of quests. I also intend on getting her started on her godking weapon (which really is still the best weapon non-raid obtained for a healer) and I traveled to West Freeport and picked up the starter to Claymore which is how I figure I’ll grind her through the 60’s. She still needs to do the druzaic language quest, as well as pick up to speak as a dragon, but those can wait. I’m also looking forward to hitting 55, means she can group with level 70’s and get quest credit, even if the mobs are grey’d out, that doesn’t bother me so much. She’ll also get ap for the names killed.

Hoping to take her through Hidden Cache today in Sinking Sands. I did the Tomb of Dust in the Clefs of Rujark yesterday, three named and a bunch of discovery, nothing interesting dropped but that’s fine. Still eager to get her out of the 50’s and into the 60’s! When I was solo’ing the quests yesterday I realized just how much fun the defiler really is. Granted, I say that about every single one of my characters, I enjoy playing them so much.