May 2007

.. I have a new TOY!

stargrace May 20, 2007 3Comments

I have.. a new toy and I absolutely love it. On the left hand side is what looks like your very general track window. But that’s not all, of course not. This track window is a little more unique then most. Instead of tracking mobs and NPC, it tracks harvesting resources. What’s more, is that as you can see by the ? and ! on the page, it will track shinies.

Where does such a wonderful item come from? Well, easy, it comes from tinkering of course, which is the funnest tradeskill I have attempted, even though it’s also the most annoying in so many ways. It uses so many dang resources I’m lucky if I get 20 skill ups off of 5 hours worth of harvests. Though I suppose that’s not so bad.

The gnomish divining rod – great for tracking harvests

Now, there is a little trick I use when I use this item. You can specifically track the items listed if you want, but that will close the track window and waypoint to your destination, meaning you have to wait two minutes before you can track again. Actually, the two minute count down is from the initial use of the machine. Anyhow, it’ll mark your map with an X on the destination.

But.

What I do, is travel through the zone with that track window open. See, tracking can work a number of ways. It can work alphabetically, it can also place all named mobs first for you no matter their distance in the zone, and it can also track by distance from you. If you run around the zone (lets say Feerrott for example since that’s where Stargrace has been playing with this machine) with the track window open, and see a node on track that you’re looking for, you can pretty much just gage how far away from you it is by the distance down the list. As you get closer to the node you want, it’ll raise up on the list until the closest node next to you is the one you want, and by that time it’s easy to find it and harvest it.

If you see no nodes in your area that you’re looking for (For example, take a look at that list, there’s no ore listed at all) you can travel around keeping track up until you DO see some ore on the list, and then just maneuver your way around until the ore is closer to you or until you see it and can harvest it.

There are of course downsides to this. Number one, people don’t like "cherry pickers". They’re the harvesters who leave all the "gross" things up like poor discarded shrubs, and quite often trees, and pelts. Taking just the metals and roots as their loot. It’s not fun to walk through a zone and have nothing at all up to harvest except things that are not for your craft. I typically do harvest everything except fish (I’ve never managed to even work that skill up… I know I know bad of me!) but some times not many people are around and I just want something specific.

Not to mention the fact that the harvest tracker is also great for finding those ? and !’s that are scattered through out Norrath. Especially in those zones where they’re hard to come by, Antonica and Commonlands where there’s just so much space to cover. Or the zones where they seem a little more rare, or well, just any zone for that matter.

So yes, I am enjoying my new toy and all the uses I have for it so far. Tinkering was a great choice for my "main" character illusionist. I have a transmuter already, and actually transmuting is not that useful. Because even if you work a transmuter up to 350, you need an actual specific crafter to make the adornments of your choice in most cases. The transmuter just makes the items the crafter uses. Does that make sense? My transmuter makes powders and shards and infusions, and then my other crafters take those and craft them into adornments specific for that class. One reason why I love having a lot of crafters, I can rely on myself for adornments and don’t have to fork over a lot of money to others to make the items for me. Anyhow, I hope everyone else’ weekend was absolutely amazing, on a personal note, the ottawa senators (where I live) made it to the Stanley Cup finals, and the city is super excited about that. I’m not the biggest hockey fan out there, but it is my city after all, so I have to show a little support *grins* sorry to hear about those leafs Cordanim.

Spiritwalker boots, and the defiler has all the fun

stargrace May 19, 2007 2Comments

Mmms piece two of the defiler class set for Misako. Of course, she needs a few more levels

Yesterday was a great day for the defiler and I had not really planned on it. She was at about 60% experience which is still quite far away from a level in T7 I find. She was also at 90% achievement experience, which I knew I could ping off easily enough. I did my typical Mines of Meldrath run, no dagger. No anything in fact, it was a dry boring run. Quick though so it’s alright. She managed to loot some new precious treasure that gives achievement the first time you loot it, and got her 72nd achievement point.

I was going to run her and Stargrace to Fallen Gate and mentor Shadowgeist’ level 25 bruiser (Named Ixxar Bruizer, go figure.. and yes, he is an Iksar) but Cordanim logged on and had a bit of time to play. So we immediately gave up on the Fallen Gate idea and headed to Obelisk of Blight in Lesser Faydark. Cordanim had not been there yet (nor had my 62 defiler) and it would be a chance at class loot. I was a little leery at first. There would only be four of us, and the only healer (myself) was level 62. The group consisted of myself playing Stargrace (70 Illusionist) as well as Misako (62 at the time Defiler), Cordanim (70 Brigand) and Shadowgeist (70 Shadowknight). The run went amazingly well though. No wipes, though Misa did die a few times due to unwanted agro – that is almost expected as a defiler. Their wards pull agro on incoming far too easily. Cordanim got a nice new neck piece, and some upgrades for his fury who finally made it to Antonia Bayle. The class chest dropped at the end and we all held our breath to see if it would be something useful this time. I’d been hoping for the buckler of blight (which did not drop) or even the ring that drops from the end boss, but neither dropped. It was alright though, the defiler class boots dropped, something that Misa will really appreciate in another 6 levels. She managed to not only get level 63, but got another achievement point, hitting 73, and 20% into her level. I splurged and bought her the buckler of blight for when she finally hits level 69. I’m looking for quite a few more set pieces, the forearms at least that drop from Valdoons, I’ve got the shoulders already. Hopefully as time goes on and she gets a bit bigger I can start doing Unrest, and get her hat and breastplate. I don’t imagine I’ll be getting her gloves or legs any time soon, but we’ll see how it goes.

I can’t remember what else I did in game right off the top of my head, but it was certainly a great night for the defiler!

The Mines of Meldrath, and the assassin gets a new look

stargrace May 18, 2007 5Comments

Yamini picked up a few pieces of legendary in the Mines of Meldrath yesterday

Of every instance out there, besides the T7 ones, my favorite lowbie instance (for the time being at least) would have to be the Mines of Meldrath, located in the mines of Steamfont. There are 5-6 named in the zone, and the loot is very nice for the level. There’s a fabled dagger that drops there that I’ve been trying to get for my assassin (who is now a ranger, more news on that in a moment!) and there’s also a fabled hammer that drops that procs harvests when you use it. That’s right, a hammer that will give you crafting raws (you have to be a low level character to wield the hammer or else the proc won’t work) as you fight. That’s so cool. My defiler is 50% of her way through 62 and too big for the hammer to proc but I wanted to see what it looked like anyhow. There’s also very nice swords and some monk boots, lots of experience and it’s a fairly easy zone. I’ve been doing it daily in the hopes that the dagger drops. No luck yet, but the assassin (ranger) is still 4 levels away from using it anyhow, so I have time to farm it.

Now, anyone who knows me knows I get restless. I had made a fae ranger a few days ago, but was not exactly looking forward to leveling yet another alt up — even though I found the class exceptionally fun. There’s the evil fae coming out at the end of this month and I don’t want to be burnt out making lowbies before that even happens. So I decided that my 48 halfling assassin would just simply betray back to a ranger and I’d delete the fae ranger and make room for an evil fae warlock (once the free content of Neriak goes live). I’ve had Yamini since 2004, but never really spent any time leveling her. I love the class, but I’ve just always been side tracked. She started out as a ranger but betrayed the old way at level 14, slaughtering 500 orcs for the Overlord Lucan.

It was easy to betray her back to Qeynos, probably because I have such a history betraying characters already – former betrayals:

• Stargrace = Illusionist -> Coercer -> Illusionist
• Arysh = Warden -> Fury
• Goudia = Dirge (freeport) -> Dirge (Qeynos) -> Dirge (Exile at the moment going back to Freeport as a Troub at T7)
• Faydai = Necromancer -> Conjuror (contemplating moving her back to a necromancer for the rez and feign death)
• Misako = Mystic -> Defiler
• Yamini = Ranger -> Assassin -> Ranger

In fact the only one of my characters who I have not betrayed is my templar Dasie. Not sure why that is, I’ve never really had an impulse to betray her to an inquisitor. I don’t mind betraying as much as some do. It refreshes my characters for me. I’ve betrayed two at level 70, the rest were lower levels, where it doesn’t matter if your skills get re-set because you’re just going to get new ones. The two level 70’s had a lot of help from their guilds in order to betray and replace lost relic gear. It’s not something I take lightly, though I do get the impulse to betray quite quickly and then just do it and it’s over with.

Since the assassin is now a ranger, it’s looking fun. I love ranged attacks. Which is why I wanted to betray. I have a woodworker who makes arrows, and I never use her for that purpose. I’d like to try my hand at it. The Rain Caller heritage quest is something I’m eager to do even though it’s 10 levels away, it looks like a fun bow to play with.

Before betraying I did a few key things. I picked up all of the evil language primers so that I can speak both the good aligned and evil aligned languages. The rest will come from quests. I also went to the sage in the mage tower, and picked up all of the book quests that are sold there. The merchant won’t talk to me now that I’m a Qeynosian again. I can still purchase them from the librarian in the South Qeynos mage tower though, completing books for both sides. It may seem boring, but well, I do still love my house items and obtaining items for individual characters. I think that’s one thing that marks me as a little different then some people. I’ll treat each character as an individual and obtain their own housing and their own unique items as opposed to just mass sharing between all of them. Maybe that just makes me crazy though who knows *grins*. Had fun talking to Kilanna again a bit before servers came down, we have a lot of the same interests in game and that’s always fun to chatter about. Looking forward to delving back in and upgrading all of the rangers new skills. Then it’s off for some adventuring (I think..) looking at DFC at the moment.

Some simple crafting

stargrace May 17, 2007 2Comments

After a lot of procrastination, Dasie hits level 70 Jeweler

When I’m floundering about in EQII my typical response is one of three things. I’ll either make an alt, find some house items to quest for, or craft. Last night I decided to do the later of the three. I’d had Dasie sitting at level 69 in her craft for months now, mainly because you don’t get any new books after that level, so there’s no real point aside from the glory of being able to say you’re level 70. I purchased her crafting books, and set off to grind the level away. Actually, after making items for various customers the past few weeks I was already at 80% exp so it wasn’t that far to go. That leaves my crafters as follows:

70 Provisioner, 70 Jeweler, 61 Woodworker, 61 Sage, 51 Alchemist, 42 Tailor, 30 Armorer

Ah yes, that’s right! Today I decided that I’d quickly (nothing is ever done “quickly” in crafting) get the armorer to level 30 and out of that blasted tier forever. Your +progress buttons turn grey at 27 and it’s an annoying struggle to get to 30. But now I have new buttons and everything’s good. Of course now I’m also going to need T4 (level 30-39) crafting supplies. Maybe I’ll manage to find the elusive feysteel cluster (or two!). I’d really like to try to get all my crafters to level 70 in their craft before Kunark comes out and raises that cap to 80. I’m pleased that they’re raising the levels, but at the same time because I have so many characters and crafters, it’s going to be a lot of work to get them anywhere. On the plus side, I’ll also be able to pick and choose who to work up first and who to let slide a little bit. I’m excited about the new content even though it’s still quite some time away.

I’m going to be having a few guest writers on my blog, a friend of mine in game asked if they could write an article for me to post, and of course I jumped at the opportunity. I don’t usually write “news story” type posts, which I know a lot of people out there enjoy reading. What’s going on with whom in the industry and who did what to who and all that good juicy information, it’s just not my style on the blog. I enjoy writing about what I’m doing in game, vent out frustrations, some quest info and that sort of thing. So hopefully the guest writer can freshen things up a little bit, we’ll see how it goes.

Another alt.. you don’t say!

stargrace May 16, 2007 2Comments

Standing in front of the memorial in Kelethin, the newest addition to the alt-army

I have, a lot of alts. I admit that right now that I have a small.. obsession? With them. Well, that’s an unfair term for it I just have a lot of free time on my hands and I spend a lot of it in EQII. When people mention that I play a lot, I typically mention, well. How is it any different from me sitting in front of a TV, or doing some other activity? It’s a hobby I enjoy. Anyhow.

I decided yesterday I’d add a fae ranger to the ranks. I’ve never played a ranger before though I do have their counter part, a level 48 assassin. Thus Petites (french for “small”) was created. I created a bruiser a few days ago but it didn’t really seem to stick with me. The ranger however, I had a lot of fun with. I realized that I’ve actually never leveled in the EoF zones before at lower levels. I’d done a few quests to get to level 6 or so and then I typically left for Qeynos or Freeport aligned spots. I’ve never attempted a single quest in Butcherblock aside from the one that gives faction with the Irontoe brigade which is a level 60+ quest. Other then that, my quest journal has remained empty from the entire zone, and I’ve moved to other places. So I figured what the heck. EoF says it offers content from 1-70, lets see if I can level in those zones alone. I’m sure it’s very do-able.

I adore the ranger. I love being able to shoot at things with my bow (Ok, so I twinked her out a bit with some T1 rare crafted gear and weapons and poisons) and snare them and kite them around picking them off with my arrows. The Faydark zones are wide and open, giving me a lot of room to move around in. Hit them with a stun, flip around, use my stealth attack, use another attack that requires back, and then they’re squished. I know I typically say that I enjoy all of my characters, and it’s true. It’s been a while since I enjoyed a new alt though. I realized that all of my other characters are all level 40+ and that makes them a bit.. drab. I really enjoy the lower levels, just exploring and doing smaller quests that don’t require me to have an entire raid force behind me. I realize that a lot of people really want more end game content, and I’m all for that as well. But there’s something to be said for wandering around Antonica killing wolves for a level 10 guild writ, or wandering over to Stormhold and completing the quests for that zone. Ah memories. Lets not forget the three levels to the Qeynos sewers and all the quests one can find inside of there! So much fun.. . . Makes me want to . . . Start another alt!

I had a lot of fun talking to Kilanna in game, it’s always a wonderful reminder on why I play this game when I find like-minded folks out there. I love her enthusiasm for the game and it inspires me what can I say.

I’ve been taking a break from the housing thing lately, working on smaller quests, I did Den today with the defiler and hit level 62 with 71ap, finished off her shaman lines for good. Bought her a few very small upgrades of gear but the rest will have to wait until she hits 68 because there’s simply no point when the majority of the gear is for those levels or higher. She has spiritwalker shoulders sitting in her bank, some nice chain legs, and a breastplate that I farmed for her so far, as well as seven master spells. The rest will come with time (and levels).