June 2007

Gaming Corner

stargrace June 12, 2007 2Comments

Well, Cuppy asked for us to post pictures of our blogging areas, so this is mine. The coffee tins on the far right are actually filled with coins, I don’t have some obsession with nabob coffee, though maybe it’s more interesting if I do. On the top of my computer are some photographs, the one with the heart is of Shadowgeist (my fiance) and to the left of that a giant coin and some pictures of my friends kids. There’s a teddy bear my mom gave me up there too. Of course my beautiful monitor, G15 keyboard, mouse, and headset sitting on the keyboard tray. Lots of books scattered around and note pads since I spend a majority of my time writing. The cat normally hogs the whole left side panel there, but I managed to take the picture before she snuck her way on. My desk top is a screen shot that I took in game, nothing impressive.

Ranger Down

stargrace June 12, 2007 2Comments

Qutey Patootie – a monk to be reckoned with

Yesterday I was undecided as to what to do. That’s one of the bad things about having so many alts, is there’s plenty that you could work on, but it’s hard to decide what you actually want to work on. I had heard about the Sword of Destiny line ending shortly, and I have yet to complete it on any on of my characters (the chapters that are out now) so I figured perhaps I’d work on that. I also wanted to get some Tunarian Wolvesbane and donate it to the guild, for when they eventually attempt Mayong in Mistmoore Inner Sanctum. I wanted to work on getting Dasie to 100aa, since she’s behind and could use them, and I also wanted to work on tome quests with <insert every character I have who has them here>.

Instead, I took a look at my ranger, who was 30% into level 49, and decided to level her to 50 the best way that I knew how for that level. Which of course is through discovery experience. You can get an entire level from 49-50 just through discovery in Sinking Sands, Clefs of Rujark, and Pillars of Flame. There is just that much discovery between the three zones. I also managed to get the Clefs lift access done at the same time, and killed off a few named that were up for aa. I don’t typically get a chance to play my ranger, or any of my “pure” dps classes in fact, because the utility or healer classes are needed far more often, but I like to think that I’m slowly learning how to play them. I pride myself on knowing how to actually play all of my classes. There is a lot of fantastic players out there who know their classes far better then I do and can pull off some amazing stuff with them as such, but I still like to think that I’m an ok player.

Anyhow, I ran her around, and got her level, and her level 50 skills, which I’ll of course need to upgrade. I also need to start working on her alchemy again a little bit. I love not having to purchase all my poisons and potions. She can’t make the T6 ones to use yet though until she levels a bit more. Poisons are a scouts bread and butter. Well, aside from bards at least who don’t get to use poisons. I also got my baby monk to level 22, which was just high enough to use the new crafted gear I made her. I’ve turned off her combat experience again and will continue to level her by doing quests. It’s a wonderful character to escape to and I am really enjoying being able to feign death if a fight gets too difficult. Of course it always seems to fail at just the right time when you have 100 mobs beating away on you, but it’s still fun none the less.

It’s the little things…

stargrace June 11, 2007 5Comments

Finally, Dasie managed to get her set piece forearms

Yesterday was quiet, I had a BBQ to go to (oh my goodness crab cakes and steak and potatoes… it was so good) and then once I got home did a fast Valdoon run with Shadowgeist (I played Dasie and Stargrace). I’d been attempting to get the templar/inquisitor forearms for quite some time with no luck. Usually the shadowknight ones dropped. I was also hoping to get her the bloodlust earring, but that one decided to be a little more stubborn. On the plus side that also drops from the first named, so I can just kill that and avoid the rest of the zone now that I’ve gotten the forearms. I did a Chamber of Immortality run for the two masters that are guarantee drops with Ishbel, and did it again this morning. I have her parked outside of the zone so that’s pretty much all I do with her lately. Having so many alts is an expensive hobby, I figure if I farm that zone everyday that’s still 14 masters a week (minus whatever else I typically farm) and that’ll help when it comes time to gearing up my alts.

Last night I couldn’t sleep, so I dusted Yamini off and headed to the Obelisk of Lost Souls. Spent some time farming in there (while boxing, of course) and hit level 49 with her. I’m still looking to get both her and Goudia to 52 so that they can wear all that cobalt gear I bought a while back. Tonight is another off night, so no raids at least. Tomorrow is labs and Chel’Drak. I’m sure both will go very well.

A small pet peeve I have, is when people keep asking / bothering me for the items I loot. Now, that sort of comes off wrong. I’m not a greedy person and I don’t have any issues helping my friends or giving stuff away, but I hate it when almost complete strangers ask me for that sort of stuff. A few have said ‘well I don’t get the luxury of boxing’ or ‘I don’t play as much as you do’. But I still put forth time and effort to accomplish anything that I have in game. Those should not be ‘excuses’ to hit me up for items or money or power leveling. Is it just me? I mean, a guild group is different. I’ve been helping to level a few guildies in the evenings and I decline on everything that drops unless it may be a tradeskill item. There’s simply no need for me to roll on that stuff since I have my own characters and because I can indeed just box to get the items I need. I suppose maybe I am not the nicest person, but I help in my own way. If someone needs help with something I typically am available to help. If they have a question about the game, I’m more then willing to aid there as well. I just don’t like passing out extraordinary amounts of material things. Though I did give a guild necromancer a level 70 master yesterday since I just had it sitting around.

A friend of mine who plays on Najena was telling me how she was finishing off her collection tome quests, and I decided that it may be a good idea for Stargrace to complete some of those as well. I’d been harvesting pages forever it seemed, and had only a few needed for each collection, most of the time only one was needed. So I looked up the quests and found out that for 8 of them, the pages I needed were actually clickies located in the Feerrott. So off I went, and completed *8* book quests! I was ecstatic. That was 8 more house items to add to the library. I also managed to finish four more L&L’s and added the weapons to the growing collection on Stargrace’ wall.

Other then that, things are quiet, and I can’t say I mind at all. I will probably be heading to Niagara Falls later next week so there may be a lack of posts, but it’s still in the works, so we’ll see how it goes!

*** As a side note *** This is my 300th EQII related post… wow, hard to believe I’ve hit that number already! Thank you so much everyone for the support and comments and all the rest that help make this blog possible. I really enjoy having this little niche in the MMO world.

A Weekend in Review

stargrace June 10, 2007 1Comment

The AA information on the left hand side is for Dasie, who’s sitting at 66 right now, and on the right, Stargrace who is at 100. I just wanted to see where the majority of their points came from. Dasie hit 50 before any aa were in game, so she never got an opportunity to do any of the lower level stuff for it. Stargrace on the other hand, was created when DoF and KoS were both already out. Dasie is the lowest of my characters as far as aa’s are concerned, I’ve rarely ever gotten a chance to play her, she’s never been needed. It gives me a goal at least though and something to do. Dasie is also a 70 jeweler, which is always nice. I’m going to make her a tinkerer since Stargrace already is one, who wouldn’t want two.

The guild leader left for a short vacation on Thursday after raids, Friday was a tentative raid to work on the arcanists signets quest line from Loping Plains. You know the set, that gives a VERY nice proc against vampires. I had horrible thunderstorms, so I actually had to leave part way through for a brief period, and didn’t want people to have to wait on me, so I was left behind. Understandable though, I’ll complete it another time. It’s really a very great proc to have on raids. It was a small group but we did manage to get our off tank the cloak that proc’s hate. Not that he needs much more hate, he’s a great off tank.

Saturday (again with no guild leader nor his wife which means no MT and no MT defiler.. and our MT templar is also on vacation..) we were scheduled to do LoA but were cautious about it, missing so many people. I was asked to play my inquisitor in the main tank group because the templar who typically raids with us is on vacation. Now. Dasie does not have masters of her heals, and she’s slightly under-geared, but that is only a portion of how well a player does. I parsed very well on the heals for the night, and aside from some difficulty from the eyeball in the zone who spawns tatter tots (we wiped x2 and got him on the 3rd) the zone was cake. Impressive since we had three groups and so many missing. I had a blast playing Dasie. I’m really hoping that I get to keep her as my main, I have to talk to the guild leader when they get back and see how viable that would be. I know everyone loves having a constant illusionist (or two, since we have two) around, but I am a healer at heart and I hope I proved that with my game play the past little while.

Tonight I’ve got a BBQ to head to so not much time for playing, an off night since it’s Sunday. Monday is an off night as well, though a courts run was planned too few people signed up. Tuesday I believe we’re doing labs and Chel’Drak again, but I could be wrong. We’ll see how it goes. In game it’s your typical Sunday, people complaining on various channels and all the rest. The Festival of Unity ended yesterday with a parade, but I didn’t get to go to it because of raids. I know there’s a balance between role play and raiding out there, but it sucks that I couldn’t go to the event. One of the main reasons why I enjoy the 3 raids a week that we host right now as opposed to joining the other guilds who were interested in me who all raid 7 days a week. Just because I’m on frequently doesn’t mean I want to spend all of it raiding.

Good Halfling Gone Bad

stargrace June 8, 2007 7Comments

Dasie, playing the part of an inquisitor, all done up as a vampire

I used to be able to say that there was one character I had never betrayed, my very first character on EQII in fact, my templar. However, that’s changed, not a bad thing! I decided I wanted to try an inquisitor for a few reasons. Number one, I really wasn’t playing the templar at all, she’s not needed for raids, and there are plenty around. Not that there aren’t also a lot of inquisitors in around too, but the guild could use an inquisitor some times. I honestly miss playing a healer, I played one pretty much all of my time in EQII until I decided to switch to illusionist for a bit, it’s been about 5 months now since I’ve been playing her.

The betrayal was fast, I had help from Dalthar, a brigand in guild. He snuck into the instance with me and would sneak around completing the quest while Dasie sat around, then I zoned her out, died to an epic, rinse repeat to finish the simple faction quests. She got her +10k with the city of Freeport within the hour, tamed a dog, killed a woman, and ta da. Dasie is a new inquisitor. I had adept3’s and masters set aside for her, so she was all set to go. Then came raid time. I typically play Stargrace on raids, the guild has plenty of healers. Well. Usually. Last night we had a shortage, and I was asked if I’d mind boxing both my healer and my illusionist on the raid. I don’t mind boxing, but boxing on a raid… is hard. Especially if you’re playing a healer — not to mention it was my first day playing an inquisitor.

I was a little leery at the end since we all have to run into Venekors room at the same time, and avoid adds and get back up against a wall. I had to do it with both girls fairly fast or risk wiping the raid, and I did not want to do that. I apologized ahead of time incase I caused a wipe, and uh, well my girl got stuck on the door, and of course, we wiped. Another raider went LD during the run anyhow, so it wasn’t completely my fault, but it was none the less. I felt horrible. So that was the only death of the evening at least. We went at it again, this time I made sure both characters were clear through the doors, backed up against a wall, all that good raid stuff that I’ve been doing for some time now. Kill was flawless, even with the lack of regular players.

Hopefully I’ll be playing the inquisitor more frequently, I had a blast. Granted, I am still learning her spells, and she’s not at 100aa yet, but hey, work in progress. I figure if I don’t like it I will just betray her back to templar in November when the level cap goes up. Do I regret giving up her master spells? She had all of them except one level 70 group reactive, including her T6 rare holy redoubt (a 962hp buff). Not really. I heal fairly well (not to brag, that’s not my point here) with or without the masters. She could *really* use some upgrades, but what’s the point if I’m not going to be playing her seriously. She could also use claymore. Ugh. I’m dreading doing that on a .. 4th… character… *sighs* We’ll see how it goes. Sorry my thoughts are all over today, weather has me a bit scatter brained. Didn’t see Kilanna this morning, hope she had a pleasant night though!