August 2007

Questing, in EverQuest? Who’d have thought

 

Qutey Patootie, my level 24 monk, bravely fighting in the Tower of Bone, in Darklight Woods

I’ve posted in the past about my methods of leveling. They typically involve the grind / boxing method. Where I have a level 70 mentored down to the lowbie and then just rip through zones destroying everything in my way. I do chains of quests of importance, or those that I know have great rewards and experience, but for the most part end up avoiding half of the content out there. So I created a character who had the capabilities to solo, but who I would not rush up the levels with my typical power leveling method. I wanted something that could tank, and have methods of escape, as well as moderate dps. Something that did not have to rely on a group ever, but who if I eventually got high enough, could tank for my own groups.

And so Qutey Patootie, my fae monk, was created. I’ve had her for quite some time now, and I rarely ever play her. Since I’d been feeling my typical restlessness in game, I decided to dust off her wings and do some adventuring. She is twinked out with mastercrafted armor (not jewelry though) as well as weapons, and she does have a few adornments that I tossed up on her. Any coin she has is from her own adventures though, and I think she’s sitting at about 21g. She also has combat experience disabled, and has for quite some time. There’s one thing though. She still levels too fast. How? Well, quest completion experience still goes through. So she’s very slowly been leveling up through discovery of new zones, and quest completions. I’ve mostly hung out in Antonica, though recently I did take her through Darklight Woods to get the quests there done. Even though she’s good aligned the quest givers had no issues talking to her. I had to avoid the guards once or twice (I love the fact that monks not only get FD, but they get invis as well).

She has 191 quests completed at level 24 as of right now. Of course not all of those give aa experience, a few I’ve forgotten to mentor down for and a good portion were from antonica where there were a good deal (before the revamp at least, I have not been there since the revamp, I’ll have to test) that did not give aa at all for completion. It’s difficult to adventure in these “old world” zones when the newer ones are around. Not only are the quests vastly out dated, but the gear is certainly not comparable to what’s out there at all. My monk had been getting by with Antonica quests reward for so long, after completing a few in Darklight Woods I’d nearly replaced all of her old jewelry. It’s a nice break from playing the troubador who’s sitting (stuck) at level 65, as well as the 4 other level 70’s that I’ve got. I managed to barely get Goudia to level 37 weaponsmith before I grew utterly bored of it, so I expect that I’ll play around on the monk for the next little while since it holds my interest. It’s fun reading the quest lines and the history behind everything, something I’ve missed out on in the past. I suppose I was also influenced to bring out my monk due to this post here on Average Joe’s blog, about their new guild “Slow Burn”. I wonder how they’ll manage to stay at level 10 though, seeing as quest turn in experience is so huge of an amount. It’s a very cool idea for a guild, and a great way to experience the game if anyone out there is bored, I’d suggest giving it a try. Of course if you’re not much of a quester you may find it an annoying method to experience the game, but for myself at least I think it’s great.

Catalog quests, and Aetryol Monsoon of the Taloned Vigil

 

Now that Goudia’s hit 65, she was able to craft her relic breastplate. Though she needs a few more levels to wear it

One of the numerous quests in EQ2 that are perhaps the most ignored, and easiest to do, are the creature catalog quests that you can find spread through out. So when Goudia was 20% away from her level yesterday, I decided to complete a few. Specifically the KoS ones, Bonemire, Barren Sky, and TT. The quests don’t require any killing, and with track it makes them a whole heck of a lot easier. I needed about 20% aa exp per quest as well as 7% regular exp at level 64. Got my level — which also means (finally) Jesters cap! A wonderful class defining spell for a troubador. I bought a master of it since it was not too expensive (I don’t mind spending 8p on a class defining spell) and though I didn’t get a lot of time to use it, I was excited none the less. I also did a chain of quests for Aetryol Moonsoon, who can be found in Bonemire. In fact, I think I am out of quests now for the KoS zones. That was some nice solo experience too, so now I’ll have to move back to Lesser Faydark and Loping Plains. Actually loping should have some pretty nice quests to complete, one of which is the warg mount quest which I know is quite easy to do.

I made the new baby brigand (Sensual, from the previous post incase you’ve no idea who that is) a full set of blackened iron gear. I intend on getting her some adornments too just for fun, but I don’t expect to be leveling her much. I’m thinking of doing more crafting then anything perhaps for the next little while, and working up my smaller alts. I was contemplating applying to a raid guild (or two, or three, to see what my options are) but I don’t know if I want to go that rout quite yet.

So what have I got planned in the mean time while I flounder about as usual? Well, Goudia has a whole lot of L&L quests to complete, Misako has a house that needs working on, two guilds I’m apart of could use a few more levels (or two or three) and maybe searching for a new home for my characters where there’s a few more people around. Not that I mind my tiny guild, but some times it’s nice to see others on since I’m in game so frequently. I finally finished the new Harry Potter book last night (in fact I stayed up till 2am reading it) and now I’m reading the DragonLance book I picked up. I’m looking forward to winter getting here eventually, I’ve had enough of the heat of summer.

Restless? Make an alt of Course!

 

Sensual, the newest addition to the alt-army

A few updates. Goudia finally hit level 64, and is almost 65. Which of course is always a good thing because then she’ll get Jesters. A must have for all troubadors. Darcyle also traded her a new dagger that’s got a cool graphic as well as being very bard-worthy (Hard to find DW daggers with int on them until they add the weapon changes, when ever that is). Today we wandered to the Kaladim ring event (ok, well wander is an understatement, it was more like.. train attempt.. die… train attempt.. die… invis..) unfortunately the class gloves did not drop. Instead the legendary scout chain things dropped. An upgrade for Goudia but not what we were there for. There was a templar who was in the group who had their heart set on them as well, hopefully they have better luck in their next attempts.

Last night I was feeling slightly restless, so I dusted off Qutey who is my 23 monk and brought her to Darklight woods to quest with Miliamber, a new coercer. We had fun running around doing the lower level quests. When Smashgut joined I decided to relog to my baby brigand, who was sitting at level 7. It was not long before she hit level 13, completing a good portion of quests. I figure today I will twink her out some in mastercrafted gear and some adornments. It’s always fun to gear baby alts up in “the best” even if you don’t really have any intentions of leveling them. She’ll be ready for any future endeavors.

Real life has unfortunately been beating me around lately, so you’ll have to forgive my lack of posts. Maybe I’ll get into some of those Butcherblock quests before too long on Qutey, and I’d like to get Goudia to 70 still of course. Other then that, things are fairly quiet. Arysh is working her tradeskill (slowly) and Cordanim is gone for the week camping with his family, hope he has fun! Kilanna’s adventures seem to be going well, and Lader has been having some fun working his alts. It was still fun to talk to Jerrek, thank goodness it’s the weekend!

A little motivation

 

So when she finally hits 70, Goudia has some new stabbies all ready

There’s nothing like a little motivation to get some levels for your character. Goudia is sitting at 60% into 63 right now, with not enough vitality for me to be able to even make it into the next level. However, she did manage to get her little paws on two VERY pretty .. pretties.. last night. She has a few levels before she can use them but I adore them none the less. I think it will actually be a hobby of hers. Once her bags are not filled with tradeskill materials, she can fill it with pretty looking stabbies. Even though I (one of the few who do) realize that bards are not exactly melee’ers. I had a discussion about this yesterday with a friend of mine, trying to figure out a few things. I was examining a few other troubadors, and noticed that they’re all spec’d for strength it seems. Now, I realize that I’m still fairly new at playing a bard. However. My bard is int spec’d. She’s wearing mostly moonstone jewelry until I can afford the nicer stuff with +int on it (and have the levels) and she’s got more int then anything else. She’s sitting at 434 currently. Does this mean she can’t melee? No, of course she can, but only 3 of her “songs” do melee damage. The rest do mental damage. Leading me to believe that she is pretty much a chain wearing caster, rather then a pure dps scout. If the bard is dead due to rushing up towards a mob, the whole group suffers. I’d rather hang back a bit and cast my songs from afar (they have some nice range).

Handy bag to have around.. and brings back some old EQ memories

Gerbil and Goudia (the dynamic duo.. a fae and a ratonga, you can’t possibly get any cuter) started (and finished) their bag of the tinkerers last night, along with some much appreciated (and needed) help from Shadowgeist. Oh, and because I forgot yesterday, a huge thank you to Lader for coming out and helping get those bone-clasped girdles done. The guild is almost level 20, which means another row of bank slots (cheers!), things are coming along nicely. Today it will probably be a round of Barren Sky quests, for some aa. Goudia has been slacking behind lately. I’d like to get more of her EoF aa’s completed. She’s got 68 currently. I’ll probably drag Misako around as well though I think she has the quests done she can at least buff the baby bard and warlock.

The game has been almost un-playable at night lately, which really sucks. There’s been huge amounts of chat lag. Not group chat, for some reason that channel works fine and is separate from the rest. However, guild messages take forever to go through after 7pm EST, and you may not even want to try zoning. I hung at the “receiving zone info” for a good 10 minutes, of course frustrating to me (and everyone else experiencing it).

It’s a whole lot of crafting..

 

And, the baby bard gets herself another proc item….

Another fairly busy weekend in game, Monday was a holiday, so that was nice. First of all, Goudia hit 63 which means two more levels and she’ll have her 65 rare spell, which of course I am really looking forward to it. It’ll be nice to hit 70 but not in a rush, enjoying some of the game a bit (again). Aside from that, and a few deaths, I spent a whole lot of time this week crafting gear / spells / jewelry for Darcyle who’s got almost as many alts as I do I think. We’re talking 21+ items which of course I had a blast crafting. If you play on the Antonia Bayle server you probably know who they are, and have heard them in channels from time to time. They’ve got quite the reputation. However. I don’t typically listen to that stuff. When someone pisses me off (as a few have done now) I will hold a grudge against them. Or if they hurt a friend of mine. However, since I am still fairly new to the server very few people are on that list. I’d rather not be narrow minded and shut people out before I even get a chance to get to know them, does that make any sense? Probably not.

In any case. Trying to decide who I’ll level up next. I’ve got the troubador almost at 70, the uhms ranger I’m thinking maybe? Who knows.

Preparing for RoK, trying to make some coin. Working on the houses, getting the rest of my set gear, maybe working claymore. Boring stuff eh? I know. Thunderwalker has his Gerbil sitting at level 65 now, rift is absolutely amazing (I have not seen it I just take his word for it), Xoolander hit 58 last night. The guild levels are slow but doing writs is fun. . . Yes, that’s right, I just said they were FUN. Honestly I don’t have too much else going on right now while I ponder whether or not I want to join a new guild and get into the raiding scene again. It’s not difficult with this many alts. I’ve been restless in game, go figure, nothing new there either.

I sent some tells to Jerrek yesterday, after reading his blog (again) and remembering (finally) that he’s on the AB server. Spent some time talking to Kilanna, and just had a very nice pleasant quiet day. Do I miss the drama from Inquisition? Nope. Lader and Thunderwalker do not either. Lader’s having a blast in JoTo, which I’m so glad to see. We’ll see where I go from here.