September 2007

Hrms, What to do Now

stargrace September 19, 2007 1Comment

Faydai, my 56 necro, is well behind where she should be in regards to achievement experience

So I’ve been contemplating what I should do in game now, I’m basically just waiting for RoK to be released. Working on smaller alts and crafting here and there. Storing coin aside in the guild bank to help afford the cloak as well as new spells that’ll be coming out. Still not even sure which two characters I’ll be taking to 80 first, I’m sure I’ll decide the day of the expansion or some such. In the mean time, I decided to dust off my 56 necromancer, Faydai. She’s way behind in achievement experience (or aa as it’s typically called by old EQ1’ers) and it’s going to take me forever to get her caught up. Or I could stick with her, or something. Not sure.

I love playing the necromancer. The dps they have is very nice and a huge change from my typical healers. Except she’s slightly… less well off. Then my other characters, simply because her spells just cost so dang much. I used to say that everyone and their dog had a druid (which still holds true) but now I think everyone is running a necromancer of some sort or another. Not that I mind exactly, it’s not as if I am really playing mine, but they’re everywhere.

I ran Mines of Meldrath today, managed to get three legendary useless drops. Transmuted them all, and got powders (also quite useless). 22% experience for the zone, which is not so bad. Groups in the 50’s seem to be far and few between, so I’m contemplating questing my way through them, or being constantly LFG (me? LFG? Eh, no thanks…) to at least try to break into the T7 bracket before RoK comes out. Since Faydai is already a 70 sage, that comes in handy, I can at least see the higher level channels.

Slightly peeved, last night was going to go on an Unrest run, but the servers said they were going down randomly for two hours. Group decided to go to a smaller instance, and the server message said they were not going down after all… of course. Once my group had already decided to go do something else. Ah well, it was getting close to midnight anyhow, so Shadowgeist and I just decided to call it a night.

Just fun in General

stargrace September 18, 2007 3Comments

Playing around with Photoshop and screen shots (there are three screenies incorporated here)… too much fun

So I decided to kick back and relax yesterday, spending most of my time on Qutey, the monk. She’s completed 310 quests or so now I believe, hit level 28, and 28aa. 28 carpenter as well, which is always nice. I’ve come to the conclusion (though I am not the only one) that Thundering Steppes quests suck. Yes that’s right I said the S word. The rewards are barely worth it, the mobs are scattered all over and are far too rare especially if you don’t have track. Of course as is the way with quests, I had to kill 16 hawks. Barely saw any, struggled for a few hours hunting them down, once I’d completed the quest there were hawks everywhere. Bah.

The new level meant a new feign death though, and that was a welcome upgrade. Since I was only wandering around killing solo encounter mobs I turned combat experience back on for the majority of my travels, not that it netted me much. I’d like to get to 32 though, means a new set of gear and some new pretty weapons. I have a good chunk of quests to complete in TS before I wander anywhere else, at least the majority of the rewards are tradeable, and my transmuter’s been having a lot of fun ripping things apart.

Other then that, things are quiet. Last night in guild we had myself, Cordanim, Calreth, Gothun, Shadowgeist, and Lader all on at once, it was odd. I haven’t heard from Kilanna in a few days, hope everything is going well down at her end of the world. TK is almost level 24, the writs keep coming (maybe that’s what I’ll do today instead of slogging around on the baby monk, who knows). I’m excited about RoK, and hoping to get into the beta, we’ll see how it goes!

Busy Weekend? Not Overly

stargrace September 17, 2007 6Comments

I love the Bristlebane pet, Meatbeast from Shimmering Citadel

Well, there was no time for posts this weekend, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t active in game. It was my Mom’s birthday so I headed to my folks place on Sunday, and of course did all of the typical household things on Saturday. I switched Goudia from Rallos to Bristlebane and the cloak is quite impressive. In fact it sort of puts the other deity cloaks to shame, as far as reward goes. I think I completed a heritage quest, Stein of Moggok, but it was lost in the amazing spam of status from both Calreth and Gothun, who have been working their way through our guild levels. Torrent Knights is almost 24, at 25 we get to add a new design to our guild cloak, as well as unlocking a few more things from the status merchant, always a good thing.

After some heavy contemplation, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just not a raider. I felt almost obligated to raid because I’m level 70 and know my characters fairly well — but that’s not how I enjoy the game. I have far more fun piddling around on a level 20 character doing a quest I’ve never done before or exploring an area that I glimpsed over long ago, then any end game raid or instance. Maybe it’s because I find the game slightly stale, it’s been over 18 months since we’ve had a level increase. But the game doesn’t bore me – so I’ve decided it must just be my play style. I’m much more comfortable crafting and chattering then traipsing around for hours on end in Emerald Halls. Even if I am “good” enough or know my class well enough, it’s just simply not fun to me.

I’ve been having fun leveling the coercer lately. She’s almost 47 and that’s when she can finally use her m1 of dominate. I’m excited about it. It’s been a while since I’ve played a coercer, though the pain from leveling up the last one still throbs from time to time. The master charms really do make a large difference. I’ve also geared her up finally, and moved her from Neriak to Freeport, to escape the lag monster.

The wizard that I made is sitting at 22 (un-geared) and I’m sure I’ll make some items for her before too long and begin questing. My favorite by far is still the monk (though I was contemplating a bruiser) who hit 28 carpenter. I haven’t heard from Kilanna much this week, but I’m sure she’s doing wonderful. Cordanim poked in last night so he’s back from his business trip and in game (where he should be!).

I finally found my photoshop CS2 CD (ok, ok, I “found” it over at my folks place, dad graciously gave it to me) and I’m going to be delving into manipulations hopefully over time. I’d like to be able to work on my screen shots and produce some art work from them. The uh, cow image above is the first thing I’ve done with photoshop in about two years. If anyone has links to some tutorials please feel free to email them to me! I have found a few on the Eq2 forums, but I’d love more. Everything I’m trying to do is just self taught. It was nice to re-install the drivers to my wacom tablet (Mine? I actually mean Shadowgeist’) this morning now if only the cat would stop trying to chew on it…….

What’s Scarier then a 40ft Halfling..

stargrace September 14, 2007 0Comment

Darcyle finding out first hand what the Avatar of Mischief has been up to

Since Bristlebane is live on servers, it’s only natural to assume that his avatar would be as well. Wandering through various nightbloods I stepped onto what appeared to be a huge mass of fur. Little did I know it was just ONE TOE of this massive halfling. He stands pretty dang tall, and on my server at least he’s yet to fall. Looks like the top end raid guilds are going to have their hands full.

I managed to do an unrest group early this morning with Goudia, she was still hunting her class hat and breastplate. I say was because she managed to (finally) get the hat to drop. Now she’s got her set bonus (wearing her feather hat for graphics) and just needs the chest piece for a full complete set. The only one of my characters to have their full set in fact. Pants and gloves are such a pain to obtain unless you have a very steady group of adventurers. Isn’t that everyone’s dream anyhow in an MMO? To have a constant steady group of (fun) people to wander the lands of Norrath? I know it’s not very typical that everyone is on at the same time, but I think that’s what we all look for.

Since the GU, my tome quest starters now drop from grey mobs. I am of course ecstatic over this and I’ll be working to get all of the ones I’m missing. I know there are nine in Obelisk, at least one in Blackburrow, two in Rivervale, and a few in Cazic-Thul as well. It’s going to be great working on these book quests and filling my home.

On a side note, I got some very pretty flowers yesterday from Bloodpact that smell like strawberries. Hopefully the cat doesn’t decide to eat them or knock over the container that I’ve got them propped up in. My mom’s birthday is this weekend, so I’ll be (hopefully, if she’s home) heading to my folks place this weekend to see how she’s doing.

I also did a very nice Obelisk of Blight group this morning, I didn’t need anything from the zone (except maybe that ring that refuses to ever drop for me, I’ve never seen it drop not even once) but it was still fun to run through, I did that with Stargrace. The illusionist doesn’t get out much but is still a lot of fun for me to play.

OH as another change that I didn’t even notice yesterday — they removed the rooted component to my troubadors precision of the maestro spell! I wouldn’t have even noticed were it not for the fact that I attempted to move as I cast it. The spell now dazes me, which means I can’t auto attack. I don’t anyhow with it, since it’s a proc that sets off on hostile spells. I adore the change, it was fantastic to learn. I’d typically toggle the spell off so I could run after my group that was charging ahead, and now I can simply keep up.