November 2007

Tomb of Thugga? Not likely

stargrace November 30, 2007 5Comments

Sighs. I’m disheartened, what can I say. Last night we attempted our first RoK raid instance, the Tomb of Thugga. It’s located in Fens, in a small cave in the center portion of the waterfall close to the span. We were excited, we had a great raid force, people were in great spirits. Zoned in, and it looked.. well, not exactly exciting, but not bad either. It consists of a long hallway with spiders and skeletons who enjoy stunning and fearing. Two small rooms to the left and right, with a huge spider Mistress in the center back.

We cleared the zone and were face to face with the named. Staring her down. Pulled her, and wiped as we had no clue what to expect. Figured out what her “thing” was (ever named encounter has a “thing”) and prepared to pull her again once we’d worked out a strat.

Down came the server.

Sighs. The raid hung around on ventrilo for 45 minutes waiting for Antonia Bayle to unlock, and then we had to call it, it was getting late and people were bored. It unlocked, and we were….

Outside the instance. Zoning in, we found the entire thing had re-set. If we wanted to attempt this zone again, we’d have to clear everything, again. People were upset. Now, I’m typically quiet calm when these things happen, after all I know there are issues that are expected. That doesn’t mean it was any less of a disappointment though. We can’t even attempt the zone again until Monday or some such as our MT won’t be around this weekend. Goudia was parsing around 900 on some fights (the troubador) and I was just tickled pink, since she’s 78 in treasured gear. I know that number’s not very high, but I was happy with our progress. We were doing wonderful.

When the server was down yesterday morning for three hours instead of the planned one hour, I didn’t mind. When we have log in issues and throttling the players logging in (slowing them down so the log in server is not swamped) I can understand it. I didn’t mind them disabling our broker sales completely for periods of time while they worked on things. But the expansion’s been out for a while now, and the server stability hasn’t gotten better. We still experienced 15 minute receiving zone info timers if we tried to go anywhere. I think I’ve stared at that screen more then I’ve looked at any RoK zone this week so far.

Of course, we’ll just go about our way, and try again some other time. I just wish our first experience in one of the new zones had of gone a lot smoother.

Figures.. Here come the Nerfs

stargrace November 29, 2007 9Comments

Since the servers are down (with no explanation again, aside from the fact that they were supposed to be down for an hour (it’s over two hours now) I went browsing through the EQ2player forums, which is always a mistake. As I browsed I found this article, which just made me cringe. I feel exceptionally bad for all those people who replaced their gear with the treasured rewards (and then sold their old gear) thinking they would be better. Heck, I’m one of those people as well. Although I tried to upgrade for stats before I upgraded for the gear bonuses, I did replace practically everything Goudia was wearing with the new stuff. I also replaced Arysh’ fabled due to the heal procs.

So what happens? We’re SoL pretty much. It doesn’t matter if you’ve replaced, and sold, your old gear. You won’t be getting it back. Let this be (another) lesson to us all.

I love the way people ask in the post “isn’t that what beta was for.. ” because they have a point. Two weeks after the expansion is out and now all the items that people quested to get are being changed. Bleh.

A rather large tune will be appearing in an upcoming hotfix, and I wanted to give you all a heads up:

The effects that are currently attached to Treasured items in Kunark were initially intended for Legendary quality gear; you can find effects like Overflow and Divine Restoration on both tiers of equipment. Typically these effects will automatically scale down on lower quality gear, but given the ease of acquiring RoK Treasureds, they did not scale down enough, and this has created a large imbalance throughout the expansion. In order to correct this, I’ve created lesser versions of all of these effects and attached them to all Treasured gear. None of the stats on the gear itself has been touched, only the power of the effects, which has been lowered by about 1/3 in most cases. I know this will be upsetting to many of you who have worked hard to acquire the pieces you have, and don’t like seeing them balanced in this manner. The best consolation I can offer you is that there are Legendary versions of all of these pieces which can be acquired through quests, bosses, and faction merchants. The effects on these Legendaries should now be a large (and much more desirable) upgrade from the more easily acquired Treasured items.

In addition to the above changes, the 4 rewards from the Anaphylaxis quest have been dropped from Fabled to Legendary quality. They are still of better quality than most Legendary loot available in Kunark, but should no longer rival the strength of Fabled weapons acquired on raids.

I am sorry to be the harbinger of bad news; I never like tuning items down, but in this case it was the most equitable solution. I hope to have some good news (in the form of new, cool items) for you all sometime in the near future =)

Crafting the days away

stargrace November 28, 2007 1Comment

I did little adventuring with Goudia yesterday, hitting 78 was basically my goal, I slowed down after that. She’s 23% into the level after running around Jarsath Wastes trying to work on faction. Not fun. Killing the same mobs, talking to the same people, trying to kill with 12 other groups of people also running around trying to go after those same mobs so they can finish off the same faction quests that half the server is working on. Down side to a heavily populated server. Not that I’m complaining, but I needed to step away from the people a little. Drives me nuts after a bit.

Arsenal is experiencing their first T8 raid on Thursday, and I’m excited about it. I upgraded a few spells today even though a greater amount are not actually upgrades unless I find masters of them. My spell proc buff was upgraded (thankfully) and does a lot more damage, other then that I’m waiting on masters. Loams are so very expensive right now, they’re going for 4-5p a piece, and since the node is shared between fighters and scouts, it’s frustrating to say the least.

I spent most of today crafting, which was incredibly relaxing. As of now my crafters sit at:

• 80 Provisioner
• 76 Jeweler
• 75 Sage
• 70 Woodworker
• 61 Alchemist
• 57 Weaponsmith
• 50 Tailor
• 35 Armorer
• 30 Carpenter

I’m still looking forward to getting each one to level 80, and for some reason I find the levels faster and easier then before. Probably due to the changes in crafting. A few people are complaining about the changes, but I’m sort of indifferent. Easy or hard, I’d craft none the less. I’d rather have 9 top end crafters then have a whole lot of adventurers who just cause endless trouble for me deciding on who to play. I love the amount of status I’m getting for completing T8 writs as well, hopefully it stays as high as it’s been.

I’m slightly discouraged by how quick and painless everything has been. Does that sound odd? I think after experiencing EQ1 for so long I miss it, and the methods of keying players and requiring access that took forever. I miss the general difficulty of the game, corpse runs and all. There’s nothing difficult in EQ2 (this is a personal opinion only) and I’m hoping T8 raiding proves me wrong. I miss access quests like Deathtoll, hated it when they removed the requirements to pertty much every zone except for CoD (old world zones) and maybe I’m just playing so much that I’m feeling a little drab about these things. Could also be the snow that just doesn’t seem to want to end lately, heh.

Quests? We’ve got Those

stargrace November 27, 2007 2Comments

Managed to get the jeweler to 72 last night, I figured one level a day is a nice steady pace for a crafter, and in 10 days I’ll be level 80 (at least on someone.. and providing I don’t slack) that way they regain a little vitality as well to help level through it. I’m almost 78 on Goudia, she should hit it today (I think right now she’s 10% away and that’s because the servers are down for maintenance). She managed to clear out a few more Kunzar Jungle quests with Shadowgeist, although more and more the quests are turning to heroics and we can’t duo them all. She’s managed to get quite a few legendary upgrades, since she was not raid geared at the end of T7. I haven’t stumbled over any more spell upgrades yet, but I’m sure that will come in time. I need to get my hands on some loams, which just sucks. Precision of the Maestro is top of my list for things to upgrade and any other buffs that I may have neglected thus far (which is a lot, I know, shameful). Loams are so expensive that I have no incentive to want to purchase any, and harvesting them is proving to be difficult. I know a lot of people are using the drachnid illusion item in order to spend their hours harvesting in caves, but I’ve decided not to take that rout for fear of the angry mobs that have been swarming those people.

Thursday is the guilds first raid, we’re headed to the Tomb of Thugga in Fens of Nathsar. It’s a tier one raid zone, and supposedly the easiest of three (or so we hope). We’re trying to get everyone as high level as we can before we head out, it’ll be interesting to see the raid zone. I’m looking forward to it. If we don’t have enough, we’ll head to MMIS, which still holds upgrades for people (as well as raid experience as we’re all a little rusty now). I’m looking forward to getting into the new zones, as I never had a chance on beta to play in any of them aside from running through Veeshans Peak once it was cleared.

Once Goudia hits 80 I’m going to continue working on her SoD (since the wee gal doesn’t have it yet) and even Claymore. Rumor has it that in RoK you may need those, who really knows. It’ll keep me busy in the mean time. Goudia’s up to only 800 quests completed, and I’d place a bet saying that at least half of those are RoK quests, or close to it. I never did quest with her much leveling up since she has never really been my ‘main’ before. I actually feel comfortable calling her that as well. It’s pleasurable to have a main. I still have progress with multiple crafters, and perhaps I’ll get bored with her in some time, but I always enjoyed the bard and just never really had an opportunity to let her shine. I do have a few pet peeves, though very few are with the actual class as opposed to how others perceive the class. I am not just one of those bards who hope to AFK the entire fight, I dps, and spec to maximize not just my own, but my groups. Utility? Yes, but there’s so much more to this class then that. Everyone rants on and on about how wonderful our counterpart, the dirge, is. But maybe they don’t know everything that a troubador can do. Dirge gives hate? Well, that’s great, troubadors take hate away from anyone who’s not a fighter. Yes, I realize troubs are more geared towards a caster-heavy group, but we’ve also got haste, stam / str buffs, and other small tid-bits that make us fairly well rounded. Don’t have an enchanter? That’s what a troubador is for. Power regen and mez’s all in one. A well played bard is a great asset, and I wish more people would realize that. I’ve had to box my bard on so many raids in the past while playing a ‘more important’ character, just because they’re a very easy auto follow class. I’d never want to actually play my character that way, not fun at all.

One down, 8 to go.. (Ding, 80 Provisioner)

stargrace November 26, 2007 3Comments

Stargrace was busy yesterday, very busy in fact. I spent the morning harvesting and doing some smaller quests with Shadowgeist, then decided I’d try to finish off my levels with Stargrace while he went and did a few instances with guild mates. I found provisioning very easy this time around, though it may have been the 9 exp potions I had stored up. I used one potion a level, and even with no vitality managed to ding. I’d make all of the food and drink that was new for the pristine combine, and then grind out writs to finish off the level. Even with the decrease in writ experience (they’ve dropped it from 10% on completion to 5%) it didn’t take me too long to hit the max level. So that’s one of my crafters out of the way, now only eight more to go *groans* I’m not sure who it will be yet. I’m thinking probably jeweler, then sage, then woodworker. Then I’ll work on the ones below 70 that I have. Alchemist, weaponsmith, tailor, armorer, carpenter. In the mean time, while I may have multiple crafters (what else is new) I’ve actually managed to stick it out with a ‘main’ at least. Of course it helps that my healers can’t solo quest nearly as fast as any dps class out there, so I have no real desire to play them to begin with. I’m sure eventually I will, but for now I’m content with the troubador.

Shadowgeist also gave me my first master 71+ yesterday for Goudia, my self buff *cheers* although she can’t use it until level 79, it’s certainly a nice one. I’ve been having a lot of fun talking to fellow bloggers on the channel in game, sharing ideas and suggestions and opinions. We don’t always think alike, and that’s refreshing to me. Intelligent conversations that differ without there suddenly being a Chuck Norris joke thrown into the middle of it by random_player_101 like there is in the level channels that are server side. It’s been great to get to know everyone a little better too.

Other then leveling, harvesting, questing, and more questing, things are pretty quiet. Not that I mind at all. Oh, and as a side note, with the highest tier of writs for crafting paying just under 14,000 personal status on completion, and with Stargrace now able to complete hers in 4 minutes, this is one very happy crafter. Since there are no HQ this time around in RoK, I’m looking for alternative means to level my small guild (alone for the most part might I add) and it’s going to be a very slow grind. I did manage to ding us 28 though, and 40% into it as Stargrace leveled to 80.