November 2007

Happy 3rd Birthday EverQuestII

stargrace November 9, 2007 1 Comment

The above picture comes from SoE’s official site, today was EQ2’s third birthday and with it they released some very cool rewards for those who have been subscribed to the game since the start. Only one of my accounts qualifies for this, but I’m excited none the less. The second account doesn’t even (quite) qualify for the two year rewards *grumbles* oh wells.

So what comes with this super duper birthday? Well, not only will you get to dance around in Billy form (and who doesn’t love Billy eh? He’s some what of an icon in EQ2 that’s for sure) you also get a new house item (of course I swooned over this) that reduces the coin value of your rent by 25% – very nice. You also gain a new title, The Zealous. Awesome. Of coures it doesn’t end there.

People will also gain 3x Draft of the Skilled and Draft of the Wise. Very handy for the new expansion. Of course, it’d be a lot better if I were not planning (as of yet) to use my dps in RoK (who has no veteran rewards) vs. the healer account that will be able to claim these. It should also be noted that no one will actually have these items until after RoK is released and the +90 days that comes with buying an expansion is credited to your account. Right now I’m up to 1365 days, that’s including the 3 years the game has been out, and the +90 per expansion. 3 months short of the 4 year rewards. Of course that’s assuming that RoK will add another 90 days to your account like the others did. If it doesn’t, it’ll be three more months (boo).

So happy birthday to the game (wow does it feel odd to say that) I can hardly believe it’s been that long already. I still remember my EQ1 days. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend, and eats lots of cake!

Still Counting Down to Rise of Kunark

stargrace November 9, 2007 5 Comments

There’s still an NDA, so I can’t write about what I really want to write, but in the mean time I’ve been clearing out old quests, working up those crafters, and making new friends. That’s right, Torrent Knights got a few new members over the past few days, and I’m of course excited to have them. The guild has never been especially large, and I never wanted it to be. I wanted it to be close friends who knew each other and got along. Of course it doesn’t always end up that way, get any amount of people together and you’re bound to have issues that crop up along the way. Anyhow.

Last night I invited a fellow blogger, you guys may know her from her postings over at Mystic Worlds, name is Saylah, though she’s under a different persona here in EQ2. So the little guild grows! We spent a bit of time chattering and talking about random things from WoW, to EQ1, and Vanguard. Mmo goodness. I also have a friend from EQ1 who is going to start playing when RoK releases. In the mean time they’ve been exploring Norrath on a trial account. I plan on asking them what they think of the game vs. their home in EQ1 once they delve a little further into it. Other then that, things in game are quite quiet. I’ve been working on my “pre-rok” goals, Goudia maxed out her tinkering yesterday, I have 11 collection quests saved up so far for turn in (and I’ll be getting more as I can) and I managed to complete two quests in New Tunaria last night with the help of Shadowgeist boosting up the aa that I still need before RoK.

This morning I’m working on the weaponsmith, trying to hit 55. So far she’s 50% into level 53, so it should be do-able if I can manage to keep myself awake long enough to grind off some rush orders. Ever since Calreth moved his main to Arsenal I’ve been missing his spam in guild events. He moved an alt to TK last night though, so I suppose he’ll still be around in some form or another.

Tinkering Woes

stargrace November 7, 2007 1 Comment

I’ve got a very small range of goals that I’m trying to get done before the new expansion comes out. Why bother? Well, I’m sort of a lists person. If I want to get anything done, or feel a small sense of accomplishment, I make a list. I do it for a lot of things. One of the items was to get Goudia’s tinkering skill to 350. Now, I already have a tinkerer at 350 skill, Stargrace. But I rarely play her. I decided a few days ago that the level 70 I’d stick with in rise of Kunark will be the troubador. I had her tinkering at around 60 and decided I’d spend 10p of my savings (if it cost that much) and see how high I could get it. I’ve spent roughly 2p50g and gotten it to 300 so far. 50 more points and that will be finished off. I’m exceptionally happy of course.

Down side, Goudia is not at 100aa yet. She needs 9 more. So that’s on the list as well. And so is saving up collection quests in preparation for the expansion. Though I’m sure that there’s so much discovery and quests that it won’t exactly be needed.

The quickest method I found for leveling tinkering, was to stop production after the first completion. Because this craft works on skill rather then experience, you get the same chance at a skill up from pristine as you do from the first tier. Aside from that, one recipe (at least) a tier, uses very few ores, but it uses plenty of loam (fairly cheap still) and rocks (also fairly cheap) thus saving you huge amounts of money. You get no pristine experience so making things for the first time isn’t going to net you anything extra either. You want to see what that cool do-dad is that you just scribed? Easy, open the recipe book and right click the image, then right click the image at the bottom of that, and you can examine the item before you ever make it.

So why tinkering? Well, Arysh is already 350 transmuting. That cost me about 50p to work up (minus any farming) and I’m not going to do it again. Tinkering also has far more usability to my characters. Who doesn’t want to be able to feign death, rez a group member (I’m a troubador remember, not a dirge) or any other number of things to play with. Though I was of course disappointed that my mem wipe item was changed to a de-agro, it happens.

Of course in the mean time Goudia’s bags are a disaster area, as can be seen above. She’s got ore and roots and rocks stashed all over the place and there’s no point in me trying to organize it right now when all I want is another 50 skill ups and then I’ll be done (for now). I apologize for the lack of posts lately, but with the expansion looming and plenty of people hanging out in beta more then in game, there’s been sparse topics to post about. Expect an explosion on the day of release!

Tomorrow the wonderfully smart owners of my building have decided that between 9:30am and 3pm, the power (including heat) is going to be turned off. I’m sure there’s a reason for this (they did it last year too) but they always seem to pick the coldest day of the week to do it. I also live on the 11th floor which means if I want to leave the apartment at all during the day, I’ll be walking. So tonight, I’ll be heading out to go book shopping, find a few extra art supplies, and find something that I can take out of the fridge and eat without having to prepare it on a stove first, and something I won’t need lights for. Since it’s winter months here now pretty much it’s going to be a dark, quiet, day. Thank goodness for my mp3 player and a love of books.

So What Were the Results of the 50% extra Experience?

stargrace November 5, 2007 7 Comments

Not much posting happened this weekend, but plenty of other sorts of goodness went on. Of course it was one of two Sundays before the release of Rise of Kunark and with it came an increase in experience both for adventurers and crafters. I’m sure I was not the only one who took advantage of the bonus. So how did I end up spending my time and what were the results? Well. The screen shot is of Arysh, my woodworker, who finally managed her way to level 70 before RoK comes out. I’m very pleased, she’s the fourth level 70 crafter I have. Not that big of a deal with the new expansion coming out and another 10 levels to grind, right? Well, I’m pleased anyhow. It means a few less to do when the cap goes up.

Adventuring:

• Ishbel 60->62

Crafting:

• Armorer 21->30
• Weaponsmith 50->52
• Woodworker 67->70
• Carpenter 23->30
• Tailor 48->50

Pretty much everyone got a few levels in at least crafting. So that leaves my totals now as far as crafting and adventuring goes as follows:

Adventuring

• 70 Mystic
• 70 Templar
• 70 Troubador
• 70 Illusionist
• 70 Warden
• 62 Coercer
• 57 Necromancer
• 52 Ranger
• 36 Brigand
• 33 Monk

Crafting

• 70 Jeweler
• 70 Sage
• 70 Provisioner
• 70 Woodworker
• 60 Alchemist
• 52 Weaponsmith
• 50 Tailor
• 30 Carpenter
• 30 Armorer

There’s still a little bit of a life in there too, no worries. I also managed to design a new logo for a guild, and worked on some art work for a friend. Christmas is just around the corner (they’re calling for SNOW this Wednesday!) and I’ve got plenty of projects to work on. A huge random thank you by the way to Shadowgeist for updating my DeviantART account, that was a nice gift this weekend. I have finally narrowed down my choices in regards to a main when RoK comes out, though the answer may be surprising. Since it seems to change from day to day, I’m going to leave it a surprise for now. I’ll write about that more when RoK is actually live and there’s proof that it’s my new “main”. In the mean time, I’m going to harvest some in preparation for the grind to 80 I suppose, and continue working on the other crafters so that they have some vitality when Sunday rolls around again with bonus experience.

Some Times it’s Confusing

stargrace November 2, 2007 2 Comments

The screen shot above, is for a scintillating Judicious Composite Gear. It drops from mobs, and it’s for tinkerers. Most people out there don’t know what this is exactly, but since I’ve got a tinkerer, any time anyone asks for the +10dps adornment for bows, well, that’s what it is. It’s one of the few adornments that the second subclass artisan makes.

Of course, someone who’s new to the game wouldn’t know that. There’s no plain way to know what this recipe even does, aside from doing some research. You’d have to do what I did to figure it out, the +10dps bow adornment on the broker, figure out what the name of it is, and then search through recipes learning which one goes with what. Of course there are handy sites with crafting information where you can also look this stuff up. I just wish they had an easier way to find them. Ie: The name of the recipe (Eznertob’s Consecrated Contraption) matching the actual name of the adornment instead. Or having some other logical method of naming it.

Ok, maybe this post is a stretch, but it was just one of the little things that got under my skin.

In game today, Sensual hit 35 brigand, something I’m happy about. She also went from 20-28 armorer. Wow. I miss the way that vitality lasts. I wish it were like that for all levels. I’m hoping she can gain back enough over the Saturday tomorrow to push through to level 30 by the time the bonus experience is in game. That’d be nice. Not that I really need another crafter.