2007

One of Those Days

stargrace August 31, 2007 1Comment

Goudia, browsing through the vast volumes of books in the Tower of the Moon, Maj’Dul

So what do you do when your character hits level 70? You have a number of choices. You can work on chains of quests (Claymore, SoD, MoA, Godking), you can get yourself into a raid guild, you can finish off your aa, and you can craft. You can become obsessed with questing, start an alt. Work on a house. There’s still so much to do. Of course, if you play long enough none of these things will interest you, and you’ll more then likely end up just wandering around Norrath — or find yourself lost in a few games of LoN, which is a popular choice these days as we all wait for the release of RoK.

So what do you do once you’ve hit level 70?

I’ve already come to the conclusion that I want to “finish” my characters, the ones who are already at 70. What does that mean? Well, I already said in a previous post I want to get them all to 70/70/100. Level 70 in adventuring (I already have 5 at that) 70 crafting (Three of them are there already) and 100aa (only Stargrace has met this goal so far, with Misako close behind at 96, then Arysh at 89, and Goudia at 87). I’d love to delve back into questing and seeing what there is out there. I know I have yet to do a single Butcherblock quest for example. I want to finish off the HQ I haven’t done yet for some guild status, and try to help get the guild to at least 30 before RoK comes out. Not sure if that’s even a viable goal any more with the way guild experience works. Smaller guilds used to have a benefit over larger ones as the % of status was divided between total members and not just a base percentage. Now though the more active members you have the more status you’ll be inputting into the guild. Since my small guild has only five members or so, we move slow. Not a big deal though I suppose.

I watched another Avatar fight last night, the Avatar of War, though I was saddened to see it go poorly. I hate to watch guilds compete with each other – only because eventually it turns mean. People get mad at one another, they try to sabotage each other, they shout and scream and spam and all the rest. So while it was probably one of the more exciting fights to watch just because it is quite complex, it was also one of the few I watched and grimaced each time I saw the guilds confront one another. I understand that rivalry is normal, and even healthy, but there is a good way and a bad way to compete for contested mobs. After watching for over five hours as they battled between each other I decided that it was well past time I went to sleep. It was just one of those days anyhow, and I was out of sorts by the end of it.

Goudia managed to hit 45 weapon smith today. Not a huge accomplishment but I’m pleased. She has vitality for another level or two, but I’ve not decided yet if I want to actually craft more or go play and have fun with some quests. We’ll just have to see I suppose. I’ve been working down (slowly) her L&L list. She has 15 left to go, which is not so bad. Her house is filling up nicely with weapons and I’m eager to create a sort of display / sales area for her trophies. I think it’s fitting since she is a weapon smith. Saturday I’ll be doing an Emerald Halls raid, and I’m excited (and nervous!) about it. I have not really raided since January, though I have certainly raided and done some EoF content, none of it was exactly on par with what I’d been doing in the past. I’d only gone to EH three times, and was on the second floor. I’ve not stepped foot in it since then and I know a lot has probably changed. The guild I’ve applied to is not sure whether they want me to play the bard, illusionist, mystic, or fury, so I’m to park each one outside of EH. I’m secretly hoping they want me to play a healer, because I feel that I can shine with those classes the most (you don’t get 3 level 70 healers and not enjoy them a little bit after all). Hopefully I’ll have some screen shots and good stories to tell after my adventures tomorrow! We’ll just have to see how it goes..

You Paid HOW Much for THAT?

stargrace August 30, 2007 3Comments

Remember I said I was obsessed with house items? I meant it. I paid 10p for this LoN painting from a friend…

So A friend of mine got a hold of me and let me know that they had one of the LoN paintings. Wanted to know how much I’d pay for it. I’m by no means a rich person, but I always pay well for unique house items. So I offered them 10p for the painting off the bat. Went into trade mode with them and ta da, the painting above called “The Rune” is the latest to my LoN collection. In fact, the only painting I have. Another friend apparently has “The Muse” which is an image of a very scantly clad woman, and he’s agreed to drop it off in my house (These items give status as well towards the house) so that’ll mean I have two in the collection. Always nice.

Am I a little bit of an obsessed housing person to be paying such amounts for these virtual paintings? Hrms. Maybe. I think everyone has their quirk though. Maybe you collect daggers for your characters to use, or weapons with particle graphics. Maybe you collect sets of armor, or maybe you are like me, and collect house items.

The only thing I don’t really like about this painting is the fact that it is HUGE. It takes up a very large portion of Misako’s five room house on the main floor. A second one will take up another huge section and I have no idea what people in their one room inns would even consider these for since they’d not be able to place them anywhere. You pretty much have to own a house with high vaulted ceilings and plenty of wall space. Of course I can only trade money on my actual server, but if anyone is looking for a few rares (I do not have many) or some money on the Antonia Bayle server, in return for house items, let me know.

In other news! Goudia hit 70, and I’ve applied to a raid guild. We’ll see how it goes. Yes, I’m nervous, but I also really miss raiding. With five level 70’s I’m not eager to work up a 6th. I outfitted Goudia with the rest of her gear, two new shiny weapons and the bow. She’s sitting at 576 int and 512 str self buffed (with no food or drink on) which I love. So what’s left to do? Get them all to 100 aa (Goudia is sitting at only 86 right now) and max out their tradeskills. Bloodpact is also level 69, and almost 70. Forever is close to 70 as well. Gothun is still eating up the levels but not fast enough for his liking. Beeglin asked if I’d like to decorate his house on Lucan D’Lere, which I of course said yes to. A few old friends are trying to convince me to move back there and join a new raiding guild. Normally I’d contemplate it, however. Lucan D’Lere is just a dead server to me. I left it for a reason and I really enjoy Antonia Bayle so much better. The population is huge and I’d really miss the people I’ve gotten to know here. I was surprised and pleased with the offer, but had to say no.

Another Great Update in the Works – GU38 Test Notes

stargrace August 29, 2007 4Comments

Is it just me who gets all excited and maybe even a little flustered when they see that the test server has been updated with the latest GU? Well, for those who are curious, the notes are found here. Be sure to check them out. As for what I’m personally interested in.. well:

• Bristlebane ReturnsDo you consider yourself a practitioner of pranks, a student of the silly, or even a fan of the funny? Does the idea of pulling a practical joke over on someone sound like your idea of a good time? If so, you might make an excellent follower of Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane, the Grand Prankster. Recently scores of puckish jesters, fanciful bards and quick-witted thieves have all been spreading rumors about the imminent return of their favorite Sire of Shenanigans. If Bristlebane has truly arrived and resumed his place aside the other gods who have also returned to Norrath, why has he waited until now? What sort of mischievous plans does the Royal Trickster have in store for his faithful followers? What about the other gods who have yet to reveal themselves since their departure? The answers to these questions are undoubtedly wrapped within a riddle only Bristlebane himself can solve.Those interested in devoting themselves to the Master of Mischief should speak with Tobel Patadash, the self-declared Prophet of Bristlebane at the docks of The Enchanted Lands. Be advised, however, that the Gigglegibber Goblins have their own nonsensical opinion of who they believe the real Prophet of Bristlebane is as well!

• Trivial Loot no longer includes Quest items, so Quest items will drop on gray encounters.

Probably what I am most excited about. This means (If I’m reading it right) Cloak of Flames will not have to drop from green mobs. Which is what people had to do before. A pain in New Tunaria where a few of the pages drop. It also means when RoK comes out you won’t have to continuously mentor to get the updates. Of course the BEST part – is that I’m hoping my book quest starters will drop from these chests. So I won’t have to mentor to finally complete my set of Obelisk books.

• Resistance Chorus Songs: Now affect the entire raid.

• You can now sort the quest journal by quest level

It’s the Little Treasures..

stargrace August 29, 2007 1Comment

This new quest UI from EQ2 Questlist is a handy little mod

If you’re anything like me, you like to customize your UI as much as you do your characters. It doesn’t matter if you use default or any other sort of mod, your user interface has as many or as few hotbars as you particularly like, it’s got everything arranged the way you specifically play, and I have to say, some times it’s the less-noticed but still valuable mods that really stick with me.

The one that I’ve most recently added to my UI is a quest journal mod, and it may not seem like much – unless you are an avid quester. The EQ2 Questlist site has been up for some time, but isn’t a quest walk through site like the rest of them out there. So what does it do? It keeps track of every quest in the game, where to get it, what level it is. What’s more, is you can create an account, and mark down the quests you’ve completed (as well as started) and keep track of your quest record. In the past, you had to do this out of game, or painstakingly slow, without really looking at your journal. But with the new mod, which you can get here you just click and input the quests that actually show up in your journal under completed and started. You can also search their data base from the journal browser, see how many quests you’ve completed in game without having to move over to Eq2players, and various other small nifty options. I love it.

I like being able to see that I have 11/33 L&L quests completed. I like to see which ones I’m missing without having to draw up huge graphs and charts. I like knowing there are 53 total quests in a particular zone, and what all their names are, and comparing them to which I have done and which I have not done. Again though, this is NOT for quest walk throughs. It’s just a way to keep track of statistics. Like a raider may keep track of their parses to see improvements.

So if you’re a quest person at all, and you’re looking for a few little spiffy toys to play around with, and you like to keep track of the quests you’ve done, be sure to give this very simple UI a try. It’s nice to find a little treasure like this every so often.