2007

Healing can be a Thankless Job

stargrace August 29, 2007 12 Comments

Working on those fun Lesser Faydark Quests

Over the years that I’ve played both EQ1 and EQ2, I’ve come to the realization that healers really get the short end of the stick a lot of the time. You’d think since I have 3 level 70 healers in EQ2 I’d have already come to this conclusion, and I suppose I have, but it really becomes more apparent the more you group. Now this is not to say it’s the norm for ALL groups – but these are the typical responses after a good run of whatever we’re up to.

“Wow that was some amazing tanking!”

“Look at that DPS parse!”

All the similar comments. Why is it that people are so reluctant to thank their fellow healers? The tank didn’t just stand up on their own the entire time did they? Well, maybe they did but if the healer is worth their grain of salt it wasn’t just all the dps and the tank that made the group. It’s a combination of players who know what they’re doing. Sure, a great tank makes things easier. Just like great dps makes things easier. But please folks, don’t forget to thank your healers out there! They need a little lovin’ too.

Goudia hit 69 yesterday. Meant I got to wear all of her new set gear. She’s got four pieces to the bard set. She’s 34% into her level, so hopefully over the next couple of days I’ll be getting her level 70. Then we’ll see where it goes. She’s got her two new weapons and her bow just waiting for her. I’m looking forward to it, even if it is my 5th level 70. I figured I should probably attempt to get them all at 100aa and level 70 crafters as well. What possessed me to do that? Not quite sure. Right now only Stargrace (illusionist) is at level 70/70/100. Arysh is missing 10aa, Misako is missing 5aa and she’s only a level 45 tailor. Goudia just hit 83aa, and she’s a 44 weaponsmith. Dasie needs another 15aa. I’ve got time before RoK to get them all where I want them to be at least.

After that? Who knows. I’ve been contemplating leveling up my coercer just for the heck of it (she’s sitting at level 42 right now, in level one gear with nothing but app1 spells.. yes, I just put her on auto follow..) but I’m not sure what I’d do exactly with six level 70 characters. So maybe I’ll just quest and work on their houses or something. I’ll have to see.

I’m looking forward to Kilanna coming back from her vacation, mornings are lonely without her around.

Did a very quick Obelisk run yesterday with Dasie (who does not have her shoes yet) which went really well. Bard shoes dropped for the dirge in group, go figure. No ring either, I’ve never even seen it on any of my runs and everyone else seems to always get it. I must be cursed. Expect an rp post in the near future, it’s been so long since I’ve really written anything and I don’t want to get rusty (code word for: Quick, run away! Stop reading now!). Safe travels!

Progress? Oh yes.. a bit..

stargrace August 27, 2007 3 Comments

Goudia, was busy…

This weekend was wonderful for EQ2 at least. Yesterday Shadowgeist and I decided it was high time we finished our signature orb of tunare quest. The orb was an upgrade for his necromancer as well as an upgrade for Misako, and the earring choice was an upgrade for Goudia. It took most of the day to complete as the quest is quite lengthily, but was well worth it. I got three aa along the chain and also managed to hit level 68. It helped that Obelisk of Blight is a necessary zone and neither Bloodpact nor Goudia had been yet. Since his machine was upgraded this weekend he boxed both Shadowgeist and Bloodpact, and I boxed Misako and Goudia. We pretty much have our own group any time it’s needed – though neither of us have any intentions of boxing ALL of the time. It can get annoying after a while, and some times it’s just nice to play your one character without having to worry about where the boxed character is standing or whether or not they’re going to get tossed off of some ledge.

We also toddled around doing some Mistmoore Catacombs, and completed a handful of quests in the zone, one of which needed another legendary item (wrist piece for me) that was an upgrade (also an upgrade to Bloodpact, I think). It was pretty nice. Goudia is 45% into her level, and I’m thinking that with a little work today, I can get her to level 69 which of course is the level I can finally wear her four pieces of legendary set gear. I’ve been waiting for a while now to wear them as they taunt me from her bags.

A small question to pose to readers today. Do you run a guild, and even if you don’t – how close are you to your fellow gamers? For example, if there’s a member of your guild, who logs in every single day — but rarely says much. They’re just constantly around, they help a time or two. Then one day, you notice they don’t log in. Nor do they for a few more days.

Do you worry?

Do you have any way of getting a hold of people in your guild in case they mysteriously vanish? Does anyone really care if random_member_101 never logs in again? I’m just curious what others out there think. I’m quite close to every one of my guild mates, but then again there are only five of us. If someone leaves for a while, I typically know why they’ve left (for example, Kilanna is on vacation as we speak). If I didn’t see her for a week I’d worry, and I’d want to make sure everything is alright. I’ve had some guild members in the past just disappear from the MMO world and with no method of really checking to make sure they were ok it left me feeling a little glum. I know I’m most certainly not unique in this situation, and I’m curious how others handle it.

LoN Fever..the Good the Bad and the Ugly

stargrace August 26, 2007 3 Comments

Hooked already, at least for a short time, I spent the evening test driving LoN

Yesterday it was announced that random people had been selected for LoN beta. I got in with both of my accounts, and decided to give it a test whirl. Now, if you’re looking for guides, this is not the place. If you’re looking on how to play the game, wrong-o again because I suck when it comes to explaining that sort of information. So this is (as are all my posts!) just general opinion stuff.

I loved the game. Granted, I have played card games before, and yes it does give you a small advantage if you have a vague understanding in what to do from the get-go. The tutorial was long, and I barely paid attention to it. Instead I got right to the battles against the computer and learned that way (which may explain why I lost, a lot). Everyone graciously starts with 1 booster pack (the pack of 15) and one starter pack of a designated class. Mine both happened to get fighter, however a friend managed to get a mage one. You can buy the starter packs to the other classes for $9.99, or a booster pack for $2.99. I’m sure SoE will make a LOT of money off of selling these virtual cards. Which is a whole other discussion.

Now, a portion of the game that I do not like at all. As far as I have seen, so far. There is no way for you to get any of the neat “things” (or in this case loot cards) without spending real life money (or trading your rare cards / money with another who has the item you want). Loot cards come in booster packs. I find it quiet amusing that the “store” is open already, even though we’re all apparently just beta testing this game. People can already spend their real life money for these packs of virtual cards and obtain the rare “cool” loot items (randomly). A few of these are house items. One is a tradeable box of cards with 400 rent reduction. – and I’d love to get my hands on one, but I see no other way besides paying 100p for it on broker, spending real money in an effort of purchasing it randomly through booster packs, or trading for it with another player (in which case, why would I even have anything they wanted to begin with). I have no idea if perhaps when the game goes live, when they say that mobs will drop these cards, if they will drop whole booster packs, or just one card at a time. If there will be any other way to obtain the interesting loot that comes with it (which is unfortunately the only real motivation for some to play, and I’m not above that). The epic mount is another one of these very cool items that few will own, and the cloak that shape shifts you into a box.

So I made an agreement with Shadowgeist, we’d each either buy four booster packs (for a total of $12 and some change) or one booster and one starter (the same price). After that, no more. With his beta claimed decks, he got an item that changes him into a frozen skeleton randomly. I got… nothing. He bought a mage deck (which does not claim to give loot cards anyhow) as well as one booster deck, and recieved nothing.

I decided to purchase four booster decks, and also got nothing. Meanwhile I see a box, and an epic warg a few feet from me, and two card boxes for sale on broker for 100-140p. On the other hand, I can trade him all of my mage cards since I have no use for them, and he’s going to trade me all of his priest ones since that’s the next deck I’ll be working on.

The game itself is quite fun, but I can see it getting very boring very fast if you’re not one of those people who can afford to spend real life money on bettering your deck. I’ve got no idea when it’s going to go live, and I assume the dropped items are not in game until after that point. I know a lot of people were very angry that SoE was advertising “random” people were getting chosen to beta test it. Outcries of “why wasn’t I chosen” and what not echoed through the channels. The game plays smoothly, however after 4-5 matches I seemed to stutter and lag when my character decided she’d had enough of her ‘fix’ and wanted to adventure again. The cards are wonderfully drawn, the playing mat beautiful, and I didn’t encounter any bugs at all the few times I played. Over all, the experience was a lot of fun, just not sure on a few things.

Stuck a Feather in Her Cap.. and Called it Ding Level 67…

stargrace August 24, 2007 1 Comment

Goudia proudly wearing her new hat, new breastplate, and some new gloves

Managed to do a few remaining quests in Lesser Faydark yesterday (thank you to Gerbil for the help with those heroics) and some in Loping Plains (thank you Shadowgeist for helping me out there) and got Goudia to 67. Means 3 more to go and she’ll be able to wear the rest of her pretties. A huge thank you to Kandrial as well, who helped get me into an empty Freethinkers Hideout zone, so that I could get a quest update that rewarded a nice item for the bardling, the runed relic circlet. It has +30 to all spells on it, and as I’ve posted before, bards attacks are considered spells. At least the majority of them. I have 6 pages of “spells” in my knowledge book, and three pages of CA’s.

So technically speaking, I’m int / str as far as damage goes, and agi for power. Goudia is sitting at 408 str 483 int and 283 agi (not the greatest stat of hers I know). As soon as I can wear all the other gear I’ve got on her that should boost up quite a bit. I realize that bards during a raid are so busy casting jesters cap on folks and PoTM and all their other bonus spells that dps is a low priority, but I enjoy being able to do a little bit of solo’ing (hah, who am I kidding, I practically always solo) between other things.

The bard is very different from all my other classes. I enjoy her a lot. Is that to say that I enjoy playing her more then all of my other characters? Well, I’m actually not sure. From time to time I miss my healers. I miss the hard work I put into them getting them where they are, and yes I miss their gear too. Only natural I think. So I’ll continue to get Goudia closer to 70 (even with the sudden surplus of bards I’ve seen scattered around Norrath, which is just odd might I add, we seem to have a healer shortage though, or maybe tank depending on the time of day). Working on her SoD, Claymore, various L&L quests, HQ’s, her house.. There’s plenty to keep me entertained in game.

Sales have been slow for my poor little weaponsmith, and a few others are experiencing the same drought it seems. I’ve been putting ebon weapons (as well as feysteel when it’s cheap) for sale at a fairly smooth price, the first day everything sold and I was very excited. Now though my merchandise seems to be sitting for a week or more before it starts to move. I suppose it’s just a slump in the market and maybe people are below or above the crafting level I’m trying to push out. Speaking of which, another goal for Goudia, she needs a few more crafting levels. I spent last night making adornments for her gear in preparation for 70, attached those pieces I knew would not get an upgrade for quite some time (breastplate, gloves, legs, shoulders, ears, weapons, bow..etc) and realized just how much time money and effort goes into properly gearing up a single character, and this is my.. fifth one? Wow.

Once Goudia hits 70 and I continue to work on her tradeskill, I’ll be looking to level up both the coercer and the brigand, I think. Then there’s also a templar I’ve access to that I may help level up, and a fabled 70 swashbuckler who I’d love to play with a little. I still of course envy those who can just settle down on one character and play that character continuously, but I don’t think I’m that sort of person. I seem to always flounder about from character to character depending on what mood hits me.

Death by Music Notes.. the life of a Troubador

stargrace August 23, 2007 3 Comments

Goudia in Loping Plains, taking care of a little ghoul business

I decided to hang around Loping Plains last night with Goudia, completing a few quests that she had (before they all turned to heroic at least) and getting the few tid bits of discovery experience that she had yet to get. Started the hand of glory quest (one of my favorites) and finished off entering the veil (one of my least favorite quests). She’s sitting at around 45% exp right now, which is great. Thunderwalker surprised me yesterday by giving me the troubador legendary hat from vaults, which has the feather I’ve been eyeballing for Goudia (cheers!) so a huge thank you for that. More inspiration to get level 67 and higher. She’ll be able to wear the new hat as well as the relic breastplate next level. Then it’s just two more before she can wear her legendary set gear, and one more after that for her weapons.

I played Sensual just for a short bit, completing a few more quests with her along with a dirge. She’s a lot of fun to play, and I’ll be posting an rp note surrounding her past either today or tomorrow, we’ll see.

Faydai hit 67 sage this morning, only two more to go (I’m not concerned with hitting 70 right away as there are no books for her to scribe and she’ll level off of combines alone) and then she’ll be done her crafting for a bit. I’m beginning to stock pile T7 raws in preparation for RoK. I don’t want to have to search far and wide for T8 raws that are going to be in high demand, especially with tinkering and transmuting galore.

Waiting for Goudia to get a bit more vitality back before I continue with her tradeskilling. It’s a painful process. Weaponsmiths don’t get a huge amount of recipes, not compared to my other crafters at least. Granted my woodworker probably gets the least amount of recipes. Which is why she’s sitting at 62 and I’ll be lucky if I ever obtain the rest of her levels.

A few short term goals: L&L’s completed on Goudia, Level 70, Progress in Claymore, SoD, DT access, and maybe MoA (though I doubt it, MoA is sort of useless for bards. I’d rather the Sour Song Choker from Unrest). We’ll see how many (if any) of these I can acomplish. I wish I could /claim some exp potions on her for either adventuring or crafting, but alas I’d already spent them all on the healers before I moved them over to their own account. Figures.

Legends of Norrath comes out in a short while (either next week or the week after, I forget) and I’m actually looking forward to that. Problem is, I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to the actual card game, or just the fact that there are house item rewards. I’m sure you can all guess which has a higher priority for me.