2007

Still taking it Slow

stargrace August 14, 2007 3 Comments

More time with Qutey, the monk – who still has her experience disabled

I still wasn’t in the mood to do anything with my “mains” yesterday, but I’ve been having a whole lot of fun on my baby monk and exploring the old zones and doing the baby quests. Her rankings are not that impressive for a level 24 character, except maybe the “quests completed” section, I’m quite happy with the 226 quests completed (for monks, on Antonia Bayle – ranking 694th so far). Why bother even checking these statistics out? Well, it gives me a little bit of a goal. For example, what if I were in the top 100 of top questing monks on Antonia Bayle. I’d like that I think. It’s a little bit of weird, simple, competition, and a goal that I can work towards (slowly). Of course now that I’ve posted this I expect all the other monks out there to suddenly develop their questing sides and I’ll have a hard time getting above the 500 mark. Serves me right though!

Down time is 8 hours today, so I’ve spent it going through old screen shots, and contemplating designing a signature for my characters. Perhaps re-designing the blog layout, though I like the one I’ve got I’d like a custom header I think. The kitty is passed out on the ottoman beside me in her usual spot. One of the fun quests I did yesterday (that didn’t involve camping boring named in Blackburrow.. ew..) was the Firemyst gully access quest. Once I’d completed it I decided to give the zone a shot. There was a quest in the zone to give me a very cool dw weapon that has a proc vs. undead. Of course at level 24 I had out grown it (though it was still a level 19 quest / reward) so I mailed it to an alt to sell. I managed to invis through the zone to light the signal fires I had to click — however the final one was right at the foot steps of a level 20^^^ heroic, Galintari the Apocryphal, and they were not pleased with my intrusion. So, I discovered another reason why I love monks. Even though mine is only level 24 and her adept3 FD gives her a 65% chance to succeed, I ran up the front stairs, directly in front of the named, and feigned. It worked. Whew. Then while I was feigned I clicked the final signal fire I needed for the update. I wasn’t quite big enough to handle the named alone yet.

I also picked up skeleton L&L from the Tower of Bones in Darklight Woods, and werewolf L&L as well. I find Qutey is still getting too much experience from her quest turn ins (I did manage to clear out a whole lot of grey ones she still had though, and got 2% a turn in or so at her level) and I know I could suicide on her and rack up a whole lot of debt in order to slow down the quest experience, but I’m not keen on that idea. I really dislike having debt.

Four more hours of down time… expect a few more posts.

Extended Down Time? Ack!

stargrace August 13, 2007 1 Comment

The scheduled maintenance for Tuesday, August 14th, has been expanded to include all international servers and will include an update to the SOE sessions servers. As such, the maintenance period will last for approximately eight hours, beginning at approximately 4:00 AM PDT and ending at approximately 12:00 PM PDT.

With the maintenance now involving the session servers, all services requiring a login will be unavailable during the maintenance period. This includes (but is not limited to) the game servers, all forums, Station Exchange, Character Transfers, Customer Service, the SOE Store, and the subscription tools. This maintenance period will also include the EQII international servers in the same period of time.

Thank you for your understanding and patience during this extended maintenance period. EQ2Players.com will be updated with any additional updates should new information become available.

(( Can be found on Eq2players.com ))

Do you Remember: A Tour of Antonica?

stargrace August 13, 2007 5 Comments

Ahh I remember this quest well, for level 15 (way back in the day) it was a very hard quest to complete – but worth it!

As I ran around finishing off some of Qutey’s Antonica quests, I almost grimaced when I saw this old one pop up again. It was given as a mob drop, both a Commonlands and Antonica version. The Bootstrutter’s Adventure Pack used to be the most amazing bag when I first started the game, and people used to sell them on the broker for a lot (well, what was a lot back then) of money (they’re lore, but not no trade). It’s a 10 slot bag, doesn’t even give you any weight reduction, but when you’re new, you’ll take whatever you can get. It was a trip down memory lane as I worked on the quest. I remember thinking back to the days when it was hard. Of course now that Qutey is level 24 pretty much all of Antonica is grey to her, but when most people got the quest (level 15-ish) it made you run into some pretty dangerous areas.

Questing, in EverQuest? Who’d have thought

stargrace August 13, 2007 No Comments

Qutey Patootie, my level 24 monk, bravely fighting in the Tower of Bone, in Darklight Woods

I’ve posted in the past about my methods of leveling. They typically involve the grind / boxing method. Where I have a level 70 mentored down to the lowbie and then just rip through zones destroying everything in my way. I do chains of quests of importance, or those that I know have great rewards and experience, but for the most part end up avoiding half of the content out there. So I created a character who had the capabilities to solo, but who I would not rush up the levels with my typical power leveling method. I wanted something that could tank, and have methods of escape, as well as moderate dps. Something that did not have to rely on a group ever, but who if I eventually got high enough, could tank for my own groups.

And so Qutey Patootie, my fae monk, was created. I’ve had her for quite some time now, and I rarely ever play her. Since I’d been feeling my typical restlessness in game, I decided to dust off her wings and do some adventuring. She is twinked out with mastercrafted armor (not jewelry though) as well as weapons, and she does have a few adornments that I tossed up on her. Any coin she has is from her own adventures though, and I think she’s sitting at about 21g. She also has combat experience disabled, and has for quite some time. There’s one thing though. She still levels too fast. How? Well, quest completion experience still goes through. So she’s very slowly been leveling up through discovery of new zones, and quest completions. I’ve mostly hung out in Antonica, though recently I did take her through Darklight Woods to get the quests there done. Even though she’s good aligned the quest givers had no issues talking to her. I had to avoid the guards once or twice (I love the fact that monks not only get FD, but they get invis as well).

She has 191 quests completed at level 24 as of right now. Of course not all of those give aa experience, a few I’ve forgotten to mentor down for and a good portion were from antonica where there were a good deal (before the revamp at least, I have not been there since the revamp, I’ll have to test) that did not give aa at all for completion. It’s difficult to adventure in these “old world” zones when the newer ones are around. Not only are the quests vastly out dated, but the gear is certainly not comparable to what’s out there at all. My monk had been getting by with Antonica quests reward for so long, after completing a few in Darklight Woods I’d nearly replaced all of her old jewelry. It’s a nice break from playing the troubador who’s sitting (stuck) at level 65, as well as the 4 other level 70’s that I’ve got. I managed to barely get Goudia to level 37 weaponsmith before I grew utterly bored of it, so I expect that I’ll play around on the monk for the next little while since it holds my interest. It’s fun reading the quest lines and the history behind everything, something I’ve missed out on in the past. I suppose I was also influenced to bring out my monk due to this post here on Average Joe’s blog, about their new guild “Slow Burn”. I wonder how they’ll manage to stay at level 10 though, seeing as quest turn in experience is so huge of an amount. It’s a very cool idea for a guild, and a great way to experience the game if anyone out there is bored, I’d suggest giving it a try. Of course if you’re not much of a quester you may find it an annoying method to experience the game, but for myself at least I think it’s great.

Catalog quests, and Aetryol Monsoon of the Taloned Vigil

stargrace August 11, 2007 No Comments

Now that Goudia’s hit 65, she was able to craft her relic breastplate. Though she needs a few more levels to wear it

One of the numerous quests in EQ2 that are perhaps the most ignored, and easiest to do, are the creature catalog quests that you can find spread through out. So when Goudia was 20% away from her level yesterday, I decided to complete a few. Specifically the KoS ones, Bonemire, Barren Sky, and TT. The quests don’t require any killing, and with track it makes them a whole heck of a lot easier. I needed about 20% aa exp per quest as well as 7% regular exp at level 64. Got my level — which also means (finally) Jesters cap! A wonderful class defining spell for a troubador. I bought a master of it since it was not too expensive (I don’t mind spending 8p on a class defining spell) and though I didn’t get a lot of time to use it, I was excited none the less. I also did a chain of quests for Aetryol Moonsoon, who can be found in Bonemire. In fact, I think I am out of quests now for the KoS zones. That was some nice solo experience too, so now I’ll have to move back to Lesser Faydark and Loping Plains. Actually loping should have some pretty nice quests to complete, one of which is the warg mount quest which I know is quite easy to do.

I made the new baby brigand (Sensual, from the previous post incase you’ve no idea who that is) a full set of blackened iron gear. I intend on getting her some adornments too just for fun, but I don’t expect to be leveling her much. I’m thinking of doing more crafting then anything perhaps for the next little while, and working up my smaller alts. I was contemplating applying to a raid guild (or two, or three, to see what my options are) but I don’t know if I want to go that rout quite yet.

So what have I got planned in the mean time while I flounder about as usual? Well, Goudia has a whole lot of L&L quests to complete, Misako has a house that needs working on, two guilds I’m apart of could use a few more levels (or two or three) and maybe searching for a new home for my characters where there’s a few more people around. Not that I mind my tiny guild, but some times it’s nice to see others on since I’m in game so frequently. I finally finished the new Harry Potter book last night (in fact I stayed up till 2am reading it) and now I’m reading the DragonLance book I picked up. I’m looking forward to winter getting here eventually, I’ve had enough of the heat of summer.