2007

Let the Heritage Quests Begin!

stargrace May 9, 2007 0Comment

Hmms some tunnel laborers traveling through the commonlands, they must be helping with Neriak

Misako frowned at the Ratonga who clung to her side. This was not exactly how she envisioned her day.

“Stop bouncing!” She hissed.

“I’m sorries Missums Misa!” Squeeled the little mouse, as she tried to control her hopping, “It has been so very long those! You knows that Missums!”

Misako sighed, Goudia had a point, it had been quite some time. Not since the ratonga had betrayed and became an exile had Misako needed her help or called upon her. There was much that needed to be done though.

So what have I been up to? Today’s a fairly exciting and busy day. Not due to anything in particular, but a number of smaller things. Number one, my characters are settling in yet another server. So that was me moving from Lucan D’Lere, to Kithicor, to Antonia Bayle. Why the move (again)? Easy, the community and atmosphere. The guild mates who had moved along with me did not like Kithicor. I can’t blame them, the 60-69 was a bit more then I could handle at times. I’m used to drama, but people were down right mean at times. I also missed the role play aspect that I could involve myself in on LDL. AB’s rp community is far larger, and I’m looking forward to it.

So Torrent Knights has reformed on AB. We’re actively recruiting, and hoping to form either an alliance with another raid guild, or even if people find their own new homes that’s fine as well. In the mean time, we’re working on leveling the guild. I did not complete a single heritage quest on Misako, and Goudia (previously known as Gouda, she had to be renamed), has only done one. With the former TK at level 60 there was no point to it, and alts were not allowed in the guild anyhow. So holding off on all of those heritage quests was a great thing. I finished off the greater lightstone early this morning, and also finished off Foomby’s stolen goods. Next I’m working on the Fishbone earring, and the guise of the deceiver. I’m doing them both with Misako and Goudia, in the hopes of pushing the guild towards level 10, we’re currently sitting at level 3. I love having a goal like this in game, while I make new friends and accomplish new goals. It revitalizes me.

Everyone needs a good weap– spoon?

stargrace May 8, 2007 3Comments

Misako riding around Sinking Sands, with her new spoon

Did some instances with the defiler, and she’s now sporting the very stylish spoon that drops in cazels. Figured the thing never dropped for any of my other characters, at least she’s got some good luck. She hit 59 yesterday as I grinded through some very easy Lesser Faydark quests, making a whole lot of coin off of them as well. Also managed to hit 62ap on her, so she’s eating those up nicely. In fact she has more then the 70 templar now, go figure. Ap are so much easier to get when you’re a lower level.

A huge thank you to Cordanim for sharing his new blog format, I adored it and of course had to grab it for myself. I like the layout much better then the old one I had. It’s also just nice to switch it out every so often.

Other then that, I haven’t been doing too much. Reading a good book by Robin Hobbs and contemplating a few new suggestions as far as where to go in game. A friend of mine, Beeglin, suggested some time ago that I apply to Strike, the top raiding guild on Lucan D’Lere. I shrugged at the suggestion, doubting myself as a player, and the fact that they’ve got two raiding illusionists already. After speaking to another member of the guild, I’m contemplating the suggestion again. In the two plus years that I’ve played EQII I’ve never been in the top end guild before. Not from lack of knowledge about the game or time played, but for other smaller (and just as important) reasons. I was a recruit for Second Dawn as my warden and decided that they were not what I was looking for at the time, so raiding is really not that new to me. Devoting so much time to raiding would be new though, and a challenge that I’m not sure I could pass. Yes, I am online frequently enough, and yes, I could most certainly make all those raid hours, but do I really want to raid 6-7 days a week? I value my independence a lot, and I really am not sure if I’m good enough. Decisions decisions!

Some arena time

stargrace May 7, 2007 0Comment

Chosing your avatar in the arena is just one use for those pesky house animals you have roaming around

In the 2+ years I’ve played EQII I’d never set foot in the arena. I rarely duel, in fact I think I’ve done it a grand total of three times, twice vs. Lader a conjuror friend of mine, and once vs. Mishanna, a warden. I’ve never bothered playing the PvP version because quite frankly that aspect of this particular game does not interest me what so ever. That’s not to say I’m not an avid PvP’er when I want to be, I have after all left to play WoW for brief stints, and I adored it, but EQII is so complex to me already without that factor, I don’t need more. I don’t mean complex in difficulty level of the game, but in the fact that there’s plenty to do to keep me busy.

I happened to be in someone’s house (of course) examining their items when I came across a blue and gold flag, hanging from an ornamental axe. I’d never seen it before. Examining it showed that it was an arena reward for 1,00 wins.

The arena had house items for winning?

I set out to Maj’Dul to investigate. Low and behold the merchant outside the arena did indeed sell a variety of house items, for wins and kills. No small feats either, the first items starting at 1,00 wins, or 1,000 kills. There are also unique titles for sale. The price, 6s. Exceptionally low -if- you can find people to battle that many times. I attempted to play in the arena just to see what it was all about. No one was around on the three occasions I went besides myself. It was fun at first and then faded fast. You get to pick which zone to battle in, whether to use avatars (the house pets you typically see roaming around people’s homes) or use characters. You can allow spectators or have private matches, play your typical player vs. player round or play games like capture the flag. You can play team events, and a few other variables. It was exceptionally well done if you’re into that sort of thing. The avatar matches are interesting because you get to play a class other then your own. Granted the fountain spirit is a healer and it wasn’t much fun, but the fear knight was a lot of fun being a warrior / guardian class.

The house items may not be something I obtain right away, but they’re going on my list of “I would like to have one day”, a list that seems to be growing continuously. Anyone else spent any time in the arena? What did you think?

Building a kitchen and other musings

stargrace May 6, 2007 0Comment

Minxes’ newly designed kitchen, a portion of it at least

It was another quiet day in EQII for me, didn’t really feel like grinding experience on the defiler, though she’s comfortably sitting 30% through 58. The weather was too nice to want to do too much indoors anyhow. I did manage to complete two blue shiny quests though. One of them being the acorns from greater faydark that give the distillery on the right side wall, and the other was a torture chair from Crushbone. Once I’d completed the quests and put the spare pieces for sale (netting about 7p throughout the day, which helps cover the costs I’ve been spending on house items to begin with) I decided it was time for a few small changes to the house. I have a small personal set of “house goals” I’ll call them. One, is obviously working down my rent from 18,000 remaining to 0. My house requires 60,000 status a week. I have 42,000 so far thanks to the gorgeous rare furniture that’s out there. It’s not really that much status I suppose, so long as I continue to work on writs and turn in my status items. Raids net a whole lot more but since I’m not raiding lately, well, the writs will do.

Anyhow, one of my other goals is to get at least amiable faction with the Ironforge exchange to be able to purchase their display case. It’s going to take forever. So I’m obviously procrastinating on it. I figure maybe I’ll start small. Do 5 writs a day. Eventually, I’ll have enough. Who knows though, I’ve tried to attempt this before (I’m sitting at 3,700 faction currently towards my 10,000 goal) and given up over time. It’s very easy with the provisioner, I just do rush order writs of the lowest level, they use squash and meat, which are two items that are for sale in abundance on the broker since they don’t make anything worth while to players.

I also want to finish off my weapons wall, by completing numerous heritage quests that can convert into house items, as well as the lore and legends that I have not finished yet. There are a lot, let me assure you. My illusionist currently has 17/33 L&L completed. I had finished them all on the fury, but didn’t want to be bothered with the illusionist. That will also add a whole lot more books to my library collection. I’d also like to re-do my library, adding floor to ceiling book shelves, and build them much like my old Freeport house had, with a display area along the bottom before a row of books on the top.

After all of these changes to my EQII home, I’ve decided that it’s well past time I actually had my own carpenter. You’d think that by now I’d have stuck it out with one, since I spend so much money on housing items and talk about it so frequently. Alas, out of all the crafters I have (and trust me, I have plenty) a carpenter is not one of them. When the evil fae are released at the end of this month I’ll be attempting to make a warlock, who will (hopefully, attention span willing) become my carpenter.

I’ve also taken a peek at the maj’dul arena, having never ever bothered with it before, so look for my post on that tomorrow!

Getting to know your rare furniture

stargrace May 5, 2007 2Comments

This is “a plain bookcase” – no longer sold by merchants, I bought it for 2p

The picture above may not seem that special or important, but to an avid house item collector like myself, it is something exceptionally unique and sought after. The image is of “a plain bookcase” and was once an item that you could purchase off of furniture merchants in Qeynos and Freeport. Carpenters at the time, were (understandably) upset. Who would bother to purchase their wears with items like these going for a few gold? When SoE announced that only carpenters would be providing house items in the future, it was generally assumed that the furniture found on merchants would be integrated into the carpenter recipes. Unfortunately this was not the case.

The change was pretty early on in the game, before I even cared about house items (what, such a time existed?!) and when a few gold was still a LOT of money to spend, especially on things for your house. A lot of the rare pieces were lost by people who stopped playing, sold back to merchants for some coin, or simply were just not around to begin with.

But. If you’re lucky, and know where to look, you can still find a few pieces for sale. Over time, a few select recipes have found their way back to carpenters, specifically the new counters made of ironwood, the Qeynosian dresser, the overlord’s chair, etc. They have the same graphic as other items in game, even if they don’t carry the same name any more. How do you find these items? Well, first of all, I have huge praise for this section of Everseek.com. It’s images (and names) of some of the “used to be in game but no longer is” house items. There are images missing of course, my bookcase and new plain wooden stools being two. The second method is pretty simple. Go to your local broker. Do a search for house items and set it to only search for ‘common’. This will eliminate any mastercrafted or hand crafted house items, leaving you with quest rewards such as the Christmas and valentines day items, along with any furniture that may have once been sold by a merchant or something that is other wise rare (like the blue shiny collection items, those are all tradeable and are typically house items). Arena pets also show up, if you’re a collector of those at all (which I am not, each one of my homes typically has one or two pets, but I find they clutter the space something fierce).

Some other semi-rare house items that can be found on the broker would be the miniature spires replica, from aiding in the building of the wizard spires. The Queen Antonia and Lucan D’Lere statues that talk if you examine them, of course baby dragons. These items came from the collectors edition of EQII and are typically priced quite high – though the statues hover anywhere from 50g – 20p depending on the day it seems. I paid 5p for my statue of the Queen, and 7p for the one of Lucan. If you’re not an avid house item collector, those prices probably seem very foolish to pay, but to each their own. I paid 10p for my piano, and in my eyes all the purchases were quite worth while. I take pride in decorating my home and adding bits and pieces to the “collection” of objects I’ve gathered. With time I eventually hope to add a museum type entrance way, once I work enough faction with Ironforge exchange to afford their display cases.

On a side note, home owners everywhere were delighted to hear the following:

Housing
It is now much easier to move houses!

• Just go to the new house and purchase it. Your old house will be relinquished automatically and all of your items will move to your new house.
• When you enter your house for the first time, you will notice a moving crate on the floor. You can move it around and retrieve items from it, but it cannot be picked up or destroyed.
• Items in the moving crate count towards your total item count in your house, but do not provide status cost reduction and are not useable.
• Items cannot be put into the moving crate.
• The moving crate will disappear when all items are removed from it.

You can find the full test notes here.