2007

An eventful weekend

stargrace March 12, 2007 1Comment

Stargrace on her pretty new horse

This weekend I actually got a bit done (for once). Well, I didn’t actually get a lot done, but I did finish off ‘Trading Information’ which is one of THE most annoying quests in the entire claymore line. If you hang out in SoS long enough and in the 60-69 channel, you’ll eventually learn of this dreaded quest. Part of the claymore chain and by the time people are through with it they don’t want to go back to SoS any more. I can’t say I blame them. Having already completed the claymore on my fury, I was not exactly that keen to jump right back in and try to complete it on both my illusionist and my templar. Since the templar has yet to even start the dreaded quest, but the illusionist was almost done the SoS portions, I figured I’d try to get some of it done. With Shadowgeist (70 Shadowknight), and a 70 wizard from guild, along with my fury and illusionist (boxed) we spent a few hours in there, clearing what we felt like clearing and training everything else. A master or two dropped and lots of vendor trash which is never a bad thing for me. Under the ‘quick link’ section on the left hand side I have the entire claymore quest posted. I’ve got one more quest to complete in SoS (which is not *horribly* bad, but bad none the less) and then I can move on (finally).

Made a little coin on the broker, but have been spending it as well, gearing up alts and purchasing masters for those of my gals who need them. My fury needs one more master and then she’ll have all of hers. The illusionist and templar both need a few more. I’ve been pondering playing my assassin for a bit, she’s been stuck at level 46 for quite some time now. Would be nice to at least get her to 50.

I still have lots of language quests and L&L quests to go through that I haven’t even attempted yet. Perhaps that’ll be a goal for today, to work on some of those. Couldn’t hurt at least. They do have to get done some time. I boxed the conj and the templar together and finished off the clockwork L&L in Klak’Anon, the kills were a little slow using the conj’s tank pet (not to mention every spell I have is app1 for now until I upgrade – except my pets which are all adept3) so I switched it out for a scout pet. Adds were a small issue but the mobs were mostly green / blue and I had fun working on the quest. The body drops were far too rare, my only issue. Of course there’s gotta be some challenge to the quest other wise why bother.

Unrest

stargrace March 11, 2007 0Comment

Dasie, who some how got dropped from group – hey wait. I’M Dasie…

I did my first Unrest group yesterday, having very fond memories of this EQLive zone it was certainly a walk down memory lane. Exceptional care was taken with this zone. The script was fun, even if the zone itself is quite long to complete. About 3 hours total with a few breaks. We wiped twice, both times from shiny traps. Those shinnies are killers. Literally. The first time spawned a whole lot of billy dolls onto us, and the second time just spawned.. stuff. Lots of stuff. The on our way back after the first wipe the Bugaboo (level 80 epicx2 who HAS been killed – just not on my server) decided he’d like to chew a few group members.

There were a few favorite parts for me, of course my least favorite part would have to be when you’re in the kitchen area at the lockers and when the zombie pop in front of your screen much like the halloween crow reward did – scare the living daylights out of you especially if you’re not expecting it and no one warned you. It also actually scared me when the picture below happened to my screen, as though it were possessed. VERY awesome effect.

… just plain scarey

Couldn’t even see my group members, only the skull and the eerie static, mixed between the sounds of the house which I eventually turned down. So what I’m a big baby! The loot was not too bad. The vendor trash loot sold for fairly well, 15-17g each piece. Stuff that was of no use for anyone to actually wear, but again, plenty dropped as vendor trash. It was also a lucky run my first time through. The group consisted of myself playing Dasie (my templar) a 70 Shadowknight, Wizard, Necromancer, Fury, and a 68 Paladin. The templar legendary class hat dropped, so Dasie won that. She also got a legendary dagger with a disease proc on it that will come in handy on the fae dirge I’ve decided to level up (eventually). The end boss typically drops one of the legendary set chest pieces – and I didn’t care which one dropped so long as someone from the group could make use of it. Typically they just end up rotting. Thankfully earlier on in the zone I was going to box my illusionist / fury along – but then a second fury joined the group so I switched both out and just brought my templar (the templar and illusionist are on the same account so I could not bring both). I had camped the illusionist out in the zone, and it was probably a good thing I did, as the illusionist/coercer robe dropped at the end. It’s a very pretty dress, dark purple with lighter purple markings.

Another wonderful house trophy

As the final boss went down, I got some mail which I was expecting, and joyfully placed the skull in Dasie’ inn room in the Baubleshire. She’s not typically one for keeping such gruesome trinkets, but hey there’s a first time for everything. My advise for this zone – be sure you go in with someone who knows the script. It’s complicated and you could be there a long time if you’re not sure what to do. Get all of the outdoor sections done first, and assign one person to collect the pieces needed to unlock the various doors. We also assigned one person to collect the shinnies, and then we randomed on them so that not just one person hounded them all (though it didn’t exactly work out well) it seems like the more instance runs I do that have shinnies like Nek3.0 and Unrest the greedier people become for them. Two healers meant we could get by without a mezzer, but we probably could have survived with one (good) healer if we’d brought an enchanter along. The zone was not overly difficult, the hag fight, was lots of fun. Freeing people from the jail cells (AFTER the mobs inside were dead, people having learnt that lesson before) was great. All in all, very pleased with this zone and looking forward to completing it on the other characters I have, hopefully a few times. The class hat and chest piece drops make it a very attractive zone to do. As well as some nice legendary jewelry pieces, a wand, a cape, and a few other pretties. If you haven’t been yet, be sure to check it out.

Tarinax eats dust and the necromancer moves to Qeynos

stargrace March 10, 2007 0Comment

Stargrace standing on the rock to the left, amidst the Lucan D’Lere Raid Alliance

I don’t typically do pick up raids, for numerous reasons. They usually end up being huge disasters that leave me with large repair bills and a sour taste in my mouth. So last night when I was randomly sent a tell on my illusionist asking if I wanted to join a Deathtoll raid, I surprised even myself by saying sure I’d tag along. The Lucan D’Lere Raid Alliance is a mixture of mostly Legends of the Tundra (with wonderful coercer Rorion leading that night’s raid) with some unguilded, and Salarionn acting as tank for the night from Forsaken (which is a fairly acomplished T7 raid guild). There was a member or two from HoE, as well as myself from Torrent Knights (which died once Vanguard came out, but there are 4-6 of us who still frequent the guild and don’t want to see the level 60 home dashed so easily). It was a fun night, even if we didn’t accomplish killing the corpuscle (also known as the splitting drake, and a pain in many people’s arse) and we also called it a night on the diseased based snake who has a nasty AoE and port / root deal. Tarinax did fall on the third pull, having some issues with him clambering his way into the wall in behind the raid force and then AoE’ing us all with his frontal when ever he could. Meanie.

It was a change, from the raids I’m used to. A bad thing? Not really. I did enjoy myself. Will I make it a nightly ritual? Probably not. As fun as it was, I missed the polished feel from my previous raids. In my opinion it went very well for people who perhaps don’t raid together all of the time, and who are still working their way through the lower end of T7. One small pet peeve I had this time was the amount of noise on the vent channel. I actually liked the method my previous raiding guild used, on teamspeak (the alliance used Ventrilo) during the raid, only the raid leader / officers / tanks had access to voice. Which meant people were paying attention to the raid, and not breaking out into the latest sports scores or discussions on breasts as we’re going over the strats for a particular fight — that is purely situational though, I realize that interaction with people is what makes these mmo’s thrive and succeed, it’s the community and bonds you form. I’d just rather only hear one voice at a time instead of 10, and have it be on the situation at hand so I can do my job as a raider (I know, I know, raiding is not supposed to be a job) rather then have to listen to a whole lot of other stuff that I don’t have any input in. Maybe that’s weird of me to say, but I like to raid and know I do a good job, and pay attention and get that job done. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and makes me feel good. Just my weird twisted views.

As another first for the evening, I betrayed my 52 necromancer over to a conj! Oh, and I also run a second account now. I moved my 70 fury and the 52 necromancer conj over to the new account, so that I could box them (and anything else I decided to make) along with the characters from my original account. Worth it? Well, here’s how me and my boyfriend rationalized it.

• Already paying for station access (price hike had not occurred yet) for EQII and Vanguard, but have no interest in playing Vanguard. This basically meant I was paying for 4 character slots, and adventure packs, and that was it. I don’t play anything else on their play list.
• Play frequently enough and can box smoothly enough (I play the 2nd account we had along with my account to level up alts and what not) that the account would not go to waste.
• Having a Call of the Hero character, as well as a character who can port, on a 3rd account, would benefit both his characters and mine (Can always park the Fury in Sinking Sands and port to all the EoF zones just fine, as well as dragging the conj to the basement of SoS or even Nagafen if needed and port people down).
• Gives us an extra 2 character slots compared to station access, for a total of 12 characters vs. 10.
• Veteran rewards to a larger amount of characters (the new account came with 6 months of veteran rewards, as well as the boxed rewards for each expansion since release, including the DoF statue, the KoS house plant, the EoF whirly clockwork pet thing.

So in the long run it was worth it. It also resolves my issue about the lack of population. I can box myself when I don’t feel like grouping (which is frequently) and I have extra character slots to create more characters (for example if beastlords come out with Kunark, or that Fae that I haven’t made yet). I’m pleased with it so far and don’t regret giving up Vanguard in the least. I figure perhaps when the first expansion for it comes out, I’ll give it another shot, but until then the bugs and glitches and over all beta feel, was just not what I was looking for.

The “Forgotten” zones – Introduction, and other ramblings

stargrace March 9, 2007 6Comments

Dasie, standing in Everfrost near the Numbnuts — er, Numbfoots

Traveling through Norrath yesterday, I was surprised to see such a decline in the population of certain zones. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that EoF offers content from 1-70, as well as the fact that a lot of people are already 60+ and are adventuring in higher end zones. Just as an indication, I ran through at about 4:30 EST and the populations were as follows: Nektulos Forest: 5 people in the zone. Enchanted Lands: 8 people in the zone. Thundering Steppes: 4 people in the zone, Everfrost: 0 people in the zone (besides myself).

Have the original zones to the game become obsolete?

I figure once a week (or more if I’m feeling up to it) I’ll do a feature post on a specific zone. Outlining a few of my favorite quests, along with screen shots of course. Maybe (if I can get my hands on any, I’m horrible for it though) some information on lore. I’ll keep it to the original zones in the game, the “forgotten” zones so to speak. I’m trying to work Dasie’ achievement points anyhow (ew, she’s sitting at 38, such a slacker compared to my other two level 70’s) so the travels through the zones will be a good thing, she can brush up on old quests and mentor down for turn ins. She’s the only one of my characters to have completed the prismatic 1.0 quest with Darathar, which I’m not even sure guilds do any more. That’s one bad thing about being able to ‘outgrow’ the content so to speak. Unless you have a large amount of people working on the quest, chances are the majority are never even going to see it once a few expansions have gone by. The gear gets out dated and is no longer of any value to have at that level, you can find crafted and dropped gear that surpasses the raid stuff.

Looking through her quest journal I was ashamed to see I only had room for two more. Not only that, but she had a level 18 quest from Antonica that had been there since July 2005. I hate deleting quests, I’d much rather complete them if at all possible. Especially if it’s to a chain or perhaps a quest that I may not remember to get again. I really wish SoE would impliment a system where if you chose to, you can see the quest icon (a yellow feather) over the heads of everyone who has a quest at all, no matter if the quest is grey or not. Maybe that’s a feature that they could add eventually, I know I have submitted it as an idea before.

So Dasie hit level 68 in jewel crafting, did an order for a few moonstone pieces, I didn’t charge for the combines because she still gets fairly nice experience off of them, I’d have wasted the coal on crafting a few apprentices anyhow. I also got her two aa’s, working on her Tunare deity quest. I had her mentored down for the earlier turn ins and netted about 20-25% experience each quest. There are 4-6 quests for each deity, so that’s always very nice.

Cancelled my station access, there was no need to pay $29.99 a month when I’m no longer interested in Vanguard at all. Maybe when the first expansion comes out and the bugs are fixed I’ll go back to it, but in the mean time EQ2 will remain my home. Especially because I’m already looking forward to the Kunark expansion. SoE will continue to get my money though, as I’m probably going to invest in purchasing a second account for myself (making this three total accounts for the household, since my boyfriend also has an account) and eventually transferring my 70 fury and my 52 necro (who is going to betray to a conj) over to that second account. Why bother? Well, number one my computer can handle boxing flawlessly, on balanced settings. So when I need a port, or a CoH (Call of the Hero) it’d be nice to be able to use it for my own characters. Plus then I can play a DPS or a healer or both to the 70 Shadowknight on the other account. One of my friends on Najena and her husband actually 4-box, and each have a second account that they play. It makes up for the lack of population or the desire to group with others.

Why bother playing an MMO if you’re not going to group up and be friendly? Easy, for the community. I don’t have the patience most of the time to deal with people. I hate waiting around. I don’t enjoy teaching the game to someone. That doesn’t mean I’m a bitch nor am I rude in game I’m actually quite nice, but I value my ‘alone time’ so to speak. I group with my guild mates and those I’ve met who know how to play their class. I do on occasion join a PuG or two, they’ve not all been bad, I will admit. But at the end of the day no one else pays for my subscription except me, and I should be able to play the game exactly how I want to. If that means not hanging out with a tank who couldn’t tank their way out of a wet paper bag, then so be it. I do like to chatter to people though (especially on the crafting channel) and I can be helpful when I put my mind to it.

So, we’ll see how things go from here.

A little sanctuary

stargrace March 8, 2007 3Comments

A little garden sanctuary in Stargrace’ house, complete with fountain and roses

Yesterday being the first “real” game update of Vanguard and not just a build patch, I expected servers to be down for quite some time. I was not wrong, last night attempting to play around 6pm EST resulted in the message that servers were down. Around 8pm EST I began the longest download of all time to reinstall all of the graphics that were for some reason missing / needed to be replaced from their earlier patch. I didn’t log in for more then 5 minutes when the channels were flooded with people complaining, those threatening to leave for other games, and various random insults. So I logged off and headed to EQ2.

Above is a screen shot on the upper portion of Stargrace’ 5 room house. I decided she needed a little get away up there, complete with comfortable benches, roses, and a fountain for that quiet gurgle sound that we all adore. Banzai trees and bushes complete the little nook on the upper level. All I need is a few books placed I think, I did add a box of chocolates to one of the benches. After all, what’s more relaxing then curling up by a fountain with a good book and a box of chocolates hmm?

My mystic hit 26 yesterday, playing in the Ruins of Varsoon. I love that zone when it’s empty. Other wise it’s typically packed with farmers (not that I’m any better, running through the zone hitting as many named as I can). I was a little too small to handle very much, even though I was boxing a 70 shadowknight who was mentored down to her level. Trying to decide when I want to betray to a defiler. Probably not until T6-T7 I think, if I even get her that high. I bought the templar a buckler of blight, which drops from Obelisk of Lost Souls, I could have probably tried to get one myself, but there’s really not much to spend coin on in game, so I decided to splurge and drop the 5p on it. It’s a huge upgrade from her past one. Maybe later today I’ll do the final grind to level 70 jeweler for her.

Since they’ve added a bunch of new Lore and Legend books to the game, that’s one of my goals, each one of my characters actually need to work on it. The clockwork one is located in Steamfont Mountains close to the Klak’anon entrance, Werewolf is in Loping Plains, in a bookshelf in Somborn, Brownie is in LesserFaydark in a tent in the lower grove area, Minataur is in Steamfont in a bonepile near the southern crater in Smokehorn Baison, Bugbear was in Kaladim in a wheel barrel near some goblins, and Kobold is in Butcher Block in the same hut as the transmuting vendor. Sadly enough, my illusionist only has 10 of the L&L’s completed at all, there are over 30 in game right now. Ouch. Pieces are at a fairly reasonable price on Lucan D’Lere — except for the new ones. Or werewolves at least where the pieces can go for anywhere from 1p to 10p depending on what you need. Gives me a goal at least to work towards though, and something to do.