Downsizing.. it Happens eh?

I’ve come to the conclusion (after much discussion with Shadowgeist) that I have too many characters. It actually creates a lot of stress for me in game, on who to play, what to do, and then if I want to join a guild, who to do that on, and then I get into the whole two boxing fiasco and it just goes from there. Two days ago Shadowgeist got into Siege, a raid guild on Najena. He decided to transfer servers and of course I’m exceptionally happy for him because it’s what he’s been looking for constantly now, he certainly deserves the break as not many guilds ever search for a shadowknight (high end guilds, that is). So he’s happy, which makes me happy.

In the mean time though, I’ve now lost my personal tank – which is not a bad thing, don’t get me wrong here. It does however mean I’ve got to adjust my play styles. I don’t want to move servers, I’ve got too many characters here, and I like the community – a lot. With RoK, it’s rare you ever HAVE to group to level, so I’m not reliant on him as much as I may have been in previous expansions. Anyhow, after a lot of discussion, I decided it was time to close down one of my EQ2 accounts. The extra characters are just more hassle then they’re worth, and again it was creating a lot of stress for me.

So I literally wrote out all the pros and cons to each character. What I liked about them all so that I could decide a good method of choosing which account to keep open. It wasn’t actually a hard decision, it’s not like I’m deleting characters or that I can’t just re-activate in time if I want. I hate being asked to box on raids, I hate guilds deciding that I should just play whatever class they need for the night, and at the same time if I’m asked to do so, I feel bad saying no (so it’s my fault, is what I’m implying here). In the end, I decided to close down the healer account. I have more fun with my dps / utility classes, healers can be found (most of the time) with ease, and a lot of duos and teams are tank / healer combinations, so maybe I can fill a spot for a dps / utility. It does also mean I’ll be closing down the crafters on those accounts – but again, I’ll have 7 slots on the account I am keeping, there’s no reason why I can’t just have 7/9 crafters.

So that means instead of the 14 characters I have, I’ll have 7. Actually, I have 5 for the time being, as I deleted (gasps) some lowbies, and my 31 wizard that I just wasn’t into. What’s it leave me with?

• 80 troubdador – 60 weaponsmith – 400 tinkerer
• 73 illusionist – 80 provisioner – 400 tinkerer
• 73 coercer – n/a – n/a
• 58 necromancer – 80 sage – n/a
• 52 ranger – 63 alchemist – n/a

That’s not a bad collection still in my eyes, and like I said, the other characters are still there, I’m just disabling the accounts and taking all their money (guild bank is up to 200p now.. that’s always nice to see!) making sure to take anything I may need off of them as well. The only one downside is that I also loose my transmuter – and I refuse to work up another one. On the plus side though, my bank is filled with transmuted goods already, and adornments are not as pricey as they were some time ago.

I’m hoping the change will ease some of the stress I’ve felt in game. It’s a video game eh, I don’t want to be stressed. Then I can concentrate on what I have fun doing (which lately is the coercer) and not worry about boxing. Plus, that’ll cut down some of the money I’m paying to SoE every month. Both me and Shadowgeist had two accounts, that means four accounts to buy expansions for. It adds up. Not that we have to worry so much about money (if we did we wouldn’t be playing at all) but well, typical female here, I worry a lot. So it’s always nice to cut down some of the worries.

We’ll see how the change goes, and as a side note, a thought that popped into my head. Maybe the new RoK raid encounters that drop coin (this is the first tier to do so, and they drop a LOT of coin) is to prepare people for the expenses of guild halls once they’re released. Would make sense to me since you want your guild to all contribute to paying for the halls. Also, it would mean that the richest (raiding) guilds would be able to afford the best. I hope there’s still options for the smaller guilds as well as far as halls are concerned, and maybe I’m way off on my assumptions (as I told Calreth tonight – that thought was logical? Oh well nvm then, SoE doesn’t DO logical.. ) so I guess only time will tell. Yes, I like many (many) others are excited about the possibility of guild halls. Vanguard’s spoiled me in that regard what can I say.