April 2008

A Quiet Night

stargrace April 15, 2008 2Comments

The rest of yesterday was fairly quiet. I wasn’t in the mood to do too much on the shaman, so I managed to ding her 18 and catch her up to the group, bought my new spells (I could really use another heal some time.. one is just not cutting it) and then decided I would camp the blood elf mask that drops on Azuremyst Isle. The mask sells for 35g or so on Uther, and for no other reason then the fact that it looks cool.

It’s a level 5 item that’s not bop, and you can share it between characters if you so wish. Since most helm pieces are level 24+ it’s nice to have a little bit of ‘fluff’ armor at such a low level. The mob who drops it is a blood elf bandit, and he has 8 or so spawn points. He’s also stealthed, which is why I took the hunter to farm it. She’s got her mount, and track stealth. He always spawns close to the road sides on the island, in a huge circular swoop. He also spawns very fast, less then one minute apart. The annoying part (aside from the drop rate on the mask) is just simply getting to each spawn point.

The mask has a 5% chance to drop, and I spent about two hours farming it last night. I managed to get two of them to drop, and gave the first one away to Daegon for his dwarf warrior. Looks mighty fine in it too. The second one I sent over to the shaman, and I contemplated farming a few more just for auction house. Not sure how much time I want to devote to that though, I can make more money (faster) harvesting an instance (or two) and it’s a lot more fun then just riding around an island in circles killing level 7 stealthed bandits.

Tonight I assume the ‘regular’ group will get together and try to make a push for 20. I believe I get my shaman ghost wolf quest then (even though honestly I haven’t the slightly clue what ghost wolf form does for a shaman) and we’ll be moving on to some other quest areas. Redridge is alright, but still not my favorite. I took the shaman back to Auberdine to quest there and catch up to the group, and was given a good 10 quests. Redridge has a few that I can do but I find the area annoying. Maybe it’s just me. After Redridge though is Darkshire,  which I adore. Then there’s STV (Stranglethorn Vale) which I have always avoided like the plague because I play on pvp servers. However, on a pve server it’s safe to hang out there, and I remember that area being a huge quest hub. Even my level 49 hunter is still doing a few strangling quests for that area. Should be fun.

Which is the key to this whole little experiment, right? Having fun, hanging out with good friends and just kicking back and relax. It’s been so long since I’ve really played EQ2 now (I basically quit the day epics came out and only popped in from time to time since then) and I really enjoy not having to log in for raids. Feeling very few obligations to play, which is what I wanted. I didn’t want to feel forced to play. What fun is that after all. Of course the game still has its allure, and EQ1 even more so lately. If SOE offered free transfers I’d probably go join Tipa in a heart beat, just for something fun and ‘new’ to do.

No sign of Rumorr last night, but I’m sure he was busy doing ‘the family’ thing. Hopefully he’s not even more discouraged by the levels we’ve (by ‘we’ I mean Daegon, Gozad, and myself) gotten. Klorel I believe hit level 10 on his warrior last night but then had company show up so he had to log early. It’ll be nice when we’re all around the same level again and can spend a little time doing instances or what have you. In the mean time though, I’m certainly having fun.

Ding 27! (IRL Omg..)

stargrace April 14, 2008 4Comments

Ok so the title is lame, I thought it was pretty cute. Last night Daegon and Gozad managed to cling to 18 and I took them through Deadmines on the 49 hunter for quest updates. Minxes is a little left behind now and has no real pretties to her name, but there was nothing I really wanted anyhow (aside from maybe the 2h staff reward from a quest chain). Today I’m running a few more friends through the instance, can never have enough Deadmines! Rumorr logged on for a bit to chatter about transferring that paladin of his, and hopefully it all works out. We’ll see later this week. When the groups and questing around Lakeridge calmed down for the night (and I was still wide awake.. for the most part) I decided to go solo Blackfathom Deeps, located in Ashenvale.

I love being able to run through these instances with my hunter tanking and feeling all big and ‘uber’ as I three shot the elites that scatter around. Even more, I love being able to help outfit my friends with the items we can farm from there. That way when we do the instance ‘for real’ people have some gear already (and then my Minxes can get gear too). An ok dagger dropped (blue) that was not BoP (bind on pickup) so I stuck that on the AH (auction house) and we’ll see how it goes. I’m at 295g now, after spending some coin making a new dress for the priest (Dreamweave, which has +spell dmg and +heal, can’t go wrong) and getting some crafting skill ups. Hopefully the shaman will hit 18 tonight, maybe 19 by the time everything is said and done, we’ll see how it goes. I think I have a quest to do at 20, and that’ll be fun.

The game all in all, has been fun. I’d say it’s 99.9% due to the people I have around me. Klorel, Daegon, Rumorr, Gozad, all of ’em make the game a fun place to be for the three hours or so in the evenings we play. It’d be better if Rumorr didn’t feel any pressure to level with his already busy life, but hey, nothing is perfect. I’d been contemplating Eq1 some, of course due to Tipa’s posts over at West Karana, but alas can’t bring myself to install the game. I haven’t bought any expansions since Depths of Darkhollows (and not even sure if that was the name of it) and I know I have three level 70 characters, a cleric, rogue, and enchanter, but no idea what sort of state I left them in. It’s tempting though. So tempting. I wish after a certain number of years mmos would just grant people free transfers. If there was a chance at me getting to play with Tipa, I’d probably consider it even more. As it is, I am fairly certain we don’t play on the same server (I don’t even remember which server I’m on.. I want to say Veeshan but I believe it merged.. to Luclin?) and as she herself has mentioned, who wants to play alone.

Wow.. now does this bring back EQ1 memories or what….. what a long time ago that was..

Omg, haha. My shaman gal here, is wearing the original earing of the solstice. Sighs. Good times. Good times.

It’s The Weekend!

stargrace April 13, 2008 4Comments

The weekend is half over now, and it’s been a lot of fun. Saturday I spent some time adventuring (and shopping) and I think I managed to get to level 14 in the afternoon. That evening I decided in lieu of my birthday (which is tomorrow) I’d have a few drinks. Apparently it was amusing, I was on ventrillo with Daegon and Gozad, Rumorr around for the first portion. We continued to quest (from what I remember, which is scare few details) and I believe by the end of the evening were half way through level 15. I stumbled to bed some time (I can’t recall when) after training my level 14 skills. This I found out second hand from group members. It involved liver dances (and song?) charging camps (which is something I rarely do) and just a plain ‘ol good time, had by all.

Today (after a lot of water, and some complaints about why the sun had to be so dang bright in the mornings) I took care of my real life chores and then started doing a few quests in the afternoon. Daegon and Minxes (my shaman) managed to take a hold of level 16, and Gozad hit 15. Our travels took us to Redridge, which is actually one of my least favorite zones. I typically hang out in Darkshore until 20 or so, and then move on from there. Having a good bunch of people around though makes a difference, and it’s bearable this time around.

I also managed to hit level 49 on my hunter, which came as a huge surprise. That’s two levels this weekend without me even trying to. I got myself familiar with older quests I’d had stashed away (and a few walk throughs since I’d forgotten where I even got the quests from) and spent a lot of time in Feralas. One of my favorite zones by far. I’ve spent so many hours in that area. Harvesting leather, and killing for general experience and loot. After I cleared out my Feralas quests I flew down to Tanaris and picked up more quests. Some where of course already green, but experience is experience, and what better way for me to learn the lands (again). I had a lot of fun just roaming around, without the pressure of pvp. It’s certainly a different experience. I’d been lurking around on pathways just out of habit. The relaxed atmosphere is doing me good though I think. Skaara (from Vanguard) also decided to show up on Uther, as a warrior. I’m not sure if he wants to keep playing or not, but he mentioned needing a break from VG, and that’s where he ended up. It was great to see him of course.

Rumorr spoke of moving his paladin over, which I encouraged mostly because I know he feels ‘left behind’ with his lack of play time. Not his fault he has more of a life then all of us, family obviously comes first. Plus just by the way he spoke about the paladin, it seemed as though he’d be happier playing that (verses the druid he’s currently playing). We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully everyone else had a wonderful weekend, and enjoyed adventuring no matter the realm!

Exploring, Crafting, and Friends

stargrace April 11, 2008 3Comments

Last night was a quiet night. My shaman reached level 10, which means she was sent back to her homeland of Azuremyst Isle, to do a quest for a fire totem. The quest itself was fun, but involved walking from one end of the continent to the other. Twice. Not so much fun. I suppose at low levels games don’t really have much for you to do except be involved in the length of time it takes you to travel from place to place. One thing world of warcraft has done wonderfully (even more so then Vanguard, but on a smaller scale I personally think) is make the world feel like an actual world. I lamented often over how EQ2 feels like zones. Lots of little zones all smushed together to make a world. You zone from one end of the city to the other, you take bells to get to areas, and yes the newest expansion does have some wide open areas, but you still have to zone to get to any of them. World of Warcraft and Vanguard attempt ‘seamless’ zoning. Vanguard stutters a bit as you cross ‘chunks’ and isn’t exactly seamless, but they still do a wonderful job. World of warcraft still has zone lines as you cross continents, but the realms aside from that (and instances of course) are pretty smooth. In an mmo that is one huge factor that draws me in.

In any case, I did my level 10 quest, Daegon did his level 10 warrior quest (obtaining his defensive stance as well as a new shiny weapon) Gozad did his level 10 hunter quest (now being able to charm pets, one of the key rolls of a hunter) and Rumorr took some time away to work on wife faction which none of us could fault him for.

My 47 hunter and 44 priest both reside on the Uther server now along with my level 11 shaman, and so as Daegon and Gozad ran around doing their level 10 quests, I figured I’d go farming some lowbie instances for loot to pass off to everyone. One of my favorite zones in the game, Deadmines, was also one I’d not been to in a very long time. It was my first experience with an ‘instance’ in World of Warcraft, way back when and I remember it fondly. By the end my bags were stuffed with wool, macaw cages, swords, and various other goodies. I swear every named dropped their rare blue, something I don’t remember them doing so easily in the past. I regretted not having the group along with me, to take all of the BoP blues that kept dropping since my hunter is a 300 skinner, 212 leatherworker.

I actually had to look up some crafting guides last night, which was new to me. Things in WoW are pretty simple – but I had no idea if skinning or leatherworking went up over 300 now with the release of BC some time ago. Turns out they did. I need level55 though in order to raise my skinning any higher, as Master skinner is only obtainable in the Outlands. I need to raise my leatherworking a little higher first before I become too concerned with where to go for that. It’s nice being a higher level, as I can make leather items for my shaman, Gozad’s hunter, and also Rumorr’s druid. The 44 priest is also a tailor / enchanter combination. Though I recently sold off most of her mats in order to bring in a little coin. There was no use for me to be carting around so much stuff that I couldn’t even use right now. I’ll have time to gather it all later.

All in all it may have been a quiet night, and not a whole lot was accomplished, but I still had a lot of fun none the less. I plan on running the group through Deadmines when they have the quest chains, and today may farm Stockades. Another old zone but still lots of fun. I’d still like to do WC and even SFK, but those are both in Horde territory, so it’ll take a little work not only to get there, but to make sure we’re not all going to turn into Horde fodder along the way. Certianly good times though, good times.

It’s all Fun

stargrace April 10, 2008 0Comment

Daegon and Minxes managed to both hit level 9 last night (and Minxes level 10 so that she can do her shaman quest.. which lead me all the way back to Azuremyst Isle.. annoying) and we had a blast doing it. There’s something to be said for experiencing new leveling zones that neither of us have spent any time in. Gozad created himself another hunter, and Mayadhros is now playing Rumorr, a druid. So that brings our little group of adventurers to: Warrior, Shaman, druid, and hunter. None of us have joined a guild yet, as we want to get a better feel for the game / our class and then we’ll probably join the WoW Safe Haven branch that’s on Uther.

One thing I’ve noticed (and this goes for most games) is that the starter areas for “old” races are not nearly as exciting nor do they pay as well as the “new” races. Specifically the blood elves and Draenei. I think it would be nice if any time a new starter was introduced, they (devs) also revamped the old starters, to be more in alignment. In Azuremyst Isle I’d be making 20-30s per quest at this level, where as in the dwarven starter I’m barely making 1s25c. Not that it’s a huge deal, but even little things like that make a difference to a new player.

I think we’re headed to Gholdshire (I probably spelled that wrong) tonight, so that we can all meet up and quest some place. I remember my humans starting out around that area, and it’s always fun to play with friends. I love the instance that’s out that way as well, and if I recall correctly, in a few more levels (18?) we’ll be able to snag the quests for that and get ourselves some pretties as well. I didn’t play for very long yesterday, but I did put more items up for sale on the 44 priest. She’s sitting on 170g now, and already has her mount, so I’m pleased about that. I know the level 60 mount is around 700g so eventually I’ll have to start saving for that. I already told Daegon that I’d pay for his mount for him if he wanted when he hit level 40. He’s not typically a crafter or a farmer of any sort, and I like to help my friends out. If I get enough coin I’ll more then likely offer the same deal to Gozad and Rumorr.

Other then that, and figuring out what everyone wants to do as far as crafting goes (I’ve got tailoring and enchanting, and I’m not sure what everyone else is doing yet) things have been blissfully quiet. Exactly the way I like it.