May 2008

Crafting Epic #2 Completed!

stargrace May 4, 2008 4Comments

This weekend was by far one of the best weekends I’ve had in EverQuestII in a long time, and I didn’t even really accomplish that much. It started typically enough. I meandered around Fens of Nathsar with Shadowgeist, looking for trouble levels. This zone (out of all the RoK zones) gives the least amount of experience for their turn ins, and I find them boring and drab. The goal is to try to get to 75 asap (I’m 74, currently) so that I can bypass those quests and do the ones in Jarsath Wastes that return 10% experience when you grab all four working faction for Danak Shipyard. Eventually it comes with a nice piece of gear and a hunter title. I completed a lot of quests along with Shadowgeist’ help (nice mythical, by the way.. ) and when he went off on his own for a bit I decided it was time Stargrace did her crafting epic.

Now, I have this completed already with Petites, my jeweler / templar. However, each category of crafter (outfitter, craftsman, scholar) has their own quest line to do for the fourth quest. My previous scholar one took me to an instance in Maj’dul, where I flung books at bad guys and frantically clicked on more books trying to find pages and then restore them. This time around I was sent to a special instance in Nektulos Castle, to ward away swarms of giants rats. Big, mean, ugly 20 levels higher then me rats. I got to design a rat trap, and catch them and kill them. It was a lot of fun, and easier then the maj’dul instance once I knew my way around.

Then came to the portion of the epic I’d been dreading. Gathering together 8 other crafters (plus myself) to comission pieces for the final turn in. I don’t know too many on Najena yet, aside from my good friends Albrta and Eyenstein, a couple who play. Albrta is one of those fanatic crafters who has one of almost everything, and she offered to help. She had to leave for a while though, so in the mean time I decided to ask on channels if anyone could help. The first few times went by with 0 response. If you recall last time I did this quest, I actually had to offer to pay people to do the combines for me. I didn’t want to do that this time around, we honestly pay for enough.

Then I get a tell, from Omay, who says they have ALL the crafters, and can make every piece for me. I sat there stunned for a second, it sounded too good to be true.

Not only do they make all of the pieces, they are a guild dedicated to crafting, and helping others craft. They accept NO donations (I tried) for their work. I’m not sure that English was their first language, but they were by far some of the friendliest people I’d met to date. Their inn room was decorated for crafting, they seemed to have done this a time or two before, making small chat about whether I knew what to do next, and how I should spend my time looking for the chia hidden in the inn room some place as they crafted for me.

I think I remained stunned the rest of the time there.

After they’d crafted every single piece for me, they played fire works and congratulated me, and on my way I went for the turn in. A huge thank you to them, and their guild “Wing and a Prayer” another thank you to the fine people (there were three, whose names I forget now) at Siege, who crafted the first three pieces for me. Omay and his slew of crafters told me if I ever needed any help with anything crafted, to send them a tell and they would help. I was stunned. Here I’d thought there was no crafting community on Najena – the channels are practically always silent. Low and behold, an entire guild dedicated to it.

So I finished my second crafter epic, and now I just need to get some faction with Rillis, Bathezid, and Danak for the special provisioner recipes, including some very nice charms made with chromatic essences that I want to pick up.

It was a great weekend, what can I say. I got the new cloak, earing, house item scroll, title, one of every T8 rare, and met some wonderful people along the way.

Oh, and as another great point? This entire guild, was halflings, except for one half elf who helped me out.

It’s FRIDAY!

stargrace May 2, 2008 1Comment

Woohoo, it’s Friday, which means it’s almost the weekend, it’s also Nostalgia the guild night (North Ro LDoN I believe is our goal) Ironman comes out, and it’s just one of those fantastic days.  That’s my hope, at least. Last night was a hodge podge of smaller things that I decided to take care of in EQ2. First and foremost was preparing for those 4 extra bank slots we’re all going to be getting. The four extra shared slots are not really ‘extra’ per say. What they’ll be doing is combining the four good slots you have with the four evil. Since I have boxes in all 8, they’ll already be filled (I store my rares there, have I mentioned yet how EXCITED I am about this change and having a general area for me to put coin that all my characters can use?) but then there’s also the four extra slots each individual person will get. I typically sort each slot by tier for harvested goods, and this will allow me to have a few extra for general items that take up room (old quest pieces I’m afraid of losing, potions, /claim items that I don’t use right away, those sorts of things).

I also went through my house vaults on a few characters, having not checked them in so long they were growing cobwebs. Put things for sale on the broker which I also had not done in a very long time.

Aside from general cleaning and organizing, my carpenter finally hit level 40! That’s the highest level I’ve ever gotten a carpenter to, and I’ve started more then my fair share. It seems odd, since I have plenty of crafters, and most are high level – that I would have such difficulty with the one crafter I use more then any other crafter. Go figure. Screen shots today are random pictures of Arysh’ 5-room Qeynos house. Her game room and her library which is a constant work in progress. I have not added anything to her house in quite some time and I’m wondering where to start. With a carpenter around it’s a lot easier to plan on what I need and what I’d like as far as furniture goes. Her bedroom and portions of the attic could use a revamp. Even the main room is a little drab these days. Silhouette also owns a three room in Freeport that is drastically bare, having moved her there a few weeks ago and not even gotten past unloading the moving crate. I’ve had a lack of inspiration as far as decorating goes – though I think browsing through the Norrathian Homeshow may help to fix that.

Of course now it’s 15 minutes later since I got side tracked looking through the Homeshow – if you’re into EQ2 housing at all and decorating this is the forum for you. Just some fantastic work there. In specific this post here shows some simply amazing work and dedication to housing. Wow. It’s just, astounding what people think of to do with all the items we have in game. Out of all the games I’ve played, EQ2 handled housing the best. Though EQ1 has guild halls (you can’t decorate them) and Vanguard has ACTUAL houses that you physically build – EQ2 by far has the best array of items and goods that can be placed in your home, both crafted and quested.

Speaking of which, since I’d missed Erollisi Day in EQ2, I spent a little time looking up the house items and purchasing a few (quite a few). Who wouldn’t want perfume bottle, roses, candy, and pillows? There’s also an Erollisi bear that I’d like to get (plushi, of a white polar bear) but he’s 3p on the Najena server, and I may be able to swipe one from a friend instead. We’ll see how it goes.

Be sure to also check out the EQ2 Traders Corner for all the new housing updates, great screen shots of everything crafted, and a little peek at things to come. Doesn’t that place setting just look fantastic?

Latest EQII Test Notes

stargrace May 1, 2008 1Comment

A huge array of changes coming to EQII, the ones that interest me most I’ve put in bold. You can read all test update notes here. A thank you to Rao for his post that made me want to go peek and see what else we were getting.

GAMEPLAY

• The time limit between repeatable faction quests in Sinking Sands has been removed.
• Damage that can not be resisted or mitigated will now be referred to as “focus” damage instead of crush/pierce/slash/poison/heat/cold/etc in combat chat messages.
• Corpses of powerful creatures will now stay locked for twenty minutes.
• Respawning near Jarsath Wastes in the Kylong Plains is slightly less dangerous.
• Mounts should now suspend while feigning death or riding on a griffon, sokokar or cloud.

QUESTS

• Grinash the Vicious and his pack will now trigger in the Steppes for players on “Vicious Assault”. Previously he would only trigger while on “The Cove of Decay – Kraughl’s Request”.
• Squire Kivan in Antonica will now give out the quest “Getting the Axe” to characters that he previously thought were too advanced for his quest.
• The No-Trade flag has been removed from a large number of book pages that were dropped from mobs or harvested from page spawns. Check your inventories!
• Clay golem hearts for “The Heart of Fear” quest in Cazic-Thule now drop as corpse loot instead of chest loot. They also will only drop while you are on the quest now.
• Multiple players should now be able to receive an update from killing Pawbuster when on that portion of the Conjuror Epic quest.
• Both the dropped and tradeskilled pristine fashioned nacre earring will now update the quest “Dukaris, Hero of the People”.

ITEMS

• The Nox Noctis Sword will no longer fit in the primary weapon slot.
• Deathfist Citadel crafted armor stats have been improved. Existing armor will automatically receive the upgrade.
• Duplicates of numerous books in the game that currently count toward one’s total house items are now available on Navarius Orvalis and Indis Surion for purchase if you fulfill the original requirements for having received the book (ie, if you completed the quest it was a reward on).

SPELLS

• The Karana deity pet and the sokokar pet should now stack together.
• Swindler’s Gift should now overwrite itself properly rather than giving an error about having a more powerful spell already.
• Coercer
  Possession has been renamed to Possess Essence. It now takes control of your target’s essence and makes them into a pet that you can control.
  Thoughtstones are no longer required as components for spells.
  The Despotic Mind line will now trigger off player based spell attacks. In addition there is a new level 80 version called Tyrranous Mind The other reactive lines have changed to be based on taking damage from when a spell hits the NPC.
  Puppetmaster has received an additional puppet.
  The Harmonious link line now reduces hate position when the player takes a melee hit.
• Conjuror
  Golem pets have now mastered the skill of walking silently.
• Crusader
  The Paladin and Shadowknight squires should no longer look differently after zoning.
• Enchanter
  The stun and stifle lines will now do damage rather than drain power.
  Enchanters will now also receive Call Servant and Shrink Servant at level 10.
• Illusionists
  The Personae line of pets should now nuke instead of attempting to power drain just like their owners do.
• Mystic
  The Ancient Balm line will now grant short duration immunities to any control effects it cures.
• Necromancer
  The Siphoning of Souls (Master II) will now also grant Master II abilities when it triggers on the death of an NPC.
  Essences of Anguish are no longer given out nor required as components for spells.
• Priests
  Cure Noxious, Elemental, Trauma and Arcane have been consolidated into one spell called Cure.
• Shadowknight
  Despoiling Mist line should once again apply the same number of mitigation buffs as members of the encounter.
• Warden
  Tranquility will now last 1 minute and attempt to cure impairments on the target several times.
• Warlock
  Nil Crystals are no longer required as components for spells.
  The Abhorrent Shroud line now has a power cost to replace the nil crystal requirement.
• Wizard
  The Surging Tempest line should now work as a dot with a triggered knockdown. This will make the spell work with Freehand Sorcery and Harmonization.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• You can now gain Achievement Experience from gray con quests that are level 10 or higher.
• Enchanter
  Volatile Magic will now be a 15% boost that is always on.
• Coercer
  Tashania will now debuff all magical resistances but slightly less than before.
  Coercive Healing will now give additional bonuses to reactive heal amount, beneficial casting time and beneficial reuse time.
  Manaward now acts as a true ward with a ratio of 1 health to 1.5 power.

BROKER

• You can now search the broker for items which give double attack, critical chance and damage additions.

PVP RULESET

• Executioner’s Fury should no longer put you into combat when it triggers.

BANK

• On all servers:
  Banks how have four extra slots for a total of twelve bank slots per character.
  Shared banks now have four extra slots for a total of eight shared bank slots per account.
  Shared banks now allow you to share coin between characters on the same account.
  Exiled characters continue to be unable to use shared banks with other characters on the same account.
• On PVE servers:
  Shared banks are now shared between good and evil characters on the same account.
  If you have all four slots filled in both good and evil shared banks currently, they will be combined into a new eight slot shared bank.
  Both coin and items can be shared with characters on the same account regardless of alignment.
• On PVP servers:
  Shared banks are still alignment based. However we have added four extra slots to each alignment’s shared bank (for a total of eight shared bank slots per alignment) and the ability to share coin between characters of the same alignment on one account.

TRAVEL

• If you have a Sokokar, flight posts in Chardok will now allow you to fly to any post that a group member has access.
• The “mysterious portal’ in Gorowyn now allows level 65+ tradeskillers to pass through, as well as level 65+ adventurers.

TRADESKILLS

• Weaponsmiths and woodworkers have learned to create recipes for new, more desirable crafted weapons with a choice of new effect.
• Geomancy arts should now appear in the crafting window in an order consistent with the other tradeskill reaction arts.
• You should no longer get less status for doing a level 70 tradeskill writ than you would for doing a level 69 writ.
• Ferrite throwing daggers are now correctly described as handcrafted.
• Advanced Artisan volume One is now available from tradeskill recipe book vendors around Norrath.
• Crafted shurikens can now be made at lower level ranges. Weaponsmiths have also rediscovered where they left their recipe books for throwing ammo.

UI

• You can now choose to show quest-giver icons for quests you have out leveled.
• Under Options -> User Interface -> Name and Chat Bubble -> NPC Overhead Quest Icons for Outleveled Quests
• The command “/inventory unequip all” will unequip all of your gear except food, drink and appearance items.
• Setting the option to now show third party damage combat bubbles will now also apply to third party heals
• Detailed arrows on implied target window are no longer cut off.

The most important ones to me out of the whole compilation – is the choice to be able to turn on quest giver icons even when you’ve out leveled the quest, and the bank ones. So many times I’ve wondered how much content I’ve out leveled and never done the quest for. I am very happy with this change, and even happier because I’ve /feedback it quite a few times now. Someone out there listened.