Nomadic Gamer

June 2008

Gaming

Instances Galore

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Yesterday was one of those very busy days in EQ2. It was wonderful, because they don’t happen too often for me. First of all, I teamed up with Kasul from Nostalgia, and he and I (as my coercer mentored) finished off two heritage quests for the guild, the guise of the deceiver, and the fishbone earring. Nostalgia 2.0 dinged 11, 12, and 13. Kasul also killed the tide octopus in Cove of Decay granting him the polished granite tomahawk and a bunch more status.

Once that was done I headed to a few instances, to check out SOE’s recent update that allows you to get guild status on completion of an instance. In other words, the final name gives status now. I did Obelisk of Blight just for fun (the entire run took 15 minutes with three of us) and Crypt of Valdoons. Instances barely anyone adventures in any more. 1203 guild status or so was the reward. Crafting would have been faster.

After those two quick instances a group was formed for Vaults of Eternal Sleep, in Jarsath Wastes. Nothing of significance dropped (besides the mobs) but it was still fun.

After that I headed to the newly revamped Runnyeye – and was sorely disappointed. There were no deaths the entire time (not that I wanted any) except for one pull on the final x2 mob (and we had no mezer so we tanked all the adds plus the x2 at once). The key to the encounter is simple – cure. That’s right, in order to make this encounter infinitely easier healers just have to do their job and cure every single dot that lands on the tank. If you leave a dot on there for longer then the .5 of a second it should be, you’ll wipe. Cure them instantly though and the encounter is smooth as pie – with no enchanter.

The list above is all the loot we got in Runnyeye aside from the final encounter that dropped a fabled bracelet for melee. Arysh looted it all – and promptly transmuted every single piece.

Ouch.

It was either not an upgrade for anyone, or it was a piece of caster gear and we didn’t have a single caster in group. We didn’t see a single master spell drop, and the whole zone left me feeling as though I was power leveling an alt through the original Runnyeye rather then exploring a new dangerous zone. Of course, I was with a team of mythical / vp geared people. Shadowknight tank, a templar, swashbuckler, dirge, assassin, and myself as warden (the only one there still wearing treasured and only level 79). Take your ‘average’ EQ2 player and I’m sure the zone is a lot more challenging.

What did make the zone fun for me were the two quests within it. Too bad they’re not repeatable. You get two house items, the fun bowl of eyes pictured above (more like a pot in size now that I think about it, a cauldron) and a hanging eyeball that I placed upstairs in the garden, because doesn’t that location just scream ‘giant eyeball goes here.’

It was still a great night, and I had a lot of fun. Remembered why I enjoy the game. Tonight is Nostalgia night, and I’m looking forward to that. No reason why I can’t play both games as the whim takes me. I did also managed to get Silhouette a few crafting levels (Ok, by a few I think I mean one) which was nice. The carpenter has been on hold for so long now. Time to get cracking so I can get all sorts of new house item pretties made! Her 5-room Gorowyn house is decidedly empty.

Gaming

Red Shiny Red Shiny Red Shiny!

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GU 46 came out yesterday in EQ2 and wow was it a big (great) one. I always talk about shinies, and for most people that means new weapons and new armor. Not for me. Nope. It means house items and new quests. So while the update introduced new quests and world events, which also reward some very amazing things – I’m going to talk about the house items in true Stargrace form.

The first one above is “Fae Tavern Shelves” and you can right click that awesome house item and have it pour you a drink. It’s the perfect size for any home.

Oh – wait. Where does it come from?!

That’s right. What wasn’t mentioned in the patch notes was that they added RED shinies to four zones. These shinies you can ONLY see while wearing your crafting epic. Finally. A reward for the crafters. The shiny pieces are lore, so don’t expect to go out harvesting these by the buckets. They also respawn VERY quickly, so if you’re worried about crafters gouging you, don’t be. I saw a few pieces going for not even a plat – and since word is not really out about these shinies yet, expect them to go lower and lower.

The four zones these shinies come from are Barren Sky, Loping Plains, Steamfont Mountains, and Fens of Nathsar. There was talk of another collection being found in Bonemire, but I have not seen any proof of this in the short time I ran around the zone and browsed the forums.

The piano looks much like the blue shiny reward from Mistmoore castle – but this one of course is darker in colour and it also plays music. Each time you click it to play a song, music notes rise out and your house will be filled with various tunes.

My favorite item from the red shiny rewards – is the Norrathian Star Chart. Combine this item with the globe that you can get from faction, and the star chart you can get from blue shiny rewards in Ak’Anon, and you’ve got yourself a nice little set up started.

These house items are completely separate from the other house items added to game – the rewards for doing the storm quests and turning in certain amounts of tickets. I haven’t even looked into those yet aside from the initial quest which opens up the repeatables. No doubt I’ll find time to write about them, too.

Now I have to find room to place all these red shiny rewards. Then decide whether or not I want to do the quests again on an alt so that they too have the rewards. Remember not only does Stargrace own a 5-room Qeynos house, but so does Arysh. Petites owns a 3-room Kelethin home, and Silhouette owns a 5-room Gorowyn home. . . . .

Crazy? Naw..

Gaming

Mostly just Crafting

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Yesterday was one of those “a little bit of everything” days. By the end of it I was left feeling as though I’d accomplished nothing, though it’s not the case. It started out easily enough – I leveled my beastlord from 35-40 in Stone Hive, which is of course a hot zone. I teamed up with my druid, who’s just a hair shy of dinging 48. Afterwards I was feeling bad that the beastlord couldn’t cast a single spell, she’d leveled that fast. Everything fizzled. I spent a few hours working on skills so that I can at least buff, call pets, and heal. Tried to do a little shopping but everything is grossly over priced in the bazaar, so I’ll satisfy myself by either crafting bits and pieces of armor, or just waiting until I’m at a level where I’ll have no choice but to splurge. We’ll see how it goes. Today I’d like to reach level 45, so I’ll be heading to Dulak Harbor (again…) later on.

In the screen shot above is of course Rahotep who I helped take down on my ranger, along with magician friend. Back when we were level 13 or so, he hurt. A lot different from the EQ2 version where he’s a raid encounter with an army of undead, used in a heritage quest. Or at least, he used to be epic, he may have been toned down after a few years, a lot of encounters were.

EQ2 had their GU yesterday, including a new Runnyeye zone to play in. I almost ended up going to that, but alas the lure of EQ1 was stronger.

I finally managed to get my jewelery trophy completed on Kameeko, it’s evolved 5/7 of the way, and gave me a nice 75% 10 slot WR (weight reducing) bag. It’s temporary, but if you pass it to Jorlum in the bazaar he gives you an essence you can combine in your crafting machine of choice and it’ll turn into a real bag. Since I have the old school one from the grandmasters piece, Kameeko is now sporting two of these bags. Can’t complain at all.

I spent a lot of time organizing bags yesterday. Trying to figure out who will do what craft. While it’s nice and easy to say one character will do it all, it’s also nice to spread it out a little. For example, the ranger will be a master fletcher – they use arrows, it makes sense. The halfling druid, is going to be a master tailor. Halflings are the only race who can make the leatherfoot haversacks that I so enjoy. She’ll also be doing baking, because it just makes sense. Kameeko is of course my master jeweler. She has everything else at 200, but I’m not sure if I’ll spend aa to extend that or not yet. Invis is my master poisoner. I attempted to work on her trophy last night as well, but it requires bits harvested from lower level zones that no one goes to any more – and thus none of the poison components were for sale at the bazaar. It’s still quite easy to do, but it will take me some time to find all the parts I need. Nothing wrong with that.

I took Qutey out to the Broodlands to forage for a time, there’s a LOT of food supplies that can be scrounged up there, as well as scale ore which is used in jewel crafting. The only problem is that there’s such a variety of items, it’s going to be difficult to store it all.

All in all, yesterday was a rewarding day at least in the craft sense. I feel better now that things are slightly more organized and I have a direction to go. That’s the problem with having so many alts.

Gaming

Epics, Experience, and Enjoyment – Oh My!

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Back to Katta I went, to turn in bundles of herbs for faction and experience. Each round gave me 75p and a lot of experience. It’s all aa experience, but hey it helps. I’m just glad to have my bag empty from herbs (again). It’s a long boring run from the quest npc to the Greenhouse (which is an update you need to get first) before you pass over all your leafy green goodness. A huge thank you to Kragnn who helped me find my way to the greenhouse (and back) without me ending up a smushed splatter on the ground.

Once I did that, I helped out with a wizard epic 1.5 – and part way through Lackey asked if I’d come help him ding level 51. We rarely get a chance to play since he’s not on any sort of schedule, it’s hit and miss. Once the fight was done for the wizard, I headed off to Dulak’s Harbor with Lackey and a Shadowknight, “Imacrushu” who found it amusing that the cleric and magician tanked far more then he did. I brought Ishbel, popped my Lesson of the Devoted (which is a veteran reward for those not familiar with it, that gives you a bonus to experience for 30 minutes) and we began ripping apart the harbor. It wasn’t long (an hour and a bit) before Lackey managed to get his level 51, and Ishbel had gained three aa.

Not that I have anything to spend them on. The general consensus is that you can save up to 30aa before it’ll start reverting to regular experience again, so that’s probably what I’ll do. I have my aa experience on a 10/90 split so that I’m still gaining a trickle of regular experience as well. I’m 51 and the hard cap is 52, I have a bit of leeway.

Since I’m boxing now, I’ve come up with a few duo combinations that I’m happy with. I have a druid / beastlord combo (beastlord managed to hit level 35 yesterday), and a necromancer / enchanter combo. Since the necromancer just kites anyhow, and the ench can slow. I also have a ranger who I can stick with multiple characters, and yesterday created a shaman on the second account, eventually to team up with my shadowknight. It’s fun to not only have a wide variety of characters, but a selection of levels to play at as well. One thing I’ve noticed more about EQ1 then any other MMO I’ve played in is that I’m not quite as concerned with gaining levels as one may think. Typically it’s the “grind to end game” that urges people further. However in EQ1 you really do need to stop and gain aa for a period of time before considering leveling up again. A level 80 character with 0 aa is going to have a hard time of things, great gear or not. It’s one more unique thing I love about EQ.

One of these days I’ll have to organize all my banks, do some serious crafting. It’s an expensive hobby though and rarely does the lower level items sell. We’ll just have to see how it goes. Two more aa on the enchanter, and I’ll be able to purchase the 50% reduced fail rates. Then comes salvage. For now I have 25% reduced rates. I also need to get her crafting trophies – eventually. Then besides all the crafting aa she still needs regular aa. I have a feeling all of my characters will sit at 70 for quite some time. There’s really no reason for me to be in a mad rush to level up anyhow, plenty of great lower level content still that I’ve yet to see.

I need to start Ishbel’s epic as well. Maybe this week – I hope.

Welcome Anakh to Nostalgia too, a friend from Vanguard who decided to give things a whirl!

Real Life

Medieval Festival – Morrisburg Ontario

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I’d never been to one of these medieval festivals before. I know quite a few people who have. I’ve never seen one around the Ottawa area before though. It was pure luck that I even heard about this one. It took place at Upper Canada Village, which is a historic park that depicts life in the 1800’s with walking tours through old houses and schools. It was their first time putting on the festival, and I hope they considered it a success, because I certainly did.

I got there far too early, was my only issue. Shows repeated themselves throughout the day and by the time 5pm rolled around with the banquette not even beginning until 7, I’d seen some shows three times and was tired of sitting on the grass. I wasn’t feeling the greatest at all, so I headed home early, missing that portion of the event. It was still fantastic though.

People came in costume, which I will next year. There was jousting and “Knight Richard” actually got hurt quite badly, being tossed from his horse twice, and stepped on once. Scary stuff.

There were magic trick shows, sword fighting, buskers walking along the fair grounds (there was even one family carting a bin of GIANT pickles around, that they’d sell to you on sticks. They were by far the best food at the event and big sellers). There were belly dancers (who also gave lessons, and contrary to popular belief, belly dancers have BIG bellies, not slim tiny little things. She was very beautiful).

There was also a bird of prey show, with Canadian birds mostly. Red Tailed Hawks, and Great Horned Owls. They took to the skies and flew around the crowd as the falconer explained about each bird. Great show. The royals were also there, King, Queen, and their entourage. They watched the jousting from thrones situated a little ways from the event.

For some reason even Jack Sparrow was there – and let me tell you this gentleman did not only LOOK like the Captain, he sounded like him, almost exactly. He swaggered around the park telling kids they should take extra peanuts from the bowl he carried with him. Very exciting stuff.

I took over 100 pictures while I was there, and it was just simply an amazing time. You can find 40 more of the pictures if you’re interested, here.

Hopefully it runs again next year. They’ll have learned some stuff about what people want to see, what sold well, the grounds themselves and staging could have been set up slightly better. It was difficult to catch all of the acts because unless you memorized the schedule, you had no idea what was going on or where that particular show was going on. The weather stayed relatively nice, and I now closely resemble a lobster – at least in colour. Even though I brought sun screen with me apparently it was not quite strong enough. My face and shoulder where I walked with the camera bag are a brilliant shade of red. Ah well the price we pay for a day of entertainment!

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