June 2008

Trophies, Levels, and Just.. Stuff

stargrace June 16, 2008 3Comments

Alright, before I get into the Medieval Festival (which I’ll post about later) lets talk about EQ. Heeding the advice of others, I went and did my fletching trophy quest as soon as I’d reached a skill of 50 from the freebie quests found in Crescent Reach (which you can also find in Abysmal Sea if you’re not keen on CR). The quest was simple enough, make 10 class 1 wood point arrows using large nocks, make 10 class 1 wood point arrows using medium nocks, make 4 long flight javelin shafts, 4 rough hickory recurve bows using silk string, 10 class 1 wood point arrows using small nocks, and 10 class 2 wood point arrows using small nocks.

Once all that was done, I turned them in to the judge, who gave me a score card. Turn that score card in and presto – I’ve got myself an evolving trophy. Worked fletching up another 20 points after that and it’d evolved into 37% through it’s level. Can’t complain at all.

The ranger managed to get from level 13 to level 23. I teamed up with a magician and we stayed in the hot zones, leveling in North Ro from 1-13, then porting over to South Ro until things started turning green at around 18. Then we headed over to Blightfire Moors, and completed the 10 slot bag quest – the gnolls were astounding exp, about 20% a kill at our level (they were white and yellow) so before we’d even finished the quest we’d gained a bunch of levels.

I also managed to get the beastlord a good number of levels, she’s sitting at 21 currently. I created the Vah Shir on my second account, so that I can level her with any one of my healers. A character I can just do whatever on, and not feel as though I’m out leveling anyone.

For once I didn’t really play my higher level characters, and I was content in doing so. There are plenty of lower level things I still want to do, zones I want to see, and old world quests I miss. Maybe I’ll even get an rp post out there sooner or later. We’ll see.

Now onto what I spent most of my weekend doing!

Newtfish, Nukette, and Grieg

stargrace June 12, 2008 3Comments

“I love those little time capsule moments we leave behind for ourselves” – Einhorn

Those words could not be more true. Pictured above is Newtfish – a name I created from an inside joke between myself and my former EQ1-buddy, Fistinyereyes. I’ve mentioned him before, I know. Anyhow. We used to duo, and I’d box my clr / rogue and he’d box his bst / druid. We were owners of old world zones, and on our frequent list of named to kill, was Grieg Veneticus, farmed for all his phat loots. We weren’t even sure we could duo it just the two of us. The first time we did was painful, especially since both of us forgot that Grieg blinds. We did it though, and on the first kill he dropped a nice haste belt for Invis, and the horse mount he has which we sold.

After some time, we ran out of ‘useful’ gear from him for our mains and even our higher level alts. So we each created a level 1 character. Mine was Nukette, a gnome wizard, and his was Newtfish, a gnome magician. We some how (I don’t even know how) managed to run them to Grieg’s End. I think we ended up using a druid port to DSP (Dawnshroud Peaks) and then running (invis) along the wall. Once we were in the zone, it was simply a matter of sacrificing ourselves, giving the group consent to drag our corpses, and rez’ing within Grieg’s room.

Newtfish is decked out with four pieces of gear from Grieg, and Nukette had her four as well.

Anyhow, the point to this whole droning story? I logged into my old account (since I’ve decided to box, I’ll be moving Ellithia back over to that second account and I’ll have a clr / ench combo, or a rogue / clr combo or whatever else I feel like playing). Low and behold, there was Newtfish. Exactly as I’d left him. Standing in Grieg’s End, in the room just before him. Since the servers had also just come up a few hours before – he was actually UP too. A flood of memories came rushing past me.

When I left EQ1 for EQ2, it wasn’t intentional. I had no plans of ever leaving the game. In fact I’m pretty sure I was one of those people who spoke adamantly about not leaving the game ever. I bought the game though, the day after it released, played for an hour or two and was hooked. I played it off and on for three years between multiple other mmo’s before settling back down here in EQ1, and for now at least here’s where I’ll stay. EverQuest offers me things that no other mmo can offer. The complexity and comfort that I find within the game, and the very unique (and wide spread) character customization through alternative advancement (aa) is just incredible. The crafting (while annoying at times) is exactly as I wanted it to be, and with aa I know it will only get better.

This Friday Nostalgia will be heading to Kaesora. I admit now, I haven’t been there very frequently. A few quests took me into the zone and I don’t even recall what for any more. I remember getting stuck down there I believe on my rogue when she was just tiny. Spiders that liked to maul her. That is, if I’m thinking of the right zone. I remember ruins beneath the FoB (Field of Bone) and ghosts and other goodness. I want to say I was camping a sword or something in the zone, but who knows any more. I’m excited about it, even if our local hero Gnewton won’t be there to cast his wonderful clarity (note to self, stock up on potions).

In other news – Ellithia dinged 69 last night, and 40% (two yellows, I believe?) into her level. The experience was not the greatest I’d seen, but it was steady and safe (for the most part). I spent it again in The Nest, off of Broodlands (which is off of Lavastorm, a DoN zone). I have every intention of seeing her to 70, then stopping to work on a good chunk of aa. Once I hit 300aa or so with her I’ll move up to 75, and then aa again. I’m also going to look into her cleric 1.5, how can I not! I’ll be attempting the same with kameeko, though I’m not sure yet how that will go. Getting back into the game has been wonderful (as I’ve said time and time again now) and there’s just still SO much to do.

Yesterday as I boxed I was impressed with how smoothly things were running. I play both accounts on the same computer (windowed) and then alt tab between the two. I noticed if I left the background character stagnant for too long (we’re talking hours here) there was a little lag as I tried to move around. It would clear up as I tried to move the account around, so that’s good. I used to love boxing, and while I do also just simply love playing the game with one character (as I will on Friday) there’s something to be said for accomplishing things in that manor. In fact, I’d say a large portion of EQ1 players have resorted to boxing. Be it duel, or 5 or even more. Over the years as people have left the game for their various reasons, it only makes sense that some would turn to this method of game play so that they could still accomplish what they wanted to do without the hassles of having to LFG for hours, or finding people in their time zone.

Two more days until the Medieval Festival – I am so excited. It’s going to be a blast. Expect lots of pictures when I get back!

Uber is as Uber Does

stargrace June 11, 2008 4Comments

I’ve never been uber before, in any game. Not by the uber people’s standards at least. I’ve never really cared about gear or what zones I’ve been key’d for or anything like that. What I have cared about is knowing my class, knowing how to play, inside and out. Even then there’s always room for improvement. I like knowing little tid bits of information that no one else would find useful. I know most of the short cut key commands to UI features just because.

Anyhow. My cleric, Ellithia is by no means uber. She’s three years out of date and there’s no way she could keep up with anything ‘current’. She’s got a tiny little mana pool – which I’m going to work on. Yesterday I spent some time with her in the Nest, which is a DoN (Dragons of Norrath) zone off of Broodlands. I managed to get from 31% exp to 90% exp which I was of course just tickled pink over. I really am eager to continue leveling her and see where I can get her. Maybe even work on my 1.5 (now that would be amazing).

In my travels down memory lane, Einhorn linked me this site, for PoM (Plane of Mischief). There’s some confusion as to when PoM was revamped, if it’s still revamped, or back under the ‘old’ layout. I don’t even know if the PoM I am used to is the revamped version or the regular version. Servers are down today for their 8 hour patch and won’t be back up until after 4pm EST – so I’m twiddling my thumbs contemplating things in the mean time. I’d like to take Invis (the rogue) out there to scope things out and see what it looks like, affirm in my mind that everything is as I’ve left it.

If things have changed, well. I can’t exactly blame SOE — oh wait, yes I can! If a zone is not broken, don’t fix it!

I’d like to organize some ‘old’ world exp running for higher level Nostalgia characters – since now almost everyone has one moved over to Luclin. The majority of us are out of date in gear and I’m not so sure we’d be able to stand up to the newer content, but there’s no reason we can’t go traipsing through the old world stuff. Even if Nostalgia itself is planning on doing that over time. I know, I’m impatient eh.

I still have two character slots, and have been contemplating what I want to make. I’m also contemplating closing down station access, and boxing in EQ1. I have two other EQ1 accounts, void of characters – and that would mean a lot more alts.

*Gets side tracked by something else and forgets where this post was going* Ah well, good enough ending for now..

Ah, Memories

stargrace June 10, 2008 4Comments

My first raid ever in EverQuest, was Bertoxxulous. I was so nervous. I was tagging along with a friend’s guild on Veeshan Luclin, Keepers of the Elements (who are still around and going strong today). I was also an enchanter, and back when we were doing this raid they were an essential part of it. Actually in a few raids they were. It was nice. I remember so many people being involved. I remember how long the raid was, even though it was timed. I remember listening eagerly for all the instructions, and me being VERY nervous about not being nearly as “uber” as everyone else was.

It was exciting, and I still remember.

There are very few raids in EverQuest that I’ve actually done. Remember, I came to the game five years too late. Only stayed a year before EQ2 came out. I still had a lot of fun though. I did maze raids, Terris Thul, Saryn, old raids from days long past. I raided PoFear just once with my rogue, and spent most of it dragging bodies around. I loved shroud of stealth. I raided The Hole with Rage Veeshan (before Luclin and Veeshan merged). For every single one of those raids I was on edge, and always of the opinion that this was simply bigger then us (how ever many had gathered for that day). I remember raiding in PoI and not even knowing what we were raiding because I was on spider duty. To this day I don’t even know what the mob looked like I just remember mez’ing / helping dps down spiders. I think they were spiders, my memory may be a little foggy on that. I want to say we were raiding Behemoth, but again, I never saw the mob, so I’m not sure. It was one of the most annoying flags to get when I was working on those. Everyone complained about it. Pick up raids were not something one wanted to do for this encounter.
I ran Invis through some of the zones last night, just visiting old haunts. I’m still not uber, but I am having just as much fun now as I did way back when. I even see some of the same people still running around. The game is still quite active, do a /who in the bazaar or in the guild lobby and you’ll be surprised, I know I was. I realize I spend a lot of time traveling down memory lane, but how can you not when you’re exploring things you did 4-5 years ago.

One zone I certainly want to hit is Plane of Mischief. Gawd I love that zone. I spent hours and hours and hours there, farming named (who are difficult to tell that they’re named, on purpose of course), my first trip in I was smashed by a giant bunny who saw through invisibility and I laughed for weeks. It quickly became my zone of choice, and any time Fistinyereyes (the beastlord I used to play with) mentioned where I’d like to go (we could easily duo) that was the top of my list.

Ah, memories. They’re awesome. Every one of them.