July 8, 2008

Troubador Tails.. er, Tales..

I joined a raid guild, almost. Ok I suppose the better word is that I’ve got prospects with a raid guild. They raid 6 days a week – but you’re not required to attend every one of them. I believe attendance is 20% required of the ones scheduled, which sits far better with me. My issue with playing the troubador has always been the fact that it’s near impossible to get groups. I’m required on raids, but heaven forbid should I see the inside of an instance more then once. However. I’m willing to give things another shot, and we’ll see how it goes.

It’s been a long time since I’ve raided in EQ2. I have raided PR and Thuuga with the troub, but only a few times, and we never completed PR at the time. My gear is not horrible, but it’s certainly nothing to get excited over. I have missed raiding, a great deal and I’m excited about things this time around. We’ll just have to see how it goes. I have a lot of other obligations, and the guild is aware of that.

So of course the first thing I set out to do was at least get the fabled version of my epic, since I will eventually have a very real chance at getting the mythical version. I headed to Chardok with a trusty shadowknight – and that’s it. Crazy? Yes, yes we were. We managed to duo to all of my clickies in the zone, including the one in the water by the barracks. How did we manage it? Well, thank goodness for divine aura and feign death number one. We trained all the way to the area with the barracks, then the shadowknight ran to the bridge where I needed to drop, fell down, cast divine aura, which was just enough time for me to snag the clicky I needed down there. HeĀ  died, and I evac’d to safety before everything ate me. As any good scout would do, of course. The items I needed in Korocust (also known as the-zone-no-one-goes-to-any-more-unless-it’s-for-epics-since-they-changed-the-zone) were easy. Now I’m off to CoM with no idea if I can solo getting to my mandolin or not. Maybe I’ll get lucky and run into someone adventuring that way. If all else fails, I’ll move the coercer to the zone, clear the way, then relog to get it. After that comes a journey to the temple of the white lady – and then begins the real epic, of harvesting 10 xegonite clusters.

That’s the part I want to get to today. We’ll see.

Roleplay, not just for Rp Preferred

Most people are familiar with the two ‘roleplay preferred’ servers on EverQuestII, it’s Antonia Bayle, and Lucan D’Lere. AB is one of the largest servers in the game (ie: most populated), and in fact houses both rp’ers and non-rp’ers alike. We ALL play on rp servers though, when it comes right down to it. These two specialty servers have a much stronger community, and utilities at their disposal – but we are all playing a roleplay game, and we all have the ability to roleplay (if we so choose).

One thing that really ticks me off, is if attempting to roleplay on a server other then the two preferred, you get mocked. Now, don’t get me wrong here – this degradation by other players also occurs on the other two servers but at least you can back it up with “this is an rp preferred server!” and some dirt throwing or what have you. On other servers, it’s a little harder to justify your characters quirks.

Some folks are brave enough to do it none the less, and I like them all the more for it. It takes guts to throw caution to the wind even in an online setting and to be able to ignore the /ooc (out of character) jeers and calls from fellow players.

My characters all have a background story, and from time to time I get the urge to roleplay with them. It’s mostly just me wandering around talking to npc within earshot of players in case they want to contribute (which has happened on a few occasions). I love roleplaying, and I love encouraging it, and I think it’s a wonderful addition to any mmo – even if you’re not the best at it. Give it a try some time, you may be surprised.