July 2008

A Perfect Gaming Day

Yesterday was by far one of the most perfect gaming days – and I didn’t really do that much. It was great though. Spent in the company of amazing friends and good groups, with only a few deaths. The very early morning portion of it was spent in EQ1. I headed to Dulak Harbor with my 49 beastlord Nala (yes, I actually have two beastlords, I have one who is level 17 still) and my 51 druid, Qutey. Nala hit 50, Qutey hit 52, and got an aa. The kills are still relatively slow, neither character is wearing the best gear, and I’m still working up Nala’s skills since she was leveled fairly quickly. I invis’d my way up to the Oceancrasher and just sat Qutey there while Nala pulled.

Which is one thing I miss in EQ2 might I add. In EQ1 dungeon crawls are more like camps. You find a camp, and your group parks there while someone pulls. Bard or tank or whoever. You sit there for hours, camping your area. Someone zones in and ‘camp check’ is a typical thing, still. In EQ2, I don’t think I’ve ever even heard someone ask for a camp check, unless it was for some particular mob used in a quest and even then it’s rare anyone asks. It’s been phased out, and I miss it. Groups are constantly on the move – granted a lot of this is due to the questing-to-level method of gaining experience. Always on the go.

After that it was time to help out some friends in EQ2, a conjurer and necromancer with their fabled epics. It had been a very long time since I played Petites (templar) to any great extent and I missed it. She was 8% to ding, and I asked if I could tag along on her even though she’d be quite small for the two zones we were headed to (Sebilis and Chardok).

We actually did fantastic, no deaths. The one problem? At level 75 (she dinged almost immediately) you can only cure up to level 83. The mobs we were fighting were level 84-85. So while I could heal just fine, I couldn’t cure the nasty fears, or dots that pummled us. We did the entire zone this way except for one final named at the doors to VS, who I relogged to the druid for. CoTH (call of the hero) her down to the group and we took them out too. The named dropped a very pretty pair of bracers for Goudia that extend the length of her songs by 10%. Couldn’t complain at all! Once we were done getting the updates people needed in Sebilis, it was time for Chardok. Everything went smooth there and Petites managed to wiggle 50% experience out of the ordeal. Even though I couldn’t cure the dots none of the mobs in Chardok fear so we had no issues.

Finally, after all that, I went to play with Kasul some who was inching up on level 65. That’s a big level in EQ2. It’s the level you can start doing Kylong Plains (RoK) content. It’s also the level a lot more instances become available to you such as the ones in Bonemire (there are three at least) and the ones in Loping plains, as well as Obelisk of Blight. It’s also the level you can start grouping with level 80’s.

The experience in Barren Sky was slow, and I was feeling restless, so eventually after some time I suggested we head to New Tunaria with my coercer. Charmed a vampire and we were on our way. LOTS of chest drops and Kasul got his level.

I died, a few times. It comes with the charming mobs territory though and I’m quite used to it. Thankfully this time I didn’t get Kasul killed.

Today, hopefully some instance runs, we’ll see! I hope everyone else has had an amazing weekend.

How did it end?

It figures, that once I decide to go back to the Friday night Nostalgia group, others decide not to show up. Not that it’s any fault of their own, no doubt there were real life adventures that kept them away. It’s just my sort of luck, that’s all. We were missing a wizard, a shaman, and a Gnewton who had mentioned ahead of time he’d be gone (hope those drinks were great!). So it was that 7 of us brave adventurers wandered the road to Nagafen’s Lair. We had a few not so nice pulls. Well, more then a few. It’s difficult to get down when your entire raid force consists of a magician (who used translocate and gate to split mobs for us), ranger, two clerics, two warriors, and a druid. In one of those pulls we got Nagafen down to 20% or maybe even slightly below, but we were missing our uber dps ranger, and the healers slowly ran out of mana and were eaten like some sort of truffle delicacy.

We prepared to work on another pull when it happened.

As though my luck could not have gone any worse. My computer decided it wanted to randomly shut off, and not turm on again.

I hate computers.

I quickly started taking it apart to try to decipher what the issue was, and around 1am with a case of old parts, I logged back into game. Of course, no one was around so I don’t have the faintest idea if we won or not. I think we may have, I tried to peek into the room Nagafen stays in and saw no dragon. However, having never seen that room before in my life I’m not exactly sure where Nagafen would be in there, even if they were up. Hopefully Nostalgia was victorious, and it ended well.

In EQ2, earlier in the day saw Kasul reach level 63. I boxed a tank and my templar (who is also fairly close to level 75, but I just can’t bring her to solo it) and did Nest in Barren Sky, which Kasul had never been to before. We also did Vaults, in the same zone. Alas no class hat dropped which I had been looking forward to. Silhouette also managed to climb to level 71 carpenter, this weekend is double exp weekend so take advantage (not that I did last week). I believe it’s the last one with the living legacy promotion, so now is the time.

Summer Cleaning and Nostalgia Fun

It was well past time. Every so often (typically when I get low on cash) I decide that it’s time to sell most of my rares and rebuild the section of rares in by shared bank. I love the way shared bank is combined now between not only accounts, but good and evil. Especially coin, too. Anyhow. The image above is all my rares that I’ve been stock piling for the past little while. I have two more boxes filled with transmuted dusts and shards and infusions, which I’ll keep.

I decided everything would go – almost. I kept the pelts, and roots, and hard metals for my lowbie armorer and tailor. I kept the T8 rares since I’m using them for furniture a lot, and I kept the T5 items for crafting epics since they use those and I don’t want to harvest them again. Hmm. It’s beginning to look like I didn’t sell anything at all but instead kept it. Hehe. Seriously though, I did sell a lot of them. I also stocked up on food and drink to sell, and odd bits here and there. A few shinies that I didn’t need.

In EQ2 I never find that I NEED money. The most I’ve ever had at one time is 200p and I’ve known people with well over 1,000. There’s rarely anything I NEED to buy, master spells being an exception when they actually drop down into an affordable price range. Gear comes from quests instances and raids. Masters too if I’m lucky. I actually end up spending money on alts for the most part and that’s just due to needing the gear RIGHT NOW instead of going out and harvesting for it.

Tonight is Nostalgia on Luclin (EQ1) and I’m looking forward to it. We’ll be smushing some dragons, so long as they’re up. I’ll have to log in a bit early and make sure my spells are all saved and set up the way they should be. It’s been quite some time. I also have no idea if I’m playing the druid or the cleric yet, and I know the druid needs her level 51 spells. I may team the beastlord and druid up to get them a little into their level, and get the druid working on some aa (or get her closer to 52) or the beastlord and the cleric, same idea. The beastlord probably needs a spell or two too, and I’d like to get them a little further into 48. Idealy I’d have them around 51 too, but Dulak is getting old and the killings are starting to slow down some. I haven’t decided where I’ll be headed next.

70 Carpenter

Not too much longer now! Yesterday finally saw me ding level 70 carpenter on Silhouette. Which means not only did I get to start all the amazing T8 recipes, but I also got to scribe 6 new books from faction merchants, two for Rilis, Danak, and Bathezid Watch. Needless to say I had a LOT of items to make. It was great! I’m quite happy to have made it so far with this crafter, considering I’ve had so many carpenters in the past who for some reason just didn’t make it. I spent a portion of yesterday designing a room in Shadowgeist’ house which I’m slowly working on, and dumping items into Kasul’s house, who’s kindly let me get rid of all my junk that I have no use for. Maybe he can come up with something to do with it all.

The faction furniture is really nice, some of the wall hangings even let you have a small reduction in the coin cost for your home. Really can’t complain about that at all. I’m eager to get level 80, so that I can work on the crafter epic and get that run speed clicky. Not to mention the cloak. Then it’s time to level up the next crafter, which will probably be the neglected woodworker who has been at level 74 for quite some time now. I do have the 80 sage who needs her epic, but because she’s only a level 60 adventurer she hasn’t done the faction she needs for Bathezid Watch in order to begin with. I dislike the crafter writs, they don’t reward you nearly enough for the effort you put into it. Those who can adventure for their faction are far better off.

Though I do admire the fact that there’s an alternative means to obtaining your faction if for some reason you are not an adventurer. After leveling so many characters to 80 I’m almost but not quite inclined to get my faction that way too.

Tomorrow is EQ1 night with Nostalgia on Luclin, it should be a lot of fun. A few more members have joined up over the past little while and I’m looking forward to playing with everyone.

The newest GU should be out before too long, I have mixed feelings on it. Probably means I should finish getting the rest of those notes from the current storm quests before they’re removed or changed. It’s hard when I have so many alts! I want to get everything for all of them and that’s just not a viable solution.

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Feel the Love

I have to admit, I’m proud of my guild. We’re certainly not the largest, with only a handful of active members, and we’re certainly not the best, most of us still leveling up. I’m proud of them every day though and I think that’s important. Last night saw us hit guild level 20 which was a major accomplishment for Nostalgia 2.0. It opened up more bank slots, and unlocked more items at the city merchants. It brings us closer to 30, which is fantastic, so of course I’m proud of everyone in it.

It’s hard to believe that Nostalgia the Guild (EQ1 branch) and Nostalgia, started out in April as an idea in the comments section of Tipa’s blog. It took off from there though. The Friday and Tuesday groups still gather on Luclin in EQ1 for their meetings, and that guild is just booming. I’ve personally met so many wonderful people from both branches of the guild. It’s been nothing short of amazing.

I decided last night that I would not attend raids, for one main reason. They’re just simply too late for me. The raids didn’t even begin until 9:30pm my time, and end around 11-12:30 depending on the raid. I’m up fairly early each morning (between 5:30 and 6am depending on when the cat decides I should be up) and so after a lot of contemplation I decided to sit this expansion out so to speak. When the new one comes out in November, then I’ll decide whether or not I want to progress in that method again. For now I’m content with my fabled epics and working on tradeskillers.

Speaking of which, today I should be able to hit 70 carpenter finally on Silhouette. Last night I downed a few experience potions that I’d been stock piling (I had 15 of them) remembering that the different potions stack (ie: 55% bonus stacks with 28% bonus and so on). I hit level 68 which was dissapointing because I only got two new recipes. However at level 70 I’ll get all those new faction recipes that I’ve had stashed away now. Since my carpenter is an adventurer she won’t have to grind it the long difficult way – except for Bathezid Watch, which leaves you just short of 30,000 faction. I’m eager to be on T8 as far as carpenter work goes. It means that I can make the REALLY nice items, and I can get started again on decorating. I want to overhaul each house I own, as well as make some items for Kasul’s house (even though I dare say I’ve been over doing his lately and just stuffing junk everywhere) as well as Shadowgeist’ house which I have a few special ideas for. It should be a blast!