November 2008

House Items and Crafting Instances

stargrace November 25, 2008 1 Comment

Yesterday for some reason the npc’s in Mara turned their nose up at Tipa, Kasul, and I. So we didn’t get to do our nightly Tradeskill Instance. Tomorrow or the day after I should be able to do the solo quest again and that will give me enough faction to purchase the two recipe books with the tokens I’ve been collecting. Then I can start working towards something else. Even though I couldn’t do the instance with my main (I was unlocked from the instances as well, so I’m not sure what the issue was) I decided earlier in the day to solo one with my tailor. My tailor is on the 2nd account I have, and therefor doesn’t get the experience bonus that those on the main account have (which is a 50% bonus). How noticeable was it? In the time that my alchemist managed to get 6 levels, the tailor got 3.5 levels. Though my alchemist also used a 55% potion, and I did not use one on the tailor. For three hours of work that requires no raw materials, I still find it quite good. I got her to level 56 tailor. So that leaves my current crafters at 80 sage, provisioner, woodworker, carpenter, jeweler, 59 alchemist, 56 tailor, and 40 armorer. The armorer is a few levels shy of being able to do those Moors quests and the instances, so she’ll be next while the other two regain their vitality (why doesn’t the 5 year reward replenish the tradeskill vitality as well as adventure?!).  I didn’t get any rares this time around, but I did get a recipe book along with a piece of sage jewelery. I traded the sage piece off to Misako and I’ll have to wait until level 70 to scribe the book. It was still a fun run though.

Earlier in the day I headed to the Moors to work on the chains of quests there. I had already cleared out most of the quests at the landing pad on Arysh, but still had the one remaining that turns you into a warboar. Fun quest! The quests reward a LOT of coin, which is something I like and I dislike. I wish that there were gear rewards, but I understand that RoK gave a LOT of gear rewards and maybe it was just time for something new. There are some absolutely wonderful house rewards, and those I am enjoying a great deal (of course). 

One of the rewards was the statue pictured in this post. It lines up flush with the wall, so I’m trying to think of something unique and exciting to do with it. Maybe I’ll just add it to the museum. I saw someone link a miniature air balloon that’s going to look fantastic in my Ethernaught section, and a Lucan D’Lere action figure that will fit right in. The expansion certainly has a lot of amazing house items for players, as well as fantastic gear from Void Shards. You do need quite a bit of Void Shards to purchase your gear but keep in mind that ALL of the gear on the void shard merchants (or at least the lesser and greater gear I have seen, as well as the charm slot items and jewelery) can be made via commission for LESS void shards then you would normally spend if you can find a crafter who has the proper books. It’s nice to see crafters play a little bit more of a roll in EQ2, and something I’m sure other crafters are happy to see. 

Next I need to work on my factions, there are recipe books located in the Moors at three faction outlets, and you can make some pretty amazing things from those (which I’ve linked in previous posts). Hopefully I’ll get a chance to earn some more void shards, as well as some Far Seas tokens. Not too far away from that Unicorn mount now!

Other Weekend Adventures

stargrace November 24, 2008 No Comments

Tipa and Silhouette, watching the Far Trader sail off into the distance. Yesterday brought about our second Nostalgia craft night, where Tipa, Kasul, and myself headed off to a tradeskill instance to kick some serious craft machine butt. We did pretty well too. Of course, I was the slacker. I figured out why though. Some times I’m so busy spamming buttons and I look away half an instant that I miss a counter during the process. If you miss a SINGLE counter in an archtype that is not your own, you have a very good chance at failing that complete combine. Key to winning these (and not being far behind) is to just pay attention. Or at least pay enough attention that you can counter everything. It was a great evening, Tipa won herself a bit of crafting gear, and I managed to get a void shard recipe book. The way the book works is quite simple. The Void Shard merchants sell you two types of gear. One is lesser, the other is greater. The greater pieces cost roughly 24 void shards (for the breast piece) – if you get it commissioned by me, it costs 21 void shards. Not too shabby. 

I didn’t get any rares when we did the instance as a guild, but later that evening I decided to buckle down and get my alchemist some levels. I figured I would solo one of the group instances. I know it takes a LONG time (3h in fact) but what was the difference between me grinding writs for 3h or me grinding the instance. 

It turns out, that those little tradeskill instances are *amazing* for leveling up 50+ and here’s why. Number one, you use no fuel, no materials that you have to harvest. So while I’ve been going through my horrible T6 (sinking sands) crafting, I no longer have to farm materials for it. Due to the fact that my alchemist is on my ‘main’ account with five other level 80 crafters, she receives a 50% bonus at all times. In three hours I managed to get 6 levels, and went from level 53 to level 59. I also got three T8 rares, a reflective shard (used for those aa mirrors) and a craft token, as well as the piece of legendary gear (which she can’t use because she’s too low, but it’s level 75 and fletching, again). There is one fairly significant downside to using this method to level and that is simply because the crafting instance does not reward any guild status. Those levels I’ve been grinding would typically be done via writs, and so Nostalgia has felt the pinch of not doing them. With five new Heritage Quests in the expansion, as well as the Signature quest, we’re still gaining status but not quite as fast as normal. I’m thinking of picking up the adventure writs at least once a day and completing those, not only for the status gain, but because the faction rewards from the city factions can be quite nice (ie: fighter, priest, mage, scout). 

I didn’t just craft this weekend. I headed to my first TSO adventure instance, Befallen: Cavern of the Afflicted. I picked up quests along the way, and the whole instance was pretty much giant groups of mobs swarming us and me healing as fast as I could. The group was a shadowknight, wizard, necromancer, scout (forget what type, but they were dps), mystic, and myself on my warden. We died once when we had an add during a named fight, but it was a lot of fun. The gear was alright, nothing was an upgrade for anyone and I ended up transmuting the few bits I won. I did get a void shard out of it though, as well as a heritage quest located in the zone where you have to run around collecting pages (which reminds me, I ducked out early so everyone else could grab their pages at the end, I’ll have to go back and swipe them before the instance resets). I’m only up to three void shards now, and I expect that for me to actually get any gear will take a fairly long time. Especially because I’ll get a void shard here and there on multiple characters. 

Still great fun though!

Norrathian Museum Bits

stargrace November 24, 2008 3 Comments

I don’t have a name for the museum yet, but I’d like to think of one eventually. Picture above is the work in progress main room. It has a small Lucan D’Lere display (it will be more complete and changed around once I get that new Action Figure of him you can get with some TSO quest I’m not sure which) and includes various artifacts on display. I need a few more stools so I can place items, as well as scrolls for inside the cases. I’ve been having a lot of fun building this. I intend on doing it pretty much one room at a time. 

The museum for those who missed it in the previous post is much better in person and you can find it in North Freeport on the Najena server, in the mage tower (which seems fitting I think) under Ellithia’s name.

I realize not everyone is an EQ2 housing buff, but you’ll have to bare with me because it’s a project I’ve had a lot of fun building (and hence I tend to ramble on about it a lot). The bear display turned out surprisingly well. Silhouette pictured above reading the display notice. It probably says something like ‘Don’t Feed The Bears’.

My next goal is to flesh out that room and then work on the ‘paintings’ room, which will consist of a room (the upstairs one in the 5-room Freeport homes if you’re familiar with the layout) paneled in the redwood dividers, with some set out in the center of the room for artwork to be lined up on. The paintings are the LoN ones that I’ve collected over time, as well as the new ones from TSO. One of the new TSO items is in the very first screen shot, painting on the left hand side of Mayong. I can’t remember if it was a quest reward or if it was pilfered loot, but it’s a nice painting none the less.

Outside I’m going to make a garden framed by a walkway for players to walk along safely, downstairs (if I have space to build anything) I’ll turn it into a living area for the owner of the home. The main entrance I figure I’ll do some sort of seating / welcoming area, maybe with a stand for pamphlets of the ‘must sees’ in Freeport, and there’s one other little area I’d like to turn into a room for Heritage Quests to be displayed (since right clicking them turns them into house items). I’ve also got the token aquarium of course, in the outdoor area on the main floor. 

All in all? It’s coming along!

More posts on actual adventures this weekend (it was a great weekend) coming later today! I hope everyone e had an amazing time in Norrath.