Into Chardok We Go

Yesterday was a great day for EQ2, and it wasn’t really because of anything in particular, but it was just one of those days. It started off with doing a tradeskill instance on Ellithia. Duo’ing with a carpenter, they each gained two levels which puts her at level 62. I haven’t even made any combines from the past 12 recipe books or so, there’s a lot of experience saved up if I want to use the supplies I have saved up. I’m so glad to have gotten through the dreaded sinking sands era without having to actually use any materials. From 70-80 I’m going to level up doing writs, no doubt the guild status will come in handy. Nostalgia hit 31 thanks to Kasul heading out on some pick up raids, he had a pretty good time. Anyhow, an hour later the instance was complete and we got a really nice chest drop. It had a legendary provisioner piece (which I won and gave to arysh). For once luck was on my side, and I won not only the legendary piece, but another manual (that puts Ellithia at owning two of those, which is great because she’s on my second account) as well as an extra Far seas token that was in the chest. She doesn’t have the faction to purchase anything yet, but she does have 10 tokens. If I had only done the solo quest on the first day when it gave 25,000 faction she’d be all set. I still don’t like doing the instances on level 80 crafters unless I have a full group. 

A call came out early that evening from Azztec, a friend who used to play on Antonia Bayle but moved to Najena when his guild started going through some major issues. He’s a great player, and leveled up a templar not too long ago. He was working on his epic last night and needed the update in Chardok. I decided to tag along on Stargrace, who is still only level 78. I find it amusing that the online persona I use is one of my lowest level characters. 

I died three times, one of those times was a wipe on the bridge. Someone managed to catch the attention of a golem who was standing off to the side and I got punted (and one shot) into the waters below. Being such low level (the encounters were orange to me) it was not exactly surprising. Stargrace ended the evening 66% into her level, maybe one of these days I’ll actually hit 80. Azztec got his update easily enough. Chardok is a fun zone, relatively empty these days with everyone doing TSO instances for their void shard bits. We first had to collect books upstairs and then pass them off to the NPC pictured above, who then opens and unlocks the doors for us to make our way to the library. 

Earlier in the day I also wandered around Cazic Thul, three boxing. It’s not an event that occurs often because lets face it keeping control of one character can some times be hard enough, two is do-able. Three is just hectic. I had two accounts running on the PC, and a third on the laptop. My newly betrayed arasai (used to be a brigand, is now a swashbuckler) is now level 49, and lots of fun to play. 

For some reason my computer is still having issues ever since TSO released. I find it amusing that I can play VG now on fairly high settings with no issue, but a few hours into EQ2 and to image to the left will happen. The entire computer will freeze for a good solid 30 seconds, and then everything will become distorted in some weird 2nd world way. Yesterday the wood in South Freeport changed into icons of death, patterns of bones, skulls, and chicken beaks. The NPC’s wore bright green clothing, and Shadowgeist (who typically is dressed in black) was sporting a bright shiny metallic garb. I already underclocked my video card and turned the fans on it up when I was having crashing issues in WAR and scenarios. This fixed the issue. I never used to have issues in EQ2 either, but since the day TSO went live, I’ve experienced it. It’s typically in TSO zones, most commonly the crafting ones. Yesterdays happened to be in CT though. I get no other errors or messages from my computer along with it, just this oddly scary version of EQ2. My text also messes up along with all spell icons so it typically always requires me to restart my computer, of course not without taking a few screen shots of the changes to post here (or send to friends) while I giggle and wonder what exactly is going on. Stargrace pictured in the 2nd shot looks like she’s been coated with a nice layer of some sort of acid. Anyone else experiencing this? I haven’t bothered looking at the forums because when it comes to technical issues everyone seems to experience something slightly different and the solution that works for one doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. 

A few other events took place yesterday, I’ll write about those a little later today.