2008

More Everfrost Quests

Daelic had sent Silhouette into the icy depths to recover some soggy bones, from his missing crew. Why on earth the ghost wanted them back (a proper burial maybe) I had no clue, but that’s what I spent a portion of my evening doing. Checking the ocean floor, looking for bones. This quest was far easier then the previous ocean floor one I’d finished, being able to tab the bones makes all the difference in the world.

I decided to go back to Everfrost last night and finish off a few more of the quests there before the zone is revamped. Who knows if the old quests will remain, or if they’ll be completely redoing everything already in the zone. Since they’re adding new quest hubs I’m sure there will be some new things for me to complete as well.

Aside from that, my evening was quiet. I talked to Tipa and Kasul in guild before going to bed early, I’ve been under the weather with the flu lately and sleep is always a good thing.

Ding, 80 Woodworker (finally)

This morning I finally managed to drag myself through the last two levels of my woodworking. My woodworker had basically been at a stand still since level 74, I just could not motivate myself to level her. However, with the upcoming guildhalls nearing I knew I could make good use of the status from grinding out rush order writs. T8 rewards over 1,000 guild status each writ, with the level 79 ones rewarding 1,500+ guild status a pop. I can complete them in four minutes, so that’s a lot of potential status in a relatively short amount of time.

I had three experience potions left, and I made use of them for each level. I typically save them for the last 10 levels, and it takes me a little less then an hour (without vitality) to level through as long as I stick to rush orders. The little bit of experience you get upon completion is fantastic, and another one of the main reasons I stick to doing writs.

Nostalgia is inching through level 24 now, I’d like to hit 25 before the 1st of September, and then aim for one level a week. I haven’t decided quite yet if that’s reasonable or not. We hit level 23 on the 21st of August, then 24 on the 25th, far less then a week between levels there. I’m hoping the same will hold true for level 25. The issue for me now is of course, my crafters (the remaining ones at least) are fairly low level, their status output is reduced, and I don’t enjoy grinding writs on characters who are already level 80, I’d rather do it for progression.

As far as crafters go, that leaves me with:

  • 80 – Sage
  • 80 – Jeweler
  • 80 – Woodworker
  • 80 – Provisioner
  • 80 – Carpenter
  • 30 – Alchemist
  • 20 – Armorer

The sage and woodworker have not yet completed their epics. I need to harvest some T5 rares for them first before I can continue. No way am I paying what people want on the broker these days.

I also managed to level my little paladin to 23 yesterday. She picked up lots of adepts and masters along the way – and I’ve found one small annoyance with the 1-20 smart loot system that was implimented last update. Since there’s a fairly good chance that any adept that drops will be something you can actually use – there is a decrease of adepts on the broker. It’s rare to get a useless one these days. So the paladin level 1-20 adepts that I did see on the broker were going for upwards of 5 gold each, I even saw some priced at 20g each. These are lowbie items that get replaced fast, but since I had been soloing I wanted to make sure I would be well equipped. I imagine I’ll make her a nice set of steel to wear, and perhaps also work on her class armor quests just for the appearance of it. We’ll see!

Taking it all in

You may have read that Everfrost is getting a revamp in the next game update. If you have not, be sure to check out the details on the eq2players pages here. I like it when zones get revamped, and I think in a game like Eq2 where new content is constantly being added and where old zones become just that – old, it’s important or else your player base only sees a small fraction of the zones that they could potentially visit, because well, why bother. Thus has been the case for Everfrost for some time now. It’s a beautiful zone, but there’s not a heck of a lot to do there. I decided before the revamp I’d take a peek through and complete the quests that are currently there on my level 80 coercer. After all, you still gain aa for completing quests and I was getting roughly 5-10% per quest still. For grey encounters, that’s not too bad.

There was one quest given to me by a gravestone on an island not too far from the zone in that I recalled very well. It had me searching the ocean floor for these little rose gems, five of them, and collecting them. Except the dang things were always almost impossible to see, and there’s no real set location for them they just spawn randomly in the water along the floor. I had the quest on my character back when 50 was the level cap, and still had it on me if that’s any indication of how much I disliked this quest. I’d never completed it before.

The little gems are still difficult to find, but at least now they show up almost as pitch black against the ocean floor, so you’re less likely to pass over top of one. These quests have no actual reward – but if you complete them all I believe they unlock one of the instances in the zone that lost the keyed requirement some time ago. Ah well, it was still aa.

I did a lot of crafting this weekend, it was great. My woodworker got from 73 to 75, my alchemist from 1-30 and my armorer (who used to be a tailor) from 1-23. I also decided to start a paladin on my second account. Now this probably will not last, after all in the four years I’ve played EverQuestII (or EQ Live for that matter) I have never really played a tank, but I noticed that Nostalgia doesn’t have one in EQ2, and well, it would be nice to have one. Plus the tank I typically play with could probably use a break from time to time in order to play his own alts, and having a tank for that purpose would be great too. I know, I’m just getting back into having alts again and that’s bad bad, right? Ah well, as long as I’m having fun.

I played some guild wars this weekend as well, more about that later though.

As a completely unrelated topic. I just wanted to say that folks need to remember from time to time that gamers, are people too. I realize that not everyone out there is nice, and that there’s plenty of lashing out that goes on online. Much of it in game. That E-Peens are waved comments traded and insults made. However. Why lower yourself to someone else’ level when you know you are better then that. If someone is insulting you or lashing out or doing some other hair brained thing – just remember that they’re a person too. Maybe they’re going through something difficult, or maybe they’re having issues in their lives, there’s no real way to tell. Does that excuse their behavior? No of course not, but before you decide to fight fire with fire – maybe just take a second to be the better person and back down from it. I don’t understand some times how that could possibly be so difficult. It’s a game, after all.

Gaming in EQII has Never Been Better

So much happened yesterday in game that I barely know where to start. First of all, it was Saturday, and for those few who follow my ramblings, that meant it was ‘guild status Saturday’ where I would be running heritage quests and writs and whatever else came my way in order to help push Nostalgia 2.0 to level 30 before guild halls come out in September. We’re currently 37% into level 23 which is not too bad, though we have a LOT of work to go still.

So that’s how it was that Vlcan, Kasul (on his coercer alt), Bloodpact (shadowgeist on his necromancer alt) and myself (on my monk alt) headed to Kelethin to work together to completed “In honor and service” the level 17 heritage quest given. The quest was a lot of fun, and we mentored down to level 20 to complete it since we were a little big. There is only one heroic encounter in the entire thing, so perhaps it was overkill. Vlcan, being new to EQ2, had no idea about the concept of ‘place holders’ and was curious why our named were simply not just there waiting for us to slaughter them. It was fun to explain ‘camps’ and how things worked.

Running this heritage quest was a big deal – Nostalgia is VERY small. We have perhaps four active members, and 17 members total (plus their alts). It was the first ‘event’ we’d run and even though only four of us showed up – I had a blast and we will be running more of these. Kasul had to leave early, but finished up the HQ when he got home.

Aside from that, the one and only, world famous, Tipa moved to Najena on her level 80 troubador. Before that though, Shadowgeist asked if Kasul and some friends wanted to do some old T7 instances. We headed to Barren Sky to do Vaults, and the coercer hat dropped there – which if you haven’t seen, is pretty cool looking. It has an eye in the center of it and shock waves surround it in a pretty interesting effect. Yes, even though I was well beyond the level of the hat, I rolled need on it. It just looked too cool! We headed to Vaults with Tipa (on her 68 necromancer), Eyenstein (playing his defiler), Kasul (as himself, go figure!) Shadowgeist (also as himself!) and me playing Silhouette. Of course after we’d finished the instance I realized I should have brought Stargrace, who needs experience. Ah well, we decided to head to Den of the Devourer afterward in Bonemire, another instance rarely done these days.

That was not the end of the excitement, oh no. Remember also that at the end of each instance, the named now gives a little guild status, so that worked out well.

Later on in the day, I headed to Crypt of Agony, Vaults of Eternal Sleep, Maidens Chamber, and Chelsith. The first three instances I did on Silhouette, and she FINALLY got the drop I’ve been waiting in VoES forever, the fabled symbol with the mental proc on it. I’d been hoping for it to drop for a long time now, and my gracious group members declined so that I could roll need. A fury and conjuror in the group could have made use of it — but that is the pleasure of running instances with friends.

The final instance, Chelsith, I ran on Arysh (warden) who managed to get a nice neck upgrade, as well as a chest piece (which is not an upgrade at the moment, but is part of a set bonus and if I get one more piece, it will be an upgrade).

After all THAT was finally done – I got a level on Goudia pushing her to 28 alchemist. It is double experience weekend after all.

No doubt I’ve left out a fact or two here and there, but it was such an amazing day I doubt it matters much. Honestly, this is why I play the game. Good friends. Good fun. I’m hoping to gain some more crafter levels today and just take it easy, we’ll see how it goes!

Old School Sebilis meets old school Nostalgia

Sebilis was built by Venril Sathir during the height of the Iksar Empire, and was once a stronghold for the Iksars of Kunark. Following the death of Emperor Ganak and a steady onslaught of slave uprisings, goblin invasions, and forest giant attacks, the Iksar Empire declined in power. Trakanon dealt one of the final blows to the Empire, destroying the city of Sebilis, and was himself mortally wounded as a result. Presently, the ruins of Old Sebilis are occupied by a clan of Frogloks. Iksar skeletons and ghouls roam the city’s old burial grounds while a poisonous, undead Trakanon can be found in a lair far below the main city.

Many years following their stronghold’s destruction, the Iksars established themselves in Cabilis, far west from the site of a dark moment in their history.

Anyone at least 46th level can zone into Sebilis without a key. The old Key to Sebilis quest is still active, but is now optional (though required if you are under 46). – Allakhazam

We were going to head to the Plane of Storms, however there’s still a level requirement for the zone, though we’re not sure what it is (it used to be 55, it may have been lowered over the past four years though). Instead, we headed to Old Sebilis (which begs the question, where is the NEW sebilis? Or is Cabilis the new Sebilis?) Sorry that the screen shot is not any better but for some reason I’ve forgotten how to take screen shots in EQ1. Yes, I’m being serious. So those were taken quickly by me with Xfire (have I mentioned yet how much I love that little handy program?) and they’re not the best, I know.

We had our usual mish mash of people, Mantis (enchanter), Seja(l) (enchanter), Tipa (ranger), Sisco (monk), Callendra (druid), Coldheat (druid), Kanad (shaman), Tasukiko (warrior), and myself as Qutey (druid). I left Nala at home, deciding I honestly didn’t feel like boxing my way through Sebilis. If anyone out there feels like joining our Nostalgia guild and playing Friday nights with us, around level 50-60 PLEASE don’t hesitate to let one of us know – we could certainly use more people, a second tank and some dps (a rogue, my life for a rogue!) would be awesome. I realize it’s a little difficult since we do only play once a week, but the people make it well worth it.

We got a lot of spells, took down some golems, had some wipes. People got levels though the experience for a hot zone really sucked. That’s right I said it! It also slowed down once we formed a raid – but honestly, we don’t have quite enough people to make two proper balanced groups without having one lack dps and take forever to kill things which is a shame.

For those who only know the EverQuestII Sebilis, the EQ1 version is exactly the same. You even swim down the same tunnels to get to the basement. I had an amazing time as always even though I had to leave early – and hopefully next time we meet (next week is cancelled due to it being a long weekend and folks will be away) we’re off to Plane of Storms!

Nomadic Gamer