2008

I’d Like to, Really, But I Simply Can’t.

stargrace June 25, 2008 1Comment

Have you heard? There’s new contests in town. They involve taking screen shots of your living legacy and submitting them, for all sorts of cool prizes.

You can find out more details here.

Oh. Wait.

Except I can’t partake.

In fact I can’t partake in any of the cool contests SOE has going on. I also can’t move a character to the bazaar (not like I ever would) and sell them, though that’s a whole different matter.

The problem is, I’d LIKE to partake in these events. Especially screen shot ones *glances at her collection of over 1,000 screen shots*

I can’t though – because I’m not a US citizen. That’s right (insert the gasps now) I live in Canada and that disqualifies me from even entering.

Sighs.

That ONE Special Zone

stargrace June 24, 2008 2Comments

Everyone has that one zone, that no matter who you’re playing, you always want to go back. No matter if you’re on your main, or your 10th alt (I don’t know anyone like that.. honestly..) it’s just one of those places. For me, that zone is Living Tombs – and subsequently, Silent City.

The zones are part of the Desert of Flames expansion and honestly when it first came out, I wasn’t that impressed. The expansion is well known for it’s Silver and Gold dragons, as well as it’s quest chain for Godking – which people rarely do these days because it requires access to the end raid zone and that requires farming eyes.

Oh how I dreaded farming eyes. Everyone did, in fact. The guild used to be filled with mysterious LD’ers and people suddenly complained of storms brewing near them any time we mentioned farming eyes.

Silent City used to require access. It was of course removed once the expansion was no longer new and shiny as a way to entice people to continue to use the older zones. Today for my troubador epic I had to pick up a few languages, one being

• Uruvanian from Words of Air

And the other being

• Death’s Whisper from The Whispers of Death

I know, how much of a slacker am I for not having those two quests already completed. Anyhow, the Uruvanian language I finished quickly enough up in Shimmering Citadel, killing handfulls of Dijin to learn it. The Death’s Whisper language I headed to Living Tombs to complete, grabbing shinies along the way. I’m a ratonga, what did you expect.

The zone is just beautiful, especially if you turn on your lighting. Glimmering runes and smooth stone as far as the eye can see. There are quests for this zone as well as Silent City, though again I’m not sure if anyone does them any more.

I don’t think I ever really began liking these zones until KoS (Kingdom of Sky) came out – which was an expansion I disliked a whole lot. Jumping around from island to island and requiring a port up just did not settle well with me. It did too much to break the “world” of Norrath up, and further felt like a bunch of “zones”separate from one another that I had to travel to. Aside from the quests on the main island, and of course the claymore chain, I just felt it was lacking. Nothing really stood out to me as being beautiful, the dungeons were all just cut and paste from one another including the raid zones, with only the final one being different from the rest.

Anyhow, back to work on my troubador epic. I just had a sudden urge to post about these ‘older’ zones I’d been adventuring to. I miss these places.

Bards, Void Tempests, and Licked Forks

stargrace June 24, 2008 2Comments

That’s right, I did it. I had a few characters stranded over on Antonia Bayle for some time now, and one of them was my 80 troubador Goudia. I dislike having my characters all over the place. I made a deal with myself to NOT move any more unless SOE opens free transfers. That’s the one and only time I’d ever contemplate it. But as the months went on and Goudia sat there unused, I finally decided yesterday to move her over. That just leaves my 80 sage, and 64 alchemist, and 74 mystic over on AB. Those ones can sit there until SOE opens free transfers again (if they ever do).

I’m glad I moved her, I realized how much I miss playing the troubador, even if no one wants her in a group. It’s another one of those “oh we could really use you for raids” type classes that is out shone by the dirge as far as regular grouping goes. Hate transfers and melee procs seem to be more in demand then deagros and caster procs. At least from what I see.

I took Goudia around and quickly completed the tempest storm quests, deciding she needs a new set of appearance armor. The black chain is perfect for this little ratonga. I only have to do the quest *checks notes* 17 more times before I’ll have her set. At least she kills the void tempest things fairly quickly.

I also managed to get her two crafting levels last night before running out of vitality, and she’s sitting happily at level 62 weaponsmith. Wow have things changed in that direction. It used to be that she would barely get 3-4 recipes a level, including the imbue recipes. I glanced through her book and with the addition of new ‘blessed’ weapons, as well as a new proc on the imbued weapons and a WHOLE LOT more regular weapons, she had plenty to keep her busy. Now if only she had some vitality.

Organized her banks (again) and tried to tidy up her inventory. Next, will be attempting to start her epic. I’m noticing a pattern – the least played classes (coercer and troub) have very simple epics. Unlike the warden whose epic I have on hold for now. I realize the faction is not THAT difficult to get, but spending an afternoon in Sebilis (and trying to hunt down a group for it) grinding faction quests, sounds… well, not fun. I’m sure I’ll pick up on it again at a later date. For now though, I’m content to play what I have.

I’ve also been running around various zones collecting food for hungry halflings, getting fancy dishes and cutlery for my houses. The items are not no trade at least. Those quests are also fairly simple, you run around and harvest 100 food items, turn them in to Duggin, and he licks a plate clean for you and passes it your way. Can’t go wrong with halfling licked utensils.

Housing Goodness

stargrace June 23, 2008 0Comment

Now that I’ve got three level 80 characters, and a few level 80 crafters, it was time to decide what to work on next. I’m contemplating between the 75 illusionist, the 74 templar, and the 45 carpenter, 72 woodworker. What I’ll probably end up doing is working on all of them all at once because that’s what I’m so used to doing. Last night I pinged off a few rush order writs on Stargrace and Nostalgia 2.0 dinged guild level 14. One more level to go and we can pick out a guild cloak design (at least the base for one). Exciting? Well, for such a very small guild, I think it is. It’s typically just myself and Kasul in there working on whatever happens to be going on for the day. At level 80 the writs give over 1500 guild status (15k personal) and can be completed in 3 minutes. Far more profitable then running an instance even if you did have a full group.

Once I’d worked on a few writs (I’m fairly close to 30k crafter faction finally with Stargrace as well. Looking forward to being able to shop a little more from the merchants) I decided it was time to work on Silhouette’s house. She owns a 5-room Gorowyn house, which has no status upkeep and is just over 5g a week in coin. Couldn’t really get a better deal then that. I’ve decided the upstairs will be a library, and so I began working on that, slowly. Silhouette doesn’t have nearly the amount of house items and books and nick nacks that my other characters have. She was a heavily power leveled character and solo’d from 55+ using the charm spells coercers get in New Tunaria. Great zone.

So it’s coming along slowly. I need a lot more crafting levels in order to deck out her house the way I’d like to. Including the faction recipes from RoK. Yesterday I did manage to get two carpenter levels though – which places her at level 45. Again, you’d think the one sort of crafter I’d have 80 before all others would have been a carpenter due to the sheer number of houses my characters own and how much I simply love the whole aspect of decorating. Alas, it’s one of the last crafters I’ve tried to level.

So for now I’ll ponder what I want to concentrate on, if anything in specific. If I haven’t mentioned yet, it’s nice to be back in EQ2. I love EQ1, always will, and of course I’ll continue to play it, but there’s just something about EQ2 that draws me back every time to make it my main game. I’m also excited about the events going on this summer and I hope we get a glimpse into what they may be soon.