2008

Coercer Epic Completed

stargrace June 22, 2008 0Comment

That’s right, after one day of working on the coercer epic, I completed the fabled portion. There’s no way I’ll be doing the mythical any time soon especially since I’m not in a raid guild. I am more then happy with the fabled version in the mean time though. The quest line was very simple and straight forward, and highly amusing. Especially since for the duration of the quest you’ve merged bodies with a woman who speaks to you, through you. Crazy? Of course. Isn’t every coercer? I absolutely loved the story line.

There were only a few difficult parts to the quest – and I owe my thanks to everyone who helped me out. Especially Shadowgeist, Eyenstein, Albrta, and the good folks from Siege. Karnor’s Castle was the easiest update, but after that I headed to Sebilis for an update from the lab area (which dropped on the first kill) and then it was off to *gulps* Chardok. The palace of Chardok in fact. You need green, blue, and red shard access to get to this area. The group consisted of a fury, templar, two dirge, myself as coercer, and a shadowknight. We did have a few deaths – no wipes though. Made it down to the palace in record time, clicked my book shelf, and off I went to Kunzar Jungle to kill 30 random mobs for essence updates. Gathered all those together, and the final bit I needed was to kill Drusella in Maidens.

Entered the zone with a Shadowknight, Mystic, Ranger, Conjurer, Dirge, and myself as Coercer. Cleared the zone with a few wipes on the very first named since the Conj. and myself were unable to withstand the tail lash AOE. Yes, we’re just that gimp.

Compared to what I’ve read of the warden epic (and a few others) I got off easy. No faction work at all. The mythical version is a little more annoying, I need Venril Sathir as one of my updates – if I ever make it that far. The first update is the Spider Mistress, which is easy enough.

Aside from the EQ2 updates, last night I played with Gnewton on his new Shadowknight, and Lackey, Magician. Boxed my Druid and Beastlord, and we tore up Dulak for a few hours, managing a few levels before practically falling asleep at the keyboards and calling it a night. Still lots of fun though.

Now of course I get the fun job of deciding “what next”. In Maidens Silhouette got herself a very nice new hat. Bright pink, at that. I’ve got the 75 templar, 74 illusionist both sitting on the back burner, not to mention Sil’s crafting which has been 43 carpenter for some time now. With all of the aa I still have would like to get, and quests being implemented, it’s a nice feeling to think that there’s actually things to do in game again, things to keep me busy. Of course, if I didn’t have all these alts, I’d probably feel other wise. Speaking of alts. Come on SoE, let us transfer for free again! I have a lonely Troubador and 80 Sage / Alchemist and a few other alts still stranded over there on Antonia Bayle.

Another 80

stargrace June 21, 2008 3Comments

The image hasn’t been updated last I checked, but this is the ‘crest’ that SOE was promoting for EQ2 for their whole living legacy thing going on this summer. Silhouette, managed to hit level 80 today running through Sebilis, helping a friend out with the templar epic quest. Which was not fun, might I add. Well, ok it was fun but it was a lot of running around and a lot of killing trying to clear to get to places.

I gave up on the warden epic for now, it’s a lot of camping, and a lot more faction work. 40 faction quests or so just for one portion. Ew. We’ll see where I go with that one.

Once I hit 80 with the coercer, I attempted to start her epic, too. She got a little further then the warden but not by too much. She needs to kill 20 fishmen in Chelsith, which means a group – actually, it doesn’t NEED a group, but I’d be far better off with one. I managed to solo three of the little fishmen buggers before zoning out – which resets the counter.

Bleh.

So now a little time has gone by, and I’m in Karnor’s Castle, camping a named Drolvarg for the warden epic. Hopefully, I finish an epic on someone, some day. The hardest part of the warden epic is the +40,000 faction I need with the Reet folks. Not looking forward to that, and looking at the list of 21 Kunzar Jungle quests Arysh still has on her, I didn’t look forward to any of those quests. I’m not even sure how she managed to get to 80 not doing her Kunzar Jungle quests, nor her Jarsath Waste hammer quest, and I didn’t finish the wastes hunter chain of quests either. When RoK first came out I think the experience was better then what it’s sitting at currently, but maybe I imagined that.

Five place holders now, Drolvarg Lookout being the place holder for my epic update. Yawns. Only a few more hours here, I’m sure.

I’d almost rather be in Chardok or some other place a little more exciting.

One of THOSE Nights

stargrace June 21, 2008 0Comment

Yesterday was supposed to be Nostalgia, and I was excited about it. Then IT happened. What was IT? Well, I assume a service package from windows though I’m not exactly certain even now. Whatever IT was, prevents me from logging into EQ1 and staying connected. I manage to make it as far as the character select screen before it disconnects me happily. I spent 8 hours yesterday deleting, reinstalling, installing, moving, and trying solution after solution to no avail. I did manage to get in briefly, only to be disconnected and kicked out. Again. For now I give up. Thank you to the guild mates who have been patiently offering me solutions.

So after 8 hours of frustration I logged into EQ2, and was asked if I wanted to head to Runnyeye with Arysh. The run the day before was pretty sad, with nothing but caster loot dropping. This time was improved, but not by a great deal.

Most of the loot that dropped was chain this time. Arysh did manage to land herself a new buckler. It has less power then the one she was wearing before, but it does have + to heals, heal crit, and faster casting beneficial spells. Can’t go wrong with that. We also discovered there are three other quests for this zone scattered across Norrath – aside from the two within the zone. There’s a quest in Butcherblock at one of the Dwarven outposts, another in Maj’dul close to where you’ll find the silver dragon, and a third in enchanted lands in a room along the wall that stretches across the lower half of the zone. Each quest requires you to simply kill one of the named.

The rewards are much like the rewards for the RoK legendary quests, and I transmuted them all because none were upgrades. Druids / healers got screwed on rewards. Most were caster rewards, not a big surprise. I wasn’t about to give up my overloaded heals for +30 to heal, so it was fairly easy to make the decision.

I managed to get 92% through my level after doing RE, and turning in the quests dinged Arysh 80. Which means she can start her epic now. I headed to Kunzar jungle to attempt to get it to drop – it comes from a mob with a 1-2 hour respawn timer. Ugh. Maybe she won’t be starting her epic so soon after all.

I did get a LoN loot card – the ‘Drogan Distraction’ was a server discovery, and a cute little one at that. Suppose things could have been worse. This time around we did get one useful master on the RE run, no fabled at all though. In the times I’ve gone I’ve yet to see the cloaks drop either that others are proudly wearing. The healer version just makes me drool.

Instances Galore

stargrace June 20, 2008 2Comments

Yesterday was one of those very busy days in EQ2. It was wonderful, because they don’t happen too often for me. First of all, I teamed up with Kasul from Nostalgia, and he and I (as my coercer mentored) finished off two heritage quests for the guild, the guise of the deceiver, and the fishbone earring. Nostalgia 2.0 dinged 11, 12, and 13. Kasul also killed the tide octopus in Cove of Decay granting him the polished granite tomahawk and a bunch more status.

Once that was done I headed to a few instances, to check out SOE’s recent update that allows you to get guild status on completion of an instance. In other words, the final name gives status now. I did Obelisk of Blight just for fun (the entire run took 15 minutes with three of us) and Crypt of Valdoons. Instances barely anyone adventures in any more. 1203 guild status or so was the reward. Crafting would have been faster.

After those two quick instances a group was formed for Vaults of Eternal Sleep, in Jarsath Wastes. Nothing of significance dropped (besides the mobs) but it was still fun.

After that I headed to the newly revamped Runnyeye – and was sorely disappointed. There were no deaths the entire time (not that I wanted any) except for one pull on the final x2 mob (and we had no mezer so we tanked all the adds plus the x2 at once). The key to the encounter is simple – cure. That’s right, in order to make this encounter infinitely easier healers just have to do their job and cure every single dot that lands on the tank. If you leave a dot on there for longer then the .5 of a second it should be, you’ll wipe. Cure them instantly though and the encounter is smooth as pie – with no enchanter.

The list above is all the loot we got in Runnyeye aside from the final encounter that dropped a fabled bracelet for melee. Arysh looted it all – and promptly transmuted every single piece.

Ouch.

It was either not an upgrade for anyone, or it was a piece of caster gear and we didn’t have a single caster in group. We didn’t see a single master spell drop, and the whole zone left me feeling as though I was power leveling an alt through the original Runnyeye rather then exploring a new dangerous zone. Of course, I was with a team of mythical / vp geared people. Shadowknight tank, a templar, swashbuckler, dirge, assassin, and myself as warden (the only one there still wearing treasured and only level 79). Take your ‘average’ EQ2 player and I’m sure the zone is a lot more challenging.

What did make the zone fun for me were the two quests within it. Too bad they’re not repeatable. You get two house items, the fun bowl of eyes pictured above (more like a pot in size now that I think about it, a cauldron) and a hanging eyeball that I placed upstairs in the garden, because doesn’t that location just scream ‘giant eyeball goes here.’

It was still a great night, and I had a lot of fun. Remembered why I enjoy the game. Tonight is Nostalgia night, and I’m looking forward to that. No reason why I can’t play both games as the whim takes me. I did also managed to get Silhouette a few crafting levels (Ok, by a few I think I mean one) which was nice. The carpenter has been on hold for so long now. Time to get cracking so I can get all sorts of new house item pretties made! Her 5-room Gorowyn house is decidedly empty.

Red Shiny Red Shiny Red Shiny!

stargrace June 19, 2008 5Comments

GU 46 came out yesterday in EQ2 and wow was it a big (great) one. I always talk about shinies, and for most people that means new weapons and new armor. Not for me. Nope. It means house items and new quests. So while the update introduced new quests and world events, which also reward some very amazing things – I’m going to talk about the house items in true Stargrace form.

The first one above is “Fae Tavern Shelves” and you can right click that awesome house item and have it pour you a drink. It’s the perfect size for any home.

Oh – wait. Where does it come from?!

That’s right. What wasn’t mentioned in the patch notes was that they added RED shinies to four zones. These shinies you can ONLY see while wearing your crafting epic. Finally. A reward for the crafters. The shiny pieces are lore, so don’t expect to go out harvesting these by the buckets. They also respawn VERY quickly, so if you’re worried about crafters gouging you, don’t be. I saw a few pieces going for not even a plat – and since word is not really out about these shinies yet, expect them to go lower and lower.

The four zones these shinies come from are Barren Sky, Loping Plains, Steamfont Mountains, and Fens of Nathsar. There was talk of another collection being found in Bonemire, but I have not seen any proof of this in the short time I ran around the zone and browsed the forums.

The piano looks much like the blue shiny reward from Mistmoore castle – but this one of course is darker in colour and it also plays music. Each time you click it to play a song, music notes rise out and your house will be filled with various tunes.

My favorite item from the red shiny rewards – is the Norrathian Star Chart. Combine this item with the globe that you can get from faction, and the star chart you can get from blue shiny rewards in Ak’Anon, and you’ve got yourself a nice little set up started.

These house items are completely separate from the other house items added to game – the rewards for doing the storm quests and turning in certain amounts of tickets. I haven’t even looked into those yet aside from the initial quest which opens up the repeatables. No doubt I’ll find time to write about them, too.

Now I have to find room to place all these red shiny rewards. Then decide whether or not I want to do the quests again on an alt so that they too have the rewards. Remember not only does Stargrace own a 5-room Qeynos house, but so does Arysh. Petites owns a 3-room Kelethin home, and Silhouette owns a 5-room Gorowyn home. . . . .

Crazy? Naw..