2008

There’s a Storm Brewing..

stargrace March 4, 2008 1Comment

There’s a storm brewing in Telon these past few days, and I don’t mean the beautiful one captured in the screen shot above, although that one is far more interesting in my opinion. GU4 was supposed to hit live servers today, but from what I’ve seen so far it’s not on the schedule. There was one brief comment by a dev about the supposed release, and nothing more. This makes for some exceptionally restless players. This GU is a huge one, implementing the flying mount quests, a revamp of the riftway systems, numerous fixed bugs regarding quests (we hope), and helmets. Veteran rewards are also making a showing (although some lucky people are able to claim them on live now due to a bug). Even the typically calm and quiet craft channel has been abuzz, and people’s tempers seem to flare easily. It could just be the weather, or maybe it’s a full moon in the world of Telon.

The screen shot is taken at River Palace, in Qalia. I’m standing on the side of a mountain looking down, and one of the unique features that Vanguard offers is weather patterns. You can actually watch a storm rolling in. This one’s about to hit the arena way off in the distance. What was I even doing here? Well my Kojan housing brick and cornerstone sent me to the ruins that are just on the right hand side, to study stones. A huge thank you to Skaara, (level 50 guild ranger) who helped me collect my bricks among the level 35 three dot mobs (mean and nasty to this 27 blood mage). In return I built him a house.

My own house is coming along nicely, but very slow. Most of the ‘nice’ house furnishings are carpenter made and people on Seradon are not afraid to charge what they think their time is worth. Too bad I don’t value their time quite as much, and thus my house will sit mostly empty for the time being until I can either make the items myself, or inherit a large sum of money. Whichever comes first. The items are beautiful though, and I adore having four chests for storage in the home which all of my alts (and friends who I give permission to) can access. I’ve been stashing my lower tier crafting supplies there for now to free up some space.

Satia left off at level 9 diplomat when I left Telon last March, though that was before diplomacy had actual levels, and back when it was skill points. Some where along the way she managed to get 500 presence with Tanvu, which is always great. I believe that’s what I need in order to start writs, but I can’t seem to find any other information on that in the time being- vgtact has been down for two days now and I’ve no idea if it will be fixed any time soon. Hopefully it will, I know a lot of diplomats rely on that site for their quest information. I managed to ding her level 10 this morning before servers came down for maintenance, and got her diplomacy bag so that I can stop stashing clothing items in my banks.

Tonight Growlius and I will be starting the Shadowhound quest, which I’m excited about. Though I’d rather ride a unicorn I think, I will do that quest another time. There’s more people who want Shadowhound, and the quest requires a group where as unicorn can be done with a small group or duo team. We’ll have to see how it goes in any case.

Oh, also, welcome Anakh to Save Haven! Fellow blogger and EQII player. It’s great to have such a wonderful community of people.

Home Sweet Home – Telon Style

stargrace March 2, 2008 7Comments

My two story thatch roof house is finally completed! I don’t have time quite yet to write about the process, but wanted to stick up some quick screen shots. I’ll post more tomorrow.

One step closer…

stargrace February 29, 2008 3Comments

I’m one step closer to being able to complete my house. Yesterday I hit level 31 crafter, which was a huge deal to me. It meant that I could go about learning new recipes once I’d completed the continental quests (the thestran one sent me to Konarthi Point, which is a quaint fishing village on the far east side of the continent, to study a ship there and uh.. make clubs from wood) it also meant I could learn beams, panels, and bricks (and shingles if I get the 2,000 faction required for kojan) for housing. The only down side to this is that at this level I can only make those one at a time. I need 200 limestone bricks, 60 panels, and 30 beams. In a few more levels I’ll be able to make these 5 at a time- or if I’m really lucky I can buy / farm a manual that will let me craft these 10 at a time. Now that would be a blessing. I’ve got about half of the supplies I’ll need, but my harvesting is too low to obtain them myself. A guild mate has been generous enough to donate spare supplies, and the rest I’ll buy from broker (about 2g a stack, and a stack in VG is 20) which is still cheaper then the 18g a stack the finished product is going for right now.

Most people (I’ve learned) don’t bother with a T4 house (which is what I’m creating) but I’m not sure how long it will take me to get to T5, and I’d really like a house now. Impatient? Yes, slightly.

Yesterday was also a good day for crafting in the fact that I found two silver masterwork sigils. I need 8 (well, now 6) to buy one single recipe for my tier. There are four or five upgrade recipes each level to purchase. It’s going to take me quite a long time in order to get any of them, unless I happen to be lucky enough that I find a gold sigil, which allows you to buy any one recipe, you don’t need 8. Most people save those for T5 though. When you’re one tier above the recipe, it costs 6 sigils, two tiers above, it costs 4. I’d really love my jewelry upgrade as well as my weapons of course. Luckily enough the stone focus upgrade is tradeable, and cheap on the broker.

As far as adventuring goes, I’m completely lost. I’d like to find some (a lot) of quests that I can solo or duo with my adventure team, but Vanguard does a very poor job of leading you around. I did a few quests for TK, but the rest require a group (and it’s so crowded there it makes everything four times as long and difficult to complete) so if anyone has some suggestions on where to go to quest through the rest of the 20’s (I managed to hit 27 last night, Growlius landed himself 26) I’d love some help in figuring it out.

GU4 is do out on March the 4th. I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. The helmets are a good thing, loosing face choices is bad (I spent an hour choosing how my characters would look, to reduce that no matter what the new options would be would bother me I’m fairly certain) the node changes I’m happy about, dust changes also happy about. The new flying mounts will give people something to do- happy about that as well. Uping the sigil drop rate slightly I’m indifferent about, not sure it’ll make that much of an effect depending on how often they’ll drop compared to now. In any case, it should be interesting to see what happens as a result of this update, it’s a big one.

Humbling…

stargrace February 28, 2008 6Comments

It’s always humbling when you see something like the screen shot above, Save Haven’s newest members are Borgio, and Mayadhros, both wonderful people. Borgio of course is no stranger to me (nor the blogger community) and I’m tickled pink to have him in the guild. Mayadhros I’d never heard of before, so when I saw their post and the fact that they named my site as their reference, it was exceptionally humbling to me. They’re also a wonderful person from what I’ve found out so far, we spent a little bit of time chattering in vent and in game, plus I gave both newcomers some bags to get started with. Those 4 slots just are not enough for new players. The guild is doing well, we still have our sloop race on the 1st of march, and a guild meeting on the 2nd. Unfortunately most of the players are PST which means they’re all logging in by the time I’m headed to bed. Ah wells, such is the way of a day time gamer such as myself. Still a great bunch of people though.

I ended up exploring a bit while I worked on a crafting quest. I had to go to the Wailing Wind Asylum which is located on the side of a cliff on Kojan, filled with demended escaped prisoners. Very cool area. It’s fairly low level so I’d never been there in my adventure travels, but I wouldn’t mind going in more depth some time. I managed to get level 29 and almost 30 in crafting, the levels are going by nicely and I’m expecting it to slow down any time now. I’m also 10% away from level 27 adventurer. Diplomacy is at a stand still for now, I’ll probably start working on that once I’ve got crafting out of the way. In two levels I can start making bricks for my house, which I am VERY excited about. The bricks and the beams / panels are all that I have left to do, then I’ll be finished my first two story home. Of course I’ll have to decorate and post screen shots of it.

Learning brick styles and other goodness

stargrace February 27, 2008 2Comments

Yesterday Growlius and I finally finished our Hunter’s League quests. The breast piece that I’m sporting in the screen shot. Yes, I realize that my gloves (as well as my boots) are bright green, and are not exceptionally flattering to this blood mage. I suppose it happens. I’ll change them eventually, maybe. The quest took forever, there were too many groups after the same mobs we needed. I’m glad it’s done, but it leaves me with no idea where to quest next. There are the shadowhound and unicorn mount quests that should be looked at eventually, as well as continuing CIS, but all of that requires a group.

I also hit 26 on Satia, which was great. I managed to do a lot of crafting and hit almost 28 mineralogist. Today, I’ve been busy learning brick styles, cornerstones, and shingles for those Kojan houses that don’t use thatch roofs. In a few more levels I’ll be able to learn all that for the next tier of homes (which is the one my house is). I also had to learn beams, and panels per continent. Each house is different, thus each house component is also different. It’s nice to be able to make items that will be useful to me though. A guild mate has already volunteered to make some furniture for me as well.

Faalcon made me a wonderful piece of star iron gear which was nice, and also upgraded a few pieces of my crafting gear. Have I mentioned yet today how wonderful my guild mates are? He also made me a full set of harvesting tools (and some gear) which I’m thankful for. I sent along some coin in return, I don’t have a whole lot, but I try to help where I can.

I also made my first flawless (orange, or also called heroic) piece of gear yesterday, a focus. I need another level before I can wear it, for now it’s for sale (though stone focus’ are not exactly rare, so I don’t know that it will sell). I can make a lot of different hammers as well, which is fun. One handed and two handed. Being a mino is enjoyable. In fact, every craft class is.

Still no word yet on when the next GU is, apparently it was pushed back to early March. If it gets more things changed and fixed then I’m all for it. We’ll just have to see how it goes.