January 2009

Heritage Quests Galore, and Crafting

stargrace January 19, 2009 2Comments

The screen shot above is taken in the Sarnak starter town, my baby dirge getting a few levels. Yes, for some reason the Sarnak have decided to paint themselves with glow in the dark paint, and the trees have turned a metallic blue, and other various ‘issues’. The problem is that I don’t have the faintest idea what is wrong on my end. I’m using a nvidia 8800 and I have up to date drivers. I turned the fans up from their default position to 85% and still have the issue. I thought perhaps Xfire was causing something to go out of wack but that wasn’t it either. I’m not a computer guru (anyone who knows me is well aware of this) so I’ve been trying to come up with solutions on my own — and it’s not working. It only happens in EQ2, every other game I play is just fine. It’s also typically after a length of time has passed. Windowing out of the game and dropping to desktop then entering game again fixes it without shutting down the game or my computer though that probably means I’m breaking it even more. 

This weekend the little guild I belong to on Kithicor reached level 43, they’ve really been doing a fantastic job. After I finished off the Greater Lightstone, Wpus and I decided to do Foomby’s Stolen Goods. This HQ is obtained in Enchanted Lands, and is really quick and easy even at appropriate level. Afterwards Wpus suggested we do The Screaming Mace, the drop to start this quest is in the Feerrott, and we had to camp Agony for a little while to get it to drop for both of us. Then there was a matter of camping each of the named required. A few hours later we were sporting our shiny new mace and the guild was enjoying the new status. 

It wasn’t finished after that though! It was time to head to Feerrott again and work on the Stein, where you have to kill a few bouncers. Aside from a LOT of zoning (To East Freeport, back to the zone, back to EFP, back to the zone, and so on and so forth) it was pretty easy to complete. Of course, we’re also a good 20-30 levels higher then the recommended levels. I guess that may have something to do with it. 

Afterwards I managed to get a few crafting levels on both the carpenter (33!) and the tailor (69!) which was great. Guild was bustling, and people were chatty. I had a lot of fun. 

There’s been a lot of talk about the changes that will be coming in the next GU and I’m still eagerly awaiting those. You really can’t judge how something is going to impact your class until it happens and it’s on the live servers. Test server is great, but things can easily change before they get pushed to live (which is exactly the point). I know the whole hate transfer scenario is one that keeps getting talked about, every time I log into the 70-79 channels that’s all anyone is mentioning. 

Anyone else excited? Or is it more of a wait and we’ll see type feeling?

Time for a Heritage Quest

stargrace January 18, 2009 0Comment

One of the common things that happens when I power level a character is that they get to level 70 or so and have not completed a single Heritage Quest. I absolutely love these quests, it doesn’t matter which one it is or how long (or short) it is to complete them. I love them because the items can turn into house items if you’re not going to wear them, and I love them because the guild status is something everyone can take advantage of. 

So as I looked at the baby coercer (no longer quite a baby any more hovering just past level 67) I decided to do return of the light. It’s one of the lowest level HQ there are (the lowest being the Dwarven quest in Greater Faydark). The quest has been tweaked and changed over the years. What once used to require an access quest (The Stronghold) now just needs you to crouch down and talk to an npc. What was once hours some times of camping, is now constant mobs that are always up. 

I actually don’t mind the changes though for one good reason. Because this is such a low level HQ, it gives new players (and lowbies) a chance to enjoy their first before they have to settle into some long tedious grind. Now, don’t get me wrong here. Sure, it’s great to have all of the named up but the Stronghold instance at the end is still difficult when you do it of level. Getting rushed by huge groups encounters of orcs is not always the most fun thing in the world to do. 

Since I had out leveled the content the entire quest from start to finish only took a few minutes and I was rewarded with a LOT of achievement which was fantastic. The guild earned some status, and I had fun. Wpus (a resident conjuror) was kind enough to call me to the locations I needed in between me running back and forth from the NPC just south of the crossroads. 

I’ve been running Shard of Hate in the mornings as well with some friends on Najena – my 71 paladin was lucky enough to get herself the bloodthirsty choker. Since she can heal herself, I’m not too concerned about it draining health away. I also managed to get her a few 2h weapons within the zone, new shoulders, a belt, a few charm slot items. I love this instance and when you’re level 80 it’s not nearly as painful. 

Hope everyone has been having a lot of fun, no matter what you’re up to!

In the Works

stargrace January 17, 2009 1Comment

I’ve been dipping into game and getting a few little things done – but I’ve also got some potential huge awesome news in the works, so I’m slightly (very) distracted. I’ll have more information Monday. Even if it doesn’t work out (fingers crossed that it does though) just the very thought and idea that it may happen is enough to make me smile for weeks (and send me into a head-spin of nervousness!)

I’ve been working on my transmuting, working on some instances, and did Shard of Fear this morning again netting the paladin a few more pretties. 

Hope everyone else is having an amazing weekend, and I should have a better post tomorrow morning, and (as long as all goes well) exciting awesome news on Monday – Game related at that. We shall see!

Working up a second transmuter

stargrace January 16, 2009 2Comments

First of all – a HUGE congratulations to Tipa (one of my favorite bloggers and gamers)  on obtaining her mythical last night! I’m so very happy for her, I know it’s something she’s wanted for a while now and I can only imagine the thrill of finally having it. I think it’s amusing that as soon as someone sees a message from a ‘none hardcore raider’ obtaining their mythical the tells go out about how much said person must have paid for it. 

Truth of the matter is these days pick up raids (if done properly) can accomplish a lot more then we may give them credit for and why not. Especially with the new expansion aiding to gear up people who may not have been able to obtain raid gear in the past. 

I decided yesterday that I would take up the painful profession of transmuting on a second character (the one I have on Kithicor) since I have no transmuter over there. Now, way back when I first worked up a transmuter, it was on a heavily populated server and there was a lot of loot for me to buy up for fairly cheap prices in order to get the skill ups I needed. When all was said and done (and this was quite some time ago) I spent 50 plat (which was a lot to me but not so bad) to get from 1-400. 

Times have changed though, and this new server doesn’t have nearly the population of Antonia Bayle or Najena. Instead of spending lots of money trying to purchase things from the broker to work the skill I decided I’d do it the ‘real’ way. Which is creating alts and mentoring down to their level and then running around Norrath AoE’ing everything in sight while the lowbie runs around opening chests and collecting the goodies. 

So far I’ve raised my skill to 100 which lets me transmute things up to level 25. It’s also as high as I can work the skill by using just the ‘transmute’ button and not by doing the actual combines (which are useless on the broker). I am one of those players that likes to be self sufficient, and while I did contemplate simply moving my current transmuter over – the automated character transfer service has been down for over four months now, and I’m not eager to go through that situation (again). So for now I’ll just continue working up a second one.

Last night there were quite a few people around in guild, so ideas were tossed around on what to do. I suggested mentoring down for one of the TSO zones, maybe getting some aa and some shards for those who were 75+ the group consisted of two conjurors, a defiler, and a templar. 

We headed off to Anathema in Everfrost, and we actually did pretty dang well considering the group make up. We spanned between level 71-80, mentoring to enter the zone and then unmentoring once we were settled. We could kill things, but it was REALLY slow. Then one of our resident shadowknights logged in, and we all clamored for his attention like little children, begging him to come tank which he did. Thankfully. 

There is a named at the back portion of the first section that has a tendency to break. He’s broken on me before. It’s the one you spawn by dropping off the arms and legs to Miragul. He breaks in the sense that it doesn’t matter HOW low you get him health wise, he life taps and instantly heals himself to 100% it doesn’t matter if he’s at 2% health or 50% health it’s always back up to 100% forever. 

Without killing this named you can’t break past the “wall” standing guard at the entrance. It looked like we’d have to call it for the night but just then, one of our conjurors managed to run PAST the living wall and onto the other side. SWEET! So our two summoners called the group over to the other side one at a time (I love call of the hero) until we all stood there and continued on. 

We beat the zone. I was impressed. The only thing that could have made it run smoother was more dps because things died painfully slow. It was a great night though and we all had a lot of fun laughing and joking around. Of course I did end up picking up the wrong shard quest and then learned that it was one where you just had to click things so I zoned back out picked it up and then ran around trying to click all the little tortured essences that were scattered through the zone. 

I’ll need to get the defiler a few levels so she can scribe all of the shard recipe books she’s been hording for a while. It’ll be nice to get her into some TSO gear eventually. Not in any great rush though. 

Over all, it was a great night and I’m looking forward to whatever tonight should bring!