March 8, 2009

More Valdeholm, Levels, Clickies, and Raids!

stargrace March 8, 2009 0Comment

Yesterday was a great day in game. I didn’t just play EQ, I spent a little time in Runes of Magic (which I’ll write about a bit more later). Don’t forget today is Daylight Savings, so turn your clocks ahead an hour if you have not yet (thankfully my computer does this for me). The day was also great because Ultann managed to get his internet back, so our team was back to full, teehee. With everyone back it was only a matter of deciding what to do. I’ve mentioned a few times how much of a fan of clickies I am. In some cases they are almost essential, such as raids. When you have a mass amount of people all collected in one space you don’t want to be huge. I know, odd concept. There is a clicky item that drops from a mission in Stoneroot (Depths of Darkhollow zone, see that Ninga, I got it right!), and so that’s where our adventures took us. 

Apparently (from what I was told) this item is really rare. I was told not to expect to see it for 10+ missions, easily. That 30+ hours of farming went into obtaining it. 

Always eager to prove people wrong, it dropped on the 2.5th mission we did. Hah! This little earring click is fantastic, I love it. Not only does it act as a shrink but it acts as a shrink for others, which is important when I’m boxing – plus it casts super fast. No more tiny companion spell scribing for me! A huge thank you to Ultann and Ninga who helped me camp this (even if it was super easy) it was still a lot of fun. 

We had not expected to get the clicky that fast, so we were not sure where to head to next. Eventually we settled on Valdeholm which is the level 70 hot zone (and is a part of The Serpents Spine expansion). The mobs there were higher level then Dreadspire, and there were 15 others in the zone. We headed towards the Smith, and camped a little corner around his building for a while. The necromancer eased her way into level 77 and the enchanter is creeping closer to level 75. 

Ultann is almost (but not quite) level 83, but the experience is slow going. After a little while we decided it was time to do something crazy, what else could be said about a Saturday night. 

So we picked up where we left off with the Dragons of Norrath expansion, and do Tier3 of the progression which includes the following:

Tier 3: Embrace of the Dark Reign 

In order to continue on after this step, you must have high aimiable faction. 

If you speak with General Lereh Dirr, you can gain access to the Reflections of Silver and Kessdona’s Perch events – two non-progression missions. 

On the progression end of things, you must now speak to Officer Sirrikis Ryktor, who will assign you three tasks: 

“Muddy the Waters” — Kill 9 Stillmoon Water Servants in Stillmoon Temple 
“Snowfoot Attack” — Kill 10 Snowfoot Goblins in The Ascent 
“Knowledge is Power” — Loot 7 x Ancient Scroll of Knowledge from Thundercrest Isles 

Upon completing these tasks and speaking with the Commander, you will have access to a single group mission and raid event: 

“The Gilded Scroll” — single-group mission given by Officer Vacax Rol`Tas. Go into the Thundercrest Isles and kill mobs, looting scrolls off their corpses. Upon looting the correct one, it will turn into a Gilded Scroll of Earth Rending. After this, kill Noble Kirin Scholar. Do this and turn the gilded scroll in to Daleynn Spiritshadow in Lavastorm for a flag. 

“Volkara’s Bite” — 42-player raid in Lavaspinner’s Lair, results in Lava Spider Spinners from Volkara, a lava spider. 

Give the Lava Spider Spinners to the Commander for a character flag and move on to the next raid event. 

“Trial of Perseverance” is a 24-player raid in Stillmoon Temple, results in Goblin Warlord’s Beads from A Stillmoon Warlord. 

Turn the beads in to the commander to receive: 

-Two AAs 
-New ability: Embrace of the Dark Reign (increase buff slot limit by one) 

(Walk through is from Zam)

The first time we attempted Volkara’s Bite we died. We didn’t realize that the dot she was so frantically casting was also a mana drain, so our healer ran out of mana. This fight is a LOT like the Thuuga raid in EQ2. As you kill Volkara, she spawns cocoons and then those hatch into spiders if you don’t dps them down fast enough. If you die, bad things also happen (as we found out when the enchanter died, twice). 

So we buffed back up and headed back to give it another shot. Keep in mind this raid was meant for 42 players – and we were one 80 monk, 84 magician, 80 cleric, and then myself as 77 necromancer and 74 enchanter. It doesn’t matter if the raid is out of date, it still hurts. 

We managed against all odds to win the second time around, burning through the last cocoons at 10% instead of dealing with them. Of course we did die to the spider adds once we finished killing Volkara, but it was alright, we still won! Afterwards we did the 24-person raid which was far easier, and collected our updates. 

By the time those two raids were done (we’d skipped the three missions before that, they can be done out of order if you have someone else who is able to get the raids) I was starting to feel a little sleepy, so I called it a night and headed to bed. It was a lot of fun though, and I hope everyone else had fun too. Today? Who knows!