May 2009

Right where I Left It

stargrace May 31, 2009 1 Comment

If your Vanguard account has been closed for two months or more, you may find yourself with a free month currently. Until July 1st all VG accounts (that have been closed for 2+ months) have been re-activated, allowing players to experience some of the wonderful changes in game. If you were at maximum level, you’ll find that they’ve been extended by 5, with new places to explore, new loot, and new spells. If you’re of a lower level and never had the opportunity to explore the Isle of Dawn (which is a very pretty beginner zone) why not take the chance.

I met up with Growlius in game, a good friend and guildmate of mine. We didn’t go exploring but hung out in one of the major cities of Qalia which was just as much fun. Getting used to keys and controls is pretty simple because it follows EQ2 in many regards (at least my personal keybindings do) and the main difference is that you keep both offensive and defensive targets at the same time.

The guild I belong to on Vanguard is huge, I’ve spoken about them before (they have an EQ2 branch as well on Antonia Bayle) called Safe Haven. Yesterday was no exception to the rule as 10-20 people were around leveling, crafting, questing and just talking. It was great to see. They’ve picked up quite a few new applicants over the last weeks as well which is always wonderful to hear.

I spent some time wandering around the city marveling at performance since I’ve gotten the new video card. I had no issues whatso ever, no crashes, no lag. It was very nice. I’ve always been a big supporter of VG even during the rough times, and I doubt that will change any time soon.

I haven’t noticed the RMT that was implemented in game at all. From what I understand the majority of players do not even use it, preferring to do things ‘the good ‘ol way’ which is through a lot of hard work. The craft channel was bustling, and people seemed to be in a general good mood. I still think the community atmosphere of VG is the best out there, right along side EQ’s community. I quickly glanced through my quest journal getting familiar with the tasks that I had been on so long ago. Maybe I’ll finally inch my way to level 45 so I can begin working on some swam armor. We’ll see!

Gaming

Taking in the View

stargrace May 31, 2009 No Comments

We (the guild of three plus one) may not have done as many instances yesterday as we did on Friday, but we sure did have fun – and still managed to get a fair amount done. While the boys headed off to Crypt of Agony for yet another ‘sad panda’ run as they’ve been termed (meaning no, the farseer did not drop, and nor did the cardiocutter) I stayed behind and played some Vanguard on the PC (more about that in another post). Afterwards we headed back to Evernight Abby to complete the bits that we didn’t do the night before because it was getting too late and I was feeling quite under the weather.

Well, lesson learned. It’s a bad idea to kill the first named in a persistent zone leave, come back, and think that you can complete the rest of the zone without any issues. Apparently killing the first named unlocks another named in behind the coffin room – and that closed up once we left the zone. We ended up missing him all together. After doing Guk the night before this zone was a breeze, and also a lot of scripted fun. During the later portion you turn into a vampire yourself to defeat the final boss, and you have to run away every time he calls forth the sunlight. You (as in the group) all also have to aquire special vampire moves that you use on him during the fight. LOTS of fun. We wiped once because I wasn’t curing the main tank when he got snared just before the sunlight hit, but once I started taking care of that it all went much easier.

I don’t remember anything of note dropping, but it was the daily double (or as my server calls it MoTD – mission of the day) so we got a fair amount of shards from it. Oh, also if you kill the key mob and then log out you lose your key and that extra shard too. Not impressed.

Having completed that zone and the quests from Loping that were associated with it (there are a few and they all reward really nice items) we took a bit of a break. Folks had real life to attend to (gasps, it happens some times!) and when we met up later in the evening we headed directly to Obelisk of Ahkzul and Anchor of Bazzul. These last two zones would give me enough shards to finally purchase the T2 breastplate for Ellithia (mystic) leaving only one more piece to obtain – the shoulders (and they’re a whole 27 shards so that will be a while). This also allowed me to finally get my 5 set bonus, which is a 2.4% chance to proc 15 seconds of 15% heal crit chance. Nice, but would have been nicer on a warden. My 5 set bonus used to do with overloaded heals but they changed it some time ago.

The coercer needs 5 more shards in order to get her 2nd piece of T2 gear. It feels like it’s taking forever but I have to remember that she shares the account with the bard, who was hording shards for a bit to get a few pieces of her T1 gear too. If I had not of been trying to gear up two characters on the same account at the same time it would have been a lot easier.

We keep checking on Venekor to see if he’ll drop a trophy for us but he’s apparently pretty camped on Kithicor. As the evening wore on I decided to stay put in the guild hall and work on transmuting some more (shudders) while the boys headed out to do those guild raids that no one does any more. They did all of the ones available I believe, and while they’re not a great deal of guild status unless you actually have 12 people, we did move along a little, and then of course there was achievement experience for defeating the named and completing the guild writs. I’m not sure if any armor molds or craft materials dropped, but I always thought that this was one feature in game that could use a serious overhaul and maybe more people would use it. I don’t even really know of any guilds who take advantage of the guild raids on a weekly (or 3 day as lock out timers go) basis. If you do, let me know!

All in all it was a nice day with a few instances and lots of fun. I got a few bits of upgraded gear (legendary) as did Wpus, but I think that was it. The really nice stuff still eludes us for now. It’s bound to drop sooner or later if we keep running the zones though! At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

Today the Festival of Unity begins at 3pm EST and you’ll find me there as Pensato on Antonia Bayle. There’s also a guild meeting later on for Safe Haven in Vanguard, so I’ll more then likely be boxing the two events, hehe. I’ll see you in Norrath! Or Telon!

Gaming

Did We Just Pull That Off??

stargrace May 30, 2009 4 Comments

Yesterday was the first real day we’ve had Kasul around on his assassin and boy did we take advantage of it. I’ve been constantly grouped up with Wpus and Ultann (and Ultann’s boxed Inquisitor, Nocbot) since late December on the Kithicor server. By now we know how we group, I know what to expect. If things are too easy chances are I’ll go screaming into the next room shouting “BUGABOO” at the top of my lungs and training us. They know that.

Adding a fourth person to the mix (and thus filling out our group nicely since I box the mystic + dirge / illusionist) was something I had a few reservations about. Not because Kasul isn’t amazing but because we (the original three) know how to play together. We’ve been taking down content with three of us that I was exceptionally proud to do. We DID have a lack of dps though, and it was noticeable.

Last time we headed to Guk we couldn’t make it past the third named. Or rather, the stairs of mobs that would never end. It took forever just to get to that part to begin with, so we called it.

Yesterday we bravely headed to Guk once more – and WE CLEARED THE ZONE. That’s right. That’s how much of a difference it made to add a fourth to our 3. So now I call us the 3 plus one guild. Not only did we clear the zone but Ultann managed to get the fungus spores that go for 600p on our server, as well as a new master spell.

I was impressed. I was happy. I can only hope that the others were too.

That wasn’t all we did though, oh no of course not. We did our usual Crypt of Agony run and no neither item that we’re after dropped. After that I suggested that we spend our time doing zones that we don’t typically do. We’ll have plenty of time to do the ‘other’ zones while Kasul is at work. So we did Obelisk of Akhzul, Anchor of Bazzul, Najena’s Hollow Tower, Halls of the Fallen (Guk), The Crucible, and then after all of that our little 3 plus one group headed to Evernight Abby in Loping Plains which was the daily double.

Unfortunately by the time we got there it was after midnight and I still haven’t been feeling the greatest lately, so we cleared the first named and then I camped out in the zone so that we could finish it off tomorrow (today). Not a big deal, and I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully everyone had an incredible time, even if they all teased me to no end. Why?

Well, throughout most of the zones (Crucible, Najena’s) nothing but the dirge, troubador, paladin, shadowknight loot would drop. Every single time. Of course I happened to be on my illusionist, which is ALWAYS the case, the dirge who didn’t play even got a master to drop while the illusionist has one single little master to her collection. Ah, the RGN is a cruel mistress some days. Wpus, Ultann, and Kasul had no end of material for teasing me. Each time we defeated a named it was almost guaranteed that it would drop loot for the dirge I wasn’t playing.

I did make off with two nice items, a ranged item for the illusionist as well as a new cloak with a void beast proc on it (that I adore, even if procs are going to be nerfed and it will no longer crit). It was one of those amazing incredible days that I love so much. Good gaming, good friends, great conversation and we got a lot done. Now I just need to work at finishing off those achievement points.

Happy gaming, and I’ll see you all in Norrath!

Gaming

It’s an ACTION figure, NOT a DOLL

stargrace May 29, 2009 3 Comments

If you’ve never been to Unrest (instance in Butcherblock for level 70+) I would HIGHLY suggest people go check it out. To this day it is one of the best scripted zones I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying, and it’s just a lot of fun to do, even if it does take a while.

After you manage to unlock the back door a particular ‘friend’ spawns outside. For the longest time there was no way any of my friends were defeating this encounter, and when Unrest released the level cap was 70 making it that much harder.

Of course I’m talking about Bugaboo, the gigantic creature who roams around the house, causing issues for adventurers.

Well, we finally managed to defeat him and while I wish he dropped a trophy because how cool would THAT look inside of a guild hall – he did drop something else. The little action figure fabled item pictured to the right hand side.

Now, there may not be anything astounding about this item by all basic appearance. However, if you take the time to right click and examine said item while it is in your inventory you may find out that it tells quite a different story.

That’s right, this adorable fabled item can actually be mounted and turns into an doll action figure that you can display in your house or guild hall. It’s a VERY small item, I was expecting something on the statue size in scale. Careful, you may put it where others could step on it and hurt themselves! Don’t leave your toys laying all over the place.

It’s these cute little additions and discoveries that I make every day that remind me about why I love this game. 5 years later and I’m still stumbling over these things. It’s fantastic.

Gaming

All About Goals

stargrace May 29, 2009 3 Comments

A proper screenshot of the dirge with her eyes actually open. Why I picked a half elf, I have no idea. I typically go for something that has racial abilities that will one day help me out (melee orientated, or spell, or the fun floaty one that a few races like erudite and dark elf get).

You’ll have to forgive my lackluster post, I won’t make excuses but this is certainly not the best of weeks I’ve had. Bare with me and things will improve (we all hope).

CoA – The Farseer did not drop, the Cardiocutter did not drop. We’ve been doing this zone every day for more then a month now and have not seen hide nor hair of these items. I’m beginning to think they’re mythicals and have since been removed from game. The bard goes without for a little while longer.

Did manage to get a few crafting levels yesterday which was great. Ultann inched to level 50 armorer which means he can partake in the TSO crafting now. Kasul has moved his main assassin over to Kithicor (until we’re all offered free transfers if that ever happens, so we can leave this horrible server) and now we find ourselves with a whole lot of dps – it’s going to be great. I believe today we plan on spending the day doing amazing instances that we normally can’t defeat because we don’t have the dps and I’m really looking forward to it. We’ll just have to see of course. I’m not sure if I’ll be playing the illusionist or the dirge but either way I’m sure it will be fun.

Speaking of fun I created my 4th enchanter last night. That’s right, another coercer. WHY?! Well. I have an illusionist and a coercer on Najena. I had a coercer on Kithicor but I betrayed her to an illusionist because their buffs are simply better for the group in general. You can’t go wrong with Time Compression and Illusionary Arm. I really love enchanters (no, they don’t play like EQ enchanters, but I still love them) and being able to charm things is an amazing aspect to the game (especially for thrill seekers) that I just can’t get enough of. So I searched last night for my master charm spells, I picked up the one for level 47, the one for 61 (which is all you need even at T8) and Wpus managed to have the level 20 charm stashed away. That was more then enough incentive for me.

I created an arasai coercer, and decked her out. What’s more I created a ‘goal’ for myself – no power leveling, and I want to try to have 200 aa BEFORE I hit level 80 (no matter how long that may take). I got her to level 20 yesterday, and then turned off experience as well as quest experience. That means the only thing I’m obtaining is achievements from quest completion and discoveries etc.

Wpus helped me out with spells while I did some shopping, and she’s sporting about 10 master spells now and a nice outfit of gear. I took her back home to Darklight Woods after playing in Wailing Caves and started working on the level 10+ quests. She’s only got 10aa right now, but I expect that to continue to grow. I figure I will do the 10+ quests in Darklight, Gorowyn, Commonlands, as well as any smaller zones such as Stormhold and Blackburrow before I enable experience again.

Why am I doing this? Well. I love having goals in game. I have so many level 80 characters now that getting to level 80 is no longer a thrill. Sure I could have 14 in total and get them all their epics and then have a steady stream of crafters to level but I’m already pretty tired of that grind. So I seek out new ways to play the game by my own rules, and different ways to interest me. Questing is not always something I enjoy doing, but if I place enough challenges along the way it looks infinitely better. Owning so many lower level master spells certainly helps too, and of course the coercers bread and butter which is my master charm.

No matter what game you’re playing or how you challenge yourself, I hope everyone has an amazing Friday, and an incredible weekend. Chances are I’ll be here, in Norrath as always.

Right where I Left It

Taking in the View

Did We Just Pull That Off??

It’s an ACTION figure, NOT a DOLL

All About Goals

You Missed

Leveling Up With Timewalking

The Construction of Quail Landing

Making Gold – One Sale at a Time

Timewalking, Gets me Every Time