November 2009

Kurns and Crucible, sitting in a Tree.

Torrent Knights picked up another new guild mate last night – Threllgar joined the guild (once I’d told him about what sort of guild we were and warned him of course) which was fantastic. I never intended on TK turning into a ‘real’ guild, and it’s still not what I would consider one, but I’m always happy when new people join up (even if we eventually scare them away). As it happened, not only did we get a new guild mate, but most of the ‘core’ of the guild happened to be on (aside from Calreth, who is stationed out in the Jungle currently) and so we decided to take advantage of that. Grabbing the new guild mate, Wpus, Ultann, Hamal, and myself decided to head to Kurns and attempt to get a few drops that we could use.

We have been there before, and completed the zone with four of us so taking along someone new wasn’t going to be an issue at all. I had been trying the previous two times to get the fabled healer charm to drop from the 2nd named encounter and low and behold this time it actually dropped! It’s been ages since my healer has managed to find herself an actual upgrade, and I was exceptionally pleased. It was a gigantic upgrade to what I was wearing, and we had a blast doing the zone.

Each time we go to a zone we seem to discover something new. Last night on the second floor we discovered a very bad bug. Seems that the walls of the room are not as solid as some would think. We typically fight the named up on the wall – and found ourselves tankless once again. Turns out if you bounce around up against the wall you’ll get ported outside to fens. We played around with this ‘feature’ a few times, and found all of us bounced outside to fens. Lesson learned, don’t fight near the walls.

Aside from that one mishap things were smooth, and since there was still a little time after we decided to head to Crucible and complete that zone. Since there’s really no reason to bring two healers I relogged over to Stargrace and dusted her off a little. I’m still trying to collect shards for three pieces of WoE gear that I’ve had rotting in my bags for quite some time now, but of course I tend to procrastinate and it’s been ages since I’ve actually ‘worked’ on getting those shards. I can’t help it, after saving up shards for 13 level 80’s (T1) it gets tiresome. Every so often I get enough motivation.

Hopefully we didn’t scare the new guild mate away, we chattered freely in EQ2s voice chat (not because we had to but because we’re all friends, so why not) and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Today is a Holiday here in Canada (Remembrance day) and I’ll be headed out to watch the ceremony down town. Hope everyone has a fantastic Wednesday.

Working on Achievements

It wasn’t that long ago that EQ2 added achievements to game, and if you’re the type of person who wants to complete absolutely everything they can on their ‘main’ character, chances are you’ve spent a lot of time hunting down the more elusive achievements to add to your collection. I haven’t gone out of my way to obtain them, but last night Wpus suggested we clear up some of the simple ones that had been kicking around our quest journals. There were a lot of exploration achievements that I could easily finish off simply by visiting one location or two, so that’s what I spent last night doing, running around to hit the few locations in a zone I had never been to before.

I admit, I like achievements. I think it gives people who thought they were ‘done’ with the game something else to strive for. While they don’t exactly have a huge affect on the game you can get some pretty neat titles and gear from completing them. It’s also a good way for me personally to separate my ‘main’ characters from the rest of the level 80’s I have, as those ones will tend to have more achievements then my other characters.

Have you been working on achievements since they’ve come out? Have any in particular that you really enjoy? Any achievements that are not listed that you’d like to see? Let me know!

An Instance, some leveling, and a Party

I know I already used a similar picture not that long ago, but in this one we’re all showing off our incredible moves, so it had to be posted. I haven’t found a lot of time to play EQ2 lately but I managed to squeeze in a little time here and there. Yesterday I did Obelisk of Ahkzul with my troubador (much neglected) – it was the hot zone, but my luck held steady and we didn’t see anything drop. I am not sure what I would have done had I see the healer shield drop, I’m pretty confident I’ve done the zone at least 200 times and it’s never dropped.

I also managed to level my bruiser up (along with some help of course) and she inched her way from level 15 to 47. With vitality, and an experience potion running (as well as the 50% bonus from having max level characters) it wasn’t that difficult. There’s a system of zones I head to now. Wailing Caves from 10-20, Fallen Gate from 21-30, Runnyeye from 31-42, Cazic Thul from 43-48 or so, then it’s off to Sinking Sands, Clefts of Rujark and all of those wonderful places. These of course are zones I head to when I have a level 80 mentoring me, on my own it would take quite a few quests and a lot more zones.

I haven’t attempted to obtain many of the newer achievements yet, the ones that required timed runs through zones, but I’m hoping to later this week. I’m also eager to see the list of changes / fixes go in, some have been a long time coming.

Don’t forget that this time a round the 5th anniversary of EQ2 is being celebrated on the TEST server, and if you plan on attending you will want to patch WELL ahead of time, because it takes a while. This means that we won’t be goodies to take home to our mains (unlike previous years when it ran on all servers on individual days) but I’m still expecting a whole lot of fun to take place. Hopefully I’ll see lots of people there, too!

How has everyone else been keeping busy? There’s got to be some gamers out there still playing MMOs, right? Right?

Saturday Book of the Day

(( Every Saturday I try to post one of the books from my collection in the Norrathian Museum I have on the Antonia Bayle server. If you’re interested in donating a book to my library please feel free to mail Ellithia in game (I’ll even send you a blank book if you’re creating from another server) and if you’d like to visit the museum yourself, please feel free. It’s located in North Freeport, at the magical housing in the mage tower. There are over 100 player written books in my collection so far, and I plan on adding as many as I can. ))

Sarek the Betrayer: Vol. 1 by Rezikai

It was some time after Rallos Zek and his sons had been defeated during the second invasion of the Plane of Earth. After executing one of the Raethe council that our story begins, it is with the remaining Rallosian forces on old Tunaria. The Ankexfen had became ravenous goblins, and scattered quickly as their curse hit, as did the Giants. The Orcs stayed as vicious as they could, but started to loose their knowledge of history and such lost future ways to obtain better tactics, theirs was a race doomed to slow decay of their cultures history.

The last of Rallos’ children to suffer were the Ogres, cursed with stupidity their mighty empire slowly crumbled, but they fought to retain much. Learning what they could of the new arcane art of necromancy. Trying to ensure their older generations held strong in their minds, and the old ways.

The Council of War in Oggok, horded their remaining forces on Tunaria, they knew that eventually all of the old generations would die and their knowledge of tactics and war with them. They had precious little time to conquer all that they could before these generations fell to the curse.

They put their faith in the greatest of their field generals, Sarek. They entrusted him to become the great warrior of Oggok that K’Ven had been for the Teir`Dal of the Rallosian mercenaries.

Sarek was a formidable warrior, one of the few remaining generals who had survived the invasion of earth and returned. But his lust for power was so great he was willing to forsake his people for it. He called out to the gods, asking their favor in secret.

He wished power that was beyond the mortal realm. His call was answered when many of the good gods agreed to raise him to a semi-deity if he agreed to stop the remeaining Rallosian armies from destroying the rest of their creations.

He agreed, and set in motion his plan of treachery. He went before the Council of War in Oggok, and made his case for the invasion of the unknown lands to the far southwestern reaches of Tunaria, and the northern mountains of Raethe where the many maddened mages resided deep past the northern pass into the Geomancer’s Citadel.

The Council of War foolishly agreed, too worried of their time left to conquer for mortal kingdoms while Sarek had his sights set much higher. His grand plan laid before him, as he ordered three quarters of the Tunarian legions of the empire to Oggok to set forth a mighty campaign. The War Council were cautious at so many warriors assmebled, but their blind faith in Sarek, and his assurances that so many were needed to complete more campaigns before the final years of the curse fully engulfed their race let their better judgement slip aside for their own lust for power.

Sarek ordered the massive force into two main columns. The first would head North into the Geomancers Pass, on until it seiged the citadel. Taking the knowledge the crazed mages had back to Oggok to learn from and help slow the god’s curse on their race. The second column were destined south deep into the land of the Dead Hills, where the fabled Tal`Thex secrety rested with its secrets of the Elddar’s most powerfull mages, that could be exploited for the Rallosian empire.

The plan of attack was for Sarek to lead the second column of legions to search for the  pagoda of Tal`Thex. While the first started the great trek north to seige the citadel and overtake any resistance of the geomancers.
If so needed forces from the second column could reinforce the first. The Pagoda wasnt expect to have much resistance aside from some old living golems and perhaps some ancient Elddar soldiers, it was expected to be a quick victory. The two massive armies set out from Oggok, marching towards what they thought was the saving of their race.

The route of the first coulmn lead through geomancers pass, the legions encountered the crazed mages, free roaming animations, summoned elementals, golems, and unliving amalgamations. They encountered light resistance at first slaughtering the maddened wizards and enchanters they encountered who defied them.

The Ogres pressed on, fighting through more and more heavier resistance passing massive golems and larger enchanted animations. The assualt of the animations and golems were relentless they needed no sleep they needed no food, they just kept coming. The Ogre commanders searched for the mages summoning them but rarely did they ever find a mage or enchanter in control of these pets, as if they lived on their own.

The tide of battle seemed to turn when they finally reach the base of the geomancers citadel. A massive set of arcane towers created from ages past resting atop sheer cliffs of a ashen covered mountain, now inhabited by the most powerfull of animations and mages created their own dark rituals of elemental magics.

It was here the true number of defenders of geomancers citadel were shown, thousands of animations and golems, elementals and amalgamations stood assembled as they readied to defend their pinnacle of power. The Ogres had taken losses but would not be turned away and launched their armies at mountain fortress.

The Legions of Oggok took heavy losses but to die in battle was honor in the eyes of Rallos! Days into the seige the animations and elementals withdrew shortly, which bewildered the Ogre commanders, they saw this as a chance to gain more ground up the massive cliffs, they pushed their remaining forces foward into the wrah of the amalgamations and golems.

It was here the few powerfull elven and human mages that dwelled within the citadel unleashed their trap. massive waves of water elementals came from the beaches on the western shore of the mountain cutting a swathe deep into the Rallosian lines. Those cut off turned to battle in front and behind while the commanders held stubborn unwilling to withdraw. “For Rallos! For Sarek!” they cried.

Their cries of war would be their last, as many were slaughtered. The Ogre commanders realized the dire situation but tried to hold ranks to retreat and reassemble,  the true nature of the mages and wizards trap very quickly became far to obvious. The dead soldiers cut off, from the rest were being pounded and burned into lumps of flesh, reformed with elements to create more amalgamations, golem, summoned pets, and now the geomancers force had grown two fold.
The Ogre commanders in less then a day were now in peril of loosing more then the battle, their soldiers were being slain and risen against them too fast, and they needed no rest of battle. They dispatched messengers to Oggok and to the second column to call for reinforcments immediately, mere days before they would soon meet their end. Few fled battle in the Rallosian ranks most stayed until their death, all but a handfull of the messengers were slain trying to make it through geomancers pass back to Oggok.

Those very few that survived the travel back through geomancers pass reach Oggok to tell the tail of failure, they were thrown in chains as failures, traitors to the
empire. The Council of War sent messengers to contact Sarek’s column.

No word was ever recieved from Sarek’s column of Rallosians.

Simply Not Enough Time

Ellithia is sporting the Shard of Love headgear that dropped for us earlier this week – and that’s been the extent of my time in EQ2, which hasn’t happened in literally, months. I haven’t logged in. It’s not that I don’t have things to do in game, because I certainly do but I just don’t have enough time lately to do everything I want to do. Isn’t that always the case?

EQ2 is always my home base, and I’ll always return there. Especially after I glanced through this HUGE list of patch notes that are currently on test. Wow. Some pretty amazing stuff is finally getting fixed. This has been a very long time coming. Earlier this week I also transferred my 80 swashbuckler over to Antonia Bayle, so I can get back into boxing. I had closed my second account for a little while but decided that 12 alts was simply not enough, so I’ve got both accounts once more.

Vanguard is my home away from home. It’s the game I play for pleasure with a few friends when we all happen to have time, and I really love the game. The problem is it’s not one of those duck in real quick for a minute or two games, so it looks like it gets a lot of back burner time.

Aion is what I’m playing a lot of lately, mostly for work. I play during the day, when it’s quieter then normal and I can’t say I’m hating it. Leveling is slow, quests are grindy but it’s beautiful and still new, and I’ll be sticking with it.

Torchlight and Dragon Age are still on my play list as well, but I’ll probably be playing those more on the weekend when I’m not busy with other things. The weather is getting much colder and it’s almost time to hibernate for the winter. No doubt my adventures there will be fun as always.

NaNoWriMo is eating up a lot of time. I’m just over 12k words right now (although I completely slacked yesterday and didn’t do any writing – today I should be making up for it) and I’m excited about my story. It’s something that I’ve been meaning to write for a very long time, but simply never got around to. Now that the motivation is there I just need to stick with it for the month of November. I’ve also been very excited watching all my friends work on their stories, and the inspiration and motivation that bounces off of one another is fantastic.

There are five games that are on my “dang I wish I had more time” list currently. These are the Lord of the Rings Online, Fallen Earth, Wizard 101, EverQuest and Dungeons and Dragons Online. Thankfully DDO is free to play, so I don’t exactly feel like I’m missing out by NOT playing right now. The Lord of the Rings Online recently extended their special Mirkwood promotions until mid November, so I’ve been debating whether or not I want to get in on that and plurge on a life time just because. It’s one of those games I’ve really enjoyed playing but just can’t seem to find the time. Fallen Earth I managed to score a 15 day trial for, and never logged in – sighs. Wizard 101 is something I should be playing a lot more of next week, fingers crossed. EverQuest currently has their closed beta ongoing for Underfoot – and if I could convince a few of my friends to play with me, I’d probably be there a lot more. I really love EverQuest, always have, even 10 years later. It’s just not fun for me to play alone.

After the list of “I wish I had more time” games, there are a few games that I wish I could simply afford to take a peek into every so often, even if I don’t have the time. These include Warhammer (I loved the game, but lacked friends to play with), Free Realms, and Champions Online (which I played a few times but honestly never got into it, I was right about it simply not being the genre for me). Of course there’s those games I’ve tried but never stuck with (and I’ve tried them multiple times), EVE and World of Warcraft. I even bought the latest EVE game and never actually installed it (it went on sale for $5 if I recall) because I just don’t have the time right now to learn another game. I’ve played WoW off and on since release, and I just think it would have been neat to make it to the level cap at least once. My highest level is 50.

Don’t get me started on all the free to play games out there that tickle my fancy.

There really is just not enough time for everything.

Nomadic Gamer