2009

Obelisk Goodness

stargrace February 12, 2009 No Comments

Yesterday the mission of the day was Obelisk. You know the one in Moors that’s not too difficult and requires a lot of bouncing around for one named? Well, my trio had attempted to do this zone just us a few weeks ago, before I was level 80 on the mystic and before we’d gotten any void shard gear or anything like that. The two void creatures by the first doorway tore into us pretty bad, it wasn’t a good sight. We decided yesterday to attempt it again, me boxing the 77 coercer along with my 80 mystic, the shadowknight and conjuror I typically play with. The conjuror has masters of all his pets now, and is sporting a full set of T2 void shard gear, the shadowknight has won a few masters as well and is sporting his full set. I only have two pieces of mine and the coercer is wearing a mish mash of gear – but we managed to clear the entire zone with just the three of us. 

I was so proud.

There are some people who have fun in game doing quests, others decorating, or raiding, or hanging out with friends or doing multiple other avenues of things. Lately, I’ve been having the most fun taking down encounters with three people that are difficult (or at least I consider difficult) that we wouldn’t typically be able to beat. None of us are raid geared, none of us have our mythical and so these encounters are actually hard and require us to be on top of things. My mystic doesn’t even have her fabled epic yet (I know, I’ve been slacking). 

It was a LOT of fun, and even though I didn’t see the healer shield, knowing that we can beat it now was very satisfying. We also did a Chelsith run and Vaults, as well as all of the regular TSO instances for void shards. The coercer is sitting on 20 now and since she’s not 80 yet she’ll be able to at least get a set of gear made by the time she gets there. The mystic is a little behind, but that’s alright. 

I’m (finally) starting to feel human again after being sick for a week. My nose is still dripping (ew) but at least the hacking cough has died down quite a bit. Looking forward to feeling even more human in the upcoming days. Today? Valentines stuff!

Time to PLAY!

stargrace February 11, 2009 2 Comments

Now that all of my articles are finally written, I have decided to take the rest of this week to do absolutely nothing (aside from get better from this cold that I’m still trying to battle) aside from game. Maybe clean the house a bit. Anyhow, my schedule for this week is empty and I’m loving it. No doubt I’ll get some time to dive into LoTRO for a little bit, as well as playing EQ2 with friends, and whatever else happens to catch my interest. As long as this flu bug doesn’t beat me into submission at least. 

Yesterday was a great day gaming wise. I got a lot done, which is always fun. I started in on the Valentine’s goodies, but was quickly side tracked by guild mates. When we can, we mentor down to level 50 and do the void shard goodness with my bard who’s sitting at level 54. My mystic has her full set of T1 gear, and two pieces now of T2 gear. The coercer is still four levels away from using void shard gear, but she has 9 shards just waiting to be made into something. I should be able to get quite a few more before she’s level 80 and able to wear any of the gear. She’s still wearing level 30 gear in the mean time. At least she has all of her adept3’s!

The shadowknight and conjuror I hang out with headed to Vaults after our shard run and trio’d that, then headed to Chelsith to do that together. By then it was around 9:30pm though and I was not feeling very well at all so I took some night time medicine and crashed for the next 10 hours. I’m not sure what they gave me in San Diego when I was down but dang I just can’t seem to shake it (and to be perfectly fair, it’s not ALL from the people at SOE, I’m sure a lot is due to the 6 airplanes I was on, the lack of sleep, stress, and my already weakened immune system). We did manage to get a shadowknight master to drop, it’s usually always just conjuror spells that we get. 

Hope everyone else is having a lot of fun in their game of choice, see you in Norrath!

Patch Note Catch Up

stargrace February 10, 2009 2 Comments

I haven’t read the patch notes in a little while since I’ve been so busy doing articles that I had to write up, so here they are! I now get to play for the rest of the week and get over this horrible cold I have. Looks like some fantastic changes in place, and I’m really looking forward to playing with the Valentines stuff. 

Hotfix February / 10 / 2009
EROLLISI DAY

(2/10/09-2/16/09) Erollisi Day is being celebrated across Norrath! Those willing to participate in the celebration are encouraged to make their way to Antonica or The Commonlands where the Swornlove siblings’ task of matchmaking can lead to a deeper mystery surrounding three Sisters that have traveled to Antonica seeking answers. Meanwhile, love notes and message candies hold new worth with holiday merchants in Qeynos Harbor or East Freeport and tradeskillers, alike.

RECRUIT-A-FRIEND

The EverQuest II Recruit-A-Friend program is a unique promotion that rewards you with free gameplay time (to be added to the end of your then-current subscription) and exclusive in-game items for each new player you bring into the game who becomes an active subscriber of EQII.   For information about how you can participate visit the website at http://everquest2.station.sony.com/recruit-a-friend.vm.

Hotfix February / 5 / 2009
HIGHLIGHTS
A new type of item has been added: HEIRLOOM items are the same as NO-TRADE except that they can be placed into your shared bank.  Characters on the same account and server can then pick them up out of the shared bank.  Normal shared bank rules apply on PVP servers.

GENERAL
The spider ability ‘Sticky Webbing’ has changed from a 30 second root to a 3 second daze.
Merchants in the Village of Shin will now buy as well as sell items.
It should now be slightly easier to avoid the blood gorgers in the entry passage to Grobb, if you are careful.
Spotting a business opportunity, a new fuel merchant has recently set up shop in Firmroot Moot near the mender.
Large attribute values over the base cap will no longer cause your max hitpoints or power to decrease.
Adornments which add additional damage to a weapon will now correctly report critical attacks.

ACHIEVEMENTS
General
Bountiful Harvest should no longer display a combined harvest on root and foresting nodes.  Instead you should see two messages similar to other nodes.

Assassin
Frontload will no longer cause poisons to cancel when it is toggled off or expires.

Berserker
Perseverance is now a buff and works in a similar fashion to Reversal with a hidden spell that can only trigger once every 15 seconds.

Shaman
Kindred Restoration will now cast properly if the shaman is casting another spell.

DUNGEONS/ENCOUNTERS
Anchor of Bazzul
Imprisoner Y’nosii’s death now results in his weakened soul spawning. Killing the weakened soul gives a key that will open Ynosii’s treasure chest.

Cavern of the Afflicted
A group of zombies near the first Maledictive Terror should no longer continue to respawn.

Evernight Abbey
Players on the quest A Brother’s Revenge should no longer be able to get a quest update and be asked to turn in Gabardine Obisgnul’s head when they do not have the item.

Halls of the Forsaken
The mission End of the Forsaken should no longer occasionally have too few forsaken soldiers and conscripts present in the zone.

Nektulos
The Avatar of Hate should cast crushing hatred more reliably on attackers now.

Palace of the Ancient One
The Switchmaster should critically hit players somewhat less often now.
Tythus can no longer have his Voidslide AOE interrupted.
The duration of Nether Bolt, the reactive associated with Pentaclypse and Ultaclypse, has been reduced to 1.5 seconds.

Ravenscale Repository
The two parts of Mission of the Macabre can now be completed in any order, so that Noyle is no longer occasionally already dead once players reach that step. 

ITEMS
Atrebite Mantle of Destruction may now be worn by all plate tanks.
Drum of the Ethernaut Chronicler’s proc now functions on both spells and melee attacks.
Cloak of the Overlord and Cloak of Antonia Bayle now have additional ranged bonuses.
The proc text on Ripper’s Stiletto now more clearly states that it triggers only from attacks made with that weapon.
A number of the Frostfell reward armors have been changed to create a more balanced stat progression.
Paladin’s Zealous Voidbeam 4-piece bonus now adds mitigation instead of Spell and Combat Art damage.
Silk Robe of Summoning, Aramid Robe of Voidcaller, and Staff of Elemental Mastery no longer function on swarm pets, but should stack with other pet effects better than they did previously.
The 5-piece bonus on the Conjuror and Necromancer raid sets has been improved slightly.
Razhish’s Cloak of Flowing Power has a new proc.
The effect on Ferhustr’s Furious Rolling-Pin should now add 20% to heals and runes.
Overloaded heal procs will now trigger properly from reactives and wards
Unholy Rift 4 piece bonus to Tenacity should now have a 35m range.
The Neutral Avatar 2 piece charm bonus will now work correctly.
Protective Platemail Helm of the Rising Sun is now properly classified as plate.
Void-Etched Blade and Void Cutlass of the Lethe now have delays more suitable for offhand weapons.
Extract Mana on the Illusionist robe from VP now functions properly.
The collection reward Cape of Infatuation now has an appearance.
Many of the fabled items within Palace of the Ancient One, Ykesha’s Inner Stronghold and Tomb of the Mad Crusader, have been upgraded and or had effects added.
Gynok Moltor will no longer drop Stained Mummy Bandages or the Eye Mounted Ring. His drops have been upgraded and new items have been added in place of the ones that were shared.
The Savage Wall was dropping from both Captain Ikalus and Xebnok the Wretched. Xebnok will no longer drop the Savage Wall and has had a new item added to his table to replace it.
A few pet caster effects have been added to select mage items.
The Silvered Link Chain is now usable by rogues.
Zarrakon will now drop new items.  In addition some of his existing drops have been upgraded or had effects added to them.

QUESTS
Moors of Ykesha
Captain Lip Marrsquire’s “Evidence?” quests are no longer impeded if completed after finishing the quest, “Who Dun It?”  Return to Captain Lip Marrsquire to complete these quests.

SPELLS
General
Examination Data will now show the critical damage multiplier if it differs from the base amount.
Spells that are affected by achievements will no longer drop after being charmed.

Defiler
Spiritual Circle will now apply properly to members of the raid.

Inquisitor
Repenting Strike will now trigger if the inquisitor is stunned or stifled.

Necromancer
Siphoning of Souls adept 3 will now trigger Soothing Soul properly.

TRADESKILLS
A number of trade skill faction rewards are now considered heirlooms.  The components required for “Proof of the Pudding” are also considered heirlooms.
“Tools of the Trade” set bonuses are now slightly different for each set.

UI
Critical Mitigation display in the persona window will now show the attribute gains as well.