2009

Time for a Heritage Quest

stargrace January 18, 2009 No Comments

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 1 Comment

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 2 Comments

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!

More fun in Instances

stargrace January 14, 2009 2 Comments

Yesterday was just some brief time spent in game as once again real life has reared it’s ugly head and seems to be having fun ping ponging everyone all over the place. Without going into any details, it has been some of the most difficult times I’ve had to deal with, and I’ve dealt with my fair share. 

I did a little exping on the coercer, the conjuror and shadowknight I typically play with were around for a bit and we decided to try to do Halls of Fate – mentored to level 61. It was a crazy attempt since the mobs even outside the zone are 68, but it was fun. Needless to say we didn’t make it too far. Especially since the level 61 was a coercer which meant we had no healer. Before that we had attempted to trio the Obelisk of A in Moors – with a healer, but still only 77 and we almost made it past the first room before calling it. Almost. It was still some of the most fun I’ve ever had in game. 

Afterwards we decided to aim for something more realistic. The Nest in Barren Sky would be slightly above our level, but we felt confident that we could handle that sans healer and the shadowknight tank just life taping his way. 

There were laughs, and deaths but eventually the zone fell and the coercer managed to ding 63. I took a break and then later headed to New Tunaria to ding 64. The defiler has reached 28 carpenter, and I’m working my way towards 30. 

Aside from that, here’s hoping real life quiets down, and I truly hope everyone has a wonderful day.