2009

Quiet on the gaming front

stargrace January 7, 2009 6Comments

Ah yes, graphic card over heating again. As much as I love the quality and detail of the 8800 I have (I know, not that impressive) the little 7600 I had sure was sturdy. I’ve turned up the fans on the video card, but I’m reluctant to turn them up any more. I’m not a computer wiz, so it’s amazing I managed that much (with some help). The fans were barely sitting at 20% when I first fiddled. 

Anyhow. Yesterday was a fairly quiet day gaming wise. I checked sales on various characters, and bounced around waiting to get phone calls from hospitals about real life stuff going on. Interesting day. Thanks again to all of those people who have been exceptionally supportive, and please know I appreciate it so much. I don’t mean to cloud my gaming site with ‘reality’ but alas it rears it’s ugly head from time to time. 

I’ve created a coercer on the Kithicor server to play with a group of friends over there on nights when things are quiet on Najena. So far after two days I’m level 36 – the 50% bonus experience on my account due to 5 level 80’s has REALLY come in handy. As has the orb of concentrated memories that replenishes vitality weekly and the good friends grouping with me. I have some master charms waiting for me, level 33 and level 61 which I’m really eager to use, managed to get them at a steal, for 5p. There’s no difference between the 61 charm and the 74 charm aside from the extra 5 minutes that it lasts, eager, yes I am!

That was pretty much the extent of my gaming, hopefully things will settle back down into routine and I’ll have a few more interesting stories to tell. I’ve been contemplating picking up LoTRO because I’ve yet to play it or try it at all and a few friends are giving it a whirl. Haven’t quite made my mind up yet though. One of those “we’ll see” moments.

Safe travels and happy gaming no matter where you are!

New Outfit and other Ramblings

stargrace January 6, 2009 0Comment

Goudia managed to gain enough factions and tokens with the Far Seas division to finally purchase some new gear as well as those level 79 recipes that she can’t make yet but will be able to before too long. Have you ever wondered what those recipes (each with five charges) makes? Well, take a peek over at Kasul’s site, he has a post  all about them here. There are some pretty amazing items that crafters can make though the components are going for a fair amount here on Najena. The recipes require 40,000 faction with the Far Seas division which is not impossible to obtain but does take a little time. 

Anyhow, Goudia managed to collect her tokens and grind out five writs for faction so it was time for a new set of gear including a new black cloak. I don’t know if the pieces will actually help me craft any better, but here’s hoping. 

The little alchemist is also level 70 now, only 10 more to go! Those Far Seas instances were a LOT of help in reaching that level, and I’m looking forward to helping Nostalgia out and doing writs for the last 10 levels. We’re continuing to inch our way to level 40 which is a huge milestone for us. 

I didn’t really get any gaming time in yesterday. There are some pretty major real life things going on as anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, so I’ve been slightly preoccupied. 

Short term goals? Get the templar upgraded, work on her achievements. I still want to finish decorating the guild hall at one point or another, as well as various other homes I have in the midst of construction. This includes the necromancer one room I have in Big Bend that has been a (slow) work in progress between everything else. I’d still like to revamp Stargrace and Arysh’ homes, they’ve been the same way for over three years now and they could use a face lift. So much decorating to do and only so much time in a day!

I haven’t gotten any further with searching for a raid guild yet, then again I haven’t really looked. We’ll have to see how the real life stuff pans out first before I can dedicate the time that would be required. One of these days I WILL complete enough Moors quests to purchase the faction recipes. Maybe. 

Safe travels no matter what game you play.

Obelisk of A and the Sunken Theater

stargrace January 5, 2009 1Comment

What’s that in the sky? It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Wait.. No.. it’s a barrel? ACK it’s a halfling falling from the sky! That’s right, last night was one of those rare completely awesome days in EQ2 that I love to have. Busy, and fun. It started by me completing the epic weapon on my templar thanks to Shadowgeist, a few other people from siege, and a lot of pick up folks. I had to kill some whipcrackers and a slave master in Sebilis, head back out and talk to someone in Kunzar Jungle, go back in and find a book just laying on the floor, then go some place else within the zone and take down a named. Head back out (of course) to Kunzar Jungle where I was given my new shiny hammer. It’s huge. In fact when I’m in halfling form, it’s bigger then me.

Once that was done it was time for a quick bite to eat, and then the daily double which was the Obelisk in Moors. Tap Tap, I poked Tipa on Xfire to see if she wanted to come too, I was pretty sure she’d never been there before. 

The zone went fast, it’s always been fairly quick. We did wipe once because the revolving balls were not being stepped on, but aside from that it was great. The ‘coin’ chest within the zone dropped 12 plat for us, and you can’t complain about that. I don’t think anything of any note dropped, certainly not the shield I’d really like to get. I was still happy though, it was fun. A short break ensued while a few group members headed off to raids which ended up being cancelled early, so we decided to head to Veksar – The Sunken Theater (I believe that’s the name of it, I may be mistaken). It’s the Veksar 2.0 and I’d never been there before. 

The group consisted of a shadowknight, dirge, conjuror, illusionist, ranger, and myself as templar. I was assured that I could solo heal this without too much problem, and I typically feel a little cautious towards that. Time compression eases a lot of those fears though. Ah how I love TC. 

Anyhow, we were doing pretty well. I died once or twice because of resisted taunts, and reactives pinging off. No big deal. However, we got to Lord someone-or-other and then the tank went link dead – graphic card fried. 

Ack. 

So I relogged over to the laptop to do the instance from there, while my computer was donated to the cause. Back in game and on with the fights. The entire zone looks like the very first version of Veksar with a few named tossed in, and you can in fact complete Veksar 1.0 quests in the 2.0 zone, go figure.

The final named is of course the dragon, and you have to defeat him three times. Like all typical EQ2 dragons he has a tail swipe, a frontal, and mean aoe’s that go off during the fight. We opened with bladedance, flanked him (except for the main tank) and after wiping once due to everyone eating the tail swipe it went MUCH smoother. Not only was the fight smooth, it dropped a VERY nice healer charm item for me. It has 155 power, +75 to heals, +2 heal crit, and 25 wis / 25 stam. Very nice item to add to my collection. Aside from that, nothing of note really dropped. I did manage to hit 130aa on the templar – I realize I am a HUGE slacker on the questing for her, but soloing with the templar is painfully slow even with a partial dps spec. 

I’m really glad to be gearing her up over time, it’s been fairly painless. Her power is still a bit low for my liking, but she has only a few adornments. At 924 wisdom her resists are above where I need them to be and she’s got 10,000 hit points, 8,000 power (yes, that’s buffed). I’m still sporting a few pieces of the level 68 legendary gear from EoF (I was using it for the 33% casting speed increase) but hopefully I’ll be able to save up enough shards to get rid of that set all together. I’ve got a total of 4 shards to my collection thus far, I need.. well.. a lot. 

All in all, a fantastic day. I hope everyone else had just as much fun on their weekends.