February 2010

Erudian Library and Research Halls Instances

stargrace February 28, 2010 4Comments

Yesterday I finally managed to wiggle my way into some instances in EQ2 – the first time I had actually gotten to explore the Sentinel’s Fate areas on live servers. My group first headed to the Erudian Library which is one of the easier zones included this expansion and also one of the most fun. Players get to figure out which NPC murdered another (and where, and with what) and accuse them of it. If you guess right, you get some extra rewards and neat house items. Afterward we headed to the Research Halls, which was also a lot of fun and not too difficult.

SF has new shards (and on a side note why did SOE implement the fix to disallow gray shard runs after they made those shards obsolete?) and I have a handful of them stored up. There are shards (tokens) for pretty much everything now, PvP, Crafting, various forms of PvE gear. Even all of the live events have a ‘token system’ of some sort (Erollisi day, Magical Grottos, etc). My banks are filling up with these things.

I managed to get a lot of nice upgrades for the troubador through these in instances including some very nice charms. I’m still inching my way towards upbeat tempo (the troubadors bread and butter) but I’m not that far away now. I haven’t played the bard seriously in quite some time. It’s been fun so far.

I did have one major change this weekend. I decided that playing on multiple servers is simply too difficult. It’s too hard to spread characters all over the place and expect them all to accomplish every ‘major’ goal in the game. I love games that only have one server so the choice is made for me, but since that is not an option for EQ2 I had to make a pretty hard decision. In the end I came to the conclusion that I would play on Oasis, and no other servers. This weekend I spent most of it packing up belongings from Antonia Bayle and moving my characters over. I don’t even remember the last time I was only playing on one server, it’s been 2-3 years. The decision was a long time coming and it certainly wasn’t an easy one for me. There were a lot of outside factors that came into play (that I’m not going to get into here on my blog because it’s simply not the place). I’m very happy with my decision, and I’m really excited on playing on one server. I’m already fairly settled in over there as it’s one of three servers I was attempting to play on.

I did also get some battleground time in – and I have all sorts of thoughts on that subject, but it’s a post for another day (maybe backlogging yesterday, since I didn’t make a post).

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

Games can have Bad Days Too

stargrace February 26, 2010 8Comments

Games have bad days, just like people, go figure.

That’s what I learned yesterday in spades, as EQ2 had probably one of the worst days I’ve ever seen in the game. It was horrible.

To start it off, the game was taken down for what was supposed to be a two hour downtime to implement battlegrounds, and turned into an almost 6 hour downtime. Now if you’ve played any sort of MMO for any amount of time you’re probably already used to this as extended downtimes happen. For those who are not aware, battlegrounds were supposed to go live on the 23rd with Sentinel’s Fate but were held back two extra days for fine tuning. Apparently not tuned enough.

If you were one of the first people into the battlegrounds when the servers came up you’re probably regretting it now. Upon leaving the battlegrounds players lost all alternate advancement over 200, as well as levels in both crafting and adventuring if you were below level 90 and had made any progress. Instead of doing rollbacks, those people affected were told to send in a petition so that they could be adjusted by hand, and we all know how fast those get answered. My guild leader on Oasis was fuming, to say the least. As of yet he still has not gotten an answer back. Thankfully it was an ‘off night’ and raids were not being planned, or else it would have been a lot worse.

If the bad news had of stopped there it would have been an ok day none the less, but it wasn’t. Players who were looking for quest updates that drop from chests were out of luck, as every single chest that dropped a quest piece was opened to be found – empty. If you were working on a particular heritage quest found in Sentinel’s Fate no doubt you were very angry when the quest pieces refused to drop. I had about 15 empty boxes drop for me before I just decided to ignore them.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though! Battlegrounds did go in, and they’re interesting. Sure, your entire guild spams you with ‘log in’ and ‘log out’ messages because it ports you to a different server, but apparently they can also be quite fun. The new adornment recipes also made it in game, as well as the new tinkering recipes. Personal harvest box? Yes please!

I worked on gaining achievements for my ratonga troubador, and giggled to myself at everyone being upset. It’s alright, games can have bad days too. I’m sure it will get better.

A Second Adventurer Hits 90

stargrace February 25, 2010 5Comments

The game is down for a good portion of the morning (ok it’s really only two hours) while battlegrounds get implemented (fingers crossed for smooth sailing) but last night my mystic hit level 90. I gained levels through a combination of things, grinding in the hole (which has become the new Palace of the Awakened) questing, and grinding in Sebilis. Laste night Kasul and I decided to mentor to 65 and head to The Nest, which granted a lot of experience, and then afterward I was about 30% to my level so we went to Palace of the Awakened. It was easier to grind in old world zones (although Desert of Flames is not THAT old world) then it was to fight through lag and other players in Sentinel’s Fate.

That means I’ve now got a 90 troubador and mystic, a 90 alchemist and jeweler. I don’t plan on leveling any more adventurers currently. Crafters on the other hand, I’d like to get them all to 90. I want to work on alternate advancement (aa) on the troubador because she is incredibly behind (I believe I’m sitting at 164 right now, which means when people ask for UT I just sigh at them) the mystic is in good standing. I may actually get some raid experience too, depending on how things go. We’ll see.

One thing a lot of people have been commenting on is the some what lack luster quests of Sentinel’s Fate. They involve a LOT of running around. Going to one npc, picking up a quest, going to the 2nd npc, who completes the quest and offers a new quest to go back to the first npc. Chains and chains of quests like these. There are a few good and entertaining stories, and I do enjoy working on faction but the running around can tend to wear a person down. Heritage quests? Yes Sentinel’s Fate has a few of these too, and while I’ve picked them up I haven’t actually taken it to the next step and worked on them. That will come with time I’m sure (especially since I need so many aa).

Now that it’s a little over a week into the expansion, how is everyone finding it? Are there particular dungeons you’re enjoying, or perhaps a chain of quests? Let me know!

Happy gaming, I’ll see you in Norrath.

Getting Familiar with Paineel and the Sundered Frontier

stargrace February 24, 2010 3Comments

Yesterday the digital download went live, and zones became a little more ‘full’ then they had been previously. While most of the people I personally know had purchased the retail box versions, there were a few who managed to hold off from temptation and wait. I may as well have been one of those people because yesterday was the first day I actually managed to dive into the game with any real purpose in mind.

I started out in Paineel, working on the adventure quests. The good thing about this is that I was also able to work on the crafting chain at the same time, and it wasn’t long before I lost myself in those quests. I really love the fact that there are dedicated craft chains for those non-adventuring folk, the quests were fun and interactive and just really well done. Plus they rewarded lots of neat housing items, and who doesn’t enjoy that!

On the adventure side of things, I headed to Paineel and learned about ‘where everything is’ which is really important. The porter that takes you to the city can also be used to travel to other places (by right clicking on it and selecting the location). There are the Airship Docks, which are used to get to instances as well as picking up quests for those instances. There is the Launch Pad which quickly becomes your best friend because it ports you around the Sundered Frontier on a hover craft like machine. This also takes you to the Stonebrunt Highlands, which is the second outdoor zone in Sentinel’s Fate. Both of the outdoor zones are massive, and remind me of Jarsath Wastes but a lot more pretty, and even bigger. With more quests. Yep, more.

There is also Spire Isle, which is of course where the wizard spire is located, and where you’ll find yourself (more then likely) when you first enter the Sentinel’s Fate zones. If you’re looking to begin the crafting chain right away, just head down the path and you’ll find the (familiar named) NPC at the end who will offer crafting quests for those 80 and up. Then there are also two lifts, one takes you to above Paineel, an area populated by a lot of hidden vermin, and the other takes you to a cave that will lead to the opposite end of that same area. It’s also an easy way to head towards the druid ring which you’ll want to pick up so you can port to the zone.

The mystic (who I was doing all of these quests on) managed to inch her way to level 86, and obtained a few alternate advancement points along the way. While I was not pleased (at all) that my epic had been nerfed (why do that two expansions later?!) I do enjoy the new mystic choices for Sentinel’s Fate. One of the aa I can obtain turns my group (of hopefully melee) into stags and gives them a combat art proc for 24 seconds much like the dirge cacophony of blades. There are lots of temporary group buffs that will proc on a spell being cast (troubadors and enchanters are famous for these spells) but not a whole lot procs for CAs, so I am pretty pleased with it. Plus I changed my aa around so that I’m back to using CA instead of spells, and I can actually take advantage of the buff myself.

I’ve been having a lot of fun, and I’m hoping to hit 90 on the mystic before too long. I’d like to get into some instances, as I haven’t played any yet on the live server. That will probably come with time. The troubador is sitting comfortably at 90 but I’m really looking forward to this second character.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week so far, happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath!