March 2010

Ding, Level 30 (again)

stargrace March 31, 2010 3Comments

I’ve had a level 50+ guild on Lucan D’Lere (or used to at least) called Fire and Ice. Started with some good friends of mine back when the game first came out. Najena? Sure, I’ve had a level 50+ guild there, called Nostalgia. Kithicor? Sure, I’ve had a level 50+ guild there whose name escapes me, too early. Antonia Bayle? Torrent Knights is there, and the guild is 50+ with a T2 hall and still going strong despite me having moved over to Oasis full time. Of course, I started a guild here, and yesterday hit level 30, and purchased yet another hall. Dragon’s Flight is the guild, and even though I have paid for and purchased numerous guild halls since they first came out it was still just like the first time around excitement wise. Maybe even a bit more then usual.

Picking out amenity is always a difficult task, at level 30 I’m only allowed 5 of them. Broker, Banker, and Call to Guild ability are a must, as was a depot box to store the huge number of crafting raws I’ve accumulated on all of my crafters. For the 5th choice a wizard spire porter joined the ranks, which takes over the place of the typical “bell” I would have purchased.

Experience from 30-35 is quicker then 20-30 so I’m looking forward to gaining a few more levels (and thus more amenity) for the tiny hall. In the mean time decorating has commenced, and yes, I’m excited (and this is pretty much the whole reason I keep buying halls).

In order to reach 30 Kasul and myself grinded crafting writs for most of the day, and Pennie donated a lot of items to help boost us up there.

My carpenter is now most of the way through levle 88 (starting at level 82). The woodworker and provisioner are both at 85, I wanted to try to stop them there so that they could finish the Sentinel’s Fate crafting quests and obtain their neat weapon – and maybe make use of that 1% experience boost before hitting the level cap. I’m very close to having a 50% bonus to all of my crafters again, which is something I really loved. Two more adventurers and I’ll be at the 50% bonus there, too. Leveling in SF is incredibly easy. It feels a bit like SOE is trying to push people to end game (Battlegrounds don’t even start until levle 80+) and I guess that could be the reason.

April Fools day is tomorrow – and of course I want to try to take advantage of the quests in game for that day. Whether or not I will manage it is something completely different, we’ll just have to see. Happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath!

Those +Harvesting Skills are Not Useless!

stargrace March 30, 2010 8Comments

I used to wonder what harvesting skills were good for. I never bothered actually putting ON any of the gear that would raise the stats, unless I was in a zone where my skill wasn’t high enough to even reach the nodes.

Until Sentinel’s Fate, and I required rares to make expert spells that I simply didn’t want to fork out the cash for. To the left is what my current harvesting skills are at. This is with Ellithia (wood elf mystic) using the Grandmaster crafter earring, the reinforced dwarven work boots (drop from the final named in unrest), the harvesters cloak, tinkering tools that raise the stats, the harvest mount sold in Mara (10 tokens and 40k faction later), and the artisan tool set that raises harvesting statistics by a little amount.

For those who don’t know, the chances of you getting a rare are based on your skill vs. the skill required by the zone. The higher your skill is OVER that level, the higher your chances of getting a rare are.

To test this theory I set out on Ellithia for three hours, running around Sentinel’s Fate zones. Most of my time was spent actually looking for places to harvest that wouldn’t require too much killing, or having to fight off other players. By the time all was said and done I walked away with 15 rares, although for some odd reason not a single rare pelt was found despite the fact that I harvested more pelts then anything else (I mean significantly more). Pleased? Yes, I really was. I’ve stashed all of these rares along with Hamal’s rares in my guild bank for the time being. Set aside to make pretty furniture for the guild hall that should be coming up VERY soon. Dragon’s Flight managed to clench on to level 29 yesterday, which I am very excited about.

Brisbane day starts tomorrow, which is always great for a laugh. Happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath!

Dirge Mythical Obtained

stargrace March 29, 2010 4Comments

Not as much gaming was completed yesterday as Saturday, but it was still a fairly good day none the less. Especially for one main reason. The dirge (who had only completed her fabled epic weapon, and not the mythical version) completed the quest that converts that weapon to a buff. Now, if you’re not aware when you do this and you only have the fabled epic, it converts to the mythical buff + mythical weapon (minus those effects because they’re placed on the buff). So essentially this allows you to only complete the fabled epic + the quest to obtain your mythical weapon.

I’m torn on this. On one hand I think it’s silly because we worked really hard to get those mythical weapons. On the other hand they’re now two expansions behind and I don’t imagine too many folks are going to want to run Veeshan’s Peak especially when it’s green. It allows half of the quests to still be relevant (the fabled versions) without forcing people to raid obsolete content.

The little guild I have over on Oasis is inching closer and closer to 30 (we’re almost 29) and that means a new guild hall. Since I’ve cut down on the servers I play on and am now only located on Oasis (I’ve written about why already) it’s been much more relaxing. I am however still in three separate guilds, which makes for interesting times (two if you don’t count my personal guild).

One guild is Iniquity, which is a fantastic bunch of people who have known each other for quite some time. They’re a little more casual then previous guilds I’ve been in, but are a lot of fun. Last night they invited me along for the crafting instance, which I haven’t done since achievements came out. I took my little tailor along for the ride, picked up a new crafting book, some faction, and had a blast.Now I just need to get that done on all my crafters.

I’ve also decided to (surprise surprise) betray another one of my characters. Which one? I’ll leave that for the masses to figure out!

Happy gaming, and I will see you in Norrath!

One Absolutely Incredible Weekend of Gaming

stargrace March 28, 2010 7Comments

Wow. This was by far one of the best weekends (or at least Saturdays) I have spent gaming in a very long time. It’s not often I dedicate an entire day to gaming (aside from the basics of course) but Saturday was ‘the day’. No other real life obligations on the table, and the weather way too cold to wander far from home meant I could spend it gaming guilt free – and so I did.

My dirge was part way through 88, and I had ever intention of finally hitting 90 – which I did (and then some). I was sitting at a shameful 110 alternate advancement points, which is not bad if you’re a power leveled character with 4 days played time. I wanted to change that (and I did).

• The Hole: Demitrik’s Bastion
• The Hole: Outer Vault
• The Hole: Spirit’s Resonance
• Vasty Deep: The Abandoned Labs
• Vasty Deep: The Conservatory
• Vasty Deep: The Vestigial Cella

Each instance rewarded a LOT of achievements, experience, gear, and tokens to use towards shard merchants. I went from a level 88 dirge to 90 with 129 aa (still well below where I want to be – but it is a start). I did more quests in one day on that character that I had in the four days playing her.

I also managed to complete two very simple heritage quests in Sentinel’s Fate, Justice for JoJo, and Digging in the Dirt. Both of these rewarded weapons with really neat appearances, and the Grimblade was an upgrade over the master crafted I was wearing in my offhand.

I also learned about my newest favorite encounter, pictured above. Within the zone there are six npcs that players speak to and obtain as pets. Each one takes on a class role, and aid the group in encounters. I of course picked up the dirge – who kept over writing my buffs! It was both funny and sad at the same time. These npc are required for the final encounter, which is a x2 epic. They provide the group with the means to defeat it, especially because without them the x2 will complete heal itself. Not fun.

I actually found that all of these zones had very well done encounters (at least the final names of each zone) and I had a blast exploring them. The head of Queen Gwarthlea is hilarious, and I should be including some video of it shortly. I just love the snakes, what can I say.

How did everyone else spend their weekend? I hope it was fun! Happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath.