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.
RE geep –
You can open a trial account for free and then subscribe to the game. The trial account will include all Xpacs up to RoK (last I knew). You can then level up a bit and see if you like the game. At that point you should by Sentinel’s Fate if you want to continue. If you know someone who already plays they will mostlikely have a $10 code for the digital download of SF. You should also ask them to send you a recruit a friend invite and start the trial account that way. Not only does this give you some ingame rewards, it will also give the other person a free month if you subscribe.
As far as advice for the ring event version – lots and lots of dps, and tank him in a corner. :D Nothing fancy to it.
Edit: I’m assuming that encounter is the one I’m thinking about as it looks like the Hole, but maybe I’m think no, it’s not so ignore and/or delete above post *blush*
Remember, this is the instanced version, and not the contested Hole version ring event! :)
We tried that pictured encounter a couple of times (we=my SO and I duo boxing.) We’ve had no real problem in the Hole, but twice trying to do that when the final encounter in the ring event spawned we died in rather spectacular fashion, and now I know why. Couldn’t find information anywhere on it, so thanks for the tip. :)
The way SOE does it is that the most recent expansion includes all prior expansions, so the $40 for the current one will include the $20 Rise of Kunark one (as well as the Shadow Odyssey in between the 2 and the prior EOF, KOS, and DOF expansions. . . ).
Due to agreements with the retailers, the current expansion will hold its full price until the next expansion comes out. As a result, if you buy the Kunark one for $20, when you want to eventually “upgrade” you’ll still need another $40. IMO, you’re best just plain getting the most recent expansion. Even if you won’t really use any of its content in this case until level 80-ish. The TSO expansion (after Kunark) adds a new AA tab you won’t have access to with Kunark, plus can be accessed in scalable instances at around level 50.
IOW…. I’d go with the most recent expansion.
Stumbled upon this blog a few weeks ago. I recently returned to WoW after a long period of hit and miss free to play mmo’s that did nothing for me. Ive been searching for a new solid mmo experience and after discovering this blog, I can’t think why I never considered EQ2. I downloaded the trial version for the new game and plan on testing it out over the next week. The game has seems to have so much content!
Im a bit poor atm, but what do you think is a good (cheap?) way to get started in EQ2? I was thinking about the $20 Rise of Kunark starter pack. Do you think this gives me enough content to explore until I can afford to jump into Sentinel’s Fate?
Thanks for your time and writing a blog in such an interesting way. Refreshing change of pace from your standard Review/Preview gaming blog.
Geep