April 2010

Events and Options

stargrace April 25, 2010 1Comment

I love events in EQ2. I really wish we had an in game calendar much like World of Warcraft so that we could keep track of what events were happening when, and perhaps even allow players to take it one step further and customize these calendars (ie: guild leaders) to mark when raids were, and what time, and when birthdays were and that sort of thing. When SOE added the ability to track DKP to the guild window, I thought it was a fantastic idea. Granted a lot of guilds simply do this from their web sites, but at least the option is there in game. I’m all about the options.

May should be a very big month for EQ2 and hopefully we see this in game with new and old players returning. It was a great idea for SOE to offer the $5 for three days deal, and then give everyone a bonus experience weekend.

I didn’t speak about this new ‘passport’ deal last week when it came out, but there are plenty of other posts that touch on the subject out there. My basic feeling is that options are always good and no doubt this plan will appeal to someone out there. I personally could see myself taking advantage of it, I’m constantly re-starting my second account for some random reason and then never actually playing it longer then the time it took to activate the account. How great would it be if that only cost me $5 instead of $15. My issue with this new payment plan is of course that it should (in my opinion) be a 72 hour thing, rather then a three consecutive days of gaming thing. Paying by the hour is a fantastic way to get those who don’t have a lot of time into your game. On the down side, those who only log in for a few hours a week but keep an active subscription may be tempted to downgrade their accounts and suddenly you’re losing money instead of making it. If you could draw in enough new players to compensate for this one issue, it wouldn’t be so bad. Whether or not you could guarantee that you’ll manage to get those new subs, well that’s another story.

New Halas is on the test server, along with a LOT of changes. I’ve been waiting for this to go live since before Sentinel’s Fate came out, so I’m beyond excited. Expect some screen shots of all of the new content over the next little while.

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

So Much Leveling

stargrace April 24, 2010 7Comments

It’s only part way through the weekend, but already I’ve probably made more in the way of ‘progress’ then any other weekend lately. It seems that SOE has been pushing for people to reach end game as quickly as possible, so working on that for multiple characters was exactly my plan this weekend. Once I’m 90 I’ve got all the time in the world to work on the other things I want to do with each character. As you can see by the screen shot to the left, I’ve got a LOT of bonus experience going on. That doesn’t even include the double experience for having vitality, because as you can see that character clearly does not have any vitality. So what did the leveling look like?

• Monk: 1-80 (that’s right, I got a character from 1-80 in less then a day. It was crazy)
• Ranger: 80-85
• Warden: 80-87
• Inquisitor: 84-87
• Woodworker: 85-87

I believe that’s where my experience is at as of the time of this post but I could be off by a level or two on a character or two. It’s a blur of experience potions and dead Droag. I practically lived in Halls of Fate, Blackscale Sepulcher, Den of the Devourer, and Nest for the duration of the weekend.

How did everyone else spend their bonus experience weekend? Let me know in commends! Happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath.

Everything Goes Right (Sometimes)

stargrace April 23, 2010 4Comments

In game yesterday was amazing. One of those play sessions where pretty much everything goes exactly as you’d like it to go – and I was incredibly happy. To start it off my coercer hit level 90 and in record time. Not only that but she’s the proud owner of her mythical via the Epic Repercussions quest line. I’ve never had my mythical on my coercer before (either of them) so this was a really nice surprise for me. I had no idea I’d get it so quickly. I also had the pleasure of doing a few instances with friends including Research Halls, Library, and Conservatory (which is just an amazing looking zone).

There was a fellow blogger in group that I didn’t even notice until they sent me a tell. Odin (hope I got that right) from A Gamers Yarn was on his templar and said hello once we’d begun the instance. I love meeting readers in game, and love meeting other bloggers just as much.

Finally, I used up the final character slot on my account to create a new character. A monk. With the help of some ultra leveling from Wpus she hit level 42 in record time (having 50% bonus from other max level characters really comes in handy). I typically end up deleting my brawlers so I’m really excited about actually KEEPING this one. Again we’ll just have to see how that goes. I plan on level locking her to 89 (Iif I make it that far) and exploring battlegrounds in great detail. I always seem to enjoy those more as a tank class then anything else. Probably due to their survivability.

Today is Friday! I hope everyone has had an amazing week, and look forward to an incredible weekend. Don’t forget that as of 6pm EST today there is bonus experience in EQ2, so if you’re looking to get some leveling done now is the time! Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, and I’ll see you in Norrath.

NOT Speaking to Dragons

stargrace April 22, 2010 1Comment

I’m doing to speak as a dragon, again. I’m pretty sure this will be my 12th time doing the quest, perhaps even more. I don’t mind it so much now, I’ve almost got collecting the runes down pat and it barely takes any time – what IS frustrating is that since Tuesdays patch there have been database issues and a few of the zones that are required by the quest are not actually up on the Antonia Bayle server. Tuesday after the patch Solusek Eye wasn’t up, which meant that even getting the quest to begin with wasn’t happening. Wednesday, Obelisk of Lost Souls remained down – and not only that but upon attempting to enter the zone my characters would be immediately kicked to character select, and thus “stuck” within the zone that refused to load.

I petitioned this since I obviously would rather not have a character stuck who I’m trying to play, and got a response in about five minutes. At least the GMs working on the stuck character queue are exceptionally prompt and friendly. Throughout the evening this particular GM was incredibly polite, and kept me updated with the status on the zone. Unfortunately even with my testing the zone didn’t come back up before I ended up calling it a night, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. The fact is that these things happen, and while it is a huge pain (especially since I have an open Cella instance that I am trying to not have expire before I complete this portion of the quest) it’s not an unreasonable one.

I’m hoping that today the zones are fixed and I can continue on with this quest. I’m attempting to get my Epic Repercussions spell completed on the coercer, and inching my way towards level 89. It’s going slow, but I’m looking forward to it.

Other then that, a quiet day in game! See you in Norrath.

Steampunk Updates

stargrace April 21, 2010 3Comments

I love appearance slots in EQ2, it’s no surprise. Pictured above is my friend and I dressed in our Steampunk attire. I’m still working on getting a proper weapon and mount, but absolutely love the look. The best part is that the appearance gear is a mesh of gear from all over, it’s not an actual outfit in game or a suit that you can purchase (though I’d love to see one in the station marketplace). Finding a suitable “steampunk” weapon for my mage to use is a little frustrating, but I’m sure I’ll find one eventually.

The coercer inched towards level 88 yesterday and managed to clench it in Cella. Thanks to the friend above we managed to clear Outer Vault as well as Cella, and Library. This gives me two empty zones I can use for my mythical updates – as long as I get speak as a dragon completed, which is something I have been neglecting because I just don’t want to do that quest again.

Today is the day I hope to get it done. Having my mythical spell on my coercer is a big deal as it grants me my “free” pet, and any extra dps is always nice.

I’ve been questing in Sundered Frontier quite a bit and loving it. Maybe it’s because I have actually NOT completed Sentinel’s Fate quests before (I’ve pretty much just killed mobs to get all of my characters to 90) or because the stories are a little new to me (at least newer then RoK and TSO) but I’m having a lot of fun. Lots of running, having a fast mount helps in that regard too.

The coercer should hit 90 this weekend, and if I’m lucky (fingers crossed) I’ll manage to get her mythical buff completed too. We also welcomed Threllgar (sorry if I’ve spelled your name wrong) back to Torrent Knights on the Antonia Bayle server – if you happen to have been in the guild and were kicked simply let me know and I’ll invite you back. Or if you’re looking for a casual guild to hang out with, look for Stargrace or Arysh in game. The guild is not incredibly active but we do have a T2 hall in North Qeynos with a good selection of amenity, and are a fairly friendly bunch.

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