May 2010

Halas is Live, and Excitement Follows

Yesterday the latest patch for EQ2 went live, and while there were some glitches, it was still a pretty nice patch. The biggest news was that Halas went live, a new starter zone for players. Sadly, I am restricted to 12 character slots and all of those are filled with level 80+ characters. While I can run through the zone and still do the quests ‘grey’ it’s not something I want to do quite yet. That being said, I DID head over to the new zone and move two of my characters to the amazing 5-room housing that went live. I’m even debating moving my Norrathian museum to the new housing, although that would mean moving over 700 items and placing them again. This is not an idea I’m taking lightly, and it’s still something I’m trying to come to a decision about. I just love everything about the new homes.

With this update also came shader 3.0 – and my iksar pictured above looks great with it. Sadly, a lot of my characters do not look so great with it, they look a little too ‘shiny’ and some of them just look horrible (my gnome is now as white as a ghost, and my kerra is now charcoal grey instead of white). The housing and architecture of the game look amazing – for the most part. I have encountered some items that simply are not ‘complete’ like the frames to LoN paintings, the Venril Sathir painting with moving mist, and a few trees have lost their textures.

The new travel system is something I’m really enjoying. Selecting a location from a map rather then having to ‘zone’ from bell to bell. I haven’t had time to check out the new druid ring live event yet, but that is next on my list. There were some of the usual expected glitches, but over all it was a nice update. What does everyone else think of it so far? Let me know in comments!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

First Epics

Finally, yesterday I managed to reach level 70 with my very first WoW character, my priest. I had saved up quite a collection of gear to wear once I had hit the level, so I eagerly put it all on – including my very first three ‘epic’ pieces of gear, the Primal Mooncloth set that I crafted myself with the help of some massive farming from Manos. It felt really good to be wearing gear that was an enormous upgrade that I had crafted myself, instead of something I bought from the broker or was handed to me in a dungeon.

Once I hit 70 I was pretty tired, so I didn’t really do too much. I picked up my new spells (which cost a grand total of 100g, ouch) and put a bunch of items on broker. One thing I’ve noticed is that items from 60-70 barely sell unless it’s food. Lower level items sell very well (and always have) but it’s typically better for me just to disenchant an item instead of trying to sell it. I also managed to inch my shaman up to level 47, and part way through. I went to Sunken Temple which was my first time in the zone. Well, not exactly my first time in the zone, I had tried to solo it once before but that didn’t go too well. It was probably for the best, as I would have never known what to do to begin with. I’ve also been trying to get my enchanting up there. It’s slow, I haven’t quite reached the 400 mark yet but I’m hoping to before too long. My cooking is now capped at 450, my first skill to what is the current max level.

That’s where things stand for now! Only 10 more levels to go and I’ll be at the current cap – this is the closest I’ve ever been, and it’s quite an odd feeling. Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Within Arms Reach of 70

I think World of Warcraft has some incredibly beautiful views, especially if you’re a fan of the art style (I realize not everyone is). This holiday weekend was spent divided between a few games (as usual) and I made some nice progress in them all. My priest managed to inch her way through level 68, and is part way through level 69 at the time of this post. I’m incredibly excited about this. No, I can’t afford one of the new flying mounts, and no, I don’t expect the game will change that much for me once I’ve reached 70 – but it’s a step in the right direction. As I’ve said numerous times before I’ve played WoW off and on since release (mostly when I wanted to escape to a game that didn’t require my full attention, as Tipa puts it in her latest post) and I’ve never been close to ‘end game’ or the level cap. Reaching level 70 is the first step towards that goal.

Yesterday also marked the completion of some nice pieces of gear that I crafted. I realize that WotLK will probably void any gear that I make that was from Burning Crusade (this stuff is primal mooncloth) but I really like the set bonus, and I’m still very excited about having made them all myself. The pieces (there are three) took a lot of farming, I needed 19 primal life, 11 primal water, and 12 primal mana, plus 33 netherweave bolts and 22 arcane dusts (I’m an enchanter and a tailor so those were not difficult). These pieces will be my first three pieces of ‘purple’ gear – and the fact that I crafted them myself just makes it even more sweet to me.

For once I actually looked up some information on talent trees, and then instantly wished I had done so a long time ago. I changed the heal spec I had on my priest, as well as her dps spec, and instantly noticed how much easier the new specs were on my mana. I also changed around the spec to my Deathknight, to an ‘all blood’ spec for now, which means it plays almost exactly like a shadowknight from EQ2 with life taps. Being able to heal myself is a great deal and that spec is apparently going to be the ‘tank spec’ once Cataclysm comes out.

I’ve been contemplating who to work on ‘next’ as the priest continues to level. Torn between my 46 shaman and my level 8 druid – I’ve had a level 45 alliance druid before, but I must have deleted her quite some time ago. The DK also happens to be my alchemist, and requires level 68 in order to specialize. I inched her way to level 60 over this weekend and purchased her flying mount, so at least that’s taken care of.

I hope everyone else has had a fantastic weekend so far, no matter where you find yourself. Happy gaming!

Perhaps an Orca?

Mining may not be something you particularly enjoy in EVE Online, but for some, it represents exactly what we want to do in game. Sure, it’s a little boring. It’s also quiet, and fairly painless, and doesn’t exactly require a LOT of concentration. Now that I have my hulk (remember I’m a highsec miner) I can set myself to a particular asteroid belt or a location with some ore that Kasul has located, and set myself working without too much hassle. Since I have dual monitors I typically have EVE running in one and whatever else I’m up to in the other monitor. I do have to beware of people looking to ‘suicide gank’ me as it’s called, and be ready to run if I notice anyone suddenly targeting me – but aside from that it’s a very calming and relaxing way to spend my time in game. Not to mention it’s something I can do practically all day long as I work on my main monitor and quietly mine on the second. What exactly am I saving up for? Well of course I have some plans!

My second account is currently finishing off drones V, and then will be working towards using heavy drones. She’s using mediums in the Dominix (which I adore might I add) and then once that is all taken care of and I have it fit as well as I’d like, I decided I’m going to work towards flying an Orca. Whether or not I want to attempt to build one or instead just purchase one I haven’t decided. I do think it will be a great addition to my hulk, and I’m pretty excited about flying one.

It will take me 66 days to train for the Orca, and a lot longer to be able to afford one, and fit one. Compare this to my main account which would be able to fly one in less then a month – it’s mostly due to that mining barge V skill that takes so long to learn. I haven’t quite made up my mind on what I want to train next on my second account, so we’ll just have to see. In the mean time I’m still having an incredible amount of fun, and I surprise myself daily that I’m so interested in a sci fi game when I have never taken any interest in the genre as a whole. I suppose stranger things have happened!

Fly safe!

Isn’t She Pretty

It was no surprise that I spent most of yesterday evening flying my hulk around and mining, testing her out so to speak. Named after a rare gemstone, Painite, I couldn’t be happier. I have a pretty basic highsec fit on her, three modulated strip miner II’s, two mining laser upgrades, and a bunch of shields to boost her survivability as well as a survey scanner so I can go after the juiciest pieces of ore. Kasul did some probing and found a few sites for me to mine, so I headed that way and stretched my wings. What a HUGE difference from flying the retriever I’ve had this past little while. The amount of ore that the hulk coughs up compared to the retriever is a lot bigger then I thought it would be.

I’m continuing down my ‘crafter’ line in EVE on my main account, while my second account works the “pew pew” side of things. I’ve got refining, and production efficiency that I’d like to get completed – and then I discovered research. Without a POS (player owned structure) this avenue may as well be off limits for me because the line ups for this at stations is .. well. Lets just say I’m not that patient. David (as far as I know) is still working towards getting us a POS, so that may be solved in the future. It would be nice to have the skills to begin research once I’m able to, and I’m incredibly excited about trying this out. Of course I’ll update either here or on NomadicGamer about how it works out.

Now that the hulk has been invented and built, Kasul and I have our eyes set on other bps that may be profitable. Whether they pay off in the end or not time will tell, but it’s great to be working towards these things in the mean time. Makes the game a lot of fun, and nicely complex.

Time to get back to mining. Fly safe!

Nomadic Gamer