June 2010

The End is Near

I always wanted to reach ‘end game’ in World of Warcraft. I’ve got so many ‘max’ level characters in EQ2 that it always surprised me that I didn’t have any in the only other game I’ve played for as long as I have, which is WoW. My priest has slowly been inching her way towards 80 – and I do mean inch. From 71+ the best way to gain experience seems to be through doing quests (remember I have no heirloom gear to provide bonuses) and I’m just not a great quest person. Sure, I get in my moods where I’ll want to do nothing but quest, but for the most part I find them boring and tedious. Especially if you spend a few hours doing nothing BUT grinding quests.

By the end of the night the priest managed to clutch onto level 76 – which means just ONE more level and I can finally purchase the skill I need to fly in Northrend. Excited? YES I am. Flying makes things so much easier.

I spent most of my time questing in Dragonblight and Zul’Drak with Manos, though I was sure to pick up at least one random dungeon for the day to get my two tokens. I completed Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom, as well as Drak’Tharon Keep. It was my first time in each instance, and they went pretty well. I also picked up a few upgrades which is always nice. Healing is a little easier now, and instances don’t bother me quite as much as they once would have. I still don’t know what to do for every encounter but I’ll learn as I go along. That’s one of the downsides to still being relatively ‘new’ to the game. I don’t have the faintest idea about tactics for a lot of places. Thankfully I do pride myself on being a good healer, and that has gotten me by in most cases. I make sure that I’m stocked up on mana potions, food that increases my buffs, and potions that may help me out. I pay close attention to both the health bars as well as what’s going on in front of me because as I’ve been learning a lot of damage is avoidable if you simply move out of the way. Hard to know when to move if you’re not looking at the screen. This is almost refreshing, as EQ2 requires me to pay attention to little more then health bars and detriment windows. I don’t have to physically move too many places to avoid spikes jabbing me or missiles flying at me and the like.

One thing that I’ve noticed, and even WoW can not escape from it – is the running involved in every quest. Zul’Drak is HORRIBLE for this. I’m working under cover for the scourge, and it requires running from the NPC quest giver, to the scourge base, doing quests there, and running back. Basically back and forth between the two places which are a relatively good distance apart (and remember, I can’t fly) popping on a disguise and making sure it doesn’t fall off while I’m talking to the other side. The story is fun, and I’m not finding the quests themselves too annoying but the traveling between the two points is something I could do without.

I’m hoping today I can climb my way to level 77, and then it’s just three more to go. We’ll just have to see. Until later, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Lets Talk Favorite Zones

We all have a zone that we would consider our ‘favorite’ – whether it’s an end game zone, or one that we explore over and over again. What I’m curious about is whether these zones are our favorites because of the zone mechanics – or because of some unforgettable story that goes along with them. I would have to say that mine is a combination of things. I absolutely love the mechanic of some zones. I love the stories that go along with them, and trying to figure them out. I would have to say one of my favorites is Djinn Master’s Prism. I have only been to this raid zone ONCE in my entire EQ2 gaming span, and it was one that I won’t soon forget.

This raid zone came with Desert of Flames, and is located in Shimmering Citadel. It’s one of the most scripted fights I’ve ever encountered to date and only ONE guild beat it at the proper level cap.

The fight seems simple enough. Upon zoning in you’ll see some scripted messages that indicate a particular song must be played for the final fight. You slowly work your way through the instance to the final room, clearing trash and a few named that drop pieces for the songs. The Djinn Master resides in the final room. To beat the encounter you need to have raid members who have a music box charm item that is quested (by finding scarabs throughout DoF zones). This music box allows you to root the Djinn Master in place during proper intervals of the song. If you use the music box too many times, he becomes immune to the root.

When you start the script for the encounter you’ll see a number of instruments spawn in the room. You have to place them all in a circle, and then have people play them in order depending on which song was scripted at the beginning. Each instrument corresponds to a letter. While you play the song successfully, you have to root the Djinn Master in the center of all the instruments. He’s immune to attacks while this is going on. He also (of course) has a huge knock back that will fling people everywhere, making playing the instruments all the more difficult. Keep him rooted and he won’t do this. Positioning him to the center of the instruments is difficult. Keeping people playing them properly, also difficult. Not to mention the instruments de-spawn after you’ve played one verse of the song, and re-spawn in a jumbled mess shortly after when it’s time to play the next verse. This happens (I believe) at least four times during the fight. Of course since the Djinn Master is immune to attacks unless you play the song and keep him rooted, the fight is all the more fun.

Things are easier now that the level cap has risen so much above the DoF expansion, but it was still one of my most favorite fights. It was an incredible team effort, and so this zone is one of my favorites not only because of the amazing script that went along with it but because of the comradeship displayed by guild mates.

What about everyone else? What’s your favorite zone / event – and why? Let me know in comments!

Weekend Updates

No update on whether my mystic will be moving to Oasis any time soon. I got an email on Friday that said there was no ETA on when the problem may be solved, and I should just sit tight. That’s what I’m doing. I’ve already paid the $25 to transfer and I’ve heard stories from friends where it’s taken weeks lately to get a character transfer, so I guess we’ll just have to see how it works out I suppose. Having not yet learned my lesson I also put in a request to move a character from my 2nd EQ account over to my main one (my 81 enchanter, as well as my 59 beastlord). Since it was the weekend I didn’t really expect to hear back from anyone (and I didn’t), but hopefully there will be an update on the situation today.

I did get some game time in which was nice. My fury tagged along and did Library, Research Halls, and Palace last night. I didn’t get any loot (master spells or other wise) but I did get a handful of shards, which I’ve been storing up in my shared bank. If my mystic ever transfers over I’ll have another bunch of shards to add to my collection, and I should be able to get some nice gear upgrades.

I’ve settled on two ‘mains’ which is nice. The dirge, and the fury (which may change to the mystic if she makes it back to Oasis). They both need lots of work (alternate advancement for the most part) but are fun to play and not so under geared that I can’t do anything with them. I like having goals to work towards and things to work on, it keeps me logging in.

How did everyone else spend their weekend? Hopefully you had a great time, no matter where you found yourself.

Experimenting with the Layout Editor

A little while back SOE added the ability for players to save and load house layouts, and adjust those files by hand to create some awesome effects in their homes. While players can typically ‘raise’ and ‘lower’ an item by holding shift + scroll wheel, and re-size and item by holding control + scroll wheel (I may have those backwards) you can’t normally ‘flip’ an item, or rotate, pitch, and roll it. With the ability to adjust the layout files by hand also came the ability to adjust all of these specifications. Unfortunately, it’s also quite complicated when you’re looking at the actual ‘code’ – a whole bunch of numbers that players would have to play around with in order to get the desired effect they wanted.For people like me who A) Read a lot of numbers backwards and B) Are simply daunted by something that complicated, it meant that layouts were something I’d be leaving alone for now.

Along came Jesdyr’s EQ2LayoutEditor, a program that would allow players to load the layouts that they had saved, adjust them in a far more comprehensive method, save them, and then load the saved layout in game. This program is amazing. You can find it on the EQ2Designers web page as well as on the EQ2players forums (linked above) and if you’re interested in playing with housing layouts I would HIGHLY suggest you try using this program. There are comprehensive tutorials and your imagination really is the limit with this tool.

Why would anyone want to use it? Well, it’s handy for things like placing a floor tile along a wall to create a better effect. You can place knives into a wooden block for a kitchen, you can turn fences sideways into ladders, or create an entire room on the ceiling if that’s what you wish. I personally used it to move the cloudy sky floor tiles to the walls as well as the ceiling in my green house and I do have plans to use it elsewhere, like turning the steam lord tapestry (water effect) sideways to create a relaxing pool. There are still some times glitches with SOE’s side of things, but if you check the forums there are typically work arounds for them all. For example when I raise the floor tiles to the ceiling they actually appeared to be gone completely, until I zoned out and re-set my house. Loading it and zoning in again fixed the problem and both tiles appeared on the ceiling just fine.

It is definitely a decorators dream, and if you tend to spend most of your time in game imagining your next creation, then I would highly suggest you check it out.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

First Incident with Bad Customer Service

For three days now I’ve been attempting to move my Mystic from Antonia Bayle to Oasis. Simple enough. I purchased a character transfer token, emptied my mail, broker, took care of any last minute dealings I had and prepared to complete the transfer. When I used it, the character just refused to move. Instead I got a ‘character could not be found in the database’ error, so I petitioned it. About 10 hours later I was told that I should read the ‘how to transfer a character’ section of the help files (even though I’ve done this many many times before) and that if my character name was taken I would have to choose a new one. Except my character name isn’t taken on Oasis.

I petitioned back right after I received that response and said it wasn’t a naming issue, and that the token in my inventory simply refuses to work.

Two days later, no response even though I’ve updated the petition twice, and I still can not move my character. After five plus years I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining, this really is the first time out of 50+ petitions that I’ve ever had an issue, but I really did expect some sort of response (any type) by now. Even a simple “we are working on the problem”. Perhaps the system is overloaded and they have too many petitions to deal with but I’ve always prided the quick response I’ve received in the past.

For now, I’m simply waiting. Hopefully Ellithia will make it to Oasis in one piece, and sooner rather then later.

Nomadic Gamer