August 2010

Nomadic Gamers Visit the Tomb of Lord Tsang

stargrace August 5, 2010 2 Comments

Last night Hampooj, Kanad, and myself (as Velours, my shaman) headed to our first dungeon – The Tomb of Lord Tsang. I haven’t been to this dungeon since 2007, the opening of Vanguard. It was the first dungeon I ever explored and at the time the lag was so bad it was a less than pleasant experience. I was on a computer that wasn’t good enough to run the game properly, and well, we all know how the launch went. After three years things have changed. Boy have they changed. First of all since yesterday morning I can say confidently that the spurts of lag I was experiencing have completely gone. I was incredibly happy. Even with a raid not too far away I was playing just fine. My shaman began exploring the Tomb once I did a few quests in the Jin’Ka forest to get access. Being a healer, I have the ability to summon my group mates into the actual dungeon itself once I have the key. Healers get a ‘summon group mate’ spell that allows you to call your friends as long as they are not too far away.

We have two quests for the zone currently. One is to click on five ancient tablets scattered throughout the zone (which we still need one more of) and the other quest is to collect medallions that drop from ALL CAP named within the zone. We managed to track down a few of them last night, and while it will be some time before any of us actually finish the quest because only one medallion at a time drops, it was still a lot of fun. I’m also working on collecting platinum coins for Tursh, so that one day I can afford my racial mount. I’ve decided on Tursh so that I can look awesome ridding a fox around Telon.

My shaman managed to hit level 20, which of course meant it was time for new spells. Kanad hit level 26, and Hampooj is closing in on 21. My bard should also be close to 21 if not 22 by now due to brotherhood experience.

We had an incredibly fun night, even with one wipe. We slowly made our way back to the temple and thanks to some great navigation found our corpses. It was everything I wanted in a dungeon crawl, and I can’t wait to explore some more. We’ve made plans to begin working on TK (Ruins of Trengal Keep) this weekend. It’s a series of 6 quests that move progressively through the outdoor dungeon. I don’t remember the last time I was there, and I’m incredibly excited about it.

I know Fan Faire is going on for the next few days, and while I was unable to make it out there this year (fingers crossed for next year) I’ll try to post any Vanguard information I happen across. I know it certainly won’t be one of the main focuses of the FF, but I’m hoping we get at least a few tid bits.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, I’ll see you in Telon!

Crafting my Own Gear

stargrace August 4, 2010 No Comments

Taking a break from leveling yesterday, I decided that a leatherworker would be far more valuable to me right now then a tailor (both are branched off of the outfitter in crafting). I have a bard and a shaman that I’m leveling up, they each use medium (leather) armor. Everyone has the ability to change not only their entire crafting procession in Vanguard (this reduces your level down to 1 and removes any crafting recipes you have earned) but also change their crafting arch type if you’d rather do that instead. Doing this leaves you with the levels you’ve already obtained – but – you have to ‘fix’ your skills.You also lose your recipes.

What exactly does this mean? Well at level 11 you chose a subclass. In most cases that means you also click on the negative sign next to the opposite subclass. You go to the skills tab under crafting and click on the plus sign next to your own. Then when you do work orders you make sure they’re for the right subclass. For me in particular, that means switching from 198 points in tailoring (I’m level 19) to 198 points in leatherworking. That meant failing work order after work order and watching the points slowly decrease from tailoring and increase in leatherworking. It took the better part of an afternoon, and I’m glad I wasn’t too much higher then level 19 or it would have taken even longer.

Once that was FINALLY done, I decided it was time to make a set of gear for the bard to wear. She’s been wearing stuff from the isle of dawn, which is great until 15 or so and then you’ll want to wear something else. I had completed the URT quests for both boots and gloves, but am reluctant to get caught in that ‘loop’ where all I do are those quests again. So I crafted myself a set of rare gear, and imbued it with a healing bonus. The joys of the massive crafting system in Vanguard, you can customize your gear pretty well.

Since crafting in Vanguard is so complicated, it really makes you take a lot of pride in what you’re creating. Now that I’m wearing four pieces of gear, with a fifth piece on the way as soon as I hit 20 I’m quite pleased. I just need to get some more tailoring levels so that I can continue to make my own gear.

The guild is doing very well, we had another recruit join us last night and while we’re not the largest guild out there it’s still nice to see new players in the game. Fan Faire starts tomorrow, and while I’m not holding my breath at any Vanguard news I am tentatively waiting to see if we learn anything new about the game. We’ll just have to see!

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, I’ll see you in Telon!

Where to Level (15-18)

stargrace August 3, 2010 No Comments

You may remember that I posted not that long ago on where to level from 10-15 (right after you leave the Isle of Dawn). Well, now my shaman is inching closer to 19, and I’ve got a whole selection of new areas to quest in. For those who are concerned, there is LOTS of solo content in Vanguard. Plus, the population really is doing quite well right now, and there are groups everywhere. The two main quest chains people always seem to be are URT (United Races of Thestra) and HL (Hunter’s League) which I also mentioned in the previous post. These quests will give you amazing armor upgrades, and URT can be done mostly solo. HL requires a group. I have decided this time around to stay away from these two quests, as I always do them. Even though I’m in a brotherhood with a total of four characters, my shaman has still been leveling at a nice steady rate. I expect this to decrease after today with the bonus experience wrapping up, but it sure has been nice.

Where do you go from here? Once again the Rift Keepers show me a plethora of options:

• Kaon’s Rush – In Thestra
• Evendusk Fortress – (Never been here, no idea where it is)
• Ksaravi Gulch – (Again never been here)
• Misthaven Crossing – (In Thestra, this area is full of vampires, and dark spooky forests, I love this area)
• Renton Keep – (Thestra, where you’ll find URT missions)
• Silverlake – (Thestra, and around the area where you will find a mount quest for a unicorn)
• Skrawla Point – (Qalia, this is where HL quests can be found)

Not to mention the fact that I’m still w0rking on quests from the previous mentioned areas. In specific the Jin’Ka Forest, which is where the Tomb of Lord Tsang is located. There’s a few awesome quests in this area and one rewards a really neat weapon. I’m not sure if I’ll actually manage to finish it, but I hope so. Tomb of Lord Tsang is the first open dungeon I ever did in Vanguard, way back at release. I obviously have some pretty nostalgic views of it and can’t wait to go back.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Tuesday. Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, and I’ll see you in Telon!

Enjoying The Bonus Experience

stargrace August 2, 2010 3 Comments

This weekend has been bonus experience weekend and WOW what a great time in Vanguard I’ve had. First of all, the guild is growing quite a bit more then I had thought it would – which is great. For those who are reading and may be interested, the guild is recruiting but you should be aware that we are more of a social gathering place then a guild that actually does anything together. Chatter? Yes, lots of it. But as far as grouping and organizing things, I’ll leave it to other guilds. If that still doesn’t scared you away then by all means feel free to track me down in game and talk about an invite. We don’t bite. Well, most of us.

I managed to inch my shaman to level 18, the bard level 20. Since I haven’t actively been playing the bard in order for her to level (she’s just been off line leveling with the brotherhood) their gear is incredibly poor. Something I’ll need to work on. I also wanted to be able to level the blacksmith, and I got her from 25 to 31 in a few hours. Thankfully Vanguard crafting doesn’t require a whole lot of attention devoted to it, so I watched movies on the laptop while I grinded away at work orders. Level 31 means I begin working on initiate level recipes, something I’ve really been looking forward to. Once the blacksmith hits level 45 or so I’ll switch over to the outfitter and hopefully make my way to 45 on that character. Once all three ‘main’ classes are at 45 they can at least all make parts for one another which means I open up a lot more options as far as crafting rares. I do still have big plans of eventually having all 6 crafting classes at 45+ but whether or not that will actually happen, I’m not sure.

How did everyone else spend their weekend? I hope it was a lot of fun. Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, and I’ll see you in Telon!

Some Good (and Bad) Experiences

stargrace August 1, 2010 2 Comments

This weekend (until Tuesday in fact) Vanguard has a bonus experience going on for all three spheres. The game has been incredibly busy, with people everywhere. Most of my experiences with this have been positive, after all Nomadic Gamers (the guild) is now 15 strong, with only 8 of those being my own characters (that’s a feat, trust me). There have been a few negative experiences as well. The lag, for one. Then yesterday there was a player who decided to tell me I should “log off and hang myself” because I politely asked them to please not kill my mobs from outside of my group.

I suppose that may have been a petty thing to request them to stop doing (and I worded it as such, I said please and everything there was no malice intended) but I have a little pet peeve with people who just suddenly jump into my encounter and start “helping” me when I’ve not requested any help. I don’t know if anyone else feels that way, but I certainly do and I have since EQ days. First of course they decided to call me an “ungrateful lout” which amused me more then anything. However, telling a person they should commit suicide outside of the game is not an idea that rests well with me, even if it was in some sort of sick humor.

The encounter was only one of two negative experiences I can remember (from players that is) in the month since I have returned. It’s a reminder that it does not matter what game you play, some times there are still “those” people out there who are bent on making your experience a bad one. I didn’t let it ruin my day after all what would be the point.

With the bonus experience in full swing I managed to get a lot (and I do mean a lot) done. My weaponsmith is sitting mid way through level 27, after grinding out a few levels while I watched LOST last night (I just finished watching season three. This is the first time I’ve ever watched any of the episodes and I find it quite confusing but also interesting to watch). Players are always asking channels if crafting is profitable, if the gear is worth it. To this I have to say yes, yes, yes. I make the majority of my money through crafting. Last night was no different as I put a few weapons up for sale to see how they’d do. The characters in the brotherhood also did incredibly well. My bard managed to hit level 19 without me playing her. The shaman is 16. I chose bear as my ‘spec’ and obtained new spells that align myself towards a ‘tank’ spec. It also helps out my group, so I was pretty excited about that.

I hope everyone else has also had an enjoyable weekend so far. Monday is a holiday here in Canada, and I’m looking forward to doing nothing but riding my bike, and gaming. Tuesday I’ll be off to the newly revamped Museum of Nature, which I’m very excited about. Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, I’ll see you in Telon!