2010

Unforgettable Quests

stargrace August 13, 2010 6Comments

Since a lot of players are reluctant to spend any time reading through quests these days, it’s rare that we come across one that causes us to pause and go ‘woah, wait a second.’ – but there’s a few quests in Vanguard I’ve found that do just that. Pictured above is Velours, my innocent shaman. Well, she used to be innocent. See that rather shady looking peasant standing behind her? That is a dazed (and crazed) farmer. She lured him out of a field (filled with other farmers, and a few demon like creatures) and she’s taking him over to that innocent looking windmill up ahead. No doubt she promised him some better pants (his are quite obviously in rags) and maybe the chance to see his long lost relatives. Either way, the farmer didn’t put up any resistance at all.

Here we are inside of the windmill. See those chunks of meat on the ground? Yep. That’s our farmer. Not only did ‘innocent’ Velours have to lure the farmer to this windmill, but she had to hack him into four large pieces, and then stuff those pieces in the grinder that you see off to the left. Now, maybe you could excuse hacking up just one farmer. But no. I had to do this three times. Once I did it a third time, I had to gather all of the evidence inside that grinder (ew) and place it in a barrel (off to the right) so that I wouldn’t be caught.

Now of course there was a back story to this quest. I’m not evil after all but apparently the farmers were. I was saving a town by doing this (or so I was told) – and had to hide the evidence because of COURSE the towns people are not going to approve of this method of disposal. Why could I not just be rid of them the ‘regular’ way? Not sure, something about possessed minions and they’d probably just come back to life or some such.

This is a quest that I will not ever forget. It wasn’t particularly news worthy in the NPC dialog, but the actions of the quest were just so bizarre and so out there and weird compared to the usual “Kill X of Y creatures” and “Collect 10” quests that I had been doing, that it made me stop and just crack up laughing (I never claimed that I was sane).

I doubt I’m the only person who has ever had this experience, and I doubt this is the only quest that has ever elicited that result. Are there any unforgettable quests that you’ve completed over your gaming life time? Let me know in comments!

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

A Little Eye Candy

stargrace August 12, 2010 5Comments

Nomadic Gamers Take to the Seas

stargrace August 12, 2010 0Comment

Boats are an amazing part of Vanguard, and even if you don’t plan on using one, simply owning one is a sign of prestige. There are three types of ships in game, sloops (the smallest) caravels (pictured above) and galleons (massive gigantic ships). Each one can perform a different role, as in they can each wade out into the open waters at a different depth. They’re great for fishing off of and simply having fun. Yesterday happened to be a guild mates birthday, and so I purchased a caravel for them as a gift. The screen shot above is us headed to a quest destination which happened to be on an island off of the northern point in Qalia. It was a great little ride, and I’m glad he likes the gift. Ships remind me a lot of housing in Vanguard, they’re not instanced, and if you leave your boat some place others can see it and until you remove it it’s a physical item in the real world. To me that’s a key selling point in Vanguard.

The shaman hit 28! Part way through to 29. I wasn’t expecting to level last night as I spent the majority of my time working on grey hunter’s league quests for the bp and leg upgrades. Level I did though. I attempted to gather masks for the final weapon quest (which is a 2h weapon for shaman – never used a 2h before and I’m not sure if I want to start now) but it took forever and before I knew it my eyes were closing and it was time for bed.

On the plus side I’m almost into the next ‘tier’ of quests, and I’m excited about visiting some new areas to level up in. Hopefully Kanad solves his problems crashing and our guild meets up this weekend for some more adventures. I’m also hoping we see another bonus xp weekend – although that’s just me being selfish as we’ve had a few now and I shouldn’t expect them. It’s just so much easier to level when you’re earning 2x the experience. Especially for crafting and diplomacy.

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

Back to Trengal Keep

stargrace August 11, 2010 1Comment

As I mentioned previously, there is a small lack of content between levels 25-30 or so. Trengal Keep, CIS, and Hunter’s League are the three suggestions, and I haven’t found too much else for these levels (although there is also the unicorn and shadow hound mount). With the bonus experience over I was a little worried about how long leveling would take – I didn’t have anything to worry about. Last night Hampooj (Dread Knight) and myself as Velours (Shaman) headed to Trengal Keep to progress the chain there. After an evening of slowly making our way through the ruins, I managed to ding 27 and part way through, and Hampooj found himself at 28 (new spells, woot). As a shaman, starting at level 15 we have a choice of three patrons. One is a bear, the other a wolf, and the final one a phoenix. I had been using the bear form (pictured above, don’t I make a wonderful panda) for quite some time. It is a ‘tank’ patron, giving me a boost to mitigation and the like. It also focuses on some melee skills, and dps group buffs. I decided due to the smaller group make up that Nomadic Gamer usually runs with (it’s typically Hampooj, myself, and Kanad who plays a wolf shaman) it would probably be beneficial to go down the ‘healer’ line, which boosts things like regen. Since our groups are three people, they typically take a little while to kill encounters, and regen is really nice.

The down side to choosing the phoenix line is that it puts me in a constant state of levitation. If you’ve ever dealt with lev in VG you know how annoying that can be, because not only are you levitating, but you act as though you are constantly walking on ice, skidding to and from every step you take. I thought perhaps my panther illusion would negate this, but instead I just turned into a floating panther. Ah well.

I’m eager to get to 30 and have more zones open up. Some of my favorite quest chains are in those level ranges, and it’s only a hop skip jump away from level 40+ and from there 50+. Then of course there’s crafting and diplomacy to raise – and the alts.Pretty sure I’ll focus on crafting first.

I’ve really been having a great time exploring Vanguard again, and I can’t wait to see what area I’ll be off to next. Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, and I’ll see you in Telon!

Working Through Hunter’s League

stargrace August 10, 2010 3Comments

Another bonus experience weekend tucked away, and my shaman is sitting at level 26. I helped Hampooj obtain his Hunter’s League leggings, and then debated with myself over whether I want to begin the shadow hound mount quest, or the unicorn one – or bother with either of them. In the end I relogged over to my weaponsmith and created a bunch of pretty new harvesting tools to put on the broker as well as some weapons that I hope to upgrade one day. I really love crafting in Vanguard, it’s so rewarding.

There is a little lack of content at this level I’m finding. Well, solo content in any case. The only zones I’ve been directed to as far as leveling (via the Rift Keeper who offers those xp bonus pies) is Trengals Keep (which the quests quickly turn into group quests) and the point in Qalia where you work on the majority of hunter’s league, which is also mostly a group effort. That’s not to say that there isn’t solo content at these levels, there is, but it’s a lot less then you would find at the earlier levels.

Sadly, the lag spurts that servers experienced shortly after the merge are back ever since the patch yesterday morning. I’m not sure what happened, but a bunch of zones were down for the majority of the day, and every 5 minutes or so zones are hit with a few seconds of lag. It made adventuring difficult, and I can only hope that the issue goes back to being solved some time soon. If you’re not enjoying the game due to this lag I implore you to simply hang in there because that is not typically how vanguard runs.

Since New Targonar was down for most of yesterday and that’s where the majority of my characters happened to log out, I worked on my baby ranger. Qutey Patootie, the goblin ranger to be exact. She managed to reach level 10 on the isle of dawn, where I promptly gave up trying to get a temple group and left as soon as I could. Whether or not I will actually play the character past level 10 I haven’t decided yet.

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