February 2011

Changes coming with Destiny of Velious #EQ2

stargrace February 17, 2011 1Comment

As with pretty much every expansion, there are a lot of changes coming with DoV and I wanted to go over a few of them now that the NDA has lifted. Please keep in mind that these changes were in beta, and are therefor subject to change before being brought to live servers.There are more changes coming then these ones listed here, but these ones are the ones that popped out to me first.

Tradeskill pristine bonus being removed – that means for first time combines you will no longer gain a bonus. There is a very lengthy post about why this is from Domino over on the eq2forums. Basically what it comes down to is that some craft classes have way more recipes then others (in specific the ones that make skills, alchemist, sage, and jeweler). There for they would level up “faster” then other classes because of this pristine bonus. The article goes on to talk about how compensation will be given by means of extra experience awarded for crafting quests as well as writs. I personally think that this is a good move, of course on that same note I dislike change and feel that this is a pretty large one for the crafting community to swallow. Hopefully it all balances out.

Changes to stats – Another big one. Eq2wire has a great write up about what will be changing as far as itemization goes. Number one, gear will no longer have hit points or mana on it. I remember them trying to change this back in SF but it didn’t exactly work out and was reversed. Players will gain power through their primary stat only, so for fighters it’s str, scouts agi, priests wis, and mages int. Agility no longer has anything to do with mitigation or critical mitigation. Wisdom no longer has anything to do with resists. +spell damage and +combat art damage is being phased out.

Item Score (also known as Gear Score for those who may be familiar with the World of Warcraft term) has been removed.

Achievements – Curious about what your new achievements are going to look like? EQ2wire has set up a fantastic aa browser for players to look at.

I’m really looking forward to the in-game calendar, as well as being able to fly around Norrath. I don’t see an issue with having to be level 86 in order to complete the flying mount quest as long as there is also a crafter friendly version of it.

Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Let me know! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

** Edit ** Domino confirmed for me that there is indeed a crafter friendly version of the flying mount – fantastic!

Test Server Erollisi Day Party #EQ2

stargrace February 16, 2011 0Comment

Last night I patched up the test copy server and headed over to join in the festivities and spread the love (so to speak) a bit with other players. Amnery’s graciously hosted an Erollisi Day event and explained that while she would have loved to hold a party on every EQ2 server, it just wasn’t possible with so many other things on the go. I realize it’s only too easy to point fingers and blame the lack of personal attention on community managers (since it is their job) but they too only have so many hours in a day in which to get things done. I was thankful for the party none the less.

There is a second party being hosted on the EQ2X server on Thursday February 17th at 9pm PST so if you didn’t get to make it to the test copy server but still want to celebrate you may want to head on over to the Freeport server.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Prismatic 1.0 and Progression #EQ2

stargrace February 13, 2011 2Comments

With the Fippy Darkpaw EQ1 progression server opening on the 15th, I can’t help but wonder if there are any plans in the works for EQ2 to add some progression servers. I know there are a handful of progression guilds (especially on Antonia Bayle) that are level locked and working their way through old content, and I really think that this is something that players would like to see more of. After all, how many people actually did prismatic 1.0 ‘back in the day’ when Solusek Eye was a zone to be feared. When every giant saw through invis, and there was NO way to port down to the bottom to visit Darathar – and you needed to visit him a lot. Back in the good ‘ol days when you had to do ‘To Speak as a Dragon’ on each individual character instead of just visiting the Shady Swashbuckler in Nektulos Forest and purchasing the heirloom tablet. Ah, the good old days.

I mentored down with a guild mate and together we completed all of the quest chains for Prismatic 1.0 and then eventually showed up on the Isle of Dawn (which you will now never even get to see as a new player UNLESS you do Prismatic 1.0) to face Darathar. I took a video of the fight, but haven’t processed or uploaded it yet. Hopefully I get around to that before too long. The fights were pretty trivial. Level 90’s mentored down are still incredibly over powered, and it didn’t give me that old school “we’re all going to DIE” feeling that I got back in 2004.

It amuses me that we went through SO MUCH effort for a legendary weapon (and a title). At the time the prismatic 1.0 was the best weapon in the game. It requires 7 raids from start to finish, and that’s if you succeed at them all. It used to require more but there have been some changes over the years, like the beginning of the quest that you obtain from Maiden’s Gulch in Lavastorm is now heroic instead of an Epic x2. Maybe I spend too much time looking backwards instead of forward (there have been far more posts about what I ‘used to do’ in EQ2 then there have been about DoV for example) but that’s just how it is for me.

What do you all think, would an EQ2 progression server be fun or what? Maybe we can convince the folks at SOE to entertain the idea.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Tattered Wings #EQ2

stargrace February 12, 2011 4Comments

When Fortune League for facebook came out, I knew it wasn’t really going to be a game that I got super involved with because it’s not really a game per say (I’ve already written about this, and directed folks to Tipa’s wonderful post about it). I did pretty well my first run through, not so well my second. It doesn’t matter how well you do, you’ll still win little potions to use for experience / achievement gain and those are pretty worth while to me.

There are still a lot of glitches. You still need to petition to have your EQ2 account linked to your facebook account and more often than not when you claim a prize it will tell you that there’s been an error – but then it will show up in game if you type /claim none the less. The game IS in beta, or maybe alpha, I can never remember. In any case do NOT go in expecting things to work or even to understand how to play. It’s confusing and annoying. My rank has slowly been decreasing as more and more people figure out how to play so I count myself incredibly lucky to have won these at all. Plus not only did I win them, I discovered them for my server.

I do think those wings are custom made for Ratongas, Goudia wears them especially well. Have you been playing Fortune League? What are your thoughts so far? Let me know in comments!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.