March 2011

Decisions Decisions Decisions #EQ

stargrace March 21, 2011 0Comment

Alts always seem to cause me the most joy and the most grief in every game I play. I enjoy working on them, but every second I play an alt is a second I’m not playing my main – whoever that is at the time. My main rises and falls as often as the sun or moon and it took me a long time to come to grips with the fact that it’s simply how I have decided to game. I used to get upset with myself for being ‘behind’ the curve and the conversation of “if I had only focused on one character” comes up more often then I’d like to admit.

The dilemma: I love my necromancer, but she’s a fairly new character in creation. I moved from Luclin to Drinal to play with friends and had no characters there so she was created. While I love the character because she is more ‘uber’ then my others I also the shortest history with her. She is well geared, has her epic 2.0, over 300 aa (finally), 300 tailor, etc. My old main used to be my enchanter who I have huge history with. However she’s well behind the times in almost every aspect. I did spend a bunch of time yesterday updating her gear and she no longer sucks quite as much as before, but she was mid-way through her 1.0 and while she does have 300 in jewel crafting, she has only reached 200 in the rest of the crafts. The other problem is that enchanters sort of suck, game wise. In fact they are so rare and perhaps so un-needed that their levle 76 aura is actually an xp bonus (I kid you not) for anyone who groups with them. 5% for rank 1, 7% for rank II and 9% for rank III.

What’s a girl to do? Stick with the better geared-well-created character or attempt to make up for years of neglect on the character with history. Something tells me I may be giving this scenario too much thought.

The dilemma: I have two active EQ accounts and I’d REALLY like to box more consistently, but during my last phase of playing I moved all of the characters from account B over to account A thinking I either 1. wouldn’t be playing any more or 2. wouldn’t be boxing any more. I regret the decision now but what’s done is done and I don’t want to pay $25 to move the characters back. So my only option is to start over on my 2nd account with fresh characters. What to create is always an issue for me. I THINK I have settled on a druid – the same druid that I moved off of the account initially. Providing nice backup heals, transportation, and group buffs I think that the druid would be a great match no matter who I am playing off of my main account. However. I also have a 50 bard that I wouldn’t mind playing, a little more difficult to box with the selection of casters from my main account but not impossible. Offering fantastic methods to pull and great group buffs. Argh the choices!

The dilemma: Housing! How could I have a complex choice to make in housing? Well this one is quite simple. I just am not sure what sort of house I want to design. Do I want to build from scratch like some of the other creations out there I have seen or should I stick with the simple “this is a house, this is a yard” feature that any player can create by default. From the start I wanted to re-create my EQ2 Norrathian Museum – however, a LOT of items within EQ are simply not able to be placed even though they may be ancient relics of days gone by. The point to my museum is of course to show off objects that perhaps not everyone has seen or collects. In EQ this includes every single weapon in game, but not a lot of other bits. I don’t really want a museum filled with weapons.

There you have it, my decisions of this morning. Have any suggestions? Feel free to let me know!

Be sure to check out Scarybooster’s blog this week (well, all the time actually, it’s a great read) for DAW: Developer Appreciation Week. Or, why not do one better and participate in the event and show your love for game developers. With so much negativity floating around the gaming community it’s always a refreshing break to show a little love.

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

Dragons, Dragons, Dragons #EQ

stargrace March 20, 2011 0Comment

Two years ago for the 10th anniversary Sony came out with the mission “Dragons, Dragons, Dragons” which sent you through instanced versions of Norrath zones to defeat the dragon population one at a time. Each one of these dragons is a raid encounter, and there are 20 of them in total to defeat. Each year of the anniversary Sony brings back these quests for players to attempt – and this year was my first year being able to participate. The rewards are two different augments. One is based on the age of your account, and the second one is based on the number of dragons you defeat. Both of them were upgrades to me not to mention the fact that I had a blast working my way through the old world encounters.

First up was Lord Nagafen, with 32k hp he barely stood a chance, along with Lady Vox who came next. I defeated these on live server not all that long ago when Nostalgia the Guild was making the rounds, so I wasn’t really having any squeals of delight at the time. After that came a dracoliche, which was in the actual version of Fear along with all of the mobs that swarmed us. Not a difficult fight, but annoying to find our way out of. Gorenaire, Trakanon, and Phara Dar all fell with ease. Then we started meeting dragons I had never seen before on live servers Like Lord Yelinak and Vulak’Aerr. My ‘wow’ moment came while defeating The Four warders of Sleeper’s Tomb (although not the sleeper himself) because I had never been in the zone before. Finally we came to Quarm who was by far the most impressive looking dragon creature I had seen all night. Each little bit you DPS him down causes one of his heads to explode until he’s left with just one. There are adds, and of course in true Sony manor the dragon fights are belly fights (as I quickly remembered when not a single one of my spells would land from range).

The 11th dragon is Kessdona the Enlightened and this was where we met our wall. See, this dragon replenishes its health via 4 stone statues that stand all around it during the fight. Your job is to defeat the proper statue that the dragon is using to siphon the health. The only way to figure out which one of the four statues it is, is to bring someone who can track. The one that shows up on track is the proper statue. Not incredibly difficult unless you’re a monk and a necromancer with a cleric and warrior mercenary attempting these raid encounters. If that happens to be the case, well. We spent a lot of time trying to guess which statue it was and some times we were correct but all it takes is one incorrect guess and the dragon would move from 50% health to 99% health. Ugh.

Still, I’m pleased with all of our progress. It was a lot of fun and the rewards were still nice for the amount we accomplished. We have gotten a few guild invites to defeat the rest of the dragons, so we may just go along with that and see how far we can get.

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

Master Tailoring Trophy and House Items #EQ

stargrace March 19, 2011 0Comment

Yesterday was a fantastic day in EQ1 for me, personally. I was a mere 5 points away from hitting my goal of 300 tailor (the current cap) and I had been saving up pelts and silk in order to make my way. It took a lot longer then I imagined it would, but I should have known better. Finally, I hit 300. Now if you played EQ you may remember the old day crafting trophies. They were items that gave you a % mod to your skill, as well as the ability to summon a weight reduction bag. In Prophecy of Ro these trophies were changed into actual trophies that players could obtain, with a higher % mod, and a lot more stats. In House of Thule they became house items – and not only that but they became house items with an activated buff that you can manage through your tribute window system. That means instead of wearing the house item you can simply place it and activate your house trophies and have the % mod while you’re anywhere in Norrath. AWESOME.This allows me to activate any and all of my crafting trophies as I obtain them and not have to actually cart them around on me. There’s one for each ‘true’ craft (ie: Researcher is not included because not everyone can do it although poison making is included).

In order to obtain this trophy you need to speak to Event Coordinator Baublie Digg in West Freeport. She’s just outside the gates standing beside Judge Marion Teld’mare who will look over your work when it’s completed. There’s two ways to start on your trophy. You can 1. start the beginner trophy quest as soon as you have reached 50 skill in any craft – or you can wait until any level within that craft and then do the quest. The neat thing is that these trophy items evolve as you do combines above your current skill level. There are 7 ranks in all, and in order to get from rank 6 to 7 you’ll need to do combines with a trivial higher then 300. It takes anywhere from 400-1,000 combines in order to level the trophy into a mystical bolt.

I decided to wait until I had hit 300 in tailoring to begin my trophy quest, but for my next craft (I’m thinking baking) I’ll start the trophy first and compare the evolving process of each item. I was required to make 10 items (and not fail on any of them) then turn them in to the judge. The problem is almost all of these items are old world items and they require components that no one was selling in the bazaar. They also all have a number of subcombines, which meant I had a lot of farming to do first.

Create 1 Studded Boots using tradeskills – ALL
Create 1 Crystalline Silk Collar using tradeskills – ALL
Create 1 Platinum Forestgreen Ribbon using tradeskills – ALL
Create 1 Etched Scale Snake Whip using tradeskills – ALL
Create 1 Arctic Wyvern Cloak using tradeskills – ALL
Create 1 Grandmaster Tailor’s Needle using tradeskills – ALL
Create 1 Holgresh Fur Moccasins using tradeskills – ALL
Create 1 Fine Silk Robe Template using tradeskills – ALL
Create 1 Othmir Fur Cloak using tradeskills – ALL
Create 1 Ice Silk Amice using tradeskills – ALL

I failed one combine throughout the process, and made sure I was wearing a geerlock so that my skill was at least above 300 while I attempted these. A lot of the subcombines used components from other crafting professions, so I used my enchanter to make them all for me, you only need to make the final combine in order to get credit.

Next? Inching my way to 300 on all other crafting professions, getting the trophies for them all – doing the prayer shawl 1.0 and then eventually the shawl 2.0 that was released in Underfoot. Adventurous? Yes. But that’s why I love this game.

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

12th Anniversary Solo Quest

stargrace March 18, 2011 0Comment

This solo anniversary quest has been my downfall since it released on Wednesday. See, there’s a collector located in Sunrise Hills in a bright red robe, and he needs your help finding these magical shards (collection bits) that are scattered throughout the zone. The reward is a fairly nice augment that you can add to your gear. The problem is there’s a number of them you need to find, and they are in categories ranging from common to ultra rare. There are five more I need to find and these things are incredibly tiny not to mention rare. If you happen to be in a housing zone that involves another player (or two) then forget it. The best thing you can do is move on to another place with less people.

Thankfully the items are tradeable between characters and will still update the quest, so if you’re looking to trade pieces be sure to advertise on the channels.

Yesterday was a day for alts. I’ve been leveling a shadowknight and bard together (along with some mercs) and managed to get the bard from 34-50 and the shadowknight from 45 to 53. Not too shabby considering there’s no bonus experience going on right now. Most of the time was spent in Howling Stones, which is a bonus xp zone. I’m looking forward to hitting 60 on both characters (or any number of my alts) so that I can group up with level 90’s and still gain experience.

I hope everyone has an amazing weekend, no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath.