June 2011

A Time for Coldains #EQ2

stargrace June 30, 2011 No Comments

I’ve been switching between a few characters lately, but only my swashbuckler has come very far in completing her coldain insignia ring. Players may remember this ring well from EQ1, and if you don’t – well. Consider yourself lucky. I’m still trucking away on Forgemaster faction for the prayer shawl, I have one more day before I’ll be at 40k faction and able to continue on with my shawl. I’m excited about that.

The first few coldain rings can be done solo, or in a small group if you prefer. They were a significant upgrade for me and thanks to a guild mate having an open x2 instance I managed to complete all of the rings up to the 2nd last one. Before I can get the quest for my final ring I’ll need to complete a bunch of other prerequisites that I don’t imagine I’ll finish off any time soon. We shall see.

EQ2 players are disappointed in the lack of bonus experience for this holiday weekend after finding out that EQ1 is getting bonus experience. What made things worse is that no one officially came out and said look, we’re simply not doing it, instead the messages on forums went unanswered. If there’s one thing gamers hate, it’s being ignored. Personally, bonus experience is always a nice thing (gives me time to work on my alts) but if we don’t get it so be it. I understand that with Fan Faire looming in the distance there may be other things on their minds. I think EQ2 is getting an SC sale and a firework festival, but as of yet neither of these things are live on servers (as of July 1st 11am EST).

I’m postdating this to yesterday since I neglected to post then, and I’m enjoying the rest of my holiday Friday. Happy Canada day to my fellow Canucks!

My First “Real” DPS Class #EQ2

stargrace June 29, 2011 2 Comments

When I game, I’m usually playing one of two types of characters (as far as classes go). I’m either playing a healer or I’m playing a support class. Last night I managed to get my very first ‘pure dps’ class to level 90 – which is astounding for me considering I have 6 other (yes this makes it 7) level 90 characters. What dps was it that finally made it to the end? Swashbuckler. That brings my veteran bonus experience to 140% (20% per character) which plays out well for my other characters. I had a lot of gear saved up for her which was nice, a combination of PQ and Eq anniversary items that I’ve been saving for quite some time. Thanks to help from guild mates I finished my enervated, and while I’m pretty far in terms of aa (I am only sitting at 170 at this moment) I’m still pretty happy. That brings my list of characters to:

1. 90 coercer
2. 90 illusionist / 90 provisioner
3. 90 warden / 90 woodworker
4. 90 dirge / 90 alchemist
5. 90 swashbuckler
6. 90 defiler / 90 tailor
7. 90 shadowknight
8. 84 coercer (yes, I have three enchanters, I love them that much) / 90 carpenter
9. 81 templar / 90 jeweler
10. 52 (level locked) monk
11. 35 (level locked) ranger

I still have one spare character slot, I haven’t decided if I’ll use it or wait to see what the 25th class is that Sony is adding. I was thinking I may enjoy a warlock or a wizard, but we’ll just have to see. With all of these alts you’d think that I never get anything done, but out of those characters I do have some “mini mains” that I tend to stick to consistently. I’ve barely played the illusionist this expansion, or the warden. The shadowknight is a solo character I use, the dirge and defiler are who I end up playing most of the time, with the coercer thrown in there when encounters demand it (like the final named in Tower of Frozen Shadow: SC that needs to be dispelled). While it may look like I have a lot of characters (and I suppose technically I do) I’m certainly not the only one who has this many level 90’s, or even this many characters. Channels on Antonia Bayle are filled with players advertising their army of alts LFG at any time during the day.

In any case, all that matters is that I’m having fun – which I am, despite not having a “main” to play. I hope everyone else has a fantastic day, no matter where you find yourself! Happy gaming!

My First “Real” Step into DoV #EQ2

stargrace June 27, 2011 1 Comment

Five brave souls decided to venture forth together into Destiny of Velious instances for the first time ever. We didn’t take a ‘proper’ group, we’re not properly geared, and we died more then any “regular” group would have put up with – but in the end none of that mattered, and we finished off Hold of Rime: The Ascent, as well as Hold of Rime: Forgotten Pools. The group consisted of myself (as Stargrace, my defiler), Ibeogur (our tank, a berserker), Hamal (assassin), Shamah (another assassin), and Razzelle (illusionist). The illusionist had JUST gotten to 90, and has slightly over 100 aa. The rest of us are wearing a mix of TSO/SF/DoV gear and I had never been to the zones before, so I knew it would be a great experience.

We found our groove pretty quickly, we’ve all been guild mates for a few years now and have all just wandered back to EQ2 individually after some time away. The best part is that no matter how many times we died (those plants, in Pools? We died. A lot. We had to repair) no one got mad or angry, we just revived and went off to try again. Eventually we took them down. Since we were one person short and slightly inexperienced it was slower then normal but I got a handful of upgrades, my shadowknight alt got some upgrades, and a few bits and pieces dropped for both hamal and ibeogur. Sadly the illusionist didn’t see any new gear even though he could have really used it, but that’s the way RNG (random number generator) works.

A few things about DoV – number one, I think it’s one of SOE’s better expansions despite the fact that it released 3 months later then usual and with only half the content expected. I’m enjoying it a lot more then TSO (The Shadow Odyssey) and SF (Sentinel’s Fate). The expansion really does have something for every type of gamer (as long as you’re max level – be it in crafting or adventuring). There’s solo game play (and LOTS of it), group game play, raiding, crafting, exploration, etc. Public quests work a lot better now and I don’t constantly freeze any more. In fact as long as I change my settings to the lowest possible I have 0 lag at all. If I leave them up where I typically play at (2nd highest settings available by default) I do experience some stutters. But on smaller raids I’ve managed just fine. The zones are pretty (although some are incredibly buggy) and while there are still a lot of issues with things I am able to look past them and experience the expansion for the portions that I enjoy.

In 5 more days I’ll be able to complete (ie: start) my prayer shawl. I’m slowly working up my Forgemaster faction, +1,500 faction a day. I need to get to 40,000. I’ve also been working my Ry’Gorr faction although that one is much more of a pain to work on. My one saving grace is that every day you can earn 4 faction tokens that turn in for 500 faction to an adventure faction of your choosing (by participating in public quests, they’re the cloudy gems you get) so I’m just a smidge away from 20,000 faction. I need a lot more in order to unlock the nicer items. I know it will come with time, but it’s a slow grind.

I hope everyone else had an amazing weekend, no matter where you spent it! Happy gaming!

Quest of the Week: Access to Crystalline Breaks #EQ2

stargrace June 24, 2011 No Comments

Crystalline Breaks is a solo instance in the Eastern Wastes (which has nothing to do with the screen shot of Toxulia posted above, I just thought it looked awesome) that players can farm once a day for four legendary chests and some treasured. The instance is pretty easy to gain access to, and you’ll probably want to do it at least once for the aa involved. I’ve been doing this zone once a day on every character I have simply for transmute parts, and the gear inside is a nice upgrade for my characters (and the many many alts I have).

To begin access you’ll first want to talk to Orolr Throatgrinder (-644, -339, 2498) in the Eastern Wastes. He’s right beside the landing pad of the Ry’Gorr encampment. If you haven’t worked on your Ry’Gorr faction yet the little camp will be aggressive to you, but that gets fixed very quickly with this quest.

• Search for Ulart Koshgak (-1015, -344, 2406)
• Kill 7 blizzard dervishes
• Kill 1 more blizzard dervish
• Speak with Orolr Throatgrinder

• Head to the Ry’Gorr encampment, and behind the building you’ll find Rongot Wyrmrippa (-751, -343, 2786)
• Kill 8 Frostpaw Direbears (-748, -350, 3187)
• Return to Rongot, and he’ll give you the quest that sends you into Crystalline Breaks (instance is located at -758, -327, 2619)

There are a few quests you can do within the zone as well. My advice is to invis past the rock mobs until you need them (you’ll need 12), nothing sees in the zone not even the named. Make sure you kill all of the bats, killing 7 of them spawns the final named. None of them do anything out of the ordinary, and any player should be able to easily solo this instance without too much difficulty. In fact I’m pretty sure that’s why it was added to game.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!