August 2011

How: Level 1-62 in Two Hours #EQ2

stargrace August 7, 2011 13Comments

A few of you left comments about how quickly I had leveled my warlock and wanted to know how I did it, so I decided to post the path I took. Now the warlock is level 78 but I haven’t really been playing her, she’s got 9 hours played at level 78 but a large portion of that was me standing around AFK while I did a few RL chores at the higher levels. A few things to keep in mind.

Number one – I have 180% veteran bonus due to max level characters. I also had full vitality (200% b0nus), and used my orb of concentrated memories (veteran reward) that restocked the vitality. I used one 110% potion (lasts for two hours), had 10% bonus due to being mentored, and had a 10% bonus due to the RAF mount (no RAF account though, that was some time ago). So in total I was sporting a hefty 500%+ bonus during the majority of this.

Number two – I was being PL’d by a berserker friend of mine in DoV T2 gear (ry’gorr) with a few odds and ends of x2 gear. No EM/HM x4 gear (easy mode, hard mode).

Number three – I have leveled in EQ2 SO many times, it’s really second nature. I follow the same path every time. By the char above you can see Lysthia (the warlock) and here’s how I leveled her and where:

• 2-12 Commonlands. Started by the gates to West Freeport AOE killing snakes. Moved towards Dog Pond and killed dogs. Slowly walked North towards Wailing Caverns which would be the next destination once the warlock hit 10+.
• 13-20 Wailing Caverns. Actually turned xp off for this zone and worked on aa. Mass slaughtered everything, the zone was empty for once. At 20, it was time to move on.
• 21-33 Fallen Gate. I was afraid that this zone would turn grey before I had time to complete it. It’s filled with heroic mobs, and fantastic experience plus a lot of named. For whatever reason it was also empty. Helps a lot when power leveling.
• 34-35 Enchanted lands, just running to Runnyeye for the next little bit. Discovery experience + a few mobs on the way there.
• 36-41 Runnyeye, just running through the entire zone.
• 42 Zek, the Orcish Wastes. Was going to go to DFC because it’s fantastic discovery and named – BUT – the final boss is already 42. I didn’t want to out level it there. We decided to go to The Temple of Cazic-Thule instead.
• 43 The Feerrott, dinged on the way to CT due to discoveries.
• 44-48 The Temple of Cazic Thule. Started upstairs, moved downstairs after, and then eventually into the instance once we’d collected golem hearts.
• 49-50 The Sanctum of Fear. Loads of mobs in this instance in CT, collect golem hearts outside first so that you can spawn the named.
• 51-54 The Sanctorium. It was instance time. This is located in Sinking Sands. Lots of mobs, mass pulled everything. I think I dinged twice just from one pull.
• 55 – The Hidden Cache. Another instance in Sinking Sands. Not as many mobs as the Sanctorium.
• 56-58 – Clefts of Rujark. A great zone if you can find it empty. There’s a number of instances inside, loads of named.
• 59 – Vault of Dust. Instance in Clefts.
• 60 – Clefts of Rujark. On the way to another instance.
• 61 – Scornfeather Roost. 2nd instance in Clefts of Rujark, loads of mobs
• 62 – Poets Palace. Went here just because I love the zone. Desert of Flames is a great expansion, and I really enjoy adventuring through it.

At this time my 2h potion had run out, so there’s 62 levels in two hours. I continued off and on for the next two days, and am now 78.

Total Time Played 9 Hours 59 Minutes

Festival of the Sands – Coming to Antonia Bayle Soon(tm)

stargrace August 4, 2011 8Comments

There are a few fantastic player-run  events on Antonia Bayle, and if you want to hear about them you can /join festival (or even /join antonia_bayle festival if you’re interested from another server) where they’re typically announced, with instructions on individual events at a later date. I always love going to these events, some of the largest ones include the Festival of Unity and the Festival of Discord, a 3rd newer one was added not so long ago, Festival of the Sands – this takes place in – you guessed it – Sinking Sands. It takes place later this august (exact dates escape me, I’ll have to do some research) and if you’re looking for fun in the sun this will be the place to head.

I had been saving my final character slot for a beastlord when they release in November, but of course patience is not one of my strong points, and I decided to create a warlock last night. Thanks to the 180% veteran bonus I have on the account and one large ogre, in two hours she had reached level 63. I’ve always wanted a warlock but had never leveled one up before, and I find them fascinating. Whether or not I’ll actually play her in any honesty I am unsure, but it’s fun in the mean time. Thankfully all hopes of owning a beastlord are not lost, as the station cash store sells character slots for $10 each, which is not too bad.

I also finally spent some time in Tinkerfest, collecting cogs and saving gnomes. Crafted an awesome looking cog backpack – I love how backpacks can have appearance in game. There’s only a few more days left to take advantage of this festival as well as the Kelethin city festival, so be sure to take a peek before it’s gone for this year!

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

Bring On The Festivals #EQ2

stargrace August 2, 2011 4Comments

There are two amazing festivals going on right now in game. One is Tinkerfest, where you can help gnomes around Norrath with various tasks as well as harvest shiny cogs for crafting and purchased goods. There’s a shiny collection (found where ever you find gnomes) many fireworks and other goodies. If you haven’t checked it out yet I highly suggest you head to Steamfont Mountains. On top of Tinkerfest, it’s also the first week of August, which means another city festival. This month the festival is in Kelethin, you’ll find some sky races, as well as numerous NPCs eager to take your city tokens. There’s appearance gear and a lot of housing items, some of it unique to Kelethin (such as floor tiles). I had a good 300 city tokens stored up from leveling my crafters to 90, so I went a little crazy and purchased as much as I could. A few paintings for my Norrathian Museum, and a bunch of floor tiles for a future project (yet unnamed). Player housing is a way for me to relax in game without the pressures of leveling / questing / raiding, and it’s something I’ve said time and time again that more games need. These little ‘extras’ for when we don’t feel like character progression in the traditional sense.

Pictured above is my “door” to the Norrathian Museum. The amusing part is that I’ve technically got 1066 items in the home, but only 407 of those count towards the item count because player-written books (and a few other items, like L&L books etc) don’t count towards your total. That’s a lot of books in my house. In fact I’ve gotten to the point now where I actually lag a little upon entering the library, something I have NEVER had an issue with in the past. I knew it was about time though.

When you’re not progressing your character through traditional means (leveling, aa, questing, raiding) how do you like to spend your time in game? Are you forever hunting after that elusive shiny to add to your collection? Do you like to sit back and relax crafting? Or are you like many of us out there, glued to the layout editor, working on your humble abode? Let me know below in comments!

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

Crazy Bonus Experience Weekend

stargrace August 1, 2011 9Comments

This weekend was by far one of the most productive weekends I’ve ever had in game. To start things off it’s a long weekend here in Canada (thank you Civic Holiday) and I had no plans besides a BBQ on Sunday and some groceries, which meant 90% of the rest of my time was spent gaming, something that’s nice to do every so often especially when there’s bonus experience. Here’s a general “wrap up” of everything I managed to accomplish:

• Swashbuckler – reached 300 aa (my first character to ever do so)
• Inquisitor – went from 130 aa to 293
• Shadowknight – reached 300 aa
• Bruiser – went from 120 aa to 220
• Mystic – went from 70aa to 150 aa and also dinged 83
• Troubador, coercer, and illusionist all picked up a handful of aa (10-30)
• Coercer – dinged 90 sage (from 65) and now I have all 9 crafters at 90

It was pretty great. Guild mates also managed to earn levels, aa, and achievements this weekend as they soaked up the bonus experience. I dare say it was actually the quietest I’ve ever seen guild because we were all concentrating on the matter at hand, but there were a lot of people around.

How did you spend your bonus experience weekend? Did you manage to get everything done that you wanted? Perhaps you spent it at tinkerfest (more about that coming in another post) – and don’t forget today starts the Kelethin city festival!

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