2011

Dungeons Galore #Rift

stargrace June 2, 2011 4Comments

With yesterdays changes to the ‘looking for dungeon’ tool (upon completion players will now receive a chest with blue gear for their level inside) it was much easier to get into a dungeon. There are still a few things about the tool that I’m uncertain about – for example, some how I landed in Runic Descent with a level 50 in my group, even though they can’t queue for this dungeon (it ends at level 47 for queues). I wasn’t about to complain as having level 50 dps is always nice, but it was still odd. I did a few dungeons last night as the healer and it was actually a lot of fun so long as I ignored most of the group chat. I swear, I’ve never seen so many players want to wave their own e-peens around at one time. It’s a wonder they didn’t knock each other over. One player spent the entire dungeon bragging to the tank about his awesome alts gear, and then said that he had won “that exact shield” in a previous run – and then the tank received the server first message upon looting it. Woops. Foul Cascade and Runic Descent were two of the dungeons I ran, although Foul Cascade was well below my level and didn’t reward me with any experience, I did still get the blue chest at the end of the run.

I also went incredibly broke once I hit level 40 – I picked up my new 90% run speed mount. I love this mount so much. I doubt I’ll save up enough by level 50 to afford the final mount, but eventually I should be able to. I would have had a lot more money had it not been for the fact that I spent most of it on crafting recipes the day before. Crafting is an expensive prospect.

Now I’m on the last 10 levels to 50, and questing in Iron Peak. Last night I participated in a massive invasion that was going on – where giant swarms of mobs wiped out all of my quest hubs and most of the mobs I needed. Annoying. The most difficult part was that this zone is occupied by both Guardian and Defiant, so I spent half of my fights trying to heal whomever was beside me only to realize it was an unflagged Guardian that I couldn’t affect. I wish non-flagged Guardians had their names show up as a different colour then blue, so that I didn’t think they were on my team. In any case I received an ancient shard for participating, and then groaned when I realized just how many of those I’ll need in order to purchase anything from the rare planar goods merchant. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. I absolutely love the look of this zone. The windswept snow covered areas are a nice change to the calm rolling hills and forest that I have spent most of my later 30’s surrounded by. I’ve been averaging two levels a day, but I imagine that will slow down now that I’ve hit the 40’s. I’m also really looking forward to finally being able to participate in some guild activities. Everyone has been at 50 for a little while now, and I want to play too. In the mean time, I’m deciding which alt to work up next. Tank maybe? We’ll see!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Ding, 300 Crafter – Bring on the Crafting Rifts #Rift

stargrace June 1, 2011 1Comment

At level 38 my cleric is now a 300 artificer. Thanks to doing dailies in Meridian I also had 3 artificer plaques that I was able to use to purchase a few epic recipes. I mentioned in a previous post that I think crafting is far too easy and thus it makes it a little useless for profit, and I hold by that fact. The gear is amazing, and is still better for my character then my quested gear. I know that will change as I hit 50 and want specific gear in order to queue for T2 heroic dungeons, but in the mean time crafted gear > all. Especially if you take the time to imbue it with the special stat shards you get. Anyhow. I hit 300 crafter, and then promptly picked up my first weekly crafting rift quest. It requires a few items that are difficult for me to get, including some semi rare mined items. I’ll either need guild mates to help me acquire these items, or I’ll have to wait until I can harvest them myself. I’m excited about being able to spawn (and complete) my first crafting Rift, although I am a little disappointed they can only be spawned once a week (per person). I really wish players had more methods of being able to earn the tokens required for recipes, after all you can run dungeons for plaques all day long if you want, but you can only do your crafting quests as a daily.

Speaking of dailies, at level 38 I made my way to Stillmoor (pictured above) in order to turn in my Master crafting daily. It was a dangerous walk since I was surrounded by level 45-48 mobs but I made it in one piece, and got to witness more of the beautiful zones that I’ve come to appreciate. While I was turning in my crafting daily my little hub came under attack by an invasion, and even though I was far too small to actually participate I threw a few dps attacks out here and there and walked away with an enormous amount of planarite (for me at least, the average from a regular rift is 40 or so, for this tiny invasion I managed 65). It was fun to participate and I got a lot of experience even if I was well under level. Perhaps I’ll have my guild mates drag me around to random high level Rifts so I can experience some of those (although I dare say I will get my fill of them once I hit level 50).

I’ve been questing in Moonshade, which is a lot of fun. I appreciate that there are more options for my 30’s and I’ve been spending all of my time in this one zone. I’m incredibly eager to hit 40 (probably today, if I work at it in any case) and then begin the final climb to 50. I’m already planning which alts I want to level up next and I imagine when all is said and done I’ll have one of each class. As well as crafters, of course.

I hope everyone is doing fantastic on this glorious Wednesday, no matter where you find yourself. Happy gaming!

Getting The Quest Completion Achievement in Stonefield #Rift

stargrace May 30, 2011 5Comments

You’d think that after all of my adventures in Stonefield, I’d be eager to leave it behind. However; there was one achievement that still eluded me that I REALLY wanted to get – and it was the achievement for quests in Stonefield. 87 in total. Now, typically when you work on this achievement it happens naturally over the course of questing and you even end up with extra quests still to complete. Not the case in Stonefield. I had been sitting at 3 missing quests for quite some time now and I just could not for the life of me figure out what I was missing. Turns out I wasn’t the only one. In fact had I not done a search for this specific issue, I doubt I’d have completed at all.

Two of my missing quests were quite simple. One happened to be the quest over top of Deepstrike mines that I had forgotten about. I saw the quest on my way out of the instance the one time I had done it but it didn’t exactly click at the time. I went back and completed it, and then headed to another hub where I found my second missing quest, unlocked once I’d completed the first one.

The third and final missing quest remained a mystery for the better part of the day. Thanks to some amazing searching my better half stumbled into a video that showed us exactly where it was I needed to go. See that scaffolding pictured above? Yep. It’s on the very top of that and it’s not easy to get to. I spent the better part of an hour playing super mario with the scaffolding, making my way slowly to the top. Once you’re up there you’ll see a glowing pickaxe laying down that you can pick up.

For one portion of the scaffold climb, it was in my best interest to mount and jump into the corner on the outer edge of the scaffolding. A game of balance and many falls later (where I almost died, numerous times because taking ANY falling damage in Rift seems to be extreme).

Like I said, it wasn’t an easy climb at all. But well worth it!

Finally!

That completed the achievement for Stonefield for me, and I was happy to do so. My cleric is now level 35, half way to 36. I’ve been questing in Moonshade (I believe that’s the name of the zone, I could be mistaken, but it does start with moon at least) which is a very nice change to Scarlet Gorge and Stonefield. I’m really eager to hit the 40’s and to be able to join in more adventures with my guild mates. This weekend I helped them do Iron Tombs on their alts, but healing it at level 35 wasn’t exactly a challenge. I’m still glad everyone had fun.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!