2011

Goodbye Saryrn – Hello Double Experience #EQ

stargrace March 15, 2011 0Comment

This will more than likely be the last time I see Saryrn until after the fabled event passes, since pretty much all of the Norrathian Gods are heavily camped during that time for their drops. Yesterday started the first of two double experience events and I happily redeemed all of my task rewards that I had saved up. The experience was enough to secure level 88 and Ninga managed to hit 90. We’ve put out another call looking for a guild, and have had a few replies so far. The previous one we had joined simply wasn’t a good match and while I would like to raid and have some fun I’m not about to join a random guild that sends me a tell.

The Saryrn fight went down easy, Sorrow spawned closer to the end then I remember, but the rest of the murder (ie: swarm of crows) were there as annoying as ever. The best part is that at 88 Saryrn was still green to me, I’m not sure if that will be the case at 90. I looted a bunch of parchment and turned that in for some spells to sell, it was mostly just the Nostalgia I was after.

I’ve slowly been leveling up the bard on the 2nd account. She managed to go from level 21 to 34 yesterday in my favorite lowbie area – The Overthere. It’s not a hot zone, but with bonus experience (and quicker leveling over all) implemented I sure didn’t notice. Now of course I have to pick up all of the song she’s missed I’m looking forward to leveling her up to the same range as my druid and then boxing the two together. I’m also excited to see what other anniversary quests get implemented in EQ this week. It should be good times.

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

A Week of 12th Anniversary Events #EQ

stargrace March 14, 2011 0Comment

Even though the official start of the 12 year anniversary events is tomorrow – today marks the beginning of two double experience events. The first one runs from the 14th-16th and the second one runs from 25th-27th. Think there’s no way to prepare for these events? You would be quite wrong. See in EverQuest there are things called “tasks” or “missions” in the later expansions, especially in the House of Thule expansion. These are instanced versions of dungeons with specific objectives that players have to accomplish for a reward of experience, coin, faction, and typically one of the new types of currency like dream motes in the case of HoT. You can do these tasks one of two ways. A group member will request the task and if you’re in group you will automatically be added to it and have the ability to hail the npc that will port you into the instance – or – you can get a “task add” also called a TA in public channels. This will add you to the current mission but NOT add you to the group. That means you can be doing your own thing in the bazaar or any other zone, and still get the rewards from being task added to a mission. If you happen to box or have a group of friends who are not interested in the progression flags or rewards from doing these tasks it’s very common to see players selling TA’s for anywhere from 10,000-100,000 plat depending on the task. Since these tasks are also used in HoT progression, people can sell access to further zones (ie: in order to unlock Tier 4 of HoT you need to do a number of tasks).

Preparing for double experience comes from the fact that you can actually save up the rewards from up to 10 tasks before claiming any one of them. All you have to do is close the reward window and ignore it until you’re ready to claim. That meant yesterday players were frantically doing tasks in order to save up the rewards for today, and me and my friends were no different. I did six tasks with the desire to claim them today once the bonus has been turned on, and before I actually remembered to start saving my tasks I managed to cling to level 87 on the necromancer. This opens up a few more powerful dots as well as another tank pet. It looks like I’ll be 90 before too long, then I can work on working those aa and leveling the bard on my 2nd account who has been sorely neglected in my climb to 90. There’s a chance that another friend of mine may be returning to Drinal which I’m pretty excited to hear about. The server is quite populated, about 500 people in public channels at any one time, and I’m never going to think it’s a bad thing when someone returns.

I’m excited for the remainder of the anniversary events to get off the ground. Two years ago there were some fantastic quests for potions and I heard from others there were some anniversary augments – as well as the fabled events of course. I believe there’s an increase in spawn rates for the next three days as well (named, that is) but we’ll just have to see. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath.

Into Baraguj Szuul’s Tummy #EQ

stargrace March 13, 2011 0Comment

Just to start off with a reader comment I wanted to answer this one, “Pretty sure you can’t lose a level any more. I think that was changed several years ago.” – trust me, losing levels from dying in EQ is VERY much still in game, hehe. As I level now I want to make sure I have at least a 10% buffer before logging out so that I don’t revert back to my previous level, and having failed to do so I’ve lost levels 85-86 a few times now. Thankfully mercenaries can also rez you for 96% so it’s not too easy to re-ding as I call it, but the mechanic is still there in game. What was changed a few years ago was corpse runs, you no longer spawn naked without your items and inventory.

I know it’s hard to tell by the screen shot above, but that is inside of a creatures tummy. It was gross and disgusting, but Ninga wanted to finish his key to Saryrn’s chambers – and so we had to do an event in Plane of Torment. Baraguj Szuul swallows you and you have to fight an army of little critters in each level of his digestive track. Mean while there are flailing limbs and disgusting half swallowed skeletons scattered around the soft pink flesh that you’re standing on. I’ve killed Saryrn a few times, one of my favorite fights actually but getting into her tower without a key was always difficult, typically without access we would have to attack a mob through a doorway that would summon us inside. It seems this method doesn’t work (or at least we couldn’t get it to) lately, so a key was needed.

I also managed to level my tailoring (on the necromancer) to a skill of 295 – and was pretty disappointed to see that the station market has a considerable impact on crafters in EverQuest. See, there is a potion that is $10 and lasts for 2 hours and if you fail a combine after using this potion it will guarantee (100% chance)  that you salvage your items upon failure. The aa skill doesn’t guarantee a 100% salvage rate, and the major problem I have with this is that House of Thule did not raise the cap on crafting skills – they still stop at 300. However. The House of Thule crafted items have a trivial rate of 400-500+ easily. Your best bet when making combines that you’ve farmed forever for is to save them up, spend $10 on the 100% salvage potion, and then keep preforming the combine over and over again until you succeed since you’ll have “nothing” to lose except the $10 you spent, of course. If you’re willing to spend the cash you won’t fail combines, and you’ll be able to make much more profit off of your crafted goods.

My necromancer is most of the way through 86, and I’m doing a LOT more damage then I was before. I gained a few very large dots this level, and I also finally have more then 200 aa which is really nothing these days. I picked up a few utility type things like cloak of shadows (instant clicky) and an alternate method to FD (to free up a spell slot) and have been working on my critical affliction. I also picked up death bloom for those LOM (low on mana) moments, and for the first time in a long time I’m feeling as though I’m actually partaking in the groups I’m in instead of just mooching experience. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m excited to see what happens next.

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

EverQuest 12th Anniversary Events #EQ

stargrace March 12, 2011 0Comment

• Monday March 14 to Wednesday March 16 we will be activating Double Experience as well. Now you have twice as much Double Experience time to plan, so spend it wisely! (this does NOT include the two progression servers)
• Tuesday March 16, 2011 and lasting until Saturday March 26,  we’ll celebrate our 12th Anniversary in game! Not only will we have everything from our previous anniversary celebrations (including quests, fabled spawns, and raids) but this year brings all new challenges to the lands of Norrath!
• March 25, 2011 to March 27, we’ll also offer Double Experience throughout Norrath
• Wednesday March 16,  at 4 p.m. Pacific we’ll host a talk with John Smedley on the EverQuest franchise and its prestigious position in the history of MMOs as well as a plethora of other topics.
• Thursday March 17,  at 4 p.m. Pacific join members of the EverQuest team for a talk about EQ from its beginnings up until now.
• March 14 to March 16 and March 25 to March 27, you’ll be seeing a lot more rare mobs too! During the periods of Double Experience, we’ll be increasing the spawn rate of rare mobs as well.
• March 16 and lasting until March 27, we’ll have a deal every day on the Marketplace.

In Other Norraths

• Grand events are afoot in EverQuest II starting later this month, where mysterious apparitions have been sighted! Portals through time have been appearing around Norrath, linking this age to an age before the Shattering. Journey through these portals to find the ancient heroes and villains of an age gone by. Reminisce about them. Then kill them and loot them for the really cool items they possess. There may be a connection between them; perhaps you should investigate them all…
• EverQuest Online Adventures and EverQuest Mac have their own special events planned, and will be celebrating the Anniversary as well. On March 17th, Naylie will be in game on the Al`Kabor server to honor EverQuest’s 12th anniversary. Join her in the Plane of Knowledge to celebrate. She may be talked into going to the Arena and calling forth some monsters to fight! In EQOA, Naylie and Zatozia will be hosting a Community Meet and Greet on the Castle Lightwolf server on March 18th. Zatozia has heard rumors that the Sandswiss family of dragons may be making a return for the occasion to attempt to take another bite at adventurers.

If more events get added to this list or you find one that I’ve forgotten to add let me know and I’ll include it! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Morell’s Castle, Sanctum Somnium (and Ding 86) #EQ

stargrace March 12, 2011 0Comment

Ah, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as having to deal with your old school camps and players. Yesterday was one such day. Sanctum Somnium is “the” zone to hang out in when you’re level 90 and properly geared, and it showed. Although there were raids passing through we saw anywhere from 22-78 people within the zone and frequent calls for “cc” (Camp Check) with cries of outrage if trains wiped through. The zone is popular for a number of reasons, number one it drops the lucrid pieces needed for T4 armor combines (the best you can get without raiding) aside from some very awesome level 90 required gear. Pieces often rot if you get there at the right time and hang out at the right camp. I picked up a few tasks (that I haven’t turned in yet) and simply had a blast doing the experience grind that I remember from days gone by.

In order to get to SS first you have to walk through Morell’s Castle – Zam says this about the zone:

“This is Morell Thule’s home. On the outside it appears to be a normal structure. Inside, it reflects the nature of its master. The inner sections of Morell’s castle are malleable and shift to suit the beings who live there.

The Lord of Dreams’ castle exerts its influence on the surrounding areas. Adventurers will see evidence of this as they explore, seeing displaced interiors in places they wouldn’t usually appear… “

This zone is (like all of the HoT zones) simply amazing. There are so many details everywhere, and everything is so well designed I could just sit in a single room for hours absorbing all of the sights.

One of the most interesting tasks of the night was called Morell’s Challenge. You have entered Morell’s Challenge, a deadly but possibly profitable race through the castle. Follow the green beacons to stay on track, but beware that some areas do not have green beacons and you will need to find your way through those locations on your own. Just make sure not to let the purple cloud of ultimate darkness catch up to you!

NOTE: The death touch “mob” and teleporters in this task can only be seen if you have NPC spell particle effects turned on. These are in the Options-Display menu and must be turned on before you zone in.

This zone is exactly how it sounds. It’s a crazy race against a random clock (or in this case, a random cloud of purple smoke) where you try to accomplish the goals and not die. First you’re sent running through a crazy maze of coin chests and leprechauns (invis works best here) then you have to pull four named and make sure not to enter any rooms with purple mist in them as it will kill you instantly. The zone slowly fills up as well, so if you die the best thing to do is just to start over. After you’ve defeated the named you’re off to find five beacons – and that’s it. That’s the end of the challenge.

It SOUNDS easier then it is though. Such is the case with random death-touching mobs and clouds of purple smoke!

There were also a bunch more announcements made yesterday about the anniversary events and I’ll be posting a quick run down in the next post. I’m really hoping to hit levle 90 within the next two weeks, with the two experience bonus days upcoming. We’ll just have to see how it goes. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!