2011

The Life of a Crafter #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace October 17, 2011 4Comments

Last week a patch came that would change the price of Kael gems forever – that’s right, the removal of shards required for Thurgadin and Ry’Gorr armor. I was lucky, I purchased gems that were relatively cheap (at the time at least) and stockpiled them for my alts. I had enough of the two common gems to supply all of my characters with Ry’Gorr helms and gloves, and enough gems left over to gear up a few of the neglected characters. with 12 level 90 alts, that’s a lot of crafting. I don’t quite understand the decision to remove shards as a component, I think it reduces players incentive to do the zones that drop shards. Although they are still required in order to purchase adornments. I know this is probably just preparation for the “features” expansion coming out in November, (can it even be called an expansion?) preparing players for any new content that may be released.

Despite my feelings about SoE’s direction with EQ2 on the adventuring side of things, I still think the crafting side is very well taken care of. I spent most of my weekend working on crafting quests,working faction for Sentinel’s Fate factions (there are four dailies, one for each crafting faction) completing my Sentinel’s Fate crafting epic (a very nice carpenter hammer) and doing my Thurgadin daily so that I can obtain my 3rd shawl some time. I also completed the crafting chains that take players through Butcherblock Mountains and Steamfont Mountains, gathering a nice supply of rares and some cheap crafting books at the same time. I love the idea that players can choose this aspect of the game to play and not have to bother with adventuring in the traditional manor if they so choose. You can complete a crafting version of the leaper and glider mounts, as well as the flying mounts.

There isn’t as much for crafters to do in game as adventurers, but there’s a fair amount none the less. Particular factions to work on with their own crafter related rewards and all sorts of goodies.

Speaking of goodies. If you haven’t done the starter quests in the beginner zones recently, and you’re a fan of housing items – you may want to check them out. A while back rewards were revamped to grant housing items, so I went and completed the Darklight woods quests and came out with a handful of new items. If you’ve already completed the quests on your character it’s too late to get the newer rewards now, but you can always run through with an alt or a higher level character who hasn’t done them yet.

How did everyone else spend their weekend? I actually spent less time in game and more time working on a cross stitch – real life crafting is always a great fall pass time. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

P.S. Trying to fight an urge I’ve had lately to play LotRO. But I think I’m losing that battle.

Nights of the Dead Returns to EQ2 (And So Do I) #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace October 13, 2011 2Comments

Oh EQ2, what a fickle beast you are. I took a break from the game for a little while, playing Rift and WoW along with some other games (like Glitch and LotRO) which is pretty common for me. Everyone needs a break after all. Now with Nights of the Dead upon us I’ve returned, and the first thing I’ve started doing (aside from the Beastlord prelude quests) is decorating the much neglected guild hall. I’ve spent a couple hundred plat in furniture, even with a level 90 carpenter, mostly for those city festival items that I can only seem to find at particular times of the year. I built a stage with a small private members only room in behind it, along with a large bar (you can barley make out the end of it in the screen shot above) along with a library, and in another section I built a large pool with some chairs for relaxing. Upstairs I’d like to create some sort of forest, and downstairs core members each have their own room to decorate so I’ll have to work on that eventually. Ibeogur has been busy at work re-designing the crafting area. I was uninspired when it came to that section but it DOES need some work, so he decided to take over.

I’m once more faced with the decision of who to play. I have so many EQ2 characters that this is always a daunting task and I still haven’t completely decided. I typically play three ‘main’ characters:

• 90 defiler
• 90 swashbuckler
• 90 bruiser

These days I feel very little motivation to play the swashbuckler because she has max aa and is fairly well geared according to my play style. Her and the defiler also have all of their master spells and have for some time now (one of the few benefits of the level cap remaining at 90 for so long). I could work on achievements, but without earning some form of character progression (a la alternate advancement) it feels pointless. There is supposedly an expansion coming in November, but it feels incredibly odd that there has been so little said about it. I know this expansion is more of a ‘bug fix’ and the implementation of Beastlords then anything else, but EQ1 has had their beta going on for a month now already and also releases in November (forgive me if I’m off with dates here, it happens). On a side note, I’m very excited about the EQ1 expansion.

It seems like quite a lull before awesomeness follows, Skyrim is out in November, the sims 3 pets is out in a few days (I know, not exactly everyone’s cup of tea, but I am excited) SWTOR is out in December and a handful of other much anticipated games. So for now, we wait.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!