2012

Pathing Back ‘Home’ #EQ2

stargrace October 13, 2012 2Comments

I’ve been having a lot of fun in WoW, and before that, GW2 – but something is still missing. In WoW it is too easy for me to get to 90 and have all of the gear that I can possibly get without becoming a hard core raider. LFRaid and LFDungeon take care of that – plus there’s all of those caps on valor and justice to deal with. WoW does a nice job of keeping me in line, and making me follow that carefully laid out path. Some times I enjoy it, the lack of ‘thinking’ required to play. I gleefully hunt up companion pets and chatter with friends. sadly, the new ‘grind dailies until your eyes bleed’ method of MOP is completely unappealing to me. You need faction for everything. You need it for recipes. You need it for gear. You need it for valor gear. Since the removal of tabards to earn that faction you’re left with 300+ dailies. Golden Lotus pretty much did me in, I dislike that faction with a passion that goes beyond what it deserves. I just don’t enjoy grinding out dailies. While there is still lots to do, it’s not stuff that I actually want to do. Thus MOP takes a back seat, and when my 1 year subscription ends at the end of this month I’m debating whether or not I want to renew.

In true nomadic gamer fashion, I wandered over to EQ2 where I’ve barely played the past year or so. I know only a handful of people, no one from my personal guild. That’s alright. There’s lots for me to do and I started off by working on heritage quests because they scratch a nostalgic itch for both EQ1 and EQ2. The first day I completed In Honor and Service, An Axe from the Past, and Dragoon K’Naae of the Thexians. Today I completed War and Wardrobe, Restoring Ghoulbane, and Reaching blade of the assassin. This evening I’m working on The Rescue of the Green Hoods, and Training is a shield. I’m basically working through the giant list of heritage quests in order by level, starting with the lowest. I’d like to get back into doing groups and dungeons and the like, but I don’t have the faintest idea where to start. That’s not such a big deal because Chains of Eternity is not too far away, and I could (if I so wished) “start over” when everyone else was making the climb through the new expansion as well.

I’ve missed housing, a lot. In fact one of the main reasons I’m working through heritage quests is because I’d like to create a HQ room in my Norrathian Museum. My library now has over 600 player written books, by 300 authors. These are things I’ve spent years working on (quite literally) and take a lot of pride in. As much as I may dislike certain policies or actions by SOE in regards to their game, deep down it still offers me more than most of the other games I have on my plate. Of course in a week or two or three or a month or six months, I’ll change what I’m playing again. It’s just how I am.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Vanguard Update #VGD #Vanguardsoh

stargrace October 11, 2012 0Comment

Here is a list of the improvements that were released with today’s update:

General

The cap for sending currency via mail and COD mail has been increased to 30 plat.
Ships can now only be summoned in water depths of at least 5 meters.
The level of your defensive target is now displayed in the UI.
Character select now displays how many character slots are currently available on your account. Additional slots can be purchased through the Marketplace up to a maximum of 20 slots.
Rifting to a new location should no longer have a chance to drop you among aggressive NPCs who hasten you toward an untimely death.
Having a group member log out while the group is harvesting should no longer crash the zone.
You can now send a guild invitation to your defensive target.
The Kaon Loreck in Forest’s Heart should no longer be pretending to be merchants.

Marketplace

Check out the latest batch of new items available for purchase:
o Visage of the Pumpkin Man – Changes your character’s appearance into a spooky pumpkin horror.
o Visage of Vampire Von Guard – Transform your character into a bloodthristy vampire.
o Vanity Pet: Leopard (Minala) – Summons the leopard Minala to be your companion.
o Petamorph Dryad – Changes your shaman, necromancer, or ranger epic pet to look like a dryad.

Festival of the Grim Harvest

The description on the Chupacabry costume is now correct.
Flaps the bat should properly appear when summoned.

Quests

The quest “Using Evil” should now correctly target Kaon Soulshards.
Starspark Pearls will now drop while on the quest “Starspark Pearls” or “More Starspark Pearls”.
“The Hunter’s League” quest should now provide a belt as a reward for light fighters.
The quest “Not a Thief, Just a Killer” should now work properly for all races.
The quest “Elk Overpopulation” should now update correctly.
Vorille Wrought has escaped from the clutches of the Deep Dwarves and will now be able to update his quest.
The quest objective in “An Unseen Door” can now be completed properly.
The objective “Scout the West Arch” can now be completed on the quest “Scout Vsurog Moor (Ichtakhta)”.
Those speaking with the Traveler should now be able to accept “Who Are You?” upon completion of his previous quest.

Abilities

Casting “Expansive Mind” should no longer cause multiple animation and particle effects to play at the same time.
Casting “Siphon Blood” should no longer cause multiple animation and particle effects to play at the same time.
Rangers should no longer see extraneous animations play when using their stances.
The abilities “Power Attack V” and “Skin of Rakurr II” should no longer repeatedly play the auto-attack animation.
Animations have been removed from the rogue’s “Explosive Flechette” abilities in an effort to increase performance during raids.

UI Files Updated

VGUILoginWnd.xml
VGUIPlayerStatus.xml

Gaming

Head Start For Pirate101 Begins! #Pirate101

stargrace October 9, 2012 0Comment

The head start for Pirate101 has begun, if you’ve purchased one of their starter plans or set yourself up for a subscription you’ll be able to log into the game and play – the rest will be able to get into game when it fully releases on October 15th.

I played a swashbuckler in beta but wasn’t enthralled with the class, so this time around I picked a witchdoctor. I’ve only just started to make my way through the story and battles, but it’s a lot of fun. One thing that is NOT fun are players who go afk in the middle of a game or in the middle of a path of mobs and then you join in their game. Pirate101 (much like Wizard101) adds mobs based on how many ‘players’ are on the board at once, for a max of 4 ‘real’ players. That means if someone isn’t pulling their weight with encounters, you can be taking the brunt of most attacks. I had this situation happen for the first time this morning, a player decided to just sit in the middle of the very first place you happen to come across mobs. I stuck to the roads on either side after that, avoiding the first encounter and making my way to the second one.

I’ve already found a few pieces of upgraded gear and browsed through the ‘crown’ store. It seems more expensive than I am used to (compared to Wizard101), over 1,000 crowns for a single piece of gear, like shoes. Still, the combat is fun and playing as a strategy game instead of just pure hack and slash combat really appeals to me. Plus there’s boats, and boat combat. You really can’t go wrong with that!

I’m looking forward to posting more about my experiences as time goes on, if you happen to be playing and want to add me to your friends list you can contact me on Raptr (as Stargrace) and then IM me a ‘true friend’ code, they’re good for 48h each which should be plenty of time to log in.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Glitch is Giving Away Credits #GlitchGame

stargrace October 8, 2012 0Comment

I know, this contest requires facebook which some people are completely against, and I don’t blame them at all! BUT! Credits! They’re very handy in Glitch, you can use them to purchase neat furniture, or a new outfit for yourself.

So if you’d like 25 free credits, they’re giving them away. You do have to ‘like’ them on facebook. You’ve been warned!

“Do you like Glitch? Well now, we will like you back for liking us, to the tune of 25 credits. Check out www.glitch.com/account/bonus/ for details. “

(If you’ve never played glitch before and have no idea what I’m talking about, check out the game! I’ve got two free invites I can send you, just leave me a message with your email, or email me requesting one stargrace@mmoquests.com).

Gaming

It’s Fixed, It’s Really Fixed! #GW2 #GuildWars2

stargrace October 7, 2012 2Comments

Malchor’s Leap. The broken zone that caused the completionist in me to scream in pain every time I thought about Guild Wars 2. See, there was this single skillpoint that I just couldn’t get. Actually, very few people could. The NPC would move slightly each time you defeated it (it’s not really an NPC so much as it is a bow laying on the ground) and after a time or two it would vanish completely into the geometry of the zone. There it would stay, stuck, until the server restarted and it would rest in the proper place. I tried to log in right after a server restart in order to get this final skill point I needed for zone completion, but alas, it eluded me. For weeks.

I found it hard to move on to the Cursed Shore, a level 80 zone right next door and next on my list of ‘places to be’ for my story quests. I kept being lured back to Malchor’s Leap. Finally, this week the glitch was fixed, and I was able to log in and complete the zone. My little Asura is pictured above, cheering.

I understand that games have bugs and glitches and things go wrong but this one was a personal annoyance because it stood in the way of not only a large reward, but finishing something I really wanted to complete so I could (in my mind) move on. I’m glad I was finally able to.

More people are reaching 80 and I’m curious about how they’re spending their time. Completing the map? Playing alts? Crafting? PvP? There’s always lots to do, but which is your preference? I admit, since MOP came out (has it only been two weeks?) GW2 has become a less frequent visit for me – but I knew that it would since I’m comforted by the fact that I’m not ‘wasting’ money monthly if I don’t log in. Even if I were to never log in again, I’ve gotten more than my $60 worth out of the game so far (don’t worry, I’ll be logging in plenty, I’m a nomadic gamer remember).

I’m still not certain if I want to play an alt. I’ve been trying to harvest supplies for other crafters but I’ve found that if your character is above the level range of items you need to salvage (ie: leather and cloth in specific) it’s better to play an alt so they’re getting the actual items you need. Having looted gear scale to the players level is both a blessing and a curse, depending.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Pathing Back ‘Home’ #EQ2

Vanguard Update #VGD #Vanguardsoh

Head Start For Pirate101 Begins! #Pirate101

Glitch is Giving Away Credits #GlitchGame

It’s Fixed, It’s Really Fixed! #GW2 #GuildWars2

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