March 2013

Stone Hive and Thoughts about Housing #EQ #EverQuest

EQ000008The beastlord 2.0 (and shadowknight) have managed to climb their way to level 42 after our play session today, just a nudge shy of where the 1.0 versions were at before we started over on Drinal. Things are going well. Today we spent most of our time in Stone Hive which was filled with people taking advantage of the hot zone experience. Once we were done I had more than enough bits and bobs to turn in to various NPCs and got quite a few upgrades.

When we had first started our adventures I turned on leadership aa because I wanted to take advantage of some of the perks those abilities give. However they take a substantial chunk of your over all experience away, they gain slowly, and the ability I want (health of targets target) is not even available until I’m much higher level so there’s no point quite yet. I fell behind almost a full level before turning it off and gaining experience like normal.

I’ve also been debating purchasing a house for my beastlord. I used to own one but I’m pretty sure I let the rent on it lapse and I haven’t set one up since. EQ1 houses are a lot of fun and you can get a lot of unique looks if you learn to work the mechanics properly. You can also use the houses for storage, something I can never have too much of.

Yesterday I also came to the conclusion that I wanted to create a shaman to level up for the specific purpose of one day making potions. The alchemy skill is level based and doesn’t unlock until 25 so I’ve got a bit of prep work to do first. Potions are nice to have though, and they can sell well in the bazaar as lowbies purchase them to make their leveling experience a bit easier (especially damage shields and mana regen).

Aside from that, things are going well. My trader has made almost 50,000 plat in offline mode which I’m pretty pleased about. Of course it all seems to just get spent on mercenary upkeep anyhow but hey every game needs its money drains.

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

The Combat Wombats take on Sorrow’s Embrace #GW2 #GuildWars2

gw827The Combat Wombats were down by one, so I volunteered to fill in the empty spot on their weekly dungeon run. This week we were exploring Sorrow’s Embrace, a level 60 dungeon located in Dredgehaunt Cliffs. The moletariat running the place became corrupt, influenced by the inquest, and enslaved their own kind into mining forever. So that’s where you come in. Or a group of you in any case.

This was one of the most fun dungeons I’ve been to in GW2 so far, but I haven’t completed them all yet. I think the guild had a great combination of classes and we did pretty well. There was really only one tricky fight and that was a particular boss who liked to spawn a golem every 25% on us. Each one would have a unique tactic, like fire or poison. It took us three attempts to get him down, but we did it (and there was much rejoicing).

The final boss fight was the best yet, as you can see by the Terminator 2 tribute in the screen shot above. It was a fight where it didn’t matter how “good” you were or what gear you were wearing, what mattered was paying attention to where you were standing, and then hurling these giant boulders at the named throughout the encounter to damage him.

Since the zone is level 60 and my guardian is 80 the final reward wasn’t of much use to me, but I still had an amazing time playing with fellow Wombats, and the rest of the loot was nice. None of it was really an upgrade but it’s great to be able to clear story mode dungeons so that you’re ready for the exploration mode ones (which I have yet to do). I’m still contemplating what I’d like to level up next. I’ve been playing more EverQuest than GW2 lately but that’s one of the pleasures of not having to pay for a subscription to GW2. At least I don’t feel like I’m ‘wasting’ any money. In any case, there’s the mesmer I’ve been leveling up as well as my new found love for the elementalist. I’m not sure if either of them will ever actually make it to level 80, but at least it’s a project to work on.

Nomadic Gamer