Cazic-Thule Has Been Working Out #EverQuest
stargrace 
I logged into the guild hall today, and the statue above is what I saw. Cazic-Thule, with his bits covered by a shield. I laughed for a good 10 minutes.
Ah yes, it’s the simple things.
2013
Moving to Exodus #WurmOnline
After two years on Deliverance I decided it was time for a bit of a change. I love the server but it’s quite small and after so much time there I’ve gotten to know the layout of the land quite well. I spotted a deed for sale on Exodus, a server that is about a 5 minute sail from my current Deliverance deed. The price was quite low, and it came with a few bits and bobs on deed although it doesn’t have a trader like I wish it had, it’s a nice place. Of course there was some drama before I could actually take over the deed but I was aware that the two players I was purchasing from are known for this sort of thing. It was sorted without too much pain, and now I am a proud owner of a second deed once more. I’ll be keeping the Deliverance deed simply because it has a trader that I want to take advantage of, but for the most part I expect that I’ll be living on Exodus full time.
One of the main reasons I wanted to move as I mentioned above is that I love to explore, and I feel that I know Deliverance quite well now. Exodus is the same size map, but it’s also close to celebration where I lived for a few months back when the server opened and I’m right on the North West coast which means getting to Chaos is very simple. In fact the only server that is an enormous pain to get to is Independence, which I’m alright with.
I may try to sell one of my priest characters in order to afford a trader on Exodus, then both deeds are covered quite nicely. It’s not an uncommon thing to do, and honestly I was just using the character to collapse mine tunnels (which I no longer really have a reason for, as those mines are off-deed).
My first days on Exodus were spent making my new deed a ‘home’. I don’t like the look of birch trees so I cut them all down and replanted maple. There is a fence around the deed but part of it was a low iron fence and the other half a tall stone wall. So I took down a portion of the iron fence and replaced it with the tall wall. I placed some flags around the outside of the deed (horde of the summoned, which are a deep purple) and did some terraforming. There is a large empty section in the middle of the deed that I’m contemplating turning into a farm, and there’s a section with cattle that I think I’d like to remove because I have no real use for them. I’d rather breed horses since they’re useful and they provide leather like cows do.
Two of the guest houses were made from wood and I prefer stone, so I tore them down and turned it into one large cottage. I’m just finishing off the roof and then I can move on to the next project which is making use of a large open space in the center of the deed. I’m not sure what I want to do with it yet, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.
I’m enjoying the new server so far. I think a change was exactly what I needed. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
1 to 300 Tinkering #EverQuest
Despite what it looks like in the above screenshot, my enchanter is a gnome. I’m usually running around in one illusion or another, for this one it’s a dark elf because the shield I’m wearing tends to clip through my arm otherwise (it’s a player studio item that just recently released and I think it’s really nice). One of my goals was to reach 300 in tinkering, not an overly difficult task, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. I ended up spending some, and I’m sure there are easier paths, but this is the method I went.
- From 1-52 visit Matrum Geerlok in Crescent Reach. This is the freebie crafting quest and it will get you started.
- From 1-102 I made stalking probes.
- From 103-148 I made aqualung (keep these, you’ll need them)
- From 149-175 I made rebreather
- From 176-208 I made innovative bow cam
- From 209-232 I made geerlok automated quill
Then things got difficult. I started farming loams to created sacred symbols, but this requires doing a quest to get patterns and I didn’t really want to do that. So I bought a craft potion from the marketplace for 1,000 station cash which gives you a buff for two hours that allows you to salvage 100% of all failed combines.
From 233 to 300 I made a combination of Tick Tock Sticky Bombs, repeating crossbow bolts, and repeating crossbow. The lumber for the crossbow was incredibly cheap and I gained most of my skill ups from this item. It took over 500 combines to get from 250 to 300 but I didn’t mind since I was using the potion and salvaging. There’s a wonderful guide that gives different skill up routs, but I didn’t really like the amount of farming it has you do. Make sure you do the tinkering trophy when you reach 52 so that your tool will level up with you and you won’t be forced to make the artisan’s seal and old trophy before moving on to the new one like I did. In fact it’s pretty important if you want to start crafting to make ALL your beginner trophies before moving up through the tiers, unless you really want to create 7-8 artisan seals and complete the old trophies and then do the master trophies of the new type.
The only craft I have left to get to 300 is research, and this one is a costly endeavor. I’m currently at 260 but each combine costs almost 1,000 plat in vendor sold items and there’s no way around this. The ‘best’ way I’ve seen to get to 300 is to create the Glowing Energeiac Rod, which is by no means cheap and requires a lot of sunshard ore. However if you’ve got the money and the ore it’s not that big of a deal. When I’ve saved up some more supplies I’ll attempt research again but for now I’m taking a slight break from it.
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
Plane of Shadow #EverQuest
Now that I’m level 100 I get to play with the big kids, in big kid zones. Last night that involved the Plane of Shadow. I’ve been working on earning alternate advancement points now because I’m well below the current cap. My enchanter has barely 1300 aa to her name – but you get a bonus to earning them up to 4,000 so it shouldn’t take too long to at least reach that many.
We camped a room filled with non aggro dervish and some shadowblade’s with the prospect of two named. We also spotted a named beetle outside so we left the camp briefly for that. It was a pretty relaxing evening, I managed to obtain T3 sleeves, pants, and wrist as well as a new cloak and some spell motes. I don’t have all of my rank 2 spells yet, the motes have simply been too expensive. It was neat to see named still con red to me at level 100 although we didn’t really seem to have any trouble.
When I’m not actually killing mobs I enjoy roaming around looking for shinies. EverQuest added them in this latest expansion and while I was disappointed at first with their rewards, it’s hard not to run out and try to find them all. Addictive by nature I suppose, especially since my EverQuest 2 days. I really wish they rewarded house items or something of the sort, but it’s not a big deal.
I’m looking forward to spending some time in other Rain of Fear zones and hopefully before too long I feel a bit more useful to a group. Enchanters are nice, but they’re a rarely played class, these days.
As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!
Ding, Level 100 #EverQuest
Ah yes, Sunday of double exp weekend, where everyone and their dog is grinding experience in little camps all over Norrath. It wasn’t exciting, but it was.. well. It was EverQuest. It’s exactly how I remember the game being. This is a good thing, although I know it’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea any more to spend hours upon hours grinding in a single spot. We got a lot of talking done which is something I also don’t see in very many other games any more. I value that more than the actual levels gained.
My enchanter reached level 100. For the first time ever in my 10 years of playing EverQuest (off and on, mind you) I’m actually at the current cap. I’ve come close before but usually the cap goes up JUST as I’m about to reach it. This year I’ve reached more of my EverQuest goals than ever before, and I couldn’t be more pleased. One was to reach 300 in each of my crafts (technically I still have tinkering and research to go, but I’ve made a good start) and the other was to reach 100 on at least one character. Possibly more but we’ll see how that goes.
Being at the current level cap certainly doesn’t mean that I’m “done” now either. There are over 11,000 aa to obtain next (I have 1.3k which is a tiny amount), crafting trophies, achievements, and much more. I’m also trying to decide which character to level up next during off peak hours when friends are not around. I tend to waver back and forth between a handful of my alts, which I’ll probably continue to do.
Wulfrik, Elte, Oger, and myself settled in for a long camp at Cobalt, a named wyvern in Shard’s Landing. Later on we were joined by Faliin, a necromancer. I wasn’t the only one who saw the benefits of the double xp weekend, Oger inched his way from 92 to 99, and Wulfrik reached 100 with his shaman and gained quite a few levels with his ranger. Still, a break after that much of a grind is a good thing. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and had a great time! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.