2013

Taking Care of Crafters #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace October 27, 2013 No Comments

EverQuest 2 does a fantastic job (especially compared to other games) of taking care of the population of crafters within the game. That is to say that there are lots of quests specifically for crafters, and if a player wants to craft and NOT adventure, it is doable. Special care is taken to ensure that crafters that are any adventure level can complete their quests.

There are also numerous achievements for crafters to complete, one involves finishing each of the tradeskill instances available from the Isle of Mara. Each day is a different instance, and they require you to craft 108 items and turn them in at an NPC. You can complete these instances in a group or alone, and they reward various crafting items, coin, status, and a token to purchase from a vendor in Mara. They’re also a great way to level up a crafter (you can start doing them at level 50+) because the combines require no components.

In order to get my achievement I only had one instance to go, the Shipyard located in Commonlands. As luck would have it, that was the instance yesterday and so I quickly purchased a port stone (from the vendor in Mara) and made my way over. When the zone completed I won a token, two pieces of crafting jewelry, a crafting book, and also completed the achievement which rewarded the item pictured above. A neat Nayad house item that can port you to the Village of Shin (which is in the Isle of Mara).

Crafters may feel neglected from time to time in EQ2 but that is only because they are used to NOT being neglected. We’ve come to expect it. EQ2 really does a fantastic job at catering to this type of player, and it’s important to remember that not all games do this. In fact, I’d be hard pressed to name even one that goes to the length EQ2 does (unless it is a purely crafting game, without the adventure component, those do exist).

I’m excited to see what Tears of Veeshan offers crafters, I’ve heard some things in the antonia_bayle.homeshow channel, but I’m trying to leave it as a surprise for myself. It won’t be too long now!

Heritage Quests: Scimitar of the Emerald Dawn #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace October 26, 2013 No Comments

I love heritage quests. They’re quests that are rich in history and lore, and typically originate in EverQuest (the first one, of course). One of the bonuses to completing these quests is that it rewards you a great looking item that’s relevant to its tier (typically, or at least it used to be, revamps have changed this quite a bit over the years), and a lot of personal and guild experience. They are a lot more involved than regular quests, and send you all over Norrath to speak with (and slay) fantastic creatures.

Torrent Knights (my guild on Antonia Bayle) is slowly inching towards level 70. We’re almost at 69, and I’m incredibly excited. At level 70 I plan on purchasing a T3 guild hall (yes, right before T4 is released, I know, but we’re a long way from meeting the requirements on that one) for us to use and decorate. As such, I’ve been trying to complete as many heritage quests, adventure writs, and craft writs as I can to nudge us closer.

I decided instead of working on Heritage quests from the easiest to the hardest (which would also be working from the least amount of status granted to the most) that I would start at the bottom of the list and work my way to the top. So far I’ve completed 37 on the list with Stargrace (who I consider at this time to be my ‘main’). Waters of Norrath was the latest heritage quest that was added with Chains of Eternity, and rewards players with a really neat cloak. The quest is quite easy and can be completed solo until the final fight which is to defeat Santii in Cobalt Scar. She has a horrible skill called ‘clinging mist’ that drains mana from the group and knocks them around, it CAN be interrupted but it’s quite a fast cast and it only takes one resisted spell to cause issues for the group. That does not mean it’s impossible, I’ve defeated her twice so far, neither time was with an enchanter (they can do some great stuns and have mana regen) or a bard, and neither time was with a full group. Of course having those things does make it easier.

My latest endeavour was to complete the Blessed Scimitar of the Emerald Dawn, which came out with Destiny of Velious.  The other neat thing about heritage quests is that they typically also reward you with a house item, either the item itself can change into one, or they’ll give you a second version. For the scimitar I actually got an appearance version (which is great, because the actual version is for fury /warden only), a house version, and the weapon itself. I also got a neat tombstone looking item that is a book. I put the house items in my museum, where I have an entire room dedicated to heritage quests.

I also completed Snowchipper, which was a really quick quest that also released with Destiny of Velious. That expansion was great for heritage quests, there were 6 released with the expansion, whereas there was only one released with CoE. I’m not sure if any are being released with ToV at this time.

Next on my list? The lodizal shell shield. Do you enjoy completing heritage quests? They make for fantastic guild events, especially if you can get multiple groups of people doing them.

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

Playing EQ2 and Raising Money for Sick Kids #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace October 23, 2013 No Comments

On November 2nd (which is coming up faster than I had expected) I’ll be participating in Extra-Life, raising money for local children’s hospitals. My hospital of choice is CHEO here in Ottawa, it’s the Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario. While I don’t personally have children of my own, many of my friends and their kids use these hospitals on a daily basis, and I wanted to be able to help.

I’m taking donations on my fundraising page, and I’ll also be livestreaming the 24 hours of gameplay on my twitch channel for the duration of the event. I won’t be playing EQ2 for the full 24 hours, but I will be playing it for the majority of the time. I’ll be starting my livestreaming at 4am EDT on November 2nd until 4am EST on November 3rd. That’s right, there’s an extra hour in there due to daylight savings – which gives me an hour ‘break’ to spread out through the day for stretching and bathroom breaks and what have you.

A huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me this far, and who has provided support. I’ve really appreciated it. November is a pretty busy month, I’ll also be participating in NaNoWriMo and writing a 50,000 word story, in December I’ll be publishing my second book, and also running the 2013 Gamers Secret Santa (look for details regarding that to follow).

Other games I’ll be streaming during the fundraising include Sims 3, Civilization V, Terraria, Hearthstone, and some smaller titles from my steam library. I’ll also be tweeting about my gameplay on my twitter account, so there are plenty of ways to get a hold of me and show your support or suggest a game for me to play!

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

Visiting Sentinel’s Fate #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace October 20, 2013 No Comments

It’s no surprise that I love running through older content, no matter what character I use. There’s just something about it that I find refreshing. Perhaps it’s the fact that the zones are typically less crowded (the exception lately being the areas that the new 85 heroics start at) or the neat stories I come across, or the memories of completing the zones back when they were much more difficult.

My second account has been around for years now, but until recently I never bothered to level anything up on it. I had a 77 fury who had patiently been waiting for me to start boxing again, and since rediscovering the account, start again I have. The account now has a 95 fury, 95 beastlord, 87 paladin (hopefully my next 95) and a level 30 coercer (that I may delete and start with a different mage, I’m not sure yet). This weekend I worked on the beastlord, since she was level 91 and still needed alternate advancement.

Ibeogur and myself ran through all of the old Sentinel’s Fate zones, completing the quests for each one. I completed the puzzles to the Vigilant zones which were a LOT of fun, and zones that I had probably not explored much because they used to be really hard to complete. This time I had no issues. I was also rewarded for my time with a lot of house items, something that’s never a bad thing. The beastlord doesn’t have a very fancy house yet, but when she does, it will be decorated up properly. It was a great relaxing way to spend a weekend, and I earned a lot of achievements for it too. The best part is that the guild dinged 68, which means we’re only TWO levels away from being able to purchase a T3 guild hall – that has been one of my dreams for a very long time now. When the guild only has three active players, this is a big deal.

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