Mmm a new pretty for the blood mage
Satia hit level 16 yesterday, I did a few small quests with the help of my duo partner and then spent the rest of the time grinding away on some easy spiders I’d found, nestled into a little area filled with stones to harvest. Despite how everyone else feels about grinding and how it’s not very fun, I enjoy it quite a bit. I’ve got a whole lot of time to play though, hours upon hours, and I’ve got no issues whatso ever spending 5-7 of those working on some solo exp grinding. To those who say you can’t work up all three spheres and stay in tune with a lot of the players and their levels, I don’t think that’s true if you’ve got as much time as me. I’m pretty much caught up (or at least within the 2-5 level range) of anyone I’d want to group with, and though my crafting and diplomacy are behind, they’re not horrible and I can still do them all. Helps that I’m not playing the other 6 characters I have, that’s all, and again, just the simple fact that I have a lot of time on my hands.
The weapon above was my new pretty of the day, a quest that Raskolnikov got me started on. It had three portions, the first one to collect crates in a quarry north east of the starter npc. Turned that in easily enough and then the second portion had me kill thurmaturges. These mobs were annoying to find, especially because the area is quite small and you’ve got to battle other people who are roaming around trying to get the same quest done in their groups. An hour or two later and I was on the final part.
Kill Quarrymaster Krendal.
Easier said then done. First of all this guy has a place holder. A Quarry Overseer. He has two adds, one is a healer. He’s also a level 18 ^^^^ is on a 10 minute spawn timer. It took about 5 place holders before we finally managed to get him to spawn. Of course during that time other groups were roaming around, one annoying bard ended up taking agro from our placeholder while he was trying to kill his own 3 mobs and down he went (and then of course all of his mobs transferred onto me and my partner and down we went too). I do like that you can train in this game, it sort of makes the game more real to me. Not that I’m fond of doing it to others, but what’s the point of a game where you can’t physically interact with the world around you in that manor! Just my opinion, even if I did get mad that I died due to his adds.
So 45 minutes go by, and the named finally spawns. Of course, we can’t duo him (I’m with a level 19 monk and keep in mind I’m still level 15.. ) So we get some friends to help, a 20 blood mage, and a 20 cleric. Still took some time, but down the 18 ^^^^ went, and I went back to the npc and ta da, shiny new weapon to weild! There were a few other choices as well, a dagger, a one handed mace, a two handed hammer. I had a lot of fun with the quest. Got my level, and gated home to Tanvu simply because I’ve got no idea where any of the trainers are in New Targonor, and after running around the zone for the better portion of the day I just wanted to be some place familiar. It was a good day.
That’s one aspect of Vanguard that I love the most. The fact that the world actually is alive. In WoW, even if you play on a pvp server, the chances that you’ll find a lot of world pvp (my favorite type, I hate battlegrounds which are pretty much just instances of pvp) are slim to none. Everyone is hiding out in instances and doing battlegrounds.
The same can be said about EQ2. The chances of me running into a whole lot of people besides those farming things, are slim to none, everyone is off doing instances. Raids are restricted to 24 people so guilds are kept small. Everyone’s learned to use the /lock command so if someone’s running by I can’t even help. Mobs can’t be trained, or at least it’s very difficult, so I never felt like I was playing an MMO quite as much as I have felt with Vanguard, which then also has all of the complexities that I enjoy.. though at times I think they’ve taken it a wee bit too far.. (Four different sets of gear? Oy.. my bags are crammed with different sets for different spheres.. )
I hadn’t really realized what the mantra “No Instances!” was going to mean until I started adventuring in Telon.
This world is alive. You can lose your mobs if someone gets there first, and they have every right to do so. You might get trained so you have to be careful; on the flip side you can help out people in trouble much easier, and it even makes sense to do so.
Compared to EQ2 for example, the world is much more alive. I remember the comments about we’re all playing a single-player/one group game; with other people who just don’t matter in the slightest. Someone getting chased by a mob ? Let them run it off. You might not be able to help them anyway due to encounter locking and such. And trains ? Not in EQ2.
Now I want to get your life, where you have time for more than one sphere of this game :) .