stargrace

Looking smart in bronze…

stargrace April 4, 2007 0Comment

Flirt, the berserker armorer looking smart in her new bronze gear

So yesterday was the day for crafting (and for me slacking on my posts, go figure). Tulips hit level 20 carpenter, Flirt hit level 20 armorer and then early this morning before the servers came down Misako hit 34 tailor. I’ve also been working on Stargrace’ tinkering, she’s into T4 now which makes me quite happy. It’s not nearly as painful now that they’ve halved the ingredients that you require. Still have to farm for loam and hard metals, but it’s bearable. Above, the one tank I have on both accounts, my berserker. Who’s level 5 and will more then likely stay there for a good long time. I really don’t enjoy playing tanks at all. Most people who know me know that. They’ll ooohh and aaahhh over the 7 other alts I have, and realize that something’s wrong with this one.

A friend of mine from EQLive may be coming to try out EQII, which is always a great thing to hear. Hopefully they want to stay and the population of Lucan D’Lere will have at least gone up by one. I miss having someone to play with fairly constantly. People move on, or friendships change, or real life happens and all that good stuff. Interrupting my gaming! Go figure.

Did poets yesterday with Kaeros, a ranger from guild. He ended up dying, not his day. I played it first with my fury and then accidentally left the zone. Not my day either apparently. Played a shadowknight for the remainder. The typical trash dropped, those glimmering bracelets that are more transmute fodder then anything else, some no trade fabled. Though Kaeros did win himself a level 57 master to sell. The market has been absolutely slow as snails lately. I have about 10p left on both Silverstep and Stargrace, and some change on the alts but nothing more then that. Things are just simply not selling.

On a side note, it’s raining out side and I absolutely love it. In fact it’s supposed to rain all week for the next 7 days. More ramblings another time!

The Idol of Everling, cutemode, and raids

stargrace April 2, 2007 1Comment

Stargrace, placing the dolls for the Idol of Everling – another house item!

Since Silverstep lost her house and all of her belongings (sighs, 2 years worth of house items including the rare griffin tower live event items and other random goodies) I decided I’d work on Stargrace’ house in the mean time. She was missing two knick nacks, the ship in a bottle (from the fallen dynasty quest, located on the docks in TS by the Island bell, examine each one of the crates and then hail the npc there and he’ll talk to you), as well as the Idol of Everling from Nektulos Castle 1.0. That’s right the simple level 30-ish zone was given a lore quest a few months back that I fell in love with. More status reduction (I own a house in South Qeynos, closest to the Harbor zone line if you’re ever peeking in on Lucan D’Lere feel free to check it out, door is always open) is always a great thing. I’m looking to have a whole lot of house items crafted as well, a friend having supplies me with about.. 35 T6 rares as a thank you for my contribution to a few raids. One consistent thing with me in EQII has been my some what (sick) obsession with house items. I’d do the sword of destiny quest series just for the house item reward.

This weekend was fairly typical, I raided on Friday, as well as Saturday and Sunday. Sunday was Lyceum and Chel’Drak. The guild I was with had never attempted Chel’Drak before, and they managed to get him to 49% their first visit. Which is simply amazing from my point of view. It is a very difficult encounter with five separate types of adds, as well as two aoe’s, plus Chel’Drak himself. They were one short in the raid, using their guilds back up tank, and we could have used a few more power regenning classes. It was still a very successful learning experience though, and honestly that’s all a first attempt is. It’s where you learn the encounter, where to position and what your role is in a raid. It made me miss TK a lot, and the way we used to operate, the time we took into learning these encounters.

I’ve been crafting slightly. Hoping to get my carpenter up a few levels, as well as the sage and the alchemist. I’ve been slacking far behind. I did end up playing my mystic (going to betray to defiler) for the better portion of Sunday morning, and she hit level 32 (almost 33) which is the longest I’ve had a mystic I think. I typically get bored and end up deleting them to make room for other characters. No news yet on the exact days that server transfers are going to be available, but that’s a big deal lately as well, as everyone from my old guild who remained is planning on leaving the server as soon as it’s allowed. I don’t blame them. I think I’ve decided to move one character to the new server they all transfer too (probably my templar) and keep the rest of my characters on Lucan since things are picking up slightly. I have some friends in Marauders who are working for me to try to join the guild (previous posts explain why I’m allowed to raid with them, but not join their guild) and a lot of people think it’s foolishness that I’m not allowed to wear the tag after offering so much to their raids. I still understand though and hopefully things work out. I just want to be able to raid.

Oh, yes. For april fools day.. everyone had enormous heads. /Cutemode has been in game for as long as I can remember, but typically not by default, lol. It was fun to hear everyone’s comments on it. There was also a goblin who would go around rez’ing people who had died. Which actually proved to be more of an annoyance then anything else because he will spam your screen even when you are not dead. In the Chel’Drak raid it was also very deadly if people choose his rez vs. the revive option. It would summon the entire raid into his room and wipe us all (again). I can’t wait until they remove that foolishness. It’s not april fools day any more (speaking of which, my birthday is in two weeks – I feel so old! Even if 26 isn’t that old *grins*)

The Sage of Ages and to Speak as a Dragon, old friends revisited

stargrace March 31, 2007 0Comment

Stargrace in the Maiden’s Gulch, visiting an old friend

It’s been a while since I’ve needed the Sage of Ages for anything, but last night after the Freethinkers Hideout raid I attended a few friends of the guild I was with asked for help with a MG run (Maiden’s Gulch) so I volunteered to help out. The zone is quite simple, especially when you have two groups of level 70’s mentored down to 48. 48 is the level you would have originally had to do the quest at, and I remember it being pretty tough for T5 at the time. The zone has only one encounter, a group of drakes, a named in there with an elemental dot. Since we were mentored the named was yellow, and dropped a metal chest with a dagger, grats to whomever won that.

The sage himself is located at the back of the tiny zone, hailing him presents you with the beginning of to speak as a dragon, where he sends you to visit Nagafen down in Sol. Eye. Of course Nagafen won’t speak to you, as the kind giant standing beside them tells you (and you’ve gotta speak giant as well). So typically off you head to the Sage in Antonica, who then sends you all over Norrath (old world Norrath, none of the new zones) to collect 20 runes. Completing this quest not only allows you to progress the prismatic 1.0 series (if you so wish) but also allows you to speak draconic which is needed for DT access, as well as Claymore (the last quest in SoS, to read the runes on the floor). It’s one quest that’s spanned pretty much every expansion, and one of the few “old world” quests that I hear people doing some what consistently just because it is used in multiple quests. I actually wish more quests were like this. No, I do not enjoy running all over looking for 50 statues in old world zones like the Sword of Destiny chain is having people do, but I do enjoy newer quests that require you to have completed some significant quest in the past. It motivates people to continue doing those quests to begin with.

Before the Sword of Destiny series was released in parts, there was huge speculation that it would require you to have both prismatic 1.0, Godking, and Claymore completed. A lot thought this would be completely unreasonable, but I think it was a pleasant idea. Granted, there’s almost no way for the lore to work out encompassing so many expansions and level ranges, but it was a nice idea to me none the less. I know a lot of people are more pleased to hear that this is not true any how, you don’t need all the previous quests done in order to progress it. In my eyes it’s still nice to have people visiting those rare (and lengthly!) quests from the past. I miss the T5 dragon raids in Feerrott, for the prismatic 1.0 quests, and the one in Antonica, and Fallen Gate. The days of King Drayek raids and the Vision of Vox contested in Permafrost. Ah, things change so much.

It’s the little things that count

stargrace March 30, 2007 1Comment

Silverstep (or is it Stargrace?) looking out into the Silent City

The zone pictured above is probably one of my very favorite zones, Silent City. I also adore the Living Tombs and they’re rarely ever populated any more. These zones were used mostly to complete one of the nicest weapon quests in game (for healers, this is still the most widely used weapon if you were around when DoF came out), of course I’m talking about the Godking weapons. But like a lot of the lower tiered quests (large ones especially) very few people ever end up working on their godking weapons, or seeing any of the zones related to it. I think a lot more people would continue to work down the peacock chain of quests (long, much like the claymore series, and more then the prismatic 1.0 Darathar series) if they did a few key things. One would be to remove the ‘eyes’ you need to farm for entrance to the raid zone. The final quest sends you into the raid zone to defeat a big baddie like most quests do, this zone is locked and you have to farm multiple eyes from epics in the Silent City, that have a chance and dropping and don’t always drop. It’s a long tedious project. In fact in the past when my guild mentioned we were going to farm eyes for the night, about 50% of the guild would suddenly drop link from “thunderstorms” or “bad connections” or have an emergency suddenly sprout up, and I did not blame them at all. Farming eyes was not fun.

The whole peacock series itself though, is quite fun. There’s interesting lore behind it all, and you get to visit a lot of places, do a lot of timed quests. I still have vivid memories of running around Living Tombs on the timed parts, and collecting rotting food (which is the part my templar is still on). But there’s really no point in doing the quest if I don’t intend on finishing it. I wish more guilds worked the chain. I think the same thing about the prismatic 1.0 quests. How many people have seen Darathar on the island of refuge. I would say almost everyone level 70 who quests to any degree has probably started the prismatic 1.0 series by completing ‘To Speak as a Dragon” because the language quest is used in numerous other quests. It requires you to run around and collect various runes, and you get to make that oh so fun run to Nagafen’s lair.

I suppose when people are bored they may try to complete some of the older quest lines, but between the Claymore series and the Sword of Destiny series, and all of the new EoF quests out there… is there any real point?

Game update 33 goes live, and what’s up with guilds lately

stargrace March 29, 2007 0Comment

Silverstep, on her way to Unrest

First of all, I have to vent. I really hate how a lot of guilds are lately, in their treatment of non-guildies. One issue in specific, would have to be asking / letting someone join on a raid – only to tell them (or not tell them at all) that the raid is actually full, and they’re no longer needed. This is an issue that has happened to not only myself, but a few friends of mine, and not just one isolated incident, with one guild, but at least three, with three separate guilds. Mine typically goes along the lines of standing around waiting for a raid invite, then the raid zones in, uninvited, after being invited along. Which is the same thing that’s happened to a few other TK’ers. One even went so far as to sign up 12th for a raid, and was denied a spot on it. Not because they’re a horrible player, but simply because in the end ‘there was no room’, even if they registered and it was organized ahead of time that they’d be able to go.

I think my largest concern is that the guilds doing this do not even have the curtsey to SAY something to those involved, but leave them standing around watching the raid force zone in. I realize that organizing a raid is a difficult and time consuming thing. I realize running one means you’re constantly heading in ten directions at once, and things can get confusing, but what happened to having a little bit of humanity and taking some consideration for those who are dedicating their time (and efforts) to help out on said raids? It frustrates me to no end. I’m a good raider, and a good player. I’m not the best, there’s always better out there, but I’m adaptable and know my stuff. I wish I didn’t have to prove that to every single person out there and was given the benefit of the doubt. Anyhow, enough of that rant.

The game update 33 went in yesterday, and I absolutely love what they’ve done to macros. I don’t use a whole lot of them, but I do have macros for divine arbitration on the templar, as well as her sanctuary spell. In the past, these macros have never shown what the recast on the spell was, since you choose a separate icon to display it. Which meant that some where on another hotbar, I’d have to stick sanctuary and DA just so that I could watch the recast timer and know when it would be back up. Annoying, to say the least. I also have macros for my mez’s, depending on the situation. I don’t want to spam my groups with macros obviously. My +168 temporary int buff is also on a macro, as well as Savante, a 52 illusionist rare that reduces mana consumption by 56% for a limited amount of time. I’ll certainly be playing with the functions as time goes on and figuring out the best macro methods for me.

The next sword of destiny quest was also released. Not looking forward to that, I haven’t even completed the first two yet. Slacker, I know. I’ve had a lot on my plate lately both in game and out, so I’m moving a little slower. I finally got around to making food and drink, but other then that have not crafted. Transmuting I worked on slightly, but not a lot. My other smaller crafters have been fairly neglected, but I’m sure I’ll pick it back up. Still not much word yet on the incoming server transfers. I haven’t made up my mind yet about where to go (or whether to just stay). Yesterday morning was fun, just before servers came down I heard that the unicorn (level 60 epicx2) who paths around the Obelisk in LesserFaydark, was up. I poked a friend of mine and asked him if he wanted to duo it with me boxing the illusionist / fury. With only 15 minutes until down time it was a little pressed, but down she went (is the unicorn even a she? I’m not sure.. how do you check that?) and dropped a master chest. I was hoping for the cloak, but instead got a dagger which was of course no trade. I would have ran my assassin down to pick it up, except servers were about to go down in four minutes, so I rolled and won it, and transmuted it. I did get the rare mana component out of it so I suppose that’s better then nothing, but it would have been a pretty upgrade for the assassin (if I ever level her).

Tinkering supplies have been cut in half. I love it. There are also new tinkered adornments out there, mob drop recipes only, I haven’t seen one yet, I’d imagine they’re very expensive. Much like everything these days. With a lack of crafting and farming in general, my funds are slowly dwindling. Oh well, not as if there is that much for me to purchase out there anyhow.