stargrace

Brew Day in the Bar of Brell

stargrace March 17, 2007 0Comment

I shwere, it wash only one.. mebe two.. drinksh

I’m not one for drinking much in real life, but Stargrace and Silverstep have no such reservations. This Friday saw the start of Brew Day, in coordination with St. Patrick’s Day. One thing I do love about EQII is their ability to play upon little real life holidays and include them somehow in the world of Norrath with special rare events and house items (typically). Last year I’d already received the Everlasting Keg (at least on Silverstep) so this year it was time for the party keg. Looking through the world of Norrath as a drunk was very painful on my eyes. I’m glad it did not last that long. The effect is nauseating at best, but what can I say, I’m a sucker for house items. Silverstep recently lost all of her house items in a fire (also known as me miss-clicking the relinquish house button.. sighs..) so she’s starting from scratch. An excuse to decorate I say! She’s now the proud owner of four books, the new party keg, a monkey, and a robot. OH! Market board as well. Can’t forget that.

I’m planning on working up a new carpenter, perhaps one I can actually level over level 20 (since I’ve started a few) and I’m hoping this will innovate me to become more creative in my decorating. Not that I ever lack for housing ideas. Stargrace remains with the 5-room house, Dasie with an Inn room in Baubleshire where she’s refused to leave, and Silverstep with a new 3-room.

This weekend – joined a raid on Friday night that I wish I’d never joined. All sorts of warning signs blinked off before we’d even started. I was playing my templar, who is not as well geared as the other two level 70’s I have. I was the only healer in my group, and I was in the off tank group. I had no power regen (neither bard nor enchanter) and it just all went down hill from there. I was grouped with a guardian (who surprisingly enough was not the main tank) a zerker, an assassin, and a bruiser. Tough on the poor templar to say the least. I always prefer my fury healing groups rather then the slow casting templar. Templars are great for hp buffs, they’re great for mitigation buffs, they’re great for reactives, but when the MT goes down and the off tank has to step up to the plate, a lone little templar is not going to do squat. My second sign that something was wrong, was when I was 1-2-3 on the parse list for every fight. Templars should not be out parsing the MT healers, especially not shaman, and rarely druids. Not in an off tank group. I wasn’t even geared up vs. the raiding guilds actual healers. Granted, she does have M1 of all of her heals, but in an off tank group I can’t use any of my single target reactive spells or they’ll over write the inquisitor ones needlessly. There were only 6 healers, so I suppose being 3rd on the list below the mystic and inquisitor was not that bad, but I’ve played every single healing class in EQII, and I’ve raided for quite some time. Parse lists (if healers are doing their jobs) shouldn’t typically look like that – of course there are always exceptions, and the MT healers should typically be out parsing everyone.

I worked on various quests in the EoF zones, getting 91 ap on the illusionist, and 83 on the fury. They’re slowly finishing that portion off. The fury is also at 120 transmuting now, I mentored my 29 mystic and farmed Ruins of Varsoon for a while, collecting any adepts and masters I could find, as well as legendary. It’s slow going (to work the skill up) but it’ll be worth it for me in the end. I refuse to pay the outrageous price adornments are going for. I’ll have to start farming for tinkering again on the illusionist, I’m waiting for GU (game update) 33 to go in though, so that the resources needed are halved. Going to be nice.

Back in the swing of things

stargrace March 16, 2007 0Comment

A new pretty for Dasie

I’m slowly getting back into things in game, besides working up the lowbie quests in order to find supplies to cater to my transmuting needs, I’ve been edging my way into some small raids. I did the alliance raid for Deathtoll last week, and then a few days later was asked if I wanted to join in a Lyceum raid this Saturday night, as well as a Labs raid next Saturday. Last night having a small itch for a simple raid Shadowgeist set up a quick and easy courts run. Courts is T6, and can be completed almost with one group. We had about five guild members on and invited some random pick ups to fill the second group. There was only one small hitch.

I played both of the healers in the main tank group, and our only other healer was a fury for the second group.

Surprisingly enough, we only had one wipe, at the very end on the Queen. There was no power regen in group one, so fighting both named with out a power regen break proved to be a bit more then we could handle. We quickly rebuffed and finished her off, raid successful. Everyone ended up with something, which is the great thing about T6 raids. Between upgrades for alts, and crafting supplies that dropped, the majority of people ended up with a master or fabled item of some sort, and two crafting items each.

Since I was playing both the fury and the templar in the main tank group, I had my doubts. First of all could my computer even handle me raiding with two accounts? (answer to that is yes, on balanced settings none the less!) Could I keep the main tank (and the rest of my group) alive? There were a few fights that were close, it’s very hard to cure and heal at the same time, but we managed. I do not think I could play both MT healers in a T7 raid, especially not with the cures that are required (trama in labs for example). Was it fun? Yes! Stressful as well though.

Dasie’s second pretty of the night, a new belt

I know I’ve done the zone before with her, she’s gotten the hoop of endless time (a templar/inquisitor earring) in the past, it must have been before aa’s were awarded though, as she pinged two full aa while there and finally hit 44. Which is way far behind where I’d like her. On the plus side, she did get the aa ability called “blessing” which grants her group a 25% chance at more procs from items. A very nice aa. I’m hoping to get her to at least 50, I’ve not raided with her hardly at all since T5, she used to be my main character and I switched out quite some time ago. I’ve done a labs raid or two with her, but that’s about it. She hasn’t even started claymore, so unfortunately it looks as though I’ll be trying to at least catch her up to the illusionist and then I can proceed to work on it with both characters at the same time. She is my ‘old school’ EQII character, she has her prismatic 1.0 completed, the scepter of the scale (I think it’s called, I may be mistaken) and fought Darathar when she was level 45. That was pretty scarey way back when. She’s almost completed her Godking weapon, though I rarely ever see people doing that raid any more (mostly due to the huge hassle of farming eyes. If you’ve ever done that raid before you know exactly what I’m talking about). Again I think it’s a shame that the older quests get pushed behind and people rarely ever see that content any more. Even if they wanted to, it requires a raid.

Tonight I’ve been invited to a Freethinkers Hideout raid (with Dasie), I warned the guild who invited me that she’s not exactly geared up for that sort of raid (I should know, I played both the Fury and the Illusionist in Freethinkers in the past) although all of her heals (except one level 70 group reactive) are master quality at least. She also has a master of her hp buff, holy redoubt, which gives almost 1k flat hp. Playing a templar is very different from playing the fury. Where the fury can concentrate on group heals and fast casting times, the templar heals are exceptionally slow. It frustrates me some times because I’m used to fast casting times on my heals. The templar can heal a huge amount though, it just takes some time. They also have some of the nicer mitigation and hp buffs. The fury has one mitigation buff (that does not stack) and has no hp buffs at all (though they do have power buffs, where as the templar has none).

So we’ll have to see how tonight goes. Apparently this guild is looking for a raiding templar. Could be an opening for me if all goes well.

The Forgotten Zones – Nektulos Forest – Part I

stargrace March 15, 2007 1Comment

Silverstep hunting down Asilian Vandal’s in Nek Forest

There was one other person in Nektulos Forest today while I adventured around, so I consider this to be one of the forgotten zones. It could also just be my servers population, either way. Nektulos Forest is home to 130 individual quests. 26 of those drop from mobs, so if you happen to out level the zone, and are one of those who love to complete all quests, be sure to find someone to mentor. 13 of those quests are book quests, found in various locations on both the Qeynos and Freeport side.

The forest has been revamped in the past year, mobs have moved around and if you haven’t been there in quite some time, I suggest you take a new look. The owlbears have moved locations, as have the various treants. When I was first leveling up the most popular quests were the Maid of the Mist access to Enchanted Lands, as well as the access quest to Cauldron’s Hollow. Unfortunately the  requirement for access was removed quite some time ago, though the quest itself still remains for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

On my venture for level 20-27 items I picked up each one of the Far Seas Requisitions from the docks, they each reward a nice item that I can transmute. Quest is from a table. They’re pretty annoying now that I have no idea where half of the mobs are located, I’m seriously wishing my fury had track. I also picked up the quest from the Augur along the docks, and I went and visited Bandit Kleron Asana who had a series of quests for some level 20 gear (if you’re looking for gear that doesn’t cover the armor quest slots, be sure to visit him, he has earring and hat quests). Do people even wear quested gear any more? I’m not sure how good they are with all of the player crafted out there, but it’s transmutable none the less.

I made sure to complete the griffin egg quest, being able to fly across the zone is a nice luxury that wasn’t around when I first started. The grinnins seem to have moved their way from the falls and I could only find a few spread throughout. Nektulos Forest is home to quite a few instances. There is Nektulos Castle, then the castle 2.0 and the castle 3.0. There’s also the Bloodline Chronicles adventure pack zone behind the main waterfall, home of vampires and other evils. The wizard spires will take you to the Barren Sky, and you can also reach the Island of Marr from the docks. The docks also lead to the Enchanted Lands (what was once misty thicket if you’re familiar with EQLive), Lavastorm, and Thundering Steppes. You can also hang out by the harbor master and wait for the boat to take you to Butcherblock Mountain. The Commonlands grace the other end of the zone. I’ll have more quests and screen shots to post tomorrow for part II.

The comforts of two-boxing

stargrace March 14, 2007 2Comments

Silverstep and Stargrace hang out in Qeynos Harbor together now

Incase I have not mentioned it yet, I really am enjoying two boxing in EQII. With the shadowknight tank class around that my boyfriend plays, a fury and an illusionist (both who buff int, and haste / dps as well as spell procs and the like, can’t forget that power regen) the mobs die fast and there’s little to no down time. It was a good decision on my part I feel, especially with the amount of time that I play. So what have I been up to?

I need some transmuted parts for a heritage quest. They’re going for about 1-2p each piece, and I need 12 pieces per character. Needless to say I refuse to actually pay that. I decided that in the time it would take me to even come close to affording that, I could probably work my own transmuting to the skill required, then it’s just a matter of farming adepts and legendary T7 items to provide the powders I’m looking for. My skill in transmuting just reached 100, which is where the fun begins as I can no longer get skill ups from physically transmuting items, but now I have to make the combines in order to achieve them. Not looking forward to the slow grind, but it doesn’t bother me quite that much. I am farming the supplies myself with my lower level characters, Misako specifically who is level 27 and around the range I need for materials. This is the way I figure it:

There are pleanty of quests with item rewards (and coin) that I have not yet done. The ones from Antonica, Commonlands, Nektulos Forest, and Thundering Steppes off of the top of my head. If I mentor for turn ins but complete the quests while I’m level 70, it will help me in numerous ways. Giving me gear for transmuting, money for purchases, and on completion aa, which is always a huge deal. I need 19 more on the fury, and 10 more on the illusionist to hit my 100 for each character. Once I’ve finished all of the quests in each of those zones, I should (hopefully) be on the next tier of transmuting, where I’d do the corresponding quests and get more items / money / quest counts along the way. That’s my plan at least. We’ll have to see how it really goes. It’ll give me a lot of time to prepare my “forgotten zones” posts that I’d like to make as well. So much still to do, I love it. There’s lore and legends, the quest count, and signature quests that I’ve been trying to finish off. A few things there’s no sign I’ll ever be able to complete them (like the world event quest for marr’s chosen, which requires a level 50 raid zone, and those who are level 70 must mentor down or else they can’t zone in… which really sucks might I add). I’m certainly happy with my home in EQII.

Old Friends Remebered

stargrace March 13, 2007 2Comments

The former Torrent Knights, about to kill Chel’Drak

One unfortunate side to MMO gaming is the fact that eventually, everyone moves on. Whether you are a life-time MMO player or not, it’s very rare you’ll see people play the same game for more then a few years. The games evolve, the people change, and we all wander that path and head different places. Over my years of gaming (5 now) I’ve met some fantastic people. Those who have become my closest friends and who I talk to on the phone as well as in game. People who I send Christmas cards to and who I would have never met were it not for the online community that I’d found. The above screen shot is my former guild, Torrent Knights. Towards the end, I felt that the guild was headed towards self destruction, they’d been asking folks to leave who simply could not attend a certain amount of raids due to real life issues. I don’t typically last long in guilds, and especially not raiding guilds, but TK was different. They were a close bunch of people who I felt very comfortable around. It was not just raiding (though it eventually turned to that) but felt like home.

With the onset of Vanguard the core of the guild left. What was once a some what hard core raiding guild degraded into something far more casual where now perhaps 4-5 people hang out while crafting or working on forgotten quests (myself included). I won’t forget those I’ve met though, or the stories we shared. Is it silly to think of this virtual world in such a sentimental manor? Of course not. Online or not, the emotions and feelings you can discover are not any less valid then a real life friendship (at least in my eyes – granted I’m exceptionally emotional, so I can be completely wrong here).

So where do I go from here? Do I attempt to find yet another new home or do I wander around Norrath on my own and form new friendships and do those dreaded pick up groups (yes yes, I know not ALL pick up groups are bad). It took me almost a year to find TK and settle in there. I’m not looking forward to searching for another home. I’ve got my small level 9 crafting guild with my alts, but the level 70’s still sport the TK tag for now. I do miss raiding on occasion, and there are still a few raiding guilds on LDL. Just not sure if any interest me, or if any are recruiting the classes that I play. I think it’s a shame that a new MMO came out (beta in a box at that) and my entire guild fell apart. The leadership and officers also went about it in a pretty crappy way. One day TK was raiding fine, and two weeks later they were completely done. Such is the way of MMO’s I suppose.

On a side note – there are plenty of guilds who are thriving and doing just fine since Vanguard has released, and in the 20-29 channel it’s been teaming with people who have moved to EQII due to the issues they’ve had with Vanguard. I think half of my sentimental feelings about the loss of TK is simply because I’m watching the other raid guilds move on and do content that we’d never finished off.