stargrace

Simply Charming

Stargrace, lounging in Qeynos Harbor

It seems my ‘to do’ list in gaming is growing by the day, and very little of it is actually getting accomplished. Though I have having a blast, so what does it matter, it’s all about having fun, right?

Tonight was Labs, we wiped on some silly trash stuff that shouldn’t have killed us. It seems the more we master a zone, the more we actually tend to slack off on it, and then we die foolishly. We had an easier time in Deathtoll then labs, because deathtoll people still concentrate (some what) for. The raid was over in less then two hours. Fastest I think we’ve ever done it and we only had three groups.

Yesterday, we killed for status, and the guild hit 55. Slow going, but we’re not exactly trying. Courts is always fun to raid. We also killed a contested silver dragon in Pillars of Flame, a zone I remember well on my templar and even the warden, but had barely ventured into with the illusionist, not even completing any of the KoS quest content. Then with the silver and gold scales that drop in poets palace, we took down the dragons in Maj’Dul, They didn’t give aa, or status, so it was just for fun. I actually got a hat upgrade from courts, the circlet of living fire. How could T6 stuff possible be an upgrade? Easy.

If you’re a caster (a mage or even a bard) class, you live for proc’s. Triggered items are your best friends. Bards love them because their skills are not combat arts for the most part, they are actual spell. So those trigger procs that go off when you cast a hostile spell, go off when a bard plays one of their many songs. I tend to keep synergism on the troub. in my group, and they’re parsing close to 1k on every encounter. So anyhow, this circlet, has a fire proc. It’s great for me, I can synergism myself, have the fire proc from the hat, as well as the proc from grizzfazzles staff (spelling on that, it’s been a while) and I’m missing some claymore quest line proc’s (that I’ll get eventually) and an earring that can proc.. as well as my bone clasped girdle. You add all those proc’s up, plus the bard’s mastro and a wizard’s proc, with my perpetuality aa line.. well.. it’s fun, lets just leave it at that.

I also (shamefully) spent about 3p on collection pieces today, for two collections. One rewarded me with a chess board for my house, the other a torture chair.. pictures to follow soon as I find a better section of the house to place these items in! I adore my house items. Speaking of which, I hired Mishanna from guild to make me 11 more rare items for Stargrace’ 5 room.. it may not be as nicely done (yet) as Silverstep’ place. But it’ll get there with time!

Dom of the Elani, and Stargrace’ first Deathtoll

HAPPY NEW YEAR

A new year and a new beginning. A new blog and hosted site. It’s not quite 2007 yet, there’s less then an hour to go though. What am I doing here rather then uh.. well anywhere else? Hrms. I like the quiet. We’ll leave it at that.

Dom of the Elani, what a sweet item to have if it were only a level or two lower.. *grins* another part to a chain of quests. I’ve got the final quest to the chain on me and hopefully I’ll be completing it soon, you have to go to Freethinkers Hideout, which is a x4 raid instance in Loping Plains. As you’re fighting mobs and clearing the first and second named, there are combustible walls and the zone fills with werewolves. There’s a chest that you can click for the final update. Rewards are one of a few legendary items, an upgrade to those who don’t already raid, but in my opinion, if you’re in (and clearing) Freethinkers to begin with, you’re already wearing better. So not really a good reward for the risk. Oh well, it’s aa!

Speaking of aa, Stargrace did Deathtoll today. Managed to get her buff for one lucky group mate to have 25% double attack on both melee and ranged attacks. Very nice if you ask any of the brawlers especially in guild. Also got a relic robe and pants for her, not feeling quite so gimpy now and getting used to her being my actual main rather then just an alt. We’ll see how it goes!

Back to raids, house items, and quests!

Stargrace’ merry little fireplace

After almost a month of no raids, Torrent Knights picked things up again last night. Wow, were we rusty. It happens of course. We also had a few of our newer members join us, not to mention the fact that it was my first raid with the illusionist vs. whatever else I typically play (warden, fury, templar, coercer). We didn’t dive right into the EoF content (though we will be today) but instead spent some time in Halls of Seeing, then after once the raid had broken down (as it typically does once one zone is cleared) we took the two remaining groups and did Roost, as well as Crab from Fallen Dynasty. Today we’re supposed to be attempting Chel’Drak and Clockworks.

I was a little bit worried that my illusionist would some how jeopardize the raid because she’s not nearly as nicely geared as most raiders. It will come in time, of course. I didn’t want to be dying every 10 minutes (it was more like 15) or putting anyone at risk. It seemed to go well though. We’ll have to see how Chel’Drak goes today. I wish my illusionist had completed Nizara, as it’s a portion to a quest I need that rewards a very nice ring, two in fact if I completed Chel’Drak too. I did get a pair of gloves as an upgrade though, and from Roost a back up pair of boots, as well as a house item for completing a quest. Achievement experience of course, three points last night which was just fantastic.

With Shadowgeist taking the week off from work, I’m looking forward to completing some of the things I’ve neglected on my Illusionist. I need Deathtoll access still on her, as well as my class hat which I’ve slacked so far behind on. I also want to progress claymore a little more, at least getting out of SoS. We’ll see how it all goes. I doubt I’ll complete everything I want, but maybe at least one of the three. It’s difficult to go from a fully geared / mastered character to one that’s not nearly as nicely geared, but I know with some effort and time it won’t take long.

So, what’s next

A view of New Tunaria at night, beautiful place

So Christmas is done (at least in real life, I’m sure we’ll be listening to the Frostfell music in EverQuest for a few more months yet), and the tree is down. What’s next? I’ve been thinking a lot about where I want to head in my gaming. There are a lot of choices. Do I want to keep playing WoW (which I’ve barely played, lets be honest) am I going to try Vanguard? What about Eq2?

So far I’ve come to very few conclusions. I think I will try Burning Crusade when it comes out, even though my WoW characters are only 40-47 or so. I just want to see the content. I’m sure new servers will also be coming out, and it would be nice to attempt to sink myself into a guild. I think I’d like the game a lot more if I didn’t have to spend all my time listening to “hey pl me fgt!” or some other such annoying comments.

Vanguard, coming out shortly. A lot of people I know are going to give it a try, and I will as well. I want to see if it lives up to the hype I’ve heard. A lot of people have said bad things about it who have tried the beta, and again there’s the flip side where I’ve heard a lot of good stuff as well. Best to make my own judgment call.

Everquest2.. well. Here I’m some what lost. Or at least pulled in many directions. The 70 templar fury and illusionist, I am going to play off and on, and try to max out their aa’s and complete all of the heritage quests they’ve yet to do one at a time. Maybe not the harder epic ones, but the ones I can do at least. I’d like to work on getting the necromancer to 70, she’s sitting at 51 right now, almost 52. I’d also like to get the sage (also the necromancer) and the alchemist (the assassin) to level 70 crafters. There are smaller projects I’d like to complete too, the illusionist needs DT access, and claymore, which I’m dreading and not even sure I want to work on *shudders*

So those are the smaller things. I’d also like to work up a carpenter. Everything is sort of balancing on the possibility of playing other games though, so who really knows what I’ll be up to. Raids start again this week at least, but I wish we still cared at all about doing the older (Older? KoS is not that old) zones, like HoS, Labs, Lyceum, DT, etc. We’ve all but forgotten those zones since EoF came out. I realize that it’s also in large part due to the fact that most of the loot from those zones ends up rotting, but status and raids are good practice no matter the levels. Why neglect the other T7 zones just because three new ones were added? I suppose I just don’t get it. I also hate the fact that my alts can’t be in the guild with my raiding character, since I am typically on my alts doing various things. It separates me from the guild, and I hate it. Even if they just let in the level 70 alts we all had, I think it would make a difference. It’s depressing only seeing 29 accounts total in a guild, and on the channel we have set up there’s 10 others who are on their alts. Sorry for the venting.

I’m going to be trying to set up a site much like ogaming (which no longer works as most have found out) or eq2i.com but a more user friendly version, with the quests that I’ve done and helpful hints in there. Not sure when / if it will take off the ground yet, but in time it should. I’m tired of having to search through 100 different half-formed data bases in order to find the information I need. I absolutely hate pop up ads that appear on one such site as well.

More rambling to follow!

The G15 Logitech Keyboard

Santa was good to me this year, what a busy holiday. I’m safe and sound back snug in my home, with visions of… keyboards? Dancing in my head. One of my presents this year was the G15 gaming keyboard, by logitech. Which is pretty spiffy. Except. EQ2 doesn’t support it what so ever. It’s got an lcd screen, which can display various ‘things’, if any were supported. It’s also got programmable buttons.. for macro’s.. again, if any were supported.

Wait, that’s not exactly true. You CAN use them for macros – if – they use one of the three hotbars you have that come with key commands already. Ie: Those alt 1 alt 2 control 1 control 2 keys. But no more then those three. See, unlike WoW, where you can bind every single hotkey to your own personal command, EQ2 doesn’t give you that option. I know, the g15 has been discussed up one side and down the other, if it’s breaking user / game agreements, if it’s ‘cheating’, blah blah blah. But it’s just a gadget, much like any other gadget out there.

 I did find a use for it in eq2 though. Oh yes. My parse program, ACT, supports the g15 keyboard. And it will also time aoe’s for you. So on those icky raids where the mobs are tossing out aoe’s every 45 seconds or 30 seconds, it will tell you when they’re about to hit. Giving you time to back out of the way, if you’re in any way squishy, which I typically am. The keys also light up, nice for those dark nights. WoW is supported, and so is Vanguard even though the game isn’t even out yet.

I went and poked around looking for responces to why sony hadn’t added any sort of lcd support, and their response was basically that they figured the g15 was not used by enough people to bother with it. Glad to see their customers are so important. I know a good deal of people who use these keyboards, that’s the whole reason I even heard about them or have one.

It’s a fancy way to turn the pages of your hotkeys if you want, instead of hitting shift # to turn them you can bind it to a gkey, but other then that…again, there are good sides and bad sides to every argument. People are still bickering about how the paint used to come off the keys (which has since been fixed, and no longer presents an issue). It seems a little more complicated then I would have liked, I have a hard enough time learning computer stuff as is, but oh well.

One huge thing I like about the new keyboard vs. my old one, is that if I’m listening to music on winamp (since eq2 does not have an in game music player, unlike eq1.. which I miss) I can pause / change the song / start / skip etc. in game, as opposed to having to tab out to the music program I was using. Another huge bonus.