stargrace

Achievement Points – ew (warden)

stargrace September 14, 2006 0Comment

I recently decided it was time to re-spec my warden’s ap’s. The picture above is what I have them at currently. In the past, I had gone fully down the wisdom line, which gives a self rez, main reason I had used it. However, after going down that chain for a few months now, I’ve decided it was not worth it as a raider. Why? Well, in most cases it did more harm then good, I would instantly self rez after a death and die again from agro that had not cleared yet, so twice a fight instead of just once. It was handy in groups, a quick rez where I could be back on my feet to take over heals, but just not worth it. I also decided not to go down the wisdom line at all, my wisdom is well over the cap already (510 is the cap at level 70) and the extra wisdom is just wasted.

So what did I decide to take instead? I went fully down the stamina line, placing 8 points into the first section since wardens do not get any hp buffs at all (which sucks might I add), and I went all the way down to the end, which allowes the warden to become immune to stuns for 30 seconds, every 5 minutes. A lot of raids have mobs that stun, aoe or some times a bad frontal that you may have got caught in if the MT went down or were standing in the wrong place. I figured I’d give this line a try and see how it went. I also decided to go part way down the strength line, for my solo’ing days. I own a fabled 1h sword which is good for solo’ing with, and have 20% double attack, as well as 26% haste attack, and a 450 point heal that can go off for the group with a 10% chance. Sounded pretty good to me. None of the other lines really appealed to me at all.

I love the idea of achievement points, veterans from eqlive (eq1) remember these as aa’s (alternative advancement) and they give your character a small amount of customization. Problem is, you don’t really get a chance to play around with them. If you want to respec (re-do) your ap line, you have to pay. Each time you want to do it the cost goes up. This time, I paid 1p for Silverstep to respec. If she chooses to do it again, the cost is 10p. There’s no way I am ever going to pay that amount to respec. So I’m hoping that if I don’t like this chain of skills, November’s expansion pack will give players a free respec. I don’t think the cost is fair, I think that if you have kept the same ap line for a certain amount of time, the cost should go down. Say in three months if you have kept the same line, the cost goes back to the original price of 1s or whatever it is. There’s no way you can play around with every combination to find the one that suits you. On the same line, if you change from a raider to a casual player, or vice versa, your ap lines would typically change, and you may not be able to afford to change them.

The cap right now for ap’s is 50, you can have no more then that. I’m looking forward to November, when apparently the cap will be raised to 100, with the Gods coming to Norrath. We’ll have to see, it’s a lot of speculation on my end about what these will be like.

Stargrace goes soul shredding, and it’s the end of the world

stargrace September 13, 2006 0Comment

The above image is Stargrace on her carpet, running through the Feerrott. She’s not actually standing on anything besides the regular ground… when suddenly the backdrop disappeared and was replaced by the night time sky…. so it looks as though she was literally running off of the edge of the world and into the sky. Of course once I passed through the regular backdrop of the Feerrott came back, but it was amusing none the less.

My two ‘mains’ have joined a new home, a semi-casual friendly guild where I can raid if I feel so inclined, but am not pressured to raid. 4 days a week, nights, so it doesn’t interfere with any of my real life schedule. No Saturdays or Sundays which I love. Monday we raided HoS and also did a fast two group courts run for status. I love that little raid what a great way to gear up some alts. I had wanted to bring the coercer, unfortunately not enough healers were around so I brought the warden. Coercer also managed to get level 65 (finally) last night, after solo’ing on gazer island in TT. The mobs were green and blue solo, so I would charm one, and run around the back portion of the island gathering provisioning supplies, I was almost completely out. By the end of the night, 15% exp later, I had dinged 65, made a few gold, and had my bags completely full of supplies which was very pleasing. Xegonberry is not even for sale on the evil side, and I had none. Of course almost every single recipe I have uses it.

Stargrace also finished off the soul shredding quest from the Cave of Fear in the Feerrott. I learned a very valuable lesson doing that quest, and it also explained why Silverstep had some difficulties. The first two times I tried to shred souls in Maj’Dul, I was promptly agro’d and had no clue why. Could the shredder be resisted? I scrolled back to my combat window, which I typically only have up on raids. Low and behold. shredding souls counts as a hostile action, and a good portion of my coercers gear has random damage proc’s that go off if you perform a hostile action. So every time I used the blasted thing I had a 50% chance of one of my random damage spells going off and smacking the mob I was trying to steal souls from. Lesson learned, which is why in the screen shot, Stargrace is running around Freeport naked, insuring that none of her gear would ‘accidentally’ proc on one of those nice red epicx4 guards.

QoTW: The Mysterious Drafling

stargrace September 11, 2006 0Comment

I’ve been going through my quest journal, and realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I was in the drafling tower, located in Rivervale (which is off of Enchanted lands if you’ve never been there before). A few GU’s ago (game updates) they removed access to multiple zones much to my disappointment. The drafling tower was one such zone that used to require access through a quest, and now no longer does. However, you can still do the access quest and come away with a pretty nice neck / wrist item.

I had the quest in my journal since before they removed access, I think I needed it for a few heritage quests and then just simply never got around to it (which happens quite often unfortunately) – the quest starts with Bindo Halfbottom at the Fool’s Gold in Rivervale (-80, -15, -22), you must be level 30 before he’ll give you the quest.

He sends you to rescue Treedin Merrythorn in the enchanted lands, the old mill. He’s surrounded by some goblins and you’ve got to kill them to get the quest update. He’ll run back to Rivervale, and you head back to Bindo. Then Bindo wants you to go talk to Treedin, who can be found at -101.04,-24.95,-89.45.

Treedin is pretty lazy. Arn’t all halflings? He wants you to search the House of Circles for some clues into this drafling. Some mobs spawn while you’re on your way but you don’t have to kill them. Once inside, there are 3 interactable books and one will trigger an npc book you get to talk to for another update.

The history of the Drafling asks you to kill three named, Alegos the Betrayer, Xelindros the Fearbringer, and Demeroth the Gnawer, all located in Rivervale. The last one is a level 37 epicx2, though the quest never gives mention to that fact, it’s not flagged as epic. They’re all pretty close to the House of Circles, and were up when I went to kill them. In fact, most of Rivervale was very quiet. A common trait I’m sure.

Treedin decides he needs some time to read over materials, and again, even more lazy, he sends you to Antonica to speak to Mister Jumtum, located at -1454,-14,+13. He tells you the entire book is a fake, and not to believe a word of it. He gives you a copy of it and sends you back to Treedin, who says he’ll meet you at the entrance of the tower. Head to the zone in, and hail for your final update, as well as your reward.

So I completed the quest and took a look through my journals.. Wow.. bixie lore and legend is still there. Decided it was well past time I worked on that. There are a few smaller quests inside the zone, mainly just to kill 2 particular types of mobs. The rewards are 1g-4g each quest, and for very little effort. The zone is small and fairly fast, I had a lot of fun just running through it. I still haven’t gotten my bixie updates, and I think the corks that drop used to spawn the Queen at the end are chest drops only which suck for anyone who grays out the zone, but all in all still very enjoyable with a very cute story behind it.

Getting to know the neighbours

stargrace September 10, 2006 0Comment

“I travel. As long as its to inflict pain.” ~ Voula redeye

“If I found the smallest piece of magical residue in the world and cut it in half, I wonder what would happen?” ~ Taba Curhunter

“OWW!! Head hurts when I do that thing with my brain! OW!! You can’t eat money. Then why people care about it so much?” ~ Urak Eyegouge

“Is it even possible for this city to get more corrupt?” ~ Amandio Sepunius

I run through South Freeport all of the time with various characters, Silverstep and Stargrace especially since each owns a home in that location (Silverstep owning the 5 room and Stargrace owning a 3 room). But I don’t think I’d ever actually listened to what the neighbors were saying as they wandered the streets. So I took a few minutes yesterday and went to see if they had any words of wisdom… They didn’t.

Finished the Jboot quest with Stargrace, more guild status which is always nice. Also snagged her 27th aa. A few friends of mine finished killing Tarinax and finished their claymore quests. I was very proud of them and slightly jealous, it left fast though. I know if I had of *really* wanted to finish my claymore, I’d have been in one of those big uber raiding guilds instead of the guild I’m in now. While every so often I do get the twinge that makes me miss that sort of thing, it’s not easy to tell why I am where I am. I enjoy doing what I want to do, when I want to do it, and the friends that I’ve made. There’s no way I’d be happy with a schedule where you’re raiding almost every time you log in. I enjoy playing my alts too much for that. Besides the fact that I’ve already been there, and done that. I’ve done the raiding guild thing and I sort of consider this my ‘break’. Especially since it wouldn’t be fair to a new guild if I joined and then disappeared once I got into being a guide. We’ll see how things go.

Slacked on the tradeskillers, nothing new there. Contemplating trying to get the coercer to level 70. She’s been sitting at level 64 for a very long time now. Problem is she’s not a tank, not dps, not a healer, so really the group types she gets into are limited. Worth a try though! It would certainly be nice to have a 70 warden / 70 coercer. Then when I’m bored I could work on getting the dirge or the necromancer up there. We’ll have to see. Also nice because she’s already a level 70 provisioner haha. It’d be nice to have at least one level 70/70 as I keep mentioning.

Congradulations Second Dawn, the matron’s heart

stargrace September 9, 2006 0Comment

A huge congratulations to Second Dawn, for this game wide first last night. I know they worked really hard for it. One of my friends afterwards came up to me and said ‘don’t you feel stupid for refusing to join their guild now’, and I had to laugh, because no, of course I don’t. Their heavy raiding schedule leaves me with no time to do what I’d want when I want in game, which is uh, a huge reason why I play. Freedom and all that good stuff. Sure, I enjoy raiding, but it’s not why I play this game.

Worked on a lot of little random stuff last night. I managed to get the carpenter to 28, almost 29 before I crashed and fell asleep. The sage got 37, the dirge got level 35. Spent a good portion of the evening farming, only managed one rare though, stingy nodes! I hate the new crafting method and the amount of raws I go through just to reach a single level. Especially since all 6 of my characters are all tradeskilling. It makes it seem like I spend most of my time collecting goods to craft with. Well, ok so I enjoy that, but I think I use about 400 raws each level. Painful.

On a little side note, another good friend of mine moved back over to Najena, and I’m pleased as punch about that. I rationalized my own move and the costs involved this way, which is what I told her as well as far as the money involved in moving characters. Eq2 is my main form of entertainment. I don’t tend to go out all that often, I’m not big on tv or movies. So spending $50 per character to move them over to a server I would enjoy more, is worth it and even understandable if it means that I will be happier playing this game. It would be like heading out to a bar for an evening, or catching a movie and dinner. Perhaps that’s a weird analogy to some people but it seemed to make sense to me heh.