Gaming

A Little Advertising, and have I mentioned I love Steamfont?

stargrace April 16, 2007 0Comment

The ability to title your bags – always a lot of fun

Quite a bit of time ago, people were given the ability to place a title on their bags, boxes as well. I love this little handy thing, if only for the fact that when I put backpacks for sale (or boxes made by my carpenter) I can include a little bit of advertising on the label – such as the one pictured above. Does it actually work? Who knows, I’ve never asked, but it’s fun none the less to be able to leave a little bit of myself (so to speak) on each piece I make. Besides my character name at least.

After 5 days of being sick, (what a great birthday weekend…. wait.. no, no it wasn’t) I am finally over it (I hope..) and my Dad’s back from the hospital (who knew kidney stones could be so complicated) and I can get back to regular postings. After having such a good run for a few months I was disappointed that I couldn’t keep up but it was just too much real life stuff to handle.

Silverstep – diligently working away on her Steamfont quest line

I did an Unrest run yesterday, boxing my templar (who ended up being the only healer once the 61 warden had to leave) and my illusionist, nothing of any use to anyone dropped except for a belt with +10 flowing thought on it, which went to the templar. It was a rough run some times, we only ever wiped from adds, so it could have been more painful. Better then the time before when my group decided to leave early after clearing only a few of the named. I spent the remainder of the evening working on the Steamfont chain of quests – I had no idea this was a chain of 20 quests! What fun! One important word of warning though. As you progress this chain of quests, about the 5th quest in I believe, you receive not one but TWO house items. A day log, and a journal.

However. If these items are on you when you go to complete the next portion of the quest, they’re removed from your inventory! So if you’re a sucker for house items (like myself) once you’ve picked up these two items, go place them in your home and return to the quest afterwards, or else you’ll have them removed from your inventory on completion. There is a quest like that in Lesser Faydark as well, where you collect a Thexian log, and it’s a house item. Upon turning the quest in however, you lose the house item from your inventory. So now I’ll have to do these quests on an alt, just so that I can obtain the house items. I wish I had of known that before hand!

The quests in Steamfont in general, are just a lot of fun. If you have a lower level character you can mentor, or if you’re a quest junkie be sure to check this zone out. I’ve been parking my 44 defiler in the zone to mentor for a few named as well as my quest turn ins. Figured it was probably about time my fury reached 100 aa. I’ll have to work on the templar next, which is just going to be annoying since, well, we all know what a lack of DPS the templar has in general. I’ll probably attempt to box her with my illusionist for some added DPS, we’ll see how that goes.

Tinkering fun, and a tally thus far

stargrace April 13, 2007 0Comment

A handy toy that everyone needs

I love some of the little toys you can make with tinkering. Besides the resurrection machine, and the one that feigns death, there is lots of little pets and do-dads you can make. This little Clockwork Manservant is just one of them. I haven’t actually used the item yet, but I’m expecting him to feed me grapes and fan me or some such.

So as an update to where my characters stand – I have the following as of this morning:

Account #1:

Stargrace – 70 Illusionist – 70 Provisioner – Tinkerer, Yamini – 48 Assassin – 50 Alchemist, Misako – 44 Defiler – 39 Tailor, and Flirt – 6 Berserker – 24 Armorer.

Account #2:

Silverstep – 70 Fury – 60 Woodworker – Transmuter, Dasie – 70 Templar – 70 Jeweler, Faydai – 53 Conjuror – 60 Sage, Tulips – 6 Troubador – 20 Carpenter, Rhiksha – 6 Swashbuckler (soon to be weaponsmith).

I have enough room for a few more characters if I want. I wouldn’t even know what to make though. I was contemplating a warlock or a wizard, both of which I’ve never really played, but looking at the two accounts, I have pleanty of characters already. If they’re not a high level adventurer then they’re a higher level tradeskiller in most cases (like Flirt and Tulips). The three 70’s are fairly well geared, though both Silverstep and Dasie are lacking in the aa department, Stargrace being the only one of my three who has them max’d out right now.

So what’s my plan of action? Slowly leveling the defiler to 70, trying to get the tradeskillers up to T7 or some where close to there, and maybe trying to get the rest of my “lowbie” characters a little closer to 70 as well. It would be fun to have two accounts of characters all sitting at level 70. Granted when the new expansion comes out I’d have to do the level grind with each of them and that is really not going to be fun I can already tell. In the mean time, it keeps me busy!

A little trip through Lavastorm

stargrace April 12, 2007 1Comment

Misako making her way (invisible of course) through Lavastorm

One of the things I hate most, while leveling any character up, is the eventual need to obtain the port that brings you to the doors of sol eye without having to run through the entire zone. When I first did it way back when, on my templar, it was an amazing feat, to say that you had portal access (back when the level cap was 50, and Lavastorm was end game, so nothing turned grey on you). With the defiler sitting at level 44, I figured it was time for her to get access as well, should the need ever arise for her to travel down that way, or incase I wanted to smuggle her to the Maiden’s Gluch and pick up to speak as a dragon (which I will also need.. one day..). So I boxed her along with a shadowknight, and made the very slow treck through. She did get a lot of discovery and a fairly good size of experience, and after one death (from a named, and not from falling in lava, which is how I typically die there) she made it to the portal. One more thing crossed off the list finally.

In an adventure through DFC a few days ago she obtained the rare mossy armor patterns, as well as the commons, and three pieces of blood iron ore, key ingredients. The recipes are level 40 (though the gear itself is only level 37) so I’ve been trying to get her tradeskill a little higher. She’s currently sitting at level 37 tailor. This morning I quickly made a few random mastercrafted cloaks, and then attached the safe fall adornment to each of them. I also made a + spell dmg adornment for level 30 and attached it to some mage gloves. I’ve priced the items slightly above what the regular gear would go for, simply due to the adornments. I’m not even sure if people will mouse over the gear before buying it and notice the adornments though, so I’ll have to see if it sells at all. It would be nice if there was a special little flag as you shopped that told you if an item may already have an adornment without having to look at the physical stats of the gear. That’s probably just wishful thinking on my part though. I’ve put a few of the safe fall cloak adornments up for sale at 20g each and they’re typically fast sellers. Since it’s just level 30 stuff it doesn’t take me that much to make them and I was getting tailoring experience for pristine combines.

DFC, and another level (or two)

stargrace April 11, 2007 0Comment

Misako standing in the bank in Big Bend, wishing for something more

Made my way through DFC last night, and it’s by far one of my new favorite zones. At least for the first time through with a character. Not only is there a huge amount of discovery and named (my defiler went from 23aa to 29aa in the zone alone, as well as gaining a level) but there are also fairly nice drops to be won. I wish every tier had an instance that was along those lines. Though I suppose most do. I started her off in Ruins of Varsoon, moved to Runneyeye as well as Nektulos Castle (the named there do not give aa however.. a small disappointment), then moved to DFC, managed to get some discovery in Zek (hasn’t finished it off though) and then this morning made her way to Cazic Thul for some more discovery, hitting 31aa and level 43. I figure if I can try to average a level a day, or a level every two days, that’ll set me where I want to be as far as progress wise. I don’t like to play her all day though, I get bored. So it’s fairly limited to about 3-4 hours a day and seeing how far along I get. CT was slightly tough, especially with no power regen in the group. I can box the shadowknight and her fairly well, at level 42 managed to take down some level 46 named with ease. It would just be a lot easier if there were power regen in the group too. So my next project? Since the defiler is on my original account, and the illusionist is on the same account, I’m going to (eventually) level up the troubador on the 2nd account (which also currently hosts all of my healers + my conjuror). A little more difficult to level up a bard then it is a healer, but we’ll see how it goes. I always enjoyed little projects and who knows perhaps it’ll be my 5th level 70 character.

I haven’t been able to keep up with her gear too well, since once I get an upgrade it seems like she’s out growing it, I’m reluctant to spend much money on new items. I have purchased some T7 masters at bargain prices though, 2p or less for a few heals and dots. I also bought the defiler/mystic legendary set shoulders for 50g, couldn’t let that pass me by. She’ll need that stuff eventually even if it’s not for another month or two. I’m still enjoying the class a great deal, they get some amazing debuffs and lots of pure hp buffs for the group. They also get some very nice aa. I’m slowly working those up and aiming towards the pet aoe immunity since I think at least then poor scruffy will live a lot longer. He’s pretty much dead every single fight I think he’s got about three hit points.

My birthday is Saturday, though I’m not sure if anything’s planned for the day I’ll probably find myself leveling away in EQII. It’s been nice to also see some new faces, Cordanim has wandered back to the game and has a little fae warlock, and an old friend from EQI has also decided to start playing again. I always did like seeing new faces in game. The lower levels are also (typically) at least a bit more populated here on LDL, though CT was completely empty when I headed there early this morning, as well as RoV and RE, there is typically more people around by late afternoon. I do enjoy the quiet, it’s no fun having to battle other groups for encounters in a zone. I have not taken Misako to any EoF zones yet, so I’m thinking once I run her through the old world zones for discovery, I’ll have to pop into Steamfont and perhaps begin a quest or two. We’ll see how it goes.

Leveling is just an excuse for farming..

stargrace April 10, 2007 0Comment

Misako, the little defiler I have in the works, has been fairly busy

So after taking a look at my level 33 mystic last week, I decided it was time to get a fourth character to 70, I’d been dawdling quite enough. I’ve always started mystics and then just never gotten them anywhere. I just didn’t want a mystic though. So I spent a day betraying her to a defiler. Then I tried to level her over the course of the past week. Needless to say, it’s worked. I boxed her along with a 70 shadowknight, and she’s now almost level 41, quickly eating up the levels and soon to be my “newest” level 70 (I hope, I’ve still got a way to go yet). I did Ruins of Varsoon daily, the instance within the zone (Chamber of Immortality) is a guaranteed two masters each run, as well as the various named in the zone who probably have a 90% chance at a master chest or legendary at least. I spent a few days transmuting everything I looted and making level 30 adornments. The rest I’ve decided to put for sale, after all, my little defiler is going to need some gear eventually and some spell upgrades. Leveling is pretty much an excuse for farming. Once I’d exhausted RoV I moved on to Runneyeye which is also filled with various named who drop pretties, as well as two instances with named for aa / loot. The defiler hit almost 25 aa from grinding alone, she’s barely done any quests at all (which I will rectify in later levels).

The aa she got was just enough to get soul ward. Which is by far the greatest spell I have ever seen. It lets you ward a target for 90% of your health. At level 40, that’s about 3k. A 3k ward every 5 minutes is fairly nice at those levels. I’m working on getting some pet buffs (aoe immunity) for the next round of points. She will hopefully hit level 41 today, and if possible, 42. Then I can head to CT and soon after that, the DoF zones. She hasn’t even wandered into zek at all, DFC is not too far away. She’ll need the discovery from those zones as well. I’ve already been planning ahead and would like to get claymore done on her, which will be a pain but it’s fairly essential to a healer. She has yet to step foot in lavastorm, or sol eye, and she’ll need to get to speak as a dragon one of these days. Ah the joys of a new little character.

Out of all three of my healers (I have a 70 templar and a 70 fury for those who’ve forgotten) I am (thus far) enjoying the defiler far more then either of those two. Perhaps it’s just because she’s new.

I’ve also been working my other alts. My carpenter is 20, my armorer is 20, and I’ve been hoarding supplies for them. My transmuter is 310, almost maxed out finally. My tinkerer is taking a bit more time, but coming along slowly.

I also decided to no longer raid with Marauders. For a few reasons. After a month of 100% raid attendance, there was no progress being made with me ever being allowed to join the guild. I talked them through a few raids (Namely freethinkers hideout as well as Chel’Drak which we got down to 49% on the first attempt in the zone with the main tank missing) and it was very apparent that no matter how I helped, I was not going to be able to make that guild my home. I found it unfair, to be allowed to raid but not allowed to join the guild, and I voiced my opinion on such, and said that I’d no longer be raiding with them. I took silent satisfaction that the next time they attempted Chel’Drak (with a better raid force that I went in there with, including the guilds main tank) they only managed to get him to 80%. While I kept that satisfaction to myself (no need to rub things in) it made me feel at least that it was their loss for not giving me a chance to join. So the search for a new home continues, though I am also looking on other servers since the free transfers are weeks away (or so I’ve been told) we’ll have to see how it goes!