Deep Forge

A Shield! I finally got a Shield

Last night against all odds almost everyone was online (aside from Calreth who can typically only log on during the weekends) – so it was Ultann, Hamal, Wpus (on his berserker Ibeogur) and I who decided to venture down to the basement of Sebilis once more in the hopes that the Spore King would drop the fabled shield. We had one small incident on our way down, I flew through a water pipe and ended up dropping down on a bunch of mobs after Ultann had been dispelled which made for one very squashed group. Thankfully the revive point happens to be downstairs so we didn’t have to run back, and we picked ourselves back up and were on our way once more.

Earlier on in the day Ibeogur tanked Vaults (Jarsath Waste version) for us for the first time – even though he was only level 76 and he was trying to keep agro off of a mythical assassin, he did fantastic (well, we all did, as we trio’d the zone). It was a lot of fun even though nothing of use ended up dropping.

We made it to the Spore Kings room, killed him – and a metal chest dropped. My heart was in my throat. Would this be the day I actually won a shield – or was this just a teaser chest with a master spell in it like we usually get teased with.

Kasul popped open the chest and finally after months of wearing a fairly horrible shield, I won the beautiful one on the left. Sure, it’s not the one from Obelisk of Ahkzul (which I have all but given up on) but that one is legendary and not fabled. I was exceptionally happy and made sure to thank all of my guild mates for making the trip down to the basement. Ibeogur managed to ding 77 before we headed down there, and he had used a potion that we didn’t want to waste, so we decided since we were already in Sebilis we may as well complete Crypt of Agony. It was a relaxing run though the loot Gods were not smiling on us, it was another great chunk of exp for Ibeogur.

His potion was not quite done by then and we all had a little time left so we decided to make a quick trip to Deep Forge and see how we fared. My mystic has the necklace that allows you to see the TSO shinies, so for the first time I was able to harvest them as we made our way through the zone. We didn’t have any issues – but again the loot Gods were not very nice to us and we didn’t see anything of any real use drop. It was a good run none the less and we did get a handful of shards for our efforts (in this case a handful = 2).

All in all it was a pretty productive night. Ibeogur managed to inch his way through most of level 77, the experience is VERY slow, hopefully it picks up for him. I logged off early and decided to get some cross stitching done before bed (it’s very relaxing!) and hopefully everyone had a fantastic time. I’m looking forward to all of us being able to explore a little more together, it hasn’t happened nearly enough lately.

Happy gaming, no matter where it finds you!

Wait, I won Something?!

This week and next week make up the crunch time before my next articles are due for Beckett MOG, so I didn’t spend very much time in EQ2 last night. I did get some nice time in Wizard 101, and once Wpus and Kasul returned from work (we can’t all play video games for a living!) we headed off to knock out a few instances before it was time for bed. We started out with Obelisk of Ahkzul – still aiming for that legendary healer shield that has yet to drop. How many months have we been doing this instance for now with no sign of the shield? I’m not sure, but it’s been a LOT. The instance is fast and it rewards a void shard so I can’t complain that much, but I’d still love to see that shield drop.

Afterward we wandered over to Anchor of Bazzul, this is a fairly simple and quick zone and it rewards two void shards at the end of it, making it quite worth while. Plus every so often the Gods of Norrath smile down on one of the group members – and a nice item drops. We got a lower level swashbuckler master which I’m sure was worth a great deal (congratulations Wpus on winning that) and the charm pictured to the right hand side also dropped. My illusionist has been under geared for quite some time. Not under geared in the sense that she’s wearing mastercrafted at level 80, but she’s only sporting T1 gear, owns 1 master spell, and only has 108 achievement points. She was power leveled to 80 and I’ve been slowly gearing her up ever since. It was no great surprise that one of her charm items is the caster reward from Everfrost with + spell crit on it, and the other charm was actually the mana battery which is a collection reward. No special stats at all and so I rolled need on the beautiful charm that dropped last night – what’s more, Wpus graciously declined, and I won it. Now, ideally I’d like an item that has + spell crit on it, I’m only sitting at 52% currently, and I have a long way to go. The stats on the charm and the 2% reduced cast time is very nice, and I won’t be complaining at all. We grabbed our two void shards and decided to head off to do the daily double before we called it a night, it was Deep Forge.

Deep Forge has never been one of my favorite zones. In fact none of the Lavastorm zones are that appealing to me. I’ve still yet to do the quests from the revamp (hey, maybe a goal for today!) and when someone mentions Najena’s Hollow Tower I visibly shudder. On the plus side as much as I dislike Deep Forge it is a fast zone and being the daily double meant we could get four shards from that one zone including some coin. Arysh also had not done the quest that rewards a fairly nice charm with +2 spell crit on it, so off we went. No deaths, and the final named dropped without too many issues (and also dropped that really horrible 2h hammer that always drops). Headed back to the hall to stash all of the no trade loot into my bank so I can transmute it one day in the future, and called it a night. Even though we didn’t play a whole lot, it was still fun and it was nice to finally get a nice upgrade.

Speaking of which. 20 more shards and Ellithia (the mystic) will own her complete set of T2 void gear (cheers) finally. Last night Arysh gathered enough shards to get her 2nd piece of T2 – pants. That just leaves the robe, hat, and shoulders left. I don’t even want to start thinking about how many shards that still is. I also worked on the TSO chapter quests a little bit, trying to inch myself closer to the rest of the guild. Hopefully we’ll be on chapter 5 soon where it makes us do all of the instances. Not my most favorite part, but it’ll be nice to be making some progress.

I hope everyone has an amazing week, I know it’s been filled with a lot of great stuff since E3 is going on right now and before you know it, Fan Faire will be on. I’ll see you in Norrath!

Happy New Year

I’m not exactly a big fan of crowds or large noisy parties, so last night saw me in EQ2 for new years eve talking with online friends as I drank some sparkling wine (which was really good, the empty bottle attests to that) and today I’ll be doing the family thing and finish up putting together a plate of appetizers before I head out. Even under the influence of a little wine I still had good fun, and managed to do a few instances. 

Petites headed to Deep forge to complete the daily double and I was really pleased to learn that I can obtain the shard quests at level 79. I thought they started at level 80. So now she has four shards in her bags waiting for her first piece of TSO gear. I’d never been to the deep forge and the group blew through it with no issues at all. It was a Shadowknight, Dirge, Troubador, Wizard, some scout DPS that I forget at the moment (I want to say Swashbuckler or Assassin) and myself as Templar. 20% experience later, we headed to the Obelisk that you find in the Moors. I needed it for my signature quest anyhow, and the chest within that zone drops a few plat for everyone in the group. Plus it was quick and easy even if there are no shard rewards unless it’s a daily double location.

After that we headed to Commonlands to help the coercer out with a quest update for the book of Thex heritage quest. You have to zone into an instance and defeat a named who spawns adds – without killing a single add. There are a lot of them, too. Apparently it was supposed to be difficult, but we had no issues. The coercer rooted the adds that spawned far away, and mez’d the ones who spawned close by. We had a lot of dps and that helped take down the encounter. 

Earlier in the day I completed a tradeskill instance on my tailor with Kasul from guild, his carpenter hit 61 I believe. My tailor managed to slug her way to 67, three more levels and it’ll be back to writ grinding for me. I also logged in the alchemist late last night before bed and inched her to 66 and part way through. Made a few adornments to put on the broker, I’ve been holding onto the shards and dusts for a long time now stock piling. 

All in all the evening was spent exactly as I had hoped. I wish everyone a Happy New Year, and may it be as wonderful as the previous.