Dreadspire

Lavastorm Changes, and Levels are Gained

I spent most of yesterday evening hanging out with Kiara and others on a guided tour of the new (EQ2) Lavastorm revamp, and then working on a future article for MMORPG.com about said revamp –  it was loads of fun! If you’re interested in seeing the changes for yourself you can always head on over to the test server and take a peek, or you can read all about the changes that are coming in the spoilers that have been released on the EQ2players site. You can find the lore behind the events, what’s new with crafting, the new solo content (for levels 45-55), as well as a little glimpse into the 12-person raid zone, Ward of the Elements. There is so much more coming aside from these things though, if you (like me) don’t have the patience to wait for the update it’s certainly worth checking into. 

While I was doing that on my PC (always the multi-tasker) the laptop had my necromancer hanging out in Dreadspire with Ultann and Ninga, who were busy grinding experience. We were later met up with a beastlord friend of theirs who joined in the fun. Since I was mostly AFK while they were doing their thing I missed out on a great deal of the excitement (not to mention conversations) but everyone seemed to have a good time none the less. Oh, and my necromancer managed to hit level 76, and now she’s 60% into that level! 

The enchanter also hit level 74, though I didn’t box yesterday aside from a brief bit later, so she’s not very far into it. The leveling has slowed down a considerable amount, but it’s about what I expected for these levels. I hear the grind from 80-85 is a lot worse, I’m still looking forward to it because to me that’s what EQ always was. Grinding out levels with great friends, and it’s comforting to know it hasn’t changed all that much. 

Once the levels were earned we decided (for fun) to head back to the Guk LDoN raid zone – the zone had hurt pretty bad last time we were there. This time we dragged along the beastlord and every named within fell to us. For a level 65 zone, it was difficult, even for us ranging from level 74-80+ one of the encounters was level 80, and all of the encounters had mean nasty dots that liked to trigger and send my poor girls spinning into low health. Thankfully we had Nocbot around who provided some wonderful heals, and Ninga who was great DPS. I am always in so much awe as I watch everyone fall naturally into their roles in game. It’s a fantastic sight. 

I hope everyone else had an amazing time as well, and that this Thursday is great no matter what game you find yourself in. See you in Norrath!

Alts, Dings, and just Plain Fun

It’s no surprise any more when I make alts in every single game I play. I’m an alt-o-holic, and I’ve come to terms with it. I envy those people who have 1-2 characters they can dot on while I have 6+ in any given game. So it was that I created two new alts to play in EQ yesterday. I didn’t really have a heavy DPS’er and I was debating a beastlord but I already have my necromancer pet class, so I decided to go with a dark elf wizard named Ashria. Of course I needed a counterpart to box with, and I’d already created a cleric and a druid on Luclin, so I decided on a shaman named Sharatan this time around. Barbarian at that (and pictured to the right sporting her defiant gear and the always awesome kilt-skirt). I really don’t enjoy the tutorial any more but it’s more then likely simply because I’ve done it so many times. I do the very first quest for the charm and then typically head to Crescent Reach to continue my leveling upstairs on bats and rats. I’ve got some roleplay stories in mind for the duo, and I’m looking forward to playing them when things are quiet and no one is around. I don’t expect that they’ll level too fast, but it should be fun. I think I managed to level 3-4 yesterday before relogging to my other characters to play for a bit. 

We (ie: the other two I play with) decided to head to Dreadspire and grind out some experience. The zone is typically empty because most people hang out in the level 70 hot zone, which has higher level mobs. Dreadspire is the level 75 hot zone. We created a campfire in the ballroom ‘just in case’ and began mass slaughtering the room. After a little while I used my lesson of the devoted and the experience flew by. 

It was such great experience in fact, that the necromancer hit level 75 and is now 50% into her level. The enchanter hit level 73, and is also 2% away from hitting level 74. Two levels in a few hours is really not bad at all, especially since she does not have any veteran rewards at all, it was just regular experience. I also managed (thanks to named smushing) to collect the rest of the glowing runes I needed for my level 70 spells on both characters, which means the enchanter finally has group mana regen (as well as her haste which I picked up the day before). I’ve bought a few base spells 71+ for the necromancer but I haven’t looked into the enchanter yet, and I haven’t been able to afford the RKII spells that are for sale on the broker. I keep meaning to work up my researching to 300 (the enchanter is currently at 200) but when you spend your time in game actually playing the game, it leaves very little time for crafting, go figure! This is a great thing though, not a complaint. 

When lessons were spent in Dreadspire we decided to head to a GoD zone to work on some raid but it turned out we needed an annoying pre-quest that no one felt like doing so we went to Katta instead in TBS and worked on missions there for faction and more orux. I managed to get amiably with the merchants and purchased two new spells on the enchanter. The necromancer I decided to pass on, the spells were not that useful and were probably things I’d just let sit in my book and never do anything with. Now, I’ve never really solo’d in EQ (I know, how odd is that) in all of the years that I’ve played. I’ve always been with friends in a duo or trio type situation. I used to solo a little bit on my enchanter with dire charm when I was of level, but those days were long ago. 

I know necromancers can solo fairly well with kiting, but I’d never actually attempted it because I’m always with friends as I mentioned above. Yesterday there was a lull in the group when everyone went to eat and I had already eaten, so I decided I would head to the greenhouse in Katta and attempt some kiting for experience. Now remember my necromancer may be level 75, but she’s also still very new to me, with under 6 days played and I believe she’s probably two-three weeks old now. In other words, I have a lot to learn still. I did get the hang of kiting though, especially once I stuck the enchanter pet onto the mob as well. I pull with snare, load up all sorts of dot’s on the encounter, and thankfully the path in front of the greenhouse is agro-free and there’s lots of room to move around. It does (at the moment at least) take me a good bit of mana to take down white-con mobs (about 50%) but I can do it. I was so incredibly happy and proud of myself. I realize it’s sort of silly, but it was a huge accomplishment for me. Now, I know that with time things will get better. I only have 73aa and nothing into crit dot’s yet, nothing into mana preservation or anything like that. I worked on getting my pet some affinity and some crits and then foolishly decided I needed an army of undead fighting for me as well. Hey, I don’t plan on doing anything too serious with the character, it’s all just fun, and so that’s how I spent my points. In any case, I know once I get more aa things will go better. I’m eager to hit 80-85 though, so for now I’ve got my experience set to 90/10 – 10 being the amount of aa I’m earning. I’ll get there, slowly. 

I hope everyone else has an amazing Wednesday, no matter your game of choice (oh, and on a random side note, I decided to download Runes of Magic and play around in that a bit, more about it later – sure wish I was in the Free Realms beta instead so I could prepare to write about that! Teehee).

Hanging Out in Crystal Caverns

I was a little confused yesterday. The level 20 hot zone is Stonebrunt Mountains, which makes sense. You head there and the mobs are yellow and higher near the warrens at level 15, so level 20’s can easily gain experience there in groups, or with mercenaries. 

The level 30 hotzone is The Overthere. At level 20, the entrance to the zone around PoK and heading up towards WW is pretty easy to gain experience off of. The mobs around these areas are blue at level 20. 

Now the level 25 hot zone is currently Crystal Caverns. This zone is a huge pain in the arse to get to, for one. You have to run from the Great Divide, to the Eastern Wastelands, and then walk through a camp of VERY red and mean angry giants. If you’re not one of those lucky classes who comes with invisibility (or if you haven’t picked up your spells yet) and have no means to potions, this makes for a very difficult run. Thankfully my group managed to train there. We didn’t want to gain experience in The Overthere because – lets face it – due to the ease of the zone, everyone goes there. Yesterday there were 10 people in small clusters scattered through the zone. 

So Ninga (also known creatively as Bardface in this scenario) and myself trained to Crystal Caverns – made it to the entrance, where the mobs at level 23 were bright red. They continued to remain red, and are still red at level 27. Zam even suggests the zone as level 30-45 rather then the level 25 hot zone that it’s become. It must have once been the level 30 hot zone because there are multiple types of augments that drop from mobs – and one of them is required level 30. 

Now, don’t get me wrong here the experience was amazing. We also died a lot from wipes, being unable to snare the glorious Ry’Gorr creatures that pathed the hallways. Then there was one amazing wipe as I had my ranger on autofollow and she decided to randomly veer off of the edge of a cliff and fall to the depths below, I peeked over the edge to try to get an idea of where she had fallen, and promptly pulled up 10 more mobs onto the group. We decided to bee-line it for the zone out, but I couldn’t remember the way to get there since I had never even been to the zone before yesterday.

Ah yes, it was an amazing time. 

That’s exactly why I’m playing EverQuest right now. It’s everything I love about the game. 

We didn’t bother getting our corpses back from that foray, since experience is plentiful at lower levels. The paladin reached level 27 and about 70% into it while the ranger is just a little shy of 27, sitting at 26 along with Bardface. I have 7 levels worth of spells to purchase on both characters, thankfully paladins and rangers get significantly less then the usual casters I play. 

It was a great weekend. 

Before playing on the alts we did attempt another LDoN raid with our trio, and we decided to attempt the Guk one again. We did pretty well, making it past the 2nd named that sends you spinning out of control (often) if you have low alcohol tolerance. Of course Minxes (the necromancer) didn’t make it through that fight, but everyone else did which was great. 

Then we attempted a yellow (at 74) con mushroom who gradually weakens in power the longer you fight him. The tank died pretty much on incoming, not his fault. It went down hill from there and we called it a day on those. Before we headed there we did spend a bunch of time in Dreadspire which is the level 75 hot zone – and completely empty. Everyone seems to hang out in the level 70 hot zone which actually has higher level mobs then Dreadspire. We camped the ballroom and farmed two names that spawned there, they dropped multiple glowing runes that I can turn in for my spells. The necromancer finally obtained all of her level 70 spells, and the enchanter has one of hers (so far). Next one will give group haste (woohoo!) and the one after gives group mana regen. Both of which I’m looking forward to. Aside from the glowing runes, we also managed to snag me another pet focus item! This one is a 25% bonus, 5% better then the previous one. 

The enchanter hit level 72 and is about 50% into her level, the necromancer reached level 74! I’m almost (almost) only 10 levels away from the current in game cap. I decided to turn my achievement experience to 10% only for the next little while. I’d love to finally be at the level cap in game – I’ve never actually reached it before. Typically another expansion always comes out. I realize that it’s quite a climb to get to 85, but I’ve managed to hit 74 in two weeks so I think it’s do-able before the next EverQuest expansion comes out. We’ll see how it goes though. The enchanter doesn’t have Seeds of Destruction on her account, so level 80 will be her cap unless I can get myself a copy of that. 

I’ll have to look up the spells for each of them, as well. It never ends! Hope everyone has an amazing Monday! See you in Norrath.

Dreadspire Keep, Ashengate, and Loping Plains

Groceries and some family things took up a portion of my day yesterday, but today is a holiday (woohoo) so it’s still relaxing. In the US I know this day goes by President’s Day (I believe at least) while here in Canada the official name for it is “Family Day”. Basically there were no holidays in February so they made this one up. Not that I’m complaining! Yesterday in game was another round of ‘firsts’ for me. My necromancer is almost level 40. On the side I’ve been trying to level her up because while I enjoy the rogue, I am far more of a caster class when it comes to personality. Be it a healer or a mage sort. I still want to be able to do things ‘with the big kids’ hence the rogue. 

While I was leveling up the necromancer a very kind Paladin by the name of Hystorm came by and buffed me and my pet. While they were in Skyfire (I was in The Overthere) a necromancer level 51 spell dropped and they came all the way back just to give it to me. It was very kind of them and made me realize why I love EQ so much. The community is completely different then any other game I have seen. I belong to the general channels and I’ve never had to turn them off. I’ve not seen anyone be rude or crass or outright mean. Everyone is still talkative and there were (at least last night) over 250 people on these channels. It is so nice and refreshing to see. 

Anyhow, I really appreciated this stranger helping me out. Once Ultann and Ninga were around it was time to play a little. We headed to so many places that I’ve never been. One of my favorites was Dreadspire Keep – apparently this zone involves Mistmoore some how but I don’t know enough about the background story. It was great fun wandering around shrouded until I fell through a trap (rug on the floor) in the dinning room and then as I was wandering around some drachnid something saw me and before I knew it I was staring at my corpse on the floor. Thank goodness I have two wonderful friends (and a cleric mercenary) who were willing to come after my corpse and rez me. 

We also explored portions of Loping Plains. Since EQ2 is 500 years after The Shattering, I had to chuckle to myself that I was seeing the EQ version of Loping Plains well after I saw the EQ2 version of the zone. There’s a lot of zones that are like that for me now. I believe the zone is a hot zone, and if not there were certainly a lot of people around (23+) who were exploring. We managed to find a little camp to set up in and spent a few hours pulling wolves and wereorcs. Their transformation graphic was neat to watch as the morphed into their wereorc counterparts, but after a few hours it was time to move on.

The group decided to make the treck back to Ashengate, since when we had been there the previous night it was too late to really do anything and I ended up going to bed. Last night wasn’t any different though as we entered the zone and the monk went and found our camp, my eyes threatened to close. My rogue managed to get 6aa yesterday and almost a full level, she’s 5% shy of level 73. I’ve been averaging a level or a little less a day without really grinding it at all, just exploring and playing with friends. With the new level cap of 85, I’m still a ways away, especially if I want to eventually switch over to the necromancer. She’s sitting on 137aa now which is also not a lot at all, but it’s still fun to watch the progress. 

I hope everyone else had an amazing time gaming, no matter your game of choice. See you in Norrath!