EQ2

Festival of the Sands – Coming to Antonia Bayle Soon(tm)

stargrace August 4, 2011 8 Comments

There are a few fantastic player-run  events on Antonia Bayle, and if you want to hear about them you can /join festival (or even /join antonia_bayle festival if you’re interested from another server) where they’re typically announced, with instructions on individual events at a later date. I always love going to these events, some of the largest ones include the Festival of Unity and the Festival of Discord, a 3rd newer one was added not so long ago, Festival of the Sands – this takes place in – you guessed it – Sinking Sands. It takes place later this august (exact dates escape me, I’ll have to do some research) and if you’re looking for fun in the sun this will be the place to head.

I had been saving my final character slot for a beastlord when they release in November, but of course patience is not one of my strong points, and I decided to create a warlock last night. Thanks to the 180% veteran bonus I have on the account and one large ogre, in two hours she had reached level 63. I’ve always wanted a warlock but had never leveled one up before, and I find them fascinating. Whether or not I’ll actually play her in any honesty I am unsure, but it’s fun in the mean time. Thankfully all hopes of owning a beastlord are not lost, as the station cash store sells character slots for $10 each, which is not too bad.

I also finally spent some time in Tinkerfest, collecting cogs and saving gnomes. Crafted an awesome looking cog backpack – I love how backpacks can have appearance in game. There’s only a few more days left to take advantage of this festival as well as the Kelethin city festival, so be sure to take a peek before it’s gone for this year!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in Norrath!

Bring On The Festivals #EQ2

stargrace August 2, 2011 4 Comments

There are two amazing festivals going on right now in game. One is Tinkerfest, where you can help gnomes around Norrath with various tasks as well as harvest shiny cogs for crafting and purchased goods. There’s a shiny collection (found where ever you find gnomes) many fireworks and other goodies. If you haven’t checked it out yet I highly suggest you head to Steamfont Mountains. On top of Tinkerfest, it’s also the first week of August, which means another city festival. This month the festival is in Kelethin, you’ll find some sky races, as well as numerous NPCs eager to take your city tokens. There’s appearance gear and a lot of housing items, some of it unique to Kelethin (such as floor tiles). I had a good 300 city tokens stored up from leveling my crafters to 90, so I went a little crazy and purchased as much as I could. A few paintings for my Norrathian Museum, and a bunch of floor tiles for a future project (yet unnamed). Player housing is a way for me to relax in game without the pressures of leveling / questing / raiding, and it’s something I’ve said time and time again that more games need. These little ‘extras’ for when we don’t feel like character progression in the traditional sense.

Pictured above is my “door” to the Norrathian Museum. The amusing part is that I’ve technically got 1066 items in the home, but only 407 of those count towards the item count because player-written books (and a few other items, like L&L books etc) don’t count towards your total. That’s a lot of books in my house. In fact I’ve gotten to the point now where I actually lag a little upon entering the library, something I have NEVER had an issue with in the past. I knew it was about time though.

When you’re not progressing your character through traditional means (leveling, aa, questing, raiding) how do you like to spend your time in game? Are you forever hunting after that elusive shiny to add to your collection? Do you like to sit back and relax crafting? Or are you like many of us out there, glued to the layout editor, working on your humble abode? Let me know below in comments!

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in Norrath!

Crazy Bonus Experience Weekend

stargrace August 1, 2011 9 Comments

This weekend was by far one of the most productive weekends I’ve ever had in game. To start things off it’s a long weekend here in Canada (thank you Civic Holiday) and I had no plans besides a BBQ on Sunday and some groceries, which meant 90% of the rest of my time was spent gaming, something that’s nice to do every so often especially when there’s bonus experience. Here’s a general “wrap up” of everything I managed to accomplish:

• Swashbuckler – reached 300 aa (my first character to ever do so)
• Inquisitor – went from 130 aa to 293
• Shadowknight – reached 300 aa
• Bruiser – went from 120 aa to 220
• Mystic – went from 70aa to 150 aa and also dinged 83
• Troubador, coercer, and illusionist all picked up a handful of aa (10-30)
• Coercer – dinged 90 sage (from 65) and now I have all 9 crafters at 90

It was pretty great. Guild mates also managed to earn levels, aa, and achievements this weekend as they soaked up the bonus experience. I dare say it was actually the quietest I’ve ever seen guild because we were all concentrating on the matter at hand, but there were a lot of people around.

How did you spend your bonus experience weekend? Did you manage to get everything done that you wanted? Perhaps you spent it at tinkerfest (more about that coming in another post) – and don’t forget today starts the Kelethin city festival!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in Norrath!

Moving from a Tier 1 to a Tier 2 Hall #EQ2

stargrace July 27, 2011 No Comments

Yesterday I decided that Torrent Knights really did need a T2 hall (we don’t really NEED one, but I wanted one) and I set out to purchase a Freeport guild hall for everyone to enjoy. The hall cost 250p and thankfully our amenity traveled with us as well as escrow, so I didn’t need to pay more money. I’ve started decorating it (slowly) and managed to set up our main entrance, where we can display the trophies we’ve accumulated over time. I also set up the crafting area, since that’s the portion of the hall most used. We used to own one some time ago but when the guild became stagnant I decided I couldn’t afford the upkeep, and I downgraded us.

Anyhow. The guild is nearing the level 60 mark by leaps and bounds, we’re already 1/3rd of the way into 59, which is fantastic. I have been doing writs on my weaponsmith as I level her up and it’s nice to see the bar moving slightly, even if it’s not a great amount. We were welcomed with another new player yesterday, and hopefully they find it as welcoming as everyone else has so far.

This weekend SOE is offering bonus xp for players – it counts towards aa, adventure, and crafting. I have no doubt in my mind that Antonia Bayle will be bursting at the seams, and I’m probably going to try to level the last two crafters I need at 90 which are my sage and my weaponsmith (the weaponsmith will probably hit 90 today, she’s level 70 at the moment). Aside from that I have no great plans, relaxing and spending my time where ever I find myself. I know it’s a bit silly to be thinking of the weekend when it’s only Wednesday, but hey we all need something to look forward to.

As the guild becomes decorated I’ll be sure to post more pictures and maybe a video or two, we’ll just have to see. In the mean time, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.