EQ2

Festival of Unity Day One #EQ2 #FoU

stargrace June 20, 2011 No Comments

There were 80+ players gathered in Antonica for the opening ceremonies of the Festival of Unity – 5th year running. The SOE staff had done an amazing job of decorating the festival sites (there are 6 total) and a huge thank you went out to Domino who showed up to watch, which was nice to see. I’ve always loved that sort of interaction. The ceremony was beautiful, the beginning was a dedication to Klumpp (may have spelled his name wrong, he was an ogre paladin who served Marr) who started with the idea of the festival of unity 5 years ago. There were thanks given to Tunare, and even those from Freeport, Neriak, and Gorowyn were in attendance. After the ceremony we moved to a joust event, and Wayfinder’s hosted drinks and seating for people to enjoy while watching the tournaments. This was followed by an amazing crafting fair at Windstalker village, as well as an Archery event in (you guessed it) Archer’s Woods. Afterward the Wishing Well event took place, which included a lot of awesome stories and songs told by various volunteers, while people sat in the stands and watched, attention rapt. Finally the night ended with an event called Over the Edge, which involved a lot of .. falling.

The festival runs all this week and finishes off Saturday June 25th late into the evening, there’s a schedule of all of the events posted on the festival’s guildportal site which you can find here. Tonight the festivities begin at 8pm EST with Whose Line? and on Wednesday is my favorite event – Feyiron Chef. All of the events take place in Antonica well away from any guards so if you’re evil aligned please don’t hesitate to check it out.

I had an amazing time, there were fantastic prizes and great friends to be seen everywhere. Even if you’ve never taken part of a roleplay event before, there’s no better ones in EQ2 (except maybe the counterpart to the Festival of Unity, which is the Festival of Discord and takes place in the fall). The amount of work that the organizers must have went through to insure that this event ran smoothly is one that I can’t even begin to imagine. Whether you’re a beginner roleplayer and just want to wander around drinking in the sights, or have been frantically screaming your characters history to anyone who would listen for years now – you’ll find something to enjoy.

Just keep in mind that there ARE some silent rules when it comes to roleplaying, especially on this grand of a scale. Keep in mind that this is the festival of UNITY, it’s not exactly the time to walk around slicing everyone around you with your sword drawn. Be respectful of other roleplayers, and don’t go God-mode (your character is invincible, the best at everything, etc). There are bound to be a few conflicts here and there, it happens with a crowd so large but for the most part everything I saw was pleasant and worked out well. Keep in mind that everyone has their own ‘style’ of roleplay, and just because someone doesn’t conform to yours is no need to get upset.

I hope everyone who went had an amazing time – you may have to turn down your graphic settings if you’re to visit some of the more popular events. You can find me in game and at the festival as Sharatan, be sure to say hello!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

PUG Raid Heads to Bonemire #EQ2

stargrace June 19, 2011 3 Comments

First of all, a big huge thank you to the individual who donated to me via the paypal link on the right hand side – it was very kind of you, and I really appreciate it. It’s actually the first time I’ve ever gotten a donation via that link, and after 6 years of running MmoQuests it just made me feel nice. I know I don’t typically write about cutting edge news, or controversial topics, but it made me smile to know that someone else out there appreciated the time I’ve taken to write about my experiences and opinions on the games that I play, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

The Antonia Bayle server was bustling this weekend which always leaves me in two different states of mind. Number one, it’s fantastic to see such a healthy population of players – but the public channels tend to bring out the worst of people. Zones were a little crowded, which also of course brings out the worst in people. Thankfully after my many years of gaming I’ve learned to tune most of these things out, and can ignore channels pretty easily. I still join them on Antonia Bayle because I’m always waiting to hear about a guild hosting an older raid – I love to participate in those.

When I heard a call go out for people to join in a Labs raid (a level 70+ raid zone in Bonemire) I eagerly volunteered the services of my swashbuckler. I had never been there with her before and even though none of the loot would have been of any use to me, I was confident that the aa from going would be worth it (and I was right). The raid was amusing. We had a group of level 10’s tagging along for the discovery in each room and for the aa of named (even though they were too low to get experience, aa is still given). Every single time an AoE went off that group would die. There was another group of level 90’s mentored down to 80, and a third group of mid 70’s who were there at a level appropriate range. Loot was NBG (need before greed), and the tank had never been there. These days you can brute force your way through just about every single older raid (there are some exceptions, like Djinn Master’s Prism) and that’s what we did in this instance, full force.

There were deaths, lots of them. I thought that was cute. It was more or less because we room pulled every single encounter, and things like to AoE. Living against that much damage is never a sure thing unless you’re well geared and mentored down (and have an exceptional healer). I think everyone had fun in the end, I didn’t see any complaints at least.

My swashbuckler managed to ding 86 and I’ve spent a few hours flying back and forth between the two public quests in order to obtain gear for 90. I’ve already managed to get myself the fabled bp so far, and 5 other pieces of armor. I believe all I’m missing is the forearms, but a few of my pieces are the lower tier of PQ gear, which I’d like the higher versions of. That, and the fabled weapon. I also managed to win an adornment which was nice. SG is a hit-and-miss type PQ where some times we do really well (last night was a fine example of this) and then other days it’s complete failure and the raid re-sets into a lower version of heroics instead of epics. At least I’ve still managed to win gear this way.

Moving forward I need to finish leveling to 90, and work on those aa. I’d like to finish off my mythical, I need to start (and finish) to speak as a dragon. The quest has changed so that you no longer need to run around Norrath hunting for tablets, but I will still need to visit Nagafen a few times, and I need to speak the language of the giants in order to interact with his body guard. I still love how much EQ2 offers me in terms of game play, there’s so much for me to do.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

A Quiet Evening Gaming #EQ2

stargrace June 18, 2011 No Comments

The little (not quite so little now) swashbuckler is coming along nicely. I had neglected her aa points (she only had 60 of them at level 81) leveling her up, with 18 hours played – but since picking the character back up I’ve switched her aa slider to a 50/50 method that seems to be working well. She’s now sitting at 155 or so, which is well above where I was at. I also managed to gain level 85 yesterday, and I’m inching my way towards 86 so that I can participate in public quests and earn a little gear. On that same note thanks to some helpful guild mates, I finished off the fabled portion of my epic.

My play time was spent going from dungeon to dungeon which I had missed leveling up – and it was a lot of fun. Unrest, Crypt of Valdoon, and instances in Cleft of Rujark all fell easily enough. Since I have 45 free days on my 2nd account I decided to activate it and boxed my 77 fury along for the ride, earning achievements in Sinking Sands and helping to level Ultann’s new illusionist. You may not like EQ2 very much, but in terms of “things to do” it still offers me more then any other game. Whether it’s adventuring, exploring, crafting, harvesting, housing, or something else of my own design (roleplay etc) there’s always a long list of items I want to work on. Next up? Probably those poor neglected Heritage Quests I’ve been putting off. Torrent Knights is about to hit guild level 55 and I’m very excited about that.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Why Be Rude? #EQ2

stargrace June 17, 2011 3 Comments

I’m tired of rude obnoxious people, next time you reply to someone who is trying to help you out – don’t do like this person did. My tell at the top was the first comment I made to the person after replying twice in channels what they were looking for (the rare for level 32 crafted gear).

The Story of Sharatan (RP) – #EQ2

stargrace June 17, 2011 No Comments

Sharatan Reveur, a swashbuckler from Qeynos. She was the most common, ordinary woman you would have found wandering the streets of the illustrious city, and she knew it. She had no horrible background story to go with her heritage, she had no deep dark secrets buried in her closet (these days it seemed that everyone and their mount was a vampire), she didn’t have any outstanding warrants to her name (that she knew of, at least). She was quiet, kept to herself, and preferred it that way for the most part. Sure there was the odd time where she had peered into the Lion’s Mane Inn and wished that it were her at those tables bustling full of activity, but she knew deep down that after an hour or two of the attention she would grow bored. She spent long hours at the Raven Mythic, an inn that many from Norrath frequented. She sat alone in the center of the room and listened to the going-ons of everyone else around her while none paid her any attention and she was content with that. Content to listen and to learn.

Her parents were wealthy merchants who earned their living in North Qeynos, happily married for over forty years the couple still made people sick with their adoration of each other. Sharatan had no brothers or sisters to speak of, her parents had been satisfied with their one child. Secretly her father had hopped that Sharatan would want to get into the family business, but when she showed absolutely no interest in numbers (or selling things, or interacting with the public) he had accepted  her own decision to visit the local scout guild and move from there.

This early morning she was outside in Elddar Grove, training at the monk dojo. She often spent long hours here moving silently with her daggers strapped to her hips. She moved quietly through her training stances, trying to obtain the sense of flow and smoothness that she saw other swashbucklers move with. She bounced deftly from the balls of her feet up onto her toes, her arms brandished above her head in an imposing move. A grind stretched from ear to ear, after all how could she not smile when she was doing something she loved so much. The only activity she saw this early morning was Slipps, a ratonga, moving from store to store handing out pamphlets about the upcoming Festival of Unity. This would be Sharatan’s first time at the festival, and she was more then a little excited about it. In fact it was all she could think about (besides her training of course) for the past few weeks. She was sure she would meet some interesting people there, and have a fantastic time. After all, what could go wrong?

(( Every so often I like to post a roleplay story about my characters, I do play on Antonia Bayle after all! Sharatan is my 83 swashbuckler who I have been working on as of late. I’m always looking to mentor and do smaller things in game, so if you’re looking for some dps, please don’t hesitate to send me a tell! I am really enjoying playing something that is not support or a healer, it’s very different then my usual branch of character, and coming up with a background story for Sharatan is just a pleasure. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! ))