EQ2

Another Alt? Sure Why Not!

stargrace August 22, 2014 2 Comments

I love my swashbuckler but she’s not exactly great DPS when it comes to single target encounters. In a lot of dungeons the boss encounter is a single target you need to DPS against. That being said, tonight I decided why not try an assassin. I’ve never played one before (I know, with all of my alts that is hard to believe) and so I boosted one with station cash to 85, and then took her through a few dungeons before calling it a night (I do have to work at midnight after all).

Level 89 later, I enjoy the class quite a bit, plus the heroic characters get some pretty neat looking armor (pictured above). I also dragged my paladin along for the fun, and she managed to reach 340 aa (the current cap is 350). The amount of experience it takes to get from 340-350 aa is quite insane. Right now only my swashbuckler has met that requirement.

I decided to 3 box it tonight. I was playing a berserker, my paladin, and the assassin. Granted one of the three didn’t actually DO much (it’s hard to swap between all the accounts, I only have two monitors) but I didn’t do too bad. It was nice to be able to use the 3rd account as the main tank so that it didn’t matter what two other characters I played. Normally I have to play a tank / something else combination because my squishy characters can’t really hold their own. So it ends up being my shadowknight or my paladin combined with whatever I feel like working on. With the berserker I have a bit more freedom. I know, the last thing I needed was yet another alt, but eh, why not.

Alts – They’re How I Relax

stargrace August 20, 2014 2 Comments

I love alts. When I’m not in the mood to do anything on a main character, or when I’m frustrated with progression, those are the characters I turn to. They don’t always make it to the end game, but quite a few of them do because I love playing them so much. The screenshot above is my 2nd account, and Blesse is my latest alt to make it to level 95, a monk. I used to have a monk on my main account but I ended up deleting it for one reason or another. Probably so I could create another alt.. that’s the problem with limited character slots.

Monks are great. They can run around zones and just feign off the aggro, they can go shiny harvesting without too many issues, and they’re just plain fun to watch. Of course it can also be frustrating to get a character up to level 95 because if you want to be any ‘good’ you have to do their epic and then invest in a bunch of expert / master quality spells which can get very expensive very fast – but they’re still a lot of fun.

So what characters am I sitting with at the moment? Well on my main account I have:

• 95 defiler / 95 tailor
• 95 shadowknight / 95 sage
• 95 inquisitor / 95 jeweler
• 95 dirge / 95 alchemist
• 95 coercer / 95 carpenter
• 95 illusionist / 95 provisioner
• 95 swashbuckler / 95 weaponsmith
• 91 ranger / 95 armorer
• 91 warden / 95 woodworker

And on the second account I have:

• 95 Beastlord
• 95 Monk
• 95 Paladin
• 95 Fury
• 48 Coercer
• 33 Channeler
• 50 Necromancer

None of the characters on my second account craft, but that may change in time, I haven’t decided yet. I enjoy having at least one of every crafter (these days I think many people do) and I like being able to do the weekly / daily quests on them (the crafting ones). Do I like it enough to do it THAT many times? Not yet.

Keep in mind these are characters that I have made and leveled up over the course of 10 years (7 years for the 2nd account) so they’re not something that I just dove in head first this year to create. I’m a bit better in other games, but in EQ2 at least I have always had a lot of alts. I find it so relaxing when I just don’t want to deal with anyone (it has been one of those weeks, what can I say).

As always, happy gaming, no  matter where you find yourself!

What’s in store for EQ2

stargrace August 19, 2014 No Comments

SoE Live has come and gone for another year, and with it loads of announcements about their various games. Since Vanguard has now closed down, I was far less interested than previous years. It was like a constant reminder that my favourite game was gone. Ah well.

The next EverQuest 2 expansion is Altar of Malice. Eq2Wire has loads of information posted from SoE Live, so I’m going to go into incredible detail but I will mention the bits that interested me.

First, a new race is coming – but for those who thought this race would be included in the expansion, you would be wrong. They will be sold separately as a station cash purchase according to twitter comments. What is that race? Oh, well it’s the Aerakyn. Makes sense since the next expansion is going to focus around Lanys T’vyl.

Points that interested me

• All access: Ability for members to use the broker anywhere in the game. Players with all access will also be able to receive mail from anywhere in the game. Some special spells and items may be limited to subscribers.
• You’ll be able to sell shinies for status
• New grandmaster spell upgrades, basically every spell will now have a grandmaster version. They’ll be researched and dropped (and I believe all access only).
• They’re finally updating the deity system – yay!
• Wardrobe system

The level cap is increasing to 100, and the expansion is due out November 11th (a holiday?) so in between now and then I’m working on getting a few more of my characters to 95/350 (the current cap) as well as crafting (though I already have all 9 crafters at 95). The event did also mention that crafters would be able to make some awesome gear in the expansion, so I’m looking forward to that.

What are you most looking forward to in Altar of Malice?

Finally, Something to do with my Spare Currency!

stargrace August 10, 2014 1 Comment

I decided with only a few days left of Tinkerfest, I should learn tinkering on my swashbuckler. I already have the skill on a few characters, but not my current main. Headed to butcherblock, my recipe vendor of choice, and there in a tent I spotted a new NPC I had not seen before. I have no idea when he was added, but the gnome Barnaby Blunderbuss had the title <Master of Coins and Contraptions> under his name. Opening up the window revealed that he was a token exchange NPC. Basically you can turn in any of the old tokens that you collect in-game over the years for an adornment or tinkering component instead. Since both of those crafts tend to take a lot of pieces (especially adorning) I was incredibly happy to see this NPC.

It meant that finally after stockpiling useless currency in my currency tab for years, I was able to do something with it all. I quickly exchanged it all (over 5,000 bits..) and began working on adorning.

I have always disliked the fact that each expansion or event came with its own useless currency, that would collect dust once I had moved on. This NPC was the perfect solution to my cluttered bags and tokens that stared at me grudgingly.

I also managed to complete a bunch of Tinkerfest quests, and got a brand new outfit for my swashbuckler, but I’ll save those for tomorrow. Weekends are always a bit more difficult for me to write because there are so many other chores I need to get done (I work all weekend) but I’m pleased that so far I’ve managed to participate in every day of Blaugust. Here’s to day 10 and counting!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

What Keeps you Busy, When it’s Not

stargrace August 9, 2014 3 Comments

I don’t know about everyone else, but in order for me to really feel ‘involved’ in an MMO, I need “something” to do when I’m feeling quiet. Something that I can work towards when I’m not feeling very social, when my attention is diverted by other things, when I want to let my mind wander.

So what do I do?

It varies by game. In WoW I tend to harvest, do pet battles, fish, and archaeology. These are things that still give me an illusion of progression but are also quite relaxing and trouble free.

In EQ2 I’ve been working on my lore & legend quests on Jacquotte, my very-behind swashbuckler. I only have a handful left to go, and then I’ll probably start working on my neglected language quests. These things along with going back and visiting old zones, harvesting, crafting, and housing, occupy my “lets do something, but not too much something” moments. They’re actually what keeps me logging in when I’m done all of the content that I can explore (as in I have completed my weeklies and dailies and I don’t really want to group to do more, but I wouldn’t mind hanging out in the game while I do other stuff). This is the bread and butter of any game for gamers like me. If your game doesn’t have something for me to do when I want a little down time, chances are slim that I will stick around. I won’t find a reason to log in – because lets face it, doing dailies over and over and over gets to be a bit much.

What do you do to relax in your MMO of choice? Or are you one of those people who prefer to just go go go? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, either, it’s just not my personal style of play.

Let me know in comments!