EQ

Brewing and Housing and Levels – Oh My! #EverQuest

stargrace April 3, 2013 0Comment

Yesterday was an exciting day for me in EverQuest. First I made the decision that as much as I love my beastlord (and I do, she finally reached level 60) I really enjoy playing my enchanter (level 90). So Oger the shadowknight I’ve been playing with decided he would pick up the pace with his leveling, and I would join him with my enchanter. Level 60 can group with level 90 (it’s your level + 1/2 your level in order to gain experience). There are a few reasons for my preference in playing the enchanter, but I do have to admit that one of the main ones is because I have worked so hard to level her crafting over the years.

EverQuest crafting is a pain in the ass. You constantly fail combines, and the ‘cap’ on your skill is 300 and HAS been 300 for many years now. Of course expansions that release add to recipes below cap, but more often than not their final combines are WELL above cap, typically in the 400-500 skill range leaving you a high chance at failure OR purchasing one of the $10 2 hour craft potions that guarantees if you fail a combine you get your materials returned. You CAN put aa into salvage (and I highly suggest it) but you’ll never get 100% return, and you can also put aa into less failures (which I also suggest). Nothing beats those potions though especially if you’re doing a very rare and difficult combine (prayer shawl, anyone?).

So last night I also managed to FINALLY reach 300 brewing.  I stuck to the same method that I had written about 2 years ago. You can use more recent recipes but the components for those combines are far more expensive, especially since current players use those for their food / drink / etc. I do want to be able to make some of the more recent craft goods though, so once I had reached 300 brewing, I logged onto my 73 druid and took a trip out to East Wastes, Zeixshi-Kar’s Awakening to do some foraging. Foraging and crafting go hand in hand together, and I find that the default 50 skill is just simply not enough, hence why I have a druid. I ended the night collecting a handful of planar goo and planar planar energy shards. These are currently selling for 100p in the broker each, so hopefully I can collect a nice surplus.

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

Beastlord Enters Plane of Disease #EverQuest

stargrace April 1, 2013 0Comment

Things are going very well in EverQuest lately. My beastlord is now level 57, and has been exploring Plane of Disease which is a hot zone for level 50 and up. There are some quests given out by an NPC outside of the guild lobby, they reward some very nice gear for these levels (shoulders, a belt, and a cloak). I picked up the quest and got a haste belt that was a huge upgrade (though all of the pieces are pretty nice upgrades). I currently have my experience on 50/50 so that half of it goes towards aa. I have over 30 aa so far although there are not many useful things for me to purchase at this level yet. Once I hit 60 a lot more will open up.

I’ll be exploring some old events and zones before too long, and broadcasting them on twitch tv. In case you’re not familiar with my channel, you can find it here. I only have a few broadcasts there so far but it will come with time.

I’ve also been working on my alchemy. My skill is at 150 so far, and I’ve been leveling up the crafting trophy as I go along which reminds me. There is apparently a quest you can do if you’re a crafter, that will allow you to unlock multiple mercenary slots instead of purchasing them in the station cash store. Of course purchasing them in the store is much easier than getting to 300 in every craft and then doing a quest, but for the determined, it works well. PLUS you can repeat this quest 4x allowing you to have 4 mercenary slots. This lets you easily switch from healer to dps to tank mercenary without having to go purchase a completely new one. I’m not quite at 300 in every craft yet, but it’s a dream of mine to be there one day.

I still haven’t done any of the anniversary things yet, but that’s alright. There’s so much to do in EverQuest I don’t feel like I’m missing out this year by leveling up a new character. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Day 2 DAW: EverQuest #EverQuest

stargrace March 26, 2013 0Comment

14 years old, and still going strong. My second nomination for Developer Appreciation Week (thanks again Scarybooster for running this event) is the good folks who work on EverQuest – no matter what year they worked on it.

I recently started playing EverQuest again, and I’m so glad I did. There are over 600 people on most evenings (on my server, Drinal). The quests and expansions are still going strong and while it’s certainly not the glory days of this game any more the community is there and the developers have a close relationship to them. There have even been some developer changes lately to help bring the game more in line to those released these days, with an offline mode for the auction house, and mail that you can use to send items instead of just text (not that I ever get any mail, if I do it’s usually just spam).

This is a game that a lot of people use to mark how ‘fun’ they have in other games. Even if they don’t feel like they can return any more they’ll re-live the glory days over and over again, measuring each of their newer games against how much fun they had in it. Developers have left lasting impressions on players (not always positive), and honestly that’s what we all hope to do some day.

So thank you, developers of EverQuest. Without this game I would have never met some of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. I wouldn’t have started my blog (way back when, MmoQuests used to be just about EverQuest) and I would have never had so many new and amazing opportunities come my way.

Stone Hive and Thoughts about Housing #EQ #EverQuest

stargrace March 3, 2013 0Comment

The beastlord 2.0 (and shadowknight) have managed to climb their way to level 42 after our play session today, just a nudge shy of where the 1.0 versions were at before we started over on Drinal. Things are going well. Today we spent most of our time in Stone Hive which was filled with people taking advantage of the hot zone experience. Once we were done I had more than enough bits and bobs to turn in to various NPCs and got quite a few upgrades.

When we had first started our adventures I turned on leadership aa because I wanted to take advantage of some of the perks those abilities give. However they take a substantial chunk of your over all experience away, they gain slowly, and the ability I want (health of targets target) is not even available until I’m much higher level so there’s no point quite yet. I fell behind almost a full level before turning it off and gaining experience like normal.

I’ve also been debating purchasing a house for my beastlord. I used to own one but I’m pretty sure I let the rent on it lapse and I haven’t set one up since. EQ1 houses are a lot of fun and you can get a lot of unique looks if you learn to work the mechanics properly. You can also use the houses for storage, something I can never have too much of.

Yesterday I also came to the conclusion that I wanted to create a shaman to level up for the specific purpose of one day making potions. The alchemy skill is level based and doesn’t unlock until 25 so I’ve got a bit of prep work to do first. Potions are nice to have though, and they can sell well in the bazaar as lowbies purchase them to make their leveling experience a bit easier (especially damage shields and mana regen).

Aside from that, things are going well. My trader has made almost 50,000 plat in offline mode which I’m pretty pleased about. Of course it all seems to just get spent on mercenary upkeep anyhow but hey every game needs its money drains.

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