Nomadic Gamer

EQ

Gaming

Crystal Caverns and The Overthere

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Yesterday was relaxing, and a great time to play alts. The paladin, ranger, and bard were all hovering around level 26-27 and so we decided to head to Crystal Caverns again to gain experience. The zone was great, except eventually I knew it would happen. One of the mobs would run off too fast for me to land a snare on, and before we knew it there were 50 (it felt like it at least) of the mobs on us and we wiped. 

By that time we were all level 31 though, and after respawning in Plane of Knowledge we decided to head to The Overthere which is the level 30 hot zone. 

Creatures ranged from grey (at the entrance by the book) to red still (over by the Skyfire ramp) so we set up camp and the trusty bard started doing his thing. Before too long we were all level 35, which was great. Almost 10 levels in the few hours we played. Experience certainly has gotten faster for lower levels especially with the hot zones. I know it won’t always continue this way but it is pretty fantastic in the mean time. Of course that means now I’ll have to look up 10 levels worth of spells, and since I’ve been almost 100% melee since we started leveling, I can barely cast the few spells I do have. I’ll probably spend a few hours today working skills up so I can at least buff and snare successfully, and being able to lull properly would be wonderful too. We’ll see how it goes. 

I don’t have any huge plans for this weekend, hopefully it will be relaxing and gaming with good friends. I’d like to inch the necromancer closer to 80, the enchanter too. I had a little time to play Runes of Magic, and I’d like to play it a little more, I’m still waiting for the 10th of March before I begin with the EVE trial. I hope the Free Realms closed beta is going well (checks her empty mail box, aww) which is another game I’m looking forward to trying. Sorry for such a short post but perhaps I’ll have more to write about later today. Safe travels!

Gaming

Alts, Dings, and just Plain Fun

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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).

Gaming

Finishing off DoD Missions

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My gaming session started off some what poorly yesterday as I completely forgot a key fact in crafting. Specifically when you’re working on baking, and brewing. My enchanter has been some what neglected in the ways of food and drink, and of course I had a whole bunch of supplies stored on her to make misty thicket picnic baskets when I had a few free moments. The key word there is had. 

I finally had some free time – and harvested an egg so I could make dough (finally) and 10 veggies which was all I was missing. I logged the enchanter in and began doing my combines. I sort of shook my head as I noticed some ingredients I had previously purchased were no longer there. In fact, NONE of the edible ingredients that I had purchased were there. No food, no drinks. Nothing foraged.

Ack! I’d COMPLETELY forgotten that if you store food and drink supplies on your character – your character will EAT IT if you don’t have a supply of regular food and drink placed before all of the crafting bits. Dang it!

So I spent a few hours re-collecting all of the supplies I needed (I was attempting 100 combines, which is 400 baskets and needless to say requires a lot of room). Once that was done I proceeded to work on my baking skill, and while I didn’t get nearly as much done as I would have liked I did get a great deal of space back in my inventory by the end of it. 

When Ultann and Ninga were around it was off to finish the Depths of Darkhollow missions for level 70, and subsequently get my last spell on each character. I was excited, it was all stuff I’d never done before. One of the prettiest zones I’d been to was the one pictured above. I can’t remember the name of the zone, but it was one of the last ones needed for the level 70 spell. The mobs were all very cool looking (like the dragon pictured above) and the whole zone actually reminded me of the void shard zones in EQ2 where there’s open sky with stars all around. Apparently this zone is not used for anything else aside from this mission, which I think is a shame because it’s really spectacular. Another of the 70 missions included being transformed into a mob and finding hordes of Drachnid which was fun but frustrating. It’s hard to learn how to play a new character and even harder when the mobs you’re trying to take down hit hard, and when you revive you have rez effects. It was still fun, but required a little patience. 

The missions were painless, and before too long both my enchanter and my necromancer were sporting their level 70 spell. We also killed Gloomfang again who dropped another greater and glowing rune for the enchanter, who finally got her group haste. Next glowing I get goes towards her group mana regen spell, another nice one to have. She’s about 75% into level 72, while the necromancer is 40% into level 74. 

Once we finished those missions we had to do 69.1 in order for the enchanter to get a spell she had missed. It was pretty quick, and we rounded up the evening doing the DoN missions for Ultann so he could get his 250hp/mana aa that he apparently missed out on the previous time we did it. This included “raiding” Emoush again, who we took down before he even respawned his shaman buddies. 

I believe we’re going to be working through The Buried Sea next, something about a whole lot of faction needed to purchase spells (and gear) and earning lots of orux. I have explored a little through this expansion and done a few missions as well as some quests in Katta, but I haven’t ventured too far into it yet. After that is Secrets of Faydwer, and then of course the latest expansion that released in October, Seeds of Destruction. There’s still so much of this game that I haven’t explored yet, and I’m loving every minute of it.

Gaming

Hanging Out in Crystal Caverns

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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.

Gaming

List of current EverQuest Veteran Rewards

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I have long been a fan of how EverQuest, EverQuestII, and Vanguard all reward their veteran players each year. Some times the rewards are more useful then others. Out of all three games that I play I find the ones in EverQuest to be the most helpful. The topic of veteran rewards came up in discussion yesterday as my trio was playing, so I decided to look up what the current veteran rewards are. 

You can find a list of them here, on the EverQuest tip of the week news archives. 

 

1st year – Lesson of the Devoted:
The player is surrounded by a beautiful blue/white glow as they gain double experience for half an hour every 20 hours.

2nd year – Infusion of the Faithful:
The player enjoys maximum resistances and statistics and a faster run speed for 15 minutes while he glows brightly with power. Usable once every 20 hours.

3rd year – Chaotic Jester:
Summons a Bristlebane puppet that persists for 15 minutes and will randomly cast various spells that provide benefits or minor penalties. Usable once every 20 hours.

4th year- Expedient Recovery:
All the player’s corpses are summoned to their feet and given 100% experience resurrection if they are still eligible. Usable once per week.

5th year – Steadfast Servant:
Summons a creature that casts healing spells upon the player and others nearby. Lasts for half an hour or until you zone. Usable once every 20 hours.

6th year – Staunch Recovery:
The player is healed with health, mana, and endurance fully restored. Usable once every 3 days.

7th year – Intensity of the Resolute:
Surrounds the player in a glow of energy and increases the power of the player’s melee abilities, spells and heals substantially for 1 minute. Usable once every 4 hours.

8th year – Throne of Heroes:
The player is teleported to the Throne of Heroes in the Guild Lobby. Usable every 72 minutes.

9th Year – Armor of Experience:
The player is granted several layers of protection from harm for 90 seconds or 10 strikes. This protection lessens as you take more damage. Usable once every 20 hours.

10th Year – Resupply Agent:
Summons a mechanical merchant to the player’s side who sells supplies and buys loot. He will stay up for 10 minutes or until dismissed by the player. Usable once every 20 hours.

 

The rewards from EQ2 include things like experience potions (that have a time range before they expire so it’s not exactly an endless supply), little appearance things (fairy that sits on your shoulder) and items along those lines. The five year reward also gave you an object that you could use once a week that would replenish your vitality – adventure vitality only. Still handy to have. 

The rewards from Vanguard include a lot of house items (which look incredible) and experience potions, as well as unique titles. Each furniture bundle consists of items from a particular race, with a distinctive look (which I adore). 

It’s these little things in game that I absolutely adore. While people were upset when the living legacy seemed to mainly reward new players and returning players and leave those veterans out in the lurch, it’s nice to see some sort of ‘thank you’ for being loyal to a game. Especially this day in age when everyone is bouncing all over the place playing multiple games for short amounts of time and never really settling (I can be blamed for doing this as well). 

Anyhow, hopefully everyone had an amazing weekend gaming this weekend and playing whatever game (if any) currently hold your attention. See you in Norrath!

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