Nomadic Gamer

EQ

Gaming

A Little Bit of Everything

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Yesterday was another one of those game days where you are not really sure what you’re going to end up doing, but you know you’ll do something, and it will be fun. I set my trader up for the evening, and sales were slow, go figure. It’s pretty hit and miss with the market on Drinal right now. Some days I can make 10k plat easily and other days it drags by. Either way, the coin is used simply to fund my way through crafting, so it’s not very essential to me. When I had some free time I decided to create two storage characters for Kameeko (my crafter of course) to move things onto. I created Kamsmith and Kamtailor – gee very creative, I know. I promptly filled both up with delux tool boxes and then transferred all of the supplies used for those two skills over. I didn’t get it all, but I got a great deal and it was refreshing to have a little space in my bags again. Now some time I need to transfer all of the junk off of Minxes to those two characters. 

We did some DoD missions yesterday in the hopes of obtaining the 68-70 spells, Ultann left early so that he could spend the evening with some friends, leaving just Ninga and I. After a little break (did some artwork, a new render of my necromancer that turned out fairly well) we decided to spend a little bit of time playing those lowbies we’d created a few days ago. My paladin and ranger are still pretty much naked as far as gear goes, but Ninga helped me out and gave me a few new bits to wear. One of those pieces included the clicky (need a few levels of course) paladin breastplate, which was pretty awesome. 

The hot zone for level 20 is Stonebrunt mountains, not a zone I enjoy a great deal but it was better then the ‘regular’ experience from other zones. I actually miss the previous hot zones, the Moors used to be one and so was Stone Hive, two zones I really liked. Anyhow, we headed to the Gunthak stone in PoK and from there ported over to Stonebrunt. Down near the Warrens (remember, we were only level 15 at the time) were a few camps of Kobold, and we set up a few paces away and began our leveling. 

While some people may not enjoy this type of grind, it’s actually one I relish. It’s one I’ve missed. In EQ2 you are constantly moving around, there’s no such thing as a puller, your tank is the puller (grats on the added roll) for most instances. I enjoy setting up a camp and dividing the roles between people (including puller). I would lull with my paladin and then snare pull to the camp with the ranger, it worked out pretty well. After a little bit of time went by I was surprised to see that we had already reached level 20, a great accomplishment. Of course now I have to look up five levels worth of spells (again) and maybe even think about getting some gear. All in all it was a lot of fun. I’ve always enjoyed my alts. One of these days (when i have time of course) I’ll have to look into tinkering on the paladin too. 

The trio makes quite an amusing group. I hired a healer mercenary (only one of my accounts has SoD so that’s what I’m limited to for now) and the make up was gnome – halfling – dark elf (mercenary) and drakkin (resident Ninga on his bard). The little gnome paladin IS sporting an incredible purple pair of goggles attached to her helm which I adore. 

I also logged into EQ2 for a bit to make sure all was well there, updated some guild stuff (I WILL be back, I always am) and checked sales, made sure nothing had been falling apart. The new Lavastorm revamp is just around the corner along with some other changes, and I’m looking forward to writing about those. 

I hope everyone is having an incredible weekend, no matter where you find yourself. See you in Norrath!

Gaming

A little DoN, TBS, Leveling, and DoD

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Last night saw a little bit of everything as my happy little trio headed to Lavastorm to start and finish off the Tier2 DoN mission. We finished off the solo quests and then it was time for what once would have been a 24-person raid against Emoush – a huge swirling mass of bits. The encounter was not especially difficult, but it was not really made for three people. You can’t bring mercenaries on the fight because it’s considered a raid zone. Basically there are three guards who surround Emoush, and you have to killl them all at once before he becomes vulnerable to your attacks. Once they’re down you’ve got a timed encounter to defeat him. Well, my group consisted of a shadowknight, a monk, my enchanter and my necromancer. The monk and shadowknight are 75+ but my own characters are still quite a bit lower. Needless to say we were a little lacking in the DPS department and so we’d get the little guards down and then work Emoush down to half way or so, and those little guards pop back up alive and well.

You spend more time working those guards down while Emoush grows in power and regens his hit points – exceptionally frustrating! If you don’t get him down to 0% in the next round or so, he grows harder and gains more power and more hit points each round. My little trio was fighting him for the better part of an hour, just barely hanging in there before we all ran out of power and had to call off our first attempt. We buffed back up and headed back in where we vanquished him without too much problem at all. 

The free aa we got from this was a hp/mana/end buff (that stays constant as part of your stats) and 2 free aa, plus flagging for the next portion which I don’t believe we’re going to do. We all also received a new spell to add to our collections. 

After that we headed off to TBS (the buried sea) to work on faction and do missions. The servers had been re-set the night before, and apparently the way the missions work is that you earn less orux (I believe that is the term) for repeating the same missions over and over again. You’ll eventually wear down their worth. We found one mission that was worth 150 of the currency for that expansion, and so we proceeded to work on that a few times. The mission was a lot of fun, you make your way to a room filled with chests and in the center stands a Sphinx. You have to unlock chests in a proper combination while the Sphinx spawns mobs on you that take on characteristics of those chests. It was a lot of fun and some times very intense as my little trio battled the rock monsters. A good time was had by all though.

In fact, so much of a good time that Nocbot (as our cleric bot is termed) finally hit level 80, and Ultann hit level 82. My own characters earned a few aa and hit level 73 and 71 respectively. I haven’t looked into their spells yet, but that will be next on my list. 

Once we had dinged, we headed back to DoD for a quick mission to obtain another spell that was released in that expansion. I haven’t actually picked it up yet, so I’ll be doing that today. I also picked up all the components I need to start crafting myself some misty thicket picnic baskets. It seems that a high level crafter was also working up their skill because on the vendor in the baking section of Crescent Reach there was 1,000 of the food bits just sitting there. 1g each. Wow what a deal! It literally felt like christmas as I purchased them all and stashed away a bunch in the guild. I put a bunch on broker as well for 5p a piece, a little profit to cover what I’d spent buying them all off of the merchant. It’s little things like that that I enjoy the most about EQ. I LOVE being able to buy other people’s junk that they’ve sold to the vendor. 

Not sure what today is going to hold game-wise, but tonight I’m making a nice roasted chicken and some mashed potatoes and gravy and little green onions, so please feel free to stop by!

Gaming

A Night Off

stargrace 1 Comment

Last night my little trio was supposed to head to Lavastorm and continue on with the DoN progression quests – however I wasn’t really in the mood to work on those (it happens) and so I decided to create two alts (one on each account) and play around on those for a little bit. Ultann and Ninga also came to play on alts, and we had a lot of fun. 

I created a gnome paladin so I could do some tinkering (love crafting, so much) and a halfling ranger so I could do some foraging (and have track available and what not). Ninga created a drakkin bard and twinked him out, Ultann had a low level paladin already waiting, so we set off to the top floor of Crescent Reach and killed bats and rats until we were big enough to kill zombie and skeletons, and then moved off to the bear caves. Hot zones don’t start until level 20, and the first one is Stonebrunt which can be difficult to fight in, so we stayed in CR for the time being. By the time my eyes were threatening to close we had reached level 15, which was pretty nice. I’ll probably spend a little time today shopping for some gear and purchasing spells for the two characters, maybe work up some skills. 

Tonight being Friday (woohoo weekend!) We’ll get back to playing the big’uns and continue with our DoN progression. I’m looking forward to earning a few more aa and excited about unlocking the next round of ‘special’ DoN aa that gives 250 health and mana. 

March is just around the corner, and with it the 10th anniversary for EQ. I’m excited to be playing this year, I have to admit. I’ve never really been around for the fabled events, and I know a little bit more about what will be happening since I asked the EQ team in San Diego. What are they? You’ll just have to log into EQ to see!

I hope everyone has an incredible Friday, no matter your game of choice. See you in Norrath (and more then likely Telon for a while today)!

Gaming

Tier2 DoN Progression

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I spent most of yesterday (and I will today as well) transcribing the remainder of my SOE interviews that I did while in San Diego, so I didn’t have a whole lot of time to play. Ultann and Ninga logged in and we decided to start working our faction for the Dark Reign again – of course it seems that I missed a very small part of the progression that may (or may not) have made this all easier. 

Apparently once you finish tier one and obtain your 2aa and new special aa (grants you +10 to all of your stats for no cost, constantly) you need to hail the commander once more, and say the key word (work) in order to get your flag for the next tier. In fact zam specifically says: 

“Head back to the Commander and speak with him. This will flag you for the next step in progression. You will also get flagged for the Tirranun raid (not required for progression). “

Well, I didn’t do that nor did I suggest to my friends that they do it. So when we could not get the next portion, I assumed it was because we needed faction (and I’d read further down in the post that mentioned something about needing amiable with the Dark Reign before progressing further). We spent the majority of the evening working on creator missions (which are fast) and alternating with another mission. I didn’t mind because it was a nice amount of aa for Minxes – I kept Kameeko parked in Lavastorm to turn in the faction tokens. 

After growing increasingly frustrated, by a random chance Ultann happened to hail the captain and say his text and then received his flag, and spoke with the next npc in line who very easily gave him the next tier of progression quests. Woopsie. 

It still was a fun night – I hope everyone else had fun too and doesn’t hate me too much for all that work we did. 

So tonight we’ll be working on Tier2 for real – and why are we even doing these older expansions? Well first of all they’re still all fairly new to me. I have done the DoN missions before but not the faction or the main quest arc that went along with it. Getting spells and aa and unique aa is a lot of fun, and hey, why not! The goal for tonight is the following bit of quest (taken from the walk through at Zam) 

Tier 2: Tenacity of the Dark Reign 

Speak with Officer Sirrikus Ryktor and receive three tasks: 

“Army of Stone” — Loot five Animated Guardian Essences from Stillmoon Temple 
“Blood from Sand” — Loot seven Impure Goblin Bloods from Stillmoon Temple 
“Reap the Kirin Mind” — Loot three Pristine Kirin Brains from The Ascent 

Head back to the Commander and speak with him to receive a flag. Now speak to Officer Vacax Rol`Tas, who gives you yet another mission: 

“Drake Eggs” — In The Ascent, kill drakes until you are able to loot a Drake Egg. This will spawn a Goblin Guard at the zone-in. Kill him, and give the Drake Egg to Celrak Blightblood in the Lavastorm Mountains. Upon doing so, your task is completed and you receive 29-38 Ebon Crystals and a Dark Reign Token. 

Speak with Captain Aleeth Zyrv to gain information on the Calling Emoush raid event. 

“Calling Emoush” is a 24-player raid event in Tirranun’s Delve. A fairly straight forward event, you need to kill Emoush’s three guards and then take him out. Loot a Glowing Stone Fragment his corpse. Bring this to the Commander for a flag and: 
-Two AAs 
-Tenacity of the Dark Reign (250 hp/mana/end) 
-Your 69th level spell/tome. 

Class – Spell/Skill 
Bard – Spell: Storm Blade 
Beastlord – Spell: Growl of the Panther 
Berserker – Tome of Destroyer’s Volley 
Cleric – Spell: Blessed Touch (scribes as Ward of Retribution spell) 
Druid – Spell: Earthen Embrace (scribes as Serpent Vines spell) 
Enchanter – Spell: Rune of Rikkukin 
Magician – Spell: Summon: Molten Orb 
Monk – Tome of Dragon Fang 
Necromancer – Spell: Shadow Orb 
Paladin – Tome of Guard of Righteousness 
Ranger – Spell: Earthen Shackles 
Rogue – Tome of Assassin’s Feint 
Shadowknight – Tome of Soul Shield 
Shaman – Spell: Spirit of the Panther 
Warrior – Tome of Cyclone Attack 
Wizard – Spell: Claw of Vox 

It should be a lot of fun, and needless to say I’ll try to read the quest information a little clearer next time so we don’t end up spending the evening grinding faction mindlessly for no reason at all. Sorry about that again guys!

I’ve been having a lot of fun playing EQ again. A few friends have been giving me some jeers about playing such an old game (happy 10th birthday almost!) but it really does give a sense of accomplishment when you take down an encounter or work on crafting or obtain a difficult flag. Since it was my very first ‘true’ MMO it holds that special place in my heart that no other game can come close to. That’s not to say that I won’t be playing other games (I’d like to get some Vanguard time in soon and I will be working on a 14-day project for work with regards to Final Fantasy XI) but for my leisure time for now, EQ is where I’m at. 

See you in Norrath!

Gaming

Dragons of Norrath Progression and Missions

stargrace 1 Comment

Yesterday was all about progression through Dragons of Norrath, which was an expansion that released February 2005, so it’s quite old now. Ultann finished (most) of his unpacking, and managed to squeeze a few hours in game which was nice. My happy little trio headed to Lavastorm, and then debated which camp we were going to follow. Ninga already had his faction with the goodies, while Ultann (who was actually on his shadowknight for the evening) had none and though I’ve done the DoN missions before, I apparently also had not worked any faction. I believe at the time I was advised against turning in my tokens so that I could obtain crystals from both camps and purchase whatever it was I wanted from the merchants.

Speaking of purchases, that was why we were doing the DoN bits to begin with. Not only does the progression reward special unlocked aa (and regular aa of course) and spells, but one of the merchants also sells a pet focus item that I wanted. This lets me cast more powerful pets – and the ‘nice’ ones are super expensive, so this free one that Ninga happened to find was absolutely perfect. 

You can find a fairly clear walkthrough for the progression here on Zam – but keep in mind that once you’ve completed the first tier, you have to earn more faction for the second tier. 

We did missions for the evening, and trapsed through Lavaspinner’s Lair, Stillmoon Temple, The Accursed Nest, Thundercrest Isles, and Tirranun’s Delve, as well as our home base camp in Lavastorm, and The Broodlands. It was a lot of fun, and my two girls earned a lot of achievements. Kameeko managed to finish off the craft aa that allows you to raise more then one craft over 200, so she can now begin to work on all of them. Next I’ll be turning all of those into reduced failures. I haven’t decided the method I want to take yet in leveling them, I was contemplating brewing and baking simply because I dislike purchasing so much food and drink on both of my characters. We’ll see how that goes though. Tailoring and smithing are high up on my virtual list, and pottery near the bottom but still something I want to complete. 

Not sure what this Wednesday evening will bring, but I’m sure it will be fun, and I’ll write all about it tomorrow morning as always. On an unrelated note – EQ2 has some amazing changes and revamps coming in their next update, and I’ll be sure to write about that too. I’ve always loved the original Lavastorm in EQ2 but felt it was sorely neglected from simply being outdated. If the Everfrost revamp was any indication, Lavastorm will be exceptionally popular and players will once again frequent it as they should. More on that later!

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