EQ

EverQuest Halloween Events

stargrace October 29, 2008 1Comment

Halloween may not be a day off of work or school, but that doesn’t stop people from having a lot of fun with the event, including multiple mmo’s. We’ve all heard about the zombie attacks in WoW, and the new haunted house in EQ2, even WAR is getting into the holiday spirit. Not one to be left behind, there is also a whole slew of events going on in EverQuest-PC. 

You can read about all of the events here, at the official EQ site, or run through the list posted below.

Ancient Hauntings! 

These ghost, ghouls, and scary beings return to us from the hauntings in the past. 

Candy and Costumes
Across the starting cities, candy and costume merchants open up their spooky shop to celebrate the season of haunting. Also, seek out Wicked Winnie and a wizened hermit in the Plane of Knowledge for additional sweet fun. 

Trick or Treat?
There have been scattered reports across Norrath of spooky happenings in the Kithicor Forest. People are trick or treating around Norrath. Vampires have been spotted roaming in spooky places. The Halflings are hungrier than usual and are craving everything pumpkin! A creepy bone collector is requesting help on collecting several rare bone artifacts. A great storyteller has arrived and is telling some rather frightening fables. Get your admission ticket today and hear them for yourself! For more information seek out Zigand Ribshard in the Plane of Knowledge. He has all the details! 

• The Trick or Treat Bag: Old Man Draykey will teach you how to trick or treat by showing you the proper greeting method. To practice he gives you a trick or treat bag to go out and get candy.
• Bone Collector: Barsin the bone collector boasts that he can create anything out of bones.
• Roaming Vampire: A Dressed-Up Halfling is running late for the yearly costume gathering.
• Hungry Halfling: Mippie Diggs is hungry and has been craving pumpkin flavored food and drinks.
• Story Teller: Cathil the storyteller has been telling frightening fables to scare the locals.

Haunting Tasks 

• Marta Stalwart in Toxxulia is baking pies to celebrate an old Erudite pie flinging tradition started by an angry wife who scolded her lazy husband by throwing pies at him.
• Grom Shives in Nektulos is retelling the tale of the legendary ride of a dark elf warrior who swindled magic from powerful creatures, and managed to evade them in Nektulos as he returned to Neriak.
• Silas Lightweaver is trying to put on a light show in Greater Faydark, but faeries from Lesser Faydark are running amuck, casting gaudy spells, and disturbing his performance. Capture them, and release them back into Lesser Faydark where they belong.
• Corporal Gravlin is standing guard in Qeynos Hills as travelers from Qeynos attempt journey to Surefall Glade for a celebration. Unfortunately, evil necromancer Pyzjn is causing trouble by raising undead to attack anyone passing through Qeynos Hills.

Bring On The Alts

stargrace October 28, 2008 1Comment

I decided to create a bard in Eq1. Why? Well I haven’t really played one before (at least not one above level 10) and I have actually thought the class was pretty awesome for a number of years now. Between my cleric and enchanter and other random alts, I just never really had the time. So yesterday Kanad and I decided to create alts. He created a Drakkin rogue and I created a Drakkin bard. We each decided to get mercenaries, and neither of us was really wearing any gear, so it was a great test to see how they worked out. 

The mercenaries have no charge from levels 1-10. After that the charge is very slight, allowing anyone to be able to afford one. At level 13 (which was the level we reached after two hours of playing) the mercenaries cost a grand total of 2p to purchase, and 1g every 15 minutes. 

The tank mercenary didn’t do his job very well, being distracted by numerous things it would seem. I sort of figured they wouldn’t exactly be on par with the level 60+ mercs due to the lack of skills available at that level. The healer was fairly good, though they did need a bit of time for meditation and after I hit level 10 they kept trying to rez me when I wasn’t dead but wouldn’t rez me the one time I actually died. I’m not sure what was going on with that.

One interesting point, is that even though the mercenaries did not physically level along with us as we leveled, their spells DID upgrade automatically. We picked up mercenaries at level 3 and used them until level 9, then switched out from level 9 to level 13. We had different cleric buffs on us when they became available to the mercenary, which is a pretty nice feature if you’re reluctant to upgrade. If they’re not tanking and seem to be healing you just fine, then you can hang onto them for a little longer. 

Since we got to level 13 with no gear at all, doing no quests, just hiring mercs, it’s time to take a little time and see about some gear. I love how a game 10 years old can still hold my attention like no other yesterday was a LOT of fun and I’m looking forward to leveling the bard some more as well as playing with Nostalgia on Friday night with my druid.

Only Halflings Need Apply

stargrace October 22, 2008 3Comments

I meant to play EQ2 last night. I created the level 73 spells for my defiler who had gotten her level earlier in the day, and I had every intention of logging in and finding something to do, inching my way perhaps towards level 74. I had not logged in long before all that changed. 

It was all HER fault. Again. Reading the Nostalgia chat channel last night you’d have felt the pull and I like any others were unable to resist the lure of this siren’s call. She was having FUN, and I wanted to have FUN too and before I knew it I had hit subscribe to my EQ1 account. 

Yup. That’s right. I was minding my own sweet innocent business and Tipa started talking about how awesome these ‘hirelings’ looked. How she was going to find a little halfling gentleman to hold her hand fight for her and take the brunt of any hits. I wanted a piece of that pie too. So I resubscribed to EQ1, patched for an hour (it’s been a while since I played) and dug up my old UI which was (surprisingly) updated for the newest expansion Seeds of Destruction (which I ended up with a free copy of, so how could I NOT subscribe?). 

I logged in my druid and we went to play in Griegs End, experimenting with the new toys tank. Wow. That’s the only thing I could think of to say. The hirelings work AMAZING and I think they’re a huge help for players who may not be end game yet or who are unable to get a full group and who need a little ‘help’ getting there – for no other reason then the fact that this is a 10 year old game and the population (while it’s still quite larger actually on Luclin) it’s not what it used to be. 

Kanad decided to log in and we headed to Plane of Storms to see how the mini-tank held up there. He wasn’t much of a talker but he was quite easy to heal. We did have him completely buffed up (thank gawd you don’t need an aa for that) and at one point or another we found ourselves with 4-5 adds. He taunted them off of whoever shouldn’t be tanking (that would be everyone) and though folks did drop down to around 40% health or so, we had no deaths and things went pretty smoothly. My cleric managed to ding 61 in our brief trip (granted, she was 97% into her level when I had set her to aa only) and 30% or so into it. 

Since Nostalgia The Guild has been tank-less for a little while now, these hirelings seem perfect for us. Of course, we’d love to have a REAL tank in there as opposed to an artificial one, but it’s nice to know that the Friday night adventures won’t come to a stand still because we lack a class (or two). Looks like I’ll be re-joining the Friday night fun as well. I had stopped just because I didn’t feel right spending $15 on a subscription for a game I played once a week, but perhaps with these hirelings (which you can read more about in more detail at West Karana of course) I’ll feel a little more inclined to play. I had a LOT of fun last night, and I’m looking forward to more. Dang that Tipa and her ‘fun’ in MMO’s.

Old School Sebilis meets old school Nostalgia

stargrace August 23, 2008 0Comment

Sebilis was built by Venril Sathir during the height of the Iksar Empire, and was once a stronghold for the Iksars of Kunark. Following the death of Emperor Ganak and a steady onslaught of slave uprisings, goblin invasions, and forest giant attacks, the Iksar Empire declined in power. Trakanon dealt one of the final blows to the Empire, destroying the city of Sebilis, and was himself mortally wounded as a result. Presently, the ruins of Old Sebilis are occupied by a clan of Frogloks. Iksar skeletons and ghouls roam the city’s old burial grounds while a poisonous, undead Trakanon can be found in a lair far below the main city.

Many years following their stronghold’s destruction, the Iksars established themselves in Cabilis, far west from the site of a dark moment in their history.

Anyone at least 46th level can zone into Sebilis without a key. The old Key to Sebilis quest is still active, but is now optional (though required if you are under 46). – Allakhazam

We were going to head to the Plane of Storms, however there’s still a level requirement for the zone, though we’re not sure what it is (it used to be 55, it may have been lowered over the past four years though). Instead, we headed to Old Sebilis (which begs the question, where is the NEW sebilis? Or is Cabilis the new Sebilis?) Sorry that the screen shot is not any better but for some reason I’ve forgotten how to take screen shots in EQ1. Yes, I’m being serious. So those were taken quickly by me with Xfire (have I mentioned yet how much I love that little handy program?) and they’re not the best, I know.

We had our usual mish mash of people, Mantis (enchanter), Seja(l) (enchanter), Tipa (ranger), Sisco (monk), Callendra (druid), Coldheat (druid), Kanad (shaman), Tasukiko (warrior), and myself as Qutey (druid). I left Nala at home, deciding I honestly didn’t feel like boxing my way through Sebilis. If anyone out there feels like joining our Nostalgia guild and playing Friday nights with us, around level 50-60 PLEASE don’t hesitate to let one of us know – we could certainly use more people, a second tank and some dps (a rogue, my life for a rogue!) would be awesome. I realize it’s a little difficult since we do only play once a week, but the people make it well worth it.

We got a lot of spells, took down some golems, had some wipes. People got levels though the experience for a hot zone really sucked. That’s right I said it! It also slowed down once we formed a raid – but honestly, we don’t have quite enough people to make two proper balanced groups without having one lack dps and take forever to kill things which is a shame.

For those who only know the EverQuestII Sebilis, the EQ1 version is exactly the same. You even swim down the same tunnels to get to the basement. I had an amazing time as always even though I had to leave early – and hopefully next time we meet (next week is cancelled due to it being a long weekend and folks will be away) we’re off to Plane of Storms!