EQ

Larger Then Life

stargrace May 10, 2008 1Comment

Last night was our fourth meeting of Nostalgia the Guild, and it took us to Solusek’s Eye. We died, a lot. It was great. Two group wipes were directly because of me and being a dark elf. We happened to stumble into the clockwork portions, low and behold the little mech gnomes don’t care for me. Woopsie. I didn’t even realize that they disliked me, so when we made our way down for a second time, and we wiped again – it suddenly dawned in that it was *me* and not just my group they disliked. It didn’t help that they were red con and we had a few on us at once. We could handle them one at a time, but they’re highly resistant to snare and had lots of friends to come play. They didn’t just dislike me though, oh no. Once one had booted me into the near by lava, and my pet decided to dive in right after, I tried to call him back. Of course pets don’t take the usual way back to their owners, no, they have to walk the long way. Through agro mobs, with an angry mech gnome following behind. Which of course lead us to hear a sudden bombardment of whirling gadgets followed by a very loud “Oh shit” from me, and about 20 of the little beasties swarming us.

I lived through that one.

Unfortunately, the rest of the group did not. The joys of being a necromancer though, aside from feign death I can locate corpses, or summon them if I’ve got a coffin on me (which I rarely do, mental note to stock some in my bank for CR’s) I can also invis myself, and invis vs. undead. Best of both worlds.

Tipa made a comment on her post about the evening, “In a pickup group, dying so many of times could only have ended in a lot of bad feelings. With a group of friends, taking risks, having fun… it was great,” which is exactly right. Sure after the third death in a row maybe we were feeling it slightly, but because we’re a group of friends, adventuring together – and the experience is quite fast despite the deaths, there were no hard feelings (as far as I’m aware). Next week will be a LDoN night, which I do enjoy quite a bit, and then the week after we’ll be heading to Mistmoore Castle. Last time I was there it was invaded and was quite high level (back in 2005) but now apparently it’s settled back down to a lowbie zone.

The experience is still quite fast. We’re averaging five levels a week (or a night even, for those who don’t play constantly) and keeping up at a steady pace. A few people have dropped behind, some are not playing any more and can’t make the schedule, but all in all it’s still a LOT of fun. We could use a second tank, an enchanter, and a rogue. The second tank bit seems to be the hardest to find and gathering together two full groups is always a chore. Last night we had a fantastic turn out though, I believe we had two groups of 5, so 10 people total. We got a few upgrades, some weapons for Urtog (our tank) and some caster jewelery pieces for both myself and Coldheat (the cleric). We also got some augments I believe for Rogbog (zerker) and maybe Binxs (the beastlord) I can’t recall though.

The zone is a hotspot, which meant of course – power levelers were around. It was hard to find an area to camp and get experience at when a level 80 is running around gathering the entire zone to level up their alt (or someone else’ alt, who knows). Unfortunately, that’s just a part of the game and you learn to make due.

Best moments of the night? Tipa (in the screen shot above) becoming larger then life (literally) with the help of Bristlebane. Minxe (my necromancer) also had a ‘moment’ when the jesters enlarged her and Urtog suddenly realized which dungeon he wanted to explore next as he attempted to crawl under her dress. Another great moment was when I was trying to locate Malfi’s (druid) corpse in the lava. I spent a good 5 minutes trying to target it and be in range to drag, and suddenly could. I excitedly spoke in vent about how I’d managed to snag his corpse, and brought it upstairs to him. I was so proud, having never found anyone’s corpse before.

Then he told me he’d actually summoned it with his veteran reward aa, and was in the process of looting it when I stole it from him and dragged it away.. He wasn’t on vent and had no idea I’d been hunting for it.

Woops. I make a great necromancer, what can I say. Already stealing corpses. The night was wonderful, I leveled from 25-30, and picked up all 12 new spells in abysmal sea. I was slightly disappointed that I worked really hard to research a spell for level 24 (my pet) and then it was replaced at 29 by something vendor sold. Ah well, that’s the life of a caster! Hopefully a great time was had by all, and we’ll have more excitement next week.

Gekkdar The Last Ogre Chief

stargrace May 9, 2008 0Comment

While it’s been a blast roaming through the old nostalgic areas of EQ1, there’s also something to be said for the new places. Well, new to me in any case. Lets face it, there’s lots of new places. If you were perhaps once daunted by the amount of time it takes to level (even while solo) you shouldn’t be. At least, 1-30 has flown by. One huge reason for this was because of the Serpents Spine expansion which added Crescent Reach, and the Drakkin as a playable race. Off of Crescent Reach, is Blightfire Moors, which is home to a plethora of quests, great armor upgrades, and other random goodness. While the nostalgia group as a whole tends to avoid the more ‘up to date’ areas, I’ve enjoyed exploring them on my own when I needed a little more experience, or felt like playing one of my non progression characters.

One of the quests I worked on today was a chain given to you in Crescent Reach by an npc named Akins. He stands over top of the brewers on the main floor, and he has a few tasks for you. The first one sent me into the newb area of CR, there’s an area at the far northern tip that has undead, who still con dark blue to me at level 25. They also give a lot of experience. Anyhow, it seems he needs 15 of them slain. Doing so rewards you with 7p and unlocks his next quest.

The second quest Akin decides he’s scared of the spirits that haunt CR, and so he thinks the best possible solution is of course to send you upstairs to see “what goes bump in the night” you wander upstairs, dodge past a few undead skeletons and zombie, and come across a throne in the back room of the third floor. There’s a skeleton resting on it, so of course to decide to talk to it.

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Who is it that disturbs my slumber? Unless you are the [one] begone from this place of chiefs!’

You say, ‘I am the one’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Only a true heir of the Rockjaws or Thoots can [free] me from my torment. As long as the Amulet of Chieftains is mine, here I will remain. I wait here for the day that the heir comes to this place.’

You say, ‘Free you?’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Ancient magic binds me to this place. The magic of the Amulet of Chieftains must be passed from one Chief to the next. Only a true heir may take the Amulet. All others who touch the Amulet will surely die. Alas I died alone with no heir and am consigned to wait here. Now go or I shall rouse myself and you will feel my [wrath]!’

You say, ‘Your wrath?’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Do not tempt your fate little one! My patience with you is at an end. Go now or [die]!’

You say, ‘Die!’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief staggers as a shadow pierces their soul.
You have slain Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief!

You get a pretty nice ring for killing the Ogre Chief, and you also unlock the third quest to the chain, which sends you to Blightfire Moors. While you’re upstairs in that throne room, don’t forget to /open the bones behind it, and loot the amulet for a very nice charm progression quest. I’ve been having fun in EQ1, both old and new zones. Tonight is another Nostalgia meeting, and I’ve switched my necromancer to my new ‘main’, my cleric I’ll play with Lackey when he’s around. We’re headed to Solusek’s Eye which should be a lot of fun. It’s also one of the hot zones, so maybe we’ll run into someone else.

North Ro LDoN and Nostalgia

stargrace May 3, 2008 2Comments

Now before I get too far into this post – I admit, that I have a few pet peeves in games. Some are pretty apparent, and some not so much. One of my very strong pet peeves, is when people sign up for an event, and then give no notice about their absence. Now wait – I understand that people have actual lives, that things come up. But when 10 other people are counting on you to be there, the least someone can do is get a hold of whomever is in charge of the event and let them know they won’t be there. That’s my one issue with Nostalgia. I know, it probably sounds harsh of me to say about something that is so casual, but it’s because it’s so casual that I vent about it. We only meet once a week. If there’s an issue with a once a week schedule, we really need to know about it so we can compensate for the missing class. Be it a tank, dps, or buffs (Aerrik, in case you’re reading this it’s NOT about you silly, you told everyone you wouldn’t be there this week!) anyhow, enough of my ranting.

Nostalgia hiked up their skirts and headed off to do some Lost Dungeon of Norrath (also known as LDoN) for the evening and wow did we have a BLAST. We split into two groups, this time with Tipa the ranger as my fearless tank. I had moved both the cleric and the necromancer to the North Ro camp, unsure of who we’d need. I do want to be playing the cleric, but the necromancer is a lot of fun as well. For the time being I’ll continue to level them both up until it comes to a time where that is no longer a viable option. I don’t have any veteran rewards on the necro, being out of /claims. In EQ, you’re limited by how many characters you can flag with veteran rewards by how long you’ve held the account.

I was expecting experience to slow down – and it did, which was great. I got two levels out of the three runs we did and ended the necro half way through 24. Was there risk? Was it hard? Well – there was certainly risk. At one point, rogueless, Tipa decided to go poke the chest at the exit of the room we stood in.

Bad idea!

In 5 seconds flat we were corpses on the ground, having been hit with an 88 point a tick dot. OUCH! We laughed and teased Tipa endlessly over it, walked back to our instance from PoK (Plane of Knowledge) and picked up where we left off. Gozad also had an ‘incident’ with the floor, the poor monk tripped, or so I heard, and was crushed by a barrage of undead. Or something.

We had a blast. It was so great. We were also fairly lucky in our drops. We walked away with quite a bit of coin, and THREE LoN (Legends of Norrath) drops. One starter deck, one booster deck (which sells for 45,000p) and one regular card. We also had two augments drop (which are fairly common for LDoN) and we of course gained points with the North Ro camp. Fantastic. I honestly had such a good time. The key point? Having a static group of people to do this with. It has made all the difference in the world.

Nostalgia the guild will be putting together a Tuesday group (I won’t be apart of that one as it’s one of my Vanguard days and honestly one is enough for me!) so if anyone is interested in being TRULY old-school in their EQ1 leveling, be sure to check out the forums for more details and to sign up. I believe Blackburrow is the goal for this Tuesday, with a maximum of level 10 to start the night off.

One thing I’ve missed about EQ1 (having played other games) is actually running all over to collect my spells. I’ve neglected them since level 20 or so – unsure of when I’d be playing the necromancer next and not really NEEDING any of my spells. There’s no automatic way to obtain them in EQ1, and you actually have to look up a spell list and typically write out what you need and who sells it and how you can get it. It’s fantastic. Odd thing for me to say? Perhaps. It was just one of those small things that gave the game character though. In EQ2 you automatically get all your spells from 1-50, and then after that you simply look up on broker or on a class merchant for 51-80 or have a player craft them all for you. There’s no skills in multiple zones, no real reason NOT to have any of your spells aside from not seeing it for sale on broker and not wanting to bother with a lower version of it. In EQ1 it’s quite common to hear “Oh, I haven’t gotten that yet, it’s research only” or “Oh, I have to go all the way to Shadowhaven for that and they won’t sell to me yet” and various other reasons for not having particular spells. It’s always fun to hum and haw over which spells you NEED and can afford to buy, and which ones are expendables.

Next week Nostalgia is headed to Solusek’s Eye which is just going to be a hoot I can tell. It’s still not too late to join up if you’d like (and can make the Fridays at 7pm EST schedule – though we are recruiting anyone who just wants to play EQ1 and reminisce about the good ‘ol days) just visit the forums and introduce yourself. We could use a second tank for group cool, and an enchanter. Our level cap for this week is 25, so anything between 20-25 would be perfect.

The Overthere

stargrace May 1, 2008 0Comment

Slackey Lackey happened to be working from home yesterday, and what fun would that be if he didn’t sneak in a little time to play EQ1? So it was that we tried to come up with some place new to get experience. Every time you gain a level, SOE sends you a little message about where you should go next. At level 20 it was suggested we go to North / South Ro. Well, we made our way over there – and the majority of both zones were gray. What wasn’t gray was red (like sand giants). The zone itself reminded me way too much of EQ2 and the funny thing is I’d never actually made the connection between Sinking Sands (EQ2) and the EQ1 zones. I guess it was easier to think about it once I was actually there. I know, EQ1 came first, but I tend to still work backwards, as I’ve actually played EQ2 longer then EQ1.

So after wandering around encountering very few dark blues, lots of gray, and a few greens, we decided to head to the zone suggested at 21 (which was Lackey’s level) and I can’t remember what it was now but we were headed to the Gunthak stone to get there. Along the way I stopped and looked at the Overthere stone. Hmm. For some reason I vaguely remembered power leveling (and just plain leveling) there from 20-30. Could it be?

Zoning in proved to be two fold. If we headed west (where the “ramp” was a typical camp) things were quickly red, but if we went east, things were dark blue. Perfect!

It wasn’t long before we’d both gained a few levels, and were sitting on 22. By that time many a cockatrice, sarnak, and rhino fell to our pets, and Lackey said he had to get back to work (didn’t leveling count?) so we gated back to PoK in preparation of getting our spells some time in the future. Zones may have changed – but there are a good many more that have not. Everything in OT was exactly as I remembered it except a sever lack of people. The entire time we were the only two there. Not that I expected anything less at 9am on a Wednesday.

I’m looking forward to playing my cleric on our LDoN Friday, it should be fun. She’s been idling away unplayed at the level cap (20) for this week. I meant to play a little with my shadow knight but yesterday just couldn’t get into it. I was also contemplating getting my jewel crafting on Kameeko to cap – but I need to sit my druid in Rujarkian Hills so she can forage geodes. Velium geode bracelets cap out at 302 and that’s plenty high for me to get the last points I need. AOC is looming closer and I’m not exactly worried that it will draw people away from their current mmo’s on a permanent basis – I think it will become a niche game once the initial frenzy dies down. I’ve still got very little interest or reason to want to play it, though I do keep up with what everyone else thinks about the game.

Upper Guk, Good Friends, and Deleted Characters

stargrace April 29, 2008 1Comment

Nostalgia the guild has had it’s issues with GM’s over the course of the two weeks we’ve been active. However, in my own personal experience, they’re still pretty damn fantastic. In order to play in the group (before I’d obtained station access) I had to delete a character of mine – and unthinkingly I deleted a 44 shadow knight named Satia, and a 13 wizard named Nukette. A few days later I realized that Nukette was actually my one true twink – decked out with gear from Greig himself. Not many level 13’s can say that. She’s wearing the Geomantic Fingers of Focus which my cleric at the time also managed to find. Grieg’s End is another one of those zones that I just absolutely love. I killed Grieg with my beastlord friend any time we found him up, and we leveled many many an alt in the zone. If I recall, we had the wizard sacrifice herself, and then dragged her corpse to the corpse of Grieg and rez’d her there so she could loot. In fact when I logged her in, after being restored, she was still in GE. It’s been years.

My shadow knight was also restored – for which I am very happy. The GM’s are under no obligation to restore characters to me, but they were prompt and courteous  (as was I) and I’m glad for the help.

I haven’t played a shadow knight in a long time. I typically hate tanks. They have spells though, and a pet, and well hey she looks pretty good too. Today I planned on taking her through some of the newer quests level 20-40 just to see how much I remember about playing her.

Last night, Lackey (20 Magician), Aerrik (19 Shaman), Spuc (17 Monk), and myself (20 Necromancer) decided we’d head to Upper Guk to meander around and kill things. We had an absolute blast on vent making crude jokes (Lackey summoned his Bristlebane Jester who shrunk a few of us and made a few others grow..) and just generally having a good time. We were going to attempt to head to Lower Guk – but things very quickly turned from grey to red inside Upper as it was, and we decided other wise. A few levels later and a lot of laughs, we called it a night and everyone (except the monk) gated out – leaving the monk to sacrifice himself to get a rez later. I would have felt badly, except that it was his choice and at these levels the exp loss is not so bad (plus, he’d just get a rez at the guild lobby later). We didn’t get any useful loot, but it was still a lot of fun to wander around accidentally pulling groups of three or four mobs.