EQ

Testing out the EverQuest Beta Progression Server

stargrace May 9, 2015 0Comment

As soon as I heard that Daybreak was going to be opening a new EverQuest progression server this summer, I decided that I would dedicate some time to playing it. I didn’t start playing EverQuest until after POK released, so there nostalgia factors that I never experienced. I wanted to help test, the smoother the experience is at release the better, so I patched up the beta client and was met with – old character graphics. This made me smile. These were not the character graphics when I was playing, and it’s odd to think of them making anyone smile this day in age, but there they were. They’re horrible, and it’s fantastic.

The starter zones are packed with people. There’s no beginner armor quests so you have to ignore the dialect from most of the NPC. One thing they have added is the ability to swap to another instance of your zone if there are too many people there (around 50+). You can do this by using the /pickzone zone # command. So for example /pickzone gfay 2 will open a window with a selection of instances to choose from. I did this on my dark elf enchanter, Blesse (pictured above) and ended up in a zone with no one else.

The beta allows players to buff their characters in order to test things like expansion unlocks. Kunark unlocked yesterday afternoon, all of the raid mobs finally defeated. The base game, ‘EverQuest’ doesn’t have a whole lot of quests. Killing is slow depending on what class you’re looking to play. Right now the server is open to anyone, but eventually you’ll need all access to play – which I have to admit, I’m a fan of. Even on the beta server there are people running around with 5+ boxed accounts. I have been debating whether or not I want to box myself, I used to when I was playing on Drinal not so long ago, but I haven’t decided yet. Some days I just like to play and not have to focus on more than one character.

Of course because it’s beta everyone is pretty much doing their own thing. Ideally I’d like to meet up with a social guild, and join others in their adventures. I’m not sure if there’s a central place for people to advertise that stuff, so if anyone else hears anything, let me know.

It took me about an hour to ding level 2 in Nektulos forest. I died a few times when guards couldn’t reach me in time, and I collected 10 or so of the adventure stones that are going to allow players to ‘earn’ rewards when progression goes live, for helping with the beta. I’m unsure what those rewards are yet. All in all, I’m still very excited to begin these adventures. I’m not a huge fan of the beta because of the buff command, but I understand why it’s important to test everything.

You can find me in beta on Stargrace or Blesse.

The Return of King Xorbb #EverQuest

stargrace July 29, 2013 1Comment

Last night I found an instance that I dislike more than the Veil of Alaris instance where you’re floating about on little disks. Yep, it would have to be ‘The Return of King Xorbb‘. This mission was annoying – and not only because it bugged when we got the named down to 10% and it reset. Our tank got launched into the ceiling and stuck, which caused all the mobs in our encounter to warp around the room and finally present us with a ‘such and such is too far out of the area – you fail!’ message. Great.

The fight is basic but there’s a lot going on. There’s King Xorbb who you fight. He has a reflective lens that you can remove. It’s a 70% chance to reflect. Painful. He has a stat reduction. He also charms after he emotes to a person. There are lasers that go off but you can avoid these by standing in a corner.

Every 4 minutes or so he’ll turn non aggro and four adds will spawn. One goblin can be mez’d, but it’s light blue so you may as well burn it. There’s fungus men that can be rooted, and the minotaurs are immune to root mez charm stun etc. Annoying. These mobs are not too bad and you should have enough time left over to catch your breath before Xorbb goes aggressive again.

On top of the four adds and King Xorbb, there are mini named that spawn based on Xorbb’s health. There are five of them. All sorts of craziness ensued. King Xorbb is no pushover when it comes to health points either. After the mission re-set the first time we attempted it again and it went much better. Still the tank died about 10 times and my enchanter 5. Our reward for our efforts was a warrior only axe that no one could use. Shoot. Of course we also got the achievement for getting it done, I’m pretty sure we went because Alix (a rogue friend) required this as her very last group mission to complete all of the RoF missions. I’m glad it’s finished but I sure won’t be going back anytime soon.

Blessed Underfoot Prayer Shawl #EverQuest

stargrace July 18, 2013 0Comment

While end game players are exploring around the final installment in the Heart of Fear, I’ve been doing some crafting. Of course don’t let that fool you, if I were geared up enough I’d want to be in the heart of fear too. Although I did manage to play a bit with my regular group, this week has been quite busy all around.

So in the meantime I’ve been working on my prayer shawl 2.0. It’s an incredibly lengthy quest that takes you through each of the Underfoot zones. There’s killing involved along with the crafting which is well beyond what the current cap is so you should be prepared for a few failures – although I haven’t failed any of my combines yet, I DID accidentally eat one of the food turn ins I needed to make. Whewps.

In other news I’ve decided to try to apply to a raid guild on Drinal. A part of me is very nervous about this and another part is telling me that if I don’t try now, I’ll never get the chance again because who knows what will happen when EverQuestNext releases. There’s one guild in particular that a small handful of my friends have joined, so I’m going to make the attempt. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve never actually raided anything current tier in EverQuest before, so there’s (as always) a good chance they won’t want to take me along. I like to think I’m a relatively quick learner, so we’ll just have to see.

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

Theater of Blood and Double Experience Weekend #EverQuest

stargrace July 8, 2013 0Comment

This weekend (and since Thursday, actually) was double experience for EverQuest – and boy did I ever take advantage of it. Lets start with the fun stuff. Oger, myself, and Miles decided we would head to the Theater of Blood which is also known as the Plane of Music. This zone was absolutely beautiful, and while it wasn’t our main goal my paladin did get a nice selection of class specific gear. Our real goal was to complete the Deathkneel Event #1 – Tolling of Dissonance Bells. I’ve been trying to get a fast mount for my ranger. My enchanter was lucky enough to have one given to her through an LoN claim, but the ranger doesn’t have that sort of luck. When I box and have the ranger on autofollow she always gets left behind. The item I was hoping for was Ghostrider’s Bridle – but alas even though we managed to complete the zone twice, the bridle never dropped. This zone is a pain to do especially if you’re only three people. What we had was Miles using decap on mobs that would slowly meander their way towards a set of bells in the center of a room. We had to do enough damage and prevent them from reaching the middle, and these guys are hard. The first time we tried things didn’t quite work out and we failed the event. Starting over the second run went much smoother. The mount did not drop, so we switched out characters to alts and made a second run. No mount again that time but that’s alright we still had fun and I did get a couple of items for the paladin. A nice earring clicky that gives an aura to the group was the biggest win of the evening, and I was able to loot it on both the paladin and the ranger.

Speaking of the ranger. I started the weekend at level 89, and I had planned on reaching level 92 with the character. I figured that would be a nice goal for myself and it wouldn’t be too difficult but would provide a bit of a challenge. Thanks to some wonderful groups with Oger, Miles, Sunnie, and Jevar, my 89 ranger is now level 95. This is the highest level required for headshot, so I am quite pleased for multiple reasons. The ranger is on my second account which means that helping characters on my main account just got a lot easier. I decked her out in RoF T1 gear, and picked up a handful of spells (Rk 1 for now, I can’t afford the Alaran Cantrips that are going for far too much in the bazaar).

While the ranger gained 6 levels, the enchanter also managed to earn around 800 aa over the course of the weekend. I didn’t play her much on Sunday because there wasn’t enough room in group but she didn’t do too badly for herself. A huge thank you to the group of folks I’ve been playing with lately, they really do make the game quite a bit of fun.

As always happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!