frostfell

Mmm Frozen Goblin Popsicle

stargrace December 17, 2008 0Comment

Yesterday it was time to finish off the set of Frostfell gear for my berserker, Sharatan. The character was level 40 when I started and by the time I finished purchasing a bp, legs, forearms, shoulders, shoes, and gloves she was level 42 and a good portion of the way through it. The gear again is quite an upgrade and it is nice to have a (reasonably) alternative to the mastercrafted I typically put my characters in. The box on the right is Shadowgeist’ main inventory, who I used to complete those icey keep runs. As you can see I’ve managed to collect a huge number of tokens and frozen Popsicle goblins for him – which he has no real use for. So what does that mean for me? A lot of tradeable house items can be purchased from the Frostfell merchant, and so some time between today and January I’ll be using them all up and buying a couple of hand fulls of those items more then likely. Of course since the berserker was level 5 last weekend, and is now 42, I haven’t kept up on her skills. She doesn’t know what vitality is. Her aggression skill is something like 15/220 which means I still have lots and lots of room to work on the character. Thankfully, I can also go borrow a dummy in the Siege guild hall and work a few skills up that way. 

You’d think I’d be tired of running that icy keep instance, and in truth I guess I am a little bit – but not because of the instance itself. I’m tired of running it because of the lag. The lag is painful. The only reason I use the shadowknight and box this instance is because I know it’s the only character who can fight through the lag and still win once I’ve paused for 20 seconds. I even attempted the heroic version and managed to solo the first four named (gate keeper, trio, melee immune and spell immune) who reward 5 tokens as opposed to the easy version which rewards one but it was VERY painful and slow, and the lag made it all kinds of ‘not so fun’.

Today I think I’ll betray the dirge over to troubador. Those loams in my bank are taunting me. It will probably still be quite some time before my swashbuckler, paladin, or berserker need T8 adept3’s and when that time comes I’ll either go harvest some (hah, right) or have the money by then to buy more. 

One a completely random seasonal note. We have about a foot of snow on the ground already, and another 5 inches are due today (I woke up wondering woah, where did all THIS come from!) and my Christmas tree made it past the first night with the cat. That’s always something I have to question each year, whether or not I’ll wake up to the entire thing on the ground with ornaments strewn about everywhere. I live in an apartment building that doesn’t allow real trees (fire hazard) so I’ve just got a 6 foot fake one. So far she’s curled up under to sleep with the presents, but hasn’t chewed on too many candy canes. 

OH! Before I forget!

Huge hugs to Gidgit from the Najena server who sent me a tell saying hello yesterday! I always love chattering with people who read (or who I read!) and that really made my day. Thank you!

That Warm Fuzzy Feeling

stargrace December 13, 2008 2Comments

The over all feeling I got yesterday was all warm and fuzzy. It was a good day, both in game and out. I didn’t do anything particular to note, but it was still a great day none the less. I headed out and managed to start (and finish) my Christmas shopping which of course is a big weight off of my shoulders. With the buses still on strike the roads were busy, but it’s just going to get worse before it gets better, so I’m glad I’m done. 

Before I spent most of the day shopping, I headed back to the ‘secret’ keep in the Frostfell Wonderland, with Kasul and Shadowgeist. While there we ran through the zone three times (four?) in order for everyone to complete their quests. Kasul’s bugged the first time in, it seems that if you click the rock before you speak to the goblin the quest will not update after that, no matter if you start in a new zone and do it properly or not. So he had to delete his quest and try it from the start. I did get a LOT of tokens though, and some fantastic house items.

One small point of interest. The vendors in the Frostfell instance sell one charm item that is better then any of the charm items you can get (without raiding) in game. It has +3 spell crit on it (for the caster one) along with a bunch of stats, and 100 power (or is it health? either way). I bought it for Stargrace and I’ll have to run my other characters through I think and pick up the charm for them as well because it’s so amazing. There is a melee version too, so if you haven’t checked out those vendors, be sure to.

Made some chocolate chip pancakes and then it was off for a while, when I got back there was a group of level 80’s from Siege who wanted to mentor down for some aa. Lucky for me I have had a lot of lower level characters. I started with logging in a level 28 warlock of mine, planning to hit Stormhold. However we decided to start even lower then that. 

The group consisted of me as my level 5 berserker (Sharatan), a shadowknight, dirge, illusionist, ranger, and I want to say assassin. We headed to wailing caverns where the mobs at the entrance were level 12 (and very red) and with a group of level 80’s mentoring, mythical geared.. well. Lets just say that two hours later I was level 30. 

We wiped out Wailing Caverns, Fallen Gate (along with the instance in fallen gate), the named in Commonlands, and then did the sewer instance in Fallen Gate (along with the quests), and headed to Antonica to do the sewer instance there as well. Lucky us, the epicx2 dragon was up in Antonica as well, and dropped a fabled dagger. I’ve never killed that one before. I can only imagine how much faster I’d have leveled if the berzerker was on my ‘main’ account that gets the experience bonus for having max level characters. As it is she is on my second account with no bonus. 

I had a lot of fun, even though now I’m level 30 in poor gear with even poorer skills and I couldn’t taunt if my life depended on it. I’ll have to spend some time working those skills up. I figure I’ll hit 32 and then be able to outfit myself in some crafter made gear. If I ever play her again at least. So many alts!

I made the rounds with all of my characters visiting the gift giver in Frostfell. Stargrace is 30% into level 79, and I’m wondering if 80 will be a goal this weekend. I have to address and send out a bunch of Christmas cards (I know, I’m a slacker) as well as some gifts, and put up and decorate the tree. I’ll be at my parents place for Christmas, and I’m sure Princess (my cat of course) will enjoy chewing all of the candy canes off while I’m away. 

See you in Norrath!

Frostfell Festivities – PartII

stargrace December 12, 2008 2Comments

One of my favorite rewards from quests this year are of course the hanging Frostfell ornaments, the balls and the snowflakes. I was so impressed with the quests this year, and had so much fun working through them. Having new rewards was just the icing on the cake so to speak. 

The old quests are still there, like the one where you have to go to Frostfell past, present, and future. The puzzles are solved the same was as they used to be as well. This is fantastic for new players who may not have gotten to experience those quests, and for alts, of course. 

There’s also a quest that sends you off to Steamfont that I haven’t completed yet but I believe it was in game last year as well. Given by the fae in the Frostfell Wonderland standing by the massive (this year ice covered) tree. 

Another quest you can get before you even enter the zone, this one was new to me at least. It sends you to speak to any of the gigglegibbers out in Norrath (I spoke to the one inside the Frostfell instance) and then you’re off to enchanted lands to enter the instance under the dock.

I’d never done the quest before, and it was a LOT of fun. My only issue was that it seemed to be really particular about where I stood in order to bang on the drums (all day!) with my wooden spoon. After maneuvering myself around the little island of drums to the side, it finally updated even though I’m pretty sure I got every note wrong. 

You can also do quests for Frostfell trees again in your respective home city – although there are two new trees. One is snow flocked and to do it you’re hunting down shiny in Qeynos. The other I did in Neriak, which rewards you with a DEAD Christmas tree, much like Charlie Browns. 

If all of that was not enough, of course the winter wonderland is covered in harvestable presents for players, and there are new items to be crafted! Things like Frostfell hams, new stockings, presents, new candy shaped wall ornaments – and speaking of house items how about those new picture frame cards! I love them. SO much better then passing out books to everyone. 

There’s certainly a lot to see and do, and I’m really pleased at how well it all came out. A huge thank you and congratulations to the team who worked on this.

Frostfell Festivities – PartI

stargrace December 12, 2008 4Comments

Yesterday was the first day of Frostfell, an event that I’ve enjoyed a LOT over the past four years. This year, developers have outdone themselves, and even if you’re not into the holiday season that much, I would HIGHLY suggest checking things out. If you don’t want spoilers, please don’t read any further. 

First of all. The Frostfell Wonderland itself has undergone a major change. All of the water that used to be between the islands has changed to ice, and when I say ice, I mean real ice. You slide your way along. To make matters even more interesting, there are icy snowballs in the zone, and they can physically push you along said ice. So why does this even matter? Well. There are purple shiny in the zone (that anyone can see, you’re not required to wear a special item) and you have to VERY carefully glide up to the object on the ground and try to harvest it while keeping your footing. Not only that, but anyone can walk up relatively close to you and toss a single snowball and send you flying down the ice, sans shiny. Leaving them free to pick up the reward. This happened to me numerous times yesterday, and while I haven’t tossed a snowball back in retaliation (I know it’s good fun but I’d feel bad if I caused someone else not to get a shiny they were at) it can also get frustrating!

The gift giver this year has been beaten up and all of his gifts taken away. You’ll find a new gift giver in town, and with it, new rewards for players. In fact All of the quests old and new have rewards we haven’t seen before. 

One of the new quests this year (and my favorite) is given to you by a member of the Freethinkers. He wants you to investigate the ‘secret’ frozen keep. The secret isn’t so hidden since it’s a HUGE frozen door near the entrance of the zone (the quest giver is just behind the magical closet that ported you into the zone). Entering has one of two options. Number one, there’s a yeti on the ground to your right that you can skin. Or number two, you can fight the heroic mobs in the instance. Since I have so many alts I did it twice and the first time I had arysh mentor my paladin (who hit level 50!) along with shadowgeist, the second time Stargrace went alone. 

There are a few named in the zone, who all give aa and they’ll also give you an extra token (the one the quest rewards you with). What are these tokens for? We’ll get to that later. 

This first quest requires you to place 10 listening devices. It took me a LONG time to figure out that the glowing boards on the ground were to build bridges, but once I did it made things far easier. You’ve got 30 minutes to place them once you skin the corpse by the door. 

Once you finish that quest and head down the rainbow in the wonderland zone, a goblin will talk to you. He gives you another quest for that same zone but it’s a lot more complicated and the rewards are AMAZING if you’re into house items and appearance gear at all. A baby dragon plushy, three tokens, and a snow and ice covered appearance head piece. 

So what do you do with all of those tokens you’ve been accumulating? There’s a vendor beside this goblin npc who will sell you SO many items it’ll make your head spin. We’re talking treasured gear, legendary gear, house items (lots of them), and baby plushie dragons. The quest sends you back into the keep to get a dragon egg. You have to build a bridge and make your way to a frozen goblin, and then knock in a rock jump down a chimney and then break two walls to get to a final room that has — a ^^ named on the ‘easy’ mode (two levels higher then me). This is where I had some trouble. The mob can’t be rooted. She also calls adds. While the quest may be on the ‘easy’ mode, that does NOT mean you can solo this. I managed to complete it when I had arysh shadowgeist and lithe, but when I went with just Stargrace I couldn’t beat the zone, even after teaming up with Kasul. 

Your group mates have to be on the same part of the quest to zone in, too. 

I had SO MUCH fun last night, and that’s just a glance at ONE of the quests. There are many more (which I’ll go into more detail about later). Like I said, my paladin managed to get from level 45-50, and… and.. AND! Stargrace, neglected since RoK came out – dinged level 79. ONE more to go!

I hope everyone else had a fantastic time too!