Leveling

Just Leveling Along

I’ve been leveling up a rune-caster on Landroval in order to catch up to the Nostalgians who have characters that are moving over (some time soon we hope). I didn’t want to pay to move a level 19 character when I’ve only devoted 24 hours to the class and figured it would be easier to just start over. I switched from a minstrel to the new class and then noticed ‘gee, there are a LOT of rune-keepers around!’ but I’m not going to let that bother me. In the past, it would have. I’ve never really grasped the idea of ‘playing what you like’ as opposed to ‘playing what is needed’ because I’ve constantly tied the two together. What I liked was something that was needed. As I continue to game though I’ve found it more and more important to play what I like because lets face it, things change and if you’re not at least happy with what you’re playing, well. What’s the point. It used to be a much bigger deal because I enjoy almost all classes – but I’m learning to narrow it down.

healer – support – ranged dps  – tank – melee dps 

That’s what I like to play, in the order that I like to play it. No big deal, nothing earth shattering. Anyhow – yesterday the rune-keeper climbed to level 14, almost 15. I’ve had a few deaths but nothing too difficult thus far. I have to keep reminding myself that last time I was doing this content I actually had a tank helping me out which made things far easier. It’s some times difficult to solo when I have to attune myself to either dps or heals. I’ve been getting by so far by placing a healing rune on the ground, and one of my two HoT’s on myself before combat begins (when ever possible) and then switching over to the dps which blocks out the rune from being cast as well as one of my HoT’s. I can take on three at once if they’re dark blue, but anything more and it starts to get messy. I typically get interrupted as I try to cast my DoT’s or my mez. It’s a work in progress what can I say. 

I’ve picked up crafting but so far have been doing very little of it, concentrating on catching up in levels instead. I also managed to snag myself an invite to CoW yesterday since Sarzan was home during the day (which happens to be when I’m around most as it were). Hopefully the rest of Nostaliga moves soon and we’ll be back to our regular leveling schedule before too long!

Starting a Rune-Keeper

I ended up twisting my ankle on Sunday, so yesterday I took something for the pain that knocked me out most of the afternoon and evening so here I am at 6am Tuesday morning which happens to be my birthday- I intend to spend most of it eating ice cream cake and gaming and maybe going around the city taking pictures which is exactly how I want to spend my birthday. 

I decided since Nostalgia was joining up with CoW on Landroval that I would actually not move my level 19 over but just re-create. The current transfers take approx a week and a half due to a backlog, and I figured I could level up another character in that amount of time to 19 which is where my last character was at. Sure, the crafting would not be fun to do over, but I wanted to change her craft anyhow. 

I also figured that I would change from playing a Minstrel, to playing a Rune-Keeper. I didn’t really have an exact reason, but I’m happy I made it so far. The rune-keeper is level 12 and I’ve been having a lot of fun playing her. I did want to make a hobbit but they can only be dwarves (which can’t be female) or elves, so I’m playing another elf. I’ve done the starter for this race before, and blew through it fairly fast. I decided to make her a tinker in order to be able to cook, and Kasul made a new character who happens to be a farmer, so he’s got veggies to give to me. I’m excited to be playing on the new server, the people I’ve met have been friendly. There was someone working on a quest slightly a head of me and I needed a named after they killed it, so I let them clear a head and was healing them then I stayed behind and managed to kill the named I need afterwards. I couldn’t take on all the little extra encounters that were scattered around so the situation was more of a ‘right place at the right time’ but it w0rked out well and they actually thanked me for healing them – most people don’t do that. 

Not sure if I’ll make it in game today or not, but I’d like to at least for a little while to continue trying to get to level 19. We’ll see how it goes. 

Hope everyone has a fantastic day no matter what you’re doing!

Coercer 2.0 hits 80, Instances, and.. more Instances!

Yesterday was a mixture of real life with some gaming which of course made for a perfect Saturday. There was the announcement that Free Realms was sending out beta invites, and then a mass amount of shopping that involved a wii fit, and a nintendo DSi with a few games (used, and cheap!) and other random goodness before I settled in to game on Kithicor.

I had so much fun I don’t even know exactly what we did. I know we started off with our usual Obelisk run (and again no shield – that one dagger and crusader shield that drops has dropped enough to outfit a small army by now) followed by us attempting to solo some TSO instances – this time Lavastorm. We did pretty well in Najena’s Hollow Tower, we defeated the gnome by burning down the bombs (I charmed a warlock pet, MUCH fun!) and then moved on to the djin water elemental named and once we figured out how to do this with three people it worked out just fine. Honestly that’s as far as we needed to get anyhow, there’s a cloak that drops from that particular mob that Wpus is looking to get, and it was nice to know we can trio him. 

Afterwards we attempted Deep Forge, but that zone is a little out of our grasp yet. The coercer was inching closer to 80 (hovering around 70% experience for quite some time) so we completed the three Commonlands void quests mentored – and then since we had no lock out for Cavern of the Afflicted, we decided to gather a group together and complete it the ‘big kid’ way. 

I wouldn’t be playing the coercer for this, just the mystic. So I took the coercer to East Freeport and purchased 15p worth of collections . Finally!

The coercer (my 2nd, and 3rd enchanter) managed to hit level 80. She had 40 void shards waiting for her that I’ve collected over time, so it was no trouble to have my mystic craft her almost the complete T1 set. I know a lot of coercers complain that the set is not that great, but when you don’t raid and are still wearing mastercrafted, it comes in handy. Plus it looks fantastic (screen shots some other time hopefully). Despite the fact that I love being able to charm things I am contemplating betraying her over to an illusionist. The group buffs are much more suited for my play style. I’m not certain yet, it will depend on whether or not I can track down a sage. 

I also spent some time talking with Troy  from Emerald Tablet who happens to play on the Kithicor server. Was nice to say hello after ‘speaking’ a few times on twitter. 

Afterwards I wasn’t quite ready to call it a night, so we decided to head to Vaults and see if we couldn’t get another praetor’s guard to drop. Granted, it’s taken us a good 20 tries to get the one to drop that we actually got, so I didn’t hold much hope. Good thing, since it eluded us once more. Maybe next time!

Before I knew it the clock was telling me it was 2am and I had to get up at 6am Blast those enjoyable evenings! Today is Easter Sunday and I’m looking forward to a great dinner with family, I hope everyone else has had an amazing weekend thus far, and enjoy yourself, where ever you end up spending your time!

See you in Norrath!

Ding, 19!

Tom just wasn’t all there. Wait, not that Tom. Oh, not that Tom either. There we go, that’s the one. As he sang his tunes and started dancing around I turned and looked at Kasul. We were supposed to follow him? Was that even safe? It didn’t seem like it would be. Of course, good ‘ol Tom ended up leaving Kasul and I standing outside of a big deep cave with lots of creatures inside so maybe we should have followed him after all. 

I was so close to hitting level 20 without a death. So close I could taste it. Then book one, volume one, chapter 11 came along. I died. I died a lot. I died from heal agro most of the time and when we went back to Bree broken and torn, my repair bill was 75 silver and I’ve never seen it that high before. I can’t even remember the number of times I died, but it seemed like I was always trying to make my way back to Kasul. Once we decided that there really was no way that we could complete the instance without a group or at least a few more people, we headed back to Bree to see what our options were. 

We managed to gain almost two levels in the time we played. I am a little shy of half way to 20. I gathered together more supplies to craft with (story of my life) and contemplated switching to a cook because the food is quite handy, as opposed to a tailor where most of my gear seems to come from quests or drops and it’s far better then the items I can actually make myself. I’ll think about that more when I’m back in game again. 

I’ve mentioned before how alive the world feels to me, and I’ll stress it again. As we were running through the woods it was dark, the music was scary and I FELT as though I was in the woods. As we fought our way through The Barrows and I looked across the rolling mountains with ruins scattered every which way, it just felt so atmospheric. Of course, there is also a lot of walking in the game which means I spend a lot of time trying to get from point A to point C (because point B would be silly!) and things are starting to get REALLY expensive (skills and what not) but I’m still having a great time. Were it not for the few items I’ve sold on the market I wouldn’t have even been able to afford my repair bills yesterday let alone my newest skills. 

I’m looking forward to hitting 20 and finally getting some appearance slots although my hopes of ever owning a home are quickly diminishing, I have no idea how anyone manages to afford anything, especially since the home I wanted is over 900 gold and I learned that there is a thousand silver to every gold. The most money I’ve had on me has been 400 silver. This could take a while.

Still No Shield, but lots of Fun!

Arysh (the coercer pictured above) is getting close to level 80 (finally) and she only has 70aa. This is what happens when you don’t do a single quest with a character (I think she has a grand total of maybe 20 completed) and only get discoveries when you tag along as a boxed character. Now that she’s getting up there, I’ll be switching my play style around some. I’ve had the coercer on the laptop dragging her around while I play the mystic in group – I’d like the coercer to have a better role and so I’m going to start putting the mystic on the laptop for healing / buff purposes and playing the coercer. Now, why on earth would I want to just drag my coercer around for 79 levels and not quest her? Pretty simple, I already have an 80 coercer + an 80 illusionist with epics. I’ve done this before, and doing the whole questing bit just simply wasn’t interesting to me at the time. It does mean I’ll pay for it now, but I don’t really mind that, either. It’s nice to switch things up a little. 

The trio headed back to Obelisk in Moors. We had a fairly clean run aside from my laptop disconnecting randomly at the beginning. Reset the wireless router and I was good to go. The healer shield refused to drop (again) and the shadowknight / paladin one was what we got (again). It was still a fun run, and each time we do the zone it gets quicker. There was still a little time to waste afterwards so we headed to Vault of Eternal Sleep in the hopes that luck would stay steady and perhaps we’d get another praetor’s guard for the coercer this time.

Has anyone else noticed a decline in master drop rate? We’ve been doing instances pretty much every day and have yet to see a metal chest aside from the one that dropped the praetor’s guard yesterday. Not a single master spell at all has dropped from any named. Slightly discouraging, but understandable I suppose. I’m wondering if this is intentional, perhaps in preparation of implementing research npc’s that’s been talked about on the forums. 

Channels on Kithicor seemed especially rude last night, I tend to phase most of it out but it’s been difficult. I’ve been spoiled by the EQ channels which are far more calm and relaxed. In EQ2 channels are flooded with people selling no trade fabled items to others who may not be able to complete the zones. In EQ this simply doesn’t happen, items that are left to ‘rot’ are announced as ‘free for all’ and whoever gets there first is able to loot it. In fact while I was playing EQ if anyone attempted to sell ‘rotting’ loot they were instantly set upon by the remaining members of the community berating them for trying to sell a piece of no-trade loot. Ah, how things have changed. 

After Vaults I decided to call it a night, as I have a Wizard 101 article I need to complete today for Beckett and would no doubt be up early. I spent a good portion of the early evening playing W101 and had a blast, got my wizard Angela to level 17 and worked my way through the early portions of Krokotopia. I used to have a subscription to the game but I really wasn’t playing nearly enough to warrant the $10/m (which is a GREAT plan by the way if you’re actually constantly playing) so I decided to buy some crowns to permanently unlock zones for my account. If you don’t have a lot of time to play this is a perfect payment plan and I’m so happy to find an alternative means for the subscription. I’m not leveling up through content especially fast, and it basically reduces my $10/m down to $5/m based on my play times. 

Hope everyone else had a fantastic evening, and are looking forward to the long Easter weekend!

Nomadic Gamer