Nomadic Gamer

Gaming

Crafting, Instances, and Betrayal?

stargrace 1 Comments

Yesterday compromised of a little bit of everything. It was great. I can’t think of one particular thing that stood out aside from the three hour nap while I was loaded up on extra strength tylanol but that had absolutely nothing to do with gaming. I think.

The 70-79 channel was particularly rude for no obvious reason I could figure out. You would think that people would be feeling more festive towards one another, but it turns out that this is not exactly true. I did two tradeskill instances, bringing my tailor to level 64, and the alchemist to levle 65. Five more levels or so to go and then I’ll go back to grinding writs for my experience so that Nostalgia can get some levels instead of leveling them through the wonderful instances. Oracia got herself a rolling pin that dropped from the instance. In all the time I’ve done them I’ve never seen that item before. It has a 3% increase to tradeskill experience, I wonder if it stacks along with the other bonus’ in game. I’ve been saving up a lot of transmuted parts, so I’ll probably put a mass of those for sale before too long. I have far too many that I’ll never use. 

I spent 100p yesterday on silicate loams. I know, why? Well. I’ve been thinking about betraying the dirge back to a troubador. I know I rarely play her, so why drop 100p? I doubt my reasoning will make sense to anyone other then myself. I changed her to a dirge thinking to myself ‘well, if I’m not going to raid with my bard, why not play something that has more group utility’. Hate transfer, rez, heals, etc. Turns out there are a billion dirges on the server right now and I don’t play her as a dirge, either. So why not go back to troub if I’m not playing and then maybe I at least have a chance at wiggling in on some raids. I have both of my epics for troub and dirge, and if I were ever to raid with her I could complete both mythicals at the same time, heh. Sort of funny (and sad). 

Aside from the crafting and spending much money, I did an instance or two. The VERY nice charm item above came from – you guessed it, The Crucible. An instance I’ve done so many times now I could sleep walk my way through it. The quest related to the zone yesterday also required no killing, just some clicking, so I ran my alts through and got them all their void shards. Later on in the evening Hellsong needed an update for chapter five (the final zone it sends you to) and off we went. In The Obelisk of Ahkzul (which is where we were) there is a named who drops two chests. Second last named. The first chest holds a legendary of some type, and the second one holds between 10-20 plat. 

We got 12 plat from the chest and some change, which was fantastic. The zone is quick and easy and Hellsong got his update just fine. 

It was starting to get late but I wasn’t tired yet, so I stayed up and did some of the Frostfell quests with Goudia. Even if I don’t decide to betray her, I have a paladin and a berzerker and a swashbuckler who could all make use of the loams eventually. I ran the Icy Keep instance a few times amassing tokens to purchase the charm item that everyone is talking about. Still lamenting over the fact that there’s no healer version. 

All in all, a really nice weekend! Hope everyone else had a great one too.

Gaming

Void Shard Purchases

stargrace 3 Comments

I didn’t get a chance to play all that much yesterday, too busy working on some smaller projects, and being cranky. Today is a new day though and that’s great. What I did do yesterday, was the daily double of Evernight Abbey on all three of my level 80’s in less then 30 minutes. Wait, how is that possible? Well, every so often the daily double requires nothing more then clicking something inside of a zone (and of course having the quest on you). So after the zone was clear, I was able to bring my two level 80’s in to get the update as well. 

This is how Goudia (my level 80 dirge) managed to get 4 shards and has never set foot into a TSO instance. There are quite a few quests that let you just click updates within a zone, you can hear people looking to purchase entry into a cleared zone so that they can get shard updates. There’s no way I’d actually pay to get my void shard updates, but it was nice to use a cleared instance. So that left me with 4 shards on Goudia, 6 shards on Silhouette (the coercer), and 7 shards on Arysh. Arysh is saving up for the greater void shard gloves, since I just purchased the lesser ones yesterday. It’s 16 void shards I believe from the merchant, which means slightly cheaper from a crafter. The gloves (as I mentioned yesterday) were a slight upgrade but had a nice effect. 

The dirge purchased some gloves as well, which were an enormous upgrade for her. The gloves pictured to the right hand side are the lesser version. I absolutely love the effect on these gloves and of course for a bard they come with all of the important stats. 

The pretties didn’t end there though, no way. I also ended up purchasing the coercer pants for Silhouette, which were a very nice upgrade and quite cheap. It’s nice to be able to get gear upgrades from merchants even though I was leery at first thinking perhaps people would stop doing the instances. Granted the expansion hasn’t been out quite a month yet, but I hope the popularity stays for a bit. 

I headed to Jarsath Wastes with Kasul for a little while before dinner to work on some quests with Stargrace, who is currently 80% of the way into level 78. It’s amusing to me that the character I use as my ‘online persona’ for pretty much every site and forum these days is one of my lowest level characters. At the time that I created this site Stargrace was my ‘main’ and it just sort of stuck. I was contemplating doing some collections to get her the last 20% she needs to ding, but decided against it after I looked at the prices. 

Today I have an article to finish up on Darkfall and then hopefully I’ll get a little more time to play. I’m stuck between leveling my paladin (45), my brigand (49), my warlock (27) or my bruiser (53). Ah, the joy of alts.

Gaming

Boats move, and Faction in Tehatamani Harbor

stargrace 1 Comments

Just hours after I made this post yesterday about how someone had parked their boat right on top of the riftway and I found it frustrating, I came back to the harbor to find that they had moved their boat (or someone had moved it for them, either way)! It made me giggle and I just had to get a screen shot of it. 

I did the first two quests in Tehatamani Harbor, turned them in and got two shards. Right clicked the necklace I had also gotten from the Lucent Circle and it upgraded the piece for me. Went to a new NPC, picked up two more quests. These quests only reward coin, and they appear to be repeatable tasks. One makes you kill 100 creatures around the pyramids, and the other makes you collect 50 vials of liquid from these same creatures. As a blood mage I’m primarily a healer, but it’s basically a necromancer healer. You heal via life taps off of mobs. If I’m not damaging mobs, I’m not healing. The mobs are level 46 or so around this area, at level 43 that’s red. Still, they’re two dots and can be taken down, it just means that my spells don’t always land, and the fights tend to be a little drawn out. I killed the first 100 mobs and gathered my 50 vials in about an hour and a half, maybe slightly more. Went back to the NPC who gave me my 5 silver (ew, repairs were 9 silver) and gave me the exact same quests.

Double ew. I wasn’t sure why they were just giving me the same quests over again, so I checked online and it looks like I need level 44 in order to move up in the ranks. 

That’s alright. I headed off next to Vsurog Moor, which is where I’ll be living pretty much from 45-50. At level 45 I can begin to work on faction for the swamp armor that everyone talks about. I’ll be going into more detail about this when I get there. It’s pretty nice armor, and should keep me fairly busy. Rumor has it that Growlius (Dreadknight partner in crime) may be coming back to the game this weekend. That would totally rock, I may put out some nice dps some times but I can’t actually tank, being a cloth wearer and all. For the odd person out there who IS playing VG (I know the numbers may be few) if you’re looking for a friendly guild with a very active player base, check out Safe Haven on the Seradon server. 

Safe Haven has branches in multiple games (like a lot of guilds do these days) and have been established for quite a long time. In Vanguard there are over 585 members (as of today, yesterday someone deleted a few alts if you recall it being at 588!) and there is typically anywhere from 7-20 people on every night. I’d like to say ‘most’ people are PST, but there are a good amount in other time zones too. They’re friendly, organize guild events, and have a guild hall. They also have the trophies that get placed in halls, giving members some awesome buffs. You can either group up and hang out, or just do your own thing and have a social network, either way it’s fantastic. Just be careful, I hear Joodah bites. 

After the few brief quests I did yesterday along with the killing, I’m 40% into level 43. I can’t complain that’s a pretty good portion into the level. I know 40-50 takes the longest, but I’m confident that before too long I’ll be there.

© 2008 MmoQuests.com

Gaming

Round Two: Cavern of the Afflicted

stargrace 1 Comments

That’s always the way it happens. Monday the ‘daily double’ (which seems to reward 2 shards for some people, while others only get 1 shard) was Cavern of the Afflicted – which is the zone I did Tuesday. Tuesday’s daily double was Halls of the Forsaken – which is the zone i did Monday. Ah well. I dusted Arysh (warden) off after dinner and headed to the zone. At least the zone in issues seem to be slightly under control. It does still take a few minutes to get anywhere, but it wasn’t near the 10 minute mark from the night before. Cavern of the Afflicted is a shadowknight’s dream. This zone has so many mobs. Warlocks love it too. We constantly pulled 2-3 groups at once and Shadowgeist was parsing 8-14k an encounter. Very fun stuff. 

I want to thank the people at SOE who linked my site on their Tuesday Town Crier (it’s posted weekly) with six of my posts. I really appreciate the EQ2 community and readers. 

I’m collecting a fair amount of void shards now, I’m almost up to 10. I haven’t even looked at the merchants to see what they offer and what would be upgrades. I believe that there are some pieces that cost less then what I have right now, so I should look into it today. I also want to find a crafter who can make the pieces for me so that I don’t have to pay extra shards. A lot of the crafters that can be hired on Najena are asking for 1p per piece, and I’m of two minds about this. The craft books are not especially hard to get, and they cost practically nothing to actually craft the piece. On the other hand, money is not hard to come by in EQ2 especially from level 70+ so why shouldn’t they charge this amount. I’m still hoping I can find friends and guild mates who have the books rather then paying coin for simple combines. 

Cavern of the Afflicted is a fairly easy zone, though I was reminded some times how frustrating it can be to play a healer. During one encounter (the one that burrows) group members are hit with a noxious dot. This drains your power, and it drains it fast. The problem is that my group did not have a group noxious cure. The way I typically fight this worm is to bring it upstairs to the room with the well in it, and any time the worm ‘burrows’ and it’s stone shield is up, train it around the room in circles so that players avoid the nasty things that happen (knock backs, aoe’s etc). When they do this, their noxious aoe also goes off. One of the group members said in group that if the group didn’t get cured fast enough (while we all had the dot of course) that we’d not have any power, and would die. 

Well, I know that. However when an entire group is spread out over a well, some times not everyone is range. Not to mention we’re constantly running around for that encounter, and I have to cure everyone one at a time. I wish I could do it all but alas it takes a second or two. For the most part I think I am fairly prompt on the cures, they’re one of the most important aspects for healers in EQ2 especially from level 70+ if you’re not curing things are going to go bad, and fast. 

We defeated the encounter, and got the same cinch that just dropped off of another trash mob, even though the encounter was a named one. 

Ugh. Transmuted it went. 

Unlike my first trip through the zone, we found the key for the treasure chest at the end of this one along our way, and each of us got our two shards. Now it’s just time to find something to spend them all on! I’m still debating leveling up my templar, but I think I’ve come to an easier solution then just quest grinding in RoK or even TSO. The templar is sitting at level 77 and is on my ‘main’ account. She gets a 30% experience bonus for adventuring due to the others on the account who are already max level. I have been looking for an excuse to level my swashbuckler (newly betrayed from brigand) on the 2nd account. Swashbucklers get stances (All dps scouts do, except bards) and taunts, making them some what effective tanks, especially at lower levels. She’s 45, and has a lot of leveling to go. Even if the experience is significantly reduced for the templar, leveling along with a 45 dps is better then leveling alone, or leveling through more quest grinding. Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy the ‘questing to level’ method that’s implemented in EQ2 (I know a lot of people are quite tired of that) and I love seeing my achievements from leveling. Some times, I just want to play EQ1-style. Find a nice camp some place, sit down, and pull to the location for hours. EQ2 doesn’t do this very well, groups are constantly moving. Also not a bad thing, just different then another game. 

Hope everyone else is having a great week thus far, happy gaming in whichever game you happen to play!

© 2008 MmoQuests.com

Gaming

Fallen Gate, Ruins of Varsoon, and Steamfont Crafting

stargrace 0 Comments

Shadowgeist offered to help level up my paladin yesterday morning before the work day began, and who am I to say no to leveling! My paladin (Lithe, a Kerran) started off as level 29. I haven’t been very diligent with her gear, she’s sitting in a few pieces of steel and level 4 jewelery, but that’s alright, I don’t need gear until level 40-50 or so. Not for what I had in mind at least.

We headed off to Fallen Gate to start, it’s the older (broken) version of Neriak. There was no one in the zone (not odd for Najena, most people play end game and there’s not that many lower level characters these days) and we quickly took down all of the named in sight. We also headed into the smaller instance at the end of the zone, it’s a guaranteed fabled chest, and the item was a ring that was an upgrade to my (by now) 32 paladin. Not bad, gained quite a few levels. My vitality was running thin and I suggested we stop there (I just wanted to gain enough levels to be able to wear the new mastercrafted stuff) but Shadowgeist insisted we head to Ruins of Varsoon and take a peek around.

We traveled to Thundering Stepps and before long I found myself taking down skeletons and zombies as well as the golems of Varsoon. We headed to the instance within that zone as well, which is 2 guaranteed master chests. One from a magic user who likes to charm (meanie!) and the other from Varsoon himself.

By then I had leveled from 29-35, and that was enough for me. We called it a day and I gated home to clear out my bags, put items for sale and send off master spells to those who could use them.

Later on that evening Kasul, Eyenstein, Albrta, Shadowgeist, and I headed to Steamfont to do one of the crafting instances. Albrta and Eyenstein had never been there before, so I explained how it worked and how instead of making 3 of an item as the quest suggests, we make 12 instead, and turn them all in at once.

It went well, though the crafting was difficult for some when it was outside of their subclass. I brought along my 58 tailor, who managed to get 59 from the zone. Getting there slowly.

Of course when it came to the giant battle bot fight at the end, Shadowgeist couldn’t sit out. Well. Now we know why Tipa died that first time. If you help out in the fight at all, the robot fighting for your side turns on you and smacks you pretty badly afterwards. Guess he’s a solo’er. Eyenstein and Shadowgeist picked themselves up off the floor and we opened the chest –

Wow. Nice rewards tonight. We received a crafting book (went to Albrta), a sage ring (went to Eyenstein), and also a piece of Artisan gear which means any one of us could have used it. For once the dice were on my side, and I won it. Looking forward to being able to use that in the future!

When the chest goodies were finally dealt with, Shadowgeist decided ‘just for fun’ to see if we could take down one of the level 90 ^ clockwork bots that were still in the room. There are three types, and believe it or not, we managed to take them down AND they each reward you with aa. So there’s the potential to gain it from three different encounters. Not bad. I’m not sure if that’s intended or not, as they don’t really LOOK like named, but it was a nice reward none the less.

I was sad to see that the solo crafting mission only rewards 2,000 faction now especially because this quest can only be obtained once a week, and the daily ones rewards at least 1,500 faction. 5,000 would have been better then the current amount if they were looking to reduce it. My tailor (who is one of my lowest crafters) now has more Far Seas tokens then all of my other crafters, but she’s unable to purchase anything with her 6 tokens. Ah well, by the time she’s a high enough level crafter to make use of the gear and recipe books she has, she will have the faction (I hope). All in all, it was a fantastic night!

« Previous Page

You Missed

EVE Gaming

Thoughts on Security Space

EVE Gaming

Suitcase Challenge Day 11: Statistics (of course)

EVE Gaming

Suitcase Challenge Day 10: What Have I seen?

Gaming

What Happened to Playing WoW?