Living Tombs

Working on the Epic, and ANOTHER Bard?

An absolutely beautiful day yesterday, so I spent a lot of out outside doing some photography in a little village. It was fun, warm, but fun. Later on in the day I logged in to EQ2 to have a little fun. Ultann was busy doing Halls of Fate with Wpus and the boxed inquisitor who managed to climb to level 77 and I went back to working on my epic for a little while. Finally I had gotten my gathering skills high enough to work on it properly.

I completed the first portion that required me to harvest rocks in Kunark and deliver them to a dwarf in Butcherblock Mountains, then it was time to head to Shard of Fear and take down an Eye of Thul. These mobs are just before the graveyard and are pretty close to the zone in, so 5 minutes later it was complete.

Ultann had to leave for a few hours (and ended up being gone for the remainder of the evening) so Wpus agreed to help me level up my dirge. Now, I know. I already HAVE a troubador on Oasis, one who has her dirge AND troubador epic weapons because I’ve betrayed her THAT many times, but I love bards, I truly do. So of course it was natural (for me) to create another. I may betray her to troubador later on as well, I haven’t decided yet.

She started off at level 54, and is linked to the rent-a-friend account that I have so she’s got the benefit of 200% bonus experience. Not to mention 50% from my regular level 80’s on the account, and she had full vitality plus the Orb of Concentrated Memories which is the 5 year veteran reward that grants full vitality once a week.

Needless to say after running her through Clefts of Rujark and an instance within that zone, then heading off to Living Tombs, she was well situated at level 60. I had hoped to gain two more levels and push her to 62 which is the new tier for Mastercrafted gear (and I was planning on checking out new skills as well) but I was feeling pretty tired after a busy day so I decided to call it an early night at 9:30. Hopefully I can get those levels today instead, we’ll just have to see.

I’ve also found myself turning off most of the level channels on Kithicor, and instead joining the role play channels over on Antonia Bayle, which you can join no matter what server you’re on. One of the more popular channels is a player run tavern called “Raven Mythic” which you can join and listen to by /join antonia_bayle.RM  – the tavern is a gathering place for role players who play out their stories within, some acting as staff, others as weary adventurers who have come to sit by the fire and tell their tale. I’ve listened to the stories there off and on for the past two years, enjoying every minute of it. I’d much rather spend my evening leveling and watching the chatter of that one channel then listen to the elitist comments made by the general populace in 70-79. If you’re into that sort of thing, whether to partake or only to listen I highly suggest it.

Other then that, it was a quiet evening. Those are just as nice as one packed with things to do especially after a busy day. I hope everyone else had an amazing Saturday!

It’s Raining Masters

Yesterday I decided I’d spend some time leveling my paladin. She was 52, sporting a full set of frostfell legendary gear, and I’d upgraded some spells to adept1. I headed to Living Tombs which has always been an absolute favorite zone of mine since DoF released. I just love the look of it, battling mummies and the whole underground theme of the zone of broken ruins. Shadowgeist came along, and as we made our way further into the zone it was apparent that something was different. 

Remember the patch last week that said: 

The master scroll drop rate in Desert of Flames has been increased to more closely match those of the rest of the game.

Well, they were not kidding. I have no idea if this is going to stay this way, but pretty much EVERY encounter in DoF (heroic) was dropping huge amounts of chests, and 1/3 would drop a master (roughly). As you can see in the screen shot above, it was pretty crazy. My paladin went in there to level and I walked out with about 60 master spells, and over 500 adepts. I know I had that many because my group completely filled up on room, and then I started transmuting the items (arysh is my handy transmuter). The 70-79 channel was filled with people selling the ancient teaching spells that don’t get upgrades for what would have in the past been considered VERY cheap prices. Percussion of stone, requiem of reflection, murderous design, etc. All of the 52’s that had no upgrade were all dropping along with a LOT of other masters. 

The screen shot above was from a group of encounters that were pulled to the center of the room. Paladin and Shadowknight have a great amount of AoE dps spells, and we made short work of the groups. A chest dropped for every individual encounter, and lots of them. 

After a few hours in the zone, my paladin had about 7 new master spells scribed, and had leveled from 52 to 60. I had to stop at 60 because I knew later in the day I would be doing Spirits of the Lost, which is an old raid zone that you enter from the doors of Cazic Thul. 

My paladin (and every character for that matter) has been leveling very fast even without another level 80 on the account, and without any 5 year veteran reward that gives you the ability once a week to replenish your vitality. I’ve never complained about a lack of end game content, and I always have *something* to do even if I’m not sure what it is that I want to do, so I don’t mind racing through, also compounded by the fact that I already have 4 level 80’s and two high 70’s that I did experience all of the content at a rather slow pace with.

The strangest thing about all of this, is that I am actually enjoying playing my paladin. In the 7 years I’ve played MMO’s (I know, I’m still a baby) I’ve never played a tank. I did make one in Vanguard but I’ve never gotten over level 15 with them before, always going back to my healers or utility classes (I’ve never played flat dps classes either). I suppose a good portion of it has to do with the fact that I like being able to accomplish things myself, and I can when I box which is how I’ve been playing lately.  

Next goal? Reach 62 and outfit her properly with some gear, and work on getting my skills up. Her aggression and spell casting skills are just fine, but her defense and parry are horribly low since she rarely does any of the tanking. Maybe before too long I’ll be able to make my own groups, and on a very plus note, Nostalgia doesn’t currently have any high level tanks for instances etc. It would be nice to have one available (though that would mean we also have no healers since I typically play those). As a random side note, we’re still recruiting as always, and /who all nostalgia will show you who’s around. We’re not big, but we’re friendly and our guild hall rocks. We also managed to ding level 32, and we’re half way through 33! I’m very proud of everyone who’s been working on getting the guild status. At level 35 we can add two more amenities to the hall, it’ll be nice to have a broker!

Nomadic Gamer