maidens

A Day of Crafting and Instances

stargrace May 19, 2009 3Comments

Yesterday was Victoria Day here in Canada (though I was informed that it’s called something else in Quebec) and a quiet one too (at least for me). I’m still recovering from being sick these past three weeks which is a process that’s frustrating since I seem to be on a ‘good day bad day’ plan where I’m feeling fantastic one day only to get up at 2am the next and feel horrible.

Game wise things were relatively productive though not exactly on the same level as the day before. I managed to inch the illusionist up from level 40 carpenter to 46 before burning up my vitality. I have plans to get her to 50 so that I can do the crafting quests in the Moors and eventually take her to the crafting instances to try and obtain some books and other goodies. I’ve got all of them except one on the mystic (tailor) and it would be great if I could get that one to drop. Plus there’s the faction which would be nice to get and finish off one day (which I have slacked horribly on I’ll admit).

Aside from the crafting there were instances. Ah yes there are always instances. We headed to Maidens and Chelsith neither of which dropped anything of use this time around, and then we decided to head to The Crucible, a TSO instance in Everfrost. We’d never been there as a trio before and in the past you used to be able to stun the final named each 20% to avoid the massive AoE that goes off if you don’t click books in time. Since I had my doubts (that were later confirmed) that I’d be able to heal + click books effectively I decided I’d try the stun approach on my illusionist.

Except each time I cast my stun I was granted the annoying resist ping sound that happens, so we couldn’t stop the books from spawning. Wpus and I grabbed torches and burned books as they appeared, then Wpus took down the adds but alas it became too much for me to be able to burn books and heal at the same time, so we ended up giving the encounter three tries before calling it. If we added one more person to our little trio we’d have had it down no problems at all. We did manage to get him down to 46% which was amazing for just the three of us I figure. All was not lost though, we still got the ‘free’ shard update from the main floor, as well as the shard update from the quests given outside. I’m slowly working on getting a T2 set for the illusionist and finishing off the T2 set on the mystic. She only needs the breastplate and the shoulders for her set to be completed. What I also didn’t realize last night is that they changed the 5 piece bonus on my gear. That will teach me not to pay attention.

Now that both of my characters (on Kithicor) have their epics, it’s time to mark out a new plan of attack – what to do next. There’s a huge bundle of aa that the illusionist is missing because she was leveled up fairly fast, she’s only sitting on 100 right now, which leaves another 100 to go. The mystic is faring slightly better with 156 aa under her belt. Though I’m not in too much of a rush for hers because there’s not exactly a lot of ‘useful’ aa. What I’d really like (especially for the TSO heal aa) is for them to physically show on the spells you have. My TSO aa increase the amount of crit and the amount of the base heal, but when you examine the heal they’re not listed as being adjusted. Makes me feel as though the heals are doing no more then they would typically do.

Hopefully GU52 gets put on the test server soon so that it can move to live, I know a lot of people are looking forward to that one. In the mean time, I’ll see you in Norrath!

Gaming

7th Epic Completed, it’s a Sickness, I know.

stargrace May 18, 2009 3Comments

When I logged in yesterday I didn’t have a very clear indication of what I wanted to do. I figured I’d work on obtaining some achievements and maybe do a few instances as per usual. Instead it was suggested fairly on in the day that we work on my illusionist epic, and so that’s what we spent most of the day doing.

The first portion of the quest is spent retrieving instruments for a bard who hangs out in Kylong Plains. He’s agreed to give you a book in return for said instruments. The only problem is that once you do your part, he gives you an empty book with the pages torn out. Seems like he’s got a bit of a money problem, and he’s ripped those pages out and used them as IOU’s to various people throughout Norrath. The IOU comes up to 189 plat, which is more then it would cost to purchase the actual mythical weapon these days so it’s your job to run around to each NPC doing various tasks for them in order to pay off the debt.

There are 10 pages in total that you’re sent out to retrieve all with varying tasks like killing 100 yah-li for updates, and obtaining 30 pieces of T8 player crafted furniture. That portion cost me approx 5 plat to complete, and then there’s a portion later on where you’re sent to retrieve 6 masks for a halfling that requires you to have completed the hool’oh hat quest in Barren Sky. The alternative method to completing that quest (because of course I have not done this on my illusionist) is to pay off the bird with 5 plat. So in total my epic cost about 10p give or take a few coins – and a lot of time. There are a LOT of sub components to this quest.

Instance wise it was not so bad. I needed to get one of my masks from the Queen in Chardok which we did fairly painlessly. She was even up rather then a place holder. Then there was the Maidens update which also went really well (though the zone itself didn’t drop all that much).

Finally after a full day of questing I completed the fabled version of my epic. This marks the 7th epic that I’ve completed to date. I have the epics for: Mystic, Templar, Warden, Coercer, Troubador, Dirge, and now Illusionist. I know, it’s a sickness. Once the quest was finally done we headed over to Obelisk of Ahkzul where the healer shield refused to drop (again) but it was the daily double shard zone so we all walked away with three shards and I managed to get the illusionist her first piece of T2 gear which was nice. The final mob also dropped a master for her which was a great bonus, she has all of her adept3 but illusionist masters on kithicor are priced insanely, and she hasn’t owned a single one. Pessimism marks her first.

We headed to Crypt of Agony shortly after that to attempt (once again) to get the fabled range item for Ultann but our luck held steady and we got a treasured chest from that particular named. The Farseer eludes us once more. On the plus side a level 73 mystic master did drop, a temporary pet that helps heal and cure the group. Not as wonderful as a heal or a buff spell but hey it’s better then nothing. The mystic actually doesn’t have horrible luck when it comes to getting her masters, and that one marked her 4th drop.

All in all it was a very productive Sunday game-wise. Kasul also managed to tear up the levels with his baby assassin and inched his way to 61 with a handful of aa via the new hotzones that were around for the weekend. Before long we’ll have ourselves another DPS in the group – and a full group at that, which will be great. The faster we can kill stuff before it tears us to shreds the better. I hope everyone enjoys their Monday, and if you happen to have today off for the holiday, enjoy!

See you in Norrath

Gaming

We didn’t win – but we also didn’t care

stargrace May 16, 2009 3Comments

First of all, congratulations to Wpus and Ultann for finally getting their guild to level 30! Yesterday when I logged in we were 10% from the level, and I grinded out enough writs to push us over the edge. I realize that level 30 may not seem like a big deal, but this is a guild made up of three people (myself included) with the occasional Kasul popping in on his ranger. For three people, this is a big deal just like it was a big deal when Nostalgia hit 30 and was able to purchase a guild hall. Which is exactly what Wpus did. Now proud owners of a guild hall in Qeynos, we spent some time yesterday fixing it up. Of course there’s a long way to go, but it’s beginning to fill out. Our amenities include a broker, banker, druid ports, recall to guild hall, and the NPC merchant that you can sell status items to. Not many, but it’s better then none.

Once the excitement of purchasing a hall had died down, we decided to do something ‘new’ – new for us in any case. I suggested we give Veksar: The Invasion and Sunken Theater a shot.

We actually did fairly well in the Invasion and would have done even better had the zone not been bugged and refused to drop the two keys you need to unlock the third door. No one had received them at all, and that is the portion of the zone where you unlock the chest and move the stick Indiana Jones style. I did get Ellithia a nice earring upgrade but was sad that we couldn’t attempt to go further.

We didn’t do so hot in Sunken Theater, although like the previous zone we did manage to take down the first two named. Once we got to the named that spawns those globes that like to heal him, well. That was as far as we could get. Still, for having three people in group and two of us boxing, we did surprisingly well.

More and more as I play I realize it’s NOT about winning, or at least it doesn’t have to be. There are plenty of things we can take down with our group including Maidens which we ran first. Sure we’re not going to be one grouping PR but as long as we’re having fun attempting what we do that’s all that matters. I keep reminding myself that my illusionist only has her T1 TSO set as does the boxed inquisitor, and I also don’t have my epic. Eventually I’ll work on that. Maybe.

After our Veksar attempts we headed to Korsha simply because none of us had been there before. It’s an absolutely beautiful looking zone and the danger levels are just as high. We managed to spawn the first named who is an enormous golem that reflects spells. Great!

Aside from the reflect he has a dot that instantly drains all of your power if not cured, and a stun, and a few little knockbacks. He’s actually not that difficult an encounter – except our group was completely made up of casters, even the shadowknight tank spends more time casting spells then CA’s. That meant we could do very little damage to him and could only stand and watch (and frantically heal) as things went wrong.

We quickly learned our limits on the zone and headed back to the guild hall broken and battered but with huge smiles still since we had such an awesome time. In the end that’s all that matters. Kasul has started playing his ranger again (though I believe he may switch over to an assassin) and it would be nice to fill the final spot in group with some DPS. We’ll see how that goes.

All in all it was a pretty full evening. I went to bed very early (still recuperating) and was awoken by fireworks at 4am. I realize it’s Victoria Day weekend, but still, 4am?! Gah.

Hope everyone else has an amazing weekend, see you in Norrath!

Gaming

Templar hits 80, with LOTS of instances!

stargrace January 2, 2009 2Comments

Up early yesterday for a family get together and then spent most of the afternoon napping (I wasn’t feeling too well) so when I finally got up around 7pm I wasn’t really expecting to do too much before heading back to bed for the night. Turns out, I was wrong.

My ‘usual’ group was around, Kasul, Albrta, Eyenstein, and Shadowgeist, so we decided to do some instances. The daily double was Najena’s Hollow Tower, and none of us felt like doing it. So instead we headed to Scion of Ice in Everfrost. Before doing Scion I had done a quick maidens run in Jarsath Waste, first time running Petites (templar) through there so the experience was fairly good. Finished off the weapon quest from the zone too. Anyhow, Scion of ice hurt. Plus our second shadowknight was apparently fairly drunk and left unable to continue part way through the instance. I was the only healer, and everyone seemed to be getting pummeled by AoE’s and my templar (yet) is not exactly geared up for solo healing. But we managed it, cleared the zone. I picked myself up a new healer cloak, as well as a new ring.

I was a little reluctant to solo heal, but some times you don’t always get the perfect group. After we finished with Scion we headed to Crucible which has always been the easiest of the Everfrost instances, for me at least. We picked up a swashbuckler who was LFG – and for the first time ever I had to ask someone not to use a particular piece of gear. Not because of them, but because of me.

I was still 79 at the time, solo healing, without very good gear (my own fault I know, but what was the point of upgrading everything when I was wearing the EoF set gear and I’d just be wearing void shard gear before too long) my spells were all adept3 but I didn’t have any illusionist with TC or any of that stuff. Anyhow, the item in question is the Bloodthirsty Choker. If you’ve never heard of this item before it’s the one that quickly drains your health as you dps to boost your attacks with a proc. It drains about 10% health (at least on the swashbuckler) every tick or two.

Being the only healer, I didn’t feel as though I could effectively keep my heals concentrated on both the tank, and this swashbuckler in group without letting someone die. If I were on my warden, I’d have no issue at all with this. Afterwards, I did learn a few tricks in regards to the bloodthirsty choker. For example, apparently shield of faith which is a magic ward / buff will work on the choker. Apparently so will a few other things, like shield ally.

Was it unfair of me to ask them to remove the piece? Well, I’m not sure. It really did make me feel like a crappy healer, but I know my limitations, and I wasn’t about to risk heals because someone wanted to boost their dps. Not to speak down about them, but pet peeve of mine is someone posting the dps parse every fight into group chat. It’s fine to want to know your dps, but posting (and they’d only post the ones where they were on top) like that just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe even more so because I play a healer and I’m always at the bottom of that list, with big fat 0’s by my name.

The fabled healer / mage item from Crucible dropped and Petites won it, all in all it was a very nice day for the templar. That also makes my 5th level 80 character which means my account has a 50/50 bonus for both tradeskilling and adventuring (which is the cap). I started the templar epic, which has been fairly smooth so far. Lots of running around, which seems to be the case for every epic.

Next? Not sure. I’d like to work a pure DPS class up to 80 simply because I don’t have one. I have two healers, and 3 utility (two enchanters and a bard) and then of course there’s the paladin tank I have at 70. Still on burn out from that one though. So what do I have left? Well, there’s the 61 bruiser, the 61 necromancer (who I’ve had since 2004 and just never leveled), I have the 58 swashbuckler, the 70 paladin, and a 30 warlock, as well as the 74 defiler. It may sound like a lot, but keep in mind the experience from 1-70 was drastically increased, there’s mentor bonus, and there’s experience potions, AND there’s the account bonus I have. It really takes no time at all these days to level up a character in EQ2 and honestly as long as I’m having fun that’s all that matters.

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, and had some great holidays no matter where you game!

A Day of Crafting and Instances

7th Epic Completed, it’s a Sickness, I know.

We didn’t win – but we also didn’t care

Templar hits 80, with LOTS of instances!

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