Necrotic Asylum

When is it the End?

This weekend was great both in game and out. On Saturday before I headed off to a (very filling) wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, I spent some time using Chronomagic to mentor down and complete a few Desert of Flames raids – including the twin dragons that give you the shimmering scale to get into Djin Masters Prism (a zone I have only ever done once).

It gave me a lot of achievements, and slowly over the course of them I started inching my way towards level 80. Yesterday (which was a wonderful holiday Monday) I spent the evening doing a few instances, Necrotic Asylum and Halls of the Forsaken. I was almost there, 10% away from my (13th?) level 80 character. My group decided to take a quick trip through the shard of love which rewards a LOT of experience. It was fantastic.

Finally, I could put on all of the gear that I had stashed aside for numerous levls now, including the nice fabled shield from Outer Stronghold that has ranger written all over it. Now I’ll have to try to start my epic, and next weekend when Paradise Lost does their VP run I should be able to get my mythical (fingers crossed) which would be fantastic. We’ll see how it goes.

Now that I’ve hit level 80 (again) I’m wondering how to people categorize the “end” of a game for them – specifically an MMO that technically shouldn’t even have an end. When do you move on? When the game in general stops being fun? When you gain the final level? When you’ve completed every goal you set out for yourself? When you’re sporting nothing but the best of the best in terms of gear and spells? When you reach 200aa? When do you finally tell yourself that a character is “complete” or at least finished enough for you to start working on something else (for me it will be my 75 paladin).

The ranger is completely different from what I typically play – and I’m enjoying every second of it. I have always played support and healer classes, so being able to ping things off with a bow is a LOT of fun. Night of the dead is coming up soon, not to mention a few other in game events, and I’m looking forward to it all.

Hope everyone else had an amazing weekend, I’ll see you in Norrath!

Anchor of Bazzul? Don’t Mind if I do (times three)!

Yesterday was one of those amazing game days that are just packed from start to finish with good friends and great times. I don’t have a whole lot of those days any more, because people are busy with work, summer vacation, and other random things that get done over these months (not to mention my own work and the fact that I’m still getting back on my feet after being sick for so long). I’ve finally settled (some what) to 4 mains – two per server that I play on. Instead of playing on three servers, playing on two is going much better. I don’t feel quite as torn when it comes to doing things. The ‘mains’ are my coercer and mystic on Antonia Bayle, and my swashbuckler and illusionist on the 2nd server. The swashbuckler is only level 72 so that hardly counts as a main but she’s on my 2nd account and it simply makes sense (the only other character on that account is my mystic). Anyhow!

My illusionist started the day by doing Necrotic Asylum, which is a zone I really enjoy because you have to pay close attention. When you get to the bridge where the spirits are casting their lightning bolts of death you have to make sure your positioning is perfect (or pretty close). When you get to the huge creature you have to make sure you kill the chums. When you are defeating the mobs before the final boss you have to make sure if your tank gets cursed it’s cured right away or they’ll go down.

The final boss is an amazingly scripted fight. Everyone in the group will get cursed, and chances are if you only have one healer (like my group typically does) you’ll have enough cures to keep the main tank cured and that’s it. The curse lasts roughly one minute – but don’t worry, there’s a cure! At about the 25 second mark, I jump off of the platform where we fight the named (you have to be within a protective bubble the entire time or you’ll take constant damage) into a pool of goo down below. The goo refreshes this curse so you don’t explode. Then you run back up to the platform and continue to kill the named. Typically I have to do this jump run routine a few times before the named is down, depending on DPS. It’s great that so much is happening at once, and I really enjoy the fight. Of course the first few times I was in the zone I hated it.

The daily double also happened to be another favorite zone of mine, Anchor of Bazzul. This zone is simple and fun, so my illusionist also headed over there to grab her shards. The illusionist is my original “stargrace” though she had to be renamed, I haven’t played her steady in quite some time (since the end of EoF really) aside from reaching level 80, so she’s still working on her gear. She has her fabled epic, and some nice gear from palace (group zone) but nothing too special. Last night marked my first piece of T4 void gear ever – there are certain benefits of being “friends and family” in a raid guild (I myself don’t raid in the guild, though that may change). For 20p I was able to loot the forearms pattern pictured above – so pretty! Some raid guilds handle loot differently, and I was exceptionally happy to be given an opportunity to get these cuffs, especially since they are a piece I can’t get via T1-T2 void shard runs.

Back over on Antonia Bayle Hamal and Ultann were knee deep in WoE – a zone I still haven’t even been to. One of these days I keep saying I will. I decided to stick up the LFG tag and within a matter of minutes had an invite to do Anchor of Bazzul on my coercer. I have to admit, I was a little leery of the group, we invited a dirge named “Bzzzz” and then shortly after they joined while we were waiting for them to head to Moors they said that guild things had come up and had to leave. Wish they had of told us that before we waited for them.

We found another dirge, and were on our way. The run actually went very smooth – and to sweeten the deal the fabled void transfer earring dropped, being the only mage in the group I rolled need and won. Upgrades are always wonderful. Since AoB was the DD (no longer called MoTD like Kithicor names it) it was a great four shards for my coercer – she’s working on her T1 set still.

By the time I was done my instance, Wpus had woken up, Hamal and Ultann were done their raid and we had just enough time for an instance run before everyone would have to go their seperate ways for the evening. I suggested if they had not done AoB yet we should do that, for the shards of course. This time I would be going along on Arysh, my illusionist. Since she’s on the same account as Sharatan (the coercer) it would be a nice 8 shards for the day instead of just 4.

We picked up a brigand and a templar and off we went. Nothing of note dropped (sorry Wpus, still looking for the void transfer earring for him) but it was quick and painless, I really love grouping up with my regular guild mates. When we headed back to hall I had Kasul make me the T1 shoulders, and with one more void shard I’ll be able to purchase the gloves, completing my T1 set. Then it’s time to save up for the T2 set.

It was after midnight by then, so I called it a night and headed to bed, pretty sure I actually dreamt of gaming which is just an indication of how awesome the day went. Today is a holiday in Canada, so it should be pretty quiet before the construction across the street picks up once more. What a fantastic day.

Feel the Love (again)

So much has gone on over the last few days, I figured I’d jumble it all into this one post. To start, I know I’ve been quiet on the Twitter front (and in general) lately, but real life has been slightly difficult, and will probably continue to be so for the next few weeks. Nothing much I can do about that. As I’ve watched all the wonderful and amazing blogs and fan sites for various games crop up over the past three years I’m wondering if I want to keep up with my own. While I do make it a fairly good habit to write every day (and I just crossed the 1200 post mark not too long ago) there doesn’t seem to be much desire for ‘hey I love the games I play’ posts as opposed to everything else. Now, I know these moods of mine come and go (in regards to writing) and it’s spring (almost summer) so I’m feeling the itch of change, I’m sure this mood too will pass and I will indeed continue writing. I need some new avenue to venture down.

In other news, by now most people have heard that Alan “Brenlo” Crosby is moving over to a new position on the EQ2 team. It’s not so different then his current position, and Greeblen will be taking over his job. Congratulations to both of them for the promotions. I had a blast interviewing Brenlo (as well as other members of the Community Team) in San Diego when I was down earlier this year, and I’m sure he’ll do a fantastic job. That being said, Bruce Ferguson (who I also interviewed) will be moving to a new project. Wonder what it could be.

If you enjoy playing EverQuest, or (like me) play off and on remember that this weekend is a bonus experience weekend from Friday May 22nd until the morning of Tuesday May 26th! I will be in game on Drinal, probably working on that hand augment quest. I intend on dragging Wpus and Ultann with me because both of their characters are just inches away from level 85 which is the current cap. We’ll see how that goes.

Vanguard had some pretty big changes happen this week, including a level cap increase to 55, new zones, new quests and all sorts of other goodies. I do still play my bloodmage on Seradon (as well as other characters) but just never seem to find the proper time in between everything else. I’m going to try to find some time to explore the new content, as my bloodmage is pretty close to the old level cap of 50. We’ll see how that goes. I also saw that you can now do spell crafting which would be pretty nice.

In EverQuestII we’re all eagerly awaiting GU52, and there’s a preview out for one of the new Kurn’s Tower zones. I’m not sure if it sounds exciting or just frustrating. If you remember The Crucible (which it makes reference to) there’s puzzles to be solved and books to be burned that require more then my little trio (most of the time). We’ll just have to wait and see.

Game wise for myself personally I spent some time yesterday helping Hamal level, and he inched his way to level 66! We did the Crucible (mentored down to his level) flawlessly, and also managed to do Scion of Ice, and Necrotic Asylum (which happened to be the daily double). He got a few upgrades, and we got a few more discoveries. We also headed to Obelisk of Ahkzul and my mystic gathered together enough shards to get her T2 breastplate which means I only need shards for two more pieces, her hat and shoulders (for tier 2 that is). I played the paladin earlier on in the day and inched her to level 73, and the dirge later in the day who is closing in on 76. I spent far too much money buying adept3 skills for her but they were really needed. Getting resisted on practically everything (I took her to Obelisk, where the mobs were orange) is not fun.

Tomorrow is the start of an early weekend, and I may (hopefully) be feeling well enough to travel to Upper Canada Village to take those pictures I have been talking about forever now. We’ll see how it goes (fingers crossed). I hope everyone has an amazing Thursday, no matter where you spend your time.

Fun in Instances

One thing I enjoy about the TSO instances that a lot of people on Kithicor don’t take advantage of is the fact that you can start doing a lot of them mentored down to level 50. I realize a lot of people mentor down to grey out a zone in order to complete the shard quests, but yesterday Wpus, Ultann, myself and Hamal (newly betrayed to assassin) headed to The Necrotic Asylum in Commonlands mentored down to level 55 and did the zone as it was meant to be done.

There a few benifits in doing the zone this way – if you’ve never been to the zone before as a level 80 you can learn how to defeat the encounters. I’d never been here on any of my characters before aside from doing shard quests that don’t require you to complete the zone. It was a lot of fun, and the encounters are still quite difficult at level 55.

The sign that not many people take advantage of this aspect of the instances came from the fact that we made four discoveries while in the zone – a zone that has been out since November of last year. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but I’m sure on servers that have a greater number of players below 80 they would have already discovered those items.

It rewarded a shard and some nice gear for Hamal, as well as aa and my dirge managed to inch her way to 75. I’ve stopped grinding her experience for the last little while, being a little burnt out from it and trying (and failing) to focus on the enchanter and mystic combo.

We all had great fun none the less. Before heading off to Necrotic we went to Solusek Eye and wandered around the zone taking down named. One was an epic x2 that rewarded a nice master and a piece of gear. Aside from that the day was fairly quiet, spending some time to decorate the guild and wondering what I should work on next. I’m far behind in achievements on both of my characters, while Wpus and Ultann are almost finished with theirs. Even though GU52 is a few weeks off (not even on test yet) I am looking forward to the changes that will be coming, as well as the new instances.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Sunday, if you live in Canada chances are you have a holiday tomorrow – take advantage of it! I’ll see you in Norrath.