obelisk of ahkzul

Wait, I won Something?!

stargrace June 2, 2009 1 Comment

This week and next week make up the crunch time before my next articles are due for Beckett MOG, so I didn’t spend very much time in EQ2 last night. I did get some nice time in Wizard 101, and once Wpus and Kasul returned from work (we can’t all play video games for a living!) we headed off to knock out a few instances before it was time for bed. We started out with Obelisk of Ahkzul – still aiming for that legendary healer shield that has yet to drop. How many months have we been doing this instance for now with no sign of the shield? I’m not sure, but it’s been a LOT. The instance is fast and it rewards a void shard so I can’t complain that much, but I’d still love to see that shield drop.

Afterward we wandered over to Anchor of Bazzul, this is a fairly simple and quick zone and it rewards two void shards at the end of it, making it quite worth while. Plus every so often the Gods of Norrath smile down on one of the group members – and a nice item drops. We got a lower level swashbuckler master which I’m sure was worth a great deal (congratulations Wpus on winning that) and the charm pictured to the right hand side also dropped. My illusionist has been under geared for quite some time. Not under geared in the sense that she’s wearing mastercrafted at level 80, but she’s only sporting T1 gear, owns 1 master spell, and only has 108 achievement points. She was power leveled to 80 and I’ve been slowly gearing her up ever since. It was no great surprise that one of her charm items is the caster reward from Everfrost with + spell crit on it, and the other charm was actually the mana battery which is a collection reward. No special stats at all and so I rolled need on the beautiful charm that dropped last night – what’s more, Wpus graciously declined, and I won it. Now, ideally I’d like an item that has + spell crit on it, I’m only sitting at 52% currently, and I have a long way to go. The stats on the charm and the 2% reduced cast time is very nice, and I won’t be complaining at all. We grabbed our two void shards and decided to head off to do the daily double before we called it a night, it was Deep Forge.

Deep Forge has never been one of my favorite zones. In fact none of the Lavastorm zones are that appealing to me. I’ve still yet to do the quests from the revamp (hey, maybe a goal for today!) and when someone mentions Najena’s Hollow Tower I visibly shudder. On the plus side as much as I dislike Deep Forge it is a fast zone and being the daily double meant we could get four shards from that one zone including some coin. Arysh also had not done the quest that rewards a fairly nice charm with +2 spell crit on it, so off we went. No deaths, and the final named dropped without too many issues (and also dropped that really horrible 2h hammer that always drops). Headed back to the hall to stash all of the no trade loot into my bank so I can transmute it one day in the future, and called it a night. Even though we didn’t play a whole lot, it was still fun and it was nice to finally get a nice upgrade.

Speaking of which. 20 more shards and Ellithia (the mystic) will own her complete set of T2 void gear (cheers) finally. Last night Arysh gathered enough shards to get her 2nd piece of T2 – pants. That just leaves the robe, hat, and shoulders left. I don’t even want to start thinking about how many shards that still is. I also worked on the TSO chapter quests a little bit, trying to inch myself closer to the rest of the guild. Hopefully we’ll be on chapter 5 soon where it makes us do all of the instances. Not my most favorite part, but it’ll be nice to be making some progress.

I hope everyone has an amazing week, I know it’s been filled with a lot of great stuff since E3 is going on right now and before you know it, Fan Faire will be on. I’ll see you in Norrath!

Gaming

Taking in the View

stargrace May 31, 2009 No Comments

We (the guild of three plus one) may not have done as many instances yesterday as we did on Friday, but we sure did have fun – and still managed to get a fair amount done. While the boys headed off to Crypt of Agony for yet another ‘sad panda’ run as they’ve been termed (meaning no, the farseer did not drop, and nor did the cardiocutter) I stayed behind and played some Vanguard on the PC (more about that in another post). Afterwards we headed back to Evernight Abby to complete the bits that we didn’t do the night before because it was getting too late and I was feeling quite under the weather.

Well, lesson learned. It’s a bad idea to kill the first named in a persistent zone leave, come back, and think that you can complete the rest of the zone without any issues. Apparently killing the first named unlocks another named in behind the coffin room – and that closed up once we left the zone. We ended up missing him all together. After doing Guk the night before this zone was a breeze, and also a lot of scripted fun. During the later portion you turn into a vampire yourself to defeat the final boss, and you have to run away every time he calls forth the sunlight. You (as in the group) all also have to aquire special vampire moves that you use on him during the fight. LOTS of fun. We wiped once because I wasn’t curing the main tank when he got snared just before the sunlight hit, but once I started taking care of that it all went much easier.

I don’t remember anything of note dropping, but it was the daily double (or as my server calls it MoTD – mission of the day) so we got a fair amount of shards from it. Oh, also if you kill the key mob and then log out you lose your key and that extra shard too. Not impressed.

Having completed that zone and the quests from Loping that were associated with it (there are a few and they all reward really nice items) we took a bit of a break. Folks had real life to attend to (gasps, it happens some times!) and when we met up later in the evening we headed directly to Obelisk of Ahkzul and Anchor of Bazzul. These last two zones would give me enough shards to finally purchase the T2 breastplate for Ellithia (mystic) leaving only one more piece to obtain – the shoulders (and they’re a whole 27 shards so that will be a while). This also allowed me to finally get my 5 set bonus, which is a 2.4% chance to proc 15 seconds of 15% heal crit chance. Nice, but would have been nicer on a warden. My 5 set bonus used to do with overloaded heals but they changed it some time ago.

The coercer needs 5 more shards in order to get her 2nd piece of T2 gear. It feels like it’s taking forever but I have to remember that she shares the account with the bard, who was hording shards for a bit to get a few pieces of her T1 gear too. If I had not of been trying to gear up two characters on the same account at the same time it would have been a lot easier.

We keep checking on Venekor to see if he’ll drop a trophy for us but he’s apparently pretty camped on Kithicor. As the evening wore on I decided to stay put in the guild hall and work on transmuting some more (shudders) while the boys headed out to do those guild raids that no one does any more. They did all of the ones available I believe, and while they’re not a great deal of guild status unless you actually have 12 people, we did move along a little, and then of course there was achievement experience for defeating the named and completing the guild writs. I’m not sure if any armor molds or craft materials dropped, but I always thought that this was one feature in game that could use a serious overhaul and maybe more people would use it. I don’t even really know of any guilds who take advantage of the guild raids on a weekly (or 3 day as lock out timers go) basis. If you do, let me know!

All in all it was a nice day with a few instances and lots of fun. I got a few bits of upgraded gear (legendary) as did Wpus, but I think that was it. The really nice stuff still eludes us for now. It’s bound to drop sooner or later if we keep running the zones though! At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

Today the Festival of Unity begins at 3pm EST and you’ll find me there as Pensato on Antonia Bayle. There’s also a guild meeting later on for Safe Haven in Vanguard, so I’ll more then likely be boxing the two events, hehe. I’ll see you in Norrath! Or Telon!

Gaming

Did We Just Pull That Off??

stargrace May 30, 2009 4 Comments

Yesterday was the first real day we’ve had Kasul around on his assassin and boy did we take advantage of it. I’ve been constantly grouped up with Wpus and Ultann (and Ultann’s boxed Inquisitor, Nocbot) since late December on the Kithicor server. By now we know how we group, I know what to expect. If things are too easy chances are I’ll go screaming into the next room shouting “BUGABOO” at the top of my lungs and training us. They know that.

Adding a fourth person to the mix (and thus filling out our group nicely since I box the mystic + dirge / illusionist) was something I had a few reservations about. Not because Kasul isn’t amazing but because we (the original three) know how to play together. We’ve been taking down content with three of us that I was exceptionally proud to do. We DID have a lack of dps though, and it was noticeable.

Last time we headed to Guk we couldn’t make it past the third named. Or rather, the stairs of mobs that would never end. It took forever just to get to that part to begin with, so we called it.

Yesterday we bravely headed to Guk once more – and WE CLEARED THE ZONE. That’s right. That’s how much of a difference it made to add a fourth to our 3. So now I call us the 3 plus one guild. Not only did we clear the zone but Ultann managed to get the fungus spores that go for 600p on our server, as well as a new master spell.

I was impressed. I was happy. I can only hope that the others were too.

That wasn’t all we did though, oh no of course not. We did our usual Crypt of Agony run and no neither item that we’re after dropped. After that I suggested that we spend our time doing zones that we don’t typically do. We’ll have plenty of time to do the ‘other’ zones while Kasul is at work. So we did Obelisk of Akhzul, Anchor of Bazzul, Najena’s Hollow Tower, Halls of the Fallen (Guk), The Crucible, and then after all of that our little 3 plus one group headed to Evernight Abby in Loping Plains which was the daily double.

Unfortunately by the time we got there it was after midnight and I still haven’t been feeling the greatest lately, so we cleared the first named and then I camped out in the zone so that we could finish it off tomorrow (today). Not a big deal, and I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully everyone had an incredible time, even if they all teased me to no end. Why?

Well, throughout most of the zones (Crucible, Najena’s) nothing but the dirge, troubador, paladin, shadowknight loot would drop. Every single time. Of course I happened to be on my illusionist, which is ALWAYS the case, the dirge who didn’t play even got a master to drop while the illusionist has one single little master to her collection. Ah, the RGN is a cruel mistress some days. Wpus, Ultann, and Kasul had no end of material for teasing me. Each time we defeated a named it was almost guaranteed that it would drop loot for the dirge I wasn’t playing.

I did make off with two nice items, a ranged item for the illusionist as well as a new cloak with a void beast proc on it (that I adore, even if procs are going to be nerfed and it will no longer crit). It was one of those amazing incredible days that I love so much. Good gaming, good friends, great conversation and we got a lot done. Now I just need to work at finishing off those achievement points.

Happy gaming, and I’ll see you all in Norrath!

Gaming

Feel the Love (again)

stargrace May 21, 2009 4 Comments

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.

Gaming

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

stargrace May 18, 2009 3 Comments

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

Wait, I won Something?!

Taking in the View

Did We Just Pull That Off??

Feel the Love (again)

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

You Missed

Leveling Up With Timewalking

The Construction of Quail Landing

Making Gold – One Sale at a Time

Timewalking, Gets me Every Time