obelisk of ahkzul

Party Time!

stargrace April 15, 2009 1 Comment

The news spread like wildfire, and people started joining in faster then halflings eat pie. Kiara from the community team held a party last night on Kithicor to celebrate EQ’s 10th anniversary – the screen shot is shoddy because with over 200 people in the zone I had to turn down my settings and even then I was looking at the ground most of the evening as I delt with 5fps. I love these type of events, and I make it a point to attend. Not only do I spend lots of time bothering Kiara on twitter, but it’s great to show support for these sorts of things so that they happen in the future.

Ice cream trucks were set up for those craving a fancy treat, and there was trivia with prizes as well as lots of goodies handed out including a music box that plays music you may remember if you ever played EverQuest.

Nearing the end of the party – Nagafen made an appearance and started battling party-goers. Since most of them had begged and pleaded to have the mighty dragon there to begin with, it was no ones fault but their own. The scent of faintly baked skin hung heavy over the party for the remainder of the night.

The fact that the Kithicor party coinsided with my own birthday was great, I just pretended everyone was there for me even if no one said a word or knew who I was. The imagination is a wonderful tool.

Aside from the party, my trio has expanded some! A friend of Wpus has decided to start playing EQ2, and though he’s on a trial account currently he plans to upgrade. Ultann also decided that the recruit a friend program is the perfect way to start boxing a 2nd account. If we can level both of these characters up a little while we’ll have a full group of 6, which would be great. Ultann created an inquisitor for back up heals and buffs – not to mention they have verdict. I’m not sure what the newer player is going to use yet, he was enjoying his necromancer and his assassin last I saw.

We did a quick Obelisk run last night again with no shield. Actually had a few deaths too, it just felt like an off night.

I also decided that I would betray the coercer over to illusionist and spent most of last night purchasing very expensive spells. My sage is over on Najena. Ah how I wish they’d allow us to transfer characters for free just for a short while. Wishful thinking!

Aside from that, it was a quiet day, and a quiet night. Today will involve more of the same since I have no deadlines to meet this week for work, which is great. Still trying to pick up another freelance job (or two) but it’s slow going so I’ll just have to be patient. Hope everyone has an amazing day, no matter realm you find yourself in!

Gaming

Coercer 2.0 hits 80, Instances, and.. more Instances!

stargrace April 12, 2009 1 Comment

Yesterday was a mixture of real life with some gaming which of course made for a perfect Saturday. There was the announcement that Free Realms was sending out beta invites, and then a mass amount of shopping that involved a wii fit, and a nintendo DSi with a few games (used, and cheap!) and other random goodness before I settled in to game on Kithicor.

I had so much fun I don’t even know exactly what we did. I know we started off with our usual Obelisk run (and again no shield – that one dagger and crusader shield that drops has dropped enough to outfit a small army by now) followed by us attempting to solo some TSO instances – this time Lavastorm. We did pretty well in Najena’s Hollow Tower, we defeated the gnome by burning down the bombs (I charmed a warlock pet, MUCH fun!) and then moved on to the djin water elemental named and once we figured out how to do this with three people it worked out just fine. Honestly that’s as far as we needed to get anyhow, there’s a cloak that drops from that particular mob that Wpus is looking to get, and it was nice to know we can trio him.

Afterwards we attempted Deep Forge, but that zone is a little out of our grasp yet. The coercer was inching closer to 80 (hovering around 70% experience for quite some time) so we completed the three Commonlands void quests mentored – and then since we had no lock out for Cavern of the Afflicted, we decided to gather a group together and complete it the ‘big kid’ way.

I wouldn’t be playing the coercer for this, just the mystic. So I took the coercer to East Freeport and purchased 15p worth of collections . Finally!

The coercer (my 2nd, and 3rd enchanter) managed to hit level 80. She had 40 void shards waiting for her that I’ve collected over time, so it was no trouble to have my mystic craft her almost the complete T1 set. I know a lot of coercers complain that the set is not that great, but when you don’t raid and are still wearing mastercrafted, it comes in handy. Plus it looks fantastic (screen shots some other time hopefully). Despite the fact that I love being able to charm things I am contemplating betraying her over to an illusionist. The group buffs are much more suited for my play style. I’m not certain yet, it will depend on whether or not I can track down a sage.

I also spent some time talking with Troy from Emerald Tablet who happens to play on the Kithicor server. Was nice to say hello after ‘speaking’ a few times on twitter.

Afterwards I wasn’t quite ready to call it a night, so we decided to head to Vaults and see if we couldn’t get another praetor’s guard to drop. Granted, it’s taken us a good 20 tries to get the one to drop that we actually got, so I didn’t hold much hope. Good thing, since it eluded us once more. Maybe next time!

Before I knew it the clock was telling me it was 2am and I had to get up at 6am Blast those enjoyable evenings! Today is Easter Sunday and I’m looking forward to a great dinner with family, I hope everyone else has had an amazing weekend thus far, and enjoy yourself, where ever you end up spending your time!

See you in Norrath!

Gaming

Friday Night Instances

stargrace April 11, 2009 No Comments

It’s a lot easier to get groups in EQ2 then it is to get groups in EQ. Sure, they happen but people pretty much stick to doing the hot zones and a few missions that are required for access. In EQ2 there are void shard groups constantly ongoing and even a few pick up raids if you’re so inclined. Although Kithicor has a very elitist view when it comes from doing instances and who is good enough to do them. The channels are filled with people trying to one up each other by linking their gear and teasing those who may not be as well geared as them. On that note, it’s rare that my little trio actually wants to join three other people because from appearances we don’t fit the mold of ‘cool’ people. My mystic doesn’t even have her epic, we’re not mastered out, and our gear is a mish mash of quested and void shard armor. Not bad by any means, but not ‘uber’ enough to roll with the big kids who are constantly going on about 6-10k parses and linking all of their fabled.

We started out last night with our daily Ahkzul run (again no shield) and it went a little rough. The bouncy room didn’t seem so friendly but on the plus side the giant void creatures didn’t hit us with any AoE and that was nice. One huge upside to playing my coercer as my main and then leaving the mystic as the background / laptop character. Coercers get lots of stuns (though I’m thinking of betraying her over to illusionist, more on that later). After we were done we figured why not try to snag three other people and go do Anathema for some shards.

Our group make up was not your typical group and I had a lot of doubts I’ll admit. It consisted of the trio (myself as 80 mystic, Ultann the 80 shadowknight, and Wpus the 80 conjuror) and then an 80 guardian (Ultann tanked so the guardian was dps), an 80 warlock, and an 80 brigand. No power regen (not needed with Wpus’ power procs) and no mezer (hopefully not needed). We did surprisingly well, we wiped once due to one of the ghost children spawning an add directly on top of me when we were already involved in a difficult encounter, and the rest went smooth. The three others died a few times from various agro issues (that’s why there’s a threat meter folks!) and AoE’s but we escaped unscathed and collected our two shards.

I managed to get the mystic her 3rd piece of T2 void shard armor, a nice pair of pants. This leaves her with 2 pieces of T1 and 3 pieces of T2, so she’s getting the set bonus from each. The effect on the pants is a nice overloaded heal (which also happens to be her 5 set bonus) so I was pleased with the upgrade.

Not ready to call it a night quite yet, we decided to go to Scion of Ice next except no matter how hard we looked we couldn’t find three others to round out the group. Apparently we’d managed to catch cooties on our last run. Wpus, our fearless leader, decided that we would attempt this zone un-mentored, with just the three of us.

I was sceptical but never one to back down from a challenge decided sure why not.

It was an intense run. I ended up bringing along the coercer for stuns and power regen and to mez one of the encounters that has two sphynx that you’ve got to defeat. We actually managed to clear the entire zone, including the named at the entrance just the three of us. I was impressed. I was beyond impressed. It was a lot of fun and although the zone seems to drop a million cloaks and nothing more I was really proud that we’d defeated it. It also gives us another instance that we can defeat for shards if we can’t fill out a group.

After that victory we decided to complete the shard quest for The Crucible, it was getting late and I knew we probably wouldn’t be able to beat that zone (at least not the final mob that requires people to click objects from the ground as you fight a named) but the void shard quest was to kill 15 creatures within, and the void shard chest is on the first floor so it was simple enough. Today we’re going to attempt the Lavastorm instances and then perhaps the ones in Commonlands just to see how far we can get in them. It’s great to feel so challenged and to get as far as we have in zones that can pose as cumbersome to people. Sure, I don’t see us trioing Veksar or Guk any time soon, but in the mean time this has been really rewarding and pleased that some times it’s NOT all about what gear you have and it really is about the player knowing their class.

Gaming

Still No Shield, but lots of Fun!

stargrace April 8, 2009 5 Comments

Arysh (the coercer pictured above) is getting close to level 80 (finally) and she only has 70aa. This is what happens when you don’t do a single quest with a character (I think she has a grand total of maybe 20 completed) and only get discoveries when you tag along as a boxed character. Now that she’s getting up there, I’ll be switching my play style around some. I’ve had the coercer on the laptop dragging her around while I play the mystic in group – I’d like the coercer to have a better role and so I’m going to start putting the mystic on the laptop for healing / buff purposes and playing the coercer. Now, why on earth would I want to just drag my coercer around for 79 levels and not quest her? Pretty simple, I already have an 80 coercer + an 80 illusionist with epics. I’ve done this before, and doing the whole questing bit just simply wasn’t interesting to me at the time. It does mean I’ll pay for it now, but I don’t really mind that, either. It’s nice to switch things up a little.

The trio headed back to Obelisk in Moors. We had a fairly clean run aside from my laptop disconnecting randomly at the beginning. Reset the wireless router and I was good to go. The healer shield refused to drop (again) and the shadowknight / paladin one was what we got (again). It was still a fun run, and each time we do the zone it gets quicker. There was still a little time to waste afterwards so we headed to Vault of Eternal Sleep in the hopes that luck would stay steady and perhaps we’d get another praetor’s guard for the coercer this time.

Has anyone else noticed a decline in master drop rate? We’ve been doing instances pretty much every day and have yet to see a metal chest aside from the one that dropped the praetor’s guard yesterday. Not a single master spell at all has dropped from any named. Slightly discouraging, but understandable I suppose. I’m wondering if this is intentional, perhaps in preparation of implementing research npc’s that’s been talked about on the forums.

Channels on Kithicor seemed especially rude last night, I tend to phase most of it out but it’s been difficult. I’ve been spoiled by the EQ channels which are far more calm and relaxed. In EQ2 channels are flooded with people selling no trade fabled items to others who may not be able to complete the zones. In EQ this simply doesn’t happen, items that are left to ‘rot’ are announced as ‘free for all’ and whoever gets there first is able to loot it. In fact while I was playing EQ if anyone attempted to sell ‘rotting’ loot they were instantly set upon by the remaining members of the community berating them for trying to sell a piece of no-trade loot. Ah, how things have changed.

After Vaults I decided to call it a night, as I have a Wizard 101 article I need to complete today for Beckett and would no doubt be up early. I spent a good portion of the early evening playing W101 and had a blast, got my wizard Angela to level 17 and worked my way through the early portions of Krokotopia. I used to have a subscription to the game but I really wasn’t playing nearly enough to warrant the $10/m (which is a GREAT plan by the way if you’re actually constantly playing) so I decided to buy some crowns to permanently unlock zones for my account. If you don’t have a lot of time to play this is a perfect payment plan and I’m so happy to find an alternative means for the subscription. I’m not leveling up through content especially fast, and it basically reduces my $10/m down to $5/m based on my play times.

Hope everyone else had a fantastic evening, and are looking forward to the long Easter weekend!

Gaming

Obelisk of Ahkzul, and Vault of Eternal Sleep

stargrace April 5, 2009 No Comments

When EQ had it’s 10th anniversary, for the week you could claim free LoN (Legends of Norrath) loot cards in either EQ or EQ2. For the first portion of the week I was claiming them in EQ, and then switched over to EQ2 when the void vision goggles came out, and then the next day it was the awesome parrot that you see sitting on my mystic’s shoulder in the screen shot above (which turned out really nice, I have to admit). I had planned on doing some questing in Lavastorm for the evening – but had a really nice surprise when Ultann decided to re-activate his EQ2 account. So of course I decide that the group is going to jump right into things, and we head to the Moors of Ykesha to attempt the Obelisk of Ahkzul with just the three of us (and me boxing the coercer). It’s only been a month and a half since we started playing EQ fairly regularly rather then EQ2, and we did pretty well. The new threat meter is amazing and everyone loves it. I adore the fact that you can now auto follow on the Z axis.

I’ve been playing on the highest settings I can put my computer at and still function, which is one below max. The game looks so incredible to me. I did turn down the number of spell particles I see simply because when you have so many turned on encounters start looking like masses of particle effects and nothing more. I can’t see the mobs or where they’re positioned or know if I’m about to die to a giant AoE frontal.

We died once in the ‘ball room’ but it was just us being rusty. The second attempt was flawless, and we managed to get a chest with 14p in it. Those chests are nice when you do the instance in a group of three. I had my fingers crossed that the final encounter would drop the healer shield I’ve longed for since day one – but alas, my luck in EQ2 is pretty non-existant, and nothing of use dropped. On the plus side, void shards WERE introduced to this zone finally, so we each gained one more to add to the pile by the end.

Afterwards we decided to head to Vault of Eternal Sleep in Jarsath Wastes to try (for the 101st time) for the praetor’s guard for Wpus, the conjuror. Ever since we found out we can trio this zone, we’ve attempted to get the guard to drop. Every time, we had no drop. The zone is fairly easy to complete, we rarely ever die. The adds spawned, I mez’d them while still attempting to heal (Wpus catches them with root so I have a little leeway) and down the final boss went.

A master chest!

Now, there are two fabled (maybe more) that can drop here. There are a pair of pants that no one in the group would use – along with the mage item. FINALLY the guard dropped, now we just need to get one for my coercer. Groan.

I started having ISP issues (again) shortly after that, so when I disconnected I called it a night and headed to bed. I had a blast though. It was great to be back in Norrath 2.0 and even better to enjoy the evening with some great friends. I hope everyone else had a fantastic evening, no matter where you spent it!

See you in Norrath!

Party Time!

Coercer 2.0 hits 80, Instances, and.. more Instances!

Friday Night Instances

Still No Shield, but lots of Fun!

Obelisk of Ahkzul, and Vault of Eternal Sleep

You Missed

Leveling Up With Timewalking

The Construction of Quail Landing

Making Gold – One Sale at a Time

Timewalking, Gets me Every Time