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Adventures in Oceangreen and Happy Birthday EverQuest!

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The screen shot was from a few days ago, but yesterday was another great time in EverQuest. I didn’t get as much done as I’d have liked, but the day in general went fairly well. Before I talk about that though – 

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY EVERQUEST

Today marks the 10th anniversary of EverQuest, and I could not be happier. I think it’s fantastic that the game has come so far, I think the players and game developers and Community and everyone involved all deserve big pieces of cake.

My day yesterday was taken up with a mixture of real life things. Lots of pain (ugh) so I kept myself fairly sedated. I went and saw The Watchmen which was not a bad movie even though I (sheepishly) had never even heard of the graphic novel before. I did some groceries, took some pictures and bought a new book (The Hidden City by Michelle West). 

Last night we worked on SoD progression in Oceangreen which was a lot of fun, here’s the progression according to Zam

Oceangreen:

 

  • Revolves around the faction, Cirtan, Bayle’s Herald.
    • Captain Hiran Solo: Familiarity is Key
      • A quick exploration task of Oceangreen Village.
    • Captain Hiran Group #1: Stop the Contamination
      • Kill the invading undead that spawn around the village (a tracker helps).
    • Captain Hiran Group #2: A Dread Challenger
      • Kill some more invading undead that spawn around the village (a tracker helps), including 2 named at the end.

 

 

  •  
    • Raxtor Darkpaw Group #2: Beat the Blackburrow Boss
      • This mission can get bugged if you do to much DPS to the boss. Stop him exactly at 50% health. If you blow through the 50% mark you may not get the task update.

 

 

  • None of the following tasks are required for completion of the Oceangreen theme (Void progression), however, some are prerequisites to the group missions which are required
    • Raxtor Darkpaw Group #1: Freedom!
      • Free some Darkpaw pups from the Blackburrow Gnolls.
    • Sergeant Bronal Cadran #1: Man the Defenses
      • Quick kill of a Magus a short distance south.
    • Sergeant Bronal Cadran #2: No Cure for Death
      • Kill 15 Bertoxxulous Cultists in Oceangreen Village.
    • Darkpaw Camp Solo: Summary Execution
  • Kill 15 regular gnolls and 5 wrext mal gnolls in Old Blackburrow.

We’re currently on the mission Raxtor Darkpaw – but you have to gain access to Blackburrow first and that was where I called it a night to head to bed and get some reading done first. The mission before that – A Dread Challenger – was quite possibly one of the most annoying missions of the day. Ok, so it was in fact the most annoying. Basically you get sent to protect a villager from the minions of Bertox who are invading, and while you may remember doing that the first itme around this time they come faster and there are more of them – not to mention the fact that one named who spawns during the encounter has these two little non-targetable pets that like to chew through pretty much everyone and thing in their way. Which they did, twice. 

In the end we managed to protect most of the villagers though and completed the mission. The enchanter is still inching her way through the levels and the necromancer has enough to almost keep her level finally when dying. 

I’m excited to see what gets added to the game today as far as anniversary goodies go – I still can’t believe EQ has hit it’s 10th year. It’s so amazing.

Gaming

A little DoN, TBS, Leveling, and DoD

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Last night saw a little bit of everything as my happy little trio headed to Lavastorm to start and finish off the Tier2 DoN mission. We finished off the solo quests and then it was time for what once would have been a 24-person raid against Emoush – a huge swirling mass of bits. The encounter was not especially difficult, but it was not really made for three people. You can’t bring mercenaries on the fight because it’s considered a raid zone. Basically there are three guards who surround Emoush, and you have to killl them all at once before he becomes vulnerable to your attacks. Once they’re down you’ve got a timed encounter to defeat him. Well, my group consisted of a shadowknight, a monk, my enchanter and my necromancer. The monk and shadowknight are 75+ but my own characters are still quite a bit lower. Needless to say we were a little lacking in the DPS department and so we’d get the little guards down and then work Emoush down to half way or so, and those little guards pop back up alive and well.

You spend more time working those guards down while Emoush grows in power and regens his hit points – exceptionally frustrating! If you don’t get him down to 0% in the next round or so, he grows harder and gains more power and more hit points each round. My little trio was fighting him for the better part of an hour, just barely hanging in there before we all ran out of power and had to call off our first attempt. We buffed back up and headed back in where we vanquished him without too much problem at all. 

The free aa we got from this was a hp/mana/end buff (that stays constant as part of your stats) and 2 free aa, plus flagging for the next portion which I don’t believe we’re going to do. We all also received a new spell to add to our collections. 

After that we headed off to TBS (the buried sea) to work on faction and do missions. The servers had been re-set the night before, and apparently the way the missions work is that you earn less orux (I believe that is the term) for repeating the same missions over and over again. You’ll eventually wear down their worth. We found one mission that was worth 150 of the currency for that expansion, and so we proceeded to work on that a few times. The mission was a lot of fun, you make your way to a room filled with chests and in the center stands a Sphinx. You have to unlock chests in a proper combination while the Sphinx spawns mobs on you that take on characteristics of those chests. It was a lot of fun and some times very intense as my little trio battled the rock monsters. A good time was had by all though.

In fact, so much of a good time that Nocbot (as our cleric bot is termed) finally hit level 80, and Ultann hit level 82. My own characters earned a few aa and hit level 73 and 71 respectively. I haven’t looked into their spells yet, but that will be next on my list. 

Once we had dinged, we headed back to DoD for a quick mission to obtain another spell that was released in that expansion. I haven’t actually picked it up yet, so I’ll be doing that today. I also picked up all the components I need to start crafting myself some misty thicket picnic baskets. It seems that a high level crafter was also working up their skill because on the vendor in the baking section of Crescent Reach there was 1,000 of the food bits just sitting there. 1g each. Wow what a deal! It literally felt like christmas as I purchased them all and stashed away a bunch in the guild. I put a bunch on broker as well for 5p a piece, a little profit to cover what I’d spent buying them all off of the merchant. It’s little things like that that I enjoy the most about EQ. I LOVE being able to buy other people’s junk that they’ve sold to the vendor. 

Not sure what today is going to hold game-wise, but tonight I’m making a nice roasted chicken and some mashed potatoes and gravy and little green onions, so please feel free to stop by!

Gaming

Tier2 DoN Progression

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I spent most of yesterday (and I will today as well) transcribing the remainder of my SOE interviews that I did while in San Diego, so I didn’t have a whole lot of time to play. Ultann and Ninga logged in and we decided to start working our faction for the Dark Reign again – of course it seems that I missed a very small part of the progression that may (or may not) have made this all easier. 

Apparently once you finish tier one and obtain your 2aa and new special aa (grants you +10 to all of your stats for no cost, constantly) you need to hail the commander once more, and say the key word (work) in order to get your flag for the next tier. In fact zam specifically says: 

“Head back to the Commander and speak with him. This will flag you for the next step in progression. You will also get flagged for the Tirranun raid (not required for progression). “

Well, I didn’t do that nor did I suggest to my friends that they do it. So when we could not get the next portion, I assumed it was because we needed faction (and I’d read further down in the post that mentioned something about needing amiable with the Dark Reign before progressing further). We spent the majority of the evening working on creator missions (which are fast) and alternating with another mission. I didn’t mind because it was a nice amount of aa for Minxes – I kept Kameeko parked in Lavastorm to turn in the faction tokens. 

After growing increasingly frustrated, by a random chance Ultann happened to hail the captain and say his text and then received his flag, and spoke with the next npc in line who very easily gave him the next tier of progression quests. Woopsie. 

It still was a fun night – I hope everyone else had fun too and doesn’t hate me too much for all that work we did. 

So tonight we’ll be working on Tier2 for real – and why are we even doing these older expansions? Well first of all they’re still all fairly new to me. I have done the DoN missions before but not the faction or the main quest arc that went along with it. Getting spells and aa and unique aa is a lot of fun, and hey, why not! The goal for tonight is the following bit of quest (taken from the walk through at Zam) 

Tier 2: Tenacity of the Dark Reign 

Speak with Officer Sirrikus Ryktor and receive three tasks: 

“Army of Stone” — Loot five Animated Guardian Essences from Stillmoon Temple 
“Blood from Sand” — Loot seven Impure Goblin Bloods from Stillmoon Temple 
“Reap the Kirin Mind” — Loot three Pristine Kirin Brains from The Ascent 

Head back to the Commander and speak with him to receive a flag. Now speak to Officer Vacax Rol`Tas, who gives you yet another mission: 

“Drake Eggs” — In The Ascent, kill drakes until you are able to loot a Drake Egg. This will spawn a Goblin Guard at the zone-in. Kill him, and give the Drake Egg to Celrak Blightblood in the Lavastorm Mountains. Upon doing so, your task is completed and you receive 29-38 Ebon Crystals and a Dark Reign Token. 

Speak with Captain Aleeth Zyrv to gain information on the Calling Emoush raid event. 

“Calling Emoush” is a 24-player raid event in Tirranun’s Delve. A fairly straight forward event, you need to kill Emoush’s three guards and then take him out. Loot a Glowing Stone Fragment his corpse. Bring this to the Commander for a flag and: 
-Two AAs 
-Tenacity of the Dark Reign (250 hp/mana/end) 
-Your 69th level spell/tome. 

Class – Spell/Skill 
Bard – Spell: Storm Blade 
Beastlord – Spell: Growl of the Panther 
Berserker – Tome of Destroyer’s Volley 
Cleric – Spell: Blessed Touch (scribes as Ward of Retribution spell) 
Druid – Spell: Earthen Embrace (scribes as Serpent Vines spell) 
Enchanter – Spell: Rune of Rikkukin 
Magician – Spell: Summon: Molten Orb 
Monk – Tome of Dragon Fang 
Necromancer – Spell: Shadow Orb 
Paladin – Tome of Guard of Righteousness 
Ranger – Spell: Earthen Shackles 
Rogue – Tome of Assassin’s Feint 
Shadowknight – Tome of Soul Shield 
Shaman – Spell: Spirit of the Panther 
Warrior – Tome of Cyclone Attack 
Wizard – Spell: Claw of Vox 

It should be a lot of fun, and needless to say I’ll try to read the quest information a little clearer next time so we don’t end up spending the evening grinding faction mindlessly for no reason at all. Sorry about that again guys!

I’ve been having a lot of fun playing EQ again. A few friends have been giving me some jeers about playing such an old game (happy 10th birthday almost!) but it really does give a sense of accomplishment when you take down an encounter or work on crafting or obtain a difficult flag. Since it was my very first ‘true’ MMO it holds that special place in my heart that no other game can come close to. That’s not to say that I won’t be playing other games (I’d like to get some Vanguard time in soon and I will be working on a 14-day project for work with regards to Final Fantasy XI) but for my leisure time for now, EQ is where I’m at. 

See you in Norrath!

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