scion of ice

A Day of Good News and Good Games

stargrace July 25, 2009 No Comments

First of all, I got confused and yesterday was apparently not Saturday at all, but Friday – so the book of the day is posted below, hope everyone enjoyed it! In the mean time, while I don’t have any solid answers yet about why I was sick nor am I feeling 100% quite yet – I am feeling better, and that is a huge bonus. In another little bit of good news, I managed to get a little promotion at work! Most readers know that I write for Beckett Massive Online Gamer, I write articles on Sony related games (EQ, EQ2, and Vanguard for the most part) as well as Free Realms, and I also write about Wizard 101, and whatever else they happen to throw my way (I’ve done a piece on Darkfall, etc). The magazine is published in the states every two months and sold in stores like Barnes and Noble and Walmart. People can also get a subscription, and I’ve been working for them for exactly a year this month.

My new job still involves writing articles for them – but also includes working on their newly revamped web site a lot more. Posting news articles, moderating the forums and making sure things are posted there, too. It also includes a lot of public relations and promotions to the site and the magazine via twitter, facebook, and what ever other social media I can get my hands on. So from time to time you may see a post like this one trying to rack up interest. Hopefully I do a fine job (I can’t see why I wouldn’t!) and things go smooth. I’m excited!

Game wise I’ve been playing a lot of Wizard 101, I just can’t help it! My little life wizard has been having fun exploring Krokotopia, her dorm room is now completely packed with house items resembling the ancient land of forgotten treasures. In fact it’s starting to get a little crowded, and I need to move into a real house one of these days so I can move all the items out of my dorm. I have no idea what sort of house I want to purchase – I really want to purchase one of the “big” lots of land, as opposed to the smaller versions. They cost a lot of gold though – I have about 17,000 saved up.

I haven’t really gotten into crafting too much because there have been so many people running around going after the same things I needed it hasn’t been worth it. However, in Krokotopia I seem to find craft supplies galore. I’ll need to find a quiet time to finish my beginner quests one day if for no other reason then to say at least I’m working on it.

I love the newly revamped bazaar – it’s far easier now to search for items that you actually want. I don’t know that I’ll use it all too much never being a huge bazaar person myself, but one never knows!

The sword pictured above is the one from the latest issue of Beckett MOG – although if you happen to buy their Pokemon magazine you’ll also find another code! I love these little items, even if it means everyone is running by me asking where the awesome sword comes from. I’m always happy to point them towards the magazine!

Although it says little Angela Ravendust is level 23 in that picture, she’s now level 24 and part way through. I’ve been trying to take a little break here and there from the game but it’s hard, I find the card game combat exceptionally addicting, especially because it’s just so different from all of the basic hack and slash games that I already play.

I’ve been playing some EQ2 as well (of course) my little illusionist managed to get herself the wand from Crucible – of course it’s not the illusionist I have on Antonia Bayle (I’m still split between two servers, instead of four, making it much easier to handle) but it’s nice none the less. We did a few instances last night for shards and I completely forgot that the key mobs have been removed from Crucible and Scion of Ice for the time being. It would have meant two more (very useful) shards for me. I hope they get them fixed soon!

Ultann was taking his inquisitor on multiple raids yesterday which is fantastic for him. He managed to get his Thuuga update, Leviathan, and as I was headed to bed he was headed to Veeshan’s Peek – to perhaps get his final update of Nexona. I haven’t logged in yet this morning to check how that went, but my fingers are crossed! Calreth didn’t have nearly as good luck with his updates, Leviathan going horribly wrong for the evening (hugs). Fingers crossed that he’ll get his updates one of the times he’s around! I know he’s been waiting forever for it.

I hope everyone else has a fantastic Saturday, enjoy the weekend (more rain here) and happy gaming! I’ll see you in Norrath (or in Krokotopia!)

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

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

Templar hits 80, with LOTS of instances!

stargrace January 2, 2009 2 Comments

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 Good News and Good Games

Feel the Love (again)

Friday Night Instances

Templar hits 80, with LOTS of instances!

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