The Crucible

Crucible, Obelisk, and Fun!

stargrace September 9, 2009 2 Comments

Yesterday was a good evening for gaming. Today all SOE games are down for a 12 hour database maintenance, so everyone was in game doing their thing. The daily double was Obelisk of Ahkzul, and the hot zone was Crucible. I picked up the quest for the daily double, but ran out of time before actually doing the zone, thankfully the quest stays in your journal for a little bit of time, so you can save it for another day. Maybe once the servers are up I’ll get a chance to do that today.

Crucible was very kind with the drops, a templar master dropped off of a mini named (the one that spawns before the real named in that room where you place the happy little trees?) – the fabled robe dropped off of the Master, and a fabled ring / earring dropped off of the final named in the zone which went to a bruiser. A good time was had by all, even if we didn’t do too much after that.

Before the instance runs I helped Ibeogur get level 80 on the berserker, and made him a full set of T1 and T2 shard gear – over 150 shards later, he was completely decked out. Now he just needs to work on that epic!

When I switched over to Kithicor from Najena (and a few other servers I was playing on) I also started playing on Oasis with some friends that I’ve known for quite some time. Instead of splitting my time between four or five servers, it’s down to two – Antonia Bayle, and Oasis. I decided to start a little guild on Oasis, just out of habit, and leveled to level 5 which is not that big of a deal at all but since I’m the only member it’s fun. I think a little place to escape to when you’re not really in the mood to deal with anyone is very important and not a bad thing at all.

Time to get back to the regular work grind for me, also, expect a few more Vanguard posts later this week if I can squeeze in the time!

Gaming

Order of Rime – Icemare (and other happenings)

stargrace June 19, 2009 No Comments

If you’ve been exploring the new ‘monument and might’ content at all (or if you’ve been listening to channels) you’ll have heard the excited voices crying out about the ‘new Order of Rime mount’ pictured above. Actually, there are two, one is a large creature like the ones you get from TSO via shards, and the other one is this beautiful icemare with ice particle spell effects. If you’ve heard about this mount you have probably also heard everyone curse and swear over the HUGE amounts of faction you need in order to obtain this mount. On Kithicor some people quested from 5pm until 2am (straight) in order to get this mount. No, it wasn’t me (I still have not experienced much of the new content, more about that soon). The mare is beautiful, and I’m looking forward to obtaining one – but – it’s also 40p and I have been having a difficult time making money lately. I’ve been purchasing spells for my characters (masters) which has been a lot of fun but also very expensive.

Emperor’s Athenaeum and The Crucible

Wpus, Ultann, Kasul and I (the guild of three plus one) headed to Jarsath Wastes last night to attempt the new instance we found there. It was said to be the difficulty of Crucible which we have done many times before – but – I think it is quite a bit harder. At least the golems we found throughout the zone certainly were harder. We managed to get the first four named down without too much problems once we had discovered the ‘tricks’ but when it came to the area where there is a crowd on either side (Drago I believe) the lag was beginning to cause huge issues for us. We didn’t realize until after we wiped a bunch of times and left the zone what the ‘trick’ to that encounter was (calming the crowd, anyone?) so we headed off to The Crucible for our final instance of the night. I did manage to get Arysh a neck upgrade from Athenaeum which was nice, but it would have been better had we finished the zone. There are just some things we can’t complete on the first try with only four of us.

Crucible was kind to us, and it dropped a very nice symbol that Arysh and Wpus rolled gainst each other for. Wpus of course had his loaded dice, and ended up winning – afterwards Wpus and Ultann headed to shard of fear and managed to get a bloodthirsty choker to drop which I was given for my troubador (thank you)! Now I just need to get one for the coercer, and I’ll be set. We have better luck in those zones if I don’t go along (plus I was VERY tired).

Bits and Pieces

Thanks to EQ2 traders, I know to be on the look out starting the 20th of every month for the ‘moonlight grotto’ events that will be making their way through EQ2. These are small mini events that reward players with some neat house items and a lot of fun. To read more about the event, please be sure to check out the article here. I’m excited about all the house items (as always) and I’m looking forward to these neat events. The aa experience increase has been VERY nice, despite some people saying that they don’t notice the difference, I think it’s amazing.

I had enough shards to get another T2 piece yesterday, and things are moving along nicely. The Fan Faire starts soon and I am exceptionally eager to hear all of the announcements that result from that. So many people I know are going, it’s going to be great that’s for sure. Maybe next year!

Have an amazing Friday, no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in Norrath! (and Telon, and I’ll probably be playing some Aion this weekend if anyone wants to meet up).

Gaming

Everyone Knew I would

stargrace June 15, 2009 6 Comments

After playing the illusionist again for a few months, I have (what a surprise) decided to betray her back to a coercer (and get her coercer epic as well). This comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone out there, I know. Over the time I have played EQ2 (since release) I have done the betrayal quest on every single one of my characters, some of them more then once. I would say I have completed the quest at least if not more then 50 times, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

Why do I keep doing it? Well it keeps characters fresh for me – and I have no class specific gear aside from my epic which I can simply do over again.

I miss charm, to put it bluntly, and while yes, I do have an 80 illusionist AND an 80 coercer over on Najena, I don’t want to spend another $50 and a call to San Diego to move either of them.

It does mean that I’ll have to give up my illusionist master spells, but I only have 4-5 of those to begin with and with research assistants and the few TSO zones that do smart loot I’m sure I can collect a few before too long. I already have a few spells including charm which is the most important one. I also have a few level 80 spells that we’d gotten in other dungeons. All that is left is the hard work of working faction up for Neriak so that my little Kerran Ratonga (love those petrified eyes for illusions) can move in comfortably. Crazy? Sure I am, but hey that’s how I play.

Betraying will also save me the difficulty of leveling up my 4th enchanter who managed to hit level 40 yesterday. Coercer or not there’s just no way I can make the treck through 70-80 on yet another enchanter on yet another character. That would make my 9th character to reach T8, and I simply don’t have it in me right now. I would much rather concentrate on the characters I already have and perhaps manage to get ONE of them 200 aa, since I have yet to meet that goal on anyone (though I am getting close).

Last night the guild decided that once we hit level 50 (which is still a ways away) we will purchase a T2 hall. I can’t recall the cost off of the top of my head but I think it’s 500 plat so we’ll have to do some saving for it. It’s a goal in any case. We also headed to the shard of the day zone, Anathema in Everfrost. Nothing of note dropped for us so Arysh (the illusionist / coercer) looted the items so that eventually I can transmute them. I’ve been stock piling my adornments bits in the guild bank so we can get ourselves outfitted nicely when the time comes. We headed to the crucible afterwards to see if any of the bits we wanted would drop (I think we’re all after pieces in there) but alas our luck held true and we didn’t see a single master chest.

On the plus side Ellithia (my mystic) did manage to finish off her T2 void set! Those shoulders (27 shards?!) seemed to take forever. Now it’s just a matter of me not squandering my void shards on the 2nd account. See, the thing is I have my dirge, troubador, illusionist, and paladin all on that account, and all of them are sporting T1 but not T2. The illusionist is sporting two pieces of T2 and hopefully I’ll be dedicated enough to get her geared up first. When you have so many characters, this can be difficult.

I know everyone must be getting very excited about Fan Faire which starts soon, alas I won’t be making it to this one, I simply couldn’t afford the trip. I have my fingers crossed for next year though and I’ll be frantically following everyone on whatever devices I can. I’m sure it will be a fantastic time.

In the mean time, I’ll be in Norrath, no work this week and I am exceptionally happy! I hope everyone has a fantastic Monday, and I’ll see you in Norrath!

Gaming

A Quiet Night (They’re Good!)

stargrace June 4, 2009 1 Comment

I know, it’s an old screen shot of my halfling templar at home in her 1 room in Baubleshire. When I was flipping through my screen shot folder last night (typically I just stick to using fraps since it puts them all in one nice easy to find place) I noticed that I didn’t actually take any screen shots of the brief time I played EQ2, instead it was filled with Sims 3 and Wizard 101 (showing off that new pet dragon that came out with the latest issue of Beckett).

While I did spend a good portion of time playing in Sims 3 (maybe more about that later, I haven’t decided if I want to continue blogging about Sims 3 or just stick to the MMO’s) I also manged to squeeze a little EQ2 time in there. The guild hit level 40! WOW! A huge accomplishment for us that I was exceptionally happy about. This opened up three more amenity and we put them to good use. The guild is now sporting a gathering NPC, fuel merchant, and rush order writ NPC. It’s great to have these things in the hall and I was really excited that we managed to hit level 40 so soon after reaching level 30.

Once everyone was around it was time for a quick crucible run – there are still upgrades that the final boss drops although we didn’t see any of them last night. The illusionist did get a master spell to drop, but it was the level 80 doppelganger spell that I rarely use and I’m not even sure if there’s that much of a difference between the adept3 and m1 qualities. Ah well it was better then nothing.

I was feeling slightly sore so I spent the rest of the night working on my transmuting which hit 200/400. This means I can transmute up to and including level 45 items. I’m hoping that today I can get up to the point where I’m transmuting up to level 60, or maybe even further we’ll just have to see. It would be fantastic to have a transmuter around. The whole way I’ve been leveling off of lowbie items, using the T1 materials because it’s far cheaper then purchasing appropriate level items even if it does take forever.

This weekend should see me in multiple games once more, a little Vanguard and Wizard 101 for sure, as well as that beta event that everyone keeps talking about. Hard to believe that tomorrow is already Friday!

I hope everyone has an amazing day, and I’ll see you in Norrath!

Gaming

A Day of Crafting and Instances

stargrace May 19, 2009 3 Comments

Yesterday was Victoria Day here in Canada (though I was informed that it’s called something else in Quebec) and a quiet one too (at least for me). I’m still recovering from being sick these past three weeks which is a process that’s frustrating since I seem to be on a ‘good day bad day’ plan where I’m feeling fantastic one day only to get up at 2am the next and feel horrible.

Game wise things were relatively productive though not exactly on the same level as the day before. I managed to inch the illusionist up from level 40 carpenter to 46 before burning up my vitality. I have plans to get her to 50 so that I can do the crafting quests in the Moors and eventually take her to the crafting instances to try and obtain some books and other goodies. I’ve got all of them except one on the mystic (tailor) and it would be great if I could get that one to drop. Plus there’s the faction which would be nice to get and finish off one day (which I have slacked horribly on I’ll admit).

Aside from the crafting there were instances. Ah yes there are always instances. We headed to Maidens and Chelsith neither of which dropped anything of use this time around, and then we decided to head to The Crucible, a TSO instance in Everfrost. We’d never been there as a trio before and in the past you used to be able to stun the final named each 20% to avoid the massive AoE that goes off if you don’t click books in time. Since I had my doubts (that were later confirmed) that I’d be able to heal + click books effectively I decided I’d try the stun approach on my illusionist.

Except each time I cast my stun I was granted the annoying resist ping sound that happens, so we couldn’t stop the books from spawning. Wpus and I grabbed torches and burned books as they appeared, then Wpus took down the adds but alas it became too much for me to be able to burn books and heal at the same time, so we ended up giving the encounter three tries before calling it. If we added one more person to our little trio we’d have had it down no problems at all. We did manage to get him down to 46% which was amazing for just the three of us I figure. All was not lost though, we still got the ‘free’ shard update from the main floor, as well as the shard update from the quests given outside. I’m slowly working on getting a T2 set for the illusionist and finishing off the T2 set on the mystic. She only needs the breastplate and the shoulders for her set to be completed. What I also didn’t realize last night is that they changed the 5 piece bonus on my gear. That will teach me not to pay attention.

Now that both of my characters (on Kithicor) have their epics, it’s time to mark out a new plan of attack – what to do next. There’s a huge bundle of aa that the illusionist is missing because she was leveled up fairly fast, she’s only sitting on 100 right now, which leaves another 100 to go. The mystic is faring slightly better with 156 aa under her belt. Though I’m not in too much of a rush for hers because there’s not exactly a lot of ‘useful’ aa. What I’d really like (especially for the TSO heal aa) is for them to physically show on the spells you have. My TSO aa increase the amount of crit and the amount of the base heal, but when you examine the heal they’re not listed as being adjusted. Makes me feel as though the heals are doing no more then they would typically do.

Hopefully GU52 gets put on the test server soon so that it can move to live, I know a lot of people are looking forward to that one. In the mean time, I’ll see you in Norrath!

Crucible, Obelisk, and Fun!

Order of Rime – Icemare (and other happenings)

Everyone Knew I would

A Quiet Night (They’re Good!)

A Day of Crafting and Instances

You Missed

Leveling Up With Timewalking

The Construction of Quail Landing

Making Gold – One Sale at a Time

Timewalking, Gets me Every Time