VG

Tar Janashir

stargrace May 6, 2008 1 Comment

Some of the views in Telon just take your breath away. This is me in Tar Janashir (Qalia) looking down through a window in a tower where I found my blood mage trainer stashed away. There’s nothing else in the tower aside from the psionicist trainer and a sorcerer trainer, but the view was too fantastic to pass by without grabbing a few screen shots. There’s even a storm moving in further away.

Growlius and I were a little too big for this quest hub last night, but it was still a lot of fun. The area is rated for level 34-40 and so we grabbed a good number of quests and started with the easiest ones. Experience in Vanguard is pretty steady – if you go to quest hubs. If you’re just grinding mobs, it’s going to be very long and drawn out. We’re both excited to be so close to 40. I’d like to get 50 eventually, and at least feel as though I’d completed one sphere of the game. Once my adventure level catches up to my crafting level (45) it’ll be time to work on that again a bit. Aside from signets I don’t get any new recipes (houses I suppose if I want to work faction for Qalia and Thestra) so I haven’t been in a rush to get any more levels.

We were sent out to rescue some people from the Rhajiri camps scattered around Tar Janashir, and pick off some wild creatures in the area as well. We killed scorpions, and these giant oysters and clams (which looked like weird plants, go figure) as well as a number of skeletons and at least five named. Every time we happened across a name we joked BECAUSE THE NAME OF NAMED IS ALL IN CAPS AND MAKES THEM HARD TO MISS.

• Me: “Oh, look, it’s THREA RHAJIRI (linked with the command %to and the caps come too)”
• Growlius: “Wow! How did you ever know they were a named!”

A pair of yellow cloth shoulders dropped but aside from that the loot was sparse. We both still have quite a few quests for this area, we managed to get 40% experience using a 50% bonus potion, instead of the common 100% ones we were using for major quest hubs. I expect the experience to begin slowing down drastically for the next 10 levels, and as long as I can find things to do, I’m fine with that. I imagine tonight we’ll be going back to Tar Janashir to try and finish off the remainder of our quests before moving on. Both of us really want to hit 40 not only because it means we’re in the last leg of leveling, but because we both get a slew of new spells and skills. In vanguard you buy them every 2 levels from a trainer. There are also some ultra rare upgrades of these spells that can be found as mob drops, though I’ve yet to ever see one.

We didn’t encounter a single other person around our quest hub, and a quick /who showed only six people around at all including us. I’m not sure if that’s because there are simply better things to do at level 38/39 or if it’s because it was one of those slow nights. There were (as usual) around 10 people on in guild, each one pretty much doing their own thing. Eventually I still want to work up my carpenter, to make sloops (I used a friends, it was SO much fun) and to add more furniture to my house. House items also sell pretty well in Vanguard, and as more people level up and get coin there’s more of a calling for these things. Would be nice to have a little more pocket change. I’m sitting on 1p currently, which is not so bad considering I gave away everything I owned when I hosted the Safe Haven scavenger hunt a while back. As long as I can afford my spells, that’s all I’m concerned about. Hopefully tonights adventures are just as exciting, with a little more experience.

Back In Vanguard

stargrace April 30, 2008 No Comments

Last night was one of my two weekly Vanguard nights – and it was a lot of fun. Growlius and I got together at the Seawatch Coast to work on some of our Bounty Hunter quests. We’d also picked up 5-6 other quests that required killing in the area. So the majority of the evening was spent walking up and down the coast killing everything in our path. The guild was moderately busy with 8-10 people on, each doing their own thing. Growlius and I had to remember how to play our classes, as it’s been a little while. Plus with me playing two other mmo’s (EQ1/EQ2) I had to adjust my key commands slightly (alt G does not open the guild window in VG, as a constant reminder to myself). The quests were not too hard, and it’s probably better that way. We had to kill a few white four dots and I had to remember what all my spells did, but I found it was almost like riding a bike (it hasn’t been THAT long since I’ve played) and once I started playing again it all came back.

Vanguard was pretty busy, too. It was nice to see. We ran into a few other groups also working on their Bounty Hunter quests. We decided to use one of our 100% veteran experience rewards, which is what boosted up the experience by so much. By the end of the evening I was 60% into the next level, sitting comfortably at level 38. Which of course meant, new spells!

Most of the 9 spells were just upgrades to previous spells I had, but one converted my endurance (which I don’t use) into power for 30 minutes, which I think is fantastic. It can also be cast on anyone else. So if there’s any other mana using classes who don’t use their endurance at all, this buff is great for them.

After doing all of those BH quests we also walked away with a good amount of upgrades. Necklaces, pants, and a chest piece, all yellow or orange. It was a significant upgrade for me, my chest piece was just some common blue I’d found in previous travels. Since I’m a blood mage it’s important for me to keep up to par with my gear – if I have shoddy gear it means my spells won’t hit the mobs as easily, my heals can be resisted. I need to be able to actually hit the mob to guarantee a heal. Most of the time it’s not an issue, but some times we’re fighting red or purple encounters, and I have to rely on my target heals rather then life draining attacks. Either way.

It was a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to going back next week and maybe doing some crafting in between then and now so I can make some coin. Growlius loaded me up with a lot of harvested goods that he has no use for (and doesn’t want to be bothered to sell) so I’m going to see about turning those into items to sell on the broker. We’ll see how it goes. It’s always nice to have a little extra coin, and after giving all of mine away last time I played with the scavenger hunt – well, yeah.