VG

Leveling Solo / Duo 30-40 #VGD #Vanguard

stargrace February 28, 2012 1Comment

Working my way through level 37 has been interesting. I’m currently questing at Beranid Hills, fighting large groups of undead and druids. The camps are a bit annoying, it’s really hard to pull safely. More than one death was experienced last night, although the penalty for death is not that significant (thankfully) so no one was upset. The quests reward coin (and not much) which is annoying because I could really use some gear upgrades. I went shopping on the broker last night for a few items, but since there’s such a small community, choices are limited. I’m hoping this changes in the future. Of course my crafters can also help out with gear, but I’m in that difficult level range where the new stuff is around 42, and the old stuff is in the 30’s still. As I did with my blood mage, I’ll just have to grind it out. I’m really looking forward to being 40+ on the shaman (although I’m thinking of switching over to the blood mage again once they’re around the same level).

I will admit it’s very nice to be out of Qalia, land of blinding bright sand. Thestra suits my personal taste much better as far as continents go.

Before too long I’ll be working on swamp armor and trying to raise my faction depending on what type of gear I want to go for. I already have a few pieces on my blood mage, so that should help me out. I have absolutely no idea what I’ll be doing from 50-55 but I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out then. Hopefully I’ll be able to work on my flying mount quest, I think it would be really neat to finish that. It involves raiding, so I’m not sure if I’ll get the chance, but a lot of the casual guilds PUG it these days so we’ll just have to see. Other places I’ve been leveling include:

Cragwind Ridge, River Palace, Seawatch Coast, Tar Janashir, and in the future I’ll be headed to Jathred’s Twist and Dragon’s Backbone (neither of which I’ve been to before). That should take me to 40 without too much trouble (hopefully). My shaman is a bit squishy, and I’m thinking of changing my alignment. Right now I’m with the phoenix because of the bonus to + heals / dps they have and the fact that I don’t do a lot of soloing. However; I’m thinking I may want to switch back to bear. It’s for a pretty silly reason too, the phoenix form makes me float, constantly, and it gets really annoying to maneuver around that way. If I click off the form I’m still left with the buff which includes levitation. I’ve switched a few times now, so I’ll have to give it some thought.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Ding! 49 Artificer #VGD #Vanguard

stargrace February 25, 2012 2Comments

It took a long time, almost three years in fact, but I’ve finally made it to level 49 artificer. One more level and I’ll be at the old cap of 50, five more to go after that and I’ll be at the current cap of 55. I’m excited about it although to be honest I know so little about any of the 50-55 content I’m not even sure if I get any new recipes (if memory serves, I don’t, but things will be easier to make). Leveling a craft in Vanguard is unlike any other game I’ve played before, except maybe Wurm. It takes a LOT of time, and it’s not a mad rush with a timer game which I enjoy because it gives me the ability to AFK during the craft process.

Artificers (at least the branch I’m down, remember there is mineralogist and carpenter) make jewelry, along with stone weapons (mauls), and house components (bricks, planks, and shingles). I’ve been saving up my silver tokens so I can buy upgrade recipes, I’ve got a few of the lower level ones but haven’t gotten any more for a while (mostly because I wasn’t working on my crafting. It makes it difficult to get crafting sigils if you’re not actually crafting).

The shaman has managed to inch her way to level 37, which means ONE more level and it will be time for a whole collection of new spells. I’m excited about that. Sadly, this is where the level ‘grind’ comes into play. I find it very hard to get from 35-42 or so. Once you’re past those levels it seems easier, and before those levels there’s lots to do. It could also just be that I don’t have the faintest idea where I should be leveling, these days I spend my time in Bernadid Hills killing undead.

I do have other crafters and it’s important that I level them up so that I can upgrade my items with their components. In Vanguard crafters are still required to work together, using bits and pieces from one another. My jewelry components are upgraded with pieces of rare metals, and cloth. My weaponsmith is closest, at level 31, and my Leatherworker is currently 22. One of those (or both) will be next on the list I suppose.

I hope everyone had an incredible weekend, no matter where you found yourself! As always, happy gaming.

The Bounty Hunt and Useful Sites #VGD #Vanguard

stargrace February 16, 2012 3Comments

Looking for things to do in Vanguard never seems to be a problem for me. Remembering what I was doing, and what all the pieces in my inventory were for, now that is a problem. Hampooj and I decided to continue working on the bounty hunter chain of quests in Qalia, hoping for some gear upgrades. The quests are not too difficult in a duo at our level (35) but if you’re doing them solo you may want to be a level or two higher. As it was the later quests were all red, with mobs around level 37-38. We did end up finishing a large portion of the quest chain, and walked away with some nice necklaces as well as a new pair of pants. Next we’ll be going back to get the chest piece.

I mentioned before that information on Vanguard is pretty slim, but that’s not to say there’s none out there. I’ve decided to share some of my most-used favorite Vanguard sites, in the hopes that other readers out there who are giving the game a try will also find them useful. If you know of  a site that I don’t have listed, please let me know and I’ll add it!

• VGWalkthroughs – a handy site with a few detailed guides on what to do from levels 1-50. It’s missing the newer additions to the game (50-55, flying mount quests, etc) but it’s still great when you’re trying to come up with ideas on where to go.
• Telonica – A newer wiki that’s attempting to fill in the blanks for people. It still needs a LOT of work, but they’ve got a good start.
• VGTact – This has been moved, but you can still access this diplomacy wiki and it’s one of the best ones out there.
• Mount Guide – Created by Warriormonk this doesn’t detail EVERYTHING in game at the moment, but it’s a great start. They have information about all of the vendor sold mounts, a few of the quested. At the bottom of the article you’ll see links to other Vanguard guides, including fishing, griffon quest (incomplete), a leveling guide (incomplete), etc.
• Soresha.net – A long time supplier of map mods for VG, this site is essential to anyone who has issues with the in-game maps (and that’s pretty much all of us). They’re easy to install, and work wonderfully. I highly recommend players download InfoMap.
• Gestalt guide – TenTonHammer has a write up about where Psionicists can find their Gestalts. I’ve no idea if it’s up to date or completed, but again it’s better than nothing.
• Racial Mount Guide – Kayoss.net still has the best racial mount guide, thankfully. Complete with pictures.
• VGInterface – for your interface needs. Not updated often, but they still work and it’s great to have. I personally use CoreUI.
• VGNecro – A forum for necromancers with some guides. Hasn’t been updated since August 2011, but there’s still useful information on this site.
• Leveling Guide – The Vanguard Vault still has a handy leveling guide, even though it doesn’t have any new information on it (50+).
• VG Crafter’s Resource – Final Resolve has kindly made this portion of their forums public for users, there’s a lot of handy craft information that was lost when the main craft site was taken down.
• VGCrafters – A newer site that has taken up the collecting of craft information. They have walk throughs for the Artisan’s Saga, which are incredibly handy.
• Swamp Armor Guide – Another great guide at TenTonHammer, at 45 this armor is available, and you can start faction for it around 42 or so. It can take you up to level 50 as you work on each piece.

If you know of any other active Vanguard sites be sure to let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Adventures in Telon #VGD

stargrace February 9, 2012 6Comments

Turns out, finding information about quests in Vanguard is a huge pain in the ass, especially when things haven’t been updated in (literally) years. Because of this, I’m going to start posting a few of my own walk-throughs as I complete quests, in the hopes that when I need to find them later they’ll actually be around. The information is out there, but it’s quite literally scattered all over the damn place, and because Vanguard has three completely different spheres that you can level up via, it’s just a disaster. Finding out where I should be in game is also proving to be quite an annoyance, so we’ll see if I can’t put together all the information I’ve stumbled upon and create some sort of leveling guide. I know absolutely nothing after level 50 either, which means I’ll have to try to find information on that some where. My highest level is 50, and that was the cap the last time I was playing seriously. Since then the cap has raised to 55.

My shaman is almost level 35. I spend the evening questing and clearing up old entries in my journal. Surprisingly enough there was only one death, despite the fact that  I haven’t played the shaman in quite some time. It’s 1am and I’m exhausted so this post is going to end here for now. Looking forward to a lot more posts tomorrow. Also, I wish I had the know-how to create a wiki for Vanguard, I’d be great at that.

Progress Is Happening in Telon! #VGD #Vanguard

stargrace February 8, 2012 1Comment

Ah yes, bring on the “that game is still around?!” and “people still play that game?!” comments, today I’m talking about Vanguard. While I don’t often write about the game I have still been playing, my in-game home is still there and I’ve even had some neighbours pop up around the area. Last week Vanguard received a new launch pad, and I have to say it’s pretty nice. It mimics the new launch pads that were created for EQ2 and EQ1, and you can find them (as well as all of the SOE launch pads) over at soe.getthegame.com. It’s nice to have them all in a central location. If you’ve already got a copy of Vanguard installed on your PC be sure to point to the proper directory, as the new installation path is NOT where the old one used to install. The entire process was smooth and the game launches far more clean than it used to. I’m incredibly pleased.

The fact that there is a new launch pad (and a few other things in the works) gives me hope for this game. For too long now people have assumed that it should/will be shut down – and I have diligently stood on the side promoting it as a gem. I will continue to do so. The graphics for this game were well beyond its time, and I feel that it has finally reached a period where people have the computers to appreciate it fully. There are still glitches, but, they are being worked on.

You can still find me in-game running the guild Nomadic Gamers. It’s small (in fact at the time of posting it there are only two active members, one of them being myself) and more of a social guild than anything else. If you want to talk to me in game you can find me there as Stargrace (50 disciple), Arysh (18 warrior), Faydai (47 blood mage), or my 34 shaman and 24 bard. Their names escape me this morning, so just do a search for Nomadic Gamers. Chances are anyone on is me. This post has been quite rambling but you should expect some ‘better’ ones about Vanguard in the future. There are still so many dungeons I’ve yet to explore, so many quests I haven’t done. I’m looking forward to showing them off, and I may even post another Vanguard video or two. It’s been a while since I’ve made one.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!