Wurm Online

A Few Good Priest Casts

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I have a tendency to buy and sell characters in Wurm Online on a pretty frequent basis. While most games frown upon this sort of interaction, it’s a form of player market that’s openly encouraged and supported in Wurm. I tend to buy and sell priests, thinking that I no longer want to level them up, or when I get bored of them. One of the first characters I sold was my Fo priest, which of course I ended up regretting, and then I purchased a new one (which I also eventually sold). My last purchase was a Vynora priest named Maivis. The character came with decent beginner skills, but channeling was quite low. Priests need nature skills alongside their priest skills (faith, alignment, channeling, etc) in order to perform half way decent casts. It’s all based on RNG so of course the chances of me getting a ‘good’ cast even with good skills is pretty slim. We all know how those RNG Gods like to mess with me.

For the past few weeks I’ve been working on raising my channeling from 30 to 60. I finally achieved that goal, and started working on the rest of my skills. Hot food cooking is currently at 72, so once I’m done a work order for a friend I plan on creating 1,000 frying pans (and ovens to hold them in) and working on that. Hot food cooking is a great way of raising Soul Depth, which is another essential skill. Farming is at 73, and I’ve been working on rope making, locksmithing, and toy creation (yoyo) so the priest has materials to sacrifice for favor. I also started working woodcutting, which is a skill vynora priests can do but not other priests (minus Libia).

Now that channeling is at a decent level I succeed on my casts more often than not, and yesterday I got my first “high” power cast, an 86 circle of cunning. I consider anything 60+ “high” for my priest, my normal casts hover around the 40 power mark. Power caps at 104 but to get a cast that high is incredibly rare.

I’m still contemplating purchasing another Fo priest, but I haven’t seen any good ones for sale within my price range. I don’t need anything top of the line (priests have been known to go for 100-300 EU) but something that has relatively good faith and basic priest skills is always a bonus. In the meantime, I’ll keep working up the vynora skills. I’m hoping to be able to do a few more good enchants and sell the items but we’ll see how that goes. I don’t feel pressured to sell any items since I don’t use the funds to pay for my characters or deeds, but a little extra cash is never a bad thing!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Rares and RNG – They Just Don’t Like Me

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I spent 5 hours or so working my weapon smithing yesterday in Wurm Online, raising the skill up an entire point (and a bit) which as anyone who has leveled weapon smithing will tell you, is quite a feat. It is the slowest skill to level up, and thus weapon smith accounts are worth quite a bit of money. In that time I had at least four rare rolls, and I had failed every roll, resulting in no rare items. Of course I decided to blog about it, and the second I started this post, before this first paragraph was even done, I succeeded at a rare roll, and my butchering knife turned rare. I take this as a sign that I should complain about RNG more often!

Players who have premium accounts are supposed to have a heightened chance at creating rare items, but honestly I’ve never had that much luck with them. I can count on one hand the amount of rares I’ve created over the years and they don’t measure very many. Normally I sell them off, enchanted rares are worth a handful of silver and that’s a wonderful way to pay for my deeds. I haven’t decided if I’ll sell my latest rare or not. Butchering knives are nice because even if a creature is ‘starving’ they will provide meat. I’ve tried to bid on a few butchering knives over time but they always seem to go higher than my budget allows.

I’ve been debating trying to get a collection of rare tools together to help with my weapon smithing. Not many are required. A hammer, whetstone, pelt, ore, and water is all I use. I don’t believe pelts can be rare, but I should be able to find a hammer. My tools are already pretty nice quality (90+) though they could stand to get a few enchants as well. Anything that helps me level up my skills a bit faster is a help.

I decided to take all the tools I owned that were below 50 ql (extras I had stashed away) and improve them all to 60, so that’s what my forge is filled with at the moment. Then I’ll bring them to my priest, who will enchant them, and I’ll try to put them for sale at the market for a cheap price. So far my items sell pretty well even though they’re not that fancy. Making items in bulk while I try to level my skills helps to keep them at a very low cost. I have no use for all the extra items, so I may as well try to get rid of them.

It’s nice to take a break from the deed work and work on some skills. I’ll probably end up doing what Yetian does, which is alternate the two. That way nothing suffers and you get a lot done. I’m sure in the end, whatever I end up feeling like doing will be what I end up doing…

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

A Deed is Never Done

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I haven’t started any bridges yet, but I’ve been contemplating creating one across the little harbor my deed is settled against. Maybe some sort of welcoming guard towers along the front with a bridge that spans between them. I haven’t quite decided yet. What I did decide, was that entirely too much of my deed was taken up by water, and when you pay for each tile of land that you own, well. There’s only a few solutions. What I decided to do was use some of the dirt I had collected from the mountain side and begin filling in the harbor. It’s an area of approximately 5×7, so it’s quite a large spot. I haven’t decided what I’ll do with the newly terraformed location yet, it’s not like I need any more buildings, pens, or farm space, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

I also decided to re-expand the deed slightly, raising the monthly cost to just under 3 silver. This brings my guard tower back on-deed, as well as a large portion of my mine and my grape orchard. It wasn’t essential that these things be on-deed, but it does make keeping it all repaired a bit easier.

I also spent the better part of one gaming session cutting down wayward trees and turning a large portion to lawn so that more wayward trees couldn’t grow. The reason for this is not because I don’t enjoy trees, but because those threes tend to block the view of the deed, and I wanted it to stand out a bit more. Since I have a dedicated tree farm off to the side it’s not essential that I have any extras, plus the top tier of my place is loaded with maple trees (my favourite type in-game).

I’m still undecided as to what skills I want to raise on my main character. My priest is pretty simple. I finally raised channeling to 60, and I’m working on Soul Depth. Animal husbandry, farming, hot food cooking, all the usual priest skills. On my main I’m debating between jewelry and going back to weapon smithing which is just the slowest skill in the entire world to level up. It’s one of those skills where you want to be doing something else as you work on it (like watching TV) and only work on it when you have sleep bonus. Even then, you’ll be lucky to raise it any significant amount. The more I think about it, the more that’s the skill I think I’ll end up going with. Now I just need to find something on netflix or hulu to watch so I don’t fall asleep from boredom.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

That Summer Burnout

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It happens every year around this time. I can’t figure out what I want to play and so I spend the majority of my time bouncing in and out of various games, hoping one will catch my attention for longer than 20 minutes. Then I feel bad when it doesn’t. It could be the amazing weather, stresses from work, watching friends and family all do their thing while I’m across the country, or something else. I have no idea. I just know that normally when I have a bit of free time (and I’m at home) I think nothing of what game to play and I just do it. These days though I’ll log into 4-5 games only to wander around aimlessly and then decide they were not what I wanted to ‘do’ after all.

I managed to resist every sale on steam – even though there are quite a few DLC I’d love to own on my wishlist. I just didn’t think I was gaming enough to justify the cost at the moment. I’m tired of Early Access games. While I understand that crowdfunding and EA games are a fantastic way to get indie developers into game releases, I’ve just been burned and frustrated too many times. The latest is with Windborne, which sat on my wishlist for over a year before developers announced that they just don’t have the funds to continue.

I can understand that. I understand that we live in an age where there are lots of games out there, and to create something that’s going to be profitable is hard. It’s still frustrating as a player and as a potential investor in these games. I miss the day when I could purchase a completely finished game (or at least what I would consider ‘finished’). There are some great Early Access games out there, but the chances of me being interested in them when they finally release are pretty slim.

What have I been playing lately? Well. The list isn’t that long, but like I said I haven’t been doing a lot of gaming.

  • Wurm Online: In summer my Wurm interest flags a bit, but I’ve still got two active accounts and deeds, and I still check in daily to take care of crops and animals. I know my interest in this one will pick back up after summer, it always does.
  • FFXIV: I keep trying to be interested in this one, and it’s just not happening. I still have 44 days active on my account but something about the game is just not appealing to me lately.
  • WoW: I still have time left on my account, but honestly I just haven’t been playing. Garrison grind is a thing, and I just don’t like it. Not even pets are able to keep me entertained these days.
  • WildStar: I play daily, and I still enjoy it quite a bit but I limit my time so that I don’t get burned out. Since I work for NCSOFT on WildStar it’s also pretty much a given that I’m playing it daily.
  • EQ/EQ2: As much as I love the Ragefire server, it’s hard to get into if you’re not already in a community or with established friends. I was hoping it would be more like the communities of days gone by, but so far it hasn’t been and that bugs me to some degree. Instead I’ve been playing EQ2, my old haunting grounds. I’ve been clearing out older heritage quests and playing in my guild on my own, we’re level 78, and I’m having quite a bit of fun with that. My defiler is still only level 96, but I’m not really in a rush to reach level 100. I don’t even know what is available to do at level 100.
  • EVE Online: I don’t play nearly as much as I should / could / want to, but I do have an active subscription for a year, and in the meantime my skills are training up. I know this is a great game to pop into when I can here and there, so I haven’t been concerned about my lack of playtime.
  • GW2: Still working on my mesmer, on a new account. Right now she’s 49, which is great but I’d still ideally like to reach 80 before the expansion hits, and maybe get another character or two up there on the new account. We’ll see how that goes. It’s hard when I don’t really have any inclination to play.

Hopefully I climb out of this rut I’ve found myself in before too long. I imagine when fall rolls around I’ll be back to my ‘typical’ gaming self, whatever that is. In the meantime, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Bridges, Stairs, and Ships – Oh My

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Bridges, stairs, and revamped ship models are finally in game. There were the usual expected bugs during the initial release, but developers have been working very hard on getting them squashed. I didn’t get a lot of time to play this week, but I did get enough time to add three new staircases to my homes, and I have to admit, I adore them. I haven’t looked into bridge building yet, that step seems far more complicated. I have one building to complete at the South most deed, a tailoring shop. Afterward, I think I’ll begin a knarr. I have a corbita and a sailboat, but a knarr can carry more, and still move through shallow waters. Plus I’ve decided to leave the sailboat up at the Northern deed for my priest to use. Never know when she may want to get around.

Aside from the building that needs to be completed and perhaps another staircase or two, I’m not sure what skills I want to be working on. The priest just reached 57 channeling, which I am very pleased about. I still need to work on Soul Depth, but but I’m happy with how things are progressing. Her casts are still not that great yet, I’m hoping to improve them over time. So far she can get steady 30-40 casts. I’d like at least 60 or higher. I know it takes time and a lot of work though.

Other than that, this week has been filled with work. I’m very excited to hear that the EverQuest progression server will be live on May 20th, I’ll be playing as Stargrace, though I haven’t settled on a class yet, I THINK I’ll be going gnome shadowknight. What has everyone else been up to? Let me know in comments!

Nomadic Gamer