Author: Stargrace

With so many characters at my disposal a great amount of time is spent deciding what I want to do, and who I want to do it on. I bounce between all of my characters on a daily basis, my whims changing on who I want to play (for some pretty silly reasons some times). I have been attempting to focus on two characters while I play the others as I’m bored or restless. So far those two selected are my swashbuckler, and my defiler. I’ve been focusing on getting them both gear, adornments, and aa. Neither of them have hit the 300 mark yet but I’m hoping that it comes to pass (eventually).

Long term I have four characters that I’m some what dedicated towards. That would be the swashbuckler, defiler, coercer, and bruiser. It’s no coincidence that there’s one of each class, either. One day I have high hopes that each of these characters will have 300 aa – but that’s a long time in the future, if ever.

This weekend is incredibly quiet in guild with two of the core members away for various real life functions. I spent this evening out at the National Art Center here in Ottawa, taking in The Lion King broadway musical. It was very well done and I had an amazing time. It was also a huge step forward for me as I suffer from agoraphobia and dislike being in situations that I can’t escape easily from (like balconies in theaters). The set design took my breath away and the story (one we’re no doubt all quite familiar with) was portrayed in such a unique manor.

Back to EQ2 – SOE has disabled the Dragon Ring / Wizard spire event until next week. There were a few bugs with it, number one it was running too quickly and thus progressing too quickly which meant that people who were away for the weekend or unable to participate would miss out on obtaining tokens. In fact as of this morning (and a few hours before) Antonia Bayle was 99% completed. Except the final encounter also did not work, in Eastern Wastes there is an epic x4 that was defeated and yet they remained at 99% completed even afterward. Rumor has it (I have yet to confirm the later portion at least) that the event will change frequency and be once every (3?) few hours instead of every 30 minutes. Thus it will take longer to complete. On that same note, I had heard (but not confirmed personally) that any progress over 50% will be wiped from the slate, and servers will have to work back up to 100% completion again.

While I realize these things happen, I can’t help but wonder what caused the issues. The event was on the test server for a few weeks before running live – the timer issue I can see because apparently it’s as simple as the event running every 30 on the test server and forgetting to switch it when it was moved to the live server. However, the end event not triggering properly is a bit odd. I think that perhaps with Fan Faire looming at the time things were not looked at as carefully as they should have been, it’s a crazy time of year for everyone involved.

I did manage to run the event a few times before it was taken offline. I purchased a replica of the Dragon Rings, as well as some teleporters for my house and a velium shard or two. That was another thing I didn’t quite agree with, every hour a player could earn a shard if they hung around afk in the area and picked up the quest for 25 tokens each time. Hopefully before this goes live again all of the kinks are ironed out.

How is everyone else spending their weekend? Inquiring minds wish to know! Let me know in comments. As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

It never fails. I’m sitting in the public channels while going about something in game and I hear the usual conversation of “such and such game sucks” and numerous reasons why. One reason that always seems to come up is “the graphics are too much like a cartoon and that must mean it’s for little kids”.  I’ve never really understood this complaint because it’s an art style, and has nothing to do with game play. You’re not expected to like every single art style out there but why the hatred towards those that do? Why is it so difficult for MMO players in specific to understand and respect a difference in opinion. A lot of people are not fond of the style of art found in Aion – but I wonder if they look at the art style and associate it with a type of game, and thus they’ve already judged what sort of game it is before even giving it a shot. The same goes for any other game out there – like World of Warcraft. Players take one look at the graphics, and go ew mentally in their head. Once you’ve come to that decision it’s really hard to open up and give it another chance. By that same token, there are those out there who do not like the look of EQ2 at all. Of course that’s going to affect your game play and decisions about whether or not to play because guess what, no one wants to spend hours looking at something they just find repugnant as a hobby. Well, maybe a few out there do. Most would rather not.

For those asking, yes I’m still playing on the Antonia Bayle server. I have a whole mess of characters if you want to add to friends: Stargrace, Ellithia, Jacquotte, Minxes, Ishbel, Faralithe, Arysh, Sharatan, Trinetta, Kameeko, Petites, Seduisant, and Seduit. I think that’s all of them.

Thanks to the newly acquired 2nd account from the other half, I’ve got my first 90 weaponsmith. He had leveled the character to 81 but hadn’t progressed any further, so last night I decided (as my bruiser was leveling) to do a few writs, and before I knew it I was 90. That means all I’m missing from my ‘collection’ is a sage and an armorer. Of course it also means I need to keep both accounts open if I want to make use of the other crafter, but that’s not too difficult of a choice for me at least (at this point in time). I am not sure if I will want to keep both accounts open once mercenary release, that’s something I’ll just have to wait and see.

My 9th level 90 managed to level up last night, the bruiser. That gives me 180% xp bonus for having max level characters, something I can take advantage of when the next expansion releases since there’s no increase. Leveling is really easy in EQ2 (at least, I find) and this will come in handy when I create a beastlord, as well as working on my aa points. I’m excited about the bruiser, I’ve never really played one to any great extent and they’re a lot of fun. Plus I’ve gotten some nice pretties for her over the last little while, so she’ll have some gear including a raid weapon.

Thursday! Only one more day until the weekend starts. I hope everyone is having a fantastic week thus far, no matter where you find yourself. Happy gaming! I’ll see you in Norrath (and Telon).

Progression is natural in most MMOs, and it’s no different with EQ2. There’s a progression of levels, be it crafting or adventuring, faction, gear, etc. A lot of people complain about progression along the lines of “what’s the point, it’s just going to be replaced in XYZ months” and to some degree they are correct. It’s still nice to be at your ‘best game’ before that happens though. Or at least that’s what I’ve found.

Guild mates and I headed to Kael and had a lot of fun. We did Iceshard Keep which was pretty easy for just four of us. My scout managed to get herself a new breast piece this morning which was fantastic, and I bought a 2hb weapon for the bruiser before leveling her to 85 – she has five more to go. I have four basic “mains” (this week at least) that I’ve been working on, one for each subclass, the bruiser (fighter), coercer (mage), swashbuckler (scout) and defiler (priest). The rest are just ‘for fun’ that I play around on when I’m bored or need a break. Because EQ2 is the only game I’m playing at the moment I need lots of “other stuff” to keep me interested. Thankfully, I find that easily in game.

A huge thank you to the 2nd person who has donated to MmoQuests (via paypal donation top right hand side) it’s really appreciated. I’ve had the site running for 6 years now and have been happily paying for hosting since I started. They made a suggestion that I feature more player-written books from my library – so I am going to take them up on that and tomorrows post will be one of the player-written books that I’ve got in my collection. I haven’t decided which one yet. If you have a suggestion for which one you’d like to read please feel free to leave it in comments below – I realize not everyone can get to my in-game library to enjoy the books. You can find the list of them under the heading at the top of this site.

While I am having fun in EQ2 I feel a bit odd about it because a lot of my friends are not playing. They’re sort of spread all over between Rift, STO, WoW, and a few other games. Some have given up MMO gaming all together, although I have been enjoying a lot of single player stories as of late. I suppose that’s one thing I really miss about “the old days” when there were fewer choices and I knew where everyone was. On that same note I’m very thankful for social media places like twitter and G+ because it allows me to keep in touch even though none of us are playing the same games any more.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic Wednesday, no matter where you find yourself. Happy gaming!

Last night was one of those hilarious nights that happen only once every so often and then I end up cherishing it for years to come. My guild mates and I don’t typically use voice chat, but every so often we get the urge and last night was the night. There was myself, Ultann, Wiqd, and Ibeogur and the laughs just didn’t stop. Our humor is completely off the wall and I’d have felt bad if any ‘regular’ people joined into the fray, there’s a reason Torrent Knights is a guild of 7 people rather then any of us joining an “actual” guild after all (we’ve tried that rout, a few times. It never works out).

Most of the later evening was spent in Kael trying to find gems for T2 Ry’Gorr armor that never dropped. I played the swashbuckler in the hopes that I could earn a few more aa (I’m sitting at 232 right now which I think is pretty nice). Yesterday I ended up losing 40 DoV shards thanks to a kitty keyboard attack that stopped production of the item, so I have a petition in to see if there’s any way I can get those back. 40 shards is a lot of dungeons (to me at least).

I’m really anxious to see the upcoming EQ2 changes. I’m eagerly awaiting the fixed itemization for gear 1-70 especially master crafted gear. There’s no reason for leather to have agi when brawlers and druids (the only two leather wearing classes at the moment) don’t use the stat. I’m sure it’s an enormous job to undertake but it’s been broken for far too long now.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath.

Petites (pictured left) is my templar – well. WAS my templar. She is now a proud inquisitor, sporting her enervated mythical thanks to guild mates last night who ran cella and research halls. Level 88 (almost 89) this will be my 8th level 90 character. She’s also my level 90 jeweler but more importantly she’s my very first EQ2 character that I created back in 2004. In fact she still has quests on her from early 2005 (screaming mace and another heritage quest) that I’ve never gotten around to completing. Now I keep them in there for nostalgia sake.

The bruiser is level 84, and I also have an 84 coercer, eventually I’ll have each of those to 90 as well I imagine. Last night I boxed with my new 2nd account, and moved a 90 necromancer over to AB so needless to say I have more then enough characters to fill whatever roll I happen to have my heart set on for the day.

The guild is doing great. We’re a small jump from 57, three more levels and we’ll have new bank tabs. We can always use those. It actually feels busy (during the weekends at least) with 6+ of us online, something I’m not used to. I enjoy our twisted sense of humor, and while we’re all typically doing our own things (we are far more of a social guild then anything else) it’s comforting to know friends are around. Plus amenity come in handy.

For those who may not have heard the announcement – EQ2 is going to be offline tomorrow for 7 hours for an update:

Beginning July 12, 2011 at 1:00 a.m. US Pacific Time, we’ll be performing maintenance on all games and services. During this maintenance, our forums, websites and games will also be unavailable. The estimated downtime for the maintenance is 7 hours.

We apologize for this interruption and will resume the affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.

I wonder if this is to fix gifting (which has been disabled this past week due to heavy exploits) or any of the other numerous bugs that have shown up over the last little while. Two off hand (besides the station cash exploit) is guild halls and multi housing. If a player is inside the guild hall and relinquishes their home from the portal that takes you to your house, it will actually relinquish the guild hall. NOT a good thing. On that same note, if you happen to own multiple homes and transfer to a new server, all of those homes except your last purchase will vanish, along with everything inside of them. This one I know from personal experience as I have been waiting for the return of my home (via petition) since June 25th. No luck yet.

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, no matter where you found yourself. Happy gaming!