Author: Stargrace

Just another gamer with too much time on her hands.

Lets Talk Dungeons

Everyone has their favorite dungeon, just like we all have our favorite zone. Maybe it’s that zone we’ve done a million times looking for an elusive piece of gear, or maybe it’s a zone that dropped everything we’ve ever wanted. For me personally, it’s zones that challenge the group – and also look amazing. Of course, I have to be with the right group of people to enjoy these places. I rarely PUG, not because I don’t enjoy meeting new people (I do) but mostly because I dislike it when others tell me how to do my job (who barely know what my ‘job’ is) or when I seem to get stuck with a group of people who have no idea what they’re doing so I end up dying 10 times on the first pull while they blame the healer (me).

I have really bad luck with dungeons, I always have. My saying is that if I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. That healer shield that supposedly drops from Obelisk of Ahkzul? I’ve never seen it. I’ve ran that zone so many times I couldn’t begin to count, and that shield has evaded me every single time. It has overloaded heals on it, which is why I want it. Have wanted it, for over a year now.

The charm that drops in Kurn’s Tower is another one of those ‘never dropping’ items – though I do have that one on my mystic. It refuses to drop for any other healer of mine. Don’t even get me started on those charms in the Jarsath Wastes EA.

What about everyone else? Have a favorite dungeon story you’d like to share? Have you also been doing them over and over searching for that last piece of gear that will make your character complete?

Let me know below!

Happy 3rd Anniversary Vanguard

January 30th marked the 3rd anniversary of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. For those who are playing the game or perhaps have an active account (I realize some may be active with station access but not actually playing currently) you’ll want to make sure you jump into game and head to NT, Aghram, or Tower Galan and speak with a Telon Historian for a bag of goodies (pictured to the right). I logged in all seven of my characters in order to claim them – for one reason. See that Special Anniversary Bag listed There? Well. It’s 36 slots of pure awesomeness, with stats on top of it. Unlike the special bag that came from the first anniversary this one is able to be claimed on every character so long as you log in and find yourself that Historian.

There were also events in game – including a Ustream event. The downside is that this was only on the test server, which I didn’t have patched. VG is large enough on its own without me patching the extra server right now. I would have never made it in time either. *sighs* With only four servers in the game to begin with I can see why having one ‘local’ server may have been the best bet, but I would have still rather seen the event moved to the live servers. Show players who may not have been ‘in the know’ what is going on with their game. That’s right, people DO still play!

I wish I had unlimited time to play unlimited games. Vanguard has always been really high on my list of games I adore, but I just can’t devote as much time to it as I’d like. I still belong to my very active guild, and I still own my home that I built from scratch. I’m not THAT far from the current level cap of 55 (I’m sitting at 44 on my Bloodmage) and I’m a level 50 crafter. I haven’t touched diplomacy as much as I’d like (my highest level diplomat is still only 10 or so) and there are so many places in the world of Telon I’ve yet to explore fully. That’s one thing Vanguard really has going for it. It’s an entire world, and it FEELS like a world.

Happy 3rd Anniversary Vanguard – and whether the road is rocky or not, I’m hoping for many more.

Mythical #4 – Warden

Last night Paradise Lost decided to do a Leviathan run, and then shortly after they headed to Veeshan’s Peak with about 20 pick up players in tow. Brave souls. I tagged along for Leviathan on my druid. There’s a very long history to my warden (who used to be a fury, a few times). Back in DoF (Desert of Flames) my main was my templar. Then in KoS (Kingdom of Sky) I switched over to the fury. When EoF came out (Echoes of Faydwer) I betrayed over to a warden, and played her for about half of the expansion before switching to my illusionist, and then my troubador for RoK (Ruins of Kunark). Shortly after that I stopped raiding all together. I never got as much done on any other character as I did with the warden – and there was one main reason why I stopped playing her. It’s a silly one too.

Everyone and their dog has a druid.

Druids are quite possibly the easiest healer to play in EQ2. They have fast casting heals, and while they don’t offer a lot of ‘extra’ to a group (no real hp buffs, and their stat buffs are quite lacking) they are simple. They have some great death prevention spells, they can invis (fury) they can evac (warden) and heals over time are a wonderful way to heal.

Of course there ARE ways to tell between a good druid and a bad druid. You can tell exceptional players no matter what they’re playing. Still, I was discouraged by the sheer amount of druids out there. Enough so that it made me want to play something else. After all, isn’t one of the reasons we play these MMOs so that we’re given a chance to shine in some capacity?

I’m a good healer, it doesn’t matter what class I play (sorry, not trying to toot my own horn here, it just comes from playing them for years now) but I always enjoyed the warden most out of all of them.

One of my closest friends plays a shadowknight and has for five years now. Despite the fact that this year saw an explosion of Shadowknights (thank you TSO) he continued to play the class. He’s probably the best tank I’ve ever seen before, and he never let the fact that there were a billion other SKs around determine whether or not he should continue to play one. I envy that line of thinking, I’m not even sure if I’m capable of feeling that way.

Anyway, as I was saying. I didn’t go to Veeshan’s Peak with them, but I did zone in for the Wasp Queen kill that would grant me my epic. This marks the fourth mythical that I’ve been able to get without being a raider. I have the mystic, illusionist, troubador and now warden with their mythical version epics. The rest have their fabled versions (minus the ranger, and I think she can just wait).

It was still nice to get, even though it was my 4th and I was still pretty excited. I keep flip-flopping over who I am going to play when Sentinel’s Fate comes out, but I’m thinking that maybe it’s time to stop caring so much what everyone else is playing, and just play what I enjoy. Even if there are a billion of them already in game.

Doesn’t mean I can’t still shine.

What’s more Important, Races or Classes?

What’s more important to you as a player – the classes you can select, or the races of the characters you play? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. In a lot of mainstream MMOs it’s hard to move away from the ‘holy trinity’ of warrior-healer-dps. There’s not a lot offered outside of those realms. For me personally, it’s more important what race is offered, because the majority of the time I already know at least three classes are going to be available, and I’m comfortable with that.

I don’t like to play humans in my video games. I suppose the very basic reason is because I already ‘play’ one in real life and I find them a little boring. I’d much rather place a creature of some type, or some race that may be similar to human but is not. Yes, looks play a giant role in that. I’d love to see more MMOs where you can customize your race with hand selected features and traits and be an ‘unknown’ if that’s what you wish. I realize that for lore purposes this doesn’t exactly work out in all situations (ie: EQ2) but I think it would be a really neat idea. What would happen if you mixed a ratonga with a kerra, and were able to add specific features from both races, perhaps they’ve evolved over time. Or if you could combine your arasai with a troll, choosing racial features and traits from both ‘base’ races.

Ah the possibilities we’d have then!