Stargrace

Recruit a Friend, and Totem Quests

My Tauren shaman, in World of Warcraft. That’s right, I still play (from time to time) while devoting most of my game time to EQ2. There are a few other games I continue to play when the mood strikes me but yesterday I decided I’d play WoW. I’ve actually played since release, picking up the game a few months after I got hooked on EQ2. My highest character is level 50 (actually I have a few characters sitting at 50) so even though this game is considered one of the easier ones out there I’ve never made it to end game (which is fine by me).

I recruited a friend to the game with me at the same time, so we’re both enjoying the experience bonus, and for every two levels his characters gain he can grant one level to a character of mine. I decided randomly yesterday to create a shaman, and via recruit a friend she went from 1-33 in a few seconds. People standing around asked if we were hacking, it was amusing.

While skills are easily worked up, and spells easy to purchase – that meant that I’d missed every single one of the totem quests in order to cast my class defining spells. I spent the majority of the afternoon once I’d geared myself up working on those quests which make you run ALL OVER the dang place. Since I was leveled via recruit a friend I didn’t even have any flight paths, so I had to walk. Thank goodness for the ghost wolf form! I didn’t bother purchasing a mount yet, because I have multiple characters around this level and only so much coin on this server.

I know it’s not difficult to make coin, I just haven’t gotten around to it though.

The bright colours (while cartoonish to some) I enjoy a great deal, as well as the comic feeling of the game. It’s a nice break from what I play as my main game of choice, and the fact that it’s new to me is also a bonus. I’ve played EQ2 extensively for almost five years now, I know it in and out, I know which zones to go and pretty much every single quest. I’ve obtained more shards on each account then one should ever obtain – and while I LOVE the game (and I truly do, if anything this site attests to that) I do need a break every now and again.

It was a nice quiet simple day. I did my totem quests and then decided to call it a night, I popped into EQ2 and checked sales, and did an instance (that I’ll talk about more later because it just amused me). All in all, a pretty good day gaming!

Friday night I’ll be leaving to my parents place for a few days for a little rest and relaxation (much needed) and while I will have my laptop with me (plus my Mom has a gaming machine) I plan on spending most of it taking pictures and reading out in the gazebo. I am very eager to get away from the city for a few days, and I’m really looking forward to this short mini vacation.

Safe travels!

Making Money in EQ2

I figure that title is bound to get me the most spam comments I can possibly get, aside from maybe “how to level from 1-80 in an hour” or some other similar title. When you get down to the nitty gritty of EQ2 you really don’t need money for a whole lot. If you’re used to running instances your master spells will drop and there are quite a few zones that have masters on smart loot, in both RoK and TSO. Then there are the research assistants and their monthly (or less if they’re lower level) masters available to players, gear that comes from questing (a la shard runs) and if you’re a raider you’re taken care of pretty well too. There are repair bills but then there are also raids that pay a nice amount, and if your guild sells gear at all chances are you’re used to a guild split every so often.

If you don’t have a plethora of alts chances are you can see some fairly good coin from doing quests and selling items – of course alts are expensive, to gear them out and purchase their masters (or expert skills) on top of the ones you’re trying to gain for your main can be a little annoying. Multiply this by 10+ (yes, some of us have that many alts) and it’s a very expensive hobby. So how do you off set that cost?

One of my main methods of making coin is to craft. On most servers this would not be a good form of income, in fact on most other (non rp servers I’m talking here) servers it’s better to actually sell the rare components rather then to craft something from it and try to sell that. Whether it is due to the number of people per server who harvest or some other factor I’m not quite sure – anyhow – on Antonia Bayle most of my coin comes from selling items in the 20-60 level range. It seems like everyone has an alt, and everyone wants to twink them out.

I can buy severed fir for 12g a shot (some times lower) create a bow or club from it and put it for sale for anywhere between 25-50g (as noted on my sales log) and it will typically sell on the same day that I’ve put it for sale. The problem is knowing the market, and figuring it out. It takes some time. I’ve always known lower level items sell exceptionally well on the roleplay servers since I’ve played there, there’s simply more people between those levels then end game.

Cloth is another good seller (or leather I suppose) there’s lots of druids and brawlers leveling through the ranks, and I always find a short supply of woven gear for my own characters, so I figured putting some up for sale would be a good thing. Furniture also sells pretty well, there are a lot of avid house decorators out there who run out of this item or that and when budget isn’t a huge issue they don’t mind purchasing that last item from the broker.

I’ve never found it that hard to make money in EQ2, I have had over 500p at one point in time and I don’t really try to make coin or at least I haven’t in quite some time. It wasn’t until I was looking over my reserves yesterday that I noticed I was well below 20p between both my accounts, and that had to change. Now if only I’d stop creating all these alts who seem to take coin from me before I make it to the bank..

Tinkerfest and Parties

This weekend was the start of Tinkerfest (and also the SOE Block Party) and other random bits of goodness that remind us that these are summer months meant for fun. Tinkerfest is a holiday that involves gnomes, and of course, tinkering. It is a holiday that came off as being no more then a marketing ploy by the gnomes, with very few quests (and none of them exceptionally difficult) and a merchant who would offer to sell you items in return for cogs that were spread throughout three zones.

While these cogs respawn on a fairly frequent basis, trying to hunt them down in a mass of 40+ people in a very small area was annoying and not much fun at all. I can’t remember the number of times I had my toes stepped on by greedy cog-hunters so in the end I decided to purchase my cogs off of the broker and have Kasul create house items with them for me. There is also a shiny collection quest, and since the pieces re-spawn so fast they are going for dirt cheap. I didn’t want to even try to fight off the harvesters for those purple shiny bits, so I also purchased those.

I did the one repeatable quest that rewards you with a nifty tinkered mug – and then left the party, having more then enough of my fill for one holiday. While the house items are VERY neat, and it’s always great to add to the over all quest count, it was so crowded in Steamfont, Baubleshire, and Temple street that it made the event not much fun.

If you haven’t checked out the party yet you have until August 3rd, maybe by then it will have calmed down some. Antonia Bayle was an absolute mad house, another server I checked was a little calmer until later on in the day. I appreciate the work that goes into making holidays like these, but there just wasn’t enough substance to want me to deal with the crowds. Much like real life holidays I suppose.

Kasul and Wpus finished off their flowing black robe heritage quests yesterday night which was great. The guild is inching through level 37 (not bad since we were level 30 when we transferred over) and we’re well on our way to 40 – new amenity and new bank slots will be a welcome change. We need some writ givers and a fuel merchant something fierce. It will be nice to be able to do writs within the hall and take advantage of the depot box we have.

I finally got into the new Kurns Tower in Fens of Nathsar with my illusionist yesterday. I was a little worried because when I went on the tour of the zone with Kiara it hurt us pretty fierce, even though I had an amazing time. Yesterday I had nothing to worry about though and we made short work of the zone – two void shards being our reward (which is great because I didn’t think we’d get any shards for our work). I believe I managed to get one semi-upgrade and on a related note my illusionist is no longer wearing RoK treasured gear which is a big bonus for me. I haven’t worked on the character in a very long time and she was well behind in gear, something I’ve been trying to rectify.

Aside from that it was a quiet weekend, I managed to gain a few levels on my baby sage (remember I deleted that level 80 sage I had) and before too long I should be able to make my own player made books, which would be fantastic. Sitting at level 26 the sage still has a ways to go before she hits 50, but it’s a start.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Monday, and had a great weekend no matter what world you found yourself in! Happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath!

Proud New Home Owner – Angela Ravendust

Housing in Wizard 101 is something that I was very excited about when it first came out. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to afford a home any time soon but they come in two sizes and I knew I didn’t want to buy a small one. If I’m going to own a home why not own the biggest one! So, the day was going fairly well. I wasn’t even thinking about housing (much) and I was questing in Krokokust doing a dungeon – which I ran out of potions on and then died. Ugh! All that work down the drains. I’ve tried this dungeon a few times now and I never make it past the ice lake, or rather I make it slightly past the ice lake where I have to fight some keymaster and then I believe there’s another battle shortly after.

It frustrated me, and I decided to cheer myself up I would finally purchase that castle I had been eyeballing since housing went live. I headed to wizard city, found the nearest housing turtle I could find, and was happy to see that the forested mansion was a mere 15,000 gold – leaving me with 700 gold after the purchase.

Now, Angela doesn’t have a whole lot of house items, I’ve gathered together 20 or so and most of them have the Krokokust theme throughout. It doesn’t exactly go with the new theme of a castle. It will do for now though I suppose!

I even have my very own water fall to listen to, and birds and other creatures wander around. I emptied out my little dorm room which was getting very crowded and set my craft station up in the new house. Which reminds me, I need to harvest more supplies so I can finish that quest off one of these days. So many games and not enough time to play them all!

I set up a little bed room and a study area, planted a palm tree outside and added a flag and torch, but the rest is pretty empty. I even have my own stage, where I can be entertained.

It’s too close to dinner to do any more decorating right this moment, but I’m looking forward to yet another housing project. It doesn’t seem to matter what the game is, if there’s housing, I’m happy!

A Day of Good News and Good Games

First of all, I got confused and yesterday was apparently not Saturday at all, but Friday – so the book of the day is posted below, hope everyone enjoyed it! In the mean time, while I don’t have any solid answers yet about why I was sick nor am I feeling 100% quite yet – I am feeling better, and that is a huge bonus. In another little bit of good news, I managed to get a little promotion at work! Most readers know that I write for Beckett Massive Online Gamer, I write articles on Sony related games (EQ, EQ2, and Vanguard for the most part) as well as Free Realms, and I also write about Wizard 101, and whatever else they happen to throw my way (I’ve done a piece on Darkfall, etc). The magazine is published in the states every two months and sold in stores like Barnes and Noble and Walmart. People can also get a subscription, and I’ve been working for them for exactly a year this month.

My new job still involves writing articles for them – but also includes working on their newly revamped web site a lot more. Posting news articles, moderating the forums and making sure things are posted there, too. It also includes a lot of public relations and promotions to the site and the magazine via twitter, facebook, and what ever other social media I can get my hands on. So from time to time you may see a post like this one trying to rack up interest. Hopefully I do a fine job (I can’t see why I wouldn’t!) and things go smooth. I’m excited!

Game wise I’ve been playing a lot of Wizard 101, I just can’t help it! My little life wizard has been having fun exploring Krokotopia, her dorm room is now completely packed with house items resembling the ancient land of forgotten treasures. In fact it’s starting to get a little crowded, and I need to move into a real house one of these days so I can move all the items out of my dorm. I have no idea what sort of house I want to purchase – I really want to purchase one of the “big” lots of land, as opposed to the smaller versions. They cost a lot of gold though – I have about 17,000 saved up.

I haven’t really gotten into crafting too much because there have been so many people running around going after the same things I needed it hasn’t been worth it. However, in Krokotopia I seem to find craft supplies galore. I’ll need to find a quiet time to finish my beginner quests one day if for no other reason then to say at least I’m working on it.

I love the newly revamped bazaar – it’s far easier now to search for items that you actually want. I don’t know that I’ll use it all too much never being a huge bazaar person myself, but one never knows!

The sword pictured above is the one from the latest issue of Beckett MOG – although if you happen to buy their Pokemon magazine you’ll also find another code! I love these little items, even if it means everyone is running by me asking where the awesome sword comes from. I’m always happy to point them towards the magazine!

Although it says little Angela Ravendust is level 23 in that picture, she’s now level 24 and part way through. I’ve been trying to take a little break here and there from the game but it’s hard, I find the card game combat exceptionally addicting, especially because it’s just so different from all of the basic hack and slash games that I already play.

I’ve been playing some EQ2 as well (of course) my little illusionist managed to get herself the wand from Crucible – of course it’s not the illusionist I have on Antonia Bayle (I’m still split between two servers, instead of four, making it much easier to handle) but it’s nice none the less. We did a few instances last night for shards and I completely forgot that the key mobs have been removed from Crucible and Scion of Ice for the time being. It would have meant two more (very useful) shards for me. I hope they get them fixed soon!

Ultann was taking his inquisitor on multiple raids yesterday which is fantastic for him. He managed to get his Thuuga update, Leviathan, and as I was headed to bed he was headed to Veeshan’s Peek – to perhaps get his final update of Nexona. I haven’t logged in yet this morning to check how that went, but my fingers are crossed! Calreth didn’t have nearly as good luck with his updates, Leviathan going horribly wrong for the evening (hugs). Fingers crossed that he’ll get his updates one of the times he’s around! I know he’s been waiting forever for it.

I hope everyone else has a fantastic Saturday, enjoy the weekend (more rain here) and happy gaming! I’ll see you in Norrath (or in Krokotopia!)