Stargrace

Exploring Tehatamani Harbor

Screen shot is of someones annoying boat. The fact that they own a boat is great. The problem is that they parked it RIGHT on top of the riftway (that red column in the back end of the ship). When you port in, you end up getting a ‘you are on a boat wee’ compass that shows up and if you’ve never been to this particular area before, it’s annoying. Have a little curtsey and park your boats some place else! Like NOT right on the riftway. Shesh.

I began my slow trek to 50. On some advice of a friend I made my way to Tehatamani Harbor, although I’m too low to get most of the quests there the area DOES have a fantastic story. The chunk itself is located in Qalia, bottom left hand area. A little piece of land that juts out into the ocean. It’s beautiful. There’s a group of people who belong to the Lucent Circle hanging out, they have a little camp all set up. The very first introductory quest gives you a necklace (well, it gave me one at least, two choices of them) and as you work on tasks for this group of people, you can combine the shards (rewards from tasks) and upgrade your necklace. I’ve only done the first few quests so far, but the necklace is already an upgrade for me.

The Lucent Circle is made up of Paladins who are there to right wrongs and do all that good holy stuff. Apparently they have opened recruitment to anyone who wants to help, and not everyone within their ranks are happy about that. The Lucent Circle is there to fight against the Tehatamani Empire. Basically like an old Robin Hood story, the Empire steals artifacts from other cultures and takes them for their own. They ransack and pillage civilizations and cultures, amassing great wealth. The Tehatamani are at war with the Vakrin, who were the last civilization that they stole from. They managed to get some sort of sacred artifact that gave them huge powers that they shouldn’t have.

The first task sent me to learn a little about their history, and then head off to some pyramids in the distance that were surrounded by snakes and bugs. Apparently their grounds keepers are on holiday and they want me to kill the diseased creatures. I did notice a raid mob also pathing around the pyramids (or maybe it was just a group mob, I forget what so many dots over the mobs heads mean now, it was at least five) and I stayed well clear of them. I killed 12 creatures, learned my history lesson, and upgraded my necklace. I love these types of quests, and the story is pretty good. I need to earn more rank with the Lucent Circle, so I picked up the next round of quests. They’re level 46 though, and I’m level 43 which means they’re red to me. They want me to kill more creatures, and I think I should be able to do that easily enough. I’ll need a few more levels before I advance too much further, so I’ll have to find some place a little lower to gain some experience. The next round of quests sends me back to collect some vials of liquid and take care of 100 of the icky creatures that surround the pyramids.

The kills all net me faction with the Lucent Circle as well, and there’s some nice heroic gear on a vendor if I turn in tokens to them. We’ll see how it goes!

A Night of Instances

An ogre, a Tier’Dal, and a Gnome all walk into the Deep Forge, and the gnome turns and looks at the ogre and says ‘Oy, is it hot in here or is it just me?’

Ok lame attempt at some humor there, but that was the beginning of my night last night. There are some pieces of void shard jewelery that would be an upgrade for me (except I don’t have the book quite yet) that take relatively few pieces of shards to make / purchase (remember, this gear is cheaper if you have a crafter make it then if you find a merchant) so I was eager to add a few more bits to my collection. I didn’t end up doing ‘the daily double’ as they call it on Najena, but I did head to Lavastorm and get to wander around Deep Forge, which is a zone I had been to in beta only. I love the way the new TSO zones look, and Deep Forge is very nice and small. It’s one of those ‘quick if you know what’s going on’ zones. Of course, having never been there myself I didn’t have the faintest clue what was going on. Zones like that are the best zones of all. I grabbed the quests outside, and I think I grabbed a quest inside the actual instance too. The group consisted of a dirge, shadowknight, troubador, warden (me), illusionist, and wizard. The best part was after we had killed something (a named?) the GIANT group of giants (I crack myself up at 6:30am what can I say) down below in the pit of lava got flooded out. I tried to take a screen shot of their desperate cries before the lava swept them away, but alas, I was not so lucky.

We saw a few ornate chests drop in the zone but nothing astounding. The final named of course decided to port me into the center of the lava pit while we were fighting, so we had a few deaths right at the very end. I wasn’t expecting it, and no one (cough cough, Shadowgeist) told me it would happen, so one minute I was healing my little heart out and the next minute, bam into the pit I go. Woopsie.

I did get a pretty nice charm slot upgrade from a quest involving the zone. I can’t remember if this quest was given to me outside or if it was the one I found inside, but it’s nice none the less. There’s also a melee version. The only thing I dislike is that this isn’t really a healer version (and there wasn’t one). The wisdom and power on a charm item really makes me happy. While playing in these zones with friends, I realize just how under geared Arysh is. The downside again to having so many alts, not concentrating on any individual one. Yes, Arysh does still have her claymore, and I do have her fabled epic, and she’s close to 10k power self buffed with 1k wisdom, but it’s the +heals and +heal crits and all of the other little unique bits that make a character ‘good’. She doesn’t have M1 of her spells, etc. So now I’m contemplating settling down, especially if I want to work on void shard quests. I love playing my healers. I’m GOOD at my healers. The problem is that my ‘main’ healer is a warden, and they are everywhere. So my line of thought says that I should try to get my templar her last few levels (she’s sitting at 77) or my defiler (even further behind, at 73) and work on one / all of the healers. I love my coercer a great deal, but I’ve played healers primarily in every mmo.

Deep Forge also has a heritage quest associated with it – IF – you can see purple shinies. There’s a new quest implimented in game in order to obtain an item to see these shinies, so if you don’t have it, look into getting it.

Once we were finished in Deep Forge I took a few hours and headed over to Vanguard, then was asked if I wanted to go back to EQ2 and do another instance. I decided sure, why not. I haven’t really been to too many of the instances honestly. The group decided to head to Befallen: Halls of Forsaken (it may be halls of the forsaken, I can’t quite remember right now). This is in the Commonlands, and I’d never been there before. I wanted to do Cavern of the Afflicted (one since I’d been there before and was comfortable with it, and two because it was the daily double yesterday) but the group decided to go some place new. The zone again was quite beautiful, and we had fun figuring out what to do. Thankfully two people had been there before even if I had not. The zone wasn’t especially hard per say, we did wipe once, but only because half of the group charged ahead to destroy a statue while half of us stayed back and I wasn’t really sure what was going on. The group was a shadowknight, inquisitor, swashbuckler, illusionist, warlock, and myself as the warden. We did see a lot of ornate drops, and I did actually get a secondary item upgrade to the shield from RE2 that I was wearing. It’s one of the few upgrades I’ve actually had drop lately. The zone mostly decided it was plate night, and nothing was an upgrade for our two plate wearers. Thankfully, Arysh is a transmuter.

The nice bit of gear to the right also dropped, and this is why I wish there were more instances with smart loot. Perfectly good piece of fabled gear – that got transmuted (and it was a server discovery) because we didn’t have anyone in the group who could use it. I heard my little 61 necromancer cry from across the account. C’est la vie though. We got an infusion from that, my bank is filled with them so I just left it to the others to random on. The zone also has a few quests related to it, and I believe one of the items is an upgrade, or will be at least when I figure out how to complete it. So far I’m stuck on a few portions.

All in all it was a productive night. When the instances were complete I logged over to Silhouette to make some of the void shard armor for Shadowgeist. The only downside to owning the books on one character or another is that I can’t craft the items for myself because the characters are on the same account I use. Solution? Have one character on each of my accounts with all of the books, so I can craft for everyone. This is a perfectly good solution seeing as I am taking my time getting the shards to begin with. Misako already has one book, and Silhouette has another. Kasul and Tipa each have a book as well, so I know who to bug for future pieces.

Hope everyone else had a fun time in Norrath last night too (or whatever game you play!)

The trek to 50

The blood mage is sitting at level 43, and I’m eager to begin the trek to 50. I’ve never been end game in Vanguard before although I did make it a goal of mine some time back. Now that I’m back in an active guild (7-20 people on throughout the day and evening at any given time) I’m excited to see what I can get done. My partner in crime (Growlius, plays a DeathKnight) has not returned (yet) but I have my fingers crossed. A tank would be nice.

I’ve been looking for places to level. I found a few posts and forums mentioning areas, and I plan on checking them out. I have a few 50% potions left to save up for quest turn ins, even though I don’t have any 100% ones. I used those ones for crafting, of course. Plains of Anquish is where I was to start I believe, but I didn’t finish all of the quests there, so I’ll have to head back.

Level 40-50

Thestra:

—Plains of Anguish – A good place to quest & level for early 40’s. There’s also a cool skeleton illusion quest that provides a nice piece of armor for your class, and it would lead you back into Graystone to finish one part of the skeleton illusion quest. So before going in to Graystone, it’s a good idea to get this quest started in Plains of Anguish.

—Lost Canyon – You’ll find quite a few quests here in your early 40’s. You should at least have a partner to do these with.

—Ruin Falls – Once you hit level 41, you can do the quests available here. These quests will eventually lead you on down south to do the faction armors.

—The Fallen Cove – There are quests here you can do to pad some levels, since you need level 44 to start doing the faction armor quests.

—Vsurog Moor / Floridiel / Ichtakhta – These 3 zones contain some quests you can do at around level 43, and once you hit level 44 you can start doing the faction armor quests. They provide you with some really nice endgame armor, it’s worth doing and will require a group for many parts. Many players do these faction armor farming all the way until level 50.

—Swamp of Rumog – Once you hit level 46 you can head to the outpost in Swamp of Rumog and quest there. Right here you will encounter high level 40’s mobs, but many are soloable if you can kite. There’s also a dungeon with high level mobs for group play, with quest npc’s outside so make sure you grab them before entering. The famous single group Hegnerian encounter is located in this swamp dungeon, and the encounter is on a 2 hour respawn timer. Hegnerian drops nice items, and is needed to finish your faction chest armor since it drops the Core of Ezigoth. It’s a fun encounter, definately take a group in there and check it out.

Qalia:

—Razad – Lots of new quests were added to Razad for the early 40’s. There’s also a new Trickster’s Haven dungeon in this zone that you can take a group in to. It’s a fun and rewarding dungeon.

—Sunset Pointe – You should be able to find a few quests here in your early 40’s.

—Stranglewater Shore – You will find the Xenn dungeon here, a great dungeon for the early 40’s to take a group to. It’s a fun and interesting dungeon, definately worth checking out.

—Rhaz Inkur – You can do quests here starting in your mid-40’s, and you can head inside once you get level 46+ with a group. Be aware mobs are mostly immune to movement debuffs and mezzes here, so don’t try things solo.

—Afrit – You can quest here starting in your mid-40’s, it has armor quests here, you should grab at least a partner to do these quests.

—Tehatamani Harbor/Temple – Lots of quests here you can do starting at level 40. There’s a lot of faction farming you need to do, and many things require a group here. You can get really nice epic items by questing here.

The leveling guide is a little out dated, but I’m thinking that most of the places will still work. Razad is about the only place I’ve been to in any depth, remember I stuck to a mid-high 30’s area for my last level and a bit, using potions to enhance the experience gain. It worked out great, after turning in 20 quests or so I managed to ding 42, even though none of the actually mob encounters gave any experience. I’m also getting close to 50 artificer (mineralogist). It will be nice to hit 50 in both spheres at almost the same time. I’m 10% away from 47, which is a huge accomplishment for me. Still trying to decide which crafter I’ll level next (yes, I do plan on leveling another one). There are some fantastic changes coming to Vanguard (including fishing and Galleons) in December, a week or two away. Looking forward to experiencing these first hand, and I should have some more write ups soon.

Halflings Need Baths Too

I love the way the graphics are in the Moors of Ykesha. When you head to one of the very first camps, you’re in the swamp and surrounded by flies the entire time you quest. It’s these great little additions that make EverQuestII come to life, and I’ll never get tired of them (even when they lag my machine up). I still haven’t managed to get enough faction to buy the recipe books or appearance armour, but I’m getting there slowly. So far I’ve been sort of two sided about the release of TSO. On one hand it’s very pretty, with nice rewards. On the other hand this is the fourth year (going on fifth) that I’ve played EQ2 (yes, I’ve been here from the start) and it feels like I’ve done all of this before. The void shards are great for those who can manage to get a group, but for those who are unable to it’s frustrating. It’s more or less because I still don’t know anyone on Najena aside from Nostalgia and a few Siege members, and those I do know already have their static groups. I’ll have to see if I can remedy this. The only real innovation that grabbed me right away was the crafting bits and I realize I talk about crafting an exceptional amount in this blog, but that’s not the only thing I enjoy in my games. It just happens to be a large portion.

I’d like to /wave and say hi back to Kilanna, who took a break from the blogging world for a while. She’s my aussie friend who plays on the Guk server, a templar. Her posts are filled with all of the good things about EQ2, so be sure to give it a peek.

Goals for me? More then likely leveling my paladin a little bit. Still undecided as to whether or not I’ll get her some gear. I probably should. I wish there were more armor quests (maybe legendary?) spread throughout the tiers that people could quest for. Though I guess crafters may find that annoying.

Other then questing in Moors, and doing those crafting quests, not too much is new EQ2 wise! Wish I had something more exciting to write about. Maybe later today!

Those not so rare sigils

I love crafting in Vanguard. It’s one of the most complex and interesting craft systems I’ve seen, and it’s not timed which makes it more enjoyable for me. While I can appreciate the system EQ2 has in place, some times the phone rings, or the door, or a pot boils over or some other real life interruption occurs, and in EQ2 this could mean disaster for the process. In Vanguard it just means stepping away and hitting the next button in the stage when you get back. There’s so many combinations of things you can craft, and so many different catalysts and powders and dusts and what not that you can add to each and every individual item, I just love it. There’s a LOT of crafting quests in Vanguard as well, which makes it interesting and fun. I love crafting in any game, but yes, Vanguard is my favorite.

My artificer managed to hit level 46 in crafting yesterday, and is now 60% through that level. Leveling is hard, and it takes a long time. I do writs which reward me with bags of goodies, as well as faction and coin. The faction is used to purchase recipes, and is needed for certain quests. For example the brick quests. I need to earn 5,000 faction in order to be able to learn granite bricks for each continent. So far I’ve only learned Kojan style, but I’m well on my way to the remaining faction I need for Thestra. Qalia will just have to wait.

I also noticed another change since I’ve been gone. When you’re leveling up, as soon as you get to 20+ you’re required to save up Masterwork Sigils for your upgrade recipes. Basically this is the difference between crafting handcrafted items, and mastercrafted items (except mastercrafted items in VG are really really really nice, and sell very well). These sigils used to be VERY rare. In all my levels I only ever earned 4-5 of them. You need 8 per recipe of the current tier you’re on, and 2 less for every tier you’ve passed. There are (for me at least) three recipes to purchase that use these sigils, per tier. That’s a lot of sigils! When I started crafting yesterday I thought it may have just been dumb luck that I managed to get two on my first batch, but by the end of the craft day when I was looking at 15 sigils, I knew things must have changed. I’m not lucky, and I’m certainly not THAT lucky. I did manage to buy the T5 jewelery recipe upgrade (30g, OUCH!) so that means I can make rare jewelery for levels 40-50. Crafting also still involves help from other crafters. To make rare jewelery I use a rare gem but then I also use a truesilver sheet, which is crafted by blacksmiths. It’s nice, and it’s one of the things that have kept the community together and so strong.

There are a LOT of artificers in game because they craft houses, furniture, and boats (including the galleons that are due out next month) which are all pretty popular. With fishing being implemented next month I’m also trying to think about who to level next. Do I go with my carpenter so I can own a boat and get myself some actual furniture in my house, or do I want to go with a ‘useful’ class like my leatherworker (there are the least amount of those around) or a blacksmith armorer or weaponsmith to be able to make my upgradeable bits.

Ah, the choices!