Author: Stargrace

Site back up and running.. complete with back ups this time.. we’ll see how it goes..

In good news, Dasie was promoted to Tactics Officer in guild. What does that mean exactly? Well it means that when I have something to say about a raid or a class or a group, maybe people will listen a bit more. I was asked if I wanted to be a recruitment officer, and declined. Anyone who knows me understands that I have very little patience, and have no desire to interact with people more then I really have to. Guild members are different most of them are wonderful. Raid Officers on the other hand, know their classes (and many others) inside and out. They know what needs to get done and by who. They understand the parses, and can see those and see where things are going wrong. It may seem odd since my guild is still a “casual raiding” guild to see all of this going on, but they’re eager to get beyond the simple KoS stuff we’ve been taking down and move on and progress in EoF (even if it is a little later now). I’ve played every healer class to 70 (except mystic) and I’ve raided with them all (except defiler). I suppose betraying was a good thing in that regard, I have raided as a fury, warden, templar, and inquisitor. I have a defiler who’s almost raid level but I doubt I’ll be playing her very often. Maybe on off nights I can sneak her into some pick up raids. I was leveling her up to be a MT defiler before I joined my current guild, and set her aside since she’s not needed.

GU36 went live yesterday, I’ll make a separate post about that once I get myself settled with this blog some. Yesterday was a DT raid, which just was… not what I wanted a raid to be. I mean, we didn’t die a *whole* lot, but come on, it’s DT. We should not be having any issues at all with the zone. We didn’t do the splitting drake, we in fact knew we wouldn’t be able to for once. We wiped on Tarinax twice. We did not attempt Cruor, which is a mob I miss doing. The encounter is not difficult, but it does take co-ordination, and there are actually at least 3 ways of killing the mob that I’ve personally done, each one worked, it depends on the guild. To be frank (and not intending to be rude here) The Inquisition just doesn’t have the discipline that’s needed to be able to co-ordinate encounters like that quite yet. Doesn’t mean they won’t get there, they will. But it’s going to take some time.

In the newest GU, this Ancient Teachings Master for guardians is going to be slightly changed, making it fairly essential

One thing I try to pride myself on when in a guild, any guild, is keeping an eye open for things that other people need. I check the broker fairly often, and have a list of what people may be looking for. If I spot it for sale and they’re not around, I try to pick it up depending on the price. I use my own discretion of course, and since I am typically reluctant to part with money for masters it’s not a bad method.

When I saw the little gem above for sale, I remembered that our main tank needed it, and I combined the money off of all my characters (and a few friends lent me some coin) and bought it. Remember I just spent 25p on a baby dragon, so this purchase was hard to make. But in the next GU, the master is going to be changed, and it will only have 100% chance at going off if it’s at master quality. That’s a huge difference to what it is now. It’ll be one of those “must haves” because the last thing you want is to put up tower of stone and not have it work at all at that dire moment. Now, I don’t play a guardian, I never have. But I at least listen when others are talking about them. I was so excited when I picked up this master, I hope the main tank still needs it, I should have checked first but I was afraid it would get scooped up before I had a chance to go purchase it.

Gothun sent me tells today from the Bazaar, it was nice to chatter with him, apparently he’s contemplating moving servers again, a little disappointed with the one he’s on. I made some suggestions and we’ll see where he ends up. No raids tonight which I’m glad for, I really enjoy having both Sunday and Monday as raid free days, gives me time to craft or quest or whatever little stuff I want to get done. Or just sit around and watch paint dry. Either way, it’s all good.

Today, going to try to get Dasie’s music box done finally. It’s not a hard quest I’ve just been procrastinating. I finished her Vessel of Fyr’Un yesterday. It’s not the legendary manastone 2.0 but it is the treasured version of the same thing, and better then nothing. Anything I can do that boosts up Dasie’s power regen is a good thing. She’s almost at 6,400 power now and edging further every time I manage to get an upgrade for her. I’m very pleased with the class. I don’t mind my other classes, there are certainly days where I’d love to just stab or explode something and have no worries at all aside from keeping my own ass up but I still think I really shine when I play a healer. That sounds completely egotistical and I don’t intend for it to be, there are plenty of wonderful players out there who know their classes inside and out.

I’ve been working on Dasie’s house lately. I spent a plat and bought some odds and ends for it, book shelves and built her a loft and a “play room” type section above the main room in East Freeport. It doesn’t even come close to comparing with Stargrace’ home, then again what does *grins*. I can’t believe how much of a housing fanatic I am. I suddenly found myself with a surplus of roses (house items from valentines day) and just about burst into tears because I adore them so much. I’ll be sure to post pictures of Dasie’s place as I add more to it. Stargrace’ house still needs books, but that’s on hold. I like to work on the house of the character that I am actually playing, and since I’m not playing anyone lately aside from Dasie.. her house has priority. If that makes any sense at all.

Earring that Dasie got on the HoS raid, she also *finally* got the earring to drop in Valdoons today

I’m in a mood today, not sure if it’s a good one or a bad one yet. A few RL things throwing me off, it’s been “one of those weeks” for the past few days. Things are getting on my nerves a little easier then they should, and I apologize for that if anyone’s had to incur my wrath lately. I try to keep it out of game because no one wants to listen to a whole lot of moaning and complaining. Well, maybe the moaning would be ok. . . Anyhow. . .

FINALLY after doing Valdoons pretty much every day for the past month, Dasie managed to get her Earrings of the Bloodlust Handler. So with that earring, combined with the one from last night’s HoS run, she’s set. Poets music box charm will be next on my list (no, it’s not difficult to get it done but I don’t like to just rush rush rush) and advancing Claymore. A thank you to Thunderwalker, who is one of the officers of my guild, for posting the pleasant comment about my healing capabilities. I think he’s lying though, I suck. *grins sweetly* Ok so I don’t suck but I do have a lot to learn still. I ask a million questions and I’m sure I pester people. How else am I going to learn though. Kilanna is always worried that she’s going to bother me when she asks me questions about playing her templar on Guk, but I am always eager to answer and to help out if I can. In fact I wish more people tried to actually communicate with one another in this game. Another pet peeve.

Thunderwalker and I (he plays a mystic) are typically teamed together when we’re raiding, and when we’re not teamed together, we’re still working together as a team raid wide. How is that possible? Easy. I’ve grouped with him a lot, made it a point to in fact. I’ve grouped with almost everyone I need to group with on a fairly steady basis, and those I don’t group with constantly I at least talk to. I’ve played with our main tank as both a healer and dps, I’ve played with our off tank, and even with our shadowknight who occasionally off tanks. I’ve grouped with most of our healers aside from a few who are part of an alliance with us. I’ve played in the mage group, the main tank group, and the dps group now as both a healer and as dps on my illusionist. Communication is SO dang important. Even outside of a group, I know who is going to cure who and what heal is going to land before it’s cast, depending on which healers we have around. I know how much the tank or the off tank can take before they’re going to drop like a sack of potatoes. When Thunderwalker casts his emergency wards, chances are I’ve cast mine at the same point of the fight as him because we both *know* that the main tank is going to go down if we don’t.

I wish every encounter worked that way. Of course that’s asking for the perfect raid force, which is something we strive for but rarely achieve, not “we” as in my current guild but “we” as raiders in general. Some times it’s hard not to get frustrated, I hate having to re-learn how to raid, it seems that every time I settle into a guild it falls apart and I have to go searching for not only a new home but a home with competent raiders who aren’t going to drive me insane as we re-learn how to work together as a team.

Ugh my writing and thoughts are all over the place tonight, so I’ll leave it at that and come back to this topic tomorrow. Nuff ‘o the ranting.

Meet Bork, the newest addition to Stargrace’ home

Some times it’s nice to spoil yourself, even if it is just in a video game. The way I look at it, people worry about money constantly in real life. In a video game, it’s nice not to worry. So what if you can’t afford that master, it’s not life and death. Oh well if you can’t quite buy that new shiny thing on broker. Just like in real life, I enjoy rewarding myself in game. So. When I saw the little gem above being sold for 25p, I set aside whatever masters I thought I should get for Dasie, and decided to buy it instead.

Yes, that’s right, I bought a baby dragon house item for 25p. Do I feel badly about it? Of course not! I have no qualms paying that amount of money for a house item that is rare and typically goes for anywhere from 50-100p on most servers. Spells will get upgraded with expansions, but this baby dragon will be around in Stargrace’ house for a long time (or at least until she moves and some how it gets bugged, or whatever). Of course, after I bought it one of my friends told me he would have given me his had he known….. but that’s a matter for another day. It doesn’t leave me broke, and I can still buy any masters that I may need for Dasie (she’s actually only missing three that I care about to any degree, that’s not too shabby) over the course of the next few weeks. I used to have a baby dragon and I ended up selling it one day when I was broke. I regretted it ever since, so I’ll be sure that this time around I don’t end up doing that.

Today was Halls of Seeing. It was going to be Freethinkers, but the guild is going through a few changes, and a lot of people have been missing. We were down to 5 healers, which is astounding considering we had 9 healers on our last Freethinkers raid. I realize in the summer that things are slightly inconsistent, but dang that surprised even me. We did well on the zone, Dasie died twice I forget what she died to. She also got a very nice earring upgrade, and I was pleased about that. With her relic pants she’s sitting at a little over 6,300 power self buffed, which is great for an inquisitor who does not buff wisdom at all, nor do they buff power. There are of course a few more things I’d like for her. I have been trying to farm Valdoons for the earring that drops there to no avail, the zone hates me what can I say. I also need to complete her music box from poets palace, and she needs a few odds and ends in adornments. As soon as SoD is released I’ll get to work trying to finish that off so she can get a sparkling new hammer. Aside from Claymore, I’m quite happy with her. It will of course take time to build her up properly, as it does any character.

Chattered some to Kilanna today, which was nice as always. Cordanim should hopefully be coming back to game soon, he’s been busy with real life stuff. I also managed to get a level of alchemy done on Yamini, been a while since I’ve done any crafting or harvesting. The problem with raiding, some times once you start you find yourself with very little time left over. I did a quick halls of fate group today, helping some guild mates out with experience. All in all, a fairly good weekend.