Stargrace

The “Forgotten” zones – Introduction, and other ramblings

Dasie, standing in Everfrost near the Numbnuts — er, Numbfoots

Traveling through Norrath yesterday, I was surprised to see such a decline in the population of certain zones. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that EoF offers content from 1-70, as well as the fact that a lot of people are already 60+ and are adventuring in higher end zones. Just as an indication, I ran through at about 4:30 EST and the populations were as follows: Nektulos Forest: 5 people in the zone. Enchanted Lands: 8 people in the zone. Thundering Steppes: 4 people in the zone, Everfrost: 0 people in the zone (besides myself).

Have the original zones to the game become obsolete?

I figure once a week (or more if I’m feeling up to it) I’ll do a feature post on a specific zone. Outlining a few of my favorite quests, along with screen shots of course. Maybe (if I can get my hands on any, I’m horrible for it though) some information on lore. I’ll keep it to the original zones in the game, the “forgotten” zones so to speak. I’m trying to work Dasie’ achievement points anyhow (ew, she’s sitting at 38, such a slacker compared to my other two level 70’s) so the travels through the zones will be a good thing, she can brush up on old quests and mentor down for turn ins. She’s the only one of my characters to have completed the prismatic 1.0 quest with Darathar, which I’m not even sure guilds do any more. That’s one bad thing about being able to ‘outgrow’ the content so to speak. Unless you have a large amount of people working on the quest, chances are the majority are never even going to see it once a few expansions have gone by. The gear gets out dated and is no longer of any value to have at that level, you can find crafted and dropped gear that surpasses the raid stuff.

Looking through her quest journal I was ashamed to see I only had room for two more. Not only that, but she had a level 18 quest from Antonica that had been there since July 2005. I hate deleting quests, I’d much rather complete them if at all possible. Especially if it’s to a chain or perhaps a quest that I may not remember to get again. I really wish SoE would impliment a system where if you chose to, you can see the quest icon (a yellow feather) over the heads of everyone who has a quest at all, no matter if the quest is grey or not. Maybe that’s a feature that they could add eventually, I know I have submitted it as an idea before.

So Dasie hit level 68 in jewel crafting, did an order for a few moonstone pieces, I didn’t charge for the combines because she still gets fairly nice experience off of them, I’d have wasted the coal on crafting a few apprentices anyhow. I also got her two aa’s, working on her Tunare deity quest. I had her mentored down for the earlier turn ins and netted about 20-25% experience each quest. There are 4-6 quests for each deity, so that’s always very nice.

Cancelled my station access, there was no need to pay $29.99 a month when I’m no longer interested in Vanguard at all. Maybe when the first expansion comes out and the bugs are fixed I’ll go back to it, but in the mean time EQ2 will remain my home. Especially because I’m already looking forward to the Kunark expansion. SoE will continue to get my money though, as I’m probably going to invest in purchasing a second account for myself (making this three total accounts for the household, since my boyfriend also has an account) and eventually transferring my 70 fury and my 52 necro (who is going to betray to a conj) over to that second account. Why bother? Well, number one my computer can handle boxing flawlessly, on balanced settings. So when I need a port, or a CoH (Call of the Hero) it’d be nice to be able to use it for my own characters. Plus then I can play a DPS or a healer or both to the 70 Shadowknight on the other account. One of my friends on Najena and her husband actually 4-box, and each have a second account that they play. It makes up for the lack of population or the desire to group with others.

Why bother playing an MMO if you’re not going to group up and be friendly? Easy, for the community. I don’t have the patience most of the time to deal with people. I hate waiting around. I don’t enjoy teaching the game to someone. That doesn’t mean I’m a bitch nor am I rude in game I’m actually quite nice, but I value my ‘alone time’ so to speak. I group with my guild mates and those I’ve met who know how to play their class. I do on occasion join a PuG or two, they’ve not all been bad, I will admit. But at the end of the day no one else pays for my subscription except me, and I should be able to play the game exactly how I want to. If that means not hanging out with a tank who couldn’t tank their way out of a wet paper bag, then so be it. I do like to chatter to people though (especially on the crafting channel) and I can be helpful when I put my mind to it.

So, we’ll see how things go from here.

A little sanctuary

A little garden sanctuary in Stargrace’ house, complete with fountain and roses

Yesterday being the first “real” game update of Vanguard and not just a build patch, I expected servers to be down for quite some time. I was not wrong, last night attempting to play around 6pm EST resulted in the message that servers were down. Around 8pm EST I began the longest download of all time to reinstall all of the graphics that were for some reason missing / needed to be replaced from their earlier patch. I didn’t log in for more then 5 minutes when the channels were flooded with people complaining, those threatening to leave for other games, and various random insults. So I logged off and headed to EQ2.

Above is a screen shot on the upper portion of Stargrace’ 5 room house. I decided she needed a little get away up there, complete with comfortable benches, roses, and a fountain for that quiet gurgle sound that we all adore. Banzai trees and bushes complete the little nook on the upper level. All I need is a few books placed I think, I did add a box of chocolates to one of the benches. After all, what’s more relaxing then curling up by a fountain with a good book and a box of chocolates hmm?

My mystic hit 26 yesterday, playing in the Ruins of Varsoon. I love that zone when it’s empty. Other wise it’s typically packed with farmers (not that I’m any better, running through the zone hitting as many named as I can). I was a little too small to handle very much, even though I was boxing a 70 shadowknight who was mentored down to her level. Trying to decide when I want to betray to a defiler. Probably not until T6-T7 I think, if I even get her that high. I bought the templar a buckler of blight, which drops from Obelisk of Lost Souls, I could have probably tried to get one myself, but there’s really not much to spend coin on in game, so I decided to splurge and drop the 5p on it. It’s a huge upgrade from her past one. Maybe later today I’ll do the final grind to level 70 jeweler for her.

Since they’ve added a bunch of new Lore and Legend books to the game, that’s one of my goals, each one of my characters actually need to work on it. The clockwork one is located in Steamfont Mountains close to the Klak’anon entrance, Werewolf is in Loping Plains, in a bookshelf in Somborn, Brownie is in LesserFaydark in a tent in the lower grove area, Minataur is in Steamfont in a bonepile near the southern crater in Smokehorn Baison, Bugbear was in Kaladim in a wheel barrel near some goblins, and Kobold is in Butcher Block in the same hut as the transmuting vendor. Sadly enough, my illusionist only has 10 of the L&L’s completed at all, there are over 30 in game right now. Ouch. Pieces are at a fairly reasonable price on Lucan D’Lere — except for the new ones. Or werewolves at least where the pieces can go for anywhere from 1p to 10p depending on what you need. Gives me a goal at least to work towards though, and something to do.

Hip hip hooray!

Not sure where this cheerful guy is from? Hint: In order to spawn some named, you place him and his friends

Yesterday was very much an EQ2 day, remembering all of the reasons that I fell in love with the game to begin with two years ago. It was nice to get away from the bugs and lag and just, everything, from Vanguard. My mystic (who’s going to go defiler eventually) got two levels from 23-25. She also got a tailoring level to 31. My jeweler (and 70 templar) Dasie has been sitting at level 65 forever, so I decided it was about time I at least get her to 70. Using some of the three year veteran crafting experience rewards, she hit 85% through 67. It’s about one potion a level, so I can hit 69 before I’ll run out. Of course now she’s out of vitality, so that really sucks. I figure I’ll wait a day or two before getting the last two levels. Then I’ll have the 70 illusionist / 70 provisioner, and the 70 templar / 70 jeweler. Next? The fury is level 70 in adventuring, but level 60 in woodworking, so I’ll try to get her to 70 as well. The sage (level 52 adventurer) is at 60 too. The alchemist (42 assassin) is sitting at 50, where she’ll stay for quite some time.

I did a run through the Shimmering Citadel, which is where the screen shot is from. It’s still one of the best zones to farm the high end T6 masters (which are still far too rare), even if you get no masters at all you’re guaranteed a platinum in vendor trash, and typically a few crafting rares (on very difficult setting, which lets face it, is not all that difficult at level 70). A level 58 defiler ancient teachings spell dropped, but there’s one on the market already for 8p, so mine’s up there for 5. The legendary robe also dropped, another 50g or so. If you’re looking for shinnies, specifically the ones for the moppet house pet, the roof top of shimmering citadel is fantastic, there are about 6-8 shinnies that spawn around the roof top where the mirror is for the citadel, and you can just run in loops farming them (everything is grey).

I also did a fast Acadechism run, nothing interesting dropped but it was fun none the less.

One huge difference between Vanguard and EQ2, is that when you run around from place to place in Vanguard, you get a sense that it is a world. It’s huge, and there’s huge spaces of running with nothing around. It can take you a real life hour to run from one place to another on the same continent. In EQ2, it feels like zones. Antonica is a zone, Thundering Steppes is a zone, Feerrott is a zone. It doesn’t feel like the world of Norrath, it feels like a bunch of zones of Norrath. It’s great that we can all buy these 50% speed mounts, but they’re hardly ever used, because there’s no real place that you need to run (with an exception of quick jaunts through zones). It’s one thing Vanguard really did right (in the mix of so much stuff that they did wrong).

Me? A Tank?

Help me, please, and you shall be rewarded

I decided that the blood mage was just not for me. I’ve played healers in pretty much every MMO, and while they’re fun, they’re also just not my thing after some time (hence me moving from Templar -> Fury -> Illusionist in EQ2), and I always have been an alt-o-holic, so I made a little paladin to test the waters a bit, after hearing some good things about the class (I actually hear good things about every class. Except Rogues. Who are broken). Anyone who knows me to any degree, knows I never play tanks. Ever. I have one of almost everything in EQ2, same with EQ1 where I have a 70 rogue, enchanter, and cleric, but never a tank-type class. I’ve tried and have always found that they’re just simply not my thing.

Until Vanguard.

After a few hours I’m already in love with my paladin. It’s nice not to be so squishy. Yes, my dps is a little slow, but I can tank, and heal. In white gear (that’s gear with no stats at all, just ac) I can tank three-dots my level or one above. I’m only level 9, but wow. So much fun. So will I stick it out? Well, we’ll see. I’m certainly excited about the class, and that’s always a huge bonus.

It helps that the high elf areas are exceptionally well done. Very pretty. Lots of quests, though I’m in dire need of a mail box some time. I haven’t been to the city yet, just exploring my way along. I wish day time lasted a bit longer in game, I know they want everything to be equal but it’s night time and raining far too often. In WoW and EQ2 I never had to use a torch of any kind to light my way, in Vanguard when the sun goes down it’s time to bring out that trusty torch or else you’ll be walking into trees and fae and other sorts of things.

Been playing a bit on EQ2 as well. I bought my Illusionist a guild level 60 mount, all armoured. I’ll post some screen shots of it here later.

Where to go from here..

Level 23, Satia staring at.. well.. what IS that?

My blood mage finally hit 23 last night, and I’ve got another small complaint (of course I do!) about Vanguard, but it’s something a lot of people probably like about the game. There’s no real indication of where you should go to leve. Especially coming from other continents. So while I finished almost all of the quests between Misthaven’s Crossing and Stormwynd and Ulla’s Tower and that general area, I have no idea where to head to next, the quests don’t send me anywhere else. I’ve done the vampire slayer quests and if I continue randomly to the next marked outpost on my map, the area is crawling with level 27-28-29 mobs, which are a little bit out of my league right now.

Moving to another continent provides me with the same issue, no idea where I should be. So I’ve been using the /who all command to figure out where a good area may be to level up. /Who all 19 25 for example. The majority of people were in the areas that I’d already been to. Small wonder. Then there’s the groups who are constantly working on the Infineum chain, those who are working on the Tsang weapons, there’s the Hilsbury Manor area, and numerous other dungeon type places. This game really is centered around having a static group (or at least a bunch of willing people to group with) so if you’re used to solo’ing (like I am) after the 14-15 level range, you’ll find it difficult to get much accomplished. Now, that’s not always a bad thing, this is an MMO after all, why play it just to spend time alone. But anything that requires a group also typically takes a lot of time to finish as well. So if you don’t quite have the hours of game play you need, or are simply in one of those moods where you’d rather be alone, then the game at times could seem a little stale for you.

I did splurge and finally buy myself a blue dress (in skill range, not in colour) last night, the green one was looking a little rough around the edges. I also found a neck piece upgrade, and a new belt, and new gloves. It’s interesting playing a blood mage, I typically try to balance out my + spell damage focus gear, with my + healing focus gear. It’s typically better for me to have + healing on, because when I’m in my dps stance, my spells already do 25% more, add some sizeable heals to that, and I’m pretty set. I can’t typically play in DPS mode in a group though. Every 5 seconds my health drops by 5% to give me blood points. It means I’m constantly healing not only myself, but whomever is tanking (or ganking). Though I can siphon health away from mobs quite nicely, it still means I’m using power to heal two people instead of just one, and with only one group heal that requires a lot of power to cast, it’s not exactly the best way to conserve energy.

Also got to uh, level 6 outfitter. Yes, I know, slacking big time. But I was an outfitter, then switched to artificer, then switched back to outfitter. With the double exp weekend in, I haven’t crafted hardly at all. Plus we all know how much of a grind crafting is (in pretty much every MMO I know, except WoW where it’s as easy as clicking one button for instant no-fail combines so long as you have the required materials). Hoping to work that a little bit more, and perhaps find my way to 24. We’ll see how it goes.