Category: Gaming

What happens when you play on the busiest server and there’s a live event that takes place on Saturday? Well, the screen shot above is just one of four instances of Eastern Wastes that opened up on Saturday afternoon as Antonia Bayle completed the Wizard Spire Reconstruction event. There were over three full raids in Easter Wastes 1 and 2, with over two full raids in 3 and 4. Each raid consisting of 24 people, plus numerous others who were outside of raid (my group included). Why was this event such a big deal? A number of reasons. I think it has less to do with the fact that we finally have a means of steady transportation to these zones and more to do with the rewards offered. If you took part in the final epic battle you were rewarded with 500 tokens (remember, 50 buys you a velium shard which is used for ry’gorr armor) that could be spent at merchants for fluff armor, mounts, and house items, you were also rewarded with a pocket teleporter in order to get to Easter Wastes at the click of a .. clicky, and you were given a title – and nine plat. Not too shabby.

I had no issues completing the Eastern Wastes battle, but there were problems with the Dragon Ring event that took place later that day in Great Divide. See, zones typically top off at 50 people for Great Divide due to the Public Quests and issues with lag. There are means around this by simply inviting others outside of the zone to your group. They can then zone over so you’re both in the same instance. Great Divide wasn’t exactly made to withstand 500 people all gathered, and when the final Dragon Ring event spawned – no one could see it. The battle couldn’t really take place because everyone was being killed by the epic encounter that was invisible, and lag was so atrocious there was no point in getting anything done. A developer ended up coming over to Antonia Bayle to progress the quest for players who were unable to get their updates. By that time I had moved on to something else so I decided to forgo the Great Divide update.

Still, it was fun, even if this was the … fourth? Time we’ve rebuilt the transportation system in Norrath. First there were griffon towers in Nektulos Forest and Thundering Stepps, then there were Wizard Spires numerous times, and again and so on.

Tinkerfest begins on July 29th which is an event that I know a lot of players are looking forward to. I am unsure of what the quests will involve, but there’s always some really neat crafted house items for players to obtain. These live events have been a lot of fun, even if they haven’t ran perfectly. I hope everyone had an amazing weekend, no matter where you found yourself! As always happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath.

It was time for another (yes another) alt. This time I’m leveling up a mystic on my second account, to go along with the shadowknight and necromancer I already have. So far she’s sitting at level 56, and yesterday I spent a bit of time in one of my favorite zones, Obelisk of Lost Souls. This zone has some amazingly disturbing books that players can complete, filled with void-related nursery rhymes and other tales of horror. One of my favorite parts of any zone are the little details that you stumble upon. For example, in Obelisk of Lost Souls you come to a room that’s filled with glass display cases (pictured above) with ancient scrolls kept inside. In one of these cases the scroll is missing, and shattered glass litters the ground. Of course my mind wanders – what happened to the scroll? Was it valuable? Who took it? What did it say? These little details are what keep me transfixed about a game, little stories that the game doesn’t necessarily come out and tell me about, but that I notice none the less.

It has been an incredibly warm week for myself and a lot of my friends (the city of Ottawa reached 117F yesterday, something I’ve never actually experienced before) so I don’t have much to update with. I DID spend a bunch of time yesterday updating my player-written library page here on the site, as you can see I have made it over the 550 book mark! Thanks to some wonderful donations from players. I received over 20 books in the last little while, each of them filled with a fantastic story. Thank you to everyone who donated a book! I’m hoping to extend it past the 600 mark before too long, but that will depend on generous donations and what I can find on the broker.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath.

 

My swashbuckler finally made it over the 250 aa mark, it’s the first character I’ve managed to do that with, and only one expansion late. That means I’m finally working on the DoV aa (well, I have been for a while but I’m finally working on the later tiers of it). I picked up a few master spells off of the broker and she’s almost completed her collection. I also managed to craft another piece of Ry’Gorr armor (pants!) so she’s nearing “completion” for me. Next I’ll be focusing on the defiler, who is lacking Ry’Gorr and adornments.

Yesterday was a lot of fun, the weekly shard quest was Tower of Frozen Shadow, so we (guild mates of course) headed out to Shadowed Corridors and made short work of the Librarian. Next we hit Umbral Halls, and finally Haunt. We managed to complete all three of the zones, even though we were one person short and I was boxing my swashbuckler / necromancer together. The necromancer won herself a nice new robe, and I made a Ry’Gorr forearm piece. Drahk managed to pick up a few pieces of fighter gear, since he’s a new level 90 shadowknight pretty much everything was an upgrade. It was nice and incredibly rewarding to take down the final boss (the x2) in Haunt. It’s a difficult fight on the best of terms, and since we were so under staffed I was wondering if it was something we could even complete. The best part was that we all had a great time, which is the most important part to me in any situation. Guild groups are always nice and relaxing and if we wipe 10x to one encounter it’s always a learning experience.

Speaking of, the guild is also inching its way through level 58, which I’m pretty excited about. Another row of bank tabs at level 60 and more amenity (although I haven’t spent the last amenity we earned) are always welcomed.

It seems like each time a patch goes by the harder zones of DoV have been downgraded a little, so it shouldn’t be too long before we find ourselves in there. We have tried a little Kael, but I’d like to attempt the Drundar instances. We’ll just have to see.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath!

There have been a few debates rising up lately from SLR (selling loot rights) – some people are for it (naturally) and others are against it. In EQ2 gear becomes bound to you when you do an instance. You’re able to trade that loot with anyone who was in the instance for 48 hours after it was looted. What players do is leave the item in the chest, change the loot options to leader only (thus allowing you to assign the loot to someone) auction the gear in a channel, invite the winner to the group, summon them to the dungeon, and pass them the loot. I’ve never personally had an issue with this method of obtaining loot, if players wish to spend their money on this sort of thing then why not. I think it helps casuals gain items that they may not have otherwise been able to gain, and it helps bolster community. Most of the public discussions on Antonia Bayle happen in the auction channel. I understand that my thoughts on this are not the same thoughts as the entire community though and the idea of “if you didn’t earn it yourself you have no right to it” also runs strong. To the left hand side is an auction that was taking place last night, myself bidding on a ring (which I eventually won). For some odd reason Conterary felt the need to call me a slut simply because I had out bid him (her?) on this item. I’ve never spoken to them before in my life, have no idea who they are or why they felt the need to call me names based on an auction. I don’t even really understand the whole name calling scenario, or why people resort to this method of insult first. To me name calling is a definite no-no, and it’s one of my biggest pet peeves.

What are your thoughts on selling loot? Do you wish the ability to do so were removed? What if all of the no-trade flags were removed so that gear could simply be placed on broker? Let me know in comments!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in Norrath!