Category: Gaming

It’s an ACTION figure, NOT a DOLL

If you’ve never been to Unrest (instance in Butcherblock for level 70+) I would HIGHLY suggest people go check it out. To this day it is one of the best scripted zones I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying, and it’s just a lot of fun to do, even if it does take a while.

After you manage to unlock the back door a particular ‘friend’ spawns outside. For the longest time there was no way any of my friends were defeating this encounter, and when Unrest released the level cap was 70 making it that much harder.

Of course I’m talking about Bugaboo, the gigantic creature who roams around the house, causing issues for adventurers.

Well, we finally managed to defeat him and while I wish he dropped a trophy because how cool would THAT look inside of a guild hall – he did drop something else. The little action figure fabled item pictured to the right hand side.

Now, there may not be anything astounding about this item by all basic appearance. However, if you take the time to right click and examine said item while it is in your inventory you may find out that it tells quite a different story.

That’s right, this adorable fabled item can actually be mounted and turns into an doll action figure that you can display in your house or guild hall. It’s a VERY small item, I was expecting something on the statue size in scale. Careful, you may put it where others could step on it and hurt themselves! Don’t leave your toys laying all over the place.

It’s these cute little additions and discoveries that I make every day that remind me about why I love this game. 5 years later and I’m still stumbling over these things. It’s fantastic.

All About Goals

A proper screenshot of the dirge with her eyes actually open. Why I picked a half elf, I have no idea. I typically go for something that has racial abilities that will one day help me out (melee orientated, or spell, or the fun floaty one that a few races like erudite and dark elf get).

You’ll have to forgive my lackluster post, I won’t make excuses but this is certainly not the best of weeks I’ve had. Bare with me and things will improve (we all hope).

CoA – The Farseer did not drop, the Cardiocutter did not drop. We’ve been doing this zone every day for more then a month now and have not seen hide nor hair of these items. I’m beginning to think they’re mythicals and have since been removed from game. The bard goes without for a little while longer.

Did manage to get a few crafting levels yesterday which was great. Ultann inched to level 50 armorer which means he can partake in the TSO crafting now. Kasul has moved his main assassin over to Kithicor (until we’re all offered free transfers if that ever happens, so we can leave this horrible server) and now we find ourselves with a whole lot of dps – it’s going to be great. I believe today we plan on spending the day doing amazing instances that we normally can’t defeat because we don’t have the dps and I’m really looking forward to it. We’ll just have to see of course. I’m not sure if I’ll be playing the illusionist or the dirge but either way I’m sure it will be fun.

Speaking of fun I created my 4th enchanter last night. That’s right, another coercer. WHY?! Well. I have an illusionist and a coercer on Najena. I had a coercer on Kithicor but I betrayed her to an illusionist because their buffs are simply better for the group in general. You can’t go wrong with Time Compression and Illusionary Arm. I really love enchanters (no, they don’t play like EQ enchanters, but I still love them) and being able to charm things is an amazing aspect to the game (especially for thrill seekers) that I just can’t get enough of. So I searched last night for my master charm spells, I picked up the one for level 47, the one for 61 (which is all you need even at T8) and Wpus managed to have the level 20 charm stashed away. That was more then enough incentive for me.

I created an arasai coercer, and decked her out. What’s more I created a ‘goal’ for myself – no power leveling, and I want to try to have 200 aa BEFORE I hit level 80 (no matter how long that may take). I got her to level 20 yesterday, and then turned off experience as well as quest experience. That means the only thing I’m obtaining is achievements from quest completion and discoveries etc.

Wpus helped me out with spells while I did some shopping, and she’s sporting about 10 master spells now and a nice outfit of gear. I took her back home to Darklight Woods after playing in Wailing Caves and started working on the level 10+ quests. She’s only got 10aa right now, but I expect that to continue to grow. I figure I will do the 10+ quests in Darklight, Gorowyn, Commonlands, as well as any smaller zones such as Stormhold and Blackburrow before I enable experience again.

Why am I doing this? Well. I love having goals in game. I have so many level 80 characters now that getting to level 80 is no longer a thrill. Sure I could have 14 in total and get them all their epics and then have a steady stream of crafters to level but I’m already pretty tired of that grind. So I seek out new ways to play the game by my own rules, and different ways to interest me. Questing is not always something I enjoy doing, but if I place enough challenges along the way it looks infinitely better. Owning so many lower level master spells certainly helps too, and of course the coercers bread and butter which is my master charm.

No matter what game you’re playing or how you challenge yourself, I hope everyone has an amazing Friday, and an incredible weekend. Chances are I’ll be here, in Norrath as always.

Moving Forward

I miss raiding. There I said it!

I haven’t done any serious raiding since just shortly after RoK came out (Taking down T1 and some T2 encounters but nothing more) for whatever reasons. I was tired of ‘the grind’ and the guild drama was more then I wanted to handle. During EoF I was a pretty serious raider, I got discoveries on Emerald Halls gear and when we defeated Chel’Drak for the first time (and I blogged about that of course) it was one of the most exciting things I’d ever done in game. The problem is I’ve never really had a raider mentality. Yes, I enjoy defeating encounters but no I don’t like the attitude that comes with it (typically, not always).

I’ve also never wanted to be a part of a guild simply because they raid – I enjoy gaming with friends and being close to those I explore the game with. Unfortunately asking for 23 other close friends doesn’t really happen.

So, those of us in our tiny guild of 3+1 have decided to try to seek out an alliance on Kithicor. We consist of a Shadowknight (or inquisitor), Conjuror, Assassin, and myself as either the dirge, illusionist, or mystic depending on which is wanted (but not all three, and I’d rather stick with one constant and not swap out every time). So far we’ve had a few hits. I also suggested we tag along on one of the (many) pick up raids that happen on our server.

There’s a few down sides. While I’m not sure about other servers I’d say almost 80% of Kithicor level 80’s already have their mythical. It’s VERY common. I don’t fall under that category which is a slight disadvantage. Every WoE raid I’ve heard looking for more is constantly searching for folks with their mythical.

A lot of people on Kithicor are also rude and obnoxious and if I had to stand in the same room as them let alone the same raid there’s no telling where that would lead. I don’t say that jokingly either. I’ve played extensively on Lucan D’Lere, Antonia Bayle, Najena, and Oasis, as well as Kithicor (we’re talking 6 months to a year or more on each) and Kithicor is by far the worst server I have ever played on. We (as in the little crowd I play with) are eagerly awaiting open server transfers or some other such miracle so we can move back to a ‘better’ server. In the mean time we wait (and turn off channels).

Speaking of which – last night our little guild of 3+1 managed to ding level 35! Ultann, Wpus, and I headed to Jarsath Wastes to grind out writs. It took approx. 4-5 rounds of Kylong Plains writs to get our level but when we finally did (and purchased two more amenity quite happily might I add) it was fantastic. The guild hall now sports a mender and a depot box for harvests. This also allowed us to free up a LOT of space both in the guild bank and our personal banks where we had been hording supplies.

Now it’s a grind to level 40, where we’ll be able to purchase three more amenity, and unlock another row of guild banking. Hopefully it won’t take us too long to get there, the progress we’ve made so far has been fantastic.

I spent a lot of yesterday (aside from doing writs) working on clearing out my quest journal on Satia (the dirge). I went through each zone one at a time and completed all I could. Once that was finished I picked up some L&L (I have a grand total of ONE completed) and decided to work on those (along with language quests). Now I’ve got three lore and legend completed, orc, skeleton and gnoll.

My duo pair has switched up from the illusionist and the mystic to the dirge and the mystic now that the dirge is 80. I’ve always loved playing bards. Another Crypt of Agony run was made last night, and another failed attempt at getting either the Farseers Armguard or the Cardiocutter to drop. We’ll be getting back to shard runs shortly so that we can complete some sets which will be nice.

I hope everyone has a fantastic day, and I’ll see you in Norrath!

Another Epic Bites the Dust

No screen shots again today (blogging from bed is not nearly as exciting as it sounds) but yesterday was a fairly good day in game none the less, even if I wasn’t completely coherent for the duration of it.

With the bard hitting level 80, it was time to begin yet another epic. You may recall that I actually already have the dirge epic, on my troubador when I betrayed. I have no desire to betray this second bard at all, she’ll be staying a dirge (I know, a few months down the road I may be eating those words). The quest starter comes from Sebilis, and we were lucky with the drop (or at least I like to think we were) getting it fairly painlessly and getting some achievements along the way.

The dirge epic is one of those fast easy painless epics that you can complete in less then a full day. You don’t actually have to do any instances for it, you need to harvest a few bits in Chelsith and kill Abyss Lurkers which are right at the entrance, and you need to go to Maidens and kill two bottomless devourers but they’re not that far into the zone either. You need 50 drake kills from Jarsath Wastes which Ultann Wpus and Hamal were kind enough to get for me as I auto followed them through the zone, making myself some dinner last night. They had it completed by the time I got back.

After that and talking to a few npc’s (and a kill in New Tunaria) it was simply a matter of making our way to the library in Chardok and killing one more mob there. Back to my halfling friend in Gorowyn and I’m proudly sporting the dirge epic on Kithicor. Yes, that’s my uh.. 8th epic? 9th? I forget now. Troubador, Dirge (x2), Coercer, Illusionist, Templar, Warden, Mystic. Guess it’s 8th. Of course I don’t have my mythical on anyone and unless I settle down to one character I doubt I will, but it’s a nice little goal to have completed in any case.

Next in game goals? Perhaps getting the paladin to level 80 (sitting at 73) and then concentrating on getting those achievement points. A huge congratulations to Wpus who managed to hit the 200 mark this week – Ultann is not too far behind at 194 I believe. Since I’m always bouncing around from character to character my mystic actually has the most at 158. Hopefully I can inch my way closer by completing some quests, I’ve avoided them like the plague since RoK’s release. I’d also like to continue leveling my crafting, the dirge is a level 30 provisioner currently, and the carpenter is sitting comfortably at 52 waiting for her vitality to fill back up after that wonderful bonus experience weekend.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Wednesday, and happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.

Taking Advantage of Bonus Experience Weekends

The bonus experience was flowing nicely this weekend in both EQ2 and EQ. While it may have only been a 50% bonus to combat / tradeskill in EQ2, it was 100% bonus in EQ which made for some pretty fun times – unfortunately I didn’t spend nearly as much time taking advantage of it as I would have liked, but I suppose some time is better then none.

The greatest thing about the bonus experience is knowing how to use it to its fullest potential. So, Ninga (Wpus) and I logged in and headed to Loping Plains (along with 27 other people who had the same idea might I add). LP is not a hot zone but there are repeatable tasks throughout the zone. One of which is to kill wereorcs, and worgs.

I always chuckle to myself when I explore through this zone, I spent so much time here in EQ2 before ever adventuring in it in EQ. There’s similarities but plenty of differences too. We grabbed the two tasks to kill 20 worgs and wereorcs and set to work dpsing them down. Things were going fairly smooth (if not a bit slow) and before too long Ultann returned and logged in with his magician to add to the dps.

When you complete these tasks, you can decline accepting a reward and that was the key to maximizing the experience gain. Each time we completed them (for a maximum of 10 completed plus two more to turn in) we declined the reward (which has an option of extra experience) and saved it up. Then all at once turned them in with lesson of the devoted running which is a veteran reward that boosts your experience gain.

By turning in three quests I managed to net myself 15% experience easily, that’s a huge amount at level 81. In fact the experience was so great that Ultann managed to find himself brushing up against level 85, the current cap for EQ. WOOT! I was very excited for him. My necromancer inched her way through most of level 81 before we decided to head back to EQ for the remainder of the evening, I was starting to get a little tired and wanted to do a quick CoA run (and perhaps pick up the dirge epic starter) before crashing for the night. Ninga is almost level 85 as well, it’s great to see them hitting the cap once more. My little necromancer has quite a bit of time left before she’ll see 85 but this is the closest I’ve been to ‘end game’ in EQ. Granted the cap will probably go up again before I actually DO see it, but that’s alright. It would be nice to hit it just so that I could focus on gaining some achievements, since I am missing a huge chunk (like 1500 or so, hehe).

The game was VERY busy last night on Drinal as well. Over 381 people were in the general channels (there was a general, and a general1 since 200 players per channel is the cap) and while they may not have been the most talkative of people they were definitely out and about which was great to see. I can only assume that the hot zones would have been VERY busy with people too.

I hope everyone had a fantastic evening, and here’s looking forward to the rest of the week! I’ll see you in Norrath.