Gaming – Page 712 – A Pixel Nomad

Instances Galore

Yesterday was one of those very busy days in EQ2. It was wonderful, because they don’t happen too often for me. First of all, I teamed up with Kasul from Nostalgia, and he and I (as my coercer mentored) finished off two heritage quests for the guild, the guise of the deceiver, and the fishbone earring. Nostalgia 2.0 dinged 11, 12, and 13. Kasul also killed the tide octopus in Cove of Decay granting him the polished granite tomahawk and a bunch more status.

Once that was done I headed to a few instances, to check out SOE’s recent update that allows you to get guild status on completion of an instance. In other words, the final name gives status now. I did Obelisk of Blight just for fun (the entire run took 15 minutes with three of us) and Crypt of Valdoons. Instances barely anyone adventures in any more. 1203 guild status or so was the reward. Crafting would have been faster.

After those two quick instances a group was formed for Vaults of Eternal Sleep, in Jarsath Wastes. Nothing of significance dropped (besides the mobs) but it was still fun.

After that I headed to the newly revamped Runnyeye – and was sorely disappointed. There were no deaths the entire time (not that I wanted any) except for one pull on the final x2 mob (and we had no mezer so we tanked all the adds plus the x2 at once). The key to the encounter is simple – cure. That’s right, in order to make this encounter infinitely easier healers just have to do their job and cure every single dot that lands on the tank. If you leave a dot on there for longer then the .5 of a second it should be, you’ll wipe. Cure them instantly though and the encounter is smooth as pie – with no enchanter.

The list above is all the loot we got in Runnyeye aside from the final encounter that dropped a fabled bracelet for melee. Arysh looted it all – and promptly transmuted every single piece.

Ouch.

It was either not an upgrade for anyone, or it was a piece of caster gear and we didn’t have a single caster in group. We didn’t see a single master spell drop, and the whole zone left me feeling as though I was power leveling an alt through the original Runnyeye rather then exploring a new dangerous zone. Of course, I was with a team of mythical / vp geared people. Shadowknight tank, a templar, swashbuckler, dirge, assassin, and myself as warden (the only one there still wearing treasured and only level 79). Take your ‘average’ EQ2 player and I’m sure the zone is a lot more challenging.

What did make the zone fun for me were the two quests within it. Too bad they’re not repeatable. You get two house items, the fun bowl of eyes pictured above (more like a pot in size now that I think about it, a cauldron) and a hanging eyeball that I placed upstairs in the garden, because doesn’t that location just scream ‘giant eyeball goes here.’

It was still a great night, and I had a lot of fun. Remembered why I enjoy the game. Tonight is Nostalgia night, and I’m looking forward to that. No reason why I can’t play both games as the whim takes me. I did also managed to get Silhouette a few crafting levels (Ok, by a few I think I mean one) which was nice. The carpenter has been on hold for so long now. Time to get cracking so I can get all sorts of new house item pretties made! Her 5-room Gorowyn house is decidedly empty.

Red Shiny Red Shiny Red Shiny!

GU 46 came out yesterday in EQ2 and wow was it a big (great) one. I always talk about shinies, and for most people that means new weapons and new armor. Not for me. Nope. It means house items and new quests. So while the update introduced new quests and world events, which also reward some very amazing things – I’m going to talk about the house items in true Stargrace form.

The first one above is “Fae Tavern Shelves” and you can right click that awesome house item and have it pour you a drink. It’s the perfect size for any home.

Oh – wait. Where does it come from?!

That’s right. What wasn’t mentioned in the patch notes was that they added RED shinies to four zones. These shinies you can ONLY see while wearing your crafting epic. Finally. A reward for the crafters. The shiny pieces are lore, so don’t expect to go out harvesting these by the buckets. They also respawn VERY quickly, so if you’re worried about crafters gouging you, don’t be. I saw a few pieces going for not even a plat – and since word is not really out about these shinies yet, expect them to go lower and lower.

The four zones these shinies come from are Barren Sky, Loping Plains, Steamfont Mountains, and Fens of Nathsar. There was talk of another collection being found in Bonemire, but I have not seen any proof of this in the short time I ran around the zone and browsed the forums.

The piano looks much like the blue shiny reward from Mistmoore castle – but this one of course is darker in colour and it also plays music. Each time you click it to play a song, music notes rise out and your house will be filled with various tunes.

My favorite item from the red shiny rewards – is the Norrathian Star Chart. Combine this item with the globe that you can get from faction, and the star chart you can get from blue shiny rewards in Ak’Anon, and you’ve got yourself a nice little set up started.

These house items are completely separate from the other house items added to game – the rewards for doing the storm quests and turning in certain amounts of tickets. I haven’t even looked into those yet aside from the initial quest which opens up the repeatables. No doubt I’ll find time to write about them, too.

Now I have to find room to place all these red shiny rewards. Then decide whether or not I want to do the quests again on an alt so that they too have the rewards. Remember not only does Stargrace own a 5-room Qeynos house, but so does Arysh. Petites owns a 3-room Kelethin home, and Silhouette owns a 5-room Gorowyn home. . . . .

Crazy? Naw..

Mostly just Crafting

Yesterday was one of those “a little bit of everything” days. By the end of it I was left feeling as though I’d accomplished nothing, though it’s not the case. It started out easily enough – I leveled my beastlord from 35-40 in Stone Hive, which is of course a hot zone. I teamed up with my druid, who’s just a hair shy of dinging 48. Afterwards I was feeling bad that the beastlord couldn’t cast a single spell, she’d leveled that fast. Everything fizzled. I spent a few hours working on skills so that I can at least buff, call pets, and heal. Tried to do a little shopping but everything is grossly over priced in the bazaar, so I’ll satisfy myself by either crafting bits and pieces of armor, or just waiting until I’m at a level where I’ll have no choice but to splurge. We’ll see how it goes. Today I’d like to reach level 45, so I’ll be heading to Dulak Harbor (again…) later on.

In the screen shot above is of course Rahotep who I helped take down on my ranger, along with magician friend. Back when we were level 13 or so, he hurt. A lot different from the EQ2 version where he’s a raid encounter with an army of undead, used in a heritage quest. Or at least, he used to be epic, he may have been toned down after a few years, a lot of encounters were.

EQ2 had their GU yesterday, including a new Runnyeye zone to play in. I almost ended up going to that, but alas the lure of EQ1 was stronger.

I finally managed to get my jewelery trophy completed on Kameeko, it’s evolved 5/7 of the way, and gave me a nice 75% 10 slot WR (weight reducing) bag. It’s temporary, but if you pass it to Jorlum in the bazaar he gives you an essence you can combine in your crafting machine of choice and it’ll turn into a real bag. Since I have the old school one from the grandmasters piece, Kameeko is now sporting two of these bags. Can’t complain at all.

I spent a lot of time organizing bags yesterday. Trying to figure out who will do what craft. While it’s nice and easy to say one character will do it all, it’s also nice to spread it out a little. For example, the ranger will be a master fletcher – they use arrows, it makes sense. The halfling druid, is going to be a master tailor. Halflings are the only race who can make the leatherfoot haversacks that I so enjoy. She’ll also be doing baking, because it just makes sense. Kameeko is of course my master jeweler. She has everything else at 200, but I’m not sure if I’ll spend aa to extend that or not yet. Invis is my master poisoner. I attempted to work on her trophy last night as well, but it requires bits harvested from lower level zones that no one goes to any more – and thus none of the poison components were for sale at the bazaar. It’s still quite easy to do, but it will take me some time to find all the parts I need. Nothing wrong with that.

I took Qutey out to the Broodlands to forage for a time, there’s a LOT of food supplies that can be scrounged up there, as well as scale ore which is used in jewel crafting. The only problem is that there’s such a variety of items, it’s going to be difficult to store it all.

All in all, yesterday was a rewarding day at least in the craft sense. I feel better now that things are slightly more organized and I have a direction to go. That’s the problem with having so many alts.

Epics, Experience, and Enjoyment – Oh My!

Back to Katta I went, to turn in bundles of herbs for faction and experience. Each round gave me 75p and a lot of experience. It’s all aa experience, but hey it helps. I’m just glad to have my bag empty from herbs (again). It’s a long boring run from the quest npc to the Greenhouse (which is an update you need to get first) before you pass over all your leafy green goodness. A huge thank you to Kragnn who helped me find my way to the greenhouse (and back) without me ending up a smushed splatter on the ground.

Once I did that, I helped out with a wizard epic 1.5 – and part way through Lackey asked if I’d come help him ding level 51. We rarely get a chance to play since he’s not on any sort of schedule, it’s hit and miss. Once the fight was done for the wizard, I headed off to Dulak’s Harbor with Lackey and a Shadowknight, “Imacrushu” who found it amusing that the cleric and magician tanked far more then he did. I brought Ishbel, popped my Lesson of the Devoted (which is a veteran reward for those not familiar with it, that gives you a bonus to experience for 30 minutes) and we began ripping apart the harbor. It wasn’t long (an hour and a bit) before Lackey managed to get his level 51, and Ishbel had gained three aa.

Not that I have anything to spend them on. The general consensus is that you can save up to 30aa before it’ll start reverting to regular experience again, so that’s probably what I’ll do. I have my aa experience on a 10/90 split so that I’m still gaining a trickle of regular experience as well. I’m 51 and the hard cap is 52, I have a bit of leeway.

Since I’m boxing now, I’ve come up with a few duo combinations that I’m happy with. I have a druid / beastlord combo (beastlord managed to hit level 35 yesterday), and a necromancer / enchanter combo. Since the necromancer just kites anyhow, and the ench can slow. I also have a ranger who I can stick with multiple characters, and yesterday created a shaman on the second account, eventually to team up with my shadowknight. It’s fun to not only have a wide variety of characters, but a selection of levels to play at as well. One thing I’ve noticed more about EQ1 then any other MMO I’ve played in is that I’m not quite as concerned with gaining levels as one may think. Typically it’s the “grind to end game” that urges people further. However in EQ1 you really do need to stop and gain aa for a period of time before considering leveling up again. A level 80 character with 0 aa is going to have a hard time of things, great gear or not. It’s one more unique thing I love about EQ.

One of these days I’ll have to organize all my banks, do some serious crafting. It’s an expensive hobby though and rarely does the lower level items sell. We’ll just have to see how it goes. Two more aa on the enchanter, and I’ll be able to purchase the 50% reduced fail rates. Then comes salvage. For now I have 25% reduced rates. I also need to get her crafting trophies – eventually. Then besides all the crafting aa she still needs regular aa. I have a feeling all of my characters will sit at 70 for quite some time. There’s really no reason for me to be in a mad rush to level up anyhow, plenty of great lower level content still that I’ve yet to see.

I need to start Ishbel’s epic as well. Maybe this week – I hope.

Welcome Anakh to Nostalgia too, a friend from Vanguard who decided to give things a whirl!

Trophies, Levels, and Just.. Stuff

Alright, before I get into the Medieval Festival (which I’ll post about later) lets talk about EQ. Heeding the advice of others, I went and did my fletching trophy quest as soon as I’d reached a skill of 50 from the freebie quests found in Crescent Reach (which you can also find in Abysmal Sea if you’re not keen on CR). The quest was simple enough, make 10 class 1 wood point arrows using large nocks, make 10 class 1 wood point arrows using medium nocks, make 4 long flight javelin shafts, 4 rough hickory recurve bows using silk string, 10 class 1 wood point arrows using small nocks, and 10 class 2 wood point arrows using small nocks.

Once all that was done, I turned them in to the judge, who gave me a score card. Turn that score card in and presto – I’ve got myself an evolving trophy. Worked fletching up another 20 points after that and it’d evolved into 37% through it’s level. Can’t complain at all.

The ranger managed to get from level 13 to level 23. I teamed up with a magician and we stayed in the hot zones, leveling in North Ro from 1-13, then porting over to South Ro until things started turning green at around 18. Then we headed over to Blightfire Moors, and completed the 10 slot bag quest – the gnolls were astounding exp, about 20% a kill at our level (they were white and yellow) so before we’d even finished the quest we’d gained a bunch of levels.

I also managed to get the beastlord a good number of levels, she’s sitting at 21 currently. I created the Vah Shir on my second account, so that I can level her with any one of my healers. A character I can just do whatever on, and not feel as though I’m out leveling anyone.

For once I didn’t really play my higher level characters, and I was content in doing so. There are plenty of lower level things I still want to do, zones I want to see, and old world quests I miss. Maybe I’ll even get an rp post out there sooner or later. We’ll see.

Now onto what I spent most of my weekend doing!