Category: Gaming

I’ll do a proper post later, but for now here’s where things stand.

I managed to get my CoM update last night with a small group. Decided I did not want to start harvesting xegonite at midnight, so I started today. I figured I’d get 5/10 out of the way. Then get the other 5 tomorrow. Splitting it up made it look less daunting. For a short while.

3 hours and 9 minutes later and I have 4 xegonite, 7 spongy loam, 12 scintillating materials, 9 blue-silver sheets, 7 perfectly cut geodes, 1,000 regular loams, and 1,200 regular metals.

One more xegonite to go (for today) and I’ll call it a day. On the plus side, Goudia is also a level 62 weaponsmith which means all these adamantine clusters that she’s getting, she can use.

I joined a raid guild, almost. Ok I suppose the better word is that I’ve got prospects with a raid guild. They raid 6 days a week – but you’re not required to attend every one of them. I believe attendance is 20% required of the ones scheduled, which sits far better with me. My issue with playing the troubador has always been the fact that it’s near impossible to get groups. I’m required on raids, but heaven forbid should I see the inside of an instance more then once. However. I’m willing to give things another shot, and we’ll see how it goes.

It’s been a long time since I’ve raided in EQ2. I have raided PR and Thuuga with the troub, but only a few times, and we never completed PR at the time. My gear is not horrible, but it’s certainly nothing to get excited over. I have missed raiding, a great deal and I’m excited about things this time around. We’ll just have to see how it goes. I have a lot of other obligations, and the guild is aware of that.

So of course the first thing I set out to do was at least get the fabled version of my epic, since I will eventually have a very real chance at getting the mythical version. I headed to Chardok with a trusty shadowknight – and that’s it. Crazy? Yes, yes we were. We managed to duo to all of my clickies in the zone, including the one in the water by the barracks. How did we manage it? Well, thank goodness for divine aura and feign death number one. We trained all the way to the area with the barracks, then the shadowknight ran to the bridge where I needed to drop, fell down, cast divine aura, which was just enough time for me to snag the clicky I needed down there. He  died, and I evac’d to safety before everything ate me. As any good scout would do, of course. The items I needed in Korocust (also known as the-zone-no-one-goes-to-any-more-unless-it’s-for-epics-since-they-changed-the-zone) were easy. Now I’m off to CoM with no idea if I can solo getting to my mandolin or not. Maybe I’ll get lucky and run into someone adventuring that way. If all else fails, I’ll move the coercer to the zone, clear the way, then relog to get it. After that comes a journey to the temple of the white lady – and then begins the real epic, of harvesting 10 xegonite clusters.

That’s the part I want to get to today. We’ll see.

Most people are familiar with the two ‘roleplay preferred’ servers on EverQuestII, it’s Antonia Bayle, and Lucan D’Lere. AB is one of the largest servers in the game (ie: most populated), and in fact houses both rp’ers and non-rp’ers alike. We ALL play on rp servers though, when it comes right down to it. These two specialty servers have a much stronger community, and utilities at their disposal – but we are all playing a roleplay game, and we all have the ability to roleplay (if we so choose).

One thing that really ticks me off, is if attempting to roleplay on a server other then the two preferred, you get mocked. Now, don’t get me wrong here – this degradation by other players also occurs on the other two servers but at least you can back it up with “this is an rp preferred server!” and some dirt throwing or what have you. On other servers, it’s a little harder to justify your characters quirks.

Some folks are brave enough to do it none the less, and I like them all the more for it. It takes guts to throw caution to the wind even in an online setting and to be able to ignore the /ooc (out of character) jeers and calls from fellow players.

My characters all have a background story, and from time to time I get the urge to roleplay with them. It’s mostly just me wandering around talking to npc within earshot of players in case they want to contribute (which has happened on a few occasions). I love roleplaying, and I love encouraging it, and I think it’s a wonderful addition to any mmo – even if you’re not the best at it. Give it a try some time, you may be surprised.

That’s right, even with all of my alts, I was missing two crafters. One, being an armorer. I do have a 38 brigand who used to be my armorer, but she’s on another account, on another server (which I’ve closed) so that’s no good. I was also missing a tailor – also on another account, another server. So Melisand, my (now) 32 defiler is shaping up to be an armorer. Got level 20 with her before the servers came down for their daily update. Ysandria the monk, will be the tailor. That leaves me with two characters on another server (and there they’ll sit until SOE lets me move them for free, I’ve already paid way too much to move characters around) and the rest on Najena.

80 Jeweler, 80 Provisioner, 80 Sage (Antonia Bayle), 73 Woodworker, 64 Alchemist (Antonia Bayle), 62 Weaponsmith, 61 Carpenter, 20 Armorer, 20 Tailor.

Why bother having all 9? Well, for one it’s great to be able to make my own gear for all the alts I have. It’s also great to be able to make stuff for friends. I have a transmuter, so being able to make adornments myself without having to pay exceptionally high prices is also nice. I enjoy being self sufficient, and lets face it I’m just a little crazy (that’s right, I said a LITTLE).

Crafting is an easy goal, and a lot of fun – but there’s one significant difference on Najena compared to Antonia Bayle. AB is an RP server and there are PLENTY of people with lower level alts. I used to make most of my money from selling things below level 50 actually. Najena is the opposite. The majority of players are higher level, and higher level things sell far better (ie: food and dring that I’ve been selling at an astounding rate). So as far as sales are concerned, I have to find a niche market again in order to make a significant amount of coin. Granted, running characters through the RoK content 71-80 guarantees massive amounts of coin simply because rewards grant you large sums.

I didn’t play any Vanguard over the weekend – but no worries, I’m still playing it along with EQ2. I hope all my American friends had a wonderful 4th of July, and everyone just had a fantastic weekend in general.

Yesterday was one of those days where I just had no idea what I wanted to do, so I did a little bit of everything. I worked on crafting on a tiny bit, and then realized later I should have taken advantage of that double experience a little more. I’d like to get a level or two, we’ll see if that happens today. I did make Kasul some sales crates, which are always handy.

After the little bit of crafting, I thought about working on the warden epic again. Then I remembered what portion I’m on. I need to travel to the lab in Sebilis, which is deep down inside and while it’s not that difficult, it does require more then just myself and a shadowknight. I really need to make some dps friends on Najena, it’s the one thing I’m always lacking in a group. I’d play my healers a lot more if I had dps around – the shadowknight is one of those classes that pretty much insists on always having power regen because their class just doesn’t function well without it, they’re power hogs – so I typically play a bard or coercer / illusionist and for a lot of the content we make due without a healer at all. Anyhow, the other portion to the epic is Chardok, which is far worse then Sebilis and requires a group and a mezzer would be fantastic too. Need to kill some Arch Magus guys way in the back close to the Queen, past the red portal.

This would ALMOST be duoable – except after the blue portal assassins like to drop from the skies and they hurt real bad and typically show up right when you’re already fighting an encounter or two.

So I logged off of the warden slightly disheartened and logged onto Stargrace, the illusionist. Who’s been sitting at level 76 for quite some time now, having already grinded a few characters to level 80 and not having the stamina to do another. She’s a level 80 provisioner and I was interested in getting the 30k faction she requires with Bathezid, Rilis, and Danak so that she can get the special provisioner recipes. I managed to get Rilis done, and half of Bathezid. Danak is on the block for another day. She also managed to get 50% into her level which was nice. Of course doing RoK quests with her is quite easy – she’s a caster and has plenty of dps. The templar on the other hand, who is sadly only level 74, will be lucky if she ever levels. Unless by some miracle I find some dps leveling up through the content as well. Perhaps when Kasul reaches that tier I can tag along with him.

Also discovered that there is a blue shiny collection in the mines of Nurga, rings, that I’d never seen before. The rings go on the broker from 2-7p each (there are 6) and I don’t have the faintest idea what the reward for this collection is. I have three of the rings so far, and I’m going to try to get the rest. Fighting in the mines is no big deal, but it’s boring.

Nostalgia was the busiest I’ve ever seen it, Tipa was on with her assassin most of the evening working on the Tempest Storm quests, getting a new outfit of armor. Kasul logged in after work, Mayadhros was on between some real life things, and Vlcan popped on for a while. Said was also there, it was so nice to see everyone. The guild also reached level 18! We’ve two more to go for more bank slots and bigger benefits. I’d like to see us pushing to 30, but we’ll take it slowly (as we have been). Kasul and myself broke the 100k mark on guild status, which is something I’ve actually never done in any guild – I’ve never found a home to stay in long enough to accumulate that much guild status. I know, silly, but I’m quite proud.

The food and drink business on Najena is doing fantastic, I put a few stacks of T8 stuff for sale yesterday with Stargrace and it all sold by noon. Of course the supplies are also very expensive right now, so I’ll have to do some harvesting. I need tea leaves in specific. I suppose that’ll get added to the list of ‘things to do some time’.. for now, it’s off to get some groceries (in real life, silly).

Safe Travels!