Category: Gaming

 

Ishbel had fun running around New Tunaria yesterday, with a charmed vampire at her side. I had to let so many pages for the clock of flames rot that it was just getting to an amusing point. Two of them even dropped in one chest. She hit level 68 when all was said and done, and got a whole slew of aa. I moved her to Kylong Plains at level 66 and had her get the sokokar quest (thanks to Shadowgeist for helping me finish that off) and then headed to Teren’s Grasp to complete the few chains there. I love playing the coercer, a lot of fun and a huge change from playing the illusionist.

The warden is sitting at about 50% into her level, and I’m hoping to get 79 tonight so that she can finally wear all the gear I’ve got stored up. Then just one more and she can wear the weapon from Maidens. I also need to make some more coin on her as she’s out of fire emeralds and needs 8 more. Ugh. The price on those has gone way up now that they’ve nerfed the stealth suit from the drachnid caves.

There’s talk of the newest Kylong Plains fabled item getting nerfed after Christmas as well, which I just find amusing. Why would you nerf an item that you JUST put out there a week ago, and wait another two weeks before you do. Yes, the quest is quite easy and doesn’t exactly warrant a fabled reward, but why not change and fix these things before they enter the game, so late into the expansion. Going to be lots of disappointed people out there. The mage item needs to be fixed as well, as there are two rewards with +75 heal and the +spell crit chance / int item should have +75 spell dmg.

Other then that, not much is going on. Leveling and exploring, the guild’s gotten another influx of new members. Seems that as soon as it was recognized we could actually down T8 encounters there’s been a steady flow of recruits. Not exactly complaining, but I never wanted to be a huge guild. We’ll just have to see how it goes!

Nice to see Kilanna back from her trip as well, I’ve missed talking to the girlie!

 

Antonia Bayle (and four other servers) are down for a three hour patch (joy oh joy) so I decided to look through some of my screen shots. The one posted above is the game room in Arysh’ house, in the basement. I love the new furniture that’s been added. Last night found me dealing with another stint of insomnia (holiday stress, how wonderful that is eh) so I stayed up until 4am and did some instances with guild mates. First I managed to get Ishbel to 65 (the power leveled coercer) by solo’ing in New Tunaria. I still adore that zone. She can start Kylong Plains very soon (well, she could start now, but I want to get a level or two more first still) and having a m1 charm is certainly helpful. I’d like to see her get 80 just so that I have some alternative characters to play for instances and the sort. Plus that will leave me with 1 healer 1 mage 1 scout all level 80.

Arysh finished off Vault of Eternal Sleep and the quest associated with it, and then moved on to Maidens, finishing off the quest there as well so that when she finally hits 80 she can wear her new healing mace. She’s got about 8 pieces of gear stashed aside for 79 and 80, and I’m eager to wear them. Netted about 45% experience over the past little while but I haven’t been grinding quests much as I don’t want to burn out on them.

The guild has been moving along nicely, and the drama seems to have cooled down. We’ve recruited a few new members, and our ranks are filling up fast. Last raid we took only three people from outside of guild, which was fantastic. Everyone seems to be leveling up slowly as well, and we’re just shy of a full level 80 raid force, with a chunk still sitting at 78/79. Tonight the guild’s decided to do New Tunarian Throne Room, though I won’t be attending this one, I wish them the best!

 

Wow what a weekend. After our success with Mayong, and Protector’s Realm, we were excited about attempting Thuuga again. Remember, we’ve attempted it twice before without luck. This time around, we did one single thing differently, and the results were amazing. We managed to get the mob to 5% our second try using the new method, and then we downed her the third.

Congratulations to Calreth who got a server discovery on the Spider Queen’s one looted item (which wasn’t an amazing drop, but hey, it’s better then nothing). The guild was happy, that’s at least one T8 raid zone cleared. I switched mains from Goudia to Arysh after talking to the guild leader, though I agreed to box to every raid where we needed the troubador, until we found one. I probably shouldn’t have done that, as boxing is quite stressful on me. Not only because I am a main tank healer on Arysh, but because I still care about things that a troubador should care about when they’re playing, such as running perfection of the maestro and jesters at specific times. The necromancer who lifeburns for example, sends both Arysh and Goudia a tell, so that I can jesters them before hand. Arysh was 2nd zone wide for heals on Thuuga again, which is nice considering there’s not AoE’s to worry about and no encounters hitting us until spiders run ramped.

Afterwards we decided since we’d finished so early we’d head to Freethinkers Hideout, along the way discovering that Pumpkin Headed Horseman was up. We gave him one attempt, having never ever pulled him before, and managed to get him to 45% before things went badly. We didn’t want to waste any more time on him or end the night on a sour note, so we headed to Freethinkers where we absolutely destroyed the majority of the zone before the mobs realized we’d zoned in I’m fairly sure.

We didn’t need so many healers for this zone, and so I left Arysh behind and just played Goudia. I was slightly reluctant to do so because that means there’s 0 possibility of her class loot dropping, since she’s the only warden, and some of that stuff is still an upgrade. However, it is just T7, so I figured why not. Low and behold, the troubador got her first piece of T7 set gear ever. I’ve raided plenty of T7 before in the past, and never ever have I won a piece of set gear for any of my characters, so this was my first one. Unfortunately they were not an upgrade, as I’m wearing some legendary T8 gloves that are better. I’ll hang onto them though so that they don’t drop the next raid.

Aside from the raids, Arysh (along with Shadowgeist) also finished her fabled quest for the Thuuga item that was added to Kylong plains. We were both lucky yesterday morning and the two named (who apparently have long timers) were already up. The item was a fairly significant upgrade with 275 power on the ring I choose once I’d adorned it as well as +75 to heals. Arysh also hit level 78, one more and she gets to wear quite a few new pretties that I’ve had stashed away for her. Two more and I can stop worrying about all this debt she keeps getting every time we raid.

 

Last night was our first time in the Protector’s Realm, and the guild was pretty pumped up after our Mayong kill. We ended up almost starting on time, which is practically unheard of, and walked into the zone wondering what to expect. None of us had ever been there before, we didn’t even know the general script of the zone. It’s located in Sebilis, the same zone that Crypt of Agony uses. It’s made up of a few rooms, very little agro to start, and lots of npc dialog. You end up doing some interaction with the npc’s and then go on an epic quest (literally) to help aid the people stuck there. There’s four little named and then one more big named and then two more named after that — or so the rumor goes.

We made it past the first four named, which were not exactly hard, but not easy. Our guild couldn’t find a warden, so I volunteered to bring my 76 warden Arysh, and box the troubador. We can get by without a troubador, but we can’t get by without a warden. I would actually rather play the healer, but the guild screams if I think about dropping the bard. We’ll have to see where that goes. It’s easier to find a warden then a troubador, but difficult to find a good warden, if that makes sense.

We managed to kill Iztapa Vyx on the first pull, Wymbulu took quite a few, we came back to that one later. Adkar Vyx went down after the second pull. The encounters have a lot of aoe’s, some dots, some of them massive. Wymbulu was hitting people for 12-18k a shot with a flurry AoE that just ripped us to shreds the first few pulls until we figured out a method to beat them. I must say, the troubador level 80 spell countersong (absorbs 70% of an aoe raid wide – lasts for 20 seconds 10 minute recast) really helped a lot. We couldn’t avoid the aoe completely, but eating 70% of it was great. M1 absorbs 90% of the aoe. Zukluk Vyx took two pulls, and we were feeling pretty good.

One unique thing about these encounters that differ from the previous tiers, is that they drop coin, and a good amount. By the time we’d downed the first four named, we’d each made 3p – plus paid for repairs once from the mender bot. To be expected while we learn something new. We had a blast, and our spirits were high as we set the script in motion for Doomcoil, which is a giant snake – and you only get one chance to beat him.

We knew he ported. Knew he had two aoe’s one large and one small. We proceeded to pull him (her?) and learned that the snake also heals when ever anyone dies, but also hits like a kitten. Tactics ranged from attempting it as a curor (snake in DT) fight with massive burning while we bladedanced for as long as possible, to trying to hide behind geometry to avoid the aoe’s. Needless to say he wiped the floor with us, though it did take some time. If you fail on him, he apparently can come and assist in the next encounter – so we called it a night for then.

The loot was not fantastic, but not bad either. Upgrades are upgrades after all eh? No discoveries but I’m sure that the “bigger” raid guilds have already cleaned out these little ones.

I was proud of our guild for what we accomplished, though I wish I hadn’t of been boxing, it wasn’t that big of a deal in the end. Nothing required a whole lot of maneuvering, and even though Arysh is only level 76, I ended up parsing 2nd zone wide on heals. Helps that a lot of things are AoE damage and druids certainly shine in those circumstances.

After raids, a few guildmates asked me if I thought I could solo heal Maidens. It’s one of the two instances in the Howling Stones, and used for the legendary (used to be fabled) weapon quest. It’s a hard zone, the two more difficult encounters would be the three sisters, where you have to root one, mez another and dps the third. Then there’s also the final named, who heals every time you dps (and that means ANY dps, including thorns, procs, adornments, cloaks, etc) until she’s done freaking out and then you can start up again. I was a little cautious but told the guild I was fairly confident I could solo heal it at level 76 on the warden. We had the ideal group, a guardian, dirge, necromancer, coercer, and swashbuckler, all level 80 except for me. We had one wipe, on the sisters because we had them running around for a bit too long, but pulled with the group charm and things went just fine. We got a lot of legendary chests, two master chests, a few upgrades (most of them going to the coercer, good night to be a caster!) and other random goodies. Arysh didn’t end up getting her legendary weapon since she still needs to do the quest from Vault of Eternal Sleep first. Afterwards we whipped through Crypt of Agony, and since it was 2:30am after that I called it a night.

Today I quested with Shadowgeist until he left for work, and then picked up a charmed pet to solo quest in Kunzar Jungle, the zone I hate the most. I love the way RoK has plenty of animal creatures, it’s the first time I’ve had such a supply of things to charm. In fact I re-spec’d for now just to be able to max out that charm while I’m questing. The little bit of extra dps is an amazing addition when I’m all alone. Hit level 77, and got to wear two new pieces of gear, a shield and a new pair of gloves. I have a cloak waiting for me and that chestpiece as soon as I hit level 79. Things are going smoothly in game (for the time being) here’s hoping it lasts!

 

That’s right, for the first time, Arsenal managed to down Mayong. Now, before anyone goes and starts wondering “hey, isn’t that a T7 raid and shouldn’t you be able to 2 group it by now?!” – just because he’s green, doesn’t mean he hurts any less. Well, ok. Maybe he does hurt a little less. But I was still very proud (and excited) for the guild taking him down. On our third pull none the less. This is Arsenal’s second attempt at Mayong, they didn’t get a whole lot of pulls on him in T7 before having to call it a night.

Of course nothing dropped for the troubador, we had two dirge pieces drop, a mystic bp as well as a necromancer bp, and some other random goodies like the disease bracelet. Once we coordinated ourselves on the final fight it really did seem quite easy. His smoking body can still be seen on the floor in the screen shot. Of course, Goudia is not anywhere close to being finished SoD. Since she’s never been my main before, she’s behind in everything, and I do mean everything. Shadowgeist got his Soulfire sword though, even if it is a tier late, I’m happy. Alaena (I probably spelled that wrong, she’s a guild templar) got hers, and Kaumo (warlock) got his. I was going to box Calreth for his update since he had classes, but I found that I couldn’t properly time bladedance without lagging all over from trying to play two accounts. I didn’t want to risk my group getting eaten by some miss timed aoe, and decided that he’ll just have to come along next time maybe when he doesn’t have tests going on.

Tonight we’re doing the Protector’s Realm, which is (as rumor have it) the T8 version of Labs (but harder..) so I’m anxious to see how that goes. We did have about three groups of guild members and had a few pick ups have to come along as well. Our regular guild coercer was unable to attend, so we took along a 71, our illusionist is also MIA, so we grabbed a 72 who was decked out in adept1’s and still managed to parse higher then some of our regular dps members (he plays a conjuror main). We also grabbed a 70 bruiser from guild who’s working on having that become his ‘new main’ as he has a swashbuckler that we already have one of. We grabbed a 75 warden, a 75 dirge, and a 70 dirge. In fact we had four bards, and I was the only troubador. Dirge is always flavour of the month on AB with troubadors a close second from time to time when everyone starts complaining about there being a lack of them (for raids only of course).

I’ve been crafting like a mad person since Frostfell came out, and I’ve also been doing the quests offered on the thundering stepps docks for house items (dishes, specifically). I collected 100 food items for both Thundering stepps and Everfrost, and was rewarded with a nice plate, and a mug. Of course now I have the concern that everyone is just going to be eager to step on one anothers toes and harvest every shrub they can find — but leave everything else up. Especially wood nodes, I see more wood nodes around then anything lately. I know this was to discourage “Cherry Pickers” (People who only harvest one of any sort of node and leave all the others up) and to try to get rid of the surplus of ‘useless’ bushes. A great idea in theory, just depends on how many people are going to be after these dishes. They’re not lore, you can sell them on broker, and you get 2% (well, I was) tradeskill exp for completing the repeatable quests. Not sure if those will be changing over time.

I love the new Frostfell items, since Goudia is still fairly new she’s got her wreath and tree now, as well as some plushie snowmen, the carol greeting cards are amazing and a nice touch, as well as the new plates of cookies and the hot chocolate mugs. The hanging lanterns give homes a warm fuzzy feeling and the outfits of course are fun as well.

So much going on and only so much time to do it all in. I’m torn between working on Claymore / SoD (is there really any point to working those now or are they going to become extinct like the previous quests such as Godking and Prismatic 1.0?). I’m also cranky because I really wish bards (at least troubadors) could choose the mage staff as a reward for SoD as opposed to the dagger. I parsed on average 1,000-1,3000 DPS (on fights where I wasn’t constantly staying out of range to ensure the survivability of my group, after all a dead bard is a useless bard) and I want to see that rise. I need proc gear in order to do that though. Not bad I suppose for a troubador who doesn’t have a single piece of fabled gear (except for that charm item, and does it count?) yet. We’ll see how things go!