Category: Gaming

 

Ok, where to start. First of all, a little venting. I love playing my troubador, I love playing all of my classes obviously. I’ve settled to a ‘main’. The guild needs the troubador — on raids. But not much else aside from that. Since we have a steady dirge who plays, they typically get to go along in the instance runs. Which I can understand. In fact I’d say 90% of the groups out there look for a dirge. Very rarely do I ever see anyone specifically asking for a troubador. Do people even know we exist? I know they like the dirge due to their hate transfer for the tank, but I can play a de-agro song for everyone not a fighter. I know they have their melee proc buff, but what about the troubador caster version? I know they have a dps buff, but I can buff haste! Last night was one of the rare occasions that saw me playing the troubador in a group – and I was very thankful for it let me tell you. We headed back to Chelsith to finish off our quests. The zone was stingy (and I do mean stingy) with both named and chests. We got two of the alternative named up (they’re random) which of course all dropped treasured stuff. We got two legendary out of the whole zone, and no one could use either thing that dropped, the last named dropped a 2h spear.

On the plus side, I did complete my quests for the zone, and the scale of the leviathan was one of these items. I can finally get rid of my fishbone earring! It was really time. I also did a few of the island of mara quests, old, sure, but they needed to be done. I missed out on the rest of the instance runs, but well, I was glad for the one I got to go on. I really wish guilds would make exceptions for their bards (maybe it’s just me). I play mine and I play her well (just as I’d play anything) and I understand that I’m not tanking so you can’t appreciate fancy pulls, and I’m not healing, so you can’t appreciate life saving abilities, and I’m not going to top the dps parses, so you can’t comment on that, but I am enhancing everything that the group does, rotating through jesters, making sure Bladedance is up when it’s needed, contributing with a lot of stuns (I think I’m up to 5 now) and debuffs. Bards are useful for far more then just raids. So if you’re not used to taking one along with you, try it.

In other news, GU41 goes in today. Of course, there were no in game warnings about this. I did happen to read about the four hour downtime on the network status page though ahead of time. 10am EST passed and people started grouping up, assuming that the down time had been postponed until another time. Promptly at 10:25am EST, the servers came down. Anyone who’s been playing for any length of time is now used to this happening. Upset? Naw, it happens. We expect it. Is that good? Not especially.

What am I excited about in this update? Well, first of all Frostfell is going to be implemented. Yes, I am excited! I love house items. I love decorating. And Frostfell is one of those wonderful in game events that has plenty of everything. I’m sure I’ll blog about more of the event as it goes on. A lot is the same as last year, but that’s alright, it doesn’t bother me at all.

In the notes, some quests are being changed and fixed. Mastercrafted gear is getting an update (after complaints that it was too far below treasured gear this tier). If you want a full list of what the update contains, you can find it here. Just hope you know how to read without any paragraphs in the text.

So hopefully the update goes off without a hitch. Tonight my guild is raiding MMIS, and I know a bunch of people are hoping we get Mayong down finally. We’re going in with a few new tactics, so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. We’ve also recruited a few new people, which is always good. The drama seems to have died down some, now I just want to get to raiding!

 

A good friend of mine surprised me with the portrait of Venril Sathir, which was a limited edition reward for purchasing a magazine (or so I’d read) and made my afternoon. My only issue is that all of these very nice paintings are giant sized, the LoN ones included (can see one of them on the far right side) and I’m going to run out of room before too long. Not so much of an issue in Gorowyn where the houses seem to stretch on forever, but it’s an annoyance in the Qeynos and Freeport versions. I wish there was a “shrink” button. The painting literally comes to life, the mist swirls up in the painting. My little burnayai is passed out on the floor there, named him ‘scrub’.

Once I’d gotten the painting I decided I wanted to completely revamp Arysh’ house, so that’s what I spent the past day or so doing. I still owe 18,000 status on the place where as Stargrace has been down to 0 for quite some time now. I try not to make my houses crowded since it just causes issues. It’s located in South Qeynos though, the 2nd one closest to Qeynos Harbor on the Antonia Bayle server if someone wants to take a peek. I’m sure I’ll post screen shots later on.

So, this weekend was busy. I managed to get Arysh to level 76, completed the tome quests, got her action figures, decorated. Last night I finally managed to wiggle into some instance groups with the guild — oh, wait. That’s right, except Sebilis was down all day for <insert random reason here> and no one could get to the instances inside subsequently. I’d never been in Chelsith before, in fact I didn’t even know it was an instance I thought it was a regular dungeon zone. Low and behold, I was wrong. In beta this zone didn’t re-set properly and you could enter someone else’ cleared out instance. It was interesting. I had three quests for the zone, one ends in the fabled charm item that I’m looking forward to getting that has the enduring breath on it. No more fishbone earring! Goudia is already 80, so I wasn’t there for any experience, but I did get her 130th aa she needed. 10 to go. She also got a new chest piece with some pretty high int. Too bad nothing else good dropped from the zone.

The group changed around some after that and we picked up a few more people. Headed to Charasis: Maiden’s Chamber, and had a hard time in there with the new members, so we ended up leaving after a bunch of deaths. I’ve been there a few times, and love the zone, you just really need a good group. So we decided to go to Charasis: Vault of Eternal Sleep, where I also had two quests to do there, one for the fabled neck piece that has a heal on it. I won’t wear it but it’s fun to look at. Nothing much dropped there either, I think we had two ornate chests and the rest were treasured. I hadn’t been there before, so it was nice to look around. I think I’ve been to all of the instances now, at least with Goudia.

Hopefully I can get Arysh a few more levels, I’d like to get her to 80. On the other hand, I’m also trying to work my tradeskills on the other 7 crafters and get them to 80 as well, we’ll see how it goes. I still dislike doing everything solo, but I suppose it could be worse.

On a side note, Christmas shopping is done, the tree is up, and the cat has been warned. We’ll see how long that lasts.

 

One of the more amusing quests that came out with RoK, is one of the language quests. This weekend I decided I’d level Arysh some, and get some aa. The easiest way of course through questing. She decided to pick up the three tome quests which are static spawns, one in Kylong plains, and two in Fens of Nathsar. After picking up the pages, turning them in to a collector, each one gives a sub quest (or two) with a few easy objectives. The one in Kylong has you kill 15 skeletons, one in fens has you kill a few cockatrice, and the final one has you feed a froglok some people food. At the end of the froglok language one, Shorty, decides to stick around for a bit, rambling and trailing after you. He doesn’t just trail after you either, he gates with you if you try to shake him off.

And boy does he talk. Almost none stop. He takes off after some amount of time on his own, but no matter what I did the little green shorty refused to leave Arysh’ home. So far the weekend’s been fairly productive. With a Mistmoore Inner Sanctum (MMIS) raid scheduled for this Wednesday, I decided maybe I’d be able to wiggle Arysh onto the raid rather then Goudia, depending on our turn out (or I offered to box). Arysh has been on the stage of SoD where she only needed the 6 pages and the named afterwards, so I talked to Shadowgeist and asked him if he thought we could duo this yet.

I played Goudia and Arysh (Troubador and Warden) and he played the tank, and we managed (Him at level 80, as well as Goudia, and Arysh at level 75) to duo right up to the named (where we stopped for the day and decided we’d do the rest Sunday as I know guild mates need them too). I was impressed. The zone IS still difficult. They still cast dots left right and center, they still stun, adds are still a pain (though we had 4 encounters at one point and still managed to survive) but it was doable. There were other raids running through on their way to MMIS so at times the zone lagged and that wasn’t quite fun, and yes, we did die (though a few times we died on purpose so we could make our way to the back staircase instead of the front doors) but I was still happy and proud that we managed it. Goudia is way at the beginning of SoD, Dasie has hers already and has for a long time now. If there’s a chance of me switching off to my warden I’d gladly take it.

I had the sage make all of Arysh’ spells up to 75, 8 more fire emeralds and she’ll be done, always a good thing. I’m just now starting to get to the good quests with legendary rewards. I haven’t taken her to Jarsath Wastes yet but I want to start working on that shortly. She also hasn’t started the Kunzar Jungle quests, I’ve stuck to Kylong Plains and Fens of Nathsar, aside from that one Crypt of Agony instance run. Sitting at level 75, 50% through it, with 118aa. I’m quite happy. I always did enjoy playing my warden.

Granted there are 100’s of druid types on the server and every second group I hear asking for a healer is looking for plate or chain, but oh well. It’s supposed to be what I want to play, right?

Another full day of Christmas shopping / decorating today, and then some game time. Ah, ’tis the season.

I hear the conversations every day on 70-79 channel, “So and so took my named, how dare they!” and similar conversations. They’re met with the typical answers, there’s no such thing as camps in EQ2, you should have been quicker, lock your encounters, etc etc. So today when I was out adventuring on Arysh (who dinged 74 warden) I just couldn’t help but ask myself what ever happened to just being nice.

Typical scenario here. I’ve got a scaled wolf from the Field of Bone charmed. It’s a level higher then me, which means it’s prone to breaking. I wander over to kill some prowlers I need for one (of many) repeatable quests. I spot the named up. Make my way over to it. There’s another druid with a charmed Yeti not too far away, also killing prowlers. I have issues, charm breaks, I’m hurting pretty bad. Eulic from Mayhem (a raid guild on AB) sees all this go down. When my charm breaks, he charms the scaled wolf that I had charmed, and takes down the named with me standing right there (I obviously don’t lock my encounters, I never have).

Sent him a tell, saying that was awfully rude, why hadn’t he just asked if I’d like some help, and grouped up so that we both got the aa (it dropped treasured, I have no idea if it drops anything valuable, I just wanted the aa from the kill). He says it’s fair game, and that’s the way the game is played.

Ok. Well, I understand that there’s a whole persona that goes around with “contested” and named mobs. But what ever happened to just being nice. If you see someone in trouble, why not offer to help. Instead of trying to think only of yourself and snatching that named. It’s just a game after all. The problem partially is, I know these people are friendly to their personal friends, and their guilds, it’s just strangers who they feel they can be rude to. They sent me a tell back saying that my guild was of no importance, and that I couldn’t do anything to ruin their reputation due to the fact that Arsenal was small game on Antonia Bayle. It doesn’t matter if that’s true or not, why does it give people an excuse to be rude and mean.

It seems that people thrive on drama. The latest gossip that runs around the server involves a player sleeping with another players wife in real life. It’s broadcast all over the channels, and the response from the general public at times is just atrocious. That’s a personal matter between two (or three) people, why would you start broadcasting it across channels? Maybe it’s just me, and I just don’t understand something key here. Does that mean I’m looking for a carebear type game where everyone is smiling and happy all of the time? No, of course not. That’d be impossible to start with, and just plain weird.

That’s also not to say that nice things don’t randomly happen, they do. A friend of mine on Najena was grinding crafting writs trying to faction up to be able to afford her 78 and 79 sage books which were going for 4p each. Someone asked her for a few spells to be made, and she apologized, saying she couldn’t make them because she didn’t have the advanced books yet. The stranger paid for the books for her, and tipped her for making the spells as well. Random acts of kindness are out there. Just not enough of it.