A Pixel Nomad

There have been a few things I’ve been working on with Oger in EverQuest, but the two major projects have been working on the Dragons of Norrath progression (evil), along with the Trials of Mata Muram. Both are quite easy these days especially with mercenary, and the trials more so since the lock out timers have been tweaked slightly. You can now complete each one every 2 hours – 3 day lock out for completion (or winning), 2h lock out for a failure, and an overall 2h timer before you can move from one to the next. Oger and I managed to complete all 6 over the weekend which raised the base resists we are able to have by a small amount each trial. The hardest one required special spells to open chests scattered around the room and since I did’t have my spells at the time (they’re now sold in PoK, quite easy to obtain, but I didn’t know that at the time) we failed it. Returning later that evening netted a win at least.

Dragons of Norrath progression is a bit more difficult because it’s a faction grind. Faction in EverQuest can be a long and tedious task, as shown here by EQresource:

-3000 to -1999 – lowest faction points
-2000 to -751 – Scowls at you ready to attack! (KOS) (approx. 1300 point range)
-750 to -501 – Glares are you threateningly! (KOS) (approx. 250 point range)
-500 to -101 – Glowers at you dubiously. (Not KOS but very close to) (approx. 400 point range)
-100 to -1 – Looks your way apprehensively. (approx. 100 point range)
0 to +99 – Regards you indifferently. (The majority of NPC’s have this neutral standing with you) (approx. 100 point range)
+100 to +499 – Judges you amiably. (approx. 400 point range)
+500 to +749 – Kindly considers you. (approx. 250 point range)
+750 to +1099 – Looks upon you warmly. (approx. 450 point range)
+1100 to +2000 – Regards you as an ally. (Highest level of faction attainable) (approx. 1000 point range)
+2001 to +3000 – highest faction points

At the moment I am kindly faction with The Dark Reign, and have completed up to tier four in progression. I also managed to pre-loot the pieces for the final tier, completing them the previous week with Nonpoint and Xoxox who were completing the raids for another friend. These days the group tasks can be completed solo (especially with mercenary) so the faction grind is not quite as bad as it once was, but the raids still take a little bit of finesse.

You earn a few useful things for completing faction, the first tier unlocks the passive ability to increase your max stats by 10. The second tier grants 250 hp / mana / end and the third tier increases your buff slot limit by one. The fourth tier which is the one I’m currently trying to complete increases the critical chance of melee / magical attacks and heals and finally the fifth tier increases your ability to resist a detrimental spell.

I’ve been enjoying myself as we go through these older quests and factions. They’re still relevant and while I may not be able to handle doing much alone in the current content (just the way EverQuest is) at least I’m not completely useless.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

With Shadow of Fear released yesterday, I found myself happily wandering through the new zones, attuning myself to the new portals. This will come in handy when it comes time to actually adventure in these zones, and for now I can go invis and collect shinies since some new ones were added (but the rewards are not any better).

The new prayer shawl 3.0 was also added to game, and components for it seem to be dropping quite frequently. Or at least my group found a few of the drops yesterday without too much issue. People were also selling them to vendor, unsure of what they are for. Oger has been purchasing them and saving them for later use.

My enchanter managed to ding level 94 in the Feerrott (which has become my home away from home for a number of levels now) and is well on her way to level 95. Then begins the slow climb to 100. It seems like such a daunting number.

I decided the guild needed a neighbourhood of its own, so I purchased one from the station cash store. A guild neighbourhood allows only those guild members to buy plots within it. It also came with a guild hall to decorate – enormous! The hall has all sorts of convenient NPC you can place – things like bank, parcel, and travel. It will take me quite some time to decorate it the way I want, but for now at least the NPC are all placed, and there’s a portion dedicated to crafting (with bankers close by so you can run to and from).

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in EverQuest.

Shadow of Fear launch today, the second part of Rain of Fear, the latest EverQuest expansion. This second half of expansion goodness brings a few new zones, missions, and raids to the table along with new spells and alternate advancement. Since my enchanter is only level 93 there’s not a lot I can do with this latest update yet, but it won’t be long before I’m in the midst of it all (I believe around level 95 is when most things will come into play).

That doesn’t mean I’m not excited though, all of my friends and their level 100 characters will certainly be exploring the new areas that will be cram packed with other adventurers. I’m excited to see what will affect me. The new spells and aa in specific. I wish I could have gotten closer to 100 while I had the time, but that’s alright, I’ll get there eventually.

I’ve been having loads of fun playing EverQuest lately (as you can tell by my blog posts). I’m really glad I’ve returned. The game is still hard, and some classes are insanely over powered at the later levels (berserker decap and ranger headshot I’m looking at you) making it seem like my class is utterly worthless, but that’s alright, I just keep playing.

I’m not sure what else I want to play these days. I’ve always been a nomadic gamer and it seems a bit weird to only be focusing on one MMO. I’ve all but given up on Wurm Only, for a few reasons but the biggest reason being that I felt coerced into play because there were sever repercussions. If you don’t log in every single day, your animals / buildings / items suffer decay, and waste away. After playing for so long I disliked that penned in feeling, that feeling that I was going to actually lose my time invested if I wandered to another game. I LOVE the basics of Wurm, the creation process, the terraforming, all of it is amazing – but I don’t like being punished for not being there 24/7. I think I’ve finally broken free from that painful cycle.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Ah, plane of Earth. Fabled are still in game, so Oger and I headed over to level my ranger up a bit, and to camp the fabled mob that drops her pet weapon. She can’t equip it until level 75, but at least she’ll have it for when she’s ready. Speaking of, the ranger has been doing a good amount of leveling lately, she started off the weekend around level 43, but she’s now sitting comfortably at 70 thanks to Oger. The first aa I picked up was endless quiver, which basically allows me to use 1 arrow of any type, forever. So I picked the best arrow in the game currently and have one of them in my ammo slot. I’ve also started working on headshot, which is an incredibly handy aa while soloing (or powerleveling others).

I finished my first EverQuest collections. I was a bit disappointed with them honestly. You have a choice between aa or experience, and both are pretty poor rewards. At 60 the aa was a single one. At 93 it’s 6. The experience also barely makes a dent. There’s no neat house rewards, although you can get an augment for completing them all. If you like to complete achievements then I would suggest checking out the broker for good deals (there’s usually loads of shinies for sale) but other wise you can roam through the Rain of Fear zones invis and pick them up. Just be careful for undead or named.

The enchanter is almost 94, but I’ve had a yearning to play the necromancer as of late. Probably just because I get frustrated with the low dps the enchanter provides, and unless crowd control is desired she doesn’t actually DO a whole heck of a lot. Sure, I can buff others, but as far as actual group contribution, I feel like she falls behind. Still, it is my favorite character to play and I do have other things to work on with her (ie: prayer shawl 2.0) so I should get going on that some time.

Things are still going very well, over all. The second part of Rain of Fear should be releasing soon, and I’m excited about that. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!