A return to grouping, and miniature decisions

As always when time goes by I start to wonder about all of these alts I have. Sure, they’re great fun but are they really worth the hassle? Should I just be concentrating on one character (or two, one from each account). It’s due to a restlessness I tend to have and is not exactly game-related as real life has a tendency to disrupt things.

The point is I found myself cringing when I looked at the paladin adept3’s for 71-80. They’re going for 7p each and I need 28 of them. The loams are no better even if I had happened to find myself an alchemist, at 4p a piece plus fuel and raws. I do miss having all of my characters on one server so that I can take advantage of my crafters but when friends are spread all over this becomes increasingly difficult. I can’t afford to move 20 characters around for $50 each.

I decided not to play the paladin last night, and went back to my illusionist / mystic duo that I team up. The group (Ultann, Wpus and I) decided to head to Obelisk to attempt another go at the shield that has never dropped. We’ve been there at least 30 times I’d say by now, and have never seen it. It was a fairly good run, no wipes. The final encounter even dropped two items of use, a nice earring for the conjuror, and a master also for the conjuror. I have yet to see a master drop that I could make use of, but I’m hanging in there and waiting. It’s bound to happen sooner or later.

My next ‘goal’ is to start the epic for both characters, of course to do that for the mystic requires harvesting that I have not bothered to work up as much as I should. That will be todays goal until groups are formed. It would be nice to have them both sporting their epic, at least fabled if not mythical (which I have no grandure hopes of obtaining any time soon). I still need shards for the illusionist who is only sporting her T1 void set thus far.

Crafting is something I’d also like to get back into – both in game and out. Inspired by Kasul and his return to miniatures, I decided that I’d like to try my hand at it as well. I’ve painted a few in the past back when I was in school and it feels like ages ago. He’s going to help me out and send a few spare models my way, and this weekend I’ll be taking a trip to the local Games Workshop to see what I can find. Now, I’ve never really been interested in playing the games, but I do love the whole ‘before’ process. We’ll see how it goes, maybe I’ll give away the models to people who are interested.

I’ve been working out every single morning for the last week and as such I’ve been going to bed early (around 11-12EST) in order to wake up at 5:30-6am (depending on when Princess thinks I should wake up at). We wanted to do Vaults of Eternal Sleep last night but I wimped out and called it a night, read a little more of “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro (great book by the way) and fell asleep. It was still a pretty great night.

EverQuest II Hotfix – April 21st

EverQuest 2Hotfix April / 21 / 2009
GENERAL
The friends list on the welcome screen will now ignore offline friends if that option is enabled on the community window.

ITEMS
The 4-piece bonuses on the Paladin, Monk, Berserker, and Defiler Shadow Odyssey raid sets have been improved.
The Lycanthrope Bracelet’s effects in PVP combat have been slightly lowered.

QUESTS
One of the lists of names for the Task “Hidden Agenda” could appear in an unreachable spot on a bookshelf. This has been fixed.

WARD OF ELEMENTS
Elemental bosses in Ward of Elements now drop non-stacking encrusted gems. The encrusted gems can be unpacked to yield stackable elemental gems. This change allows the gems to be split between players when dropped.

Also remember all those new items are coming to the station market some time today, so be on the look out.

Rule of the day – Avoid the Kinship Keg

Yesterday I had some time to play with Kasul on my little rune-keeper. He managed to get an invite to Casualties of War (Thank you Ethic) and with that came a visit to the Kinship house in the shire. I learned something very important. Don’t drink from the Kinship Keg.

I took a sip, innocently enough. Just one sip. Before I knew it, I was passed out on the floor with a blurry image of Kasul hovering over me shaking my shoulders – and when I woke up I was in Tyrn Lhuig – Angman. This is a high level zone, at least higher then me. I was laying in a field surround by mosquito and when I managed to get my feet under me one of them came along and easily bonked me on the head. Of course my recall was down because I’d just used it, and guild recall was down.

Needless to say Kasul had an easier time of it and when he revived at least he was not too far away. Even though he was also unceremoniously dumped in a field some place. I guess that will teach both of us.

I paid the repair bill and we continued questing. The rune-keeper inched her way through 15 and most of 16 before I decided to call it a day. I didn’t get any crafting done, but I am sure I’ll manage to find a little time to work up the cooking and jewelcrafting.

I’ve already done all of the quests before on the other server with my minstrel, but I’m having a lot of fun with the rune-keeper. It’s interesting to make sure I align myself properly for either healing or dps depending on what I’m doing and who I am with.

The goal is to reach level 19 and be able to play with the Nostalgia who are still waiting to transfer, and work on my crafting. It’s a slow process but it’s been a lot of fun. Once we’re all there and settled it will be great to see some new sights, as I’m getting a little bit tired of running the same quests that I just did last week when I leveled the other character.

I was also happy to learn that I must have miss read the cost of housing. While it is still expensive, it’s not something that’s going to be completely out of my price range later on. I do want to purchase a home (seeing as housing is one of those things that I just enjoy doing) and I’ve been collecting a few house items to use once I get one. I’m not sure which area I’ll move to yet, but I’m thinking of avoiding the shire – since the Kinship home is there and my elf is constantly hitting her head on the low ceilings.

Kingdom of Sky Instances

I had a lot of other things to get done yesterday, so I didn’t play for more then two or three hours but I did get a lot accomplished thanks to Ultann and Wpus. Before I ended up crashing for the night I saw Ultann’s inquisitor reach level 71 which was just fantastic. My paladin managed to hit level 67 (or was it 68?) and the fury is 64 (I believe). We ran around BarrenSky and did various KoS (Kingdom of Sky) instances including The Nest, and Vaults.

Vaults typically drops a legendary class hat of some sort from the final named but alas our luck with master spells and loot has been absolutely horrible and we saw neither. I have no idea if it’s just a bad streak or what but we haven’t gotten any items in a very long time. Instead a symbol dropped that has some defense and parry on it so I snagged it for the paladin and gave up her bow.

I’m looking forward to starting RoK quests and getting some gear and coin rewards. Then there’s also the mass amount of TSO shards I’d like to gather in order to outfit her in her T2 shard gear. That will be a slower process, but I’ll get there eventually. Amassing Adept3/M1 for skills will also take a lot of time (and money) but I’ve found that unlike most MMO’s I actually enjoy tanking in EQ2. Maybe it’s just because I’m comfortable with the game, or maybe there’s some other reason, I’m not sure.

Once I level the paladin up it will be time for my warlock and dirge to take advantage of the recruit a friend (on the same account as the paladin). I wish the bonus experience worked for quest experience, though I suppose that may be just a little over powered.

Today I’ll be playing LotRO during the day with Kasul who is off work, so I won’t have any EQ2 time until later this evening. I hope to push the paladin to 70, and get the fury a few more levels as well. We’ll see! I hope everyone had an amazing weekend.

You’re level WHAT?

I believe I started the day as a level 38 fury and 41, respectively. I was up early (always am) and had very little planned for the day (though some new living room curtains did get installed as well as a shower curtain) so I decided to spend most of it gaming. It’s not often I get those chances, this week has been work-free since my deadlines passed, and next week will be much the same (unless I manage to find extra work, who knows) until I get into gear to meet more deadlines. Ah, joy. Anyhow! I had time on my hands, that’s the point. I logged in and before too long Ultann woke up (way too early for him) and we decided to go play in Permafrost.

I’ve mentioned before about how I dislike that EQ2 zones can “grey” out, giving people little to no reason to ever revisit them unless they mentor down. I think it’s a poor game plan. You don’t want people to out level your content, you want to allow them the freedom to explore where ever they want – give them choice. EQ and WoW are both examples of this. Things don’t become trivial per say. As I entered empty zone after empty zone it simply reafirmed my thoughts in the matter. There was no one around and we gained quite a few levels. I believe Ultann’s inquisitor box was level 51 at the time.

Before long, Wpus joined us and we moved to new grounds. I don’t remember the exact order that the day went but by the end of it we had spent a fair amount of time in the Clefts of Rujark (we did the two instances within that zone) which is off of Sinking sands, we also hung around in Sanctum of the Scaleborn and Ultann had to head out for a bit so Wpus and I explored around Pillars of Flame gaining achievement points and exploring some dungeons I never knew existed before heading back to the Kingdom of Sky zones for a little lazy grinding.

Through all of these zones I didn’t see another person. I DID hear a lot of complaining on the 1-9 channel about lack of low level groups (especially on Kithicor) where the majority of the population is 70-80 and those who are lower level are alts.

When all was said and done, the paladin reached level 63, and the fury is level 60. I managed to stay on top of the paladins gear enough so that she can actually tank some places – though she has issues taunting with adept1’s I do get amends and that helps a great deal. I had a blast, we explored places we’ve never been and saw things that we’ve never seen even after 4 years of the game.

I hope everyone else had an amazing Saturday, and that Sunday proves to be just as interesting. Safe travels no matter what realm you find yourself in!