Pool Tables, Crafting, and Antonia Bayle

Yesterday was pretty fun, the paladin reached level 70 which was a fantastic goal. I took her to Palace of the Awakened which is all but forgotten now with all of the new content. There wasn’t another person to be found. Boxing, I took down the two dragons in each of the wings, who of course dropped nothing but treasured for me. Ah well. After that I headed to Vaults, which is an instance on the Isle of Awakening, lots of spell casters in that zone. 

Nothing of note dropped except maybe the fury class hat which has a pretty cool graphic. Of course if you manage to snag one of the ‘box of utterly classless hats’ you don’t even need to be a fury to have an item with the same graphic. Since I don’t have any fury, I put it for sale. I would have liked the paladin hat, but I remember them being quite ugly, and I’m sure I can do without.

Two more levels and I can finally start outfitting the paladin. I need to get my alchemist some levels, goal for later today perhaps. I figure since I have crafters on both accounts, I can box the instances and even if one character is just sitting inside of the zone, that’s faction and a shard for them. I know the quests for TSO shards have been changed so that you can’t let people into an empty zone any more for clickie updates (or at least this is what I’ve heard through the grape vine, I haven’t tested it myself yet) which makes sense. There are a handful of quests that require no killing at all, so after an instance was cleared you used to be able to just wander in and grab it yourself. 

I built a pool table for a friend, their house is a work in progress. They wanted something ‘modern’ looking. The screen shot is a view from the back of the house, there’s a TV off in the distance with a couch, some gaming tables and of course the pool table. VERY much a work in progress though. 

Afterwards I decided to work on the TSO signature line with Petites (78 templar) in the hopes of getting her a little experience. The quest starts on the docks in both Qeynos Harbor (goodies) and East Freeport (evil aligned) and sends you to speak with either Antonia Bayle, or Lucan D’Lere. Of course in the screen shot Petites took the time for a photograph with the queen herself who looks less then amused with the whole situation. 

Halflings rock.

I didn’t get too far in the series because I realized I had yet to complete the crafting introduction quests, even though Petites has been an 80 jeweler for quite some time, a unicorn mount may not be out of the question. Eventually (some day) I have hopes of completing enough faction required to actually purchase all of the items on the merchants. We’ll just have to see how that goes though. 

All in all it was a fairly good day. I have been having fun watching everyone else give their predictions for 2009, while I myself am not really one to make those types of lists, they always interest me. 

Nostalgia is half way through 35, and creeping towards 36 at a fairly steady pace. Hopefully once my two crafters hit 70 the status they get from their writs will help move us a little further. I planned on using up all of my potions before 70, so the experience would slow down so that I can earn more faction and status. We’ll see how that works out (if it works out). I hope everyone is having an amazing week no matter what game they’re playing. 

A huge hug and shout out to anyone reading this by the way. To those who have contacted me over the years and who have given me opportunities I have only dreamed of, my thanks. You all have no idea how much it makes me smile to hear about your own adventures. Sorry for the sentimental round there. I renewed my site yesterday for another year, after contemplating ending it and moving on to a new project. So much work has gone into it and I truly do enjoy writing, even if I’m not one of the ‘big names’ like others I read. 

Safe travels, see you in Norrath!

Quiet Sunday Fun

It was a quiet Sunday, and those are rare. The paladin is now sitting at level 68, she was big enough to start the Kylong Plains quests – but not quite big enough to solo them, especially since she’s missing gear. Lots of gear. I didn’t want to bother getting her any until she hits 72, and then she can wear incarnadine. Grouping with level 80’s isn’t a problem any more, and in the morning I headed to Halls of Fate in Bonemire for a quick run. The group consisted of myself playing both paladin and templar, the trusty Shadowknight, a Conjuror, Assassin, and Dirge. The zone was fun, and fast. We all mentored down even though after a few people mentored everything was green anyhow. Nothing of any note dropped, I was hoping since the aa in the nest was apparently re-set that so would the aa in other zones. Wasn’t so, ah well. 

Goals? Getting the paladin to 72 so I can get her into some proper gear, spending 100p on some loams so I can get her some skills – and finding an alchemist to make those skills. My own is sitting at 65 currently. Though she does have full vitality and 5 other level 80 crafters on the account, so technically speaking I could inch her closer to 70 if I tried. 

Still looking for a raid guild too. Or I just need to meet a few tanks or some static groups. Slow process, but I know it takes time. You have to actually be around and in game longer then 10 minutes if you expect to get a group or make new friends. Since I’m constantly flip flopping from character to character, it can be frustrating. Nostalgia is well on their way to level 36, which is one level closer to 40, which is one level closer to new bank slots, and two more amenity. Really looking forward to that!

Other then that, just a lot of real life post-holiday clean up.

Quest of The Week: Infiltrating The Sanctum

Yesterday I was looking through Arysh’ quest journal, thinking to myself “wow, I only have room for 8 more quests”. The quests that I do have in there I’m reluctant to delete, they’re either chains that I’d like to complete one day, or they’re book quests that I don’t ever delete because (gasp) house items rock. One quest that had been in there forever (almost literally) was part of the Sanctum of the Scaleborn timeline. It’s one I’d never completed on any character – even though I have basically lived in SoS in the past, working on Claymore (which I completed on Arysh). 

The quest is the ‘infiltrating’ line, that starts just inside the doors to SoS on the left hand side. The first few quests are quite easy, you have to run around placing listening devices. Of course by now everything is very grey to me, so this was no issue. The entire quest compromises of 6 portions, each one slightly more difficult then the previous. 

When I got to the final two quests, Shadowgeist came to SoS to help me out. Not that I needed help per say, but killing grey heroic mobs can be slow (and boring). Since I was there, I decided to log in Ellithia, the 74 defiler. Added her to group and when we mentored, the zone turned green (and most of the upper levels still grey) which was perfect. We had to kill enough scaleborn to finally get a trial stone to drop, and that was probably the most difficult part of the whole quest. The trial stones are used to spawn a ring event in a pit and in the amount of time I’d been in SoS, I only saw one. Thankfully, we were lucky and got one to drop after clearing out a few rooms. 

The quest gave me a LOT of achievement, and it was just plain fun. Of course there was a hidden reason why I wanted to complete this chain, and it was not the fact that the second last reward was a cool looking sword that my warden could wear. 

 It was of course a house item. One of the few things in game that will pull me to a quest no matter what level it is. The dragon bust doesn’t look all that impressive compared to the other crafted ones, but it does have a fair amount of status on it, and I’m proud for collecting it. The final quest makes you kill Cyenadros, a x2 epic dragon that resides above the gorg pit in SoS. He (she?) was not up when we made our way there, but you can trigger them by killing the worshippers who hang out on the rug on the bottom floor. Then upstairs x2 drake will spawn around the outside of the main platform. Kill them, and Cyenadros will spawn in the center. The dragon is level 67, and we duo’d it at level 74. They DO have a kick back, so make sure you’re up against a wall when you fight or you’ll get tossed over the side. Other then that, fairly simple fight. 

Arysh hit 149aa when all was said and done, which is not too bad. I’d like to be closer to 160, but since I haven’t worked on her at all, well, I’ll take what I can get. 

When I was done with the SoS quest fun, I decided to level the paladin a little bit. Sitting at 62, Lithe has her 52 rare spell (hate transfer via group) and is a lot of fun to play. I logged in my templar (Petites) to box along with, and headed off to do The Nest in Barren Sky with Shadowgeist. 

The paladin managed to hit level 65, which means she can group with level 80’s and get quest updates (finally). The templar also hit level 78, which is a huge deal to me because solo’ing with a templar is like watching paint try. It also means I’m close to having my 5th level 80 character, and possibly a tank before too long on the 2nd account (which I’m really looking forward to). At 65 I can start the Kylong Plains quests, but I think I’ll wait until 67-68 before starting them. I haven’t explored very many zones with Lithe yet, and I’m still enjoying the paladin more then I thought I would. I looted a very nice shield off of Cyenadros last night, so she’s sporting that. Now I have to save up another 100p for some T8 loams, too. Only five more levels before I’ll start using those (and I should level the alchemist up to help her out too). 

There’s still so much fun to be had in Norrath, I hope everyone enjoyed their Saturday! I’ll write more about the other games I bought on Friday this week hopefully. he

DING! Nostalgia hits 35

Yesterday Nostalgia hit level 35! I’m so exceptionally proud of Ecor and Kasul who have been working really hard to get us those levels. It was an important milestone, though it may not seem like it. First, it’s one step closer to 40, which brings us extra bank space, and it also allowed us to purchase two more guildhall amenities! They were expensive, but worth it. I’ve donated close to 300p towards the hall, and millions of status. Of course once we hit level 35 it was time to decide what we wanted our two amenity to be!

There’s the harvesting depot that the guild could really make use of, as a central location for craft supplies, as well as the hirelings that will go out and harvest for you. That was pretty high up on my list of things to purchase, but I think we’ll try to get some of that around level 40. So instead, we purchased (finally) a broker, and a hireling who we can sell looted items to – including all of those status items we gain from mobs. That means no more running around everywhere trying to find the proper merchant to sell to (or in my case, no need to head to Maj’Dul to use the faction instances to sell to since the merchants there also accept everything). 

Our total amenities include: Druid porter (since we can’t afford to purchase all of those bells, the druid porters are great to get around Norrath), banker, broker, rush order writs, fuel merchant, and junk buying merchant. Since we are so small, and such a low level, we really had to be careful about where to spend the two extra items. They each cost 10p and 1,000,000 status. Kasul and I donated some more plat towards the escrow, and we still have 13 million status in there, so that should do for a while more. 

Eyenstein and Albrta asked if Shadowgeist, Kasul and I wanted to do a few of the vampire instances in Nektulos forest for some aa. Of course we agreed, and it was a lot of fun, I gained 1.5aa with Arysh, and I also had the quest to receive vampire smite on me, I finally completed the chain of quests from the encampment by the waterfalls. I’ve only had that quest on me forever. 

Kasul was also gracious enough to let Shadowgeist and I into his empty Crucible instance and The Deep Forge so that we could get the void shard updates (clickies) and earn some shards. Since Crucible was the daily double, we managed to get five shards without having to actually do the instances. I’m saving up to upgrade the shoes, gloves, and shoulders I have – which means I’ll be saving for a while, I need about 60 shards. Ugh. 

Since I’ve decided (for now) to settle on Arysh as far as ‘mains’ go, things have been going really well. It’s easy for me to log her in and decide what I need to do. This week hopefully I’ll be getting both my tailor and alchemist to level 70, which means then it’s just a hop skip and jump with writs to level 80. 

Hope everyone has an amazing weekend, I’m happy that the holidays are winding down a little bit.

LineageII, The Witcher, Dungeon Runners and W101

Today being Boxing Day in Canada, it just wouldn’t be complete without some shopping. I typically avoid the stores because there’s a million people out there all shopping too, but this year I wanted to brave the crowds and go out. My parents graciously gave me $100 certificate for EBGames (as well as numerous other gifts) so that’s where I headed. I was looking for a few pc games that I’d never played, had heard very little about, that were maybe not exactly my typical games, that I didn’t care if I got bored of them 10 seconds after I bought them. This was “fun” money after all.

I contemplated getting a game card for WoW. Looked over at the rack of pc games (small and all alone) as the crowd swarmed around me. I almost picked up LoTR, but decided against it. 

Instead I came home with The Witcher, Dungeon Runners, and LineageII. 

The Witcher was slightly annoying to install. For some reason my copy didn’t come with a code (and it said it should be on the back cover, inside the phone book sized manual that came with the game) and without that code yes you can play but you can’t patch the game. Annoying. There were a number of solutions, and the one I found worked. I didn’t want to be waiting forever for customer support to email me a code (which was another option). 

Decided to install and activate the two free months that came with LineageII. Reminds me of guild wars (gee wonder why) to start. VERY pretty game though, and it was fun running around learning commands. No idea how to claim the black mask I apparently got with the 4th anniversary edition, but I’m not too concerned yet. I know very little about this game at all. I know it looks pretty. Hey that’s all that should matter, right?

Haven’t installed Dungeon Runners yet, but for $20 and 6 months of game play I’m not expecting all that much. They advertise it as a game to play when your ‘main’ game is down, perfect. 

I forgot to mention, renewed my subscription for a month for Wizard 101. Over the holidays I (of course) had my laptop, which the game runs perfectly on. I managed to creep into level 14, part way through as I finish off a few last Wizard City quests before moving on to the next world. Also got a new outfit, which is just as important as those levels. 

Lots of games to keep me entertained, and lots of learning about them to do. I don’t mind that though, it was exactly how I wanted to spend the game certificate, hehe. 

Hope everyone is still enjoying their holidays!