Ah, Memories

My first raid ever in EverQuest, was Bertoxxulous. I was so nervous. I was tagging along with a friend’s guild on Veeshan Luclin, Keepers of the Elements (who are still around and going strong today). I was also an enchanter, and back when we were doing this raid they were an essential part of it. Actually in a few raids they were. It was nice. I remember so many people being involved. I remember how long the raid was, even though it was timed. I remember listening eagerly for all the instructions, and me being VERY nervous about not being nearly as “uber” as everyone else was.

It was exciting, and I still remember.

There are very few raids in EverQuest that I’ve actually done. Remember, I came to the game five years too late. Only stayed a year before EQ2 came out. I still had a lot of fun though. I did maze raids, Terris Thul, Saryn, old raids from days long past. I raided PoFear just once with my rogue, and spent most of it dragging bodies around. I loved shroud of stealth. I raided The Hole with Rage Veeshan (before Luclin and Veeshan merged). For every single one of those raids I was on edge, and always of the opinion that this was simply bigger then us (how ever many had gathered for that day). I remember raiding in PoI and not even knowing what we were raiding because I was on spider duty. To this day I don’t even know what the mob looked like I just remember mez’ing / helping dps down spiders. I think they were spiders, my memory may be a little foggy on that. I want to say we were raiding Behemoth, but again, I never saw the mob, so I’m not sure. It was one of the most annoying flags to get when I was working on those. Everyone complained about it. Pick up raids were not something one wanted to do for this encounter.
I ran Invis through some of the zones last night, just visiting old haunts. I’m still not uber, but I am having just as much fun now as I did way back when. I even see some of the same people still running around. The game is still quite active, do a /who in the bazaar or in the guild lobby and you’ll be surprised, I know I was. I realize I spend a lot of time traveling down memory lane, but how can you not when you’re exploring things you did 4-5 years ago.

One zone I certainly want to hit is Plane of Mischief. Gawd I love that zone. I spent hours and hours and hours there, farming named (who are difficult to tell that they’re named, on purpose of course), my first trip in I was smashed by a giant bunny who saw through invisibility and I laughed for weeks. It quickly became my zone of choice, and any time Fistinyereyes (the beastlord I used to play with) mentioned where I’d like to go (we could easily duo) that was the top of my list.

Ah, memories. They’re awesome. Every one of them.

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday was actually a day I didn’t spend gaming – go figure. I sat Ellithia in trader mode for the morning, not selling anything. The night before I’d sold a few little bits of odds and ends, mostly just trying to make room for more crap I can sell. It’s hard to get back into the market and see what sells and what doesn’t. I always used to love playing the market game way back when, granted it’s been a long time.

Next weekend I’ll be going to the Medieval Festival in Upper Canada Village – I’ve never been to one before and it’s their first one, so I am exceptionally excited. I plan on taking a whole lot of pictures, and yes, I am attending the King’s Banquette. Have I mentioned I’m excited?

Anyhow. Yesterday morning I spent in Natimbi with Invis, trying to get turtle meat to drop for Ishbel. The drops are rare, but I did manage to get one of the four. The quest gives a nice secondary item that has mana preservation on it, can’t go wrong with that.

Nostalgia the Guild has been growing by leaps and bounds. We’re up to over more then 30 unique accounts (not including alts) and are quickly approaching 70 members total (including alts). Not bad for something that started (basically) with just three of us. I have two free slots to create alts that are making me itch, contemplating what I want. Since I deleted my shaman I wouldn’t mind creating another one of those, though the idea of a magician has been appealing too. There’s still so much I’m enjoying and having fun with in game on a very basic level.

I’m still hoping to eventually get a crafting trophy or two started. I need to tribute a bunch of stuff that all my characters have been carrying around – and I finally went through invis’ bags and found all sorts of quest stuff in them. Go figure. I had a hard time deleting anything, but alas, it was just taking up room. Ancient quests that I’d never completed. I am still hoping to finish her scarecrow illusion mask (which I know is also part of her epic, but I have no interest in completing that). The wisps in Stonebrunt Mountains are a pain to find though. We’ll see how it goes.

Another Friday Come and Gone

Another Friday has come and gone, and another meeting of Nostalgia the Guild, perhaps the best gathering ever aside from our very first meeting. We had TWO full groups of people with a few who were known to be gone for the night. Our goal was to own Dulak’s Harbor, and own it we did. A quick /who of the zone showed 26 people there at one point in time – and not all of them were Nostalgians. It was fantastic. Boy, did the experience fly. I think the level leader of the night was Malfi, gaining an amazing 7 levels in the hours we spent there. I managed to hit not only 51 on Ishbel (I was 47 to start) but gained her first 3aa, and spent them in run speed. My choices right now are very limited, especially with my stats already being at the cap of 255. I’ve decided to turn my focus to other things instead of so much wisdom, like mana, and flowing thought.

As if that was not enough, I got to partake in starting a war, and swaying the forces to benefit me. Not without some help of course. Kuron was right there, beard flapping in the breeze.

See, in Hollowshade Moor, on Luclin, there’s three types of creatures constantly battling for power. The owlbears, the sonic wolves, and the grimlings. The first bit of the war was easy. Weaken the grimlings so that when the owlbears prepared their attacks, they won. The next part wasn’t so easy, we had to find the right caves to start it off. Then the sonic wolves began their attacks on the owlbears, and a few slipped past us while we ran off trying to figure out where we should be. The owlbears lost their hold on one of the camps. No worries, they still had claim to one camp. So when the sonic wolves sent out their force en mass again, we killed them before they could get to the owlbear camp.

Then we killed another wave. Waited a bit. Killed another. Waited. Killed another – did this five times, those wolves were persistent. After the fifth wave of sonic wolves had been dispatched, the owlbears made their move to the caves, and since nothing stood in their way, over took them.

Once the owlbears occupied all three territories, their queen Skriat`Chakku spawned in a provisioner area, and even though the drop I wanted was supposedly rare – she dropped it. Ishbel is now the proud owner of “Eye of the Owlbear Mother” – which may not have the best stats, but it does have a meditate mod, and it does have FT1 (remember, I’m capped on wis) add a +mana augment to that thing, and she’s set. Plus, it was LOADS of fun to get.

The fun of course did NOT end there. Oh no. Kragnn and myself (as Ellithia, the 68 cleric) have been slowly working on a charm slot item that came out with Serpents Spine – and one of these relics we needed to collect came from Blackfeathers Roost. The zone is made up of nests and islands and you need to unlock access to each one. We managed the first two with no problem, the experience was fantastic and it was quite easy. We had to round up food to feed hungry griffons. Once we’d done that (twice, they’re hungry!) we noticed the zone was (of course) getting progressively difficult. Of course we called upon mighty Kuron to come save the day. We quickly got him caught up to both of us, and headed off to the third quest in the series.

By that time, we noticed that the relic we had to collect was actually on the first island, and we didn’t need to get access to any of the other ones at all. Oh well, the experience really WAS quite rewarding, not to mention just plain fun. The final access lets you into the Queen’s Palace, which is a raid mob for 55+ (but apparently it’s a lot harder then any 55 level raid would be able to handle) so I doubt I’ll be taking her down any time soon (I see Tipa is there tonight though with a friend, I’m sure if anyone can do it, she can, and maybe we’ll all get the pleasure of reading about it!).

Tonight I did some simple crafting for Malfi, contemplated new upgrades for Ishbel, and almost maybe started my crafting trophy. I’m not sure yet. There’s a quest I want to do in Natimbi for Ishbel to get her a new secondary item with mana preservation III on it, we’ll just have to see how that goes!

So congratulations to everyone from Nostalgia last night on a whole lot of levels, and fun. I hope everyone had a blast! We had a record setting number of folks on, and it was just an amazing time. I’m very lucky to be part of something so wonderful, with people who are just fantastic. It’s been a very long time since I’ve felt this involved in an mmo, and after all my ‘restless’ time bouncing around from game to game, who would have thought all I needed to do was dive back into EQ1.

How Things Change

This a very easy zone to get awesome exp. There are usually enough for a pick up group, but bringing your own wouldn’t be a bad idea. The key is to sit on top of the first hill staright ahead of the building that contains the NL zone, the hill with thr huge boulder on top. Have someone be a designated puller and just pull Greyhoppers and any stonegrabers. These con red for groups in mid twenties but easy kills. They will spwan super fast.

Just the other day I had a group consisting of SK(me), Ranger(puller-great zone for them too), Beastlod, Shaman, Necro, and Bard. The experience was awesome. I got two levels in 3 hours.

– Talking about Marus Seru, in 2006

Oh how things change. The above quote came from a reply in allakhazam, that just made me giggle. That was the EQ1 I remember. When it took three or four hours to get a level. Here they’re going on about how awesome the experience was. Last night an impromptu Nostalgia gathering took place for most of the evening, and we gained so many levels it made me dizzy. My druid went from level 37 to 43 in the amount of time we played. Tipa came with her necro and gained a crazy number of levels as well. Sev, Said, Gozad, Binxs, and Gnewton, we all had a blast. The pulls were steady (and constant) and aside from a break here and there when people had to afk, I don’t think we slowed.

It helped to get people caught up for tonight’s meeting. Gnewton especially, who deserves a medal for working so hard to get caught up to us, and no I’m not just saying that because he’s an enchanter and I’m looking for mind candy. Gozad left early in preparation for packing and moving to his new house, but even he benefited from the plentiful experience before that. I didn’t dare play Ishbel, she’s already level 47. It was great fun to play the druid though, a character I rarely expected to play again. She’s severely out of date in everything from gears to spells, wearing batfang headbands and wolf fang earrings, the only things I could afford way back when. It was refreshing to play her, I’d missed it a great deal.

That’s how my evening was spent, and it was wonderful. Chattering to friends about everything on vent, exping in a hot zone, getting some coin and lots of levels.

Before that I made Tipa a set of jewelery, which hopefully came in handy, and after that was done I took Qutey and Ishbel and bought / organized the last 20 levels worth of spells that I’d been neglecting. I found it amusing that as soon as I got Qutey caught up with her neglected spells, I went and gained 6 more levels, which of course meant even more spells to buy. Druids get an insane amount of spells, good grief. Granted, a lot of those are port-type spells, but still. It’s crazy.

Hopefully I’m all set for this evening. I’ll move Ishbel over to Dulak later on in the day. After being in the zone for the past two weeks or so, I’m wondering when I’ll start to bore of it. The answer to that is quite simple I suppose. As long as I’m with good friends (ie: Nostalgia) I won’t. I’m hoping this weekend goes as great as last weekend did. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ishbel will be switching to aa experience very shortly and that the plethora of alts I have will also all be gaining levels before too long. Ah, good times.

The eyes, the eyes!

Last night was another one of those ‘wow, I have so much to do, what do I start with’ type of nights. To begin with I spent a good chunk of time making jewelery. I spent way too much money, especially on failed combines. I may be maxed in my craft, but without maxing out on some particular aa’s like salvage and a reduced failure rate (I need the next two ranks) it’s quite common for me to fail on a combine – especially when the gems I’m cutting trivial around 450. Ouch. In the end, Urtog ended up with a new set of jewelery, as did Krann, Ishbel, and Gnewton. Ishbel almost makes me want to cry. She has just about as much mana at level 47, as my level 68 cleric does. She could still potentially wear two more pieces of jewelery with +300 mana on them as well, but for now I’ve opted not to. She’s sitting at 4500, Ellithia (the 68) is sitting at 5000. Way back when that wasn’t too shabby, but over the three years I was away, things changed drastically. Right now unfortunately the game seems to have taken a turn I don’t exactly like. The past few days have been about being uber, and not about just having fun. Aspects of them, at least. I’m looking forward to hanging out with Nostalgia in Dulak on Friday, and I’m hoping this feeling goes away.

I was also supposed to make some spells last night, but that didn’t exactly work out. Of course now Kameeko’s bags are filled with various gem tid bits and she’s got no room to store any of it. Let alone research components. I wanted to make my mass enchant dwerium spell, which has an 8 hour timer. I dislike spells with timers. That’s alright though, some how I’m sure I’ll manage.

After all that was done, I spent a few minutes farming in Dulak – nothing dropped, then I noticed Gnewton was leveling in guild (an enchanter) and what better way to ensure I get myself some future enchanter buffs then by helping him out! So I relogged to Qutey Patootie (my halfling druid) and we set out for Stone Hive. By the end of the hour or so we’d spent there, I gained 5 levels.

Wow. Not bad. Nothing dropped there, either. However, we were luck enough to be trained by some higher level folks running through the zone. How nice was that. They were probably not used to lower level people actually being around in a zone (it’s a hot zone though, it’s not THAT rare to find people meandering around) though in the back of my mind the least they could have done was /ooc that there was a train incoming. They didn’t just train us once, no, they trained us twice. Thank goodness we had Krann there to save the day and help us dps down all those mobs.

Oh yes, amusing screen shot of the night. Those red glowing “eyes” pictured above, are actually Gnewton’s pet’s hands. He’s invisible, and all I saw for the evening was those glowing red hands floating around. He managed to get a few levels as well, ever closer to our Friday Nostalgia group. I’ve got to admit, his enthusiasm for the whole ordeal is quite contagious. Just ignore the fact that his corpse is also pictured there in the screen shot. It didn’t hurt, much.

I have to buy spells, for Ishbel, Minxe, and Qutey, and probably even Satia. I haven’t bought any of them anything for the past 20 levels or so. I’ve been so busy doing other things and working on other stuff. I love it. Sure a good portion is simply because I have multiple alts to work on, but I absolutely adore having stuff to do in game. There’s always something to get done. It’s a feeling that I haven’t had for a very long time. I realize I say that a lot, but hey, it’s true.