Healing Time, and it’s all about the alts

First of all, Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mothers out there! Hope today is wonderful.

Some how I managed to convince Growlius, who is a good friend of mine from EQ2 and also plays VG with me – that EQ1 was actually not evil, and he should come play. Not to be confused here, he’s played before. A level 70 necro with his epic 1.0, 1.5, and 2500 aa… No wonder he thinks the game is evil. Even though he’s got no interest in joining up with the Nostalgia bit I’ve got going on, he’s at least playing. This meant of course that I needed yet another alt. I used to have a beastlord some time ago but deleted it before I got station access. I already have three healers, I dislike playing a tank, and I wanted something we could duo with (though lately I’m beginning to think anyone can make a fine duo). So we both decided to make beastlords. I went with my troll on the left, Bhelly. I am quite partial to the alligator pets – though I was even more partial to them before they revamped them and stuck them with 6 ugly legs as opposed to the normal versions that had four. Growlius created a Luclin born one (fitting, for our server) and off we went. We stuck with the tutorial only until level 5, both of us becoming very bored with it very fast. After that we went to Crescent Reach, and completed the beginner quests there. We basically got two levels for every one quest we did, it was great. Before long we made it to level 10, and called it a night.

Well, Growlius called it a night. I hung around for a bit longer – low and behold Lackey logged in. Since I switched from my cleric to my necromancer because we needed the dps more then we seemed to need the heals, I played my cleric with Lackey. We also teamed up with Rogbog, Zerker from Nostalgia. It made me realize how much I LOVE playing the cleric class, and how much I’d missed it. It was the first time aside from the tutorial I’d actually been in a group (even if it was small) for any of the content and not just solo’ing on her. There are two classes I seem to be partial to. Healers, and enchanters. The rest are ok, but nothing beats those two. We ran around Blightfire Moors, all of us more concerned with just getting experience then with questing. Both Lackey and myself each won a very nice item (think his was a necklace, and mine was an upgrade to my range slot) and a general good time was had by all. The cleric hit 26 and almost 27, Lackey the same, and Rogbog hit his level cap of 30 for the week. We were taking down red Briar Thorns, and didn’t even come close to dying, even though we some times had two. The Moors can be dangerous if you’re not sure where to go, especially since the zone is essentially for levels 20-40.

I had actually meant to play EQ2 yesterday, and never got around to it. I had work orders waiting for me in Vanguard which I did manage to get done, can’t have guild mates going without a house. EQ2 however just couldn’t quite interest me. I had every intention of finally hitting 78 on the coercer, and just couldn’t bring myself to log in for more then five minutes. Ah well, as long as I’m enjoying myself, I doubt it matters really which game I play.

Larger Then Life

Last night was our fourth meeting of Nostalgia the Guild, and it took us to Solusek’s Eye. We died, a lot. It was great. Two group wipes were directly because of me and being a dark elf. We happened to stumble into the clockwork portions, low and behold the little mech gnomes don’t care for me. Woopsie. I didn’t even realize that they disliked me, so when we made our way down for a second time, and we wiped again – it suddenly dawned in that it was *me* and not just my group they disliked. It didn’t help that they were red con and we had a few on us at once. We could handle them one at a time, but they’re highly resistant to snare and had lots of friends to come play. They didn’t just dislike me though, oh no. Once one had booted me into the near by lava, and my pet decided to dive in right after, I tried to call him back. Of course pets don’t take the usual way back to their owners, no, they have to walk the long way. Through agro mobs, with an angry mech gnome following behind. Which of course lead us to hear a sudden bombardment of whirling gadgets followed by a very loud “Oh shit” from me, and about 20 of the little beasties swarming us.

I lived through that one.

Unfortunately, the rest of the group did not. The joys of being a necromancer though, aside from feign death I can locate corpses, or summon them if I’ve got a coffin on me (which I rarely do, mental note to stock some in my bank for CR’s) I can also invis myself, and invis vs. undead. Best of both worlds.

Tipa made a comment on her post about the evening, “In a pickup group, dying so many of times could only have ended in a lot of bad feelings. With a group of friends, taking risks, having fun… it was great,” which is exactly right. Sure after the third death in a row maybe we were feeling it slightly, but because we’re a group of friends, adventuring together – and the experience is quite fast despite the deaths, there were no hard feelings (as far as I’m aware). Next week will be a LDoN night, which I do enjoy quite a bit, and then the week after we’ll be heading to Mistmoore Castle. Last time I was there it was invaded and was quite high level (back in 2005) but now apparently it’s settled back down to a lowbie zone.

The experience is still quite fast. We’re averaging five levels a week (or a night even, for those who don’t play constantly) and keeping up at a steady pace. A few people have dropped behind, some are not playing any more and can’t make the schedule, but all in all it’s still a LOT of fun. We could use a second tank, an enchanter, and a rogue. The second tank bit seems to be the hardest to find and gathering together two full groups is always a chore. Last night we had a fantastic turn out though, I believe we had two groups of 5, so 10 people total. We got a few upgrades, some weapons for Urtog (our tank) and some caster jewelery pieces for both myself and Coldheat (the cleric). We also got some augments I believe for Rogbog (zerker) and maybe Binxs (the beastlord) I can’t recall though.

The zone is a hotspot, which meant of course – power levelers were around. It was hard to find an area to camp and get experience at when a level 80 is running around gathering the entire zone to level up their alt (or someone else’ alt, who knows). Unfortunately, that’s just a part of the game and you learn to make due.

Best moments of the night? Tipa (in the screen shot above) becoming larger then life (literally) with the help of Bristlebane. Minxe (my necromancer) also had a ‘moment’ when the jesters enlarged her and Urtog suddenly realized which dungeon he wanted to explore next as he attempted to crawl under her dress. Another great moment was when I was trying to locate Malfi’s (druid) corpse in the lava. I spent a good 5 minutes trying to target it and be in range to drag, and suddenly could. I excitedly spoke in vent about how I’d managed to snag his corpse, and brought it upstairs to him. I was so proud, having never found anyone’s corpse before.

Then he told me he’d actually summoned it with his veteran reward aa, and was in the process of looting it when I stole it from him and dragged it away.. He wasn’t on vent and had no idea I’d been hunting for it.

Woops. I make a great necromancer, what can I say. Already stealing corpses. The night was wonderful, I leveled from 25-30, and picked up all 12 new spells in abysmal sea. I was slightly disappointed that I worked really hard to research a spell for level 24 (my pet) and then it was replaced at 29 by something vendor sold. Ah well, that’s the life of a caster! Hopefully a great time was had by all, and we’ll have more excitement next week.

Gekkdar The Last Ogre Chief

While it’s been a blast roaming through the old nostalgic areas of EQ1, there’s also something to be said for the new places. Well, new to me in any case. Lets face it, there’s lots of new places. If you were perhaps once daunted by the amount of time it takes to level (even while solo) you shouldn’t be. At least, 1-30 has flown by. One huge reason for this was because of the Serpents Spine expansion which added Crescent Reach, and the Drakkin as a playable race. Off of Crescent Reach, is Blightfire Moors, which is home to a plethora of quests, great armor upgrades, and other random goodness. While the nostalgia group as a whole tends to avoid the more ‘up to date’ areas, I’ve enjoyed exploring them on my own when I needed a little more experience, or felt like playing one of my non progression characters.

One of the quests I worked on today was a chain given to you in Crescent Reach by an npc named Akins. He stands over top of the brewers on the main floor, and he has a few tasks for you. The first one sent me into the newb area of CR, there’s an area at the far northern tip that has undead, who still con dark blue to me at level 25. They also give a lot of experience. Anyhow, it seems he needs 15 of them slain. Doing so rewards you with 7p and unlocks his next quest.

The second quest Akin decides he’s scared of the spirits that haunt CR, and so he thinks the best possible solution is of course to send you upstairs to see “what goes bump in the night” you wander upstairs, dodge past a few undead skeletons and zombie, and come across a throne in the back room of the third floor. There’s a skeleton resting on it, so of course to decide to talk to it.

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Who is it that disturbs my slumber? Unless you are the [one] begone from this place of chiefs!’

You say, ‘I am the one’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Only a true heir of the Rockjaws or Thoots can [free] me from my torment. As long as the Amulet of Chieftains is mine, here I will remain. I wait here for the day that the heir comes to this place.’

You say, ‘Free you?’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Ancient magic binds me to this place. The magic of the Amulet of Chieftains must be passed from one Chief to the next. Only a true heir may take the Amulet. All others who touch the Amulet will surely die. Alas I died alone with no heir and am consigned to wait here. Now go or I shall rouse myself and you will feel my [wrath]!’

You say, ‘Your wrath?’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Do not tempt your fate little one! My patience with you is at an end. Go now or [die]!’

You say, ‘Die!’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief staggers as a shadow pierces their soul.
You have slain Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief!

You get a pretty nice ring for killing the Ogre Chief, and you also unlock the third quest to the chain, which sends you to Blightfire Moors. While you’re upstairs in that throne room, don’t forget to /open the bones behind it, and loot the amulet for a very nice charm progression quest. I’ve been having fun in EQ1, both old and new zones. Tonight is another Nostalgia meeting, and I’ve switched my necromancer to my new ‘main’, my cleric I’ll play with Lackey when he’s around. We’re headed to Solusek’s Eye which should be a lot of fun. It’s also one of the hot zones, so maybe we’ll run into someone else.

Soulfire Hammer – Better Late then Never

I started off the night playing my coercer. I had plans of leveling her to 78 – which should have been easy, seeing as I was only 20% away. I headed to Jarsath Wastes, to finish some faction quests there. I’m still trying to obtain her gate hammer. However, after working on one of the quests for no more then 10 minutes – I was invited to join Siege and a contested Mayong kill – with my 74 templar, who has been on the final stage of soulfire literally, forever.

Of course I jumped at the chance. When would I ever see Mayong again and actually get to kill him? Oh, I’ve killed him before, don’t get me wrong. I’ve done Mistmoore’s Inner Sanctum numerous times but never with the templar who was the only one of my characters to actually require the kill. There are three versions of Mayong you can kill for your Soulfire update. One is contested Mayong who spawns in the Castle. The other, is of course the MMIS Mayong, instanced. The third is in the Tunarian Throne room – which I have never been to.

Contested Mayong has three aoe’s that hurt. One has a power drain, two stun. We two grouped it, and everyone was level 80 except me at level 74. I was the only healer for my group and by the end (there are adds, bats and vampires) I was running low on power – but we did it. Or rather, Siege did it and I healed my little halfling heart out. I out healed the MT templar, too. Go figure.

So now Petites has her new shiny, and oh it’s so shiny. Yes, I know it’s an expansion too late, but I’m still proud that I got it.

I know with epics out it trivializes these Soulfire weapons. I’m still proud of all the hard work I put into the weapon though. It was a LONG painful series of quests. I have other (all) alts who are on various stages, but Petites I can say completed it. It’s funny. Petites is also my “original” main. She has her prismatic 1.0 where I had to kill Darathar. I also was on Najena for that quest. I did it with Allure, an Australian guild. The Godking weapon, I completed on my warden. Claymore, also on the warden. Epics, I have yet to start on anyone. We’ll see how that goes. I’m thinking coercer, but one can never tell. The templar is just not something I can level up through RoK content. Especially not solo. It would take me a year. The idea of grinding out all those faction quests (again) is just… leaves me with a horrible feeling inside. So I imagine she’ll stay lower level for quiet some time. She even has her Thuuga ring already completed (the fabled one quested in Kylong Plains) but needs more levels before she can wear it.

On an unrelated note, I moved Silhouette to Gorowyn. She now owns a 5 room house, and it’s absolutely huge. The rent is only 5g a week, no status. I had no idea, but the city also has a port to Kylong Plains. It’s got a carpet to sinking sands, which can access Freeport and Neriak. It’s also got a griffin to butcherblock, which means I can access everything, easily. To move, all I did was talk to two people, one in Freeport, and then one in Gorowyn. It was far too simple, but I suppose some times simple is good. Looking forward to decorating it and seeing what I can come up with.

Crafting, Guilds, and Ideas

Silhouette is my carpenter, much loved. She’s also my coercer, level 77. I love the class. I love everything about this character. I’ve decided to actually devote some time into her – I typically play EQ2 this way: Person says “Oh, we could really use such and such class” – and I run out and make it if I don’t already have it. I rarely ever play what I enjoy, because I enjoy whatever is needed and wanted. If it’s not needed or wanted, chances are I’ll bore of it. I know that’s a horrible way to play a game, but that’s been my ‘tactic’ so to speak for a little while now. It doesn’t work out. The coercer is one of those classes I play for myself. I just simply love it. I can accomplish so much while I’m alone that it doesn’t feel dreary. Its also complicated enough to keep me interested. Anyhow, I digress.

One conversation me and a good friend were having, was the state of guilds, specifically guild status, and how SOE sort of made a bad move.

Currently, this is how status items work. They’re the little documents and relics that drop from mobs. Right now, they are level restricted. If a guild is level 50 they can only contribute status via items that are also level 50 and up. What this means, is that lower level players, can not contribute their items towards guild status. It leaves them out of the loop. Yes, I understand that there are also writs in order to get status, but why should they be forced into a particular method of leveling the guild that they are just as much a part of as anyone else.

I understand (or think I do) why SOE implemented this method a few years back. I also think there was a better way, though. They obviously wanted to cut down the number of people who would easily farm lower tier items and turn them in by the mountains. Now if you’re a level 75+ guild, you need level 75+ items to turn in. Because I feel that this excludes newer / smaller leveled characters, what I thought about was simple:

Why not just make the items NOT drop from gray mobs.

That way, at least SOME effort was put into obtaining the relics. You know they were not just easily spam harvested, and if they were, at least someone was mentored / benifiting aside from just simply harvesting these tokens. The poor new level 20 can turn in his items finally. Even if he’s buying them from the broker, how is that any different then purchasing the level 75+ ones in order to level your guild. The lower level items give less status as it is, there’s nothing else that needs to be changed.

Small guilds have been at a severe disadvantage ever since the revamps. You used to get more status (when the guild level cap was 50) for having less people in your guild, then you would for having a full guild. That actually made sense to me, you have less people working towards the goal of leveling your guild then you would a raid guild, for example. However, it could be abused. Kick everyone out, level it with two people in the guild, etc. Small guilds were out leveling the larger raid guilds, and of course oh no we couldn’t have that now could we.

Another solution? I think we should be able to flag our guilds for certain rewards. Let me explain.

Be able to flag your guild as a crafting guild. For all of the crafting writs you do, you earn x2 the normal experience of a writ. Your guild also unlocks specific crafting items, perhaps house items that give buffs, or a set of gear that can improve your crafting, maybe some special recipes.

Then you have a guild flagged as a raid guild. For each raid zone they clear, they earn x2 the total amount of status for that raid zone. They unlock trinkets specific to raiding that will AID them but are NOT essential to a raid. It shouldn’t make or break a raid, it should just give them incentive to raid and work that status.

You could have a guild flagged as a questing guild. The EQ2players site keeps track of the average number of quests your guild has completed per person. There’s so much potential with the information that’s kept online, it can be taken any number of ways. Once a week perhaps, take the number of quests completed, and add a small amount of status per quest turn in. Or something along those lines. Again, have them able to unlock rewards that would base around questing.

If you want to flag your guild as a different sort, have them drop 20 levels, and have to re-earn their guild status, and unlock the new ‘type’ of guild rewards.

Maybe add tabards, so that we have a better way of displaying guild heraldry that doesn’t require covering up the very pretty cloaks they keep releasing. I never display mine, I’d rather wear the crafting ones. The guild cloak designs leave a lot to be desired. Why not allow people to create guild banners for their homes, or allow them to put the guild symbol on a shield.

There’s so much untapped potential out there with these things. I understand it takes time, and money, and well, a desire, to get this stuff anywhere. They’re just a few ideas I had though.

Speaking of all these new ideas. I also feel that EverQuest2 has really missed the boat on “busy work” for people to do once they’ve hit level 80. EQ2 lacks two very significant things EQ1 has. One, is proper aa. I’m not talking about the ones we have now, but the meaningless busywork ones that we should be able to get. For example, aa that let you choose a second crafting class. An aa perhaps that extends your food and drink. Another for enduring breath. Perhaps run speed (unbuffed). You know the stuff. That we all KNOW is busywork, but keeps us interested anyhow. Take a look at EQ1 and see just how many aa are out there. A lot of them are things that don’t affect you as a raider or adventurer, but are just other means of character progress. As it is now, people can reach level 80, finish their aa’s, and basically be “done” with the game. There needs to be more meaningless busywork. Even if we KNOW it is meaningless, it’s still SOMETHING to do.

Alongside of that busywork, would be LDoN (Lost Dungeons of Norrath). You remember the adventures EQ1 has, that lets you travel in a dungeon with 3+ people and caters to how many are in your group. You can select normal or difficult, and there are goals like killing X number of mobs, or rescuing an npc, etc. You earn points, for these missions, which unlock gear, augments, spells, and any number of other “things” that people deem fit to have (and plenty that are just garbage too). There are leadership boards, and you can check your status for successful runs vs. failed. It’s also experience for people, and when they’ve hit end game and don’t quite have all the points they need to purchase that thing on the LDoN vendor, they keep doing them.

Right now, the only thing EQ2 has to keep end game folks around – is alts. That’s all they have. Once you have your level 80/80 with complete aa’s, and your mythical – what exactly is keeping you playing? You’re not supposed to be able to “beat” an mmo. It’s supposed to be an ever going game. Right now people are playing on raid nights only because there’s simply nothing else to do. SOE needs to give them something else to do that is NOT just another raid or instance. It’s natural for folks to want to see progress on their characters. They want to constantly feel that they are moving forward. This stagnant feeling that’s going through the ranks is something that has to be quelled, and again not with some new raid zone or instance, but with actual personal character progress.