A Pixel Nomad

I’ve come to the conclusion (after much discussion with Shadowgeist) that I have too many characters. It actually creates a lot of stress for me in game, on who to play, what to do, and then if I want to join a guild, who to do that on, and then I get into the whole two boxing fiasco and it just goes from there. Two days ago Shadowgeist got into Siege, a raid guild on Najena. He decided to transfer servers and of course I’m exceptionally happy for him because it’s what he’s been looking for constantly now, he certainly deserves the break as not many guilds ever search for a shadowknight (high end guilds, that is). So he’s happy, which makes me happy.

In the mean time though, I’ve now lost my personal tank – which is not a bad thing, don’t get me wrong here. It does however mean I’ve got to adjust my play styles. I don’t want to move servers, I’ve got too many characters here, and I like the community – a lot. With RoK, it’s rare you ever HAVE to group to level, so I’m not reliant on him as much as I may have been in previous expansions. Anyhow, after a lot of discussion, I decided it was time to close down one of my EQ2 accounts. The extra characters are just more hassle then they’re worth, and again it was creating a lot of stress for me.

So I literally wrote out all the pros and cons to each character. What I liked about them all so that I could decide a good method of choosing which account to keep open. It wasn’t actually a hard decision, it’s not like I’m deleting characters or that I can’t just re-activate in time if I want. I hate being asked to box on raids, I hate guilds deciding that I should just play whatever class they need for the night, and at the same time if I’m asked to do so, I feel bad saying no (so it’s my fault, is what I’m implying here). In the end, I decided to close down the healer account. I have more fun with my dps / utility classes, healers can be found (most of the time) with ease, and a lot of duos and teams are tank / healer combinations, so maybe I can fill a spot for a dps / utility. It does also mean I’ll be closing down the crafters on those accounts – but again, I’ll have 7 slots on the account I am keeping, there’s no reason why I can’t just have 7/9 crafters.

So that means instead of the 14 characters I have, I’ll have 7. Actually, I have 5 for the time being, as I deleted (gasps) some lowbies, and my 31 wizard that I just wasn’t into. What’s it leave me with?

• 80 troubdador – 60 weaponsmith – 400 tinkerer
• 73 illusionist – 80 provisioner – 400 tinkerer
• 73 coercer – n/a – n/a
• 58 necromancer – 80 sage – n/a
• 52 ranger – 63 alchemist – n/a

That’s not a bad collection still in my eyes, and like I said, the other characters are still there, I’m just disabling the accounts and taking all their money (guild bank is up to 200p now.. that’s always nice to see!) making sure to take anything I may need off of them as well. The only one downside is that I also loose my transmuter – and I refuse to work up another one. On the plus side though, my bank is filled with transmuted goods already, and adornments are not as pricey as they were some time ago.

I’m hoping the change will ease some of the stress I’ve felt in game. It’s a video game eh, I don’t want to be stressed. Then I can concentrate on what I have fun doing (which lately is the coercer) and not worry about boxing. Plus, that’ll cut down some of the money I’m paying to SoE every month. Both me and Shadowgeist had two accounts, that means four accounts to buy expansions for. It adds up. Not that we have to worry so much about money (if we did we wouldn’t be playing at all) but well, typical female here, I worry a lot. So it’s always nice to cut down some of the worries.

We’ll see how the change goes, and as a side note, a thought that popped into my head. Maybe the new RoK raid encounters that drop coin (this is the first tier to do so, and they drop a LOT of coin) is to prepare people for the expenses of guild halls once they’re released. Would make sense to me since you want your guild to all contribute to paying for the halls. Also, it would mean that the richest (raiding) guilds would be able to afford the best. I hope there’s still options for the smaller guilds as well as far as halls are concerned, and maybe I’m way off on my assumptions (as I told Calreth tonight – that thought was logical? Oh well nvm then, SoE doesn’t DO logical.. ) so I guess only time will tell. Yes, I like many (many) others are excited about the possibility of guild halls. Vanguard’s spoiled me in that regard what can I say.

(( To those people who’s rp I stumbled into in Zek last night, thanks for letting me listen. The best roleplay I’ve ever found has always been the type I just sort of walk into, literally. As I was heading to Zek to quest last night it was a plesant surprise to notice the group of people hanging out in the druid rings. ))

The coercer is amusing to me. She’s now level 72, with 90aa. She’s got 7 days played, 0 heritage quests completed, 4 lore and legend quests done. I decided on a spur of the moment to claim the title I had sitting on LoN since I didn’t know what else I’d do with it. So my little no-name coercer is now the Legend of Norrath. How sweet. I did create an rp story for her and a background to her character, but I haven’t really devoted any time to her. I’m having a blast in RoK with the class though, so I assume I’ll stick with it (for a bit at least, until I get bored or something else catches my fancy).

Today I did the heroic quests in fens that require me to kill a few triple ups. With the right charmed mob, this is a simple matter. The best way I’ve found is to charm a nuker of some sort. They’re exceptionally wonderful at what they do. Use the root and nuke method the whole time. If your root breaks, call your pet back and charm the mob until you can position yourself again. The root is quite essential unless you can find a cleric mob out there who will also heal themselves as well as nuke.

So far in fens I’ve stuck with the mindbenders along the shore. Those enchanter mobs are wonderful, they’ll toss out nukes and mez’s, large power drains and roots. I’ll have to explore a little to see what else I can find, I’m sure there are a few more. I haven’t figured out what I’ll charm in Jarsath Wastes yet, or the other zones, but for now it’s a lot of fun. It really is all about having the right pet though, and knowing your limits. I’ve probably died more with the coercer then any other character I’ve played, just due to trying to learn my limits. A charm that breaks as you’ve got adds can be a deadly thing if you’re not prepared to mez everything at once and re-charm. Things can get complicated. I’ve died more then once when I went to use the washroom mid-adventuring, so now I make sure I park myself on a wall, when the mob breaks (notice I said when, and not if, since one of the natural laws of charm seems to be that it breaks when ever you’re not around or paying attention) that way at least I don’t die.

The class is not for everyone, it takes a lot of work and lower levels are very annoying. Without a master charm you’re going to feel things hurting far more then they do with it. Without the master charm, I’m pretty sure I’d grow exceptionally frustrated with the class. The T8 charm is for sale on AB for a whopping 190p, well above what I’d ever pay for it since the T7 version works just fine. Hopefully I can get the coercer closer to 75, and maybe be of some use. I’m not looking forward to those dispelling mobs eventually, since they’ll break my charm. I know that one from experience since they did it so frequently on Arysh while I used druid charm.

I ducked into VG last night for a few, made some more coin. Up to 49g there which is a fortune to me. In EQ2 sales are going wonderful as well, made another 20p yesterday. Not that I’ve found a single thing to spend it on, yet.

Chardok is a beautiful zone, with lots of things that like to squish innocent unsuspecting travelers. I had already managed to wiggle my way into a Court of Korocust group with the druid, snatching up the sokokar posts and some aa, this time I brought the troubador since those are oh-so-much in demand (insert sarcasm here). One legendary dropped, mage shoes that the fury wanted for the high int. The rest was treasured, lots of aa though. It’s slightly annoying to get access for everyone each time we run through but eventually over time everyone will have it, and it won’t be needed.

Again I was surprised at lack of people / groups in the zone, it was empty (again). People rarely enter it would seem, unless they’re making a beeline to the instance. Even that’s only got a three hour reuse timer, so you could spend hours in the zone of Chardok farming the named, and then do the instance a few times in a day if you’re one of those people who have a static group that they play with (like Lader, who decided to do this all Saturday with his guild, they came out with quite a few goodies in the end).

Two major guilds on the server have cleared Veeshan’s Peak now, Eidolon (who were second) and The Bekwen Alliance, congratulations to both of them. A few smaller guilds are still working progression, and others are eagerly awaiting some new content (Kurns Tower anyone?) already. It was amusing in the 70-79 channel last night as folks debated which expansion they thought was coming out next, along with new classes and races. Hard to believe this is already a hit topic when RoK has barely been released for two months and there’s 10 to go if they stick with the one expansion a year plan. There’s speculation on levels, and whether we’ll be going to 85, or 90, or new aa trees. Velious seems to be the agreement as far as expansions go, some people would like to see something completely new that doesn’t follow the EQ1 time line – but then again this is EverQuestII, and Norrath has already been shaped in the previous game, makes it slightly difficult to just add new lands without some sort of explanation in how they got there. Lots of people are eager to see the planes brought back into the game at a fuller extent, and of course there’s the whole ‘we want beastlords’ argument that’s ever raging.

Guild halls, are something people want to see implemented (and soon) as well. One can only imagine the cost that will be involved with something of that magnitude. An option for the smaller guild would be nice too. I know people must be getting tired of using the five room homes for guild halls. Cozy though, right?