EQ2 – Page 20 – A Pixel Nomad

Experience and Sebilis

Yesterday was another great adventure in EQ2, and not all of it (again) was spent in TSO, which is something that I’m enjoying quite a bit. Gnewton created an alt on Najena (his home is typically Kithicor) and played the monk halfling for a while, it’s always great to see people in guild. We’re still really small (and casual) so there’s not a lot of people on. We did manage to hit level 31 though, and are well on our way to 32. Kasul helped me get some experience on Petites (my templar) in Jarsath Wastes. The quest grind there is just as boring as I remember it though. I used to be able to play for hours on end with no issues but as of late I need a lot more breaks before I start getting bored. It was still a nice chunk of experience though for the time spent.

The alchemist (along with carpenter) also headed off to a tradeskill zone. I used a potion and moused over my experience during the process. Not bad! I gained two levels, sitting me at 63. The group instance yesterday was the Firemyst one, where you have to gear up a few dwarves, and I encountered my first ‘bug’ though it did fix itself. Sort of. When the army was finally geared up, they got cold feet, and refused to follow their Commander into battle. For five minutes or so I stood around waiting for the end encounter to happen so that we could go get our chest. After a few minutes the Commander (sans army) ran off after the bad guys who instantly died the second he got close to them. Powerful fella. Even though the script didn’t run properly, the chest did spawn once the commander made it to the end of the field. A piece of rare wood, an artisan item, and the tailor item that I’d already gotten were the rewards. There was also a new solo tradeskill quest that I picked up yesterday that requires you to harvest some items in the Fallen Dynasty zones. Didn’t have time to complete it because as soon as dinner was done it was off to Sebilis!

Azztec is a friend of mine from Antonia Bayle, actually an old guild leader. The guild I raided with fell apart when some officers took control and made some choices that not everyone agreed with. They sacrificed friends and a friendly atmosphere to ‘go after the prize’ and shortly after that I moved to Najena. A few months later Azztec followed. He has a few level 80’s already, but a little while ago started up a templar. I was impressed by how fast he leveled, and before I knew it he was asking Shadowgeist for help with his epic. So yesterday Shadowgeist, Azztec, Kasul, Gellawyn, Mindblade, and I (on Silhouette, the coercer) headed to Sebilis to finish the last few bits he needed. Along the way we hit every named that was up for aa points, which was great. We also took down the named that dropped the tunic on the right hand side, except Azztec rolled greed instead of need (ack!) and I rolled greed (even though everyone else declined and I should have declined as well). This is just another example of why I absolutely love customer support at SOE. I have petitioned them for two pages worth of things on my main account over the past few years and have never had an issue with them so long as I wasn’t asking for something impossible, and I wasn’t rude. I petitioned last night to see if there was any way that the tunic could be returned to the rightful person, and less then 20 minutes after I had sent in the request I noticed that there was a blank spot in my inventory where the item used to be, low and behold, Azztec had it. Thank you! Between the guide events and the customer service, I really think SOE has done things very well. I realize everyone has their horror stories, and I’m really sorry for those who have had bad experiences, but my own personal ones have been nothing but good.

Azztec finally got all of his Sebilis updates with minimal pain, and the group split up to take a break. That wasn’t the end of the adventures though, a few hours later I headed off to Miragul’s Phylactery: The Crucible, which I’ll write about more later.

Into Chardok We Go

Yesterday was a great day for EQ2, and it wasn’t really because of anything in particular, but it was just one of those days. It started off with doing a tradeskill instance on Ellithia. Duo’ing with a carpenter, they each gained two levels which puts her at level 62. I haven’t even made any combines from the past 12 recipe books or so, there’s a lot of experience saved up if I want to use the supplies I have saved up. I’m so glad to have gotten through the dreaded sinking sands era without having to actually use any materials. From 70-80 I’m going to level up doing writs, no doubt the guild status will come in handy. Nostalgia hit 31 thanks to Kasul heading out on some pick up raids, he had a pretty good time. Anyhow, an hour later the instance was complete and we got a really nice chest drop. It had a legendary provisioner piece (which I won and gave to arysh). For once luck was on my side, and I won not only the legendary piece, but another manual (that puts Ellithia at owning two of those, which is great because she’s on my second account) as well as an extra Far seas token that was in the chest. She doesn’t have the faction to purchase anything yet, but she does have 10 tokens. If I had only done the solo quest on the first day when it gave 25,000 faction she’d be all set. I still don’t like doing the instances on level 80 crafters unless I have a full group.

A call came out early that evening from Azztec, a friend who used to play on Antonia Bayle but moved to Najena when his guild started going through some major issues. He’s a great player, and leveled up a templar not too long ago. He was working on his epic last night and needed the update in Chardok. I decided to tag along on Stargrace, who is still only level 78. I find it amusing that the online persona I use is one of my lowest level characters.

I died three times, one of those times was a wipe on the bridge. Someone managed to catch the attention of a golem who was standing off to the side and I got punted (and one shot) into the waters below. Being such low level (the encounters were orange to me) it was not exactly surprising. Stargrace ended the evening 66% into her level, maybe one of these days I’ll actually hit 80. Azztec got his update easily enough. Chardok is a fun zone, relatively empty these days with everyone doing TSO instances for their void shard bits. We first had to collect books upstairs and then pass them off to the NPC pictured above, who then opens and unlocks the doors for us to make our way to the library.

Earlier in the day I also wandered around Cazic Thul, three boxing. It’s not an event that occurs often because lets face it keeping control of one character can some times be hard enough, two is do-able. Three is just hectic. I had two accounts running on the PC, and a third on the laptop. My newly betrayed arasai (used to be a brigand, is now a swashbuckler) is now level 49, and lots of fun to play.

For some reason my computer is still having issues ever since TSO released. I find it amusing that I can play VG now on fairly high settings with no issue, but a few hours into EQ2 and to image to the left will happen. The entire computer will freeze for a good solid 30 seconds, and then everything will become distorted in some weird 2nd world way. Yesterday the wood in South Freeport changed into icons of death, patterns of bones, skulls, and chicken beaks. The NPC’s wore bright green clothing, and Shadowgeist (who typically is dressed in black) was sporting a bright shiny metallic garb. I already underclocked my video card and turned the fans on it up when I was having crashing issues in WAR and scenarios. This fixed the issue. I never used to have issues in EQ2 either, but since the day TSO went live, I’ve experienced it. It’s typically in TSO zones, most commonly the crafting ones. Yesterdays happened to be in CT though. I get no other errors or messages from my computer along with it, just this oddly scary version of EQ2. My text also messes up along with all spell icons so it typically always requires me to restart my computer, of course not without taking a few screen shots of the changes to post here (or send to friends) while I giggle and wonder what exactly is going on. Stargrace pictured in the 2nd shot looks like she’s been coated with a nice layer of some sort of acid. Anyone else experiencing this? I haven’t bothered looking at the forums because when it comes to technical issues everyone seems to experience something slightly different and the solution that works for one doesn’t mean it will work for everyone.

A few other events took place yesterday, I’ll write about those a little later today.

A Night of Instances

An ogre, a Tier’Dal, and a Gnome all walk into the Deep Forge, and the gnome turns and looks at the ogre and says ‘Oy, is it hot in here or is it just me?’

Ok lame attempt at some humor there, but that was the beginning of my night last night. There are some pieces of void shard jewelery that would be an upgrade for me (except I don’t have the book quite yet) that take relatively few pieces of shards to make / purchase (remember, this gear is cheaper if you have a crafter make it then if you find a merchant) so I was eager to add a few more bits to my collection. I didn’t end up doing ‘the daily double’ as they call it on Najena, but I did head to Lavastorm and get to wander around Deep Forge, which is a zone I had been to in beta only. I love the way the new TSO zones look, and Deep Forge is very nice and small. It’s one of those ‘quick if you know what’s going on’ zones. Of course, having never been there myself I didn’t have the faintest clue what was going on. Zones like that are the best zones of all. I grabbed the quests outside, and I think I grabbed a quest inside the actual instance too. The group consisted of a dirge, shadowknight, troubador, warden (me), illusionist, and wizard. The best part was after we had killed something (a named?) the GIANT group of giants (I crack myself up at 6:30am what can I say) down below in the pit of lava got flooded out. I tried to take a screen shot of their desperate cries before the lava swept them away, but alas, I was not so lucky.

We saw a few ornate chests drop in the zone but nothing astounding. The final named of course decided to port me into the center of the lava pit while we were fighting, so we had a few deaths right at the very end. I wasn’t expecting it, and no one (cough cough, Shadowgeist) told me it would happen, so one minute I was healing my little heart out and the next minute, bam into the pit I go. Woopsie.

I did get a pretty nice charm slot upgrade from a quest involving the zone. I can’t remember if this quest was given to me outside or if it was the one I found inside, but it’s nice none the less. There’s also a melee version. The only thing I dislike is that this isn’t really a healer version (and there wasn’t one). The wisdom and power on a charm item really makes me happy. While playing in these zones with friends, I realize just how under geared Arysh is. The downside again to having so many alts, not concentrating on any individual one. Yes, Arysh does still have her claymore, and I do have her fabled epic, and she’s close to 10k power self buffed with 1k wisdom, but it’s the +heals and +heal crits and all of the other little unique bits that make a character ‘good’. She doesn’t have M1 of her spells, etc. So now I’m contemplating settling down, especially if I want to work on void shard quests. I love playing my healers. I’m GOOD at my healers. The problem is that my ‘main’ healer is a warden, and they are everywhere. So my line of thought says that I should try to get my templar her last few levels (she’s sitting at 77) or my defiler (even further behind, at 73) and work on one / all of the healers. I love my coercer a great deal, but I’ve played healers primarily in every mmo.

Deep Forge also has a heritage quest associated with it – IF – you can see purple shinies. There’s a new quest implimented in game in order to obtain an item to see these shinies, so if you don’t have it, look into getting it.

Once we were finished in Deep Forge I took a few hours and headed over to Vanguard, then was asked if I wanted to go back to EQ2 and do another instance. I decided sure, why not. I haven’t really been to too many of the instances honestly. The group decided to head to Befallen: Halls of Forsaken (it may be halls of the forsaken, I can’t quite remember right now). This is in the Commonlands, and I’d never been there before. I wanted to do Cavern of the Afflicted (one since I’d been there before and was comfortable with it, and two because it was the daily double yesterday) but the group decided to go some place new. The zone again was quite beautiful, and we had fun figuring out what to do. Thankfully two people had been there before even if I had not. The zone wasn’t especially hard per say, we did wipe once, but only because half of the group charged ahead to destroy a statue while half of us stayed back and I wasn’t really sure what was going on. The group was a shadowknight, inquisitor, swashbuckler, illusionist, warlock, and myself as the warden. We did see a lot of ornate drops, and I did actually get a secondary item upgrade to the shield from RE2 that I was wearing. It’s one of the few upgrades I’ve actually had drop lately. The zone mostly decided it was plate night, and nothing was an upgrade for our two plate wearers. Thankfully, Arysh is a transmuter.

The nice bit of gear to the right also dropped, and this is why I wish there were more instances with smart loot. Perfectly good piece of fabled gear – that got transmuted (and it was a server discovery) because we didn’t have anyone in the group who could use it. I heard my little 61 necromancer cry from across the account. C’est la vie though. We got an infusion from that, my bank is filled with them so I just left it to the others to random on. The zone also has a few quests related to it, and I believe one of the items is an upgrade, or will be at least when I figure out how to complete it. So far I’m stuck on a few portions.

All in all it was a productive night. When the instances were complete I logged over to Silhouette to make some of the void shard armor for Shadowgeist. The only downside to owning the books on one character or another is that I can’t craft the items for myself because the characters are on the same account I use. Solution? Have one character on each of my accounts with all of the books, so I can craft for everyone. This is a perfectly good solution seeing as I am taking my time getting the shards to begin with. Misako already has one book, and Silhouette has another. Kasul and Tipa each have a book as well, so I know who to bug for future pieces.

Hope everyone else had a fun time in Norrath last night too (or whatever game you play!)

Chosen of Innoruuk

Please do me a favour and go see this one in full view over here. Click on the image to enlarge from my DeviantART site. This is a picture of Silhouette, my coercer. The background is a screenshot of Everfrost, no post work done to it. That new video card comes in handy some times. I spent a little bit of time playing in Fallen Gate today with Said, power leveling him with my monk (who happened to hit level 50). I didn’t get a chance to play after that, and I wanted to spend the evening before bed relaxing, so the image above is what I came up with. I hit my NaNoWriMo goal today of 7,980 words. The story was starting to feel a little bit forced though, so I stopped there for now. I was going to plan out some ideas for it during the course of the day but that didn’t work out, go figure.

I’m really happy with this image, and have a few more in mind. Can’t help that they all seem to follow a fantasy setting as that’s what I’m partial to, but I hope everyone enjoys it.

Everyone Starts Somewhere

3D rendition of my wood elf illusionist – Stargrace.

Believe it or not Stargrace actually has a history behind her. At least in EQ2 (and I mean the character obviously, and not my rl persona). She’s got a sister, Arysh D’Verilex – who’s a Teir’Dal.

Stargrace is possessed by an evil spirit, Silhouette (who happens to be a Teir’Dal coercer, the opposite of the illusionist). Which is why no one ever sees them together. Stargrace shuns the Teir’Dal connection in her family, and that’s where Silhouette comes into play, since she’s all for promoting the family name and doing Innoruuk’s work. I actually played all of this out when I was on Antonia Bayle (roleplay server) but it’s been ages since I’ve added to the story any. It’s difficult now that I’m not on an rp server, as people tend to snicker and point if you attempt any such thing on Najena.

Anyhow, nice way to spend a Friday afternoon. Enjoy the long weekend those who are celebrating turkey day (all my Canadian friends).