Tag: EQ2

All in the Roll of the Dice

It’s bonus experience weekend due to Monday being a holiday in the states (have a wonderful day off!) and EQ2 has 50% bonus for both tradeskilling and adventuring, while EQ has doubled their experience so you have 100% bonus. Yesterday my dirge managed to inch her way to level 77 and part way through, which also meant she had some new gear to wear that I had stashed away. She’s got quite a bit of things from our daily instance runs that I have just been waiting to use.

Speaking of daily instance runs – CoA again nothing that we’re trying to get dropped. No Farseer, no burdened signet, no cardiocutter. At least we’ve seen the burdened signet once. We also headed to Maidens where surprisingly enough the gi of the swifttail dropped for a second time (the fabled one from the sisters) but of course since we got it yesterday there was no need for it any more (until Hamal can use it and he wasn’t around) so we just sold it to vendor. The Gift of the Queen fabled ring is what I’m after in particular from that zone, though I know there are a few other nice items. We’ve yet to see them.

Which is alright, it means we spend more time finishing the instances in the hopes that (one day) the items we need from each drop. Since the bonus experience this weekend is for crafters and adventurers alike, I may spend some time trying to get my provsioner a few levels. Of course then there’s the fact that my bard is fairly close to 80 and wouldn’t it be nice to get that finished off – as well as my paladin who is sitting at level 73 currently.

It’s fun to be in Kylong Plains doing the beginner RoK quests at level 77 as opposed to level 69. Since my characters lately have all been power leveled up through the ranks they have a huge lack of aa and being able to kill at level 77 is a lot faster then had I attempted it at a lower level. Though my gear is not exactly up to snuff (yet) and things can still hurt if I have too many at once. I do have all of my bards adept3’s which is a blessing. Paladin has her 71+ ones as well – and I managed to purchase her defensive stance master for 70p a few days ago (I forget if I mentioned it here or not, I probably did).

No doubt this weekend will see lots of gaming in both EQ and EQ2 and maybe some others thrown in there just because. We’ll see how it goes. I hope everyone has an amazing Saturday, and I’ll see you in Norrath!

O M G – The Sky is Falling! (Ok, not really)

For the last week or so on Kithicor the discussion in 70-79 has revolved around one thing and one thing only. The ‘nerf’ coming to procs. What is said nerf? Well simply put people are doing too much dps. So this change that is coming will tone it down, and it will tone it down by quite a huge amount for certain classes. What the change is going to do is remove any bonus’ that currently get stacked onto your procs. This means they will no longer crit, nor will they be affected by base spell damage or + spell damage or anything more then achievements and what have you.

This is going to mean a lot less dps especially for scout classes, and enchanters who rely on those procs to do their extra damage. Now, if you don’t raid you may not think this is such a big deal, and in fact I personally don’t feel like it’s that big of a deal. Not because I don’t think dps will drop drastically, it will (take a look at an ACT parse to see how often you crit on a proc and you’ll be surprised at the amount of damage it counts for) BUT the reason I’m not all upset about this change is because: We should be used to adjusting for things like this.

That’s right. Games change. Things that were once a good idea some times are not any more. As players we should be adept at rolling WITH the changes and finding new methods of combating it. If your DPS is going to drop THAT much that not having procs crit is going to significantly affect your progression and your game play then find a way to change that, be it more procing items (or perhaps less), master spells, gear, whatever. Fights will take longer – healers are going to be hit VERY hard with overloaded heals and a few other spells no longer being affected or able to crit. Why everyone is screaming that the sky is falling before the changes are even on test instead of acting maturely and sending in feedback about it, I have no idea. Remember that fighter revamp that was supposed to happen? People sent in their feedback and the idea was scrapped. Despite those of the general gaming audience who like to paint the employees of SOE with devil tails and horns, the developers DO actually listen, and contraire to what we as players may think – they do try to have the best interest of the player base at heart and they know what they’re doing! If you don’t like a particular change and have good solid reasons and proof as to why, then feedback it and let them know! If your guild is affected THAT much by the change and you can SEE this with some solid proof on the test server and the whole game is going to crumble and collapse because of this one change then let them know – logically.

Every time a big change comes people break out their ‘I’m leaving’ card and roll it around in channels for all to hear. Wait for things to get situated on the test server before breaking out the doom and gloom, and then go through the proper channels if it does affect you so much as to be game breaking. That’s all I’d like to see.

Aside from the general chatter in channels – Kasul managed to inch his way to level 71 yesterday, which was amazing. I didn’t spend a great deal of time in game (we all have our days) but I did manage to level the dirge to 76 and she’s part way to 77 now. 9th level 80 here I come!

Wpus, Ultann, and I headed to Crypt of Agony in the hopes that either Ultann’s Farseer would drop (negative) or the Cardiocutter would drop (also negative) or even the burdened signet (another no). The guild is crawling along to level 31 and more amenity which is fantastic at least. Afterwards I had enough energy in me for a Maidens run so we attempted to get the healer ring to drop (no luck) but – the fabled gi did drop, and I quickly relogged to my dirge to pick it up since scouts can use it.

One of these days the items we’ve been trying to get for well over a month will drop. Until then, we’ll just keep trying!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Friday, and a delightful weekend. I’m not sure where I’ll end up yet, but as always if you’d like to contact me you can find my information on the top left hand side of this site. Best bet is typically xfire or twitter, as I keep those up constantly.

Safe travels, see you in Norrath!

One more Trophy Joins the Hall

There are very few trophies a guild of three people (four since Kasul has started playing more) can obtain unless we start running raids ourselves which is always a possibility but I think that remains a very faint possibility. There are a select few that we are able to get ourselves. We already had Darathar and Gynok (who was a mistake I believe, as he dropped for us out of the group instance) and last night obtained our third trophy – Godking. The raid for Godking used to be really hard back in the day. It’s an instance located in Silent City, which is all but deserted these days. You used to need access to even enter the zone, as well as access to Silent City. The access to Silent City was fairly easy, obtained by completing a quest in Living Tombs, given to you by a monkey who hangs out right at the entrance. You kill multiple named which could take a while as their spawn timers were not that friendly, but it was still a fairly easy quest.

The access to The Fountain of Life (where Godking resides) on the other hand – not so easy.

Every time my guild said they were going to ‘farm eyes’ for the Godking raid, suddenly multiple ‘thunderstorms’ would show up and people would start losing connection all over the place, real life would suddenly intrude, and a million other reasons why people could not be online during that particular time. Farming eyes was long, boring, and not fun whatsoever. What’s worse is you needed to farm eyes EVERY single time you wanted to attempt Godking and he is used for the Prismatic 2.0 quest finale, so guilds liked to go there often.

However, access to Godking has been removed, you no longer need to farm eyes. We zoned into the Fountain of Life with no problems. It’s a single beautiful room with peacock feathers everywhere, a long river of green ‘life juice’ that spawns skeleton adds, and various named that you have to defeat in order to get the Godking to spawn. Actually, he ‘saves’ you from the named you’re trying to defeat, and they vanish before your eyes, leaving just him.

Since the trophies are a body drop (thank you sony) we were able to obtain ours even though we have out leveled the zone. I realize that this may be looked at as being unfair, but it’s really nice that there are at least SOME trophies that a smaller guild can obtain without having to mass together 24 people. Leave the bigger / better trophies to the bigger guilds.

There’s an amazing painting that hangs behind Godking which I really wish were available to players. You’ll know the one I’m talking about if you’ve ever set foot in the fountain. It’s absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately I was too busy gawking at it to actually take a screen shot, so maybe next time.

Afterwards Ultann had to head out for a bit, so Wpus decided to mentor Hamal in Sinking Sands, where they spotted two epics (Brog the Banished, and Meathooks) that we could kill for achievements. We managed to down Brog with just three of us and no healer (yes he was green but none of us aside from Wpus is that well geared) and then I logged the healer in to take down Meathooks which is a x3. Neither dropped anything at all aside from treasured (ew, why is that not fixed?!) nor did they reward any guild status as other contested epics do, but they did grant achievement points. Better then nothing I suppose.

It was getting late by the time that was finished, so I did a quick search on the broker for master spells – my paladin is going to be the next character I try to hit level 80 with I believe, and I found her defensive stance for sale for 70 plat in Freeport. There are a few things I know every tank should try to obtain, stances, and taunts. I’ve never spent that much money on a single spell before, but a stance is a great thing. My offensive stance was also for sale for another 75p but alas after purchasing that one I was down to 50p – most of my money is still on Najena and not Kithicor. Another time perhaps!

It felt nice to get my first ‘real’ upgrade for the paladin, an important one at that. She’s sitting at level 72 (with lackluster aa might I add, a mesely 58) and that is the level of the stance. We’ll see how leveling goes, but I’m excited about it. Even if I don’t have the recruit a friend bonus any longer.

I hope everyone else has an amazing day, and I’ll see you in Norrath! I’m looking forward to doing some tanking.

A Day of Crafting and Instances

Yesterday was Victoria Day here in Canada (though I was informed that it’s called something else in Quebec) and a quiet one too (at least for me). I’m still recovering from being sick these past three weeks which is a process that’s frustrating since I seem to be on a ‘good day bad day’ plan where I’m feeling fantastic one day only to get up at 2am the next and feel horrible.

Game wise things were relatively productive though not exactly on the same level as the day before. I managed to inch the illusionist up from level 40 carpenter to 46 before burning up my vitality. I have plans to get her to 50 so that I can do the crafting quests in the Moors and eventually take her to the crafting instances to try and obtain some books and other goodies. I’ve got all of them except one on the mystic (tailor) and it would be great if I could get that one to drop. Plus there’s the faction which would be nice to get and finish off one day (which I have slacked horribly on I’ll admit).

Aside from the crafting there were instances. Ah yes there are always instances. We headed to Maidens and Chelsith neither of which dropped anything of use this time around, and then we decided to head to The Crucible, a TSO instance in Everfrost. We’d never been there as a trio before and in the past you used to be able to stun the final named each 20% to avoid the massive AoE that goes off if you don’t click books in time. Since I had my doubts (that were later confirmed) that I’d be able to heal + click books effectively I decided I’d try the stun approach on my illusionist.

Except each time I cast my stun I was granted the annoying resist ping sound that happens, so we couldn’t stop the books from spawning. Wpus and I grabbed torches and burned books as they appeared, then Wpus took down the adds but alas it became too much for me to be able to burn books and heal at the same time, so we ended up giving the encounter three tries before calling it. If we added one more person to our little trio we’d have had it down no problems at all. We did manage to get him down to 46% which was amazing for just the three of us I figure. All was not lost though, we still got the ‘free’ shard update from the main floor, as well as the shard update from the quests given outside. I’m slowly working on getting a T2 set for the illusionist and finishing off the T2 set on the mystic. She only needs the breastplate and the shoulders for her set to be completed. What I also didn’t realize last night is that they changed the 5 piece bonus on my gear. That will teach me not to pay attention.

Now that both of my characters (on Kithicor) have their epics, it’s time to mark out a new plan of attack – what to do next. There’s a huge bundle of aa that the illusionist is missing because she was leveled up fairly fast, she’s only sitting on 100 right now, which leaves another 100 to go. The mystic is faring slightly better with 156 aa under her belt. Though I’m not in too much of a rush for hers because there’s not exactly a lot of ‘useful’ aa. What I’d really like (especially for the TSO heal aa) is for them to physically show on the spells you have. My TSO aa increase the amount of crit and the amount of the base heal, but when you examine the heal they’re not listed as being adjusted. Makes me feel as though the heals are doing no more then they would typically do.

Hopefully GU52 gets put on the test server soon so that it can move to live, I know a lot of people are looking forward to that one. In the mean time, I’ll see you in Norrath!

7th Epic Completed, it’s a Sickness, I know.

When I logged in yesterday I didn’t have a very clear indication of what I wanted to do. I figured I’d work on obtaining some achievements and maybe do a few instances as per usual. Instead it was suggested fairly on in the day that we work on my illusionist epic, and so that’s what we spent most of the day doing.

The first portion of the quest is spent retrieving instruments for a bard who hangs out in Kylong Plains. He’s agreed to give you a book in return for said instruments. The only problem is that once you do your part, he gives you an empty book with the pages torn out. Seems like he’s got a bit of a money problem, and he’s ripped those pages out and used them as IOU’s to various people throughout Norrath. The IOU comes up to 189 plat, which is more then it would cost to purchase the actual mythical weapon these days so it’s your job to run around to each NPC doing various tasks for them in order to pay off the debt.

There are 10 pages in total that you’re sent out to retrieve all with varying tasks like killing 100 yah-li for updates, and obtaining 30 pieces of T8 player crafted furniture. That portion cost me approx 5 plat to complete, and then there’s a portion later on where you’re sent to retrieve 6 masks for a halfling that requires you to have completed the hool’oh hat quest in Barren Sky. The alternative method to completing that quest (because of course I have not done this on my illusionist) is to pay off the bird with 5 plat. So in total my epic cost about 10p give or take a few coins – and a lot of time. There are a LOT of sub components to this quest.

Instance wise it was not so bad. I needed to get one of my masks from the Queen in Chardok which we did fairly painlessly. She was even up rather then a place holder. Then there was the Maidens update which also went really well (though the zone itself didn’t drop all that much).

Finally after a full day of questing I completed the fabled version of my epic. This marks the 7th epic that I’ve completed to date. I have the epics for: Mystic, Templar, Warden, Coercer, Troubador, Dirge, and now Illusionist. I know, it’s a sickness. Once the quest was finally done we headed over to Obelisk of Ahkzul where the healer shield refused to drop (again) but it was the daily double shard zone so we all walked away with three shards and I managed to get the illusionist her first piece of T2 gear which was nice. The final mob also dropped a master for her which was a great bonus, she has all of her adept3 but illusionist masters on kithicor are priced insanely, and she hasn’t owned a single one. Pessimism marks her first.

We headed to Crypt of Agony shortly after that to attempt (once again) to get the fabled range item for Ultann but our luck held steady and we got a treasured chest from that particular named. The Farseer eludes us once more. On the plus side a level 73 mystic master did drop, a temporary pet that helps heal and cure the group. Not as wonderful as a heal or a buff spell but hey it’s better then nothing. The mystic actually doesn’t have horrible luck when it comes to getting her masters, and that one marked her 4th drop.

All in all it was a very productive Sunday game-wise. Kasul also managed to tear up the levels with his baby assassin and inched his way to 61 with a handful of aa via the new hotzones that were around for the weekend. Before long we’ll have ourselves another DPS in the group – and a full group at that, which will be great. The faster we can kill stuff before it tears us to shreds the better. I hope everyone enjoys their Monday, and if you happen to have today off for the holiday, enjoy!

See you in Norrath