Tag: EQ2

A screenshot of Grover (Goudia’s pet) looking on quizzically, wondering what they were doing in Qeynos, what had happened to Goudia’s fancy blue cap, and why she was wielding some lower class weapon as opposed to the highly sought after troubador epic.

Could it be?

That’s right. I betrayed my level 80 troubador over to a dirge yesterday.

WHY?!

Well. I actually had some very valid reasons, aside from just being bored of the troubador. I enjoy a few of my other level 80’s more then I enjoy the bard – and while the troubador is quite sought after for raids, the same can not be said at this point in time for general groups. Since I don’t belong to an overly populated guild always running instances, my characters thrive on whatever they can find. Which, for the troubador was surprisingly little. Dirges get a m2 hate transfer choice at level 60 that doesn’t get an upgrade (I discovered that yesterday). They get two forms of rez (single target and group). They get a parry buff (more important then a defense buff which troubs get and is easier for tanks to cap out) and melee procs (seems to be more fighters and scouts these day then mages, and even healers are melee-ing it up). Dirges also get stoneskin, which makes any fight better – troubadors? They get a spell proc (only helpful to those spell casters and a few fighter taunts will proc it), they get jesters, which is nice but so is the 20% increased proc chance from troubs. Nothing about the troubador really stood out to me to make it better in a GROUP situation.

So I betrayed, to be a better group member. Plus why not, I may as well. I did end up spending 80p on loams for all my skills again, and I’ll have to do the dirge epic since my troubador one gets to collect dust in my bank. No, I’m not selling it – just in case. No doubt some where down the road I’ll betray Goudia back. This is not the first time after all.

After making all my skills, and looking through all of my new aa, I’m happy with the choice. I’m still a bard at least, and I’m playing my other characters more these days anyhow. We’ll see how it goes!

This just released…

some changes to the guild halls (posted by Rothgar):

Since our unveiling of Guild Halls at Fan Faire we’ve heard lots of feedback, over 60 pages worth! This morning we discussed a lot of this feedback and have decided to make some changes.

1. Zone Art

One of the issues that concerned you was that the Tier 1 guild hall made use of the existing 5-room house. Initially this was added to give us another tier that originally wasn’t in the plan. However, we can certainly understand that the effort and cost involved in obtaining your first guild hall is significant, especially for smaller guilds. Tim “Haohmaru” Heydelaar, our zone art lead, made a huge commitment to guild halls this morning and agreed to building a new 5-room guild hall using the brand new zone geometry and textures that are used in the larger guild halls. He will also be making changes to the Tier 2 guild halls, adding a new atrium and expanding their size slightly over what we showed you at Fan Faire. The Tier 1 and 2 guild halls will still be located inside the city. If you’re concerned about travel, see #3 below.

2. Pricing

For some of the smaller guilds the pricing of entry-level guild halls was a barrier. We’ve decided to leave the pricing of the Tier 3 guild halls alone, but have lowered the price of the Tier 1 and 2 guild hall. Below is the new pricing table.

Tier 1
Purchase: 50p (Lowered from 100p)
Upkeep: 50g, 50k status (Lowered from 1p, 100k status)

Tier 2
Purchase: 250p (Lowered from 500p)
Upkeep: 2.5p, 100k status (Lowered from 5p, 150k status)

Tier 3
Purchase: 1,000p
Upkeep: 10p, 200k status

3. Accessibility

Many people were concerned that guild halls located in other cities would not be very accessible. You will have several methods to get to your guild hall very easily, regardless of its location. First, you’ll be able to purchase a house item from the city status merchant that will allow you to port from your personal house straight to your guild hall. Secondly, we’ve reduced the cost of the “Call to Guild Hall” amenity greatly. It will now only cost 1p, 250k status to purchase instead of 10p, 2 million status. In addition we’ve lowered the recast timer on Call to Guild Hall so you can use it every 15 minutes instead of once per hour.

4. Tradeskill Tables

Another concern was having to purchase amenities for each tradeskill table when you already have them available in your personal home. This made it difficult for small guilds because they’d have to use most of their amenity slots for tradeskill devices. We’ve decided to allow you to place your existing tradeskill tables in the guild hall and have removed them from the amenity list. Now smaller guilds will be able to use those slots for new features like the supply depot and harvester or convenience features like the fuel merchant and writ giver. Keep in mind that this removes 7 amenities so the original count of 40+ amenities at launch is now around 35.

We hope that these changes will have a positive impact and resolve some of the concerns expressed so far. Smaller guilds should have a much easier time getting into a Tier 1 guild hall and now have an easier upgrade path moving into the Tier 2. The amount of upkeep required to maintain a guild hall still greatly depends on the choice of amenities you decide to purchase.

We’re always interested in hearing your feedback so let us know what you think of these changes.

It never fails to happen – once I settle on a main, something comes up that has me playing one of my other level 80 characters. I suppose it’s not that big of a deal, at least I’m playing after all. Right? Last night was no different. I spent most of the evening working on the Thuuga chain of quests for Silhouette. I’ve completed the quest three times already, once for the 80 warden, again for the 80 troubador, and for the 77 templar. Silhouette however, being the huge slacker she is, went without.

The fabled item is really nice though and there’s no excuse not to have it. Before heading off to do that I finished off the Waste Hunter chain of repeatable quests as well. I was hoping for an impressive bit of jewelery like the warden got – but instead my cloth options were forearms and sleeves, both of which I had better of already. Ah well.

I was about to call it a night, since it was already getting close to midnight, when a friend asked if I wanted to tag along on a Protectors Realm run just for fun. I said sure, they were short a healer or two (though I am sure they could have done just fine without me) and off I went. The zone was cleared easily, I didn’t die (thankfully, I always find it embarrassing when I get pummeled by an AoE as a guest on a raid – but maybe that’s just me) and once the final encounter was downed I noticed there was a little bit of loot designated to me. No, not a piece of gear.

It was the first update to my mythical, and I didn’t even know I needed it. I didn’t check ahead of time and had no inclination of ever working on my mythical unless I joined a raid guild. So I examined the little elemental sphere that dropped in my inventory, and ta da, first update done. The next one is Overking, and the final one is the Cinder Queen in Veeshan’s Peek. Since my warden is not even flagged for VP, and it’s rare that anyone really needs a druid, I’m content with this one step, for now.

Since Silhouette is level 80 now, it means I can craft a lot of items for her home. Up until today I’d still only completed the library, and even that is a work in progress since it requires lots of books that I’ve yet to quest for. I decided today I’d decorate the main entrance of her home, and I wanted something a little different then the other homes I’ve decorated.

So I turned the room into a garden area, with a small black indium fence around it.

Flowers and trees surround three fountains, and a little tent to relax under, where someone’s already been camping.

The room has about 100 items in it, which is on target since the library also has 100 items. That’s two rooms complete now out of five – though I may just leave one locked up and empty. I’m planning on turning the room to the left of the entrance into a sales area and maybe a kitchen with dining. We’ll just have to see!

Silhouette, some 2,000+ crafted items later (since eq2players has not updated since she was level 76) finally managed to hit level 80 as a carpenter. Of course as soon as I hit 80 I began working on the crafter epic. Not only so I could located the red shinies that are out there (and any future ones) but also because I wanted the 45% run speed that comes along with the earring. It’s a big deal to me, especially when there’s no way I can afford mounts for all my characters, and I’m reluctant to spend a lot of time using up totems.

A huge thank you to everyone (mostly Albrta and Eyenstein) who made the other 8 items I needed for the epic quest. That makes my fourth crafter to hit level 80, and the third to complete the epic. My 60 necromancer / 80 sage has been procrastinating because I’m reluctant to grind out Bathezid Watch faction for her to be able to do the quest. I may level her, some day. Completing faction the ‘adventuring’ way seems a much safer method.

Once the epic was completed, of course I put the new pretties in my house and I’m sporting the new cloak. Silhouette is my first 80/80 and with any luck she’ll become my first 80/80/140. It’s a big goal for me, since this entire expansion I’ve floundered from character to character.

Shadowgeist, Eyenstein, Albrta, a fury, and an assassin, as well as myself headed to VoES (Vaults of Eternal Sleep) to hunt for some items. Nothing dropped – I’m after the secondary item of course with the proc on it. Forget the full name but it ends in guard. After we cleared that zone (I did get a chest upgrade, but just legendary and nothing to write home about) we headed to Maidens, and cleared that with no issues. The first named of course killed me, it always does. For some reason no matter if I’m in front or behind or at the side, I manage to get hit with tail lash. Not fun. I was hoping that the fabled robe would drop. Alas my luck held true and we got legendary. An assassin master did drop, but just before I got excited for the person in group he mentioned he already had it.

Dang it.

One of these days, something will drop that is an upgrade.

It’s nice to be completing goals again. I want to get Silhouette the rest of her aa, and maybe a few more crafters to 80. Of course I want to help Nostalgia reach level 30. We’re 70% through level 22 currently, Silhouette sitting at 276,678 guild status. Tomorrow’s going to be one of those annoying busy days (not that this weekend wasn’t, I had real life to attend to for the better part of the day of course) and I hope in the mean time that everyone had an amazing weekend.