Tag: EQ2

I have to admit, I’m proud of my guild. We’re certainly not the largest, with only a handful of active members, and we’re certainly not the best, most of us still leveling up. I’m proud of them every day though and I think that’s important. Last night saw us hit guild level 20 which was a major accomplishment for Nostalgia 2.0. It opened up more bank slots, and unlocked more items at the city merchants. It brings us closer to 30, which is fantastic, so of course I’m proud of everyone in it.

It’s hard to believe that Nostalgia the Guild (EQ1 branch) and Nostalgia, started out in April as an idea in the comments section of Tipa’s blog. It took off from there though. The Friday and Tuesday groups still gather on Luclin in EQ1 for their meetings, and that guild is just booming. I’ve personally met so many wonderful people from both branches of the guild. It’s been nothing short of amazing.

I decided last night that I would not attend raids, for one main reason. They’re just simply too late for me. The raids didn’t even begin until 9:30pm my time, and end around 11-12:30 depending on the raid. I’m up fairly early each morning (between 5:30 and 6am depending on when the cat decides I should be up) and so after a lot of contemplation I decided to sit this expansion out so to speak. When the new one comes out in November, then I’ll decide whether or not I want to progress in that method again. For now I’m content with my fabled epics and working on tradeskillers.

Speaking of which, today I should be able to hit 70 carpenter finally on Silhouette. Last night I downed a few experience potions that I’d been stock piling (I had 15 of them) remembering that the different potions stack (ie: 55% bonus stacks with 28% bonus and so on). I hit level 68 which was dissapointing because I only got two new recipes. However at level 70 I’ll get all those new faction recipes that I’ve had stashed away now. Since my carpenter is an adventurer she won’t have to grind it the long difficult way – except for Bathezid Watch, which leaves you just short of 30,000 faction. I’m eager to be on T8 as far as carpenter work goes. It means that I can make the REALLY nice items, and I can get started again on decorating. I want to overhaul each house I own, as well as make some items for Kasul’s house (even though I dare say I’ve been over doing his lately and just stuffing junk everywhere) as well as Shadowgeist’ house which I have a few special ideas for. It should be a blast!

It was high time Goudia started her mythical. Especially since tonight is Leviathan (or it’s supposed to be, we’ll see how that goes). I believe that’s the first kill for the mythical for troubadors. I haven’t looked it up in a few days so I could be wrong. Anyhow, I headed off to barren sky to talk to some bird-chick in the middle of a chain in the middle of no where. Not such a big deal walking along the chain since it’s quite wide, but if you see at the top of the screen shot the way the chain attaches to the under side of the island? Well, I had to jump from the main land onto that little chain without a clear view of where I was jumping to.

I am no good at the jumping game in EQ2. If there’s a crack, even if it’s 10 paces away chances are I’ll some how manage to trip and fall into it. That raid zone in Pillars of Flame that sends you to a shimmering citadel look alike, it has lots of cracks in the ground that you’re expected to jump over or plummet to your death. It’s great to fall out the bottom of an island, I should know, I did it, numerous times.

So anyhow I managed to jump onto the chain, and wander across and found out what I need to do next.

Spent a little time yesterday with Kasul in Barren Sky, helping him work through some quests. I do believe I got us killed a time or two though, hard to remember, my memory always gets all blurry whenever I induce a death, hehe. He managed to ding 61, though it had very little to do with my help. I also spent some money (ok, a lot of money) upgrading things on Goudia. Turns out she was missing a few adept3’s that I deemed ‘unworthy’ when I wasn’t raiding. Made those with petites (80 jeweler) and bought a few pieces of gear. I also made some +int adornments for my ears, +str for wrists, a new adornment for my weapon (vampiric I believe) and +health for my rings. Added +power to my head piece. It’s not much, but it’s a start. I had a friend create an aa respec mirror for me, and saved a DPS and an AOE avoidance profile. Turns out that bladedance is only used for the trakanon fight these days (as opposed to last tier, where BD was used fairly constantly) and I’ll be running around with the dps spec for the most part. I also need to find an adornment for my off hand weapon. I’ve been parsing lately to see how I do, if my trooper scale boots go off I can parse 1.4k with auto attack and no special moves (by myself in a group) while I’m duel wielding. However with a shield I was only parsing 900 (with auto attack). I do need a shield for named fights where I’m offering protection to the MT as it absorbs one attack for them – but for trash and what not the dps / duel wield seems to work just fine.

I also moved some of my aa around generally, for a better dps spread. Took some points out of the agi line (I believe that’s the one, maybe I’m wrong) and put 5 into the int line, just to get the base attack that will add some dmg. There’s really no need to waste more points in there, as it only raises the rank of the skill very slightly.

Enough of my troubador ranting!

It will be nice to raid tonight. In case it’s not noticeable, I am nervous, of course. I’m really hoping I can get back into the swing of things. I also need to get 5 more aa to finish those off, and eventually I’d like to see Goudia hit 80 crafter (weaponsmith) so that she can finish that epic as well and be my first 80/80/140/400 since she’s a tinkerer. Maybe even before the next expansion comes out.. hehe.

More later!

When SOE implemented the mini expansion packs that would come out mid way through the year (for a fee of $5) a lot of people were upset. Why are we paying for extra content was the cry from the general public. With the latest expansion, each of these adventure packs were included (for those who did not purchase them) and one of the best ones there aside from Fallen Dynasty (which is my number one favorite) is the Bloodline Chronicles which pits you against vampires and badies in the low 30’s to high 40’s range through a series of 11 quests.

The zones may seem drab after all this time, but the rewards are fun. Arysh (warden) is far too high for these quests, and I mowed through them fairly fast. Some coin, aa rewards (now that grey quests reward experience) and some cool appearance gear – as well as the charm that turns you into a vampire.

Why bother doing these quests at all? Well there’s also the vampire smite spell you get by the end – and who does not want to be able to smite those foes? Ever since Castle Mistmoore and the incidents there..

Last night I also came to the conclusion that, YES, you CAN have TOO many alts.

I know. Lets pause here to check for a pulse, I did indeed just say that. Me, with all the alts that I have.

So I’ve decided it’s time to cut down and focus. Now, why on earth would I ever say too many alts is bad? Let me mention here that crafting alts don’t fall under this category. I simply mean too many adventure alts is bad. Think of it this way, unless you can devote a LOT of time to each alt, how on earth will you manage to complete everything there is to complete in the game.

I have plenty of characters, and I’ve done a lot of content, but no one character has done all or even a majority of it. I’ve got one with claymore, another with prismatic 1.0 another with godking, two with their epics.

It’s all spread all over.

The same thing can be said about masters and upgrades. How can you afford to gear up and equip every one of those characters. I know people who have one definitive “main” who own every single M1 they can possibly own. Why? Because they have no alts to buy for.

Now, crafting alts are money makers, adornment providers and other random goodness. Those are different.

There’s a pretty good chance this whole experiment will backfire on me. I’ll get frustrated and end up creating ten alts to compensate for it. We’ll just have to see (I can hear everyone laughing in the background already). I won’t know unless I try!

Screen shot is of the (neglected lately) monk, Ysandria, exploring through Steamfont. Since I spent her lower levels powerleveling her, skills were at an all time low. Having 85/185 deflection is not a good thing especially when those solo blue con mobs are eating you to little shreds. So for a little portion of the evening last night I worked on fixing that. I still have a ways to go yet, but for now Ysandria is not too bad. Along the way I also managed to ding level 38, and finished off a few quests for Steamfont that required me to kill random Kobold, Spiders, Lions, Tigers and Bears (oh my). Ok maybe not those last few, but it was fun none the less.

Kasul and I headed to Vault of Dust, as well as Scornfeathers Roost, both located in the Clefts of Rujark. It was a lot of fun, even though nothing of any note dropped. Kasul (as I spotted this morning) hit level 60, and is climbing steadily. I’m eager to team him up with Petites (my templar) so that he can do all the work while I sit and relax and get her some levels.

Last night Shadowgeist took a small group into KC for some epic updates, I tagged along with (also neglected) Stargrace, who finished off her quest to kill the named in the basement, and got herself some shoulder upgrades. She’s close to hitting 77, and I suppose maybe one day I should finish that off. Especially since she is a dps class and can do it with relative ease. Where as the templar… well. It’s slow. I’ve mentioned that I’m sure (as has everyone else).

I’m thinking of betraying the monk to a bruiser, apparently they’re better on the solo front, which is exactly what I have this character for. It’s not like I couldn’t switch back to a monk at a later date if I choose.

This week is busy with family stuff, so I won’t be around for portions of it, but should still find some time here and there. Next weekend is family stuff again, with random bits of real life interjecting here and there. I’m already eager for winter, and for this heat to end. Yesterday we got some wicked thunderstorms – too bad I’m mighty afraid of storms.

On the crafting front, Silhouette hit level 66 carpenter. I managed to grind out a few more levels before running completely out of vitality and calling it a day. Nostalgia also hit level 19, and a little portion into it. We’re inching up on 20 slowly but surely, and last but not least, there was an apparent Calreth sighting, but that may have been a halucination. Stay tuned for more news tomorrow!

With Kasul back in town, and Vlcan, and Mayadhros around, the guild was busy as ever last night. It was great to see. We’re a smidge away from level 19, and then it’s only one more level to go before we hit 20 and get those extra bank slots. I managed to grind my way to level 64 carpenter on Silhouette – and I do mean grind. The past few levels she’s only gotten three recipes each level, and they’re really ugly house items that I know I’ll never use, which makes it harder for me to feel inspired to level. I’m inching my way to level 70 though which is when I can start making the REALLY nice stuff, as well as the faction based recipes. I’m looking forward to it.

So anyhow, last night Kasul was off to Lesser Faydark to do a bit of leveling, and of course I asked if I could tag along with Misako, the 58 necromancer (since we’re both the same level). I had never even taken her to the zone before. My necromancer is an old character, and she was created before aa were released. While Kasul has edged past his 80th, Misako is barely into her low 40’s. I respec’d her to a tank pet line which seemed to work out pretty well. Though I did end up getting Kasul killed once, we had a named and two other fairy things on us that knocked him around pretty good. The fantastic things about necromancers though is that we can feign death (I did, in order to let my pet finish off the encounter) and we can also rez. Just doing the few quests around the shadowman area, and the greater faydark entrance, brought me to 60% experience. I was starting to feel tired, so we called it a night. I headed to East Freeport where I did a few cheap quick collections that dinged me the remainder I needed, and Misako is sitting comfortably at level 59 now. Won’t be too long before I’m smacking vampires around in New Tunaria.

Earlier on in the evening Growlius and I headed into Vanguard to kill more undead, but my heart just wasn’t into it and so after half way completing some quests we had, we called it early and we’ll pick it up another time. Not a big deal, just some times you don’t feel like playing a particular game that night. It happens!