EQ2 – Page 35 – A Pixel Nomad

Exploring Thurgadin #EQ2

I really love how the developers of EQ2 have designed Thurgadin. It’s one of my favorite zones in looks alone. I spent a few hours wandering around the city, listening to NPC and viewing the wonders that were hidden in nooks and crannies, and every detail is just done with such care. My coercer has her flying mount now (the only character I have who has finished the quest so far) and getting around quest hubs is much easier. I finished the crafting quests in The Great Divide, and have been working on the ones within Thurgadin. I also took the troubador out for a spin, after being much neglected. I decided to splurge and purchased the two portal weapons off of the broker (having already obtained the belt, all three come from the Guk portal) and then did a few Public Quests with her. I stayed away from SG, people have already proven that it’s the least liked of both, and every two hours I said I was LFR and eventually found myself in a group. I didn’t get any neat weapons or the chest piece or any runes, but I did get myself three pieces of legendary gear with +87 to agi and stam, and the three set bonus also granted me another extra 100 agi. The troubador was wearing level 80 gear from The Shadow Odyssey still, and this new gear was an enormous upgrade.

Since I qualified for the Free Blood race in February I decided just for laughs I’d create one, and purchase the home in case one of these days I wanted to decorate it. I honestly have no idea what the inside looks like yet, I haven’t bothered stepping into one. I’d like to continue working on my carpenter on the Antonia Bayle server, so that will probably be the plan for the next little while.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend – how have you been spending your game time? Let me know in comments below! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in New (and Old) Norrath!

Pegasus Feathered Cloak #EQ2

The design of this cloak is absolutely amazing. It’s in two layers, giving it a better movement effect, and the details in the feathers is just fantastic. The cloak itself drops as a semi-rare item from the new portal quests in EQ2, celebrating the 12 year anniversary of EQ1. I ran a few alts through the instance because the cloak is heirloom and can be traded between your account, I was determined to get one.

I also wanted the two scout weapons from the Guk portal – but instead of patiently waiting until I looted one, I decided to purchase them off the broker. If I do manage to loot one while adventuring there on my own time I’ll hang onto it for when the portals are no longer around (the event ends the 30th) and then sell them. It’s not often I splurge on my alts, and it was a massive upgrade to the troubador.

Yesterday also marked my final quest for my flying mount – I did the crafter chain in order to get it, and I’m really glad I did. I picked the Boreal mount, which has some very nice colours on it. My 90 carpenter (84 coercer) is pleased to be able to fly around completing quests much quicker now. I do have many more alts who could use the flying mount, but I’m undecided as to whether or not I want to run them all through the quest chain or just stick with one having completed it for now. Since I’m still spread between two servers it’s a little annoying, I’ve always wanted my characters on one server but alas with friends scattered all over the place that rarely works out in my favour.

I hope everyone is enjoying the 12th anniversary quests. This weekend also marks double vitality for Eq2, and double experience for EQ1, so get your levels while you have the time! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in Norrath!

EQ2 Celebrates 12 Years of EQ1 #EQ2 #EQ

Ah, my old nemesis from EQ1 and I can’t even call it my nemesis because I actually never managed to see Quillmane in game in all the times I attempted to. Famous for their pegasus feathered cloak which is used in the magician epic SOE has continued with the humor by spawning angry mages at the end of the EQ2 event. Yesterday I spent some time in EQ2 doing the EQ (confusing eh?) 12th anniversary quests. Mostly because I wanted the awesome house items that go along with it. I really wish EQ had put some house items in game with their anniversary tasks, but alas I’ll just have to be satisfied with augments.

The only instance I really had troubles with was Lavastorm, but I toughed it out playing a shadowknight and coercer together so that I could get the title at the end of the event. Now that I’ve gotten it, it’s simply a matter of farming the pieces I want (Guk for the level 90 gear, and Enchanted lands for the pegasus cloak which just has an incredible graphic). Each instance drops a fabled adornment, a common piece of jewelery, and the chance at the rare drop from that EQ1 encounter. You also get two tokens which can be spent at a special vendor in Antonica. Doing all of the instances once gave me enough tokens for every item that was not a plushie – plus two plushies. I’ve added them to my museum on Antonia Bayle, and I’ve started collecting items for the coercer on Oasis since at this moment I’m still split between both servers.

I also participated in my first public quest yesterday – and it reminded me of public quests in Rift and Warhammer except for one really important factor. EQ2 is not made for these sort of quests. What I mean is that there are very few spells that land on anyone outside of your group / raid and you won’t always be invited to one despite advertising. This was the case with my warden who landed (literally) on top of the PQ (public quest) in progress. I was not invited to the raid, and I couldn’t heal anyone or do anything but throw a few little nukes at the encounters. My buffs are useless for anyone not in my group and over all the experience was incredibly poor. Thus since my participation was deemed poor, my rewards were poor.

The second time around went much better. My first PQ was the Ring War (I believe that’s what it’s called on Oasis at least) and the second one was SG (not sure what that stands for). SG is the least popular of the two public quests, and I was invited to a raid without issue. Basically you battle hordes of mobs that swarm the raid and there’s an actual strategy to the encounters. We did wipe once, but revive places you right where you need to be, so it was nothing to get back into the fray. I healed for all I was worth, and managed to score a piece of legendary gear. Not that bad I suppose considering we only had one raid worth of people around.

The quests were fun but without the ability to cast heals outside of group I feel that healers really get the short end of the stick on these. I’d like to see a special flag applied while inside the blue marked map that turns your heals into AoE heals – the problem with this is that classes like shaman may see far higher returns in participation because of how their heals work. They are wards, and prevent damage from coming in. In other words a ward gets used up first before a regular heal will land. Based on the damage being done to players I doubt this would be much of an issue in a raid situation, but you never know. Hopefully we see some sort of “join public group” option in the future to make participation easier on players.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! Woohoo for Friday!

Changes coming with Destiny of Velious #EQ2

As with pretty much every expansion, there are a lot of changes coming with DoV and I wanted to go over a few of them now that the NDA has lifted. Please keep in mind that these changes were in beta, and are therefor subject to change before being brought to live servers.There are more changes coming then these ones listed here, but these ones are the ones that popped out to me first.

Tradeskill pristine bonus being removed – that means for first time combines you will no longer gain a bonus. There is a very lengthy post about why this is from Domino over on the eq2forums. Basically what it comes down to is that some craft classes have way more recipes then others (in specific the ones that make skills, alchemist, sage, and jeweler). There for they would level up “faster” then other classes because of this pristine bonus. The article goes on to talk about how compensation will be given by means of extra experience awarded for crafting quests as well as writs. I personally think that this is a good move, of course on that same note I dislike change and feel that this is a pretty large one for the crafting community to swallow. Hopefully it all balances out.

Changes to stats – Another big one. Eq2wire has a great write up about what will be changing as far as itemization goes. Number one, gear will no longer have hit points or mana on it. I remember them trying to change this back in SF but it didn’t exactly work out and was reversed. Players will gain power through their primary stat only, so for fighters it’s str, scouts agi, priests wis, and mages int. Agility no longer has anything to do with mitigation or critical mitigation. Wisdom no longer has anything to do with resists. +spell damage and +combat art damage is being phased out.

Item Score (also known as Gear Score for those who may be familiar with the World of Warcraft term) has been removed.

Achievements – Curious about what your new achievements are going to look like? EQ2wire has set up a fantastic aa browser for players to look at.

I’m really looking forward to the in-game calendar, as well as being able to fly around Norrath. I don’t see an issue with having to be level 86 in order to complete the flying mount quest as long as there is also a crafter friendly version of it.

Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Let me know! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

** Edit ** Domino confirmed for me that there is indeed a crafter friendly version of the flying mount – fantastic!

Test Server Erollisi Day Party #EQ2

Last night I patched up the test copy server and headed over to join in the festivities and spread the love (so to speak) a bit with other players. Amnery’s graciously hosted an Erollisi Day event and explained that while she would have loved to hold a party on every EQ2 server, it just wasn’t possible with so many other things on the go. I realize it’s only too easy to point fingers and blame the lack of personal attention on community managers (since it is their job) but they too only have so many hours in a day in which to get things done. I was thankful for the party none the less.

There is a second party being hosted on the EQ2X server on Thursday February 17th at 9pm PST so if you didn’t get to make it to the test copy server but still want to celebrate you may want to head on over to the Freeport server.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.