Working on Achievements

It wasn’t that long ago that EQ2 added achievements to game, and if you’re the type of person who wants to complete absolutely everything they can on their ‘main’ character, chances are you’ve spent a lot of time hunting down the more elusive achievements to add to your collection. I haven’t gone out of my way to obtain them, but last night Wpus suggested we clear up some of the simple ones that had been kicking around our quest journals. There were a lot of exploration achievements that I could easily finish off simply by visiting one location or two, so that’s what I spent last night doing, running around to hit the few locations in a zone I had never been to before.

I admit, I like achievements. I think it gives people who thought they were ‘done’ with the game something else to strive for. While they don’t exactly have a huge affect on the game you can get some pretty neat titles and gear from completing them. It’s also a good way for me personally to separate my ‘main’ characters from the rest of the level 80’s I have, as those ones will tend to have more achievements then my other characters.

Have you been working on achievements since they’ve come out? Have any in particular that you really enjoy? Any achievements that are not listed that you’d like to see? Let me know!

An Instance, some leveling, and a Party

I know I already used a similar picture not that long ago, but in this one we’re all showing off our incredible moves, so it had to be posted. I haven’t found a lot of time to play EQ2 lately but I managed to squeeze in a little time here and there. Yesterday I did Obelisk of Ahkzul with my troubador (much neglected) – it was the hot zone, but my luck held steady and we didn’t see anything drop. I am not sure what I would have done had I see the healer shield drop, I’m pretty confident I’ve done the zone at least 200 times and it’s never dropped.

I also managed to level my bruiser up (along with some help of course) and she inched her way from level 15 to 47. With vitality, and an experience potion running (as well as the 50% bonus from having max level characters) it wasn’t that difficult. There’s a system of zones I head to now. Wailing Caves from 10-20, Fallen Gate from 21-30, Runnyeye from 31-42, Cazic Thul from 43-48 or so, then it’s off to Sinking Sands, Clefts of Rujark and all of those wonderful places. These of course are zones I head to when I have a level 80 mentoring me, on my own it would take quite a few quests and a lot more zones.

I haven’t attempted to obtain many of the newer achievements yet, the ones that required timed runs through zones, but I’m hoping to later this week. I’m also eager to see the list of changes / fixes go in, some have been a long time coming.

Don’t forget that this time a round the 5th anniversary of EQ2 is being celebrated on the TEST server, and if you plan on attending you will want to patch WELL ahead of time, because it takes a while. This means that we won’t be goodies to take home to our mains (unlike previous years when it ran on all servers on individual days) but I’m still expecting a whole lot of fun to take place. Hopefully I’ll see lots of people there, too!

How has everyone else been keeping busy? There’s got to be some gamers out there still playing MMOs, right? Right?

Saturday Book of the Day

(( Every Saturday I try to post one of the books from my collection in the Norrathian Museum I have on the Antonia Bayle server. If you’re interested in donating a book to my library please feel free to mail Ellithia in game (I’ll even send you a blank book if you’re creating from another server) and if you’d like to visit the museum yourself, please feel free. It’s located in North Freeport, at the magical housing in the mage tower. There are over 100 player written books in my collection so far, and I plan on adding as many as I can. ))

Sarek the Betrayer: Vol. 1 by Rezikai

It was some time after Rallos Zek and his sons had been defeated during the second invasion of the Plane of Earth. After executing one of the Raethe council that our story begins, it is with the remaining Rallosian forces on old Tunaria. The Ankexfen had became ravenous goblins, and scattered quickly as their curse hit, as did the Giants. The Orcs stayed as vicious as they could, but started to loose their knowledge of history and such lost future ways to obtain better tactics, theirs was a race doomed to slow decay of their cultures history.

The last of Rallos’ children to suffer were the Ogres, cursed with stupidity their mighty empire slowly crumbled, but they fought to retain much. Learning what they could of the new arcane art of necromancy. Trying to ensure their older generations held strong in their minds, and the old ways.

The Council of War in Oggok, horded their remaining forces on Tunaria, they knew that eventually all of the old generations would die and their knowledge of tactics and war with them. They had precious little time to conquer all that they could before these generations fell to the curse.

They put their faith in the greatest of their field generals, Sarek. They entrusted him to become the great warrior of Oggok that K’Ven had been for the Teir`Dal of the Rallosian mercenaries.

Sarek was a formidable warrior, one of the few remaining generals who had survived the invasion of earth and returned. But his lust for power was so great he was willing to forsake his people for it. He called out to the gods, asking their favor in secret.

He wished power that was beyond the mortal realm. His call was answered when many of the good gods agreed to raise him to a semi-deity if he agreed to stop the remeaining Rallosian armies from destroying the rest of their creations.

He agreed, and set in motion his plan of treachery. He went before the Council of War in Oggok, and made his case for the invasion of the unknown lands to the far southwestern reaches of Tunaria, and the northern mountains of Raethe where the many maddened mages resided deep past the northern pass into the Geomancer’s Citadel.

The Council of War foolishly agreed, too worried of their time left to conquer for mortal kingdoms while Sarek had his sights set much higher. His grand plan laid before him, as he ordered three quarters of the Tunarian legions of the empire to Oggok to set forth a mighty campaign. The War Council were cautious at so many warriors assmebled, but their blind faith in Sarek, and his assurances that so many were needed to complete more campaigns before the final years of the curse fully engulfed their race let their better judgement slip aside for their own lust for power.

Sarek ordered the massive force into two main columns. The first would head North into the Geomancers Pass, on until it seiged the citadel. Taking the knowledge the crazed mages had back to Oggok to learn from and help slow the god’s curse on their race. The second column were destined south deep into the land of the Dead Hills, where the fabled Tal`Thex secrety rested with its secrets of the Elddar’s most powerfull mages, that could be exploited for the Rallosian empire.

The plan of attack was for Sarek to lead the second column of legions to search for the  pagoda of Tal`Thex. While the first started the great trek north to seige the citadel and overtake any resistance of the geomancers.
If so needed forces from the second column could reinforce the first. The Pagoda wasnt expect to have much resistance aside from some old living golems and perhaps some ancient Elddar soldiers, it was expected to be a quick victory. The two massive armies set out from Oggok, marching towards what they thought was the saving of their race.

The route of the first coulmn lead through geomancers pass, the legions encountered the crazed mages, free roaming animations, summoned elementals, golems, and unliving amalgamations. They encountered light resistance at first slaughtering the maddened wizards and enchanters they encountered who defied them.

The Ogres pressed on, fighting through more and more heavier resistance passing massive golems and larger enchanted animations. The assualt of the animations and golems were relentless they needed no sleep they needed no food, they just kept coming. The Ogre commanders searched for the mages summoning them but rarely did they ever find a mage or enchanter in control of these pets, as if they lived on their own.

The tide of battle seemed to turn when they finally reach the base of the geomancers citadel. A massive set of arcane towers created from ages past resting atop sheer cliffs of a ashen covered mountain, now inhabited by the most powerfull of animations and mages created their own dark rituals of elemental magics.

It was here the true number of defenders of geomancers citadel were shown, thousands of animations and golems, elementals and amalgamations stood assembled as they readied to defend their pinnacle of power. The Ogres had taken losses but would not be turned away and launched their armies at mountain fortress.

The Legions of Oggok took heavy losses but to die in battle was honor in the eyes of Rallos! Days into the seige the animations and elementals withdrew shortly, which bewildered the Ogre commanders, they saw this as a chance to gain more ground up the massive cliffs, they pushed their remaining forces foward into the wrah of the amalgamations and golems.

It was here the few powerfull elven and human mages that dwelled within the citadel unleashed their trap. massive waves of water elementals came from the beaches on the western shore of the mountain cutting a swathe deep into the Rallosian lines. Those cut off turned to battle in front and behind while the commanders held stubborn unwilling to withdraw. “For Rallos! For Sarek!” they cried.

Their cries of war would be their last, as many were slaughtered. The Ogre commanders realized the dire situation but tried to hold ranks to retreat and reassemble,  the true nature of the mages and wizards trap very quickly became far to obvious. The dead soldiers cut off, from the rest were being pounded and burned into lumps of flesh, reformed with elements to create more amalgamations, golem, summoned pets, and now the geomancers force had grown two fold.
The Ogre commanders in less then a day were now in peril of loosing more then the battle, their soldiers were being slain and risen against them too fast, and they needed no rest of battle. They dispatched messengers to Oggok and to the second column to call for reinforcments immediately, mere days before they would soon meet their end. Few fled battle in the Rallosian ranks most stayed until their death, all but a handfull of the messengers were slain trying to make it through geomancers pass back to Oggok.

Those very few that survived the travel back through geomancers pass reach Oggok to tell the tail of failure, they were thrown in chains as failures, traitors to the
empire. The Council of War sent messengers to contact Sarek’s column.

No word was ever recieved from Sarek’s column of Rallosians.

Oasis Rat Race

If you haven’t been paying attention to the EQ2players web site, you may have missed the announcement about Kiara and Amnerys hosting a rat race on each server for players to partake in. By now most of the servers have had their rat race, but last night it was Oasis’ time to shine, and shine we did! It was an amazing time had by all, and I think that although the crowd was small, they were filled with just as much spirit as every other server. There were prizes given out to everyone who took part (or observed!) and goodies for those who came in first, second, third or fourth place. They were mostly house items, some fire works and the orange halloween robes, fantastic prizes for anyone.

I absolutely love anything that brings a server together like this, and of course have to extend a HUGE thank you to Kiara and Amnerys for hosting the event, as well as the guides who stopped by to ensure that everything got off smoothly (because we know how those two can be). I got to meet Squeecha finally, who may or may not have become the object of many a pillow and snow ball fight afterward.

There are still a few servers that are running their Rat Races so if you haven’t managed to stop by one yet, there’s still time (as long as you have the character slots to create a new character that is). If you did manage to partake in one, how did it go? Isn’t it fantastic that we have these sorts of events?

I’ll be posting more pictures as well as an article on the Beckett forums later today, so be on the look out!

Festival of Discord (Nov 1st – 7th)

This is actually the third year I’ve attended the Festival of Discord on the Antonia Bayle server. For those who have never heard of the event before, it’s a player run event (coupled with the Festival of Unity which was earlier this year) run by various guilds on the Antonia Bayle server. It’s a week of events that everyone can partake in. There is roleplay pretty much constantly, and it is a LOT of fun. The past two years have involved GMs to some degree, as they have agreed to set up the fair grounds for the event – this year was absolutely amazing in terms of decorations.

My first year

My Second Year

If you’ve never attended before, you’ll want to take a look at the calendar of events as well as the map of locations on the EQ2 players site. You can also find the guild portal page for more information as well as forums for each event. If you’re looking for the central role play ‘hotspot’ of Antonia Bayle you’ll also want to check out The Town Square, and there’s a page for the Festival of Unity too.

I missed the opening ceremonies, but I did manage to log in along with Hamal to check out some of the events tonight – we started with one called ‘Bit by Bit’ which included slowly slicing up a gnome ratonga dwarf piece by piece while a crowd cheered on. The dwarf was named Augur, and it was pretty amusing to watch him call out to the crowd while he was being picked apart.

The second event was the diving event, held over at Lucan’s Mount.

It’s hard to tell, but in the center of fireworks is a gnome, who I believe combusted on the way down due to fright. Obviously the skeletons looking on from the water below are the contestants who went ahead of him, and you can see those who still have to jump way up there at the top. I had a perfect seat right up front.

After the diving came The Wishing Well, which is where bards and those who think they’re bards tell the crowds poems and stories of their choosing. I was starting to fall asleep by then, despite the Fizzlepop and Cookies that Hamal had purchased for me (there are vendors during the festival wandering around peddling their wares) so I decided to call it a night.

If you’re on the Antonia Bayle server I HIGHLY suggest you check out this event, even to simply wander through the crowds – there were more then 100 people in attendance for this while I was there, and it was incredible. If you’re interested in taking part, be sure to /join festival from the Antonia Bayle server, or if you’re interested in listening to the events going on but you’re not actually on Antonia Bayle, you can always /join antonia_bayle.festival and listen from whichever server you reside on. There are some VERY amusing advertisements that play on the channel and that almost makes it worth it right there.

I intend on going to more of the events as the week progresses, so if you happen to be around, send a tell to Stargrace, or you can /who all torrent and see who is on from Torrent Knights – no guarantee that it’s me, but perhaps whoever is on can help you out. I’ve always been really excited about any player run festival in game, and this one happens to be one of the largest, and the best. I’m still stunned over the fact that I’ve written about it on this site for three years now, hehe.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath.