Tag: EQ

WTB Some Time

I love my job, I really do. Being able to write about something I enjoy as well as something I’m passionate about is a great gift that I try to make sure I’m aware of constantly. On my web site, I write for me and I love talking about my adventures, thoughts, friends and anything else that happens to cross my mind. The only time any of this is difficult is when it all seems to happen at once. These days there are so many games out there, that I simply don’t have enough time to play everything I want. It’s a shame, because I’d really love to.

EQ2 is my ‘steady’ game even though I’m barely playing it these days (it’s due to being crunch week and no other reason) it’s the comfort game that I know inside and out, and I like that comfort factor. However. It’s not the only game I want to play and certainly not the only game I am playing.

I’ve been having an incredible urge to continue playing EQ, which I have waded in and out of for quite some time now. Problem is I don’t enjoy playing EQ alone (where as in EQ2 I have no problem wandering around on my own) and it’s difficult for me to make friends (especially when I waver to and from games). I have my 81 necromancer that I’m considering leveling a little, she’s fairly close to level 82. I’ve always wanted to hit “end game” in everquest, and with the expansion NOT raising the level cap in November, it may very well be a possibility.

Vanguard is another one of those “if I only had more time” games. I seem to be in a rut with my blood mage, and I’m slowly running out of areas where I can just dip in for an hour or two before calling it quits and feel as though I have gotten anything acomplished.

Last month I won a free copy of Age of Conan, I think I found the time to play once during the month that came with the game, and then it sat neglected. For some reason it just does not appeal to me as much as I wish it had. It may be because I’m not really a melee person, and it felt uncomfortable. Either way, it’s one of those “I wish I had more time” games – along with many others.

Lord of the rings online – I really enjoy this game, a lot. It’s familiar, it’s beautiful. I want to continue playing but for now my account lays dormant because once again the greedy time monster has taken all of my time away, and I just don’t have any to spare or to warent spending a monthly subscription for it.

So what AM I playing? Well, my current play list includes EverQuest II, Vanguard (barely), Free Realms (barely), World of Warcraft (please don’t shoot me, it’s easy to dive into for an hour and feel like I actually acomplished something), Wizard 101, Aion Beta, and some DDO.  I want to be able to devote more time to EVE, but that learning curve is so far over my head I may as well actually be playing from another planet. I’ve been having fun in Aion, but again – not enough time to play everything I want to play, and to get work done as well as real life things (plus I can’t actually sit at my desk for too long before I start to get sore from health issues).

While I am excited that there are so many games out there (don’t even get me started on console games and finding time to play those too!) there are certainly moments where I wish the selection were smaller. Am I the only one?

Random Game News

Well, there’s lots of news going on out there – to start things off, the newest Wizard 101 world is going live today! What a great Canada Day gift to players. I’m excited about this world for a few reasons, number one you can level up through it just as you would level up a character, so for those who have completed it all – it’s time for alts, and time to run quests for house items. It will also impliment a crafting system, bazaar, and the new 18+ chat system, and a few other goodies. Speaking of goodies, be sure to check out Tipa’s site for some wallpaper goodies! I love how fast things come out of test for players.

Of course there is also the discussion about the Chronicles of Spellborn becomming free to play – I dipped into this game only VERY briefly, and didn’t enjoy it. I’m not sure why. I don’t even think I made it past the tutorial, but maybe I just know my comfort zones, and tend to stay within.

I am looking forward to the next Aion beta weekend, from July 2nd to the 4th. I have no idea if I’ll actually manage to drag myself to the PC to play, but we’ll see. It would be nice.

I spent some time on the new EQ server yesterday, Mayong. For those who have been living under a rock, this new server is a 50/51 server – you log in and create, and achieve level 50 instantly, as well as 51 aa to your name. You also start out with all of your spells (and I do mean all) as well as some gear and backpacks (there are more packpacks waiting for your in the bank if you’re looking for them). You don’t start with any money, so you’ll want to farm some especially if you plan on using a mercenary.

The server was absolutely packed last night, I had problems moving around. It was fantastic. There were four general channels, and people were advertising for groups and guilds all over the place. PoK was packed, it was easy to tell who had been a long time player and who had returned for the free 30 days and didn’t know about the guild lobby yet.

There were of course raids also going on, and I saw a few system messages about encounters that were being taken down. I didn’t stay for too long but I did create myself a beastlord, enchanter, cleric, and bard. Whether I will actually stick with one of those or head back to Drinal I am unsure.

In EQ2 (the brief time I played) I collected some more red shiny and decided to do a little crafting and put items for sale which was nice. Not going to be purchasing anything super expensive over the next little while, but hey it’s better then nothing.

I hope everyone has a fantastic day today, it’s the first of July and thus Canada Day! Get out there and enjoy it for me.

Taking Advantage of Bonus Experience Weekends

The bonus experience was flowing nicely this weekend in both EQ2 and EQ. While it may have only been a 50% bonus to combat / tradeskill in EQ2, it was 100% bonus in EQ which made for some pretty fun times – unfortunately I didn’t spend nearly as much time taking advantage of it as I would have liked, but I suppose some time is better then none.

The greatest thing about the bonus experience is knowing how to use it to its fullest potential. So, Ninga (Wpus) and I logged in and headed to Loping Plains (along with 27 other people who had the same idea might I add). LP is not a hot zone but there are repeatable tasks throughout the zone. One of which is to kill wereorcs, and worgs.

I always chuckle to myself when I explore through this zone, I spent so much time here in EQ2 before ever adventuring in it in EQ. There’s similarities but plenty of differences too. We grabbed the two tasks to kill 20 worgs and wereorcs and set to work dpsing them down. Things were going fairly smooth (if not a bit slow) and before too long Ultann returned and logged in with his magician to add to the dps.

When you complete these tasks, you can decline accepting a reward and that was the key to maximizing the experience gain. Each time we completed them (for a maximum of 10 completed plus two more to turn in) we declined the reward (which has an option of extra experience) and saved it up. Then all at once turned them in with lesson of the devoted running which is a veteran reward that boosts your experience gain.

By turning in three quests I managed to net myself 15% experience easily, that’s a huge amount at level 81. In fact the experience was so great that Ultann managed to find himself brushing up against level 85, the current cap for EQ. WOOT! I was very excited for him. My necromancer inched her way through most of level 81 before we decided to head back to EQ for the remainder of the evening, I was starting to get a little tired and wanted to do a quick CoA run (and perhaps pick up the dirge epic starter) before crashing for the night. Ninga is almost level 85 as well, it’s great to see them hitting the cap once more. My little necromancer has quite a bit of time left before she’ll see 85 but this is the closest I’ve been to ‘end game’ in EQ. Granted the cap will probably go up again before I actually DO see it, but that’s alright. It would be nice to hit it just so that I could focus on gaining some achievements, since I am missing a huge chunk (like 1500 or so, hehe).

The game was VERY busy last night on Drinal as well. Over 381 people were in the general channels (there was a general, and a general1 since 200 players per channel is the cap) and while they may not have been the most talkative of people they were definitely out and about which was great to see. I can only assume that the hot zones would have been VERY busy with people too.

I hope everyone had a fantastic evening, and here’s looking forward to the rest of the week! I’ll see you in Norrath.

Feel the Love (again)

So much has gone on over the last few days, I figured I’d jumble it all into this one post. To start, I know I’ve been quiet on the Twitter front (and in general) lately, but real life has been slightly difficult, and will probably continue to be so for the next few weeks. Nothing much I can do about that. As I’ve watched all the wonderful and amazing blogs and fan sites for various games crop up over the past three years I’m wondering if I want to keep up with my own. While I do make it a fairly good habit to write every day (and I just crossed the 1200 post mark not too long ago) there doesn’t seem to be much desire for ‘hey I love the games I play’ posts as opposed to everything else. Now, I know these moods of mine come and go (in regards to writing) and it’s spring (almost summer) so I’m feeling the itch of change, I’m sure this mood too will pass and I will indeed continue writing. I need some new avenue to venture down.

In other news, by now most people have heard that Alan “Brenlo” Crosby is moving over to a new position on the EQ2 team. It’s not so different then his current position, and Greeblen will be taking over his job. Congratulations to both of them for the promotions. I had a blast interviewing Brenlo (as well as other members of the Community Team) in San Diego when I was down earlier this year, and I’m sure he’ll do a fantastic job. That being said, Bruce Ferguson (who I also interviewed) will be moving to a new project. Wonder what it could be.

If you enjoy playing EverQuest, or (like me) play off and on remember that this weekend is a bonus experience weekend from Friday May 22nd until the morning of Tuesday May 26th! I will be in game on Drinal, probably working on that hand augment quest. I intend on dragging Wpus and Ultann with me because both of their characters are just inches away from level 85 which is the current cap. We’ll see how that goes.

Vanguard had some pretty big changes happen this week, including a level cap increase to 55, new zones, new quests and all sorts of other goodies. I do still play my bloodmage on Seradon (as well as other characters) but just never seem to find the proper time in between everything else. I’m going to try to find some time to explore the new content, as my bloodmage is pretty close to the old level cap of 50. We’ll see how that goes. I also saw that you can now do spell crafting which would be pretty nice.

In EverQuestII we’re all eagerly awaiting GU52, and there’s a preview out for one of the new Kurn’s Tower zones. I’m not sure if it sounds exciting or just frustrating. If you remember The Crucible (which it makes reference to) there’s puzzles to be solved and books to be burned that require more then my little trio (most of the time). We’ll just have to wait and see.

Game wise for myself personally I spent some time yesterday helping Hamal level, and he inched his way to level 66! We did the Crucible (mentored down to his level) flawlessly, and also managed to do Scion of Ice, and Necrotic Asylum (which happened to be the daily double). He got a few upgrades, and we got a few more discoveries. We also headed to Obelisk of Ahkzul and my mystic gathered together enough shards to get her T2 breastplate which means I only need shards for two more pieces, her hat and shoulders (for tier 2 that is). I played the paladin earlier on in the day and inched her to level 73, and the dirge later in the day who is closing in on 76. I spent far too much money buying adept3 skills for her but they were really needed. Getting resisted on practically everything (I took her to Obelisk, where the mobs were orange) is not fun.

Tomorrow is the start of an early weekend, and I may (hopefully) be feeling well enough to travel to Upper Canada Village to take those pictures I have been talking about forever now. We’ll see how it goes (fingers crossed). I hope everyone has an amazing Thursday, no matter where you spend your time.

Another Great Thursday Night

Yesterday EQ was down for a few hours (as it was on Wednesday) for a few changes, and when the game came back up Ninga and myself headed to Lower Guk to see if we couldn’t snag a named or two that may have been up after the restart. Lucky for us, both the assassin and the supplier were up in the cuby we had been camping before, so we brought out the mercenary and made quick work of each.

The supplier dropped a 90% weight reduction bag, not incredibly amazing nor was it bad. The assassin who dropped my darkened guise of the deceiver the night before this time was sporting the darkened serrated bone dirk – which procs a very nice snare. It was a huge upgrade to my rogue who has been sporting some less then optimal daggers for a very long time now. I haven’t played her seriously in a number of years and she normally just gets items that would other wise rot.

A quick glance towards frenzy (which was camped) and we decided to scope out the Unrest revamp for a little while before it got to crowded. We camped on the roof of the mansion itself, a great view to watch all of the other players camping around, and it also allowed us one named (Reclaimed hand I believe, or something similar) that dropped a nice bracelet and a ring. We also got a few patterns to the glowing othni armor which I will pass down to an alt I believe. We scrounged up the hat, boots, and gloves. The gear is better then the defiant stuff, but not as amazing as regular drops, either way it’s upgrades to me.

When we had our fill of Unrest (which came sooner rather then later, that zone fills up fast) we headed to The Buried Sea to work on a hand augment quest that requires 20+ tasks. We managed to complete nine of the tasks, and have another 18 to go I believe. Basically each task rewards you a body part, and then you can purchase a container from an npc and combine those body parts into lesser augments. Then you can take those and combine them (from what I understand) into a super augment. It’s basically another quest that will remind you a lot of Breakdown in Communication which was another monster sized quest.

Since I haven’t spent a great deal of time in The Buried Sea I had a lot of fun, even though some of the camps are exceptionally long – especially if you’re doing the quest with friends and they all need updates. Ninga and I managed to move on to the next portion though and I was happy to do so.

I called it an early night (around 10) not wanting to over do things. Hopefully this weekend I’ll be getting some more much needed spring cleaning done and turning my balcony outside into a small garden with an area for reading / writing. We’ll see how that goes. I hope everyone has an amazing Friday, see you in Norrath!