EQ – Page 39 – A Pixel Nomad

Veeshan’s Peak, and Epics

Yesterday I wrote a little about how odd it was to experience things in EQ2 first before finding them in EQ, and I had yet another strong encounter with this. It was only a few months ago that I did a dungeon guide on Veeshan’s Peak (EQ2 version) for Beckett, explaining the named encounters that you’d run into and a little bit about what it would take to defeat them – or at least what each encounter did (without giving too much away). I’d never been to Veeshan’s Peak in EQ – though I had killed plenty of Mistmoors friends so apparently I was amiable with the Ring of Scale. At least on my enchanter. The necromancer didn’t fair as well and after one kill (the dragon pictured to the left) she was agro to the entire zone. Hard penalties for killing dragons! Ultann, Ninga and I decided to head to VP and see if we couldn’t get a few clicky pretties that drop. I’m not sure about all the other servers but Drinal is pretty heavily camped, all of the PoP gods, and a good number of the Luclin named (Grieg’s End, the named in Umbral, etc) Trak is also pretty camped, as well as Seru and others. We did manage to find Maestro up, but no Innoruuk. Anyhow, it sort of helps that you take such huge faction hits for slaying dragons, as the entire zone was up with all of the named. We decided to only kill a few of the mighty creatures before calling it a day because it was annoying to camp fire around the zone in order to avoid as many faction hits as we could. Nocbot and Kameeko (the two amiable) stood far away and out of combat, while Ninga, Minxes, and Ultann pounded on the dragons.

We killed Hoshkar, Silverwing, and Druushk. The lute on the right was from Silverwing, and I giggled when I saw it. We didn’t have a bard in the group, but it of course made me think of the EQ2 halfling bard, the famous Tipa. It would have been a nice twink item for Ninga’s bard had we been able to drag him into the zone easily. The necromancer also managed to get herself a clicky staff, we all giggled at the graphic though, it’s just a straight wooden stick. Very drab compared to what we were all expecting.

Afterwards Ninga headed to bed (sleep is important) and Ultann and I decided to work on the enchanter 1.5 pre-quest. It would be easier just to finish doing the 1.0 I think. You need to head to Veksar and gather shards (that only drop VERY rarely from the mobs in the theater) and spawn the dragon. I remember doing this once before but the zone is now very grey to me and it was really slow. The respawns were also slow, and we spend most of the time seeing how large of a train we could gather and fight all at once. After a few hours there not a single shard dropped and I decided this morning it’s probably just easier to finish off my enchanter 1.0 then it is to do the pre-quest for the 1.5. Hopefully I can get all of that completed before too long, we’ll see how it goes.

I also did a little crafting yesterday, working on my spell research. It’s expensive. It’s long. I did get three skill ups with over 100 combines. I suppose that’s a good thing? I still love crafting in EQ but wow when you miss out on an expansion or two you really get left behind.

Today I believe we’re going to explore Seeds of Destruction a little bit. Not everyone had the expansion until yesterday, but now we’re all sporting it as well as the two boxed accounts. One thing we certainly want to do is to do the progression quests in order to upgrade the mercenary that we can purchase. I haven’t set foot in any of SoD yet aside from those mercenary, and it should be a lot of fun. That, combined with working on my enchanters epic of course. I’ve been working on that for so many years now it would be fantastic to finally finish.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Loping Plains, and Birthday Wishes

Some times it’s really odd for me when I’m playing EQ and I happen across a zone that I practically live in when I play EQ2. It’s odd because I’ve actually encountered the zone in EQ2 first, and then I feel like I’m going backwards and playing it in EQ. It’s a pretty interesting feeling, and one that I came across yesterday quite a bit.

Since the necromancer is now 77 it was time for a new (fighter) pet spell. She’s got a level 75 rogue, and she’ll get another level 80 rogue once I finally make that climb. EQ has switched over to an EQ2 method of spell progression for a little while now, each spell used to only have one tier. Now they have three tiers. The first one is vendor sold. The second one can be crafted, or is researched. The third tier is raid dropped (from what I understand, I could be wrong about this) and I’m not sure if it’s from turn ins or simply from a pure no trade drop or what. I doubt very much that I will ever see a tier3 spell in my little necromancer life time, teehee.

The good thing about this is that number one, tier1 is still always an upgrade even if it is slight. Number two, pets don’t come in tiers. They’re just vendor sold rank1 and that’s all there is to it. In my necromancer way of thinking, her pet is just another (free) dot. I’m not a magician, or even a beastlord. My pet (even with aa) will not compare – but it’s nice to have a free dot, especially while I’m kiting. Anyhow, as I was saying, my level 77 pet is vendor sold and that’s how I found myself heading to Plane of Knowledge, then to Ak’Anon and from there – Loping Plains. It’s a zone I’ve spent countless hours in while playing EQ2 but had never set foot in while playing EQ and so the experience was quite surreal. Ultann (resident magician) summoned me to the vendor I needed, and a short bit away were the exact same alligators that I remember from EQ2.

I decided to try my hand at kiting (and hopped the mob didn’t summon) was all proud of myself for taking down a dark blue frog (remember, I’m still not quite used to soloing) and then was promptly eaten by another frog that added during the fight. Those things are deceptive, they hurt!

Ah, such is the way of EQ, and the reason why I love it.

Next Monday marks the 10th anniversary of this game, and I’m hoping people come back to give it another try, even if it’s just for a month. It certainly would not disappoint me to read nothing but EQ blogs for a whole month (or even longer if people are enjoying it). Fabled should also be put in game soon (rumor is Wednesday, since that’s the closest patch) and I’m looking forward to being able to farm some (even though I’m a little concerned over how camped it’s going to be). I’m really hoping that EQ and EQ2 offer some free character transfers sooner rather then later (I simply can’t afford to pay $50 to move characters when I have a virtual army of them) so that I can move my Kithicor characters (and friends) over to Najena (EQ2) and so that I can move around the various characters I have in EQ who are strewn all over the place. While both games have done this in the past, I know it’s probably unlikely, but that’s my birthday wish, teehee. When you have alt-itus as much as I do (and lets face it, I do in a BIG way) things can get pretty messy.

After Loping Plains the group broke for a while, Ultann headed off to see The Watchmen so Ninga and I headed to Nagafen’s Lair to play alts. The paladin is now level 43 with the ranger and bard close behind at level 42. I was trying to aim for 46 so they could all head to Plane of Time, but the experience has slowed down some what and I decided to take a break to make a birthday gift for Ultann (HAPPY BIRTHDAY). I hope everyone had an amazing weekend, and that this week is nice and relaxed.

Safe travels, and see you in Norrath!

More Valdeholm, Levels, Clickies, and Raids!

Yesterday was a great day in game. I didn’t just play EQ, I spent a little time in Runes of Magic (which I’ll write about a bit more later). Don’t forget today is Daylight Savings, so turn your clocks ahead an hour if you have not yet (thankfully my computer does this for me). The day was also great because Ultann managed to get his internet back, so our team was back to full, teehee. With everyone back it was only a matter of deciding what to do. I’ve mentioned a few times how much of a fan of clickies I am. In some cases they are almost essential, such as raids. When you have a mass amount of people all collected in one space you don’t want to be huge. I know, odd concept. There is a clicky item that drops from a mission in Stoneroot (Depths of Darkhollow zone, see that Ninga, I got it right!), and so that’s where our adventures took us.

Apparently (from what I was told) this item is really rare. I was told not to expect to see it for 10+ missions, easily. That 30+ hours of farming went into obtaining it.

Always eager to prove people wrong, it dropped on the 2.5th mission we did. Hah! This little earring click is fantastic, I love it. Not only does it act as a shrink but it acts as a shrink for others, which is important when I’m boxing – plus it casts super fast. No more tiny companion spell scribing for me! A huge thank you to Ultann and Ninga who helped me camp this (even if it was super easy) it was still a lot of fun.

We had not expected to get the clicky that fast, so we were not sure where to head to next. Eventually we settled on Valdeholm which is the level 70 hot zone (and is a part of The Serpents Spine expansion). The mobs there were higher level then Dreadspire, and there were 15 others in the zone. We headed towards the Smith, and camped a little corner around his building for a while. The necromancer eased her way into level 77 and the enchanter is creeping closer to level 75.

Ultann is almost (but not quite) level 83, but the experience is slow going. After a little while we decided it was time to do something crazy, what else could be said about a Saturday night.

So we picked up where we left off with the Dragons of Norrath expansion, and do Tier3 of the progression which includes the following:

Tier 3: Embrace of the Dark Reign

In order to continue on after this step, you must have high aimiable faction.

If you speak with General Lereh Dirr, you can gain access to the Reflections of Silver and Kessdona’s Perch events – two non-progression missions.

On the progression end of things, you must now speak to Officer Sirrikis Ryktor, who will assign you three tasks:

“Muddy the Waters” — Kill 9 Stillmoon Water Servants in Stillmoon Temple
“Snowfoot Attack” — Kill 10 Snowfoot Goblins in The Ascent
“Knowledge is Power” — Loot 7 x Ancient Scroll of Knowledge from Thundercrest Isles

Upon completing these tasks and speaking with the Commander, you will have access to a single group mission and raid event:

“The Gilded Scroll” — single-group mission given by Officer Vacax Rol`Tas. Go into the Thundercrest Isles and kill mobs, looting scrolls off their corpses. Upon looting the correct one, it will turn into a Gilded Scroll of Earth Rending. After this, kill Noble Kirin Scholar. Do this and turn the gilded scroll in to Daleynn Spiritshadow in Lavastorm for a flag.

“Volkara’s Bite” — 42-player raid in Lavaspinner’s Lair, results in Lava Spider Spinners from Volkara, a lava spider.

Give the Lava Spider Spinners to the Commander for a character flag and move on to the next raid event.

“Trial of Perseverance” is a 24-player raid in Stillmoon Temple, results in Goblin Warlord’s Beads from A Stillmoon Warlord.

Turn the beads in to the commander to receive:

-Two AAs
-New ability: Embrace of the Dark Reign (increase buff slot limit by one)

(Walk through is from Zam)

The first time we attempted Volkara’s Bite we died. We didn’t realize that the dot she was so frantically casting was also a mana drain, so our healer ran out of mana. This fight is a LOT like the Thuuga raid in EQ2. As you kill Volkara, she spawns cocoons and then those hatch into spiders if you don’t dps them down fast enough. If you die, bad things also happen (as we found out when the enchanter died, twice).

So we buffed back up and headed back to give it another shot. Keep in mind this raid was meant for 42 players – and we were one 80 monk, 84 magician, 80 cleric, and then myself as 77 necromancer and 74 enchanter. It doesn’t matter if the raid is out of date, it still hurts.

We managed against all odds to win the second time around, burning through the last cocoons at 10% instead of dealing with them. Of course we did die to the spider adds once we finished killing Volkara, but it was alright, we still won! Afterwards we did the 24-person raid which was far easier, and collected our updates.

By the time those two raids were done (we’d skipped the three missions before that, they can be done out of order if you have someone else who is able to get the raids) I was starting to feel a little sleepy, so I called it a night and headed to bed. It was a lot of fun though, and I hope everyone else had fun too. Today? Who knows!

Another night of Alts

The weekend started off quiet, which I was happy for. Our resident magician (and cleric bot) is MIA this weekend due to some internet issues, so it was an evening playing alts for the most part. We started out in Mons Letalis which is the level 35 hot zone. Actually before that we spent a little more time in The Overthere, but the ramp was starting to get a little old.

Mons Letalis is an uncomfortable zone, the mobs path oddly and it was difficult to find a good spot to camp. The experience was nice though, and we eventually settled down in some little caves quite close to a zone in. Every once in a while we’d pull a little more then the group could handle, but before too long we had reached level 38-39 respectively.

We decided to head back to PoK, maybe pick up some gear upgrades and skip the level 40 hot zone (Great Divide) to head to the level 45 hot zone which is Nagafen’s Lair. It wasn’t that long ago that I was in that hot zone leveling my necromancer. The night was getting late (or early depending on how you look at it) so we didn’t stay too long, but by the time all was said and done my paladin reached level 42, and the ranger is sitting at level 40. I need to look up their spells again, and spend some time working them up since it’s getting increasingly difficult to cast the simple ones in every day combat.

I’d like to get the ranger some skill in her fletching, so she can make her own arrows. There are never any for sale in the bazaar, and the few that I have found (around 100 or so) cost 8p ecah. Far too expensive!

Not sure what this weekend will hold yet. I believe we’re going to be camping a DoD mission so that I can attempt to get a clicky shrink earring on my necromancer (which you can also use on other people) and would really come in handy. Plus who doesn’t want another clicky item! We’ll just have to see.

Sorry for the short post today, hopefully I’ll have more to write about tomorrow. Safe travels no matter what game you find yourself in this weekend!

Crystal Caverns and The Overthere

Yesterday was relaxing, and a great time to play alts. The paladin, ranger, and bard were all hovering around level 26-27 and so we decided to head to Crystal Caverns again to gain experience. The zone was great, except eventually I knew it would happen. One of the mobs would run off too fast for me to land a snare on, and before we knew it there were 50 (it felt like it at least) of the mobs on us and we wiped.

By that time we were all level 31 though, and after respawning in Plane of Knowledge we decided to head to The Overthere which is the level 30 hot zone.

Creatures ranged from grey (at the entrance by the book) to red still (over by the Skyfire ramp) so we set up camp and the trusty bard started doing his thing. Before too long we were all level 35, which was great. Almost 10 levels in the few hours we played. Experience certainly has gotten faster for lower levels especially with the hot zones. I know it won’t always continue this way but it is pretty fantastic in the mean time. Of course that means now I’ll have to look up 10 levels worth of spells, and since I’ve been almost 100% melee since we started leveling, I can barely cast the few spells I do have. I’ll probably spend a few hours today working skills up so I can at least buff and snare successfully, and being able to lull properly would be wonderful too. We’ll see how it goes.

I don’t have any huge plans for this weekend, hopefully it will be relaxing and gaming with good friends. I’d like to inch the necromancer closer to 80, the enchanter too. I had a little time to play Runes of Magic, and I’d like to play it a little more, I’m still waiting for the 10th of March before I begin with the EVE trial. I hope the Free Realms closed beta is going well (checks her empty mail box, aww) which is another game I’m looking forward to trying. Sorry for such a short post but perhaps I’ll have more to write about later today. Safe travels!