EQ – Page 47 – A Pixel Nomad

Fun in RunnyeyeII

It’s not too often I play my warden any more, for a few reasons. I suppose the main one would be that they’re exceptionally common in game. Everyone and their dog seems to have one tucked away if for nothing more then porting purposes. They’re also one of the easiest healers to play (I’ve played them all) and while they have very little in the way of hp or mitigation buffs (we leave that to the clerics) their heal over time (HoT) are fantastic.

So when an RE2 (RunnyeyeII) group came up with a few friends, of course I jumped at the chance, even though I was off playing some other game (I know, how dare I). It was a group of people that I’ve played with before on numerous occasions, so I wasn’t too worried. At first I was going to join on my troubador, but we really needed more dps (the group consisted of: Inquisitor, Shadowknight, Warlock, Illusionist, Defiler, and myself as Troubador to start). I switched out for the warden and the defiler switched out to his main, a ranger.

We had two deaths total in the zone, and an extra one for me who got pummeled by an AoE on incoming. We pulled the last encounter flawlessly, and during the run the fabled fighter cloak dropped, which of course went to the shadownight who had been running the zone constantly since it released, waiting for that drop.

We transmuted just about everything in the zone, 9 legendary total. Two master chests dropped, the fighter ring also dropped and no one could use it so it went to an alt. I did get Arysh an upgrade to her helm, so I was happy. Though it was painful to transmute all of the items that my troubador could have used. The evening was relaxing and friendly, we talked away on the EQII voice chat and had a pretty good time.

I’ve been falling behind in my crafting, and I’m hoping to spend some time fixing that. This week in particular is going to be hellish though, so we’ll just have to see. Nostalgia is going to meet again on Thursday, this time for some Plane of Hate fun. I hope to get in game and delevel Ellithia the remaining two levels, and perhaps work at getting a few more aa on Qutey and Nala before then. Again it depends on this week though, lots of things coming up.

Corpse Ahoy

Once upon a time, I had a cleric named Ellithia, on an account given to me by a friend who no longer played. I loved the cleric, and worked hard on her, even though she never raided. Over time, as I switched to new games (namely EQ2) and stopped paying for multiple accounts, I lost the log in information for this account. So when Nostalgia started up, I figured it was my chance to start the cleric without having to worry about looking for a group. Ishbel became my new cleric.

After a week or two of Nostalgia, I was looking through an old journal of mine and stumbled across the log in information for Ellithia. I was so happy. Bound and determined not to make the same mistake again, and at the time not wanting to have more then one account open, I moved her over to my main account – which of course left me with two clerics now.

Over time I’ve switched my Nostalgia character around a lot depending on what we needed. It’s something I enjoy, being versatile like that. I have played a rogue for a brief time (who met an untimely end in a pot of stew), a necromancer (who I decided was better suited to solo play), the cleric, the druid, and the beastlord. Ellithia has veteran rewards associated with her, as did Ishbel. My account can only claim two years worth – though it’s been sitting at 2.7 granted for a few months now so I’m beginning to wonder.

Anyhow. I decided yesterday – why not get rid of one of my clerics. Free up that veteran reward for Qutey, who I’ll be playing quite frequently, and then also free up a character slot (not that I really need it).

So, which cleric… well that was the easy choice. While Ishbel is a great character – she doesn’t have her epic, and I have no inclination to do it, especially since I’ve already done it on Ellithia. Ellithia also has 92aa, and while her gear is under where the current standards are due to the defiant stuff, and she actually had less power then Ishbel, I knew that would open up the opportunity to work on her. Plus, I put a lot of time into Ellithia since she’s an older character. Barely any time was spent on Ishbel.

The only thing left remaining was the fact that Ellithia was level 70, and my Nostalgia group will be 55 for another week, then headed towards 60.

So yesterday for the better part of an afternoon I sacrificed Ellithia down from leve 70 to level 60. Honestly, I had no issues doing it. Leveling is so much faster now, and I’d rather actually have some use for her instead of just seeing the character rot. With the Nostalgia group within my level range, it’s really nice. I first bound her to the bottom of Gunthak, pictured above, and let her drown. That was taking far too long though so I came up with a new plan.

I headed over to The Hole, and bound her to the top. Falling to my death over and over (second screnshot) for some wary traveler below. The only bad part is that each death only granted a 6% experience loss. So in order to lose 10 levels, I had to die a LOT. I had company while I did this though. Kasul, has decided to join up on our Friday Nostalgia with his level 65 shaman. He took the character down to level 60 so that he was able to join us. Going to be great having another person around and I know he’s looking forward to it as well.

Nostalgia heads to Veksar for some Undead Lovin’

“Shortly after the Shissar were run out of Kunark, a resort by the name of Veksar was built by the Kylong Iksar Tribe. After standing upon a lake in the middle of Kunark for nearly 1,000 years, Veksar was destroyed by the dragon Garudon, and sunk to the bottom of what is now known as the Lake of Ill Omen.

Now beneath the surface of the lake, Veksar is inhabited by sealife and the spirits of those killed in the incident. It is said that the spirit of the dragon Garudon also resides somewhere in the ruins. Only few adventurers who have chosen to trespass in to Veksar’s confines have been able to return to tell about it.” – Allakhazam

Last night Nostalgia headed to Veksar, a day early since Tipa is away tomorrow. The night started out much like it always does, a few of us gathered early and decided to just camp the entrance, filled with bloodgill shaman and warriors. A named did wander by, dropping an upgrade for my beastlord (though it would have been an upgrade to my druid as well). I ended up boxing for the evening, which I don’t mind in the slightest, since I’ve got three characters in the appropriate level ranges, if there’s room, why not (as long as it doesn’t cause wipes, cough cough). Warmnungar, Rogbog, and I stayed there for a bit until Tipa logged in, and we continued to wack away at encounters. Mantis joined us, an enchanter (to which I was eternally greatful for, since we’ve lost our Gnewton, not that he’s replaceable at all. I’d give some organs to see him returned).

I started out playing Qutey, but we didn’t have a cleric (Coldheat) like we usually do either, so as more people started showing up I swapped out for Ishbel who I’d neglected to level past 52. Experience in zones that are not hot zones, are actually quite slow. Ishbel went from 52 to 70% through 53 in the time she was there, and that was with using lesson of the devoted, which boosts your exp gain for 30 minutes. We did have a LOT of fun though. The monk and druid who typically join up were there as well, so we split into two groups. My group kept camping the shop area and the golems outside. We only spawned one named, the Behemoth, which dropped a robe for Mantis.

We also got one piece of defiant gear to drop, leather gloves. Aside from that, lots and lots of weapons that you can turn in for faction.

I’ve farmed and camped Veksar for months at a time in the past with a good friend of mine, so going back certainly held some very fond memories. There was an 80 beastlord in the zone going after some clicky summon pet that I will have to look into. Group two also spawned a named but it.. vanished, after a 65 rogue wandered into the zone. Not too hard to tell what happened there.

Each one of my characters is sitting at around 9aa or so which is not a great amount, but I’ve been trying to level them up as well as work on those aa. I believe the level cap may be raising to 60, or perhaps we’ll be staying at 55 for another week, I’m not certain. Once the cap is raised to 60 I know we’ll be spending at least two months at that level, which is fantastic. Perhaps I’ll get some crafting done too. Next week, we’re off to hate!

You’re so vain..

The only thing I like more then trying to find outfits for my characters, is perhaps trying to find hats for them. Since it’s not likely that I’ll be attending any T7 raids any more or T6 where class specific gear dropped with nifty graphics, I’ve had to scrounge some what. I know there are legendary quested class hats that my troubador has yet to complete – but I forget what the graphic on these were. I may be thinking of the dirge one. Since they get everything else that’s cool (stoneskin, rez, parry mods, dps mods) it would only make sense that they have the cool hat too. At least in my eyes.

I did manage to find a troubador only hat from vaults though, the legendary ones that drop at the end of the instance. Pictured above on Goudia, who’s taken to hiding out in dark elf form so she doesn’t scare too many people away as a ratonga. It’s so hard to get a good meal when the bartender keeps trying to shoo you out of the restaurant.

I’m a sucker for the feathered caps, what can I say. They just look so neat.

Speaking of neat, if you haven’t taken a look at the revamped heritage quests yet, go visit the shady swashbuckler on the docks of Nektulos forest and see what they’re looking like now. This charm slot item used to have almost no stats. Now it’s something I would have seriously considered wearing (before they came out with the legendary provisioner made charm items). Very handy for the level that this quest is granted at.

The Cloak of Flames is another heritage quest that’s really been upgraded for the better. I’ve actually never completed this quest on a single one of my characters, and so that’s my goal for today. If not to complete it, then at least to finish collecting the pages that drop for it. Since it should be grey to me now, I’m hoping it doesn’t present too much of a problem. But I am a troubador, so you never know.

Tonight Nostalgia is meeting for some Veksar fun. I’m really looking forward to it, this is one of my favorite zones and I spent a lot of time there in the past. Even though the basic drops (aside from haste items) may not be complete upgrades since all the defiant stuff that’s floating around, it’ll still be wonderful to go back. Qutey is who I’m playing these days. While I was having fun on the cleric, I’d already leveled a cleric and obtained the epic, so I wanted to try to do something new. Qutey has started her druid 1.0 and I’ll be continuing on that. She’s up to 8aa now I believe, and Nala just reached her first four. Not exactly the fastest of things to obtain for me, at least not when I box. Have I mentioned yet that I’m excited about tonight? Well, I certainly am.

Nagafen and Vox didn’t stand a chance

Last night Nostalgia met again to take down some dragons, and it went pretty smooth. Well, very smooth actually. A rocky start (and minus one gnome) we set out to Nagafen’s room. Some how a Warlord decided that we were too close to his abode or something and decided to agro us through some magical means that we never quite figured out. Then came our wipe, of course, and the conversation that followed:

Tipa: Ok guys it should be clear at the firepit now (where we set up our fellowship)
Me: Ok, using my token! (gates to the firepit, outside of Nagafen’s room)
Me: Uh… wait.. I’m not sure it’s clear here (Said quite frantically as Tipa was about to gate her way in)
– Insert the sound of me getting soundly thumbed by giants here –
Tipa: Well. I guess it’s safe now.
Me: *grumble grumble*

I had a blast, as always. Such a great group of people. Not only that, but the level 52 cap we’ve been held at for quite some time was raised, and Qutey (the new character I’ll be playing now on Fridays more then likely) hit level 55, along with my beastlord Nala. Warmongar happened to be strolling through the 50-55 hotzone this morning and asked if I needed a warrior. When don’t I need a fellow guild mate?!

Oh, forgot to mention, we also took down Vox. Easy, once we were done with Nagafen. We didn’t get a red dragon scale, but hopefully we can find one for a fair price on the broker.

In three hours Warmongar and I had gotten our three levels (it may have been less) and can now work on aa again. A lot more aa open up at these levels which is fantastic. I’m also going to start doing my epics, on both the druid and the beastlord. We’ll see where it goes from there. A shame that our favorite Gnomeh (and resident enchanter) will not be able to partake in the Friday night groups any more. Hopefully he can come a bit later and still enjoy some fun. Going to miss that shorty.