Tag: EQ

I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it looks pretty cool. Hard to tell, but his eyes actually don’t line up at all, as though he’s got some horrible deformities under that helm. It’s wonderful the various things you see while you’re standing around the bazaar (or guild lobby, for that matter).

As an experiment, and from listening to Tipa talk about her shrouded experience, I decided to try it out myself. I took Kameeko, the 68 enchanter, and shrouded her down to level 15, a bear warrior (I want to be like Urtog).

I know shrouding her down to 30-40 would probably be a better level range, but for now, this works. After 1.5 hours of hanging out in Paludal Caverns, with mobs that were mostly red and yellow, I gated back to PoK to revert to my ‘normal’ self, and gained 3% regular exp, and 59% of a level through my shroud form (hoping to unlock the wolf one next).

Not bad. Next I’m going to switch all that to aa experience, and perhaps up the level of the shroud, to see what a difference it makes. I had a level 50 druid trailing with me for heals and buffs. I imagine I can go to stone hive with much the same set up and kill there. The closer to your natural level you are (I assume) the more experience you gain while shrouded. Rogbog came along as well, and gained a level and a half from the shroud experience, leveling from 37-38.

Two of the new ‘defiant’ pieces also dropped. For those who haven’t heard, these are random bits of gear that SOE accidentally threw into live yesterday. The stats are FAR superior to pretty much everything out there. They work by tier, and are amazing. I wasn’t sure what was going on with them, so I poked around the eqplayer forums, and discovered a few devs speaking up about this incident. They admitted they were not meant to go live yesterday, and that they WILL be nerfed in the future, so people shouldn’t count on them having the stats they have now.

Good thing. I found a level 26-40 chain helm that has +spell dmg, some sort of sight buff (for those who don’t see well) +20-16 to various stats, and I didn’t have to do any real work to get it aside from killing bixie in stone hive (which was pretty boring). I prefer my crafted stuff that I worked so hard to make. I hope to see this fixed, alas it probably won’t be until next week some time.

Tonight is Nostalgia night, we’re headed to Everfrost LDoN. I’m fairly certain I’ll be playing Dainty (call it a hunch) it should be interesting, to say the least. Maybe this time I’ll remember to take screen shots.

For the past two days, this has been the new look to the magus in the guild lobby. The model is called a “Girplan” (I believe.. I may have gotten it wrong after all) and if memory serves, came out with Gates of Discord. Or at least, I remember fighting a whole lot of these guys for someone’s epic in a discord zone. I think they look sort of cute. Still curious how it ended up that way though. Maybe project illusion can be cast on npc (an enchanter aa) or a bored GM was wandering around. In any case, it was something I noticed as I headed to the guild hall, and couldn’t help giggling over.

One thing (of many) that I’m completely loving in EQ1 is just how much there is to do. In EQ2 I feel as though I’ve done it all, or at least come pretty close to it. I’ve seen all the zones, run all the instances, I may not have my epic, but pretty much everyone else does. Getting 140aa is easy and there’s nothing really left to do anymore. I mentioned before about how you’re not supposed to feel like you can ‘beat’ an mmo because there’s always something left for you to do – and while in EQ2 I don’t feel as though that’s true, in EQ1 it certainly is.

Early in the evening yesterday Malfi and Binxs logged in, along with Woosao, Tipa, and myself, and we headed to Blightfire Moors to get some levels. Malfi was away on business when we ran our Nostalgia group last week, and Binxs could use the exp as well. So I logged to Minxe, my dark elf necromancer. She was level 32 at the time, and after all was said and done after two hours or so we’d all gained 3-5 levels, it was nice. Tipa joined us as a level 30, in shroud form. Mostly to try it out rather then anything else. In the end she’d actually gained two regular levels – something she was trying to avoid. It was great that she could lower her level to play with us, but until we hit level 51 and stop gaining experience in favor of aa, it’s frustrating.

I managed to craft my level 33 pet spell (cheers) and set off to Abysmal Sea to gather the rest. Since Minxe is no longer my progression character, I’ve decided to stop playing my level 30 monk with Woosao, and to play Minxe. That means I can delete the 30 monk, and thus have another character slot open (which is rare for me). That leaves me with: 70 rogue, 68 enchanter, 68 cleric, 45 shadowknight, 40 cleric, 38 rogue, 36 necromancer, 33 druid, and a level 7 beastlord.

Yes, I have two clerics, and two rogues. Not sure what I’d like to make next, I’m sure I can figure it out though. Lackey (magician) logged in and promptly headed to Najena to hunt for a broom and shovel. Apparently these items are used in some magician focus items (and thus for the epic 1.0 as well further down the road) and he was having some difficulty getting things to drop. Urtog (faithful warrior that he is) volunteered to help him out, and within the hour had gathered so many pieces Lackey needed, it made my head spin.

All I managed to do was get Lackey killed – supposedly twice. We went to Ocean of Tears (and me on my 68 cleric) to kill a few Seafury Cyclopes and steal their toes.

Now, I know this may be hard to believe – but –

It was my first EQ1 boat ride, ever. Apparently, they used to be a lot longer, but when I started playing 3-4 years ago, the boats were all broken, and Translocators were set up on docks in order to port you to your destination. It was nice to see that the boats were back, and I enjoyed the ride. In another short hour Lackey had all of the pieces he needed, and later today I’m sure he’ll eagerly complete the quests granting him his items. Aside from the death (or two) it was a great night, again spent with great friends. The Tuesday Nostalgia group was canceled for the night, since one of it’s key members was called away unavoidably (the healer). They were meant to spend the night in Najena, but it looks as though it’ll have to be next week instead. I never did spend that much time there leveling up.

I’m pleased that most of the people who were slightly behind in Nostalgia (the Friday run) have caught up the few levels they needed. Coldheat, Malfi, and Binxs, with Gozad not too far behind. Aerrik and Sev still have a little work (Sev being away for medical reasons) and Said as well, I believe. This Friday we’re heading to do Everfrost LDoNs, which I’m sure will be interesting. This is another one of those camps that I dislike, and I can’t quite recall why. No doubt Nostalgia the Guild will change my mind though.

Between leveling, hunting for gear upgrades, doing random quests, crafting, getting excited about aa, and where Nostalgia the Guild is going next, well. The game is pretty booming, what can I say. For now it’s still my ‘game of choice’ though I do wander into EQ2 still on occasion. Having a group of steady friends on has been just the thing I needed.

This weekend has been fun. In fact, so fun that I completely forgot to take screenshots. I know, I’m bad. Last night (was it only last night?) Tipa, Lackey, my favorite warrior Urtog, and of course myself (as Ishbel, the cleric) headed out for fun and mischief. We found plenty of both. It started off of course when Tipa’s own druid forgot to bring.. TIPA along in the port to Emerald Jungle. Or maybe it started before that when we spent 20 minutes deciding where to go. Either way, that set the tone for the night, and I barely stopped laughing until we finished our adventures.

We headed to City of Mist, a favorite zone of mine in the past, and made our way to the stables. There was no one around (surprise surprise) and it’s not a hot zone but the experience was steady. Breaking camp is always the best part of any group, and Urtog managed it with Ease. Lackey nuked away while his pet DPS’d and Tipa did it all, tanking, dps’ing, you name it. I sat and looked pretty in scales, of course.

We were lucky, it seemed that every named was up waiting just for us when we zoned in. It started with the Mighty (red) Golem right at the entrance who dropped a pretty face piece for me. Then we took down a few ghosts and a shield dropped with mana preservation III on it. Very nice. Lackey also got himself a shield, though it wasn’t quite as nice as mine, it was better then the nothing he was wearing before. A pair of plate gloves found their way to the guild bank, and the only down side to the evening was that we reached our level cap for this week – again – too early.

It’s only Monday and we can’t play our Nostalgia characters until Friday, for fear of out leveling everyone else. Tipa’s already 41 and creeping up on 42, Ishbel is 20% away (though she’s not technically my Nostalgia character). Lackey isn’t a part of the Friday night groups and he swung by 42. Urtog sits comfortably at 40.

Since I hit 40, it was time for me to work on my temperance spell, a cleric quest that’s really quite easy. All it requires is talking to an npc in Gunthak, heading over to Dulak Harbor, being on the right boat (gulps) and killing things there until it drops. Tipa came to the rescue, and her third mob in, found an emblem. I’d be lost without her what can I say. I ran back to Gunthak, talked to the npc again, and set off for the beaches to find the female erudite ghost – who was also up.

Give her the new emblem, and presto, I have temperance.

At level 45 I’ll be able to scribe the group version of this spell, which is waiting for me, having already made it with Kameeko (I like being able to research, though the new method is a little.. odd). All in all, the weekend has been great. I wandered around Stone Hive some more today with Growlius’ necromancer, though not too much dropped for me. In Dulak I found a nice pair of shoulders for Ishbel – though the rogue is a little harder to gear up. I’m hoping to drag her around to finish some quests, or maybe craft her some more pieces of gear like jewelery. We’ll have to see I suppose.

All in all, just another great day gaming. Now if I could just remember to take screen shots while I’m having so much fun…