EverQuestII – A Pixel Nomad

[EQII] Where do you Start? The Beginning.

Returning to a game you’ve been away from for some time is never an easy feat. You have to make some tough decisions, do you re-visit your old characters that you love but you have no idea how to play / where to go, or do you start fresh so that you can try to re-learn the game (and your class). I opted for a combination of the two.

I started off re-visiting my higher level characters. Right now I have a handful of level 120 characters, and an unused boost for 130. The rest all sit at level 100, except for a brand new Ratonga Coercer, who was created so that I could get a feel for things again. Most of my characters sit on the Antonia Bayle server, but that has grown quiet over the years, and so this time around I created on the more populated Maj’Dul. There were some events taking place and chat was lively as people were trying to figure out timers and zones to head to. I wasn’t quite ready for that, yet. Soon though.

I’m not really a fan of the ‘starting over’ method, but you’re not given a lot of choices. Games (IMO) do a very bad job of welcoming back the average returning player. In most cases you log in and you’re given zero indication as to what you were working on 10 years ago, and you have no idea where to go to progress – or if you even want to progress. A lot of update notes that you’ve never seen have probably crossed the paths of most players, and you’ll be expected to stumble your way along until eventually, finally, if you stick with it – you’ll catch up.

So where does that leave me? A level 2 coercer, who at least knows where to go and what to do – and a few level 120 characters who have no idea what is going on. In the end, I settled for some crafting.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

[EQII] Lion’s Mane Vestige Room – The Baubleshire

While I wait for my new microphone to show up, I thought I’d show off one of my favourite housing builds. This home belongs to my halfling inquisitor, Petites. She lives in Baubleshire, and I think this home is a fantastic example of how you don’t need to own a big flashy house in order to have it represent your character well.

These houses tend to have very high ceilings which just didn’t suit the small halfling aesthetic, so I used ornate ferrite tables expanded to their largest size to create room pillars and lower ceilings.

A cozy fireplace with some books, perfect for those rainy Baubleshire days.

It just wouldn’t be a halfling home without some sort of kitchen – and of course, a lot of food.

A seating area, complete with aquarium. Keep in mind that all of these smaller rooms are inside a single inn room. I have the 2nd room blocked off and currently used for storage.

Finally, the bedroom. Everything in this house is cozy and halfling sized. It’s not too crowded, but still displays some fantastic collectables that I’ve earned over the years. This is one of my smallest builds, both in physical size, and in items used. It’s also one of my favourites.

Once I get my microphone and I’m all set up to record some videos again I’ll be posting tours of this (and my other homes) over on YouTube, so be sure to watch this space for details on that. Next up, I’ll be showing off my personal library, where I have over 700 player-written books that I’ve collected over the years!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

[EQII] Guess Who is Joining the EverQuest II Content Creator Program

It was because of this post over at Inventory Full that I even learned about the content creator program to begin with. Now, I haven’t actively played EQII since 2021 but I do have quite a long history with the game.

Met my husband in game (we’ve been together for 15 years, married for 9, and have 2 children)
Went to San Diego to interview the team for Beckett MOG (back when magazines were a thing) some of those folks are still around!
I have more than 500 blog posts about that single game, more than any other game I’ve ever written about – plus various videos kicking around YouTube.

One of the options when you sign up for the program is that you can mark yourself as a returning player, so that’s what I did. They ask you about your current content creation (which I admitted did not currently involve EverQuestII, but did involve other MMORPG and has been done on a fairly steady basis for a large number of years) and all of the basic questions that you would expect. It did take some time to hear back, the program is just rolling out and things are still getting set up.

One question my husband asked me, was WHY I would sign up. Why did this interest me. Aside from my long history with the game, I’ve been looking for a little extra motivation & inspiration when it comes to content creation. I oftentimes talk about how easy it is to lose yourself in parenthood and just be “so and so’s wife, so and so’s mom” without an identity. I’ve always loved sharing games I’m passionate about, and I’ve kept this blog up through all of the trials and tribulations, writing about those games. I wanted a little more motivation to go beyond the blog. I think this will help.

There you have it, the latest person to join the EQII content creator program. I hope to post some great things over time. If you’re looking for me over on socials, here’s my carrd.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

What Was I Thinking..

I haven’t played EQ2 for five years. Prior to my son being born I had also taken a few years break here and there, and I haven’t properly played in.. well, a long time.

That being said, even 15 years later, MOST of the posts on this blog are about that game. That game where I met my husband. Where I made amazing connections and some of my very best friends. Even all these years later it’s hard to give up. It’s hard to move on, and to remember that I am not that person any more, and that game has changed too.

I’ve been having an absolute blast playing EverQuest and for some reason today I thought to myself ‘well, wouldn’t it be nice to check out my old houses in EQ2’ and I should have known better. I should have known better because I spent countless hours on those houses setting them up exactly the way I wanted – and I love them so much. My favourite place in all of Norrath is my library where I have over 700 unique player written books. I spent hours buying any new book I found on the broker. Some are silly, some are sad. Written by players who have long since left the game, and some who have left this world.

It feels silly to have such an attachment to this game. It hasn’t been ground breaking for some time. It’s not talked about in any of my circles. Yet here I am. Logged in, watching chat, reminiscing. I’m vaguely contemplating buying the most recent expansion and leveling my characters up – why? I am not even sure. Could be fun! I don’t have the faintest idea about anything any more. I see they’ve added Vah Shir, and that’s pretty neat. Overseer is a thing too, which I’ve been playing in EverQuest.

Anyone else out there still playing? Thoughts?

A Night of Instances

An ogre, a Tier’Dal, and a Gnome all walk into the Deep Forge, and the gnome turns and looks at the ogre and says ‘Oy, is it hot in here or is it just me?’

Ok lame attempt at some humor there, but that was the beginning of my night last night. There are some pieces of void shard jewelery that would be an upgrade for me (except I don’t have the book quite yet) that take relatively few pieces of shards to make / purchase (remember, this gear is cheaper if you have a crafter make it then if you find a merchant) so I was eager to add a few more bits to my collection. I didn’t end up doing ‘the daily double’ as they call it on Najena, but I did head to Lavastorm and get to wander around Deep Forge, which is a zone I had been to in beta only. I love the way the new TSO zones look, and Deep Forge is very nice and small. It’s one of those ‘quick if you know what’s going on’ zones. Of course, having never been there myself I didn’t have the faintest clue what was going on. Zones like that are the best zones of all. I grabbed the quests outside, and I think I grabbed a quest inside the actual instance too. The group consisted of a dirge, shadowknight, troubador, warden (me), illusionist, and wizard. The best part was after we had killed something (a named?) the GIANT group of giants (I crack myself up at 6:30am what can I say) down below in the pit of lava got flooded out. I tried to take a screen shot of their desperate cries before the lava swept them away, but alas, I was not so lucky.

We saw a few ornate chests drop in the zone but nothing astounding. The final named of course decided to port me into the center of the lava pit while we were fighting, so we had a few deaths right at the very end. I wasn’t expecting it, and no one (cough cough, Shadowgeist) told me it would happen, so one minute I was healing my little heart out and the next minute, bam into the pit I go. Woopsie.

I did get a pretty nice charm slot upgrade from a quest involving the zone. I can’t remember if this quest was given to me outside or if it was the one I found inside, but it’s nice none the less. There’s also a melee version. The only thing I dislike is that this isn’t really a healer version (and there wasn’t one). The wisdom and power on a charm item really makes me happy. While playing in these zones with friends, I realize just how under geared Arysh is. The downside again to having so many alts, not concentrating on any individual one. Yes, Arysh does still have her claymore, and I do have her fabled epic, and she’s close to 10k power self buffed with 1k wisdom, but it’s the +heals and +heal crits and all of the other little unique bits that make a character ‘good’. She doesn’t have M1 of her spells, etc. So now I’m contemplating settling down, especially if I want to work on void shard quests. I love playing my healers. I’m GOOD at my healers. The problem is that my ‘main’ healer is a warden, and they are everywhere. So my line of thought says that I should try to get my templar her last few levels (she’s sitting at 77) or my defiler (even further behind, at 73) and work on one / all of the healers. I love my coercer a great deal, but I’ve played healers primarily in every mmo.

Deep Forge also has a heritage quest associated with it – IF – you can see purple shinies. There’s a new quest implimented in game in order to obtain an item to see these shinies, so if you don’t have it, look into getting it.

Once we were finished in Deep Forge I took a few hours and headed over to Vanguard, then was asked if I wanted to go back to EQ2 and do another instance. I decided sure, why not. I haven’t really been to too many of the instances honestly. The group decided to head to Befallen: Halls of Forsaken (it may be halls of the forsaken, I can’t quite remember right now). This is in the Commonlands, and I’d never been there before. I wanted to do Cavern of the Afflicted (one since I’d been there before and was comfortable with it, and two because it was the daily double yesterday) but the group decided to go some place new. The zone again was quite beautiful, and we had fun figuring out what to do. Thankfully two people had been there before even if I had not. The zone wasn’t especially hard per say, we did wipe once, but only because half of the group charged ahead to destroy a statue while half of us stayed back and I wasn’t really sure what was going on. The group was a shadowknight, inquisitor, swashbuckler, illusionist, warlock, and myself as the warden. We did see a lot of ornate drops, and I did actually get a secondary item upgrade to the shield from RE2 that I was wearing. It’s one of the few upgrades I’ve actually had drop lately. The zone mostly decided it was plate night, and nothing was an upgrade for our two plate wearers. Thankfully, Arysh is a transmuter.

The nice bit of gear to the right also dropped, and this is why I wish there were more instances with smart loot. Perfectly good piece of fabled gear – that got transmuted (and it was a server discovery) because we didn’t have anyone in the group who could use it. I heard my little 61 necromancer cry from across the account. C’est la vie though. We got an infusion from that, my bank is filled with them so I just left it to the others to random on. The zone also has a few quests related to it, and I believe one of the items is an upgrade, or will be at least when I figure out how to complete it. So far I’m stuck on a few portions.

All in all it was a productive night. When the instances were complete I logged over to Silhouette to make some of the void shard armor for Shadowgeist. The only downside to owning the books on one character or another is that I can’t craft the items for myself because the characters are on the same account I use. Solution? Have one character on each of my accounts with all of the books, so I can craft for everyone. This is a perfectly good solution seeing as I am taking my time getting the shards to begin with. Misako already has one book, and Silhouette has another. Kasul and Tipa each have a book as well, so I know who to bug for future pieces.

Hope everyone else had a fun time in Norrath last night too (or whatever game you play!)