Leveling – Page 6 – A Pixel Nomad

Oceangreen Hills, and Ding 78

After the fall of the Combine Empire, the majority of humankind spread out and occupied the center of what was then called Tunaria. These humans lived in small villages upon the fertile plains of Karana and in an area along the western coast called the Oceangreen Hills.

I’ve owned Seeds of Destruction since it released in late October, but I’d never set foot in it until yesterday. Sure, I took advantage of the mercenary and I saw everyone off leveling and having fun, but I stayed firmly planted in current-day Norrath while that happened. First thing I have to say, the music is incredible. I wish there were a CD compilation of the music for SoD, all of it is great. The second you step into Time and head through The Void the music just rocks. When you stare off into the sky and see Veeshan sprawled across, dead, it’s just very humbling.

There is (of course) a progression chart for SoD, which you can find on Zam here. There are missions (both solo and group) given out for various factions as you work through the zones and repair Norrath. Such a daunting task.

We picked up some solo quests that reward faction and another currency, Chronobines. I’m not sure what they’re used for yet, but I’m sure it’s spells and / or gear.

We worked on:

Tabron Caulria:

Each quest involves the infected and diseased creatures that are found all over Oceangreen Hills. The second quest was a huge pain because it required some dust off of skeletons that simply didn’t want to spawn. As we adventured through we also managed to kill two named who dropped some pretty nice gear – nice for us at least. Items in SoD have +700 hp on them these days, so when the lower end stuff has 400 or so, it’s still nice (even though not amazing).

We headed over to the Filed of Scale shortly afterwards to check out the zone and see how hard things hit for. It’s always exciting for me to head to a new expansion that I’ve never played in before (granted, almost everything that’s been released in EQ for the past four years is relatively new to me still). The mobs hurt, they hurt bad. The zone itself was awesome though, armies lined up and about 400 npc fighting each other. We found a little section of land to set up a camp on, and spent a little time there before heading off to a hot zone where my necromancer managed to land herself level 78! I’m so excited about finally hitting level 80, I’m sure the climb to 85 will be very slow, but I don’t mind. For the first time ever I may actually hit the level cap in EQ. Scary!

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!

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!

Lavastorm Changes, and Levels are Gained

I spent most of yesterday evening hanging out with Kiara and others on a guided tour of the new (EQ2) Lavastorm revamp, and then working on a future article for MMORPG.com about said revamp – it was loads of fun! If you’re interested in seeing the changes for yourself you can always head on over to the test server and take a peek, or you can read all about the changes that are coming in the spoilers that have been released on the EQ2players site. You can find the lore behind the events, what’s new with crafting, the new solo content (for levels 45-55), as well as a little glimpse into the 12-person raid zone, Ward of the Elements. There is so much more coming aside from these things though, if you (like me) don’t have the patience to wait for the update it’s certainly worth checking into.

While I was doing that on my PC (always the multi-tasker) the laptop had my necromancer hanging out in Dreadspire with Ultann and Ninga, who were busy grinding experience. We were later met up with a beastlord friend of theirs who joined in the fun. Since I was mostly AFK while they were doing their thing I missed out on a great deal of the excitement (not to mention conversations) but everyone seemed to have a good time none the less. Oh, and my necromancer managed to hit level 76, and now she’s 60% into that level!

The enchanter also hit level 74, though I didn’t box yesterday aside from a brief bit later, so she’s not very far into it. The leveling has slowed down a considerable amount, but it’s about what I expected for these levels. I hear the grind from 80-85 is a lot worse, I’m still looking forward to it because to me that’s what EQ always was. Grinding out levels with great friends, and it’s comforting to know it hasn’t changed all that much.

Once the levels were earned we decided (for fun) to head back to the Guk LDoN raid zone – the zone had hurt pretty bad last time we were there. This time we dragged along the beastlord and every named within fell to us. For a level 65 zone, it was difficult, even for us ranging from level 74-80+ one of the encounters was level 80, and all of the encounters had mean nasty dots that liked to trigger and send my poor girls spinning into low health. Thankfully we had Nocbot around who provided some wonderful heals, and Ninga who was great DPS. I am always in so much awe as I watch everyone fall naturally into their roles in game. It’s a fantastic sight.

I hope everyone else had an amazing time as well, and that this Thursday is great no matter what game you find yourself in. See you in Norrath!