Tag: sanctum of the scaleborn

You’re level WHAT?

I believe I started the day as a level 38 fury and 41, respectively. I was up early (always am) and had very little planned for the day (though some new living room curtains did get installed as well as a shower curtain) so I decided to spend most of it gaming. It’s not often I get those chances, this week has been work-free since my deadlines passed, and next week will be much the same (unless I manage to find extra work, who knows) until I get into gear to meet more deadlines. Ah, joy. Anyhow! I had time on my hands, that’s the point. I logged in and before too long Ultann woke up (way too early for him) and we decided to go play in Permafrost.

I’ve mentioned before about how I dislike that EQ2 zones can “grey” out, giving people little to no reason to ever revisit them unless they mentor down. I think it’s a poor game plan. You don’t want people to out level your content, you want to allow them the freedom to explore where ever they want – give them choice. EQ and WoW are both examples of this. Things don’t become trivial per say. As I entered empty zone after empty zone it simply reafirmed my thoughts in the matter. There was no one around and we gained quite a few levels. I believe Ultann’s inquisitor box was level 51 at the time.

Before long, Wpus joined us and we moved to new grounds. I don’t remember the exact order that the day went but by the end of it we had spent a fair amount of time in the Clefts of Rujark (we did the two instances within that zone) which is off of Sinking sands, we also hung around in Sanctum of the Scaleborn and Ultann had to head out for a bit so Wpus and I explored around Pillars of Flame gaining achievement points and exploring some dungeons I never knew existed before heading back to the Kingdom of Sky zones for a little lazy grinding.

Through all of these zones I didn’t see another person. I DID hear a lot of complaining on the 1-9 channel about lack of low level groups (especially on Kithicor) where the majority of the population is 70-80 and those who are lower level are alts.

When all was said and done, the paladin reached level 63, and the fury is level 60. I managed to stay on top of the paladins gear enough so that she can actually tank some places – though she has issues taunting with adept1’s I do get amends and that helps a great deal. I had a blast, we explored places we’ve never been and saw things that we’ve never seen even after 4 years of the game.

I hope everyone else had an amazing Saturday, and that Sunday proves to be just as interesting. Safe travels no matter what realm you find yourself in!

Quest of The Week: Infiltrating The Sanctum

Yesterday I was looking through Arysh’ quest journal, thinking to myself “wow, I only have room for 8 more quests”. The quests that I do have in there I’m reluctant to delete, they’re either chains that I’d like to complete one day, or they’re book quests that I don’t ever delete because (gasp) house items rock. One quest that had been in there forever (almost literally) was part of the Sanctum of the Scaleborn timeline. It’s one I’d never completed on any character – even though I have basically lived in SoS in the past, working on Claymore (which I completed on Arysh). 

The quest is the ‘infiltrating’ line, that starts just inside the doors to SoS on the left hand side. The first few quests are quite easy, you have to run around placing listening devices. Of course by now everything is very grey to me, so this was no issue. The entire quest compromises of 6 portions, each one slightly more difficult then the previous. 

When I got to the final two quests, Shadowgeist came to SoS to help me out. Not that I needed help per say, but killing grey heroic mobs can be slow (and boring). Since I was there, I decided to log in Ellithia, the 74 defiler. Added her to group and when we mentored, the zone turned green (and most of the upper levels still grey) which was perfect. We had to kill enough scaleborn to finally get a trial stone to drop, and that was probably the most difficult part of the whole quest. The trial stones are used to spawn a ring event in a pit and in the amount of time I’d been in SoS, I only saw one. Thankfully, we were lucky and got one to drop after clearing out a few rooms. 

The quest gave me a LOT of achievement, and it was just plain fun. Of course there was a hidden reason why I wanted to complete this chain, and it was not the fact that the second last reward was a cool looking sword that my warden could wear. 

 It was of course a house item. One of the few things in game that will pull me to a quest no matter what level it is. The dragon bust doesn’t look all that impressive compared to the other crafted ones, but it does have a fair amount of status on it, and I’m proud for collecting it. The final quest makes you kill Cyenadros, a x2 epic dragon that resides above the gorg pit in SoS. He (she?) was not up when we made our way there, but you can trigger them by killing the worshippers who hang out on the rug on the bottom floor. Then upstairs x2 drake will spawn around the outside of the main platform. Kill them, and Cyenadros will spawn in the center. The dragon is level 67, and we duo’d it at level 74. They DO have a kick back, so make sure you’re up against a wall when you fight or you’ll get tossed over the side. Other then that, fairly simple fight. 

Arysh hit 149aa when all was said and done, which is not too bad. I’d like to be closer to 160, but since I haven’t worked on her at all, well, I’ll take what I can get. 

When I was done with the SoS quest fun, I decided to level the paladin a little bit. Sitting at 62, Lithe has her 52 rare spell (hate transfer via group) and is a lot of fun to play. I logged in my templar (Petites) to box along with, and headed off to do The Nest in Barren Sky with Shadowgeist. 

The paladin managed to hit level 65, which means she can group with level 80’s and get quest updates (finally). The templar also hit level 78, which is a huge deal to me because solo’ing with a templar is like watching paint try. It also means I’m close to having my 5th level 80 character, and possibly a tank before too long on the 2nd account (which I’m really looking forward to). At 65 I can start the Kylong Plains quests, but I think I’ll wait until 67-68 before starting them. I haven’t explored very many zones with Lithe yet, and I’m still enjoying the paladin more then I thought I would. I looted a very nice shield off of Cyenadros last night, so she’s sporting that. Now I have to save up another 100p for some T8 loams, too. Only five more levels before I’ll start using those (and I should level the alchemist up to help her out too). 

There’s still so much fun to be had in Norrath, I hope everyone enjoyed their Saturday! I’ll write more about the other games I bought on Friday this week hopefully. he

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I think it’s great that we get the choice of some pretty nice armor in Frostfell this year. It’s easier (or at least cheaper) for me to work my way through those instances and collect tokens for gear rather then paying for all of my alts to wear mastercrafted, and it’s certainly on par with MC gear as long as you don’t mind having 0 saves vs. heat. That does mean the fire traps hurt a LOT when you open a chest, as a word to the wise. The only thing I don’t like, is that you can not turn off the graphic effect of the gear, even when you wear it under regular appearance stuff. It also causes a lot of lag, and if you run around on full settings like I typically do it’s a little frustrating. It looks like Stargrace needs to shave or she’s got some very bad rabies going on, and has skin care issues. She’s wearing the level 72 cloth dress, the +spell crit was a fairly nice upgrade since I’ve barely worked on gear for her. 

My paladin is wearing the plate version of this gear and has the same snow flake effect, it surrounds the flower (she’s a kerra) she wears in her ear and when she’s in combat it looks like a huge abnormal growth glowing on the side of her head. My bruiser is also sporting the gi, the effect on that gear is slightly different. Instead of snow flakes you are morphed into a giant ball of snow that dusts constantly, and that’s all you can see. It’s a lot more lag then the snow flake one. 

I’m hoping we’ll have the option to turn this gear off in the future, or maybe once Frostfell has passed the effects will be toned down. At least let me hide it under my regular appearance gear. 

Game wise, yesterday was fairly quiet. I took my paladin to Sanctum of the Scaleborn which was completely empty. She gained a fair amount of achievements, and hit level 62. It still feels odd to have a tank this high in levels, and I’m enjoying it a good amount. I was going to do some crafting instances and get some experience on Ellithia (65 tailor) and Goudia (65 alchemist) but instead headed off to some DoF instances on my (at the time) 53 swashbuckler. She’s now sitting at 55. 

It’s almost difficult for me to play a melee character now, after spending 7 years playing ranged mages and healers. It feels like I always have to be at ranged for some reason, and I have a difficult time positioning myself. Something I’ll have to work on in the future. 

Tomorrow is Christmas eve! I’ll be here at home for the day and then heading to my parents place in the country. However, we are due for a huge snow storm (again) so plans may change and I may be spending Christmas eve here at home depending on the roads. Driving through 20cm of snow at 7pm at night is no fun. I hope everyone has an amazing holiday no matter your plans, get some family time in and many hugs to you all!