Tag: Instances

Raiding, Adventuring, and Having a Good Time

What have I been up to in EQ2 lately, you may ask. Well. Things have been pretty busy – which is a sure indication of why I haven’t been keeping up as steadily with my posts as I should be! I have deadlines for work looming in and that always makes for some sporadic posting as well as a lot of real life happening at the moment. Things should settle back down in a few weeks (just in time for them to take off again, as always).

I’ve joined up with a new guild on Oasis, and I’ve been busy trying to get comfortable – which is harder then it sounds. All 12 of my EQ2 characters are over there now, and I’m happy that I seem to have at least broken myself from the multi server gaming habit. It was just getting too hard to be in three places at once and I was constantly left feeling as though I was letting someone down by not playing with them on their server. What’s the point if I’m not having any fun myself. I’ve added three of my characters to the new guild, my mystic, the dirge, and my paladin (mostly so I could grind crafting writs). So far things are going nicely. I got to explore Erudian Research Halls with them, and on Wednesday we did Ward of Elements, which was fun (especially since most of us were 90 and hence the zone was green).

The dirge is now level 88, and half way through 89. I’m excited, although I have a LOT of work to do on this character still. She only has 112 aa and that hurts very badly. That’s what you get from power leveling though. The paladin is also at level 82, almost 83, and I’ve been doing battlegrounds with her which I quite enjoy. There’s something decidedly satisfying about taunting attackers off of your dps so that your dps can cause their heads to explode. I’ve got her wearing the level 80 set of PvP gear, which doesn’t do much for me in terms of PvE, but that’s alright.

Crafting has taken a small back seat while I just roam around Norrath looking for trouble. I’ll get back to it before too long no doubt, as I’d really like all 9 crafters at level 90. We’ll just have to see how that goes.

In the mean time, it’s FRIDAY and I’m looking forward to hearing about everyone and their adventures at PAX East this weekend. I won’t be attending – but I WILL be going to the SOE Fan Faire in August. Hope to see everyone there!

March 26, 2010 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 2 Comments

Spirit’s Resonance

Sentinel’s Fate has a lot of instances, which is something I quite enjoy. Although I don’t like having a billion different type of tokens clogging up my shared bank. That’s a story for another day. Today I got to adventure through Spirit’s Resonance, which is basically an instanced replica of “The Hole” (which is contested). One of the great things about this zone is that there are a LOT of quests associated with it.

Plus the Mark of Manaar quest, which grants you a token (of course).

There are a few things to make note of as you explore through this instance. Number one. You’ll have a quest that requires you to trap a bug – you get a bag in your inventory in order to do this. Well. DON’T TRAP THE KEY MOB which also happens to be one of those little beetles in the graveyard. Woopsie. That’s what happened to my group yesterday as we made our way down there.In fact the more people who /bug this the better, so that we can have the key mob flagged differently and people can’t go scooping it up as a quest update.

The last mob in the instance was probably the one I enjoyed the most (SPOILER INC):

Every 20% the mob will discombobulate someone and you’ll have to run to the back of the room where you’ll see some book shelves. You’ll be in the form of another creature, much like the void beast fight in TSO where each group member takes possession of a different creature. You’ll have to kill 3 rounds of books, with 3 mobs in each encounter. If you don’t, bad things happen to your group. It is a random person who is selected every 20% so have fun with that. I was chosen twice on my bard, and the healer was also chosen twice. The best part is that as you’re morphed into some other creature, the group gets to kill a version of you. Mean while, the “mob” speaks as you, much like they do in Unrest. So I’m working on killing the books in the back of the room, and my NPC version of me is asking who is parsing the encounter, and if anyone wants to head to Blackburrow afterward. It was great.

I managed to gain a few more upgrades for the troubador as well. She’s slowly inching her way away from being an int / str based caster, and over to the new agi scheme that was implemented for scouts with the release of Sentinel’s Fate. I’m also just a smidgen away from getting UT finally, so maybe I won’t be so disliked. Ok so my guild has been pretty great at letting me tag along despite the fact that I don’t have UT, but it’ll still be great to have.

Happy gaming, I’ll see you in Norrath!

March 7, 2010 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 1 Comment

A Little Bit of Everything

Another day of ‘not much going on in game’ since I was so busy doing other things on Friday but today should be a good day of gaming. I’ve been meaning to play a little more Sims 3, but haven’t managed to find the time (yet). Soon! I did dip into Wizard 101 for a fair amount yesterday, my Life / Storm wizard hit level 20 and did some awesome battles. I’ve also encountered a few dungeons now – that I can’t beat what so ever. It was still fun! I redeemed my facebook code and earned 1,000 gold which makes me able to afford the smaller house in Wizard City, but I’m thinking of saving up for a home of a different world. I haven’t quite decided yet. My Myth / Death wizard also managed to snag a few levels and is sitting just shy of level 10. I’ve been completing the Wizard City quests with her and she’s obtained some really awesome house items that the higher level wizard missed out on since they came after I’d completed the quests.

In EQ2 I plan on getting a few crafting levels (carpenter hopefully), doing a few instances (the boys should be around I believe, which will be great) and maybe I can finally get that transmuting up to 350+ which will let me begin to transmute T8 gear. Then it’s time for adornments!

What is everyone else up to this weekend? Any good games on the list? Once things have calmed down a little more I should have a little time in LotRO (I have a free month incoming) since that tapered down some. The game is great, but it just feels (to me) exactly like every other fantasy MMO out there, and I’m already playing three of those (EQ, EQ2, VG). I still love the look and love my character, but without an infinite amount of time to be able to play everything I want to play, something has to take a back seat.

Other then that, quiet weekend. Happy gaming and I’ll see you in Norrath!

June 13, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 3 Comments

Coercer 2.0 hits 80, Instances, and.. more Instances!

Yesterday was a mixture of real life with some gaming which of course made for a perfect Saturday. There was the announcement that Free Realms was sending out beta invites, and then a mass amount of shopping that involved a wii fit, and a nintendo DSi with a few games (used, and cheap!) and other random goodness before I settled in to game on Kithicor.

I had so much fun I don’t even know exactly what we did. I know we started off with our usual Obelisk run (and again no shield – that one dagger and crusader shield that drops has dropped enough to outfit a small army by now) followed by us attempting to solo some TSO instances – this time Lavastorm. We did pretty well in Najena’s Hollow Tower, we defeated the gnome by burning down the bombs (I charmed a warlock pet, MUCH fun!) and then moved on to the djin water elemental named and once we figured out how to do this with three people it worked out just fine. Honestly that’s as far as we needed to get anyhow, there’s a cloak that drops from that particular mob that Wpus is looking to get, and it was nice to know we can trio him. 

Afterwards we attempted Deep Forge, but that zone is a little out of our grasp yet. The coercer was inching closer to 80 (hovering around 70% experience for quite some time) so we completed the three Commonlands void quests mentored – and then since we had no lock out for Cavern of the Afflicted, we decided to gather a group together and complete it the ‘big kid’ way. 

I wouldn’t be playing the coercer for this, just the mystic. So I took the coercer to East Freeport and purchased 15p worth of collections . Finally!

The coercer (my 2nd, and 3rd enchanter) managed to hit level 80. She had 40 void shards waiting for her that I’ve collected over time, so it was no trouble to have my mystic craft her almost the complete T1 set. I know a lot of coercers complain that the set is not that great, but when you don’t raid and are still wearing mastercrafted, it comes in handy. Plus it looks fantastic (screen shots some other time hopefully). Despite the fact that I love being able to charm things I am contemplating betraying her over to an illusionist. The group buffs are much more suited for my play style. I’m not certain yet, it will depend on whether or not I can track down a sage. 

I also spent some time talking with Troy  from Emerald Tablet who happens to play on the Kithicor server. Was nice to say hello after ‘speaking’ a few times on twitter. 

Afterwards I wasn’t quite ready to call it a night, so we decided to head to Vaults and see if we couldn’t get another praetor’s guard to drop. Granted, it’s taken us a good 20 tries to get the one to drop that we actually got, so I didn’t hold much hope. Good thing, since it eluded us once more. Maybe next time!

Before I knew it the clock was telling me it was 2am and I had to get up at 6am Blast those enjoyable evenings! Today is Easter Sunday and I’m looking forward to a great dinner with family, I hope everyone else has had an amazing weekend thus far, and enjoy yourself, where ever you end up spending your time!

See you in Norrath!

April 12, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 1 Comment

Friday Night Instances

It’s a lot easier to get groups in EQ2 then it is to get groups in EQ. Sure, they happen but people pretty much stick to doing the hot zones and a few missions that are required for access. In EQ2 there are void shard groups constantly ongoing and even a few pick up raids if you’re so inclined. Although Kithicor has a very elitist view when it comes from doing instances and who is good enough  to do them. The channels are filled with people trying to one up each other by linking their gear and teasing those who may not be as well geared as them. On that note, it’s rare that my little trio actually wants to join three other people because from appearances we don’t fit the mold of ‘cool’ people. My mystic doesn’t even have her epic, we’re not mastered out, and our gear is a mish mash of quested and void shard armor. Not bad by any means, but not ‘uber’ enough to roll with the big kids who are constantly going on about 6-10k parses and linking all of their fabled. 

We started out last night with our daily Ahkzul run (again no shield) and it went a little rough. The bouncy room didn’t seem so friendly but on the plus side the giant void creatures didn’t hit us with any AoE and that was nice. One huge upside to playing my coercer as my main and then leaving the mystic as the background / laptop character. Coercers get lots of stuns (though I’m thinking of betraying her over to illusionist, more on that later). After we were done we figured why not try to snag three other people and go do Anathema for some shards. 

Our group make up was not your typical group and I had a lot of doubts I’ll admit. It consisted of the trio (myself as 80 mystic, Ultann the 80 shadowknight, and Wpus the 80 conjuror) and then an 80 guardian (Ultann tanked so the guardian was dps), an 80 warlock, and an 80 brigand. No power regen (not needed with Wpus’ power procs) and no mezer (hopefully not needed). We did surprisingly well, we wiped once due to one of the ghost children spawning an add directly on top of me when we were already involved in a difficult encounter, and the rest went smooth. The three others died a few times from various agro issues (that’s why there’s a threat meter folks!) and AoE’s but we escaped unscathed and collected our two shards. 

I managed to get the mystic her 3rd piece of T2 void shard armor, a nice pair of pants. This leaves her with 2 pieces of T1 and 3 pieces of T2, so she’s getting the set bonus from each. The effect on the pants is a nice overloaded heal (which also happens to be her 5 set bonus) so I was pleased with the upgrade. 

Not ready to call it a night quite yet, we decided to go to Scion of Ice next except no matter how hard we looked we couldn’t find three others to round out the group. Apparently we’d managed to catch cooties on our last run. Wpus, our fearless leader, decided that we would attempt this zone un-mentored, with just the three of us. 

I was sceptical but never one to back down from a challenge decided sure why not. 

It was an intense run. I ended up bringing along the coercer for stuns and power regen and to mez one of the encounters that has two sphynx that you’ve got to defeat. We actually managed to clear the entire zone, including the named at the entrance just the three of us. I was impressed. I was beyond impressed. It was a lot of fun and although the zone seems to drop a million cloaks and nothing more I was really proud that we’d defeated it. It also gives us another instance that we can defeat for shards if we can’t fill out a group. 

After that victory we decided to complete the shard quest for The Crucible, it was getting late and I knew we probably wouldn’t be able to beat that zone (at least not the final mob that requires people to click objects from the ground as you fight a named) but the void shard quest was to kill 15 creatures within, and the void shard chest is on the first floor so it was simple enough. Today we’re going to attempt the Lavastorm instances and then perhaps the ones in Commonlands just to see how far we can get in them. It’s great to feel so challenged and to get as far as we have in zones that can pose as cumbersome to people. Sure, I don’t see us trioing Veksar or Guk any time soon, but in the mean time this has been really rewarding and pleased that some times it’s NOT all about what gear you have and it really is about the player knowing their class.

April 11, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In No Comment

Obelisk of Ahkzul, and Vault of Eternal Sleep

When EQ had it’s 10th anniversary, for the week you could claim free LoN (Legends of Norrath) loot cards in either EQ or EQ2. For the first portion of the week I was claiming them in EQ, and then switched over to EQ2 when the void vision goggles came out, and then the next day it was the awesome parrot that you see sitting on my mystic’s shoulder in the screen shot above (which turned out really nice, I have to admit). I had planned on doing some questing in Lavastorm for the evening – but had a really nice surprise when Ultann decided to re-activate his EQ2 account. So of course I decide that the group is going to jump right into things, and we head to the Moors of Ykesha to attempt the Obelisk of Ahkzul with just the three of us (and me boxing the coercer). It’s only been a month and a half since we started playing EQ fairly regularly rather then EQ2, and we did pretty well. The new threat meter is amazing and everyone loves it. I adore the fact that you can now auto follow on the Z axis. 

I’ve been playing on the highest settings I can put my computer at and still function, which is one below max. The game looks so incredible to me. I did turn down the number of spell particles I see simply because when you have so many turned on encounters start looking like masses of particle effects and nothing more. I can’t see the mobs or where they’re positioned or know if I’m about to die to a giant AoE frontal. 

We died once in the ‘ball room’ but it was just us being rusty. The second attempt was flawless, and we managed to get a chest with 14p in it. Those chests are nice when you do the instance in a group of three. I had my fingers crossed that the final encounter would drop the healer shield I’ve longed for since day one – but alas, my luck in EQ2 is pretty non-existant, and nothing of use dropped. On the plus side, void shards WERE introduced to this zone finally, so we each gained one more to add to the pile by the end. 

Afterwards we decided to head to Vault of Eternal Sleep in Jarsath Wastes to try (for the 101st time) for the praetor’s guard for Wpus, the conjuror. Ever since we found out we can trio this zone, we’ve attempted to get the guard to drop. Every time, we had no drop. The zone is fairly easy to complete, we rarely ever die. The adds spawned, I mez’d them while still attempting to heal (Wpus catches them with root so I have a little leeway) and down the final boss went. 

A master chest!

Now, there are two fabled (maybe more) that can drop here. There are a pair of pants that no one in the group would use – along with the mage item. FINALLY the guard dropped, now we just need to get one for my coercer. Groan.

I started having ISP issues (again) shortly after that, so when I disconnected I called it a night and headed to bed. I had a blast though. It was great to be back in Norrath 2.0 and even better to enjoy the evening with some great friends. I hope everyone else had a fantastic evening, no matter where you spent it!

See you in Norrath!

April 5, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In No Comment

Relaxing in Middle-Earth

For the first time since September, I played last night and had no graphic glitches at all. It was nice. It was really nice. Kasul, Tipa, and I headed to LotRO and spent some time slaying various creatures and progressing the epic line. Now, I’ll admit I didn’t spend that much time actually reading the quests. I normally do, I love reading all the stories and then I get to thinking about who wrote them and what inspired them and it just takes off from there. However; I was dealing with some real life background noise (ie: stress) and just trying to make sure I followed along, kept people healed, and didn’t trip over my own two feet very much. I was so happy that the new video card ran (and ran well) that I could barely do more then walk around in a half daze looking at everything.

I do remember getting quite a few pieces of gear upgrade. I got a new cloak, some gloves and even a really awesome recipe that only has a one time charge of some cloth shoulders. It came from one of the instances we ran, and I’d never seen it before. My tailor (explorer) is happily leveling away, and things are going well in that direction. 

Gozad also started playing on the same server as Nostalgia (our Kinship, now spanning three games officially, though you can find Nostalgians all over the place), not sure if he plans on continuing or not but it’s always nice to have another member. Our Kinship just reached rank 6, and we’re headed towards rank 7. 

I like to unlock the various deeds and see a mass accumulation of titles and little ‘unique’ bits to the game that show off the various feats my character has accomplished. Even if they’re the same titles that everyone else has earned, they are unique to my character and remind me about what I’ve done (or haven’t done) in game. The one Tipa is sporting (on her character Dera) is awesome, and completely fitting for the little hobbit (who I keep wanting to call a halfling due to EverQuest II). It was a wonder we didn’t step on her multiple times throughout the night. Elves may be slim and move with grace, but my Minstrel is wearing some pretty clunky items and I always feel like I’m clunking around instead of floating gracefully.

Monday evening should be the next LotRO meeting unless Kasul has changed his schedule around for that day (one never knows) I managed to reach level 16 and part way through it. We also started working on Book one Chapter five (I believe that’s where we’re at in any case) which has us running all over the place currently. I don’t own a mount (nor do I envision myself owning one any time soon) so it’s a lot of running. A lot. 

Over all? Having a lot of fun with the game. Of course, playing with great friends always makes games 100x better then playing alone.

April 3, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In No Comment

Shard instances galore

Collecting void shards is my mystics new hobby. Why? Because the gear from TSO (even the T1 gear) is a huge upgrade over the crafted pieces she’s wearing. I managed to save up enough shards before she hit 80 to make myself the hat (I have the recipe books at least!) and then today after a few rounds of instances I had enough to make the pants. I tend to be one of those ‘list’ people who write lists for everything, so of course I wrote down which pieces I have that still need to get upgrades.

Chest, Shoulders, Gloves, Shoes, Earring (one), Ring (two), and bracelets. 

Plus my epic. Ok so there’s a lot of work to be done, but hey isn’t that why I play this game anyhow? To further and progress my character alongside of amazing friends and have wonderful encounters in game. 

That being said, the TSO instances in the commonlands fell to the group I was in early this morning, and yesterday included a romp through Chelsith. A lot of people don’t especially care for that zone (going off of 70-79 chatter) and I’m not sure why. It could be due to the length it takes to clear it, but I enjoy it quite a bit. 

I had my 71 coercer in tow (mostly for power regen while I healed) and she dinged 72. I’m still contemplating working up a bard (dirge) but I haven’t gotten very far with it yet. 

I also managed to find a little time to play LoTRO, creating a character on Tipa’s server so I could play with the group she has going there. Hopefully I can find a little more time and catch up to the rest of them! Short post today as I’ve got to get a bunch of things done, but there’s a rumor on the forums that the GU with the fighter changes is tentatively scheduled for the 3rd of February, I’m actually looking forward to it. That should also add the Valentine items to the game, which means – you guessed it – more house item!

January 27, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 1 Comment

Laying Down on the Job

Another run at Fear (no choker for the summoner yet) and another run at Vault (no guard) but my 79 mystic hit level 80! This is a bit of a milestone for me. Not because I don’t already have level 80 characters (I now have 6) but because she’s the only level 80 on my 2nd account. It means that the other characters will get at least a 10% bonus at all times. I realize it’s not THAT big of a deal, but hey every little bit counts. I’m thinking of leveling up my dirge next, I’m not sure yet. I do need to work on the shaman’s gear. 

Guild was nice and active yesterday, Hamal (new ranger) managed to get to level 32 (I believe?) with some help of 80’s mentoring, along with Dweezel who has so many alts with different renditions of his name I don’t have the faintest idea who he actually played in group. I want to say paladin but maybe that was the night before. 

I also managed to create a few pieces of void shard gear for the mystic, you can start obtaining the basic void shard quests at level 75, level 79 for the daily double quest. Needless to say I had a nice little stash waiting for me. Since I barely did any RoK questing on her she still has a lot to do, but that can come in time. For now it’s just nice to be level 80. 

I didn’t get anything done this weekend that I had set out to do, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Of course it means that now that the weekend is over I’ll have to get moving on stuff, but isn’t that what the weekdays are for to begin with?

Since I started playing on Kithicor I’ve noticed how prices can change drastically depending on server population. Antonia Bayle and Najena pricing are significantly lower then Kithicor and Oasis for example. AB and Najena are also far higher populated servers then the other two. On Kithicor things I put for sale (no matter the tier it seems) can sit, some times for a long period. On Najena where the market is constantly active things moved far quicker. This is neither good nor bad, just an observation. 

I hope everyone else had an amazing weekend, no matter what game you played. I’m looking to get further into LoTRO, things lately have just been too hectic for me to stick to any more then one MMO. While I find that I work better under pressure, and I’m learning how to manage my time properly, it still leaves very little free time.

January 26, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 1 Comment

Templar hits 80, with LOTS of instances!

Up early yesterday for a family get together and then spent most of the afternoon napping (I wasn’t feeling too well) so when I finally got up around 7pm I wasn’t really expecting to do too much before heading back to bed for the night. Turns out, I was wrong. 

My ‘usual’ group was around, Kasul, Albrta, Eyenstein, and Shadowgeist, so we decided to do some instances. The daily double was Najena’s Hollow Tower, and none of us felt like doing it. So instead we headed to Scion of Ice in Everfrost. Before doing Scion I had done a quick maidens run in Jarsath Waste, first time running Petites (templar) through there so the experience was fairly good. Finished off the weapon quest from the zone too. Anyhow, Scion of ice hurt. Plus our second shadowknight was apparently fairly drunk and left unable to continue part way through the instance. I was the only healer, and everyone seemed to be getting pummeled by AoE’s and my templar (yet) is not exactly geared up for solo healing. But we managed it, cleared the zone. I picked myself up a new healer cloak, as well as a new ring. 

I was a little reluctant to solo heal, but some times you don’t always get the perfect group. After we finished with Scion we headed to Crucible which has always been the easiest of the Everfrost instances, for me at least. We picked up a swashbuckler who was LFG – and for the first time ever I had to ask someone not to use a particular piece of gear. Not because of them, but because of me. 

I was still 79 at the time, solo healing, without very good gear (my own fault I know, but what was the point of upgrading everything when I was wearing the EoF set gear and I’d just be wearing void shard gear before too long) my spells were all adept3 but I didn’t have any illusionist with TC or any of that stuff. Anyhow, the item in question is the Bloodthirsty Choker. If you’ve never heard of this item before it’s the one that quickly drains your health as you dps to boost your attacks with a proc. It drains about 10% health (at least on the swashbuckler) every tick or two. 

Being the only healer, I didn’t feel as though I could effectively keep my heals concentrated on both the tank, and this swashbuckler in group without letting someone die. If I were on my warden, I’d have no issue at all with this. Afterwards, I did learn a few tricks in regards to the bloodthirsty choker. For example, apparently shield of faith which is a magic ward / buff will work on the choker. Apparently so will a few other things, like shield ally. 

Was it unfair of me to ask them to remove the piece? Well, I’m not sure. It really did make me feel like a crappy healer, but I know my limitations, and I wasn’t about to risk heals because someone wanted to boost their dps. Not to speak down about them, but pet peeve of mine is someone posting the dps parse every fight into group chat. It’s fine to want to know your dps, but posting (and they’d only post the ones where they were on top) like that just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe even more so because I play a healer and I’m always at the bottom of that list, with big fat 0’s by my name. 

The fabled healer / mage item from Crucible dropped and Petites won it, all in all it was a very nice day for the templar. That also makes my 5th level 80 character which means my account has a 50/50 bonus for both tradeskilling and adventuring (which is the cap). I started the templar epic, which has been fairly smooth so far. Lots of running around, which seems to be the case for every epic. 

Next? Not sure. I’d like to work a pure DPS class up to 80 simply because I don’t have one. I have two healers, and 3 utility (two enchanters and a bard) and then of course there’s the paladin tank I have at 70. Still on burn out from that one though. So what do I have left? Well, there’s the 61 bruiser, the 61 necromancer (who I’ve had since 2004 and just never leveled), I have the 58 swashbuckler, the 70 paladin, and a 30 warlock, as well as the 74 defiler. It may sound like a lot, but keep in mind the experience from 1-70 was drastically increased, there’s mentor bonus, and there’s experience potions, AND there’s the account bonus I have. It really takes no time at all these days to level up a character in EQ2 and honestly as long as I’m having fun that’s all that matters. 

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, and had some great holidays no matter where you game!

January 2, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 2 Comments
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