Boxed Raiding

Last night we fell short of the needed number of healers to do much tier 7 raid content, so the guild decided to run Courts and kill some dragons.  Courts went well, I picked up some gauntlets and shoulder items for Gaff, as well as about 3 AAs each.  Status was healthy too, with each named mob netting over a respectable 12k each.  We also took down a contested in the water off of the Pillar of Flames.

Here is a broader pic, with the UI and raid list.

Two-boxing in a raid was nerve wracking, to say the least.  While it wasn’t noticed by anyone, I don’t think, it was tough to drive both toons–so tough in fact I had my son driving Gaff for some time.  It would have been some easier but Lurk was put in the main tank group as he was the highest level mystic in the raid.  This left Gaff without his autofollow target, though a guildie in his group was kind enough to oblige.  The problem is you have to jump, corner, position, attack, etc. during a raid, and I found myself with one hand on my ward/heal buttons and the other running Gaff.

I would do it again, but I would want my son around as well–he saved the raid for me.

Mandatory Makeover

Upgrades come and upgrades go, but it’s nice to be at the end of the journey, so to speak.  I hit level 62 with both my toons this weekend, and upgraded to full sets of xegonite–”vanguard” for Gaff and “reverent” for Lurk.  While I am on the look out for better upgrades (fabled and the like), the mitigation boost, coupled with a new weapon on Gaff, have made the combo much more viable in KoS.  As I begin to raid, I hope to shed the look sooner rather than later, but I couldn’t resist the new gear, especially with raw xegonite clusters going for a mere 30 gold each on Crushbone.  I crafted the armor on my former main and both toons were soon suited up in there new gear.

During my late level 50s, some of my guildmates from Knights of the Cataclysm, Thorell and Eharonna, took me to the zone Acadechism atop Crushbone Keep.  Not only is the exerience good, but I have picked up several pieces of useful gear, including Gaff’s new two-hander, the “Manafused Greatblade.”

Creeping Me Out

To continue the scavanger hunt from yesterday, I have chosen what I think might be a bit more obscure, at least anymore.  The picture, and the quest we were working on (it’s not the one displayed on the quest helper in the pic) was a common source of derision in the early days of EQ2.  The picture was taken in December of 2004, I think.

Again, and without using any guides, what is the zone and what quest line do you believe we were working on, using the above clues?  This is somewhat subjective, but I think there is enough here to get the right answer.  I cropped the pic to include the group member names–bonus points if your one of those people and you still play EQ2.

How Time Flies…

I was recently going through all of my old screenshots–I tend to snap pictures as I play with an eye towards posting them here.  Once the screenshot folder in the EQ2 directory becomes unmanagable, I move them out to an archives directory.  While perusing those pictures, I found one from the beginning of March when I was working a heritage quest.  This is an easy one–can you name not only the location, but the mob, and the quest?

Now I’m tipping over into tier seven, attended my first raid as a mystic on Tuesday night, and am enjoying all of the high end content.  My toons could not be doing better, but for that pesky diety problem.  I think I am switching Gaff over to that Marr character.

The Trot Line is doing well also.  I continue to have hits on “How to Trot Line” and variations thereof, but I have no way of knowning if they read the guide I have provided.  It doesn’t show up in the stats, just the search string the people used.  Further, not a single one of the droves of fisherman coming here have ever left a comment.  In other news:

• Favorite search term in the last few weeks: “problem plating battlefield vietnam kick”  Um, I dont know what to say here.
• Stats–the number of views keep growing.  Thanks to all of you who read, and a big thanks to those of you who comment.
• EQ2-Daily.com continues to refer the most readers–thanks again for the help!  The EQ2Players Town Crier has also sent some folks my way, so thanks to them as well.
• Time has been short–I am able to write a bit more on the weekends, and do the most ardous task, crop, resize, and upload pictures.  I have a interesting idea, with pictures for posting over the weekend.

Probing Felwithe

I have found that Loping Plains is quite dangerous, and not the best experience for my two level 61 toons.  The sweet spot for exerience, in a tank/healing duo at least, seems to be green/blue double and triple up heroic mobs.  Silent City has been good to me, but since I spent more time than I care to admit running that zone when DoF launched, I was looking for something new.

I headed towards Steamfont, with an eye to duoing the Mines.  As I passed through Lesser Fay, I found a quest at the zone-in to Steamfont.  I looked it up and found it was in something called “Felwithe.”  I quickly changed directions, and into the new zone I went.  The level requirements are 55-65, and it looked like a good chance at some experience. 

I didn’t get much further into the zone than these screenshots–there are some hallways which run by the falls. Eventually I went invis and looked for named mobs, but none seemed to present themselves on this trip.  A giant tree (the heart of power for the elf hippy denizens no doubt) grows behind the large building, and some nice triple up mobs circle the arbor.  But there were no named mobs.  The zone must be huge, however, as the blacked out parts of my map had a lot of EQ2 Map locations.  This looks like another trip for the weekend!

Zek Tagged Me

Part I:  Should I Close my EQII Account? 

This is not an easy decision right now.  My life is empty, hollow even.  I thought I had goals, guildies, and friends.  I thought I had made good decisions with tradeskilling, questing, and my two-box duo class selections.  But then, my diety turned on me.  My decision to betray has come back to haunt me, and in an odd way I think it is some twisted form of karma.  I approached Zek the Trecherous’ altar and representative in Butcherblock, only to be told:

I can’t get over this.  I have devoted myself to the Bloodlord and his plan for Norrath.  I ask everyone I see if they are the keymaster, and now this.

I think I’m being paid back for yet a second week on the Town Crier.  The very thing I was listed for last week, my betrayal quest, is what caused Zek to reject me.  Although, the tradeoff of free publicity may be worth switching a diety, now that I think of it.

Okay, I guess I can get over this.  But what god will most benefit a berserker from Qeynos?  Does that flapping Ro minion help?

 Part II:  The Tagging

In other news:  I have been tagged by Stargrace at Mmoquests.com.  Here are my five reasons to blog:

1.  It is cool.

2.  The ability to post my own pontifications, moderate the replies, and stay active in the community is invaluable to my state of mind.

3.  Wilhelm doesn’t think I will stick with this.

4.  I, like others have said, need a place to rant on occasion.

5.  This is a good way to put up pictures.

Now, do I have to tag three people?  I think your supposed to tag three people, and they list five reasons they blog, and tag three more people.  I have no clue who has and who hasn’t been tagged, so here goes.

1.  Wilhelm at The Ancient Gaming Noob.

2.  David at Timesink, because he writes well.

3.  Darren at The Common Sense Gamer.

I apologize if some of you have been tagged already–I saw this start but lost track of who went where.  Have a good week!

Entering the Veil

Needing a push to make level 61 on both my mystic and berserker, I headed to the Loping Plains, where amongst other things I found those pesky impish gremlins that are so cute as familiars.  I have always wanted one, but my allegience to the Blood Lord of Chaos, Zek keeps me from such a trespass.  I found a couple named gremlins, and earned the AA, while watching what was apparently a scripted toon, but that is another story.

I was collecting ghoul shards for a quest called “Entering the Veil,” and much to my suprise I would soon see what it was like to be one of these critters.  Both toons finished collecting the updates, and returned to Ihreil in Somborn Village.  There we created a mask using his cauldron, and were soon having an out of body experience.

Another, with a frog looking at the sky.

Ultrasonic view is novel, though I really wanted to see myself in a normal view as full gremlin!

The quest involved slaying seven other “malicious spirits” around the village, and Gaff soon had his updates, though not without a death.  I didn’t look at their level until after that, and then noticed they were four levels above my duo.  So we changed plans and he tanked while Lurk did what he could to inflict damage.  In “gremlin” form you have a different, and very limited, set of skills, including some direct damage attacks, a cold shield, and a buff for defense.  When I tried attacking with Lurk, he did not get updates.  I disbanded, reinvited with Lurk as the leader, and tried again.  No luck.  I gave up for the day at this point and figured I would see if anyone reading this might have the answer.

Fun quest, and novel.  Having to look at and use new skills was cool, and the quest line interesting.  It starts with Ihreil the Sorceress in Somborn Village, and there is another step after this one–slaying Cazi the witch!  Orange quest at the moment, so will have to wait for a few levels.

A Horse is a Horse Of Course

My attention span, or lack thereof, has struck again.  No sooner had I gotten Gaff to Freeport than I decided it was time for Lurk to leave our little alt guild.  He and Gaff did a few runs of the “kill x sentries” writs in Tenebrous Tangle, and then the lure of a level 60 guild took hold.  I was ready to move.  In all seriousness, I miss seeing the guild chat of my main’s guild (since November 14, 2004).  There are a lot of people who have joined during my sojourn with WoW and I just havent gotten to know them.  Lurk was ready to take his title of “main status.”

I also was ready to buy a couple level 60 mounts, which I previewed here a while back.  The mount guide for Everquest II is awesome, and I certainly cannot take credit for making it, but don’t mind shamelessly linking the page for your perusual.  It does take a little bit to load on my machine because of all the pictures.

Thorell was nice enough to let both Gaff and Lurk buy their mounts.  He commented on how loaded I was–I had just sent him a large number of rare loams for Gaff’s skills, post-betrayal.  I wish I was loaded, the 30 plat and 900,000 status it cost for the two horses just about broke the bank.  I will have to grind away at the old stove and keg to replentish my coffers.  So a big thanks to Thorell for my new skills and Knights of the Cataclysm for helping my aching feet, or at least those of my old ponies. Now I need just a few more levels to raid.

Here we are, with one of the oppressors of Qeynos tramping past.   Thorell is on the right.  He is my motivation for going berserker–the damage he deals is impressive.

Art for Art’s Sake

The small things in games are what get your attention.  The ability to construct a world that seems seemless is what we don’t look for, but notice if it is lacking.  Realism is not a given, nor necessarily a needed attribute in a game for it to succeed, to cite World of Warcraft’s highly stylized graphics.

Which leads me to my favorite piece of art in all of Everquest II.  It has a plaque, but I have not been able to get a title from the game, so I invented my own.  “Triumph of the Valkerie.”  The use of a fountain to reflect the moment, so to speak, and the artist’s capture of motion is wonderful.  Now I know you may be reading this thinking, “What the hell?  It’s a statue in a video game.”  But does that detract from the artistic and aesthetic appeal of the work?  Did the programmer/graphic artist not give the image some emotion and humanist characteristics?  My answer is yes, and because of the great sense movement, a snapshot of a moment, I absolutely love it.  I also didn’t want to shrink it to post here, so you will have to click to see it.

Trash Pickup is on Wednesdays

Trash?  Are you kidding me?  I am so upset with this younger generation of gamers.  They come to EQII and leave there crap all over the place, even in our national game reserves, like Antonica.  Apparently the Mage Tower types are participating in the “Adopt a Highway” program throughout the region, and are sending some diversion canidates there to clean up the road.  I happen to be one of the lucky few who was forced to clean up your mess.

After my day of service on the road was finished, I was forced to donate to the Bayles’ favorite charity in Nettleville, confirming my belief their rule of compassion is a sham.  Fresh from this official “shakedown,” I went back to the Mage tower for my final task–apparently an Inquisitor of some stature, named Te’Lex, was living the good life inside Qeynos and it was time to show him the door.  I didn’t see the door, because when I clicked the “accept” button I was immediately zoned in to confront the menace.  His worst offences were related to hair and denistry, in my opinion.  Perhaps he had spoken out about the two sets of accounting books the Bayles’ keep.

After slaying the actual Te’Lex, his incrementally more powerful undead spirits sprouted to do battle.  They fell like so many dark elf dominoes and I was soon back to Vishra the Qeynosian citizenship czar.  I had completed my journey and was now rewarded!

The Vishra sent me on to the berserker trainer over in North Qeynos.  Here I had a decision, which in fact was a no brainer;  I could remain a berserker or switch to a guardian.  As I have a high level guardian and rolled the ‘zerker for that very reason, it wasn’t much of a choice.

Actually, as the above image shows, SOE did a great job of warning you when you were doing something that you could not undo, in the course of the Betrayal quest.  In Freeport I had to type in my character name when I took the final step to exile and was told to empty my bank and house.  I appreciated the effort they put into this part of the quest chain. 

After visiting the berserker trainer and confirming my choice, all my skills, AA selections, racial abilities, master II choices, and everything else was reset.  Skills to apprentice one, though I did get to reselect my master II skills.  This has taken some time to update.  I did not have many higher level skills (over adept I) so there wasn’t too much of a loss.  I’m level 60 so a number of my endgame skills are still to come.

 

A big thank you to Stargrace, who writes the blog MmoQuests.com.  Her advice about the faction quests (sabotage portion) of the quest line saved me some very scarce time this week.  I think I could do the entire betrayal again in under three hours.  I also used the EQ2i.com guide for the quest.  It is easy to follow and quite accurate.  I am now ready to begin selling out of Qeynos on two accounts, doing eight of the same writs at a time, and generally saving a huge amount of time running two toons around two cities, which is why I started this quest in the first place, although I felt like I was selling out already.  Oh, and I still have four writs for Freeport in my book, and my Zek familiar!

Next quest–to catch up with Blintz and finish the Nek Forest heritage lines.