Crafting missions – Solo and Heroic Thursday, Nov 27 2008 

Everquest 2 and Everquest II , Kilanna 1:21 am

Well after much excitement the last few nights raiding, last night turned into a quiet one.

 

I did end up logging in a little later than usual, and so the boys were already in various groups around the place…. I was not at all enthusiastic about questing on Killy to tell you the truth.  So I ended up heading to Mara to try for some more tokens towards getting my girl a Unicorn from the Far Seas group.  I will be needing 10 tokens, and have 3 so far.

 

Well I could not believe that there seems to be a time restriction on how often you can do the solo crafting writs.  I hope I am wrong but it seems you can only do the solo quest once per week?

 

Well with that frustration, I decided that I would go and do the heroic crafting instance again.  For anyone experienced in crafting it is not difficult at all to complete the heroic instance solo, but is very time consuming for the 1500 faction.

 

For those who don’t know, it is required to craft 3 pristine copies each of 9 items.  This must be repeated four times representing four stages of assisting the shipbuilders to build a new ship.    All of the components and fuels are found as “clickies” inside the instance. 

 

The items needed are crafted using ALL the different crafting stations in the zone.  Killy is a jeweler and uses a workbench, so the items that are required to be built on forge, loom, scribing table, chemistry table and stove can be very slow.    However, I notice that it was a little less difficult with her new necklace reward from the last time she did the zone.  I have found it is VITALLY important to ensure that any effects are counteracted using the crafting reaction arts otherwise it is almost impossible to achieve a pristine combine.

 

So last night I completed 3 stages of the four in just under 2 hours.   I will log back into the zone tonight and finish the instance in perhaps a little over half an hour.    The instance remains open for a little over a day and a half… so it is quite achievable to begin the quest, and then return at another time to complete it.  It will be interesting to see if Killy gets another quest item reward for completing the quest a second time.  

 

One really cool thing – you can purchase teleport orbs to take you between Mara and the instance zones to cut down on travel time.

 

I also did complete the solo crafting writ on Kil a few nights ago.   It is just a matter of completing some tier 7 combines – the recipes are scribed as part of the quest.  Once again, it is required to craft maybe 7 or 8 items (forgive my memory lol) on all different crafting stations.  And once again items crafted on stations other than what your crafter class uses can be slow.   I guess the limiting factor here is that it appears you can only be offered the quest once per week.

 

So I am hoping to get the boys together for a run through a new instance tonight – depending on how busy everyone is.  All fun and games in the land of Norrath eh :p

 

Happy hunting and crafting all J

 

Another fun weekend!! Tuesday, Nov 25 2008 

Everquest 2 and Everquest II , , Kilanna 11:24 pm

Well Killy is off and racing and enjoying her time in the new expansion.

 

Over the weekend, I got to try out 2 of the new zones in Everfrost.   My trusty companions and I went for a wee run through the Scion of Ice and Anathema (?sp)   The zones were very pretty, and it was kind of fun figuring out the new zones together.  Also managed a quick run through RE2 to hand in our quests and have another crack at the cloaks but… le sigh no joy.

 

I must admit I did find myself a little frustrated at one point questing in the Moors.   It took me easily half an hour to finish one quest to kill 12 Sokokar.  Between all the stuns and stifles her dps was just ATTROCIOUS.   I swear it took me about 2 minutes each kill.  ACT told me so lol.   But such is the life of a Templar.

 

I also have tried out the crafting missions from the Isle of Mara.  I MUST have my unicorn :p.   So I have completed one of the group missions and one of the solo missions so am on my way.  Got my girl a nice tradeskill necklace for completing the group mission too.

 

Monday night then saw us hitting the Shard of Hate.   What we as a guild have been doing for a little while, is hosting a pick up raid and inviting folks from other guilds to join us.  It has worked out pretty well, and has been really nice to meet folks from other guilds on the server. 

 

So in Shard of Hate we have been killing the first 3 named.  Each week I pray that the beautiful plate healer gloves will drop from the Dread Lord but no such luck hehe.  Not to worry, my girl healed a treat and had a bunch of fun doing it.

 

Last night then saw us head into the Protectors Realm too.   We had 3 groups only, and had doubts about how far we could get in the zone.  After a very shaky start on the first named – we wiped 3 times – things settled down VERY nicely.   Smooshed the first four named, killed Doomcoil first pull, headed in and smooshed the raid force in a VERY tidy fashion, and then danced on the body of Imzok… How sweet was that, especially when it meant Killy dinged 144aa!!

 

Before we went into raid, I decided I would respect Killys aa.   Kept the lines in the old trees that I have come to know and love – Blessings, Mana Cures, and Int/Agi lines.  But I put as many points as I could into my Shadows aa lines and am thrilled.  Boosted Hit points and health, mitigation on my group buffs and my point heal, Aegolism and my reactive heals.  So far so good J

 

Anyhow, I suspect tonight will be a visit to one of the new instances with my boys which I shall of course look forward to.

 

Happy hunting all J

 

Stormy weather… Friday, Nov 21 2008 

Uncategorized , , Kilanna 3:04 am

At the end of last year I moved interstate from Sydney to Brisbane.  Now Brisbane is quite a bit further north , and I so I am still getting used to living through sub-tropical storm season.   Last night shortly after I sat down to play – the skies lit up with the most spectacular lightning show, and what followed has reportedly been some of the worst weather in decades.   *sigh* So not much EQ2 for me – I had enough time to log in and chat a little with some guildies and a little bit of crafty goodness basically.

What fun though – because I was crafting some pretties for one of my little baby girls that I have really been enjoying playing.

A couple of years ago now my little nephew and I were trying to come up with the most bizarre concept for a toon in EQ2.  Between us, we came up with the concept of Shaza the Ogre Mage, and so a very ugly Ogre Necro was born. 

Until the last few weeks, she has only really been used as my Armoursmith girl.  However, one evening I found myself at a bit of a loose end.  Nanytya had been adventuring together with some guildies doing faction quests for her Teleport Hammer in JW and I did not want her to progress ahead of them.  Killy was having a well deserved rest before the expansion, so I thaught I would take Shaza out for a spin… and WOW.  I almost instantly fell in love with the class.

I have had a little bit of trial and error while I start to learn how to properly use a pet, and I must remember that this girl has Invis.  Right now Shaza stands at a lvl 23 Necro with just under 20aa.  I cant remember exactly, but I think my newest little girl has completed just over 110 quests already.

So I made her up in Freeport all that time ago,… but with the DoF carpets now, it is a snack to travel between Freeport, Guild hall, TImorous Deep, Neriak and Darklight woods.  This is a MARVELLOUS thing that SoE have done making travel between zones so much quicker.  While I am sure some may disagree, I think that having to spend too much time to get between zones is frustrating and breaks the feeling of being immersed in a fantasy world.

I have found that Shaza is leveling incredibly fast – barely 4 or 5 quests per level at this stage.  I have decided that I will NOT switch of my combat xp on this girl, since completing greyed out quests still awards xp and aa credit now.

I have really enjoyed solo questing to be honest.  I have done all the quests Lvl 10 and above that I could find in Timorous Deep and Darklight Woods.  I am getting ready to move her out into Thundering Steppes / Nek / Butcherblock.  At the moment I have pretty much employed the strategy of sending in the pet, calling it back so I dont pull adds, then nuking the heck out of the poor unsuspecting mobs.  I am sure that a larger variety and more complex strategies will be required as she levels, but that is part of the fun. 

I have concentrated on Intelligence, and Agility, with some Wisdom and Stamina thrown in for good measure.  Her Strength at the moment is DEFINITELY her weakness – such is the life of a mage I guess :p  I am used to girls that carry around 32 slot boxes for inventory so it is different getting used to 16 slot backpacks hehe.

I have asked our main guild Necro for his advice and ideas which always helps too:)

I have found that the quest rewards particularly in Timorous Deep are outstanding.  Since she is leveling so quickly, at this point I have been VERY Selective around which spells I have upgraded to Ad3, and really have not made too many mastercrafted armour or jewelery for her at this point.  I think that once she reaches 32 that might change as she slows down levelling and she outgrows her quest rewards.

I think I will level this girl up – not fast- just have fun with her.  With a high lvl Healer and Tank I dont think that there is any rush at all.  All fun and games.

Happy hunting as always!

 

First peek at TSO Thursday, Nov 20 2008 

Everquest 2 and Everquest II , , Kilanna 1:38 am

So last night I did indeed manage to get into game – even if only for a short time.

Hats off to SoE.  Everything for the expansion / download seems to have gone off without a hitch which is awesome.   None of my guildies reported any difficulties, and my own experience was likewise.

I run profit UI – so after a few short minutes of tweaking my interface I was ready to rock and roll.

There were a few things that caught my attention very quickly.  Firstly I love the new maps.  I didnt get a chance to update my EQ2maps last night – so will do that as soon as I am next on. 

The second thing was the large number of quests in the landing zone.  I guess we have 60aa to get, so that will need about half again the number of quests / named that it took to lvl through Kunark.

I was giggling with the boys as I got on the *airship* at Sinking Sands.  I am pretty sure I am not the only one to have flashbacks to Jabba the Hutts sail barge in Return of the Jedi.

By the time I actually got Killy to the Moors, it was getting kinda late.  But I did have the chance to complete and hand in her first quest there killing the snakes – Gotta hate that stun/stifle.  After that, I called back home, and handed in the completed collection quests that I had stored up, and that then left her half way through her first aa.

I have a few quests to hand in that I have stored up – mostly in RE2 if memory serves.  I think that there are a few of us in the same situation, so I shall beseach Lord Wazza to tank us through to hand them in sometime over the weekend.   It would not hurt that we get another crack at getting someone their cloak from there either.  Le sigh – I have lost count of how many times we have run that zone – and so far it is only Danonia who has the fabled cloak for his Coercer girl.   We tend to run the zone with just Killy healing – so at least if the healer cloak ever drops she will be a happy girl.

Take care and happy hunting all!!

 

Has it REALLY been a year?? Wednesday, Nov 19 2008 

Everquest 2 and Everquest II Kilanna 6:23 am

I can heardly believe it myself… but yeah it pretty much HAS been a year since I last posted.

While the excitement of real life adventures may have kept me from posting, it certainly has not kept me from playing.  With my excitement about the release of The Shadow Odyssey today, it just seems like a great time to give in to my desire to write again.

As i read back over my last few postings at the end of last year I am struck by a couple of things.

Firstly I am struck by how much things have stayed the same in game.  Killy is still a member of Pax Fatalis on the Guk server, and she has spent almost all of her time with the same lovely group of folks adventuring through Norrath.  So a big virtual /hugz to the intrepid band of adventurers that I now affectionately call “my boys”.  Wazza (Troll Guardian AKA the big green grumpy Troll), Danonia (Ratonga Coercer, Master of Minds) Shandris (Dark Elf Swashie aka Skittish the Ratonga Dirge), Topo (Ratonga Brig) and Sytiva (Saucy Dark Elf SK).

Secondly,  I was struck by how much had also changed with the various game updates even though I have written so little about Killys adventures through RoK.  Killy and “her boys” have had a hoot causing much chaos and slayage throughout Kunark, with such a wonderful mix of characters and a great raport between the players.  We are by no means a “hard core” group.  All of us have jobs and family committments, but it has been fun to enjoy so much of the content available in game.

So over this last year, not only has Killy leveled to 80 Temp/80 Jeweler /140aa, but *gasp* I have also been levelling an alt (Nanytya the Paladin) along with leveling many of my crafters.  Perhaps I will capture some of Nanytyas adventures though Kunark at the same time as Killy levels through TSO.

So, being based Down under, servers went down at 6pm last night local time for the expansion, and they were not expected to come back up before I left for work this morning (if I read the notices correctly).  In their INFINITE wisdom, SoE apparently were not shipping retail boxes to Australia or New Zealand, so it is digital downloads for us all.  I am hoping that it wont take TOO long for my download to run and I will get online when I get home from work tonite.

I have deliberately stayed away from BETA and reading too much about what to expect in this expansion, so I am going to enjoy discovering and adventuring the new zones with the boys.

Cheers all and happy hunting!!