Yesterday was the fourth of July, naturally a lot of my friends were around. The day started off simple enough, Said’s guardian joined up with my defiler, and with an 80 shadowknight mentoring I boxed and took us through Fallen Gate. The zone was practically empty for once, and though we didn’t get a lot of drops, we both got 4-5 levels in a relatively short amount of time. Now I just need to gear the character up some, as at level 26 she’s still not really wearing any gear. Something tells me that makes it a little harder to heal.

Once we’d gotten some levels, I decided to work on the carpenter -and dinged 60! Only twenty more levels to go. Supplies were slightly cheaper for T7 then they were for T6, but I spent a good portion of time harvesting in empty zones to stock up. No doubt I will need even more supplies before this tier is up, but hey it’s a start.

Randomly I decided to work on some grey quests I had in my journal, and thus I completed the stein heritage quest that I’d had kicking around forever. The quest has changed slightly as well - and I dislike it. The four bouncers you need no longer have place holders, and are static spawns in the Feerrote. Another change to a heritage quest is that the x2 epic skeleton in CoD (Cove of Decay) is now just heroic, and they finally removed the access required to CoD -it was one of the very few old world zones that still required access.

No doubt next Rahotep will be made heroic instead of epic, if he hasn’t already.

With the HQ out of the way, I decided to follow in Malfi’s footsteps, and work on the claymore chain. The coercer (who is a character I enjoy far more then most of my characters) is still 17aa short of “complete” and since grey quests now give aa, it’s perfect. One of the first things I had to do though was get the Druzaic language completed - I know, I have slacked horribly with this character. I also need to do speak as a dragon but I’m prolonging that one for as long as humanly possible.

So it was that I stood for 30-45 minutes at four location waiting for a clicky to show up for my updates. I KNEW if I moved over to the other zone (the clickies are up in one of two locations) that they’d move over while I was in transition and I’d miss them. That’s just my luck.

I giggled out loud when Silhouette got discovery outside the doors to SoS. I’d figured it was a fluke.

Then I went inside, and got discovery in the main room. I picked up the quest at the entrance because the 2nd of the chain gives a house item, and a few other quests I found along the way. The zone is grey to me, or at least everything I’ve encountered so far is, and I managed to get myself an aa and a half from the various quests I worked on.

It was actually a lot of fun, much like working on the peacock chain of quests ‘just because’. I doubt I will ever get a Deathtoll raid any more in order to complete this quest chain, but perhaps a little while down the road people will be doing it for fun, and I’ll get a chance to tag along then. We’ll see how it goes.

All in all, it was a pretty fun day, and I felt like I got a lot done.

Oh, and lets not forget the two instances Kasul and I went and did. We headed to the Mines of Meldrath, as well as The Hidden Cache, mostly for aa and hopefully a little experience as well. No deaths, and no real good loot aside from one upgrade for Kasul at the end of Mines, but it was still a lot of fun.

Another Vanguard / EQ2 split night - and Growlius and I managed to finally ding level 40! This is some what of a mile stone for me in Vanguard, and I’m very happy that we’ve finally reached it. Only one more tier to work through to finally reach the cap and end game. We hung around our typical questing hub and cleared out a few white quests and even some yellow ones - which rewarded us with far better experience then all of the green quests we’d been pushing out lately. I think we started the evening at 60% exp or so, and it took roughly 3 hours to get the 40% we needed to ding.

Also got to see a few more models of mobs in Vanguard, I’d not seen these giant axe swingers before. Still in Qalia though, with all the bright sand.

Figured out how to get the collection bags for the bits that are dropping now too. The easiest way is to head to Khal, and wander over to the bind stone just outside the city. You’ll find a herald there talking about the fair, hail them and they give you a quest. Head to the fair, talk to a gnome standing there, and presto, you now have a huge bag that carries both collection pieces and harvesting tools.

Wait a second. Why does it carry harvesting tools, you may ask.

Well, in Vanguard you’re blessed with multiple equipment tabs. No doubt the developers of VG wanted a nice easily convertible bag slot. So these new collection bags are two fold. Number one, they hold collection pieces, of course - but they will also hold your harvesting tools. Which means tab over to the harvesting equipment tab, and remove that 5-6 slot bag you were wearing before, and equip this far larger bag. Put your tools in there, and your collection pieces, and you’re set. Bag space (or lack there of) is something everyone in VG complains about. You really don’t get enough room for everything with only 5 bag slots (that includes saddle bags) and one of them being a very small general ‘inventory’ bag that you can’t get rid of.

Once our adventures in Vanguard were over I headed to EverQuestII to join up with my typical Runnyeye group - this time playing warden. Group make up was Mystic, Illusionist, Dirge, Conj, Shadowknight, and myself. I must be cursed or something - in all the times I’ve done RE 2.0 I have NEVER seen a fabled cloak drop. Not my class, nor any other class. Last night a few pieces of the black alloy chain dropped, of course I was not on my scout though. We transmuted 5 of the drops, a few went to be sold on broker (the tradeable shields that are going as cheap as 20g now) and other random bits. We did die once, again on the final pull where for some reason my ‘cures’ would just spam over top of one another and not actually land to cure anything. Annoying.

Today, hopefully, I’ll be getting Silhouette OUT of T6 carpentry and into T7 (which I am so excited about!) I have another house decorating order up but it’s going to be far slower then the previous one because I’ll actually be making all of the bits myself for once. I’ll need level 80 to make everything I want.

Happy 4th of July to all my friends in the states, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Last night may as well have been called “Goudia Night” because that’s certainly what it felt like. The troubador got into a Runnyeye 2.0 group for once - I’d never been there with her. In fact, it’s rare I go anywhere with her because no one wants a troub along for anything other then raids. Just call us the opposite of the Shadowknight, where they’re wanted just fine in groups but not for raids. It’s a plight many of us troubadors know all too well. I had picked up a few pretties along the way lately, and changed my aa’s around quite a bit, opting for more of a raid set up. I dropped the AoE avoidance line and instead went fully down the shield blocking line - which also meant I had to get a shield. Thankfully, there’s a very nice faction sold one in Jinsk. Anyhow, I’m sitting at 52% double attack, a lot more melee crit, 54% haste, some dps, 700 str 600 int 500 agi and 400 stam - roughly. No, I don’t forget that troubadors are mostly casters - but with RoK we seem to be more of a hybrid then ever. I have roughly 500+ spell dmg as well as +CA dmg. It’s been hard to find a balance but my dps was fantastic last night. At least, I think it was, I’m not raid geared and the folks I was with were, so it was hard to tell. I don’t have my epic yet. Need to get working on that, again. There’s just one clicky in Chardok* that eludes me past the blue portal.

Anyhow. Last night. No deaths until the final mob, and the only death there was me. Our ONE dps went LD during the fight and even though we had an enchanter at times that enchanter had to dps (since again we had none) and a mob would break free and chew on my tail. Our group make up was templar, mystic, shadowknight, ranger, coercer, and myself as bardling. None of the fabled cloaks dropped, but by the end of the night I hardly cared, I certainly walked away a winner. Which I knew ahead of time that I would, the only things I see of value that drop in RE are for mages and scouts. I ended up getting four upgrades from drops alone, and another one I passed on. If I hadn’t of rolled on the stuff, they’d have been transmuted, so I stopped feeling bad after the second roll. I upgraded an earring, a belt, a breastplate, and forearms. Then with the legendary quest rewards I upgraded legs, and hat. Couldn’t complain. I’d also gotten my 133rd aa which was very nice.

Before that instance I worked on carpentry some - but I’m trying to hold off until after 6pm today so that I can take advantage (again) of the double experience bonus. I also managed to ding the monk to level 35 and decided she needed gear - again. So I dropped a lot of money on the twink (again). The screen shot above is her wearing the level 37 adept blood hide gear that is player crafted with materials from DFC - not too bad eh? I just need two more levels to be able to wear the stuff. Kasul came with and we tore up RoV with him mentored, even though he ended up dying by the end and not exactly in a brave way. Apparently his disarm trap is quite low, and the master chests that drop in RoV are quite painful. He was taken down to low health in one swipe and then Varsoon decided to activate while he stood there, and chewed on him some. He was there for a HQ update - and did manage to get it anyhow, dead from the floor.

Woopsie.

It was still a lot of fun.

Short term goals (or maybe long term depending on where things take me) - are to work on the troubador epic. There’s one clicky in Chardok* that I just can’t seem to manage even though the walk through has told me with patience it can be solo’d. I don’t have the faintest idea how. I do have feign death, and maybe that can help me. I’d also of course like to hit 60 carpenter on Silhouette. If for no other reason then to be out of this REALLY EXPENSIVE crafting tier. Of course more weaponsmith levels on Goudia is equally important. Doing a few more HQ (Nostalgia 2.0 is very close to 17!) is high up there as well, and just over all having a great time!

Bonus exp starts again today at 6pm EST and runs until 1pm EST on Monday. Thanks again to Kasul for tipping me off in his recent post. Hope everyone gets to take advantage of it!

Last night was another one of my VG / EQ2 split nights, amongst the fire works from Canada day which could be seen from where I was. Though I’ll never really understand why kids decide to shoot them off right outside my window on the street. “Just because” is more then likely their main reason.

Anyhow, in Vanguard, Growlius and I continued on our journey towards level 40. It’s inching by I have to admit but it’s mostly our own fault. We’ve been using exp potions for the past few levels and turning in handfulls of quests all at once. So in the past we’d spend an evening completing 10 quests or so at a hub, and then drink down a potion and turn them in and presto, another level. 100% bonus to experience as well with those, and unlike other games where potions may just cover one sphere (crafting, or adventuring) in Vanguard, each potion covers all three spheres - and quest experience is included which I adore.

In the last GU the quest journal went through a major revamp, one that I’m just getting used to now. It’s colour coded, and you can sort by numerous options - one being ‘by chunk’ which makes it FAR easier to tell what quests you have where. You can also display more then just the title in the list of quests - you can see the chunk it involves, as well as whether it’s group or solo, and even the date you got the quest. Our typical method for clearing these out is by chunk and sort them by level so the green (lower level) quests go first and we clear those out. Last night we cleared out the last green quest and all we’re left with are white - which I’m hoping means our experience will pick up. Ideally, that’s what it will mean.

We spent the night battling undead skeletons and mummies, and raiding an ark beneath the sands of Tar Janashir. I’m getting eager to explore something other then the bright white sands of Qalia - but this seems to be where the content is for these levels. Our goal is to hit 40 by the end of this weekend, but hopefully we’ll be accomplishing that well before.

40 is a level where in Vanguard you get numerous spells (aside from level 50 which is end game right now) and it will also mark us as being on the final stretch. At least in my eyes. After that it’s just 10 more levels and we’ll be ‘capped’ which is something I’m really looking forward to. Maybe I’ll even get to see APW and get key’d for it. I’ve never even given any thought to that.

Screen shot is me flying through Qalia, to a harvesting spot. Filled with dragons that are roaming around it’s not exactly the safest of areas, but it’s one of the best (best = quietest) places to get granite which is still selling for 4-5g a stack. Which reminds me.. I really need to level my carpenter and work on getting some sloops made, I’ve wanted a boat forever!

I was asked by a friend, to decorate their house on the Splitpaw server, if you want to see it in person you can find it in North Freeport, 1 Compassion Rd. The following screen shots are what I came up with. Hopefully they like it as much as I did! It was a lot of fun to make. It’s rare that I have an unlimited budget when it comes to housing, but that was the case for this house. I literally gave them a list of 300 items, and said get me all these.

Standing in the entrance way, Silverstep (Splitpaw version) decked out in colours for Canada day.

Library in the front entrance room

Everyone needs some place to eat!

And a kitchen!

Other end of the kitchen

Downstairs in the basement, a games area, piano, and aquarium

More of the basement

Close up of the aquarium - soon as I get the quest done I’ll be adding fish to it. For now just use your imagination!

End of the hallway in the basement

Heading upstairs

Bedroom

What bedroom would be complete without a little area to get pretty in!

Close up of the bed, complete with dressing area

Outside on the roof top, a garden

Close up of the garden.

Now, the house is still a work in progress, very much so. But in the mean time I think I’ve done a pretty good job on it. Thank you to Eleyn who let me work on this house and put up with running to and from the broker picking up various knick nacks and do-dads that I needed to fill in the blanks!

Last night Kasul and I came up with a cloak design for Nostalgia 2.0 It turned out pretty well I think - and of course the way cloak designs work is that they are unique per guild per server. So no one else has quite this shade of yellow with that symbol in the center. Works for me! Now we’ll be working towards level 20 (short term goal) and onwards to level 30 (long term goal) that will allow us to place edges on the cloak. Along the way of course we’re saving up status for a guild hall, which I’m excited about, even if there are only two ‘regular’ guild mates playing in this guild. We still work really hard.

As I was getting ready to make dinner last night and was mostly AFK in EQ2, I received a random tell from ‘Meddik’ on Najena. It made my day and I just had to mention it here. He/She said that they were a Stargrace groupie, and had been reading my blog for over a year now. I do get tells like that on occasion, and I still never know quite how to react to it. It makes me smile and sort of blush and fluster. I don’t have the most interesting blog out there - I don’t write about the mechanics of the game, or interviews with important people, or anything like that. It’s just my own personal gaming experiences which can be quite drab. So to know that people enjoy my writing is quite a rush. /Waves to Meddik.

I did end up doing more crafting in game - and managed to get the carpenter to level 55. Wow! I’m so very happy with that. Of course now I’ve spent almost 10p on supplies and books just for those five levels, and that would (idealy) mean another 10p to go (or more) for the next 5 levels before I reach T6. Not too keen on that. Again, what’s the point of watching my money in an mmo - I have no real expenses and I already watch coin enough in real life. I’m almost onto the next tier which should bring about even MORE exciting things to craft, and then at level 70 I can start crafting the faction based recipes which include some amazing rugs and jars of skulls and all sorts of interesting goodies. If I keep up this pace it shouldn’t be too long before I’m 80 - hopefully obtaining my carpenter epic, and then doing a complete revamp and crafting my entire house. I’ll be checking the forums plenty to get some ideas, like a fishtank. Popular items for a house to have these days and there’s apparently a quest in Gorowyn that I always skip that rewards you with a fish house item that can be placed as though it’s floating. I’ll have to look into this and see if I can’t find it.

I also popped into Vanguard last night to do some crafting before bed, Ardwulf was there and said hello! It’s been quite some time since I spoke to him. Apparently he’s thinking of joining Safe Haven, which is a wonderful guild on the Seradon server, with a branch on Antonia Bayle in EQ2 as well. Great people. I’d left the guild shortly after I left Vanguard previously, and have not looked into a guild yet since I’ve returned. Anyhow, MaddyCraft hasn’t been updated since GU3 (and we’re on GU5 now just passed) so I deleted the mod and went with default. Which means I actually spent most of the time making my macro’s for crafting with the G15 so that it’s not so much mouse clicking. No, this does NOT mean the process is automated, you can’t since you get complications that will ruin your crafting if you ignore them. It does reduce the amount of mouse clicking though.

As a final note - Happy Canada Day! I hope everyone is out enjoying the sun. Since I live in Ottawa I will be avoiding the 20,000+ people down at the parliament buildings, and watching the fire works from home.

I had no idea if the bonus experience was still in place or not - but it felt like it was. I had no vitality and managed to hit level 50 last night. Tomorrow is July 1st which means it’s Canada day, and plenty of people are home today and tomorrow because of it. Anyhow, I figured out that one of the main reasons I dislike crafting (or get bored of it) is because what else is there to do as you grind out the experience. Not a whole heck of a lot. Today I found a way to resolve that. I don’t own a lap top, but decided I’d run EQ2 in a half screen size. I have a 24″ widescreen monitor, so it worked out just fine. On one half I had EQ2 running, and on the other half, I decided to watch some shows on broadband. Now, the tv stations in the states won’t allow me to do this because of my Canadian IP, but there are a few Canadian stations that let you watch full episodes. I watched a show called “Gossip Girl” which wasn’t too bad. Anyone who knows me realizes that I am really not much of a tv person, at all, but hey in the name of crafting, why not. It would make it go by faster. I also have a LOT of anime piled up that I haven’t worked through yet, and began on that afterwards.

Three hours later (with a break for lunch and what not) Nostalgia 2.0 dinged level 16 - which is great because we just hit 15 late last night, and I’d completed over 30 guild writs. I went from level 50 to level 54, and 30% into it. I’m debating now whether or not I want to finish that last bit off and try to ding 55. The problem is I’m out of supplies, and sandalwood is going for 50s each piece. I’ve already spent 7p today on supplies and advance books (a few books were nearing the 1p range and I’m a fanatic about owning them all). Not that I don’t have the coin to spend, I suppose it’s not that big of a deal.

The plus side to all of this is that I’m finally able to make house items that I actually like. The new screens that came out a few updates ago, plants, and pretty maj’dul inspired items like I’d mentioned yesterday. The highest I’d gotten my carpenters in the past was roughly level 35 or so. Even Calreth mentioned this morning that he was happy to see I’d made it past ‘the point of no return’.

My typical ‘plan’ is to make 1 of everything for the pristine bonus - and promptly move it into Kasul’s house because he was mentioning it looked bare. Then I grind out writs for the rest of the level. I’ve made it past the 10k status range with the Gorowyn trades faction merchants - also another bonus. Since Silhouette moved from Neriak to Freeport to Gorowyn, getting status hasn’t been easy. She left behind 5k in Freeport faction, and started over from scratch. I’m hoping to get the 30k on one crafter sooner or later (Stargrace is pretty dang close) so that I can buy the recipes for mannequins that I want. Eventually, maybe even the recipes for the respec mirror. We’ll see.

Anyhow, sorry if it seems boring, all I’ve done is grind writs today. Hoping maybe later tonight I’ll play some Vanguard, and inch closer to level 40, we’ll see how it goes!

I spent yesterday at the cottage, being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Today after getting some other chores done, I headed to Vanguard with Growlius to continue our questing around Tar Janashir, which we left about a month ago. It took a bit to get situated again. Remembering what keys did what. I thought it wasn’t possible for the sand in Qalia to get any brighter, but I was mistaken. I swear they lightened it further then it was, and it glares like bright snow no matter what my settings are at.

Before all that, I went to check out the MEST, which is the Mekalia Extravaganza of Science and Technology, and disappointing might I add. I was expecting an actual fair of sorts, instead it was a few gnomes standing under some tents. They give you quests for collection items. The rewards are mainly ancient coins, which can be turned in for faction to whatever city you’d like, commonly the faction you’d like a mount from eventually. There are some extra goodies along with a few of the quests, like boxes of fire works and a shrinking device. I guess after seeing EQ2 and WoW fairs, I was expecting a little… more.

Growlius and I got about 50% of a level, so we’re closing in on 40 fairly quickly, which is nice. We headed out after five dot cyclops, and had a blast being tested to remember what it was exactly that each of our classes did.

I’ll talk more about the changes to Vanguard tomorrow, when I’m not falling asleep at the desk.

In EQ2, I managed to take advantage of the double experience bonus that went on over the weekend. I got the monk to level 32, almost 33. She’s almost out of the “wow I’ve already done all this before a million times” phase, which I’m looking forward to.

I also managed (thanks to some coercing from Kasul) to stick around long enough to ding level 50 carpenter. That’s right, FINALLY I feel as though I am getting some where with my carpenter. She can start making the Maj’dul inspired furniture, which is fantastic. Along with plants, pillars, and all the other fun things. I have to do some harvesting for the tier, which is not fun at all. I was pleased with the progress though, that was three levels in a relatively short time tonight.

The guild also dinged level 15 due to all of the writs Kasul and myself managed to complete - which means we can choose a design for the guild cloak. Since there’s only two (and some times three) of us playing in Nostalgia 2.0 on the Najena server, I doubt it will be too hard of a decision to come up with a design that’s agreeable by everyone. The cost is 5p, which I’ll be giving.

Anyhow, more comprehensive posts tomorrow, I just wanted to write something quick before bed tonight. It’s a long weekend here in Canada, being Canada day on the 1st of July. I know next weekend is the 4th of July and Independence day for the states, so I hope everyone is having lots of fun, no matter what realm you find yourself in!

It’s completely Ardwulf’s fault, of course. His posts about Telon and finding his way along (again) made me itch to play the game, and why not, I’ve had station access for months now and have only taken advantage of a game or two here and there. I never disliked Vanguard, I’ve actually always spoken very highly of the game. However, I’m one of those people who constantly flip around from game to game depending on my moods. Bad for people I play with, but good for me.

Due to some other circumstances, I bid fair well to the Nostalgia meetings on Fridays - but will still be around in EQ1 on occasion and far more so in EQ2. I doubt anyone was too heartbroken, there’s plenty of members now and I’d missed the past few weeks of meetings due to real life (and broken computers). I dislike letting people down, and being unable to commit to the one day a week was making me feel very badly.

Anyhow. This weekend is double experience in EQ2, which is great. I plan on getting some craft levels on both the weaponsmith (62 so far) and carpenter (46 and holding steady) as well as the monk (28 and counting). Eyenstein, a friend I’ve known for about 4 years now, managed to get some trooper boots to drop - and since they were lore for him, offered me a fantastic deal. The little bardling is singing in style, now.

In Vanguard, I ran around harvesting with Gozad trying to remember what key does what. While I was away (just over a month) a lot changed. For one, SOE revamped my blood mage class. I have no idea what changes happened and assume I should speak to my trainer, and read some notes. I did find out we can make body bags to carry around our organs in, which is great - except they’re only 20 slot, and my personal bags are 28 slot. You obtain the spell at around level 24 (or so I heard) which makes it fantastic for newer players.

There are also collectibles in Telon - and I don’t have the slightest idea what these are. There’s a special bag that will hold your collectibles, as well as your harvesting tools. Just something I saw linked in the general channel today, I’ll really have to do some research. The living legacy promotion reaches into VG as well, with some free mounts for people and a month of free game play. I don’t mind missing out on this one, the mounts are going to be available to old and new, which is what EQ1/EQ2 should have done from the start.

The market is much like I left it. My house is still standing too, with 13 more weeks of rent paid off. The game itself seemed to run smoother - but that may just have been wishful thinking on my part. In the cities I still chugged around some until items were rendered properly, but I’m coming from a completely new instillation of the game.

There were people chattering away on channels, also good. Seems Telon is fairing pretty well on that at least. I heard lots of requests for groups, even though I spent my time (for now) harvesting. We’ll see how the rest of the weekend goes!

Yesterday was a pretty good day, as far as EQ2 is concerned. I spent a little time playing my monk, took her through Wailing Caverns with a mentored Shadowknight and managed to get from level 10 to level 25 in a fairly short amount of time. Not to mention got a whole lot of loot which I transmuted some of, and put the rest for sale. Lower level adepts (we’re talking 1-20 here) sell for a fairly good price, I saw most for 4-10g each, I priced mine at 2g each and they were sold by the time I’d relogged to another character. Some transmuter out there no doubt. I kept the useful adepts and scribbed them on the baby monk. Then I spent 5p and geared her up since she was wearing just the newbie armor you start with. I bought all mastercrafted leather armor, some fighting batons, two charm slot items, all of her adepts that she was missing, as well as a few pieces of jewelery. Expensive? Maybe, but what’s the point of having an alt if you can’t twink them out.

Yes, I could have crafted all the bits myself, but that takes time and well, again - what’s the point of having all this money in game if I don’t actually spend it. I already live on a budget in real life, why worry about virtual coinage.

Later on in the day Malfi logged in and was talking about his vacation - and also talking about how he was working on Claymore. One of those really long chains of quests that no one does any more. Well, practically no one. It’s those quests (and older) that I just love doing and would be more then willing to get a group of people together to work on. Of course he’s 10 levels over the cap for it - but that doesn’t make the quests any less fun (or rewarding) not to mention if you’re one of those very questy people (which he is, of course) it adds towards your total count.

All his talk got me thinking about my own Claymore quest chains. I’ve completed it once on Arysh (warden) and have it started on multiple other alts all at various stages. At level 80 a good portion of this quest chain is gray now, making it far easier then it would have been when it released. Especially the dreaded SoS portions and PoA.

That’s the problem great thing about awesome friends - they always make you interested in whatever it is they’re doing.

But instead of working on Claymore or doing any other chain of quests, I logged in the carpenter and got two levels on her, pushing her to level 46. It’s my goal to try to hit 50 on her before too long at least to be out of this tier of boring crafted items. It’s the highest I’ve ever managed to get my carpenter, which is a plus. I’ll be gone all day Saturday, so I won’t be able to take advantage of much of the “double exp” weekend, but I hope to be able to grab the last few levels I need.