First of all, Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mothers out there! Hope today is wonderful.

Some how I managed to convince Growlius, who is a good friend of mine from EQ2 and also plays VG with me - that EQ1 was actually not evil, and he should come play. Not to be confused here, he’s played before. A level 70 necro with his epic 1.0, 1.5, and 2500 aa… No wonder he thinks the game is evil. Even though he’s got no interest in joining up with the Nostalgia bit I’ve got going on, he’s at least playing. This meant of course that I needed yet another alt. I used to have a beastlord some time ago but deleted it before I got station access. I already have three healers, I dislike playing a tank, and I wanted something we could duo with (though lately I’m beginning to think anyone can make a fine duo). So we both decided to make beastlords. I went with my troll on the left, Bhelly. I am quite partial to the alligator pets - though I was even more partial to them before they revamped them and stuck them with 6 ugly legs as opposed to the normal versions that had four. Growlius created a Luclin born one (fitting, for our server) and off we went. We stuck with the tutorial only until level 5, both of us becoming very bored with it very fast. After that we went to Crescent Reach, and completed the beginner quests there. We basically got two levels for every one quest we did, it was great. Before long we made it to level 10, and called it a night.

Well, Growlius called it a night. I hung around for a bit longer - low and behold Lackey logged in. Since I switched from my cleric to my necromancer because we needed the dps more then we seemed to need the heals, I played my cleric with Lackey. We also teamed up with Rogbog, Zerker from Nostalgia. It made me realize how much I LOVE playing the cleric class, and how much I’d missed it. It was the first time aside from the tutorial I’d actually been in a group (even if it was small) for any of the content and not just solo’ing on her. There are two classes I seem to be partial to. Healers, and enchanters. The rest are ok, but nothing beats those two. We ran around Blightfire Moors, all of us more concerned with just getting experience then with questing. Both Lackey and myself each won a very nice item (think his was a necklace, and mine was an upgrade to my range slot) and a general good time was had by all. The cleric hit 26 and almost 27, Lackey the same, and Rogbog hit his level cap of 30 for the week. We were taking down red Briar Thorns, and didn’t even come close to dying, even though we some times had two. The Moors can be dangerous if you’re not sure where to go, especially since the zone is essentially for levels 20-40.

I had actually meant to play EQ2 yesterday, and never got around to it. I had work orders waiting for me in Vanguard which I did manage to get done, can’t have guild mates going without a house. EQ2 however just couldn’t quite interest me. I had every intention of finally hitting 78 on the coercer, and just couldn’t bring myself to log in for more then five minutes. Ah well, as long as I’m enjoying myself, I doubt it matters really which game I play.

Last night was our fourth meeting of Nostalgia the Guild, and it took us to Solusek’s Eye. We died, a lot. It was great. Two group wipes were directly because of me and being a dark elf. We happened to stumble into the clockwork portions, low and behold the little mech gnomes don’t care for me. Woopsie. I didn’t even realize that they disliked me, so when we made our way down for a second time, and we wiped again - it suddenly dawned in that it was *me* and not just my group they disliked. It didn’t help that they were red con and we had a few on us at once. We could handle them one at a time, but they’re highly resistant to snare and had lots of friends to come play. They didn’t just dislike me though, oh no. Once one had booted me into the near by lava, and my pet decided to dive in right after, I tried to call him back. Of course pets don’t take the usual way back to their owners, no, they have to walk the long way. Through agro mobs, with an angry mech gnome following behind. Which of course lead us to hear a sudden bombardment of whirling gadgets followed by a very loud “Oh shit” from me, and about 20 of the little beasties swarming us.

I lived through that one.

Unfortunately, the rest of the group did not. The joys of being a necromancer though, aside from feign death I can locate corpses, or summon them if I’ve got a coffin on me (which I rarely do, mental note to stock some in my bank for CR’s) I can also invis myself, and invis vs. undead. Best of both worlds.

Tipa made a comment on her post about the evening, “In a pickup group, dying so many of times could only have ended in a lot of bad feelings. With a group of friends, taking risks, having fun… it was great,” which is exactly right. Sure after the third death in a row maybe we were feeling it slightly, but because we’re a group of friends, adventuring together - and the experience is quite fast despite the deaths, there were no hard feelings (as far as I’m aware). Next week will be a LDoN night, which I do enjoy quite a bit, and then the week after we’ll be heading to Mistmoore Castle. Last time I was there it was invaded and was quite high level (back in 2005) but now apparently it’s settled back down to a lowbie zone.

The experience is still quite fast. We’re averaging five levels a week (or a night even, for those who don’t play constantly) and keeping up at a steady pace. A few people have dropped behind, some are not playing any more and can’t make the schedule, but all in all it’s still a LOT of fun. We could use a second tank, an enchanter, and a rogue. The second tank bit seems to be the hardest to find and gathering together two full groups is always a chore. Last night we had a fantastic turn out though, I believe we had two groups of 5, so 10 people total. We got a few upgrades, some weapons for Urtog (our tank) and some caster jewelery pieces for both myself and Coldheat (the cleric). We also got some augments I believe for Rogbog (zerker) and maybe Binxs (the beastlord) I can’t recall though.

The zone is a hotspot, which meant of course - power levelers were around. It was hard to find an area to camp and get experience at when a level 80 is running around gathering the entire zone to level up their alt (or someone else’ alt, who knows). Unfortunately, that’s just a part of the game and you learn to make due.

Best moments of the night? Tipa (in the screen shot above) becoming larger then life (literally) with the help of Bristlebane. Minxe (my necromancer) also had a ‘moment’ when the jesters enlarged her and Urtog suddenly realized which dungeon he wanted to explore next as he attempted to crawl under her dress. Another great moment was when I was trying to locate Malfi’s (druid) corpse in the lava. I spent a good 5 minutes trying to target it and be in range to drag, and suddenly could. I excitedly spoke in vent about how I’d managed to snag his corpse, and brought it upstairs to him. I was so proud, having never found anyone’s corpse before.

Then he told me he’d actually summoned it with his veteran reward aa, and was in the process of looting it when I stole it from him and dragged it away.. He wasn’t on vent and had no idea I’d been hunting for it.

Woops. I make a great necromancer, what can I say. Already stealing corpses. The night was wonderful, I leveled from 25-30, and picked up all 12 new spells in abysmal sea. I was slightly disappointed that I worked really hard to research a spell for level 24 (my pet) and then it was replaced at 29 by something vendor sold. Ah well, that’s the life of a caster! Hopefully a great time was had by all, and we’ll have more excitement next week.

While it’s been a blast roaming through the old nostalgic areas of EQ1, there’s also something to be said for the new places. Well, new to me in any case. Lets face it, there’s lots of new places. If you were perhaps once daunted by the amount of time it takes to level (even while solo) you shouldn’t be. At least, 1-30 has flown by. One huge reason for this was because of the Serpents Spine expansion which added Crescent Reach, and the Drakkin as a playable race. Off of Crescent Reach, is Blightfire Moors, which is home to a plethora of quests, great armor upgrades, and other random goodness. While the nostalgia group as a whole tends to avoid the more ‘up to date’ areas, I’ve enjoyed exploring them on my own when I needed a little more experience, or felt like playing one of my non progression characters.

One of the quests I worked on today was a chain given to you in Crescent Reach by an npc named Akins. He stands over top of the brewers on the main floor, and he has a few tasks for you. The first one sent me into the newb area of CR, there’s an area at the far northern tip that has undead, who still con dark blue to me at level 25. They also give a lot of experience. Anyhow, it seems he needs 15 of them slain. Doing so rewards you with 7p and unlocks his next quest.

The second quest Akin decides he’s scared of the spirits that haunt CR, and so he thinks the best possible solution is of course to send you upstairs to see “what goes bump in the night” you wander upstairs, dodge past a few undead skeletons and zombie, and come across a throne in the back room of the third floor. There’s a skeleton resting on it, so of course to decide to talk to it.

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Who is it that disturbs my slumber? Unless you are the [one] begone from this place of chiefs!’

You say, ‘I am the one’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Only a true heir of the Rockjaws or Thoots can [free] me from my torment. As long as the Amulet of Chieftains is mine, here I will remain. I wait here for the day that the heir comes to this place.’

You say, ‘Free you?’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Ancient magic binds me to this place. The magic of the Amulet of Chieftains must be passed from one Chief to the next. Only a true heir may take the Amulet. All others who touch the Amulet will surely die. Alas I died alone with no heir and am consigned to wait here. Now go or I shall rouse myself and you will feel my [wrath]!’

You say, ‘Your wrath?’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief says ‘Do not tempt your fate little one! My patience with you is at an end. Go now or [die]!’

You say, ‘Die!’

Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief staggers as a shadow pierces their soul.
You have slain Gekkdar the Last Ogre Chief!

You get a pretty nice ring for killing the Ogre Chief, and you also unlock the third quest to the chain, which sends you to Blightfire Moors. While you’re upstairs in that throne room, don’t forget to /open the bones behind it, and loot the amulet for a very nice charm progression quest. I’ve been having fun in EQ1, both old and new zones. Tonight is another Nostalgia meeting, and I’ve switched my necromancer to my new ‘main’, my cleric I’ll play with Lackey when he’s around. We’re headed to Solusek’s Eye which should be a lot of fun. It’s also one of the hot zones, so maybe we’ll run into someone else.

I started off the night playing my coercer. I had plans of leveling her to 78 - which should have been easy, seeing as I was only 20% away. I headed to Jarsath Wastes, to finish some faction quests there. I’m still trying to obtain her gate hammer. However, after working on one of the quests for no more then 10 minutes - I was invited to join Siege and a contested Mayong kill - with my 74 templar, who has been on the final stage of soulfire literally, forever.

Of course I jumped at the chance. When would I ever see Mayong again and actually get to kill him? Oh, I’ve killed him before, don’t get me wrong. I’ve done Mistmoore’s Inner Sanctum numerous times but never with the templar who was the only one of my characters to actually require the kill. There are three versions of Mayong you can kill for your Soulfire update. One is contested Mayong who spawns in the Castle. The other, is of course the MMIS Mayong, instanced. The third is in the Tunarian Throne room - which I have never been to.

Contested Mayong has three aoe’s that hurt. One has a power drain, two stun. We two grouped it, and everyone was level 80 except me at level 74. I was the only healer for my group and by the end (there are adds, bats and vampires) I was running low on power - but we did it. Or rather, Siege did it and I healed my little halfling heart out. I out healed the MT templar, too. Go figure.

So now Petites has her new shiny, and oh it’s so shiny. Yes, I know it’s an expansion too late, but I’m still proud that I got it.

I know with epics out it trivializes these Soulfire weapons. I’m still proud of all the hard work I put into the weapon though. It was a LONG painful series of quests. I have other (all) alts who are on various stages, but Petites I can say completed it. It’s funny. Petites is also my “original” main. She has her prismatic 1.0 where I had to kill Darathar. I also was on Najena for that quest. I did it with Allure, an Australian guild. The Godking weapon, I completed on my warden. Claymore, also on the warden. Epics, I have yet to start on anyone. We’ll see how that goes. I’m thinking coercer, but one can never tell. The templar is just not something I can level up through RoK content. Especially not solo. It would take me a year. The idea of grinding out all those faction quests (again) is just… leaves me with a horrible feeling inside. So I imagine she’ll stay lower level for quiet some time. She even has her Thuuga ring already completed (the fabled one quested in Kylong Plains) but needs more levels before she can wear it.

On an unrelated note, I moved Silhouette to Gorowyn. She now owns a 5 room house, and it’s absolutely huge. The rent is only 5g a week, no status. I had no idea, but the city also has a port to Kylong Plains. It’s got a carpet to sinking sands, which can access Freeport and Neriak. It’s also got a griffin to butcherblock, which means I can access everything, easily. To move, all I did was talk to two people, one in Freeport, and then one in Gorowyn. It was far too simple, but I suppose some times simple is good. Looking forward to decorating it and seeing what I can come up with.

Silhouette is my carpenter, much loved. She’s also my coercer, level 77. I love the class. I love everything about this character. I’ve decided to actually devote some time into her - I typically play EQ2 this way: Person says “Oh, we could really use such and such class” - and I run out and make it if I don’t already have it. I rarely ever play what I enjoy, because I enjoy whatever is needed and wanted. If it’s not needed or wanted, chances are I’ll bore of it. I know that’s a horrible way to play a game, but that’s been my ‘tactic’ so to speak for a little while now. It doesn’t work out. The coercer is one of those classes I play for myself. I just simply love it. I can accomplish so much while I’m alone that it doesn’t feel dreary. Its also complicated enough to keep me interested. Anyhow, I digress.

One conversation me and a good friend were having, was the state of guilds, specifically guild status, and how SOE sort of made a bad move.

Currently, this is how status items work. They’re the little documents and relics that drop from mobs. Right now, they are level restricted. If a guild is level 50 they can only contribute status via items that are also level 50 and up. What this means, is that lower level players, can not contribute their items towards guild status. It leaves them out of the loop. Yes, I understand that there are also writs in order to get status, but why should they be forced into a particular method of leveling the guild that they are just as much a part of as anyone else.

I understand (or think I do) why SOE implemented this method a few years back. I also think there was a better way, though. They obviously wanted to cut down the number of people who would easily farm lower tier items and turn them in by the mountains. Now if you’re a level 75+ guild, you need level 75+ items to turn in. Because I feel that this excludes newer / smaller leveled characters, what I thought about was simple:

Why not just make the items NOT drop from gray mobs.

That way, at least SOME effort was put into obtaining the relics. You know they were not just easily spam harvested, and if they were, at least someone was mentored / benifiting aside from just simply harvesting these tokens. The poor new level 20 can turn in his items finally. Even if he’s buying them from the broker, how is that any different then purchasing the level 75+ ones in order to level your guild. The lower level items give less status as it is, there’s nothing else that needs to be changed.

Small guilds have been at a severe disadvantage ever since the revamps. You used to get more status (when the guild level cap was 50) for having less people in your guild, then you would for having a full guild. That actually made sense to me, you have less people working towards the goal of leveling your guild then you would a raid guild, for example. However, it could be abused. Kick everyone out, level it with two people in the guild, etc. Small guilds were out leveling the larger raid guilds, and of course oh no we couldn’t have that now could we.

Another solution? I think we should be able to flag our guilds for certain rewards. Let me explain.

Be able to flag your guild as a crafting guild. For all of the crafting writs you do, you earn x2 the normal experience of a writ. Your guild also unlocks specific crafting items, perhaps house items that give buffs, or a set of gear that can improve your crafting, maybe some special recipes.

Then you have a guild flagged as a raid guild. For each raid zone they clear, they earn x2 the total amount of status for that raid zone. They unlock trinkets specific to raiding that will AID them but are NOT essential to a raid. It shouldn’t make or break a raid, it should just give them incentive to raid and work that status.

You could have a guild flagged as a questing guild. The EQ2players site keeps track of the average number of quests your guild has completed per person. There’s so much potential with the information that’s kept online, it can be taken any number of ways. Once a week perhaps, take the number of quests completed, and add a small amount of status per quest turn in. Or something along those lines. Again, have them able to unlock rewards that would base around questing.

If you want to flag your guild as a different sort, have them drop 20 levels, and have to re-earn their guild status, and unlock the new ‘type’ of guild rewards.

Maybe add tabards, so that we have a better way of displaying guild heraldry that doesn’t require covering up the very pretty cloaks they keep releasing. I never display mine, I’d rather wear the crafting ones. The guild cloak designs leave a lot to be desired. Why not allow people to create guild banners for their homes, or allow them to put the guild symbol on a shield.

There’s so much untapped potential out there with these things. I understand it takes time, and money, and well, a desire, to get this stuff anywhere. They’re just a few ideas I had though.

Speaking of all these new ideas. I also feel that EverQuest2 has really missed the boat on “busy work” for people to do once they’ve hit level 80. EQ2 lacks two very significant things EQ1 has. One, is proper aa. I’m not talking about the ones we have now, but the meaningless busywork ones that we should be able to get. For example, aa that let you choose a second crafting class. An aa perhaps that extends your food and drink. Another for enduring breath. Perhaps run speed (unbuffed). You know the stuff. That we all KNOW is busywork, but keeps us interested anyhow. Take a look at EQ1 and see just how many aa are out there. A lot of them are things that don’t affect you as a raider or adventurer, but are just other means of character progress. As it is now, people can reach level 80, finish their aa’s, and basically be “done” with the game. There needs to be more meaningless busywork. Even if we KNOW it is meaningless, it’s still SOMETHING to do.

Alongside of that busywork, would be LDoN (Lost Dungeons of Norrath). You remember the adventures EQ1 has, that lets you travel in a dungeon with 3+ people and caters to how many are in your group. You can select normal or difficult, and there are goals like killing X number of mobs, or rescuing an npc, etc. You earn points, for these missions, which unlock gear, augments, spells, and any number of other “things” that people deem fit to have (and plenty that are just garbage too). There are leadership boards, and you can check your status for successful runs vs. failed. It’s also experience for people, and when they’ve hit end game and don’t quite have all the points they need to purchase that thing on the LDoN vendor, they keep doing them.

Right now, the only thing EQ2 has to keep end game folks around - is alts. That’s all they have. Once you have your level 80/80 with complete aa’s, and your mythical - what exactly is keeping you playing? You’re not supposed to be able to “beat” an mmo. It’s supposed to be an ever going game. Right now people are playing on raid nights only because there’s simply nothing else to do. SOE needs to give them something else to do that is NOT just another raid or instance. It’s natural for folks to want to see progress on their characters. They want to constantly feel that they are moving forward. This stagnant feeling that’s going through the ranks is something that has to be quelled, and again not with some new raid zone or instance, but with actual personal character progress.

Ok, so they don’t really walk into a bar, but those are the three new characters I’ve created in just as many days. Why do you ask? Why does a person who already had 7 alts need MORE? Well, easy. Just because. I used to have two accounts, dropped one and got station access instead. On the closed account sits my “questing monk” who was a pure solo character that I did nothing but quest on. It was time to re-create her on the Najena server and start over. So there was alt #8. Then I decided since I deleted my 72 mystic (also on the other account) that I’d re-create her, too. This character would be a power leveled character though since I’ve already leveled a defiler / mystic up and didn’t really have too much patience to do it the “usual” way. Yesterday the defiler went from level 10-22 with the help of an 80 shadowknight mentoring. Go figure. Wailing Caverns was my home for two hours, and I killed anything that moved and quite a few things that didn’t move, too. That’s alt #9.

Alt #10 has a purpose. I’ll be playing a few nights here and there with Mayadhros (High Elf Paladin) and Dunnos (Froglok shaman). Thus I created a Half Elf Swashbuckler. I’ve played swashbucklers before, but never past level 30 or so. I had a brigand level 38 (again, on the closed account) and figured why not. We all made it to level 10 playing last night, and doing a lot of really fun quests.  I’m not sure how fast / often we’ll level, but in the mean time it’s fun to have a steady bunch of people to play with. One of the high points of playing with Nostalgia the Guild in EQ1 as well.

The past few weeks I’ve started missing raiding, and I’ve been contemplating trying to get back into it. I’m thinking for now it may just be too late. I don’t know anyone on Najena, and that poses a few issues. Plus my characters are not all 80 yet, I have two level 80’s (Troubador and Warden) and then a bunch hovering from 74-77 or so. Of course the biggest issue is the not knowing anyone portion. Najena has plenty of guilds - but a lot are also UK guilds or EU. They raid during the day time EST. There’s only a hand full of guilds raiding EST, one I know for sure raiding PST. We’ll see how it goes, I’ll probably just wait for the next expansion to release, and see where I’m sitting then. I hate falling behind in things, but it’s inevitable when my attention wanes.

Today I’m hoping to get either some levels for the illusionist, coercer, or faction for both, or some crafting (carpenter) levels on the coercer. We’ll see how it goes though. Knowing me I’ll decide to do something completely different, and I’ll wander off to start a quest I’ve had for a bit that’s gray, or what have you. I’m hoping the newest GU for EQ2 goes in soon, I know it’s on test already, so a week or two more and it should be moved to live as long as everything is going well. I’m so excited about the changes to quests, and banks. I just can’t say that enough.

Some of the views in Telon just take your breath away. This is me in Tar Janashir (Qalia) looking down through a window in a tower where I found my blood mage trainer stashed away. There’s nothing else in the tower aside from the psionicist trainer and a sorcerer trainer, but the view was too fantastic to pass by without grabbing a few screen shots. There’s even a storm moving in further away.

Growlius and I were a little too big for this quest hub last night, but it was still a lot of fun. The area is rated for level 34-40 and so we grabbed a good number of quests and started with the easiest ones. Experience in Vanguard is pretty steady - if you go to quest hubs. If you’re just grinding mobs, it’s going to be very long and drawn out. We’re both excited to be so close to 40. I’d like to get 50 eventually, and at least feel as though I’d completed one sphere of the game. Once my adventure level catches up to my crafting level (45) it’ll be time to work on that again a bit. Aside from signets I don’t get any new recipes (houses I suppose if I want to work faction for Qalia and Thestra) so I haven’t been in a rush to get any more levels.

We were sent out to rescue some people from the Rhajiri camps scattered around Tar Janashir, and pick off some wild creatures in the area as well. We killed scorpions, and these giant oysters and clams (which looked like weird plants, go figure) as well as a number of skeletons and at least five named. Every time we happened across a name we joked BECAUSE THE NAME OF NAMED IS ALL IN CAPS AND MAKES THEM HARD TO MISS.

• Me: “Oh, look, it’s THREA RHAJIRI (linked with the command %to and the caps come too)”
• Growlius: “Wow! How did you ever know they were a named!”

A pair of yellow cloth shoulders dropped but aside from that the loot was sparse. We both still have quite a few quests for this area, we managed to get 40% experience using a 50% bonus potion, instead of the common 100% ones we were using for major quest hubs. I expect the experience to begin slowing down drastically for the next 10 levels, and as long as I can find things to do, I’m fine with that. I imagine tonight we’ll be going back to Tar Janashir to try and finish off the remainder of our quests before moving on. Both of us really want to hit 40 not only because it means we’re in the last leg of leveling, but because we both get a slew of new spells and skills. In vanguard you buy them every 2 levels from a trainer. There are also some ultra rare upgrades of these spells that can be found as mob drops, though I’ve yet to ever see one.

We didn’t encounter a single other person around our quest hub, and a quick /who showed only six people around at all including us. I’m not sure if that’s because there are simply better things to do at level 38/39 or if it’s because it was one of those slow nights. There were (as usual) around 10 people on in guild, each one pretty much doing their own thing. Eventually I still want to work up my carpenter, to make sloops (I used a friends, it was SO much fun) and to add more furniture to my house. House items also sell pretty well in Vanguard, and as more people level up and get coin there’s more of a calling for these things. Would be nice to have a little more pocket change. I’m sitting on 1p currently, which is not so bad considering I gave away everything I owned when I hosted the Safe Haven scavenger hunt a while back. As long as I can afford my spells, that’s all I’m concerned about. Hopefully tonights adventures are just as exciting, with a little more experience.

The Field of Bone in EQ2 is slightly different then EQ1 - if for no other reason then the fact that it’s much higher level - and Kurns Tower has shut it’s door on a permanent basis until it’s implemented (though we’ve been waiting for that since the release of RoK last year). The zone itself is Fens of Nathsar, and it’s home to more then 100 quests. There are multiple factions in the zone that you get to work up, Bathezid Watch, Rillis, some Droga Exiles, and Bellywhumpers. The majority of the quests are your typical kill X number of Y mobs, which get boring real fast. The experience is drab, I think I was getting about .05% per kill and 1.5% a quest turn in with full vitality of course. In RoK vitality (rest bonus, basically) is pretty worthless except for crafting. You’ll never burn through it. The entire expansion on all my characters I’ve never had less then 80% vitality.

On the plus side, Shadowgeist and I headed to Kunzar Jungle, a zone just off of Fens and slightly higher level. I managed to get the last 30% I needed, and hit level 75 on the illusionist. Which means next time Shadowgeist can drag me through Jarsath Wastes, and I can do the higher level quests there now and forgo some of the quests at least in Fens. Of course knowing me, I’ll still eventually do them all. Especially the ones that reward faction, as I’m eager to purchase the provisioner recipes. Not so much the food that lasts for 10 minutes (although that’s great for raids and named fights) but the two charm items that the provisioner class is able to make. Chromatic essences are down to 15-20g on Najena, and I have a few tucked away in my bank.

Speaking of banks, I can’t help but wonder when the new game update is going in, so we’ll have combined banks. That is going to be absolutely awesome.

In two more levels or so I can start doing some of the instances in RoK, and getting a few more upgrades. The quest rewards have been great so far. I’m also eager to hit 80, so I can start working on my epic. I don’t expect I’ll ever get the mythical version but there’s no reason why I can’t at least get the fabled.  We’ll just see how that goes though.

Tonight is Monday, so I’ll be playing Vanguard with Growlius, I’m not sure where we’ll be exploring now that we’ve finished the Bounty Hunter quest line but I’m sure I’ll write about it tomorrow.

This weekend was by far one of the best weekends I’ve had in EverQuestII in a long time, and I didn’t even really accomplish that much. It started typically enough. I meandered around Fens of Nathsar with Shadowgeist, looking for trouble levels. This zone (out of all the RoK zones) gives the least amount of experience for their turn ins, and I find them boring and drab. The goal is to try to get to 75 asap (I’m 74, currently) so that I can bypass those quests and do the ones in Jarsath Wastes that return 10% experience when you grab all four working faction for Danak Shipyard. Eventually it comes with a nice piece of gear and a hunter title. I completed a lot of quests along with Shadowgeist’ help (nice mythical, by the way.. ) and when he went off on his own for a bit I decided it was time Stargrace did her crafting epic.

Now, I have this completed already with Petites, my jeweler / templar. However, each category of crafter (outfitter, craftsman, scholar) has their own quest line to do for the fourth quest. My previous scholar one took me to an instance in Maj’dul, where I flung books at bad guys and frantically clicked on more books trying to find pages and then restore them. This time around I was sent to a special instance in Nektulos Castle, to ward away swarms of giants rats. Big, mean, ugly 20 levels higher then me rats. I got to design a rat trap, and catch them and kill them. It was a lot of fun, and easier then the maj’dul instance once I knew my way around.

Then came to the portion of the epic I’d been dreading. Gathering together 8 other crafters (plus myself) to comission pieces for the final turn in. I don’t know too many on Najena yet, aside from my good friends Albrta and Eyenstein, a couple who play. Albrta is one of those fanatic crafters who has one of almost everything, and she offered to help. She had to leave for a while though, so in the mean time I decided to ask on channels if anyone could help. The first few times went by with 0 response. If you recall last time I did this quest, I actually had to offer to pay people to do the combines for me. I didn’t want to do that this time around, we honestly pay for enough.

Then I get a tell, from Omay, who says they have ALL the crafters, and can make every piece for me. I sat there stunned for a second, it sounded too good to be true.

Not only do they make all of the pieces, they are a guild dedicated to crafting, and helping others craft. They accept NO donations (I tried) for their work. I’m not sure that English was their first language, but they were by far some of the friendliest people I’d met to date. Their inn room was decorated for crafting, they seemed to have done this a time or two before, making small chat about whether I knew what to do next, and how I should spend my time looking for the chia hidden in the inn room some place as they crafted for me.

I think I remained stunned the rest of the time there.

After they’d crafted every single piece for me, they played fire works and congratulated me, and on my way I went for the turn in. A huge thank you to them, and their guild “Wing and a Prayer” another thank you to the fine people (there were three, whose names I forget now) at Siege, who crafted the first three pieces for me. Omay and his slew of crafters told me if I ever needed any help with anything crafted, to send them a tell and they would help. I was stunned. Here I’d thought there was no crafting community on Najena - the channels are practically always silent. Low and behold, an entire guild dedicated to it.

So I finished my second crafter epic, and now I just need to get some faction with Rillis, Bathezid, and Danak for the special provisioner recipes, including some very nice charms made with chromatic essences that I want to pick up.

It was a great weekend, what can I say. I got the new cloak, earing, house item scroll, title, one of every T8 rare, and met some wonderful people along the way.

Oh, and as another great point? This entire guild, was halflings, except for one half elf who helped me out.

Now before I get too far into this post - I admit, that I have a few pet peeves in games. Some are pretty apparent, and some not so much. One of my very strong pet peeves, is when people sign up for an event, and then give no notice about their absence. Now wait - I understand that people have actual lives, that things come up. But when 10 other people are counting on you to be there, the least someone can do is get a hold of whomever is in charge of the event and let them know they won’t be there. That’s my one issue with Nostalgia. I know, it probably sounds harsh of me to say about something that is so casual, but it’s because it’s so casual that I vent about it. We only meet once a week. If there’s an issue with a once a week schedule, we really need to know about it so we can compensate for the missing class. Be it a tank, dps, or buffs (Aerrik, in case you’re reading this it’s NOT about you silly, you told everyone you wouldn’t be there this week!) anyhow, enough of my ranting.

Nostalgia hiked up their skirts and headed off to do some Lost Dungeon of Norrath (also known as LDoN) for the evening and wow did we have a BLAST. We split into two groups, this time with Tipa the ranger as my fearless tank. I had moved both the cleric and the necromancer to the North Ro camp, unsure of who we’d need. I do want to be playing the cleric, but the necromancer is a lot of fun as well. For the time being I’ll continue to level them both up until it comes to a time where that is no longer a viable option. I don’t have any veteran rewards on the necro, being out of /claims. In EQ, you’re limited by how many characters you can flag with veteran rewards by how long you’ve held the account.

I was expecting experience to slow down - and it did, which was great. I got two levels out of the three runs we did and ended the necro half way through 24. Was there risk? Was it hard? Well - there was certainly risk. At one point, rogueless, Tipa decided to go poke the chest at the exit of the room we stood in.

Bad idea!

In 5 seconds flat we were corpses on the ground, having been hit with an 88 point a tick dot. OUCH! We laughed and teased Tipa endlessly over it, walked back to our instance from PoK (Plane of Knowledge) and picked up where we left off. Gozad also had an ‘incident’ with the floor, the poor monk tripped, or so I heard, and was crushed by a barrage of undead. Or something.

We had a blast. It was so great. We were also fairly lucky in our drops. We walked away with quite a bit of coin, and THREE LoN (Legends of Norrath) drops. One starter deck, one booster deck (which sells for 45,000p) and one regular card. We also had two augments drop (which are fairly common for LDoN) and we of course gained points with the North Ro camp. Fantastic. I honestly had such a good time. The key point? Having a static group of people to do this with. It has made all the difference in the world.

Nostalgia the guild will be putting together a Tuesday group (I won’t be apart of that one as it’s one of my Vanguard days and honestly one is enough for me!) so if anyone is interested in being TRULY old-school in their EQ1 leveling, be sure to check out the forums for more details and to sign up. I believe Blackburrow is the goal for this Tuesday, with a maximum of level 10 to start the night off.

One thing I’ve missed about EQ1 (having played other games) is actually running all over to collect my spells. I’ve neglected them since level 20 or so - unsure of when I’d be playing the necromancer next and not really NEEDING any of my spells. There’s no automatic way to obtain them in EQ1, and you actually have to look up a spell list and typically write out what you need and who sells it and how you can get it. It’s fantastic. Odd thing for me to say? Perhaps. It was just one of those small things that gave the game character though. In EQ2 you automatically get all your spells from 1-50, and then after that you simply look up on broker or on a class merchant for 51-80 or have a player craft them all for you. There’s no skills in multiple zones, no real reason NOT to have any of your spells aside from not seeing it for sale on broker and not wanting to bother with a lower version of it. In EQ1 it’s quite common to hear “Oh, I haven’t gotten that yet, it’s research only” or “Oh, I have to go all the way to Shadowhaven for that and they won’t sell to me yet” and various other reasons for not having particular spells. It’s always fun to hum and haw over which spells you NEED and can afford to buy, and which ones are expendables.

Next week Nostalgia is headed to Solusek’s Eye which is just going to be a hoot I can tell. It’s still not too late to join up if you’d like (and can make the Fridays at 7pm EST schedule - though we are recruiting anyone who just wants to play EQ1 and reminisce about the good ‘ol days) just visit the forums and introduce yourself. We could use a second tank for group cool, and an enchanter. Our level cap for this week is 25, so anything between 20-25 would be perfect.