So my server’s been down for over 12 hours now due to the latest (huge) bug that I got to experience first hand this morning. You can read about the servers going up here
if you’re curious when yours is next on the list. Since it’s 11pm EST here now I suppose I’ll just call it a night.

For those curious what the bug actually was, no it was not LoN related. When servers came up at 11am EST characters were experiencing what I like to term as the “oh-gawd-nothing-is-saving-bug”.  It was not numerous bugs, it was just one bug. It was not LoN related at all, they even said they were working on a separate bug that involved a few characters, and as they worked on it they made a bigger boo-boo. It happens. What the actual bug did:

When you zoned, your character basically wiped (minus coin gain and experience gain and aa gain) to how it was the last time you logged into the game (pre-patch). So that meant if you completed a quest, then zoned, the quest magically appeared back in your journal. If you added new buffs, and zoned, each of those buffs dropped. If you bought a spell at the broker, scribed it, and zoned, you instantly lost the spell (and did not get that coin you spent back). I discovered and re-discovered the same entrance to loping plains 5x in a row. Also completed the same quest in Mistmoore Catacombs 3x in a row, gaining aa each time, then zoned out only to find it entered into my quest journal again. When you completed an instance and then zoned out the timers on that zone were wiped, allowing you to enter again right away.

So of course drastic measures had to be taken. Servers came down approx. 2 hours after this bug was running ramped. Roll backs were of course incoming since there’s no way they could just leave characters as they were. Now Antonia Bayle is a huge server, so I can understand the lengthly down time it’s experienced thus far. I’m really hoping it comes back up tomorrow at least since I’ve got that Emerald Halls raid, but I’m not going to hold my breath just in case.

Am I overly upset? Not really. These games are huge, and things happen. One hour after browsing forums though is more then enough to realize that not everyone understands that, and that there are some VERY angry people out there, demanding money back, and other extra compensation for their missed play time. Me? I’ll just wait for the game to come back up. Unfortunate that it happened, but I know it’s being worked on and my ranting and raving about it won’t make it go any faster.

(( Just the beginning of a little story I’m working on involving my Arasi brigand, Sensual. Not all mapped out yet, but it was a fun start. I’ll add to it as I come up with ideas, here’s hoping I get a lot of them, I do enjoy writing, so if you don’t enjoy it, oh well!))

She danced with the shadows, weaving in and out between them. Her feet barely touching the floor. Violet eyes glinted in the dark, and nothing could be heard aside from the faint swoosh swoosh of her daggers moving. The little Arasi was called Sensual, though most barely even knew that, and she loved to dance with the shadows. Her wings painted patterns on the floor as she moved, her body lithe and trim.

Her blades glinted once, and then twice, piercing imaginary foes who had done her wrong. Or perhaps people she had been hired to kill, as that was not beneath her. Her mouth curved in a smirk, and she continued to dance. Her mind drifted and wandered and she forgot where she was, almost forgot herself. Such was the way of the dance.

The dance can be dangerous

A voice echoed through her head, and she worked to shake it out. Dangerous? This? She practically laughed. She was not complete without her blades at her side. The connection she felt to them was something beyond what most could understand. Certainly her own family had not understood her desire, her need, to lose herself in the dance. She had left them as early as she could, saying not a word and simply disappearing from her home in the dead of the night years ago. She did not expect anyone to stop her or try to find her, if anything Sensual imagined they would be quite relieved that she had ‘disposed’ of herself, ridding them of one more problem.

A cat cried out from across the cavern she was practicing in and caught her attention for a fraction of a second before she turned back to her knife play. It was nearing two in the morning and the only people who were wandering through Neriak at this time were drunks and whores peddling their wares. She’d floated silently through the caverns to the older sections that were constantly deserted where she could be in peace. She needed to clear her mind.

Earlier that day an emissary had arrived to speak with her. Or so the person had claimed. From the Queen none the less. Sensual was both intrigued and nervous about the meeting. The man had been wrapped from head to foot in some sort of rough scarf material, his eyes glinted out in slits, and his voice rasped out with a heavy lisp. There was not much Sensual could figure out from him aside from the fact that if she needed to she could burry her daggers into his brain without him crushing her. He’d come to her with a task, but would not speak more about it. He wanted her to accept before knowing fully what it entailed, and Sensual was not sure she was comfortable with that. He’d given her the rest of the night to contemplate it, and asked her to meet him at the Fair in Darklight Woods the next day. She’d agreed, after all money was money, and he promised this would give her plenty of it. He’d shaken a purse before he left and the promise of coin rang through her mind even now.

So, I happened to be browsing through eq2players as I typically do when the servers are down for patches, and I came across this article that was an interview by a Jon Wood from mmorpg.com interviewing Chad Haley, character art lead for Eq2. Now the amusing part -

I know Jon Wood, or used to at least. In fact, I used to date him. He’s from Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia (or at least was when I lived there, I’ve no idea where he’s at now, we lost touch quite some time ago). I haven’t talked to him in probably a good.. oh.. 10 years. Maybe a little less. I had heard of him doing this web site through a mutual friend of ours, a Patrick Gibbons, a few years back. I didn’t really think anything of it though.

What a small world. Or at least an odd coincidence that I stumbled onto the interview that he did. It just goes to show that you never know where some people you grew up with may end up. I must say I’m quite proud of him. That may seem odd of me to say, but it makes me feel good to see him doing well.

Goudia, browsing through the vast volumes of books in the Tower of the Moon, Maj’Dul

So what do you do when your character hits level 70? You have a number of choices. You can work on chains of quests (Claymore, SoD, MoA, Godking), you can get yourself into a raid guild, you can finish off your aa, and you can craft. You can become obsessed with questing, start an alt. Work on a house. There’s still so much to do. Of course, if you play long enough none of these things will interest you, and you’ll more then likely end up just wandering around Norrath — or find yourself lost in a few games of LoN, which is a popular choice these days as we all wait for the release of RoK.

So what do you do once you’ve hit level 70?

I’ve already come to the conclusion that I want to “finish” my characters, the ones who are already at 70. What does that mean? Well, I already said in a previous post I want to get them all to 70/70/100. Level 70 in adventuring (I already have 5 at that) 70 crafting (Three of them are there already) and 100aa (only Stargrace has met this goal so far, with Misako close behind at 96, then Arysh at 89, and Goudia at 87). I’d love to delve back into questing and seeing what there is out there. I know I have yet to do a single Butcherblock quest for example. I want to finish off the HQ I haven’t done yet for some guild status, and try to help get the guild to at least 30 before RoK comes out. Not sure if that’s even a viable goal any more with the way guild experience works. Smaller guilds used to have a benefit over larger ones as the % of status was divided between total members and not just a base percentage. Now though the more active members you have the more status you’ll be inputting into the guild. Since my small guild has only five members or so, we move slow. Not a big deal though I suppose.

I watched another Avatar fight last night, the Avatar of War, though I was saddened to see it go poorly. I hate to watch guilds compete with each other - only because eventually it turns mean. People get mad at one another, they try to sabotage each other, they shout and scream and spam and all the rest. So while it was probably one of the more exciting fights to watch just because it is quite complex, it was also one of the few I watched and grimaced each time I saw the guilds confront one another. I understand that rivalry is normal, and even healthy, but there is a good way and a bad way to compete for contested mobs. After watching for over five hours as they battled between each other I decided that it was well past time I went to sleep. It was just one of those days anyhow, and I was out of sorts by the end of it.

Goudia managed to hit 45 weapon smith today. Not a huge accomplishment but I’m pleased. She has vitality for another level or two, but I’ve not decided yet if I want to actually craft more or go play and have fun with some quests. We’ll just have to see I suppose. I’ve been working down (slowly) her L&L list. She has 15 left to go, which is not so bad. Her house is filling up nicely with weapons and I’m eager to create a sort of display / sales area for her trophies. I think it’s fitting since she is a weapon smith. Saturday I’ll be doing an Emerald Halls raid, and I’m excited (and nervous!) about it. I have not really raided since January, though I have certainly raided and done some EoF content, none of it was exactly on par with what I’d been doing in the past. I’d only gone to EH three times, and was on the second floor. I’ve not stepped foot in it since then and I know a lot has probably changed. The guild I’ve applied to is not sure whether they want me to play the bard, illusionist, mystic, or fury, so I’m to park each one outside of EH. I’m secretly hoping they want me to play a healer, because I feel that I can shine with those classes the most (you don’t get 3 level 70 healers and not enjoy them a little bit after all). Hopefully I’ll have some screen shots and good stories to tell after my adventures tomorrow! We’ll just have to see how it goes..

Remember I said I was obsessed with house items? I meant it. I paid 10p for this LoN painting from a friend…

So A friend of mine got a hold of me and let me know that they had one of the LoN paintings. Wanted to know how much I’d pay for it. I’m by no means a rich person, but I always pay well for unique house items. So I offered them 10p for the painting off the bat. Went into trade mode with them and ta da, the painting above called “The Rune” is the latest to my LoN collection. In fact, the only painting I have. Another friend apparently has “The Muse” which is an image of a very scantly clad woman, and he’s agreed to drop it off in my house (These items give status as well towards the house) so that’ll mean I have two in the collection. Always nice.

Am I a little bit of an obsessed housing person to be paying such amounts for these virtual paintings? Hrms. Maybe. I think everyone has their quirk though. Maybe you collect daggers for your characters to use, or weapons with particle graphics. Maybe you collect sets of armor, or maybe you are like me, and collect house items.

The only thing I don’t really like about this painting is the fact that it is HUGE. It takes up a very large portion of Misako’s five room house on the main floor. A second one will take up another huge section and I have no idea what people in their one room inns would even consider these for since they’d not be able to place them anywhere. You pretty much have to own a house with high vaulted ceilings and plenty of wall space. Of course I can only trade money on my actual server, but if anyone is looking for a few rares (I do not have many) or some money on the Antonia Bayle server, in return for house items, let me know.

In other news! Goudia hit 70, and I’ve applied to a raid guild. We’ll see how it goes. Yes, I’m nervous, but I also really miss raiding. With five level 70’s I’m not eager to work up a 6th. I outfitted Goudia with the rest of her gear, two new shiny weapons and the bow. She’s sitting at 576 int and 512 str self buffed (with no food or drink on) which I love. So what’s left to do? Get them all to 100 aa (Goudia is sitting at only 86 right now) and max out their tradeskills. Bloodpact is also level 69, and almost 70. Forever is close to 70 as well. Gothun is still eating up the levels but not fast enough for his liking. Beeglin asked if I’d like to decorate his house on Lucan D’Lere, which I of course said yes to. A few old friends are trying to convince me to move back there and join a new raiding guild. Normally I’d contemplate it, however. Lucan D’Lere is just a dead server to me. I left it for a reason and I really enjoy Antonia Bayle so much better. The population is huge and I’d really miss the people I’ve gotten to know here. I was surprised and pleased with the offer, but had to say no.

Is it just me who gets all excited and maybe even a little flustered when they see that the test server has been updated with the latest GU? Well, for those who are curious, the notes are found here. Be sure to check them out. As for what I’m personally interested in.. well:

• Bristlebane ReturnsDo you consider yourself a practitioner of pranks, a student of the silly, or even a fan of the funny? Does the idea of pulling a practical joke over on someone sound like your idea of a good time? If so, you might make an excellent follower of Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane, the Grand Prankster. Recently scores of puckish jesters, fanciful bards and quick-witted thieves have all been spreading rumors about the imminent return of their favorite Sire of Shenanigans. If Bristlebane has truly arrived and resumed his place aside the other gods who have also returned to Norrath, why has he waited until now? What sort of mischievous plans does the Royal Trickster have in store for his faithful followers? What about the other gods who have yet to reveal themselves since their departure? The answers to these questions are undoubtedly wrapped within a riddle only Bristlebane himself can solve.Those interested in devoting themselves to the Master of Mischief should speak with Tobel Patadash, the self-declared Prophet of Bristlebane at the docks of The Enchanted Lands. Be advised, however, that the Gigglegibber Goblins have their own nonsensical opinion of who they believe the real Prophet of Bristlebane is as well!

• Trivial Loot no longer includes Quest items, so Quest items will drop on gray encounters.

Probably what I am most excited about. This means (If I’m reading it right) Cloak of Flames will not have to drop from green mobs. Which is what people had to do before. A pain in New Tunaria where a few of the pages drop. It also means when RoK comes out you won’t have to continuously mentor to get the updates. Of course the BEST part - is that I’m hoping my book quest starters will drop from these chests. So I won’t have to mentor to finally complete my set of Obelisk books.

• Resistance Chorus Songs: Now affect the entire raid.

• You can now sort the quest journal by quest level

This new quest UI from EQ2 Questlist is a handy little mod

If you’re anything like me, you like to customize your UI as much as you do your characters. It doesn’t matter if you use default or any other sort of mod, your user interface has as many or as few hotbars as you particularly like, it’s got everything arranged the way you specifically play, and I have to say, some times it’s the less-noticed but still valuable mods that really stick with me.

The one that I’ve most recently added to my UI is a quest journal mod, and it may not seem like much - unless you are an avid quester. The EQ2 Questlist site has been up for some time, but isn’t a quest walk through site like the rest of them out there. So what does it do? It keeps track of every quest in the game, where to get it, what level it is. What’s more, is you can create an account, and mark down the quests you’ve completed (as well as started) and keep track of your quest record. In the past, you had to do this out of game, or painstakingly slow, without really looking at your journal. But with the new mod, which you can get here you just click and input the quests that actually show up in your journal under completed and started. You can also search their data base from the journal browser, see how many quests you’ve completed in game without having to move over to Eq2players, and various other small nifty options. I love it.

I like being able to see that I have 11/33 L&L quests completed. I like to see which ones I’m missing without having to draw up huge graphs and charts. I like knowing there are 53 total quests in a particular zone, and what all their names are, and comparing them to which I have done and which I have not done. Again though, this is NOT for quest walk throughs. It’s just a way to keep track of statistics. Like a raider may keep track of their parses to see improvements.

So if you’re a quest person at all, and you’re looking for a few little spiffy toys to play around with, and you like to keep track of the quests you’ve done, be sure to give this very simple UI a try. It’s nice to find a little treasure like this every so often.

Working on those fun Lesser Faydark Quests

Over the years that I’ve played both EQ1 and EQ2, I’ve come to the realization that healers really get the short end of the stick a lot of the time. You’d think since I have 3 level 70 healers in EQ2 I’d have already come to this conclusion, and I suppose I have, but it really becomes more apparent the more you group. Now this is not to say it’s the norm for ALL groups - but these are the typical responses after a good run of whatever we’re up to.

“Wow that was some amazing tanking!”

“Look at that DPS parse!”

All the similar comments. Why is it that people are so reluctant to thank their fellow healers? The tank didn’t just stand up on their own the entire time did they? Well, maybe they did but if the healer is worth their grain of salt it wasn’t just all the dps and the tank that made the group. It’s a combination of players who know what they’re doing. Sure, a great tank makes things easier. Just like great dps makes things easier. But please folks, don’t forget to thank your healers out there! They need a little lovin’ too.

Goudia hit 69 yesterday. Meant I got to wear all of her new set gear. She’s got four pieces to the bard set. She’s 34% into her level, so hopefully over the next couple of days I’ll be getting her level 70. Then we’ll see where it goes. She’s got her two new weapons and her bow just waiting for her. I’m looking forward to it, even if it is my 5th level 70. I figured I should probably attempt to get them all at 100aa and level 70 crafters as well. What possessed me to do that? Not quite sure. Right now only Stargrace (illusionist) is at level 70/70/100. Arysh is missing 10aa, Misako is missing 5aa and she’s only a level 45 tailor. Goudia just hit 83aa, and she’s a 44 weaponsmith. Dasie needs another 15aa. I’ve got time before RoK to get them all where I want them to be at least.

After that? Who knows. I’ve been contemplating leveling up my coercer just for the heck of it (she’s sitting at level 42 right now, in level one gear with nothing but app1 spells.. yes, I just put her on auto follow..) but I’m not sure what I’d do exactly with six level 70 characters. So maybe I’ll just quest and work on their houses or something. I’ll have to see.

I’m looking forward to Kilanna coming back from her vacation, mornings are lonely without her around.

Did a very quick Obelisk run yesterday with Dasie (who does not have her shoes yet) which went really well. Bard shoes dropped for the dirge in group, go figure. No ring either, I’ve never even seen it on any of my runs and everyone else seems to always get it. I must be cursed. Expect an rp post in the near future, it’s been so long since I’ve really written anything and I don’t want to get rusty (code word for: Quick, run away! Stop reading now!). Safe travels!

Goudia, was busy…

This weekend was wonderful for EQ2 at least. Yesterday Shadowgeist and I decided it was high time we finished our signature orb of tunare quest. The orb was an upgrade for his necromancer as well as an upgrade for Misako, and the earring choice was an upgrade for Goudia. It took most of the day to complete as the quest is quite lengthily, but was well worth it. I got three aa along the chain and also managed to hit level 68. It helped that Obelisk of Blight is a necessary zone and neither Bloodpact nor Goudia had been yet. Since his machine was upgraded this weekend he boxed both Shadowgeist and Bloodpact, and I boxed Misako and Goudia. We pretty much have our own group any time it’s needed - though neither of us have any intentions of boxing ALL of the time. It can get annoying after a while, and some times it’s just nice to play your one character without having to worry about where the boxed character is standing or whether or not they’re going to get tossed off of some ledge.

We also toddled around doing some Mistmoore Catacombs, and completed a handful of quests in the zone, one of which needed another legendary item (wrist piece for me) that was an upgrade (also an upgrade to Bloodpact, I think). It was pretty nice. Goudia is 45% into her level, and I’m thinking that with a little work today, I can get her to level 69 which of course is the level I can finally wear her four pieces of legendary set gear. I’ve been waiting for a while now to wear them as they taunt me from her bags.

A small question to pose to readers today. Do you run a guild, and even if you don’t - how close are you to your fellow gamers? For example, if there’s a member of your guild, who logs in every single day — but rarely says much. They’re just constantly around, they help a time or two. Then one day, you notice they don’t log in. Nor do they for a few more days.

Do you worry?

Do you have any way of getting a hold of people in your guild in case they mysteriously vanish? Does anyone really care if random_member_101 never logs in again? I’m just curious what others out there think. I’m quite close to every one of my guild mates, but then again there are only five of us. If someone leaves for a while, I typically know why they’ve left (for example, Kilanna is on vacation as we speak). If I didn’t see her for a week I’d worry, and I’d want to make sure everything is alright. I’ve had some guild members in the past just disappear from the MMO world and with no method of really checking to make sure they were ok it left me feeling a little glum. I know I’m most certainly not unique in this situation, and I’m curious how others handle it.

Hooked already, at least for a short time, I spent the evening test driving LoN

Yesterday it was announced that random people had been selected for LoN beta. I got in with both of my accounts, and decided to give it a test whirl. Now, if you’re looking for guides, this is not the place. If you’re looking on how to play the game, wrong-o again because I suck when it comes to explaining that sort of information. So this is (as are all my posts!) just general opinion stuff.

I loved the game. Granted, I have played card games before, and yes it does give you a small advantage if you have a vague understanding in what to do from the get-go. The tutorial was long, and I barely paid attention to it. Instead I got right to the battles against the computer and learned that way (which may explain why I lost, a lot). Everyone graciously starts with 1 booster pack (the pack of 15) and one starter pack of a designated class. Mine both happened to get fighter, however a friend managed to get a mage one. You can buy the starter packs to the other classes for $9.99, or a booster pack for $2.99. I’m sure SoE will make a LOT of money off of selling these virtual cards. Which is a whole other discussion.

Now, a portion of the game that I do not like at all. As far as I have seen, so far. There is no way for you to get any of the neat “things” (or in this case loot cards) without spending real life money (or trading your rare cards / money with another who has the item you want). Loot cards come in booster packs. I find it quiet amusing that the “store” is open already, even though we’re all apparently just beta testing this game. People can already spend their real life money for these packs of virtual cards and obtain the rare “cool” loot items (randomly). A few of these are house items. One is a tradeable box of cards with 400 rent reduction. - and I’d love to get my hands on one, but I see no other way besides paying 100p for it on broker, spending real money in an effort of purchasing it randomly through booster packs, or trading for it with another player (in which case, why would I even have anything they wanted to begin with). I have no idea if perhaps when the game goes live, when they say that mobs will drop these cards, if they will drop whole booster packs, or just one card at a time. If there will be any other way to obtain the interesting loot that comes with it (which is unfortunately the only real motivation for some to play, and I’m not above that). The epic mount is another one of these very cool items that few will own, and the cloak that shape shifts you into a box.

So I made an agreement with Shadowgeist, we’d each either buy four booster packs (for a total of $12 and some change) or one booster and one starter (the same price). After that, no more. With his beta claimed decks, he got an item that changes him into a frozen skeleton randomly. I got… nothing. He bought a mage deck (which does not claim to give loot cards anyhow) as well as one booster deck, and recieved nothing.

I decided to purchase four booster decks, and also got nothing. Meanwhile I see a box, and an epic warg a few feet from me, and two card boxes for sale on broker for 100-140p. On the other hand, I can trade him all of my mage cards since I have no use for them, and he’s going to trade me all of his priest ones since that’s the next deck I’ll be working on.

The game itself is quite fun, but I can see it getting very boring very fast if you’re not one of those people who can afford to spend real life money on bettering your deck. I’ve got no idea when it’s going to go live, and I assume the dropped items are not in game until after that point. I know a lot of people were very angry that SoE was advertising “random” people were getting chosen to beta test it. Outcries of “why wasn’t I chosen” and what not echoed through the channels. The game plays smoothly, however after 4-5 matches I seemed to stutter and lag when my character decided she’d had enough of her ‘fix’ and wanted to adventure again. The cards are wonderfully drawn, the playing mat beautiful, and I didn’t encounter any bugs at all the few times I played. Over all, the experience was a lot of fun, just not sure on a few things.