I’d been pondering what to work on in game while I wait (like everyone else) for RoK to release. We’re all frantically counting down the days and weeks until new content. Excited? Yes, quite a bit. I’ve been doing older quests on Dasie lately, trying to clear them from her journal while having things still be interesting for me at the same time. Easier said then done on occasion. Out of all the expansions out there I’ve probably leveled up the least amount in DoF. I did do the Godking chain of quests but that’s about it. I’d never worked on the Ring of Fate, or did much with factions (there are three, Coin, Truth, and Blades). While I did have 20,000 with coin on Dasie (just enough to get her call of ro quest completed) that was about as far as I took it.

So yesterday for the majority of the day I wandered around Maj’Dul completing various quests for faction, some coin, and finally after some time the “vindicator of the coin” title that I’ve never actually had before. It felt good to get it done. That leaves two more factions to complete since I’m pretty sure to start the ring of fates quests someone mentioned you need to have worked all three up. Hrms. I’ll have to look up the quest and see, since I’ve really got no experience with it.

Bought Dasie a new outfit last night as well. All she’s missing is the rice bowl hat (rockpounder is one that all priests can wear) and she’s transformed from a templar to a monk class. She’s also got a handy dandy two handed hammer for just such occasions. I enjoy having “fluff” armor slots, but wish there were more of a selection of things to wear. I feel sorry for those people who wear cloth, since Dasie wears plate she has a great choice of armor. She’s of course also wearing her LoN burning fists item that I claimed. I found a booster pack and decided to trade it, I managed to get my Three Warriors painting, as well as those fists. Worth it? Matter of opinion honestly. There could have been a better loot card in that booster deck, but it doesn’t really matter to me.

I’m pretty set on making a new dirge when RoK comes out - yes I realize everyone and their dog has a dirge and they’re the new flavour of the month, but oh well. I have a few (three?) character creation slots left on the two accounts, and I may as well use them up.

Other then that, just counting down the days….

Worked on a signature tonight for Woof, hopefully he likes it. Decided to post the one I made for Shadowgeist as well. I’m working on one for Gothun which is a bit more difficult because he has no preferences at all as to what he wants. I’m still learning the ins and outs of photoshop, and have very little patience when I get to a hard part. Eventually with time though I’m hoping to improve.

Playing on a role play preferred server is a great thing. The population is high, the people are friendly. However, it does have a few draw backs. On Antonia Bayle I’d say that 70% of the raiding that takes place is through alliances. Not always a bad thing, but it certainly has some draw backs. People are comfortable in their little guilds, also not a bad thing. I’ve been a part of quite a few alliances on the server, and it can work, but over the last little while the alliance I’ve been in has pointed out all the reasons why they can also be frustrating.

Loyalty. There’s such a lack of loyalty to one another and to the “core” alliance group that it can become more of an issue then intended. Lets take last night for example. The alliance I raid with had scheduled MMIS (Mistmoore Inner Sanctum) for Monday. For some reason the main tank of said alliance, and one of the core healers, decided to go tank and heal for another raid guild in MMIS, and didn’t take into consideration the fact that 20+ other people had signed up for this raid for Monday. When I approached the tank about it, he basically shrugged, and said that they’d just move the raid to accommodate him having gone last night. He’s not an alliance leader, just another member, and didn’t talk to other members at all about this, just assumed that for him, it would be done. Of course I was fuming.

Attendance. People can pick and choose which raids they attend (for whatever reasons they have in mind, be it loot, or timing for that matter) and there’s no consequence for the actions. A great example of this is when an old KoS (Kingdom Of Sky) raid was scheduled and 12 people showed up (the “core” of this alliance, who pretty much attend every raid as scheduled, raids are four days a week) and completed the zone. The next week, on the exact same day, a Chel’Drak raid was scheduled, and 30 people showed up. You could think this is merely a coincidence and people simply were not around the previous week, but it’s not so. It happens all the time. Schedule a raid for a zone that the alliance can handle with quite a bit of ease, and where the loot is a significant upgrade, and people come out in droves. But schedule a zone where the alliance is still learning the encounters (such as the final fight in MMIS or Emerald Halls) and suddenly we’re struggling to put people together. You can’t prevent this from happening, because it is simply an alliance. If you push too hard for people to show up, they’ll simply move on, as their main interest is not raiding.

I’m all for smaller guilds, and the significant perks they come with (since I belong to my own guild myself) but I some times wish those who are in raid alliances out there would take into consideration the other 23 people who sign up and who enjoy raids, but don’t want to leave their families and friends in another guild. Alliances are looking for the same thing that full raid guilds are looking for. They’re looking for knowledgeable people who understand their class. Who work and strive for excellence in whatever means they can, and who are steady. Reliable. It is just as frustrating for an alliance raid leader to fill in the blank spots of a raid without knowing who is going to show up as it is for the every day raid guild. They want people to sign up, to show up on time, and all that good stuff. The only difference in fact is what happens when you’re not raiding. You still should come prepared. Know as much about the zone as possible. Just because the raid is tagged as “alliance” doesn’t suddenly give people the right to dumb it down.

I know there are exceptionally successful alliances out there on servers, there are some on AB who are taking down all EoF (Echoes of Faydwer)  content aside from perhaps the throne room and avatars. They can work beautifully — but last night and the past few weeks have just not been what I want out of any alliance and were only a constant reminder of how they can go wrong.

How many times, Arysh wondered, had the people of Freeport passed by the stones unaware. She knelt to the ground and dropped the flowers she carried as gentle tears trickled down her smooth cheeks, not ashamed in the least bit. This was after all, where her mother was buried. She sniffed back a sigh and tried to wipe the tears as best she could to no avail. Every day the people of Freeport walked by the statues and monuments with no idea what they represented, or who. They never gave anything a second glance. Too busy on their way to some store, or to shop for poisons and other personal items. It was the way Freeport worked, and most argued that this method was just fine. Arysh, however, thought differently. Even before she considered moving to Qeynos she thought differently. It wasn’t that the druid was soft, by any means. The dark elf was fiercely protective of those closer to her and even those she was not.

She sat herself down in the dirt, and spread the flowers along the base of the monument. She knew that it had probably been erected for some other reason besides the personal one that it held to her. After all Lucan D’Lere was not exactly a rising hero empathetic to the needs and concerns of his people, not enough to want to place a solo statue in his city at least. The reasons didn’t matter though. The fact that it was there was enough for Arysh.

The druid found herself day dreaming of her life over the past few years, since she found herself without family. She had moved to Qeynos, lost a few loved ones along the way, betrayed not only Tunare but also the Burning Prince in trying to find herself. And what had it gotten her? Nothing. She was just as alone as she was at the starting of the journey. Her own fault though as over time she had pushed everyone away from her.

Left with nothing but the memories of those she once cared for, she slowly stood and braced herself to face another day.

I’ve been talking to one of my good inquisitor friends here on Antonia Bayle, about the cleric aa tree (that includes both templars and inquisitors) and they happened to mention to me that they’ve been trying out the strength line instead of the typical spread. I had to admit, I hadn’t given it a lot of thought, especially since I don’t get to play my templar nearly as often as I’d like. So I decided to take their advice, and see what it was all about.

I haven’t gotten to actually play around with it yet, but the end skill is shown above, and just by the sounds of it makes it seem exceptionally worth while, especially for EoF content where things are stifling quite often. The resists to interruptions seem pretty helpful as well. When RoK releases there will be another 20 aa that I can dedicate to the tree, and then maybe I’ll go back to my crit heals. I don’t notice an enormous change in my heals by dropping the crits, and I’d much rather have an immunity or a skill that has an exceptional effect (as long as it works).

I had a lot of fun today playing in the lower levels, managed to get my brigand six levels. That’s right. Six. She went from 26 to 32, and then I spent a bunch of time (and some coin of course) outfitting her and getting items like adornments for her. It was a lot of fun. I also decided I’ll probably betray her to a swashbuckler. Don’t ask why, it’s just one of those things. I’m looking forward to it though. It’s nice to know that the lower levels in the game still interest me, and I can still have fun running through them. I did spend most of my time in Fallen Gate, and got a few pretties along the way. Made it all worth while. Even if I am out of vitality completely now.

Cleared Freethinkers Hideout and Clockwork earlier this week, tonight is Chel’Drak which is a raid I always look forward to (depending on our raid force, we really need the perfect blend in order to take down those class adds). FTH again later this week, and Mistmoore Inner Sanctum on Saturday (I think, I may be off on the dates, not exactly looking at the calendar). My thoughts go out to all of those affected by the fires in the states, hope everyone is safe and sound.

All you’ll end up with is paper cuts anyhow. I found this text amusing as I was running through my SoD statues, not for the second time, but the third time. Second time this week. I decided that my mystic, Misako, should also move up the ranks in her SoD completion. Arysh (warden) is on the named in the castle. Misako, is just at the Kaladim part, but at least she’s done her statues. I figured Unrest would be the most difficult one to obtain, but thankfully I wiggled my way into a group and completed it. I can honestly say after completing SoD on one character, and attempting to complete it on two others, that I hate SoD. I think I’ve been working on it enough lately to warrant that comment.

My thoughts are with those in the states who are dealing with brush fires right now, hope everyone is safe and moved out of the area, that’s one thing I love about where I live. There are no hurricanes, no tornados, no brush fires, no avalanches, or any other natural phenomenon *knocks on wood*. I know I’ve been slacking with the posts the past few days, but there’s nothing really to update about. I haven’t been working on quests aside from SoD, though I am going to do some carpenter crafting on Cordanim’s character while he’s gone to France. House items are always a good thing.

Speaking of house items, I completed my LoN collection (finally) with the painting of the Three Warriors. I traded a booster pack for it, but it was well worth it. I also managed to get the burning fists, a red aura that surrounds your hands. The problem now is who to claim it on as I have plenty who would look fairly spiffy wearing that. For now it sits unclaimed.

I’m wondering what changes are incoming with RoK. Wondering if people will be satisfied with it, what guilds will shift, and what characters I’ll eventually end up playing. I suppose I’m one of those people who just want to play a needed class, and who doesn’t place enough emphasis on playing what they want to play. If I had my choice just out of the blue, of playing any character at all that I wanted to play, I’d probably just stick with my warden. There are just so many wardens out there, that it’s difficult to secure myself a spot anywhere.

So what do I do. Continue to play her and hope that eventually I’ll manage to wiggle my way into what I want (raids with close friends), play the pick up game like I’ve been doing for over a year now, or give in, and play one of my other level 70’s who’s more “needed”. It’s actually more of a dilemma then one may think. I love my warden, I’m great at the class, I worked really hard on her for both house items and general quested do-dads. But there are so many druids out there. The chances of me actually managing to land some place to play her, are pretty slim. I adore their ports, and the class it just a lot of fun. So, that begs the question, what’s more important. Playing a class I love, but having to deal with never really being “end game”, or settling for second best, and playing a class I’m fine with playing, but don’t adore it as much as I adore the druid.

Sighs.

I’ve already completed the Sword of Destiny quest chain up to the legendary on my templar Dasie, however since I’m playing Arysh hopefully as a constant for the next little while, I decided I should get it done on her as well. It was difficult enough the first time, I did not relish doing it for a second time after a majority of people have already completed it. Yesterday I spent the day collecting my 50 statues, which was not quite so bad. I had Gothun help for a few sections (New Tunaria and Mistmoore Catacombs) and had Shadowgeist and Calreth help me for a few other portions (Kaladim). I met up with a friendly troubador from Fated who helped me into an Acada instance to grab the one there, and in turn I let him into my Unrest instance. It worked out well. It took the majority of the day but I managed to get them all.

After turning them in, I was given my house item which of course I adore. It’s the little statue pictured above on the right hand side of the fire place by the guitar. I spent a lot of time decorating Arysh’ house once the GM’s had returned all of her items to me, eternally grateful of course for all their help.

Her library holds over 80 books, and there’s easily another 20 that I can add. I’m pushing the housing item limit though, so I’ll have to wait until Torrent Knights his level 30 before I can upgrade to a 5-room (Not eager to move back to Kelethin), or just hold out to see what housing is like in RoK. I think I’ve got 273 items, 352 actual at the moment. Some of the books I’ve got still count as house items since they’re pretty old, and of course there’s 33 lore and legend items that take up a chunk of housing space as well. I tried not to clutter the house, but still get all of my items placed inside of it.

Today is MMIS, but we’re going to be missing quite a few people so I’m not sure how it will go. With RoK so close to release it seems like fewer and fewer people are signing up for raids, and I’m a little cautious about what’s going to happen once the level cap goes up. I’ve heard some people saying their raids were cancelled because certain core members wanted to wander through Shard of Fear instead of partake in their raids, which does not sound promising. I expect with the expansion that for a short time there will of course be some upheaval since they’ll be expanding the levels.

Aside from MMIS, and of course the typical weekend adventures to the grocery store, I’m hoping to work on my SoD a little more. I’d like to at least get to the portion that requires me to head into Castle Mistmoore and hunt down pages as well as named. If I can get that far then I know I can managed at least getting the legendary version of the weapon. I don’t think I’ll be killing Mayong any time soon for the fabled, but hey, that’s at least a step in the right direction.

With the GU39 being implemented yesterday, I of course (along with the majority of the server) found myself in the shard of fear. The zone is huge, and I loved that aspect of it. It’s one of the few out door dungeons EQ2 has. Not even sure if the others count since they’re raid zones and not dungeons (I’m thinking of the other one in the Feerrott, with those T5 epics that’s an out door zone). So for once I wasn’t doing an instance in a stuffy hallway or house or whatever. The entire thing is out doors. It reminded me both of the Feerrott, and the original Plane of Fear. There are three epicx2’s in the zone, The Dracolich, Agony, and of course Terror, who’s the boss of the zone. The majority of the zone is also orange con to a level 70, so that makes it some what difficult. There are some random quests in the zone, the puzzles were far easier then Unrest to figure out though. It’s a nice tide-over until RoK hits us in November. I did of course get naked from being smushed in there my first time through. I wouldn’t suggest heading in there unless you know your group, and know them well. It was fun none the less.

Last night also saw me heading into LoA (people still DO that zone?) no deaths, 2nd on the heal parse, not that I was keeping track, honestly. After that quick run through the raid made their way to Emerald Halls where we beat our heads against a wall for an hour or two. Or at least that’s exactly what it felt like. A bunch of people left after LoA so I swapped out my warden for the templar. Then we got another templar, so I swapped out for my bard since we were short a few. It’s really the down side to having so many high level alts. While I don’t mind swapping right now since none of them really need anything with RoK coming up, I am hoping to settle down some what once the expansion hits.

Cordanim is of course taking his break from EQ2 and playing WoW some, he’s also headed to France, lucky him! Gothun has been playing his assassin a lot lately which he enjoys, happy to hear. Calreth is of course doing crazy writs and crafting, still can’t believe he leveled so fast. One of my old friends from EQ1 may be coming to the game in November once RoK goes live, that’ll be nice, hopefully I can convince them to stay, and get another guilded into Torrent Knights (who hit level 26 last night woot!). Been chattering to both Albrta and Kilanna plenty as well, both wonderful ladies.

The cold weather is getting closer every day, and I’m absolutely loving it. It makes for nice lazy days crafting, watching the leaves change colours. Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, profit ui is the best EQ2 UI I’ve ever used, I just love it. They added a toggle yesterday that enables you to click a cure in your group window (as you’d typically do) and it will interrupt whatever spell you happen to be casting, and cast the cure. I love it. It’s fantastic. The new update to 4.0 was certainly worth it and I’d highly recommend this UI to anyone who happens to dislike default. It takes a little getting used to, but I doubt I’d ever go back now, especially with their online updater, so I don’t have to keep going to the eq2interface site in order to download my updates.

More updates later, tonight is HoS.. (people still do that zone too?!)

I’ve made previous posts about my good experiences with the customer service on EQ2, and today was no exception. I’ve had to contact them about numerous things through petitions, from lost chests, to deleted characters, and name changes. I’ve always been answered in a timely manor, never more then a few hours for a reply. Sure, it may be a slight pain to have to use the browser window for a petition and fill out their forms, but no more so then having to fill out anything else. Plus, I know they record it and get it that way, it’s not getting lost anywhere. I can check the status at any time.

Anyhow.

Backstory: Five or Six months ago, I relinquished my house before actually moving anything out of it. A whole house filled with quested books (about 100 of them) deity quest rewards (the world event ones) expensive paintings (the 450,000 status ones of Freeport and Qeynos) some elaborate tradeskill machines, and 200 other items. I decided at the time, since I was not playing the character that often, that I didn’t care about those items. I was playing a different character and her house was just fine. Foolish of me, yes.

Today: Lately I’ve been playing the character. A lot. It’s Arysh in fact who lost all of her house items. I decided on a whim to see if there was any chance at all that the lost house items could be restored to me. Fully aware of the fact that I’d probably be told no. Not only due to the span of time I left between relinquishing and petitioning, but also because that would be 200+ items that would have to be searched for, as well as the fact that my character had since moved homes twice, her character name changed once, and server transferred three times between then and today. Not an easy Task.

Three GM responses later, and as many details as I could provide, I was contacted and told that they had good news - my items would be given back to me, after 6 hours they had compiled a list of items that I had lost when I relinquished, and would drop them into my inventory. My jaw dropped and I practically screamed with joy. One at a time the items began appearing in my inventory. I started dropping them into Arysh’ home, ecstatic. Wow. Now that’s service.

I knew when I petitioned that I shouldn’t get my hopes up, and I knew it was my fault for relinquishing, you’re even given messages about it. with the newly added moving crates there’s no relinquishing involved (thank goodness). I made sure to give a huge thank you to all those involved, as they certainly went above and beyond what they had to do.

Just remember when you’re trying to get something returned or a question answered, that these people who work in customer service, are just that. People. I was polite, and patient, and knew they’d either be able to help, or not be able. Either way I would be ok with the response. Of course I was a million times happier once my issue had been resolved, but yeah.. what a great day.

For those who have known me for some time (how many of my posts start like that any how?) my druid Arysh (formally known as Silverstep) started out a warden. However, I betrayed her when I joined Torrent Knights on Lucan D’Lere since they were short a fury and I had no qualms doing it. After some time though, I decided I wanted to go back to being a warden, so that’s what I spent this weekend doing. Well, a few hours this weekend at least. Fury are great healers, don’t get me wrong, but much like the inquisitor class, they’re also used for DPS. For solo work and pvp they’re amazing, but I wanted something that was far more focused on healing. I only had one piece of gear that I’d loose, which was my hat. I managed to find a fairly good Unrest group last night and what would you know, my legendary hat dropped, a sign that I was meant to be a warden.

I’ve always envied those people who stuck through with their classes. I’ve never managed to do it. I worked so hard on the druid when I played her, having completed her claymore, DT access, Godking weapon, MoA, and Chel’Drak ring. She didn’t get her SoD done (yet) though because I was playing with Dasie instead. So I’ve decided to dedicate some time to the warden and try to complete it. I’m collecting statues (again) and uh, no, it’s not fun. Not any more fun then the first time I attempted it.

I’ve signed up for FTH and Clockwork tonight, hopefully I’ll get a spot on the raid, if not that’s alright though. I know there is a huge surplus of druids typically. I’m hoping maybe I can prove myself as a “better then average” one though. I know the class pretty dang well, and when I was doing MMIS in a melee dps group on Saturday night I parsed 2nd zone wide on the heal parse. I know heal parses are not the end all be all, but when a fury in a melee dps group is you’re second highest.. well, they’re either doing something right, or the other healers are doing something wrong. Or a little of both. It was a bit of an off night and we didn’t quite make it as far as we’d like, but I had fun none the less.

Today I worked on my armor quest for some time, I like the graphic of it. The picture above has Arysh in Thundering Steppes smacking around some skeletons. I had my setting quality turned quite high, and for the first time ever realized that the ravine throughout the zone is actually made of a whole lot of skulls. I was amazed that I’d never noticed it before. I actually didn’t alter the screen shot in any way, aside to add a frame around it, I love the way it turned out.

I’ve been dealing with petitions for most of the day (not bad ones either, more details on it tomorrow when I know the result) and again I have to say I’ve never had a bad experience with the support staff from SoE. Hopefully they can help me out with my issue, and I’ll be one happy camper. If not though, I know they at least tried and I appreciate it.

Other then that, looking forward to the Shard of Fear instance that opens later this week (if all goes according to plan) and other random updates. Things in game are great.