Sighs. I’m disheartened, what can I say. Last night we attempted our first RoK raid instance, the Tomb of Thugga. It’s located in Fens, in a small cave in the center portion of the waterfall close to the span. We were excited, we had a great raid force, people were in great spirits. Zoned in, and it looked.. well, not exactly exciting, but not bad either. It consists of a long hallway with spiders and skeletons who enjoy stunning and fearing. Two small rooms to the left and right, with a huge spider Mistress in the center back.

We cleared the zone and were face to face with the named. Staring her down. Pulled her, and wiped as we had no clue what to expect. Figured out what her “thing” was (ever named encounter has a “thing”) and prepared to pull her again once we’d worked out a strat.

Down came the server.

Sighs. The raid hung around on ventrilo for 45 minutes waiting for Antonia Bayle to unlock, and then we had to call it, it was getting late and people were bored. It unlocked, and we were….

Outside the instance. Zoning in, we found the entire thing had re-set. If we wanted to attempt this zone again, we’d have to clear everything, again. People were upset. Now, I’m typically quiet calm when these things happen, after all I know there are issues that are expected. That doesn’t mean it was any less of a disappointment though. We can’t even attempt the zone again until Monday or some such as our MT won’t be around this weekend. Goudia was parsing around 900 on some fights (the troubador) and I was just tickled pink, since she’s 78 in treasured gear. I know that number’s not very high, but I was happy with our progress. We were doing wonderful.

When the server was down yesterday morning for three hours instead of the planned one hour, I didn’t mind. When we have log in issues and throttling the players logging in (slowing them down so the log in server is not swamped) I can understand it. I didn’t mind them disabling our broker sales completely for periods of time while they worked on things. But the expansion’s been out for a while now, and the server stability hasn’t gotten better. We still experienced 15 minute receiving zone info timers if we tried to go anywhere. I think I’ve stared at that screen more then I’ve looked at any RoK zone this week so far.

Of course, we’ll just go about our way, and try again some other time. I just wish our first experience in one of the new zones had of gone a lot smoother.

Since the servers are down (with no explanation again, aside from the fact that they were supposed to be down for an hour (it’s over two hours now) I went browsing through the EQ2player forums, which is always a mistake. As I browsed I found this article, which just made me cringe. I feel exceptionally bad for all those people who replaced their gear with the treasured rewards (and then sold their old gear) thinking they would be better. Heck, I’m one of those people as well. Although I tried to upgrade for stats before I upgraded for the gear bonuses, I did replace practically everything Goudia was wearing with the new stuff. I also replaced Arysh’ fabled due to the heal procs.

So what happens? We’re SoL pretty much. It doesn’t matter if you’ve replaced, and sold, your old gear. You won’t be getting it back. Let this be (another) lesson to us all.

I love the way people ask in the post “isn’t that what beta was for.. ” because they have a point. Two weeks after the expansion is out and now all the items that people quested to get are being changed. Bleh.

A rather large tune will be appearing in an upcoming hotfix, and I wanted to give you all a heads up:

The effects that are currently attached to Treasured items in Kunark were initially intended for Legendary quality gear; you can find effects like Overflow and Divine Restoration on both tiers of equipment. Typically these effects will automatically scale down on lower quality gear, but given the ease of acquiring RoK Treasureds, they did not scale down enough, and this has created a large imbalance throughout the expansion. In order to correct this, I’ve created lesser versions of all of these effects and attached them to all Treasured gear. None of the stats on the gear itself has been touched, only the power of the effects, which has been lowered by about 1/3 in most cases. I know this will be upsetting to many of you who have worked hard to acquire the pieces you have, and don’t like seeing them balanced in this manner. The best consolation I can offer you is that there are Legendary versions of all of these pieces which can be acquired through quests, bosses, and faction merchants. The effects on these Legendaries should now be a large (and much more desirable) upgrade from the more easily acquired Treasured items.

In addition to the above changes, the 4 rewards from the Anaphylaxis quest have been dropped from Fabled to Legendary quality. They are still of better quality than most Legendary loot available in Kunark, but should no longer rival the strength of Fabled weapons acquired on raids.

I am sorry to be the harbinger of bad news; I never like tuning items down, but in this case it was the most equitable solution. I hope to have some good news (in the form of new, cool items) for you all sometime in the near future =)

I did little adventuring with Goudia yesterday, hitting 78 was basically my goal, I slowed down after that. She’s 23% into the level after running around Jarsath Wastes trying to work on faction. Not fun. Killing the same mobs, talking to the same people, trying to kill with 12 other groups of people also running around trying to go after those same mobs so they can finish off the same faction quests that half the server is working on. Down side to a heavily populated server. Not that I’m complaining, but I needed to step away from the people a little. Drives me nuts after a bit.

Arsenal is experiencing their first T8 raid on Thursday, and I’m excited about it. I upgraded a few spells today even though a greater amount are not actually upgrades unless I find masters of them. My spell proc buff was upgraded (thankfully) and does a lot more damage, other then that I’m waiting on masters. Loams are so very expensive right now, they’re going for 4-5p a piece, and since the node is shared between fighters and scouts, it’s frustrating to say the least.

I spent most of today crafting, which was incredibly relaxing. As of now my crafters sit at:

• 80 Provisioner
• 76 Jeweler
• 75 Sage
• 70 Woodworker
• 61 Alchemist
• 57 Weaponsmith
• 50 Tailor
• 35 Armorer
• 30 Carpenter

I’m still looking forward to getting each one to level 80, and for some reason I find the levels faster and easier then before. Probably due to the changes in crafting. A few people are complaining about the changes, but I’m sort of indifferent. Easy or hard, I’d craft none the less. I’d rather have 9 top end crafters then have a whole lot of adventurers who just cause endless trouble for me deciding on who to play. I love the amount of status I’m getting for completing T8 writs as well, hopefully it stays as high as it’s been.

I’m slightly discouraged by how quick and painless everything has been. Does that sound odd? I think after experiencing EQ1 for so long I miss it, and the methods of keying players and requiring access that took forever. I miss the general difficulty of the game, corpse runs and all. There’s nothing difficult in EQ2 (this is a personal opinion only) and I’m hoping T8 raiding proves me wrong. I miss access quests like Deathtoll, hated it when they removed the requirements to pertty much every zone except for CoD (old world zones) and maybe I’m just playing so much that I’m feeling a little drab about these things. Could also be the snow that just doesn’t seem to want to end lately, heh.

Managed to get the jeweler to 72 last night, I figured one level a day is a nice steady pace for a crafter, and in 10 days I’ll be level 80 (at least on someone.. and providing I don’t slack) that way they regain a little vitality as well to help level through it. I’m almost 78 on Goudia, she should hit it today (I think right now she’s 10% away and that’s because the servers are down for maintenance). She managed to clear out a few more Kunzar Jungle quests with Shadowgeist, although more and more the quests are turning to heroics and we can’t duo them all. She’s managed to get quite a few legendary upgrades, since she was not raid geared at the end of T7. I haven’t stumbled over any more spell upgrades yet, but I’m sure that will come in time. I need to get my hands on some loams, which just sucks. Precision of the Maestro is top of my list for things to upgrade and any other buffs that I may have neglected thus far (which is a lot, I know, shameful). Loams are so expensive that I have no incentive to want to purchase any, and harvesting them is proving to be difficult. I know a lot of people are using the drachnid illusion item in order to spend their hours harvesting in caves, but I’ve decided not to take that rout for fear of the angry mobs that have been swarming those people.

Thursday is the guilds first raid, we’re headed to the Tomb of Thugga in Fens of Nathsar. It’s a tier one raid zone, and supposedly the easiest of three (or so we hope). We’re trying to get everyone as high level as we can before we head out, it’ll be interesting to see the raid zone. I’m looking forward to it. If we don’t have enough, we’ll head to MMIS, which still holds upgrades for people (as well as raid experience as we’re all a little rusty now). I’m looking forward to getting into the new zones, as I never had a chance on beta to play in any of them aside from running through Veeshans Peak once it was cleared.

Once Goudia hits 80 I’m going to continue working on her SoD (since the wee gal doesn’t have it yet) and even Claymore. Rumor has it that in RoK you may need those, who really knows. It’ll keep me busy in the mean time. Goudia’s up to only 800 quests completed, and I’d place a bet saying that at least half of those are RoK quests, or close to it. I never did quest with her much leveling up since she has never really been my ‘main’ before. I actually feel comfortable calling her that as well. It’s pleasurable to have a main. I still have progress with multiple crafters, and perhaps I’ll get bored with her in some time, but I always enjoyed the bard and just never really had an opportunity to let her shine. I do have a few pet peeves, though very few are with the actual class as opposed to how others perceive the class. I am not just one of those bards who hope to AFK the entire fight, I dps, and spec to maximize not just my own, but my groups. Utility? Yes, but there’s so much more to this class then that. Everyone rants on and on about how wonderful our counterpart, the dirge, is. But maybe they don’t know everything that a troubador can do. Dirge gives hate? Well, that’s great, troubadors take hate away from anyone who’s not a fighter. Yes, I realize troubs are more geared towards a caster-heavy group, but we’ve also got haste, stam / str buffs, and other small tid-bits that make us fairly well rounded. Don’t have an enchanter? That’s what a troubador is for. Power regen and mez’s all in one. A well played bard is a great asset, and I wish more people would realize that. I’ve had to box my bard on so many raids in the past while playing a ‘more important’ character, just because they’re a very easy auto follow class. I’d never want to actually play my character that way, not fun at all.

Stargrace was busy yesterday, very busy in fact. I spent the morning harvesting and doing some smaller quests with Shadowgeist, then decided I’d try to finish off my levels with Stargrace while he went and did a few instances with guild mates. I found provisioning very easy this time around, though it may have been the 9 exp potions I had stored up. I used one potion a level, and even with no vitality managed to ding. I’d make all of the food and drink that was new for the pristine combine, and then grind out writs to finish off the level. Even with the decrease in writ experience (they’ve dropped it from 10% on completion to 5%) it didn’t take me too long to hit the max level. So that’s one of my crafters out of the way, now only eight more to go *groans* I’m not sure who it will be yet. I’m thinking probably jeweler, then sage, then woodworker. Then I’ll work on the ones below 70 that I have. Alchemist, weaponsmith, tailor, armorer, carpenter. In the mean time, while I may have multiple crafters (what else is new) I’ve actually managed to stick it out with a ‘main’ at least. Of course it helps that my healers can’t solo quest nearly as fast as any dps class out there, so I have no real desire to play them to begin with. I’m sure eventually I will, but for now I’m content with the troubador.

Shadowgeist also gave me my first master 71+ yesterday for Goudia, my self buff *cheers* although she can’t use it until level 79, it’s certainly a nice one. I’ve been having a lot of fun talking to fellow bloggers on the channel in game, sharing ideas and suggestions and opinions. We don’t always think alike, and that’s refreshing to me. Intelligent conversations that differ without there suddenly being a Chuck Norris joke thrown into the middle of it by random_player_101 like there is in the level channels that are server side. It’s been great to get to know everyone a little better too.

Other then leveling, harvesting, questing, and more questing, things are pretty quiet. Not that I mind at all. Oh, and as a side note, with the highest tier of writs for crafting paying just under 14,000 personal status on completion, and with Stargrace now able to complete hers in 4 minutes, this is one very happy crafter. Since there are no HQ this time around in RoK, I’m looking for alternative means to level my small guild (alone for the most part might I add) and it’s going to be a very slow grind. I did manage to ding us 28 though, and 40% into it as Stargrace leveled to 80.

These are by far the most interesting house items I’ve come across (so far) in RoK. You may want to snuggle up and cuddle with these little plush toys, but they’re most certainly NOT dolls. Action figures, that’s what they are. The Burnai, Sarnak, and Goblin house items were rewards for finishing off three tome language quests this weekend. Goudia managed to hit level 77, though I have yet to actually buy a single upgrade for her spell or gear wise. I’m reluctant to shell out so much money on skills that appear to be a very small upgrade before I find a master (or adept3, if loams would start dropping for me some time). I finished off the Fens of Nathsar quests, all but one which I can’t complete until I reach 30,000 faction with the Bellybumpers or whatever they’re called (yes yes, I know it’s Bellywhompers). Since one of the npc is removed from the zone for now, and I don’t fancy grinding mobs endlessly for faction, it will just sit uncompleted for now.

Leveling up this time around has been… different. I actually feel as though I’ve not even done anything to get the levels I have. There doesn’t seem to be able real difficulty or effort involved, I haven’t had to LFG for hours on end or any of the other typical ‘issues’ I’ve had in the past leveling up. I completed my quests in a group 90% of the time, a small duo or trio seemed to work best. I still have not set foot in a single instance. I’m sitting at 120aa, with 20 left to get before I reach the cap. Pleased, considering Goudia started at 95aa when RoK released.

On the down side, I doubt I’ll have as many level 80’s as I had level 70’s for one simple reason. I don’t think I would want to solo quest them to 80. It can be long, and tedious. Especially for those poor healer types out there. If you’re not a dps class, everything is going to take you longer then normal to accomplish. Who wants that.

So my new goals? Hit 80 on my ‘main’ (Goudia) and continue to work the major quest lines with her. When I’m not doing that, I’m going to try very hard to get all of my crafters to level 80. Do I think I can do it? Yes. It’ll take time and resources of course, but I don’t see why not.

In the mean time, keeping busy making my Christmas cards this year by hand. I’m excited about it. I’ve always hated how commercialized everything is, and this also keeps me busy. I’ll post some pictures of the cards I’ve designed once I get them finished up. Still trying to collect addresses from family and friends as well. It’s astounding the number of people who have moved and who I’ve lost touch with over the years. Oh, side note. Anyone go to see that new Disney movie “Enchanted”? I was thinking of seeing it but not sure if it’s exactly something I want to pay to watch. I have to remind myself some times that I’m 26, not 6. *grins*

Goudia sports a few new titles, and I find them a little amusing. I typically keep my titles off, because who wants to deal with having to read all that every time they look at me. She doesn’t even have a last name! Running around Kunzar Jungle last night warranted me enough experience to hit level 75 on the troubador, and make a good deal of coin from vendor sales, as well as obtain my “rubble-rabble rouser” title, and “Quatcha Catcher” title. I love titles, they’re fun little rewards, but I think they’re slightly over the top now.

This is basically how my evening of questing went:

Goudia - Hellos mr / miss / mrs <random name of npc> I’m here to aid you!

Random npc - Great! Can you please head to point A, kill 10 <random name of mob> then come back to me

Goudia - Uh. But didn’t I just do that?

Random npc - Yes, but we’d like you to do it, again! Isn’t that wonderful?

Goudia - Uh.. I suppose..

Spends 10 minutes hunting for mobs, then returns to npc

Random npc - Great! Now, do that, only.. this time. go to point B first. Then visit merchant in point C, grab their quest to kill around the same area the very first quest I gave you made you kill, jump 5 times, and return to me (again).

Goudia - Uhms… ok… *stifles a yawn*

Complaining? No. But just like I need a break from doing any dungeon crawls, I also need breaks from the quests. They all make me run around difference sections of the zone, kill x number of y mobs, return, and then do it again. Numerous times. I did get some fairly nice gear upgrades from doing very little work. But it actually feels as though I have not done anything to get these past five levels. Not complaining, just finding it different.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who live in the states, it’s not turkey day here, since ours was last month, but I hope everyone enjoys it. As for myself… we’re on our second foot of snow in two days, and it’s great. Excited about Christmas!

Got the jeweler to level 71, ran out of vitality and pristine experience so decided to put it on hold for now. I still find it easiest to do the rush order writs on the provisioner, and the location of the tablet to get my writs is an annoyance in every good aligned instance, I have to run through doors and down floors. Grumbles.

Here’s hoping the situation on AB changes (with the player base, I see nothing wrong on SoE’s end, they’re trying, but the mean-ness of the server, has been disheartening in particular to the issues) and things cool down and calm down now that the crazy rush of the adventure pack has slowed. Someone let me know how that extra experience boost is eh?

Every time poor Stargrace zones into her house, her friendly shiny-finder, Snookie, is sitting in or on the book shelves. Apparently he has some strange affinity for paper. I find it amusing none the less. I had Goudia feed it, and chuckled, as the “shiny” it rewarded me with, was the no-trade no-value lore no-destroy Sword of Destiny quest piece. I petitioned to have it removed, since I couldn’t destroy it and Goudia is past that portion of the quest. I’m still looking for a T8 carpenter on Antonia Bayle to take all these mahogany pieces off of my hands and turn them into pretties, there’s been some fantastic pieces I’ve seen for sale, but they’re also exceptionally expensive right now. With my carpenter sitting at level 30, I’m wondering if I should just bite the bullet and level her continuously. You’d think (and I’ve mentioned this before) that of all the tradeskillers I have (I have one of everything) that the one I use the MOST (carpenter) would be level 70 at least. But no. I’ve typically just bought or quested for my pieces. Oh, and Stargrace looks tiny in the shot since she’s using that billy doll clicky that reduces her by 40%.

What a cute couple eh? That’s Shadowgeist and Goudia sitting on the throne in Fens of Nathsar, after smacking down some goblin guys. Much fun. I think this quest rewarded a legendary item, it wasn’t that much of an upgrade though, so the vendor got to eat it. Ah well. Money is money!

Ok, I know the picture is pretty cruddy, but it’s taken through the living room window at 7:30am so that’s as good as it gets for now. That’s what I woke up to today. When I went to bed last night, that view, was green. This morning we were dumped with 5cm of snow, tomorrow, another 10cm of snow. I suppose winter is officially here. I am ecstatic of course. I’d show it, too, by running out and screaming and throwing snow balls and dancing around like I typically do the first snow of every year (I’m a kid at heart, what can I say) but alas, the cat has learned how to set off my alarm clock in the mornings when she wants to be fed, and I was up off and on all night.

That’s right. If anyone knows of an alarm clock (with lit buttons, and a radio preferred) where the buttons can lock, or are some place other then the top of the clock, let me know eh? What the cat does, is place herself on top of the alarm clock, and then walk around on it (it’s not large, but she’s figured out how to do this as an art form now) and she either 1. sets the clock to some random time, thus giving the potential to be late for that days activities, or she 2. turns on the alarm clock radio, and has it play at all hours of the night (again, randomly). She knows if someone’s up they’ll feed her a daily 1/4th a can of wet food. I’ve tried to break her of the habit, especially when she was trying to rouse me out of bed at 5:30am.. it’s moved to 6:30 am now which I’m comfortable with, at midnight last night, and at 4am the night before, the clock radio suddenly would blare into life, as she’s learned how to turn the dial for that too, some how. Ugh.

Anyhow, in EQ2, quested with Goudia, she hit level 74 and a bit into it. The server issues on Antonia Bayle were lessoned, but the animosity from players was not. I got Stargrace to 72 provisioner and had a lot of fun doing it. She has a lot of recipes she’s never had before. I also got Yamini an alchemist level. I was contemplating leveling her (I’m not ‘bored’ of questing in RoK yet, I’m just a person who loves to play alts) but then remembered she’s stuck in the terrible 50’s and that deterred me right fast. I took Stargrace out and did a few quests with her, moving her almost to 71. Arysh is at 73 still. I’m still having lots of fun in the game (and out) one of my old friends from EQ1 decided to open up an EQ2 account, so he’s been testing the waters on a few new characters. We haven’t gotten much time to play yet since I’ve been off playing in RoK, but that’ll change in time.

Hope this mid-week day finds everyone in high spirits.. I think I’ll go enjoy the snow!