I’ve done a lot of the epics now. For my own epics I’ve completed the warden, coercer, and troubador - once I betrayed Goudia over to a dirge, I decided that I’d also have to complete the dirge epic. The epic was surprisingly easy. I mean, really easy. I decided late yesterday to start it. The beginner drops from Satherians in either Chardok or Sebilis - Made my way with a trio team of myself, Shadowgeist (80 Shadowknight) and Albrta (80 templar). Didn’t have to wait too long for my piece to drop, and we cleared out a few named along the way.

I’d heard from Eyenstein how much of a pain some of the updates could be. Not that they were difficult per say, but that they could take some time. I had one named in Karnor’s Castle after some running around - and for the first time ever, got the update on the first kill. Great! In fact, everything that I need I got on the first kill. This included 50 drakes in Jarsath Wastes, 10 harvests in Chelsith (no named had to be killed, just some abysmal creatures in the front waters plus some coral). I had to get two updates from devourers that we found as trash in both Maidens and Vaults of Eternal Sleep - again we killed no named and just went in with our little trio. Kasul did come along as well though he was only level 73, for some added support. We killed an easy named in New Tunaria, and that was basically the end of my quest.

Oh wait, not quite. I got to head to Rivervale, sing a sad song and make all of the halflings cry. That was fun. Then I also got to gather together some pies from a table and throw them at halflings. That was even better.

After that I headed to Chardok for the last update I needed, an 84^^^ in the library.

Except no one wanted to help aside from Shadowgeist and Albrta. We waited around asking on channels with no interest. Well, that’s what happens on Holiday weekends, everyone goes out of town! So, we decided we’d give it a shot with just the three of us.

We had one death when we tried to train past some encounters instead of simply fighting our way - but thankfully a few updates ago SOE added a respawn point just next to the bridge past the red gate. We quickly collected ourselves and made our way to the library without incident, took down the named, and I headed to Gorowyn for the final turn in.

That was it.

Now I have both the mythical troubador quest on me, and the dirge quest. The troubador weapon itself sits in my bank collecting dust while I sport the new (and much improved) dirge epic. Never know when I may betray back it’s been known to happen once or twice… maybe even three times…

After working most of the day on Tipa’s new theater (complete with stage and cafe style seating with bar) I decided to unpack Goudia a little bit and maybe start working on her Ratonga hovel. I have plans of a cave-like bedroom made out of Oggok tables and chairs but so far it’s just an idea. I get ideas from Norrathian Homeshow for most of what I build these days, and adapt them where I see fit. So I can’t be given all of the credit. It’s quite common for decorators to share their ideas within the forums though and see how other people use them.

I really did have an amazing time building Tipa’s room though. Theme rooms are easier then just “build me a house” type rooms where I feel obligated to do the same thing over and over. Kitchen, bedroom, library, etc. You know, the common things you find within a home.

Anyhow. This is Goudia’s library. I should work on Silhouette’s library, Malfi was visiting today and commented on how bare the shelves look at the moment. I have a quirk about having duplicates of books in my homes - it doesn’t happen. In fact if I think I may have a double, I go through the list of items from the doorway and remove one so that I don’t have doubles any more. There are hundreds of books in game, from the L&L to the specialty books that are no longer available. I’ve missed out on a bunch of them too, but I still love collecting.

I wasn’t going to post about housing today, but I simply couldn’t help it!

Looking forward to another great weekend, an extra long one at that!

Lets not talk about housing for once. Lets not talk about how I just spent the past six hours designing and decorating a theater type room for the one and only world famous Tipa (did you hear drum rolls? There should have been drum rolls there). Lets not talk about how I’m so excited that I just want to burst, and it’s not even my house.

Instead, lets talk about the cloak of flames.

I finally completed it for the first time ever - why? Not only is it a heritage quest that rewards the guild (at level 80) with 6,900 status (69,000 personal status) but it also got revamped along with the other heritage quests a little while ago. So that crafted cloak I was wearing with a few saves, 25 health and power, and 25 haste? Is now a piece of junk compared to this very nice cloak. Since I have no luck in actually getting a cloak to drop for me in game (ie: the Runnyeye one, scout or mage I’d eagerly take!) this will probably be my cloak for the next little while.

The quest itself was quite easy - it was collecting the snuffing pages ahead of time that was a pain. I spent three days camping Lesser Faydark just waiting for three simple pages to drop. Thankfully, yesterday I had some company in the catacombs, and Kasul and I both ended up getting the pages we needed there. New Tunaria? No problem. I don’t even remember doing Kaladim, so that one must have been easy for me too (sorry Kasul). Afterwards you get three sub-quests. Complete those, and get another three quests and one of those three breaks into four. Do the four quests, the three other quests - and then!

You get to wear some goggles and hunt for itty bitty spider webs scattered all across Greater Faydark. 20 of them to be exact. It took me the better part of last night to gather the flimsy things - but I did it!

Now Goudia sports her cloak of flames proudly.

On occasion, I do get a request to decorate someone else’ house. Refreshing since I spend so much time decorating my own. These requests typically come in one of a few ways. Either the owner already has furniture, and simply wants me to arrange it and fill in the blanks - or the owner has nothing and I build them a home from scratch, trying to suit their personalities some what. I always try to make the home suit the character if that makes sense.

Ogres are no different from all the other races out there in Norrath let me tell you. Pictured above is the gentleman’s club section of my latest project, a house for a well learned ogre. The main entrance consists of a museum type display section, along with his vast library collection. In the center platform (if you’re familiar with 5-room Freeport homes at all) is a games room with a bar. I haven’t decided what I’m doing with the rest of the space yet. I’m contemplating turning the upstairs room into either a kitchen, or a cave-type bedroom. It will depend on my mood. I like the way the house has turned out so far though.

Calreth ended up moving his 70 wizard warlock over to Najena - and everyone kept it a secret from me until the following morning. What a great surprise! I love having good friends around and Calreth is one of my closest. I’m also pleased that Nostalgia is growing by little leaps. I never wanted it to develop into something that large - but the recruits we have been getting are nice and polite and friendly, even if not everyone is on all the time.

I’ve been working on my cloak of flames for the dirge - it’s very slow going. I managed to collect my remaining page from lesser faydark late last night (insomnia sucks) and I have three pages left. One from Loping plains, one from New Tunaria, and one from Mistmoore Catacombs. So, that will be the project for today - hopefully. Since the revamp of the heritage quests (and since all other cloaks worth having have evaded me thus far) it’s a significant upgrade to the plain crafted one I’m wearing.

Daelic had sent Silhouette into the icy depths to recover some soggy bones, from his missing crew. Why on earth the ghost wanted them back (a proper burial maybe) I had no clue, but that’s what I spent a portion of my evening doing. Checking the ocean floor, looking for bones. This quest was far easier then the previous ocean floor one I’d finished, being able to tab the bones makes all the difference in the world.

I decided to go back to Everfrost last night and finish off a few more of the quests there before the zone is revamped. Who knows if the old quests will remain, or if they’ll be completely redoing everything already in the zone. Since they’re adding new quest hubs I’m sure there will be some new things for me to complete as well.

Aside from that, my evening was quiet. I talked to Tipa and Kasul in guild before going to bed early, I’ve been under the weather with the flu lately and sleep is always a good thing.

This morning I finally managed to drag myself through the last two levels of my woodworking. My woodworker had basically been at a stand still since level 74, I just could not motivate myself to level her. However, with the upcoming guildhalls nearing I knew I could make good use of the status from grinding out rush order writs. T8 rewards over 1,000 guild status each writ, with the level 79 ones rewarding 1,500+ guild status a pop. I can complete them in four minutes, so that’s a lot of potential status in a relatively short amount of time.

I had three experience potions left, and I made use of them for each level. I typically save them for the last 10 levels, and it takes me a little less then an hour (without vitality) to level through as long as I stick to rush orders. The little bit of experience you get upon completion is fantastic, and another one of the main reasons I stick to doing writs.

Nostalgia is inching through level 24 now, I’d like to hit 25 before the 1st of September, and then aim for one level a week. I haven’t decided quite yet if that’s reasonable or not. We hit level 23 on the 21st of August, then 24 on the 25th, far less then a week between levels there. I’m hoping the same will hold true for level 25. The issue for me now is of course, my crafters (the remaining ones at least) are fairly low level, their status output is reduced, and I don’t enjoy grinding writs on characters who are already level 80, I’d rather do it for progression.

As far as crafters go, that leaves me with:

• 80 - Sage
• 80 - Jeweler
• 80 - Woodworker
• 80 - Provisioner
• 80 - Carpenter
• 30 - Alchemist
• 20 - Armorer

The sage and woodworker have not yet completed their epics. I need to harvest some T5 rares for them first before I can continue. No way am I paying what people want on the broker these days.

I also managed to level my little paladin to 23 yesterday. She picked up lots of adepts and masters along the way - and I’ve found one small annoyance with the 1-20 smart loot system that was implimented last update. Since there’s a fairly good chance that any adept that drops will be something you can actually use - there is a decrease of adepts on the broker. It’s rare to get a useless one these days. So the paladin level 1-20 adepts that I did see on the broker were going for upwards of 5 gold each, I even saw some priced at 20g each. These are lowbie items that get replaced fast, but since I had been soloing I wanted to make sure I would be well equipped. I imagine I’ll make her a nice set of steel to wear, and perhaps also work on her class armor quests just for the appearance of it. We’ll see!

You may have read that Everfrost is getting a revamp in the next game update. If you have not, be sure to check out the details on the eq2players pages here. I like it when zones get revamped, and I think in a game like Eq2 where new content is constantly being added and where old zones become just that - old, it’s important or else your player base only sees a small fraction of the zones that they could potentially visit, because well, why bother. Thus has been the case for Everfrost for some time now. It’s a beautiful zone, but there’s not a heck of a lot to do there. I decided before the revamp I’d take a peek through and complete the quests that are currently there on my level 80 coercer. After all, you still gain aa for completing quests and I was getting roughly 5-10% per quest still. For grey encounters, that’s not too bad.

There was one quest given to me by a gravestone on an island not too far from the zone in that I recalled very well. It had me searching the ocean floor for these little rose gems, five of them, and collecting them. Except the dang things were always almost impossible to see, and there’s no real set location for them they just spawn randomly in the water along the floor. I had the quest on my character back when 50 was the level cap, and still had it on me if that’s any indication of how much I disliked this quest. I’d never completed it before.

The little gems are still difficult to find, but at least now they show up almost as pitch black against the ocean floor, so you’re less likely to pass over top of one. These quests have no actual reward - but if you complete them all I believe they unlock one of the instances in the zone that lost the keyed requirement some time ago. Ah well, it was still aa.

I did a lot of crafting this weekend, it was great. My woodworker got from 73 to 75, my alchemist from 1-30 and my armorer (who used to be a tailor) from 1-23. I also decided to start a paladin on my second account. Now this probably will not last, after all in the four years I’ve played EverQuestII (or EQ Live for that matter) I have never really played a tank, but I noticed that Nostalgia doesn’t have one in EQ2, and well, it would be nice to have one. Plus the tank I typically play with could probably use a break from time to time in order to play his own alts, and having a tank for that purpose would be great too. I know, I’m just getting back into having alts again and that’s bad bad, right? Ah well, as long as I’m having fun.

I played some guild wars this weekend as well, more about that later though.

As a completely unrelated topic. I just wanted to say that folks need to remember from time to time that gamers, are people too. I realize that not everyone out there is nice, and that there’s plenty of lashing out that goes on online. Much of it in game. That E-Peens are waved comments traded and insults made. However. Why lower yourself to someone else’ level when you know you are better then that. If someone is insulting you or lashing out or doing some other hair brained thing - just remember that they’re a person too. Maybe they’re going through something difficult, or maybe they’re having issues in their lives, there’s no real way to tell. Does that excuse their behavior? No of course not, but before you decide to fight fire with fire - maybe just take a second to be the better person and back down from it. I don’t understand some times how that could possibly be so difficult. It’s a game, after all.

So much happened yesterday in game that I barely know where to start. First of all, it was Saturday, and for those few who follow my ramblings, that meant it was ‘guild status Saturday’ where I would be running heritage quests and writs and whatever else came my way in order to help push Nostalgia 2.0 to level 30 before guild halls come out in September. We’re currently 37% into level 23 which is not too bad, though we have a LOT of work to go still.

So that’s how it was that Vlcan, Kasul (on his coercer alt), Bloodpact (shadowgeist on his necromancer alt) and myself (on my monk alt) headed to Kelethin to work together to completed “In honor and service” the level 17 heritage quest given. The quest was a lot of fun, and we mentored down to level 20 to complete it since we were a little big. There is only one heroic encounter in the entire thing, so perhaps it was overkill. Vlcan, being new to EQ2, had no idea about the concept of ‘place holders’ and was curious why our named were simply not just there waiting for us to slaughter them. It was fun to explain ‘camps’ and how things worked.

Running this heritage quest was a big deal - Nostalgia is VERY small. We have perhaps four active members, and 17 members total (plus their alts). It was the first ‘event’ we’d run and even though only four of us showed up - I had a blast and we will be running more of these. Kasul had to leave early, but finished up the HQ when he got home.

Aside from that, the one and only, world famous, Tipa moved to Najena on her level 80 troubador. Before that though, Shadowgeist asked if Kasul and some friends wanted to do some old T7 instances. We headed to Barren Sky to do Vaults, and the coercer hat dropped there - which if you haven’t seen, is pretty cool looking. It has an eye in the center of it and shock waves surround it in a pretty interesting effect. Yes, even though I was well beyond the level of the hat, I rolled need on it. It just looked too cool! We headed to Vaults with Tipa (on her 68 necromancer), Eyenstein (playing his defiler), Kasul (as himself, go figure!) Shadowgeist (also as himself!) and me playing Silhouette. Of course after we’d finished the instance I realized I should have brought Stargrace, who needs experience. Ah well, we decided to head to Den of the Devourer afterward in Bonemire, another instance rarely done these days.

That was not the end of the excitement, oh no. Remember also that at the end of each instance, the named now gives a little guild status, so that worked out well.

Later on in the day, I headed to Crypt of Agony, Vaults of Eternal Sleep, Maidens Chamber, and Chelsith. The first three instances I did on Silhouette, and she FINALLY got the drop I’ve been waiting in VoES forever, the fabled symbol with the mental proc on it. I’d been hoping for it to drop for a long time now, and my gracious group members declined so that I could roll need. A fury and conjuror in the group could have made use of it — but that is the pleasure of running instances with friends.

The final instance, Chelsith, I ran on Arysh (warden) who managed to get a nice neck upgrade, as well as a chest piece (which is not an upgrade at the moment, but is part of a set bonus and if I get one more piece, it will be an upgrade).

After all THAT was finally done - I got a level on Goudia pushing her to 28 alchemist. It is double experience weekend after all.

No doubt I’ve left out a fact or two here and there, but it was such an amazing day I doubt it matters much. Honestly, this is why I play the game. Good friends. Good fun. I’m hoping to gain some more crafter levels today and just take it easy, we’ll see how it goes!

Sebilis was built by Venril Sathir during the height of the Iksar Empire, and was once a stronghold for the Iksars of Kunark. Following the death of Emperor Ganak and a steady onslaught of slave uprisings, goblin invasions, and forest giant attacks, the Iksar Empire declined in power. Trakanon dealt one of the final blows to the Empire, destroying the city of Sebilis, and was himself mortally wounded as a result. Presently, the ruins of Old Sebilis are occupied by a clan of Frogloks. Iksar skeletons and ghouls roam the city’s old burial grounds while a poisonous, undead Trakanon can be found in a lair far below the main city.

Many years following their stronghold’s destruction, the Iksars established themselves in Cabilis, far west from the site of a dark moment in their history.

Anyone at least 46th level can zone into Sebilis without a key. The old Key to Sebilis quest is still active, but is now optional (though required if you are under 46). - Allakhazam

We were going to head to the Plane of Storms, however there’s still a level requirement for the zone, though we’re not sure what it is (it used to be 55, it may have been lowered over the past four years though). Instead, we headed to Old Sebilis (which begs the question, where is the NEW sebilis? Or is Cabilis the new Sebilis?) Sorry that the screen shot is not any better but for some reason I’ve forgotten how to take screen shots in EQ1. Yes, I’m being serious. So those were taken quickly by me with Xfire (have I mentioned yet how much I love that little handy program?) and they’re not the best, I know.

We had our usual mish mash of people, Mantis (enchanter), Seja(l) (enchanter), Tipa (ranger), Sisco (monk), Callendra (druid), Coldheat (druid), Kanad (shaman), Tasukiko (warrior), and myself as Qutey (druid). I left Nala at home, deciding I honestly didn’t feel like boxing my way through Sebilis. If anyone out there feels like joining our Nostalgia guild and playing Friday nights with us, around level 50-60 PLEASE don’t hesitate to let one of us know - we could certainly use more people, a second tank and some dps (a rogue, my life for a rogue!) would be awesome. I realize it’s a little difficult since we do only play once a week, but the people make it well worth it.

We got a lot of spells, took down some golems, had some wipes. People got levels though the experience for a hot zone really sucked. That’s right I said it! It also slowed down once we formed a raid - but honestly, we don’t have quite enough people to make two proper balanced groups without having one lack dps and take forever to kill things which is a shame.

For those who only know the EverQuestII Sebilis, the EQ1 version is exactly the same. You even swim down the same tunnels to get to the basement. I had an amazing time as always even though I had to leave early - and hopefully next time we meet (next week is cancelled due to it being a long weekend and folks will be away) we’re off to Plane of Storms!

You can of course read the notes in full here, and they’re subject to change! I’m looking forward to these going live!

LIVE EVENTS

The Guild Hall building projects for Qeynos and Freeport have begun to run dangerously low on resources! Director Jasmine at the Antonica docks and Director Hezreal at the Commonlands docks are eagerly seeking workers willing to help alleviate the situation.

During “Breaking Ground” ( GU48 ): The Prophet of Healing, Seeress Ealaynya Ithis, has been murdered and Antonica appears to have been affected! Theories abound as to who performed the deed and towards what end. You may start your own investigation at the Temple of Life in North Qeynos. Meanwhile Evdokia, one of the Plaguebringer’s fervent followers in Gorowyn, has tasks for those willing to help the Disciples of Disease. Won’t she be delighted by the news of the Seeress’ demise!

VEKSAR

Once thought lost to the waters of the Lake of Ill Omen, the ancient iksar city of Veksar has once again been discovered by the adventurers of Norrath! What has happened in the ancient theater of this once thriving resort city since it disappeared after the Age of Turmoil, and what secrets and treasures does it hold now? Make your way to the outpost of Omen’s Call, and see if you can begin to unravel the mystery of this risen ancient monument to the pride and power of the Sathirian Empire.

GUILD MEMBER POINTS

Guilds can now assign and track points for guild members. Points can be assigned in many different ways. New guild permissions determine which members can manage points and which members can receive points. For more information, check out the Guild Member Points help topic in-game by clicking on the help button (“?”) on top right of the the Guild Window (U).

GAMEPLAY

• Fixed the camera position on Griffins and Sokokars in 3rd person mode.
• Removing equipment which grants additional effects for a spell will cause that spell to cancel.
• First person view as a winter wolf is no longer disrupted by winter steam effect.

ZONES

• Everfrost
  • Everfrost has had a facelift! Adventurers will find dozens of additional quests, four new hubs, and a population friendlier to various playstyles.
• South Freeport
  • The alchemy merchant in South Freeport has begun stocking kindling as a sideline.
• Firemyst Gully
  • Wood in Firemyst Gully is now fully harvestable.
• Veeshan’s Peak
  • Adventurers in Veeshan’s Peak will now find that defeating certain bosses will earn various respawn points in the zone.
  • Pattern drops in Veeshan’s Peak now use the Smartloot system.
  • Milyex Vioren has switched strategies against invaders in Veeshan’s Peak, and is now much more aggressive and much less defensive.

TRAVEL

• Mariner bells have been added to the Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest docks to take players back to Antonica and Commonlands, respectively.
• There is now a bell on the Nektulos Forest dock to take Neriak citizens to the docks in Neriak.
• Mariner bell appearances have been added to the Neriak dock to help those who play on lower settings and couldn’t see the portal glows.
• There is now a carpet to Sinking Sands on the Neriak dock.
• Neriak citizens can now use the carpet in Sinking Sands to fly to the docks in Neriak.
• There is now a carpet to Sinking Sands in Kelethin near the Greater Faydark ramp.
• The carpet to Sinking Sands in Butcherblock has been removed.
• A bell has been added to the left hand dock of Kylong Plains to take adventurers to Gorowyn.
• A bell has been added to the Gorowyn dock to take adventurers to the Kylong Plains.
• The level restriction on the Gorowyn portal to Kylong Plains has been removed.

QUESTS

• You can now speak to Ulgofar Wisme in Mara and get another Geomancy book if you no longer have your first one.
• Special Agent Froak in Kunzar Jungle now gives another copy of the item “Reet Marching Orders” to those that are on the quest “Save the Reets” but have lost their original orders.
• Rotten Chestwraps of the Guilty will now give credit to the priest who triggered it.
• Assassins working on their epic who are not on stage 11 will no longer get quest credit for killing Rhylinil.
• The Dwarven Ringmail Plans is now removed from inventory upon the completion of “In Honor and Service”.
• Captain Vrondell in West Freeport will now update “Bandit Sash Bounty” for non-Freeport citizens.

ITEMS

• The artisan’s tunic reward for the tradeskill tutorial quest no longer has the adventuring stats.
• In-home crafting stations are no longer flagged as Lore.
• The Diamond Rod from Shard of Hate now says “In Combat Run Speed” instead of “Speed at all Times”.
• The focus effect on the Robe of Nexus disruption has been changed from a 600 point hate reduction on Blip to a 20% chance to lower the caster’s hate position by 1 upon casting Blip.
• The Crystal of Dark Energy should now stack to 100.
• Illusionist Shimmering Hues 4 piece bonus should now function properly.
• Troubador Magnetism 4 piece bonus should now function properly.
• Fury Stormbringer 4 piece bonus should now function properly.

SPELLS

• All non expiring class based spells should now gray out when cast and remain that way until cancelled.
• Master Strikes should work correctly with implied targeting now.
• Damage Over Time ticks, double attacks and flurry will no longer trigger damage shields and similar spells which trigger off of taking damage.
• Sathirian Scroll of Benediction and Smoldering Pontiff’s Second Sight will now stack.
• Certain spells like Rescue which are common to the classes will no longer be reset while betraying.
• Moving players between groups in a raid should no longer cause non stacking group spells to cancel.
• Assassin, Brigand, Ranger and Swashbuckler self buffs should now be toggleable.

• Berserker
  • Juggernaut and Adrenaline have had their descriptions updated to match how they work while berserk.
• Defiler
  • Yoppa’s Rodent Form should work correctly now.
• Fury
  • The Savage Feast proc should now apply properly when a dumbfire pet gets the kill.
• Warlock
  • Gas Cloud and its upgrades are now maintained.

ACHIEVEMENTS

An issue has been fixed which allowed players to use more than one achievement mirror. If you were using more than one, the system will take the first one as your valid mirror and wipe the profiles from any extra mirrors.

• Assassin
  • Obfuscation should no longer appear to work with Concealment.
• Ranger
  • Conservation will now apply properly to power, heal and thorn potions.
  • Enhance: Snare will no longer reduce the effectiveness of the Wood Elf racial Light Footed.
  • Enhance: Fettering Poison will now increase the trigger chance of Fettering Poisons.

TRADESKILLS

• Tradeskill writs now award 300 faction (for timed work orders) or 200 faction (for regular work orders) on completion.
• Handcrafted and mastercrafted armor (levels 1-69) has received an upgrade. Existing pristine items will automatically receive the improvement.
• Outfitters are happy to announce there are no more incomplete armor sets craftable at any level — not all sets are available at all levels, but if a set is available, every piece can now be made.
• All available crafted armor sets from level 10 up can now be imbued.
• The appearances of cloth and leather crafted armors are now more consistent, more varied in shape and tint, and should provide a much-awaited wider range of appearance options for the fashion conscious.
• A wider variety of crafting stations are now available in Qeynos Harbor.

STATION VOICE

Voice Channels with over 100 players are now considered “high-user channels” and will only display active speakers.

PLAYER VS PLAYER

• You can now betray and play the good classes in the evil cities and the evil classes in the good cities. In other words you can have a templar in Freeport or a brigand in Qeynos.
• Hypnosis can no longer be canceled by the target of the spell.
• It should now be possible to cure charm spells cast by hostile players.

• Inquisitor

If you cast Inquisition on a player, the spell will only heal members of the inquisitor’s group. Due to the nature of this spell, casting it on a hostile NPC will still cause it to heal nearby enemies. This is due to the fact that the NPC is casting the area of effect heal not the Inquisitor.