Not much posting happened this weekend, but plenty of other sorts of goodness went on. Of course it was one of two Sundays before the release of Rise of Kunark and with it came an increase in experience both for adventurers and crafters. I’m sure I was not the only one who took advantage of the bonus. So how did I end up spending my time and what were the results? Well. The screen shot is of Arysh, my woodworker, who finally managed her way to level 70 before RoK comes out. I’m very pleased, she’s the fourth level 70 crafter I have. Not that big of a deal with the new expansion coming out and another 10 levels to grind, right? Well, I’m pleased anyhow. It means a few less to do when the cap goes up.

Adventuring:

• Ishbel 60->62

Crafting:

• Armorer 21->30
• Weaponsmith 50->52
• Woodworker 67->70
• Carpenter 23->30
• Tailor 48->50

Pretty much everyone got a few levels in at least crafting. So that leaves my totals now as far as crafting and adventuring goes as follows:

Adventuring

• 70 Mystic
• 70 Templar
• 70 Troubador
• 70 Illusionist
• 70 Warden
• 62 Coercer
• 57 Necromancer
• 52 Ranger
• 36 Brigand
• 33 Monk

Crafting

• 70 Jeweler
• 70 Sage
• 70 Provisioner
• 70 Woodworker
• 60 Alchemist
• 52 Weaponsmith
• 50 Tailor
• 30 Carpenter
• 30 Armorer

There’s still a little bit of a life in there too, no worries. I also managed to design a new logo for a guild, and worked on some art work for a friend. Christmas is just around the corner (they’re calling for SNOW this Wednesday!) and I’ve got plenty of projects to work on. A huge random thank you by the way to Shadowgeist for updating my DeviantART account, that was a nice gift this weekend. I have finally narrowed down my choices in regards to a main when RoK comes out, though the answer may be surprising. Since it seems to change from day to day, I’m going to leave it a surprise for now. I’ll write about that more when RoK is actually live and there’s proof that it’s my new “main”. In the mean time, I’m going to harvest some in preparation for the grind to 80 I suppose, and continue working on the other crafters so that they have some vitality when Sunday rolls around again with bonus experience.

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….

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.

Ok, so the image above actually looks far better in it’s full version (it’s shrunk to about half the size here so that my blog doesn’t scream in agony, nor the people who have to upload the images) but I did have a lot of fun creating it. It uses a combination of three screen shots, adjusted and what not to suit my taste. The eyes on Arysh took a lot of work as they were pretty much just black pupils. It’s hard to see exactly what I’ve done to the shot without seeing the originals, but you’ll just have to take my word on it, I changed a lot.

I managed to get Ishbel to level 57 today, actually I grabbed her level quite early on in the day and then spent the majority of the rest of it on the couch battling the sniffles and playing with photoshop. Hopefully it’s just a 24 hour type thing that is gone before I know it. Anyhow, yes, level 57. I’ve run out of Lesser Faydark quests to do, and I’m nearly out of TT quests as well. I spent some time actually doing the warg quests in Somborn since I could just mez (providing it landed) the ones I needed before using the collar on them. I did die once do to a resist, but it went far smoother then I had figured it would, especially since the final mob was red to me and the ones before that were all orange.

I can get experience with level 70’s now, which is perfect for questing. It means I don’t have to be mentored to get an update, important. I spent more time killing heroic brownies yesterday (guess what, the four hours I spent killing solo brownies was wasted.. ) the cowl of the trickster drops from heroic ones only. Well. That sure was nice to learn. At least I found out now and not later I suppose. I finished the Wu chain, as well as the Nybright chain, both which reward with plenty of items and coin. In fact I think over the past three days as I’ve been leveling the coercer I’ve made about 15p from vendor trash alone, as well as doing all those wonderful basket quests (which I’ve completed all of and can’t obtain any more boo). So what’s next on the agenda? I’m not sure if I want to take a little break from the coercer, or if I want to play another alt, or maybe one of my level 70’s or what. I’m still excited and looking forward to the new content coming later this week, including the new instance which I’m sure will be some what difficult. Other then chattering to old friends, playing around in TK, and leveling the coercer, I haven’t been up to too much. I’m thinking of making some simple T6 adornments (namely the +power / +hp ones) to sell on the broker since I’ve transmuted so much lower level stuff lately, we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve actually been sticking with an alt, how unique is that. I’m sure that hell must have frozen over or something while I was not looking. The past three days I’ve been dedicated to my coercer, Ishbel. Her role play story is that she’s actually the alter ego of Stargrace, my wood elf illusionist. Ishbel is everything that Stargrace is not. I haven’t managed to get a whole lot of role play going on her, but I enjoy having a back story none the less. Above is the paper doll image I’ve created for her (the image of her is actually with her posing in Maj’Dul, not that you can see that, I’ve added the library background from West Freeport) the forums appear to be down today though, so I’m unable to post it on her eq2player profile. Soon as it’s back up I’ll upload the image there and that’ll be three of the 13 alts done.

I’ve been trying to farm the cowl of the trickster which apparently drops from brownies in Lesser Faydark, to no avail. I spent about three hours there last night and had lots of other drops (which covered my repair costs at least) but no cowl. I wasn’t sure which was worse, the fact that I spent three hours there farming solo mobs, or the fact that I got 40% experience (with no vitality) killing those solo brownies. Ah well. I did manage to snag lots of L&L pieces. Not that I got the L&L started at all.

I’ve learned a few things while playing my coercer this time around. If anyone’s known me long enough you know that Stargrace was actually a coercer to start. I betrayed her way back when she was level 10 or so, and then betrayed back to illusionist for my guild about a year ago. I dreaded leveling up the coercer. It was before EoF and the zones and quests were drab. I couldn’t get a group for the life of me, and it felt like I struggled through the 50’s forever. So what have I learned between then and now?

1. Upgrade those charm spells

If you plan on doing any sort of solo work what so ever, upgrade those spells. I was lucky, I found the level 47 charm for 1p. It doesn’t get upgraded until 61, so that’s a big chunk of key levels right there. It was a steal. I also bought the level 61 m1 charm for 25p which was also a great bargain in my opinion. There are very few spells that I’d ever pay that amount for, but a m1 charm vs an adept3 is a huge difference. In fact I didn’t realize the difference until I played with the two. It’s the difference of a 22k nuke vs. a 5k nuke. No, it doesn’t make your charmed pets physically stronger (which I think it should do) but it makes their dps differ by a huge amount. These spells are key to your class. However, since in most groups, and the majority of raids, you will never get to USE these charms - it’s debatable. It’s all in how you play your class.

2. Get used to dying

This was actually my most difficult concept to get used to, and it took me a lot of time. I get upset when I die over and over, I just can’t help it. I like to think I’m a fairly good player, and dying means I’m a bad player — not true. I’ve probably died on my coercer more then any other class I’ve ever leveled up, but honestly it’s the way the class works that makes it so. If you’re fighting an encounter that’s relatively hard, chances are your pet is going to break. Then you’re going to end up with 10 adds, and before you know it you’re going to be a pancake. It happens. Get over it. Dust yourself back off, go charm another pet, and try again. I know it’s not fun to pay those repair bills, but the faster a coercer learns that “if it can go wrong it will go wrong” sort of mentality, they’ll be 100 times better off. Expect your pet to break every time you start a fight. I can’t believe the number of times I’d just charmed a mob, went to the kitchen to get a drink of water, and have it break on me in the .5 seconds I was gone and smush me. Lesson learned. I have a jug of water on my desk.

3. Learn your limitations

Probably another one of those good key rules. Learn what you can handle. Don’t charm some random mob and then expect to start soloing heroic content. It doesn’t happen. Learn what you can handle and what you can obviously not handle. Go look up some of the pet guides out there (there are a few, and they’re wonderful) and learn what is good in what situation. Get to really know your class. Get a method down for working your way through your levels. Get comfortable with it. If you can learn your limitations and what your abilities are you’ll be much happier and should die less.

Most of all of course, have fun. I’m honestly having so much fun playing this class and learning my limitations (a huge portion of that is due to the fact that I just simply love my master charm spells) that I haven’t even felt the want or need to play another class lately. Anyone who knows me understands that’s something of a feat. I have three level 50+ characters just sitting in tier 6 because I hate the 50’s, and even though I’ve completed most of the solo chains in both Sinking Sands and Lesser Faydark, I’ve moved on to KoS zones and started basket quests which are still quite fun (even when yellow). So will this be my next class to level 70? Hopefully. I’d like to get 70 before RoK comes out. Yes, that’ll be my 6th level 70 character - but hey you can never have too much selection, hmms?

I’ve actually been having an amazing time playing my coercer. Be it the fact that for once I don’t care if I die a few times (since my charmed pets always seem to break at the most inopportune times) or the fact that I’m not power leveling this character up any more, I’m not sure. Yesterday I managed to get not only two levels, but eight (yes, that’s right.. 8.. ) aa for her as well. I know they’re easier to obtain the less you have, but she’s sitting at almost 50 now, and I’m happy with that. She’s also level 53, the past two levels I’ve managed to get with no vitality at all. So how did I level? Easy, questing.

I’ve always hated the 50’s and eventually I am going to run out of quests. In fact, very soon I am going to be out of quests, but there are a few. There’s chains in Pillars of Flame, as well as Sinking Sands (which I’ve now completed) there are the Godking chains, a few quests hidden away in Living Tombs and Silent City, as well as the Lesser Faydark, which is packed with quests. More so if you’re good aligned, the fae court frowns upon those of us from Freeport (such as Ishbel). I found a fairly comprehensive guide someone put together on which pets were good to charm by zone, and it’s certainly come in handy. I would have spent all day charming the wrong mobs in order to figure out which did the highest amount of dps. Am I taking down super heroic content? No, but I’m on par at least with my other soloing classes, which is exactly what I wanted.

I’m hoping to get her to 55 or so in the next week, two levels away so it should be do-able I hope. I’m also thinking of moving her to her own house and out of Big Bend, but I own so many homes already, I’m not certain. Shadowgeist has as always been exceptionally helpful in asking me if there’s instances I want to do, and we farmed Mines of Meldrath a few times looking for items for both the coercer and the ranger. He seems to be getting along well in his new guild, so that’s always pleasing. Gothun created a mystic, I know he’s been eager to “stick it out” with an alt, maybe this will be the one. Other then that, the game is quite as anticipation of RoK and even the new Shard of Fear instance approaches. I’m looking to get a few rp stories posted over the next few days, and of course I’m working on my photoshop abilities. I have to be in the mood for that though and it comes and goes. I hope everyone else is doing marvelous in game and that travels are going well no matter what mmo you may find yourselves in!

Ishbel (coercer) hit level 50 today, after questing in sinking sands. I love playing the coercer. A huge thank you to Darrcy who came to help part way through. I own masters of her charms, and it really comes in handy. I hate the dreaded 50+ levels though, so we’ll have to see if I actually get anywhere on her. I’ve got the 57 necromancer and 52 ranger who have been at their respective levels for a few months now, just because I dislike that tier so much. I’ve always felt there was some what of a block there with quests. Even more so before EoF. Now at least there is Steamfont and Klak’Anon to break up the levels a small bit.

She also managed to snag a few more achievement points, which is great.

I worked on designing a paper doll image for Goudia, I wanted it to be seasonal, and involve Halloween, you can find it here. It is not exactly complicated and I’m still learning of course. You don’t want an over whelming background on an image that is quite small, since the character is supposed to be the main focus. There were some orange pumpkin heads that I had placed in the background originally, but they looked a little out of place so I removed them. I’d eventually like to create paper doll images for all of my characters (a time consuming feat considering I have 13 of those) as well as more headers for my site. We’ll see how it goes.

I played Qutey some last night, managed to get her another aa so that she’s level 29 with 29 aa. I think she’s getting fairly close to 30 though. The quests in Butcherblock are fun since I’ve never done them before. I took out the wizard to dust her off some last night, but just wasn’t feeling into it, so I tucked her back away. Maybe some other time.

My little fae monk Qutey posing above. I created the image for her paper doll over on EQ2players, which you can find here. I didn’t like the bland one that most characters have, and I love the way you can customize this one little image of your character. I absolutely love the way it turned out and I couldn’t be more pleased. It didn’t take that long either, mostly because the background is simple, and the image is so tiny that there’s not a lot that needs to be done to it. I’ll be making others for my other characters, as well as seasonal ones I think. If anyone else wants one, just let me know. All I need is a description of what you’re looking for (If you’re looking for something specific at least) and some screen shots of your character. The better the quality of the screen shot the better the over all image of course, but I think I could make due with whatever people had and tried to fix them up. I’m really having quit a bit of fun with it what can I say.

I also leveled my brigand today, Sensual managed to get three levels and two aa from wandering around Fallen Gate. A few fabled and masters made their way into her bags as well, so over all it was a great day.

Besides the adventuring, Yamini (the alchemist) finally made her way into T7 crafting. That’s right, after almost two years piddling around and barely leveling her, I made it to level 60 alchemist. It took forever, mostly because I had no real motivation to get her higher. Now that she’s made it to 70 I’ll take a break for a few days and try to re-gain some vitality for that mad march to 70 before RoK comes out. Then of course comes the harvesting I’ll need to do in preparation for RoK and the grind to 80. While I’m glad that there’s a level increase, and I think it’s much needed, I’m also not looking forward to the fact that I’ve got 5 level 70 adventurers and crafters. It will of course give me something to do.

Really looking forward to GU39 because of the new revamp to guild banks. I’m a neat freak when it comes to Torrent Knights and their bank, everything has its designated spot. So being able to label them and set the withdraws for them by bank is great. Very proud of the guild for making level 25 as well. Calreth has been grinding writs like they’re going out of style (maybe they are and no one told me!) and doing all those fancy heritage quests along the way. Now if we could just get five more before RoK comes out. I know if I really pushed at it we probably could, but I’m proud for even getting as far as we did.

I had an amazing talk with Kilanna this morning, it’s so great to be refreshed about EQ2 again and playing. Now, I’m not playing quite as much as I was before, due to the whole loving photoshop thing, but maybe that’s exactly what I needed. A little break to remind myself why I love this game and eventually always come back to it.

Goudia, camping in Everfrost. Her poor little nose is getting cold..

I made another alt. I know, bad me. Eventually though I’ll run out of classes that interest me and the alt madness will have to end, right? Faralithe is the newest addition to the alt-army, a little fae, high elf, iksar paladin. I wanted something a little different. I have an arasai (or two) I have dark elves, I have a regular fae, I have a ratonga. I love the look of the female iksars and the way their fins (are they even called fins?) along the side of their heads flare out as you fight. Of course, iksar are evil (typically) so I’m a shadowknight for now. She’s also only level three. But she’ll betray around level 18 I think if I can handle it then (to Kelethin of course, where the quests are far easier to complete for betrayal). That way I can do the evil aligned starter city quests and the good ones as well. An iksar paladin eh. Not sure what her role play story will be yet, but I do plan on creating one. I typically do with my characters even if I don’t post about them.

I suppose I’ve been feeling restless in game again. I completed three heritage quests yesterday on Goudia which was a fair amount of guild status. Even though the quests themselves were very boring at level 70 completing them for the fourth or some times fifth time. I’m looking forward to RoK in a way that I’ve never looked forward to an expansion before. I know there are mixed views on a level cap increase, but honestly, it’s about time. I need to feel some sort of linear progression again.

Aside from the paladin creation, I worked on my armorer (who is new), Sensual reached level 20. Which is nice. She in fact made all of the gear for the paladin. Now I need to harvest metals (again) which is never fun, as any weaponsmith or armorer can agree. So why am I doing it? Who knows, maybe I’m just crazy. Naw, actually. I just find it so much more useful if I have one of every sort of crafter. I like being self reliant in as many aspects as I can in game. That way I’m not waiting on someone else to craft something for me. Since I have so much time to play, I figure that there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do these things myself. A skewed way of thinking perhaps, but hey, whatever works.

Faydai, my 56 necro, is well behind where she should be in regards to achievement experience

So I’ve been contemplating what I should do in game now, I’m basically just waiting for RoK to be released. Working on smaller alts and crafting here and there. Storing coin aside in the guild bank to help afford the cloak as well as new spells that’ll be coming out. Still not even sure which two characters I’ll be taking to 80 first, I’m sure I’ll decide the day of the expansion or some such. In the mean time, I decided to dust off my 56 necromancer, Faydai. She’s way behind in achievement experience (or aa as it’s typically called by old EQ1′ers) and it’s going to take me forever to get her caught up. Or I could stick with her, or something. Not sure.

I love playing the necromancer. The dps they have is very nice and a huge change from my typical healers. Except she’s slightly… less well off. Then my other characters, simply because her spells just cost so dang much. I used to say that everyone and their dog had a druid (which still holds true) but now I think everyone is running a necromancer of some sort or another. Not that I mind exactly, it’s not as if I am really playing mine, but they’re everywhere.

I ran Mines of Meldrath today, managed to get three legendary useless drops. Transmuted them all, and got powders (also quite useless). 22% experience for the zone, which is not so bad. Groups in the 50’s seem to be far and few between, so I’m contemplating questing my way through them, or being constantly LFG (me? LFG? Eh, no thanks…) to at least try to break into the T7 bracket before RoK comes out. Since Faydai is already a 70 sage, that comes in handy, I can at least see the higher level channels.

Slightly peeved, last night was going to go on an Unrest run, but the servers said they were going down randomly for two hours. Group decided to go to a smaller instance, and the server message said they were not going down after all… of course. Once my group had already decided to go do something else. Ah well, it was getting close to midnight anyhow, so Shadowgeist and I just decided to call it a night.