This weekend was by far one of the best weekends I’ve had in EverQuestII in a long time, and I didn’t even really accomplish that much. It started typically enough. I meandered around Fens of Nathsar with Shadowgeist, looking for trouble levels. This zone (out of all the RoK zones) gives the least amount of experience for their turn ins, and I find them boring and drab. The goal is to try to get to 75 asap (I’m 74, currently) so that I can bypass those quests and do the ones in Jarsath Wastes that return 10% experience when you grab all four working faction for Danak Shipyard. Eventually it comes with a nice piece of gear and a hunter title. I completed a lot of quests along with Shadowgeist’ help (nice mythical, by the way.. ) and when he went off on his own for a bit I decided it was time Stargrace did her crafting epic.

Now, I have this completed already with Petites, my jeweler / templar. However, each category of crafter (outfitter, craftsman, scholar) has their own quest line to do for the fourth quest. My previous scholar one took me to an instance in Maj’dul, where I flung books at bad guys and frantically clicked on more books trying to find pages and then restore them. This time around I was sent to a special instance in Nektulos Castle, to ward away swarms of giants rats. Big, mean, ugly 20 levels higher then me rats. I got to design a rat trap, and catch them and kill them. It was a lot of fun, and easier then the maj’dul instance once I knew my way around.

Then came to the portion of the epic I’d been dreading. Gathering together 8 other crafters (plus myself) to comission pieces for the final turn in. I don’t know too many on Najena yet, aside from my good friends Albrta and Eyenstein, a couple who play. Albrta is one of those fanatic crafters who has one of almost everything, and she offered to help. She had to leave for a while though, so in the mean time I decided to ask on channels if anyone could help. The first few times went by with 0 response. If you recall last time I did this quest, I actually had to offer to pay people to do the combines for me. I didn’t want to do that this time around, we honestly pay for enough.

Then I get a tell, from Omay, who says they have ALL the crafters, and can make every piece for me. I sat there stunned for a second, it sounded too good to be true.

Not only do they make all of the pieces, they are a guild dedicated to crafting, and helping others craft. They accept NO donations (I tried) for their work. I’m not sure that English was their first language, but they were by far some of the friendliest people I’d met to date. Their inn room was decorated for crafting, they seemed to have done this a time or two before, making small chat about whether I knew what to do next, and how I should spend my time looking for the chia hidden in the inn room some place as they crafted for me.

I think I remained stunned the rest of the time there.

After they’d crafted every single piece for me, they played fire works and congratulated me, and on my way I went for the turn in. A huge thank you to them, and their guild “Wing and a Prayer” another thank you to the fine people (there were three, whose names I forget now) at Siege, who crafted the first three pieces for me. Omay and his slew of crafters told me if I ever needed any help with anything crafted, to send them a tell and they would help. I was stunned. Here I’d thought there was no crafting community on Najena - the channels are practically always silent. Low and behold, an entire guild dedicated to it.

So I finished my second crafter epic, and now I just need to get some faction with Rillis, Bathezid, and Danak for the special provisioner recipes, including some very nice charms made with chromatic essences that I want to pick up.

It was a great weekend, what can I say. I got the new cloak, earing, house item scroll, title, one of every T8 rare, and met some wonderful people along the way.

Oh, and as another great point? This entire guild, was halflings, except for one half elf who helped me out.

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.

Who doesn’t want to be a billy doll, reward from the 4 year /claim and when you don’t want to be a billy doll, you can shrink yourself by 40% with the item and /hide it. Works wonderfully. Arysh quested in Kylong plains most of the day yesterday and I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s too much fishing required. Fishing is quite possibly the only skill I’ve never worked on with any character. I’ve stumbled into two quests that require it so far with chains after them that I can’t complete because ew. Who wants to fish.

On the flip side of that. I had read and was understood in beta that you could still complete some faction quests as a crafter, and even get your sokokar if you were not a high level adventurer. So I decided to put it to the test. The dock-side quests for crafters went off without a hitch, my 57 necromancer (70 sage) received her sokokar with no issues.

However.

Then she managed to snag the quest from Greenblentus in Teren’s Grasp called “New Lands, New Profits”. It gives you faction (on completion) for both of the major (there are more, I know) faction in the Fens of Nathsar, turning them non-agro. The issue is, that to complete this quest, you have to run around in the fens. I’m 57, believing this was an alternate rout for me to complete the faction I needed to at least be non-agro to the watch, so I can start faction writs. At 57 running past the agro guards of the watch is not easy. I did manage to fandangle my way up there, and grab the sokokar post at the same time. I got my quest update, a little crate on the right hand side JUST before you enter the gates of the watch.

The next update? Along the banks of the river just East of Rillis. I’m screwed. Not only does everyone in Rillis want to eat me for breakfast (dang gnomes!) but the country side is filled with mean nasties as well. I tried to find this box on Arysh, since she’s done the adventure portions and is no longer agro, but I couldn’t find the crate I needed.

After this, two more crates. They probably want me to travel to the center of some other agro city.

So how am I going to try to get around this? Well, thankfully, killing one sort of iksar will make the sarnak at the watch non-agro to me. So I’m going to have Shadowgeist smush one for me. The next issue? I have no idea if I can get the writs as a level 70 crafter - I think - that they start at 72. I don’t mind leveling. And why am I going through all this trouble to begin with?

The advanced sage books are going from anywhere of 1-5p on my server. This faction will let me buy them for 10g and some change each. The books are no trade, so you have to faction for them yourself. As a 57 necromancer, thankfully I can still group with 72’s, but the quests for faction (adventurers) are level 68+ and I can’t do them. I understand that the game is a mixture of crafting and adventuring, and it is sort of exciting getting hit for 15,000 as a lowbie wandering around. I’m basically just trying to avoid a price gouge on books since I’m already paying one on raw materials not to mention fuel.

So RoK is very much all about the faction. I like that aspect of it though, makes things pretty exciting.

Well, as pictured above, I was quite busy once I managed to get into game yesterday with the release of EQ2’s newest expansion. I made a vow not to rush things (and I didn’t). I saw groups running off right away to grind levels and be number one at everything they did. I knew from the start I didn’t want to hang around Kylong Plains because, well, everyone was going to be there. Just like real life, I’m not fond of crowds in game either. So Shadowgeist and I teamed up with Gothun (I was playing Arysh, the warden) and we did our sokokar quests, then left for the brighter questing areas of Fens of Nathsar. Instead of grinding, we worked on solo faction quests. Difficult solo ones at that, thank goodness we had some what of a group / trio. We quickly worked our way to +17,000 with the Watch (located just up the ramp to the left as you zone into Fens from Kylong) and low and behold, the quartermaster talked to me. He wouldn’t sell me his +40,000 faction legendary items, but he did let me purchase all of the no-trade advanced crafting books. I bought them all (at a 3g loss each time) for the discovery, and split the purchases between Shadowgeist and myself so that discoveries were spread around.

I’ve replaced quite a few of my old EoF items with treasured RoK items. Nothing especially fancy dropped, there were shinies all over, disco’d 12 other items besides the crafting books just wandering around and working on quests. A treasured pair of boots replaced the fabled ones I got from Chel’Drak, and a new belt replaced the one from Unrest. In some ways it was sad to see it go, I worked so hard for those items, and after a few solo quests, they were replaced. I remember the first time I killed Chel’Drak, I even blogged about it here. Of course, I was expecting it. That’s what happens when a new tier is released.

I didn’t want to quest too far ahead of Shadowgeist, so today I played some with Stargrace, the illusionist. Things hurt on a whole different level when you’re solo’ing. She had issues taking down some of the blue solo for random Kylong quests, but also got a lot of upgrades. I left Arysh 50% to level 72, and 105aa from her meanderings, Stargrace is almost 71, with 102aa. Money is in abundance, that’s for sure. I walked away with an extra 4p from quest rewards on each character, not to mention the items I placed on broker. People are going nuts for crafting resources (AB already had an 80 sage this afternoon as I was listening to channels) and I’m storing all mine for the few quiet moments I have to myself. I think the provisioner will be one of the first characters I level up. Scribed her level 70 book, and got 11 new recipes. That astounded me. I’m used to getting my four recipes a level, it’s been that way for quite some time. So it was nice to see a little love.

More updates tomorrow of course. For now I’m hoping to just find a little niche as Kylong Plains 4-5-6 open up and let the masses through.

Crafting has changed some what in the newest expansion due to release this Tuesday, all wonderful changes from my point of view but some folks may not like them. Pictured above ist he new crafting window. That’s right folks, your hotbars will no longer be cluttered with 6 hotkeys for crafting — unless of course you are a creature of habbit, then you may want to. By default the buttons are 1-6 and become active when your crafting window is up. The 3 +durability are first and then the 3 +progress follow. It automatically uses the highest of each, so no more switching them around. However, if you’re used to your buttons being in a specific order, you may not enjoy the convenience offered here. I love it. to the bottom left is your recipe book icon, and to the right a stop botton (which switches to the repeat button if you’re done the recipe).

Some recipes don’t have tiers any more. That is to say, that unless you craft pristine, you’ll just get fuel components back. As far as I know furniture is the only one that works this way but it may be all levels of crafting, I didn’t really get a chance to test. The reasoning is quite simple, who wants to buy a less then pristine item these days. There’s no need for less then pristine house items at least.

So you’ve made your way to Kylong Plains and you’re wondering what all of the new nodes are going to look like? Well, here they are:

Common

Metal Ore : Ferrite
Pelt : Bristled
Root/Cloth : Lichenclover root (Damask cloth)
Wood : Redwood
Gem : Kunzite
Precious Metal : Deklium
Loam : Mineral salt loam
Berry : Cranberry
Vegetable : Succulent petal
Meat : brute meat, devourer meat, drachnid meat, hornet meat, mountain giant meat.
Fish : Barracuda, King Prawn
Coffee Bean : Cabilis Cocoa Bean
Tea Leaf : Torsis Tea Leaf

Imbue

Smoldering Material

Rare

Metal Cluster : Incarnadine
Pelt : Hidebound
Root/Cloth : Mantrap Root (Swiftcloth)
Wood : Mahogany
Gem : Fire Emerald
Precious Metal : Tynnonium
Loam : Silicate loam

Kunark is also going to attempt something new with crafting besides the window. Dens, will no longer drop meat. That’s right, rodents everywhere have stopped hoarding chunks of elephants in their dens, and are now leaving that to the actual creatures out there. Meat will drop from mobs. Now, if you’re a provisioner you may be slightly offended by this new tactic. Domino has assured crafters everywhere that it will not be overwhelming though, as very few of the new recipes will actually use meat. It’s also an incentive for people to go out and experience both the crafting and adventuring aspects of the game. Players can list their meat for sale on broker for crafters who may be too small to obtain it themselves.

Since I have a provisioner, I’m affected only slightly. I’m actually looking forward to the change, I think it’s good. I’m far more happy that recipes will not use meat for every combine, so that I can still level without their use if I don’t want to kill mobs for their meat drops. Hopefully prices will be reasonable so that I can at least get a first time pristine combine on them. We’ll have to see how it actually goes.

A few other small (new, fun) crafting changes, provisioners will be able to make food and drink that basically work as temporary buffs on top of regular power and health regen. These are the recipes that use meat I believe. Weaponsmith will also gain the ability to create temporary adornments for weapons that (as far as I know) stack with regular procs and permanent adornments. What are these specifically? Well, you’ll just have to poke your local weaponsmith when RoK comes out and see what they are (I’m of course still madly leveling Goudia, since she’s my weaponsmith). There are also crafting stations and writs posted at various outposts around Kunark, which I love. Out door crafting is far more prevalent in RoK then in any other expansion. I think adventurer and crafter alike will adore the changes and new levels. The carpenter house items, are amazing as a side note. There were far too many to post pictures, but I can already see my housing being revamped for each character to include some of the nick nacks such as an ink well, thrones, very amazing paintings (although, I am slightly pissed off because three paintings look exactly the same as three of my “rare” paintings that I managed to obtain.. making them worthless now) amazing looking counters, and other goodies.

Domino, the Eq2 Tradeskill Dev. Had this to say about Crafting in RoK:

Thought I’d take a moment to explain a little bit about tradeskills, factions, and Kunark.

Kunark is a big and pretty unfriendly continent, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.  Those here have been isolated a long time.  Even the remains of the old Overthere outpost was only marginally friendly to travellers at the best of times in the old days, and is now inclined to charge visitors a hefty extra price markup for their trouble.

To get normal vendor pricing pretty much anywhere in Kunark (unless you’re a Gorowyn resident of course and can shop there) you will need to earn the trust of one or another of the local factions.  Adventurers have a wide selection of ways to do this, some of which can be described as the usual hit [x] of [y] over the head [z] times, though there are other types. SMILEY;)  For crafters, there are three main areas that you can focus on, should you wish — these are intended to be optional, not requisite.

Greeblentus in Teren’s Grasp in the Kylong Plains will give you a little starter mission to gather information and help him out, and in exchange, you’ll gain enough faction to become non KOS to the Riliss and Bathezid encampments in Fens of Nathsar.

Riliss - an Iksar encampment in the middle of the Fens of Nathsar.  Speaking to Preparations Officer Zekilius will get you started on a series of writ quests to create supplies for their armies.  Being Iksar, he should not give you these quests if you are an enemy Sarnak (however, he SHOULD be fooled if you go in with any illusion on, so you aren’t actually prevented from doing these).

Bathezid’s Watch - a Sarnak fortress in the south west of the Nathsar.  Supply Sergeant Anuhadux will also offer you a series of writ quests to help their armies against the Iksar.  Again, he shouldn’t talk to Iksar players but will be fooled by an illusion if you’re really keen.

Both these NPCs will give you the recipe books for these writs, they’re divided into archetype (a scholar book, an outfitter book, a craftsman book) and you’ll have to craft a random item each time.  The books will be removed from your recipe list at the end of the writ.  The items should just update your quest and don’t really create anything in the world.  If you make extras after finishing the quest you’ll get an item, but it has no stats and is no trade - these are just for fun, flavour, and a little more interest than having people make 5,000 of the same long sword or whatever.  There are 4 levels of these writs at 72, 74, 76, and 78 with new recipes for each.

Then we have a further quest from Greeblentus, doable at (I think) 75.  This will make you non-KOS with the third faction:

Danak Shipyards - located in the Jarsath Wastes towards the south west, this is also an Iksar outpost, so same rules apply to Sarnak players as for Bathezid.  Work Requisition Sergeant Zildrax will offer you a new set of writs.  These recipes are all level 80, though you should be able to start making them from 75 onward.  Again the books are divided by archetype, though there’s just one book for each archetype since they’re all the same level.

The maximum faction you can gain through crafting with these three areas is “warmly”, you cannot get to “ally” without doing some adventuring side stuff also.  They will stop offering you writs when you max “warmly”.  The amount of faction per writ is still open for tweaking, the general idea is that it should take about as much time for a crafter to get to “warmly” as it would for the adventurer to quest his way there, and this is still something we’re working out.  It will certainly not be an instant path.

Apart from the obvious convenience of having good faction with someone on the continent, friendly merchants, a place to craft etc., and extra pristine bonuses and xp from the writ recipes of course, each of the three areas will also have faction merchants who will sell rewards to both adventurers and crafters.  The tradeskill rewards will be some additional recipes above and beyond the normal “advanced” books which will be available in the normal manner.  The recipes should have a bit of a Kunark flavour to them, e.g. armor with the new Kunark graphic, Kunark themed furniture, etc.  For some classes this is harder than others (*gets a headache just thinking about it*) and some classes will get more stuff than others, but there should eventually be at least a little bonus there for anyone who bothers to work up the faction.  Some of these recipes are already in place but they’re not all done yet and will be appearing in the future (before release is the intention, but we’ll see).

The recipes aren’t intended to be overpoweringly OMG MUST DO items that force all crafters to grind writs, they’re intended to be a nice reward for those who do choose to, but all the essentials of life should be available in the normal essentials and advanced books as in every other tier, so those who don’t like writ type grinding don’t have to.  They will of course be no trade, however.

The above quest lines were mostly designed and implemented by Olihin, my tradeskill apprentice, who has unfortunately been evacuated due to the fires in San Diego and I’m not sure yet when he will be able to return.  So, while the quests did get checked in and are currently in beta, I haven’t had a chance to check them for bugs and it’s quite possible there are still issues to be ironed out which he may have been working on when chaos broke loose down here.   Do go ahead and /bug any issues so we can get to them.

For those not interested in the new continent there are of course the normal tradeskill writs offered by the crafting societies in your home town.  These will give you guild status, the Kunark writs will not, though both will give you tradeskill XP.

Hopefully that gives you a bit of an overview of the areas of Kunark that will (potentially) affect crafters, and the intention behind them.

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.

Goudia keeping busy…

I typically refuse to level my crafters if they have no vitality. Making things for very little profit with even less experience as a reward is not exactly the way to keep motivated. However introduce the experience upon completion of writs, and suddenly I’m eating them up, vitality or not. It takes 5 non-rush order writs, with no vitality at all, to get a level in crating. That’s 60 combines. It’s actually not too bad at all. I’m trying to push Goudia into the next tier, and then of course my main goal is to get her to 70 before RoK comes out. The hardest part is actually making sure I have enough metals to get through the levels. I’m not sure about other servers, but on Antonia Bayle, lower tier metals like carbonite and fulginate are going for anywhere from 20s to 35s in some cases, each. It makes for some fairly painful crafting if you’re the sort who buys their supplies.

I also managed to get Goudia into a quick Valdoons run yesterday with Thunderwalker and his boxed warlock Gerbil, I played Shadowgeist. It was my first time tanking the zone and I don’t think I did that bad. Gerbil ganked off of me maybe once and not for long. Thunderwalker did die once but only because I had accidentally pulled three encounters while he had a ward up. We were attempting to get a piece to drop for Goudia or Gerbil, both of whom could use their legendary class sets still, but of course as the game works, the shadowknight forearms dropped. On the plus side, it means that they won’t drop next time since I stashed them in Shadowgeist’ bank. I really like the new method of legendary set drops.

It’ll be nice to start working some baby alts up next. Goudia is fine and dandy sitting at level 66 and I will get her closer to 70 over the next months but I’ve always had a soft spot for lowbie alts and twinking them out with new gear and new spells. Just the way I like to enjoy the game. Every so often it’s nice to take a break from the end game stuff.

Today I’m hoping to get Faydai closer to 70 sage, I’ve got her sitting at 65 with full vitality and that should help her at least get three levels. We’ll just have to see how it goes. Other then that, I’m feeling a wee bit under the weather, so I haven’t had a whole lot to say this morning. Damn summer time flues.

And, the baby bard gets herself another proc item….

Another fairly busy weekend in game, Monday was a holiday, so that was nice. First of all, Goudia hit 63 which means two more levels and she’ll have her 65 rare spell, which of course I am really looking forward to it. It’ll be nice to hit 70 but not in a rush, enjoying some of the game a bit (again). Aside from that, and a few deaths, I spent a whole lot of time this week crafting gear / spells / jewelry for Darcyle who’s got almost as many alts as I do I think. We’re talking 21+ items which of course I had a blast crafting. If you play on the Antonia Bayle server you probably know who they are, and have heard them in channels from time to time. They’ve got quite the reputation. However. I don’t typically listen to that stuff. When someone pisses me off (as a few have done now) I will hold a grudge against them. Or if they hurt a friend of mine. However, since I am still fairly new to the server very few people are on that list. I’d rather not be narrow minded and shut people out before I even get a chance to get to know them, does that make any sense? Probably not.

In any case. Trying to decide who I’ll level up next. I’ve got the troubador almost at 70, the uhms ranger I’m thinking maybe? Who knows.

Preparing for RoK, trying to make some coin. Working on the houses, getting the rest of my set gear, maybe working claymore. Boring stuff eh? I know. Thunderwalker has his Gerbil sitting at level 65 now, rift is absolutely amazing (I have not seen it I just take his word for it), Xoolander hit 58 last night. The guild levels are slow but doing writs is fun. . . Yes, that’s right, I just said they were FUN. Honestly I don’t have too much else going on right now while I ponder whether or not I want to join a new guild and get into the raiding scene again. It’s not difficult with this many alts. I’ve been restless in game, go figure, nothing new there either.

I sent some tells to Jerrek yesterday, after reading his blog (again) and remembering (finally) that he’s on the AB server. Spent some time talking to Kilanna, and just had a very nice pleasant quiet day. Do I miss the drama from Inquisition? Nope. Lader and Thunderwalker do not either. Lader’s having a blast in JoTo, which I’m so glad to see. We’ll see where I go from here.

Working on Misako’s home, slowly. Managed to finish up the bar area close to the entrance

So my first impressions of GU37 went quite well. Of course I spent the majority of the time locked in a crafting instance frantically creating all of the new pretties that are available, but hey I’ll get to the rest eventually. I can’t pin point a favorite item quite yet. In the image above of course is the new (small version) vale bar. I have a hanging potted plant along with one of the new hanging mine lamps. There are some Faydark wooden stools lining it, along with of course my market board. I’m planning on adding another lamp to the other side (closer to the board) so that the lighting is a little more even.

Besides the new house items, they’ve added some very handy commands. My favorite would have to be the new control command. When you’re moving any piece of furniture that would typically sit on the floor, you can hold down control, and using your mouse wheel, scroll the item vertically. What does this mean? Well, remember those hours and hours of building up items so you could place your loft floor just right? The new method allows items to “hang” in the air, without any support. Fantastic idea for building all those lofts, adding stairs, and numerous other creative ideas that I’m sure are incoming. I of course wasted no time in creating a loft in Misako’s home, a living area that I hope to work on eventually. I have been trying to find a method to her home decorating that won’t leave me feeling all flustered. I figure the best way to attempt this is to work one room at a time, forming lists of what I’d like to see crafted for the rooms and then of course slowly adding to those lists.

Close up behind the bar, complete with wine rack, roses, and some azurite chalice

It’s a very slow progress, but I’d like her home to be impressive. At least to me. I’ve been browsing through the Norrathian Homeshow trying to get ideas for the rest of the house. It’s also difficult at times because I do not want to hit my 500 item limit. I’m also trying to work around the 50,000 status I need weekly for up keep, by crafting some of the higher quality items that give a lot of status reduction. There are always a few quests Misako could stand to do as well to help lower the rent (such as the ship in a bottle from Thundering Steppes and the Idol of Everling).

Another change that went in that I love, is the alchemist one. There is a quest in Rivervale that will provide you with the means to change your lower tier dusts into higher level ones. Combine three lower tier dusts and it will produce 1 higher level dust + you’ll get one of the lower dusts back. I’m not sure how this will affect the market but it should be interesting. The T7 dusts (On the AB server at least) sell for anywhere from 10-20g each. They of course are the bi-product from adept3’s. With the ability to combine lower level dusts into higher level ones (thank goodness I bought out the market every chance I could.. I just wish we could batch produce these, it’s going to take forever!) there’s going to be a lesser demand on the original T7 ones. On the plus side, my characters who use potions like they’re going out of style (which is pretty much all of them) are going to find this an incredible thing to produce. I may try my hand at selling some more potions and poisons, and see how it goes. I imagine that alchemists are going to have their hands full trying to combine all these lower level dusts.

I have not checked out the world event yet (apparently located in QH and EFP) but I will today (if I can find the time between crafting!). Apparently the Freeport version of the quest did not reward a house item, or anything in fact. The Qeynos version rewards with a book you can place in your home. The event of course is in preparation for RoK which is only three months away from release now (the game is abuzz with anticipation). As I look around at the server, I’ve noticed a huge influx of people returning to the game. The lower level chats are all filled with people who are giving it another try, who want to be around for RoK, who heard that they’d (SoE) improved on a lot of things. It’s great to see, and I really thing SoE”s been doing fantastic lately. I realize some people are unhappy with the changes to agro (my poor Goudia lost a good bit from her songs that de-agro the group) but in my opinion it is stuff folks will work around and change with and adapt to. We’ll just have to see how it goes. I’m looking to get her to level 60 tonight as well. If I can tear myself away from the crafting and homes!

Goudia hits 59, thwacking away at various mobs in TT, working the basket quests.. too bad she’s out now

The little Ratonga stopped and stood still a moment. She tilted her head to the side, a huge grin spread out on her face. She clasped her hands to her chest. Stood on her toes. Opened her mouth, and let out an earth shattering shriek. It could have pierced glass it was that loud.

HHHhheeeerrrreeee little swoop serpent! Let me cut cut cut, gonna jab jab jab! Hhhheeeeeeerrreeee little swoop serpent! Let me thwack thwack thwack let me hack hack hack!

She danced over the grass nimble as could be, tucking her tail around her waist as she passed over the small stream, careful not to get it wet. Goudia loved her job. Loved singing as she did her job, and the shinies that accumulated in her pockets after each session of work was rewarding in itself.

So as you can see above, Goudia finally hit level 59. The troubador is a lot of fun to play, I really would like to experience raids playing a scout class. It would be the first time I’ve ever played one, though she is almost exactly like playing an illusionist I find. She has PoTM now, which gives a proc for every spell cast for 20 seconds. I find myself petitioning to get her mystical orb of the invoker back (which the GM’s helped with, thank you very much, it was appreciated) and looking for proc gear. She’s going to have to do her bone-clasped girdle HQ shortly, and I’m looking forward to it. Who would have known the little Ratonga could be so much fun! I have no dreams of betraying back to dirge, though I believe I will make another bard and level up a dirge eventually. I would like to get into raids with her, but we’ll see how that goes.

The game is down for patching right now, go figure. I’m excited! Very excited. New furniture items. Revamped class aa (though there are down sides to this) and multiple characters selling. I’m excited.. I spent most of last night harvesting in preparation for writs now giving tradeskill experience, and for all of the new items. I’m sure I’ll post update notes once I can see them.