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.

Ok. I am in heaven. I just went and read the test notes for GU37… they’re way too long to post the entire thing, so if you’re interested in reading, check here, and in the mean time, here are the portions of it that I personally am so ecstatic about:

BROKER

• You can now sell items on the broker with more than one character!
  • All characters on an account can list items for sale at the same time.
  • Items remain listed as long as you log in with any of your characters at least once every 7 days.

Mystic

• Enhance: Resurrection Efficiency: Improved power reduction from 8% to 12% per rank.
• Spirit Dance: Increased resurrection amount from 15% to 40%. Improved reuse speed from 2 minutes to 90 seconds. Increased radius to 30m.
• Enhance: Cures, Fading Spirit, Ancient Balm: All ward amounts have been increased by 20%.
• Immunization: Improved reuse speed from 3 to 2 minutes.
• Weapon Mastery: Also increases effectiveness of Summoned Spirit Companion (single down arrow instead of double down arrow).

TRADESKILLS

• Crafted deity altars are no longer flagged “Lore”.
• Wuoshi’s Molted Scale, Bark of Growth, and Seed of Growth are no longer flagged Lore.
• Imbue type harvests are now known simply as “material” instead of four separate types (”flower”, “stone”, “tooth”, “scale”, simplifying bank space usage logistics. Existing flowers, teeth, and scales will not be renamed but can still be used.
• Crafters now gain tradeskill experience from completing tradeskill writs.
• Crafters who have respec’ed their crafting class and wish to exchange their crafting tool from the Village of Shin quests can now speak to Rai Faela Nurwin near the Village of Shin brokers.
• The following tinker-made items are now tradable: gnomish flotation device, spring-loaded gnomish stilts, goggles of the bats, gnomish diving goggles, gnomish shades, full spectrum goggles, gnomish anti camo goggles.
• The Dark Bargainers have noticed a business opportunity and moved to fill it! Neriak now has its own tradeskill faction and faction merchant.
• Carpenters have removed the following recipes from their recipe books, as they are identical in appearance to other existing items: Maple Gnome Chair, Gnome thinking chair, Gukta ironwood shelf, Ornate bedside table, Burlap painting, Elegant bone chair, Fir trophy box, Ruckas rug, Bone shelf.
• Tradeskill writs now award Dark Bargainer faction to Neriak citizens.
• Tradeskill faction merchants will now sell in-home crafting stations to crafters whose efforts have sufficiently impressed them.
• Kindling merchants not working inside the tradeskill societies are now stocking a wider inventory of recipe ingredients including cream cheese, cocoa, and sugar.
• The Norrathian Carpenters’ Guild has quietly retired the recipe for the Twisted Oak Table due to lack of demand (existing twisted oak tables will be unaffected).
• The horned leather backpack recipe is now level 63.
• Grandmaster’s Elixir of Second Sight will no longer be removed when you zone.
• The recipe for the teak oval table is now correctly named.
• An intrepid band of single-minded interior decorators has ventured deep into what remains of the Misty Thicket, and returned bringing yet more furnishing ideas to the cities of Norrath.
• Carpenters have discovered Steamfont hot springs heating technology! The carpenter-crafted moonstone pools now look slightly more desirable than the quested versions with similar appearance…
• Jewelers across Norrath have discovered how to make pristine quality handcrafted and mastercrafted rings accept adornments!

UI

• You can now re-purchase your 10 most recently sold items at the same price.
  • No time limit!
  • Even after logging out or zoning!

A knights sconce, very pretty new house item added in the last LU

Servers went down this morning but I had a little time to play with the dressing room feature in game and create a few new house items. The one pictured above is one of my favorites I’ve got to admit. There are also some new plants, an actual wine rack, some pillars (for those of us that adore making gardens in our homes and what not) and some other odds and ends. A friend has let me use their carpenter, which I’m ecstatic about since I’ve never managed to level one of my own to 70. You’d figure with all of these alts and crafters I’d have done so by now.

A thank you to Shadowgeist for helping get my site back up and working. I didn’t actually think I’d burst into tears over losing 300 or so posts, but I did. I have back ups now, so if anything goes wrong again I’ll be better prepared.

Raids today… uhms. Not sure what we’re hitting actually. There are some key people missing, so I don’t think we’ll be doing Freethinkers, which is our typical Saturday raid (I think.. maybe we do that Thursdays.. my brain is a bit muddled). I’d love to see Dasie get some of her set gear but it seems a little out of reach for now. Nothing wrong with that, I’m still working her up. I want to get Misako some levels, I’ve got masters and gear stashed aside and I miss playing her, especially since now I’ve respec’d her aa line.

Sword of Destiny…… I had Kandrial (assassin from guild) read ahead a bit on the quest for me.. and decided that I am just not sure I want to do it. It requires a whole lot of named in Castle Mistmoore, and is also flagged as an epic quest. You have to go into the x4 area upstairs. Not looking forward to any of that. The +75 to heals would be *REALLY* nice, but it’s only got 20 more power then my current weapon, and 8 less wisdom. I’ve got a +40 to heals on the weapon to begin with, so I’d basically be doing all of this work for +35 to heals and 10 power. Of course it does lead to the fabled version, but I’ve got no hopes at all of accomplishing that for quite some time. Maybe when RoK comes out and I’ve (and the guild or whomever) got a few more levels to me. We’ll just have to see how it goes. With epics being released in RoK to begin with I’m wondering if there’s any point anyhow, seeing as I’ll have 10 more levels and possibly a new weapon to work on. Who knows, that’s a long ways away.

Gothun seems to be enjoying himself on AB which I’m glad to see. Kilanna and I have been chattering as always. An old friend of mine from Najena and Albrta (also from Najena) and I chattered yesterday, we have a channel in game so we can do the gossip thing from across servers. One of our friends has been away for quite some time, so it was really really nice to see her ducked in for a bit. I had missed her.

I like the changes to aa, for shaman at least. I love it for enchanters. Being able to weild something in Stargrace’ secondary hand will be nice. Not that I’ve filled the slot yet. I haven’t played her much. Dasie’ aa line are staying as they are, no reason to change really. I wish her EoF line gave her more in the lines of healing but I suppose they leave that to the templars. I boxed Stargrace and Dasie in DFC last night and got a few of the bloodstone ores, to make level 37 gear with. I was contemplating making a set for Ishbel (my 37 coercer) but she’s really just a bot that I drag around and get exp by chance with. I always liked the idea of having both a coercer and an illusionist.

Other then that things are fairly quiet in game which is how I like it. Hopefully I’ll get a little more accomplished this next week but I’m not holding my breath! With the site down the traffic has been slow and I’ll have to get some good posts in to make up for it.

After a lot of procrastination, Dasie hits level 70 Jeweler

When I’m floundering about in EQII my typical response is one of three things. I’ll either make an alt, find some house items to quest for, or craft. Last night I decided to do the later of the three. I’d had Dasie sitting at level 69 in her craft for months now, mainly because you don’t get any new books after that level, so there’s no real point aside from the glory of being able to say you’re level 70. I purchased her crafting books, and set off to grind the level away. Actually, after making items for various customers the past few weeks I was already at 80% exp so it wasn’t that far to go. That leaves my crafters as follows:

70 Provisioner, 70 Jeweler, 61 Woodworker, 61 Sage, 51 Alchemist, 42 Tailor, 30 Armorer

Ah yes, that’s right! Today I decided that I’d quickly (nothing is ever done “quickly” in crafting) get the armorer to level 30 and out of that blasted tier forever. Your +progress buttons turn grey at 27 and it’s an annoying struggle to get to 30. But now I have new buttons and everything’s good. Of course now I’m also going to need T4 (level 30-39) crafting supplies. Maybe I’ll manage to find the elusive feysteel cluster (or two!). I’d really like to try to get all my crafters to level 70 in their craft before Kunark comes out and raises that cap to 80. I’m pleased that they’re raising the levels, but at the same time because I have so many characters and crafters, it’s going to be a lot of work to get them anywhere. On the plus side, I’ll also be able to pick and choose who to work up first and who to let slide a little bit. I’m excited about the new content even though it’s still quite some time away.

I’m going to be having a few guest writers on my blog, a friend of mine in game asked if they could write an article for me to post, and of course I jumped at the opportunity. I don’t usually write “news story” type posts, which I know a lot of people out there enjoy reading. What’s going on with whom in the industry and who did what to who and all that good juicy information, it’s just not my style on the blog. I enjoy writing about what I’m doing in game, vent out frustrations, some quest info and that sort of thing. So hopefully the guest writer can freshen things up a little bit, we’ll see how it goes.

Flirt, the berserker armorer looking smart in her new bronze gear

So yesterday was the day for crafting (and for me slacking on my posts, go figure). Tulips hit level 20 carpenter, Flirt hit level 20 armorer and then early this morning before the servers came down Misako hit 34 tailor. I’ve also been working on Stargrace’ tinkering, she’s into T4 now which makes me quite happy. It’s not nearly as painful now that they’ve halved the ingredients that you require. Still have to farm for loam and hard metals, but it’s bearable. Above, the one tank I have on both accounts, my berserker. Who’s level 5 and will more then likely stay there for a good long time. I really don’t enjoy playing tanks at all. Most people who know me know that. They’ll ooohh and aaahhh over the 7 other alts I have, and realize that something’s wrong with this one.

A friend of mine from EQLive may be coming to try out EQII, which is always a great thing to hear. Hopefully they want to stay and the population of Lucan D’Lere will have at least gone up by one. I miss having someone to play with fairly constantly. People move on, or friendships change, or real life happens and all that good stuff. Interrupting my gaming! Go figure.

Did poets yesterday with Kaeros, a ranger from guild. He ended up dying, not his day. I played it first with my fury and then accidentally left the zone. Not my day either apparently. Played a shadowknight for the remainder. The typical trash dropped, those glimmering bracelets that are more transmute fodder then anything else, some no trade fabled. Though Kaeros did win himself a level 57 master to sell. The market has been absolutely slow as snails lately. I have about 10p left on both Silverstep and Stargrace, and some change on the alts but nothing more then that. Things are just simply not selling.

On a side note, it’s raining out side and I absolutely love it. In fact it’s supposed to rain all week for the next 7 days. More ramblings another time!

Stargrace, placing the dolls for the Idol of Everling - another house item!

Since Silverstep lost her house and all of her belongings (sighs, 2 years worth of house items including the rare griffin tower live event items and other random goodies) I decided I’d work on Stargrace’ house in the mean time. She was missing two knick nacks, the ship in a bottle (from the fallen dynasty quest, located on the docks in TS by the Island bell, examine each one of the crates and then hail the npc there and he’ll talk to you), as well as the Idol of Everling from Nektulos Castle 1.0. That’s right the simple level 30-ish zone was given a lore quest a few months back that I fell in love with. More status reduction (I own a house in South Qeynos, closest to the Harbor zone line if you’re ever peeking in on Lucan D’Lere feel free to check it out, door is always open) is always a great thing. I’m looking to have a whole lot of house items crafted as well, a friend having supplies me with about.. 35 T6 rares as a thank you for my contribution to a few raids. One consistent thing with me in EQII has been my some what (sick) obsession with house items. I’d do the sword of destiny quest series just for the house item reward.

This weekend was fairly typical, I raided on Friday, as well as Saturday and Sunday. Sunday was Lyceum and Chel’Drak. The guild I was with had never attempted Chel’Drak before, and they managed to get him to 49% their first visit. Which is simply amazing from my point of view. It is a very difficult encounter with five separate types of adds, as well as two aoe’s, plus Chel’Drak himself. They were one short in the raid, using their guilds back up tank, and we could have used a few more power regenning classes. It was still a very successful learning experience though, and honestly that’s all a first attempt is. It’s where you learn the encounter, where to position and what your role is in a raid. It made me miss TK a lot, and the way we used to operate, the time we took into learning these encounters.

I’ve been crafting slightly. Hoping to get my carpenter up a few levels, as well as the sage and the alchemist. I’ve been slacking far behind. I did end up playing my mystic (going to betray to defiler) for the better portion of Sunday morning, and she hit level 32 (almost 33) which is the longest I’ve had a mystic I think. I typically get bored and end up deleting them to make room for other characters. No news yet on the exact days that server transfers are going to be available, but that’s a big deal lately as well, as everyone from my old guild who remained is planning on leaving the server as soon as it’s allowed. I don’t blame them. I think I’ve decided to move one character to the new server they all transfer too (probably my templar) and keep the rest of my characters on Lucan since things are picking up slightly. I have some friends in Marauders who are working for me to try to join the guild (previous posts explain why I’m allowed to raid with them, but not join their guild) and a lot of people think it’s foolishness that I’m not allowed to wear the tag after offering so much to their raids. I still understand though and hopefully things work out. I just want to be able to raid.

Oh, yes. For april fools day.. everyone had enormous heads. /Cutemode has been in game for as long as I can remember, but typically not by default, lol. It was fun to hear everyone’s comments on it. There was also a goblin who would go around rez’ing people who had died. Which actually proved to be more of an annoyance then anything else because he will spam your screen even when you are not dead. In the Chel’Drak raid it was also very deadly if people choose his rez vs. the revive option. It would summon the entire raid into his room and wipe us all (again). I can’t wait until they remove that foolishness. It’s not april fools day any more (speaking of which, my birthday is in two weeks - I feel so old! Even if 26 isn’t that old *grins*)

Silverstep, on her way to Unrest

First of all, I have to vent. I really hate how a lot of guilds are lately, in their treatment of non-guildies. One issue in specific, would have to be asking / letting someone join on a raid - only to tell them (or not tell them at all) that the raid is actually full, and they’re no longer needed. This is an issue that has happened to not only myself, but a few friends of mine, and not just one isolated incident, with one guild, but at least three, with three separate guilds. Mine typically goes along the lines of standing around waiting for a raid invite, then the raid zones in, uninvited, after being invited along. Which is the same thing that’s happened to a few other TK’ers. One even went so far as to sign up 12th for a raid, and was denied a spot on it. Not because they’re a horrible player, but simply because in the end ‘there was no room’, even if they registered and it was organized ahead of time that they’d be able to go.

I think my largest concern is that the guilds doing this do not even have the curtsey to SAY something to those involved, but leave them standing around watching the raid force zone in. I realize that organizing a raid is a difficult and time consuming thing. I realize running one means you’re constantly heading in ten directions at once, and things can get confusing, but what happened to having a little bit of humanity and taking some consideration for those who are dedicating their time (and efforts) to help out on said raids? It frustrates me to no end. I’m a good raider, and a good player. I’m not the best, there’s always better out there, but I’m adaptable and know my stuff. I wish I didn’t have to prove that to every single person out there and was given the benefit of the doubt. Anyhow, enough of that rant.

The game update 33 went in yesterday, and I absolutely love what they’ve done to macros. I don’t use a whole lot of them, but I do have macros for divine arbitration on the templar, as well as her sanctuary spell. In the past, these macros have never shown what the recast on the spell was, since you choose a separate icon to display it. Which meant that some where on another hotbar, I’d have to stick sanctuary and DA just so that I could watch the recast timer and know when it would be back up. Annoying, to say the least. I also have macros for my mez’s, depending on the situation. I don’t want to spam my groups with macros obviously. My +168 temporary int buff is also on a macro, as well as Savante, a 52 illusionist rare that reduces mana consumption by 56% for a limited amount of time. I’ll certainly be playing with the functions as time goes on and figuring out the best macro methods for me.

The next sword of destiny quest was also released. Not looking forward to that, I haven’t even completed the first two yet. Slacker, I know. I’ve had a lot on my plate lately both in game and out, so I’m moving a little slower. I finally got around to making food and drink, but other then that have not crafted. Transmuting I worked on slightly, but not a lot. My other smaller crafters have been fairly neglected, but I’m sure I’ll pick it back up. Still not much word yet on the incoming server transfers. I haven’t made up my mind yet about where to go (or whether to just stay). Yesterday morning was fun, just before servers came down I heard that the unicorn (level 60 epicx2) who paths around the Obelisk in LesserFaydark, was up. I poked a friend of mine and asked him if he wanted to duo it with me boxing the illusionist / fury. With only 15 minutes until down time it was a little pressed, but down she went (is the unicorn even a she? I’m not sure.. how do you check that?) and dropped a master chest. I was hoping for the cloak, but instead got a dagger which was of course no trade. I would have ran my assassin down to pick it up, except servers were about to go down in four minutes, so I rolled and won it, and transmuted it. I did get the rare mana component out of it so I suppose that’s better then nothing, but it would have been a pretty upgrade for the assassin (if I ever level her).

Tinkering supplies have been cut in half. I love it. There are also new tinkered adornments out there, mob drop recipes only, I haven’t seen one yet, I’d imagine they’re very expensive. Much like everything these days. With a lack of crafting and farming in general, my funds are slowly dwindling. Oh well, not as if there is that much for me to purchase out there anyhow.

Silverstep’s Weapon wall - well, former weapon wall

So yesterday I decided I’d dedicate myself to transmuting and see how far I could raise the skill on 50 plat. I hate the price of the adornments out there even though I know they’re quite reasonable for the amount of resources they take. For example, each T6 adornment (treasured mind you, not legendary or fabled which require even more) take at least 10 adept1’s or treasured gear plus the cost of fuel. That’s a whole heck of a lot of money. Not to mention not every combine gives a skill up. In fact, now that I’m sitting at a skill of 260 (which means I can make T6 adornments now, and can transmute items up to level 57) it seems that it’s every 3-4th combine that gives me a skill up. That’s roughly over 1,500 T6 adepts and treasured pieces of gear. When you’re level 70 that’s very difficult to get, though I do have a level 52, they’re in an uncomfortable stage, where it’s either too low or too high for them to achieve.

On the other hand, I am exceptionally happy that I got the skill that high in one day. Again, it did cost me 50p, but that’s what I’d allotted myself to spend and I knew from the start that it would be a costly endeavor. Since the guild has broken apart the remaining members are without a transmuter, and I offered to make what I could or to at least turn their adepts / treasured gear into supplies for them so that they could in turn find the proper crafters and have them made, instead of spending huge amounts of money on the broker for adornments. Are adornments even that important? Well, it’s a matter of perspective really. I know quite a few people who play just fine with none at all. However, it does help. The plus to stats are always nice with the new cap limit, the plus to spell damage is also very nice. I have some plus healing ones on the healers, and I’m looking to be able to make the + int ones.

So, any suggestions on how to farm T6 things? I know I can run poets a few times, the mobs are all green and the items are transmutable T6 stuff. That includes the no trade fabled items, so that’s always very nice. T7 at least will be easier for me, since I can just farm that myself, my own level. I can also run instances like nest and collect easy things to transmute to make into items. It’s going to be T6 that’s the “hell” level for me though. Already dreading it and I’m 10 points into it (I need another 40 points… ew.. )

On a side note, I live on the 11th floor of an apartment building, and last night at about 9:30pm the fire alarms started going off. I own a kitty as well, and typically bring her with me when the fire alarms go off, but it was -22c outside, and I didn’t see any smoke or hear anything unusual (the building is known for pranksters pulling the alarm) so rather then risk her to the freezing cold outside, I left her at home and me and Shadowgeist trucked our way into the chilly winter air. 30 minutes later they let us back into the building, no fire in sight. Ugh. Walked back up the 11 flights of stairs because the elevators of course were packed with people also trying to get back to their houses. Needless today, my legs are sore from walking up and down those stairs. A woman outside had her kitty tucked into her jacket (mine would never tolerate that) so next time I’ll pack her up and take her to the car in the garage, at least then I’m not worrying over her being in the building still and she can stay warm. How’s that for excitement. I’d have rather just played EQII.

Silverstep and Stargrace hang out in Qeynos Harbor together now

Incase I have not mentioned it yet, I really am enjoying two boxing in EQII. With the shadowknight tank class around that my boyfriend plays, a fury and an illusionist (both who buff int, and haste / dps as well as spell procs and the like, can’t forget that power regen) the mobs die fast and there’s little to no down time. It was a good decision on my part I feel, especially with the amount of time that I play. So what have I been up to?

I need some transmuted parts for a heritage quest. They’re going for about 1-2p each piece, and I need 12 pieces per character. Needless to say I refuse to actually pay that. I decided that in the time it would take me to even come close to affording that, I could probably work my own transmuting to the skill required, then it’s just a matter of farming adepts and legendary T7 items to provide the powders I’m looking for. My skill in transmuting just reached 100, which is where the fun begins as I can no longer get skill ups from physically transmuting items, but now I have to make the combines in order to achieve them. Not looking forward to the slow grind, but it doesn’t bother me quite that much. I am farming the supplies myself with my lower level characters, Misako specifically who is level 27 and around the range I need for materials. This is the way I figure it:

There are pleanty of quests with item rewards (and coin) that I have not yet done. The ones from Antonica, Commonlands, Nektulos Forest, and Thundering Steppes off of the top of my head. If I mentor for turn ins but complete the quests while I’m level 70, it will help me in numerous ways. Giving me gear for transmuting, money for purchases, and on completion aa, which is always a huge deal. I need 19 more on the fury, and 10 more on the illusionist to hit my 100 for each character. Once I’ve finished all of the quests in each of those zones, I should (hopefully) be on the next tier of transmuting, where I’d do the corresponding quests and get more items / money / quest counts along the way. That’s my plan at least. We’ll have to see how it really goes. It’ll give me a lot of time to prepare my “forgotten zones” posts that I’d like to make as well. So much still to do, I love it. There’s lore and legends, the quest count, and signature quests that I’ve been trying to finish off. A few things there’s no sign I’ll ever be able to complete them (like the world event quest for marr’s chosen, which requires a level 50 raid zone, and those who are level 70 must mentor down or else they can’t zone in… which really sucks might I add). I’m certainly happy with my home in EQII.

Not sure where this cheerful guy is from? Hint: In order to spawn some named, you place him and his friends

Yesterday was very much an EQ2 day, remembering all of the reasons that I fell in love with the game to begin with two years ago. It was nice to get away from the bugs and lag and just, everything, from Vanguard. My mystic (who’s going to go defiler eventually) got two levels from 23-25. She also got a tailoring level to 31. My jeweler (and 70 templar) Dasie has been sitting at level 65 forever, so I decided it was about time I at least get her to 70. Using some of the three year veteran crafting experience rewards, she hit 85% through 67. It’s about one potion a level, so I can hit 69 before I’ll run out. Of course now she’s out of vitality, so that really sucks. I figure I’ll wait a day or two before getting the last two levels. Then I’ll have the 70 illusionist / 70 provisioner, and the 70 templar / 70 jeweler. Next? The fury is level 70 in adventuring, but level 60 in woodworking, so I’ll try to get her to 70 as well. The sage (level 52 adventurer) is at 60 too. The alchemist (42 assassin) is sitting at 50, where she’ll stay for quite some time.

I did a run through the Shimmering Citadel, which is where the screen shot is from. It’s still one of the best zones to farm the high end T6 masters (which are still far too rare), even if you get no masters at all you’re guaranteed a platinum in vendor trash, and typically a few crafting rares (on very difficult setting, which lets face it, is not all that difficult at level 70). A level 58 defiler ancient teachings spell dropped, but there’s one on the market already for 8p, so mine’s up there for 5. The legendary robe also dropped, another 50g or so. If you’re looking for shinnies, specifically the ones for the moppet house pet, the roof top of shimmering citadel is fantastic, there are about 6-8 shinnies that spawn around the roof top where the mirror is for the citadel, and you can just run in loops farming them (everything is grey).

I also did a fast Acadechism run, nothing interesting dropped but it was fun none the less.

One huge difference between Vanguard and EQ2, is that when you run around from place to place in Vanguard, you get a sense that it is a world. It’s huge, and there’s huge spaces of running with nothing around. It can take you a real life hour to run from one place to another on the same continent. In EQ2, it feels like zones. Antonica is a zone, Thundering Steppes is a zone, Feerrott is a zone. It doesn’t feel like the world of Norrath, it feels like a bunch of zones of Norrath. It’s great that we can all buy these 50% speed mounts, but they’re hardly ever used, because there’s no real place that you need to run (with an exception of quick jaunts through zones). It’s one thing Vanguard really did right (in the mix of so much stuff that they did wrong).