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).

Game Update #32 February / 28 / 2007

*** General Gameplay ***

- The Fae Glide trait will no longer suspend when you zone into a dungeon while on a mount.
- Candle flames no longer go out on lower particle settings
- Items can no longer be looted into overflow using Tradeskill Harvest Bags.
- Adding items to collections now works when you also have that item in the bank.
- Fae should no longer be able to jump as high while wearing gnomish spring boots.
- Resolved some occasional time issues when switching zones (spell reuse timers, zone timers, etc).
- After years of humiliation the Boarfiend has been given some pants instead of just a loin cloth.
- Veil Hunters under the effect of Boon of the Veil will no longer continue to receive damage if they are killed in the Veil.
- You will now be asked to confirm leaving raid zones when you have a lockout timer.
- You can no longer queue spells while you are dead or knocked out. If you somehow manage to have a spell queued when you die, it will be cancelled when you resurrect.
- Using the /yell command in Emerald Halls, Inner Sanctum, Clockwork Menace Factory, and Freethinker Hideout will no longer break the encounter.
- To make his disciples more efficient in combat, Mithaniel Marr has reduced the size of the summoned Valiant Beast.
- Casting Escape in the ‘A Meeting of the Minds’ zone will now take you to Feerrott instead of Everfrost.
- The investigation skill should now only appear once you properly acquire it, which might take some investigation itself.
- Mentoring and deleveling should no longer cause you to go crash to character select.
- Mitigation adjustments from items and spells now offer protection and penalties much closer to the amount listed. Previously, lower level spells and items that granted mitigation bonuses would sometimes not offer any increase at all if the level difference was extreme enough. Now the bonuses scale properly by comparing the level of the item or spell versus the level of the player. For example: A level 70 Dirge casting the level 35 spell “Zander’s Choral Rebuff” will see an appropriate amount of mitigation decrease on the target now, whereas before that spell would have had no effect at all.
- Enemy Level is compared only once in determining mitigation adjustments and is now calculated before the mitigation diminishing returns curve is applied. This fixes situations where often plate armor’s longevity plummets much faster than lower mitigation armors against high yellow and low orange content.

*** Achievements ***

- Points spent in the Class achievement have been refunded.
- Achievement respec costs now start out at 10 gold, followed by 1plat and then cap at 10plat. 30 days after your respec the cost will reset to 10 gold.
- Obtaining the final ability in any Class achievement line will grant a new player title.
- Final abilities in the Class achievement lines have been reduced in point cost from 8 to 2. Point progression between rows of achievements have been adjusted to more evenly distribute the points between the rows and maintain most of the popular spec types that players had from before the update.
- The spell description for Cloaked Assault will now display properly after purchasing its enhancement achievement.

Bard:
- Coin Toss - Duration to trigger HO effect reduced from 3 to 1 second. Reuse time increased from 1 to 5 seconds.
- Harbinger’s Sonnet - Benefit is now directly tied to Selo’s without having to cast another spell, and slightly increase the non-combat movement speed.

Berserker:
- Perserverance will now double the in combat regen rather than adding 100.

Mystic:
- Enhance: Spirit of the Wolf - Reduced speed increase from 6% to 4%.

*** Spells & Combat Arts ***

General:
- Spells like Water Spirit that cause you to sink in water will no longer cause falling damage.
- Ammo will no longer be consumed when using a ranged combat art.
- Spell Casting time calculations will add/subtract modifiers before multiplying modifiers.
- Spell reuse will no longer exceed the amount it was prior to zoning or logging out.

Bards:
- Selo’s Speed of Sound, a new upgrade of Selo’s Accelerating Chorus is available at level 55.

Brawler:
- Increased defensive stance physical mitigation percent bonus from 20% to 25%
- Increased hybrid stance physical mitigation percent bonus from 10% to 12.5%
- Increased defensive stance minimum deflection chance from 7.5% to 10%
- Increased hybrid stance minimum deflection chance to 3.5% to 5%

Brigand:
- Double Up - Now works with Sinister Strike.
Conjurer:
- Plane Shift - Hydromancer pet’s size is increased. No more tiny water snake.

Dirge:
- Crypt’s Quiet - Increased triggered damage.
- Death’s Door - Increased triggered damage and percentage.
- Dissonance - Reuse time changed from 20 to 12 seconds.
- Noxious Chorus - Increased resist amounts.

Fury:
- The full description of the Fury spell Bristleskin will now display correctly.
Illusionist:
- Color Shower should now trigger procs correctly.

Troubador:
- Alin’s Keening Lamentation - Casting time changed from 3 to 2.5 seconds. Reuse time changed from 15 to 12 seconds.
- Arcane Chorus - Increased resist amounts.
- Elemental Chorus - Increased resist amounts.
- Performer’s Talent - Increased trigger percentage.

*** Items ***
General:
- The Spring Loaded Gnomish Stilts will no longer work while on horseback.
- Crude, shaped & worked versions of the Tailored Tranquil Dragon’s Breath Slippers now have the appropriate divine resist.
- The invisibility effect from Rhaondrilliis must now be activated to work, and can no longer be cast while under stun/stifle/mez. Casting time has been set to 2 seconds, with a reuse of 3 minutes.
- The tailored tranquil dragon’s breath blouse, shawl, pantaloons, mitts, cuffs, and cap should all now have the correct amount of divine resistance.
- The Circlet of Storms may now be transmuted or sacrificed.
- ‘Environmental’ is now spelled properly in the following items (and their effect text): Worn Arcane/Elemental/Noxious Environmental Suits, and the Full Body Arcane/Elemental/Noxious Environmental Suits.
- The worked version of the halasian boiling pot will now properly show the Handcrafted tag.
- The effect Dark Purpose from Band of the Chosen should now be functioning.
- The recipe for Ruinous Hesitation (apprentice) now consumes the proper number of rosewood and hanging root (5 each).
- You can no longer activate the Spring Loaded Gnomish Stilts while on horseback.
- Orb of Truth: When triggered, Healing Pulse will now heal the caster instead of adding additional healing to each heal cast.
- Orb of the Healer: When triggered, the caster of the spell is now the origin of Healing Wave.
- Dark Aura of Protection should now properly proc from Hoop of the Chosen.
- The ‘Arcane Feedback’ proc will now show the correct icon.
- The effect on the Blithe Bixie Cloak will now return power to the caster, instead of draining it.

Appearance Changes:
- Profession hats should no longer make you bald.
- The “Crested Mistmoore Shield” heritage item will now mount properly on the wall.
- “a small figurehead” house item should now place correctly against the wall.
- “a letter from the Dismal Rage” will no longer sink into the floor and table when placed.
- “a militia skull display shelf”, “a Coalition skull display shelf”, “a Dismal Rage skull display shelf” will now place properly when on a wall.
- ‘a Qeynosian wall sconce’ now places properly on the wall.
- The house item book ‘History of the Feir’Dal’ has an in-house appearance now.
- Many weapon drops in the Emerald Halls have been given unique appearances.

Tradeskill Related Items:
- All 1% tradeskill success modification items created through tinkering are now usable at level 20 instead of a range from 2 to 20. This will not impact characters who have the items, as to equip them, the character previously already needed to have the tradeskill class. This change, along with the two below should create a more level playing field for tradeskillers working through these levels.
- All 2% tradeskill success modification items created through tinkering are now usable at level 33 instead of a range from 33 to 41.
- All 3% tradeskill success modification items created through tinkering are now usable at level 54 instead of a range from 59 to 68.
- Tradeskill created Xegonite idols will now properly be equippable at level 62 instead of 67.
- Tradeskill hearths now have appropriate sounds when lit.
- The River Rock, Ashen and Sandstone hearths now all properly carry the ‘Handcrafted’ tag.
- The portable tradeskill devices may now all be used at level 41, rather than a range of levels from 41 to 47.
- Fixed a typo in the description for the Elaborate Stove & Keg prose.
- Crafting the pristine version of the Mechanized Platinum Repository of Reconstruction will no longer award one more xegonite than was required to make the item.
- Alder bookcases are now properly labelled mastercrafted rather than legendary.
- The last charge on the Gigglegibber’s Secret of Death will now work properly.
- The crude, shaped, and worked versions of the imbued adamantine warhammer now have the proper stats.
- Miscalibrated and Calibrated tinkered harvesting tools (such as automated shears) now require tradeskill level rather than adventuring level. This is consistent with the higher-level Overclocked tools.

Item Sets:
- The first bonus from the Necromancer Spirit Siphoning Set, Focus: Abate Life will now remove 200 power cost instead of adding.
- The Coercer EoF Force Itemset focus Impetus now adds 10dps, instead of haste.
- Coat of the Requiem - Focus: Luda’s Nefarious Wail II has had it’s damage modifier increased to 160.
- Robe of Dark Arts - Focus: Void Distortion II has had it’s damage modifier increased to 100.

Ammo:
- Ammunition just became less mysterious! Examining ammo will now show damage, range and accuracy modifiers.
- All store-bought ammunition now has a max stack size of 100. Previously it fluctuated between 99 & 100 depending on level.
- All tradeskilled ammunition now has a max stack size of 100. Previously it fluctuated between 99 & 100 depending on level.
- All tradeskilled ammunition recipes award 25, 50, 75, or 100 items depending on the tradeskill success.
- All tradeskilled ammunition should correctly show up as ‘HANDCRAFTED’ rather than ‘UNCOMMON’.
- Specific to arrows, the following changes have been made:
- Store-bought arrows have the lowest damage potential, range and accuracy.
- Ranger summoned arrows have mid-line damage potential, range and accuracy - these arrows have not changed from their current state on live.
Tradeskilled arrows now have the following properties:
- Broadhead arrows: High damage, low range, low accuracy, slashing damage type. (These arrows were formerly known as hunting arrows.)
- Bodkin arrows: Medium damage, medium range, medium accuracy, piercing damage type.
- Field point arrows: Low damage, high range, high accuracy, crushing damage type. (These arrows were formerly known as rounded arrows.)

*** Adornments ***
- You can now place adornments on imbued tradeskill weapons, armor and shields.
- No tradeskilled or store-bought ammunition may be adorned. All tradeskilled arrows should now have the ORNATE flag to reflect this.
- The initial damage on Flickering Molten Bindings has been slightly increased.
- Reduced the damage over time on the Sparkling Molten Bindings to be more in line with the other heat damage bindings.
- The effect on the ‘Xxxx of the Magi’ adornments will now properly state ‘Xxxx of the Magi’ rather than ‘Xxxx of the Pontiff’.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing adornments with procs triggered on casting from working.
- The Finesse of the Pontiff line of adornments should now properly reduce hate around the caster on successful heal casts. Note: The effect will only trigger while the caster is in combat.
- The Focus of the Pontiff line of adornments will now properly return power to the caster.
- The adornment ‘Reinforced Splint’ should now properly display as a legendary adornment.

*** Quests ***

New Quests:
- A quest line to go from Kelethin citizenship to Exile has been added. If you are level 10 or higher speak to Saelir Varryn in Greater Faydark.
- A quest line to go from Kelethin citizenship to Qeynosian citizenship without betraying has been added.This quest line begins with Duryo Valstat in South Qeynos.
- The first chapter of the Swords of Destiny quest line has been released.
- Shareth D’Frexin could use your help to retrieve something he lost in New Tunaria. He was last seen lurking about above the waterfall in The Greater Faydark.
- There is now a tradeskill tutorial quest for characters starting in Greater Faydark.
- New Lore and Legend Quests are available for Brownie, Bugbear, Clockwork, Kobold, Minotaur, and Werewolf.

Existing Quests:
- A goodly number of quests that involved heroic feats are now properly marked as heroic quests in the quest journal.
- Quests under level 10 will no longer give achievement xp.
- Greater Faydark (Kelethin): Whittier should now offer his quest again if you decline it the first time.
- Heritage: Cloak of Flames: Juna will now offer another Inert Leather Cloak at any time during the quest that requires it.
- Antonica: Attack of the Killer Bear: The Windstalker Grizzly will once again properly spawn.
- Beholders now count as Evil Eyes, as they are eyes… And evil… They will update the Evil Eye legend and lore quest and the mastery strike awarded from that quest will work on them.
- The quest items required for’The Heart of Gnome’ will now be removed from the player when the quest ends, as they should be.
- Bonemire: The Flame of the Corpse Candles: It is now possible to catalog the sated corpse candle for this quest.
- The quest “A Fallen Beauty” (both monk versions) may now be completed, even if the target NPCs have despawned. Simply speak with Jin Li again.
- The quest ‘Relics for Elurad’ is now flagged as heroic.
- Crystal and Stone golems now give auto update credit for Golem Lore and Legend quests instead of Elemental updates.
- All drakes in Kingdom of Sky are now considered drakota.

Tradeskill Related Quests:
- If a character deletes (accidentally or otherwise) any of the ‘Seeking a Profession’ (II to IX) tradeskill quests, they can now return to the questgiver and continue with their progress again.
- The quest ‘Seeking a Profession IV’ now requires a level 3 scroll be scribed (Light Strike) to match the quest level, rather than the level 5 scroll, Arcane Bindings.
- The tradeskill tutors for the Seeking a Profession IX quest will now properly tell players that they will need a Fashioned Lead Hoop instead of a malachite ring.
- Citizens of Kelethin may purchase the note to begin their tradeskill tutorial from Raclika. New characters will receive this note automatically upon logging in.

*** Tradeskills ***
General:
- The merchants Newman Hines and Garfa Gillgrinder will now properly sell incense for new crafters going through the tutorial.
- You will now get a failure message if you do not attempt to counter a tradeskill event.
- Numerous corpse items that claimed to be useable in crafting have had their description changed to remove this legacy data.
- You should now see an interrupted message when you move while transmuting.
- The tradeskilled cobalt hearths were renamed ‘ashen hearths’ to avoid confusion with needing cobalt clusters in their creation.

Commisioned Work:
- If a lore component is required for a recipe then the character commissioning work must provide it.
Recipes:
- The level 28 alchemist recipes (apprentice & adept) Essence of Barrage are now named Essence of Berserker Barrage to properly reflect the combat art they make.
- Fixed an issue where level 60 fighter spells created by alchemists wouldn’t properly return their rare components if combine completely failed.
- The recipe for Elddar’s Grasp is now correctly flagged as a level 64 recipe.
- Level 60 sage recipes in the volume 59 books for priest apprentice spells will now properly use 51-60 components/fuel instead of 61-70.
- Level 60 sage recipes in the volume 59 books for priest adept spells will now properly use 51-60 components/fuel instead of 61-70.
- Level 60 sage recipes in the volume 59 books for mage apprentice spells will now properly use 51-60 components/fuel instead of 61-70.
- Level 60 sage recipes in the volume 59 books for mage adept spells will now properly use 51-60 components/fuel instead of 61-70.
- Level 60 jeweler recipes in the volume 59 books for scout apprentice spells will now properly use 51-60 components/fuel instead of 61-70.
- Level 60 jeweler recipes in the volume 59 books for scout adept spells will now properly use 51-60 components/fuel instead of 61-70.
- Level 60 alchemist recipes in the volume 59 books for fighter apprentice spells will now properly use 51-60 components/fuel instead of 61-70.
- Level 60 alchemist recipes in the volume 59 books for fighter adept spells will now properly use 51-60 components/fuel instead of 61-70.
- The recipe for the Xegonite Wall Sconce now requires the use of a forge rather than a woodworking table as the other sconces do.
- The prose for the Metalworking art ‘Anneal’ now accurately reflects the effects of the spell.
- The prose for the Tailoring reaction art ‘Stitching’ now accurately reflects the effects of the spell.
- Tailor made crude/shaped/tailored/pristine woven etched leather armor now properly has a wisdom bonus instead of an intelligence bonus.
- The recipes for the Ornate Cambric Rug and the Horned Leather Rug now require a loom rather than a woodworking table as other rugs.
- ‘Old Fashioned Dwarven Wire’ now has an appropriate description.
- The recipe for cambric rugs now requires the use of a sewing table (or loom, if you prefer) rather than a woodworking table.
- The recipe for Amplify (Adept III) now correctly calls for copper instead of lapis lazuli.

Recipe Books & Scrolls:
- The Apprentice Blueprints 0.001 recipe scroll now has a slightly better progression for new tinkerers. The recipes inside the blueprint pack were all slightly reduced in level so that new tinkerers will have a recipe to create that doesn’t start out at ‘Very Hard’.
- The recipe for Minor Lucid will now properly show up in the level 4 artisan books instead of the level 3 books.
- Woodworker Essentials volume 24 now contains recipes for cold, disease, divine, magic, poison and mental imbued ash wands.
- Advanced Woodworker volume 25 now contains recipes for disease, divine, heat and magic imbued fir wands.

Writs:
- The 59 jeweler normal & rush order writs ‘My Precious!’ now display the proper icon for the nacre orb.
- Woodworker tradeskill writs which previously called for 150 arrows or thrown items now call for 600. This is the same number of pristine combines as before the recipe change. Where applicable, the writs also reflect the correct new name of the arrow type (broadhead or field point).
- Woodworker tradeskill rush-order writs which previously called for 75 arrows or thrown items now call for 300. This is the same number of pristine combines as before the recipe change. Where applicable, the writs also reflect the correct new name of the arrow type (broadhead or field point).
- Fixed a typo in the ‘A Little Rusty’ & ‘A Little Rusty (Rush Order)’ tradeskill writs.

*** Zones ***

Butcherblock:
- Dragoon V’Riv is no longer charmable.
Crushbone Keep:
- Players should no longer become stuck behind the flour sacks at location 32, -1, -41 in Crushbone Keep (no matter their size).

Crypt of Thaen:
- T’Rath the Usurper is no longer charmable.

Crypt of Valdoon:
- Players that go linkdead in the Crypt of Valdoon will no longer zone into Loping Plains when logging back in.

Emerald Halls:
- The Ancient Grovebeast in Emerald Halls will no longer make an untimely exit.
- Rare Tradeskill recipes can now be found in Emerald Halls.

Freethinker Hideout:
- Malkonis D’Morte will no longer abide cowardly behavior.

Kaladim:
- Kaladim ring events have had their termination timers removed.

Laboratory of Lord Vyemm:
- Uustalastus Xiterrax in the Laboratory of Lord Vyemm should no longer become stuck with both absorption shields up at the same time.

Lesser Faydark:
- A nasty werewolf spawn has been moved further away from a revival point in Lesser Faydark in order to avoid … unfortunate accidents.

Mistmoore Castle:
- Fixed an issue causing certain vampires in Mistmoore Castle to reaggro on you if you zoned out and back in.

Mistmore Catacombs:
- Werewolves in Mistmoore Catacombs should now drop corpse loot.

Pillars of Flame:
- Foresting in the Pillars of Flame will return the correct number of items gathered to the chat box.

Solusek’s Eye:
- Members of the Drednever Expedition in Solusek’s Eye should no longer attack pets.

Steamfont Mountains:
- Adventurers can now sell their loot to the Bloomhedge sisters and Lola Punwicket in the Steamfont Mountains.

The Caves:
- The creature dens in the Qeynos caves no longer report incorrect text about the object lessening to the chat box.

Thundering Steppes:
- Elowys Laceleaf in Thundering Steppes should have quest icons now.

*** PVP ***
- You can no longer charm a mob that is fighting a player if you are not grouped with them.
- Various crafted poison should now have proper chat window notification when used against players in PvP combat.
- In level limited zones, players will no longer be able to heal those outside their level range unless they are grouped together.
- Level ranges for the zone will now also display in chat when you zone and within the map window.
- The stun effect from Rain Caller has been reduced to 1 second in PvP combat.
- A number of spells such as Spores will no longer trigger when you are attacked by a player unless you engage the player that attacked you. This will prevent these spells from inadvertently limiting your ability to zone in PvP.

*** Classes & General Combat***
Dirge:
- Increased weapon autoattack damage to match Rogue tables.

Troubador:
- Increased weapon autoattack damage to match Rogue tables.

Guardian:
- Increased weapon autoattack damage to match all other Fighters tables.

Paladin:
- Increased weapon autoattack damage to match all other Fighters tables.

*** Poisons ***

- Increased other poison damage to better compete with Caustic Poisons.
- Hemotoxin - Increased tick count from 5 to 7. Damage per tick and total duration remain unchanged.
- Vitality - Small increase in damage.

*** Pets ***
- Pets will no longer run in-place on boats.
- All pet commands from Entertainment pet spells have been removed.
- Pets will no longer display in the tracking window.
- Tinkered temporary pets should no longer fail to cast when the last charge is used.

*** UI ***
- More items should be interactive with your default mouse click action without having to use the context menu, such as the pillars for the Intercepting Stones quest.
- Bag Windows are now resizable, re-shapeable, and now have options to modify the icon size and padding.
- If you use an Escape ability with a quest reward window showing, the reward will appear again after the zoning screen closes.
- Switching between ProfitUI and Default should no longer cause false version warnings.
- The recipe examine and tooltip text now contains the minimum and maximum number of items created.
- Chat command history will now persist between client sessions.
- You will no longer see “YOUR heals YOURSELF…” YOURSELF has been replaced by YOU.
- Questgivers that have a different faction than you do should no longer incorrectly show a quest icon above their head.
- When loading a set of hotkeys, any items that were in the hotbar when the configuration was saved will now load properly.
- You can now change the channel numbers in game using /setchannelnumber

. You must /camp out to save the settings, /exit or /quit may not save your changes.
- Equipment slots that are blocked due to adornments are now shown grayed-out in the tooltip and examine window.
- While using the broker, when you click on the ‘Advanced Search’ button the cursor focus should automatically jump to the ‘Advanced Search’ window.
- Examine info for items with castable abilities will now show any health or power requirements to use them.
- NPCs that change names will now update the target window if they are targeted when the name change occurs.
- When someone uses /afk , their response text when receiving a /tell will be “I am away from the keyboard, ” instead of just “”
- The tooltip of the “replenish” button now shows the remaining quantity and price instead of max stack size.
- Items in the interior customization window of your home will sort correctly by price.
- Several windows will now reset their filters when closed or after zoning.UI Authors: The embedded browser used for the petition window is available for your custom use. You can use /browser to open a URL directly like this: /browser forums.station.sony.com/eq2

I’ve been trying the past little while to get 10,000 faction with the ironforge exchange. Anyone who has worked on their factions knows this is easier said then done. You get 100 faction for each writ you complete. It’s a slow and fairly boring process that takes a little bit of time and dedication.

Then I discovered the rushed orders.

Now, I’ve always hated them. I complained when they first came out about being too difficult. On some of my characters it feels as though they are. On the provisioner though, they’re fun. So for the past two days I’ve been grinding those out. My tactic? It’s all about the progress buttons, instead of durability.

I make sure I have a power totem on (my woodworker makes those) make sure I’m crafting with just a dress on and no gear so that my power regen speeds up (crafting buttons take a % of your power, if your power pool is only 500 and it takes 10% it’s much easier to regen the spent power then if your power pool is 9k and you need to regen 10%). I’m an illusionist, so I get my own power regen. For the provisioner writs, you have to make 12 items (which is 6 combines, if you hit pristine you get two of that item) in 8 minutes. I typically (if I’m not rambling away in guild) can manage these wih a minute or a bit more left over on the clock.

So Stargrace is now sitting comfortably with 3,100 status for the ironforge exchange. Hopfully if I can keep my interest up in a week or two my home will be sporting new display cases. I’ve really wanted them forever.

Raids tonight! Not sure what we’re going to be hitting, I know a few key members are not going to be able to make it. That’s the one issue I have with our (very) small raiding guild. If someone can’t make it, it hurts. We really need dedicated players in order to acomplish goals.

All week I’ve been listening to qeynos_crafting ramble on about Vanguard (that’s a channel for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term) and argue about WoW and trying to price fix the market. There are a lot of people out there complaining when someone else undercuts them, especially for crafted goods (specifically, even). So the crafting community wants to band together and add fixed prices to things. For example a tier 7 box would cost 10g. Everyone would (should) sell their box at 10g.

I hate that idea. Number one, sales are aranged in alphabetical order. So Zzuloa is screwed. Aalpfo can sell his 100 boxes a day and keep supply fairly constant if he’s a dedicated crafter, and then ta da, he has control of the market. Also. If I want to sell my boxes for lower then the cost it is to make them, because they’re taking up space and I want to move the product out, or for whatever reason, I’m in a good mood or something, then shesh, why shouldn’t I. I hate the idea of price fixing. Now, I understand that undercutting is annoying. I’m a crafter myself. But price fixing just does not seem like the answer to me.

Just one of many tinkered items with the new crafting subclass

I have Silverstep working transmuting, slowly. It’s a very slow skill to level up. I’ll go into more detail about that another time. For now, I have Stargrace working on tinkering. When these two sub-crafts came out, they were dependant on your primary crafting skill. I liked it this way since I worked hard on my crafters, it was nice to benefit from being a level 70 crafter. They removed that shortly after though, and it is now dependant on either crafting level or adventure level. Great for those non-crafters.

Tinkering uses a whole lot of resources. Know those dreaded loams that seem to be in abundance right when you’re looking for ore? Well, if you’re taking the path of the tinkerer, save those. You’ll regret it other wise. You use about 900+ leaded loam just to get out of the first tier. As well as the regular raws like malachite, tin, and lead clusters. You can find a huge in depth list of every item able to be tinkered here. There are some exceptionally over powered items. For example, an item that mem-wipes. Now, enchanters both get mem wipe spells. In fact, it’s our ancient teachings spells. So they’re worth a pretty penny. Due to this fact, they also have exceptionally long re-cast timers. They can also be resisted. The tinkered item however.. has a 2 second cast timer, and an instant re-cast, and is not resisted.

Wow.

There is also a feign death item. It has a 99% chance to go off. Shadowknights get feign death as one of their spells, and at M1 it only has a 96% chance to go off, for 10-20 seconds. the tinkered one lasts for 5 minutes.

There are speed items, mounts, and a portable mendor (who charges more then a regular mendor, but on the run, it’s still nice) so while the grind is so incredibly slow (you rarely get skill ups, and can easily go through those 900 loam and only get to a skill of 30) it is well worth it in the end. The majority of these tinkered items are also only able to be used by tinkerers. Another plus to me. If everyone out there could use all of these items, then what did I grind away at it for. It would not be quite as unique, I could just pay someone to make the items I wanted for me. I’m sure in time they will be slightly revamped and fixed up and changed, so I’m taking advantage of it now and continue to grind away at them.

On the other side.. I’ve found a display case I want to buy, a house item of course. It requires 10,000 faction with the ironforge exchange. Roughly 100 tradeskill writs (non-rush) to get it. I figure if I do 10 tradeskill writs a day, then in 9 days I’ll be sporting my new display cases. Got my 10 yesterday done, we’ll have to see if I can keep up with it. If I do the lowest available writ, it uses items that are cheap and easy to find on my provisioner, and not the good berries that I use to make my own food and drink. Meat and squash and water are all they use actually. That stuff is so easy to come by.