Why is this person even asking me if I have a guild tag.. of course I do.. it shows up plainly..

I have a pet peeve, and since it’s on my mind and just happened about 10 minutes ago I figured I’d post about it. I have no objections to using peoples real character names in any of my posts, so as a warning to folks, if you say something to me I more then likely WILL post it. Anyhow.

I was sitting in EFP, before getting ready to go out and do some groceries. I get a tell from said person above. Asking me if I was guilded. I do a quick /who all dasie to ensure that my guild tag does show (and you can also look me up on eq2players.com to check for the tag). Seriously, if you’re going to try to recruit someone from another guild at least don’t start off your first impression to them as a moron by not even realizing whether or not they are actually in a guild. In order to see that I am an inquisitor at all they would have to know I was guilded.

Second of all, it would seem like common sense to me that if you’re looking for people to raid with you, you would want to know about the person first. Know what sort of a healer they are or any class for that matter. To insure that they’re not going to ruin your raids horribly. You don’t just go up to random people and say hey, do you want to raid with us. You get to know the person, the player. Find out their play styles. Well. I’ve never grouped outside of my guild and I don’t do pick up groups. I’ve never heard of this person before, never heard of the guild. I have no indication of anything about them. They were not rude, but still.. is it just me who thinks they’re doing things a bit backwards?

Now, the server may have a lack of inquisitors and perhaps that’s why they send me the random tell, but some how I doubt it. There are always plenty of folks around. I’m sure most people wouldn’t have an issue with this sort of tell, but as a raider, it just irked me.

Site back up and running.. complete with back ups this time.. we’ll see how it goes..

In good news, Dasie was promoted to Tactics Officer in guild. What does that mean exactly? Well it means that when I have something to say about a raid or a class or a group, maybe people will listen a bit more. I was asked if I wanted to be a recruitment officer, and declined. Anyone who knows me understands that I have very little patience, and have no desire to interact with people more then I really have to. Guild members are different most of them are wonderful. Raid Officers on the other hand, know their classes (and many others) inside and out. They know what needs to get done and by who. They understand the parses, and can see those and see where things are going wrong. It may seem odd since my guild is still a “casual raiding” guild to see all of this going on, but they’re eager to get beyond the simple KoS stuff we’ve been taking down and move on and progress in EoF (even if it is a little later now). I’ve played every healer class to 70 (except mystic) and I’ve raided with them all (except defiler). I suppose betraying was a good thing in that regard, I have raided as a fury, warden, templar, and inquisitor. I have a defiler who’s almost raid level but I doubt I’ll be playing her very often. Maybe on off nights I can sneak her into some pick up raids. I was leveling her up to be a MT defiler before I joined my current guild, and set her aside since she’s not needed.

GU36 went live yesterday, I’ll make a separate post about that once I get myself settled with this blog some. Yesterday was a DT raid, which just was… not what I wanted a raid to be. I mean, we didn’t die a *whole* lot, but come on, it’s DT. We should not be having any issues at all with the zone. We didn’t do the splitting drake, we in fact knew we wouldn’t be able to for once. We wiped on Tarinax twice. We did not attempt Cruor, which is a mob I miss doing. The encounter is not difficult, but it does take co-ordination, and there are actually at least 3 ways of killing the mob that I’ve personally done, each one worked, it depends on the guild. To be frank (and not intending to be rude here) The Inquisition just doesn’t have the discipline that’s needed to be able to co-ordinate encounters like that quite yet. Doesn’t mean they won’t get there, they will. But it’s going to take some time.

In the newest GU, this Ancient Teachings Master for guardians is going to be slightly changed, making it fairly essential

One thing I try to pride myself on when in a guild, any guild, is keeping an eye open for things that other people need. I check the broker fairly often, and have a list of what people may be looking for. If I spot it for sale and they’re not around, I try to pick it up depending on the price. I use my own discretion of course, and since I am typically reluctant to part with money for masters it’s not a bad method.

When I saw the little gem above for sale, I remembered that our main tank needed it, and I combined the money off of all my characters (and a few friends lent me some coin) and bought it. Remember I just spent 25p on a baby dragon, so this purchase was hard to make. But in the next GU, the master is going to be changed, and it will only have 100% chance at going off if it’s at master quality. That’s a huge difference to what it is now. It’ll be one of those “must haves” because the last thing you want is to put up tower of stone and not have it work at all at that dire moment. Now, I don’t play a guardian, I never have. But I at least listen when others are talking about them. I was so excited when I picked up this master, I hope the main tank still needs it, I should have checked first but I was afraid it would get scooped up before I had a chance to go purchase it.

Gothun sent me tells today from the Bazaar, it was nice to chatter with him, apparently he’s contemplating moving servers again, a little disappointed with the one he’s on. I made some suggestions and we’ll see where he ends up. No raids tonight which I’m glad for, I really enjoy having both Sunday and Monday as raid free days, gives me time to craft or quest or whatever little stuff I want to get done. Or just sit around and watch paint dry. Either way, it’s all good.

Today, going to try to get Dasie’s music box done finally. It’s not a hard quest I’ve just been procrastinating. I finished her Vessel of Fyr’Un yesterday. It’s not the legendary manastone 2.0 but it is the treasured version of the same thing, and better then nothing. Anything I can do that boosts up Dasie’s power regen is a good thing. She’s almost at 6,400 power now and edging further every time I manage to get an upgrade for her. I’m very pleased with the class. I don’t mind my other classes, there are certainly days where I’d love to just stab or explode something and have no worries at all aside from keeping my own ass up but I still think I really shine when I play a healer. That sounds completely egotistical and I don’t intend for it to be, there are plenty of wonderful players out there who know their classes inside and out.

I’ve been working on Dasie’s house lately. I spent a plat and bought some odds and ends for it, book shelves and built her a loft and a “play room” type section above the main room in East Freeport. It doesn’t even come close to comparing with Stargrace’ home, then again what does *grins*. I can’t believe how much of a housing fanatic I am. I suddenly found myself with a surplus of roses (house items from valentines day) and just about burst into tears because I adore them so much. I’ll be sure to post pictures of Dasie’s place as I add more to it. Stargrace’ house still needs books, but that’s on hold. I like to work on the house of the character that I am actually playing, and since I’m not playing anyone lately aside from Dasie.. her house has priority. If that makes any sense at all.

Earring that Dasie got on the HoS raid, she also *finally* got the earring to drop in Valdoons today

I’m in a mood today, not sure if it’s a good one or a bad one yet. A few RL things throwing me off, it’s been “one of those weeks” for the past few days. Things are getting on my nerves a little easier then they should, and I apologize for that if anyone’s had to incur my wrath lately. I try to keep it out of game because no one wants to listen to a whole lot of moaning and complaining. Well, maybe the moaning would be ok. . . Anyhow. . .

FINALLY after doing Valdoons pretty much every day for the past month, Dasie managed to get her Earrings of the Bloodlust Handler. So with that earring, combined with the one from last night’s HoS run, she’s set. Poets music box charm will be next on my list (no, it’s not difficult to get it done but I don’t like to just rush rush rush) and advancing Claymore. A thank you to Thunderwalker, who is one of the officers of my guild, for posting the pleasant comment about my healing capabilities. I think he’s lying though, I suck. *grins sweetly* Ok so I don’t suck but I do have a lot to learn still. I ask a million questions and I’m sure I pester people. How else am I going to learn though. Kilanna is always worried that she’s going to bother me when she asks me questions about playing her templar on Guk, but I am always eager to answer and to help out if I can. In fact I wish more people tried to actually communicate with one another in this game. Another pet peeve.

Thunderwalker and I (he plays a mystic) are typically teamed together when we’re raiding, and when we’re not teamed together, we’re still working together as a team raid wide. How is that possible? Easy. I’ve grouped with him a lot, made it a point to in fact. I’ve grouped with almost everyone I need to group with on a fairly steady basis, and those I don’t group with constantly I at least talk to. I’ve played with our main tank as both a healer and dps, I’ve played with our off tank, and even with our shadowknight who occasionally off tanks. I’ve grouped with most of our healers aside from a few who are part of an alliance with us. I’ve played in the mage group, the main tank group, and the dps group now as both a healer and as dps on my illusionist. Communication is SO dang important. Even outside of a group, I know who is going to cure who and what heal is going to land before it’s cast, depending on which healers we have around. I know how much the tank or the off tank can take before they’re going to drop like a sack of potatoes. When Thunderwalker casts his emergency wards, chances are I’ve cast mine at the same point of the fight as him because we both *know* that the main tank is going to go down if we don’t.

I wish every encounter worked that way. Of course that’s asking for the perfect raid force, which is something we strive for but rarely achieve, not “we” as in my current guild but “we” as raiders in general. Some times it’s hard not to get frustrated, I hate having to re-learn how to raid, it seems that every time I settle into a guild it falls apart and I have to go searching for not only a new home but a home with competent raiders who aren’t going to drive me insane as we re-learn how to work together as a team.

Ugh my writing and thoughts are all over the place tonight, so I’ll leave it at that and come back to this topic tomorrow. Nuff ‘o the ranting.

Misako, happily squishing people for her Neriak Sponsor

Lots has been going on lately, so you’ll have to forgive my lack of posts. Here’s a general run down though. Number one, I went on those raids the last post mentioned, and the went really well. I died once to a frontal AE that I should have tried to avoid more when the mob turned around, but other then that, no deaths for me. Remember I did HoS and Lyceum, not as easy as labs but not as hard as Deathtoll. I didn’t take agro, and as an illusionist I shouldn’t be, so that was a good sign. The people were friendly, I felt comfortable, conversation was easy. So after the raids were done and I was asked if I wanted to join I said I’d think about it for a bit. Raids are only three nights a week, which I like. I’m not interested in a hard core raid guild, even if I do have the time to devote to it. They’re making progress in EoF, also good.

It didn’t take long for me to come to the conclusion that I should at least give them a try. So I decided for the next two weeks at least I’ll raid and get to know The Inquisition and find my way around. What harm could it do, if I don’t enjoy it, I can leave. So I had Arysh (fury), Goudia (troubador) and Stargrace (illusionist) all guilded. So far, no regrets.

Yesterday I leveled my troubador to 50, so she’s two away from using her pretty spells. The guild needs one, and since it’s so easy for me to swap in characters, I offered. They’re still looking for a full time troubador, but it’s not like I mind playing multiple characters right now. When it gets closer to Kunark, I will. I’ll want to settle down to one “main” for the 70-80 grind, and stick with them. For now though, it doesn’t matter to me who I played. Last night I spent the evening helping a smaller dirge in guild level, along with a few others members. They got 6 levels, so I’m pretty sure they were pleased.

The game changes again when you’re in a bigger guild. I’ve been in small solo guilds pretty much since January. I’d gotten used to the quiet. It’s not a bad change, but it does require some adjustment. I do have the rest of my alts in my own guild still so that I can escape the hustle and bustle. Inquisition raids are not mandatory (thank goodness). I’ll just have to take things slow and see how they go.

Stargrace sitting inside the Temple of Life, located in North Qeynos

It was a quiet Monday, and I love those sorts of days. I asked a favour of Cordanim and was able to use his 41 carpenter (now 42) to make myself some bookshelves. I redesigned the library in Stargrace’ house, taking up an entire wall with a combination of small ash bookshelves and larger teak ones. Spaced them with burlap rugs between two layers, giving it a bit of a lip. I’ll post some screen shots once I’ve added more books to the collection, because right now the shelves are looking slightly bare. Reminds me that I have 18 more L&L books to complete (groans). It was hard enough doing them on Silverstep (now renamed to Arysh). I leveled the little carpenter to 42 in order to make the shelves I needed, then of course promptly ran out of crafting supplies.

Tonight decided that I’d do a little farming, but quickly grew bored of it. I decided to do some guild writs for status. Now, I typically love writs. I have one large issue with them though, and that’s the down time between them. Because once you’ve completed them you have to go all the way back home to get more. If you’re not one of the lucky few classes who can odyssey or port themselves around, that’s a long way back home after 15 minutes or so of writ work. I’d love to get a lot of writs done in order to work my faction with each of the Qeynos sections, but at +150 a writ, and such a long wait between them, I find myself discouraged. Even if I just did 1 set a day I suppose that would be better then none. There are some nice unique house items if I only had the patience.

Goudia Is’Gouda, ratonga dirge, is waiting patiently for Stiletto

Yesterday was a good day for HQ’s, in between dealing with some real life stuff I completed six HQ, four on Misako, and two on Goudia. I started the Jboots but after the first two races was feeling tired and decided to go to bed. That one will have to wait until later today. It’s been nice being able to do the HQ’s on both characters at the same time, for pretty much double the guild exp I’d normally get. The guild reached level 7 last night, with Lader picking up a courts raid. That raid always gives an insane amount of guild status.

Speaking of the guild, Cordanim joined the ranks! Ignore his whole comment about peer pressure, I did no such thing! Shadowgeist and I met him quite a way back on Najena, we were at one point in time all in the same guild. Of course things change and guilds changed and then I ended up on Lucan D’Lere, people switched games for a bit and came back, Cordanim took a break from the game for some time and just recently started getting back into things. With the free server transfers ending at midnight, I suggested he move to AB and join the newly formed Torrent Knights, he boxes as well and I know he’s an avid alt-o-holic not to mention crafter. I also know with his young boys and wife that he’s very much a family man and not looking for something big and uber or hardcore, TK would be a perfect fit. Not to mention I’d get to add one more friend to the ranks, it was most certainly a win win situation. As he talks about on his post community is everything in an MMO (to me at least).

I also found out that Cuppy moved to AB! Being just one of many fans of her blog, I’m glad to see her there, along with some of her friends and guildies.

I’m looking forward to some new adventures, last night my 59 defiler hit 65ap on an Acadechism run, I was hoping maybe something useful would drop but I swear if I didn’t have bad luck I’d have no luck at all. I’ve been mentoring down for the HQ turn ins, that helps quite a bit. Going to attempt to do the manastone and glowing black stone HQ’s today, not holding my breath though as Varsoons is typically pretty heavily camped later on in the day and that’s when I’d be headed to the zone. The defiler needs her manastone fairly badly, and hey, guild status is guild status after all. As a side note, good luck to Dalven on his new server Najena, I hope his guild is everything he wants it to be and he has fun with his friends, new and old.

Hmms some tunnel laborers traveling through the commonlands, they must be helping with Neriak

Misako frowned at the Ratonga who clung to her side. This was not exactly how she envisioned her day.

“Stop bouncing!” She hissed.

“I’m sorries Missums Misa!” Squeeled the little mouse, as she tried to control her hopping, “It has been so very long those! You knows that Missums!”

Misako sighed, Goudia had a point, it had been quite some time. Not since the ratonga had betrayed and became an exile had Misako needed her help or called upon her. There was much that needed to be done though.

So what have I been up to? Today’s a fairly exciting and busy day. Not due to anything in particular, but a number of smaller things. Number one, my characters are settling in yet another server. So that was me moving from Lucan D’Lere, to Kithicor, to Antonia Bayle. Why the move (again)? Easy, the community and atmosphere. The guild mates who had moved along with me did not like Kithicor. I can’t blame them, the 60-69 was a bit more then I could handle at times. I’m used to drama, but people were down right mean at times. I also missed the role play aspect that I could involve myself in on LDL. AB’s rp community is far larger, and I’m looking forward to it.

So Torrent Knights has reformed on AB. We’re actively recruiting, and hoping to form either an alliance with another raid guild, or even if people find their own new homes that’s fine as well. In the mean time, we’re working on leveling the guild. I did not complete a single heritage quest on Misako, and Goudia (previously known as Gouda, she had to be renamed), has only done one. With the former TK at level 60 there was no point to it, and alts were not allowed in the guild anyhow. So holding off on all of those heritage quests was a great thing. I finished off the greater lightstone early this morning, and also finished off Foomby’s stolen goods. Next I’m working on the Fishbone earring, and the guise of the deceiver. I’m doing them both with Misako and Goudia, in the hopes of pushing the guild towards level 10, we’re currently sitting at level 3. I love having a goal like this in game, while I make new friends and accomplish new goals. It revitalizes me.

The move was worth it, just for the piano

The move went off without a hitch — almost. When I got to my new servers (I am on Kithicor now, with all of the girls - decided to follow the members of my previous guild with everyone, instead of splitting them up and remaining on both Najena and Kithicor.. thank goodness we could move twice) I noticed everything from my house vault, was doubled– not something I had planned by the way. My house vault was filled with crafting raws, spare fire places, and 6 vaults worth of items. Even the boxes themselves were doubled and placed into my overflow. So my first reaction was to petition it, and bug report it. Because what would prevent someone from filling their house vault with masters and transferring their characters around only to find that they suddenly had two or three of a certain item.

Later on in the day, I was pleased to see this announcement, though I am also glad I got my move in before they ended the server transfer service (for the time being). A few of my guild mates are still looking to move, and I hope the service is back up today so that they can proceed. I had no idea what I was supposed to do with the doubled items, if I’d get into trouble for selling them or using them, this was the only responce I got from SoE about the incident:

Response (GM Kimbial) - 05/01/2007 03:11 PM
Greetings Vivacious,

This is Senior Game Master Kimbial. Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment In-Game Customer Service. And welcome to Najena. The issue with the duplicating items on any server is known and Development has been made aware of the issue. We ask at this time that you hold onto the items, if you can, or delete them to clear out your over flow. We’ll have a better idea of what Development wants us to do to resolve this matter once they’ve taken a look at the coding and address it there. We do apologize for the inconvenience.

If there is anything else we can try to assist you with, please do not hesitate to ask.

Safe journeys,

Senior Game Master Kimbial
EverQuest II Customer Service
Sony Online Entertainment

It made for a fairly interesting day I suppose, none the less. I joined my new guild, and headed to HoS (it was an off night, so we were all just raiding for fun). It was nice to see 20+ people logged in on a non-raid night. Surprised me in fact. Most raiding guilds there is no one around if raids are not planned. Tonight is our first “real” raid night that I’m apart of. The guild is actually branched off of a previous one where leadership did not see eye to eye on certain matters. I was not apart of that incident nor do I know what happened (nor do I care). It means that the guild is level 25, and that actually makes me happy. It means I can be a part of helping it level and actually feel as though I’ve contributed to the guild.

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.