Woohoo, it’s Friday, which means it’s almost the weekend, it’s also Nostalgia the guild night (North Ro LDoN I believe is our goal) Ironman comes out, and it’s just one of those fantastic days.  That’s my hope, at least. Last night was a hodge podge of smaller things that I decided to take care of in EQ2. First and foremost was preparing for those 4 extra bank slots we’re all going to be getting. The four extra shared slots are not really ‘extra’ per say. What they’ll be doing is combining the four good slots you have with the four evil. Since I have boxes in all 8, they’ll already be filled (I store my rares there, have I mentioned yet how EXCITED I am about this change and having a general area for me to put coin that all my characters can use?) but then there’s also the four extra slots each individual person will get. I typically sort each slot by tier for harvested goods, and this will allow me to have a few extra for general items that take up room (old quest pieces I’m afraid of losing, potions, /claim items that I don’t use right away, those sorts of things).

I also went through my house vaults on a few characters, having not checked them in so long they were growing cobwebs. Put things for sale on the broker which I also had not done in a very long time.

Aside from general cleaning and organizing, my carpenter finally hit level 40! That’s the highest level I’ve ever gotten a carpenter to, and I’ve started more then my fair share. It seems odd, since I have plenty of crafters, and most are high level - that I would have such difficulty with the one crafter I use more then any other crafter. Go figure. Screen shots today are random pictures of Arysh’ 5-room Qeynos house. Her game room and her library which is a constant work in progress. I have not added anything to her house in quite some time and I’m wondering where to start. With a carpenter around it’s a lot easier to plan on what I need and what I’d like as far as furniture goes. Her bedroom and portions of the attic could use a revamp. Even the main room is a little drab these days. Silhouette also owns a three room in Freeport that is drastically bare, having moved her there a few weeks ago and not even gotten past unloading the moving crate. I’ve had a lack of inspiration as far as decorating goes - though I think browsing through the Norrathian Homeshow may help to fix that.

Of course now it’s 15 minutes later since I got side tracked looking through the Homeshow - if you’re into EQ2 housing at all and decorating this is the forum for you. Just some fantastic work there. In specific this post here shows some simply amazing work and dedication to housing. Wow. It’s just, astounding what people think of to do with all the items we have in game. Out of all the games I’ve played, EQ2 handled housing the best. Though EQ1 has guild halls (you can’t decorate them) and Vanguard has ACTUAL houses that you physically build - EQ2 by far has the best array of items and goods that can be placed in your home, both crafted and quested.

Speaking of which, since I’d missed Erollisi Day in EQ2, I spent a little time looking up the house items and purchasing a few (quite a few). Who wouldn’t want perfume bottle, roses, candy, and pillows? There’s also an Erollisi bear that I’d like to get (plushi, of a white polar bear) but he’s 3p on the Najena server, and I may be able to swipe one from a friend instead. We’ll see how it goes.

Be sure to also check out the EQ2 Traders Corner for all the new housing updates, great screen shots of everything crafted, and a little peek at things to come. Doesn’t that place setting just look fantastic?

The day was filled with house items, and you can never go wrong with that. I started talking to an old friend of mine from my Lucan D’Lere days, Krai who plays a brigand. We’ve kept in touch despite me switching games, and servers, and I consider her a great friend. She also happens to know of my obsessive house item collecting passion and casually mentioned to me that she had a spare LoN painting that I could have. Of course I squealed and jumped around my living room in joy - she also mentioned she had a female dwarf mannequin that was sitting unused (also from LoN). Since we can both trade from that platform I logged in and she gave me the painting pictured above. What a fantastic image to have in my house. Of course now I need to design some sort of music area to take better advantage of it. Arysh does not have a piano in her house, unlike Stargrace and Petites. I’m not sure if I actually want to add one yet, or just keep with the smaller instruments, we’ll see.

The dwarf mannequin was actually pleasant to at, mostly because it now displays my newest crafting cloak - no, not the master cloak, but the T6 one that I’d quested for today. One thing I didn’t realize is that you don’t actually physically put the item on the mannequin. It doesn’t act as storage in other words. I have a small crafting area set up in the house (the woodworking station can be seen on the left hand side) and decided to display the cloak (which has a symbol of a bow and arrow I believe.. not too keen on it, it makes me feel like a ranger not a woodworker) for people to see if they ever venture into my house.

The items didn’t stop there, either. I had gotten an email from Rao, of Gestalt Mind, explaining the book quest he wrote about a few days prior. Apparently my site is being picky and not allowing some people to comment. I’m trying to figure it out (with no luck) to fix. Anyhow, I logged into game and saw he was online harvesting, and promptly in true Stargrace fashion began chattering away. Once I find an opening it’s hard to get rid of me, be warned *grins*.

I worked on the crafter tier quests, and finally got to the one I’d been wanting from the start - it rewards you with a book for your house. Not just any book, no, this is Bertox’s health guide.

Is it any wonder the liaison was sick to begin with if she was taking tips from that book on the floor covered in slime?

None the less it’s a fantastic house item and if you don’t mind traveling to and from your home city to sinking sands a few times, you’ll have no issues completing it. Lower level adventurers may have a harder time trying to navigate around a few aggressive cats and snakes, but it’s still completely doable.

Besides chattering with friends, and all of the amazing house items I got today, last night I managed to get Petites (the templar) to level 74 from running quests and turning in a few collections that she’d yet to pick up. I’m hoping to be able to reach 75 tonight so that I can move on to the more interesting RoK zones. We’ll see how that goes. It was double exp weekend this weekend in EQ2, but the message failed to say what levels it was for. I’m not sure that my 70+’s are benefiting, as they typically make the bonus exp weekends for lower levels. It sure didn’t feel like she was getting double the amount in any case - I could be wrong. Tomorrow I’ll spend some time wandering around EQ1 and attempt a few quests, next Friday is another meeting of Nostalgia of course, and the goal is to reach close to level 15. Some have already done that in their eagerness, and I feel as though I’ll be left behind - however, arranging this as a weekly event is to prevent that from happening.

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, no matter what realm you were in (yes, even real life).

Since my foray into EQ1, I decided to get station access activated again. Makes sense now that I’d have access to Vanguard, EQ1, and EQ2. The price is actually worth it, in this case. My WoW account is free for this month, so we’ll see where that goes. I haven’t logged in since Thursday. Hey, I never claimed to be one to settle down in any mmo. I’m slowly getting used to that fact though and not berating myself over it any more. After spending last night in EQ1 (more about that to come in another post) I decided this morning I’d patch my UI, update my maps, and log into EQ2.

Right away I spotted a quest giver next to me in South Qeynos. Closer inspection showed it offered one of the newer quests ‘dispelling the hate‘ which rewarded me with the house item pictured above. A fountain. Perfect for the garden Arysh has in the works. In all the time I’ve played EQ2, the house items are what always seem to get me. I just love them.

There’s idle talk of me leveling up my templar (who’s been 73 forever now) and maybe maybe maybe getting into some raiding with her. I’m not sure if I want to get back into that yet. We’ll see how it goes. Since I’ve limited my play time (by a huge amount) I am reluctant to throw myself into too much right now. Evenings of course are fairly free for me still with no other obligations. I’d also like to finish leveling up my coercer, who’s been sitting at 77 for quite some time. Especially with the revamp to the class incoming in a bit. I read this post that mentioned it gave some sort of house item reward, a book.. so of course now I have to figure out which quest that is and where it came from and how I too can have a new house item. I’ve missed the last couple of events, brew day, valentines, april fools and thus the items that are associated with them. Hopefully I can still pick up a few quests here and there that give items I’d like for my home though. Not to mention the enormous library Arysh has that encompasses a full wall. I want to continue working on that.

As far as ‘playable’ characters, I’ve got the 80 warden (Arysh), 77 coercer (Ishbel), and the 73 templar (Petites). The others (80 troubador, 75 illusionist, 58 necromancer) are sitting on Antonia Bayle still, where they’ll remain unless SOE allows some free transfers. I just can’t afford to move everyone all over the place. It’s difficult, now that I have friends who span across multiple games, multiple servers. How do you pick where to play, and what to do, and who to do it with. If anything, playing various games has taught me to work time management a whole lot.

I’ve already completed the Sword of Destiny quest chain up to the legendary on my templar Dasie, however since I’m playing Arysh hopefully as a constant for the next little while, I decided I should get it done on her as well. It was difficult enough the first time, I did not relish doing it for a second time after a majority of people have already completed it. Yesterday I spent the day collecting my 50 statues, which was not quite so bad. I had Gothun help for a few sections (New Tunaria and Mistmoore Catacombs) and had Shadowgeist and Calreth help me for a few other portions (Kaladim). I met up with a friendly troubador from Fated who helped me into an Acada instance to grab the one there, and in turn I let him into my Unrest instance. It worked out well. It took the majority of the day but I managed to get them all.

After turning them in, I was given my house item which of course I adore. It’s the little statue pictured above on the right hand side of the fire place by the guitar. I spent a lot of time decorating Arysh’ house once the GM’s had returned all of her items to me, eternally grateful of course for all their help.

Her library holds over 80 books, and there’s easily another 20 that I can add. I’m pushing the housing item limit though, so I’ll have to wait until Torrent Knights his level 30 before I can upgrade to a 5-room (Not eager to move back to Kelethin), or just hold out to see what housing is like in RoK. I think I’ve got 273 items, 352 actual at the moment. Some of the books I’ve got still count as house items since they’re pretty old, and of course there’s 33 lore and legend items that take up a chunk of housing space as well. I tried not to clutter the house, but still get all of my items placed inside of it.

Today is MMIS, but we’re going to be missing quite a few people so I’m not sure how it will go. With RoK so close to release it seems like fewer and fewer people are signing up for raids, and I’m a little cautious about what’s going to happen once the level cap goes up. I’ve heard some people saying their raids were cancelled because certain core members wanted to wander through Shard of Fear instead of partake in their raids, which does not sound promising. I expect with the expansion that for a short time there will of course be some upheaval since they’ll be expanding the levels.

Aside from MMIS, and of course the typical weekend adventures to the grocery store, I’m hoping to work on my SoD a little more. I’d like to at least get to the portion that requires me to head into Castle Mistmoore and hunt down pages as well as named. If I can get that far then I know I can managed at least getting the legendary version of the weapon. I don’t think I’ll be killing Mayong any time soon for the fabled, but hey, that’s at least a step in the right direction.

Misako’s entrance, she’s moved to the nut house… Acorn house that is, in Kelethin

I decided it was time for some changes. I’ve learned a few things over the past couple of days. Number one. If you enjoy a class, it does not matter if there is a million of that class around, play it. You’ll have way more fun in game. Don’t give it up just because you think you can fill some other void in the gaming world. Before you know it there will be a million of that other class around too, and then what will you do? Make another character and try to fill that void. It won’t work though. See, that’s what I did with my Dasie. She was a templar. There were LOTS (and still are) of templars around. So I made a fury. Then those were not needed. So I made an illusionist. Then a troubador. Now I have all of these level 70’s and I’m exactly where I was when I started. I betrayed Dasie to an inquisitor for my previous guild, because she would be “needed”. I don’t especially care for the class. Their best class defining skill stifles them so that they can’t heal. I play healers to - you guessed it - heal.

I miss stone skin, and the extra heals that a templar comes with. I miss her hammer pet. I don’t mind giving up some dps for the templar class. I realize that I’ll loose the one piece of relic she still has (pants, sighs. Those are going to be hard to replace!) and all the masters I’ve worked at getting, but with RoK coming in two months, if there was ever a time to betray, now would be it. Spells are all going to get upgrades any how. Don’t play a class simply because it’s in style, needed, or any other reason other then the fact that YOU want to play the class.

So what is the change? Well, I’m going to betray Dasie back to a templar. Friends have donated moonstones to the cause, and I’ve got a 70 sage. I have the templar / inquis set gear. I’ll have to replace her pants. I will be one of a million templars out there, but oh well. I’ll be happier with the character, and that’s what matters.

So what other changes? Well, Misako moved to Kelethin. That’s right, she gave up her (expensive) 5-room house in Freeport, which reminded her too much of the past, and she packed things up and moved to a nut house (or acorn house, for you non-Kelethin folks). The 6-room acorn homes are 2p to purchase, require no guild level, and are 6g a week upkeep. Nice and cheap. The LoN paintings look fantastic against the walls (as pictured above) and as long as I can remind myself that I am NOT a fae, and do NOT have safe fall, I should get along just fine there. I don’t lag in the zone, and I’m closer to everything I need. Misako will have to do some courts faction quests I think though, she could really use call of ro. She could also use her carpet that ports to Shimmering Citadel.

Yes, change is good.

The Rune

Everyone has their thing. Some people like loot, some people enjoy taking down the hardest content in the game, others are questers, completing thousands of quests over the period that they play.

Me, I’m a house item fanatic. Any one who’s read this blog, or knows me in game, knows just how much I adore house items. When I defeated Roost for the first time in the Fallen Destiny Adventure Pack, I didn’t care that we’d defeated the encounter and had access to Chel’Drak. The only thing I had eyes for was the house item you get as a reward for the quest. I loved freeing the Frogloks when they first came out because you get a very sparkly plaque to place on your walls. I’m all about the house items.

The Bear

So of course it’s of no surprise that when LoN hit the game in it’s beta version, I’d want the house items, reluctant to spend a whole lot of money on the booster packs though. I know how addictive it can be. So I managed to trade with some friends, and some were given as gifts. I’m happy that (for now) I’ve got the complete collection of LoN house items - 3 paintings and a card case.

The Muse

A huge thank you to those who helped me out. You all know what it means to me of course. Over time I’m sure I’ll continue to try to scoop up these beautiful house items, and a thank you to SoE of course for adding them to the game. It’s what keeps me playing and interested, these little knick nacks that you can place. Go ahead and tease me for it now!

The Card Case

I dislike how some of the items (ok, so all of the items) are so gigantic, it may cause issues for those who own smaller type homes. Even the card case is a giant sized one, that takes up a good portion of my counter top. I’m planning on creating a table that it can sit on in front of a fire place or something I think in the near future. So many fun items in game, and only so much time to work on obtaining them all!

If you want to check out the LoN items in person, feel free to visit Misako’s 5-room house in North Freeport, 7 Compassion Road. The door is always open and I’ve worked quite hard on the house (it is a work in progress of course, not nearly done). Feel free to send me a tell in game as well, I’m typically around and eager to talk.

This one is called “The Muse” - I can see how it may inspire a few folks… That’s a nice.. feather.. she’s wearing..

Thanks to a few friends here on Antonia Bayle, I managed to complete my LoN (so far) house item collection. At least the pieces that I know of. I have three paintings, The Muse, The Bear, and The Rune, as well as two card boxes. One is no trade (which Kandrial graciously placed in Misako’s house) and one is tradeable (though it’s lore). I was afraid when LoN came out that I’d have to spend a lot of real life money obtaining these items, in fact it’s one huge annoyance about the game I find. Higher end raid guilds may start enforcing people to have certain items (like the int bottle) and that puts those who can’t (or don’t want to) spend the real life money trying to get them at a disadvantage. I don’t mind the cute little things like house items or cloaks or illusions or even mounts, but when it starts to get to items like power regen things, or something that could potentially change the out come of a fight, that’s where I start to think it may not be the most fair of situations.

I’ve been having fun trading cards around as well, today I received two free booster packs (So that’s four total, between my two accounts, and no, not a single redeemable item). Nagafen was one of the “rare” cards that I got, so I traded for some priest cards since I’m trying to build up two other decks. One for my priest account (the priest deck, duh) and one for my dps account, a scout deck. Mage cards I typically give to Kandrial, Lader, or Bloodpact, as they all have a mage deck. It’s a lot of fun, but I’m not sure if it will stick. Even if it doesn’t, I’m sure SoE has made a huge bundle of money from those buying booster packs and starters and all the rest.

In game I’ve been working on Qutey, my baby monk. I’ve sort of stepped back from the guild raid / guild thing for a while. I’d much rather just do my own thing. I managed to match her crafting level to her adventure level, and I plan on keeping it that way. I got her from 1-20 the first day, then yesterday from 21-26. She’s going to be my little carpenter. Even though I had access to a 70 carpenter I’d much rather just have my own. She’s still got experience turned off from combat, I may toggle it on from time to time but I doubt it. She’s 41% into her leve, and 5% away from yet another aa. I love having so many aa at her low level, it’s quite fun. Plus the whole feign death and invis thing is a bonus.

Torrent Knights hit level 21 yesterday, congratulations to Lader and Gothun for all those HQ those guys have been completing. It’s nice to see, and I hope we all keep up the good work. I’m excited about RoK coming out a few months away, excited about LoN going live, and the GU38 that’s going to be incoming in a few weeks (I hope). Lots of good changes on the way, more about that another time though - slightly disappointed that Bristleban’s avatar pet (for worshiping them) is the Meatbeast from DoF - I loved how that was a one of a kind mob.. sighs.

Remember I said I was obsessed with house items? I meant it. I paid 10p for this LoN painting from a friend…

So A friend of mine got a hold of me and let me know that they had one of the LoN paintings. Wanted to know how much I’d pay for it. I’m by no means a rich person, but I always pay well for unique house items. So I offered them 10p for the painting off the bat. Went into trade mode with them and ta da, the painting above called “The Rune” is the latest to my LoN collection. In fact, the only painting I have. Another friend apparently has “The Muse” which is an image of a very scantly clad woman, and he’s agreed to drop it off in my house (These items give status as well towards the house) so that’ll mean I have two in the collection. Always nice.

Am I a little bit of an obsessed housing person to be paying such amounts for these virtual paintings? Hrms. Maybe. I think everyone has their quirk though. Maybe you collect daggers for your characters to use, or weapons with particle graphics. Maybe you collect sets of armor, or maybe you are like me, and collect house items.

The only thing I don’t really like about this painting is the fact that it is HUGE. It takes up a very large portion of Misako’s five room house on the main floor. A second one will take up another huge section and I have no idea what people in their one room inns would even consider these for since they’d not be able to place them anywhere. You pretty much have to own a house with high vaulted ceilings and plenty of wall space. Of course I can only trade money on my actual server, but if anyone is looking for a few rares (I do not have many) or some money on the Antonia Bayle server, in return for house items, let me know.

In other news! Goudia hit 70, and I’ve applied to a raid guild. We’ll see how it goes. Yes, I’m nervous, but I also really miss raiding. With five level 70’s I’m not eager to work up a 6th. I outfitted Goudia with the rest of her gear, two new shiny weapons and the bow. She’s sitting at 576 int and 512 str self buffed (with no food or drink on) which I love. So what’s left to do? Get them all to 100 aa (Goudia is sitting at only 86 right now) and max out their tradeskills. Bloodpact is also level 69, and almost 70. Forever is close to 70 as well. Gothun is still eating up the levels but not fast enough for his liking. Beeglin asked if I’d like to decorate his house on Lucan D’Lere, which I of course said yes to. A few old friends are trying to convince me to move back there and join a new raiding guild. Normally I’d contemplate it, however. Lucan D’Lere is just a dead server to me. I left it for a reason and I really enjoy Antonia Bayle so much better. The population is huge and I’d really miss the people I’ve gotten to know here. I was surprised and pleased with the offer, but had to say no.

A work in progress of course, but a picture of the nursery, complete with crib (unrest collection finally done!) and a jack-in-the-box. It has the same graphic as the city merchant cube, however it’s slightly larger, and it also plays music if you right click it. The collections are the Estate Mementos (crib) and Cursed Objects (Jack-in-the-box). I paid a few plat to get the last few items I was missing for these two collections, but they were well worth it.

The kitchen and bar area is finally done, I love the way it turned out. Added that second hanging lamp for some colour. There’s another lamp along the counter but the light is picky for some reason and only shows if you get a little closer. The new Xegonite bowls make fantastic sinks.

A comfortable living space just off of the nursery. The shelves are quite bare for now but it’s a work in progress after all. I love the new vale furniture they added to game, gave things a real nice look. The house is of course a huge work in progress, but I’m happy with the way things are going. With these three rooms done I’m below half of my used item limit, which is always a good thing. The majority of the book quests out there don’t use any house space so I can add to the collection and not worry about hitting her limit. I’m unsure of what I want to do for the remainder of the space, but I’m sure it will come to me slowly. I’d like to try to get her an easel but they’re going for a few plat now since they’re no longer in game. We’ll see how it goes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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