Daelic had sent Silhouette into the icy depths to recover some soggy bones, from his missing crew. Why on earth the ghost wanted them back (a proper burial maybe) I had no clue, but that’s what I spent a portion of my evening doing. Checking the ocean floor, looking for bones. This quest was far easier then the previous ocean floor one I’d finished, being able to tab the bones makes all the difference in the world.

I decided to go back to Everfrost last night and finish off a few more of the quests there before the zone is revamped. Who knows if the old quests will remain, or if they’ll be completely redoing everything already in the zone. Since they’re adding new quest hubs I’m sure there will be some new things for me to complete as well.

Aside from that, my evening was quiet. I talked to Tipa and Kasul in guild before going to bed early, I’ve been under the weather with the flu lately and sleep is always a good thing.

This morning I finally managed to drag myself through the last two levels of my woodworking. My woodworker had basically been at a stand still since level 74, I just could not motivate myself to level her. However, with the upcoming guildhalls nearing I knew I could make good use of the status from grinding out rush order writs. T8 rewards over 1,000 guild status each writ, with the level 79 ones rewarding 1,500+ guild status a pop. I can complete them in four minutes, so that’s a lot of potential status in a relatively short amount of time.

I had three experience potions left, and I made use of them for each level. I typically save them for the last 10 levels, and it takes me a little less then an hour (without vitality) to level through as long as I stick to rush orders. The little bit of experience you get upon completion is fantastic, and another one of the main reasons I stick to doing writs.

Nostalgia is inching through level 24 now, I’d like to hit 25 before the 1st of September, and then aim for one level a week. I haven’t decided quite yet if that’s reasonable or not. We hit level 23 on the 21st of August, then 24 on the 25th, far less then a week between levels there. I’m hoping the same will hold true for level 25. The issue for me now is of course, my crafters (the remaining ones at least) are fairly low level, their status output is reduced, and I don’t enjoy grinding writs on characters who are already level 80, I’d rather do it for progression.

As far as crafters go, that leaves me with:

• 80 - Sage
• 80 - Jeweler
• 80 - Woodworker
• 80 - Provisioner
• 80 - Carpenter
• 30 - Alchemist
• 20 - Armorer

The sage and woodworker have not yet completed their epics. I need to harvest some T5 rares for them first before I can continue. No way am I paying what people want on the broker these days.

I also managed to level my little paladin to 23 yesterday. She picked up lots of adepts and masters along the way - and I’ve found one small annoyance with the 1-20 smart loot system that was implimented last update. Since there’s a fairly good chance that any adept that drops will be something you can actually use - there is a decrease of adepts on the broker. It’s rare to get a useless one these days. So the paladin level 1-20 adepts that I did see on the broker were going for upwards of 5 gold each, I even saw some priced at 20g each. These are lowbie items that get replaced fast, but since I had been soloing I wanted to make sure I would be well equipped. I imagine I’ll make her a nice set of steel to wear, and perhaps also work on her class armor quests just for the appearance of it. We’ll see!

You may have read that Everfrost is getting a revamp in the next game update. If you have not, be sure to check out the details on the eq2players pages here. I like it when zones get revamped, and I think in a game like Eq2 where new content is constantly being added and where old zones become just that - old, it’s important or else your player base only sees a small fraction of the zones that they could potentially visit, because well, why bother. Thus has been the case for Everfrost for some time now. It’s a beautiful zone, but there’s not a heck of a lot to do there. I decided before the revamp I’d take a peek through and complete the quests that are currently there on my level 80 coercer. After all, you still gain aa for completing quests and I was getting roughly 5-10% per quest still. For grey encounters, that’s not too bad.

There was one quest given to me by a gravestone on an island not too far from the zone in that I recalled very well. It had me searching the ocean floor for these little rose gems, five of them, and collecting them. Except the dang things were always almost impossible to see, and there’s no real set location for them they just spawn randomly in the water along the floor. I had the quest on my character back when 50 was the level cap, and still had it on me if that’s any indication of how much I disliked this quest. I’d never completed it before.

The little gems are still difficult to find, but at least now they show up almost as pitch black against the ocean floor, so you’re less likely to pass over top of one. These quests have no actual reward - but if you complete them all I believe they unlock one of the instances in the zone that lost the keyed requirement some time ago. Ah well, it was still aa.

I did a lot of crafting this weekend, it was great. My woodworker got from 73 to 75, my alchemist from 1-30 and my armorer (who used to be a tailor) from 1-23. I also decided to start a paladin on my second account. Now this probably will not last, after all in the four years I’ve played EverQuestII (or EQ Live for that matter) I have never really played a tank, but I noticed that Nostalgia doesn’t have one in EQ2, and well, it would be nice to have one. Plus the tank I typically play with could probably use a break from time to time in order to play his own alts, and having a tank for that purpose would be great too. I know, I’m just getting back into having alts again and that’s bad bad, right? Ah well, as long as I’m having fun.

I played some guild wars this weekend as well, more about that later though.

As a completely unrelated topic. I just wanted to say that folks need to remember from time to time that gamers, are people too. I realize that not everyone out there is nice, and that there’s plenty of lashing out that goes on online. Much of it in game. That E-Peens are waved comments traded and insults made. However. Why lower yourself to someone else’ level when you know you are better then that. If someone is insulting you or lashing out or doing some other hair brained thing - just remember that they’re a person too. Maybe they’re going through something difficult, or maybe they’re having issues in their lives, there’s no real way to tell. Does that excuse their behavior? No of course not, but before you decide to fight fire with fire - maybe just take a second to be the better person and back down from it. I don’t understand some times how that could possibly be so difficult. It’s a game, after all.

So much happened yesterday in game that I barely know where to start. First of all, it was Saturday, and for those few who follow my ramblings, that meant it was ‘guild status Saturday’ where I would be running heritage quests and writs and whatever else came my way in order to help push Nostalgia 2.0 to level 30 before guild halls come out in September. We’re currently 37% into level 23 which is not too bad, though we have a LOT of work to go still.

So that’s how it was that Vlcan, Kasul (on his coercer alt), Bloodpact (shadowgeist on his necromancer alt) and myself (on my monk alt) headed to Kelethin to work together to completed “In honor and service” the level 17 heritage quest given. The quest was a lot of fun, and we mentored down to level 20 to complete it since we were a little big. There is only one heroic encounter in the entire thing, so perhaps it was overkill. Vlcan, being new to EQ2, had no idea about the concept of ‘place holders’ and was curious why our named were simply not just there waiting for us to slaughter them. It was fun to explain ‘camps’ and how things worked.

Running this heritage quest was a big deal - Nostalgia is VERY small. We have perhaps four active members, and 17 members total (plus their alts). It was the first ‘event’ we’d run and even though only four of us showed up - I had a blast and we will be running more of these. Kasul had to leave early, but finished up the HQ when he got home.

Aside from that, the one and only, world famous, Tipa moved to Najena on her level 80 troubador. Before that though, Shadowgeist asked if Kasul and some friends wanted to do some old T7 instances. We headed to Barren Sky to do Vaults, and the coercer hat dropped there - which if you haven’t seen, is pretty cool looking. It has an eye in the center of it and shock waves surround it in a pretty interesting effect. Yes, even though I was well beyond the level of the hat, I rolled need on it. It just looked too cool! We headed to Vaults with Tipa (on her 68 necromancer), Eyenstein (playing his defiler), Kasul (as himself, go figure!) Shadowgeist (also as himself!) and me playing Silhouette. Of course after we’d finished the instance I realized I should have brought Stargrace, who needs experience. Ah well, we decided to head to Den of the Devourer afterward in Bonemire, another instance rarely done these days.

That was not the end of the excitement, oh no. Remember also that at the end of each instance, the named now gives a little guild status, so that worked out well.

Later on in the day, I headed to Crypt of Agony, Vaults of Eternal Sleep, Maidens Chamber, and Chelsith. The first three instances I did on Silhouette, and she FINALLY got the drop I’ve been waiting in VoES forever, the fabled symbol with the mental proc on it. I’d been hoping for it to drop for a long time now, and my gracious group members declined so that I could roll need. A fury and conjuror in the group could have made use of it — but that is the pleasure of running instances with friends.

The final instance, Chelsith, I ran on Arysh (warden) who managed to get a nice neck upgrade, as well as a chest piece (which is not an upgrade at the moment, but is part of a set bonus and if I get one more piece, it will be an upgrade).

After all THAT was finally done - I got a level on Goudia pushing her to 28 alchemist. It is double experience weekend after all.

No doubt I’ve left out a fact or two here and there, but it was such an amazing day I doubt it matters much. Honestly, this is why I play the game. Good friends. Good fun. I’m hoping to gain some more crafter levels today and just take it easy, we’ll see how it goes!

You can of course read the notes in full here, and they’re subject to change! I’m looking forward to these going live!

LIVE EVENTS

The Guild Hall building projects for Qeynos and Freeport have begun to run dangerously low on resources! Director Jasmine at the Antonica docks and Director Hezreal at the Commonlands docks are eagerly seeking workers willing to help alleviate the situation.

During “Breaking Ground” ( GU48 ): The Prophet of Healing, Seeress Ealaynya Ithis, has been murdered and Antonica appears to have been affected! Theories abound as to who performed the deed and towards what end. You may start your own investigation at the Temple of Life in North Qeynos. Meanwhile Evdokia, one of the Plaguebringer’s fervent followers in Gorowyn, has tasks for those willing to help the Disciples of Disease. Won’t she be delighted by the news of the Seeress’ demise!

VEKSAR

Once thought lost to the waters of the Lake of Ill Omen, the ancient iksar city of Veksar has once again been discovered by the adventurers of Norrath! What has happened in the ancient theater of this once thriving resort city since it disappeared after the Age of Turmoil, and what secrets and treasures does it hold now? Make your way to the outpost of Omen’s Call, and see if you can begin to unravel the mystery of this risen ancient monument to the pride and power of the Sathirian Empire.

GUILD MEMBER POINTS

Guilds can now assign and track points for guild members. Points can be assigned in many different ways. New guild permissions determine which members can manage points and which members can receive points. For more information, check out the Guild Member Points help topic in-game by clicking on the help button (“?”) on top right of the the Guild Window (U).

GAMEPLAY

• Fixed the camera position on Griffins and Sokokars in 3rd person mode.
• Removing equipment which grants additional effects for a spell will cause that spell to cancel.
• First person view as a winter wolf is no longer disrupted by winter steam effect.

ZONES

• Everfrost
  • Everfrost has had a facelift! Adventurers will find dozens of additional quests, four new hubs, and a population friendlier to various playstyles.
• South Freeport
  • The alchemy merchant in South Freeport has begun stocking kindling as a sideline.
• Firemyst Gully
  • Wood in Firemyst Gully is now fully harvestable.
• Veeshan’s Peak
  • Adventurers in Veeshan’s Peak will now find that defeating certain bosses will earn various respawn points in the zone.
  • Pattern drops in Veeshan’s Peak now use the Smartloot system.
  • Milyex Vioren has switched strategies against invaders in Veeshan’s Peak, and is now much more aggressive and much less defensive.

TRAVEL

• Mariner bells have been added to the Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest docks to take players back to Antonica and Commonlands, respectively.
• There is now a bell on the Nektulos Forest dock to take Neriak citizens to the docks in Neriak.
• Mariner bell appearances have been added to the Neriak dock to help those who play on lower settings and couldn’t see the portal glows.
• There is now a carpet to Sinking Sands on the Neriak dock.
• Neriak citizens can now use the carpet in Sinking Sands to fly to the docks in Neriak.
• There is now a carpet to Sinking Sands in Kelethin near the Greater Faydark ramp.
• The carpet to Sinking Sands in Butcherblock has been removed.
• A bell has been added to the left hand dock of Kylong Plains to take adventurers to Gorowyn.
• A bell has been added to the Gorowyn dock to take adventurers to the Kylong Plains.
• The level restriction on the Gorowyn portal to Kylong Plains has been removed.

QUESTS

• You can now speak to Ulgofar Wisme in Mara and get another Geomancy book if you no longer have your first one.
• Special Agent Froak in Kunzar Jungle now gives another copy of the item “Reet Marching Orders” to those that are on the quest “Save the Reets” but have lost their original orders.
• Rotten Chestwraps of the Guilty will now give credit to the priest who triggered it.
• Assassins working on their epic who are not on stage 11 will no longer get quest credit for killing Rhylinil.
• The Dwarven Ringmail Plans is now removed from inventory upon the completion of “In Honor and Service”.
• Captain Vrondell in West Freeport will now update “Bandit Sash Bounty” for non-Freeport citizens.

ITEMS

• The artisan’s tunic reward for the tradeskill tutorial quest no longer has the adventuring stats.
• In-home crafting stations are no longer flagged as Lore.
• The Diamond Rod from Shard of Hate now says “In Combat Run Speed” instead of “Speed at all Times”.
• The focus effect on the Robe of Nexus disruption has been changed from a 600 point hate reduction on Blip to a 20% chance to lower the caster’s hate position by 1 upon casting Blip.
• The Crystal of Dark Energy should now stack to 100.
• Illusionist Shimmering Hues 4 piece bonus should now function properly.
• Troubador Magnetism 4 piece bonus should now function properly.
• Fury Stormbringer 4 piece bonus should now function properly.

SPELLS

• All non expiring class based spells should now gray out when cast and remain that way until cancelled.
• Master Strikes should work correctly with implied targeting now.
• Damage Over Time ticks, double attacks and flurry will no longer trigger damage shields and similar spells which trigger off of taking damage.
• Sathirian Scroll of Benediction and Smoldering Pontiff’s Second Sight will now stack.
• Certain spells like Rescue which are common to the classes will no longer be reset while betraying.
• Moving players between groups in a raid should no longer cause non stacking group spells to cancel.
• Assassin, Brigand, Ranger and Swashbuckler self buffs should now be toggleable.

• Berserker
  • Juggernaut and Adrenaline have had their descriptions updated to match how they work while berserk.
• Defiler
  • Yoppa’s Rodent Form should work correctly now.
• Fury
  • The Savage Feast proc should now apply properly when a dumbfire pet gets the kill.
• Warlock
  • Gas Cloud and its upgrades are now maintained.

ACHIEVEMENTS

An issue has been fixed which allowed players to use more than one achievement mirror. If you were using more than one, the system will take the first one as your valid mirror and wipe the profiles from any extra mirrors.

• Assassin
  • Obfuscation should no longer appear to work with Concealment.
• Ranger
  • Conservation will now apply properly to power, heal and thorn potions.
  • Enhance: Snare will no longer reduce the effectiveness of the Wood Elf racial Light Footed.
  • Enhance: Fettering Poison will now increase the trigger chance of Fettering Poisons.

TRADESKILLS

• Tradeskill writs now award 300 faction (for timed work orders) or 200 faction (for regular work orders) on completion.
• Handcrafted and mastercrafted armor (levels 1-69) has received an upgrade. Existing pristine items will automatically receive the improvement.
• Outfitters are happy to announce there are no more incomplete armor sets craftable at any level — not all sets are available at all levels, but if a set is available, every piece can now be made.
• All available crafted armor sets from level 10 up can now be imbued.
• The appearances of cloth and leather crafted armors are now more consistent, more varied in shape and tint, and should provide a much-awaited wider range of appearance options for the fashion conscious.
• A wider variety of crafting stations are now available in Qeynos Harbor.

STATION VOICE

Voice Channels with over 100 players are now considered “high-user channels” and will only display active speakers.

PLAYER VS PLAYER

• You can now betray and play the good classes in the evil cities and the evil classes in the good cities. In other words you can have a templar in Freeport or a brigand in Qeynos.
• Hypnosis can no longer be canceled by the target of the spell.
• It should now be possible to cure charm spells cast by hostile players.

• Inquisitor

If you cast Inquisition on a player, the spell will only heal members of the inquisitor’s group. Due to the nature of this spell, casting it on a hostile NPC will still cause it to heal nearby enemies. This is due to the fact that the NPC is casting the area of effect heal not the Inquisitor.

Yesterday I managed to complete the Thuuga chain of quests for the fourth time, this time Silhouette being the one to earn the fancy fabled wrist piece. The spell crits are really nice, not to mention the health and power on the item. I adorned it, and bought a few other adornments to try to ensure a little more survivability. I’m not certain yet if it helped that much, but they were just treasured adornments that are easy to obtain.

The screen shot is Silhouette being trained (by the handy shadowknight of course) through the mines to reach the final named that she needed. Sure, I could have killed my way there but what fun is that? The quest is very easy for players to complete, and can be solo’d at least by the classes I’ve completed it with thus far. I wouldn’t want to solo it with a healer since it would probably take all day just to kill through the mines.

Clockwork Gamer created this amazing little guildhall cost calculator, be sure to check their site out and figure out how much status and coin (maybe even someone’s first born thrown in there from the looks of things) your own hall will cost you. I worked out the details for Nostalgia - and was surprised that we will at least be ready by the time the halls go live. The total initial cost to purchase the hall itself as well as our five chosen amenities will be:

121p and 14,000,000 status

The weekly upkeep will only be 1p95g and 130,000 status which is really not too bad at all. The amenities I picked were fairly simple. We obviously need the recall to guild hall item, as well as the banker, a fuel merchant, rush order writs, and I went with an npc who will port to the druid rings since that gives us a variety of areas to head to without splurging on bells and spires and what not. Once we hit guild level 35 (we still need to hit level 30 first, we’re creeping up on 23) we can add two more amenities, again for a cost.

I’m actually not upset about the cost. I know players and guilds who can afford the T3 halls plus amenities. Maybe not the status, but one has to remember that these guildhalls are supposed to be extravagant, they’re supposed to be for those who worked hard and the longer your guild has been around, with dedicated people, the better. Nostalgia has only been active since April, and the EQ2 branch only since May. What we’ve accomplished in the few months has been great, and had we been active since the release of EQ2, we’d be even further along. Incentive for players, I hope.

A screenshot of Grover (Goudia’s pet) looking on quizzically, wondering what they were doing in Qeynos, what had happened to Goudia’s fancy blue cap, and why she was wielding some lower class weapon as opposed to the highly sought after troubador epic.

Could it be?

That’s right. I betrayed my level 80 troubador over to a dirge yesterday.

WHY?!

Well. I actually had some very valid reasons, aside from just being bored of the troubador. I enjoy a few of my other level 80’s more then I enjoy the bard - and while the troubador is quite sought after for raids, the same can not be said at this point in time for general groups. Since I don’t belong to an overly populated guild always running instances, my characters thrive on whatever they can find. Which, for the troubador was surprisingly little. Dirges get a m2 hate transfer choice at level 60 that doesn’t get an upgrade (I discovered that yesterday). They get two forms of rez (single target and group). They get a parry buff (more important then a defense buff which troubs get and is easier for tanks to cap out) and melee procs (seems to be more fighters and scouts these day then mages, and even healers are melee-ing it up). Dirges also get stoneskin, which makes any fight better - troubadors? They get a spell proc (only helpful to those spell casters and a few fighter taunts will proc it), they get jesters, which is nice but so is the 20% increased proc chance from troubs. Nothing about the troubador really stood out to me to make it better in a GROUP situation.

So I betrayed, to be a better group member. Plus why not, I may as well. I did end up spending 80p on loams for all my skills again, and I’ll have to do the dirge epic since my troubador one gets to collect dust in my bank. No, I’m not selling it - just in case. No doubt some where down the road I’ll betray Goudia back. This is not the first time after all.

After making all my skills, and looking through all of my new aa, I’m happy with the choice. I’m still a bard at least, and I’m playing my other characters more these days anyhow. We’ll see how it goes!

This just released…

some changes to the guild halls (posted by Rothgar):

Since our unveiling of Guild Halls at Fan Faire we’ve heard lots of feedback, over 60 pages worth! This morning we discussed a lot of this feedback and have decided to make some changes.

1. Zone Art

One of the issues that concerned you was that the Tier 1 guild hall made use of the existing 5-room house. Initially this was added to give us another tier that originally wasn’t in the plan. However, we can certainly understand that the effort and cost involved in obtaining your first guild hall is significant, especially for smaller guilds. Tim “Haohmaru” Heydelaar, our zone art lead, made a huge commitment to guild halls this morning and agreed to building a new 5-room guild hall using the brand new zone geometry and textures that are used in the larger guild halls. He will also be making changes to the Tier 2 guild halls, adding a new atrium and expanding their size slightly over what we showed you at Fan Faire. The Tier 1 and 2 guild halls will still be located inside the city. If you’re concerned about travel, see #3 below.

2. Pricing

For some of the smaller guilds the pricing of entry-level guild halls was a barrier. We’ve decided to leave the pricing of the Tier 3 guild halls alone, but have lowered the price of the Tier 1 and 2 guild hall. Below is the new pricing table.

Tier 1
Purchase: 50p (Lowered from 100p)
Upkeep: 50g, 50k status (Lowered from 1p, 100k status)

Tier 2
Purchase: 250p (Lowered from 500p)
Upkeep: 2.5p, 100k status (Lowered from 5p, 150k status)

Tier 3
Purchase: 1,000p
Upkeep: 10p, 200k status

3. Accessibility

Many people were concerned that guild halls located in other cities would not be very accessible. You will have several methods to get to your guild hall very easily, regardless of its location. First, you’ll be able to purchase a house item from the city status merchant that will allow you to port from your personal house straight to your guild hall. Secondly, we’ve reduced the cost of the “Call to Guild Hall” amenity greatly. It will now only cost 1p, 250k status to purchase instead of 10p, 2 million status. In addition we’ve lowered the recast timer on Call to Guild Hall so you can use it every 15 minutes instead of once per hour.

4. Tradeskill Tables

Another concern was having to purchase amenities for each tradeskill table when you already have them available in your personal home. This made it difficult for small guilds because they’d have to use most of their amenity slots for tradeskill devices. We’ve decided to allow you to place your existing tradeskill tables in the guild hall and have removed them from the amenity list. Now smaller guilds will be able to use those slots for new features like the supply depot and harvester or convenience features like the fuel merchant and writ giver. Keep in mind that this removes 7 amenities so the original count of 40+ amenities at launch is now around 35.

We hope that these changes will have a positive impact and resolve some of the concerns expressed so far. Smaller guilds should have a much easier time getting into a Tier 1 guild hall and now have an easier upgrade path moving into the Tier 2. The amount of upkeep required to maintain a guild hall still greatly depends on the choice of amenities you decide to purchase.

We’re always interested in hearing your feedback so let us know what you think of these changes.

It never fails to happen - once I settle on a main, something comes up that has me playing one of my other level 80 characters. I suppose it’s not that big of a deal, at least I’m playing after all. Right? Last night was no different. I spent most of the evening working on the Thuuga chain of quests for Silhouette. I’ve completed the quest three times already, once for the 80 warden, again for the 80 troubador, and for the 77 templar. Silhouette however, being the huge slacker she is, went without.

The fabled item is really nice though and there’s no excuse not to have it. Before heading off to do that I finished off the Waste Hunter chain of repeatable quests as well. I was hoping for an impressive bit of jewelery like the warden got - but instead my cloth options were forearms and sleeves, both of which I had better of already. Ah well.

I was about to call it a night, since it was already getting close to midnight, when a friend asked if I wanted to tag along on a Protectors Realm run just for fun. I said sure, they were short a healer or two (though I am sure they could have done just fine without me) and off I went. The zone was cleared easily, I didn’t die (thankfully, I always find it embarrassing when I get pummeled by an AoE as a guest on a raid - but maybe that’s just me) and once the final encounter was downed I noticed there was a little bit of loot designated to me. No, not a piece of gear.

It was the first update to my mythical, and I didn’t even know I needed it. I didn’t check ahead of time and had no inclination of ever working on my mythical unless I joined a raid guild. So I examined the little elemental sphere that dropped in my inventory, and ta da, first update done. The next one is Overking, and the final one is the Cinder Queen in Veeshan’s Peek. Since my warden is not even flagged for VP, and it’s rare that anyone really needs a druid, I’m content with this one step, for now.

Since Silhouette is level 80 now, it means I can craft a lot of items for her home. Up until today I’d still only completed the library, and even that is a work in progress since it requires lots of books that I’ve yet to quest for. I decided today I’d decorate the main entrance of her home, and I wanted something a little different then the other homes I’ve decorated.

So I turned the room into a garden area, with a small black indium fence around it.

Flowers and trees surround three fountains, and a little tent to relax under, where someone’s already been camping.

The room has about 100 items in it, which is on target since the library also has 100 items. That’s two rooms complete now out of five - though I may just leave one locked up and empty. I’m planning on turning the room to the left of the entrance into a sales area and maybe a kitchen with dining. We’ll just have to see!