I started off the night playing my coercer. I had plans of leveling her to 78 - which should have been easy, seeing as I was only 20% away. I headed to Jarsath Wastes, to finish some faction quests there. I’m still trying to obtain her gate hammer. However, after working on one of the quests for no more then 10 minutes - I was invited to join Siege and a contested Mayong kill - with my 74 templar, who has been on the final stage of soulfire literally, forever.

Of course I jumped at the chance. When would I ever see Mayong again and actually get to kill him? Oh, I’ve killed him before, don’t get me wrong. I’ve done Mistmoore’s Inner Sanctum numerous times but never with the templar who was the only one of my characters to actually require the kill. There are three versions of Mayong you can kill for your Soulfire update. One is contested Mayong who spawns in the Castle. The other, is of course the MMIS Mayong, instanced. The third is in the Tunarian Throne room - which I have never been to.

Contested Mayong has three aoe’s that hurt. One has a power drain, two stun. We two grouped it, and everyone was level 80 except me at level 74. I was the only healer for my group and by the end (there are adds, bats and vampires) I was running low on power - but we did it. Or rather, Siege did it and I healed my little halfling heart out. I out healed the MT templar, too. Go figure.

So now Petites has her new shiny, and oh it’s so shiny. Yes, I know it’s an expansion too late, but I’m still proud that I got it.

I know with epics out it trivializes these Soulfire weapons. I’m still proud of all the hard work I put into the weapon though. It was a LONG painful series of quests. I have other (all) alts who are on various stages, but Petites I can say completed it. It’s funny. Petites is also my “original” main. She has her prismatic 1.0 where I had to kill Darathar. I also was on Najena for that quest. I did it with Allure, an Australian guild. The Godking weapon, I completed on my warden. Claymore, also on the warden. Epics, I have yet to start on anyone. We’ll see how that goes. I’m thinking coercer, but one can never tell. The templar is just not something I can level up through RoK content. Especially not solo. It would take me a year. The idea of grinding out all those faction quests (again) is just… leaves me with a horrible feeling inside. So I imagine she’ll stay lower level for quiet some time. She even has her Thuuga ring already completed (the fabled one quested in Kylong Plains) but needs more levels before she can wear it.

On an unrelated note, I moved Silhouette to Gorowyn. She now owns a 5 room house, and it’s absolutely huge. The rent is only 5g a week, no status. I had no idea, but the city also has a port to Kylong Plains. It’s got a carpet to sinking sands, which can access Freeport and Neriak. It’s also got a griffin to butcherblock, which means I can access everything, easily. To move, all I did was talk to two people, one in Freeport, and then one in Gorowyn. It was far too simple, but I suppose some times simple is good. Looking forward to decorating it and seeing what I can come up with.

Wow what a weekend. After our success with Mayong, and Protector’s Realm, we were excited about attempting Thuuga again. Remember, we’ve attempted it twice before without luck. This time around, we did one single thing differently, and the results were amazing. We managed to get the mob to 5% our second try using the new method, and then we downed her the third.

Congratulations to Calreth who got a server discovery on the Spider Queen’s one looted item (which wasn’t an amazing drop, but hey, it’s better then nothing). The guild was happy, that’s at least one T8 raid zone cleared. I switched mains from Goudia to Arysh after talking to the guild leader, though I agreed to box to every raid where we needed the troubador, until we found one. I probably shouldn’t have done that, as boxing is quite stressful on me. Not only because I am a main tank healer on Arysh, but because I still care about things that a troubador should care about when they’re playing, such as running perfection of the maestro and jesters at specific times. The necromancer who lifeburns for example, sends both Arysh and Goudia a tell, so that I can jesters them before hand. Arysh was 2nd zone wide for heals on Thuuga again, which is nice considering there’s not AoE’s to worry about and no encounters hitting us until spiders run ramped.

Afterwards we decided since we’d finished so early we’d head to Freethinkers Hideout, along the way discovering that Pumpkin Headed Horseman was up. We gave him one attempt, having never ever pulled him before, and managed to get him to 45% before things went badly. We didn’t want to waste any more time on him or end the night on a sour note, so we headed to Freethinkers where we absolutely destroyed the majority of the zone before the mobs realized we’d zoned in I’m fairly sure.

We didn’t need so many healers for this zone, and so I left Arysh behind and just played Goudia. I was slightly reluctant to do so because that means there’s 0 possibility of her class loot dropping, since she’s the only warden, and some of that stuff is still an upgrade. However, it is just T7, so I figured why not. Low and behold, the troubador got her first piece of T7 set gear ever. I’ve raided plenty of T7 before in the past, and never ever have I won a piece of set gear for any of my characters, so this was my first one. Unfortunately they were not an upgrade, as I’m wearing some legendary T8 gloves that are better. I’ll hang onto them though so that they don’t drop the next raid.

Aside from the raids, Arysh (along with Shadowgeist) also finished her fabled quest for the Thuuga item that was added to Kylong plains. We were both lucky yesterday morning and the two named (who apparently have long timers) were already up. The item was a fairly significant upgrade with 275 power on the ring I choose once I’d adorned it as well as +75 to heals. Arysh also hit level 78, one more and she gets to wear quite a few new pretties that I’ve had stashed away for her. Two more and I can stop worrying about all this debt she keeps getting every time we raid.

Last night was our first time in the Protector’s Realm, and the guild was pretty pumped up after our Mayong kill. We ended up almost starting on time, which is practically unheard of, and walked into the zone wondering what to expect. None of us had ever been there before, we didn’t even know the general script of the zone. It’s located in Sebilis, the same zone that Crypt of Agony uses. It’s made up of a few rooms, very little agro to start, and lots of npc dialog. You end up doing some interaction with the npc’s and then go on an epic quest (literally) to help aid the people stuck there. There’s four little named and then one more big named and then two more named after that — or so the rumor goes.

We made it past the first four named, which were not exactly hard, but not easy. Our guild couldn’t find a warden, so I volunteered to bring my 76 warden Arysh, and box the troubador. We can get by without a troubador, but we can’t get by without a warden. I would actually rather play the healer, but the guild screams if I think about dropping the bard. We’ll have to see where that goes. It’s easier to find a warden then a troubador, but difficult to find a good warden, if that makes sense.

We managed to kill Iztapa Vyx on the first pull, Wymbulu took quite a few, we came back to that one later. Adkar Vyx went down after the second pull. The encounters have a lot of aoe’s, some dots, some of them massive. Wymbulu was hitting people for 12-18k a shot with a flurry AoE that just ripped us to shreds the first few pulls until we figured out a method to beat them. I must say, the troubador level 80 spell countersong (absorbs 70% of an aoe raid wide - lasts for 20 seconds 10 minute recast) really helped a lot. We couldn’t avoid the aoe completely, but eating 70% of it was great. M1 absorbs 90% of the aoe. Zukluk Vyx took two pulls, and we were feeling pretty good.

One unique thing about these encounters that differ from the previous tiers, is that they drop coin, and a good amount. By the time we’d downed the first four named, we’d each made 3p - plus paid for repairs once from the mender bot. To be expected while we learn something new. We had a blast, and our spirits were high as we set the script in motion for Doomcoil, which is a giant snake - and you only get one chance to beat him.

We knew he ported. Knew he had two aoe’s one large and one small. We proceeded to pull him (her?) and learned that the snake also heals when ever anyone dies, but also hits like a kitten. Tactics ranged from attempting it as a curor (snake in DT) fight with massive burning while we bladedanced for as long as possible, to trying to hide behind geometry to avoid the aoe’s. Needless to say he wiped the floor with us, though it did take some time. If you fail on him, he apparently can come and assist in the next encounter - so we called it a night for then.

The loot was not fantastic, but not bad either. Upgrades are upgrades after all eh? No discoveries but I’m sure that the “bigger” raid guilds have already cleaned out these little ones.

I was proud of our guild for what we accomplished, though I wish I hadn’t of been boxing, it wasn’t that big of a deal in the end. Nothing required a whole lot of maneuvering, and even though Arysh is only level 76, I ended up parsing 2nd zone wide on heals. Helps that a lot of things are AoE damage and druids certainly shine in those circumstances.

After raids, a few guildmates asked me if I thought I could solo heal Maidens. It’s one of the two instances in the Howling Stones, and used for the legendary (used to be fabled) weapon quest. It’s a hard zone, the two more difficult encounters would be the three sisters, where you have to root one, mez another and dps the third. Then there’s also the final named, who heals every time you dps (and that means ANY dps, including thorns, procs, adornments, cloaks, etc) until she’s done freaking out and then you can start up again. I was a little cautious but told the guild I was fairly confident I could solo heal it at level 76 on the warden. We had the ideal group, a guardian, dirge, necromancer, coercer, and swashbuckler, all level 80 except for me. We had one wipe, on the sisters because we had them running around for a bit too long, but pulled with the group charm and things went just fine. We got a lot of legendary chests, two master chests, a few upgrades (most of them going to the coercer, good night to be a caster!) and other random goodies. Arysh didn’t end up getting her legendary weapon since she still needs to do the quest from Vault of Eternal Sleep first. Afterwards we whipped through Crypt of Agony, and since it was 2:30am after that I called it a night.

Today I quested with Shadowgeist until he left for work, and then picked up a charmed pet to solo quest in Kunzar Jungle, the zone I hate the most. I love the way RoK has plenty of animal creatures, it’s the first time I’ve had such a supply of things to charm. In fact I re-spec’d for now just to be able to max out that charm while I’m questing. The little bit of extra dps is an amazing addition when I’m all alone. Hit level 77, and got to wear two new pieces of gear, a shield and a new pair of gloves. I have a cloak waiting for me and that chestpiece as soon as I hit level 79. Things are going smoothly in game (for the time being) here’s hoping it lasts!

That’s right, for the first time, Arsenal managed to down Mayong. Now, before anyone goes and starts wondering “hey, isn’t that a T7 raid and shouldn’t you be able to 2 group it by now?!” - just because he’s green, doesn’t mean he hurts any less. Well, ok. Maybe he does hurt a little less. But I was still very proud (and excited) for the guild taking him down. On our third pull none the less. This is Arsenal’s second attempt at Mayong, they didn’t get a whole lot of pulls on him in T7 before having to call it a night.

Of course nothing dropped for the troubador, we had two dirge pieces drop, a mystic bp as well as a necromancer bp, and some other random goodies like the disease bracelet. Once we coordinated ourselves on the final fight it really did seem quite easy. His smoking body can still be seen on the floor in the screen shot. Of course, Goudia is not anywhere close to being finished SoD. Since she’s never been my main before, she’s behind in everything, and I do mean everything. Shadowgeist got his Soulfire sword though, even if it is a tier late, I’m happy. Alaena (I probably spelled that wrong, she’s a guild templar) got hers, and Kaumo (warlock) got his. I was going to box Calreth for his update since he had classes, but I found that I couldn’t properly time bladedance without lagging all over from trying to play two accounts. I didn’t want to risk my group getting eaten by some miss timed aoe, and decided that he’ll just have to come along next time maybe when he doesn’t have tests going on.

Tonight we’re doing the Protector’s Realm, which is (as rumor have it) the T8 version of Labs (but harder..) so I’m anxious to see how that goes. We did have about three groups of guild members and had a few pick ups have to come along as well. Our regular guild coercer was unable to attend, so we took along a 71, our illusionist is also MIA, so we grabbed a 72 who was decked out in adept1’s and still managed to parse higher then some of our regular dps members (he plays a conjuror main). We also grabbed a 70 bruiser from guild who’s working on having that become his ‘new main’ as he has a swashbuckler that we already have one of. We grabbed a 75 warden, a 75 dirge, and a 70 dirge. In fact we had four bards, and I was the only troubador. Dirge is always flavour of the month on AB with troubadors a close second from time to time when everyone starts complaining about there being a lack of them (for raids only of course).

I’ve been crafting like a mad person since Frostfell came out, and I’ve also been doing the quests offered on the thundering stepps docks for house items (dishes, specifically). I collected 100 food items for both Thundering stepps and Everfrost, and was rewarded with a nice plate, and a mug. Of course now I have the concern that everyone is just going to be eager to step on one anothers toes and harvest every shrub they can find — but leave everything else up. Especially wood nodes, I see more wood nodes around then anything lately. I know this was to discourage “Cherry Pickers” (People who only harvest one of any sort of node and leave all the others up) and to try to get rid of the surplus of ‘useless’ bushes. A great idea in theory, just depends on how many people are going to be after these dishes. They’re not lore, you can sell them on broker, and you get 2% (well, I was) tradeskill exp for completing the repeatable quests. Not sure if those will be changing over time.

I love the new Frostfell items, since Goudia is still fairly new she’s got her wreath and tree now, as well as some plushie snowmen, the carol greeting cards are amazing and a nice touch, as well as the new plates of cookies and the hot chocolate mugs. The hanging lanterns give homes a warm fuzzy feeling and the outfits of course are fun as well.

So much going on and only so much time to do it all in. I’m torn between working on Claymore / SoD (is there really any point to working those now or are they going to become extinct like the previous quests such as Godking and Prismatic 1.0?). I’m also cranky because I really wish bards (at least troubadors) could choose the mage staff as a reward for SoD as opposed to the dagger. I parsed on average 1,000-1,3000 DPS (on fights where I wasn’t constantly staying out of range to ensure the survivability of my group, after all a dead bard is a useless bard) and I want to see that rise. I need proc gear in order to do that though. Not bad I suppose for a troubador who doesn’t have a single piece of fabled gear (except for that charm item, and does it count?) yet. We’ll see how things go!

Sighs. I’m disheartened, what can I say. Last night we attempted our first RoK raid instance, the Tomb of Thugga. It’s located in Fens, in a small cave in the center portion of the waterfall close to the span. We were excited, we had a great raid force, people were in great spirits. Zoned in, and it looked.. well, not exactly exciting, but not bad either. It consists of a long hallway with spiders and skeletons who enjoy stunning and fearing. Two small rooms to the left and right, with a huge spider Mistress in the center back.

We cleared the zone and were face to face with the named. Staring her down. Pulled her, and wiped as we had no clue what to expect. Figured out what her “thing” was (ever named encounter has a “thing”) and prepared to pull her again once we’d worked out a strat.

Down came the server.

Sighs. The raid hung around on ventrilo for 45 minutes waiting for Antonia Bayle to unlock, and then we had to call it, it was getting late and people were bored. It unlocked, and we were….

Outside the instance. Zoning in, we found the entire thing had re-set. If we wanted to attempt this zone again, we’d have to clear everything, again. People were upset. Now, I’m typically quiet calm when these things happen, after all I know there are issues that are expected. That doesn’t mean it was any less of a disappointment though. We can’t even attempt the zone again until Monday or some such as our MT won’t be around this weekend. Goudia was parsing around 900 on some fights (the troubador) and I was just tickled pink, since she’s 78 in treasured gear. I know that number’s not very high, but I was happy with our progress. We were doing wonderful.

When the server was down yesterday morning for three hours instead of the planned one hour, I didn’t mind. When we have log in issues and throttling the players logging in (slowing them down so the log in server is not swamped) I can understand it. I didn’t mind them disabling our broker sales completely for periods of time while they worked on things. But the expansion’s been out for a while now, and the server stability hasn’t gotten better. We still experienced 15 minute receiving zone info timers if we tried to go anywhere. I think I’ve stared at that screen more then I’ve looked at any RoK zone this week so far.

Of course, we’ll just go about our way, and try again some other time. I just wish our first experience in one of the new zones had of gone a lot smoother.

Alright, so the weekend got off to a fairly interesting start. Late Friday night I couldn’t sleep, and decided to browse through the recruitment posts just randomly. I noticed Azure Skies was looking for a templar. Those sort of classes never seem to be needed on my server since most templars (and thus guilds) are already well established. So I asked what sort of templar they were looking for. It could have been for a mage group, but surprisingly enough (though I suppose not THAT surprising since the guild is fairly new) they were looking for a main tank templar.

Hmm.

I spent the night pondering it over, talked with Shadowgeist about it, and decided to give it a shot. With raids only three days a week, it wouldn’t take up a huge amount of time, and while some of the folks may not be the friendliest of people, well. Lets be honest here. I want to do well. I’m still in TK on all of my alts and plan on remaining that way. Friends are very important to me, and I wouldn’t want to just abandon anyone. However, I have to admit that I am pretty excited. Last night we did their first ‘major’ raid. We met up at Freethinkers Hideout, and zoned in with three groups, and three characters botted. I was not overly excited. Especially when we wiped on the ‘finger pointer’ a number of times. We were just about naked (and discouraged) when low and behold, our tactics worked, and down she went. We were excited. Malkonis was next, who went down first pull. Trayloth (spelling on that may be off) posed only a slight issue, as we had two bat adds part way through. We got him as well though, first pull. Dasie got the wrist piece pictured above.

We headed off to Clockwork next, no issues there, things went smoothly. I was a little concerned about DPS, but we pulled it off. Not that Clockwork is really difficult, but well, you never know. Next we headed to Courts for some guild status. Azure Skies is fairly new, a few people who broke off from another major raiding guild. So we’re only level 30.  Blew through courts, and decided to go attempt Chel’Drak. Now, a few of the newer members have never been to any of these zones before. So they were in absolute awe as we downed them with what appeared to be ease. Of course it helps when 6 of your members have already been very well geared out by previous raid zones (the core of the guild, in fact). I’m sure it was a lot of fun for the newer members to experience the raids this way.

Oh, and Tipa will be pleased to know that my RoK ‘main’ is indeed, a halfling. Bring on the Jumjum.

Misako did an LoA run, and managed to get a new pretty

A long weekend, always awesome to get one of those. I meant to finish up this post yesterday but (of course) got side tracked with other things. I’ve been doing some off and on raiding with a few guilds, and I learned a few things. Just as a raider comes prepared to the raid (on time, with potions and whatever else they may need) there is also an obligation on the part of the raid leaders. Here is the wrong way in my opinion and personal experience from raiding this weekend:

~ Not explaining encounters in difficult zones. Raid leaders, PLEASE remember when you take new members that not everyone has done these encounters before, and even if they have and you’re a top notch guild who’s expecting their recruits to know their stuff - they have not done it with YOU. Which means you probably stand some place new, or you use a different tactic, or you cast a different spell. It does no harm to make sure your guests understand what is going on.

~ Not making your recruits / guests feel comfortable. When your new raider joins vent or ts or whatever it is you use, try saying hello! Be nice, and make them feel welcome after all there is a reason that they’re along on your raid to begin with. They were obviously interested in it, and you were interested enough back to give them a chance. There’s nothing worse then a new raider who does not know anyone logging in and no one saying a word at all. New raiders are nervous enough (believe it or not) and that little bit of extra to make them feel that they are at least appreciated for being there, is important.

~ After the raid is over, not saying a word to the new raider. Come on people, they’re not lepers, even if they were awful raiders. Even if they didn’t know their roll. Just be open and up front about things. Let them know if you want to have them back. If not, let them know that too. Don’t just feign interest.

I went on three raids this weekend, the first was Emerald Halls, the second was Lyceum, and the third was Labs. I know, that two were just boring ‘ordinary’ KoS raid zones. I did them with two separate guilds, and let me tell you, the KoS boring ‘drab’ raids were two of the best raids I’ve ever been on. Not because they were easy and simple and I didn’t have to think (which I didn’t) but because the raids made me feel welcome. They were friendly, and out going. They talked to me before the raids and after. To me personally, it doesn’t matter WHAT a guild is taking down raid wise, if I’m not feeling at least some sense of community when I play with them then chances are I’m not going to stick around, what reason would I have. I most certainly don’t play this game for the loot aspect, and yes, I agree it’s nice to get into those end game zones, but again. I really need the sense of community.

I consider myself a fairly good player, I know my characters, I learn fairly well. I know my capabilities. I still play for the community though. It’s probably the number one reason I’ve avoided high end raiding guilds. NOT that they don’t have a sense of community - they do. But it’s gradual. You have to prove yourself to them first. They have their own community that you don’t belong to really from the start. Harder if you don’t even know anyone in the guild, it can take time. Which is of course a good thing, but not something that I want to deal with in the game. I know it takes time before you’re “one of the gang” and I admit right now I have little to no patience.

Anyhow, just wanted to make this post to say that it’s not all the raiders responsibility when it comes to the raids. Please try to make those new raiders feel comfortable. They’re nervous and it’s not going to kill you. Of course if it does kill you, there are bigger issues to look at.

Goudia, browsing through the vast volumes of books in the Tower of the Moon, Maj’Dul

So what do you do when your character hits level 70? You have a number of choices. You can work on chains of quests (Claymore, SoD, MoA, Godking), you can get yourself into a raid guild, you can finish off your aa, and you can craft. You can become obsessed with questing, start an alt. Work on a house. There’s still so much to do. Of course, if you play long enough none of these things will interest you, and you’ll more then likely end up just wandering around Norrath — or find yourself lost in a few games of LoN, which is a popular choice these days as we all wait for the release of RoK.

So what do you do once you’ve hit level 70?

I’ve already come to the conclusion that I want to “finish” my characters, the ones who are already at 70. What does that mean? Well, I already said in a previous post I want to get them all to 70/70/100. Level 70 in adventuring (I already have 5 at that) 70 crafting (Three of them are there already) and 100aa (only Stargrace has met this goal so far, with Misako close behind at 96, then Arysh at 89, and Goudia at 87). I’d love to delve back into questing and seeing what there is out there. I know I have yet to do a single Butcherblock quest for example. I want to finish off the HQ I haven’t done yet for some guild status, and try to help get the guild to at least 30 before RoK comes out. Not sure if that’s even a viable goal any more with the way guild experience works. Smaller guilds used to have a benefit over larger ones as the % of status was divided between total members and not just a base percentage. Now though the more active members you have the more status you’ll be inputting into the guild. Since my small guild has only five members or so, we move slow. Not a big deal though I suppose.

I watched another Avatar fight last night, the Avatar of War, though I was saddened to see it go poorly. I hate to watch guilds compete with each other - only because eventually it turns mean. People get mad at one another, they try to sabotage each other, they shout and scream and spam and all the rest. So while it was probably one of the more exciting fights to watch just because it is quite complex, it was also one of the few I watched and grimaced each time I saw the guilds confront one another. I understand that rivalry is normal, and even healthy, but there is a good way and a bad way to compete for contested mobs. After watching for over five hours as they battled between each other I decided that it was well past time I went to sleep. It was just one of those days anyhow, and I was out of sorts by the end of it.

Goudia managed to hit 45 weapon smith today. Not a huge accomplishment but I’m pleased. She has vitality for another level or two, but I’ve not decided yet if I want to actually craft more or go play and have fun with some quests. We’ll just have to see I suppose. I’ve been working down (slowly) her L&L list. She has 15 left to go, which is not so bad. Her house is filling up nicely with weapons and I’m eager to create a sort of display / sales area for her trophies. I think it’s fitting since she is a weapon smith. Saturday I’ll be doing an Emerald Halls raid, and I’m excited (and nervous!) about it. I have not really raided since January, though I have certainly raided and done some EoF content, none of it was exactly on par with what I’d been doing in the past. I’d only gone to EH three times, and was on the second floor. I’ve not stepped foot in it since then and I know a lot has probably changed. The guild I’ve applied to is not sure whether they want me to play the bard, illusionist, mystic, or fury, so I’m to park each one outside of EH. I’m secretly hoping they want me to play a healer, because I feel that I can shine with those classes the most (you don’t get 3 level 70 healers and not enjoy them a little bit after all). Hopefully I’ll have some screen shots and good stories to tell after my adventures tomorrow! We’ll just have to see how it goes..

The Avatar of Valor is a pretty intimidating looking fella, no?

Congratulations to the guild Eidolon here on the AB server, who took down the Avatar of Valor last night while I parked Goudia not too far away on a hill to peek and watch. I’ve actually never done any Avatar fights myself (for those who don’t know what avatars are, they’re contested epic representations of the gods that are currently in Norrath) but I do love watching the battles. Every guild does things differently, everyone has their own strats. I watched Valor taken down a few times on LDL when I was there, by Strike. So watching a new guild attempt it (new to me at least) was fun, and impressive. The main tank rarely ever dropped below 90% health, and stayed at max power the entire fight. I saw someone ‘rip’ (take agro from the tank) once, not that they lasted long once it had happened. Every Avatar fight is slightly unique, this one spawns sets of adds (a lot of them do) that have to be dealt with during the fight. Anyone who’s done pretty much any raiding in EQ2 (or even any regular grouping) knows that adds can actually be the most difficult portion of any fight. It’s not necessarily the main target that smacks you around nearly as much as getting swarmed by adds.

Along with Thunderwalker, the guild that a few of my alts are in called ‘Dragons Flight’ hit level 20! Means more bank slots, of course a wonderful thing. Also means a few more levels and then the next portion of the guild cloak will be available, etc. Torrent Knights is also almost level 20. It’s slow going but none of us are huge grinders as far as guild status is concerned. I’ve been having fun as always, even with the plethora of alts.

If you check out the comments in the post before this one, you’ll see exactly why I love writing, and why I enjoy Eq2 to begin with. Comments like that obviously make me feel good about things, that I can some how in some weird way reach out to people through my writing. Does that make sense? Well it does to me at least, and I suppose that’s all that matters.

Still not sure what direction I want to head in game. I’m not exactly restless, but I don’t know if I want to raid, or work up alts, or craft or complete old quests, etc. I am fairly certain that I’ll just stay where I am for now until RoK comes out and things get shuffled. Then I’ll see where I stand. Or who knows perhaps things will change drastically in the next few months. I’m looking forward to the new expansion being released. Not exactly looking forward to ‘the grind’ to level 80 but I’m not dreading it either. I think that progression is a much needed thing, and we’ve all been level 70 for far too long. I’m almost on my 5th level 70 (not to mention crafting levels) and that’s just crazy. Well, I never said I wasn’t a little crazy *chuckles*.

Gothun has been doing well in game, he joined a new guild. I don’t get along with them, at all, but I’ve never been one to judge someone else based on their guild tag — unless they personally piss me off. I did warn him about the guild though.

I haven’t been working on Misako’s house lately, and I really should do some harvesting - but I’m feeling an urge to play my necromancer (who’s been sitting at level 55 for quite a long time now) so we’ll see where I end up! Happy gaming, everyone should smile, after all it’s the weekend! Well, practically, it’s Friday at least.

Arysh taking a stroll through Qeynos Harbor, happened across another traveler

When I see a guide wandering around the Shattered Lands, I always remember when I had applied to be a guide, and wonder why I decided against it. In the end I think it was just my general love of the game that stopped me from going any further with it. While I love being able to enhance someone else’ game play through the guide program specifically with their contests and rp events, I just found it much more fulfilling if I delved into the game from a players perspective (though I am well aware of the fact that guides are also regular players). It’s great to have a volunteer program like this though.

Yesterday was raids. We didn’t exactly have our core group (which is an ever-present issue these days) so we headed off to Lyceum. No deaths for Misako (the mystic) which was nice. The zone was completed in barely over an hour, and everyone did fantastic. We decided to give Freethinkers Hideout another run. If you remember my previous posts, we’ve had issues with this zone from the start, and yesterday was no different. We downed the first two mobs with little difficulty, though I still have to swap out for my illusionist for the second battle which sort of peeves me because it is a fight that drops class set pieces, and that means my mains class piece will never drop. The warden forearms fell none the less. We wiped a few times on the second last guy like we always do, at the exact same spots that we always do (right after the second mem wipe and reflect hits) and called it a night.

I feel bad for wanting progression. I shouldn’t though, right? I mean, we all pay our monthly fees and want specific things out of the game. I love this guild but there are days when I long to be able to progress some. People have mentioned to me (I won’t name names here, but you all know who I’m talking about if you’re in my guild) that “we” are trying to make The Inquisition into some “uber” raid guild. Which ‘we’ are not. If “we” wanted to be in an “uber” raid guild, “we” would be. You’ll have to forgive my use of quotes around all that stuff.

So. I have no idea what direction I’m headed in game. I have no idea what goals I want to set, or what I want to do. More often then not I’m just left feeling flustered and frustrated. I doubt my quality of playing, and my ability to know my class. Better then the average person? Sure, but there are lots of very incredible players out there.

Sorry for yet another drab post, here’s hoping I stop being so gloomy real soon! Maybe a quest walk through or two will finally make their way to a post.