Chel’Drak, dead for the first time by the Inquisition

Last night was raid night, and it started with a very very fast run through labs. I did not find it enjoyable at all, I hate rushing through zones, easy or not. It was “get going faster faster” the entire time. We had one wipe to Vyemm who refused to be mem-wiped, and then headed off to make our first attempts at Chel’Drak. The inquisition had attempted him a time or two before I do believe, but they were not exactly sure what to expect this time. A majority of them had never been here. The raid was explained, macro’s made. Positions assigned. The first pull went beautifully. Well, positioning, not so much of a pull seeing as you have to charge into his room. Everyone had their parts down great. We had some bad luck, and three warrior adds spawned in a row. Anyone who’s done Chel’Drak before knows that it’s not the giant ancient dragon who kills you, but the class adds. Warriors taunt the entire raid onto different targets, which means healers can only use group heals to keep their tanks up. It’s not a pretty sight.

So we ate the wipe, and set up again. We came prepared, with repair kits. A whole lot of them in fact. Little did we know they would not be used at all this night. We charged in again.. and the adds came.. and went.. AoE’s were called. Encounters downed.. He hit 30% before we knew it.. 10.. 5.. 1%.. we burned like we’ve never burned before, and down he went. On the second pull. A huge congratulations to the guild as a whole for accomplishing this encounter on their second attempt. It gave people the motivational boost that they needed I think in order to do better at the EoF raids. Pride in themselves as players. Everyone brought their “A” game.

Now, I know guilds have had this specific encounter down to farm status for months now. Including my previous guild back in January, but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how many guilds have done it before you or how many guilds are to come after you, what matters is that there was a goal and through team work and a lot of hard work and patience, it was something everyone achieved together. I just wish more had been on the quest for the zone that gave them the pretty ring with 5% off their spell cast timers. Oh well! Now that we all know we can do it, hopefully future attempts will go just as smooth.

Since it was a raid night I didn’t get to attend any of the festivities going on in Antonica, but I did keep an ear out for the Feyiron Chef contest, it sounded like a lot of fun. Tonight there is more entertainment and I should be heading down that way unless something else comes up, we’ll see how it goes. Congratulations again The Inquisition on Antonia Bayle, a job well done.

Dasie, originally named Qutey - Do you know who she’s standing next to?

There are numerous types of blogs out there about MMO’s. I say this because I spend an hour every day reading the ones that interest me, the ones of course that are linked down the right hand side of my site. There are the ones I like to call “news types”, that blog about who’s doing what within MMO companies and what’s going on with the dynamics of the games, and who play the games themselves but write very little about their actual adventures. Then there are those who blog about their actual adventures, specific quests, zones, characters. I admit right now, I am not one of those people who blog about the news of MMO’s. I know what’s upcoming because I read it else where. I write about my own personal experiences within the game and my observations outside of game. But I’ll never be one of those news blogs, and there’s nothing wrong with that.. I only mention this because someone decided to send me tells in game on a level 1 character that I’ll leave unnamed and speak down to me about my blog. I write the way I write, and if you don’t care for my style, well, quite frankly you can just bugger off.

Anyhow.

Tonight I’ll (hopefully) be doing Lyceum and Halls of Seeing, with The Inquisition on Antonia Bayle. They are not a hard core guild, but they do raid three times a week, and are making headway into EoF content. Today is their KoS day, which suits me just fine I’m always cautious raiding with a new group of people. Why am I cautious?

Well, raiding is a big deal. Ok, not a big deal, but it’s complicated. It’s not like your general group, you’re with 23 other people and the responsibilities shift based on your class. Every single player in a raid has their own personal part, and you have to do it, and you’re expected to do it well. If you don’t, it will be noticed. So this post will be some very basic, very easy hints and tips to raiding. I’m not trying to come off as a know it all or anything of the sort, but I have been raiding in EQII for quite some time now, and it never ceases to amaze me the amount of things people simply don’t know. Not because they’re stupid, but because no one’s taken the time to teach them how to raid. Yes, you do have to be taught to raid. The screen shot above is my templar standing by the Vision of Vox. Yes, she’s a templar wearing a dress, I think it was for the cold saves. The screen shot was taken in 2005. Vox is used for prismatic 1.0, which was “the thing” to do when you were level 50 and that was the level cap. Dasie got her prismatic scepter of the scale at level 45, with a guild on Najena called Allure. I have learned so much since those early days of raiding.

Number one, show up on time. You’d think this would be a very simple rule, but I can’t even count the number of times that key members are late. Yes, there is such a thing as real life, but if you are signed up for a raid then please at least have the curtsey to show up for the raid. Of course there are always exceptions, life happens, but if you’re just goofing around on an alt or something, you’re holding 23 people up. Try to be at your raid location 15 minutes ahead of time at least, so that the raid leader can invite you and start organizing their groups.

Number two, unless YOU are the raid leader, let them do their thing. It always astounded me the number of people who moan and complain and gripe about certain things in a raid - like group set ups. You may know better, but it is not your raid, and mouthing off in the raid channel about it during the raid is the wrong time to open up a discussion about how things are set up. Deal with the raid in the method it’s given to you, and then afterwards, request to speak to someone on how to make it better and improve on things. The raid leaders have enough to deal with already without 10 people screaming at them about how “such and such a thing” is done wrong. When you’re the raid leader then you can control the raid. If you’re a guest, remember that’s what you are, you’re a guest. If they ASK for suggestions and help, that is different.

Number three, show up prepared! Some more hard core guilds require you to keep certain pieces on you. These range from power regen potions, to critical hit potions, or symbols that are sold from the city merchant that let you avoid aoe’s. There’s any number of items that can help you prepare for a raid. The very basic of these though — mend. That’s right, showing up at the raid in 10% gear is not showing up prepared to raid. Show up with food and drink. Try to keep at least one repair kit on you at all times. Especially if you’re doing a pick up raid, there is no guarantee that they’re going to supply you with a mendor bot, or repair kits of their own. Find yourself a carpenter and keep one on you. Personally, I keep + wis or + int potions on my characters, as well as clarity potions. They’re not a requirement, but they will make you a better raider.

Number four, be patient. The raid is gathering. You showed up early. There’s still 10 people missing and it’s 15 minutes past the start time. Don’t start bouncing around asking when you’re going to start. Just sit tight, and be patient. The raid will start when it’s good and ready. You being upset about the start time is not going to hasten it along. AFTER the raid, talk to an officer or the raid leader and if you’re going to be raiding with the group on a constant basis, bring up the time issue. Ask or suggest what methods could insure that the raid starts on time. Be patient during the multiple AFK’s that will happen while you’re in the zone, and while loot is being handled out and discussed.

Which leads me to number five, if you are a guest, ask how loot is handled before you join the raid. Does the guild use DKP? Do you have any chance at loot at all or is it guild only? Is it NBG (need before greed) is it /random 100? Ask before the raid, before the leaders are flooded with other questions and yours is just another annoyance. There’s nothing wrong with asking. Communication and lack there of is always a huge thing especially in an MMO when you can’t see the people face to face. You have to talk to leaders and raiders alike, during the proper time periods of course. Don’t start spamming their raid channel with questions during the raid. Leave it for important messages and uncluttered.

Don’t get me wrong with this post, raids are certainly a lot of fun, and there’s a lot of time for fun and playfulness within one. You may not want to start laughing hysterically while you’re about to pull Mayong Mistmoore though over teamspeak, distracting people from doing their jobs. In the end, that’s what a raid is, it’s a group of people coming together and doing their jobs, and taking down named for pretties.

Know your class and upgrade what you can. Know your skills. Know how you benefit other people. If you see your resists are low and you’re afraid of getting creamed with AoE’s be sure to step back on a fight. Listen during the raid for hints and tricks on how you’re going to attempt specific encounters. EVERY guild does named encounters differently. Every time I’ve done Labs or Lyceum or Halls of Seeing, or even Freethinkers Hideout, the encounters are different. Some times just the pull is different, the positioning, the method of downing the mob. So be sure to listen to that sort of stuff. If you’re unsure of where to stand, look for people of your class, and stand with them. Mages, healers, fighters, scouts. Where are they clustered around. It’s just common sense, but it never hurts to be reminded.

During a raid, don’t take things personally. If someone screams that the healers are not doing their job, don’t start a huge debate on how you ARE in fact doing your job. YOU know what you’re capable of. Unless they are another healer, and telling you that you’re not doing your job. Then ask how you can improve. Ask for hints and tips on how to make the raid better. Most raids use parsers to indicate who is healing or who is dps’ing. Parsers and showing up at the top (for heals at least) are NOT the end all be all. It does not mean that the 4th healer is not doing their job — unless their heal parse is blank. THAT is when you worry. Or if AoE’s are going off and no AoE heals are being cast. That’s what heal parsers show. They don’t show who is the best, they show who is paying attention. Shaman are typically always first on those parses, just because of the way their heals work, it over writs everyone else’ heal out there since it’s damage prevention instead of actual hit point healing.

Anyhow, sorry for the rambling, in preparation for tonight’s raid I just wanted to go over the basics. What can I say, it’s been a while.

Stargrace, 70 illusionist 70 provisioner, stats while playing in Obelisk

The screen shot above is of my illusionist, while she’s playing in Obelisk. I wanted to try to get some templar boots last night, Dasie is going to be heading to Freethinkers Hideout tonight, and her boots suck, to put it bluntly. The best thing about that screen shot, is that I’m grouped with a shadowknight, and a templar, but that’s it. The templar had just cast Divine Recovery, which is one amazing aa they have. As you can tell by the spell casting speed, and the spell recovery speed, I well over the cap on one, and brushing the half way point on the other. This makes me a machine gun caster. I can do some fantastic dps with my illusionist, especially with her int sitting at 836, and if she’s below 30% power, which I rarely am, but I try to be. The enchanters do 30% more dps when they’re below 30% power.

It’s amusing since during raids everyone keeps trying to give my illusionist food and drink. I keep food and drink on me at all times, I’m a 70 provisioner after all. But I do raid with sprint on, to keep below the 30% mark. It sounds easy, but with a bard in my grp, and me having to keep my regen spell up for the other group members, it’s very hard. Takes some practice to be able to hover there.

I did a lyceum raid not too long ago with a guild that had a few extra slots. The raid went alright, the group set ups were completely weird to me though. I’ve been on a good amount of raids over the years, and this was the first one where the illusionist was in the main tank group. There was a coercer on the raid, level 70 as well, and they were put into the mage group. The tank asked for Time Compression, which doesn’t do that much except it does affect their taunts. It does not help with general CA’s though. I was still parsing 1-2-3 on the raid, in the main tank group on a raid with warlocks, wizards, necromancers, and conjurors, and not because I was parsing high, but because the dps was incredibly low.

There’s only one key thing you have to do on a raid that 70% of people who are ‘casual raiders’ seem to miss, and it’s pay attention. If you’re going AFK every four seconds or every few minutes, you’re not paying attention. If you’re in tells, or chattering away on channels, you’re not paying attention. I realize that there’s such a thing as real life, and people have children, but honestly that’s the one thing that bothers me beyond all else - when it’s raid time, dedicate the few hours you need to do the raid, and try to clear your time table for that. Everyone asks how they can raid better, how they can parse better. Pay attention, that’s all you need to do. Realize that you have spells that need to be cast in a particular order. Cast them in the right order, and keep casting them when they’re up, and you’ll do fine. Why do my healers do well? Because I pay attention, and not just to the main tank, but to the entire raid. People need to be cured, group heals need to go off, spot heals for other groups. If you have a necromancer who’s life burning, you need to heal them or they’re going to die. Why does my illusionist parse in the 1k-1.5k range without being in the mage group? Because I pay attention. Cast spells in order, remember to debuff. Wait for those dispatch messages, assist the proper person and don’t take frequent AFK’s.

Tonight’s raid should be interesting to say the least. I know the guild I’m going with has difficulty to begin with on this stuff. There was also a recent change to a tinker made item that used to let you mem-wipe constantly and prevent the 2nd named in Freethinkers from doing their script. It now has a 2 minute recast timer, and can’t be used as effectively for that use any more. Which means all those guilds who used to breeze by the encounter by mem-wiping, will have to do it the good ol “regular” way, off tanking all of the adds that spawn — or — hope that you have enough enchanters on your raid to mem-wipe the real way. I’m expecting to be naked once or twice with Dasie on this raid. She’s not exactly the best geared of my characters, in fact she does not have any fabled from KoS or EoF at all. She’s wearing legendary, has 6.3k power self buffed, and 7.3k HP. She has good saves though, and all of her spells are master quality, so I don’t think she’ll be a liability. We’ll just see how it goes.

Misako riding around Sinking Sands, with her new spoon

Did some instances with the defiler, and she’s now sporting the very stylish spoon that drops in cazels. Figured the thing never dropped for any of my other characters, at least she’s got some good luck. She hit 59 yesterday as I grinded through some very easy Lesser Faydark quests, making a whole lot of coin off of them as well. Also managed to hit 62ap on her, so she’s eating those up nicely. In fact she has more then the 70 templar now, go figure. Ap are so much easier to get when you’re a lower level.

A huge thank you to Cordanim for sharing his new blog format, I adored it and of course had to grab it for myself. I like the layout much better then the old one I had. It’s also just nice to switch it out every so often.

Other then that, I haven’t been doing too much. Reading a good book by Robin Hobbs and contemplating a few new suggestions as far as where to go in game. A friend of mine, Beeglin, suggested some time ago that I apply to Strike, the top raiding guild on Lucan D’Lere. I shrugged at the suggestion, doubting myself as a player, and the fact that they’ve got two raiding illusionists already. After speaking to another member of the guild, I’m contemplating the suggestion again. In the two plus years that I’ve played EQII I’ve never been in the top end guild before. Not from lack of knowledge about the game or time played, but for other smaller (and just as important) reasons. I was a recruit for Second Dawn as my warden and decided that they were not what I was looking for at the time, so raiding is really not that new to me. Devoting so much time to raiding would be new though, and a challenge that I’m not sure I could pass. Yes, I am online frequently enough, and yes, I could most certainly make all those raid hours, but do I really want to raid 6-7 days a week? I value my independence a lot, and I really am not sure if I’m good enough. Decisions decisions!

Misako, the little defiler I have in the works, has been fairly busy

So after taking a look at my level 33 mystic last week, I decided it was time to get a fourth character to 70, I’d been dawdling quite enough. I’ve always started mystics and then just never gotten them anywhere. I just didn’t want a mystic though. So I spent a day betraying her to a defiler. Then I tried to level her over the course of the past week. Needless to say, it’s worked. I boxed her along with a 70 shadowknight, and she’s now almost level 41, quickly eating up the levels and soon to be my “newest” level 70 (I hope, I’ve still got a way to go yet). I did Ruins of Varsoon daily, the instance within the zone (Chamber of Immortality) is a guaranteed two masters each run, as well as the various named in the zone who probably have a 90% chance at a master chest or legendary at least. I spent a few days transmuting everything I looted and making level 30 adornments. The rest I’ve decided to put for sale, after all, my little defiler is going to need some gear eventually and some spell upgrades. Leveling is pretty much an excuse for farming. Once I’d exhausted RoV I moved on to Runneyeye which is also filled with various named who drop pretties, as well as two instances with named for aa / loot. The defiler hit almost 25 aa from grinding alone, she’s barely done any quests at all (which I will rectify in later levels).

The aa she got was just enough to get soul ward. Which is by far the greatest spell I have ever seen. It lets you ward a target for 90% of your health. At level 40, that’s about 3k. A 3k ward every 5 minutes is fairly nice at those levels. I’m working on getting some pet buffs (aoe immunity) for the next round of points. She will hopefully hit level 41 today, and if possible, 42. Then I can head to CT and soon after that, the DoF zones. She hasn’t even wandered into zek at all, DFC is not too far away. She’ll need the discovery from those zones as well. I’ve already been planning ahead and would like to get claymore done on her, which will be a pain but it’s fairly essential to a healer. She has yet to step foot in lavastorm, or sol eye, and she’ll need to get to speak as a dragon one of these days. Ah the joys of a new little character.

Out of all three of my healers (I have a 70 templar and a 70 fury for those who’ve forgotten) I am (thus far) enjoying the defiler far more then either of those two. Perhaps it’s just because she’s new.

I’ve also been working my other alts. My carpenter is 20, my armorer is 20, and I’ve been hoarding supplies for them. My transmuter is 310, almost maxed out finally. My tinkerer is taking a bit more time, but coming along slowly.

I also decided to no longer raid with Marauders. For a few reasons. After a month of 100% raid attendance, there was no progress being made with me ever being allowed to join the guild. I talked them through a few raids (Namely freethinkers hideout as well as Chel’Drak which we got down to 49% on the first attempt in the zone with the main tank missing) and it was very apparent that no matter how I helped, I was not going to be able to make that guild my home. I found it unfair, to be allowed to raid but not allowed to join the guild, and I voiced my opinion on such, and said that I’d no longer be raiding with them. I took silent satisfaction that the next time they attempted Chel’Drak (with a better raid force that I went in there with, including the guilds main tank) they only managed to get him to 80%. While I kept that satisfaction to myself (no need to rub things in) it made me feel at least that it was their loss for not giving me a chance to join. So the search for a new home continues, though I am also looking on other servers since the free transfers are weeks away (or so I’ve been told) we’ll have to see how it goes!

Stargrace, placing the dolls for the Idol of Everling - another house item!

Since Silverstep lost her house and all of her belongings (sighs, 2 years worth of house items including the rare griffin tower live event items and other random goodies) I decided I’d work on Stargrace’ house in the mean time. She was missing two knick nacks, the ship in a bottle (from the fallen dynasty quest, located on the docks in TS by the Island bell, examine each one of the crates and then hail the npc there and he’ll talk to you), as well as the Idol of Everling from Nektulos Castle 1.0. That’s right the simple level 30-ish zone was given a lore quest a few months back that I fell in love with. More status reduction (I own a house in South Qeynos, closest to the Harbor zone line if you’re ever peeking in on Lucan D’Lere feel free to check it out, door is always open) is always a great thing. I’m looking to have a whole lot of house items crafted as well, a friend having supplies me with about.. 35 T6 rares as a thank you for my contribution to a few raids. One consistent thing with me in EQII has been my some what (sick) obsession with house items. I’d do the sword of destiny quest series just for the house item reward.

This weekend was fairly typical, I raided on Friday, as well as Saturday and Sunday. Sunday was Lyceum and Chel’Drak. The guild I was with had never attempted Chel’Drak before, and they managed to get him to 49% their first visit. Which is simply amazing from my point of view. It is a very difficult encounter with five separate types of adds, as well as two aoe’s, plus Chel’Drak himself. They were one short in the raid, using their guilds back up tank, and we could have used a few more power regenning classes. It was still a very successful learning experience though, and honestly that’s all a first attempt is. It’s where you learn the encounter, where to position and what your role is in a raid. It made me miss TK a lot, and the way we used to operate, the time we took into learning these encounters.

I’ve been crafting slightly. Hoping to get my carpenter up a few levels, as well as the sage and the alchemist. I’ve been slacking far behind. I did end up playing my mystic (going to betray to defiler) for the better portion of Sunday morning, and she hit level 32 (almost 33) which is the longest I’ve had a mystic I think. I typically get bored and end up deleting them to make room for other characters. No news yet on the exact days that server transfers are going to be available, but that’s a big deal lately as well, as everyone from my old guild who remained is planning on leaving the server as soon as it’s allowed. I don’t blame them. I think I’ve decided to move one character to the new server they all transfer too (probably my templar) and keep the rest of my characters on Lucan since things are picking up slightly. I have some friends in Marauders who are working for me to try to join the guild (previous posts explain why I’m allowed to raid with them, but not join their guild) and a lot of people think it’s foolishness that I’m not allowed to wear the tag after offering so much to their raids. I still understand though and hopefully things work out. I just want to be able to raid.

Oh, yes. For april fools day.. everyone had enormous heads. /Cutemode has been in game for as long as I can remember, but typically not by default, lol. It was fun to hear everyone’s comments on it. There was also a goblin who would go around rez’ing people who had died. Which actually proved to be more of an annoyance then anything else because he will spam your screen even when you are not dead. In the Chel’Drak raid it was also very deadly if people choose his rez vs. the revive option. It would summon the entire raid into his room and wipe us all (again). I can’t wait until they remove that foolishness. It’s not april fools day any more (speaking of which, my birthday is in two weeks - I feel so old! Even if 26 isn’t that old *grins*)

Stargrace in the Maiden’s Gulch, visiting an old friend

It’s been a while since I’ve needed the Sage of Ages for anything, but last night after the Freethinkers Hideout raid I attended a few friends of the guild I was with asked for help with a MG run (Maiden’s Gulch) so I volunteered to help out. The zone is quite simple, especially when you have two groups of level 70’s mentored down to 48. 48 is the level you would have originally had to do the quest at, and I remember it being pretty tough for T5 at the time. The zone has only one encounter, a group of drakes, a named in there with an elemental dot. Since we were mentored the named was yellow, and dropped a metal chest with a dagger, grats to whomever won that.

The sage himself is located at the back of the tiny zone, hailing him presents you with the beginning of to speak as a dragon, where he sends you to visit Nagafen down in Sol. Eye. Of course Nagafen won’t speak to you, as the kind giant standing beside them tells you (and you’ve gotta speak giant as well). So typically off you head to the Sage in Antonica, who then sends you all over Norrath (old world Norrath, none of the new zones) to collect 20 runes. Completing this quest not only allows you to progress the prismatic 1.0 series (if you so wish) but also allows you to speak draconic which is needed for DT access, as well as Claymore (the last quest in SoS, to read the runes on the floor). It’s one quest that’s spanned pretty much every expansion, and one of the few “old world” quests that I hear people doing some what consistently just because it is used in multiple quests. I actually wish more quests were like this. No, I do not enjoy running all over looking for 50 statues in old world zones like the Sword of Destiny chain is having people do, but I do enjoy newer quests that require you to have completed some significant quest in the past. It motivates people to continue doing those quests to begin with.

Before the Sword of Destiny series was released in parts, there was huge speculation that it would require you to have both prismatic 1.0, Godking, and Claymore completed. A lot thought this would be completely unreasonable, but I think it was a pleasant idea. Granted, there’s almost no way for the lore to work out encompassing so many expansions and level ranges, but it was a nice idea to me none the less. I know a lot of people are more pleased to hear that this is not true any how, you don’t need all the previous quests done in order to progress it. In my eyes it’s still nice to have people visiting those rare (and lengthly!) quests from the past. I miss the T5 dragon raids in Feerrott, for the prismatic 1.0 quests, and the one in Antonica, and Fallen Gate. The days of King Drayek raids and the Vision of Vox contested in Permafrost. Ah, things change so much.

Silverstep, on her way to Unrest

First of all, I have to vent. I really hate how a lot of guilds are lately, in their treatment of non-guildies. One issue in specific, would have to be asking / letting someone join on a raid - only to tell them (or not tell them at all) that the raid is actually full, and they’re no longer needed. This is an issue that has happened to not only myself, but a few friends of mine, and not just one isolated incident, with one guild, but at least three, with three separate guilds. Mine typically goes along the lines of standing around waiting for a raid invite, then the raid zones in, uninvited, after being invited along. Which is the same thing that’s happened to a few other TK’ers. One even went so far as to sign up 12th for a raid, and was denied a spot on it. Not because they’re a horrible player, but simply because in the end ‘there was no room’, even if they registered and it was organized ahead of time that they’d be able to go.

I think my largest concern is that the guilds doing this do not even have the curtsey to SAY something to those involved, but leave them standing around watching the raid force zone in. I realize that organizing a raid is a difficult and time consuming thing. I realize running one means you’re constantly heading in ten directions at once, and things can get confusing, but what happened to having a little bit of humanity and taking some consideration for those who are dedicating their time (and efforts) to help out on said raids? It frustrates me to no end. I’m a good raider, and a good player. I’m not the best, there’s always better out there, but I’m adaptable and know my stuff. I wish I didn’t have to prove that to every single person out there and was given the benefit of the doubt. Anyhow, enough of that rant.

The game update 33 went in yesterday, and I absolutely love what they’ve done to macros. I don’t use a whole lot of them, but I do have macros for divine arbitration on the templar, as well as her sanctuary spell. In the past, these macros have never shown what the recast on the spell was, since you choose a separate icon to display it. Which meant that some where on another hotbar, I’d have to stick sanctuary and DA just so that I could watch the recast timer and know when it would be back up. Annoying, to say the least. I also have macros for my mez’s, depending on the situation. I don’t want to spam my groups with macros obviously. My +168 temporary int buff is also on a macro, as well as Savante, a 52 illusionist rare that reduces mana consumption by 56% for a limited amount of time. I’ll certainly be playing with the functions as time goes on and figuring out the best macro methods for me.

The next sword of destiny quest was also released. Not looking forward to that, I haven’t even completed the first two yet. Slacker, I know. I’ve had a lot on my plate lately both in game and out, so I’m moving a little slower. I finally got around to making food and drink, but other then that have not crafted. Transmuting I worked on slightly, but not a lot. My other smaller crafters have been fairly neglected, but I’m sure I’ll pick it back up. Still not much word yet on the incoming server transfers. I haven’t made up my mind yet about where to go (or whether to just stay). Yesterday morning was fun, just before servers came down I heard that the unicorn (level 60 epicx2) who paths around the Obelisk in LesserFaydark, was up. I poked a friend of mine and asked him if he wanted to duo it with me boxing the illusionist / fury. With only 15 minutes until down time it was a little pressed, but down she went (is the unicorn even a she? I’m not sure.. how do you check that?) and dropped a master chest. I was hoping for the cloak, but instead got a dagger which was of course no trade. I would have ran my assassin down to pick it up, except servers were about to go down in four minutes, so I rolled and won it, and transmuted it. I did get the rare mana component out of it so I suppose that’s better then nothing, but it would have been a pretty upgrade for the assassin (if I ever level her).

Tinkering supplies have been cut in half. I love it. There are also new tinkered adornments out there, mob drop recipes only, I haven’t seen one yet, I’d imagine they’re very expensive. Much like everything these days. With a lack of crafting and farming in general, my funds are slowly dwindling. Oh well, not as if there is that much for me to purchase out there anyhow.

The Entrance to Freethinkers Hideout

This weekend was a mixture of raids, instances, quests, and various other pleasures of EQII. I raided yesterday again, nice calm raids that are always a lot of fun, Lyceum and Labs. Both went flawlessly. Before raids, I was trying to get the tunare orb quest completed that both Dasie (the templar) and Stargrace (the illusionist) have. The quest however is a lot longer then I recall it being. I did get the obelisk portion done though, I had wanted to complete it before raids and that didn’t end up working out, but I did get a few steps done, progress is progress after all. The illusionist also managed to get to 96 aa’s between working that quest, and then later (much later) that night, doing an unrest group. She’d never been before, I’ve only ever gone with the templar, so it was a pretty fun experience.

Died twice, both in the same hallway due to buggy mobs that pull through the walls. It doesn’t seem to matter what MMO I play, that’s always an issue. Well, died to Bugaboo as well at the end, but I was not expecting anything less - although - I did hit him for 400 points of damage. Before he hit me, for 13,000. Not fair! The loots were pretty lame too, the plasma wand (which I have yet to see) of course did not drop, nor did the fabled cloak at the end, and both the set pieces of gear were shadowknight pieces. Which, was of course great for the main tank, and eww for the rest of us (side note, the shadowknight / paladin legendary pieces are silver, which is just girlie! Haha. Poor shadowknights). Still a fun run though. I was on vent for the group and basically just played it as background noise, concentrating on dps performance. Speaking of which, illusionists are wonderful dps and don’t ever let anyone say other wise. On the KoS raids I parse typically anywhere from 1,000-1,600 and on some named fights parse 1,800 if they’re the ones who are melee resistant. It’s all about the procs. There’s pleanty of proc gear out there that I don’t have, but in the mean time the pieces I do have work nicely. I love my dps group, it’s a fury (int buffs, vim etc and wonderfully fast group heals), a wizard (again, their group proc spell rocks) a troubador (who is just amazing in a mage group), a brigand so that I can dps buff them with my buffs, and typically either a summoner class of some sort (necro or conj) or a second wizard depending on who is available.

Game Update 33 goes in this Wednesday. Which means I should idealistically finish off the Sword of Destiny quest series (the pieces that have been released) so that I’m up to date and not rushing with a bunch of other people to complete it. Whether or not I’ll actually get around to it, I’m not sure yet. I have been trying to work on claymore for the illusionist, she’s on the last quest in SoS. The templar…. still has not started. Sighs. I’m not looking forward to it. The illusionist could actually get by very well not even doing the quest, the end reward is not that great for mages, but the templar could use it for sure. It’s one of those must-haves for healers.

Crafting has been slow, but I’m looking to pick it up a bit. I need 5 levels on both the woodworker and the sage. Nice quiet afternoon projects to do between house work and the other mundane tasks of every day life.

Aww, what a cute couple…

Headed off to Castle Mistmoore last night with a pick up group none the less. Something almost unheard of by me, I hate PuG’s, and that zone is awful for them. I had done Freethinkers about 30 minutes earlier though, and was not quite in the mood to call it a night yet. I’m glad I decided to go. Since TK has fallen (for the most part) I’ve been trying to get a feel for other groups and guilds, trying to find a new home. It’s always nice to actually get out there and play in order to do that. The two groups consisted of a few banished, myself and Ymirr from TK, and some random folks (such as Zepp pictured above). The zone typically lags people. We had a bard who kept going LD on us, and adds, always lots of adds. Typically people would lag into them (For once, I have absolutely zero lag in this zone since I’ve gotten the new computer, I adore it) and before you know it, there are 10 more adds. The epics in the zone also hurt, in fact, they hurt bad. We had no shaman, which would have made a world of difference. I’m leveling mine up, the defiler that is. There seems to be a small demand for them and I’ve never played one end game, only the templar and the fury.

Freethinkers was fun. There are ‘tricks’ to the zone that are getting fixed shortly with the tinkered mem-wipe item. A lot of legendary dropped, upgrades and even nicer then some fabled. Go figure. Parsed fairly low since I was on mem-wipe patrol and there were timers going off and all the rest. Still managed around 1,000-1,200 though. Trying to make a few adornments to help out. The fury has been neglected since it seems the entire server went off and created them. I use her to port the illusionist around, and other then that.. not much else.

Hopefully I can wiggle my way into a few more raids. I haven’t gotten a stitch of gear as upgrades, but it’s not that much of an issue for me. When I’m playing the templar I’m a little more aware of my lack of gear due to the simple fact that she’s wearing T7 legendary and T6 fabled. Gear does NOT make the player though, I am a firm believer in that. I’ll take a templar MT healer who’s paying attention over a fully fabled one who couldn’t find their heal button if it was stapled to their ass any day. Trust me, there are a lot of those out there just because templars have a pure HP buff, Sanctuary, and other “pretties” that make them desirable in a MT group.

Despite paying almost 50g in repair bills, yesterday was fun.