There’s a reason I call myself the Nomadic Gamer. Chances are at any one time I’m subscribed to at least two games. Typically more. I bounce from game to game depending on my whims and I rarely stay settled in a game for longer then a month. I realize this is an incredibly frustrating method to play – especially for my dear friends who have had to put up with my play style for far longer then anyone should have to tolerate it. It’s also the way I’ve always played, ever since EQ2 came out (EQ1 being the only game I actually stuck with on its own). I blame this on a combination of things. The need to constantly be multi tasking, and the blunt fact that since playing video games (and writing about them) is my day time job, the more games I play the more insight I have and the more articles I can write and then (eventually) the more money I make.

Still, it’s not easy. Especially for those good friends who like to game WITH me. If you’re not used to this life style then I can see how it would be incredibly frustrating. I keep waiting for that single game that will pull me in and make me forget about all others, but it simply hasn’t happened. I want to apologize to those friends who are unable to understand why I play this way, or who are hurt by the fact that I may be there one week and not the next. I always return to a few ‘main’ games (EQ2, VG, WoW, EVE, EQ, W101, LotRO), but I hardly expect everyone I know to jump around from game to game with me. All I can ask is that they have some patience with me. There are other methods of contacting me if I don’t happen to be playing a particular game that month (you can find me on various forms of IM as well as twitter and email) and I’m never that out of reach.

I’ve tried to stop apologizing for my gaming habits. I’m pretty up front and anyone who has read this site (or my sister site, nomadicgamer.com) realizes that this is just how I happen to spend my time in game. It’s one of the things I love about knowing so many people who play video games – we don’t all play the same way. I’ve always cherished my friendships and been proud of the fact that they transcend any video game out there, that a true friendship won’t be lost based on the games I’m playing (or not playing) but lately it feels like perhaps that is not the case. Online friendships are fragile things, and it’s all to easy to go the rout of “out of sight out of mind”.

Anyhow, sorry for the ranting today but it was something I wanted to talk about. Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.

While I didn’t spend a great deal of time in Vanguard this weekend, I did manage to ding 31 on the shaman by working on quests in both Cragwind and Wardship of the Sleeping Moon. It was nice to get out of Qalia. Not that I mind the desert sand but I was starting to get a little tired of it and wanted a change of scenery. That’s another great thing about Telon, you have three continents to choose from, so any time you’re bored of one chances are you can find a quest hub (minus Kojan) on the opposite one and do some questing there.

It was a nice relaxed time, and I’m looking forward to making my way through the 30′s and then FINALLY hitting the 40′s once more. So far leveling has been fairly painless, a few slow spots here and there but nothing really earth shattering.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, I’ll see you in Telon!

Ah. The joys of having bags that are constantly filled with crafter supplies. This weekend I haven’t played a lot of Vanguard. Number one, I don’t want to burn out, and number two I’ve been involved in some pretty hefty real life crafting / adventuring lately which pulls me away (gasp) from the PC. If you thought this would be a post about Vanguard, well. You’ll just have to wait for tomorrow’s post instead.

I’ve been taking screen shots in games for as long as I can remember. I have literally thousands of screen shots stashed in various folders all over my computer. Since I can’t exactly hit a ‘print screen’ button in real life I’m typically dragging around my Olympus E410 with me which is an amazing camera that I got a few years ago as a Christmas present. I currently own three lens for it, including a 300mm zoom and a macro lens. Essentials for my ‘hobby’ as a photographer. This week there was not only the aurora borealis going on, but also a meteor shower. While I’ve always had a keen interest on all things sky (and sea) related, this heightened to an extreme that I could no longer ignore.

I decided after doing a lot of research that I want to get into astrophotography. I learned a few things. Number one: WOW is it an expensive hobby to get into. It’s also a LOT of fun, and a LOT of work. I wanted a telescope, and learned that in order to take semi decent pictures of the sky I would want one that has computerized tracking. That is so you can lock onto an object (or at least a section) in space and track it through the sky so that your camera doesn’t blur the image. In order to get good pictures of stars for example, you need to leave your cameras shutter open, allowing more light into it. If the sky is moving, the stars smudge. I’ll need a remote for my camera so that me holding down the shutter doesn’t blur things further. Also, I want a t-ring, these are camera specific, and allow you to attach your DSLR to a telescope using it as the actual lens of the camera. Sure, you can find items that will “hold” your camera up to the telescope, but these are not exactly ideal.

Telescopes are really expensive. Computerized ones even more. I found a Celestron NexStar 60 SLT Telescope for roughly $200 (Regular $500) and decided I was going to invest in it. The reviews are alright – apparently if I get really into this hobby I’m going to want to upgrade the lens, which is simple enough to do. This telescope is not the best out there by any means but the price was right and it does have computerized tracking. I should be able to get incredibly detailed shots of the moon, Saturn and it’s rings, Jupiter and other stuff. I won’t be seeing any nebula any time soon, but that doesn’t always have to be the case.

I am *incredibly* excited. Obviously, since I’m posting about it here on MmoQuests and I’ve done nothing but talk about telescopes for the last three days. Gaming is great, and the people I meet in games are fantastic, but when it comes right down to it it’s a combination of hobbies and interests that makes life so fantastic.

I hope everyone has had an amazing weekend! Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself – and I’ll see you in Telon.

The shaman managed to reach level 30 last night, after some very painful adventuring in River Valley. There is a significant lack of content from 25-30 or so, and I was incredibly happy to have hit this level. Now more quest areas open up, and some pretty neat quest chains. I was hoping we’d have another double experience weekend but so far that looks like it won’t be happening – at least not this weekend.Ah well, I’ll just have to level the ‘regular’ way!

I spent some time working on my harvesting skills which are far behind where they should be. That’s the only downside with my leveling, I’ve neglected other things like diplomacy and crafting. Not THAT big of a deal but a minor annoyance. I’m enjoying the shaman quite a bit although I also noticed there are a LOT of them in game, and I’m not quite sure why. Every zone I go to typically has a larger amount of shaman then any other class. When I reach the levels that my other characters are currently sitting at (47 for the blood mage for example) I may switch over. We’ll just have to see.

In the mean time, I expect a pretty fun weekend gaming. I have some regular chores to take care of but other then that it should be uneventful. Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, and I’ll see you in Telon!

Since a lot of players are reluctant to spend any time reading through quests these days, it’s rare that we come across one that causes us to pause and go ‘woah, wait a second.’ – but there’s a few quests in Vanguard I’ve found that do just that. Pictured above is Velours, my innocent shaman. Well, she used to be innocent. See that rather shady looking peasant standing behind her? That is a dazed (and crazed) farmer. She lured him out of a field (filled with other farmers, and a few demon like creatures) and she’s taking him over to that innocent looking windmill up ahead. No doubt she promised him some better pants (his are quite obviously in rags) and maybe the chance to see his long lost relatives. Either way, the farmer didn’t put up any resistance at all.

Here we are inside of the windmill. See those chunks of meat on the ground? Yep. That’s our farmer. Not only did ‘innocent’ Velours have to lure the farmer to this windmill, but she had to hack him into four large pieces, and then stuff those pieces in the grinder that you see off to the left. Now, maybe you could excuse hacking up just one farmer. But no. I had to do this three times. Once I did it a third time, I had to gather all of the evidence inside that grinder (ew) and place it in a barrel (off to the right) so that I wouldn’t be caught.

Now of course there was a back story to this quest. I’m not evil after all but apparently the farmers were. I was saving a town by doing this (or so I was told) – and had to hide the evidence because of COURSE the towns people are not going to approve of this method of disposal. Why could I not just be rid of them the ‘regular’ way? Not sure, something about possessed minions and they’d probably just come back to life or some such.

This is a quest that I will not ever forget. It wasn’t particularly news worthy in the NPC dialog, but the actions of the quest were just so bizarre and so out there and weird compared to the usual “Kill X of Y creatures” and “Collect 10″ quests that I had been doing, that it made me stop and just crack up laughing (I never claimed that I was sane).

I doubt I’m the only person who has ever had this experience, and I doubt this is the only quest that has ever elicited that result. Are there any unforgettable quests that you’ve completed over your gaming life time? Let me know in comments!

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself – I’ll see you in Telon!

Boats are an amazing part of Vanguard, and even if you don’t plan on using one, simply owning one is a sign of prestige. There are three types of ships in game, sloops (the smallest) caravels (pictured above) and galleons (massive gigantic ships). Each one can perform a different role, as in they can each wade out into the open waters at a different depth. They’re great for fishing off of and simply having fun. Yesterday happened to be a guild mates birthday, and so I purchased a caravel for them as a gift. The screen shot above is us headed to a quest destination which happened to be on an island off of the northern point in Qalia. It was a great little ride, and I’m glad he likes the gift. Ships remind me a lot of housing in Vanguard, they’re not instanced, and if you leave your boat some place others can see it and until you remove it it’s a physical item in the real world. To me that’s a key selling point in Vanguard.

The shaman hit 28! Part way through to 29. I wasn’t expecting to level last night as I spent the majority of my time working on grey hunter’s league quests for the bp and leg upgrades. Level I did though. I attempted to gather masks for the final weapon quest (which is a 2h weapon for shaman – never used a 2h before and I’m not sure if I want to start now) but it took forever and before I knew it my eyes were closing and it was time for bed.

On the plus side I’m almost into the next ‘tier’ of quests, and I’m excited about visiting some new areas to level up in. Hopefully Kanad solves his problems crashing and our guild meets up this weekend for some more adventures. I’m also hoping we see another bonus xp weekend – although that’s just me being selfish as we’ve had a few now and I shouldn’t expect them. It’s just so much easier to level when you’re earning 2x the experience. Especially for crafting and diplomacy.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself – I’ll see you in Telon!

As I mentioned previously, there is a small lack of content between levels 25-30 or so. Trengal Keep, CIS, and Hunter’s League are the three suggestions, and I haven’t found too much else for these levels (although there is also the unicorn and shadow hound mount). With the bonus experience over I was a little worried about how long leveling would take – I didn’t have anything to worry about. Last night Hampooj (Dread Knight) and myself as Velours (Shaman) headed to Trengal Keep to progress the chain there. After an evening of slowly making our way through the ruins, I managed to ding 27 and part way through, and Hampooj found himself at 28 (new spells, woot). As a shaman, starting at level 15 we have a choice of three patrons. One is a bear, the other a wolf, and the final one a phoenix. I had been using the bear form (pictured above, don’t I make a wonderful panda) for quite some time. It is a ‘tank’ patron, giving me a boost to mitigation and the like. It also focuses on some melee skills, and dps group buffs. I decided due to the smaller group make up that Nomadic Gamer usually runs with (it’s typically Hampooj, myself, and Kanad who plays a wolf shaman) it would probably be beneficial to go down the ‘healer’ line, which boosts things like regen. Since our groups are three people, they typically take a little while to kill encounters, and regen is really nice.

The down side to choosing the phoenix line is that it puts me in a constant state of levitation. If you’ve ever dealt with lev in VG you know how annoying that can be, because not only are you levitating, but you act as though you are constantly walking on ice, skidding to and from every step you take. I thought perhaps my panther illusion would negate this, but instead I just turned into a floating panther. Ah well.

I’m eager to get to 30 and have more zones open up. Some of my favorite quest chains are in those level ranges, and it’s only a hop skip jump away from level 40+ and from there 50+. Then of course there’s crafting and diplomacy to raise – and the alts.Pretty sure I’ll focus on crafting first.

I’ve really been having a great time exploring Vanguard again, and I can’t wait to see what area I’ll be off to next. Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, and I’ll see you in Telon!

Another bonus experience weekend tucked away, and my shaman is sitting at level 26. I helped Hampooj obtain his Hunter’s League leggings, and then debated with myself over whether I want to begin the shadow hound mount quest, or the unicorn one – or bother with either of them. In the end I relogged over to my weaponsmith and created a bunch of pretty new harvesting tools to put on the broker as well as some weapons that I hope to upgrade one day. I really love crafting in Vanguard, it’s so rewarding.

There is a little lack of content at this level I’m finding. Well, solo content in any case. The only zones I’ve been directed to as far as leveling (via the Rift Keeper who offers those xp bonus pies) is Trengals Keep (which the quests quickly turn into group quests) and the point in Qalia where you work on the majority of hunter’s league, which is also mostly a group effort. That’s not to say that there isn’t solo content at these levels, there is, but it’s a lot less then you would find at the earlier levels.

Sadly, the lag spurts that servers experienced shortly after the merge are back ever since the patch yesterday morning. I’m not sure what happened, but a bunch of zones were down for the majority of the day, and every 5 minutes or so zones are hit with a few seconds of lag. It made adventuring difficult, and I can only hope that the issue goes back to being solved some time soon. If you’re not enjoying the game due to this lag I implore you to simply hang in there because that is not typically how vanguard runs.

Since New Targonar was down for most of yesterday and that’s where the majority of my characters happened to log out, I worked on my baby ranger. Qutey Patootie, the goblin ranger to be exact. She managed to reach level 10 on the isle of dawn, where I promptly gave up trying to get a temple group and left as soon as I could. Whether or not I will actually play the character past level 10 I haven’t decided yet.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, I’ll see you in Telon!

I didn’t take advantage of the double experience as much as I wanted to, but I still got a bit done. Some craft levels, diplomacy levels, and adventure levels were all in the mix. One thing I wanted to work on that I’ve never actually completed before was an illusion mask. It’s a solo quest that you can pick up at level 24. You can find the walk through for it at VGwalkthroughs. The quest is quite simple and even more so now that factions move by 3x what they typically move by. Imirial the seducer (pictured above – the lady with the nice breasts) won’t speak with you until you have 12000 faction with her people. In order to get this faction you need to kill miners in a cave just before her. Now, typically the miners (and the cave) would turn KoS to you which is the real hassle of this quest. However since factions have been changed a few months back (and not changed back as of yet) by the time you reach the faction needed, the miners are NOT KoS to you.

It worked out fantastic. The quest is simple. Kill in the caves until you earn the faction required, and then pick up the quest. There’s two portions, one requires you to kill 20 mobs (low and behold they are the same ones that you’ve already been killing) and then kill 4 enforcers who also reside in the caves. Once those two quests are completed, you’ve finished your illusion mask! Oh yes, except for one more small detail. Although the quest is level 24 to obtain the mobs within the cave are level 27-28. Now, they are two dot (solo) mobs, so they CAN be defeated without too much trouble but be careful because there’s a good chance you’ll be pulling multiples.

The mask was a huge upgrade for my shaman, and I also managed to ding level 25 on completion. The bonus experience is over today and log in servers are down for maintenance, but I’m excited about what comes next. It’s hard to believe that I’m already level 25, even in a brotherhood with three other members. Having weekend bonus experience has been a huge bonus. On Saturday Nomadic Gamers headed to Trengal Keep and completed the first of six quests. Aside from one wipe when a dragon popped out of no where to pay us a visit it went fairly well, and we had a lot of fun. We need a few more levels before continuing on, but I’m looking forward to it. You may hear people in channels looking for TK1 or TK6 – that’s the Trengal Keep chain. I’ve never actually completed it before, so I don’t have the faintest idea what the rewards are, but so far I’ve gotten a pretty nice hat.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in Telon!