Growlius and I had picked up about 20 quests in Cragwind the day before, and before turning a single one in- we completed them all. I was close to 34 (and new spells) so I dinged easily enough from kills. 10% into my level (and he his) and we were finished all of the quests. So. Now came the decision. Use a 50% exp potion? Or 100%. I thought about saving them for crafting (I’m 45 now) but I don’t really need them. Aside from sigils, I have no new recipes coming to me for 45+ so it doesn’t matter if I level a little slower. I couldn’t pass by an opportunity like this.

We turned in all our quests and low and behold, went from 10% exp, to 95% exp.

Wow. Nice.

The great thing was that almost every single quest we compelted opened up to yet another quest, so our journal is filled again. I imagine tonight we’ll do the same thing. Complete them all (the potion has a 5h in game timer anyhow) and then turn them all in one lump sum to get the levels we need. So I’m now sitting at level 35 (cheers) as is Growlius. Kalaso has been doing some crazy leveling as well, in fact he stayed up all night last night and managed to get level 36. He just created his paladin two weeks ago, so that’s some fairly hefty leveling. Granted, he’s already got a level 50 ranger, and a 32 bard, so I can hardly fault him, he knows exactly where to go to get the levels.

In the screen shot you can see I haven’t turned off those obnoxious dots above the mobs heads yet. I’m slowly getting used to them. I still don’t know why the named need to be ALL IN CAPS though, honestly, if you can’t tell whether or not something is named you may want to switch games. I made bricks to put for sale, as well as a few jewelry pieces. I want to get enough sigils to upgrade stone weapons as well as expendables, as I hear there’s a pretty nice market for those. The crafting npc are still not fixed so as of yet I can’t switch Arysh over to a weapon smith, but I intend on leveling her and the leather worker still.

Borgio and the Mrs. were in game today, eating up the levels. Mayadhros has been slowly sneaking up as well, always great to see. Today is a holiday in Canada (Good Friday) so a few people that I know are home. I haven’t decided if I’m going to level up my bard or her crafting yet. Either way, safe travels whatever realm you find yourself in today!

Vanguard is finally down for patching today, where they’re removing Randolph’s ability to fly (pouts) and I believe also reducing the bonus exp they had running during the holidays (double pouts). I’ve come to the conclusion that Vanguard is one of those games where you want to focus on one character at a time - if you plan on working all of the spheres. Other wise, you just end up standing at the same level on all three (or more) characters for far too long. So after some contemplating, I’ve decided to (mostly) stick it out with the blood mage. She’s getting re-geared (slowly) as I do gray quests in the mean time. Who wants to play a character that’s got no gear after all. I switched her crafting around from tailor (which would only be able to make bags and light armor - not useful to all of my characters) to artificing, so that I could make things for all of my characters. I also switched to lumberjack as a harvest and quarrying so I can get some gems.

I spent 30 minutes killing stone golem guys around the Three Rivers area yesterday in Thestra, and managed to harvest FOUR rare T2 gems, which was great. I already had one on me, so I can (eventually) make some pretties with them. I’m only level 12 at the moment, so I find everything difficult to make pristine.  I’ll just do those work orders and try to get a few more levels before I want to risk using my rares.  I’m also working on some crafting quests, or trying to at least. I need better gear, I don’t quite understand the whole.. where to put my points thing, and the other tab that lets you lock some skills and decrease / increase others is a bit muddled to me as well. I’ve read the crafting forums but I haven’t made much sense of it yet. I have decreased carpentry since that’s not the line I’ve chosen to go down, and I know that will move my points around for me. I know my ’shaping’ skill is hurting me right now, but the Kojan market has absolutely nothing for sale, so I’ll have to check out the other continents and see what I can find. I’ve been working on a crafting quest for Tush that gives me two tools and two pieces of orange gear, so I’m excited about that. I need to look up the quests again and see some other fairly simple crafting quests I can do to earn some gear and tools. I know you can get them with the work orders too, but mine have not been rewarding very many useful items like gear (even though I make sure to get B-A quality on them all, I do dark blues).

I did more of the URT (United Races of Thestra) quests yesterday, getting Satia her shoes and shoulders - the gear is level 18 and she’s level 23, but it’s far superior to what I was wearing. I have the pants quest still on me, and I believe I am missing a few. Or maybe they get unlocked as I work them, I’m not certain. I know there is also a level 18-20 set of gear in Qualia that I can quest for, called hunter’s gear I believe? I’ll have to look into that as well. It probably requires a group for most of it or something. Then there’s also these quests that I see people LFG for all the time, called “TK” which I’ve asked the guild about a little. Looks fun. So I’m going to stick it out with the healer (even though there’s a need for tanks as well) and see where I go with her. In the mean time, safe travels, hope everyone else is having a blast too.

If you’re looking for a miracle in the way that Vanguard has progressed, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. I spent most of yesterday playing (and attempting to play) - and while there has been buckets of progress, well. It’s still far away from being even reasonably acceptable (in my opinion). I had one hard crash to desktop as I flew Randolph around Telon, which was far better then the typical crashes I had when Vanguard released. So. Here’s what I noticed - and please remember, Vanguard is experiencing a heavier amount of traffic with all of the new players returning to check things out, and they also just implemented a patch that broke a lot of stuff (which is what today’s patch of 6 hours is supposed to fix).

1. Graphics. Yes, it does run slightly smoother on my machine, but I still hitch, still lag, I still have graphic glitches. I still have to /flush and /flush all. Yesterday trees (small shrub height) refused to render their branches and just looked like twigs. Tips and pop ups would be a mesh of graphic goo and I’d be unable to read them until I flushed. My character’s armor had a huge hole in the back of her shirt every time she ran. Just little stuff like that. As far as computers go, I know I don’t have the best top of the line, I run a intel core 2 cpu 6400 with 2.1GHz, 2 gigs of ram, and I have a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT, I play at 1680 x 1050. Now, I don’t actually know what any of that means because I’m honestly not a computer person. I just know how to run directX diagnostic tools.

2. Quests. I’m not sure if it’s server lag, or the npc’s are not responding to me or what, but twice yesterday I had to delete and go get newbie quests because the npc’s were unresponsive when I tried to turn them in / progress them. That’s a new one for me, I’ve never had npc’s just not update my quest when I spoke to them.

I’m of course going to continue playing. I do enjoy the game, despite the flaws it still has. Why? Well, because right now it’s free. I’m not sinking any money into it, just spare time that I’d have no matter what. I don’t mind sending off bug reports or trying out things in the mean time. I still think the game is by far one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen. I still enjoy the “hardness” of it. I love the spheres of adventuring / crafting / diplomacy. I think it’s wonderful in all those regards. I still don’t think it will ever cater to a huge crowd of players (there are only four servers right now) but I do think they can tap into a niche of players and keep them playing.

3. Customer service. They’re under staffed right now, which is why things are moving slow — but. SoE’s customer service has always been very good to me, and in Vanguard it’s no different. Before I left the game previously, I deleted my level 23 blood mage. I petitioned early yesterday to see about getting her returned to me, and a TSR responded and said it would take some time, but that they’d to it. I was grateful of course. The problem is, once she was returned, it’s as though she’s not really there. She can’t petition herself. She can’t send mail. She can’t add anyone to her friends list, nor can anyone add her. Slightly annoying. So I relogged over to another character to send off another petition. It took roughly 12 hours to have the first one answered. I know they’re experiencing a lot of traffic though, and they’re still helpful.

So if you’ve got the free month active, why not install it and give things a whirl anyhow. I’m playing on the Seradon server, and actually bumped (almost literally) into MrrX who was giving things a second glance as well. He was asking how to take screen shots and I replied in a tell (not knowing it was him). Talk about a small world. I have the utmost respect for those players who’ve stuck through with VG through all of it’s bugs and issues for the past year. Here’s hoping a few more people are swayed that way. Even if it’s just to get station access and peek in every so often.

Since the game is down for 6 hours today, I’ll post tomorrow about more experiences. Hopefully this patch will fix my blood mage, and whatever else they broke.

Level 23, Satia staring at.. well.. what IS that?

My blood mage finally hit 23 last night, and I’ve got another small complaint (of course I do!) about Vanguard, but it’s something a lot of people probably like about the game. There’s no real indication of where you should go to leve. Especially coming from other continents. So while I finished almost all of the quests between Misthaven’s Crossing and Stormwynd and Ulla’s Tower and that general area, I have no idea where to head to next, the quests don’t send me anywhere else. I’ve done the vampire slayer quests and if I continue randomly to the next marked outpost on my map, the area is crawling with level 27-28-29 mobs, which are a little bit out of my league right now.

Moving to another continent provides me with the same issue, no idea where I should be. So I’ve been using the /who all command to figure out where a good area may be to level up. /Who all 19 25 for example. The majority of people were in the areas that I’d already been to. Small wonder. Then there’s the groups who are constantly working on the Infineum chain, those who are working on the Tsang weapons, there’s the Hilsbury Manor area, and numerous other dungeon type places. This game really is centered around having a static group (or at least a bunch of willing people to group with) so if you’re used to solo’ing (like I am) after the 14-15 level range, you’ll find it difficult to get much accomplished. Now, that’s not always a bad thing, this is an MMO after all, why play it just to spend time alone. But anything that requires a group also typically takes a lot of time to finish as well. So if you don’t quite have the hours of game play you need, or are simply in one of those moods where you’d rather be alone, then the game at times could seem a little stale for you.

I did splurge and finally buy myself a blue dress (in skill range, not in colour) last night, the green one was looking a little rough around the edges. I also found a neck piece upgrade, and a new belt, and new gloves. It’s interesting playing a blood mage, I typically try to balance out my + spell damage focus gear, with my + healing focus gear. It’s typically better for me to have + healing on, because when I’m in my dps stance, my spells already do 25% more, add some sizeable heals to that, and I’m pretty set. I can’t typically play in DPS mode in a group though. Every 5 seconds my health drops by 5% to give me blood points. It means I’m constantly healing not only myself, but whomever is tanking (or ganking). Though I can siphon health away from mobs quite nicely, it still means I’m using power to heal two people instead of just one, and with only one group heal that requires a lot of power to cast, it’s not exactly the best way to conserve energy.

Also got to uh, level 6 outfitter. Yes, I know, slacking big time. But I was an outfitter, then switched to artificer, then switched back to outfitter. With the double exp weekend in, I haven’t crafted hardly at all. Plus we all know how much of a grind crafting is (in pretty much every MMO I know, except WoW where it’s as easy as clicking one button for instant no-fail combines so long as you have the required materials). Hoping to work that a little bit more, and perhaps find my way to 24. We’ll see how it goes.

Elissa, doing some Jin trials and falling through the air

Ok, I tried to play the goblin and it just didn’t work out for me. Why? Because I am one of those people who just don’t want to be a green little kid looking creature with a giant man face. Yes, there, I said it. In game looks matter to me. I’m going to be playing for hours possibly, and staring at that character was just very uninspiring. So I remade my rogue, and yes, I know, Kojan again?! A few reasons for this though. A good deal of my friends are playing Kojans, and I really like the starter zone and Tanvu. I also like their racial ability. In a few short hours I’d reached level 8 with Elissa, the new rogue. Mailed her the money I had stashed on the old rogue. I really like the class. I worked diplomacy to a skill of 40 (just enough to be able to do the free mount quest once I hit level 10) and called it a night. I figure I’ll switch out between the rogue, the necromancer, and the blood mage, depending on my moods. I have a warrior that I’ve been mailing plate gear to over time, I haven’t logged her in at all though.

Learned that archery is a hard skill to increase, especially as a rogue. Why would I even bother? Well one of my beginner quests gave me a bow, and while I may not be a ranger (and may instead end up poking out some poor blokes eye) I figured I’d give it a try. Bows don’t auto-attack for you (that I saw at least) so that’s slightly annoying, it was like a combo move that I had to hit every time it refreshed. Managed to find myself about 9 things of pocket lint. I’m working on a sweater I think for the upcoming cold winter.

Learned a new helpful hint when you get stuck some place (as long as you’re in a group). The /rope command saves you from having to use the /stuck yes command (which ports you, typically to the nearest altar or binding stone). Just have your group mate target you and use it, it’ll pull you to them, and free you from whatever plant/tree/bush/rock/outcropping you managed to land yourself in. I imagine there are all sorts of handy hints and tips out there on commands in game that I don’t even know about at all. I remember EQ1 being like that, since they also had the /corpse command, /corpse drag, etc. EQ2 didn’t have any of these short cuts.

Two more important commands for me to remember were /autojoin set and then the channel name, regionsay. For some reason when I joined a channel my EQ2 guild set up on Vanguard, I didn’t remember to autojoin the region channel any more, so I was just in that channel, and wondered for a few days why it was so utterly quiet. Turns out it’s not very quiet at all, /autojoin regionsay, randomchannelhere and you’re set.

Also found a nice site for some VGSoH UI’s, there is of course VGinterface.com, but there is also Vgsohinterface.com - which has a nice selection. I started off by using Drox, it’s one of the most commonly used UI’s mainly because it’s been around the longest. I recently switched over to Grim though. You can find it under the complete sets category. A UI is important to me, makes me feel like I’m playing a game without the crappy WoW screen. Plus I like to see my stats and my coin actually on the screen with me instead of tucked away in my character screen.

Noticed Vanguard doesn’t have any place to let you write a personal bio about yourself. Neither does WoW. So it makes the Rp server slightly lacking. In fact, I’ve rarely come across anyone who Rp’s at all. I figure give it a few months when people are not quite so preoccupied with leveling and crafting, and then we’ll find ourselves some Rp. Though in the regionsay channel yesterday some people were selling the first sloops on the market (small ships), 15g and you get to pick the colours. An entire guild built dedicated to harvesting the materials for these ships. Sounds interesting to say the least.

Isn’t she a little Qutey?

I finally managed to grind my necromancer to 10. It was.. not fun. I really was not enjoying the dark elf starter city at all. So I decided I’d start a few more classes and find the one that stood out to me. Granted, maybe I’m just not the sort of person who ever has that happen. In WoW (as you can see by the character sheets listed under quick links) I had an abundance of characters, same with EQ2. So why would Vanguard be any different — even if I was trying to change my alt-ness ways. I made a druid and quickly grew bored of her, fun, but it was just like playing any other nuker. It was very different to be wearing cloth as a druid instead of leather, and to be nuking instead of healing. Almost every game I’ve played has the druid as a healer. The unique take on this was fun. I’ll probably pick that character up again once I’m bored of my latest trial.

Meet Qutey Patootie, above. A goblish rogue who skulks around stabbing at things. Sneak and hide remind me very very much of my rogue back in EQ1, where you had to work the skills up or you were detected. There’s a few small bugs. Number one being — when you are sneaking and hiding, there is no real indication as to whether or not the mobs actually see you. Their names remain red, agro to you. When you sneak a little closer to them — if they have the chance to see you (especially if you come up at them from the front) little question marks will fly about their head as though they’ve heard something, and they will look directly at you, or if you’re close, they’ll charge you and break your stealth. So there’s some indication. But if you’re just wandering around, they all still look aggressive.

After reading this post on weaknesses and how to exploit them, I found myself teamed up with a monk. Low and behold, monks have a move that I can exploit with one of my level 2 skills. That was fun. I did notice one other small bug, as I was fighting, on a random encounter it said I had done a legendary attack.. and at level 5 — which was astounding to me — I hit the mob for 700 damage roughly at first, and then finished it off for another 600 damage.. at level 5?! That just did not seem right to me, I couldn’t understand it. Not that I was about to complain!

The goblin starter city is a lot of fun. The quests there pay far more then the ones in any other starting zone I’ve been to paid. Maybe to entice those who find the race ugly? I was getting on average 70-80 copper per level 5-6 quest. My necromancer didn’t get paid that amount until level 8-9 quests. So Qutey is sitting comfortably at 6 silver and some change. I’m finding the rogue a lot of fun, and perhaps this will be one of those characters I actually level to some degree. Martok (the starting point) is wide and open, with lots of places to explore, having stealth makes this a whole lot easier. Hopefully as I develop the character some, I’ll get around to writing some rp stories about the gal. We’ll have to see how it goes.