Yesterday actually found us with most of the guild at home – something that has not been happening too often lately, and our lack of instance running has really been noticeable. We’re still doing lots in game though and still talking and hanging out when we can. I always expect things to slow down slightly for the summer months, so it’s nothing too serious, just another blip that I notice.

By early evening we did manage to drag ourselves over to Guk: Halls of the Fallen which happened to be the daily double. I thought that we had done Guk: Lower Corridors but we have not actually been there before, and where we HAD gone, was Halls of the Fallen. This is the instance that requires you to defeat the lord at the end. The last time we had been here it went pretty smoothly and Ultann had grabbed himself the awesome fungus spore charm from the final named. This time around things went even smoother and I left Arysh at home and brought the bard.

Unfortunately the bard didn’t have as much luck as the illusionist did and we didn’t see anything of note at all drop from the instance. The final named dropped a coercer level 80 master which I’ll be saving up for my baby coercer, and also dropped a cloth robe that’s pretty horrible to put it bluntly. Especially when in order to do the instance at all you’d better be sporting T1 or T2 shard gear (which means you have a chest piece already). We were proud that we had finished the zone, but the loots really could have been better for the amount of difficulty in the zone. We also neglected to get the single shard quest from outside the instance, so it was only a three shard run instead of four. Four is still better then none!

Ellithia (my mystic) is 4 shards away from her T2 shoulders which is the final piece she’ll need. I’m exceptionally happy to be finishing off her shard gear finally. Since my 2nd account has three characters who are all in the midst of obtaining T2, it will be a while. I’ve just finally decked them all out in T1, and while I know it’s a slow process since I rarely concentrate on just one character, it’s also nice to see them all get their bits one at a time.

Afterward I had an hour or two to waste and I decided to level up my baby coercer. I miss being able to charm and while yes, this would be my 4th enchanter, my coercer is over on Najena and I don’t want to pay another $50 right away to move her (plus that would require another long distance call to San Diego, and I just did that last week to move the troubador). For now I’ll stick with leveling the baby arasai the old fashioned way.

The transmuter is FINALLY able to break down up to and including level 70 gear, which means I’m officially on T8. My bank has been completely stuffed with items for a little while now that I’ve wanted to transmute and haven’t been able to, and it’s finally starting to dwindle. It will be nice to be able to help the guild out with transmute bits, now we just need a few more crafters to hit 80 and we can make all of our own adornments as well. So far we have the jeweler, tailor and alchemist able to make the T8 adornments, the carpenter, sage, and armorer are not too far behind.

Our little guild of three plus one (I use the term with love, as a nick name, lest anyone think that Kasul is not included in this little guild properly!) is doing amazing. We haven’t managed to find the venekor guild trophy yet, but our hopes are high. Speaking of the hall, we just passed level 45, and we’ve purchased more amenity. A huge thank you to Ultann who spent hours upon hours straight grinding writs in order to get us the levels while the rest of us pretty much slacked, hehe. I have hopes that eventually one day we’ll be able to move into a T2 guild hall, but I haven’t looked into the cost at all yet and I’m not quite sure how a move works – ie: does all of the coin and status we have put into this one carry over or do we start from scratch. Anyone know? I believe it carries over but I’ve yet to confirm it.

In any case, it’s wonderful. One of our best purchases to date has been the shattered lands bell that lets us port to the shattered land zones. These include Antonica, Commonlands, Zek, Enchanted Lands, Feerrott, Nektulos Forest, Thundering Steppes, Everfrost, and Lavastorm. Combine that with our druid portals that we also have and we can reach anywhere with relative ease.

I hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend so far, and it continues to be wonderful! No doubt I’ll be spending the remainder of my Sunday in Norrath now that real life has quieted down some what. It’s nice to have something to blog about!

See you in Norrath!

Another day of ‘not much going on in game’ since I was so busy doing other things on Friday but today should be a good day of gaming. I’ve been meaning to play a little more Sims 3, but haven’t managed to find the time (yet). Soon! I did dip into Wizard 101 for a fair amount yesterday, my Life / Storm wizard hit level 20 and did some awesome battles. I’ve also encountered a few dungeons now – that I can’t beat what so ever. It was still fun! I redeemed my facebook code and earned 1,000 gold which makes me able to afford the smaller house in Wizard City, but I’m thinking of saving up for a home of a different world. I haven’t quite decided yet. My Myth / Death wizard also managed to snag a few levels and is sitting just shy of level 10. I’ve been completing the Wizard City quests with her and she’s obtained some really awesome house items that the higher level wizard missed out on since they came after I’d completed the quests.

In EQ2 I plan on getting a few crafting levels (carpenter hopefully), doing a few instances (the boys should be around I believe, which will be great) and maybe I can finally get that transmuting up to 350+ which will let me begin to transmute T8 gear. Then it’s time for adornments!

What is everyone else up to this weekend? Any good games on the list? Once things have calmed down a little more I should have a little time in LotRO (I have a free month incoming) since that tapered down some. The game is great, but it just feels (to me) exactly like every other fantasy MMO out there, and I’m already playing three of those (EQ, EQ2, VG). I still love the look and love my character, but without an infinite amount of time to be able to play everything I want to play, something has to take a back seat.

Other then that, quiet weekend. Happy gaming and I’ll see you in Norrath!

Yesterday I decided to move my 80 troubador over to Kithicor. It wasn’t exactly spur of the moment, I had been thinking about it for quite some time but when I filled out the typical petition email to transfer I was told that I would have to actually call San Diego in order to initiate the move. On the plus side even though I would have to call long distance, the move would be instant.

I have never had too much difficulty paying the $50 character transfer fee – of course like everyone else I wish it were cheaper (and easier) but gaming (the bits I do for ‘fun’ as opposed to work) factors into an entertainment budget. If you consider the amount of money someone may spend on alcohol (I don’t drink), movies, vacations or other sorts of entertainment as opposed to the amount that I spend on video games and MMORPG’s in specific, I actually spend a good deal less then the average person. When you take into account the fact that the cost of my SOE accounts are also covered due to work, I’m getting a huge bargain on time spent entertained vs. cost of said time.

When the decision comes to move a character, I don’t spend any time berating myself over the cost (unless I have a hankering to move all my characters which would cost over $500 at once, that’s a big chunk of cash) but rather just move on with it and filter it under that entertainment budget. I know that not everyone can do this, and there are plenty of people out there who think that I’m crazy for having spent so much money moving characters around. Ah well.

The troubador is settled on Kithicor, I celebrated by picking up a few cheap masters and then spent the evening doing a few easy things from the laptop while I continue to battle health issues. Wpus had to head to work, but Kasul and Ultann were still around. Ultann and I headed to Karnor’s Castle to take down some named (farming in there seems to be all the rage as of late) and while I didn’t win anything of note it was still a lot of fun. Afterwards I decided to get some crafting done on the little bard, she was a 71 alchemist when I moved her over and she’s now sitting slightly into level 74. I have plans of getting 75 with her today so that she’s the appropriate level to make adornments. Speaking of which the little ratonga also happened to transfer along all of my adornment supplies, so I should be able to get the illusionist a few more skill ups today.

The troubador (aside from being an alchemist) is also a max level tinkerer, which comes in handy. Ultann, Wpus, and Kasul are all also tinkerers. My favorite item (by far) so far is the ‘call of the tinkerer’ and I’m glad there are a few handy bits out there that we can make use of.

The guild is inching its way to level 45, and new harvest bots. We purchased the root NPC when we hit level 40, and now we’re looking to get the mining NPC. This makes crafting a LOT easier, especially in a smaller guild. With only four of us in the guild and Kasul still fairly new, I’m exceptionally pleased that we’re coming along so well in levels. I still have a whole lot of Heritage Quests to complete one of these days. Ah the persistent quest of ‘how many things can you achieve in so little time’.

Hopefully everyone is doing fantastic this fine Tuesday. Have fun where ever you end up, and I’ll see you in Norrath!

Ah yes, another picture less blog post which means I’m blogging from bed again where I have no screen shots saved. Not going to rant about that here, no doubt my spirits about this whole situated will improve before too long.

Yesterday was not nearly as productive as I had of hoped. I did get some wizard 101 time in and my alt, Emma, is level 8 now and wandering through Triton Avenue and Cyclops Lane completing quests. She’s picked up a few more house items but nothing of any great significance. Mostly books and candles.

In EQ2 it was also fairly quiet, most of my friends were either away for the day or working, so I spent most of it working on my transmuting (I believe I’m at 230 skill now maybe slightly over) and working on the carpenter.

I love carpenters, I already have one on Najena, the coercer. This time around it’s my illusionist. I was at level 55 and running low on vitality but thanks to potions managed to inch my way to level 61, which is when the cool recipes start. Level 60 also meant I could head to The Isle of Mara and pick up the carpenter only shiny collection, granting me some very nice Asian themed recipes which will certainly come in handy.

That was the extent of my gaming for the day. I haven’t figured out if Sims 3 can be run on my laptop, but I may attempt to install it to find out. EQ2 runs just fine (and EQ) so we’ll just have to see. I’ve been contemplating starting up WoW again just for something exceptionally casual (please don’t flog me) but I only own up to the burning crusade and I’ve never managed to get a character over level 50. Go figure that the ONE game that is supposed to be the ‘easiest’ out there is also the one I’ve never had a max level character in, nor have I ever raided. I think the fact that you can simply use addons that will ‘do it all’ for you is a turn off in that regard and it’s why I’ve never tried.

I attempted to move my troubador to Kithicor via the email character transfer service, but their responce was that I would have to call their office for security reasons. I have no idea why, but it seemed odd (and annoying) that I would have to wait until 1pm on a Monday and then call to San Diego. I’m not sure moving a character is even worth whatever hassle will come from that so I may just decide against it. Not like I don’t already have plenty to work on.

I hope everyone is having an amazing weekend, I’ll see you in Norrath (and probably Telon, and Wizard city, and any other number of places)!

Yesterday saw us with an odd assortment of guild mates actually on line (all four of us at once!) which hasn’t been happening often this week due to work, so we decided to take advantage of it. That was until Ultann lost his power for a few hours. In the mean time Kasul, Wpus, and I decided we would attempt a crafting mission, and as chance would have it, the mission of the day was the newest one that was added, the void mission.

I’d never done this mission before and I was excited. We all ported over to the Moors where one of the air balloon NPC send you on your way. A few words of warning for this particular mission. It doesn’t tell you, but you require a mining skill of 25+ in order to harvest the ore that is in the zone. This differs from the regular instances where harvesting skill is not taken into account at all. There was no warning that I’d need this skill either, so I had to leave and come back.

Number two, there’s no real ‘door’ to this zone which means that unless you happen to be CURRENTLY ON the quest, there’s no way into the zone (that I have found at least). Now, the down side to this is that if you complete the quest, and then accidently click the ‘zone to Moors’ button that pops up on the nice shiny void door before looting the chest – you will have no way of returning. Arysh didn’t miss out on too much at least when the chest was popped, as we only managed to get ourselves a jewelers piece of gear (which Kasul already had). I dragged both the tailor and the carpenter to the zone to gain the crafter shards as well as faction.

The zone itself was beautiful, and the quest was quite fun. You have literally walked in on a failed raid, and what the raiders could not do in their uber gear the crafters will attempt. Of course there’s the matter of supplies. Dead raiders and mounts lay all over the zone and you have to run around taking the clothes from their corpses. Literally. You click on the dead body and watch as their gear vanishes. It was incredibly funny. You also steal flesh from the dead mounts in order to create the food articles needed. The trees near by can be used for wood, there just happens to be some void-coal laying around the ground, and there are little piles of moving void goo that you can harvest.

But what about a craft table? Well, thankfully the gnome who tells you about the mission has a supply of tinkered ones available, they last for 15 minutes each round and he’ll pass out stacks. We all managed to complete our portions (with poor Kasul doing most of the work, as Wpus and myself are mere lowbie crafters and the combines were quite daunting) and the quest was completed without too much trouble. Of course we all know crafters are incredible beings of power, so we managed to create the portal using the supplies left behind. Who needs raiders.

Once Ultann’s power returned we headed to Veksar: The Sunken Theater and cleared the entire zone (it also happened to be the daily double for yesterday). It makes an amazing difference when I can concentrate on just playing the enchanter and stunning every opportunity I get. Not that I mind two boxing and playing the mystic, but of course performance is better when not divided. Nothing of great worth dropped, and we still had some time before people had to call it an night (myself included) so we headed over to Obelisk of Ahkzul (no shield) and then for a change of pace we went to the Commonlands and completed Cavern of the Afflicted (no jester’s cap, no sword). Ellithia is 16 shards away from completing her T2 void set, Arysh is quite a few more behind but she’s getting there slowly. It’s nice to be able to complete these zones without too much difficulty, and when there is difficulty we don’t have a whole lot of people berating us telling us how much we suck (like that one warlock from Deep Forge who wanted to bring a 3rd healer along when we wiped once on the final named). I didn’t get any time to work on my transmuting before I had to call it a night, but I’m still hoping to get high enough to be able to transmute level 70+ gear before too long. The guild bank has been purged of lower level rares in order to make items to transmute, and I think I currently have enough for about 150 combines, which should grant at least 60-80 skill ups depending on how lucky I am (though we all know if I didn’t have bad luck I’d have no luck at all).

I hope everyone has an incredible Friday, no matter where you find yourself. I should be in various games this weekend, but as always you can get a hold of me via email, twitter, or any other means you can find (most are listed in the upper left portion of the web site).  Safe travels and happy gaming!