May 30, 2006
Well, Mutz and I are still grinding away on the Pea%&*# Quest. In game, any time you use the word Peacock, the bad word filter blocks out the last four letters. Ironically, I’m starting to view the word Peacock as a bad word myself.
We finished the solo steps for the quest, all 13 of them, with their little subquests. I love how a quest has three or four subquests. You start out thinking to yourself, well it’s only one quest, and then you find out that you have to do three times the legwork, but by then it’s too late to bag it because you invested too much time into it. It’s like a bait and switch.
That brings me to my next word that I think the bad word filter should bleep out: switch. Mutz and I did the switch runs this weekend, and it got into my head so much that I actually had dreams about racing around the zone later that night.
Now, I know there are a ton of people out there that will sit back and say, “oh, it’s not that hard, I did it in a half hour solo, blah blah.” Well, it took us all night, not because we kept failing, but because we have horrible senses of direction and neither one of us could remember the routes even after practicing them.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about this part of the quest. On the contrary, I think it was the most interesting and fun part of the quest yet. The earlier parts, that required you to seek out and collect various items, was kind of fun the first couple of times, but you get to a point where running around grabbing stuff gets irritating, and you begin to long for the old days of timesinks where at least the item you needed was in one spot, on one fixed mob.
What made it harder for the two of us is that our means of travel don’t really compliment each other well. I have a self invis that works off my power, but I tend to bag that and just use feign death to flop wherever I need to go. Mutz has an invis, but it’s group, and if I wander too far and get aggro, his invis drops too. So when you are in a zone full of wandering, see invis mobs, travel can be tricky.
Anyway, there are four “push the switch” subquests. What we basically did for them was to scout out the locations, since some of them were tucked away on ledges or halfway up walls, and then partially clear the path, to reduce the number of see invis mobs that could bog us down. There is no time to fight while doing the timed run, so if we get aggro, the only options are to run and hope for enough distance that they reset, or to use my group FD, which is on a 15 minute timer.
Above: One of the switches behind me, and of course, the spoiled cheese is there. I waited for effing ever to get that cheese, and now that I’m done, there it sits, taunting me.
What we ended up doing was having Mutz use a chameleon totem instead of his group invis, and as we ran, I tried to run ahead of Mutz so that when I used FD, the mobs would run back to their spawn point, and hopefully right past Mutz. On one of the runs, it was so close that we were down to less than 10 seconds, and just as we reached the final switch to pull, Mutz came under aggro.
“PUSH THE SWITCH!” I yelled. We never play EQ2 when the kids are awake, and it’s a good thing, beause if we did, they’d be hearing all kinds of outbursts and vocabulary that a typical word-parroting two year old should not be hearing.
Seconds later, he was dead, and for those few seconds when the zone was loading, I had no idea if he got it or if we had to do the run again.
“got it,” Mutz flatly said. Mutz is not one for emotion.
For anyone doing the run, two resources that we found helpful were the EQ2 map program from EQ Interface, and the Peacock Club Timeline from EQ2I. There are even video walkthroughs of the switch run on the EQ2I page, although we didn’t use them at all.
I think the reason why this part of the quest will stick with me is because it required a lot of concentration, good timing, and a little pre-planning. It certainly was different from the usual quest. And let’s face it, there is something oddly satisfying about running around and pushing the correct switches in the required time. Just ask lab rats!
Above: Working on the quest Words of Pure Magic. One of the shrines can be found behind Deathfist Citadel.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Everquest II | Comments (1)
May 28, 2006
Gnomes. Why does it always have to be gnomes?! I feel the same way about gnomes as Indiana Jones does about snakes. Don’t like em, yet they always make an appearance in everything I do. Usually the culprit was Corka, who always knew that a little “hee hee” after a frustrating death was the perfect nail in the coffin. But she also was there in the bleakest moments, tossing in a well timed backstab to save the day, or sneaking in somewhere deadly to drag out our corpses.
Well, over time, I think I’ve mellowed or something, which is good, because it seems every time I need help, a gnome comes to my aid. And as much as I hate to admit it, they’re pretty friendly and helpful.
We have a few gnomes in our guild, for instance. Brea is a gnome troubador, and she not only sponsored Mutz and I, but she also makes us boxes and assorted items, and doesn’t demand any payment! Timmit is a gnome wizard, and he always enters guild chat by asking if anyone needs the services of a Timmit, which is pretty generous, even though “a Timmit” is pretty small and sometimes raids wearing only a Santa hat.
Today, we were aided by another Legionnaire gnome, Nerin. We hadn’t really had the chance to group with him until today, but with his help, we made some nice progress in the Peacock Club Quest, and we might yet be ready for Godking on time!
We’ve been working on this stupid quest for what seems like years. Any free time we have we are trying to spend on doing these quests. It’s a huge timesink, and probably crazy of us to try it given our casual playstyle and limited play times. But it has been fun at times, and we can’t resist the temptation of the timesink grind.
So there I was, with Mutz, in the Living Tombs, and standing at that stupid Harp. I had found the box of Tupperwuzzle, led the wild camel back to his pen, and tracked down the stinky cheese. Now, we were stuck on the part of the quest where we have to play a harp, and then we have 5 minutes to run around the zone killing 5 different named custodian mummies. Easy enough, except for all the roaming, see invis mobs that love to stun, snare, and cause all kinds of headaches. Also, the second time we tried (and failed) we had four done and enough time to do the fifth, but when we reached his hangout spot, he wasn’t there! He was still wandering, and hadn’t completed his walkabout when we needed him to. Annoying, limping, mummies!
I had had enough! I felt like John Locke at the hatch from Lost, yelling, “I did everything you told me to. So WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!?!” I weighed my options. Since I couldn’t dynamite the harp like they did to the hatch, I decided on plan B: beg for help from the guild.
Now, I hate asking for help from others, and I don’t normally, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And it’s such a nice feeling when you get not one, not two, but three tells offering assistance. We got tells from Vitzu and Matthew, who were also working on steps of the Peacock quest, and it was very generous of them to offer their aid.
But it was especially nice of Nerin, not only because he was a gnome, but because he had just finished up the quest line, and I wouldn’t expect he’d be too eager to do it all over again. He must have felt sympathy for us though, and long story short, with Vitzu and Nerin, we easily got the harp step done. (Matthew would have joined us but since he was on a step beyond us, and we had enough help, I felt it was better for him to keep working on his step, which was easily grey to him solo)
So I want to give a /hat tip to Nerin, and all the gnomes that have come to our aid in the past. I’m sorry for all the mean things I have said about gnomes, even though I will probably keep doing it.
Now it’s on to finishing up the solo part of the Peacock quest, so we can start the heroic part! Oh, yummy, yummy timesinks!
Thank you, Vitzu, Matthew, and Nerin!
In other news, the Legion of the White Rose killed Pardas Predd last night, a first!
One step closer to Lord Vyemm!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Everquest II | Comments (1)
May 26, 2006
I got to group with my friend Meopha Pet last night. She is a berserker, both as a class and as a personality. Hunting with her is fun, because you can pull something, turn around, run back to where you think she is, and meanwhile she’s on the other side of the zone frittering around with who knows what. It makes for good fun, especially when hunting orcs.
Killing orcs is special fun for me because it reminds me of when I played Jaye and Meopha played a hyper gnome rogue named Corka in Everquest. We were the EQ verson of Legolas and Gimli, only Corka didn’t have the facial hair, and I like to think I had a better sense of humor than Legolas. We used to even have competitions to see who got more “you have killed….” messages. I can claim victory in that competition, but then again, I can say anything since this is my blog!
Above: Dark picture, I know, but it was a dark night! Can you guess what class Meopha plays in Everquest? (Hint: she’s the berzerker in the back)
Meopha had several quests in Zek, the Orcish Wastes, and since Mutz was unable to group, we felt it was best to play it safe and do a little open air hunting of some Tallon orcs. We only were doing solo stuff, nothing crazy, but at one point, I had pulled a few, and Meopha had pulled a few, and we weren’t near each other, so things looked bleak. Meopha started running for the zone, but I was desperately trying to run towards her, so I could do a group feign death. I kept yelling “stop, wait, stop wait” over and over, but she kept running! Finally she stops and says, “why stop, so we can die?” And just as she says it, I pop group feign death and she and I both hit the ground with that fake groan of death.
“Well, yes so we can die, but not really die,” I replied.
“o,” she says. I love group feign death!
We continued to slaughter the orcs until there were no more. Actually, more like, until my youngest started squirming around and getting ready to belt out a few window shattering cries. But it was great fun to play with Meopha again. And I won the death count for the evening.
Our travel plans this weekend are out the window, so we’ll be around playing EQ2. And I’ll give you a hint on what we’ll be doing.
Happy Memorial Day weekend!
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May 24, 2006
Last night I got to raid again, which is practically a miracle for me. The Legion of the White Rose is currently working on the Peacock Quest, and has been farming eyes for the access quest to get into the Fountain of Life and kill the Godking Anuk. Last night we were on the hunt for one of the hardest eyes to obtain, the Yeux Eye. It’s from a ring event in Silent City, triggered by an orb. If you kill the mobs fast enough each round, the Flayer of Judgement spawns, and he drops the eye. I’ve read that some have had trouble with the event, but we were lucky enough, and killing fast enough, to get through the event and get the Flayer of Judgement. But even with a full raid and many level 70 raiders, we were barely killing fast enough to keep ahead of the spawns. It was so close that our guild leader, Kendricke, channeled the spirit of -50 DKP when he yelled, “MORE DOTS!” I’m not sure if that put us over the top, but it didn’t hurt.
We then spent a while running a circuit around the area killing gnoll Captains in order to spawn a named that drops another eye. I think his name is General Feyt, but I’m not positive because I had to camp just as they had spawned him.
This night of farming reminded me of guild nights in Ssra Temple, when we would group up, spread out, and farm for shards (down in the mine), and reminded me of when we used to spend evenings in Ssra Temple as a guild, with groups spread all over the zone. Some were killing Taskmasters for the Emperor Key quest, some were farming shards in the mines, and others were working on getting the parts for their shissar bane weapons. Timesinks like these can be huge headaches or memorable moments — it really all depends on the people you are with and the zone you are in I think.
For me, Silent City is a nice zone to have to spend a lot of time in. The mummies remind me of something out of the movie by the same name. I also like the glow of the runes on the towering structures and the green glowing fountains. Every time I go to Freeport, I keep thinking that this is what the city should look more like, especially the racial towns. Why do the evil towns all have to be slummy and bland?
Anyway, by the time I camped, we were down to needing just one eye, and for all I know, we got that too. So hopefully we’ll be able to enter the Fountain of Life soon. That means it’s time for Mutz and I to spend some time this weekend getting our quest done soon, since we’re only on like step 6 of the quest. It’s a hard knock life to be a casual player!
Meanwhile, Hunca Munca went on a treasure hunt today. Over at the Commonlands Docks, I ran into a little gnome named Heron Cogcarrier. (Apparently there is a relative over in Antonica that offers the exact same quest. Look for Sparrow Cogcarrier near the Stormhold library zone in point in Antonica) He asked me for some help, but to earn trust, I needed to retrieve a bounty that was buried somewhere in the tundra.
To find it, I was given a Multidirectional Aerospanning Locationater (glorified compass), and a Manual Powered Mechanical Digging Device (a pick). Gnomes and brevity are two words that I doubt I will ever see in the same sentence.
Now for the fun. Every so often, I had to use the compass to see what the direction and distance of the treasure was. So you get a message saying a color and a degree of brightness from the compass.
The range of brightness goes from Faint (farthest away), dim, dull, bright, and finally blinding when you are close enough to dig it up
The colors range from Green (the exact correct direction), to yellow (slightly off course), to orange, to red (the opposite, and wrong, direction)
What do you look for? Nothing! The key is to keep ooching up when you are getting bright, until you get blinding. Then use the pick to dig. And the location changes every time the quest is done, so you can’t cheat and just get a /waypoint loc from a spoiler site.
The reward is a chunk of experience 6% at level 20, and access to the Smarmy Sprocket, for more fun tasks and the opportunity to help rescue Admiral Grimgadget, who has been imprisoned by some pirates.
The Smarmy Sprocket is the same boat zone as the original EQ2 tutorial, or the Enchanted Lands and Zek boat access zones. But this time, there are a series of tasks that are more cerebral than the average “kill 10 bad guys and report back to me” type of quests. One asks you to balance the ship by moving different sized crates to the two sides of the deck. Another asks you to help chart the course of the boat by reading the provided documents. And the last one is similar to the task in the gigglegiber hideout during the holiday event. You have to spam click – kick the engine until it begins to work. I didn’t have enough time to complete these, but I hope to soon, and then I can make it to the prison to help save Admiral Grimgadget.
In a recent thread on the Everquest II forums, Game Designer Moorgard posted that “rather than looking at it as if we’ve made certain places too good, we see it that we need to bring all the other places up to that quality level. Which we will do, but it can’t all happen at once. Most of our recent Live Updates have included zone revamps, and the next one is no exception to that.”
I hope that when they do zone revamps, they put in more dynamic tasks and quests like this one. They seem to be doing that, based on the quests that were put into the recently revamped newbie zones. It gives a fresh look to old zones, for those that are twinking, but it will also hopefully encourage people to get out of the usual hunting areas for their level and try other things.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Everquest II | Comments (2)
May 23, 2006
Erika has been busy of late, raiding the Laboratory of Lord Vyemm, and working on the Peacock Quests, so it’s time for an update from Hunca Munca.
First of all, I finally hit level 20, and officially got my surname! It took me a while to do it though, because I forgot the command and kept pounding /surname over and over, unwilling to believe that was wrong.
I also got some nice shiny armor, and I really look like a tank now, literally! I love my helmet, it accentuates my eyes. The only problem is that I have no protection for my tail, which is a real problem. I searched high and low, but there seemed to be no armor makers that crafted tail armor. Hrmph!
And I also experienced some heartwarming generosity in Freeport. Yes, Freeport! It makes me believe again that Lucan might not be able to keep everyone under his grinchy thumb like he pretends.
I had just left the broker and was headed to the bell when I got a tell from a Mr. Babooon El’Gaucho saying, WAIT! Come back here. “Whatever it is, I didn’t do it,” I replied instantly. It’s sort of a reflex response I guess. He proceeded to tell me to stay at the broker and wait in front of him. While waiting, I noticed that this troll was a guardian, wearing a pretty red robe! He explained that the threads are for the ladies, and I had to admit, it did improve his appearance. But then again, he was a troll so a dropcloth would probaby have accomplished the same.
All of a sudden, he asks what I want. Want? What the heck does that mean, I’m standing here because he told me to and, frankly, he’s a lot bigger and faster than I am. He went on to say that he would give me something that I wanted for my character, and proceeded to place a shadowknight Master spell into my trade window, just like that!
I asked why he was doing it, and he simply said he was just in a good mood. A good mood in Freeport! Imagine that!
So, Babooon El’Gaucho, thank you for your generosity, and for showing that there are still unexpected moments of good intention in online gaming. A rattail /salute to you!
From there, I headed to the Fallen Gate, which is old Neriak from the old days of Norrath. After getting my tail kicked three times by the dark elves at the first gate (and wishing I had some that tail plate armor right about now), I decided to tuck tail and run. But I’ll be back in a few more levels.
I finished up by hunting some big game in the Commonlands. That zone music is perfect for taking down Elephant herds and charging Rhinos.
That’s it for now!
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May 22, 2006
With the coming of Live Update 24, these instances, as well as several more, will no longer have an access quest for entry. All I can say is, THANK GOD! These are three hidden gems and are great quick hits for players in their 40s.
Forbidden Sepulchre is located up through Bitterwind Trench, and to the left through the huge ice chunks. By the way, I hope I never have to rely on the Bitterwind for any exploring. Here they are, in the middle of effing Everfrost, and most of them have no hats, and the rest of them have either no sleeves, no gloves, or both! What kind of pioneer is that?! Get a coat on!
If you are a solo player in your early 40s, you want to keep invis on when heading to Forbidden Sepulchre, to avoid the big lizards and minotaurs. Be ready to sprint too, because some see invis. If you have EQ2 Maps, you can easily waypoint the zone in. This solo zone is pretty straightforward, you fight your way up to a large room with a named Disciple Satrinah and some guards, that are all chanting around this poor human sacrifice. When you kill the named and the four guards near the altar, the Countess Satrinah appears, who is the boss. Simple instance, pretty straightforward, and interesting to look at.
Above: Final room in Forbidden Sepulchre. I want a gi like that lady on the right!
Icespire Summit is also located past the Bitterwind Trench, but you have to head right from the tunnel through the ice chunks, past the valkyries. You’ll work your way up a tunnel to the zone in. Again, it’s fairly straightforward. There is a fun encounter pretty early on, with a named, Sky Marshall Valdis, and a sizable group of guards and wolves that are with her.
Next named is Gale Marshall E’yildir, a level 44 epic X 2. She was grayed out to me when I was exploring, but apparently she can drop master chests, and some nice gear. She has an AE power drain so watch range.
In the final room there are some large statues, and while it’s tempting to run right in, go slowly. If you run to the center of the room, not only will the four ice guardians become attackable, but the Spirit of the Fallen a level 44 ^^^ heroic, along with two Eidelon of the Ancients, level 44 ^ heroic, will spawn and attack too.
Best bet is to slowly clear out the pair of guardians nearest the entrance, and then pull the named with guards to the door. This fight should be easier than the Gale Monarch, as long as you pull with caution.
Above: fighting an ice guardian in Icespire Summit.
Latly, Miragul’s Menagerie is another group zone, this one located in the ice tunnel that you have to swim to from the docks, past Undertow. It’s not a large zone, but again, it’s very eye-catching. All of these zones look great to me, but maybe it’s because I’m still wiping the sand from my eyes after spending so much time in Desert of Flames, and I’m glad to see something other than dunes. This zone has four rooms that connect from the entrance, and as you complete one room, another will open to you.
In the first room you have to clear out the Remnant of Miragul to get four chests to spawn. If you pick the correct one you get a scroll, that opens the next room if you read it. But if you choose wrong, you get a Petulant Force, a group of level 46 heroic mobs. The chest that had the scroll for me was the one to the north, closest to the door.
The next room that is opened has a cube and a book. Clear to the book, then click on the book to activate the cube. Then click on the base of the cube to open the next room.
The last room looks impressive, and the named at the end is not a cakewalk. He has some kind of noxious dot, so watch the damage you take. If you kill him, you click on the book he was standing at, which summons Myrgoth, a level 51 boss. There is some issue with getting him to become attackable. Some write ups say give a little time before “releasing the bindings.” Others say to have the same person finish the summoning and release the bindings. Either way, both of these nameds have the possibility of dropping master chests.
Above: Final room of Miragul’s Menagerie. A much more impressive looking zone than the LDON instance in EQ!
All three zones are fairly quick, fun, and very different from the usual pull/grind hunting sessions. With the removal of access quests, they’re great to hit if you don’t have a lot of time and are in your 40s. If you liked the look of Velious, and honestly, who didn’t, then you’ll like spending time in here.
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May 20, 2006
Last night we brought a full group back to Poet’s to work on the access quests for the other floors of Poet’s Palace. Our group was Lauxen, Ohelia, Baptiest, Cate and of course Mutz and me. We quickly finished the first floor quest to catch up those that didn’t have it, and then we set about with the second floor.
The access quest for the second floor is pretty interesting. In short, you have to move some statues from one room into a large room, and place each one on the right pedestal. There are three waves of this, and after each one you have to kill some spawned, attackable statues. After the third round of statues, a named spawns, Aysor the Mighty, and his evil eye pet.
Long story short, we cut through the mobs up and until the second floor named. But unfortunately Aysor the Mighty was too much for us to handle. After two unsuccessful tries, and two wipes that took a combined total of about 5 seconds, we decided to go somewhere else to hunt. I am looking forward to going back again soon, though, because I think we have some ideas on how to take him down after learning about him more.
Above: Killing a giant moppet in Poet’s Palace. The thrill of killing a moppet, for me, ranks right up there with killing the biggest and baddest dragons of Norrath.
We chose to head to the Hidden Cache, since it was getting late and we wanted something fairly simple and quick to get to. This was my first time into this instance, and I have to say it was a nice way to end the week. Pulling was stress free, and the nameds were easy to take down. The trash mobs were all level 52-54, and the nameds seemed all in the high 50s. Mutz and I mentored down to people in our group, but still had no problem dealing with non stop pulls. I could tell Mutz felt pretty confident because at one point while we were fighting a crocodile from the pond, it suddenly became non aggro and turned to look obediently at Mutz. Yep, Mr Deathwish charmed a pet.
Above: The Legionnaires and scaly friend take on the dervs.
One little tip, when you are clearing the zone, be sure to visit Mullok, a little goblin on some rocks in the back of the pond. He asks you to find his “cherished” (think gollum), but it doesn’t appear until you clear the entire zone of mobs. Sadly, that meant Mutz’s new friend had to go too.
Our group found “the cherished,” which I think is a key, although I never saw it. It was pretty close to where Mullok stands. Mullok turns gollum on you and starts screaming about HIS PRECIOUS, I mean, HIS CHERISHED, and as he fights you he grows bigger and bigger, which is pretty entertaining. Apparently the nameds in this zone can drop master chests, but we didn’t have enough luck to get one.
But, it seems like a great zone if you are a mid 50s group, or someone in their early 60s who likes to solo heroics. It’s straightforward and quick, and really the trickiest thing is just finding the entrance, which is actually near the top of landslide passage, and looks like a little manhole cover.
Above: The zone in to Hidden Cache. It’s the little manhole cover to the left. Don’t fall off the ledge!
It was a decent night overall. Mutz and I are now level 60, which is a little milestone for us. Also, Lauxen dinged 59 and Ohelia almost hit 58. Bonus experience weekend treated us very well!
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