July 31, 2006
Man, what a weekend! Our daughter spent her first nights out of the crib and in her new bed, and seems to love it. Our son sat on his own and is getting his first tooth. (I really have to get caught up with the baby books!) Our guild downed a bunch of nameds in Lab of Lord Vyemm for the first time. And Mutz and I dinged last night, so only one more level to go.
Above: Mutz and I bracing ourselves for another mean fight in the Lab of Lord Vyemm.
We spent all our grouping time in the Forsaken City again, and I *think* we saw just about all of it now. I took a lot of notes so maybe tomorrow I’ll sit my butt down and get it all cleaned up in a good post. We also found a lot of the named, with my favorite being the Vegetarian Troll.
What I’ve noticed about the layout of the rooms is that there tends to be a named in pretty much every room, and he’s always surrounded by about a dozen mobs that need to be cleared to reach him. It’s fairly easy to figure out where the nameds spawn too. There is always one mob that has a different name from all the ones around him, usually in the center of the cluster of trash around him. Also, if you just go with body pulls, you almost never get any adds, even when they are closely spaced.
Without further ado, here’s some shots of the weekend:
Above: Legion of the White Rose taking down Uustalastus Xiterrax. We also killed the Uncaged Alzid for the first time. It was our strongest showing yet, and one of our best loot nights in there too. Big congratulations to all the loot winners.
Above: Here’s my new favorite mob, the Vegetarian Troll, with an add in tow. It’s a fairly easy fight, but for us he only dropped a regular chest. Maybe next time!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Everquest II | Comments (0)
July 28, 2006
We went back to the Forsaken City last night, this time with Athexis, a dark elf assassin. We had grouped with her before in Sanctum of the Scaleborn, and the three of us clicked so well that I swear it felt like we were fighting with the Harclave buff on. We explored a bit more, and I took a few more notes about some new stuff we saw, so hopefully after a few more trips I can put it all together in a better overview of what we’ve seen.
Above: Forsaken City again with Athexis.
Along the way, in Mystic Lake, we ran into two named Tiki-God looking statues, named Guard Xian-lau and Guard Zhun-bao outside the Temple of the Sensei. We got a pair of plate gloves from one and I think a master from the other but I forgot. We also saw High Priestess Arveinia up there too, but we didn’t kill her because I just sensed that it might cause a faction hit on something we didn’t want to lose faction with.
While we were grinding away on mobs, I got a surprise tell from an old EQ friend, Renrikk. Renrikk is just a great player all around, hands down, AND he’s extremely nice and totally selfless, which is a rare combination. Turns out that he might give the Trial of the Isle a shot, which was great news to me. I was talking to him a little bit, but warned him that I might go flatline on him because I was pulling for the group, to which he replied, “scary.” (Why does everyone have that reaction when I tell them I’m pulling?)
Above: Obligatory wicked awesome loot shot.
Of course, Mutz has some kind of chat radar up and can tell the moment I start talking to anyone, because the pace of the pulls slows down from one pull a nanosecond to one pull a second. I also find that it’s impossible to really chat like in EQ because you’re always busy hitting some type of combat ability or spell, no matter what class you are. It’s like everyone is a bard now.
Overall, the night was a success though. All three of us dinged, and Mutz and I are almost two bubbles into 68 already. And the news of Renrikk possibly playing EQ2 is great to hear. Sadly, he’ll probably hit 70 before we do, but it will be great to be grouping with him again!
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July 27, 2006
The big push to 70 officially began last night, and as we logged in, we immediately went into the “grass is greener” mode. What that means is that as we pondered the choices of where to hunt, we couldn’t really settle on anything because we kept hoping we’d find some hidden gem of a hunting spot that offered the best experience ever for our level.
“How about Sanctum under Cyenadros” I suggested.
“No,” replied Mutz.
“Palace of Awakened”
“No”
“Nest of the Great Egg”
“No”
“Deathtoll”
“No…….wait, Deathtoll? Are you nuts?”
Well, at least I knew he was listening to the choices and not just saying no to everything. I’m no stranger to the “Auto-No,” thanks to our two year old daughter.
Then we began to think about going back to the Forsaken City, a dungeon that’s part of the Fallen Dynasty Adventure Pack. We had done a teenie bit of hunting there the night it was released, but somehow we never went back since. It’s not that we didn’t like the zone, it’s just that we had our hands full with Peacock, Claymore, Mark of Awakened, and travel. I decided to tab out to check if there was a good map or zone guide available, but there is really not much out there on this zone. All I was able to find was this Fallen Dynasty Timeline, an ok Database, and later after we camped, I did track down a Map.
So we zoned in with very little knowledge of what to do or where to go. I know there are quests involving this zone that I should probably have worked on getting, but I think if I had mentioned anything about quests to Mutz he would have camped and deleted. (I do have Brother Lycabe’s Trial and did manage to get one update from the book room but don’t tell Mutz!)
Nights like these, where you are facing a big blank slate, can be some of the best nights, and they can also end up being a night you want to just write off and forget about. Luckily for us, last night was extremely fun and memorable.
First off, when we zoned in, we realized that we were the only two in the entire zone, which is a refreshing change after doing Sanctum for so long. I felt like doing a quick /ooc of “Ok drop group, turn off /role and /anon and put on lfg,” in a hat tip to the old days of EQ1 when we used to form raids using /shout and /ooc, and the only people in the zone were on the raid force.
Second, the mobs in this zone seem to be a lot harder than what they con. We were duoing but found that we needed to pause more between pulls than if we had fought the same level mobs in one of the Kingdom of Sky zones. On the flip side, the encounters seemed to give more experience than in KoS zones.
Above: Fun on the bridge. Below and right you can see The Ancient Krangoris, hoping we will fall.
Thirdly, this is a tricky zone to pull. With the recent social aggro change to mobs, I find that I am using body pulls a lot more. But last night especially, I had to really concentrate on my pulling. No shurikens in here, and often, not even taunt pulls. But it’s nights like these that make me realize that I love to pull. Even in EQ1, where I played a ranger, I played the role of puller as much as I could. I love learning the layout of a room, grinding through a couple of slow and methodical clears, and then whipping through it once I get the feel for it. I love controlling the pace of a group and eyeing my next pull immediately after I deliver my previous one.
I’m not saying I’m the greatest puller in the world, or that I have leet flop skillz that allow me to pull a wicked awesome named past 1200 mobs and deliver him solo. I’m saying I completely enjoy cinching up my GI, fastening my half elf nose ring, and putting on my yellow hard hat (or wok if I ever work on the quest) to do some blue collar pulling for a solid night of experience hunting.
As for our exploration, we found some nice little spots and pulled in some good experience. We hunted in the room near the portal to Nizara, and we managed to kill the Portal Keeper, who dropped some gloves for us. This was a nice spot for us because it was all 67 heroics, an even con for us. We also made it to a room with some phantom-looking Tanaanites and dejected paladins, which were all 68 heroics. We finished our night of crawling by reaching a room that looked like a mess hall, and it was full of ghostly looking monks and a named called the Vegitarian Troll. We started to work towards him, but it was so late, and we had so many to clear, that we ended up camping.
Above: This is the portal to Nizara, that opens when The Portal Keeper dies.
We will be back, and if we can get the layout of the zone down a little better, I hope to write a better guide to the Forsaken City in my blog. As for tips, I’d say the top levels are great for groups in the lower to mid 60s, and the bottom areas are really for players that are around 66-70, if grouped. Respawn isn’t too fast, so it’s simple enough to clear a room without getting repop adds. And the only things that saw invis for us were the nameds and the buqu warriors, who tend to stay tucked behind pillars and under stairs. If you can avoid them, you can basically get around the zone with no problem.
We ended the night with a great chunk of experience, and a longing to return again soon. Hopefully tonight!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Everquest II | Comments (2)