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!
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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!
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July 26, 2006
Our guild made a little progress in the Lyceum of Abhorrence last night, killing one named and almost a second if it hadn’t been for a little lag issue. I know, I know, lame excuse to blame failure on lag, but it’s true! In any event, here are some of the scenes from last night.
Here is Rivner, looking classy as ever in his formalwear. The skull mask really accentuates the ensemble and gives it an overall soft look.
Here we are killing the Essence of Fear. It was a fun fight and fairly smooth, but I couldn’t help thinking the entire time that I was about to get the Greater Lightstone Heritage Quest when he died.
Even though we skipped this mob, Gnorbyl the Playful, I can’t wait to try him. Apparently all those little frightlings in the room come with him on the pull. Neat!
The rest of this week, I will be hunkering down to make a push for level 70. Mutz and I have been lollygagging the past few weeks, and even though we have been leveling still, it has been delayed because of questing and traveling. We hope to really make a dent and get the last two and a half levels done quick though. Time to go load up on shurikens!
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July 25, 2006
I’ve been offline for almost a week, and last night was a pretty rude welcome back. By the end of the night, I was so irritated that I camped before finishing up the Claymore Quest that we had been working on. The problem? An epidemic that I have chosen to refer to as cheesing the sanctum.
Above: Seeking some peace, and aspirin, in my room. Ikebana and meditation just weren’t going to cut it this night.
Cheesing the Sanctum is the method of calculated training in order to quickly skip gobs of mobs in order to reach sections of the zone that either have quest updates for the Claymore quest, or have a named mob that has spawned and is on the track of a farm group. The only problem is that the “calculated” part isn’t so calculated, and it usually means that another group gets a hailstorm of flapping droags and slicing sentinels on their heads, and a quick revive box on their screen.
It’s happened to us before, and it’s wiped us before, so it’s nothing new. But in the past, the group that does it at least comes back to rez us if I can catch a name of someone in the offending group and send a tell. So, while it’s pretty irritating, and it causes us to lose time, we at least can get a rez and pick up where we left off.
Last night, though, we had two encounters with trainers that left me speechless. The first happened near the Exarch room. As we were slowly making our way down to the lower level, a little gnome bruiser flitted by us with a few droags, who promptly stopped chasing him and started whacking us. Since it was only a couple, we killed them and shrugged it off. But about 10 minutes later, as we reached the big room with the dragon statue, the little gnome ran by both us and another group that was also in the room, and this time he had a significant cluster of angry mobs. This time I sent a tell, suggesting that if he was going to keep running through the zone, at least give a general zone message so people have a heads up.
His response? He explained to me that he didn’t want to announce it to the zone because he’d end up spamming the zone every 4 or 5 minutes, and besides, he added, he stops if he gets near a group.
So let me get this straight. It’s more considerate to train someone as opposed to giving a heads up in /ooc? Wow, how nice of you to think of others.
Let’s face it, the real reason why no one gives advance notice of their trains is because it’s wrong, and they know it’s wrong, and the last thing you want to do is admit it in text where dozens of people can /report it and /petition it.
About a half hour later, though, I met a real peach of a player. I never use names in my blog unless I ask first, just because I feel it’s polite, but I am having a really hard time with this one.
We had made it down to the gorg pit, in the hallway just before it, and we had about a half hour of play time left before bed. We needed a couple of updates for A Scalding Hot Encounter, and we were about to finish off one of the dread knight spots when we got hit with a huge train, brought by a full group. This time, instead of just standing there and dying, Mutz and I ran behind them, figuring either the mobs would reset or we’d die close enough to them to get a rez. Well, the latter happened, and I sent a tell to one in the group. He gave me the name of the necro in the group, and I sent a tell saying, “Rez our group please we’re below you at the wall.”
“2 secs” he replied. Nice. So we get trained and we have to wait until after they get to their objective?
“No, now,” I said, “Your group trained us and we’re at the wall just below you.”
Well, the tells I then got back are such that I can’t type them here. But the gist of it was filled with f-bombs and “how dare you boss me” replies. He also tried to shed guilt, saying that we shouldn’t have hit the mobs and we wouldn’t have gotten aggro.
I had to laugh at the last part, because he obviously isn’t thinking it through when he’s typing. I can forgive him for his ignorance of not knowing that you can train a mob over someone and it can aggro them, but let’s say for argument’s sake that we did actually attack the train. They brought at least 5 encounters to us, including pairs of sentinels. So we would have had to attack about a dozen mobs in order to aggro the entire train. So he either thinks we’re really stupid to start whacking random mobs that run by us, or he thinks we have a million hitpoints to be able to survive long enough to actually *do* that.
Anyway, there we were, trained, dead, and me getting an earful from an ignorant, dress wearing, skull faced, sissy. And then he tells me to apologize or he won’t rez us. I’m not kidding!
I had had it at that point. It was late, we just lost our chance to finish our stupid quest, and now I’m told I have to apologize! I sent him a tell, saying plainly, “I asked you to rez us already, because your group trained us. Either do it or don’t but I’d advise you to think it over carefully.”
Well, we got a rez after that, but it was really just a formality because our night was done.
Above: Making a visit to the mender in Qeynos Harbor after a rough night. This has become my new hangout.
But I decided from now on, Mutz and I are only going to go in Sanctum for either Claymore updates or to experience, but only in the room above the gorg pit where no one ever hunts. And I’m thinking of starting a “Please Don’t Cheese the Sanctum” campaign. Get a group and fight down, it’s just as fast. Or use invis — you can skip large parts of the zone that way. Lazy cheesy trains are really an immature way to get to where you want to go. I think I’ll put Hunca to work on some mass mailings, maybe she can get the word out!
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July 24, 2006
I don’t know if I’m supposed to be angry that I’m getting so much, or happy because it means I’m being noticed, but I’ve been getting a lot of spam comments every day on my blog. When I first got my site set up (ok, I’ll be honest, when Mutz first set up my site for me because I have no clue how to do it), I used the WordPress moderation option, and now I’m glad I did. It’s awesome to see comments, and some of them have given me a lot of great ideas and feedback, but without the moderation thingy the site would have tons of spam.
But in the case that some of these are really well-meaning comments, and not spam, I felt like I should reply to a few of them:
No, I don’t sportsbook. Yes, I agree that this is a weery good site. No, I don’t need help with real estate, my mortgage, or vacation rentals. In response to the most recent one I found just now — “Zapraszamy do zakdania darmowych” — I would have to say, um, the middle thing. And for all the two year olds out there (I have to assume they’re two, because who the heck else would post a comment saying things like afjwkegweoigej wegkwletjwetoi gweiovewnioga with a link to a spammy search site) all I have to say is, rock on Tinky Winky, and Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car!
Not much in game stuff to write about today, because I have yet to log in since I got back. Erika was busy perfecting her Katana moves while I was gone.
Here’s another one from Qeynos.
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July 20, 2006
Poor Hunca. As much as I like her, I just do not have time to really devote to playing her, and frankly, I much prefer duoing with Mutz to soloing any day. And as hard as Hunca tried, the good fight to gain refugees to Qeynos is not really producing that tidal wave of revolution that was expected. So I finally had a revelation and decided it was time for Hunca to “walk the earth.” It’s possible that I will get back to playing her in the fall, but for now, I have too much I want to do with Erika.
Having said that, I made another twink! Yes, I know, ridiculously stupid logic. But the difference is that Mutz made one too, and we figure it will be something to do on nights when we only have about an hour or less, which happens from time to time. Our new creations, however, are not definite. We made a defiler and a brigand, and we’re at level 8. But it seems like every other pull we’re asking ourselves if there is a better combination we might consider. We want something a little different from a straight tank/healer pair, since we just did that. But we also want something that isn’t so funky and out of the box that we end up cheating death with every pull. And we also would like a pair that is strong enough to be able to duo at least blue heroics.
But I’m in no rush to worry about all of that, because I’m on vacation again! Well, vacation is a relative term since I’m at home every day, and I have the kids all day long with me, so the only real difference is the change of scenery. But being at the beach makes everything feel like vacation instead of work. Back on Sunday, stay cool!
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