March 29, 2007
I’ve been spending a lot of time in Thestra lately, but the lure of Infineum keeps pulling me back to Qalia.
Above: Some guildies from Revelry and Honor taking in the view after receiving their Infineum cloaks. We look good in grey!
It seems that there’s some disturbing stuff going on in the Infineum Mines. I have only done part of the questline so far, but apparently there is a group of Infineum Cultists that have managed to enthrall some slaves, who are mining infineum for them to be used in various ways. Kronus Infineum, their leader, has somehow managed to slip the bonds of time and become and eternal entity.
Because Infineum carries mysterious properties, the cultists have found ways to forge weapons and armor with it. They also seem to be working on a way to build infineum golems that harness the power of dead cultists, which could be disastrous if they manage that on a large scale.
With a threat that large, there’s a lot to do! The Infineum questline has several parts (I’m on step 5 right now), with some fun fights and interesting twists. Right now, for example, I am donning a cultists robe and mingling with them in order to figure out how they forge their weapons. I’m sure the pointy ears and sticks in my hair would never give away the fact that I’m not a human like them! /nod
Above: Yes, we’re Infineum Cultists, don’t look at me like that!
I’m not good at posting walkthroughs, but I’ll offer a few tips here that my guild and I learned the hard way. I’d also recommend, though, that you check out a walkthrough at VG Bards (must register to see all of their forums, but I highly recommend it, there’s lot of good game info there), and a good entry about the cloak quest from Silverstep over at MMO Quests, a nice gaming blog. There are a lot of write ups out there, but these are the two that I found most helpful.
The Famous Fubared Fight: This is the first major encounter you face when doing the first part of the Infineum Questline, also known as the “cloak quest.” You’ve talked to Warder Pondar, you found the runaway slave (who is tucked in the rocks at the west side of the mines entrance), and you are set up outside the tent of the cruel Captain who has lured and enslaved others into mining infineum. The Fubared fight has been, well, fubared in a number of ways since launch, but a lot of the bugs are gone now, and the fight has been made much easier.
If you have multiple groups doing this encounter, there are two things you need to make sure not to do. First, make sure that the person who talks to Fubared is someone who is on that step of the quest, otherwise he will poof and you have to wait another 15 minutes for him to respawn. It’s no biggie, but if someone who has finished the quest talks to him, you will have to wait a little longer.
The other thing is to make sure that if multiple groups are there, the only group that should damage Fubared is the group that is aiming for the quest credit. During the fight, Fubared calls for his guards twice, bringing two adds with him each time. When he does that, he resets ownership, meaning if another group is doing damage to him, they can unintentionally get ownership later in the fight. So if you take a couple of guild groups there, or you meet up with another group that is at the spot, make sure that the extra groups only kill the adds, and not Fubared.
The Book and Quiz: For a while, the second part of the Infineum Quest line required you to seek out a book, and answer questions correctly based on lore. For whatever reason, the quiz is no longer part of the quest. So once you find the book, you just click it, and then grab a quest from the book on the floor.
The Trevorak Fight: This is for the quest “Vengeance,” which is part of the Infineum Ring quest. You’re tasked with killing Recruiter Trevorak, and this fight can be a little tricky if you aren’t heads up. When you have cleared around the Recruiter and start the fight, she brings four adds immediately. You’ll need some crowd control or off tanking in order to handle it, although some write ups mention kiting too. (I’m not a big kiting fan). If you have more than one group working on this part, the second group can only help by healing the first group. The encounter is locked so outside groups can’t do damage. If you can get control of the encounter early, though, the fight is very simple.
Finding Acadd: Maybe it was just us, but it took us forever to find Mineralogist Acadd. I blame that dumb gnome Donovan, who sent us west when he should have said south. Anyway, if anyone else has trouble, you can find Acadd by going south through the Infineum Mines, to the opening of the southern mines.
Above: Mineralogist Acadd. And to think, all this time, I was wandering around the Infineum mines with nothing but a bow and some leather, while Acadd has to sport this gnomish suit for protection. I think I need to have a sit down with that gnome Donovan.
Overall, this quest line has been perfect for a guild like ours. We’re a small guild of seasoned, yet mellow gamers. The Infineum questline offers us enough challenge to keep us on our toes, but it doesn’t involve long timesinks (at least so far!) that would suck us into a more hardcore playstyle that doesn’t fit our real life schedules. The rewards are also nice for anyone in their twenties, and I saw plenty of people lfg for various parts of the quests, so it tends to be a nice spot to find pickup groups.
Now if I could only find a way to get myself one of those funky suits that Acadd wears….
*Edit* Adding in another, and more thorough, walkthrough here at Vanguard Rangers.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 20-25 | Comments (3)
March 27, 2007
It’s official now! I am now going to be writing for Vanguard Vault, and my first entry there has been posted. I’m looking foward to being a part of the Vault staff, and while I will still put my entries here, I encourage anyone who visits here to head to Vanguard Vault instead. You’ll get my stuff plus a whole lot more over there.
I want to thank those of you who have been coming here, and I also want to give a big /golfclap to those of you who have been blogging your gaming experiences. It’s definitely a labor of love, and I really enjoy the work that fellow bloggers have been putting into their sites.
Thanks again and see you in game!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Gaming Commentary | Comments (8)
March 20, 2007
“Sometimes you bite the bear, and sometimes the bear bites you.”
The bear is definitely biting me right now. Last week, I was outside, basking in the sun, watching my son walk on grass for the first time, and trying to catch up to my daughter, who was doing a great impression of Mia Hamm. The kids and I got to rock out to “Real Gone,” while we played with the sandbox.
Today, we have about a foot of frozen snow all over everything, and it’s below freezing outside. I can’t even take the kids outside to play because the snow is about as hard as pavement right now. I’m so done with winter!
At least I can get away from it all in Vanguard right? Wrong! By the way, anyone who turns to MMORPGs to get away from the stress of real life is setting themselves up for a big letdown. I keep rediscovering that fact every so often.
Over the weekend, a group of us went back over to finish that quest at the lizard village in Strand of the Ancients, but bagged it early on because there is some kind of bug with the war banners that drop from the named. We killed two or three named, and none dropped the banner, so we gave up and moved on. I’m so done with bugged lizards!
We tried going down into Pantheon of the Ancients, but decided to leave after seeing the levels of the mobs down there. We met a friendly guy, though, who seems to be the custodian of the dungeon. I think he needs to get out more though. Maybe he’s been snowed in too.
We popped into Imanj Sanctellum to see if we could crawl around a little and work on a quest that we had gotten at the Garrison. After about 10 minutes of seeing only greys, we headed out. This is a nice spot for a group in their late teens/early 20s however. And there is a decent earring quest given out, called Failure of Imanj I think.
Since we were fairly close, I pestered the group to check out Skawlra Rock, a cool, but chaotic, spot that can be found if you swim through a little cave on the south side of the island. There are a couple of quests that you can get from the NPCs on the sandy beach just near the island, and one of them gives a nice chest piece for someone in their mid 20s.
We buffed up, glanced up the ramp at the mob con, and were confident that we had finally found a good spot for a night’s work of dungeon crawling.
Thirty minutes later, we were summoning our corpses and calling it a night. I think fatigue set in, and it would have helped to have a crowd control class with us. Overall, this was one of those times where the bear bit us.
On an upbeat note, we did explore that neat citadel just off shore near Strand of the Ancients. It’s full of angry cyclops, and at the top were some black clouds and two named. Basically it was like fighting a tower full of Master Blasters. It’s a good spot if you are looking for level 21-23 four dot mobs. (Nameds were 5 dot I think)
We’ve also been running guildmates through the Lyceum this week, now that the items are tradable. So far, everyone’s been able to get a great upgrade, although it usually takes some switching around to get an appropriate reward for all. The common item seems to be Ghaldrid’s Ebony Scalemail, and I’m now the proud owner of three of them! So if anyone on the Thunderaxe server can use one, and has been flagged as having killed Ghaldrid, look me up!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 20-25 | Comments (2)
March 17, 2007
Last night I was in the mood for something different. I was tired of the thick Thestran foliage in my face all the time, I needed some sand! I was also tired of always playing defense. Everywhere I went, I was stopping something bad from threatening the Thestrans – Kaon, Bugbears, spiders, orcs, goblins, and, yes, even cockatrices. *I* wanted to be the one doing the invading for a change!
Thanks to a tip from my curly-shoed, capri-pant wearing, friend Binnadon (he’s a bloodmage with some really funky clothing), we set off to the Upside Defense Garrison, in Qalia. Traveling there was a snap, since there is a teleport NPC right on the Khal Docks near the continental NPC porter.
We grabbed a quest from a gnome inside the bunker called Enter the Ra’Hazi. Apparently those at the garrison have been trying to make inroads into the jungle nearby, but have been driven back by the Skrillien lizard-people, who have settled into an area called Ssrevessk.
As you might expect, for any old EQrs or EQ2rs, it feels a little like Cazic Thule, with jungle ruins and lizard people. If you’re a WoWer, it might remind you of Zul Gurub. There’s also a room in the temple which made me grab for my Shissar Bane weapon, because it looks a lot like the Emperor Room in Ssraeshza Temple. *TIP* The room is behind a huge stone door, and can only be opened by saying the correct word, which you can learn from a quest at the Garrison.
The room also contains a hidden set of stairs under the stone steps and throne, which can be opened by pressing a stone lever on the right hand column in the room. I believe this is the dungeon, “Pantheon of the Ancients,” but we didn’t really explore it much. We killed some scarabs and then went back up top to finish the quest.
The quest is the first of a three-part line, with a nice choice of jewelry as a final reward. Each of the three steps requires you to kill certain lizards, in an effort to weaken them and enable the Garrison to make inroads into the jungle. The first part is pretty easy, and is probably soloable by anyone in their mid 20s. The second part is a little more difficult, since pulls tend to come in clumps, so it’s best to bring a friend or two. The last part involves killing level 25ish 4 and 5 dot mobs, so it’s really best to have a group.
Overall, it’s pretty straight forward, although there can be some waiting for the nameds to spawn for the “Final Assault.” Also, when traveling back and forth from the Garrison to Ssrevessk, it helps to have levitate, so you can shortcut across the water. The jungle outside the lizard encampment is filled with tigers too, so having invis helps avoid being mauled.
This is a really fun spot, and the area in general is great for adventurers in their high teens through twenties. There are plenty of other neat spots nearby, including Chrysol Mines for dungeon crawling groups in their teens, Skrawla Rock, for dungeon groups in their mid-twenties, and Kalendra’s Coven and Imanj Sacellum for groups in their early 20s.
Cool moment of the day – I had a lot of cool moments last night, but the best, hands down, was getting surprised with a new camel mount! Just as we were about to wrap up for the night, some of my group mates told me to follow them to do something quick. We headed across the Qa River, a little oasis just east of the Angoel Bunkers, where I saw a little group of camels and two gnomes. Next thing I know, Andaraiel, my tank /healer /puller /rezzer /dpsr /omgwhydon’ttheynerfdisciples guildmate, gave me the coin I needed to buy one, and the only problem I had was trying to choose between one hump or two.
Camels are so cool. It was a great surprise, and a really nice gesture. Now if I could only figure out how to keep him from spitting on everyone….
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 20-25 | Comments (6)
March 14, 2007
“From the outside I wanted people to see the ominous rock floating above the place and wonder what the heck happened here?!” – Daniel Baldwin, artist, quoted on Silky Venom.
As I approached the gates of Trengal Keep, that was exactly my first impression. Maybe it was the eerie green mist that surrounds the Keep. Maybe it was the huge floating rocks and alarmingly large drakes that loomed overhead. Or maybe it was the 12-orc train that came racing out of the gate and down the hill past us. Trengal Keep definitely gives you that feeling that something really bad has happened here, and that you’re probably about to find out, for better or worse.
From what I can tell, the Thestrans were driven out of the Keep by Orcs and Goblins. But at some point, the Keep was destroyed from within, sending huge chunks of rock upwards, and causing some of those meteor fragments to become animated beings. In addition, there are undead deeper inside the dungeon, and drakes flying overhead. It’s a bustling place, but not very friendly.
There are several nice quests in here. The big quest line is the 6 part “Legend of Trengal Keep,” quest that rewards you with some nice jewelery pieces, and a cloak if you complete part 6. There are also a couple of easy quests for a decent chest piece and leggings, which can be done with a small group of mid 20s.
But the real fun comes with a questline that allows you to have a ring created which will summon Karujin of the Gulgrethor. I haven’t begun this quest, but based on the lore surrounding Karujin, this sounds like it would be a pretty rough fight.
According to lore, Karujin was the leader of the Gulgrethor orcs, and he believed he was the one who should wield “The Harvester,” a powerful greataxe and the avatar of Ghalnn the Souldrinker, the god of war for orcs and goblins. He eventually seized it from the Martok goblins after two bloody invasions. There was rumor that the second invasion was successful because of some kind of deceitful magic, so it sounds like Karujin was dabbling with some powerful forces. It was his bloody rampage that caused the Martok to flee to Fanx Caverns, where newbie goblins retrace the steps of Grakkor.
I haven’t done this questline yet, but I’d love to summon Karujin. I think The Harvester belongs in Revelry and Honor /nod
Cool moment of the day: Seeing a huge black shadow suddenly cover our group, as a huge drake descended on us in the Trengal Keep courtyard. You know you have drake aggro even before he shows up on the target list, and seeing that shadow for the first time scared the poo out of me! (And the second, and the third…)
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 20-25,Vanguard Level 25-30 | Comments (1)
March 12, 2007
I got back this weekend, and got a chance to take advantage of the double, double, experience.
I killed some drakes.
I went into Trengal Keep, a really interesting dungeon. I’ll write more about it later.
I died to some wicked sirens, over at Coastal Graveyard. Wicked, wicked!
And I found a man sitting, the right way, on a bench! The animation does exist, so there is hope that someday we will learn to sit properly too!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard General | Comments (5)
March 5, 2007
I’m out of game for a few days but I just wanted to update my last write up a bit. I had mentioned that our group received rewards that were amazing, but were soulbound and did not match our respective classes.
The next day, I /bugged it, but I also went over to Silky Venom and posted about it in their general discussion forums. Twenty minutes later, I got a response from Cylus of Sigil, and he said the rewards would be changed in the next patch, so that they will be bindable, but only equipable if you have killed Ghaldrid. I was impressed at how quickly I got a response (I wasn’t really expecting it, just looking for some feedback from the community), and I’m thrilled that we’ll be able to trade the items to each other and make a better match of the rewards.
Long story short, the developers do listen to community feedback, and they are making many improvements to the game. I’m exhibit A that posting useful feedback can work.
I noticed later on that there is a stickied thread over at SV now that invites feedback on game bugs. After the quick response to my feedback, I highly recommend using it for any game bugs.
Here’s the link to my feedback post.
And here’s the link to the Silky Venom bug reporting thread.
I hope Bonus Experience Weekend was good to everyone! Back on Friday!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard General | Comments (1)