Friday, May 27, 2005

Training For A Shield

Over the past week, I was just completing the trials given by Grozmeg (in Zek) for the Heritage quest Training Is A Shield. I also got the Stein Of Moggok quest with the help of Brenu, and with Zehn running around in Feerrott, managed to get all the bouncers...

So now all that is outstanding is to face Glurg the Bartender in Feerrott for the Stein, and to try to get a Sparkling Flower and an Ash Stave to advance on An Axe From The Past quest, another heritage.

Man I'm knee-deep in Heritage quests!

Deathfist Citadel is one big scary place full of orcs. I had to get into a raid to get the final part done - kill Emperor Fyst. That was the first and last time I will go into DFC again. Upon completion of that quest, I dinged 39, so yeah now I'm level 39, with about 5 bubs more to go to hit 40.

Yay me!

Friday, May 20, 2005

Tradeskilling and Feerott

I spent the past few days actually in the Tradeskill instance, levelling up to 10 in tradeskills too! I kind of actually found it FUN (gasp!) and made myself some Shurikens, a couple of Sconces (candle holders for walls). I even made additional chairs for the long dining table I got from quests earlier.

So last night I was thinking that maybe I should work on the tradeskill again, and so I went to Thundering Steppes to get some stuff for the new level 10 stuff I can now make. While harvesting, someone was asking if anyone else wanted to go kill Varsoon, so I decided to join and hope that they might also want to get the books of Lfe and Death too.

So one thing led to another and eventually I got the quest Strange Black Rock done. So, when that was done I decided to head to Rivervale for Grumblerutt. Upon zoning into Thundering Steppes again (on the way to Nektulos Forest and then on to Enchanted Lands), I bumped into fellow guildmate Elariol. He was LFG and we teamed up. Along the run to the docks we decided to go to Feerott instead and we did.

On the run in from the docks into the Feerott jungle, we bumped into yet another guildmate, Zehn. Now, 3 of us teamed and started working on everyone's quests, killing, maiming etc. The xps came fast and furious, and by the time I needed to go, I had gained seven bubbles of xps! In other words, I am now again, 1.5 bubs from 38. Tonite, if I solo, I should hit 38 around midnight. If I group, I should get 38 in an hour or less.

Plus, I still need to turn in a couple of quests, those might bring some xps to bump it closer to 38 for me too. Well, that's the plan.. once I hit 38, I'm gonna work on tradeskills and try to get them up to at least 20, and go with Woodworker.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Journeyman's Boots and Bone Dirk

Yes indeed folks, over the weekend, I completed two, yes, 2 Heritage quests! First was the Reaching Blade Of The Assasin quest, which gave a Serrated Bone Dirk. Since I'm a monk and can't used it, I hung it up on the wall at home.

Second one was the Journey Is Half The Fun quest. Grawfr took me on the Zek, Enchanted Lands and the Feerott runs, and we got through them all fine. The coolest thing is, I hit 36 on Friday night, and then logged off, so I'm like not even 1 bub into 36 when we started doing the Heritage Quests.

However, by the time I finished both these quests, I was 6 or 7 bubs into 36! Just from these 2 quests! Also, not to forget that I did die too, so there are debts to take into consideration, but the amount of xps is insane! I put the Journeyman's Boots next to my Dwarven Work Boots at home too, right at the foot of the bed.

So anyway, I was just running around in Zek trying to kill Vallon Quarry Elites when I got a tell from someone looking to form a RunnyEye group. So, why not? I head on over to Enchanted Lands, and joined the group.

That was by far the best pickup group I ever got into, guild mates notwithstanding. Nobody died, nobody panicked and ran, nobody stood by doing nothing while others do the work. In fact I even hit 37 during the raid on RunnyEye.

As I said earlier, level 36 was a short level for me... 2 heritages and 1 foray into RunnyEye was enough to bring me to 37. Wonder if I can repeat the same feat and hit 38 by Wednesday? Hmm..

Friday, May 13, 2005

Purple Monkeys and Snakes

The most prominent feature in Feerott, I found, was the abundance of Huuptics. They are a race of purple primate-looking creatures. I call them Purple Monkeys. As soon as you step off the boat onto the docks, you can see them to the left and right on the shore.

Purple monkeys, although a little dumb, hit really hard. Taking one out alone already tires me to near exhaustion. Thus, when an anthropologist beseeched me to help her study the different types of Huuptics, it took a really long time before I got back to her with my results.

Yes, I have started spending more time in Feerott. Amazingly, it is MUCH safer in Feerott than in Zek. Over in Zek, I die on an average of 2 times per visit. In Feerott, I die an average of 0 (zero) times per visit, and the mobs are tougher here! Needless to say, this place is laden with XPs. Just spending some time trying to complete a quest will bump your xp bar up by about 2 bubs (or 20%, as they like to say here in EQ2).

One of the quests I have here is an annoying one - snake hunting. In City of Heroes, I hated those "Defeat x" missions. Here, I am starting to hate them with a passion. Sometimes, they tell you to "Kill mob until you get item", and I tell you, it will take a HEAP of mobs to get just 1 update. Imagine they tell you to kill 5, you'd kill on average, about 50 of that mob to get all 5 updates.

Then there is the other annoying type - kill the same mob, but of different "types". So you kill x ENRAGED wolves, then x FEROCIOUS wolves, then x WEALD wolves. By the time you are done with all 3 types, you'd be halfway to the next level.

Anyway, now all I need are brush stalkers (snakes). I don't even know how many I need, because the journal doesn't say. However each time I kill one, the quest helper will update and I will get to see how much is left to kill. Guess I will have to go deeper into Feerott and get this to update. Damn annoying quest, this.

Currently I am half a bar away from 36. Should be easy to get tonight, should be done in an hour or less. Once I hit 36, I'm going to switch out to Terenius and continue his climb up to 11 or 12.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

My Lucky Star

Tonight has been another good night on EQ2. First of all, I finally managed to scrape together enough money to buy a horse.

So I ran straight to South Qeynos stables and bought one as soon as I could. After that, I rode the horse all the way to Nektulos Forest, intending to continue foraging for a cluster of palladium so I can continue my Heritage quest A Strange Black Rock. About 4 or 5 stones later, I found Palladium!

As such, I have decided to name my new horse "Lucky". Here Lucky! Here boy! *whistle*

Oh yeah, not forgetting I finally managed to complete the city writ Sinew vs Steel in Zek, and on my own too!

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Druid Dude

Last night I decided to give my monk a rest, and started playing my (long-forgotten) level 7 priest. I made this guy about the same time as the monk, with the inspiration coming from my Arleah character Goondur, the evil cleric (which I believe was about level 18 or so in Arleah, which would translate to about level 46 here in EQ2).

I continued the long-forgotten "visit every spot listed in the book" beginner quest which I had stopped months ago on this guy. Along the way I picked up a couple of more quests and managed to somehow level him up to 9.

At this point, the "pick a class" quest popped up, and honestly, I spent the entire level 9 just completing this one task, because it was a lengthy quest. Speaking of lengthy... heritage quests are the longest ever! Class quests pale in comparison to length.

So, finally hit 10, chose Druid class and logged off. Tonight I might continue on the Druid, or maybe I might go back to the monk. Maybe I should try to get another level on the monk just to be safe, so that if Grawfr ever levels up to 46, he won't have to mentor down to accomodate me on Friday when we do the Reaching Blade Of The Assasin quest.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

I Got My Earrings! Aren't They Pretty?

I got home today and immediately set about trying to hit 35, which I did after an hour or so. I ran straight to Enchanted Lands to grab The Reaching Blade of The Assasin Heritage quest. First stop - West Freeport to talk to a "witness". So, trying to sneak into Freeport is pretty easy. Blame it on the self-serving braggarts of Freeport guards. How easily I snuck in under their noses!

After I had completed the steps up to talking with the halflings in Qeynos North, I decided to turn my attention back to trying to get a group to kill Hrath T'Vol. Unfortuntely no groups were forming and I had to scrape one together. Got lucky by having fellow guildies Dava, a level 40 Paladin, and Elariol, level 32 Wizard, to join. Also called upon a level 41 healer called Helm, from the Nektropos Castle group to kill Everling.

We went into Varsoon pretty smoothly. Nobody got hurt, nobody died, except for one team member, whom I shall not name and will never ever group with ever EVER again, kept running ahead and aggroing everything until we all died.

So anyway, since Elariol and I needed to complete Where This Will Lead Me quest too, we rotated around the 3 rooms and as luck would have it, the bosses in these rooms spawned pretty much on-cue and didn't require "camping".

In one of the rooms, Hrath T'Vol spawned, and we got him too. Hence, we advanced the Hadden's Earrings Heritage quest too. After the group disbanded, I went to continue this quest and eventually finished this one, and put another bub of xps on the guild. I have no idea how much status points I have now but I know that it's in excess of 140,000.

Tonight was a good night in EQ2... *big grin*

Monday, May 09, 2005

Ghoulbane Ghoulbane Hanging On The Wall

Yes indeed folks, I completed the Restoring Ghoulbane Heritage quest! Got up to 6,000 plus status points in guild, and personal status points of about 130,000!

It's kinda cool to have these status points because when you run past guards in town, they snap to attention and salute me... heh!

Trying to get into a raid group was murder. Yeah I needed Torig dead in Cauldron Hollow, but nobody seems to want to set up a raid to go in there and get it done. Grawfr suggested in guild chat that I start one, so I did.. needless to say the response was overwhelming and I had to actually turn away people. The raid group was FULL, 4 groups of 6 people each, with a total of 24 people hammering away at Descendant Of Torig. He had no chance, poor guy.

So, after the raid, we all ran to Toranim in North Qeynos and zoomed back to Nek for the finale - to kill Malthus Everling. Yes, this time Everling did die. My group included 2 people from the raid too, and we methodically went through the castle and finally into Everling's room.

After Everling fell, a sense of relief overcame us. Finally we killed Everling. Finally I finished Ghoulbane quest. Finally I got Hadden's Earrings quest to advance.... but that's another headache... seems like nobody wants to go into Varsoon to get Hrath T'Vol.

Well anyway, currently I'm 1.5 bubs away from 35, and 18 gold pieces from a horse. Tonight, I will be trying to get to 35 and get a group to kill Hrath T'Vol.

I hope.

Friday, May 06, 2005

Shiny Brass Halberd

Yesterday, I completed this Heritage quest. Was completely lucky too, because I managed to join a group that was already camping T'Sanne in Nektulos, and I waited like a total of 5 minutes only, before the waves started popping and Captain T'Sanne appeared.

We died the first time, due to the unexpected nature of the appearance. However as the rest started to run back from revive points, we took him down easily the 2nd time around. He was conning a green 29^^ to me, at level 33. Even so, it was hard to fight him solo.

We headed back to K'Naee and the assasins popped on cue. They died, we all finished the quest without incident. Got some 30,000 status points, a Shiny Brass Halberd, and contributed about 2,200 status points to the guild too, and effectively bumping the guild level up from 15 to 16. YAY!

Currently I am at 1.5 bubs away from 34, so my "mission" tonight is to head to Enchanted Lands, grind the last 1.5 bars to 34 and then see about getting a group for Torig. Or I could head to Crypt of Betrayal and try to look for the Ire Warlock guy.

In any case, hitting 34 is more important right now... one more level could mean the difference between sucess/failure on the Torig raid or on the Ire Warlock...

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

City Writs

It took me TWO HOURS to clear 2% debts to finally hit 33. And people were complaining debt in City of Heroes was bad! Somehow it seems like debt is easier to clear in CoH than here, and the debt bar is even LONGER in CoH!

Anyway, my main mission for tonight when I get home is this - get some City Writs from North Qeynos, the guards, and then go to Zek to do them. From what I see, they are relatively easy - killing Tallon grunts/operators and so on. Since I have already killed 25 grunts for a quest, I can easily kill just 17 to 20 for a city writ. Plus it gives me 2,250 status points on average for each writ, so may as well get it. I still need like 2 or 3 more writs to get 52,000 status points to buy a horse.

Speaking of horses, the thing about them is that they are so damn expensive! The only equivalent I can find in CoH is the Icon Tailors, where each change of costume costs you millions of influence. Then again, at levels 35+ in CoH, you had millions to spend anyway, and influence isn't a problem.

After the writs, if there is time, I will be concentrating on killing Ash Owlbears trying to get 60 of them so I can advance Dragoon K'Naee heritage quest onto the undead part.

I think I probably will be solo most of the time tonight - this time by choice, not by circumstance.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Feerott Is Green!

Yes, I dinged 32 and got Feerott Access done with the help of the guild. Had to do it twice though, because honestly, a scrapper is not a very good tank. Besides, I didn't really upgrade my taunts. Most times I can't even peel mobs off other people.

Hmm ok maybe I should look into upgrading my taunts, just in case.

Yesterday, just on a lark, I went to Nektulos Forest and broadcasted for a group to kill Everling. Amazingly I got picked up in 20 secs flat! We were doing pretty good too.. very few deaths, I didn't even die once... until Malthus Everling.

His buddies and him whack us silly... we had a team wipe in under 30 seconds. I don't know if I want to try it again once the server comes up, but my first priority is to hit 33 first for today. Just a bit more to go!

As it is now, I am half a bar away from 33, and with debts... dangit! If I didn't have debts I could have been 33 now before the shutdown. In any case I will get 33 as soon as the servers come up and I kill wantonly. I know I need 6 more bears, but bears are SO hard to kill on Enchanted Lands! I have to engage a bear TWICE, breaking once. Seems like it's more luck than skill killing a bear.

But then again, most stuff are yellow to me on EL. At 32, and they are yellow. That shows you how high the mobs are there! Should I go back to Zek, or to Nektulos Forest.. hmmm choices choices!

In other news, I am now at 70 gold... very close to 1 platinum, and with one more platinum I can buy a horse!

Ok I really need to get back to the city and get some writs, and also to kill off the final 30 ash owlbears to move on to the next stage in the Dragoon Knaee Heritage quest.