The Grind

I haven’t played to much EQ2 lately. It is just the solo grind that is getting to me. From what I am reading the Kunark expansion was very heavily geared to solo play. Then there is all the time sinks that I am hitting. I was going to play a little Saturday night but when I sat down and thought about how many zones I would have to go through just to get to Fens I decided to watch a movie instead.

 I tend to log out on the Butcher Block dock that seems to be the best place to me. I can use my “Call of Ro” and sell faction items in the Court of Blades. Then pop down and over to Butcher Block and hit the mender, broker and banker. So when I log in I am on the docks and can check the broker and my mail. So to get to Fens I have to go through SS, NQ, Ant… (Wait on the boat), Kylong and then Fens. SO that is 5 zones with a boat wait and a bird ride to get to the area I need to quest in to level. That is around 20 min of just zoning, waiting and flying.

So I log in Sunday going to work on trying to get half a level before the raid. I spend my 20 mins getting to Fens. Pull up my journal and head to do a quest turn in. Then to my surprise bam I have to have a high enough faction to complete the quest. Ok so lets get to some faction grinding but wait I don’t speek the language of the quest giver. So at this point I am pushing 45 min of game time just to find out I need to go back and get some language quest done.  So I call to Kelethin and head to Steamfont. Once there I get the quest which is a level 35 quest so ne exp for this one.  I spend 2hrs killing gray mobs getting updates just so I can go get more grinding quests.

After that I logged and thought what a waste of a Sunday morning.  With this slump it could take me a while to get to 80.

I didn’t make it

Well I didn’t manage to get into DDO Tuesday like I had planed. But I have decided to take Tayln and Ustice’s advice and play the game for a few months. So having this weekend off I should be able to get in and do some group action. I have also been trying to talk the guys from my old table top days into giving the game a go.

 

I do have a good reason for not making it though I decided to get level 75 on Amirah my Illusionist in EQ2. Only 5 more long levels. Once I do get to 80 I will have all kinds of things to do at that point. Most of if involves working on my epic weapon quest line. I did get a new hat in the Tuesday night raid. It was a nice upgrade for me but the graphic is just awful.  So don’t plan on seeing me run around game with it displayed.

What a pet

Just another fun pic this week. This is one big Owl Bear.

Just some pics today

First off is a very strange window that popped up on my yesterday.

 

Now my favorite LoN loot card ever.

Gaming Week 5,6,7,8

I seem to really have fallen behind on my gaming updates. Not really too much has happened over the last month in gaming.  Not only have a fallen behind in my blog posting but also in my reading I am sure everyone has those time where it is just one thing after another in both real life and in gaming. So here goes a 1 month run down. 

I did reactivate my CoH/CoV account for my son to play and was really surprised at how many servers where showing yellow and red statues. I am not really sure what they have going on over there but it really seems to be bringing people back. He is doing really well in the game and is up to level 10. I did have to tell him it isn’t polite to just follow people around and heal. He was having fun just following people around and healing them out of group. So I guess it is goodbye ToonTown and hello CoH/CoV.

There just really isn’t a whole lot to report on in EQ2. The guild I am in Revelry and Honor is almost level 30. I have doing my HQ’s and building up my statues points. Cannot wait to get my 6 room acorn. Lets see my Illusionist Amirah is up to level 47 I should be 48 by the end of the week.  I also got her to level 24 as a tailor.

Well that is about it. I am still having a good time in EQ2 but it looks like all the real excitement is with my son and CoH/CoV.

Strange Sights

I just wonder what drops the Rogan.

Why every game needs an appearance tab.

Pumpkin Head

Once again I have fallen behind on my blog. The good news is that I haven’t fallen behind on my game time. Some guild mates and I did take down Pumpkin Head the other night.  So now we can all sport little pumpkin heads.

Nibldum, Nibldee, Meriwyn, Amirah, Aryanoe, Vadel, Whoof, Dawgfood and Elementor

Amirah

I felt I need some new clothes so I did a little shopping.  

 

Gaming Week 4

Well no Vanguard group again this week. Not really a good excuse behind it this time. A lot of it has to do with the fact I don’t really feel a drive to play it. The fact the SOE has scaled the staff so far back is the real culprit. Including the time in beta I have been playing for more then a year now. Outside of APW the only new group area that has been added is Tricksters Hideout. There are areas in the game that could be great but need a lot of attention to get them up and working.  Now I haven’t wrote it off my list or anything but I think I am going to sit back and wait maybe six to nine months before I start to comet any serious time to it.

On to a little FPS action I did a little stop in CoD4 multiplayer. Needless to say I wasn’t impressed with that part of the game. I have never really cared for an experience system in a shooter game. I also got in some Counter Strike Source also and that was great. I have a few servers on my favorites list and all in all had a blast. I did learn that I do need to work on my skills a lot. Even though I had more deaths then frags I still had a good time.

The big MMO for me right now is Everquest 2. I have just been having a great time since I came back to the game. With the 2 expansion that I missed it is like a whole new game. After several hours of searching to day I found the commands I needed to turn off some of the titles and tags people have in there name. In Vanguard I can hit N and turn off peoples names it seems that you can not do that in EQ2. It is possible to turn of titles and guild tags. I guess that will have to do. I just really want to clean up the clutter on my screen during raids.

The raid Tuesday went well. We did guild raids one and two again. The second raid didn’t go as well as the first. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that it was getting late, we where one short and are level was a lot lower. The level difference probably had the biggest effect. I think last week where mentored in the 30’s and this week we where at 27 and 28.

I do have a rant this week and I just have to get it off my chest. Why is it that with Kingdome of Sky every teleport is a time sink. I mean really the dock bells are instant the carpet to Burning Sands is instant. Why is it that with KoS I have to wait at the alters and at docks for boats all the time. I have to get on a boat and ride it to from TS to BB but I can just warp to NF that makes no freaking sense at all. I could keep going with this rant but I think I will stop it here. Something tells me that this is going to be the one thing that just always drives me crazy in the game.

Gaming Week #3

Well it was another good week. To start off with I did manage to complete Half-Life2 Episode 2 and Portal this weekend and both are great. The way the story line continues in Episode 2 was just amazing. It was a much longer expansion then Episode 1 and I have to say a lot better. The game play of Portal was just incredible I would recommend Portal as a must have game for anyone. Then add on the excitement that the story arc adds to Half-Life and it just makes you wanting Episode 3 even more. I also played the Lost Coast part also. I was a little surprised that the recommend proc speed is a 2.9 for it but my dual core seemed to handle it just fine.

I also went on my first raid in EQ2 with Revelry and Honor this weekend. This was the first time I had really grouped with a lot of the RnH folks and it went really well. We managed to knock out the first two guild raids in just a few hours time. I have to say I was really impressed with the group as a whole. The fact that they want to mentor down and feel the experience of the raid and not just gray it out is rather refreshing. One just has to remember that you can not mentor when already mentoring some one. I did get another one of my heritage quest done, knock out 2 levels and burn all my rest exp.

Once again I didn’t make it into Vanguard. Half-Life just really seemed to draw me in to it. I was a little disappointed to find out that they only have two devs working on all 16 classes. I think I am with most people there really is something in Vanguard. It could really become something given the right resources. Unfortunately I feel that it has entered gray mode in the world of SOE.

I am going to try and get back to my topic on content and groups later this week. I have been bouncing my thoughts off a few people and getting some great feedback.