Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Boy is back in town..

Well, first things first last night I got a tell from a certain someone who was in game and setting up their UI and controls. Yes, Merecraft is back in EQ2! Funnily enough I was raiding with Mynna at the time who is an old time friend of Mere’s and halfway through the raid I get a tell from Mynna saying she had just seen an old name not seen for a while from her friends list pop up, hehe. Already back in game just 5 minutes and folks are talking about him. Welcome back mate, I hope you like the ‘new’ EQ2 (the last time he played was over three years ago). A lot has changed since then and Mere is going to have to do some catching up to get up to speed with things.

The good thing is, in the last three years most of the updates and tweaks have made sense. The changes have been to stuff that assist us to play the game more easily. Some of it good, and some bad in my eyes. For instance, as you all know I am not a big fan of ‘insta-travel’, although I do see the benefit and it has saved me when groups have been waiting for me. Although given the choice I would always hoof it on foot or griffon instead of using a dock port. Then there are the changes to the UI, single cures now, remodelling of alternative advancement skill points and an introduction of three expansions worth of new AA lines to follow. The changes to housing, the inflated prices, the gradual change of 1-9 chat from group hunting location to smack talking central, the fact you can wear appearance items from level nil now (as long as you have a toon above 20 I think). Then there is the loss of our old starting areas and the creation and changes since their creation of four new starting points. The changes have been many and it got me to thinking how I would cope if I had been away for the last three years. I’m sure it would be quite daunting, but definitely fun!! I honestly think the game flows a bit better nowadays. Yes it is a lot easier to level and although I’m not such a big fan of that, again though I can see the benefit with the level cap getting higher and higher.

But the game is still the same at its core and although progress is quicker, there are many tools to slow it down. Obviously the most important of which is the level lock or the slider for alternative advancement. I personally when starting a new toon like to slide the AA slider to 50% when I hit level 10 (although I think AA advancement may start at level 8 now..need to check that) and keep it that way until about level 16 to 18. Then I’ll boost it back to 100% exp and get to around 24th, then back down to 50% anywhere up to 100% depending on how the AA hunt is going. The progression can be slower, but I have never been a big believer of rushing and getting to 90th with 100 AA. Alternative Advancements are just too important nowadays at end game to not invest some time in them.

Anyhow, as I was saying, the content is pretty much the same. Want a bit of nostalgia, then head to any of the pre 50th level dungeons. They haven’t really changed all that much. OK, so where there used to be only ^^^ mobs, there are now single con mobs in some instances to allow for easier soloing, or they have simply changed the set up a bit, such as in DFC. Remember when Emperor Fyst was an epic x2? But essentially the enjoyment that was originally present in those zones and that content is still there, on the main it’s just some of the periphery stuff that has changed. I’m actually quite jealous my Brother is going to experience all of that kind of ‘a fresh’. Good luck to you mate, hope you have fun.

Other matters, raiding. Last night was a great night for me. I collected my tier 2 offensive shoulders from completing the Envoy Incursion questline (starts in Paineel, link to info is here) and then I won my Tier 2 offensive Helm slot item. Both are now wonderfully adorned and Voltaan is sitting in fully fabled raid gear with 4 Tier 1 pieces and two tier 2 pieces. I have only two Seals of Arad to gain now and then I can buy his sublime weapon too. It looks like the next thing to work on for Volt is AA. I am still terribly ashamed of the 196 points I have and need to get those a lot lot higher. Once I’m past 230 AA I’ll be happy.

Also last night after we had cleared Labs then Palace (2 Rune Theer ) we tried hard mode Toxx again. I must admit it was getting a bit late and I was getting tired after a crazy day at work and then raiding. As part of the hard mode fight when the Wyvern and Wyrm are down the brawler (me!) leaves the raid, runs up to Toxxulia, aggros her then feigns death. That way the encounter is broken and it gives the raid time to rest and gain power before the Toxxulia hard mode fight. Only this time, I typed /leave, hit enter, then ran across to aggro. Quite literally the same time as Toxx aggro’d I noticed in chat “LEAVE THE RAID”...whoops. Yes, everyone died. I scrolled further up only to see “You may not leave your group as you are engaged in an encounter”. Double whoops. It looks like I had hit /leave too early and it didn’t hold as the raid were still whacking the last 1% of the Wyrmlord. I think the rest of my raid force are going to have to start investing in some insurance for when the go to Toxx with me along. Last week it was two accidental pulls (whilst trying to find a good pull spot for Vuulan..oh, the irony) and this week the failing to leave the raid thing. Hopefully next week we will be heading there first thing and not late on when invariably my concentration starts to lapse. Or maybe I could just pay more attention! To any of my fellow raiders reading this, apologies for that. Also, sorry to you Jahf and thanks for your well wishes and congrats on winning my helm. I got a little busy again and didn't get round to replying. Like you said, I'm sure it was us bigging up the helm talk before hand. So thanks for that!

I was quite pleased last night with my snap aggro ability fun. Only once on Perah and once on the Crab was I completely out of all tools and unable to grab the aggro after the mobs ran riot. Admittedly on the Perah one I had just died and so was starting on the hate table from scratch and on the Crab one I had simply used all of my tools up. Whilst I had tools available though, all through Labs then Palace I managed to grab aggro then like a good delivery boy drop that mob off at the main tank so they could retake it. It all worked very well, aside from those two times. All in all a good night.

So what’s in store for me tonight? Well, the missus is going to be drooling all over the TV as the new series of The Vampire Diaries is on, so I am going to be online letting her get on with that. I may pop and see my Bro to see how he is getting along and then, well I guess I’ll just have to see.

Be well.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the welcome mate, and to Mynna too! It was a nice welcome to see a friendly face.

    So much has changed! I already have lots of notes for a new blog post on the matter! Looking forwards to seeing the new and old areas again too. But what's happened to Fyst?!! I remember the sense of achievement when I managed to duo him with my wife.

    See you in Norrath! (hopefully tonight, but may end up being tomorrow)

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  2. Fyst was changed down to a tough three arrow up so the whole instance of DFC can be grouped at the appropriate level. Now, when you kill his champion in the Arena in the basement (No waves of mobs this time - just his Champ), Fyst runs off upstairs to await you with a load of his cronies.

    Was good to see you last night :)

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  3. Welcome back in good old Norrath!

    It's always nice seeing old names popping up on the friend list :)

    Don't hesitate if you need a hand with anything, although you seem to be well taken care of already.

    By the way, did you know that Unrest is back?

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