Hats the way to do it

Hooloh’s Hat quest, ‘The Blood of the Brood’ was the order of the night last night in EQ2 with my Bro. I love that quest. It’s always been one of my favourites. Having done it so many times on all the toons I have over 62nd level, in total I think about 13 or 14 over the years, I can recall every aspect of it.

Over the last couple of years there’s been a few changes to the quest that in my opinion make it a little easier, but perhaps not so much fun. I know it sounds silly, but one of the main things that I don’t like with the change is the fact Hooloh is now situated on the ground on Strifewind Isle, pretty much directly below the chain he once stood on. I loved the fact it was a right Royal pain to get to Hooloh every time you needed to speak to him. I have no idea why, but I kinda liked that. There are some things they haven’t changed that I appreciate and was surprised are still the same. For instance, the Scroll Bearer mob you have to kill is still a ^^^ encounter and still has a huge amount of hit points compared to like levelled cons. SoE seem to have dumbed down a lot of the earlier content and have changed a lot of mobs from ^^^ to a simple ^ or an even con.

We managed to get the update from The Nest of the Great Egg after leading Hooloh to the egg to commune with it, the weird owl. A quick run in to The Palace of the Awakened got Mere his Dreadknight blood update and then we headed over to the Halls of Fate in The Bonemire to try and get the hardest updates for the quest. This was another area they seemed not to have changed. The drop rate for the quest updates has always been a bit woolly with them being rare or uncommon drops and last night was no exception. As usual when running the quest most updates were obtained through a bit of tenacity and in some circumstances Mere was lucky with an update after the first couple of kills. The one that caused us issue last night was the Formless Abominations deep down in the Halls and with it being an instance and a ring encounter, I’m pretty sure they don’t re-spawn. So, when no updates were forthcoming Mere had to accept a return journey would be necessary at some point. We headed on to kill Sothis without any trouble at all and in fact he was dead before he even got a chance to summon his Skarize(?) Mummies to help him. We’ll head back at some point soon (after lockout expires) to get that one update that’s outstanding. Hopefully then Mere can go grab his lovely ring of flowers for his Warden as a reward.

On RIFT I have not progressed much further only having a few hours play time since we last spoke. I have got myself a mount now that increases my speed to 60% which is much better for getting around and I’m nearly level 14. Thanks to Kaelkardan (buddy and Guild Leader) who lent me the money for the horsey. I’ll pay you back soon. Promise. Honest. I have just reached the stage where you arrive at The Sanctum which is quite an impressive place to look at and there is plenty of back story to be found from talking to the locals.

One thing that is remaining constant with RIFT is my ability to totally forget how mashed up my toon got when he last tried to take on an invasion through a RIFT on his ownsome lonesome. I don’t know why I keep doing it. I know there is no one else around to help and I know that once all of the mobs become interested in me which invariably happens when you are alone, I will last about 10 seconds before impending doom. I honestly don’t know why I do it. I know what the result is going to be, yet I still shout my battle cry and just launch myself at them. Maybe I should have started a Warrior class instead of a Rogue. I have fun doing it anyway.

It’s interesting swapping from one MMO to another. Especially when like I have you do it in quick succession. For example, the night before last I logged in to play RIFT for 30 minutes, then hopped over to EQ2 to group and quest with me Bro, then when we logged from EQ2 I moved straight back to playing RIFT. I really notice the difference in graphics of course as RIFT seems a little more ‘fairy tale’ than EQ2. The toons are still realistic looking enough, it’s just something about the atmosphere they seem to create in RIFT, well the areas I have been so far in Silverwood anyhow. Aside from that though, the differences are surprisingly few. Yes, the mechanics side of things is slightly different, but the feeling and general game play is very similar indeed, obviously aside from RIFTs popping up everywhere. Perhaps more so in line with how EQ1 felt than EQ2, but it’s still very much in the same league. It goes to show you what I mean when I say the biggest thing I am struggling to get used to when I swap between the two games like that is the fact that in RIFT you have to right click everything.

I have a long weekend coming up and plan to make the most of it with RL fun and gaming too, but one must not forget the reason why I have an extra day off this weekend and that is the marriage of our Royal Prince William to his missus Kate Middleton tomorrow. I wish them the very best for the day and their future together. However, I absolutely and sincerely hope I am very wrong, but I do think the Royal Wedding will be a target of terrorism of some sort. I just hope my old colleagues are up to the job in trying to stop it. I am sure they will have done everything they possibly can to prevent such a problem but as we know in matters such as terrorism, the perp usually holds all the aces. Like I say, I really really do hope I am wrong but I just have this feeling that I am not. Let’s pray I am an idiot and have no idea what I am talking about.

I won’t be watching the wedding myself. I’m not a Royalist, even though I do respect the work they do and the culture and cash they bring to our great nation. I don’t see the point in watching the wedding when I shall likely see all the important bits repeated on the news ad infinitum over the coming weeks. I think I’ll take the kids down the beach for the day instead. Sun, sand, sea, lot’s of ice lollies, sand castles and maybe, just maybe a cold beer or two. Have a great weekend.

Be well.