I’m really enjoying playing Blacke. Aside from the fact I like Rangers I think the thing I am most enjoying is the way I am immersing myself in EQ2. It’s been a long time since I actually ‘enjoyed’ playing the game and not just going through the motions. I really do enjoy spending time with my guildies on my 80 toons, but that’s the company, not necessarily the game that fuels that fun. But now I seem to be finding enjoyment in the game again, which is nice. My rules mentioned here seem to be working out really well for me and are stimulating the interest in the game I thought I had forgotten.
Blacke has spent the last couple of days exploring and starting the questlines from the Sapling Spur outpost having finished the starter lines from the Nursery and Shroom caves. And he is still only level 10! I have set the exp/AA bar to 75% AA, 25% adventure experience. It seems to be working out well with my plans. I am levelling slowly enough to at least keep all of my quest journal in the blue and to ensure I get to indulge in all of the quests available without skipping them because I have outlevelled the content.
My quest to group as much as I can has been fruitless so far, but I guess that is to be expected at level 10. I did ask a warden (lev 10) if we could group who seemed to be popping up everywhere I was and completing the same quests. Unfortunately I was ignored so I tried again only to be told “I’ll be 25th by the end of today, haven’t time to grp. Sry. GL”. I suppose that’s to be expected considering the normality of the rush to 80. I did actually see the same toon returning to Kelethin later. I was still level 10 and they were 17th. Seems their prediction may have been correct. Previously that would have got my back up. Simply because using my old mindset my reaction would have been akin to “How dare they level faster than me!” But now, I can casually wave goodbye to those who pass me and carry on with my own story and goal for immersion. It certainly is a stress free way of playing the game.
I will need to keep up to date with my harvesting/forestry/mining etc, especially if I want to gather enough raw materials to have level 12 then 22 armour crafted for him. That’s not a big deal though and I am finding that with the relaxed playing style I have adopted it seems to come quite easily. In view of that I have also decided to begin woodworking to assist with arrow usage. When Shahlai was a Ranger (levels 72 to 80), that is the one thing that used to get on my nerves, the cost of arrows, so hopefully I can negate that issue by keeping up to speed on woodworking. I figured that although I do not enjoy crafting in EQ2 that if I could at least keep my crafting level within two or three levels of my adventure level then the process would be fairly painless with no mad rush later on to catch up. If I can get him to level 10 crafting, which of course I will, I then plan on gaining a crafter level every time I level in adventure mode. That way I will never get out of synch.
Well, I am going to give it a go trying to get a group again tonight, maybe even a duo to get that fun rolling along nicely. Aside from that I am simply going to continue to explore and complete quests, do a bit of harvesting, probably some crafting too. Oh, I just remembered. One of the things I am doing is instead of picking up a quests from an NPC then going into click-fest mode without reading the long dialogue simply to get to the ‘accept quest’ part, is reading the storylines thoroughly. I have always intended to do this, but it’s not easy when you have limited time online and the NPC has decided to pour their heart out to you. However, that was the old way of playing. The rush rush to 80 mindset. Now that I’m in a different state of mind over how I approach the game, I am finding very interesting and rewarding actually following the dialogue and spending the time reading it. It has really amazed me how much thought has gone in to most of the quests, even the short quick ones and some of them are indeed quite captivating and funny. So, I’m looking forward to more of the same tonight.
A quick mention from Ed, who sent me a text message yesterday. Here it is;
“Posts are crappy-bland-boring w/o my input. Say Hi to all 4 me. Idiot – Ed”
Nice to know he’s still compassionate as ever. Please rush back home Ed. *bird*
Be well.
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