All change and something new.

Yes, I know. I have changed guilds, again. But the reasoning is good, you see? Well, I was going to stay in Clan Werre as the people there are really really nice. But now, most of the euro players have left and the decision has been made by the leaders to raid four hours later, so I wouldn’t have been able to attend any raids.

Now raiding is what I enjoy, but I am not obsessed with it. I would however like the opportunity to raid occasionally when I want to, but with the raid times as they are now in CW that is an impossibility. So a move was required with no hope of raiding in guild and the fact most peeps were not about or online when I was. A shame, but it happens. Thank you Clan Werre for your hospitality! If you are a US time zone player and enjoy a family guild with a bit of raiding, then CW would be a nice home. Great bunch.

So. Where to? Well, I decided I would try to join Tapiolan Sankarit. My wife has her toons there and always seems to have a blast and a good laugh with her guildies. She always speaks highly of them. I had met a few of TS guildies briefly in groups, never to talk to in depth but just as passing acquaintances for an hour or so and they were always super nice/helpful folks. So I thought I would chuck me eggs in to that basket with my wife. I have only been in a day or so with just Adurj at the moment, but as I thought, everyone has been more than welcoming. The guild is predominantly Euro time based also which is exactly what I need so there seems to be loads of peeps online when I log in. All in all, very happy with my decision so far and looking forward to lots of guildy groups / fun.

Requiem: Momento Mori

This weekend I did something that I have not done for a very very long time. I got my hands on a new MMO. Req uiem: Momento Mori is an adult themed Horror MMO and is free to play! The graphics look like a cross between Guild Wars and Hellraiser and all in all are pretty sweet (Gore central & scantily clad ladies and men). The game play that I have experienced so far seems ok too. The movement/interaction keys are mapped the same as I have my EQ2 key setup, so I found that strangely comforting and very easy. I am quite excited about starting playing in earnest. However, I have hit a problem. I play the game for about 3 to 5 minutes and it just stops. I get a windows error message that tells me absolutely nothing and the application just shuts. I have no idea what is going on with it, but I am keen to sort out the problem as the game seems certainly good enough to want to explore some more.

As soon as I have got Requiem: Momento Mori to work and I get a better look at the game, I’ll let you know what it’s like. Until then,

Be well.

A workable raid force..?

With the recent troubles our guild has been experiencing in attaining a good raid attendance and the amount of top end raiders that have gone /afk until the expansion release in February or sought more consistent raiding climes, I have been thinking about how I am going to feed my inner raider.

Having researched my options I am now down to three.

• Move servers to Splitpaw or Runnyeye and join a raid guild on euro time server

• Stay at Clan Werre and hope that the raid attendance picks up

• Stay at Clan Werre and formulate a raiding alliance (of sorts)

What I mean by the last point (which is currently most favourable to me), is not just forming a simple raid alliance with another guild, but to specifically advertise for any players of a certain standard that play mainly on AB server during Euro play times. Kind of what Leonardo is doing with the ‘For the People’ raids, but with a dedicated raid force each time and not pick ups.

If I could get enough interest from people willing to attend three raids a week at euro times, regardless of what guilds they are in and without a requirement for them to leave their guild, I feel it could be a fairly successful venture.

The logistics would be easy. To create a guildportal website for the raid force and simply direct those who wish to join to sign up on their for the raid force and raid events. They wouldn’t have to leave their current guild but would be able to view the calendar on the raid force website and sign up. The raids would only be viewable by those in the force. The difference being from the PuRs that Leo and others run is that the force would be a set dedicated one. If formed properly we wouldn’t have to advertise for pick ups as our chosen members of the raid would be attending all or most of the raids.

So where would I advertise such a thing? Well, EQ2 flames would be a good start and obviously in channels with a link to the guildportal website ( I hate spammage so that should be kept to a minimum). Aside from that word of mouth I guess.

I’m still mulling it over, but I must say I really am quite keen on the idea. Just need to make sure I feel committed enough to the hard work it would entail. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Now...to think of a name..

Be well.

AA, the Power Levellers PITA

I am starting to rue the day when I decided to be impatient and power level Adurj. I knew it would happen, yet I still in my eagerness and knowledge that with my limited play time it would take an eternity to reach top tier, I went ahead and sped him up from mid 40’s (where he had sat for a long time) to level 80. I was extremely pleased at the time. The timing was perfect, Clan Werre were just starting raiding WoE 3 times a week and obtaining myth updates also. So within 3 weeks I was fully T3 and had my myth. Well. I had all of my T3 pieces. I just had to get the shards.

But now I have done all that I am finding myself on an uphill battle to gain AA for the beloved Battle Cry. With the new expansion looming in February, I really need to make sure I hit 200 AA by then, or all of the collection quests I am storing up will not be serving their purpose in giving me a good start in to T9.

So, at the moment I am questing like crazy, trying to hit new zones I haven’t been in with Adurj before and jumping on any lower level group whenever I can. I have also been making good use of the Chronomancer fella and doing some named runs through low level instances. Still a long way to go as Adurj is sitting at 159 AA now. Whenever I get time I am also hitting all of the zones trying to farm shineys for expansion go live.

Having said all that, it does get kinda boring quick. Unless the quest is a particularly juicy one with a good story, I’m finding it monotonous. Which is why last night when my old buddy Sjlverwolf asked me to join a Secret Keepers WoE raid, I jumped at the chance. Not because I really need anything from WoE (although I am still after 4 pieces of my alternate dps set from there), but because I knew the break and dose of fun would brighten up the dredge. I was right! Not a bad run at all. Was a much slower pace than what I am used to, the dps was way short of the Clan Werre raids there, and we didn’t get Aiden down. However, that was to be expected because mixed with the experienced SK members there seemed to be a fair amount of first time WoE’ers there. In fact probably about half. So not too bad an achievement at all and to top it off I had a really great time. Thanks to Secret Keepers for having me along. I think we are heading back to bash Aiden about tonight, so that should be fun again.

Aside from that my evening will hold questing and hopefully the completion of my deity quests for Anashti Sul. To give you some idea how much I have been bored and messing about while doing my AA catch up quest sessions, prior to joining the WoE raid last night I made a pact with myself to not use any form of transport assistance aside from what I had myself if I could help it at all (so no druid/wiz portals, no bells or carpets etc) Obviously a couple of times I had to use the SS carpet, as there is no other way of getting there (I don't have Call of Ro). But I was pretty strict with my pact. I even refused to use horses and griffons. I actually really enjoyed it. With my graphics set up high it was a great pleasure running all the way from EFP to Antonica and the many other trips I made last night all over Norrath. It was a nice break and a fantastic way to enjoy the beautiful scenery the devs have created for us.

Having said all that, it did kind of take me a couple of hours to finish just one of my deity quests that sent me quite literally everywhere...well it seemed like it  All in all, great fun.

Be well

“Philosophers are only men in [T3] armour after all.”

Adurj is now the proud owner of a full set of T3 armour. Having picked up the last few shards I needed (I have had the patterns for a while), I finally got my last piece on Sunday night. He won’t be wearing the full set of T3 though (despite the base damage buff), as he has T4 bracers. I have definitely noticed the difference already. Not so much to Adurjs parse, which has got slightly better but to his survivability, especially in TSO. All that critical mitigation must be working wonders!

So, what’s next then? I will obviously trying to raid some to get more pieces of T4, but in the interim I think it’s going to be catching up on the other important stuff that kinda took a back seat in the rush for myth and T3. Most importantly is Adurjs AA. Currently sitting at 157 is nowhere near good enough, and I need to be up in the late 170’s with AAs to get what I need. Yes of course, Battle Cry.

I guess it’s time to go back through my journal and make use of the Chronomancer to get as much AA as I possibly can. I also need to hit all the old dungeons to make sure I have all the nameds and disco AA. Other quests I can continue with to help are HQs and my lore and legends. I have a huge amount outstanding ever since they changed it so you don’t have to use the LnL books but can get the quest from the items dropped by that particular creature type itself. So there are those to consider. I have always been one of those people in EQ2 who never seems to empty their journal. I only have room for 3 more quests currently. So clearing up all that old trash will be a welcome subtraction also. I have a few collection quests ready for hand in also, but I am waiting for the next expansion to complete those.

I said before power levelling a toon is not always the answer, and I must admit even though Adurj (alongside Velnaar [coercer]) is my best equipped toon, but he is lacking in so many other areas. There are standard what I call ‘run of the mill staple quests’, such as [To Speak as a Dragon] or the Claymore timeline, that I feel most toons should have completed. Yet Adurj has hardly done any of them. He needs to do deity quests also [Anashti Sul] and at some point I would like to get his tinkering levelled. He also needs to start the TSO timeline!

A huge amount to do now I no longer have to concentrate on shards and WoE! I’m actually quite looking forward to it though. I love exploring old content again and the nostalgic feeling as I complete a quest line that I last completed years ago. It will also be interesting to see what has changed back in the lower levels, if anything. It should be fun.

So, what did the weekend bring for Adurj Le`Bard? Over the weekend I joined a fair amount of shard runs so I could get my last few pieces of T3. I mainly hit PuGs as there didn’t seem to be a huge amount of guildies online when I was, although I did manage a guild DF run. On Saturday night we hit WoE with a WoEfully undermanned force, yet still managed to get down the first 3 nameds with ease. We stopped at Digg as we simply didn’t have the dps to carry us through the fight. On Sunday I did a few more shard runs and we were supposed to have a guild raid to Kor’sha, but as has been the case recently, sadly not enough turned up. Everyone was gracious about it, but I kinda wish it wasn’t like that. With the raid leader putting in as much work as they do, and in this case about five guild members needing Myth updates from there, I would have thought many would be lining up to help. Especially those who had help getting their updates from the same people. But alas, no. One must never forget RL commitments and the fact this is only a game. Even so, it’s nice to help out your friends and guildies.

Oh, and for those who recognise the post title but can't place it, it is a Charles Dickens quote [obviously minus the T3 bit :P].

Be well.

The Kawasaki Connection.

So here she is! This is my baby. Kawasaki ZX9R.

Poor thing is needing a bit of love and attention at the moment though. I travel about 50 miles on her a day, to and from work. It’s a tough life, perfect black top, flowing bends along the coast road with stunning scenery looking out over the med. Unfortunately though, as much fun as that is, I have put 25,000 miles on her in the last two years and she’s getting a bit tired. Needing new tyres, new bearings for rear wheel and steering head, service of the back brake, new pads in the front, new fluid in the forks, a major service of the engine and few other niggly little things. Damn costly if I am to take it to a garage. But, think I am going to spend the time on her myself apart from the tyres. It will cost a lot less and I’m sure I’ll get quite a bit more satisfaction out of working on her.

Now I just have to convince the wife that shopping this weekend will not include me as I’m going to be playing with my toy.

Be well.

MMO Melancholy

I seem to be going through one of those stages where I have a loss of direction in game. I think it’s a culmination of various different things. The obvious one is the recent upheaval moving away from Acolytes of Valor, a guild I had been in for many years and was also a co-leader for just under 2 years. Leaving all those friends behind was a tough call, especially when despite my best efforts, play time and other commitments meant I was unable to group with them as much as I would have liked. The inevitable lack of communication has ensued and I have pretty much now lost contact with most of them, even though it’s only been a couple of months since I left. This was originally tempered by the fact that I was now in an active guild and it seemed most nights we were doing some raid or other and as such, I never got the chance to get bored.

Now Clan Werres raid force has dissipated for various reasons (all of them valid and pretty much unavoidable), there is again a hole. The last few days I have logged in, all the guild members have been as friendly as ever and left me wanting for nothing..but for some reason I have been. With the raid plan we had, I felt I was still progressing in game and not stagnating. I felt I was getting somewhere and had a goal when I logged in. Now, although all my guild are so very very nice, I don’t know them all that well and this has meant I naturally haven’t got involved with the things they are up to. Although I do get on with them, it doesn’t change the fact that they have been there for years and all have their groups they hang around in regularly. Nothing wrong with that at all, in my eyes that’s the way it should be. Find a group you hang around with a lot and have some fun!

Problem for me is that I am not part of any group that I can get together with regularly, especially since all my RL mates who used to play (apart from the wifey) have now quit. My wife is enormously popular on the server (coz she’s lovely and a complete flirt! Boy players seem to lap that up for some reason, lol) and is never wanting for any groups or anything to do having a huge friend base. I hardly get to play with her due to the demand on her iccul healer, and the fact she deems me as not l33t enough to join her gang of hardcore players. So, I am kinda feeling out in the cold at the moment in game.

When I log in I don’t get any tells and any content I want to see I have to PuG it instead of getting together with me mates for the fun. Don’t get me wrong. I have been in as many fun PuGs as I have been in crappy PuGs, so it’s not all too bad there. But it’s not the same... It’s strange. I have made a huge amount of friends over the years in EQ2, but strangely apart from a couple that I know are busy all the time, there is none I would regularly pester to let me tag along.

So. What to do? Well, I’m not going to quit the game because I enjoy playing too much to do that. So what options do I have?

• Move server – If I want to raid regular, it’s either PuRs or move server to Euro time.

• Forge a new group of friends –good idea, but most players already have their cliques.

• Force my friends to start playing again-just too complicated with their wife aggro etc to manage.

• Try to find a guild that still raids regularly Euro Time on AB. Pretty much the JET alliance and not sure I wanna. Tap San would be cool, but my wife is there and I don’t wanna cramp her style.

• Head back to AoV-not too bad an idea, but I hate the feeling of going backwards not forwards.

• Stay at Clan Werre-see if I can get involved some more.

• Concentrate on my own guild again-Revenants are only level 23 and I could just head there to cultivate my own guilds level instead of it being a holding cell for my alts.

• Start my own regular PuRs and get known on the server for EuroTime PuR raids.

• Just chillax and see what happens, wait for the new expansion.

Not sure which one I am going to follow yet. Although, knowing what I am like and how lazy I can be in game, I probably will do the last one.

I still enjoy the game and look forward to logging in, but not with the same excitement since my loss of direction. I guess I’ll just wait and see for the time being, weigh up my options and follow me heart. Hmmm

Be well.

Nothing lasts forever...

Wow. What developments in my guild recently! You may recall in a previous post I mentioned that our guild was hitting a bit of raid fatigue. Things have progressed a somewhat since then...we no longer have a raid force. Sadly, several of the core raid force who were initially involved in forming it (one of whom kinda helped me decide to join the guild when I bumped into him in Sanctum of Scaleborn..lovely chap) had given themselves a time limit on getting a full and dedicated raid force together. That time ran out, and our raid force was sporadic at best. I must say I actually agree with their decision. For months now several of my guild have been struggling tirelessly to organise and motivate members to attend raids. Things went quite well for a while, until everyone got in to T3 armour and their myths. Strangely enough, raid attendance then started to dry up. Apart from mine that is! Yes, I am a good boy and attended every single raid, not missing one since I joined the guild.

But that’s how it went. Our raid force went from two / three solid groups to about four members who always attended. The raid leaders and main raid members who were all intrinsically involved in the running of our setup have been through the ringer. I know how much hard work and effort they all put in, trying to please everyone, researching in their spare time and having been part of no less than three raid setups in the process of trying to get one to work (Pheonix Unity>then started Vindheir> then merged with Clan Werre), one can totally understand how it can get a little demoralising that just when you think things are going well, members stop turning up and you have to start gathering more in to the fold.

It’s not the first time I have seen this happen in EQ2. In fact I have seen it happen to every raid or casual raid guild I have been in, eventually. Things may go well for a while (especially in the totally dedicated raid guilds), but eventually, someone key always drops out and if that person is followed by a few more..well, it’s inevitable is what I am getting at.

Both our previous raid leaders did a fantastic job in my eyes. Under difficult circumstances they never stopped trying to gain enthusiasm for the raids and guild and always seemed to make the night fun. Personally that’s one of the reasons that although I understand why people stopped turning up (even though I don’t agree with it), that I am more than a little confused. OK, so you have full T3 and your myth, but there is much more lootz to obtain, many more mobs to get down as a team, feeling part of something that achieves and most importantly, the fun. We always had fun. I personally can’t understand why it stopped being fun for some just because they had obtained their kit. For me it was about getting together with new friends and enjoying each others company and also the occasional crushing of a tough mob. I’m gonna miss it, but more importantly, I’m gonna miss the people.

I have only been in the guild for about 2 months and I was just getting to know some of those people behind the characters well, and I really liked them. But now, some of them are gone and I guess I kinda regret not having got to know them better. I know mostly their alts are staying in guild, but I also know what that’s like. Most of my alts are still in Acolytes of Valor, but I rarely play them as TSO (I feel) kind of forces those with limited play time to concentrate on just a couple of toons max if you want to achieve anything. So although I still have ties in AoV, I very sadly rarely visit as I just don’t have the time. I hope it doesn’t happen like that for those new friends who have moved on, but I am kinda guessin’ it will be. Circumstances seem to make it happen that way.

Things move on. It is the way of things. That’s one of the big problems with MMOs though. Your closest allies, you will probably stay in touch with for a long time. But, those who you like but didn’t really get to know too well, will probably fade in to the distance and that’s that. I often think about the many players I have got to know over my time in MMOs and I still wonder what happened to them and how they are getting on. Strange thing is, in ‘RL’, if I met someone I got along with that well, we would remain in touch. But with MMOs, it doesn’t seem to happen that way. Kinda sad really.

So, to those raid leaders who have had a tough time out there, thanks for all your hard work and dedication you put into your play time to make other peoples play time more enjoyable. A seriously selfless act, respect to you guys. To those friends I started to get to know and really liked, I wish you well on lifes path, I’ll miss not having the opportunity to get to know you better. To those who will surely follow now our raid force has gone, stay in touch! If you need Adurjy goodness, you know where to find me.

A toast to lost friendships and dedicated hard workers.

Cheers.

Be Well.