Eye Candy, March

Some shots from EQ2, Trove and Rift. The Anniversary event is going on in EQ2, as is the Brell festival. Lots of things to do especially on test where the events stretch out. 

Postcards From Norrath!

Sharing some shots from EQ2 today!

New Stuffz

EQ2 released it's 14th expansion this week. It has a bit more bulk and outdoor/overland zones than the past two, so I love this aspect. There are many solo/group and raid zones, plenty to do. I jumped in on release day and gave it a spin.

October- All Over The Place

MapleStory 2 early access has come to an end, letting everyone in to try the game, it's free to play. MS2 is an adorable game with some depth, lots of questing, housing, tons of free mounts to collect, pet collecting (after lvl 50), clothing design and you can also collect and play different instruments. I've played two characters up to about 25 and 35. It has been quirky and fun, lots to do.

More Catching Up!

So much to talk about, so little time these days. Or when I do have time, I totally goof off. I have a good hour tonight to jot down some words! We've been busy with lots of family visiting over the past few months and this week I found my father almost unresponsive at his house, but he's alright. My last living grandparent died recently, my grandmother. So when I do sit down at the computer I just want to get lost in a game, lol. I have been trying to get some levels in WoW but that just hasn't been easy...

Eye Candy, Nostalgia

Some shots from EQ2 and SWTOR this week. Mostly hopping around on alts, having fun going through old content with new characters. A bit of nostalgia is good sometimes.

Planes of Prophesy, A Deeper Look

Tuesday I wrote my thoughts and impressions on first entering EverQuest 2's Planes of Prophesy expansion, today I want to share a more in-depth look. There are some spoilers with the lay of the land but not a huge spoiler on story.

The Little Things

Charming, eh?

SWL has turned out to be a lot of fun this far, everything is fresh and new in my eyes. I would think for someone who has played through the game it may not be as exciting. I am honestly not sure the game needed to be renamed, packaged and all that. While the other game still exists, but with no future updates, it still seems a lot to do for more of a revamp. I am having fun and getting to see more of the world, which I really enjoy. The creepy atmosphere just sucks me right in and while I have moments where I get fatigued, I still find myself coming back to see more.

Sour Grapes

It seems next week we'll be seeing invasions for the next pre-patch in WoW, as well as being able to play Demon Hunters if you have pre-ordered. Class changes have already hit, in the Pre-pre-patch... So today I wanted to talk about that, my thoughts on the pace of the content and some thoughts on what else I have been playing.

Summer Is Heating Up

Things are starting to ramp up with many MMOs this summer. Plenty to do, lots of summertime events going on, or coming up soon. WoW is releasing the pre-expansion patch today, some of the fun stuff, more on that in a bit. EQ2 has a time limited event server up, with some interesting loot. Rift just released a patch with the summer event, as well as Trove having a birthday with login rewards. I think SWTOR has some stuff going on too, but at this point my plate is overflowing.

Postcards From Norrath

Greetings from Norrath, one of my favorite places to be!

EverQuesting!

EverQuest hit the 17 year mark recently! Happy Birthday to EQ! We made a couple of beastlords, Dire and I. It was fun to go back and check some old haunts, like unrest. I think the reason I still play to this day is because I know how much he loves the game still. We don't play nearly enough though. Still trying to get him to return to EQ2... sigh.

Holiday Treasures

I've been very slack with posts; incoming a critical hit of a post filled with a lot of thoughts and games. Today I'll be trying to catch up and jot down some thoughts as well as sharing some pictures of what I've been playing.

Ten Years Later: MC Raider

I managed to hit 100 in WoW last week, just before the 10th anniversary event began. Once there at the cap you still have to reach an item level of 615 (gear wise) to queue for Looking For Raid. Which requires you to do either heroics or PvP for gear. My son helped me so much with this, leaving me just a couple points short, in the process I started the legendary ring quest granting me an epic ring. Yesterday I managed to get there and queue for the anniversary Molten Core raid.

Fall Lineup

What do you plan on playing this fall? I had hopes that Landmark would hit open beta but that seems to be dragging out and I'd rather wait. I've already grabbed Warlords of Draenor, so that's a given. Speaking of WoW, tomorrow we get the 6.0.2 pre expansion patch- The Iron Tide! Very exciting.

Creepy Nights In Norrath

Finally... My valorous wings! I have been trying for YEARS for these things. 

I finally hit 95, the current cap, in EQ2. My new Channeler was the one to hit this milestone. It has been nice starting up on Antonia Bayle, the RP server. I have made some friends within the new guild, which have been great helping me level which has been quite fun to group with people again.

Things To Check Out

Rak and I showing off our awesome costumes :)

I really love games, I suppose that is why I play so many. That and there is always something to draw me back in. I like new stuff, free stuff, events, stuff that keeps me engaged. This weekend I thought I'd share a few new things going on, some free goodness and even some discounts.

Nelf and I have been really enjoying Defiance. To celebrate season two there is a code to apply to your glyph account for free fifteen days (a seven dollar freebie here). We jumped on it. The code is PARADISE. People in the game seem pretty cool, it doesn't seem to have a toxic community. I have seen that many people help out in areas, a lot of the time with events people will revive downed players, which is great. Love riding around in vehicles they are so FAST!! Every other game feels so slow now, lol. Good stuff here!

Heri joined us playing the other day and we really had a cool time, it was great to all jump in and play together no matter when we started or what our EGO level was. Perfect game to play with friends. Nelf and I tried out instances yesterday, not bad at all. We had fun, basically shooting things up. Nobody seems to run ahead, people seem to stick together in this game more so than trinity based groups in other games. The combat is fun, fast paced but you don't have tons of skills to worry about. You can swap out weapons on the fly. I have a weapon that does damage and heals, love that! So you can heal if that is your thing! A lot of interesting choices for weapons, you'll find something you like. It is still the most fun played with others, there is always something going on, which is probably the main drive for me to play. It feels odd playing older games that don't feature events, they are so captivating for me. I honestly can say I really love playing Defiance, for many different reasons than why I like other MMO type games. It is just different, very cooperative, and just plain fun.

Speaking of Trion games, Rift has a new hellbug event going on to celebrate the new Defiance season as well. I have really been slacking with Rift lately! I will try to pop in soon and grab one (if luck is with me, lol), I read there are some new ones, I'd love to have another in a new color and I still need a pet!

Currently Champions has a discount on Lifetime and subscription packages. I'm still playing and having fun. I should get a lifetime, but the ONLY lifetime sub I ever bought lasted me just a short few years as the game sunset this year (Free Realms). I'm slowly leveling, slowly... That tailor (character designer) really has a strong grip on me! My buddy, Rak, has been playing also. We did some alerts the other day and it was good fun. Alerts are missions where anyone can join (instance/dungeon) and you get some nice xp as well as an xp buff. I really love doing these, nobody is rude so far, they seem to go pretty quickly too. Plus, it is always cool to see what kind of characters join, I love seeing other people's costumes!

My character in EQ2 must miss me quite a lot, slack again! This weekend I hope to get some time in and check out the new house actors that were added to the game. These are models that look like players which you can use to decorate your houses, give them emotes and such. Very cool addition! These actors are made by tailors, I'll have to see if they added any into the station cash store, all I read was tailors as of now.

We're newbies again! Almost... 

And last but not least, Warcraft has a 7 day free time deal going on if you haven't been subbed for awhile. Redeem it by June 30th though! I didn't even see this in my email, Heri told me to check for it and there is was sitting all lonely in my alternate email. Nelf was really excited because he was thinking about playing but wasn't sure if he wanted to get back into the game, thus free time was perfect to find out with. Free, we love us some free time!

So, we put that free time to good use! We started up a couple of new characters after messing about on the mains for a bit. He went with a paladin and I went mage. I have never played a mage past 20 in all these years! We could pick up WoD pre-order and boost them but thought instead it would be fun to just play around for now. It isn't like there is a real rush to be at the cap anytime soon, heh. Looks way off into the distance for the expansion... Squints really hard... Nope, no rush.

On another note my Second Life (alt acct is fine) account was suspended, apparently something to do with an attempted hack. While I am selling stuff still in game, this annoys me to no end. Not even an email to let me know, they claim they are scared the email would be hacked too. Nobody hacked my account, I know Twig logging it on and taking all my money (Linden) all the time probably flagged it. Ugh... Not happy about that. Not that I play much anymore but it really ticks me off, the wait begins. I won't hold my breath. Like I need something else to play currently... right?!

Have a great weekend!

EQ2 Radiant Wings

If you saw this in your email, it is legit, typos and all. There was a post on the forums concerned if it was in fact real or a phishing scam, due to the typos within in. Very pretty wings, I can't wait to get mine! ToV expansion wings, all purple and pretty :) Seems everyone who has the xpac will be getting these.

Thank you for puchasing EverQuest II’s 10th Expansion - Tears of Veeshan. To show our gratitude we're granting your account... Radient Nightmare Flight Wings (Flying Mount) PLAY NOW Your item will be granted at 9‌:00 AM on 2/2‌8/14 "This was in fact a misspelling, but yes it is a legitimate email. RadarX, Feb 20, 2014 "

Back Home To Norrath

In my last post I mentioned wanting to spend more time playing Vanguard. I decided to log in some and play my Necro, then I remembered she was still sitting at level 24 without her feign death spell. Which happens to be too hard for me to solo still. But-- My Disciple isn't, she can solo the stuff easily. I decided to clear out a path so that the necro could run down to the quest NPC, it shouldn't take all that long and I could finally have it finished up, as I can never seem to find a group for this. But Vanguard, being the finicky beast that it is, wasn't wanting to cooperate. The chunk kept going down and kicking me out, huge lag spikes, then a kick, repeatedly. Only to return to a full respawn of the dungeon. After over half an hour and three tries of clearing, I decided a return to Vanguard would have to wait.

I was in the mood to play a pet class. Then I thought of the new channeler class in EverQuest 2. It is a pet class but more so a healer with a pet who wields a bow. I've been wanting to try one out, just putting it off because I did not have the new expansion. You cannot boost the new channeler class to 85 with the new heroic unlock, but that is fine with me, just exploring and playing from level one means more things to do. So, for an early Christmas prezzy, that is what I wanted, the new xpac I still needed!

The new channeler class is quite fun. Very different and feels more unique than a lot of classes I've played over the years. There are interesting mechanics, such as using your pet to absorb damage and heal with. It will take some getting used to. The pet cannot be directly attacked, so it is not a tank pet. But I have a monk merc who tanks (xpac claim) who is quite amazing. You can also 'draw' essences out of mobs to fuse to your pet, such as a bat's head. It changes the look of the construct and adds a proc or bonus to stats. This reminds me of the grafts the necromancer in Vanguard gets, I loved that aspect of the game. A bit of flavor that made the class unique and fun.

Mostly I've been spending my time in the (gorgeously revamped) Frostfell wonderland, completing holiday quests and crafting goodies. There are a lot of nifty items this year! Lots of great and new quest rewards, fluff things like illusions for your pet, which really were awesome to get on my new pet class! EverQuest 2 is one of the best games to play through any holiday, it has such  a vast amount of things to do. It is nice being back with a new character, a new class, very fun for the holidays!

I'll still do some holiday stuff in Rift this year, but I think I rode the sled down the hill one too many times last year. I don't like just grinding out repetitive things for every event. I do like to quest too. And on a sad note, the sim where my land is, in SL, is shutting down. So I'll be wandering around looking for more land I suppose. Such a shame as I loved that set up I had... sigh.

Have a great week, peeps! Hope you're all enjoying the holiday events scattered over all out virtual worlds! Tune in next time :)

New sights for Frostfell, charming and impressive at the same time! 

We still have rainbow bridges to slide down :)

The construct pet.

My house and my RAF mount with a graphics glitch, heh. This house is soooo cozy!!

Frostfell wonderland.

Admiring the scenery with my new monk merc, he's aweeeesome.

King of the gobbys you say?

EverQuest, EverQuest II, EverQuest Next.... Lots of excitement In Norrath!

Lots and lots of Everquest/ EverQuest 2/ EverQuest Next info is heading our way in an abundance all over the web, thought I'd share some great links. I'm still going through my feed trying to catch up. Oh and BETA sign up is out, I received an email today and already got that done! I really have not gotten through it ALL so I thought I'd link what I could and share the excitement!

Just to sum it all up, EQN has a lot of footage out, info about armor and the world, the music (which is going to be fantastic) and a few other bits. EQ and EQ2 have some expansions heading out, lots of interesting things heading to these games. Sharing some links because I just can't write every fantastic detail about all three games but others have taken time to share a lot of EverQuest goodness around and I wanted to pass it on:

• SOE has some videos from SOE Live for EQN on the twitch channel here. Lots of great footage of EQN! 
• Syp over at Biobreak is delighted about the music, which I listened to, very enchanting. 
• EQ2 Wire has a great list of the EverQuest 2 xpac heading to us. Check it out for all the details from SOE Live. 
• EQ2 Wire also has a great new site called EQN Wire, lots of great info from SOE Live also. 
• EQN Beta sign up here!
• EverQuest Next Official Website- here. Lots of videos and screenshots. 
• EverQuest worlds app, for android and iPhone- here. What is this? Just a way to unlock rewards and spam social media sites, lol. Not sure what the rewards are but I've been messing around with it on my phone a little, mostly sharing and doing a lot of likes and tweets. 
• EverQuest Landmark- Builder tools, more info here. This will also be something related to player studio, very interesting. 
• Massively has a great article covering EQN and a great gallery of pics included. They also have a post covering the key elements in EQ/EQ2 expansions heading to us in the fall, here. 
• Keen and Graev have some impressions of EQN, after hearing the info released, interesting as they are old-timer EQ players like me, read it here. 
• MMO Symposium has an EQN article sharing videos, pictures and opinions here. 
• Bhagpuss shares some opinions on all three games and the future here.
• Stargrace is excited about the latest EverQuest xpac, and honestly, I am too. Check out her post here. 
• SOE Twitch channel here. 

So, that is about it right now as far as links go, those caught my eye. What has me excited? A number of things, just a new Norrath to explore is great. Will it take the place of EQ and EQ2 for me? I doubt it, each is it's own game. I do look forward to hearing more about EQN, I am excited about it- but- I don't want to get all foamy at the mouth just yet! 

Everquest will be adding the new dungeons/instances, LDoN type content, which scales, that is something to get excited about. Also the new race/class combo is exciting, I do wish for a Dark Elf Druid!! Players will be voting on this. Things look great for the game as it heads into it's 20th expansion, wow. I hope to see many more. 

Everquest 2 players are going to be getting a hero type class system. What is that? Characters starting at level 85 starting off with spells, AA, flying mounts, and gear. I don't mind, because I don't have time to play alts these days, so it would be nice to skip over some of the lonely, older content. WoW did something similar with the Scroll of Resurrection, as well as the DK class. I think I like the way SOE is doing this better though. Why? Well because anyone can take advantage of it, not just those who haven't played for a certain amount of time. Nobody gets left out. New expansion goodies, things look good, very exciting. Oh and... A new class! A pet class that heals, with a bow, this sounds AWESOME!

Want more into on it all? Check out those links! 

Edit: Sorry for all the typos! Fixed! Couldn't get a moments peace while writing this!