Everquest 2: Wherein I Confess my Lore OCD

When I decided to try and level a character to 95 before we left for SOELive without boosting, it was because I know myself very well.  I would feel guilty about the fifty levels I skipped and I would have missed out on all those wonderful places and stories between level 35 and level 85.  Knowing this, I boosted anyway and had a blast questing and exploring with my husband and gaming partner.  We hit level 95 late Saturday afternoon and by the time I logged back in on Sunday morning I was in a foul and irritable mood.  It wasn’t the game, the guild, or the decision it was me.

I was being given quests to go do such and such with presumptions being that I had finished all the relative quests.  I have no idea what happened in the Cobalt Scar or why there are dead gods.  It literally made my brain hurt and I was grumpy and out of sorts most of the day.  I spent a lot of time Sunday grumbling and switching between characters rather than being focused on Benedicta getting caught up on the current expansion.

I logged in this morning and finished getting the Tinkered Mercenaries on the rest of my characters, which meant a lot of my characters spent money with the lovely Fae Linguist (pictured above) learning racial  languages to ensure they all spoke Gnomish before landing at Gnomeland Security.  I then proceeded to log onto Benedicta and took her back to Obol Plains to finish the Signature Quest line there.  It made for a much more peaceful day and I understood what is happening in the Vesspyr Isles more now.  Hubby meanwhile, does not suffer from lore OCD and he quested through VI enjoying himself immensely.

He did High Keep today and I got to listen to him chortle and stop and relay memories from Everquest.  Thank you to the developers who brought a huge smile to his face today.  I have no fond memories from the first game, since I never played the game, but I am looking forward to High Keep tomorrow. 

I am kicking around an idea in my head about documenting interesting lore tidbits as I run across them while questing.  The lore on the wikia site is sketchy and missing in large parts, i.e. game update lore is just plain not there.  A lot of great story and tidbits get missed by new and returning players because of the vast amount of choices and story lines that are present in the game.

My lore OCD is back under control, now that I have a plan and thus I can play and enjoy Everquest 2 at a pace I enjoy.

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Everquest 2: Benedicta and Valhakar Reach 95

I am writing this on the phone to see how viable blogging while at SOELive next week.  So if there are typos forgive me and I will correct them tomorrow morning.

This afternoon Benedicta and Valhakar reached max level, currently level 95, for the first time in their Everquest 2 careers.  We quested some but late this afternoon a group of guild mates grouped up and did Sky Shrine until we each dinged.  Their help and patience is much appreciated.   We are in Solstice on Oasis and it is quite simply the best guild we have ever been a part of as a married couple.  The casual, friendly, relaxed, and helpful atmosphere is something all guilds should strive to achieve.

We stopped by the broker before logging out.  Some of the gear available was good and reasonably priced but some of the gear makes no sense.  Funny thing the crappy gear was being shown to both of us because we both wear plate and it had primary stats for each of us on the same gear.  Needless to say, that gear remained on the broker.

We are both a little lost and definitely under geared.  Time to figure it out in the coming days and to determine how the veteran bonus affects AA leveling on the rest of the characters in our respective stables.

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Everquest 2: Housing Delights & the frustration of Scale

The title for the above, A Gnome lives here but Why?  First off, I love the acorn housing but how I wish the housing would be scalable.  My shorter characters, which by the way is almost ALL of my characters, are dwarfed by the walls and ceilings of their respective houses.  If you scale the furniture up it is still too small and then far, far too large for your character to have any realistic hope of being believably used. 

This is Benedicta’s bedroom, again the bed is proportionally appropriate for a Halfling but scaled up it would still be much too small for the room’s dimensions.

Enough with the whining about a technical challenge I realize cannot be solved retroactively by the developers.  I’ve had trouble sleeping for the last week or so and as a result, I’ve been working on housing for my characters.  It meant a lot of crafting but that’s not a big deal. 

Housing for the Gals VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

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Everquest 2: Weekend Adventures of Benedicta & Valhakar

So began our epic and fun weekend Friday afternoon as we lay dead on the floors of Arcane Research Halls while our mercs attempted to kill the last boss, which we unknowingly pulled first.  It was the first of many deaths in Halls while working on the epic weapon quest, in fact I had an experience debt of 3.5% by the time we finished (all experience was off while hubby caught up) and the final boss went down like candy after all the other bosses were dead.  We got our epic weapons Friday afternoon, first for both of us, and it set the tone for the weekend.

Like most instances, especially the newer ones, the scenery is gorgeous.  We spent most of the weekend leveling on signature quests, and this one brought us to Forgotten Pools.  This shot is before we killed anything in this room or realized that the room was split in half by color.  We did figure it out before we wiped however, so that was helpful.  I must admit, I’m loving the fact that recent but old content can be handled by the two of us with mercs out without having to ask our wonderful and helpful guild to come assist.  We may wipe a time or two before we figure out the mechanic but it is satisfying when the mechanic is new and unique and we figure it out. 

Another instance shot, this time the water is reflecting the night sky and trees like a mirror.  It was a gorgeous shot I just had to share.  We were in the Temple of Fear in the Eidolon Jungle.  To be honest, there were many moments of stunning beauty in that zone. 

First words I heard when hubby saw this NPC, “Now that’s when big imp!”  I was in the other room waiting for him to pull and he was right, he was a HUGE imp but alas he too fell to the might of our Paladin/Templar pairing.

Sunday evening eventually rolled around and we had to stop playing.  I’m almost 93 and he’s about two and half bars behind me.  I will turn off my experience until he catches up.  That’s just one of the great things about Everquest 2, I can turn off all experience at will.  We had finished up in the jungle and are about to experience Wurmbone’s End next. 

A big thank you to the Everquest 2 designers and developers for Advanced Solo versions of instances.  We are both very, very appreciative of being able to complete story lines and quests without having to do PUGs or distract guild members from their fun to come help us out.  Please do more of this content, it is fun and challenging.  There is a definite sense of accomplishment when we finish one of these instance. 

Beautiful Weekend Screens VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

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Everquest 2: Double Experience Weekend

Everquest 2 had a double experience weekend and while I didn’t manage to hit max level, I’m fine with my leveling experience.  Hubby hit 90 yesterday and we went up to SkyShrine (SS) and did one of the solo instances together and then went and hung out in the public zone for a bit.  Hubby also found and hired the elite merc that hangs out in the Withered Lands on Saturday!

The SS solo zone was fun, not super challenging with a Paladin and Templar pair up to be honest.  We manage to do enough damage with very little healing to finish the timed run well under the proscribed time.  Then we went over to the public zone with mercenaries out and that was much more challenging.  We didn’t necessarily kill groups of three to four quickly but they did die, well that is until a group of two spawned on top of us as we were killing a group of four.

I spent most of the weekend in the Withered Lands questing.  I did however finish up the Gathering Obsession quest chain and hired Qho as a mercenary.  I fully expected to enjoy getting him killed but the little brat grew up into a GRAND mercenary.  No really, he is quiet unlike Daeron, holds aggro, pumps out the dps, and made my Sunday of gameplay quite enjoyable.

I wish they would open questing up in the Withered Lands at 89 rather than 90.  The content isn’t challenging with Legendary gear equipped at 90 and most of the gear is crap compared to what can be crafted or obtained from the broker.  That complaint said, I’ve enjoyed the questing in Withered Lands immensely.  Great story line and I appreciated the satyr storyline, it was nice to see satyr’s portrayed as benevolent rather than evil like most games.

Pictures from this Weekend VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

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Everquest 2: Crafting & Sale Bonanza

This weekend my mid-range Armorer and Weaponsmith both reached level 95 in crafting, bringing my Veteran Bonus to 80% for my remaining crafters.  I’m pleased but I am even more please that I managed to fly to the Sanctuary of Tears twice and only died once.  I didn’t get lost and no one circled me in, which if you know my sense of direction (more accurate to say, lack of one) that is in itself a major accomplishment.

I got some adventuring experience too but mostly as a by-product of finishing the first of the gathering obsession quest chains for the brat.  While annoying, the cloak he awards is stunning so all of my characters will be completing it.  Which brings up a minor grip, can more items be turned into house items for wall display please?  With all of the beautiful cloaks, robes, and armor I’m going to have to set up a house full of nothing but mannequins. 

There is currently a Station Cash rebate sale on-going and we’ve both done a wee bit of shopping.  All of my characters just got rings for their fingers at a steep discount and thus the ugly glove problem has been permanently eliminated.  I also stocked up on kilts, not the kilt sets but just the kilts.  I only like some of the coordinating pieces, which is why I wish they’d offer separates so the possibility of mixing and matching existed. 

That’s Benedicta in her new outfit, with the cloak from the harvesting quest.  She looks good, I just wish the boots showed as much details on her as they do on much taller characters where they come over the knee.  Melodicaa, my Troubadour, got the Bard’s Backpack.  The rest of her outfit sucks but the backpack looks great and I love how the backpack is also inventory storage, not attuned, and functional.

One last one, before I go permanently hire mercenaries since I just figured out they too are on sale (allegedly according to the forums).  Holidays in July means, I finally have my Winged Bovach Matriarch and you can see Abrava’s emerald on her finger.

Go play Everquest 2, you will never regret it.

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Everquest 2: We Boosted, Now What

Apparently my resolve not to boost lasted less than two days, when hubby boosted his Paladin I joined him and boosted my Templar.  I felt guilty, incredibly guilty to be honest.  I had almost caught up on AA and had a journal full of quests which were suddenly gray.  I’m somewhat over the guilt but am still going back completing those gray quests when I can’t sleep.

Why do I feel guilty?  Simple, behind on language quests, heritage and signature quests, faction, and story and lore.  I can catch-up on most of it but I really wish they had included a cut-scene that caught the player up on the story.  Since any player can boost, it is easy to have no clue what is going on in the story. 

One of the first things we both did was get caught up on deity quests.  Imagine my surprise when I get to the last step of my deity quest line and am confronted with the avatar of my god and he’s a GRAY.  No seriously, my jaw dropped and I just sat there and stared for a good couple of minutes.  I have relatively high faction with good old Rodcet Nife but still I am contemplating renouncing my faith and switching gods.  It is very likely that I will be renouncing.

Hubby and I have been demolishing everything we come up against, separately and when paired up.  The quest line for the Othmir prophet made me tear up and I found the quest chain very well written and thoughtful.  We’ve moved on from the Great Divide but I’m sure we will run into the friendly Othmir again.  We have been doing the Qeynos quest chains and heritage and signature quests, in fact we are on the last couple of steps for rescuing Lucan D’Lere.  We are on hold until we reach level 90 and drag a couple of guildies along to Vasty Deep.

AA seems to be much easier to gain now than at lower levels, it may have more to do with the pressure being off to reach 280 AA by level 90.  Hubby dinged 87 and I[m just shy of 87, we both have 290 AA each which is nice.  We are having fun.  We recently did the Erudin Library.  It is beautiful and I wish they had made it a player housing option.  I loved the bookcases and the stairs made from magical books.  I loved the murder mystery to be solved and the overall feel of the Library.  I didn’t get lost or turned around, unlike when we delved into The Hole earlier this week.  All I can say, is thank heavens Hubby has a sense of direction and can read a map otherwise I’d still be lost in The Hole.

Anashti Sul portrait in The Temple of Anashti Sul.  The portrait is beautiful, as is her uncorrupted avatar.

Overall, despite the guilt I don’t regret boosting.  I will eventually catch-up on languages and quests.  Having one character at max level will make it easier for other characters to gain AA as they level.  There are so many beautiful zones and story lines waiting to discover I am looking forward to catching-up and figuring it all out. 

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