EQ2: Berserker in Endgame raiding, or should I reroll now

As I’ve said before, My wife would call me indecisive and here it is again rearing its ugly head.

A post on Ogrebears blog got me thinking.  Why do I keep rolling tanks?  THis all stems from me as a person, I love the idea of a Knight in Shining Armour (or a dirty warrior in muddy armour) and alsways want to play one.  I love the way Armour Looks when its mad eof Plate.  The problem with this is that I find tanking annoying.  The fact is I am mature enough to tank or heal but I still love “The Big Numbers”

In WoW I play a DPS Warrior.  I produce the nice numbers and look awesome in plate while doing it. 

Now the question is, do Berserkers in EQ2 produce the big number while tanking?  I love the dps I do with my Buckler out with all my lovely buffs off flying but will I still be able to tank like that?  Im concerned that the change to the STAM line will mess this up a little.

As I have never tanked for a group with my zerk I cant really say but I cant really see there being much difference.  The question is now though, so I stay Zerk (theres a good chance I wont be MT for my guild anyway) or re-roll a real dps class like assassin?

Eq2: My Second 60

Been a massive break in posts since my last entry.  With good reason!!!  As anyone who follows my blog will know, I write my updates at work.  Well since writing my last tidbit of info, the pace at work picked up dramatically and I have been unable to post ANYTHING.

As the title says, I dinged my Berserker 60!!  That was a fair few days ago, so the big thing for me is actually YAY I FINALLY FOUND AN OPEN WOUNDS BOOK!!  I dont know about any other server but this skill seemed to be the most rare thing EVER!  Finally managed to pick one up on SUNDAY! (Yesterday!!!)  What a lovely skill it is too.

 I decided to do some of the Marr questline to get my Zerk his little pet friend thing so I spent most of my time doing that. Running through the Solusek Ro’s temple in Lavastorm was cool seeing as I had never actually been there.

SO im on the last push again!  I left Borgeo with only 10% in so far but ill be getting some more im sure.  Bad thing is that im off to Sweden for two weeks next week so thats two weeks without any real access to the internet (Where im going there aren’t any easy wireless points!)

So anyhoo, im getting closer to being on my first raid, the guild is still early on in its progress (as another guild Berserker told me when I asked how we did) so I should be able to fit in once I get 70.

Hooray!

Pick up Groups and my prejudices!

Like them or hate them, Pick Up Groups (PUGS) can be one of the worst things with an MMO.  Doing an instance with 4 friends and having a laugh when you accidentally click taunt on the mob instead of body pulling and cause a hilarious wipe is totally different to doing it in a PUG where they call you “noob” and “sorry back from afk” is a phrase CONSTANTLY heard.

When I left DAoC and tried WoW, I quickly ran headfirst into the PUG wall.  From then on I vowed NEVER to do a PUG again!  I would only group with guildies or friends…….

Untill last night.

It seems that EQ2 has attracted a maturer playerbase than its ilk, and this shows in the PUGs.  I have to give props out to the group I joined yesterday (I dinged 54 btw!!) SORRY I CANT REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!!!  But simply they were amazing!  No bitching, no arguing over loot, if something dropped “DO you need this mate? Here have it” was a joy to behold.
Now im sure there are some right… morons even in EQ2 but last night put my faith back into humanity.
If more players were as open minded and calm as the guys I played with last night then Norrath will surely be the greatest place to live.

EQ2: Berserker it is! Sorry SK, you’ve been great!

Ok EQ2 deserves its own entry, not with LOTRO and WoW.

So im focussing on my Berserker, he is much more squishy than my SK, but I find the way he plays just how I want it.  Hard and fast!!  Being away from the game so long means ive accrued the greatness that is…. RESTED XP!  This coupled with the great quests in the Sinking Sands enabled me to ding 51 last night!  Hooray! 

Now all that remains is to get him PAST my SK so he is my highest char and then get him up to 70 before the expansion.  My guild is great, The Conclave, such a friendly bunch of guys.  Im sure that I can try a raid with them once im high enough.  Sure I wont be MT or maybe the highest on damage but it will be fun.  To think, my first EQ2 raid!  Im looking forward to it!

Nothing to link like others do with their blogs, I dont have any ground breaking news relating to EQ2 except to say that Norrath looks as good as ever, its good to be home!

Level 30, and the last push!

Hooray!

Last night I managed to hit level 30 on my Guardian, what a great level, not only did I get some cool new spells, but I got the use of BOWS!!!  This is HUGE! NOW I CAN PULL!!!!  Sorry little excited there.

Now I kept seeing all these other 30+ guards with the Rodamath shield and it looks cool, I googled it to find out where to get it and its from the Guardian level 30 quest.  I asked Artorus, our first 50 member and also a Guard, if it was difficult.
Stay near the bridge, ignore the npcs and kill any orcs that come near.  Needless to say I was a little worried although Art said it was “easy”.  I was expecting waves of Orcs.  I zoned in and hugged the bridge entrance, soon the orcs started coming.  One managed to get past the NPCs and head for the bridge, a green con.  I smashed my shield into his face and dispatched him in quick order.  I looked around again and the npcs were dealing with the other Orcs.  Ok time for round two……… or not…….. quest complete.   One orc killed and I score Rodamath!!

Ok so… WoW….. this is starting to perk my interest again,  I want my epic mount so ive decided to get my mining up and sort myself out.  The daily quests are a great way of making cash although I can only find ONE that I can do at the moment,  I think ill need to get the guild in to help me clear a load of the Heroic quests ive got.  Although Tracy, Kaham and I managed to 3 man Slaag on saturday which was a lot of fun!

Guild had Netherspite tries yesterday, I really didnt feel like it so I didnt go.  Maybe ill feel like playing tonight, then again maybe ill play LOTRO instead!

Karazhan Cleared.. again… *sigh*

As I guessed, no Gruul yesterday, hell we didnt even have enough dps for once, very weird.

Didnt play EQ2 or LOTRO just WoW yesterday, we had a half cleared karazhan (from Curator onwards) so I led a raid on that. Curator one shot and it was the funniest curator kill ive ever seen.
I was off tanking last night which on Curator means you are the target of the hateful bolts, being an Arms PvE warrior (see we do exist) it was fairly easy for me to do, I just stay in Zerk stance and dps the hell out of him. Now I was a little worried about the first evocation as I had a bad feeling. The main tank just was NOT building enough threat! “Make sure you stay ABOVE me Immor” I say.

First evo comes and…. FACEPLANT, I dont know what it is but tanks are starting to annoy me, its not hard to stay in def stance and tank through the evo, at least this way your generating a ton of threat. Ho hum nevermind, I actually got a battle rez!! WOOHOO

So off I go again, chasing the threat to get number two again, which I manage just before the second evo, no probs. Breezed through that and was approaching the third evo, I checked my “toys”. Deathwish UP, Trinket UP, Recklessness UP. ROAR!

Third evo hits and its the funniest thing you have ever seen, he evocated at 30%. I made sure I had 100% rage and popped all my toys. I did one Mortal Strike for kicks and hit for 8k….. nice, now im not going to waste reck so I started hitting slam. Slam, when talented gives you roughly a 0.5 sec swing speed…. which I used……. 7k, 7k, 7k, 7k, 7k, 7k all in half a second, add on my sword proc (Despair) and Sword Spec procs I was like a demon.

He didnt even get a chance to Enrage ^^ it was literally 30%… dead. Our mage, Kaham was whining cause he had a 6 stack combustion pyro on the go and he died before he could land it… thats right folks 30% in under 4 seconds….. INSANE.

We carried on and cleared everything (except Netherspite) still no Gorehowl for me but I won some tanking boots and a new DPS cloak.

It was fun being very drunk leading a raid again, I think its the fear of leading new content with no idea what to expet which puts me off.

Maybe some EQ2 today, currently logged into LOTRO to do some quests with Tracy. Ill let you know how we get on

P.S Writing from home so I can actually post pics!!

DING 60!!!!

If you have been following my blog you will know that im back…… slowly getting my head back into the game and that I left my Shadowknight needing less than 20% to hit 60.

 Well last night it finally happened.  I checked my quest log as normal and sighed at the Heroic Quests still glaring at me, taunting me.  Hmmmm Pillars of Flame? KoS??  It was then that I dedcided id had enough of those two places for now and I discovered the wonders of the Loping Plains!!!  Now I had read this was good from 60 and up so I thought id go down and at least take a look!

So off I go running on my nightmare towards the entrance to the Loping Plain.  Zoning in I was confronted with some very angry red cons… and no town in sight.  Feeling a little flustered I remembered one very important thing about SK’s…. EVAC!

Landing slap bang in the middle of town with quests galore was a great feeling.  Grabbed them all, every single one was yellow or orange!  Thank the gods!  I had a quick look over what I had and it seemed that I had a couple to kill members of the “Bummer Gang”…………  you can tell that SOE are Americans as this has such comedy connotations in the UK its not funny.  But anyway, off I go to kill some Bummer Boys….

Managed to die once to thinking I was strongfer than I was… 3 yellows, not watching health and forgetting to ward, by the time I thought to Feign Death it was all over..  not to worry.  Back I go.

Soon enough I see that wonderful effect “You have reached level 60!”  Wahoo time for some new spells!!!!!!  I was a bit disapointed with what I got in the end, I thought id get more than two, but hey last 10 levels (before another expansion) to go!  I think ill be concentrating on my Berserker from now on though, its more of how I want to play (although SOE really need to sort out the dps, using a buckler is NOT what I think of when I think Berserker)

Its Friday which means a couple of things:
1) Early finish from Work
2) Guild Raid on WoW
3) I will be getting very drunk whilst leading the raid tonight

Ok so on to WoW talk, EQ2 players can stop reading now.  Its been a real pain for me to even log onto WoW, the game has lost so much appeal from me its not funny.  But tonight is our 3rd attempt on even getting a raid for Gruuls lair.  You can say LAL NAB all you want but the fact is we are a casual guild and are SERIOUSLY low on healers, all healers nowadays want to DPS, except Paladins who KNOW they are the GODS of healing.  We only just have enough to make what I call a “comfortable” Gruul team.

We have been approached by another guild “Gathering of Dudes” to host joint raids on Gruul, which I had reservations about but they have been waylaid somewhat.  To be perfectly honest, id rather hit karazhan tonight and finish the clear started on wednesday.  Gruul is going to require me to actually WANT to play the game to lead it successfully. Karazhan on the other hand is much more forgiving.

So possible raid in WoW tonight…. feel kind of sick even thinking about it now….

On a different note, a guildmate made me a new signature for the board, I re-rolled from Warlock to Warrior to raid with so my old Warlock sig was way out of date, take a look below 🙂

Nice work Immor!

Closing Thoughts:  Kinda hope I can cancel Gruul, really dont feel like it, going to play Berserker to 70. LOTRO, might play some this weekend.

Oh and I cancelled my Vanguard subs, and wife said I can have 3 games WAHOO!

Return to Everquest 2, and a BOMBSHELL

Right then!  Got in from Hockey practise around 5pm last night and went and had a look at my PC.

 “We had a powercut earlier” my wife pipes up as I see that the Everquest patcher says “download cancelled” 

Now luckily these patchers are clever and most of the time they dont need to start over so I figure it cant have much to go, so I fire it up…….. 3 and a half hours to go GAH!

Seems something in the gaming world is thwarting me from evenm trying Everquest 2 again.  Im really interested in seeing how it runs on my new rig (nothing fancy just had a few small hardware upgrades since I last ran it).

So anyway, I leave the patcher to it, Tracy doesnt seem interested in playing anything tonight so she is ensconced on the sofa.  First thing I do is fire up Vent to check on the WoW guild without actually logging in.  Hmmm they should be raiding, why are all of my officers in a room on vent (password protected) called KEEP OUT!

So in I go to find out whats going on.  Seems in the end that the main tank couldnt make it as he was drunk somewhere, backup tank was away and our guilds 2nd MT had respecced so he couldnt MT a sausage.  I was going to log in but in the end they got a replacement… phew

I check the EQ2 timer… 3 hours GAH

So I log into LOTRO, without Tracy i’m not allowed to do quests so I work on a deed, and finish the Spider Slayer (Advanced) in the Lone Lands for a trait boost.

By this time I was getting frantic, COME ON PATCHER GO FASTER! So I went and had a bath. 

Coming downstairs two at a time and its DONE!  OH MY GOD!  its now 9pm but its done!  I happily press play and hear the music, ahhh memories!

And there we are…. character select, both my high level (ish) toons are waving at me yelling “PICK ME, PICK ME!”  I settle on Borgeo, my Berserker to start, he is level 47 and was my second character that I made, to duo with Tracys fury but I find him a lot of fun, after grabbing my mial, grabbing broker cash, re-paying my rent and sorting my UI im off to the Sinking Sands.
It was at this point I looked at my XP bar, only 1 and a half bubs to go! 85% done!!  Nice!
Soon im busy bashing crocs in the caves again for one of the Blades (I think, could be Coin) quests and upon finishing I need… 0% to level… I hate that hehe, I find a happy caiman who fulfills my need, so there we are, level 48! 

Great going, I think to myself, now lets see about my SK.  Borgio was my first char (barring a Ratonga Assassin I played to level 12 who got deleted) who used to be a pally when they were godly, of course nerfs came and I stuck with it, till I think I was drunk and did the betrayal quests…. all I can say is SK’S ROCK!  So much power!
Anyway he is 59!  I look at the XP bar, 40% to go, EASY!

Now I remember why I stopped EQ2 in the first place, a TON of Heroic Quests and Nobody about to do them, groups running in the guild right now? 19-29 and 38-48  DAMN!

I run off to KoS and do some of the repeatable quests for rep, manage to get 20% exp before I nearly need to log for bed.  Then a brainwave hit me, COLLECTION QUESTS!!!!!!!  I run off like a mad pixie to the broker in order to finish some quests… bad idea, I am NOT paying 6 PLAT for a damn collection item EVER!

So that was it, my first few hours back in EQ2 made me realise the following:

A) I like it again
B) I like my Berserker more than my Shadowknight, although he cant kill as well

Question Numero Uno: Which do I play?  48 Zerk or 59 (nearly 60) SK?  Do I take the SK to 70 first? Or just go with the Zerk and be out of raiding for longer.
Any high level SK’s out there with their role in raids and how they do?

THE BOMBSHELL!

Wife sidles up to me and coo’s in my ear “Having fun?” I let out the normal male response… a grunt
“Well, I think you need to pick what you are going to play, you need to pick TWO games.”

And there again is the problem, which to pick, I might try to wangle 3 but who knows.  Some decisions are easy some, not so.  Here is my list and my thoughts on each:

1) Dark Age of Camelot – CANCEL (I dont play it all tha t much anymore)
2) Vanguard -CANCEL… JUST CANCEL
3) LOTRO – Hmmm Tracy likes to play, its pretty and new
4) WoW – Im GM of a raiding guild, with so much time invested and friendships made
5) Everquest 2 – Ive jsut come back, never experienced raiding, having a ball.

Now WoW is the tricky point, its my “3rd game” I want to keep, mainly jsut to keep the guild ticking over but im not actively playing much, if I could have my way id cut myself off totally but I can’t, its not possible.
If I could choose?  freely?  EQ2 and LOTRO would stay open.  Eq2 is gorgeous and fun, LOTRO is new and has potential.

At least ill get some more done tonight, on which char?? I dont know… but ill find out when I get in!

Patchers and you!

Lets see, got in from work with the old gamer thoughts “Ok ill just install, patch and jam for a couple of hours, see how I get on.”

Now the key word there is PATCH. You always forget how much patching is required for your favourite games and EQ2 is no exception. The sheer amount of updates that SOE has provided since the games release is staggering, expansion packs, content updates, bug fixes. All of which now need to be downloaded to my machine.

I look at the “estimated” time remaining….. 6 hours 32 minutes. Guess I WONT be getting back into the game then. Not that this has put me off, I just left the patcher going while I slept, should have really checked it when I got up but ah well, fingers crossed.

Love them or hate them, Patchers are a staple ingredient for MMOs. I, personally, love them. No longer do I need to go searching websites for patches for my game, when the patcher simply does it for me. Some patchers are better than others. WoWs downloader sucks in my opinion, very buggy. EQ2 and LOTRO on the other hand are simply great.

SO what did I do with my night then? Well apart from watching Youtube. My wife and I intended to get some of her quests done in the Lone Lands on LOTRO, after spending an hour searching for Undead and The Burrowing things near Ost Guruth for the Noisome Neighbours quest. Unfortunately everybody was trying to do this quest… so we gave up.

Tuesday is CSI night for my wife so she logged off to watch leaving me with nothing to do but watch the patcher download files. Luckily im leaving work early to go play Hockey, so I should be home earlier to fire EQ2 up and give it a whirl. More to come!

 P.S Most of this is written from work where I dont have access to my screenshots or anything so if I happen to get any ill add them later!

EQ2 or Bust?

The main thought in my bonnet today…. Everquest 2, and should I go back.  My wife would call me “indecisive” but ive noticed that ive been looking away form WoW for a while.  Still maintaining the guild but not actively playing like I used to.  Seems real life sucks time out of the raider I used to be.

 Playing LOTRO with Tracy at the mo, im lucky enough to have a wife who loves gaming, even more lucky to have one who likes to play the healer!  I can pretty much cut loose and play what I want and I know she will be there to heal.  With LOTRO we went the old standard, tank and healer.  So she’s a minstrel.

She finds minstrel life tough to solo so she mostly waits till I get in to play, however ive still managed to pull away a little on levels, my 27 to her 25.  LOTRO is a great fun game dont get me wrong, but it hasn’t got that “polish” that im looking for yet.

So Everquest got me interested again, now I havent played EQ2 for roughly 2 or 3 months, but all the hype surrounding the Aresai and the new expansion coming out has sort of spurred me on to actually levelling one of my characters to the fabled 70!.  Ive got my Shadowknight on 59 and my Berserker on 47.  Dont get me wrong I enjoy both, but im not sure what my guild needs endgame.  Thats a bad thing, im not really the tanking type I prefer to damage.  I know I should have picked a dedicated dps class then but I find SK and Zerk damage fine (last time I played)

Do I take the plunge that is EQ2 again?  That would mean open subs for: WoW, LOTRO, DAoC, and Eq2 (although checking the sony website, seems i never closed it) not that I cant afford it, but will I play for a week or two before moving on, this is a pickle!