LAN Party at Casa de Borgio

Last night my mum and dad finally came round for an evening of grouping in EQ2.  They have been playing for around a month but are yet to work out the intricacies of group dynamics so the best way to teach them was to sit in a room together and chat it out.

Once they arrived and got set up in the dining room we all logged in and formed up

Borgeo – 80 Berserker

Befnee – 80 Dirge

Hunni – 80 Warden

Hellgarth – 80 Wizard

Dianne – 73 Coercer

The first thought was to head to vaults as I feel this zone is a very good starter dungeon zone for any new player, it contains traps, varied boss fights and tactics for each.

Rimheart decided to join us on his 71 Assassin Bloodheart so the group was set.

Upon arrival I made sure everyone got the quest outside and we headed in, I spent 10 minutes talking about buffs and group roles and instance etiquette before we headed in.

Trash wasn’t a problem, I deliberately made mum and dad jump into a trap to show them what happens.  Soon dealt with the add.

First boss was not a problem, I explained about the nuances of the fight (Stoneskin manadrain and healthdrain) and we started.  The first mana drain put mum out of power as she didn’t range it but then it was dead.

Second boss I tanked in the room as AOEs are fun, we just blew this one apart, good times!

Third boss, the one with the books, I had mum and dad do a scroll each then Rim did the rest, 3 – 0 to us.

I then had mum and dad run a crystal each to the platforms to get them used to using items, that done it opened the boss door.

After explaining about the adds on the last fight, I assigned mum and dad to the left one, and Hunni to the right one.

After starting the fight Hunni’s add spawned first and was locked down, then the other one spawned, I half expected it to not get rooted, but it did, first CC to hit was Wizard Shackle, then a mezz, then a Coercer shackle (She had to be sure J )I then called for DPS on the boss.  After a mix up where mum was still nuking the add we killed the last boss and everyone got their updates yay!

No loot worth mention dropped so we moved onto Shard of Fear. 

This zone was selected as our MT needed it for his epic, so we set about clearing it up to the final boss, nothing worth saying about this place as we had all ran it before so we just killed everything.

Last zone for the night was a Chelsith clear, again our MT needed it for his epic so we cleared around, it was in Chelsith that Rim left to go help kill Trak and after it was dead, Maevar (Our MT) himself came in to help, this meant I logged off of Borg and stayed on Befnee,

All I did was Rez Rez Rez go Dirge rez bots.

And that was that, in the end mum got to level 76!  3 levels in a night is pretty good for casual dungeon play, I had fun, I went to bed buzzing, I hope they did too!

I can haz Dirgeburger?

Sorry for the obvious lolcats reference there but I couldn’t think of a half decent title for this one.

Well how did the weekend go then? Quite swimmingly actually.  I decided that I really DID want a Dirge especially when SF is released as it will help to level with the passive buffs (and COB ofc!)  so decided to roll a new one.

SO thus on Friday night, Befnee the Dirge was born.  I planned out early on that I was going to AOE grind powerlevel this toon as the exp curve had just been adjusted for the levels 1-75, my plan was to then quest to 80.

Ill let you in on the zones I used at the end but lets just say that at the end of the first night I was level 49.  This was in about 2 hours by the way.

Well Saturday rolled along and I got started early and in earnest.  End of the night brought level 75!

Sunday started early again and by 1400 I was 80.

Total played?  1-80 /played 23 hours.  0 Collections completed, 3 quests (1 from newbie isle, one from Nest, one L&L)

Here is Befs EQ2players page, slightly longer played time now as I actually started AA grind now (That’s the only bad thing about fast PL, low amount of AA she has 80 I think)

Befnee the wonderdirge

Ok so zones then:

Levels 1 – 7 – The Down Below

I started as a High Elf which mean Qeynos, since I skipped the isle so I could PL with my Zerk I had to leg it to the down below, did a quick loop of the down below around to the peat bog entrance in the idea of getting the early levels done fast and getting myself to the Antonica Instances.

Levels 8 – 9 – The Peat Bog

I literally just aoe pulled to the zone line and got two levels, bonus!

Levels 10 – 15 – Antonica

Again I ran from the Peat Bog entrance over to the Blackburrow entrance, killing anything that conned on the way

Levels 16 – 23 – Blackburrow

This is the first proper dungeon on my list and I prefer it to the Wailing Caves due to sheer speed a Zerk can clear it.  I simply run into the first room near the waterfall, hit Gibe and wait, most of the rooms below get cleared out by this then you just work your way down aoeing rooms.  Once I hit the spiders I knew I was done so left.

Levels 24 – 40 – The Ruins of Varsoon

I actually stayed here longer than I usually do, due to me hunting all the nameds down but again no issues.  AOE pull everything in the caverns portion, then just AOE rooms out along the way, no problem.  By the time I had the last named I knew it was time to get moving on.

Levels 41 – 47 – The Temple of Cazic Thule

I like this zone although its about now that I need to restrict pulls if I want to survive, my tank is geared well but not uber so now I start to take damage.  Its about now that I rope Mrs B in to come and heal, yay another Mentor!  Venekor was up too but was a very angry red con meaning I was forced underground earlier than normal.  I prefer up top as its easier to aoe pull but downstairs there are more higher cons.

Levels 48 – 49 – The Sanctum of Fear

This instance inside Cazic Thule was done purely as we were there, two bonus levels had and I felt “done” with CT

Thus ends the first night, sleep ensued then we picked up with…

Level 50 – Everfrost

Got to love Disco exp on the way to permafrost

Levels 51 – 52 – Permafrost

This is the first real mistake I made with levelling, Perma just isn’t worth it, but I cleared the nameds once (including the Epics) but got out of dodge as fast as possible.

Levels 53 – 61 – The Throne of New Tunaria.

I had never ran NT at all when levelling so was interested in how long it would take and what it was like, well it turns out this place is RIPE for Aoeage (yes it’s a word).

It was also this time that people in the guild started to see what I was doing so I got joined by Miniolsen (on his Bruiser Funkerman) and his girlfriend on her mentored Warlock.

Ok Warlock + Zerk = zone pulls!

Can I just say that shit died in short order!  We were totally happy with how this zone turned out and ill include it on my normal AOE loop from now on.

Levels 61 – 65 – Kaladim

I have also never really ran Kaladim so went there, I got joined by Rimheart (on his Assassin Bloodheart) so now with a full party we laid waste to the place.  Good zone, could probably have stayed longer but I was itching to get to the next zone which was…..

Levels 65 – 71 – Sanctum of the Scaleborn

This is my all time fave PL zone, I normally hit it at 60 and stay till 70 but this was skewed by the other zones.  However We AOE pulled the lot and blew it apart.  Best memory of the place this time was for Mini to go “Errr those are Epics” as I pull two at once, after absolutely destroying them he goes “Nevermind”

Classic

Ok normally this is where I finish PL and quest in Kylong but I was determined not to. So as a group we hit Kingdom of Sky

Level 72 – Bonemire
Got this on my way to Den of the Devourer.

Levels 73 – 74

I cleared HoF and Den, then Nest and got these two dings inside Palace of the Awakened.  Palace is another VERY good zone for PL as there are a lot of mobs and a good amount of nameds.  Nice.

Level 75 – Karnors Castle

My second slip up of the powerlevel grind, I thought hitting KC at 75 might be worth it but to be honest, the mobs hit too hard and have too many hitpoints to make this a working strat.

Thus ends the second night.

I woke up Sunday morning not really thinking about PL much but after logging on decided to go somewhere ive barely explored.  With Rimheart in tow (but no mini or warlock)  I headed to…..

Levels 76 – 80 – Castle Mistmoore

This place is fucking amazing, densely packed Vampires, Epics, and Disco from rooms all combined into an awesome zone with kick ass ring events.  We mustve died a few times when Gibe was unkind and pulled 5 rooms at once but overall I loved this part of the grind.  I DID get a screeny of the ding which ill post when I get in but it was a whirlwind.

I think Rim got his assassin from 57 – 71 during the grind too which was a bonus.

And this kids was the end of the PL grind.

Overall it was a quick one, I could’ve gone faster but that’s the nature of speed levelling, you tweak and adjust as needed.

So how did I do it then?  Well its all down to a little something called recruit a friend.

For those of you thinking of doing another account I highly recommend making it a recruit a friend account, because you get 200% extra exp on both main account and second account when you are grouped.  This also applies to AA, my Zerk went from 186AA to 200AA in this time through grinding!

In the end I think Befnee had the following bonuses.

200% RAF

10% Mentor bonus

10% RAF Mount bonus

Then whatever rank exp pot I had (only had a couple of months of vet rewards)

What I would say you need if you want to emulate this

1. An AOE capable class able to take hits and aggro (I used my Zerker who are perfect)
2. A healer capable of healing yourself and also themselves.  (I used Mrs Bs Warden, unlimited power ftw)
3. Patience.

So yay, I have a dirge, I then proceeded to roll an SK and try PL using different zones, im up to 33 so far!

Our MT Betrays!!

After being a big advocate that a Berserker can tank anything that a Guardian can our MT came onto voice last night to tell us that he will be betraying for the expansion to Guardian.  My initial reaction was a selfish one, I was glad!

His reasons are that despite showing a Zerk can do anything a Guardian can, he still only really tanks one mob at a time, and a Guard has an easier job doing this than a Zerk (Tower of Stone, Moderate).

So why was I glad?  Well this bodes well for me, we are already going to lose a tank since he is going back to Japan (thank god) I may get my shot, I don’t think its unknown in the guild that im a tank through and through but play a healer through necessity, obviously I played the same class as our MT making me undesireable, but now with him betraying its looking good.

I think the best time to approach our guild leader will be soon, with the expansion launching next month and the possibility of gearing up again, obviously this will leave us with an open healer spot, and an Inquisitor at that but that’s not my problem, that’s the guilds, I would feel hurt if the chance was there for tanking and I wouldn’t be allowed to go for it, its what I want to do!

Healers ARE Looking at you, Honestly!

This little post is to let people know how healers have a lot to deal with.

This all stems from Gozak attempts last night.  For the un-initiated Gozak is not a very bad healing intensive fight, its more of a cure fest.

He has a raid wide Trauma, a raid wide Noxious and also another AOE which will put random detrimentals on the group.  He also curses and if not cured in about 7 seconds then that person will be teleported to the entrance of the zone and wont make it back in time as they will die on the way.

The random detrimentals hit roughly every 15 seconds, the Nox and Trauma around every 45 (but this seems a bit random too).  Generally your group will only take damage from detrimentals not cured or if they decide to stay in on a few aoes they will take damage then.  

I find it annoying that other archetypes don’t appreciate what the healers are doing at the moment.  Exhibit A last night was on Gozak where one of our Brigands got the curse, within half a second of it landing on him I was casting my cure, which announces to raid chat, however he still felt the need (AFTER I had cast my cure, to spam in shout — CURE XXXX—– about 14 times.  My single statement was to shout Stop Spam once.

After the inevitable wipe (in which I healed and cured my ass off as usual)  he goes off on one about how I should focus on healing and curing and not typing,  well that was it I blew my top, I let him know in no uncertain terms that im a trained typist and that my heals and cures are bound to mouse buttons and that I wont bother curing him at all in future.  He’s the sort of Brig who stays in on every AOE but still pulls shit for a parse.

I just want to let all the dps out there know that healers do KNOW when you get a detrimental and trust me we will get it off you but you need to chill for half a second, within half a second of a curse landing the healers are all talking to each other to find out who is going to cure it.  I am constantly on voice chat with 4 of the other healers in the raid so we can announce things like this to each other.  How often are the dps chatting about what debuffs they are stacking?  NEVER I bet.

Anyway gripe over, we have a lot of data from Gozak (25% best try) which indicates that one or two of our healers were slacking on cures towards the end (we did a shed load of pulls to be fair)

Trust us, we are looking at you!

Assassin Project Nears Completion and Why Healers Hate Curing!

I finished my Mythical Weapon the day after getting my fabled HAHA!  In fact I got my first Mythic Update the same day.

My project with the assassin is nearing its completion, I have full tier 1 and my myth and will slowly work on my T2 however its not a priority, I may still run Shard of Fear to get myself a choker but its now my fun character, this close to expansion of course.

I went on a Pawbuster raid at the weekend too with and ex guildy and managed to top the parse!  I was very impressed to say the least.  I managed a 9k parse on one of the fights but most of the time hovered around the 7-8k mark, im very impressed with this since my gear was technically very scrub but this only bodes well for the future.

Seeing as my first ever EVER character was a Ratonga Scout (then Predator) its nice and fitting that I finally have one at 80.  Sure it will only be for a month or so till the expansion but ive taken two weeks off work and the plan is the following.

1. Ding Inquisitor 90 (Gathering AA as I go)

 

Well that’s about it, but I reckon it WONT take me 2 weeks to do it so once he has hit 80 ill start working another character, I don’t know any of the new raid zones in the expansion nor do I know anything about what is going to happen to the Myths so all I can do is level another char to 90 whilst I research it.  Obviously my Inq will be used for raiding but I can use him as a catalyst to gather gear for the others.

If I was allowed to swap mains in the guild then I would do it in a shot.  Healing isn’t my preferred method of gaming but its something ill do I don’t hate it but its not the most fun thing in the world.

Part of the shortage of healers has got to be with the whackamole curing which is prevalent in The Shadow Odyssee.  Healers are staring at healthbars like never before hardly healing but curing every 1-2 seconds including group wide debuffs that need to go.  I don’t struggle with curing but I feel that I devote WAAAAAY too much time to it and as such I don’t feel like a healer at all, im more like a curer…..

To just show what I mean, we killed Anasthi Sul again last night (as we do every week) and my cure parse stood around the 270 mark for a few minute fight…. Fuck off can I maintain that kind of concentration whilst worrying about my groups health, who gets cursed and needs that off, keeping my power above threshold, and sometimes healing the MT when the Templar in the group calls me to.

Im not saying that I want it easy but ive got to do all that and nobody really notices.  DPS has to burn adds (mages) and burn the named, if DPS is low, its noticed, if an add fails to die, its noticed, but nobody really notices if you are 1 sec too slow on a heal or cure.

DPS (melee) has to think about hitting the mob and jousting, mages need to think about nuking from range, and the tanks need to just smash buttons to make the mob hit them.  Why then do healers have to focus on so many different things at once?

This has turned into a bit of a healer whine but there we go, that’s what happens when I game all weekend and I think about things!

If in the next expansion they shift can cut down on the amount of curing needing to be done it may go some way to alleviate the feeling that priests get burnt out.

Online Friends <3

Sometimes its nice to have people you consider friends within an online gaming setting.

So what has led me to this post then?  Well first off somebody whom I played WoW then Aion with messaged me yesterday just to check how I was and Mrs B and the kids.   We chatted for a while and I told him why I stopped Aion for now and he could understand it (<3 Taso)

I then logged into EQ2 since I really wanted to do my faction grind with my Assassin for the Reets.  Ive been meaning to do this for the last couple of days but I helped out a lot with other peoples stuff but last night was the night!

My main aim was just to do the faction grind in Sebilis and maybe get my poisons crafted… well let me tell you something, those fucking poisons!

You need to farm bladders from mobs in Chardok you see, the drop rate is insanely low and you need 20…. Well you USED to need 20.  It seems that they changed the recipe to only need 1 a time now… and I farmed fucking 24 of the things (4 more to allow for some failures, you never know!)

I was lucky enough to rope in Mrs B and a guildy Parallax to help me with the faction grind.  Para is one of those insane 3 boxers so we had a 5 man team of Assassin, Wizard, Illusionist, Mystic and Troub.  The grind lasted all of 10 minutes and then para very graciously crafted my poisons for me too!

The time was still early so I grabbed another good friend Rimheart to log onto his Shadowknight to tank some more of my steps for me.  Before I knew it we were blazing through the whole thing!

In the end we finished with Maidens as it was getting later.  This just leaves Chelsith and a mob to spawn at Veeshans Peak and the epic will be mine.

On paper the Assassin epic looks annoying but with some good friends behind you it is nothing more than a travel fest (<3 Mrs B, ❤ Parallax, ❤ Rimheart)

Tonight I will get the last language quest needed done and out the way then ill see if I can rope the guys into a Chelsith clear… they know they want to do it really!  Even if I can get a cleared instance then it will be fine.

New Year, New Boss Kill!!

Our second raid of the new year and we saw ourselves heading into Miraguls Menagerie.  Now we had cleared a lot of this before, having only just “mastered” Qxectus Qxectus which just left the final encounter which we thought was Miragul.

Well we spawned it on normal mode and it turns out it’s a group encounter with a few mobs, 3 pulls later and it was dead.  The healer charm dropped which I pushed the bidding for but I wasn’t expecting it so I was not upset when it went to one of the Templars.

We then spawned the hard version of the encounter and discovered that the staff that you get from the Everfrost quest line is needed by everybody to reverse their debuffs so we ended up wiping a ton getting the feel of it. 

I did blow 100dkp on an axe for my assassin whom I also dinged 80 last night.  Im still getting to grips with him and I was very disappointed with fatal followup, ill need to do some research on the skill as it didn’t seem to crit that high really.  Im wondering if it is based on cast order and it bases its damage on the last stealth attack hit?  Ill find out!  Maybe it doesn’t help that im still using all of my T7 stealth attacks as I have them all at Master and currently my new T8 ones are not an upgrade till Iget them to Expert.  I will look into this also.

Tonight will most likely be spent in the Everfrost instances in order to get Fcu their items, I actually had a lot of fun on the raid last night and I look forward to playing tonight.

This close to an Expansion….. why bother?

I decided before Christmas that I was going to gear my Zerk with T4 when the patterns dropped.  Sure they cost a minimum of 100dkp a piece for an alt but I felt it was worth it.

However we didn’t raid much over Christmas and had our first raid of the new year last night and I figured, why bother?  Our dkp gets carried over into the expansion so may as well save it.

Then a nice healer cloak dropped and I blew 190 dkp on it, ah well lol.

Ive also been busy on my Assassin and finally passed my hell levels, namely 74 and 76.  I was trying like mad to hit 80 before the raid yesterday but fell just short.  I ended on 85.8 percent which was a nut punch but close enough that I know I can do it.

Im not going to bust a gut with him though, the Epic looks like a right bitch but ill eventually get it.

The big rumour with the expansion is that you need to finish the Claymore and Swords of Destiny lines in order to be able to upgrade your epic.  Not sure on this myself but it is mighty annoying.  The only char I have with any progress on this is my Paladin Borgio, and that’s only because he is my oldest character.

We were discussing on voice yesterday about which characters we are going to take to level 90 in the expansion.  My first will obviously be my Inquisitor as its my raiding character followed by the Zerk.  Ill then think about taking the Assassin and Paladin.

Ultimately im sure that ill find some time to do them all. 

I hope they put the experience gains up for the first month or so, im sure they did that with RoK so fingers crossed they will again.

Should be a laugh to level my healer with Mrs Bs healer, nobody should die at least!