First off, I think the blogging community needs to decide what the abbreviation of Everquest II Extended is. Hell, even here you can find EQ2X, EQIIX, and EQII ex in various posts. There is also some movement towards EQ2E on some blogs. Forget unemployment, this is serious business ;-)
My new pixie death mage is definitely going to go tailor. After a bit of research, I realized that I was insane and tailoring is the crafting line that makes bags, not a separate crafting line. As a tailor you get cloth armor, leather armor, and bags. It seems like a solid production profession, and with all three of my silver characters being cloth wearers I think it will be a lot of fun to level it. I doubt I'll be wearing a lot of what I can make given how good quest drops are, but I'd be surprised if I can't fill in a slot here and there with some of the high end rare recipes.
The thing I always enjoy about the crafting in EQ II is everyone can gather everything. That means that one high level lead can gather enough mats for several alts to blow through their crafting tiers. If you gather everything in sight, you soon end up with more raw materials than you will ever be able to use, short of a crafter that makes consumables.
I was surprised to discover that the new auction house tokens are per character, not account wide. This is a bit of an annoyance, but ultimately not a big deal if you are silver and have a shared bank account. I have one character that almost never leaves the crafting hall in Neriak, he has become my designated auctioneer. After messing around with it for a night, I have to concur with Stabs that tokens aren’t worth using for anything but occasional single purchases. If you can’t sell drops and crafted products in bulk, it’s not worth the bother of selling anything. Certainly, it isn’t worth 15 cents a pop (the cost of a token) to list most items.
Finally, based on a tip from Green Armadillo and Stabs in the comments of my previous post, last night I hunted down the quest “A Gathering Obsession.” It led me to a continent I had never set foot on before, and the quest was so easy and rewarding that I ended up doing it on all three of my characters. 17-18 gold is a lot of cash for 20 minutes of work. I plan to do part II with all three of my characters eventually for another 17 gold each. To find the quest, hit a travel globe at any dock and choose “Island of Mara.” When you arrive cross the river nearby and look for Qho Augren, a little boy swimming around in a pond. He’ll be the only quest feather on your map at low levels, making him really easy to find.
Island of Mara, huh? I never knew such a place existed. I hope I get some EQTwoEcks time in this weekend.
ReplyDeleteHeh, your abbreviation wins :-)
ReplyDeleteTailor is IMO the best of the non-scholar professions. (Being a scholar is great because tons of recipes make for easy leveling, and you get one or more spell upgrades every level.) Not only do you get bags and cloth/leather armor, you also get "hex dolls" that go in your charm slot, and sacks for throwing weapons.
ReplyDeleteAs to quest rewards vs handcrafted, the balance will shift more towards the crafted stuff in the 20-68 range, because quest rewards in the older content are not that helpful.
Also note that the most recent expansion changed it so that each class really only cares about two of the five stats (everyone needs STA for HP's, and mages want Int). Regular loot is going to include stats that you don't really need, while the "Tranquil" cloth sets spend their entire budgets on the two stats you do want.
When do you guys play? I'm itching to log in and play a bit, but I don't know anybody and was hoping I could get invited to the guild you were talking about that was put together.
ReplyDelete@Green Armadillo: that's very encouraging to hear. Hopefully I can make some progress on it this weekend with the double XP.
ReplyDelete@MMOgamerchick:
You can see Ardwulf's guild website here:
http://ebontribunal.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=368253&TabID=3085807
You should register there. If you hit the "roster" button you can see most of the characters in the guild. Mine are all under user name Yeebo (creatively enough).
Also, in game type (in the dialogue box):
/who all ebon tribunal
and it will bring up a list of everyone from the guild that's on. Just lurk around until you see one of my 'toons or Ardwulf's.
You can also send blind tells to random guildies and ask if any officers are on, but that didn't work out too great for me when I tried it ;-)
Not sure how much I'll be on this weekend, but I've been pretty steady on weeknights (9 pm to midnight or so).
I will make it a point to get the client reinstalled this weekend. Unfortunately I work all day Sat and Sun, and WAR eats most my free time. I did get to play a few hours worth the night it launched so my barbarian should have some nice rest xp. Free accounts still get that right?
ReplyDeleteStill having far too much fun with this.
ReplyDeleteA friend phoned today to see how I was, we rolled mages and played for 8 hours. With double exp weekend, the free exp potion that comes as standard claim fodder we shot up to 17. We can now pull incredible amounts of mobs and kill them in seconds, we just rounded up and killed the level 15ish Orc invasion on the beach.
Getting the Grandmasters is an amazing leap forward for a mage. Seriously fun.
Yup, Jaye, you get rest exp. It all multiplies each other so check in /claim if you've got a free exp potion somewhere. Double exp weekend times exp potion times rest exp is most enjoyable.
Tailor is a good choice and don't underestimate the mastercrafted sets. They are probably the best sets Bronze and Silver can get because the best dropped or quested loot is restricted.
Also you can get the tailor rares from both shrubs and roots making it very easy to farm. I had about 15 yarrow this morning when I leveled my alts' crafting.
The dead horse that is SOE's pricing policy is a greasy spot on the road, but it's notable we're all having a great time in EQTwoEcks, and none of us are saying "And you have to buy content pack X - it rocks".
ReplyDeletePS Will trade mats or jewelry for food and drink