Even fast machines have trouble with Everquest, it is just a massive game with resource requirements significantly higher than most other 3D games. I am assuming that you have a recent 3D card and at least 512 MB of RAM. If you don't, start there. Also, I am going to assume you have the latest video and sound drivers and BIOS rev for your hardware. Here are a few tips I have gleaned from various websites that actually work:
1. Defrag your hard drive. This is simple to do and makes a HUGE improvement in load time and game performance. EQ takes up ton of disk space and it is far more efficient if the files are all contigous. The first time you do this, it is going to take HOURS. Any modern hard drive (20+ GB), even if not very full is going to have a lot of file fragments. You are probably best off running the ScanDisk tool first and then starting the defragger as you head off to bed. This needs to be repeated every one to two weeks, but subsequent defrags should go pretty quickly (an hour or two).
2. Static Swap File. This speeds up paging at the expensive of disk space. Since disk space is somthing you likely have plenty of, this is a good one. This takes some time to do right, so don't try to rush through this before getting online. Actually, a patch day is a good time for this :). Start by defragging your hard drive. Then open up the control panel and find the system settings that govern virtual memory. If you haven't messed with it before, it is probably set to 'let windows handle it'. Set it to OFF and reboot the computer. Defrag again. This will be real quick. Go back in and set the swapfile size to 512 meg min and 512 meg max. Reboot. Windows will now create a large static file to use as the swap file. This will never get fragmented like a dynamic swapfile because the file never gets deleted or modified during use.
3. System Setting changes. There are two modifications that you can make to the System.ini file in the Windows folder that will also help. Locate the '[386Enh]' section and add the following lines:
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1
DMABufferSize=64
You will need to reboot for them to take effect.
4. Disable HW acceleration for sound. For some reason the sound stuff is not handled properly with EQ and it ends up in debug mode which sucks down the CPU cycles. Go into the DirectX applet, select the 'sound' tab and move the slider all the way to the left.
5. Edit the dataspeed file. I am assuming you have a broadband connection. If you do, go into the file DataRate.txt in the EQ program folder and change the number from '5.0' to 9.0'. This sets the threshold for LD in the game. You will find the client a lot more lag tolerant especially in raid situations.
6. Enable DMA Hard Drive access. Go into your System applet of the Control Panel, select the Device Manager and make sure the DMA box is checked for you hard drive. This makes a HUGE performance difference. You will need to reboot.
7. AGP Aperature. When the machine is rebooting, enter the BIOS screen. Go to the page dealing with video stuff and check the AGP apperature size. This should be at least 256. Set it to that and save on exit. Reboot.
Follow along as Finavar and Bianca explore the Everquest world of Norrath on EMarr
Thursday, February 27, 2003
In line with my comments from yesterday, we went off to CT last night. Not really expecting much over than to get a feel for the zone and what it would take effort-wise to camp it and farm for blood.
So, Bianca put together the standard PoP type group and we headed off to CT. This is an intereting place. It is 55+ zone that is adjacent to a book served zone, but no one was there. Creepy. Exp is almost as good as PoN though. But the mobs were redesigned in the Luclin era, so they have an insane amount of hit points. They also summon and are almost 100% MR.
We never did really break the camp. The entrance to the courtyard has two guards on an 18 minute spawn. No way to split them, not enough room to FD pull and HoN doesn't work. Well, that is why we bring enchanters :) But, it takes forever to kill the two of them. And the next spawn is a two pull as well with a potential raptor add. But cause of the door, I can't split them effectively. Three is rough for a mid 50's group and by the time we get them disposed of and med back up, the doorway has respawned. We needed more DPS, bottom line. Our 3rd DPS person was a 51 warrior then a 52 or 53 warrior. Not enough help when the casters are having a hard time landing nukes.
Still, we got two blood drops and a bunch of almost cool weapons which sold real well to merchants. Around 180pp total. We plan on going back several times and moving in deeper as we get stronger. Lots of good drops there and no competition.
So, Bianca put together the standard PoP type group and we headed off to CT. This is an intereting place. It is 55+ zone that is adjacent to a book served zone, but no one was there. Creepy. Exp is almost as good as PoN though. But the mobs were redesigned in the Luclin era, so they have an insane amount of hit points. They also summon and are almost 100% MR.
We never did really break the camp. The entrance to the courtyard has two guards on an 18 minute spawn. No way to split them, not enough room to FD pull and HoN doesn't work. Well, that is why we bring enchanters :) But, it takes forever to kill the two of them. And the next spawn is a two pull as well with a potential raptor add. But cause of the door, I can't split them effectively. Three is rough for a mid 50's group and by the time we get them disposed of and med back up, the doorway has respawned. We needed more DPS, bottom line. Our 3rd DPS person was a 51 warrior then a 52 or 53 warrior. Not enough help when the casters are having a hard time landing nukes.
Still, we got two blood drops and a bunch of almost cool weapons which sold real well to merchants. Around 180pp total. We plan on going back several times and moving in deeper as we get stronger. Lots of good drops there and no competition.
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
Tuesday was it, the last straw. I can't take HoT anymore. This was my 16th trip in 8 weeks. During that time I have witnessed exactly FIVE chain drops. A pair of boots (already had), 3 bracers (won two), and arms (lost the roll). Armor drops about once every nine mobs. Chain drops once out of ten armor drops. That means, on average, chain drops once every ninety dragons, or about 2.5 raids.
I worry about being seen as selfish for quitting with only two raids left, but I have been there to help gear up all the plate wearers include new guildies and people who only come once in a while. We have had so much silk that it is regularly going for cash loot. We equipped a 46 druid who had no business being in ToV (KOS even) in an almost full set. One chain drop: arms, but I lost the roll to a guy who guilded at the beginning of the raid. ARGH. I am not mad at him or the guild, the policies are as fair as we can devise, but my frustration with the amount of time I have spent in ToV versus the reward is huge. Even considering that this armor farming will let us kill bigger and better mobs for bigger and better loot.
So, I am done, as is Bianca, who only needed one peice anyway and that was not a huge upgrade for her even. I am looking at other options to get my AC and resists high enough to participate in the next round of guild raids.
I worry about being seen as selfish for quitting with only two raids left, but I have been there to help gear up all the plate wearers include new guildies and people who only come once in a while. We have had so much silk that it is regularly going for cash loot. We equipped a 46 druid who had no business being in ToV (KOS even) in an almost full set. One chain drop: arms, but I lost the roll to a guy who guilded at the beginning of the raid. ARGH. I am not mad at him or the guild, the policies are as fair as we can devise, but my frustration with the amount of time I have spent in ToV versus the reward is huge. Even considering that this armor farming will let us kill bigger and better mobs for bigger and better loot.
So, I am done, as is Bianca, who only needed one peice anyway and that was not a huge upgrade for her even. I am looking at other options to get my AC and resists high enough to participate in the next round of guild raids.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
After getting my UI up to speed, it was time to check out some of the new content. Not surprisingly, there were new froglok PCs everywhere. I have no immediate interest in a frog, I wanted to see the new zones.
Checking in with the guild, we got directions to the jump off point in the Stoneburnt Mountains. That is a fairly long run from the nearest druid ring in Tox Forest. Fortunately, there are rumors of new ports in the Stoneburnt Mountains, all we have to do is find the spells.
The initial zone area is a fishing village with all the usual services you would expect (merchants, banks, forge, pottery wheel, etc.). The place was like a festival. 100 people in the zone even though it was still late afternoon EST. Eventually, we found our way to the entrance to the rest of the zone(s). You have to swim south from the boat and get to a beach. From there kill on the beach, we also found a cave system with two other towns in it. Of course, we were KOS in both, but they were green and light blue in the first and mixed blues in the second. Beyond the second was a large temple on a hill. That looked worthy and we killed there for a while.
After that, we had a GoB raid to kill a spawnable dragon in DN for a quest. That took far more time to setup for than to run. I hope the quest works out like Laenyal wants. I had had enough EQ by that point, so we camped early (for us).
More adventures coming tonight (I hope).
Checking in with the guild, we got directions to the jump off point in the Stoneburnt Mountains. That is a fairly long run from the nearest druid ring in Tox Forest. Fortunately, there are rumors of new ports in the Stoneburnt Mountains, all we have to do is find the spells.
The initial zone area is a fishing village with all the usual services you would expect (merchants, banks, forge, pottery wheel, etc.). The place was like a festival. 100 people in the zone even though it was still late afternoon EST. Eventually, we found our way to the entrance to the rest of the zone(s). You have to swim south from the boat and get to a beach. From there kill on the beach, we also found a cave system with two other towns in it. Of course, we were KOS in both, but they were green and light blue in the first and mixed blues in the second. Beyond the second was a large temple on a hill. That looked worthy and we killed there for a while.
After that, we had a GoB raid to kill a spawnable dragon in DN for a quest. That took far more time to setup for than to run. I hope the quest works out like Laenyal wants. I had had enough EQ by that point, so we camped early (for us).
More adventures coming tonight (I hope).
Well, the much ballyhooed Legacy of Ykesha is live and all our custom UIs are broken :( Fortunately, the forums at EQGUI track the changes to the base files pretty well. It only took me about an hour to make the edits I needed to get my UI back running. In fact, I had missed a few things that had been patched in over the last 6 weeks that may have contributed to the instability I have been seeing while zoning (or being rezzed).
So, all is well. For those that are not familiar with the UI, I will add a screenshot to this topic when I get a chance. I go for the lean and mean approach, trashing the ornate borders and squeezing things down to small sizes. Max room for the game.
Here are the files: Download Here
To install, unzip these files into a folder under the uifiles folder. Enter the game and hit Alt-O, select Load UI and select the name of the folder you just created with my files. I run in 1152x864, but I have a large monitor. This will work at nearly any resolution since most of the windows are smaller than the default ones.
So, all is well. For those that are not familiar with the UI, I will add a screenshot to this topic when I get a chance. I go for the lean and mean approach, trashing the ornate borders and squeezing things down to small sizes. Max room for the game.
Here are the files: Download Here
To install, unzip these files into a folder under the uifiles folder. Enter the game and hit Alt-O, select Load UI and select the name of the folder you just created with my files. I run in 1152x864, but I have a large monitor. This will work at nearly any resolution since most of the windows are smaller than the default ones.
Saturday was a miserable day to be a homeowner with 2.5" of rain melting 28" of snow. I spent all day vainly trying to keep the basement from flooding. After that was done, the kids asleep and Bi at work, I fired up a the computer for a little EQ before crashing.
Well, Krushh wanted to kill the Manaetic Prototypes in the PoI Factory, in like 10 minutes. Well, now I don't have to worry about finding group or anything... There are 3 of these guys, Type IX, X, and XI and the number cooresponds to their hardness, all are level 66 mobs with an 800 HP unresistable AoE called Steam Blast and an AoE snare called Oil Spray. They also occasionally banish the person highest on their hate list to another room. If you do them in reverse order, you can easily get back to the raid if summoned on either of the last two fights. The IX banishes you to the room with the X and the X banishes you to the room with the XI. I am not sure where the XI banishes you, but I think it is to a couple of clockwork golems.
They drop decent caster loot and are on a couple day random spawn, so off we go.
I don't know what happened between what Fin typed and when I get home, but when I come over to the computer, he is naked at his bind point. I log Bianca in as fast as I can and hightail it over to POI. Nothing interesting happened after that. We killed all 3 of the prototypes. Lucman got the thing I *thought* I wanted, a head-slot item with Healing Efficiency IV. But I got this shoulder item: Cog Encrusted Epaulets with beneficial spell haste. They rock! All my good spells, like healing, porting, sowing- they not cast faste. It took 4 seconds off my PoK, slowest-spell-ever cast. O, and Lucman gave Finavar his old head item: Linked Metal Crown. Finavar was happy, I was happy, all good.
What happened was a total party wipe. We were fighting the model XI and had hit pinned in the corner. When he hit 3% health, we warped to his spawn point and was suddenly back to 100% health! We fought him down again, same tactics and same result. The following attempt caused the wipe as the casters went out of mana and too many tanks had been banished.
Well, Krushh wanted to kill the Manaetic Prototypes in the PoI Factory, in like 10 minutes. Well, now I don't have to worry about finding group or anything... There are 3 of these guys, Type IX, X, and XI and the number cooresponds to their hardness, all are level 66 mobs with an 800 HP unresistable AoE called Steam Blast and an AoE snare called Oil Spray. They also occasionally banish the person highest on their hate list to another room. If you do them in reverse order, you can easily get back to the raid if summoned on either of the last two fights. The IX banishes you to the room with the X and the X banishes you to the room with the XI. I am not sure where the XI banishes you, but I think it is to a couple of clockwork golems.
They drop decent caster loot and are on a couple day random spawn, so off we go.
I don't know what happened between what Fin typed and when I get home, but when I come over to the computer, he is naked at his bind point. I log Bianca in as fast as I can and hightail it over to POI. Nothing interesting happened after that. We killed all 3 of the prototypes. Lucman got the thing I *thought* I wanted, a head-slot item with Healing Efficiency IV. But I got this shoulder item: Cog Encrusted Epaulets with beneficial spell haste. They rock! All my good spells, like healing, porting, sowing- they not cast faste. It took 4 seconds off my PoK, slowest-spell-ever cast. O, and Lucman gave Finavar his old head item: Linked Metal Crown. Finavar was happy, I was happy, all good.
What happened was a total party wipe. We were fighting the model XI and had hit pinned in the corner. When he hit 3% health, we warped to his spawn point and was suddenly back to 100% health! We fought him down again, same tactics and same result. The following attempt caused the wipe as the casters went out of mana and too many tanks had been banished.
Monday, February 24, 2003
Persuing this blog, you will notice that we got to HoT a lot. That means crossing the eternally annoying Siren's Grotto every trip. There are 3 ways to get from the Cobalt Scar zoneline to the Western Wastes zoneline:
Get a Succor across from a Druid or Wizard
Ghetto Succor (using the zone bug; at your own peril)
Run
I usually have a druid at my disposal, so option 1 is for me. But, there are times that Bianca is busy or I don't feel like booting up the other PC just for a port. Option 2 could be you banned and that would suck, but I know it works. Others get across, so I know there is an option 3. The trick (especially for someone who sucks a swimming) has been to find the safest route.
Thankfully, some kind soul (whose name I forget) on the Ranger's Glade forum has marked up a map, which I have shamelessly stolen for our editification.
Zone in and stop at 'a'. Camo up, jump in the water. And swim across to '1'.
There are 2 seahorses at 'b', so hit sneak and jump in behind them.
Swim 'up' this tunnel. There is a static seahorse at 'c', it is reported that you shold be able to sneak past him by staying as left as possible.
In either case when you get to the top, he can't follow you. This is a good place to reCamo since we all know Ranger Camo drops in the middle of something important.
Jump down and swim over to the ledge. There is a wandering molktor that paths through here, but if Camo is holding, you will be fine.
Run the rest of the route to the zone.
Note, that I haven't tested this yet personally, but the route jives with what has been described to me by others.
Get a Succor across from a Druid or Wizard
Ghetto Succor (using the zone bug; at your own peril)
Run
I usually have a druid at my disposal, so option 1 is for me. But, there are times that Bianca is busy or I don't feel like booting up the other PC just for a port. Option 2 could be you banned and that would suck, but I know it works. Others get across, so I know there is an option 3. The trick (especially for someone who sucks a swimming) has been to find the safest route.
Thankfully, some kind soul (whose name I forget) on the Ranger's Glade forum has marked up a map, which I have shamelessly stolen for our editification.
Zone in and stop at 'a'. Camo up, jump in the water. And swim across to '1'.
There are 2 seahorses at 'b', so hit sneak and jump in behind them.
Swim 'up' this tunnel. There is a static seahorse at 'c', it is reported that you shold be able to sneak past him by staying as left as possible.
In either case when you get to the top, he can't follow you. This is a good place to reCamo since we all know Ranger Camo drops in the middle of something important.
Jump down and swim over to the ledge. There is a wandering molktor that paths through here, but if Camo is holding, you will be fine.
Run the rest of the route to the zone.
Note, that I haven't tested this yet personally, but the route jives with what has been described to me by others.
Another EE raid on HoT to farm armor. Plenty of people showing for a 7pm start time. That worked for me, I didn't even get on until 5:30pm, after dropping off the boys. I spent the time before the raid prepping dinner and running around buying up the pieces and doing the turn-ins for an Earring of the Solstice, my first FT item. Cost a little under 4K pp, financed completely from the INT caster haste robe I won on a Trakanon kill as cash loot (Tolapumj's Robe).
Bianca had to work, but would be home about 7:30pm. Unlikely we would even have moved to the ledge by then, so I dual boxed her over to ToV. Gave rides to Inyiin and Nanbkek who were patient with the gimp dual boxer. As predicted, she got home and took right as groups started being assigned. While everything was getting sorted out, I served up dinner. She was quite happy, home from work, hooked up on the raid and fed hot food.
This one had a pretty good turn out, 24 people at it's height, I think. We plowed through the dragons getting the usual assortment of plate armor with the occassional silk or leather drop. Spindley got a silk robe, so be looking for him to want to leave the dragon faction soon.
A glimmer drake gated on us and summoned the MA and his cleric. While that happened, we had a spawn in camp. Then the drake returned, with a friend. Sigh, wipe, back to level 54. I need to get more exp on my level. Since leveling up, I have died 6 times on raids. We should have survived this one though, but all the clerics died immediately to the pop and we were a little disorganized, not everyone fighting the same mob, etc. Well, food for thought, no lasting harm done.
After that, chain boots dropped. Our token chain drop, but I already had them so they defaulted to a shaman. I am not sure how many more times I can got to Hot and not kill myself. At least we are seeing chain drop on the last two raids. So, either the RNG is evening things out or setting me up for another 7 raid dry spell...
Bianca had to work, but would be home about 7:30pm. Unlikely we would even have moved to the ledge by then, so I dual boxed her over to ToV. Gave rides to Inyiin and Nanbkek who were patient with the gimp dual boxer. As predicted, she got home and took right as groups started being assigned. While everything was getting sorted out, I served up dinner. She was quite happy, home from work, hooked up on the raid and fed hot food.
This one had a pretty good turn out, 24 people at it's height, I think. We plowed through the dragons getting the usual assortment of plate armor with the occassional silk or leather drop. Spindley got a silk robe, so be looking for him to want to leave the dragon faction soon.
A glimmer drake gated on us and summoned the MA and his cleric. While that happened, we had a spawn in camp. Then the drake returned, with a friend. Sigh, wipe, back to level 54. I need to get more exp on my level. Since leveling up, I have died 6 times on raids. We should have survived this one though, but all the clerics died immediately to the pop and we were a little disorganized, not everyone fighting the same mob, etc. Well, food for thought, no lasting harm done.
After that, chain boots dropped. Our token chain drop, but I already had them so they defaulted to a shaman. I am not sure how many more times I can got to Hot and not kill myself. At least we are seeing chain drop on the last two raids. So, either the RNG is evening things out or setting me up for another 7 raid dry spell...
I can't remember if this raid was EE or GoB, they all blend together. I think it was an EE affair though. It was my 14th trip to HoT since the first of the year. Bi had a RL evening with her dad, so I was left to my own devices once I had the kids settled.
I got on about 10 minutes after the scheduled start time, but because a number of the players were slow in arriving, the start was pushed back about 40 minutes. Fortunately for me, Brekk was porting people so I didn't have to dual box Bianca to get me over to WW.
The raid was a little smaller than our average, but had a lot of heavy hitters, so we didn't have too many problems. There was a guild in the right side and we took our usual left and exit side. Unfortunately, a third guild came in behind us even though we had the side camped. A pull contest ensued between the monks to keep each group fed. Also, we were light on nukage, so we had problems with the gating mobs. All this lead to a wipe for us near the exit. I died a second time when, having just been rezzed, a rancar came through camp killing low health people (me). I had to fight another one that was corpse camping half the raid with no buffs, no mana and rez effects. That will focus your attention!
The Black Claws are now on our hate list. While they didn't break any official rules, not leaving when the area was camped was unnecessary and discourteous.
Also, the dam broke on chain! Two drops: a bracer, which I won, and gloves, won by Giltaav. Woot. Of course, it was still plate night and we were giving away leather and silk gloves as cash loot...
I got on about 10 minutes after the scheduled start time, but because a number of the players were slow in arriving, the start was pushed back about 40 minutes. Fortunately for me, Brekk was porting people so I didn't have to dual box Bianca to get me over to WW.
The raid was a little smaller than our average, but had a lot of heavy hitters, so we didn't have too many problems. There was a guild in the right side and we took our usual left and exit side. Unfortunately, a third guild came in behind us even though we had the side camped. A pull contest ensued between the monks to keep each group fed. Also, we were light on nukage, so we had problems with the gating mobs. All this lead to a wipe for us near the exit. I died a second time when, having just been rezzed, a rancar came through camp killing low health people (me). I had to fight another one that was corpse camping half the raid with no buffs, no mana and rez effects. That will focus your attention!
The Black Claws are now on our hate list. While they didn't break any official rules, not leaving when the area was camped was unnecessary and discourteous.
Also, the dam broke on chain! Two drops: a bracer, which I won, and gloves, won by Giltaav. Woot. Of course, it was still plate night and we were giving away leather and silk gloves as cash loot...
Friday, February 21, 2003
So lately we have been putting together a lot of pick up groups so we can fight in the Planes. Mostly Nightmare, but sometimes the others. It's so hard, every time. Mostly it is hard to find a cleric, but until you have a cleric, most shamans or enchanters will not join. I wonder if I should have been a cleric- that would solve most of my problem right there. Is it too late to get one to 55? Probably. The other night I looked at my reply-to list, which is everyone I've spoken with in one session. It took up the whole screen, practically. I sent tells to 30 clerics.
And then there is the actual group management. Different classes seem to have archetypical personalities. Clerics have to be treated very gently. Enchanters want to be worshiped, especially when they manage to mez a couple of mobs. Shamans are very fussy about getting agro. Monks are always lying down on the job. And everyone is cranky when it's prime time and all the good camps are taken and we're not getting enough xp. Holding a group together is hard. It makes me tired.
Bianca
And then there is the actual group management. Different classes seem to have archetypical personalities. Clerics have to be treated very gently. Enchanters want to be worshiped, especially when they manage to mez a couple of mobs. Shamans are very fussy about getting agro. Monks are always lying down on the job. And everyone is cranky when it's prime time and all the good camps are taken and we're not getting enough xp. Holding a group together is hard. It makes me tired.
Bianca
Thursday, February 20, 2003
Since the CoM thing was a bust and the epic drop for Bianca went quickly, we decided to put together another PoN exp group. We had Gaerett to MA and Tigon to assist with DPS, all we needed was a slower and a healer. Like all the groups today, this one went together slowly and painfully. But, by 9pm we were rocking in our recent haunt south of the waterfall. Exp here isn't was good as the stalkers, but they are heavily camped most of the time.
As it turns out, the slower had to bail pretty quick, so we were not able to ding Bi or Gaerett :(. But while the group was fighting Krushh got on sent me a tell about how the CoM thing went. I filled him in between pulls and he ask me if The Shade was up (he was). So we abandoned the exp thing and headed over to do battle with the Shade once more..
I love this fight. Just getting there is interesting involving a leved river crossing, a swim and two cliff jumps. All things that get people dead fast. Then, you see him. The most enormous undead dude on an undead horse. Level 66, doubles for 1134, unslowable, summons, 100K hps. We are 2 and 1 against him in the raids I have been on.
Tonight went very very smoothly and we dispatched the Shade without a single death. Unbelievable. The guild is getting strong. On the loot rolls, I won a Disemboweler, the first melee item I had seen him drop. A nice upgrade to my Blade of the Arisen Cultist, thanks Elves!
As it turns out, the slower had to bail pretty quick, so we were not able to ding Bi or Gaerett :(. But while the group was fighting Krushh got on sent me a tell about how the CoM thing went. I filled him in between pulls and he ask me if The Shade was up (he was). So we abandoned the exp thing and headed over to do battle with the Shade once more..
I love this fight. Just getting there is interesting involving a leved river crossing, a swim and two cliff jumps. All things that get people dead fast. Then, you see him. The most enormous undead dude on an undead horse. Level 66, doubles for 1134, unslowable, summons, 100K hps. We are 2 and 1 against him in the raids I have been on.
Tonight went very very smoothly and we dispatched the Shade without a single death. Unbelievable. The guild is getting strong. On the loot rolls, I won a Disemboweler, the first melee item I had seen him drop. A nice upgrade to my Blade of the Arisen Cultist, thanks Elves!
After some signigicant planning, we were ready for our debut as Raid Leaders. Wednesday, 8pm, City of Mist, be there. Well, we were, but so was AV who was there to do the Shaman and Mage epics, and, while they were there, farm the Black Reavers, our targets. I was pissy. We had put a lot of work into this, but the Reavers are a FFA target and the first guild with 'killing force' gets the camp. Well, despite our best efforts, we were unable to mobilize in time and lost out. Lesson learned. Next time I will camp the zone more than the hour early I had gone in this time. I will camp in there all day.
After much deliberations, 11 of us set out to kill a particular froglok in the Swamp of No Hope for Bianca. We had tried him before with 4 and got cleaned out. Ulump is a level 55 warrior, almost completely MR and about 50K hps.
Except for the part where Bianca agroed another frog while setting up for the pull and got killed, all went well. Giltaav tanked with weaponshield and the rest of us poured on the DPS while Lorr kept him healed. In the end, he dropped Forglok Essence, needed to spawn Faydedar later in the Druid epic sequence.
Yay Baby, 3 pieces left!
After much deliberations, 11 of us set out to kill a particular froglok in the Swamp of No Hope for Bianca. We had tried him before with 4 and got cleaned out. Ulump is a level 55 warrior, almost completely MR and about 50K hps.
Except for the part where Bianca agroed another frog while setting up for the pull and got killed, all went well. Giltaav tanked with weaponshield and the rest of us poured on the DPS while Lorr kept him healed. In the end, he dropped Forglok Essence, needed to spawn Faydedar later in the Druid epic sequence.
Yay Baby, 3 pieces left!
Being a relative newcomer to EQ, I have never been to the Plane of Hate. EE, apparently, used to raid there a lot right before I came on board, so took a long stretch off from it. Also, there was all that content on Luclin to explore and now PoP. However, there are several epic pieces that drop there, so it is time to start heading back there again. Yay. I am always interested in seeing new places, especially ones I can?t get to on my own.
So, meet up at 8pm in the Dreadlands for groupage and the port up to Hate. We had played a bit during the day, exping and the like. Nothing remarkable. Gaerett?s roommate had put in a server transfer for his 62nd level Halfling Cleric ?Ouchie?. That had been granted just an hour before the raid, so Gaerett had to go around and collect the gear he had stashed for Ouchie (no gear comes with you on a transfer) and meet up with us in DL.
For some reason (probably because I am expendable), I get selected for the ?break team?, the first to groups to port up. The zone has wandering mobs and the zone in is on a patrol route. So, there is a good chance of zoning into combat. Also, Hate, like Fear and some other zones has a very touchy chain agro effect. You think you have everything under control and then the train you didn?t know was coming arrives.
Well, we buff and port up. Sure enough, two mobs there. Immediate combat. There is some confusion, but we get them mezzed and killed in short order. Then the train arrives? 10-15 mobs, all dark blue to me, so nothing amazing, just too many to handle. Casters getting squished left and right. Bianca dies pretty quick, the camp call goes out. I got one before I died. Gaerett DAed, ran to what he hoped was a safe spot and camped. This turned out to save the raid.
Gaerett camps back in, rezzes a Cleric who can then rez the rest of the raid since Tinv has drug all the bodies to the safe spot. While everyone is medding and rememing spells, etc., we get a few new additions so we are ready to work again pretty quickly.
More chaos ensues and we smack down about 50 relatively easy mobs and then move to the Church. Lovely scenery. From there, more pulls of trash until one of the mini bosses shows up (the Maestro), that is a bit more interesting, then his hand, then a Deathrot Knight, then a little more trash. At that point, we had killed all the interesting mobs in the zone, so the RL decided to call it before we screwed up and got swarmed by the remaining smaller mobs.
So, that was my first Hate Raid. The moral of the story: buffing before the break is a waste of mana. Jump in and guard a Cleric who camps and a Rogue who hides. Let the rest die, be drug by the Rogue to the safespot and then be rezzed. Then buff and fight.
So, meet up at 8pm in the Dreadlands for groupage and the port up to Hate. We had played a bit during the day, exping and the like. Nothing remarkable. Gaerett?s roommate had put in a server transfer for his 62nd level Halfling Cleric ?Ouchie?. That had been granted just an hour before the raid, so Gaerett had to go around and collect the gear he had stashed for Ouchie (no gear comes with you on a transfer) and meet up with us in DL.
For some reason (probably because I am expendable), I get selected for the ?break team?, the first to groups to port up. The zone has wandering mobs and the zone in is on a patrol route. So, there is a good chance of zoning into combat. Also, Hate, like Fear and some other zones has a very touchy chain agro effect. You think you have everything under control and then the train you didn?t know was coming arrives.
Well, we buff and port up. Sure enough, two mobs there. Immediate combat. There is some confusion, but we get them mezzed and killed in short order. Then the train arrives? 10-15 mobs, all dark blue to me, so nothing amazing, just too many to handle. Casters getting squished left and right. Bianca dies pretty quick, the camp call goes out. I got one before I died. Gaerett DAed, ran to what he hoped was a safe spot and camped. This turned out to save the raid.
Gaerett camps back in, rezzes a Cleric who can then rez the rest of the raid since Tinv has drug all the bodies to the safe spot. While everyone is medding and rememing spells, etc., we get a few new additions so we are ready to work again pretty quickly.
More chaos ensues and we smack down about 50 relatively easy mobs and then move to the Church. Lovely scenery. From there, more pulls of trash until one of the mini bosses shows up (the Maestro), that is a bit more interesting, then his hand, then a Deathrot Knight, then a little more trash. At that point, we had killed all the interesting mobs in the zone, so the RL decided to call it before we screwed up and got swarmed by the remaining smaller mobs.
So, that was my first Hate Raid. The moral of the story: buffing before the break is a waste of mana. Jump in and guard a Cleric who camps and a Rogue who hides. Let the rest die, be drug by the Rogue to the safespot and then be rezzed. Then buff and fight.
Monday Dingage
Well, 24" of snow on the ground and it's still snowing. We are going to have some free time :).
We spend the morning with Heng camping the Sea Furies in OOT. That took two freaking hours. In reciprocation, we camped the Corrupted Brownies in Lesser Faydark for Bianca. That only took about an hour. It felt good to killl those little bastards after the ass reaming Finavar took from them on various Mistmore trips.
We took a break and then got back to grinding in Nightmare. I guess I had been whining about getting 55 a lot. 55 is a big level for Finavar, he gets the Trueshot discipline which he can use once an hour for two minutes. But, during those two minutes, look out! Also, a new damage table, etc. Normally, we keep Bianca and Finavar within a few percent of each other, but she let me get ahead because it is so much harder for me to get exp (she can quad for an hour and get 20% in a good spot). So we worked Nightmare hard until I dinged 55. Then, I had to test it!
The next pull was a spider which Gaerett tanked and I smoked it from bow range. 7500 hps in 2 minutes! Wow, normally, I hit a little better than half the time for somewhat under 100 hps. I hit is 37 hits averaging 202 hps. Yee Haa. Now I need some serious AAs to get EQ. Fletching all these arrow will make me broke.
We spend the morning with Heng camping the Sea Furies in OOT. That took two freaking hours. In reciprocation, we camped the Corrupted Brownies in Lesser Faydark for Bianca. That only took about an hour. It felt good to killl those little bastards after the ass reaming Finavar took from them on various Mistmore trips.
We took a break and then got back to grinding in Nightmare. I guess I had been whining about getting 55 a lot. 55 is a big level for Finavar, he gets the Trueshot discipline which he can use once an hour for two minutes. But, during those two minutes, look out! Also, a new damage table, etc. Normally, we keep Bianca and Finavar within a few percent of each other, but she let me get ahead because it is so much harder for me to get exp (she can quad for an hour and get 20% in a good spot). So we worked Nightmare hard until I dinged 55. Then, I had to test it!
The next pull was a spider which Gaerett tanked and I smoked it from bow range. 7500 hps in 2 minutes! Wow, normally, I hit a little better than half the time for somewhat under 100 hps. I hit is 37 hits averaging 202 hps. Yee Haa. Now I need some serious AAs to get EQ. Fletching all these arrow will make me broke.
Grinding some Nightmares
After digging out most of the morning, I was able to transfer the boys back to their mother. This cleared the decks for some much needed EQ relaxication.
I got on and immediately got hooked up with Nanbkek in a PoN group on the docks. Later on, we moved to the hobgoblin camp. The exp rolled in. Bi didn't get on until later and was exploring The Grey for quad kiting potential.
Much exp gained, I made it halfway to 55! Wow after languishing in 53 for so long, we have finally hit our stride.
I got on and immediately got hooked up with Nanbkek in a PoN group on the docks. Later on, we moved to the hobgoblin camp. The exp rolled in. Bi didn't get on until later and was exploring The Grey for quad kiting potential.
Much exp gained, I made it halfway to 55! Wow after languishing in 53 for so long, we have finally hit our stride.
Sunday, February 16, 2003
Valintine's Day Break
No playing on Valintine's Day. And the next day was consumed with kid stuff and an SCA event, so no playing then either (/gasp).
Thursday, February 13, 2003
Plane of Nightmare
Well, I rested and got a few chores done around the house. Then Bianca got home from school and we decided to play for a while. We got on, collected Gaerett and decided to put together a Nightmare group to grind some exp. I was just 5% away from 54 and wanted to level before the HoT raid. An extra level will help with the AoE resists and we never get (measurable) exp on a raid.
Well, it doesn't even take too long (i.e., about 30 min) and Bianca has gotten us a Shaman, a Cleric and a Shadowknight, so off we go. The Shaman is 58, almost 59 and knows a good spot in an area of the zone we haven't looked at, so she leads. It turns out that she is great at grinding. She has a horse and wants to pull with slow. That is awesome. Most shamans don't want to wander too far from the cleric because slow is a huge agro getter. Also, with the mobs coming in preslowed, the cleric is saved a lot of mana. The PoP mobs hit hard for their level, so slow is critical. Usually just in the few seconds of fighting an unslowed mob, the MA needs a CH. Of course, if he doesn't have good agro, the cleric and/or the shaman get agro. That is a mess. Gaerett is awesome at getting and maintaining agro and with the mobs already slowed, the shaman never got hit, the cleric stayed at 80% or more mana and we could chain pull. Ding Bianca 54, Ding Shaman 59, Ding Finavar 54. 15% in two hours, not bad. That also included two KEI refresh trips and two personnel switchs. All in all a good group. Also, about 50pp each from loot (PoN loot sucks).
Well, it doesn't even take too long (i.e., about 30 min) and Bianca has gotten us a Shaman, a Cleric and a Shadowknight, so off we go. The Shaman is 58, almost 59 and knows a good spot in an area of the zone we haven't looked at, so she leads. It turns out that she is great at grinding. She has a horse and wants to pull with slow. That is awesome. Most shamans don't want to wander too far from the cleric because slow is a huge agro getter. Also, with the mobs coming in preslowed, the cleric is saved a lot of mana. The PoP mobs hit hard for their level, so slow is critical. Usually just in the few seconds of fighting an unslowed mob, the MA needs a CH. Of course, if he doesn't have good agro, the cleric and/or the shaman get agro. That is a mess. Gaerett is awesome at getting and maintaining agro and with the mobs already slowed, the shaman never got hit, the cleric stayed at 80% or more mana and we could chain pull. Ding Bianca 54, Ding Shaman 59, Ding Finavar 54. 15% in two hours, not bad. That also included two KEI refresh trips and two personnel switchs. All in all a good group. Also, about 50pp each from loot (PoN loot sucks).
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Adventures in the Grotto
With nothing special planned for Tuesday evening, we decided to go to Siren's Grotto and farm Velious Armor gems. There hasn't been a chain drop in Hall of Testing in so long that I have personally given up on getting any more. However, our frequent adventuring buddy Gaerett is a Paladin and plate drops account for slightly more than half of all drops. So, even though he hasn't been with us long, he already has won a couple of pieces. The gems are very pricey (if available at all) in the bazaar.
Farming the WW zoneline of SG is pretty safe for a single group of 50's, there are only 6 ulthork/molktor spawns, but the respawn rate means no downtime really. If you are bored, there are also 5 or 6 walrus/elephant spawns. They are indifferant initially, but will add. Also, they never drop loot and have just as many HPs.
The ulthork/molktors almost always drop at least one gem. Not always an armor quest gem, but the ones that aren't sell well to vendors. They also have Netted Kelp armor as an uncommon drop. That stuff sells real well in the bazaar (100-1500pp). Deeper into the zone lots of other cool stuff drops (and probably the drop rate of armor gems is higher), but it is full of, you guessed it, sirens. Enchanters all and I hates them. An early expedition here with me dual boxing Bianca resulted in both of our deaths and a 2 hour CR. It was hideous. I HATE swimming underground, I always run into difficulty. Rangers were meant to be outside.
So, while we are not confident enought to venture deeply, we did kill the accessible spawns for 2+ hours. Netting 3 armor gems, 50pp each and 5 peices of Netted Kelp armor. I also got about 5% exp, slow, but much faster than a raid. Also, most importantly, no deaths!
Yay.
Farming the WW zoneline of SG is pretty safe for a single group of 50's, there are only 6 ulthork/molktor spawns, but the respawn rate means no downtime really. If you are bored, there are also 5 or 6 walrus/elephant spawns. They are indifferant initially, but will add. Also, they never drop loot and have just as many HPs.
The ulthork/molktors almost always drop at least one gem. Not always an armor quest gem, but the ones that aren't sell well to vendors. They also have Netted Kelp armor as an uncommon drop. That stuff sells real well in the bazaar (100-1500pp). Deeper into the zone lots of other cool stuff drops (and probably the drop rate of armor gems is higher), but it is full of, you guessed it, sirens. Enchanters all and I hates them. An early expedition here with me dual boxing Bianca resulted in both of our deaths and a 2 hour CR. It was hideous. I HATE swimming underground, I always run into difficulty. Rangers were meant to be outside.
So, while we are not confident enought to venture deeply, we did kill the accessible spawns for 2+ hours. Netting 3 armor gems, 50pp each and 5 peices of Netted Kelp armor. I also got about 5% exp, slow, but much faster than a raid. Also, most importantly, no deaths!
Yay.
Turtle Kill (sort of)
In case you didn't know I have two wonderful sons aged 19 months and 4.5 years for a previous relationship and I get to spend several days a week with them. All is good, except they gave me the current crud that is floating around daycare and I didn't sleep at all last night. Sinus hell, I am particularly susceptible to sinus issues anyway and having a programming/managerial job, I may as well stay home if I have to take drugs. I just can't work with a fuzzy head.
So...here I am awake at 7am, drooling on the keyboard, writing an email to work telling them I am not coming in today. That done, I decide to see what is going on online. I had left Balinvar up selling in the Bazaar. Well, he made something like 1500pp overnight! Yay me! I am also reminded that we have a handle on the Lodizal spawn in Iceclad. So, I bring up Bianca and port out there and check. 2 or 3 peeps in the zone, not turtle. Well, it's early, I sit there and hit track once a min while reading email and boards in another window (I loved the new windowed mode).
Well, time goes by and boom! A turtle appears. Well, cool, I have never seen it even. So, I put out the FFA call in guild chat, port Bianca back to the Nexus to pick up people and take Finavar in to watch Lodizal. No one close to the turle as I get into range, it is 100% health and pathing along. Then it stops near the water and sits. So I hang out a discrete distance with Finavar while grouping up folks in the Nexus with Bianca.
Then bozo the lizard shows up (an unguilded Iksar monk named Caball) and agros the turtle and pulls it right to me. Ouch! Damn turtle double for 280 and stuns, nice. Fortunately, I am SoWed and Leved and I manage to get out of range. I am trying to save Fin, port with Bianca and update the guild in guildchat all at once and doing nothing well. Eventually, I get a group in with Bianca. I take Finavar in for a closer look and see a dead turtle, damn.
Except, the person (people?) locking the corpse is Tinv! Where the hell did he come from? Also there is Aryllyian, Drayal and Eillail all former EE members. Bouncing around whining about KSing is my Iksar friend. Apparently Caball and his buddies have been farming Lodizal for the last several days and have taken exception to competition. The rules for FFA are cutthroat, but clear. Agro is not enough, you have to have him engaged with sufficent forces for a kill and kiting him around with a monk does not count. They know this, but complain anyway. Although, they do decline to /petition it since they know they would lose.
As to the circimstances of the kill, Aryllyian, Drayal and Eillail we apparently camping the spawn, invisible on the other island. They didn't know I was even there until I showed up with help. After all was said and done, I got the map piece I needed for the Eyepatch of Plunder quest and Bianca got an EB ring. Yay and many thanks to Tinv and Aryllyian.
So, I got to see the turtle and got some turtle loot, so all is good.
So...here I am awake at 7am, drooling on the keyboard, writing an email to work telling them I am not coming in today. That done, I decide to see what is going on online. I had left Balinvar up selling in the Bazaar. Well, he made something like 1500pp overnight! Yay me! I am also reminded that we have a handle on the Lodizal spawn in Iceclad. So, I bring up Bianca and port out there and check. 2 or 3 peeps in the zone, not turtle. Well, it's early, I sit there and hit track once a min while reading email and boards in another window (I loved the new windowed mode).
Well, time goes by and boom! A turtle appears. Well, cool, I have never seen it even. So, I put out the FFA call in guild chat, port Bianca back to the Nexus to pick up people and take Finavar in to watch Lodizal. No one close to the turle as I get into range, it is 100% health and pathing along. Then it stops near the water and sits. So I hang out a discrete distance with Finavar while grouping up folks in the Nexus with Bianca.
Then bozo the lizard shows up (an unguilded Iksar monk named Caball) and agros the turtle and pulls it right to me. Ouch! Damn turtle double for 280 and stuns, nice. Fortunately, I am SoWed and Leved and I manage to get out of range. I am trying to save Fin, port with Bianca and update the guild in guildchat all at once and doing nothing well. Eventually, I get a group in with Bianca. I take Finavar in for a closer look and see a dead turtle, damn.
Except, the person (people?) locking the corpse is Tinv! Where the hell did he come from? Also there is Aryllyian, Drayal and Eillail all former EE members. Bouncing around whining about KSing is my Iksar friend. Apparently Caball and his buddies have been farming Lodizal for the last several days and have taken exception to competition. The rules for FFA are cutthroat, but clear. Agro is not enough, you have to have him engaged with sufficent forces for a kill and kiting him around with a monk does not count. They know this, but complain anyway. Although, they do decline to /petition it since they know they would lose.
As to the circimstances of the kill, Aryllyian, Drayal and Eillail we apparently camping the spawn, invisible on the other island. They didn't know I was even there until I showed up with help. After all was said and done, I got the map piece I needed for the Eyepatch of Plunder quest and Bianca got an EB ring. Yay and many thanks to Tinv and Aryllyian.
So, I got to see the turtle and got some turtle loot, so all is good.
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Never Sign on in the AM
This should be a no brainer: if you have to go to work, don't log on. Not even for a second. No, I didn't blow off work to play, but I passed my morale check exactly.
It went like this: I didn't get to play hardly at all last night. Jess and I were going to see a play (she is a Theatre major and needs to see several a year) at 8pm. I played a little while we were getting ready, but, as usual, I shaved it down to that absolute last second before we had to leave to camp. When we got home, I was way too tired to sign on and put Balinvar up in trader mode as I had planned. Being a Ranger, I am usually broke, so I need Balinvar selling whatever loot I get as often as I can. So, no problem, I will put him up now, before I head out to work.
Usually, no one in EE is playing that early. But, today, there was a group in Iceland awaiting the impending spawn of Lodizal. Now, Lodizal the big bad sea turtle drops some pretty cool loot. But, he is also one of the more cutthroat FFA camps on the server. As I was setting Balinvar up, there was a call to assemble troops. I looked at Jess who had gotten up uncharacteristically early (to do homework, no less), she said that we could go if I wanted, but she wanted me to say no. /sigh. I needed to get on the road. So, I turned off the monitor and left. The agony was large.
Vow: don't sign on in the am if you plan to go to work. If I need Bal up and selling, I need to set that up before camping in the evening.
It went like this: I didn't get to play hardly at all last night. Jess and I were going to see a play (she is a Theatre major and needs to see several a year) at 8pm. I played a little while we were getting ready, but, as usual, I shaved it down to that absolute last second before we had to leave to camp. When we got home, I was way too tired to sign on and put Balinvar up in trader mode as I had planned. Being a Ranger, I am usually broke, so I need Balinvar selling whatever loot I get as often as I can. So, no problem, I will put him up now, before I head out to work.
Usually, no one in EE is playing that early. But, today, there was a group in Iceland awaiting the impending spawn of Lodizal. Now, Lodizal the big bad sea turtle drops some pretty cool loot. But, he is also one of the more cutthroat FFA camps on the server. As I was setting Balinvar up, there was a call to assemble troops. I looked at Jess who had gotten up uncharacteristically early (to do homework, no less), she said that we could go if I wanted, but she wanted me to say no. /sigh. I needed to get on the road. So, I turned off the monitor and left. The agony was large.
Vow: don't sign on in the am if you plan to go to work. If I need Bal up and selling, I need to set that up before camping in the evening.