PhatBoyG.com

It’s been a while since I posted about EQ2 (yeah, I’ve been busy), but last night was a good time. I got into a raid doing Lyceum of Abhorrance (again, probably my 3rd or 4th time in there), and we cruised through it as usual. The last encounter is a blast due to the complex nature of how it must be beaten (more dots, no more dots, DPS very quickly, etc.). We came away with some decent loot and I think at least one more guildie got to finish the quest for the now Legendary item (they nerfed all the loot from fabled since the overestimated the difficultly of the zone).

After that raid, we got another setup for a run through Ascent of Awakening x2. Twelve of us went into this zone which for the most part was pretty darn easy. I remember trying it over a month ago with a pick-up force and we never got out of the entrance. Last night, we blew through the floors and took down both of the big dragons without too much drama. It was a pretty fun run overall, definitely a fun night. Hopefully I can get in on some more action this weekend and certainly this weekend!

Continue reading »

Last night I got into a group in Palace of Awakening. We went to one of the top levels where the XP is real nice and managed to ding 68. Only two more levels to go before it’s all about the AA. Once I dinged 68, I finally got the ability to wear these:

They are pretty sweet for sure. I still have a couple of remaining loots that I can’t wear yet, so hopefully I can get up to 70 soon. Spells seem to be a joke at this level, I haven’t upgraded anything yet due to the high cost of moonstones and my complete set of T6 masters make the older versions still better and less resisted.

Speaking of AA, so far I’ve gone down the following path:

• 1 point into the starter
• 4 points into strength, 1 point into the AoE avoidance ability Bladeturn
• 4 points into agility, 1 point into Bump, mainly for the attack with instant stealth for Scream of Death
• 4 points into wisdon, with a few points into the first ability tier to get up to the crit chance buff

BUMP is by far my favorite, going insta-stealth and either our wis debuff for short fights or SoD for the long ones. Master I helps on SoD.

The guild has a long weekend planned, Lab tonight and Lyceum again tomorrow. We’ve already cleared both, but word is SoE added some extra goodness to make Lyceum more difficult. We shall see!

Last night, our guild planned our weekly raid on the Lab. However, Sony wasn’t cooperating and the zone crashed within seconds after we zoned. We weren’t alone, the Lords of Chaos suffered the same fate as us. Naturally, our re-entry timers were set and another six hours had to pass before we could enter again.

Instead of calling it, we cruised over to TT for another run at the new raid zone Lyceum of Abhorrence. We all got the quest outside the zone and entered. Having tried the zone a couple of times before and getting bugged on the cloud, we were hoping for better luck this time. Fortunately, luck was with us. We unlocked the golems and got the cloud — we were on our way.

The discovery XP in this zone is nuts, I got 15% discovery in the first few areas. Progressing the quest was a nice rush as well. We managed to get quite a few relic drops, master spells and some fabled gear (including some incredible boots for Zyxlin, see our guild site for drops).

We actually finished the zone, including the boss and finished the quest. As a reward, everyone got some nice fabled loot. And we’ll be farming this zone for drops weekly I’m sure. I have to say, this was a very fun raid. Progressive, entertaining and the encounters are designed to keep the entire raid force on their feet. A nice variation to the very boring “wrath of fury” style encounters, this is probably the best raid I’ve been on in a long time.

I also mananged to hit 67 while in the zone, allowing me to equip a couple of items that have been in my inventory for a few levels — including my dirge class hat (quested version). Overall, a very fun night!

If you play WoW or EQ2, you’re going to see this movie soon enough. Mind you, it has some very harsh language and is supposed to be a recording of TeamSpeak while playing a 40-man raid in WoW. Read the entire story to see the movie.

Movie Link

After a seriously busy couple of weeks, I got some time and ground out level 66. I got a couple of new spells, the major of which is an upgrade to Clara’s. For once, even the Adept I of the new spell is better than the Adept 3 of the previous tier. Not much, but something. With rough moonstone still around 5p a piece, it’s going to be a while before I see any Adept 3 upgrades for 61-70 spells.

I’ve added some code to make it possible to use friendly URLs that won’t break in several restrictive forums. You can now use the following to get the signature images:

http://phatboyg.com/eq2sig/109225106.jpg

http://phatboyg.com/eq2sig/noframe109225106.jpg

http://phatboyg.com/eq2sig/invertnoframe109225106.jpg

Last night, Mob Squad went into the Fountain of Life to give those that missed the update before another shot. We flew through the raid portion, getting a couple of real nice Paladin/Paladin items (funny story behind that one) and managed to get everyone who didn’t have it yet their update for the Peacock quest. We were even able to get a few folks who were waiting outside onto the platform in time thanks to CotH.

The funny part, well, it seems Sony fixed the problem with the skeletons spawning at the top of the ewar, but they still spawned down below and the entire zone still repops. Well, this time around we didn’t focus on the chest drops and were there specifically to get the update. Once the Godking dropped, we all moved to the waterfall and started doing in groups to get the update. Of course, more skeletons spawned and the groups who stayed below took care of them. But by the time we were done, the entire zone had repopped. This meant that the items in the chest were surrounded.

Our paladin Puggz, not being one to let loot go to waste, started zerging the chest to hit Loot All before he died. It was fun to watch from a distance, but a hell of a way to earn loot. Kind of like watching a dog play fetch with a carrot. No snaps on Puggz, it was a good effort and he actually got two fabled pieces out of the deal since nobody else was going to try it.

A quick jaunt to Maj’Dul and I had my sabre. I’m a little disappointed in the damage rating (both of my fabled piercers are better), but the power regen and final discarding of the Prismatic 1.0 are welcome. I’m still looking for a solid sword for the Bladeturn AA, no luck in that department yet.

After the Godking, we went into Trials of the Awakened again. We flew through it this time, at least up until we met the boss, a 74×4 ghost dragon with some serious adds and a major AOE/knockback. People were already tired and we ended up dying to a full raid wipe. Nobody was ready to work the entire zone again from scratch so we called it and hope to try again soon to get the Mark of Awakening quest update.

As for AAs, I’ve settled on Bladeturn and Bump as mandatory for dirges. Bump/Scream are a huge combo on raid mobs and avoiding an AOE is a nice lifesaver when bringing real DPS classes back to life. I’m undecided on the next course, most likely wisdom to get the final critical hit bonus. Plus, it’s a nice out of melee range early skill that can be useful.

My signature generator for EQ2 gets a lot of traffic. Now it seems that “Userbars” are becoming popular for their small size (350×19) and subtle appearance. To keep in step, I’ve added an initial user bar generator. You can use the default background image (of which I may add to the selection, and will certainly accept any PNG submissions as well to add) or reference a background image from another site (see instructions). It will then plug your character name, level, tradeskill level (optional) and server name.

To generate your own Userbar, use the following image links:

http://phatboyg.com/eq2sig/ubar.php?playerId=109225106

Optional parameters:

&template=url
Specify the full URL of an image to use as the background (350×19).

Be sure to change playerId= to point to the ID from the URL on the EQ2Players site.