On The Road

Greetings from the Road!  We've been traveling for about a week.

I loaded my laptop with World of Warcraft, Everquest 2 and Rift.  WOW and EQ2 looked great, but Rift, a beautiful game, looked sort of scrubby so I took it off.  As expected, connections on the road aren't fast, but I did manage to log into EQ2 and kill a few things.  Laggy but doable.

In case that happened, I was horrified at the idea of having no gaming time in the evenings, because I usually play every night. Loading some games from my Steam library seemed a solution if the MMOs weren't playable, reasoning I only needed to download them before leaving home, then any internet connection would be fine for playing.

After driving 8-9 hours a day, we're pretty tired by the time we find a spot.  So nothing yet.   Dept of overkill, we also brought Scrabble, Yahtzee, Uno and regular playing cards for some simple mindless relaxing play.  Unrelated to games, I brought several books and some crochet, because I have a horror of being bored.  Yes, we brought clothes too.

Edit:  Good connection tonite, World of Warcraft played fine. ^-^

Happy gaming in your snuggly high speed internet homes!

The Home Game Advantage

I listened to the most recent MassivelyOP podcast last night     http://massivelyop.com/2017/08/29/massively-op-podcast-episode-133-gaming-gamescom/      and am thinking about the mailbag question on "momentum" what keeps you playing fiendishly, then you take a break of any kind and that momentum is sometime lost and you don't feel like playing for awhile, and sometimes surprisingly never again.

There's also the concept of a "Home Game" -- your main game that you play all the time and know inside and out.

Because of the small goals oriented way I play any game, I'm able to switch games pretty easily.  As I've mentioned, I'm happiest when I can play on my weekly rotation schedule, playing seven different games throughout the week.

Sometimes one game will take over, and becomes your preferred playscape, as World of Warcraft currently has for me.  As I'm working Legion, though, I'm getting twitchy, because I don't care for the areas and stories, and I feel like I'm grinding towards nothing.  In Legion crafting is just not fun.  It's like the game up through Pandaria is one game, then Draenor changes things up considerably, but all things considered, I love Draenor, but Legion...agh.   It's a fight with myself to play through it.

As this WOW adoration and exclusivity is crumbling, I've peeked back into Everquest 2,  because it is still my current second favorite world, and Ravalation's post on the character models of LOTRO   http://ravalation.blogspot.com/2017/08/lotros-first-character-update-humans.html and Myndariel's new Hunter guide  http://myndariel.blogspot.com/2017/08/introducing-hunter-level-1-20-high-elf.html   has me updating the LOTRO client as we speak. Getting the Mordor expansion as well, because maybe one of my other characters can get past Mirkwood more easily. Let's bring that Rogue forward, right?  It's silly to let one character/class get stuck, and let your whole game get stuck,  when sometimes another class can break through a problem area for you. Once you know the way, you can anticipate and compensate for the play style of your other classes.   Yay for Alt Armies.  (Bonks self on head for letting myself feel stuck here).

Having Many Places To Call Home Means You're Always Home

I do admire on occasion what people who only play one game know about a game, their expertise is great when you have questions.  If you play just one game, you can accomplish everything, which has to be satisfying.

At some point, many people are just tired of their game, and jaded, and frustrated with game changes or development, and perhaps they stop playing anything at all.  Never stop playing! Life is so rich in virtual worlds.  You can be the very best you, no limitations.  How great is that?

Playing Multiple Games 

Keeps all games fresh.

Staves off boredom or dissatisfaction with any particular game, and gives you a broader perspective of what is possible.

You can keep the game client up to date so a long download doesn't discourage you from logging in to play when the impulse hits.

Often when you've been away for awhile you don't recall how to play your class, or your inventory is packed with (stuff) you don't know what to with.  You're right up to date with game changes so it's always  a familiar place to play.

There are a wealth of games available, so may different worlds, so much imagination in creation and care by the game makers to create a place for you to wander, it's a golden time to be able to try so many styles of play.

Gnome A, Gnome B

Somebody recently said they never see much difference in character models when people post them to show changes.  Hmmf.   The Argus patch changed everyone to the new character models again.

WOW Notes

I've been playing World of Warcraft almost exclusively, every day.  It's easier to write about games I'm not so familiar with for some reason than ones I know really well.

My current main character is a Paladin who has swept through the world up to Draenor without trying to complete any areas or quest lines, I've just kept her moving.  It is an appealing playstyle, but not one I could do with all of my characters.  Just getting to maximum level might be a little empty if you don't have any tradeskills (which she doesn't), and you are not up to the proper level for the area with mining and herbalism, her two professions.

It was always my plan to slow down once I got to Draenor, and do everything that can be done in Draenor (which is a lot).  I made it through each area, with every quest and Objective completed, through Spires of Arak.

You get the offer to go to the Broken Isles at level 98, and my character's gear level certainly wasn't up to going there.  Still, by the end of Arak I was level 100(?), and my habit of using this character to make money fast wasn't being satisfied by Draenor's quests, not quite.

At a still terrible item level of (eek, I know) approximately 524, I tried out the beginning scenario for Legion.  With only my character and one other person, it went pretty slow, but it was doable, no death.

I decided to get crushed by the Class Quest, but no, I steamrolled it. It was easier for her than for my main Paladin who had an easy enough time, with better gear, but not quite that easy.

Legion continues to be a struggle for me to play through, so I've been sending the secondary Paladin to Tanaan, working on Garrison Follower Missions, Naval Missions and the Fishing Dailies.  Then I send her to Dalaran to work the Class Hall missions, and out into Azsuna for quests.

As I've played through Tanaan and done quests in the Broken Isles she's now at 701 item level and is having an easier time.

It occurred to me this week she is catching up with my Blackwater Raiders characters, and could surpass them.  That doesn't seem right, does it? So I've picked my Paladin and Druid to go neck and neck on BWR towards 110, finally.

The Druid just finished Val'sharah.  Stormheim, coming up.  I have my main Paladin working in Highmountain, and I can barely stand it.  The Taurens all sound like the adults in the old Charlie Brown specials.  Wah, wah ,wah...  It's a little better as you get away from Thunder Totem, the quests less...whiney...

Sliding in for some quality crafting time is my Gnome Engineer on BWR.  My son was looking for Heirlooms you could get with certain guild achievements, so I ground her up in crafting from where she was, in the mid 500s to over 600.  I moved her through Pandaria and into Draenor to get the craft skill up.  Engineering has the BEST STUFF.   I'm not pushing her through Draenor, but am working on her Engineer Dailies there.  I really want to be able to make some of the Pandaria recipes, including a big flying balloon thing that takes a billion Trillium, which I've found none of so far in Pandaria, but I know it's in Darkmoon Crates often enough, so I'll continue her through Pandaria rather than Draenor till she gets that thing.

Blingtrons!  I love seeing them, but who knew they fight each other when placed near each other and gain some sort of points for being the tough Blingtron on the block.   I always thought people were being nice when they say a Blingtron is outside the bank, blah blah, but maybe they're fingering the little guys for some bully Blingtron to come and take them out.

Might I say I'm proud of this little gnome.  She's the first Gnome, the first Warrior, the first Engineer among all my characters to make it to Draenor and have her own cozy spot in the world.

The game has a lot of layers...

What Makes A "Good Player"

The ever brilliant Rohan of Blessing of Kings (my Paladin idol) has been comparing Final Fantasy and WOW dungeons and the skills of players in them. 

http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com/2017/08/high-skill-gameplay-versus-low-skill.html


SynCaine of Hardcore Casual speaks to another writer's statement that "bad players are bad people."

https://syncaine.com/2017/08/15/since-he-asked/


This made me think about what makes for a Good Player.   This is within the context of running dungeons, something I've been doing in World of Warcraft quite a bit lately, and though I finally recently earned the title "The Patient" I'd be surprised if most players have been in more PUGs than I have over the course of years. 

I've played every single role, some better than others.   That has helped me immensely while running dungeons, because I know what each class can do in their role, and I can get a sense if a player needs extra help from my characters, and I know where the points are in most dungeons where things can go south, and be hyper vigilant.

Here's what makes a Good Player

Do the best you can in your current role.  Work on a good rotation of skills, know your stat and armor requirements, carry potions to get you through bad spots.

Provide support for the rest of the group.
 
Be attentive to everything going on, not just what you need to do, but be aware of where the other players are and what they're doing to help or harm the group.

React quickly.

If you provide guidance to another player, do it in such a way that it is helpful to them, and it sticks.

Learn the dungeon/encounter.

As DPS, protect the Healer, assist the Tank.

Play all the roles so you know what is expected and possible.

SWGEmu Update

Yay! Everything looked good last night when I logged in.  Update to Pub 9 now looking to be tomorrow.

I've decided to concentrate on my Architect and Tailor once we're rolling again :)

Took a bunch of screenshots.  All's well in the Galaxy.

Mos Eisely

 

 

Corellia Guild Hall

 

 

Ellerie's Vendors

https://www.facebook.com/SWGEmu/

SWGEmu: Jedi Break the Game Again

Publish 9, which includes the long awaited (though not by me) village quests and Jedi was out on Wednesday, but some server problems (and I don't have my own computer guru here to ask how it works)  have possibly made everything go kablooie, and there may be a wipe if there is too much corruption.

All my babies gone!  Heartbreak city, with this game once again.  I do know it is a test and planned to actually just play through till the end of the test and not re-create my characters on Suncrusher, the permanent server.

My first thought this morning is I'm done now.  Then I think, maybe I'll just do two characters instead of the appealing but hard to maintain ten.  I keep going back and forth.

You know I'd like to see my babies once more to take screenshots and say goodbye.  I dunno.

I am amazed as always at the work of the volunteer staff who made it possible for me to walk through this world once more after the original game shut down.  I have nothing but good things to say there.

https://www.facebook.com/SWGEmu

PlayNotes Mixed

Lord of the Rings Online

I feel a bit guilty, but after thinking of my last post, and that I've basically been stuck in the same area of Middle Earth in LOTRO since 2009.   How is that even possible?  I've gotten stuck in plenty of Action/RPGs, but an MMO?   So, I have not bought the expansion till I see if I can get out of Mirkwood, or at least advance through it.

Secret World

I'm also stuck in Secret World with those security cameras, which has been depressing.  I'm wondering tonight though, if the reason I kept failing had to do with my recent connection problems.  My computer guru spouse fixed the connection problems as far as I can see, so maybe I'll give it another try.  I will be so relieved to move on.

World of Warcraft

In WOW,  I ended up doing what I always do and have a newly established family guild on my new server.   I'm continuing to run my Paladin ahead of the rest of my characters to earn money for guild tabs, and guild repair monies, plus everyone's riding training up through Northrend.

I've gone back to rotating my BWR characters who are in their 100s, but just those.  Everything is so easy for all of them except my Frost Mage, who I have to load with potions to keep alive.  Sheesh.  My new server Mage is going Fire, a spec I've never really played much.  Early on when I played the game, for some reason, Fire Mage and Destruction Warlock seemed too similar to me, at least for the lowbies I was running.   So I went Frost.

EverQuest 2

 All  of my characters are finally working in Antonica.   I had a bad moment when I considered sending one to the Frostfang Sea instead of Qeynos just to get a bearskin rug I'd picked up on the Fallen Earth server in that area.  Bad idea!   There must be a bearskin rug somewhere else in Norrath.

I love the fighting moves of my Monk and Bruiser, and have been trying to capture pictures of them in action.   It's never easy to get a nice shot of your character in a fight because, well, dead doggie.

The Bruiser    Look at those brass knuckles!   Smoke effects, light effects!  The Froglok is on fire.

Monk    Watch out for those legs!

Been busy lately, but hope to be back on schedule for my games next week.

Lord of the Rings Online: Escape From Lothlorien

I purchased the Mirkwood expansion when it came out, played very little (as it turns out my character simply wasn't high enough level for the area and things didn't go well for her). 

I was never a fan of Lothlorien, and didn't wish to continue playing there, nor did I want to drop my main character and level through older areas, only to get here again in the future.

So I stopped playing for a few years.

Here I am, frustrated with Lothlorien still, so I thought to look at the level for Mirkwood.   61-65!  Yay!  I'm level 62.

Abandon ship, I said, find the way to Mirkwood and la la la.

On the area map, it isn't so far away.  I just need to cross the Anduin River and I'm off on new adventures.   Note my happy arrow.  Good ol' Paint.

Ride, ride ride all the way across Lothlorien to the shores of the river.    Hmm, I can see they won't let me get up on the other side from here.

Ride ride ride the shoreline.  This looks good, clearly I can swim over and climb up easily right from here.

Swim a few feet. Dead.  Inexplicably dead.  Retreat puts me back in the middle of Lothlorien.   If you're going to cause me to die bogusly, at least stick me back on the shoreline where I apparently went so foul of the river's swimming rules.

Many many bad words spoken.

I then looked up "How to get to Mirkwood for Lothlorien".    How nice, I can get a quest from Haldir (which I likely unknowing got in 2009 but hmmpf), or I can ask the Elf at the Docks for a ride over.

Nice.  The boat awaits!

I actually wasn't sure if I'd been to Mirkwood already, but I certainly had.  I had a FAILED quest in my log.  Welcome back, puny dog.   Been Here, Failed That.

Oh, man, we're bunnoles deep in ORC territory.   How I've missed them!   Hubba hubba, ORCS, I say.

Damn. I was sooo eager to reach the Orc fortress, I didn't see a Goblin in the murk.   He popped me off my horse, then completely grayed out all my skills so I had a tough time beating him, but I did get him, he's a dead little goblin.

This doesn't bode well.  Nope.  

PlayNotes: LOTRO

My goal this evening was to do as many quests as I could, to try to move on from Lothlorien.   The main set of quests took me into a sprawling orc camp, where I needed to find several locations as a scouting mission.

Way, way at the back of all the camps, there were weapon racks to destroy, a common past time in Middle Earth.

Unbelievably, when I got back to my quest giver he wanted me to go right back through all the camp locations and destroy five more weapon racks. 

You know how dogs look like they're grinning but they're really really concerned about your request?

Then the next three npcs to offer quests want me to go in several other orc camps and kill as many orcs as I can.

I had to log out.


Orcs aren't my favorite foes.

Goblins are next worst.

Middle Earth as presented in LOTRO is full of orc and goblin camps.   Way too many.

Dear Diary:  Trapped In Lothlorien, surrounded by Orcs, send help!

PlayNotes: Rift and EQ2

 Rift


And it's Rift day!  I didn't feel like dealing with The Guy On The Stairs, so I did the classic thing:  I jumped down from the area starting platform to the area below and started fighting things.

I'm pretty sure this is where my character would have come out if I'd done the more frustrating route:

Heading left, I soon found myself in my new favorite thing, a Dead End.   I fought my way through rhinos and demons to get there, dang it.  Changing course,  I kept getting further away from my quest goal, which was always above me, with no way to go up.

Luckily Staypoofed and I are serene creatures who can take a moment to contemplate our ill luck:

I've been in this area numerous times via Instant Adventures, but of course you're just on the run constantly trying to get your quest goals and you get no real sense of the layout of the area.   Try try again next time.

Everquest 2

The two games I've been playing most are WOW and EQ2.  In EQ I have all but my Froglok Bruiser off the starter island.    I thought it was time to send my main character, my Fury, out adventuring.

Somehow tonight she got from level 11 to 18.

She spent the entire time in wolf form.  It isn't one of those shape changing classes that has the use of different skills in another form.  The only difference I can see is when you hit the skill to start a ranged attack, she barks at the opponent.

Oddities in games continue.  As it turns out I'm having connection problems once again, so that explains a few things that have happened.  As I came out of Qeynos though tonight, there was this big floating wall of text, and there wasn't anyone fighting anything, and I wasn't fighting anything but there it was:

It's hard to describe the charm of Everquest 2.  I like the world, the quests, even the lovely drawings on the loading screens.  I was carefully picking up every quest I could see, and there are many.  I was thinking tonight if you are a quest lover, this is a great game to play.

I haven't selected crafts yet for my characters.  I always want characters who can make potions, bags and furniture, three essentials for adventurers everywhere.   Sometimes certain crafts go well with certain classes, but I can't tell if that's the case here yet or not.  I'm reading guides before I commit to anything, but I'm filling my bags with materials just in case.

Dear Diary...

In deference to the idea of game blogs being mere diaries:

(...didn't speak long...zzzzz, where's my pencil and eraser?)

PlayNotes: Guild Wars 2

I was thinking I should play through a character's Personal story, which I've only done to about level 20 on anyone, then dropped it as uninteresting and causing me to backtrack too much.

I do keep thinking that GW2 always seems a shallower world than most, but if I'm not playing all the parts that perhaps are supposed to give it depth, that's on me.

I tried out a Necromancer I'd made but not played, to fill my last character slot.  I didn't care for her skills at all.

So I deleted her, and tried a Mesmer, a class I have also never played.  She wields a sword, though a skinny pointy one that is probably called something else.   I'm comfortable with sword wielders, so this went much better.

I have a Norn Warrior who seems more at home in this area.  It is sort of rustic in a woodsy, barbarian way, but the Mesmer's outfit doesn't match the bravado she presents, and her  deep voice when she speaks in cut scenes doesn't go with her movie star face.

In addition to the flouncy little skirt, she wears a mask at character creation, all three choices totally creepy.  I wonder if anyone wears them and doesn't take the "hide" option?

If she can fight, that will be all that matters, and I'll try to stick with the personal story for her to see how that adds to the game.

Weasly Word Find Post: My Favorite Comics

I'm in one of those odd moods I get in, where I do word finds and comics and cryptograms.   I usually don't put them here, but, I'm such a weasel, and this is one from my other blog not even a new one.

Click to Enlarge.   Tiny print! What a stinker!

Parallel Context Revisits Rift

Redbeard at Parallel Context has a great post http://parallelcontext.blogspot.com/2017/07/fun-with-mmos-rift-revisited.html      revisiting Rift.

He looks at all aspects of the game, having created new characters: one Defiant, one Guardian.   He covers the stories of the two factions, and inspects everything from character creation to the armor the NPCs wear.

PlayNotes: LOTRO The Secret Road

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run...

I found the Secret Road with relative ease.  It was disappointing as a Secret Underground road, just very dark and twisty.  Orvar was impressed, but I couldn't see much of anything.

Then I take on a level 60 semi-elitish thing like a scorpion without the curvy tail they usually have.  I could have beat him, but my controls froze up.   As these things go, the monster could still attack.  Then I was dead, but everything was frozen and I couldn't even get out of the game.

I finally exit and go back in, and I'm way back in the Great Delving, 860 frustrating meters away.

I'll come back to this another time.  I ported to Lothlorien, which has never looked so open and beautiful, despite the whole yellow thing.  Lovely Lothlorien.

Myndariel's 1-20 Guardian Guide (And a few Mordor Notes)

I love the Guides to Middle Earth Classes that Myndariel of Myndariel's Middle Earth has been doing, and I missed this one going by on my blogroll.

http://myndariel.blogspot.com/2017/06/introducing-guardian-level-1-20.html


This is a guide I really need!  My little Hobbit Guardian is only level 7.

With this guide, and my experiences in other MMOs, I could play this class now.  Way back when the game was new, it was only my second MMO.  I didn't understand the idea of tanks at all, coming only from Galaxies.  The idea of one player in the group trying to get all the mob attention just for themselves seemed kind of selfish, and foolish.

I don't think I really appreciated the tanking concept until playing WOW dungeons.   Then it all made sense.   Go forth and pull all the mobs, little Hobbit.


Speaking of Mordor  (weren't we?)  I have this to say:

The fine folks at LOTRO "took me in" after SOE/LucasArts broke my heart with Galaxies.  They were a revelation.  Smart, determined to build an incredible game, invariably kind and generous, they seemed to do every single thing right.

I bought three Lifetime Subscriptions at release, not easy for me to do, financially, but I really was impressed and believed in them.

Now here they are, brilliantly still standing and putting out an expansion only dreamed of by Men, Hobbits, Dwarves and Elves.

It's the Ultimate Fan Bundle for me, they deserve it, I wouldn't have it any other way.  


Interesting article and discussion at MassivelyOP (as always):

http://massivelyop.com/2017/07/14/lotro-legendarium-mordors-pre-order-is-flat-out-ridiculous/


The Ancient Gaming Noob seems ready to head into the fires:

https://tagn.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/were-on-the-road-to-mordor/


Lina's Biscuity Burrow   Has gone with the Standard Edition, and she gives a great rundown of what each package contains and how it all compares to previous expansions:

http://www.linawillow.org/home/2017/07/mordor-opens-july-31/


Ravalation looks at the reception of other LOTRO pre-orders have had

 http://ravalation.blogspot.com/2017/07/lotros-mordor-expansion-pre-order-deals.html

RIP EQ2 Fallen Gate Fury: Remember Her Thusly

In yet another bold move, I killed off the Fallen Gate version of Atheren, the Fury Who Struggled.   Here she is after her Dark Shaman experience, resting on her Frostfang rug.  

My thinking:

Fallen Gate is a slog for my character advancement, and these servers don't seem like a place to find a long lived home in the game, but more of a limited time, shared experience for veteran players.

I was duplicating my Fury character, and I'd rather have another class to play than see how one struggles, and one zooms through the world.   I was kind of feeling sorry for this poor character.

In a way, I was playing two games at once.  Same game, different game.   I don't really have the time for two versions of the same thing.

So I kill her off there, created a new Ranger on Antonia Bayle. (the class I killed off to get a character slot for Fallen Gate).

Happiness is...getting your character name.  So Atheren the Ranger now lives again, and the Atheren name is from my live Galaxies Bria Ranger Atheren, so she gets new life in a new world.

And she adventured happily ever after.

A Week of Adventure

Happy Friday!  Welcome to More Rambling Than Usual!  A one time post.  Because I'm a flibbertigibbet and can't be repetitious for long.


Rotations

I have played everything except GW2 so far this week, not necessarily in it's assigned day slot.   I find myself as I'm writing the PlayNotes, kind of becoming involved in each game and character's story, and sometimes I can't wait to get back to a particular set of adventures.

I am enjoying playing most things more because of that what happens next element.

One thing that I have learned from this is that for me, MMOs are certainly not "all the same", each game in my rotation is successful in creating a very unique world.  It doesn't matter to me if the mechanics or frameworks are similar, each is very distinct and immersive.  I've never enjoyed playing more than now, I think.

The only thing I am seeing is I need a nice grid or chart that reminds me what button is for capturing a screen, which removes UI, various basic commands like opening bags, calling pets and mounts, adding toolbars and removing skills.   I take it this is common and it is why people are always tweaking the UI in the game settings to make them all the same in every game if they can so they don't have to make the switch mentally. 

I don't do this, because early on I became very interested in how the game is built from the ground up, and I respect the choices made by those who designed the thing, and I'm going to adapt rather than choose these aspects of the game to "make it my own".


Secret World

Working on the Kingsmouth Code sequence I found myself in an Illuminati tunnel that was very familiar to me from the first go around.  I think I had a post on it whose title included the words "Don't Gas Me!"    I took the poisonous gassing at each puzzle much better this time.   Dead, dead, dead, ho hum.

I'm really pushing to get Kingsmouth finished so I can move on to Solomon's Island.  I'm up to level 14 and am working for crazy Edgar at the junkyard who has no concept of personal space and I bet he hasn't bathed in several years.   Still stuck on that Dawning of Endless Night Tunnel with the motion sensors and Cassandra, another person with no concept of personal space.  I'm going to save that till last.

I've decided not to try to work with the old game as well,  after playing SWL, it is all I need, and nothing is so different that I can't just enjoy the game as it now is.


World of Warcraft

My shining glory character this week is my low level (less than ten) Arms Warrior.  She's my first Elf who wasn't a Druid or Mage.  She's just uber lean and powerful, and is making her own finery.  She has these cool moves, that I don't notice on my higher level Warriors.

I'm working in the Dolanar area and dang, this new to me server is really high population and for the first time since I've been playing, there are a bunch of people around.  This is usually a quiet spot in Azeroth, but I actually had to fight for mobs at one place, particularly against a Hunter who tried to hit and loot out from under me every mob.  Sucker.

I hadn't started any new characters in WOW in a long time, and didn't realize that last year they stuck you in a particular specialization for your first ten levels of the game.  They used to just give you a sprinkling of the skills from the three specializations.

Cone of Alt-a-holic shame, I now have ten characters here, and this wasn't a real problem on any of the others, though I didn't care much for the Warlock assigned Affliction spec.   I got Frost Mage, which I always use, and Retribution Paladin, always my choice.

The Warrior comes in as Arms, which is what I turn out to have on my other two.  However, though they stick you in that spec, they give you a one handed sword, and Arms can't use their skills without a two handed sword equipped.   For a level 6 person, I could just buy a claymore from a vendor.

The problem came in for a new Death Knight.   They make you an Unholy, and you have a two handed sword.  I couldn't change her to Frost, my usual, because you now must have a one hand equipped to play Frost.  Quest rewards two-handed, why no choice?   She, I don't feel, could just buy a trick one handed sword from a vendor, because she's fighting all higher level stuff.  Once I was in Stormwind, I could have bought one from auction, but pricing is pretty crazy.   Luckily for me, I was long in the habit of using the Blood spec for adventuring and questing and Frost for dungeons.  Blood can use two handed.  I'm just going to run her through questing till she is offered a one hand or I make enough money to buy one (all these characters are broke).  PITA for no good reason.   At least be thoughtful of the fact that you are making someone play a particular spec, and aren't giving them the equipment they need to play it.

Everquest 2 Fallen Earth

I felt like I should try to get my level 10 Fury namesake someplace, not just let her flounder.  She didn't get the nice teleport skill or the turn into a pretty wolf spell at level 10 as did the AB character.
I'm giving it my best power leveling kill everything you come across technique, but it's crawl crawl goes the xp.

I'm having trouble finding some Young Bears for a quest so I was exploring all over the Antonica area outside the Qeynos gates trying to find them.

Criminy, out from behind an innocuous tower pops a level 16 Dark Shaman guy.

 Naturally, my level 10 Fury tries to make a run for it.   And again with the running backwards thing.  See my health bar go down as I run!  It was down to nearly zilch before miraculously he stopped chasing me.   Bonus: I found I can hit my heals while running backwards!  This is what saved me really, the ability to run and heal.  I hate when you have to be stationary to heal.   Honestly, I'd prefer you could use almost any skill on the move.

This character is on Fallen Earth, the new progression server.   I'd like her in a guild for the advice you can get, and hopefully for grouping.

Thanks to a post from the Ancient Gaming Noob, I knew you could search for a guild that was recruiting and actually talk to a person who could invite you and ask question who was online now.  Whoa.    https://tagn.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/looking-for-nostalgia-in-fallen-gate/


I tried this, but didn't see anything that seemed a good match.  But it was midnight, and I was tired and feeling tso social, so I decided to wait.

Which brings me to thought on Guilds once more.

I posted a week or so ago on guilds and what I wanted them to be.  I've left the Wow guild I was in and via a random invite almost immediately joined another.   My thought now, because I'm such an introspective dolt, is, how can I be a good guild member?  What makes you a valuable addition to a guild?   What do I do well as a guildie, what should I work on?

Being part of a group should be a whole package thing, what do they do for your gameplay, how do you contribute to the gameplay of others.

Sticking points for me:

I can't stand having a guild name over my head that I don't like.   Babsie's Bobbers, no.   Deathly Dreamers, ya, ok.

Discord      Everybody's got it.    Everyone wants you to be on it.  I honestly don't want to randomly chat with anyone I don't know.  I don't want to talk politics, or anything else that isn't related to the game world.  I'm almost always playing late, like 9pm to 1am, and zzzz you don't want to talk to me at that time of the day either.   So everyone who is all proud they've got Discord and wants you to chime in:  Gamebreaker.