Somewhere in the middle

I’ve reached a very strange place in EQ2… a place where I simply am not sure where to go.  I leveled to 46 Sunday morning and I found that the hunting locations that I knew were pretty much turning green on me.  So, I set out to find new territory.

My first stop was Everfrost.  From the original progression of the game, it just seemed like the next logical step.  I zoned in and immediately smiled.  I have always enjoyed the snow zones.  Maybe it is because I like the snow… I don’t know.

I looked around in a circle to see what there was to see and then walked to the edge of the little island I was on.  It was clear that I would have to swim to the next island over, so I checked the water.  Yes… it was full of sharks and they were just waiting for me to dive in.  So, I cast stealth and snickered at the confused little carnovors that now had no idea where I was and dove it.

Ice water.  Sheesh.

I got to the main land and decided to look around just a bit before deciding on a hunting spot.  I began moving through the caverns… and was suddenly dead.

I appeared back at the beginning and rebuffed myself.  As I waited for the death pains to wear off, I checked my chat log to see what had killed me.  Something known as the Broodmother.  Okay.  I can watch for that bitch and avoid her.

Leaving track open, I took about 4 steps and died again.

Cursing profusely at my monitor, I clicked the revive button and waited to load in… and immediately died again.

This time, I waited to click revive and I just watched floating above my body.  There she was… roaming in the area and slowly retreating back into the caverns.  I waited a good 10 minutes until I was sure she was gone and revived back in again.  I rebuffed and brought up track.  I sorted track by name and scrolled it so that the Broodmother would be at the top the second she was in track range.

I made my way through the caverns and stepped out into the clearing marveling at the scene before me.  I suddenly saw something moving in the distance heading towards me at a dead sprint.  I turned around and ran back into the caverns as fast as I could knowing full well that there was no way in hell that I was within her aggro range.  I stood there close to the water and watched in horror as the Broodmother finally appeared on track just before she came around that final turn and killed me for the forth time.

I have no idea what the aggro range is on that bitch, but it pissed me off… REAL damn bad.  Needless to say, I immediately left Everfrost and haven’t been back since.

The next step was to head over to Lavastorm.  I always enjoyed Lavastorm in EQ1 and figured that this would be fun for me. 

Well, I didn’t make it far.  I zoned in and was immediately concerned at how dark it was.  I figured that maybe it was just night, but I checked the game clock and it was pretty much the middle of the afternoon.

I set out to explore a bit.  I first found some goblins in a cave, so I killed them real quick before moving out into the main part of the zone.

Two impressions hit me.  First, it seemed that everything I could find and target was a heroic of some level… not something that I can solo.  Second, the overall feel of the zone just reminded me too much of Mustafar in Star Wars Galaxies… an expansion that will always have the dubious honor of being associated with the NGE in my mind.  The last thing that I wanted at that particular moment was to be reminded of that, so I left.

Of course, most people will say, “Join a group.” 

One of my primary gripes with the current trend of making leveling in MMO’s easier is that it doesn’t encourage getting to know your class.  There are few penalties for being an ignorant jackass, so many people play like an ignorant jackass until they get to raiding level.  That isn’t to say everyone is like that, but many are.  I have joined about a dozen pick up groups so far in EQ2.  I will not join another one.  I joined one that was very effective… moving from room to room in Runnyeye and which did quite well.  Every other group has been group wipe after group wipe because casters thought they should tank with AE spells, warriors hadn’t found their taunt keys yet, and healers thought that casting heals and cures “was boring and for wussies.”

So, I’m definately a solo leveler now unless some guildies are bored and want to play alts.

Right now, I am kind of left scratching my head trying to figure out where to go.

I went off to the Sinking Sands last night and, I have to tell you… I can’t WAIT to spend more time in the Desert of Flames explansion.  This content seems to have been VERY well done.  The only problem is that I really need to get at least 1 more, possibly 2 more levels before I can be effective here.  I’m running a mini-boycott of Everfrost because that PMS wurm ticked me off.  I don’t much care for The Feerrott and, even if I did, it is mostly green to me now.

I’m kind of hoping to find some bored guildies tonight.  Maybe I can talk them into grouping up with me and heading off to the Obelesk of Lost Souls this evening.  I peaked in Saturday afternoon and this freaky-ass zone looks like it has a lot of promise.

November fun

What do you think of when you think about the month of November?  Maybe it brings to mind football games or decorating the house or lots and lots of turkey and relatives.  Maybe it is the dread or excitement of the upcoming Christmas crunch or maybe you are one of those who just sighs and starts trying to calculate how to take off the weight you plan to put on Thanksgiving day.

Myself, I can’t stand Thanksgiving.  I don’t like the food and I don’t like the guilt and pressure that is put on me every year.  People just can’t fathom the truth that I don’t like turkey and all the foods that go with it so they also can’t fathom that, to me, the perfect Thanksgiving is a day that I can just be left alone to do my own thing.

However, to take the month of November in a direction that you might not normally think to take it, November is National Novel Writing Month!!!

The basic concept is to come up with a story idea and then to start writing it on November 1 and finish by midnight on November 30.  50,000 words.  Basically, if you just wrote 5 days a week, that would be 2500 words a day.  To put that into context, if you took my longest, most rambling and wordy entries here, they are probably about 200 to 250 words at the most.  50,000 words would be about 175 pages, so still a short novel, but a rather large undertaking to be sure.

I have followed this event for several years now, but I am seriously debating participating in it this year.  There aren’t any grand prizes like being published at the end or anything.  It is really just an exercise to try to get the creative juices flowing and to see who has the fortitude to stick it out to completion.

On a side and very serious note, I hope that everyone out in California is safe.  It is one thing to see something as terrible as the California wildfires going on, but there is something strange about the gaming community.  You can hear a name once or twice and see things in game associated with them.  You can read their posts on message boards or visit their blogs.  You might never actually meet that person, but we all become so wrapped up in these games, especially MMO’s, that we start to feel connected to the people who work on them.