A milestone or a stumbling block?

After nearly a year after creation, Rao finally dinged 80 Saturday afternoon.  Murphy’s Law was in rare form as I approached the “final” ding.  I turned in a quest which brought me up to 98% and crashed to desktop.  I logged back in, reformed my 2-box group, moved to the next quest mob and crashed to desktop.  I logged back on, reformed my group, pulled the mob, lagged out, died and crashed to desktop.

The final 2% literally took me just about 3 hours.  I had more than a dozen crashes and was lagging so horribly during that last little bit that I died about 5 times.  It was one of those where I saw my health as being above 80% and then I was just suddenly dead.

It finally happened though.  I hit 80 and 131 AA’s, so the grind is mostly done for now on Rao.

So, why would that be a stumbling block?

I had envisioned immediately jumping over to Ray and Fuzz as soon as Rao finished leveling up.  I thought I would bust out the AA’s relatively quickly and then finish leveling up those two.  Afterwards, I would start working on the ranger that I’ve wanted to play almost since day 1.

I guess it is mostly just a release, but as soon as I hit 80, my desire to grind and level evaporated.  I didn’t even continue the questing to work on AA’s.  I just sent Ray back to Gorowyn and took Rao back to Qeynos.  I spent hours just sitting around and chatting with people, going through my bank and looking at the broker. 

I ended up hitting a Vaults instance with some guildies.  The instance itself was fun, but the drops sucked horribly.  For the entire instance, there was only one ornate chest.  The rest were wood.  That ornate contained a really crappy bow and nothing else.

Afterwards, the rest of my group wanted to hit another instance that pretty much requires a mezzer which we didn’t have.  No one wanted to drop, so I finally did.  After leaving the group, I just went out to work down and close some gray quests that have been clogging up my journal forever.  One of the reasons why those quests have been stuck in my journal for so long, I remembered, were that they are very lengthy and repetitive.  As I was working them, I thought more than a few times of just deleting them, but I’m a stubborn person and I just plugged along.  After about 4 hours, I successfully cleared out… wait for it… 2 quests.

Today, I started on the dirge epic… something that I really don’t even want to do.  But, it is more or less expected and I had many people hammer on me about it, so I took a deep breath and started on it.

I also got a bit of a dressing down tonight.  We, as a guild, raided Protector’s Realm for the first time.  Several group members and a couple from outside the group started asking me about my AA setup and CA setup.  Each person who asked, whether they had a dirge or not, whether they had ever played a dirge or not, thought my overall setup sucked.

I’m working on the CA’s.  I’m harvesting as quickly as I can and anytime I harvest a rare loam, it gets converted into an adept 3.

For the AA setup, I was a little put off.  I had the same AA setup forever.  My initial setup reflected what my old guild recommended for dirges and that recommendation pre-dated the release of Kunark.  A few weeks ago, I spent hours pouring through post after post on the eq2flames dirge forums researching AA sets.

Every post I read by the top raiding dirges in the game all recommended a particular AA setup for raiding.  Every one of them stated that the AA set that I recently dropped is outdated and useless… especially in Kunark raiding.  Before respeccing, I sent tells to at least a half dozen dirges in the top raiding guilds on my server asking their opinion.  Their reactions ranged from helpful information to outright making fun of me for still having the old AA configuration.  Finally, I decided that I had the wrong AA config and that it was time to change.

Tonight, I got told multiple times that I was a liability to the guild because I had dropped what the majority of the dirges out there consider obsolete and worthless lines.

It took me back to the days of EQ1 where everyone who had never even rolled up a bard knew better how a bard was to be played than the guy actually sitting behind the keyboard.  “Just play manasong.  Everything else is useless.”

We’ll see.  Hopefully I can get a little bit of chat time with the guild leader in the next couple of days and ask her what she wants.  I’ll go with what the guild views as needed at this point in time.  Perceptions rule the day.

He said she said I said

“Want to go to Vaults?”
“Sure.”
“How close to 80 are you?”
“I’m at 52%.”
“Have any exp potions on you?”
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever even claimed any, so I’m sure I could claim and pop one.”
“Might as well.  It will be a long time before you need one again.”

“Okay, now remember all… there are traps all over this zone.  If you don’t have current maps, make sure you step exactly where I… shit!”
“What?”
“I just fell into a trap.  lol.”

“Did you mean for us to kill those mobs that fast?  I never even got to rez anyone and that just isn’t right.”

“How close to 80 now?”
“I’m at 58%.”
“Only 6% for that zone?  Did you pop a potion?”
“Yeah… a 50% one.”
“Ooh, that sucks.”

“We got time for some Seb?  I need an epic update.”
“We have a little time, but only for running straight in and doing your fight.  No getting distracted.”
“Shiny in that room over there.”
“Of course, we WILL be clearing that room.”
“Got a named on track to the south.”
“Well, we’re still heading straight to your epic fight.  We just suck at reading maps.”
“Anyone have a GPS?”
“I don’t, but I’m quite sure that the fight is somewhere past those other 3 names I have on track.”
“Well, of course.  That only makes sense.”
“So, we all agree that in order to get to that epic fight, we are required… call it a law if you like… to clear those named mobs first?”
“Sounds about right to me.”
“And, of course, it just wouldn’t be right to pass by and leave any shinies up.”
“Oh, I thought that went without saying.”
“So, what you are saying is that we might be here for weeks before we get to that fight.”
“Yeah, but we’re here to prove a theory.”
“Oh, I see.  It’s for science.”
“Exactly.”
“We are truly selfless when it comes to the betterment of society.”
“Well, that and loot.”
“Loot is good.”

“I would like to point out, now that this fight is under way, that I was fully in favor of evacing once this room was clear rather than fighting our way back out.”
“What made you reach that conclusion?”
“The 5 adds that we’re about to get.”
*pummel*  /wipe
“Yeah, I agree.  Evacing was definately the way to go.”
“On the bright side?  We now know the respawn time of that room.”
“Yeah… I believe it is ‘when it is least convenient and not a minute longer.’”
“But now we know.”
“And knowing is half the battle.”
“What’s the other half?”
“Dying in the most horrible way imaginable?”
“Well, that’s how we roll.”
“And fall down.”
“And splatter.”
“I think someone left part of their spleen on my boot.”
“Save it for later.  The next time someone dies, you can try jamming it into their corpse and say that you are working on your healing skills.”

The worst thing about evenings like that is that they have to end eventually.

Tastes like chicken

It is a good thing that few people take me seriously because I am so astronimically good at putting my foot in my mouth that it can’t even be classified as sad.

I’ve been told many times that, in person, I come across as so serious that when I joke, people think I’m being mean.  What is funny is that I’m not a serious person.  I just tend to get lost in thought sometimes which results in me walking around with a scowl or a serious look on my face.  I’ve gotten to the point that I just don’t joke with people until they really get to know me.  Once they do, they no longer have a hard time telling when I’m joking and when I’m not.

That is one of the reasons why I’m not a big fan of voice chat for games.  I understand the benefit of having it, but I’m just not a huge fan personally.  I’ll use it to listen to instructions, but I tend to not talk over it very often.

When I do, I think the facial scowl comes across in my voice.  I pop off on something intending to be funny only to find out a few days later that I hurt someone’s feelings or pissed them off.  It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.

All of which is ironic.  Maybe if I spent less time thinking about what I say before I say it so as to word it in a way that doesn’t hurt someone’s feelings, I might be more successful at NOT hurting people’s feelings.  I generally don’t run through the whole issue of over-thinking when I’m typing chat and people rarely take what I type the wrong way no matter how dry the joke.

Oh well.  I think I’m nearly finished chewing up one foot.  I still have another to go before I run out.

Baby Steps

Nothing really new to report today.  Last night was raid night and we went back to the Shard of Hate.  We know that the zone is a bit beyond us right now with the classes/levels/gear that we have, but it is fun to go and give it a shot anyway.

Through the deaths, I inched forward 2% in exp, so that’s 2% less that I have to go until level 80.  I’m a bit anxious to hit 80 and max my AA’s, but not really for the reason that most people feel anxious to hit that milestone.  I’m not anxious for it because it will mean that I’m finally max level and can quit grinding.  I’m excited about it because once I hit 80 and max my AA’s, I can get back to playing other toons.

Don’t get me wrong.  The dirge has its moments of enjoyment and I am more than happy to play a class that is needed/desired for my guild.  I’ll continue to play Rao on raids and on instances when asked, but on the nights where there is nothing to do and I find myself off soloing/boxing, Rao won’t be in the mix any longer I don’t think.

I’ll probably take a break from adventuring once I max Rao though and spend some time on tradeskills.  I’m working Fuzz as time permits to get Rao current on CA’s.  Unfortunately, the rare loams I am acquiring aren’t frequent enough to get everything to adept 3, so I’m focusing on my buffs and debuffs for those and just going app 4 for his offensive strikes.  Ray, of course, only gets app 4’s because I have to save the loams for Rao.

Once I hit 70 jewelry on Fuzz, I’ll probably go ahead and finish off my carpenter since he is also 75 and nearly done.  Afterwards, I’ll finish leveling up Ray’s sage abilities so that I can supply Fuzz with his spells as Fuzz provides Ray and Rao with theirs.  Next on the list will either be Rao’s armorsmithing or my woodworker.  Both are around 45 I think.  Of course, the provo levels a couple of levels per week as I work to keep my various toons stocked in food and drink.

Along the way in there, I’m also going to work on finishing off the remaining HQ’s I have yet to complete on Rao and do them for Ray at the same time.  Gotta help the guild with that status.

Once I get the adventuring bug again, I’ll probably finish leveling Ray to 80 while boxing him with Fuzz.  Ray will probably hit 73 right about the same time Rao hits 80 (which could be this evening or, if not, tomorrow most likely). 

The next adventure class I want to level (and the class I’ve been dying to play since day 1 and what will also most likely be my last adventuring leveling project… at least for a while) will be a ranger.  From the day I first logged in over on Unrest and reconnected with my old EQ1 guild leader, I have been amazed watching rangers work.  I’ve always been a fan of rangers in every game, but for some reason, have just never played one.  And while I’m sure he will never be anything other than an alt, I’m ready to finally spin one up and try it out for myself.

Somewhere in there, of course, I will be knocking out some tradeskill epics as my guys max in tradeskill.  I don’t know if I will do the epic for each guy as he maxes or just pick and choose.  Probably just pick and choose.  I’m excited to get Fuzz his tradeskill epic, but don’t really care all that much about getting the carpenter epic.  I suppose that could change.

Then there is the issue of the normal epic.  I already have guildies asking me if I have researched the dirge epic.  The answer is that yes, I have.  However, I have no desire whatsoever to obtain it and most likely won’t even attept to do so.

Oddly enough, even as much as I love playing Ray, I don’t have much drive to get the brigand epic either.

The only character that I have any desire to get an epic for is the one toon who was meant to be my main from the day that I reactivated my EQ2 account… Fuzz.

Maybe one day.

Big chicken smackdown

The last few days have been fairly productive game wise and fairly introspective from a personal perspective.

When I logged into the game on Saturday afternoon, I was about 20% exp away from hitting level 78.  I jumped on and did some soloing but then got invited to go on an epic hunt that was followed by another epic hunt which was completed by a trip to CoA.

In truth, I don’t remember everything that was done or in what order.  I recall several trips to various levels of Seb as well as a long excursion into Chardok.

During the course of it all, I hit 78 on Rao.  More grinding was done on Sunday and the weekend was capped with a guild raid into the Shard of Hate.

So.  Much.  Death.  It was hilarious.  I think we were all laughing as we died again and again.  Several people broke their gear more than once and people were hitting exp debt above 10%.  I think it is a very good sign that we can take a beat down of that magnitude and still be laughing and having fun.

I was feeling under the weather yesterday, so I stayed home from work.  I spent my day doing what every gamer spends their sick time doing… playing.  Screw bed rest.  There is exp to be had.

I did some crafting before heading off to 2-box in Kunzar.  Not long after starting in Kunzar, I got an invite to head back to Seb.  During that trip, I worked off my remaining exp debt from Hate and dinged 79.

I found that very encouraging.  Many in my guild have said multiple times that 78 just took forever but that 79 flew by.  For me, 78 was about two days.  Granted, I hit 78 during double exp weekend, but double exp doesn’t land on quest turn ins and that is how I ground out about 3/4 of the level.

After taking a break after Seb, I went back to boxing in Kunzar.  After a bit of time, the guild decided to put together a group to do some of the higher level shackle quests.  After a bit of discussion, they turned it from a single group doing the highest level shackles to a free-for-all start-to-finish shackle extraveganza.  We ended up with nearly 2 groups.  Those who started the event to work on their upper level shackles sat around patiently and helped 8 of us blitz through and catch up to them.

We didn’t finish the entire line, but we ended the night right after completing the steel shackle.  One more to go.

I decided yesterday that I am a stupid, stupid man.  Now that Rao is nearly max level and I am definately a raider with him, I decided it was time to tweak his skills and get to know my job a bit better.  The first step was to upgrade some more CA’s.

One CA that was seriously behind was my hate transfer CA.  After doing some research, I discovered that the dirge hate transfer CA hasn’t been upgraded since level 60.  I had that CA, but only at apprentice 2.

I checked the advanced jeweler 60 tome… and the adept 3 of that CA wasn’t listed.  It took me a while, but I finally remembered that the level 60 jewelry recipes are seriously borked and half fall on the level 59 tome.

I looked through my recipes and I had never picked up the advanced 59 jewelry tome.  A broker search yielded that the cheapest was 1 plat.  Insane.  I searched for the adept 3 of the CA itself.  None.  /sigh.  Fine… I’ll pay the 1 friggin plat.

I went to the bank to pull the mats… and realized that I was out of the alkali loams.  Crap.  I checked the broker.  2 plat per.  Freaking A.  I’m a cheap-ass anyway and I damn sure didn’t want to pay that.

I headed off and spent nearly 3 hours harvesting, but couldn’t manage to score an alkali loam.  I finally took a deep breath, let out a very baby-like whimper, and bought the loam.

I jumped into an instance and crafted the spell.  I then logged on Rao and scribed it.  I then decided to redo my AA’s to get more in line with what other raiding dirges have as I knew mine reflected some seriously outdated ideals.

In the process of doing that, I went ahead and reset my character specialization.  In doing so, I discovered that the same level 60 CA that I had just spent slightly under 4 plat to craft was available to me as a master 2 under the character specialization.  Son of a…

During the course of doing the shackle quests, I did notice a pretty significant difference in my ability to take a hit thanks to my new spec on my AA’s.  I still take a whuppin in a 1-on-1 fight, but I can walk away from the fight bleeding and broken instead of in need of a rez.

After all the mayhem of the last 3 days, Rao is sitting at 128 AA’s and is 52% into level 79.  Tonight is raid night so I’ll most likely only score a repair bill and some exp debt, but I expect I’ll hit 80 tomorrow or Thursday.

On the personal side of things, I am starting to contemplate a question… how old is too old to start over?

I have an idea floating around in my head that was inspired by a real life friend.  If I do it, I have a while before I actually do it.  I have set a time frame for next summer… for several reasons that I won’t go into here, but trust me… it makes sense to wait that long.

Basically, it all boils down to quitting my job and going back to school full time to do a complete career switch.  I am starting to feel that I have progressed as far as I’m likely to in my current profession… a profession more suited to 20-somethings than aging 37 year olds.  Crawling around under desks and spending hours at time on a ladder running cable is starting to take a serious toll on my body.  Granted, I do those two things far less than I used to, but it still happens.  Also, with as rapidly as technology changes, it usually takes a younger, more adaptable mind to absorb it all and keep going than mine.

So for the next 11 months, I’m going to be asking myself if it is too late to drop everything and start over from square 1… and see if I can get it right this time.