Because the internet needs another gaming blog.

Kendricke from Clockwork Gamer has challenged the EQII blogging community to respond to Kytherea’s request for comments on The Thundering Steppes.

I can’t remember spending a lot of time in Thundering Steppes with my main character, Davyydeous.  This was at a time when I didn’t really know the game well and was just following the quests that I found, and naturally, given that he is from Freeport, he was led from the Commonlands to Nektulos Forest.  It was also a bit of a chore for a Freeportian to make their way to Thundering Steppes at the time without the use of the mariner’s bells, as I can remember the run through Nektulos to the docks being no easy task. 

When I finally did head into Thundering Steppes, it was mainly to head into Ruins of Varsoon. I’ve found that the characters that I’ve played after Davyydeous have mostly skipped over the quests in Thundering Steppes.  I suppose that’s the problem with those who have played the game for some time now and have either grown tired of the older zones and moved on to the new, or simply dart into the zone to tackle the essentials and then get out.  I would fall into the latter camp, where I’m just eager to move my new characters through their twenties as quickly as possible.  So, from that perspective, the first thing I do upon heading into Thundering Steppes is head over to a griffon tamer and get the quest to enable the griffon tower access.  After that it usually becomes a choice between heading into Ruins of Varsoon, or doing the Splitpaw Saga.  The one heritage quest that I always do is Hadden’s Earring, which is started by talking to Kerath McMarrin on the docks.  Finally, Thundering Steppes is where you’ll find two Lore and Legend quests, for giants and centaurs.

If you’re planning on questing in Thundering Steppes, there are quests available for characters in the twenty to thirty level range.  The guy to see would be Jacques who is on the path by the gates to Antonica.  He’ll send you on a few quests throughout the zone, some with additional sub quests, such as A Scrying Shame, which I can remember as being particularly annoying, but it does reward you with a spiffy coloured torch, but does anyone actually equip torches in their charm slots any more?  There are also quests available from people standing around on the docks, in Thundermist Village, and a few quests on the Bridge Keep which will reward you with all hours access to the bridge doors.

There are three heritage quests that start in Thundering Steppes.  The aforementioned Hadden’s Earring which rewards you with a very useful earring, the Polished Granite Tomahawk series which is started by talking to Obsid Boulderbloom at the southern end of the zone (make sure you speak Krombral first), and finally Stiletto’s Orders Intercepted which starts by examining a drop off of Stiletto, a gnoll which you’ll find wandering around the southeast.  This last HQ will reward you with a Manastone, an item that will convert some of your health to power which many people still use well into the later levels.

As for the zone itself, I think it has stood up fairly well over time.  Unlike Nektulos Forest, the terrain varies in Thundering Steppes, from grassy plains, to forested areas, and some rocky valleys.  Aesthetically and architecturally the zone is quite nice, and has a nice “feel” to it.  I especially like heading down the river valley and coming up to Bridge Keep; it’s one of my favourite scenes in the game (I have a thing for bridges).  It’s also a fantastic zone to harvest in, much better than Nektulos.  There are a few hotspots where I always head, such as around the Ruins of Varsoon, or near Coldwind Point, but really, there are plenty of harvest nodes all over the zone.

All in all, I do enjoy Thundering Steppes despite not doing a lot of the quests there. The only criticism I can think of off the top of my head is that I don’t remember getting a sense of the lore of the zone. What has brought the gnolls there? The giants? But to be honest, I’m not the biggest lore buff around so I most definitely could have missed something. The other criticism I suppose I’d make is that Thundering Steppes is probably the one zone in the game whose music I don’t like. There’s just something about it that gets on my nerve. I think for your twenties, Thundering Steppes is a great place to go, certainly much more enjoyable than Nektulos in my mind.

I would find it hard to believe that any gamer, even if they didn’t like the Halo games, couldn’t admit that this piece of web advertising is seriously cool.  I don’t have an Xbox 360 and never really wanted one either, but after looking at this latest round of advertising for Halo 3 I’m ready to head to the store to pick one up right now.  Of course, I’ll need to start the process of slowly wearing my wife down through my annoying persistence until she finally cracks and yells at me to “just go and get one already!!!“.  Yep, it’s just a matter of time.

The reason I like this advertising so much is because it creates a tremendous sense of atmosphere.  Rather than release a cool looking in-game video along with some text advertising five new driveable vehicles, or what have you, they’ve created a story to evoke your emotion, and pull you into the game world.  I especially like the “making of” video which can be seen by clicking the menu at the bottom of the screen, choosing videos, and selecting the first one.  The other videos are unlocked as you move along the diorama.  Anyway, I won’t talk about it any more, I just encourage you to check it out for yourselves.  This is how you sell games.

I’m hit!!!  Gaff over at Trot Line tagged me with the latest meme making its way around the MMO blogosphere.  Here then, is my list of fours:

Four jobs I have had in my life, not including my current occupation:

1. Paperboy – my very first job, and fantastic money for a little kid.
2. Pizza Slinger – my high-school job.  It was awful.
3. Video Store Clerk – did this during university and it was quite honestly one of the most fun jobs I’ve had.
4. “Computer Guy” – every other job I’ve had has been in computers, including my current one.

Four movies I have watched over and over (and over):

1. Aliens
2. Star Wars (any of them)
3. Heat (the Pacino and DeNiro one)
4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
5. … and many others

 Four places I have lived (all in Canada):

1. Winnipeg, Manitoba  (where I am now)
2. Ottawa, Ontario
3. Toronto, Ontario
4. Edmonton, Alberta (my favourite)

Four shows I love to watch:

1. Seinfeld (I never get tired of it)
2. Arrested Development (how was this show not more successful?)
3. The Office
4. Hell’s Kitchen

Four places I have been on vacation:

1. Ocho Rios, Jamaica
2. Florida (both Tampa and Orlando)
3. Caribbean cruise (St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Princess Cays)
4. Houston, Texas

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Pizza (pepperoni, bacon, onion, green pepper…. Mmmmmm)
2. Hamburgers (Winnipeg has some fantastic burger joints)
3. Steak with garlic mashed potatoes
4. Lasagna

Four favorite drinks:

1. Coke (sweet nectar of the gods)
2. Rum and Coke (could also throw in some grenadine and lime)
3. Jamaican ginger beer
4. Ice cold water 

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. In Edmonton, watching the Oilers play from a luxury box
2. Anywhere in Europe, I don’t care where, I just want to go
3. Skiing at Whistler Blackcomb, although waiting for ski season may be a good idea
4. Snooping around in whatever vault the US government keeps all of its super top secret information

Pretty much every blog I read has done this meme, so I’m afraid this is the end of the line from my end.

Finally.  Davyydeous finally finished the last Claymore quest that takes place within the torture chamber known as Sanctum of the Scaleborn.  I have waited so long for this day, and can’t explain just how much of a relief it is to be done with SoS.

Don’t get me wrong though, SoS by itself is a great zone, and in fact, one of the best in the game in my opinion.  There’s a lot to see and do in there, from grinding out experience, to taking on names, and a few ring events as well.  When taken in the context of the Claymore line however, Sanctum of the Scaleborn becomes a brutally repetitive pain in the neck.  I know that I’m not alone in this thinking.  I’ve been sitting on the Claymore quest line for ages now for a bunch of different reasons I’m far too lazy to list here, and that means the majority of those I game with have already completed Claymore or are at least well past the Sanctum quests.  That made it very tough to find groups to work on the quests, and there were many times where it seemed like asking others to come to SoS was like asking them to rip their fingernails out with a pair of pliers.  Finding pick-up groups was equally as hard.

I think the issue is two-fold.  First, I found it fairly rare that others were working on the same quest as me at any given time, let alone the same step of the quest.  Naturally, most people when grouped want to work on ensuring their updates get done, which takes me two my second issue, that being the zone of SoS itself.  Again, on its own, SoS is a great zone, it’s fairly big, there’s quite a few names in it, and given the level range and number of mobs, can be both a breeze to blow through, or fairly tough depending on your group make-up.  There are nine Claymore quests that take place within SoS; the first few a fairly simple, but that all starts to change on the fourth one, The Keys to Trust.  This is the first quest that has you travel beyond the first few rooms of SoS to the Scaleborn Cell, and the first that has you travel to the second level to speak with Xhorroz.  Given that SoS only has one respawn point back at the entrance, and is a shared dungeon meaning the mobs respawn, the further you go in, the further you’ll have to run back re-fighting mobs should the group wipe, and there are a lot of mobs in there.  In my experience, there were many times when our group got overly confident in its abilities, pulled too many mobs, wiped, and had to start from the beginning.  Those of you who have gone through this know just how big of a pain it is to make your way back down to where you wiped.

The quests following the Keys to Trust only get worse, all taking place deep into SoS.  Trading Information was by far the worst one for me, starting with my hours upon hours of camping Exarch Trulnariz.  Of course, a week after I finally killed him they changed the quest so that the placeholder will update the quest.  This quest had me travelling back and forth to different parts of SoS fighting the same mobs over and over again, many times waiting for precious auto-update dings.  It felt like tedium at its finest, and I was very happy when I was done this quest.

Next up, Riddle of the Vault.  Aside from having to camp Koturah for a bit at the beginning of the quest, this one actually went fairly well for me.  The night after unsuccessfully camping Koturah I made my way back in to SoS, put up my LFG tag, and started spamming 60-69 chat hoping to put a group together for Riddle of the Vault.  This lasted about an hour and a half without a single response.  Frustrated at my inability to find a group I decided to have some fun with Totems of the Chameleon and tried to invis my way down to the Gorg Pit.  In doing so, I discovered a somewhat fun and challenging mini-game.  Davyydeous is a Berserker which means he’s a plate armoured meat shield and nothing more; he doesn’t have fancy trick spells like evac or feign death, so sneaking my way around zones can be fairly challenging.  After a few attempts that ultimately ended in disaster (oh what I wouldn’t give for feign death), I eventually came up with a decent route.  The hardest part to get through is the Talonflight Armory, a room full of of Scaleborn Reavers, most of which see through invis.  While difficult, I was able to sneak my way through the room provided I was very careful with the route I chose, and patient enough to wait for the right opening.  Of course, sometimes I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a group ahead of me that was clearing the way.  Once past the Armory, I was usually able to train the mobs all the way to the Gorg Pit where I could jump on one of the climbable walls.

Once in the Gorg Pit, I just hung out and eventually came across another group that was camping Koturah and was kind enough to let me join.  Once I had Koturah killed I was able to complete the rest of the quest solo, again using patience and a whole lot of invis totems, with the odd fight thrown in as well.  Finally, the last quest just called for throwing a gem into the Pool of Spirits.  I invis’d my way there and hopped into the pool.  Unfortunately, throwing the gem is like harvesting, it pops your invis and takes some time to complete.  A couple attempts saw me interrupted too much and dieing before I could manage to throw the gem, but I kept at it and was eventually successful.

While there’s still a fair amount of work to do for my Claymore, I can’t tell you how happy I am to be done the SoS quests.  I’m quite sick of that zone.  I’m told the Palace of the Awakened quests go much smoother, plus the rewards a pretty decent too.  Can’t wait.

I accomplished one of my in-game goals by finally setting foot inside Deathtoll.  I remember first reading of Deathtoll towards the end of the Kingdom of Sky beta.  What I read left me with no doubt that Deathtoll was the ultimate raid zone, the new “end-game”, and a zone that I desperately wanted to see but probably never would.  At the time I was in a casual guild which often struggled just to put together two full groups, which more or less restricted us to the single group instances, with the occasional two group raid thrown in provided all the stars were aligned.  Raiding was the furthest thing from my mind, partly because I was content with our little guild as it was, and also because I had always assumed the end game raids were for the uber guilds.  Just going into Halls of Fate was a big deal for me, and can remember our guild wiping on the first named in there, Doom Guard Tammuz.  Needless to say, Deathtoll seemed a little beyond my reach.

That little guild eventually lost some members to other games, and Davyydeous moved on, and landed with a casual raiding guild after trying out one or two others.  Almost a year after the release of Kingdom of Sky, I suddenly found myself with raiding access to the KoS zones.  Of course, I needed to gear myself up first, so Deathtoll was going to have to wait, but just going on any raids was exciting for me.  As luck would have it, by the time I was sufficiently geared up, my guild decided to change directions and go “hardcore” which left me out of the loop because I couldn’t meet the attendance requirements.  Deathtoll would have to wait.

While searching for a new guild, one of my requirements was their ability to raid Deathtoll.  I soon found a good fit, and was quite excited to see that Deathtoll was on the raid calendar just two weeks after my joining.  I waited in anticipation as Deathtoll day drew closer.  I’m sure that may sound silly to some, but EverQuest II is much more to me than what my stats are, and what armour I’m wearing; I love to explore the world.  If there’s one thing in common between all my favourite games, it’s that they pull me into their worlds through a great sense of atmosphere, and after all this time, I had built Deathtoll up to almost mythical status.  Just the name itself, Deathtoll, can illicit so much.  It’s one word, simple, and to the point.  With just that one word, the designers have established that this is a zone to be feared.  The Official Game Guide by Prima Games begins its description of Deathtoll like so:

The name should be a warning to all who have wondered about the land within.  It is your death that the bell tolls.  Not just a possibility, but a certainty.

I just eat that sort of thing up.  Top all of that off with the fact that at the end of it all is a gigantic dragon made of bone just waiting to stomp you to death.  Sign me up!  Of course, now that the zone has been out for a while, and strategies have been honed, it’s not quite the fearsome place it used to be, but there was a time that clearing Deathtoll was a sign of a guild that knew what it was doing.

So there I was, finally zoning into Deathtoll, fully expecting my game client to crash or my internet connection to die, but all went well.  I was instantly impressed with the entrance to the zone; the gazers floating there (possibly my favourite mob model in the game), with the gaping dragon skull jaw open in the background.  The entire zone, architecturaly speaking, is very impressive, very atmospheric.  I especially liked the dragon hung up and displayed in the Altar of Ending; very cool.  I was equally impressed with the mobs themselves, especially the Amorphous Drake.  That was a cool fight to see.  Then there’s Tarinax the Destroyer, who certainly has to be one of the most impressive looking mobs in the game.

When all was said and done, we had a fairly smooth run through the zone, clearing all the nameds.  It marked the first time our guild defeated Cruor Alluvium, and we did so on the first pull.  It was certainly a satisfying experience for the guild, and for me, as it lived up to all my expectations.  The only downside?  I think it’s a shame that a lot of the design work on the zone may go unnoticed because there’s no time to stop and appreciate the architecture of the zone.  It’s places like Deathtoll where I wish there was a “screenshot mode” that let you walk around untouched, snapping photos.  Anyway, it doesn’t look like we’ll be heading back to Deathtoll any time soon as we begin to shift our focus towards Echoes of Faydwer content.  Maybe that’s a good thing, because it would just feel wrong to me if Deathtoll became another routine raid on farm status.