Because the internet needs another gaming blog.

Last night our guild had scheduled a run through Lyceum of Abhorrence, and just as everybody was on their way to the zone, a fellow guildy discovered that Hurricanus the Patriarch was up on the Breeding Grounds.  We had never attempted her before so we eagerly put off Lyceum and headed over to kill us some dragon.  We didn’t know a whole lot about the encounter, we just had a general idea.  My job was to watch out for some adds that spawn every once in a while and grab them before they could get to Hurricanus and the rest of our raid force.  Because of that, myself and the rest of my group didn’t get to see much of the actual Hurricanus fight, but it sure sounded impressive.  Our first pull was okay until she got to about 40% health when most of the raid force got smoked in an instant.  Having seen how the encounter worked, our second pull went like clockwork, and Hurricanus went down without a problem. 

Inside her Exquisite Chest was a great looking tanking breastplate, called the Hurricane Forged Cuirass.  There was only myself and our main tank in our raid who would roll on it.  Anyone who has grouped with me before would no doubt know that I have the absolute worst luck with the dice in the history of dice… ever.  Just the other day my wife and I were duoing in Pillars of Flame for Harpy lore and legend stuff, and I lost every single loot roll.  If my wife rolled a 10, I’d roll a 4.  It’s just something I’ve come to expect over my time playing this game.  So, when our main tank rolled a twenty-something, I figured I’d roll a twelve.  As luck would have it, I got a magical fifty-two.  Of course, I immediately told the guild through vent that if the main tank wanted it, it was his to have.  Lucky me again, he passed it on to me.  You can see the spiffy new breastplate on me in the picture above, and the stats for it in the picture below.

My luck wasn’t done there however, as we headed into Lyceum.  I was acting as the main assist for the raid, my first time with this guild, so it was nice to have the run go so smoothly.  For some time now I’ve wanted the sword that drops off of Vilucidae, but each of the three or four times I’ve been through the zone, it hasn’t dropped.  When we eventually took Vilucidae down and his chest dropped, I began to chant “sword, sword, sword” while gently caressing the Exquisite Chest with my mouse cursor.  The chest was disarmed, opened, and there staring back at me in all its glory was Vilucidae’s Sword of Shielding.  My chant had worked.  Now for the hard part, rolling on it.  I wasted no time as I had my /ran 100 command ready to go for when the raid leader asked all who wanted the sword to roll.  As soon as I saw “Rolling on the sword…” I hit enter and boom!  A perfect 100.  Oh yes, I really wanted that sword.  Again, the picture of the sword is up above, the stats in the picture with this paragraph.

As if that wasn’t enough, after the raid was done a group of guildies came to help me take out the final dragon for the Draco Mortus Heritage Quest for the Bone Clasped Girdle.  So in addition to my loot, I finished off another HQ and got myself my 92nd achievement point.  It was a good night for Davyydeous.

Wow, was my last update really back on October 2nd?  I swear, nothing makes the days go by faster than having a blog.  Truth be told though, that I’ve stepped back from EverQuest II a little bit lately.  It’s something I find I need to do from time to time.  I gave some of my other games some love, such as Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 of course, and I’m starting to get back into Oblivion a bit more.  As Rise of Kunark approaches however, I’m getting back into the world of Norrath, focusing mainly on my Mystic Elrahir who recently made level 50.

I’ve actually been having fun doing some of the level-appropriate heritage quests with Elrahir.  Last night alone I finished off An Eye for Power and the Teachings of Yoru.  My how times have changed.  When I did Eye for Power with Davyydeous, I camped the four shards at the beginning of the quest for an insane amount of time.  I remember I was off work one day and camped the blue one in particular for a solid six hours.  That’s not an exaggeration, that’s what I did with my day off, and if anything, six hours is an under-estimation.  Then to top that all off, I did the quest with my wife’s character as well, because she can’t stand camping things, she always wants to be on the move.  Of course, at that time the shards could be harvested only once, then they disappeared and you had to wait for them to respawn again.  It was a nightmare.  Thankfully it’s different now, and more than one group member can harvest the shards, and I was able to gather all four within an hour.  Hey, I’m all for making people work for things, but there’s a difference between making you work for something and just subjecting you to a torturous pain in the ass.

The next part of An Eye for Power has you kill some heroic named mobs.  The first two, Bloodrage and Numbfoot went smoothly.  They spawned relatively quickly.  The last, Icegill, took some camping and I wiped on my first pull (I was two boxing my wife’s 70 Wizard mentored to Elrahir) when as luck would have it my best friend forever (BFF!) logged in with his ultra uber Shadowknight and came out to Everfrost to dispose of Icegill.  The rest of the quest was a walk in the park.

I then went on to finish off the Teachings of Yoru.  The funny thing about this one was that I thought I had already completed it.  The other night a guildy working on that very quest asked for some healing help while he tried to take out the four spirits needed.  I came along and helped him kill the four spirits, and when we headed back to Cythan for his final confrontation, I noticed he had the quest update book and feather floating above his head.  Crap.  I was literally just one step and five minutes worth of work away from the very part I had just helped the guildy through.  Oh well.  So I quickly whipped through that quest last night, again with the Wizzy’s help and Elrahir now has a nice little belt around his waist.

At this very moment, on my other computer I’ve got Elrahir logged in and I’m headed off to Deathfist Citadel to finish off Emperor Fyst to complete the Training is a Sheild heritage quest.  Doing these quests has netted some decent experience still, not to mention some AA’s.  I have no delusions of getting Elrahir to 70 before RoK is out, but that’s fine because I’m just having fun doing these older quests.  That may change when I get to work on To Speak as a Dragon though…. we’ll see.

This is Baeyle, my level 38 Paladin.  He was my first alt, created on August 20, 2005, when my wife finally broke down and decided to try EQII out.  My main character was only level 10 at the time, but I wanted to start a new character to be used strictly for grouping with my wife, plus she wanted to be Qeynos aligned, while my main was from Freeport.  Back then, there were a few more barriers between the two cities so it was just a lot simpler to create a new character.  Our two good friends also created new characters, giving us a group consisting of my Paladin and Shaelyn, my wife’s Wizard, along with Deadmon the Fury and Senki the Ranger.  We called ourselves the Super Friends.

Our early days were often painful as my wife and I learned the game.  This was my first MMO experience and I hadn’t the foggiest idea what a “tank” was, much less how to play one.  My mob pulling consisted of running head first into the mob then standing there swinging my sword while anxiously awaiting the arrival of the rest of my group.  It wasn’t long after that I learned through no uncertain terms that I was a terrible tank.  This was when I learned that I needed to announce to the rest of the group which specific mob I was going to be engaging.  Thus, my first macro was created; a simple group message saying “Incoming %T!”.  I would later spice it up by adding the “/incoming” command which would cause my character to voice emote “Trouble’s Coming!” in a very effeminate voice.  I giggled a little to myself every time I used that voice macro, much to the annoyance of the rest of the group I’m sure.

Next up, I learned that I wasn’t supposed to charge into the mobs haphazardly, I was supposed to “pull” them to the group.  It was a small revelation which instantly increased the success of the Super Friends.  There were many memorable nights adventuring in Antonica, getting lost in the sewers underneath Qeynos, killing gnolls in Blackburrow and many wipes in Stormhold.

If I remember correctly, as we leveled into our late twenties, early thirties, the Super Friends began to fracture as we each began to pay more attention to our mains who Shaelyn was now close enough in level to group with.  Actually, at this point I was struggling to determine if I actually liked playing Baeyle more than my Berserker main.  Yes, it took Baeyle three years just to kill a rat, but those heals sure came in handy.  Ultimately however, I decided to stick with my Berserker, and from that point on he got all the love, and the Super Friends received another nail in their coffin.

Epilogue: Where are the Super Friends Now?
It’s been well over a year since I last played Baeyle.  His equipment is terrible, and his combat arts and spells are in terrible shape as well.  He is in no shape whatsoever to venture beyond the gates of Qeynos any more.  I’ve come close to deleting him a few times over the past while, but I just haven’t been able to do it.  Why?  I don’t know, there’s just something that’s forcing me to hang on to him.  I can’t see myself ever playing him though, given I’ve already got a plate fighter at level 70, not to mention the fact that I just find him kind of boring to play when compared to my other alts.  I’m guessing the release of Rise of Kunark will be the catalyst that drives me to delete Baeyle once and for all, freeing up his character slot so I can check out the new starting content.  Until then, Baeyle will continue to spend his time begging for plat or food in Starcrest Commune.

Shaelyn has been level 70 for some time now and is actively raiding.

Deadmon had a mini-revival not too long ago, but now appears to be one of the forgotten ones.  He was last seen in Maj’Dul playing with a monkey.  I’m not sure what that means.

In what would be the most tragic tale of all the Super Friends, Senki took her own life after she was unable to find a hairstyle that she could live with.  May she rest in peace.