I’m under RobenWizhat. August 21, 2009
Posted by castillion in Excuses Excuses, eq 2.Tags: eq 2, EQ2, everquest ii, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG
3 comments
Whew! I mean to post the past two days I really did but haven’t had much time to breathe with work.
Wednesday night I was able to raid and we killed Xebnok again, then Kultak in YIS and had time for one pull on Switchmaster! It was a pretty impressive night and I had a lot of fun. We still need to get that yellow screen down on Switchmaster ;)
I actually felt excited about raiding the rest of this week, but I will be working all weekend and will miss out, or rather, they will all miss me. (omg I’m kidding)
I wish I had more to write about but unless you guys want to hear about my worklife, we’re done for this week. Work is pretty boring anyway for the most part. I mean the life of a traveling male stripper is never THAT boring, but I guess we can get used to anything.
Hit me up on Craigslist.
Why do I punish myself so? August 18, 2009
Posted by castillion in Aion, eq 2.Tags: Aion, eq 2, eq ii, EQ2, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG
3 comments
I know, I know. I promised an update and I didn’t deliver.
The fact is, I didn’t play EQ2 again last night. I just extended my Aion vacation by a day. I don’t know what it is. I guess there’s a combination of a lot of things, some guild drama, general ennui about the game currently, a lot of Second String on hiatus…I just haven’t felt much like logging in.
You know when your friend lets you drive his shiny new Mercedes around the block, then you get back in your minivan to drive home and think “I wonder if I crashed into that tree and set my van on fire, if I could make it look enough like an accident to get the insurance money? I could totally get a Mercedes then.” Yeah, Eq2 is my minivan at the moment. Maybe it’s just me.
Don’t get me wrong. Aion is not all that but it’s different and it’s pretty and sometimes change for change’s sake is enough. I’m sure I’ll be crawling back to SOE like so many times before.
I am signed up for the raid tomorrow night, and if I can muster up enough gumption I’ll log in tonight and tomorrow and have some updates for all of you.
Until then, stay vigilant!
Aion Beta Weekend August 17, 2009
Posted by castillion in Aion, Second String, eq 2.Tags: Aion, eq ii, EQ2, Everquest 2, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG
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/streeeetchhh
Lot of computer time this weekend. “Really?”, you ask. “Please tell us all about your adventures in Norrath.” Well, let’s start it this way. THERE WERE NONE O.M.G.
That’s right, it was Aion beta weekend and we played that from Friday night through Sunday morning (Sin and I didn’t play at all on Sunday proper). I’ll talk a little about the game as we’ve experienced it, but I can say, the more I play, the more I like it. I expect Sin and I will play it quite a bit at launch.
That being said, here’s what I did. I played all 4 classes (Mage, Scout, Warrior, Preist) up to level 10, and some beyond, although only slightly. I didn’t want to play too far beyond level 10 because I want to save the surprise for when the game goes live. Level 10 is when you get your wings and I just had to have my wings on all my toons. I played 2 characters to level 10 on the Elyos (light) side and 2 characters to level 10 on the Asmodian (dark) side. I don’t say evil and good because it’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it? ;) You guys that read the blog know I would prefer the Elyos side as they are more human or barbarian looking, but I got outvoted 500 to 1 and we’ll be starting Asmodian at live. That’s fine though, I created a look that I could bond with this weekend.
I’d like to heal in this game again. I’ve played the healer role in many of the games we’ve tried and I’ve got the itch to get back to that. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to though, as we may need a good tank and I fit the bill for that too. It definitely doesn’t look like we’ll be needing DPS.
Listen to me, talking like we have a large group coming over. We really don’t. Some of SS, a couple of friends from work, maybe some other friends from EQ2. I’d like to see several people come over that tested it this weekend, but I don’t know how likely that is to happen. We’ll also be balancing time between Aion and EQ2, so there’s that, at least, that’s the plan for now.
Aion is fun. It’s pretty. It’s different enough to be interesting and there’s going to be pvp. I have been missing pvp and pvp in EQ2 is lackluster at best. Then there’s that whole flying thing, which is just tons of fun. It looks promising so far, but I’ve been burned before, so staying wary ;)
That’s all I’m goign to say about that probably until it releases next month. Stay tuned for more Norrathian adventures in between!
Deep in the night, I am looking for some fun. August 12, 2009
Posted by castillion in Second String, eq 2.Tags: eq 2, eq ii, EQ2, Everquest 2, everquest ii, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG
6 comments
Ok, so occasionally Second String will find a video on YouTube and it instantly fall in love with it and make jokes for weeks about it. Remember Benny Lava?
Well, Anep recently discovered Günther and his hit remake of Tralala (SFW version). You can also view the more MTVish version here Tralala Actual Video (NSFW). It’s not hardcore porn, but I still wouldn’t watch it in your cube.
Anyway, it’s had us singing “Oh you touch my tralala. Mmmm..my ding ding dong.” for several nights now and it’s encouraged Anep to go for a new look IRL. It also prompted Anep to change his dirge’s last name last night, and of course I had to get into the act.
Now, you’d think that would be taking a joke far enough. Of course, if you thought that, you don’t know Second String. I’d like to say that the following pictures took some prompting from the SS ladies but, in truth, they were mostly Anep’s ideas. For example, we decided that we needed a little better pose for a picture after we went and changed our names…
Which OF COURSE got cheers from the laides. I mean, really, how would it not? Spurred on by our adoring fans, we started to get into the spirit of it and even worked out some synchronized posing.
Posing, as we all know, leads to dancing and dancing leads to pure sexiness:
It was starting to get a little warm in the guild hall with the pure essence of jungle animals wafting about in the air. The ladies were starting to find it hard to resist joining in. We didn’t need just any lady though. We needed a certain type of lady. We needed a mangina. Enter Taylona:
After that display, well clothes just started flying off in the guild hall. Panties were strewn at our feet, some of them looked liked jock straps, but it was probably the light. Suddenly we found ourselves surrounded, surrounded by pussycats.
I probably should have warned you that this post contained dangerous levels of sex appeal before you read it. I know it’s too late now. Try a cold shower. Maybe two.
New mob! August 11, 2009
Posted by castillion in eq 2.3 comments
Yes!
Xebnok the Wretched is dead. It really didn’t take us too long to beat him once we started to seriously work on him. (I’m sorry but I don’t think 30 minutes of pulls at the end of a raid night is serious work on a new mob ;) However, the last time we were in the zone we spent the entire night working solely on Xebnok and it paid off last night. Congrats Dragons! I was really excited to finally down him and totally surprised we were able to get it done last night. He dropped the fury/monk/troubadour/wizard helm pattern and a nice healer item.
That gives us the ability to get 4 t4 patterns, helm, gloves, boots and bracers. Pretty exciting! I’m not certain what the next mob for us in progression is, but I’ll be happy to work Xebnok a little more to get him on farm status and get a few helm patterns into the guild.
I called it a night after the raid as we were all pretty tired. I’m not sure what’s on my plate tonight, but I’m sure it’ll be filling. I’ll give ya the gories tomorrow.
HAY U GUYZ! August 10, 2009
Posted by castillion in eq 2.Tags: eq 2, eq ii, EQ2, Everquest 2, everquest ii, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG
2 comments
6 days off and I am refreshed, rejuvenated, and MY TOOTHACHE IS GONE. That was the worst thing ever. You know when a you are at a railroad crossing and the passing train decides to blow it’s whistle right in front of your car and the blare rattles in your head until your teeth chatter? Yeah it was kind of like that for a week, but instead of the sound of the horn, imagine the train running over your face.
I’ve managed to get a little playtime in since last we spoke, although it has been lighter than usual. Last Friday’s raid was cancelled due to lack of participation. I think last Wednesday’s raid also suffered from the same issue, I was not there however as I had spent the day getting needles shoved into my face. I guess I was not the only person feeling a little burnout.
I feel much better now though. I think it was the stress of the summer combined with the 5 days pain induced sleeplessness that made me less than my usual cheery self. I’m ready to get back to raiding a bit.
I did discover that I am perhaps the only person in Second String that actually enjoys raiding. Sinnir, Taylona, and Sasspanz enjoy it in small doses I suspect, but they burn out faster than I do and would probably just rather spend the time grouping. I’m the black sheep ;) Although I am also feeling the burn and am thinking that the three day per week schedule might be heavy with my current mindset. We shall see.
I managed to get a lot of time in on Cilantro this weekend, which might also be part of the reason I am feeling rejuvenated. I love playing Castillion, but switching it up occasionally is nice too. Unfortunately I’m cursed with my own competence on the chanter and am usually playing him as he is the most needed. Getting back to the swashbuckler for a bit was nice. I played him a little with SS throughout the weekend, but also managed to get him in on a WoE run a friend of mine had set up. I picked up the T3 swash pants and finally turned my t3 gloves in, so that puts Cilantro in 2 pieces of t3, I also bought him t4 braces, so he’s got his first piece of t4 as well. His gear is coming along nicely and I plan on picking up more T4 for him now as I farm plat.
I was able to bring him along on what’s become my regular Sunday Shard of Hate pick-up raid. I parsed 8k zonewide, including the sisters fight. I know that might not seem like a lot to some, but for me it was really nice to hold that for zw. Most of my parses were up around the 9.2k – 9.4k marks. I was pleasantly surprised and came in second on the parse, 600 DPS behind a really good wizard. Pretty pleased with myself if I must say.
I’d like to get him involved in more raids, but there’s just not a spot for him at the moment and my coercer is not replaceable right now either, so it’ll have to wait for a while.
Tonight we are back in TSO and I’m hoping that we kill all the easy mobs and save the progression work for Wednesday. Monday’s just suck enough already without beating your head against a progression mob during the raid too ;)
Miss me until tomorrow.
The Sounds of Silence August 4, 2009
Posted by castillion in Aion, Excuses Excuses, Second String, eq 2.Tags: Aion, eq 2, EQ2, eqii, Everquest 2, everquest ii, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG, Online
2 comments
Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of days. We’ve had a lot of stuff going on in the real and I’ve got a toothache from hell that is really stifling my creative flow. It’s not getting fixed until Friday, so expect me to be quieter here in the blog world, game world, and real world.
When you’re head feels like it’s going to explode, you just aren’t in the mood for anything but trying to hold it together ;)
That being said, there has been some new stuff going on with me game-wise.
We’ll start with EQ2. There’s nothing new with the game there. We’ve been raiding the same TSO zones. I didn’t get much Second String time in at all this weekend since Sass and Anep were gone and I was distracted with something not EQ2. I’ve been feeling a little boredom/burnout with EQ2. Nothing drastic that would drive me away from the game, just needing a little breather or something different to do a night or two a week.
Enter Aion. Yes, I broke down and bought the pre-order so I could play the beta. It was Sinnir’s idea! (I may have put a bug in her ear, but that’s neither here nor there). I’m really enjoying it much more than I anticipated. I don’t want to describe the entire game here because I am too busy fantasizing about knocking my tooth out with a sledgehammer, but here’s the official site where you can read all about it: Aion Online.
At level 10, there’s a quest for your character to ascend and get your wings. I played 2 characters up to level 10 this weekend, an Elyosian Warrior and an Azmodian Mage. I also started a priest for my third character but only got him to level 7 before the weekend was over.
My initial thoughts are, I really like the game. I currently plan on purchasing it and using it as my off-night, away-from-EQ2 game. There’s been a lot of blogs/posts about how Aion is just the same-old-same-old grindy MMORPG polished up to look pretty. I agree with that. Aion doesn’t bring anything revolutionary to the table. There’s some neat new stuff, but for the most part it’s your standard Fantasy mmorpg EQ/EQ2/etc fare. I don’t care, that’s exactly the game I like to play and Aion is pretty pretty pretty. I like the combat. Ability chaining feels more involved than just mash mash mash. I like the classes that I’ve tried so far. The PVP aspect of the game looks interesting from the videos I’ve seen although I didn’t level high enough to try the PVP out myself. Flight is fun although I haven’t tried the Aerial combat either.
Aion is everything I expected it to be wrapped up in a graphics package that was more than I anticipated. The character customization choices are just out of this world. I don’t remember any aspect of my character that I couldn’t adjust. It was crazy.
All in all I enjoyed it enough to buy it, so I will be purchasing it upon release. I’ve never really played two MMORPG’s simultaneously before, but it would be nice to have something else to kick around on when I need a break from EQ2 and nothing else has caught my fancy yet.
I’m sorry if this post comes across as incoherent and if it seems I am jumping topics but I am not able to focus at the moment :p On the plus side I haven’t smashed my monitor and run screaming through a plate glass window hurtling to my death while trying to yank my tooth out before I hit the ground, so that’s a bonus.
Until tomorrow!
One mmorpg man. July 29, 2009
Posted by castillion in Second String, eq 2.Tags: eq 2, EQ2, eqii, Everquest 2, everquest ii, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG
8 comments
When last we left our intrepid adventurer he had been raiding, had made references to bean bag shots, and was trying out LotRO. Let’s look in on his progress now….
First LotRO. I have nothing to say as I have not played it at all. So far, it has not really captured my attention. I haven’t given it a fair shake yet though. I try, I really do. I look at the icon on my desktop and think “Oh LotRO, you are so new and different to me. How I would love to click you. Would you be open to some clicking? I know you would, you dirty dirty little mmo. You want me to click you don’t you? I think I will…”
Then my EQ2 icon says, “HEY WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT OVER THERE? LEAVE THAT LOTRO SLUT ALONE AND CLICK ME ALREADY.”
Sorry LotRO.
Back to EQ2 sigh.
Here’s my raiding update. There’s no update. We’ve killed the same shit. Kultak, Switchmaster, Thet. No new mobs yet, although we are finally going to put a full night of work in on Xebnok tonight hopefully. Xebnok, you’re going DOWN BITCH (don’t hurt me).
Second String has had some good times. Taylona got his berserker alt his mythical, he is like the 17th tank in SS to be myth’d. I kid, but all the dudes in SS do have a tank alt. The chicks don’t because we all know chicks can’t tank. Well Sass has a tank alt, but it’s a dude, so not sure where that fits into everything. So, we’ve made Tay tank a few shard zones on his zerk, we’ve also worked in a Varsoon kill or two, PR, SoH, some other stuff that I don’t remember. We’ve laughed a lot.
Friday night raid night we continued VP. It’s worth mentioning because I got to tank! Yes, we had an extremely weird raid makeup and were missing almost all of our tanks. Stormraven ended up MTing and I OT’d on the Pally. We cleared Nexona, Druushk and through Hoshkar. It’s was awesome! A really nice change of pace for me. I can’t believe how smoothly it went. It’s a very rare occasion that I get to play anything but the coercer on a raid, so I was stoked. In fact, we had to have like 5 tanks not show up for the raid for them to even remember I have a tank alt. I’m pretty sure they are asking the other tanks to retire right now after my awesome showing.
Speaking of VP (man all the segues today), we didn’t finish the zone as an official raid, but a bunch of us formed up last night to kill Phara Dar for the pants drop and Silverwing for a couple of our Illy alt mythicals. A shout out to Hugegnomecicles of our sister guild BLAVEK LOST THE GAME. Congratulations on your mythical, it was awesome seeing your name and guild tag broadcast to the entire server.
Outside of all that, I’ve managed to put a little work in on both Cilantro and Saynt. They’ve both got their TSO endlines now and are both geared decently well. I want to work on Cilantro a bit more before the expansion and I have 4 more AA to get on Castillion to be maxxed, so there’s that as well. I’ll fill ya in on all that as it happens.
Vaya con Cheetos.
The Legend of the Rent was Way Hardcore. July 23, 2009
Posted by castillion in Second String, eq 2.Tags: eq 2, EQ2, eqii, Everquest 2, everquest ii, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG
4 comments
/snore
I am tired today and I blame my co-workers. I shall assplain shortly.
First the EQ2 meat and potatoes. We raided last night. We started off with Ykesha’s Inner Stronghold. One-pulled the Strange Stalker and one-pulled Kultak the Cruel. BAM! It was nice to see the progress and I picked up a nice new belt with 6 crit and some pet bonuses that was totally awesome until something I wanted more dropped later in the night, then I hated that fucking belt. PIECE OF CRAP. I kid of course. The belt is a really really nice piece (of crap. I hates it and will forever hold a grudge).
After YIS, we shot over to TotMC. The first 3 named dropped faster than yours truly after a shot to the beanbag. I remember when that snake used to give us grief. Man we were pansies back then. Not me though. Other people. The secondary/ranged item that I’ve been wanting, the +3 spell crit and +3 spell crit bonus one that drops from trash, that NEVER FUCKING DROPS UNTIL THE DAY I WON SOMETHING IN YIS FIRST, dropped. Did I mention my belt?
We put a few pulls in on Xebnok. We didn’t kill him but we made great progress, better than I expected. We didn’t get as many pulls in because a snafu we had with selling raid loot. Here’s a hint to all buyers of raid loot: when you win the bid, BE READY TO HEAD TO THE GODDAMN ZONE. Waiting until the chest timer is almost up before sending me a tell that you are outside the zone while we are all wanting to finish up a few extra pulls and having to wait on your ass will cost you the loot next time.
Now, the reason I am tired. A friend bought Sin and I a copy of Lord of the Rings Online. Of course you know I had to install it and try it out. I ended up making 3 characters on Elendilmir, a Lore Master, Guardian and Champion. It’s a fun little game but that, so far, seems much more laid back than EQ2. I really don’t know much about it as I haven’t even managed to get Castillion the Lore Master done with the newbie quests yet. It’s something we may mess around with now and again when we need a fix of ‘oh no we’re not hardcore’ (cue Jack Black).
Racism at it’s finest. July 22, 2009
Posted by castillion in Second String, eq 2.Tags: eq 2, EQ2, Everquest 2, everquest ii, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG
1 comment so far
Well, I was wrong about VS. It was not a 5 minute fight. It was a 3 minute fight. The encounter is ridiculously easy now and I am betting we can one group it. I am not complaining though. It was much too difficult for it’s place in progression previously and anything to make mythical backflagging less painful is a-ok with me.
We followed VS up with Thuuga and Leviathan and then started the clearing in VP, although we didn’t get any farther than the first two trash named. I assume we’ll be back in VP tonight. It’s been a while since we’ve been there, so it should be fun. I do wish I could bring the swash, but as I’m the only coercer main in guild at the moment, that is not going to happen ;)
Speaking of the swash, I respec’d his AA last night so he now has both TSO endlines. He’s still a little light on gear compared to my other characters, but he’s coming along nicely in full T2 and once piece of VP. He’s also got a piece of T3 in his bags but it’s the wrong piece and would require me to totally redo his T2 sets to wear it, so it’s rotting at the moment.
The gear isn’t holding me back too much and I am really pleased with the swash’s progress. We took him to Guk: Halls of the Fallen last night and I hit a new high parse of 11.5k with Cilantro with most parses hovering around the 8 – 9k marks. I am pretty pleased with that and excited to see what I can get him too when I get a little more plat to spend on him or some lucky alt rolls in raids.
We also managed another Varsoon kill last night for Chus’ troubadour alt update.. We made Tarsir (Rhesus’ SK alt/main (I think the warden is on his way out)), tank it. We one pulled it. I couldn’t believe how easy it’s become, even with a new(b) SK tanking. Rhes picked up the GVB bracer for melee and Chus got a new master for his troubadour, so it was a nice kill.
Rhes is also not really a newb on his SK. I give him crap (like suggesting 17 other tanks that could tank Varsoon while we were heading there) but he’s really doing well on the tank. I think it’s just because SK’s are overpowered though. Pretty sure.
Anyway, back into VP tonight probably, but I’ll let you know for sure!
P.S. – The title is a joke only Second String will get. Sorry.
