03-27-08 EQ2

Ahh, the joy that is EQ2. I haven't posted since RoK came out, so let us do a little catching up.

Krystalea - 80 Wizard/80 Sage/135.5 aa's/352 Transmuting.
-----Ya, I really busted my butt on that transmuting gig didn't I? :) I have begun fighting in skyfire with hopes of building up my stash of cash on her so I can start working on it again. I will have it to 400 by November, I swear. /nods. I really enjoy playing Krys, she is fun. I am having fun. The only thing really bothering me is that I am having a hard time finding groups. And now that Scott is home, we are hoping to get everyone leveled up to 80 and groups should then be no problem as we can fill in just about anything. But, again, I really want to play Krys.
----I have finished up most of Krys's apartment. I have one room left and I believe I know what I want to do with it. So from here on out, it will basically be adding a few trinkets here and there as I come accross them. Come visit my house on 3 Walk of the Dead on Najena.
----Finished the Tradeskill epic, that was fun.

Zymeria - 75 Defiler/80 Provisioner/101 aa's/400 Tinkerer.
----Tinkering was the easiest as was the provi part. I need to get back into making food as that was a good money maker. Hell I have only done half the quests through fens, and I have almost 50pp on me, and that includes giving away approximately 10pp in food, and then leveling up Tinkerer and such. I think I just had way too much stuff on the broker to keep up with, I may modify my line to sell and go from there, I don't know yet.
----I was looking at purchasing a 5 br in SFP and making myself a grand restaurant. I think that would be cool, so I do need to get to moving on that plat making. I need money to buy and upkeep and well furnish the house. Can't wait. The only thing about the 5 room houses in Freeport is they suck, but I am sure flooring and wall options will help. /sigh
----Just started the tradeskill epic.

Arzania - 75 Swashy/70 woodworker/120(?) aa's
----Arzania has just finished up all the quests in Fens and is about to move to Kunzar Jungle. She is running in tandem with Gudamen. Other than playing tank a few times for T7, I really haven't played her much.

Attalyne - 23 Troub/80 Carpenter.
----She was one of my first to 80 tradeskill. And one of my best money makers without all the work. I actually need to refill her broker, as mostly everything is sold now. She has 20pp on her atm, (and I have spent approx 10pp on supplies) so I doing very well on her. Love it. Haven't done any adventuring, not sure if I will. I might get bored one day =p

Myrinna - 41 Necro/70 Weaponsmith
----I betrayed Myrinna. After beta and playing a Necro I decided that Conjy just wasn't for me and away I went and betrayed her to the bad side. Although I haven't played her since, lol. She may actually be level 42, but I am not positive.

Zephina - 62 Bruiser/80 Jeweler/81 aa's
----I said I would never level Zeph as she was level 7 and her mana management for tradeskilling was way too good to give up. But as they have changed the tradeskill function I decided to go ahead and play her and she is fun. I went from level 20 - 60 in a matter of 3 1/2 weeks, no vitality for the majority of it. Was great.

Vizera - Deleted.
----Sorry, but playing a warlock, after playing a wizard made my head bleed. Bye!!

Desania - 18 Guardian/9 aa's
----I always said I would never play a tank (don't count Zeph, she's more DPS, tank as needed). Well, I slipped to the darkside. I refused to roll another sorcerer or summoner. That left enchanter on the mage tree. Uh no. No more healers period!! The scout classes, well I had a bard and a swashy, didn't want a brig or a assassin, and ranger just didn't do it for me. So I decided tank, and said screw it, no monk (have one) no half-breeds, Scott has a Zerker, so I am going with a Guard. Ya, I went from never wanting to play a tank, to picking the tank class (in my opinion) /sigh. I confuse myself sometimes.
----As for a tradeskill class. I do not know if I will pick one up with Desania. I say that now, but at some point, Arz and Myrinna will be 80 and I will itching to tradeskill, lol.

Okay I think that is it for now. I am more busy in EQ2 than I am in RL apparently. Interesting.

03-27-08

Just when you think you have the time to set and chat a bit, you end up with a honker of a project on your desk. I usually love big projects, except those that deal with Kia Rebates. Grrr. At least the lady at Kia is extremely nice and willing to help out.



The kids are doing wonderfully. They are getting way too big for my liking though. Nathan has graduated from speech class. He has to go back when he is about 6 1/2 - 7 years old to get retested for his lateral lisp, but he talks wonderfully now. Yay!!



Trenton is Trenton. Nothing new in his world.



Scott is now out of work and looking for some, but the job market in this area is pretty crappy.

Other than that it is going pretty good. It is spring break right now, so the boys are probably driving Scott up a wall.

Well that's really about it at the moment, will try to get more consistent than I have been. It's funny, I get hooked on something for several months at a time and I forget about everything else, I will try not to do that anymore, lol.

Incoming EQ2 post.

3-26-08

I am so horrible. But I am consistently horrible. I do ignore this blog for a few months at a time, but I do get back into posting. Can't guarantee a full post for life and EQ2 today, but I will work on it, for tomorrow at the latest.

/nods

This is the wizard fabled set.

This is the view off the docks in Kylong plains. That big castle in back? Karnors.

Here is the combine spire city, Terens Grasp.

This is the ghost image of the dragon emitting from the dragon skeleton in the Field of Bone.

Here is what the Wizard Fabled Set looks like.

Here is a picture of the docks in Kylong.

Here is the new persona window. The faction tab is really cool as well, it has a drop down box so you can choose the expansion you want. So if I want to see Kunarks faction list, just use the dropdown. Lots easier to find specific factions with that.

Beta Stuffs 11-12-07

This will be huge and I am not anywhere near done, so forgive me now. =p

As I am typing these little blips up the next day while at work, please disregard the fact that I cannot remember all the names of all the places I have visited. Or the correct name of the little flying dude. I will try to go back and make name corrections as I really begin to learn them, but that is not guaranteed.

RoK – Day 1

Well I had to make a Sarnak as the character copy hadn’t happened yet. Did a few quests on Timorous Deep and then headed over to Kylong Plains. There was this nifty lady there, know your travel, was her title, I think. Hail her and away you land on the docks at Kylong. Meet the beta buffer Mike. Buffing was only up to level 72. Will check in a couple days and see if he is higher than that.

Took me about an hour or so to set up my hot bars, my aa’s, check all my gear and establish some fundage. Mike gives out crappy crappy gear. Sorry Mike. But there is a guy right next to him who gives out gear. Hail him and pick two stats. Well considering I am a wizard, I picked Intelligence and bonus spell damage. It all has +30 int and +19 spell damage. Not the greatest but will work.

I hit the broker next. Need to upgrade a few spells. The buffer gives you all adept 1’s but I did need a few adept 3’s and masters. Found a few, thank god Ice Nova was one of them. The one thing I disliked was that people were selling this stuff for a ton of plat. Hello you can buy the damn rare's off the tradeskill buffer guy. Seriously. 12 copper for a T8 Emerald (rare gem). This one guy has the rare jewelry up for 118plat. Crazy I say. Not like you get to keep the money, why not let someone have it and try it out.

Now, I noticed that the only way into Tim Deep is your call spell. So it looks like the only people allowed in Gorowan are the toons that start there, basically. FYI, Gorowan is the city that is located in Tim Deep. It is not a separate zone. Think Kelethin/GFay. If I find anything out different I will let you know.

Back to Kylong (aka Dreadlands). There is a bunch of quests right there on the docks. One will get you access to the travel things (bah I can’t remember the name right now). Walk off the docks and you see a castle ahead of you. Karnors. I did nothing but zone in. I can’t wait to actually group there. At 72 the front mobs were yellow.

If you go to the west of the docks, follow the path up the mountain, it goes from a nice green area with trees to a snow covered mountain. Follow the path a little longer and welcome to Terens (I think its terens grasp, but don’t quote me) a nice little city. If you look up, you can see the city is built at the base of the wizards spires. You have all tradeskill merchants and machines. You have a class trainer for each class. A bank/broker and so forth. Nice little town. One thing. You need to build faction. Do the quests at the docks. Its beta, so there was a beta buff faction merchant there, so I have no idea how many quests are needed, but there you go.

After that I went and wandered around a little bit. Gained 1aa plus 20% more. And around 40% into level 72 in one night. Now the Xp is worth more on beta server, but to me thinks it’s still quick, we shall see how that plays out on live.

Let’s see. The exploration was cool, as far as I made it. I got discovery for Skyfire Mountains. It looked awesome, but I turned the other way, lol. I ran into a fort where it looked like Droags and humans fighting each other. Constantly. The droags would fly down and attack the men guarding the fort. I did notice a couple dragon corpses lying around. They looked pretty cool. And big. And they still had their scales. It wasn’t bone dragons. I think I found the old Lake of Ill Omen and Fiorina Vie. At least that’s what I deduced. I could be wrong.

Faction is going to be big, big, big. One thing I noticed is that faction is playing a huge role in this expansion. Watch it closely.

Okay, I think that’s it for now. Waiting on my character copies to check tradeskills. You need to be level 20 and have selected your TS class before the TS buffer will beta buff you. I don’t feel like fudging around with that atm. Then again, I may change my mind and grab some supplies and craft in good old Terens.

RoK - Day 2

Yay, Krys finally transferred over. This made so much of a difference. I don’t particularly care for the sarnaks; there movement doesn’t suit me very well, so having Krys and her carpet back really made it much easier for me. I had a better idea of what to do/expect so I change my way around a tad. I am feeling a lot less lost and I think I am getting a good grasp on Kylong.

First off, I had to pick my new racial traits. Being a Dark Elf, I received a feather fall type buff (no falling damage, weeeeeeeeeeeee) and then I received a nice buff that increases damage, casting time, reuse time, and I think recovery time at 10% each.

Next I had to find my way to Kylong from Neriak. The docks in Commonlands and Antonica are where you need to go to get to Kylong. Woohoo, another boat ride =/

I land at the docks. First thing is first, beta buff Sage level 80. That is all I did on the tradeskill front. I will be working on those this weekend, as I will have more time. I can stay logged in all day long and play when I need a break or if the boys are outside running around.

I also have to make a stop at the faction beta buffer. Nice guy that he is makes me ally to Terens Grasp residents. Very nice.

This time, I went ahead and ran about 15 quests off the docks of Kylong. Bound and determined to get the Sorkorko (eek, I think that totally spelled wrong) travel quests finished first. Now here is where I got confused, just FYI, for future reference. You have to bind you Sork to each of the monuments before you can fly to it. So exploring areas will be a damn good thing to do.

After I finished the quests, I decided to explore, with a little more tactical precision than I had last night. Kylong Plains is huge and requires the map to turn over 3 times. As I know where the map splits I tried to stay in that one area till it was all clear and move to the next split. The first map portion covers the docks you zone in from, Karnors Castle area, a giant’s area, a wurm area, and a few places of old reminiscence. I actually had discovery for Firionas Vista. I decided to head to the east this time. As I crossed this wonderful bridge over a huge ravine of water, the map switches over to an area of drovlags, Iskar skeletons, and several other familiar mobs of old. I did happen to come across a named level 83 epic X4 in this first area.

I continued on, hitting every inch of the map. The final place that I ended up in was very much like the old Lake of Ill Omen. There are Iskar statues all around the lake front. A tower in the middle of aggro mobs that has a merchant and several quests, and I dead ended at a sork monolith. /cheers. I fly back to the docks and make my way west.

West is where you will find Terens Grasp in the snowy mountains. I continue on my path through the frozen tundra, past yeti’s, up the mountain and slowly back down the mountain. I end up coming out of the mountains into an area that looks like, well no other way to put this, burned woods. lol. Now I have two choices, go into the woods or take a right and traverse back up the mountain. I decided to head back up.

I make it through another yeti camp, and then come upon a small giant fort. Giants see invis, just FYI. I kill my way through here, the giants range from 67-70 and the mountain path climbs back down. The map flips back over to the first map with the docks. I turn around and head back to the woods.

There is a scar like marking in the land, and it’s actually deep enough you can wander into it and fight mobs. It splits this map into two and made for an easy exploration route. I travel on the west side of the scar first, and run into some wurms (uh, see invis), treants, old chardok style goblins, and of course more sarnaks. And the zone line for Jarseth Wastes. This is at the top left of the map. I continue my way to the east, following the top of the map and run into a ton more Chardok style goblins.

Follow the path north and what looks like might be another zone line. Lo and behold it is a zone line to, ba ba buh bummmmmmm, Chardok. lol. I zoned in for about 1 minute, thinking it would be a dungeon, possibly instanced. Um, wrong. The first thing I see is a sork monolith. Nice, hit that one. I then traveled further in. Pulled up my map and there is one. I don’t think is necessarily an overland zone, as much as an inside a mountain kind of type zone. Hard to explain without exploring it, which I may do tonight.

As I finish up the third and final map for Kylong I come across another giant area with a giant pit to fall into. That looks like fun. I hit evac to the docks and make my way back to Terens to camp, and the subject of harvestables comes up in chat, and the fact that there are too few. I make a few comments regarding my army of crafters and how difficult is going to be to level them all up with the lack of harvest spawns, I receive a tell from a very nice lady talking about everything, come to find out, I am speaking with Niami. The DenMother herself. It was very nice talking to her, and I hope I get to speak with her again over the next couple weeks.

Well that is it for now. Hopefully I will be able to get some more things going tonight and explore more, or maybe even craft. J

Aha, I remembered one more thing, AA’s. You cannot spend any AA point above 100 until you ding 71. Now hopefully this will change, but I think that may make a lot of people unhappy. At least it did me.

10-31-07

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, Scott said he spoke with the Union Steward last night and this isnt a permanent closing of 3rd shift. Its a temporary shutdown. How nice is that? Makes you ponder the big question. Do you look for a job while shutdown, or do you sit on your duff and pray they call you back?

How Fun!! /sarcasm off

10-30-07 - EQ

Been having fun. Started running with Borracho and Delusions almost every night.

Lets see, heres the character list.

Krystalea - 70 wizard 70 sage 320 transmuting 100 aa's
Zymeria - 70 defiler 70 provisioner 350 tinkerer 78 aa's
Arzania - 70 swashy 70 woodworker 98 aa's
Myrinna - 38 conjy 70 weaponsmith
Zephina - 7 bruiser 70 jeweler
Attalyne - 26 troub 70 carpenter
Vizera - 23 warlock 20 alchemist

Pardom my lack of capitialization for class/tradeskill names. As far as aa's for the last four, I have no idea, don't really pay much attention to that, as they are not really played all that often and its usually to tradeskill not adventure.

No goals set for them anymore. If they make it anywhere above what I have now, thats all the better, otherwise I am happy with it.

Okay I lied, I really would like Krys to get to 350 transmuting. /nods. I need about, uh, 15pp to do it. /nods. I need to farm, rofl.

10-30-07 v3.0

Articles I have come accross.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071030/AUTO01/710300398

Okay, nothing in there about the Compass, Patriot or the Caliber, but it does show cutting about 1000 contract positions. Hmmm??

http://www.wifr.com/home/headlines/10856221.html

Hey, I totally understand the position you are in, but I have one question. We knew it was temp, but we all prayed with everything we had that it would become perm. So here is my question: Why on God's green earth would you purchase a house while being temporarly employed? Yes, we all though we would become permanant, but really, you couldnt have waited 2 years to find out for sure?

Sorry just had to get that out.


Chrysler LLC plans to end the third shift at its Belvidere assembly plant, which could put as many as 1,000 employees out of work, a high-level United Auto Workers official told stunned members Friday.
Chrysler would not confirm the report, but rumors have been circulating for weeks that the third shift, added in July 2006, would end by Christmas. Union officials typically are advised of such plans before company announcements to workers.
A worker who attended the meeting said Garry Mason, an executive assistant to UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, shocked them by saying that sluggish sales of the three vehicles built at Belvidere -- Dodge Caliber and Jeep Compass and Patriot -- meant "the third shift was gone," as if that news was common knowledge.
There was a gasp in the room," said the worker, who asked not to be named. "Everyone was like, 'Huh?' This was the first time there had been anything official about it. It was a real eye-opener."
Another Local 1268 member who was at the meeting said Mason displayed "a deer in the headlights look" when he realized they hadn't been told. Both workers said Mason didn't say when the shift would end or how many workers would be affected. "
After that, he backpedaled and just changed the subject and talked about why the contract is so good," one said. "He just kept avoiding the subject."
Mason's statement about the third shift appeared first on a Web site forum maintained by Local 1268 members.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat_chrysler_1027oct27,1,6172106.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

That pasted horribly. I dont have access to the Trib, but I copied the link as well if you want to sign up, but I found it interesting. We shall see.

10-30-07 v2.0

I won the contest at Alla's and received my beta key.

I will make posts on it, with my impressions, but unforunately I will not be able to publish them until the NDA is lifted.

/dances

10-30-07

Hello. Been a long time, yes?

Life is going as usual. Well almost. We are on the verge of falling back down, but not entirely. Scott's job may be in jeopardy, so we are doing what we can to prepare for the downfall, but not so much until it is officially announced. So we shall see what happens. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Here's a story and I really need to get this out as it has been in my head for quite a while now.

January 2003: The last week of the month, Scott (Tool and Die tradesmen) gets sent home. His hands look like they had been dipped in a vat of acid. Its horrible. He hurts. He cant put his hands in water of any temp, but cool/cold is the one that hurts the least. I am 6 months pregnant.

February 2003: File for Workman's comp and find a lawyer. By the end of Feb we still haven't seen a check and its starting to hurt.

May 2003: Scott is told to return to work on the 19th. By the 21st he is sent back home. Hands are back to square one. Nathan is born on the 22nd.

June 2003-July 2004: Work with lawyer on getting everything set up, payments are coming just very sporadic. We get a monthly check, or a bimonthly check, hell we sometimes end up with a two week check. Makes for paying the bills oh so much fun.

Aug 2004: Workman's comp says you last payment was in July, we are sorry you misinterpreted our letter, but in layman's you are now released to look for a job and no more money for you.

Oct 2004: Settled. Received settlement check. Yay! Pay off my car, a few other bills and sock the rest away.

Apr 2005: Woot. Scott finally found a job. (Yes 8 months later, and no money inc. Good thing I socked some of that money away.)

Apr05-Apr06: Struggle with bills, as our savings is depleted. Scott is only making $8/hr and it is rough.

April 2006: Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Scott got a job at Chrysler. That is the place to be. And its permanent too. OMG. His first paycheck with 3 1/2 weeks pay at his previous place of employment.

May 2006: Chrysler says, "We lied." Sign this 2 yr temporary contract or lose your job. That's okay we say. We can do what we need to in the next 2 years. Hopefully.

Aug/Sept 2007: Rumors start flying as the national contract is up. The rumors are the ETE's (Scott's formal position) will be hired.

Right here......this is where it all goes to hell. GM gets their contract that says temps will be hired. Woohoo. Scott and I finally let ourselves down in the respect of money, and start talking about fixing up the house, and possibly getting it ready to be put on the market. 5 years is our goal. We talk about the vacations we will be able to have, everything. We actually start to dream about the future.

Oct 2007: Contract signed for Chrysler. No temp to perm status ever mentioned. Then it starts. The rumors of the parts suppliers being told that 3rd shift is getting cut on Christmas Eve. Now the rumors are ETE's and then the extra 400 more will be let go, starting around Nov 15 through the end of the year and 3rd shift gone.

We knew it was temporary, but howdy fuck you. It was nice not having to worry about money for a damned change. It was nice being able to go out to dinner on occasion, let the boys go and do fun stuff. Not ever having to see the look on their face when you tell them you would love to do this, that or the other but you cant because we have stinking money.

Scott has a horrible time finding jobs with the tool and die maker label on there. No one wants to hire him because they feel he will leave if he finds a job back in the skilled trades line. He even tells them, I cannot go back into tool and die, I have psoriasis now and I cant work in the fluids. Doesn't matter.

It was a 2 yr contract, we are only 18 months in. The UAW or Chrysler should at least confirm or deny the rumors. Tell us the damned truth. Don't lie to us anymore. We were prepared for the boot at 2yrs. Not now. We were also hoping for a perm position after two years. Especially if 3rd was being kept open. Just confirm/deny something please. Let us know. I hate living like this.

And pray that my husband can find a decent job quickly after he has been let go. $14/hr to stay with what we have. And that will not allow us to go out to eat or anything like that. I have one out and that's the truck we purchased after Scott started at Chrysler. Got it at my work. Paid $16k for it. It was worth (blue book person to person value $20k) I owe $11.5k on it, and blue book shows $17.5k value. I really don't want to sell that truck. I hope for everything we have one of three things happens. He gets perm at Chrysler (on the line), he gets perm at Chrysler (non core), or he finds a damn decent retire from job, within a month of lay off.

For the love of all that is holy, don't make me go through hell again. Please?