Goodbye Links

I've grown tired of maintaining my link list here. I'm leaving it up as it is and future link updates will show on my new blog.

Goodbye Blogger

Blogger has been great free software but I've outgrown it. Site is now migrated over to Wordpress under my username Mrrx.

New Site Link

Although, at the moment I think I will continue to maintain links on this site because there's more freedom to order them than under Wordpress. Or maybe I can buy a subscription if it works good enough.

Goblins & Sales

Tlaloc : Ding 42 provisioner, 20% XP. Made lots of green tea.

It's actually harder to describe the crafting process now. If you "made a stack of green tea", did you work with 50 leaves (1 stack) to turn it into 50 teas (2 1/2 stacks) ? Or did he make 2 1/2 stacks ? Whichever it is, that's what he did.

Tezcatlipocca : 75% XP. Logged in to find that I sold nearly all the tempers and resins I had made, which was a real happy thing to see. It's possible that the tradeskill revamp is going live this weekend, so I want those things GONE. I also sold every last Feerrott item I gathered which was expected. Restocked my vault, and everything is now for sale including junk like elephant meat at 1c. After banking I find myself the owner of 23 plat, which makes me smile. I wonder if I'll ever bank enough to convince myself to sell it; my guess is no but you can hope.

Talk about arbitrage. Last night I noticed tuber strands for sale for less than the 20s I get for them nightly. Several price points, including a big stack for 2s. I gobbled up the 2s ones and left the rest; now I wish I had gone ahead and grabbed them all. They sold last night too, which is a handsome profit.

Helped a friend take down a quest mob in Varsoon, then headed off to Lavastorm to start the HQ there. First step is to take down 20 goblins for an irregular auto-update. The goblins were fun to solo and an add was not instant death.

Made it through the first tunnel from zone-in, and stood in a big open area with a mix of solo and heroic groups. There's even a small harvesting possibility here which I took advantage of; hopefully I can get my next two levels and retry some of these outstanding quests. And start on the carpet.

But between all that time for crafting, banking, and dealing with two issues in guild, it got late and I logged off.

Tradeskill Grind - Day 2

Tezcatlipocca : 50% alchy xp. Ground out a ton of tempers which took me halfway to level, then decided I was tired of grinding and more interested in leveling and/or gathering.

Put a lot of items up for sale instead of working them via tradeskill, made a fortunate purchase of tuber strands which I expect to sell for a handsome profit, mailed Huehueteotl a plat (21 plat banked), and then decided to talk to that lady labeled "Kerran Mentor".

She gives you a series of simple quests that take you around Nettleville and ultimately send you into the Peat Bog, where I had already finished the rest of the quests. So picked up another 4 or so quests, then headed off to Thundering Steppes.

Found one more weald wolf - 2 to go before the page is finished. It's simply amazing how hard these things are to find, that getting one is such a major event that it gets an entry in the blog. I hope the devs can change that someday. Logged out in front of the TS docks.

Tradeskill Grind

Tezcatlipocca : Ding 42, then 43 alchemist. 5% XP. Made many a refine destined for the vendor in order to reach 42; then got a new recipe book with potions that heal and give power. Made two each of those for personal use, and donated my unused lower potions to the guild bank.

Grinded, forever, until I reached 43. White recipes with full vitality seemed to be giving .4% XP. Maybe it was more like .3%. They sure want you to take a while to hit 50, no doubt about that. And you know you have an imperfect game mechanic when a player reads a book while he's playing your game. Once I hit 43 I found myself with a little bit of vitality left so it was time to switch characters.

Still have perhaps one more mushroom-type harvest to run through, along with a ton of metal and teak. But this was a marathon session already and I wanted a change of scenery.

Huehueteotl : Ding 20, and carpenter. Had Huey wander Antonica until his various harvesting skills were all up to 90. This should ensure he can harvest in Thundering Steppes. Then had him swim from the Caltorsis ruins all the way around Antonica, picking up fish nodes along the way. Ultimately his fishing hit 90, and with all the junk I had picked up I was ready to tradeskill.

So what do I start with given that he will be making boxes? Wood, of course. Made a stack of 20 pieces of lumber ready for boxmaking. But after that, I took the easy way out and started making steaks with all those fish parts. Crabs got me to level 20, talked to Devona Ironforge after some confusion about which NPC I needed, and made that final recipe to ding 20.

Is that impressive? It sure took a long time - Ding 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and finally 20. That's a lot of fish steaks folks. Great practice for.......uhhhh....... box making. Yeah. But given that I'm uninterested in boxes lower than briarwood it made sense; just reach the right level and go from there. Time for more gathering and fighting.

And by this time - a full day planted in front of the PC - I was sick and tired of EQ2 so I logged off. But I definitely wanted to get at least one of my three characters out of the tradeskill grind, and I succeeded.

Milestones !

Tezcatlipocca : Ding 41 alchemist. Tez managed to finish up both of the quests I was worried about with Vash, and lacking any more easy quests to work I decided it was time for a trip back to town.

Stopped along the way and finished some more quests, and passed the magic 700 quests completed marker. Awesome ! Have 705 quests and am in position # 166 on the server. Got one more weald wolf, so squeaked that book forward, and finished another book after finding Roaming Dead who would insta-repop after breaking the encounter; for the curious that is at the Graveyard in the Thundering Steppes.

Banked and sorted the loot, then bought and sold a whole bunch of stuff for a several gold profit. Headed into the tradeskill pit and got started; didn't take many Turnip Washes until I had the level, then decided to log and check out my alts.

21 plat in the bank, although I may have to pass one of those over to Huehueteotl. Still I have a respectable stash for a level 46 character.

Tlaloc : 70% provisioner XP. Tlaloc had a bunch of misc foodstuffs in his bank which I decided to make food & drink out of. If his boxes are finally full, well, time to actually sell foods. Of all the things, my Provisioner has never really filled up his bags so I've never sold any food. And this is supposed to be my way to make money - NOT !

Made some grilled shark fin before it got late and I logged off.