PlayNotes Mixed

Lord of the Rings Online

I feel a bit guilty, but after thinking of my last post, and that I’ve basically been stuck in the same area of Middle Earth in LOTRO since 2009.   How is that even possible?  I’ve gotten stuck in plenty of Action/RPGs, but an MMO?   So, I have not bought the expansion till I see if I can get out of Mirkwood, or at least advance through it.

Secret World

I’m also stuck in Secret World with those security cameras, which has been depressing.  I’m wondering tonight though, if the reason I kept failing had to do with my recent connection problems.  My computer guru spouse fixed the connection problems as far as I can see, so maybe I’ll give it another try.  I will be so relieved to move on.

World of Warcraft

In WOW,  I ended up doing what I always do and have a newly established family guild on my new server.   I’m continuing to run my Paladin ahead of the rest of my characters to earn money for guild tabs, and guild repair monies, plus everyone’s riding training up through Northrend.

I’ve gone back to rotating my BWR characters who are in their 100s, but just those.  Everything is so easy for all of them except my Frost Mage, who I have to load with potions to keep alive.  Sheesh.  My new server Mage is going Fire, a spec I’ve never really played much.  Early on when I played the game, for some reason, Fire Mage and Destruction Warlock seemed too similar to me, at least for the lowbies I was running.   So I went Frost.

EverQuest 2

 All  of my characters are finally working in Antonica.   I had a bad moment when I considered sending one to the Frostfang Sea instead of Qeynos just to get a bearskin rug I’d picked up on the Fallen Earth server in that area.  Bad idea!   There must be a bearskin rug somewhere else in Norrath.

I love the fighting moves of my Monk and Bruiser, and have been trying to capture pictures of them in action.   It’s never easy to get a nice shot of your character in a fight because, well, dead doggie.

The Bruiser    Look at those brass knuckles!   Smoke effects, light effects!  The Froglok is on fire.

Monk    Watch out for those legs!

Been busy lately, but hope to be back on schedule for my games next week.

Lord of the Rings Online: Escape From Lothlorien

I purchased the Mirkwood expansion when it came out, played very little (as it turns out my character simply wasn’t high enough level for the area and things didn’t go well for her). 

I was never a fan of Lothlorien, and didn’t wish to continue playing there, nor did I want to drop my main character and level through older areas, only to get here again in the future.

So I stopped playing for a few years.

Here I am, frustrated with Lothlorien still, so I thought to look at the level for Mirkwood.   61-65!  Yay!  I’m level 62.

Abandon ship, I said, find the way to Mirkwood and la la la.

On the area map, it isn’t so far away.  I just need to cross the Anduin River and I’m off on new adventures.   Note my happy arrow.  Good ol’ Paint.

Ride, ride ride all the way across Lothlorien to the shores of the river.    Hmm, I can see they won’t let me get up on the other side from here.

Ride ride ride the shoreline.  This looks good, clearly I can swim over and climb up easily right from here.

Swim a few feet. Dead.  Inexplicably dead.  Retreat puts me back in the middle of Lothlorien.   If you’re going to cause me to die bogusly, at least stick me back on the shoreline where I apparently went so foul of the river’s swimming rules.

Many many bad words spoken.

I then looked up “How to get to Mirkwood for Lothlorien”.    How nice, I can get a quest from Haldir (which I likely unknowing got in 2009 but hmmpf), or I can ask the Elf at the Docks for a ride over.

Nice.  The boat awaits!

I actually wasn’t sure if I’d been to Mirkwood already, but I certainly had.  I had a FAILED quest in my log.  Welcome back, puny dog.   Been Here, Failed That.

Oh, man, we’re bunnoles deep in ORC territory.   How I’ve missed them!   Hubba hubba, ORCS, I say.

Damn. I was sooo eager to reach the Orc fortress, I didn’t see a Goblin in the murk.   He popped me off my horse, then completely grayed out all my skills so I had a tough time beating him, but I did get him, he’s a dead little goblin.

This doesn’t bode well.  Nope.  

PlayNotes: LOTRO

My goal this evening was to do as many quests as I could, to try to move on from Lothlorien.   The main set of quests took me into a sprawling orc camp, where I needed to find several locations as a scouting mission.

Way, way at the back of all the camps, there were weapon racks to destroy, a common past time in Middle Earth.

Unbelievably, when I got back to my quest giver he wanted me to go right back through all the camp locations and destroy five more weapon racks. 

You know how dogs look like they’re grinning but they’re really really concerned about your request?

Then the next three npcs to offer quests want me to go in several other orc camps and kill as many orcs as I can.

I had to log out.

Orcs aren’t my favorite foes.

Goblins are next worst.

Middle Earth as presented in LOTRO is full of orc and goblin camps.   Way too many.

Dear Diary:  Trapped In Lothlorien, surrounded by Orcs, send help!

PlayNotes: LOTRO The Secret Road

You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run…

I found the Secret Road with relative ease.  It was disappointing as a Secret Underground road, just very dark and twisty.  Orvar was impressed, but I couldn’t see much of anything.

Then I take on a level 60 semi-elitish thing like a scorpion without the curvy tail they usually have.  I could have beat him, but my controls froze up.   As these things go, the monster could still attack.  Then I was dead, but everything was frozen and I couldn’t even get out of the game.

I finally exit and go back in, and I’m way back in the Great Delving, 860 frustrating meters away.

I’ll come back to this another time.  I ported to Lothlorien, which has never looked so open and beautiful, despite the whole yellow thing.  Lovely Lothlorien.

PlayNotes: LOTRO (plus)

I’m finding my way around in Moria and navigating between the maps and the way the halls are laid out.  Less in the way of dead ends tonight.

Working on Hewers of Stone more, I found the Chamber of Wisdom with relative ease.  I was surprised how far back towards the beginning of Moria you had to go.

Chamber of Wisdom

Mining Records

I confess I keep thinking each quest turn in will send me back to the surface, but no.   Instead a new doorway leads me out into the snow.  Whipping winds, wolves, awooo.  I liked the story behind this quest, a Lost Workshop that might have papers revealing a hidden passageway.

Luckily the sojourn in the snow was short and the cave entrance was nearby.

I liked these caves.  The path was mostly straight, with a couple of places where you had to jump down.  There was just something that appealed in the design.

In The Workshop With The Orcs

Once I had the papers I sought, the doorway out sent me right back to Broin (that adventuring Hobbit) without the interlude of winter.

The next quest is called Chapter 8 The Secret Road.  I love a Secret Road!

World of Warcraft

I spent a tiny bit of time working on my almost level 105 Frost Mage and my level 12 druid (on different servers)   I didn’t get any Wow time on Saturday, so you know how it is, you sneak in.

Galaxies

Working on getting good stock on my Architect vendors.  I’m working to stock everything she can make.  Oddly, things like Guild halls sell pretty well, but while I’m slowly getting a big stock of steel and ores (thanks to my spouse, the most excellent miner in any game), I need other subcomponents that I haven’t stocked at this time.  

Even with that, I needed factory crates of Power Core Units, for which I need Energy Distributors, which are made by Dustbunnie, so a pause while I make a factory run of those…

Everquest 2

My Fury on Antonia Bayle and Fallen Gate is my main.  The AB one was level 9, so I grabbed loads of quests on my way out of town.  Mobs were level 7-8 on one side of the road and 10-11 on the other.

I just love the flavor of this area.

At level 10 I got the 10th Season Adventurer Achievement, plus what seemed like quite a few skills.

One that stood out was one that turns my High Elf into a beautiful white wolf (I’m guessing) but to me she is a dog, and I love dogs!  I’m trying to think if anything has let me be a pup before.  Bears, cats, they’re everywhere.  Puppy!

Talk about unexpected surprises in games that make them so much more fun. 

The ability to Teleport others was also given.  I love being able to port people to other destinations,  I’m pleased to have that one too.

PlayNotes: Mixed

Lord Of the Rings Online

Monday is Lord of the Rings Online Day, and I spent about an hour and a half trying to get from Tharakh Bazan  to the Chambers of Wisdom, Knowledge and Deep Thought or Katatub-zahar, somewhere near the Chamber of The Crossroads in Moria.

I’m working on Chapter 6 Hewers of Stone within Moria.  I got within 230 meters once near the Chambers, but a very solid wall still lay between me and my destination.

I’m just going to relax about the whole thing and find my way.  There are some pretty sights in Moria after all.

Everquest 2

Irresistibly, I spent some time with my next EQ2 Character, a Warden.   Bhagpuss of Inventory Full has joined the new Fallen Gate progression server, and some of the comments on his post helped me decide to make sure my Warden got all of the quests on the Isle of Refuge (I had missed some with the Fury somehow) and also the Collections.  She left at level 10 rather than 8 and is snuggled down in the shared apartment.  I really do love being able to have my characters in a warm safe spot after they’ve been adventuring.  No one likes sleeping in caves or under trees.

World of Warcraft

My Paladin dungeon-ed her way from level 57 to glorious 60.   Man it was an odd day in the dungeons. Super weirdo tanks doing inexplicable things.  In Lower Blackrock (?) the tank kept jumping down to the level below, in various locations, and everyone got killed each time.   This was after starting out the dungeon not moving at all for about 2 minutes, saying nothing. People get twitchy, then (she) shouts WAIT, and eventually gets moving.  So odd.

Then there was the brand new Death Knight who didn’t seem to understand the tank was supposed to attack things….zzzzz….

Secret World Legends

Another day, another dive into some tunnels.  There were the usual laser traps, easily handled.  Next thing you know, I’m back in, but

What do we have but those pesky motion detection cameras and a long hallway.   I’ve done it before, dang it.  Not today.  I even watched two different YouTube videos to see just where they made that first turn to go to the other wall.   Intruder Alert!   Death death death.  Sometimes you’ve just gotta walk away and come back fresh.

Star Wars Galaxies Emu ed.

There is some nice Reptile Meat on Tatooine so my sweetie and I got in some Dewback Hunting.  Hunting in a group is one of my favorite things to do in the game, and there’s no one better to hunt with than my spouse.

PlayNotes Issue 3: Lord of The Rings Online

I’m pretty tired, so this is a bit hinky. zzzzzzz.

My Level 61 Hunter has a quest sequence in Moria.  This should have been easy, but somehow all my saved Stable Master locations are gone, and I spent two play sessions trying to get from the Chamber of the Crossroads or the 21st Hall (Followed the snaky road at the bottom of the map from the Chamber) to Tharakh Bazan.

It looks simple on the map.   Just go here, then over there, then take a left and a right.   Hahaha.

What looks on the map like a pathway turns into a solid wall or dead end.  The place is thick with orcs, goblins, morrovals and crows.   Every time I stop to look at my map, I get whacked by something.  It’s all ten levels lower than I am, but still, pretty annoying.  Let me read my map!

At one point I had a bad thought, wondering how the designer of this twisty maze of a place sleeps at night, knowing people are running into walls, chased by goblins, muttering “I can’t get out…”

I started at the 21st Hall tonight, because where I left my character last time.  Looking closely and reading the quest text again, I went back to the Chamber of The Crossroads and inched my way up, finally getting to Tharakh Bazan.   I remember the first time I saw this area, it was so cool to find an area of lush gardens deep underground.  Right out of Journey to the Center of The Earth.

The objective is in a twisty cave full of Globsnaga Skirmishers and Warriors.  Globsnaga?

Even more charmingly named is the Boss Grawulun the Caerog.  I had a moment where I thought I’ve come all this way and this guys going to pound me into the ground.  I will be sad.  Luckily he was EZ.

Off to the Mustering Halls for part 2 of this quest.   

I seriously have had this character all over Moria, and I wouldn’t mind  any of the exploration if my previous efforts were still recognized.  Too bizarre.