SWTOR

Ok ok, I know diablo 3 is coming up and I've kinda lost heart in playing SWTOR anymore. Firstly, job had been tying me down at the office, secondly, when you grow older the gaming addiction lessen and the alcoholism increased at an exponential rate. But then again, I've definitely enjoyed my gaming experience in SWTOR regardless of playing it solo/multiplayer. For those clueless guys out there who is wondering whats SWTOR, its Star Wars! The Old Republic! A highly acclaimed MMO from the big boys; bioware, joint efforts with lucas arts to bring us the awesome experience of an intertwined single player/mmorpg game!

Cinematic Trailer

Gameplay vid (with the developer yakking away)

First of all, I would say, SWTOR is not ground breaking at all, ok fan boys might disagree, other than the legacy system which was introduced in the recent 1.2 patch. Theres nothing different from SWTOR compared to WOW, RIFT, EQ2, Age of Conan. It has the same old receipe of smashing your hotkeys, wait for cool down smashing hot keys. Run around in circles in dungeons boss fight etc. However the story telling is great as they have voice over for every freaking NPCs that give you quest. I'm like what the hell... really? Every freaking NPC? Sure that works for a single player game but for the mmo dudes, for your second charc, you'll be pressing spacebar all the way and you'll be like 'God damn npc, shutup pls'.

Companion
One of the greatest aspect invented to me was the companion features. Its like having a hired mercenary however these mecenaries sticks to you for life like glue. Given the decent gear to your companions they make awesome DPS/Tanks and the dungeons (called flashpoints) in game only require a 4 men group to do it. So if you cant really find a decent human being to group with, you could always grab your companion to do the quest.

Class base storylines
Yet another aspect, as a lore seeker (I love stories), I enjoyed the class base quests, every class has their own unqiue storyline in each planet, in this way I'll feel less dull when I level a second character of a different archetype (A jedi knight has a different story compared to a jedi consular). The legacy system is also making leveling your alt a lesser chore with all the nifty stuffs in your heroic moments (Solo skills that requires a companion to use). However being in the game for 3 months, I realised those are just time sinks and I could not find anything satisfying out of me after my level 50 Jedi Sentinel killed the (Spoiler ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! emperor !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Gaming Hours Required
I used to have a irresistable temptation to play a mmorpg for hours and hours, I was a student and I'm like, 'hell I paid $14.99 usd a month for this thing, I've have to maximise my hours of it' and now being a working adult, the $14.99 usd is not that much of a big deal to it and I've manage to exercise my 'self-control' more (largely due to the overwhelming amount of work presented in the office), I played it on a really casual basis, I would say like 10+ hrs a week? (avg of 2hrs on weekdays and prolly 5hrs per day on weekend and of course I do not play everyday) and in the course of 2 months, I pretty much learned every single player aspect of the game and got my jedi to lvl 50. But with this amount of time devoted, I have yet to run through any dungeons and now I'm on my way for some Diablo 3 awesomeness, SWTOR was fun, enriching with the starwars lore. I',m bound to come back with a 'REVENGE OF THE JEDI' thingy once Diablo3 gets all old and theres no new love out there.

Cheers!

This blog used to be dedicated to my gaming experiences in Everquest 2. I was a hardcore fan, spending 15-18hrs a day on the game and then life kicks in and I turned casual playing several hours a day. As the saying goes 'everything good must come to an end' and I'm a butterfly gentleman whom does not think I will be satisfied with one game experience; thus, I have deceided to rekindle my writing spirit and to dedicate this blog to games that I had played or I'm going to play in the future and looking back, I cam reminiscene on the games that had crossed my life before. In my next few post, I'll prolly touch on writing on games that I have played over the last few months (Skyrim, SWTOR, ORCs must die, Serious Sam 3 and etc) and of course the highly anticipated Diablo 3 (was on the open beta for this weekend, which I must say, Blizzard really did a damn good job trying to bring the old diablo experience back to the gamers, I'm diablofied with the beta) Cheers!

Cloak of Flames

1 of the most awesome cloak in game, enjoy~

3 tanks getting first name in Deep Forge

Deep Forge is a current expansion, the shadow oddessy (TSO) zone. *Sentinel's fate is releasing in 2-3 weeks time!

It scales from level 50 to 80 depending on the level of the person that zoned in to allow people from level 50 to get xp and loot from the zone. However there are zone specific quests that requires you to be level 75~ or so to be able to work on those quests so its actually end game zones for players to farm shards, names and loots etc.

And so my guild leader, bunyip with him boxing (playing 2 charcs) his druid, and with evo and me, we head in to kill the first name before evo goes to sleep. Pretty straight forward with the boss doing some drama at the end before he dies. Heres are some screenies

Got my epic!

Got my paladin's epic weapon through a series of gruesome tedious quests that often requires a group. (thanks to all those that helped)

Now i need to attend raids to get the mythical (better) version. But its kinda unlikely i'll get it before expac, /sad.


This is da epic, mythical version has a bluish glow to it with awesome stats that should allow you to use till 90 (coming expac)

Pally turned 80

My pally is finally 80 now, I have been working on my Epic weapon quest. The lore behind the pally epic weapon is that my pally is the chosen 1 of Marr (a god, diety) and I'm sent on a mission. My current mission is to save the froglok people from the iskars in Kunzar Jungle. (Man its a freaking long and tedious quest actually).

But I'm hoping I can get my epic/myth before expac hits the town in mid Feb!

My pally is 73

I have been playing my Pally, Lots of AE, great survivability, great solobility and group tank role.

Here are some Pics and Video.

Empowered Ghoulbane and Guardian's Myth.wmv

Update thus far

I have been busy lately with reallife stuffs but I am still actively playing eq2 with my inquisitor and hes now level 75 with 112 levels of AA, dabbled with some alts, have a 23 pally now too. Will try to find motivation to give more precise update on the zones I have been to. Here are some pics of my inquistor in plane of fear instance and misc.

Back to Najena Server (PVE)

After some twist and turns, I'm abandoning my 43 defiler on Nagafen and head back to Najena to my inquisitor (I'll look forward to make a pvp necro/assasin in the future). The main reason is that theres a lack of oceanic population in Nagafen and yea I'll like to have more people of my time that I can group/raid with at higher levels.

My inquisitor is 48 now and revisiting some old zones such as permafrost and obelisk of lost souls really brings back memories to me. Looking forward for Nek Castle and Unrest and of course to try out the zones in TSO and ROK that I've yet to experienced.

PVP Server

So I've been playing as a defiler as a freeportian on pvp server Nagafen for the past weeks. Ok the major differences for pvp server. Theres a lot of lower level twinked charcs (alts of level 80s) running around, so you must be constantly ready for battle with any opposite factions. However theres a pvp range of 4 levels, 8 levels and 10 levels etc, PVE servers are pretty dead in the lower levels, people are just rushing to level 80 and raid on the pve servers i guess.

Initially when you start off you wont have much $$ and you obviously cant stand a chance with twinks full of mastercraft items and spells, so any 1 con white and above be prepared to run, whites are worth a try to fight but sometimes its just immpossible. Its also generically harder to run the 'open dungeons' such as stormhold, fallen gates etc as theres a possibility of being ganked (but only to a certain extend).

Harvesting is key to earning $$ on pvp server for the lower levels, rare nodes etc are sold for a decent amount of gold and plat, i have 4 plats so far at level 30.

AA is also essential so you might want to get as much possible AA for your level as its 1 of the key determinents if you are better than other players of the same level other than gears.

Oh ya, qyenos cant group with freeps and exiles, they are 3 seperate factions, and when you betray, you can retain the class of your choice such as a troll defiler in qyenos (instead of becoming a mystic when you betrayed on pve servers).

Awesome Gameplay videos

Review - Level 10 - 20 (Qyenos and Antonica)

When my little dwarven paladin arrived at qyenos, i felt a little disoriented, not exactly sure of what quests should i pick up and do after my absence from EQ2 for so long (1yr+) I went explore around, reminisnce a little, man Qyenos felt damn nostalgic, I still can remember the huge ass amount of zoning at launch just to change my class from warrior>crusader>paladin (they removed the class change quests and you start as paladin straight). After some doodling, I thought I should just try to do the racial mentor quests which was gray. And true enough the grey quests (quest was only level 3) soon led me to the level 5-10 zone of qyenos and completing the quest chain there lead me to the cave, a level 10-15 zone in qyenos and completing the quests led me to the first outdoor zone for any starters in Qyenos, Antonica. There are lots of quest hubs in antonica, so much so, I've skipped at least like 10-20 quests as I leveled to 20, I found a good site that depicts the quest timelines (details on all the quest chain).

http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Quests

All in all, antonica is pretty dead with me alone running around because there aint many people starting around and najena is a pretty light server as the unofficial oceanic server. Dont get me wrong, there are still people playing, but they are spread out on the huge ass amount of zones available in everquest2 and not to forget the main bulk of players should be level 80 raiding, doing heritage quests etc and more, even though the lands are pretty empty, you still can often see people chatting in the level 1-9 chat channel trying to form groups etc offering to mentor etc. My only sense is that, since there isnt a huge influx of new players, the level 10-20's group quests should be changed to solo quests, but nevertheless like i said, there are huge ass amount of quests available to let you level and learn more about the lore and content of everquest 2 as you progress to higher levels. Having a friend in the game to be able to get accepted in a guild etc helps a lot also in terms of asking help etc. What I love most about everquest 2 is that the game immerse you into its content, the quests gives you a particular meaning in doing, to understand the conflict of the gnolls and the lands, aiding the village etc which was bring about in a logical yet not too dull format as compared to most generic mmos.

Side note, 1 more week and my exams will be over and I'll be renewing this account and play my inquisitor (currently level 10) (I'm playing on and off during breaks for my revision, time to reach level 20 from level 10, around 3hr to 7 hrs, was pretty easy)

Review - Other Starting Areas

I have been doodling with my trial account by making charcs over and over again to try them and exploring the starting areas.

My note is that for the classic starting zones Qyenos and Freeport, after the newbie island whereby you were sent to train to prepare yourself as you gain citizenship for Qyenos/Freeport is a bit confusing. There doesnt really seem to be any specific quests that you must complete, and a new player may need to visit a wiki or any other database for quests info of what quests to do.

However if you start in timorus deep/kelethin, the quests are much smoother for progression till level 10 or 20+ where you should really visit other zones (such as thundering steppes, stormhold dungeon etc etc)

Review - Level 1-10 - Timorus Deep

After character creation, you have to choose a starting area and the starting area depends on your race and your race's status alignment. Such as human can be good or evil while dwarves can only be good. (Good alignment characters can play as evil characters by betraying their faction later on in the game such as Dwarf shadowknight).

There are a few starting areas

Qyenos - good and Freeport - evil (the classical starting area introduced since launched)

Kelethin - only available to certain good races (introduced in echoes of faywder expansion)

Neriak - only available to certain evil races (introduced in one of the updates)

Timorus Deep - only available to certain evil races (introduced in ruins of Kunark)



After much consideration I've decided to roll a barb shadowknight using the soga model on najena (the unofficial oceanic server) and chose timorus deep as my starting area.

The first 10 levels was pretty basic in timorus deep, with tutorials that guide you through with the game mechanics, its the pretty same old quests with most mmorpg, kill x/x, collect x/x, stop this, find him, save the prisoners etc etc.

But theres a particular lore in timorus deep about the things you get to do. In that region, the Sarnarks are actually having a constant battle with the haoerans (aviaks or so call the bird man) and the quests you do are actually aiding in the war between the 2 sides. (you can only help the sarnark, not the aviaks) which give you a insight to the sarnark and the classical zone of kunark.










So my review for the first 10 levels

Quest - 3.5/5 the same old for all mmorpgs to learn the basic mechanics of the game

Leveling - 3.5/5 a bit too easy to level, took me around 2 hrs to get level 10. But for a new player exploring might take up to 5hrs or more if they really pay attention to learning about the game

Lore - 4/5 pretty decent lore that provides you some insight to the history and story of everquest 2 and allow you to quest for a reason.

Review - Character Creation

Character creation can be a chore in EQ2 with 19 races and 24 classes and any race can be any class restricted to the good/evil alignment (such as evil for necro and good for paladin)(However even an Ogre who is evil can be a paladin later on by doing betrayal quest to swtich faction and become a good ogre).



There are 4 Main Archtypes: Fighter, Priest, Scout and Caster and each archetype branch out to classes such as paladin,monks etc etc which ultimately results in 24 unique classes that can suit the taste of any gamer.



Everquest 2 was the first mmo to allow you to customise your character in detail (allowing you to customise the eye colors, cheek width etc etch), I know aion had brought it to a new level and I've seen the youtube vids on aion its incredible.

Theres 2 different form of models in everquest 2 for you to choose by going options and toggle the alternate model options. The original models tend to look very westernised (well its a us game!) However they have introduced an alternative look to the model known as the soga model which give a bit of the eastern mmorpg looks (sharper features etc).



I have downloaded the trial for some casual play before I actually renew and have made a dark elf brusier (fighter>brawler>bruiser) and I have adopted the soga models, it may looked a bit out of place in the screenshots but the looks flowed in-game and looked quite alright to me.

My thought was that, they have a range of models and alternate model to enable players to craft a look that they like and thats commendable. However it doesnt have the 'super handsome or super pretty models' compared to lineage 2 or aion etc which can attract some superficial players.

Rating: 4/5 the amount of races and classes combi is crazy and the customisation for the characters is a good effort. However if they can make the models prettier, I guess theres really nothing to pick on the character creation for Everquest2.

more information can be found via www.everquest2.com

Review - Feature - Mentoring

Adapted from http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Mentoring

What is mentoring?

Mentoring in EverQuest II allows your character to temporarily lower his/her adventure level to match that of another player in your group. All of your stats, equipped items, spells and combat arts are also "scaled down" to that level, and all base adventuring experience gained is reduced by 50%.

Why mentor?

To assist lower level players. No one can gain experience or quest updates if any groupmate's level is too high in comparison. In this case, mentoring is the only solution if you want to help them out.

To benefit from grayed-out content. Named mobs don't drop their intended treasure chests or award AA experience once they con gray. However, mentoring another player will change that if it brings you within the level range to make the mob con green or more.

To feel badass? When you mentor, you gain considerably less experience, have your stats lowered and your equipment/spells/combat arts scaled down. However, everything isn't scaled down enough to match how you performed when you really were that level. In fact, you'll still be somewhat overpowered for the level you're mentoring at. Just don't let it go to your head -- you're still playing the class you chose, after all.

Mentored players benefit, too! Anyone being mentored gains a slight boost to adventure experienced gained with every kill. The more mentors, the more the boost becomes!

Review: I thought this feature should be available in ALL MMOS, especially in games where there are large level gaps. It also enables players to recruit friends and ensure them have a much smoother transition into the game with the aid of a higher level. It also aid the problem of 'insufficient lower levels' if a person has a lot of friends in EQ2. He can simply gather higher level friends to mentor him/her and adventure together.

Feature rating: 5/5 (must have in all games, wonder why no other games implement this feature).

Video of a high level Paladin mentoring a lower level (20+ as stormhold is suitable for 15+ to 20+)

Start of leoeq2review

A brief info about me. I've play many MMO titles such as Ultima Online, World of Warcraft(BC and Pre-BC), warhammer online, Age of conan, dungeons and dragon online and some other titles. I've played EQ2 at launched in 2004 Nov/Dec (cant rem), was one of the few paladins in server to get max level 50. After which I left due to real life commitment and lack of oceanic players on my server, been playing other games and returning to eq2 here and there, I've so far played 50 pally, 70 dirge and 70+ coercer and now I'm gonna return to EQ2 after my finals for my bachelor(somewhere in mid Nov) and I thought I'll do some reviews of various features in the game. Such as zones, leveling, quests, features, etc etc.

DISCLAIMER: I may be considered a fan boy of EQ2 and might give bias reviews based on my own judgement. I am a fan of EQ2 because I LOVE PVE and DUNGEONS crawling and INDEPTH LORE.. There are servers with PVP rulesets available, but I've never really tried it, especially when this game is PVE at its core.

Coercer


Dirge


Paladin


A video made with my Dirge in 1 of the dungeon in kingdom of sky