Nina and Kasul at the Job Board This is a Neverwinter experiment, and it could be one that has never before been attempted. We don’t even know if the game supports this style of play, but what if… what if two or more characters always grouped, and never soloed, through the PvE content of the game? Most of the content in the game is designed to be completed either solo, or solo with a companion. Two characters (and, eventually, two characters and their companions) would necessarily make that sort of content even more trivial. But two characters aren’t enough to do the actual group content. Even if it were possible to run the dungeons and skirmishes as a duo, leveling up entirely by repeating the same dungeons and skirmishes until the next were unlocked would be a pretty dull way of playing the game. ...

Kaptain KY shows off his jerkin That pun wasn’t mine…. Anyway. Since both the good Kaptain and I had both squeezed into Tier 3 over the past week, we spent the first half hour or so of our DCUO night enjoying all The Flash’s home town, Center City, had to offer a collection of tired but scrappy group of superheroes from the mean streets of Gotham City. We took down a bunch of Paradox Reapers, strange creatures from the nooks and crannies of Time, and then their boss. No screenshots! Argh. ...

The Field Marshal and I go a-hunting I really have finished the Scars of the Awakened storyline, all the tradeskill quests, all the adventure quests, gotten the titles, loot and achievements and picked up a couple upgrades from my innumerable trips through the Siren’s Grotto solo adventures. I’m going to try and describe the zone’s story, as I’ve come to understand it. Velious was the place where the planet-sized mother of all dragons, Veeshan, clawed Norrath to claim it as her own. The Great Divide, Wakening Lands and Cobalt Scar were all wounds left by her monstrous claws. She left her draconic brood to grow and thrive on Norrath and then went to the Plane of Sky where, after many centuries, her long-imprisoned descendant Kerafrym the Sleeper, found her, killed her, and started his war against the dragon faithful that united the warring Claws of Veeshan (CoV) and the Ring of Scale (RoS) against the Sleeper’s faction, the Awakened. ...

Tipa at 26 I’ve played Neverwinter for a couple of weeks, now, casually – and I still don’t feel I understand the game. It’s not that I don’t know how to play the game; there’s no big trick to that, it isn’t vastly different from the MMO norm. You see mobs, you use abilities against mobs, you collect loot and gain experience. Stripped of all its flair, it scratches the solo dungeon crawl itch, quite well. The battles – at least for my rogue – are somewhat tactical. I like that. But, the “molo” play-style – soloing with a mercenary – is nearly identical to play in both of the EverQuests. So that’s not it. ...

Taking on an Otyugh Over on Neverwinter, they’re spotlighting the various D&D critters who have made their way into that D&D-based game. But, EverQuest 2 is no slouch in the classic monster imagining, either – rust monsters and displacer beasts just two examples, and then there’s this Otyugh as one of the minions of Kira the Beastmaster in the Tavalan Abyss. It was awesome to finally see this beast in the flesh, and then to kill it. ...

The Digibit Disco Globe in STAR Labs “My greatest failure will become my greatest triumph!” Dr. Tomek O. Morah, Oolong Island Those were the wise words of T. O. Morrow, just moments before we finally destroyed his Tornado Tyrant android after weeks of our own failures. More wise words from Morrow. Ya know, these pictures of famous people, often quoting them saying things they didn’t actually say, are such a meme that there’s now a counter-meme where famous people are apparently saying the most possible wrong thing the artist could think of… ...

Siren's Grotto: Tavalan Abyss Oh, so those mindflayer guys were Tavalan! Gotcha. They were called something different in EverQuest. But every single player knows that those are mind flayers. EverQuest and EverQuest 2 make some really amazing versions of standard D&D monsters, every ability implemented exactly, the art totally spot-on, but then tacks on some random name. Last night’s adventures really showed EQ2’s monsters at their finest. I swear I battled an Otyugh at one point. ...

Tipa, Trickster Rogue With the Neverwinter Gateway, Cryptic has improved upon World of Warcraft’s Armory. Like the Armory, you can check out a player’s gear and stats, but then it takes it another step further. Correct me if I’m wrong, but does WoW’s Armory allow you to do crafting from your web browser? Gateway does. Can Play the auction house? EverQuest II did something like this years ago, but they charged money to access the service, and as a result, almost nobody used it. SOE eventually made it free, but nobody has even thought about it for years and I wonder if it even still exists. ...

Frog Wars It’s an issue whenever the EQ2 team brings back one of EverQuest’s classic zones: how close have they come to the original experience? And, secondly, does it mesh well with the “shattered lands” lore that backs EverQuest II? Game Update 66, AKA “Scars of the Awakened”, bring back Cobalt Scar and Siren’s Grotto. The original Cobalt Scar was the final outpost on the discovery tour all characters had to make through Velious before they earned full use of the druid rings. It opened up the Claws of Veeshan-faction areas, the third faction of Velious’ three-way war between the giants, dwarves and dragons. The completion of the gnomish expedition plotline – the gnomes who rediscovered Velious the FIRST time – awaited the crossing of the deadly open dungeon of Siren’s Grotto. ...

Passive Aggression in action Sure, EQ2 has its holidays and celebrations. But the events that REALLY bring Norrathians together are the Double XP Weekends. 72 hours (or so) of people finishing up old chores, dusting off alts, exploring dungeons off the beaten path… Anything can happen in a double xp weekend. What’d I do on mine? Tipa's Epic When I last posted about EQ2, I’d started a halfling swashbuckler to fill the empty space in my heart where a scout should be. I had Tipa, of course, but I really wanted someone more DPS-oriented than a troubadour. Of course, I could just betray to a dirge…. ...