The regular Friday group was postponed this week because of the Labor Day holiday, but that didn’t mean we weren’t going to have any EQ action this week. Sejal, still reeling from the horrible news that cruising through the Plane of Justice Execution trial no longer flags you to enter the Planes of Storms and Valor. Apparently there’s still some level 55 barrier in place…
Nobody ever thinks of us poor mid-levels!
So last night’s goal was two-fold. First was to do the Aura quests for Tsukiko and Sejal. Auras are buffs that radiate from the caster and buff anyone within range. They are amazingly vital for raids, and a nice bonus when just in a group. Tsukiko’s warrior aura increases everyone’s AC and proc rate, and Sejal’s increases mana regen for everyone in the area. Cool stuff.
The whole quest took place in the underground lost city of the Sand Elves, Takish-Hiz. Which was filled with… sand, sand golems, sand drawings, sand in the shoes, sand in various other uncomfortable places… like being at the beach at midnight, with monsters. And no water.
What’s up with elves, anyway? They can’t move anywhere without turning into whatever they are near? Like wood elves – they live in trees. Okay, got it. Sand elves, live in sand. Okay okay. Dark elves – live in the dark!
Um, so that means High Elves like to get h… nah, never mind.
And half elves? Let’s not go there.
Afterward we went to Blackfeather Roost, the level 55 hot zone. Blackfeather Roost takes an exciting example from the Plane of Sky – a zone divided into islands, and a quest to get from one to another. So before we could settle in for some experience, we had to do a couple of collection quests. Along with a couple of other groups doing the same (actually, it appeared they were just collecting all the mobs on the island and AEing them for xp).
Making the night more interesting were the special aug mobs that hot zones get. Monsters of far greater than normal difficulty, and loot. Our first was an “injured mountain snake”. A poor, injured snake, with its bent tail dragging in the dirt, one eye kinda tracking, the other eye not so much. Venom dripped weakly from its fangs. Rogbog almost had to apologize when he pulled it to the group.
Where it HIT FOR LIKE 56,000. OUCH! This thing is INJURED. So we had to kite it; I plinked it with arrows while Sejal nuked and set his pet on it, and Rogbog tried to avoid getting killed.
We did eventually finish the quests and head to the third island for some XP, where Sejal first discovered the Lesson of the Devoted buff that would have given him half an hour of double experience each and every one of the days that he spent leveling to 52.
The group went fine, though we were in constant danger of wiping due to adds since Sej couldn’t mez the harpies. We even picked up a frogadin. When a griffon saw us killing his harpy friends and came down to help play, we did wipe, and that ended the night.
Sejal ended the night 20% from 55, I am about halfway through 57 and gained another AA (10% xp going to AAs) for a total of 31 – which isn’t bad for a new character my level.
What’s this picture? Oh, nothing much. Just interior designer to the stars, the queen of feng-shui herself, STARGRACE, building the Tanglewood Community Theater in my apartment in Gorowyn. I am sooooo excited :)