Tag: necromancer

Xanapus on EverQuest

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuestLeave a comment

I started playing a game called EverQuest way back in January 2002 because my cousin was addicted to playing it, and I guess he just really wanted me to play it too because at the time we were reconnecting, and I think he just wanted to get me into something he was into. So, for Christmas 2001, he bought me the base game at Fry’s Electronics in Burbank. I came home from my visit, and I didn’t install it immediately. I installed it a couple days after New Year’s Day in 2002 and I believe there was a free trial, so I tried that, and I just didn’t get this game. I don’t know what it was about it, it just didn’t click for me. When the trial was about to end, I came back to give it another try and I actually started to like it, so I paid for a month and figured I would just try it out for a little while, and then the addiction hit and I played this game until 2008, but continued paying for it until 2009.

The reason I quit playing was because I had become so bored with the repetitiveness of the game. I was literally playing this game all day and ignoring everyone around me. I would stop playing just to watch my shows, and to eat food and to go to the occasional movies and whatever. But then I would go right back to playing. The guild I was in was pretty much a raiding guild, so I was expected to be in the game every day at a certain time to support other guild members who needed to do their epic quest or progression or whatever it was they needed to do. I would occasionally get support for myself for my epic quests, so I couldn’t expect anyone to help me unless I was going to help them, and that meant I had to help everyone else with their thing if I wanted their help with my thing.

Around the time when I quit playing, they had introduced new expansions and they were slowing my computer down so much that I wasn’t able to play as much. There was too much lag and in some cases the lag was so huge that the game would crash as soon as I got back into the game. I had to click a button in the character selection screen to send my character back to their hometown just to be able to get back into the game. I don’t see that option anymore, but I don’t think I need that option now anyway.

My character is level 85, but I believe he was level 65 which was the maximum level before I quit, and I think what had happened was they added a feature with a new expansion that allowed me to upgrade my character to level 85 for free, and in fact I had upgraded 3 characters to level 85. I upgraded my wizard, my warrior and my shaman. All 3 of those characters were useful for everything I needed to do in the game, and they were also sometimes useful for helping other people who needed those classes for their quests or just little fun groups.

Here I am 15 years later from the last time I played the game with a brand-new laptop that I received for Christmas. I wondered if this new laptop would run the game, and it does, so I figured I will come back and play for free since that is now an option, but I want to start over with a new character to sort of help me relearn how to play the game since it has been a long time since I played. But I didn’t have any open character slots available, so I started on another server with another Xanapus character, but this time he is a Necromancer.

So, I started playing this Xanapus on December 30th, and he is already level 60. I actually got him to level 60 in 1 month, and now that I have pretty much learned how to play the game again, I decided to go back to my wizard Xanapus and do some of the things I’ve been doing with necromancer Xanapus. They have a quest system now with a quest window and achievements that they didn’t have when I played. They actually introduced it when I quit. I got to level 60, and I also had earned quite a lot of AA points before going back to wizard Xanapus. So, when I’m not playing the wizard, I have my necromancer in the Bazaar selling stuff I had looted as well as food that I had made to get my baking skill up. Basically, I spent way too much platinum on baking, so I don’t have any money for spells, so I have to sell stuff for spell money lol. But I figured I’d rather go back to the wizard anyway because I had so many years invested in that character.

I’m back in the game, but I’m the only one in my guild. There are, I don’t remember how many, but probably around 300 people in my guild, and I seem to be the only active one. There were some officers who still played up until December 2022 before I started playing again. Who knows, maybe I might see them in the game, and we might play together for old times’ sake.

Anyway, I’m having fun again, but also at the same time not ignoring anyone. I can bring the laptop in the living room and play on the couch for a few hours doing quests for achievements and then stop playing and let my necromancer make some coins.

My Necromancer Xanapus character is on The Rathe server, and my Wizard Xanapus character is on the Xegony server. If you are in the game and you see me, say hello.

EverQuest Fun

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest1 Comment

I have been having a bit of fun in EverQuest over the last couple of days.  I haven’t really had much time to play since we have been so busy trying to install the new floor, so when I do get to play, I don’t really know what to do.

When I got in the game yesterday, I decided to see how many Station Credits I had (you get a specific amount of credits every month as a subscriber) so I could buy something fun and I found a few items.  First thing I bought was an illusion for myself (picture above) which is of a burning Nekhon.  As you can see, it’s a dragon like creature that walks on legs like a minotaur (or bull) but has flaming wings.  I get two icons in my spell icons box, one is the illusion and the other is the added benefits of the illusion which burns creatures that strike me and levitation.  It looks awesome, especially when I’m fighting, but he looks so funny when he runs.

I also bought a couple of other things…

The first thing was a Nightmare Skull.  That is a pet illusion; you cast it and your pet turns into that.  The only problem was I forgot that I don’t have a pet, I have a familiar, he isn’t considered a pet.  A pet fights the monsters (mobs) for and/or with you, but your familiar only gives you added benefits like clarity.  So, I wasted 200 station credits.  I would be better off buying that for my necromancer EvilXanapus.

I still wanted a new pet/familiar so I found the Steamwork Companion.  He is a little floating robot which gives me levitation and when I am fighting a mob, he steps in front of me and takes some of the damage.  He stays around for 5 hours which is the same as my regular familiar, so he keeps me floating for a long time.  I mean, he’s not that useful, but any damage mitigation is good so I don’t mind.  Plus he’s cute to have follow me lol.

The last thing I bought was Shrooms of Sight.  It’s basically drugs lol.  They have had alcohol in the game forever, but this is different.  Although it’s not what I thought it would be.  I thought that I would be seeing some strange stuff going on that nobody else could see, but all it does is it turns the screen different colors for a minute or so.  It’s really actually kinda lame lol.  It was cheap so no harm done.

So here is me in my regular gnome form with my Steamwork companion and my bloodbone protector mercenary.  He fights all of my battles for me.  He isn’t considered a pet because he is a paid mercenary and he goes in the group.  I would love it if he were a floating skull, but I like him as a bloodbone skeleton, especially when I am using the Nekhon illusion.

This picture was taken in the Western Wastes on the Velious continent at the zone to Siren’s Grotto.  I have been going there to fight for Deepwater Ink for alchemy with my Vah Shir Shaman character named Painen Dabum.

As a level 77 wizard I don’t get any exp killing the mobs there, but it’s quick money and I get the alchemy ingredients I need in a timely manner.  And believe me, there is a lot of money to be made there.  I get tons of gems that sell for a couple hundred plat each.  I can fight in there for a couple of hours and make 1000 – 2000 platinum.  I go there for the alchemy ingredients, not the money, but it helps, especially since I have to pay the mercenary 35p every 15 minutes and the potions I make in alchemy cost money to make.  I am making the potions to sell back to the merchants and to get my alchemy skill up.

Although, I would do better with the higher level alchemy potions, but those ingredients are foraged and it’s boring to sit in the Dreadlands with my druid for hours upon hours twiddling my thumbs waiting for the forage button to let me forage more.

But I digress, I am having a lot of fun playing the game again, even though I am playing by myself lol.  I can’t wait to get the burning Nekhon and the floating skull for my necromancer, I think that would be awesome to look at.  It won’t be any time soon because they don’t give me very many station credits every month.  If I really wanted those things, I’ll have to pay them real money for more credits and I just don’t want to spend any more money than I already give them every month.

Can’t wait to play again.

EverQuest Bonus Exp.

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest1 Comment

If you have been playing EverQuest lately, you know that they have doubled experience for their 13th Anniversary.  Well, you know what that means right?  It’s a Power Levelers dream!

When I started playing again after 5 years of being MIA, I realized that I had to relearn the game from the ground up because I had totally forgotten everything.  You know how they say it’s like riding a bicycle?  Well, it’s sort of true, but you have to take a refresher course to get you back on track.  What I did was I started playing my Necromancer who was level 12 when I began in late February.  I played for a few hours then I couldn’t play it for a week.  Then when I finally did get to start playing it again I got hooked on the game again and now in less than one month my level 12 necromancer is level 47.

When I first started playing EverQuest in 2002, it took me 6 months to get Xanapus to level 16 and I gave up on him and created other characters.  When I started playing Xanapus again it took me another 6 months or possibly a year to get to level 50.  I have done in less than one month what I couldn’t do in 2002/2003.  You see how frustrating that is for me?  But it isn’t my fault that the game is much easier now than it was 10 years ago so that does make me feel a bit better.

My guild is still MIA, I only see someone on every once in a while.  Even though I am the only member of my guild who plays every day, or at least that’s the way it seems when I get on, I am not about to abandon them because I am still loyal despite the fact that they are all gone lol.  Besides, I don’t want to have to start all over with new people, and who knows if I will even continue playing in a month from now, I might get bored with it and quit again and I will have left my guild for nothing.

I started thinking today that I have abandoned Lord of the Rings Online for EverQuest so I tried logging in today and every time the launcher tries to launch the game, it crashes and I am unable to play.  They did an update on it so perhaps the update doesn’t work with HDMI for some reason.  I will have to plug the VGA back into the TV so I can see if that will work. It’s kind of frustrating because I’m almost positive my [hobbit] house maintenance fee needs to be paid for lol.

I am having fun again in EverQuest and that is a good thing.  I quit for many reasons but one of them was that I was bored to death.  I mean I would literally fall asleep while playing, that isn’t good is it?  So thankfully I am not bored now and I hope it can keep my attention for a bit longer.

My Return to EverQuest

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest2 Comments

 

I stopped playing EverQuest in 2007 because something tragic happened in my life and I just couldn’t justify playing a video game while shit was hitting the fan, so I quit.  I had paid for a whole year and I didn’t want to waste it so I forced myself to play out of principle, but I found that I had lost all of my enthusiasm for the game after playing for 6 years.

It has been 5 years since I’ve played and I’ve wanted to get back into it for so long, but I couldn’t really justify spending $15 a month to play a game when I could play Lord of the Rings Online for free.  I have already started getting bored with LOTRO so I haven’t really been playing that anyway.  I wanted to get back into EQ so I did.

A few days ago I started playing again and I got on my character named Xanapus and walked around for a bit to look at all of the places that I had missed all those years just to see if anything had changed, and it hadn’t.

I decided that I really didn’t know what the heck I was doing anymore.  You would think it’s like riding a bike, you never really forget, but I have.  I’m sure I will get the hang of it again, but it will take time to relearn my class and which spells are appropriate for which region and which mobs etc.

Instead of playing my main character that I missed so dearly, I thought I’d get on one of my newbie characters that I created but never really progressed.  His name was Voldamort, but someone apparently took that name over the last 5 years so it had an X on the end.  I logged into the account and it said I was eligible for a name change.  What better time to add an “Evilxanapus” character lol.  People joke that Xanapus is evil some days because I accidentally killed the mob that I wasn’t supposed to kill during someones EPIC quest.  Oopsie!  This level 12 necromancer is now my evil guy.

I managed to level him to 16 in just a few days of playing, which back in the day wouldn’t have been possible, but I guess it’s easier to do now.  I swear, it took me at least 6 months to get Xanapus to level 16, so it is a bit frustrating that I got this necromancer from 12 to 16 in just days.

My old guild is still active, but nobody is ever online.  There are maybe 2 or 3 active players, but they aren’t on everyday.  I don’t think that I will leave my guild that I have been absent from for 5 years, but at the same time it’s lonely in there all by myself.  I don’t really know if I will be playing the game full time or if this is just a 1 month thing.  I want to play full time again, but I have too many things to do in my real life to focus on a game.  I don’t know, we’ll see what happens.  Being in an active guild with people who want to play with me and talk to me would justify me paying $15 a month that I would normally spend on something more useful, like oh I don’t know, a small bag of groceries.

EverQuest is fun and all, but their graphics don’t even compare to LOTRO’s.  I forgot how much I hated “zoning” in EQ.  There are only a few times in LOTRO when you have to actually “zone” so it was quite annoying having to zone every time I went from Crescent Reach to Blightfire Moors and to the Plane of Knowledge.  Ah memories of time wasted zoning lol.

I am playing this game for two reasons, one because I missed it and wanted to play it again, and two for research for a book I want to write.  I think it would be worth my time playing if I had some people to play with to give me ideas on a story or plot. Playing by myself isn’t going to give me any ideas for content.  Although I already know what the book will be about, I just want to add more interesting stories and conversations that I actually have with people.  Playing the game gives me inspiration, but playing it with people is where my story comes from.  We will see how it goes.