The Angry Raider

The past couple of days in EVE have been quite exciting. I left the dead corporation I was in and joined The Greater Goon (also known as Groon). I had originally planned to join GoonFleet but I started feeling like I’d just disappear in their ranks, and they can be pretty rough on inexperienced players. Groon is just as bitchy but more accepting of new players, even encouraging them to get blow’d up as much as possible using the corp’s Rifters.

I’ve liked EVE since the day I first played it, but I’ve always felt like it was a relationship going nowhere. With this game, it is absolutely vital to make friends or find a corp to do stuff with. It changes everything.

Meanwhile, I finally built up enough standing to do the lowbie Sisters of Eve epic mission arc, which is pretty fun. I’m doing it all in my Kestrel, and with my missile skills as high they are, I one-shot everything. Someday I’ll have a challenging mission, but it won’t be with these Level I agents.

Speaking of missiles, my Manticore fitting is 99% done. I just have to finish training Cloaking IV and I’m good to go. I need to start mentally preparing myself to lose the Manti. Groon likes to tackle, and we use a lot of cheap frigates to do so. The Manti was 20m, which isn’t particularly cheap, but it’s also not a tackler. I’ll likely park it in our 0.0 HQ and bring it out when we assault stations and battleships.

I’m going on my first PVP op tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.

A lot has happened in the two months since I last posted. I reactivated WoW, played for a while, and deactivated. My wife started playing Aion. And most importantly, I started working a lot at my new job, where I am in charge of product development. And I bought a house. So I haven’t had a lot of time to play MMOs, and my interest in them was fairly lacking anyway.

But remember in my last post, I said:

I plan on reactivating EverQuest II when GU53 comes out.

Well, GU53 came out, and I reactivated. I needed something to disappear into for an hour or so to chill out after work. And just as I expected, Norrath felt like home again. The changes in GU53 aren’t particularly drastic, but they make the game a little bit more casual, which is what I want in these last few months before the new expansion comes out. There are lots of nice conveniences, like Lore & Legend items serving as quest starters and increased spawn rates for nameds. The achievement system is clever, but nothing new. I do like that it serves as a sort of guide for things to do.

My real interest in returning to EQ2 is in my new gnome illusionist, Joybuzz. He’s level 23 with 30 AA. You read that right: 30 AA at level 23. Now for you PVP folks, this isn’t impressive. But for us PVE carebears, it’s not too common. It was only possible (for me anyway) because of the new AA slider, which I put at 100% and left there for 9 hours of gameplay. Having 30 AA at level 23 makes me feel very, very powerful. In fact, I can solo even-con ^^^ nameds.

My brother’s WoW account deactivated so he bought an EQ2 time card and reactivated as well. He’s playing a conjuror. I think the illusionist/conjuror duo will be a lot of fun. The nice thing is that, unlike in the past, we’re not rushing to some kind of goal. Getting level 80 isn’t a big priority. For once, we’re going to enjoy the journey.

At this point, my only goal is to reach 80 by the time Sentinel’s Fate comes out. It seems very lofty!