a lore-master’s life for me?

I had an interesting night recently.  I took Eldaeriel into challenge mode Roots of Fangorn with our usual group and even though it was 10 levels below us, we had a bit of a mare with Aeo being practically perma-stunned during the first section of the zone.  It got a bit annoying and although we could have persevered through, I offered to bring Mallendis instead with her super awesome anti-stun.  The difference the lore-master made within the group was pretty shocking –  it went from being fun but manic to fun and chilled.  Its hard  to say exactly how much of it was purely down to the change in class but I’m pretty sure it was at least somewhat significant.

So I started  to wonder why I was so fixated on only ever playing a hunter/ranger type and whether I should try something else out for a while.  I have to admit that I am finally getting bored of playing a hunter type in MMOs (it’s only taken me 6 years to get to this stage :P)

So I’ve decided to keep Eldaeriel for our Team Orange 3-mans (the warden/rk/hunter combo is just fab) and I’m going to try playing Mallendis for 6 and 12 man content.  I like the fact that I will have more choices in playstyle and traiting and that she can be useful in a number of ways.  I’m currently going for a 5R/2B combo so that I can dps, debuff and backup heal but I can switch / partially switch to full debuff/cc mode if we find ourselves in a situation that might need it.

In a way, she is reminding me of my inquisitor in eq2 (a class I really miss) she’s wielding a staff and sword instead of a great big thwacky hammer and wearing cloth instead of plate but she seems to have the same ability to wade into a fight swinging with a ton of other skills to back it up.

Although she is in a bit of a mess if I’m honest.  I’d zoomed her up through the levels and I missed a lot of deeds and content.  So I have a lot of catching up to do – her virtues and the mirkwood skirmishes being the priority to sort out.  My first aim is to get all her needed virtues to 10 (yes it’s that bad!) and to get her geared up.  Fortunately Eldaeriel is very close to finishing Hytbold so she’ll be able to barter for her gear and I should be able to get her staff to 2nd age, definitely once U10 is out anyway.  I’m really looking forward to doing something a bit different.

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my war steed

I’ve named my war steed Celebel which translates from Sindarin as Silverstar or possibly Starsilver – I like either permutation.  Now I’m 85 I can equip the second age bridle (from the epic storyline) and I named that Caranor (red day) as I thought it was a highly appropriate name for the Rohan expansion, though the thought of naming a bridle was a little strange…

I caved and I bought one dye pack so that I could dye my horse a smokey black like my favourite normal horse (the Mirkwood reputation horse).  I would like to buy some dye packs for the caparisons (and I would dearly love the elven caparison set which seems to be currently unavailable) but those are way out of my price range for now (and I’m still hoping they may adjust the dye pack price).  It would also be very cool to have markings for your horse (such as a star or a blaze) but well, I guess there is enough to spend your TP on already…

Anyway, here is Eldaeriel and Celebel.  I’m using part of the Steed of the Hunter appearance.

 

google reader widget update

There is a fantastic guide on how to setup your google reader feed as a widget on your blogsite at Tales of the Aggronaut.  Unfortunately for wordpress.com users (including me), you are not allowed to use javascript in the text widget boxes.  However, I have found a workaround which so far seems to be working really well.

Follow the instructions (linked above) up to ‘Making the Bundle Clip do what we need’ instead of creating a new bundle clip, click add a link to your website or blog.  This will open a new window which on the right hand side of the page will have an RSS feed link.  Open your widget page on your blogs, use the RSS widget and paste the feed link in. It should work fine.

i bless the rains down in othrikar – now with video-y goodness!

A while ago I published an aside about a certain song Dimzad always sang when we were questing in the North Downs…  I’ve made a very quick (and probably rubbish :P) video as a thank you to Dimzad who always makes me laugh and cos I thought the rest of you might find it funny too 😉

little by little, one travels far…

…although it feels as though I’m going nowhere in a gaming sense 😉  i’ve completely lost motivation and direction which is having a real impact on blogging.  when I am playing *something* it is slightly half-heartedly and even when I am concentrating, it isn’t anything really worth sharing 😉

so what have games have i been thinking about / pottering about in?

lotro:  currently on the back burner,  mixture of being in a quiet (yet lovely!) guild, our weekly small fellowship not being able to happen at the moment combined with alt burnout.  (after stupid amounts of alts in eq2 I CANNOT face the same in lotro, so the alts I do have are crafting slaves ;))  I do want to continue a comic adaptation I started over on My Middle Earth Net and I do want to explore the new region so may well be tempted back in soon 🙂

eq2:  well I never got Tanzi to level 90 and never got my little guild up to being able to have a guild hall, so i’ve been pottering about a little there.  If, at any point in the future, I am forced to open an account with Alaplaya I will stop playing completely.  still disgusted by that.

minecraft:  I made a little jungle home that I want to finish and have a couple of ideas that I’m playing about with.  such a cool game 🙂

star trek online: I downloaded and got very excited (absolutely LOVE DS9!) but the space combat is just beyond me at the moment.  It makes me feel like a stereotypical girl so I may have to go back just to beat it 😛

rift: I thought I’d give the first 20 levels another go (its free for those levels) but I had to stop downloading and the whole thing cancelled when i was halfway through.  have been too annoyed to re-download as yet.

skyrim: currently not playing, though there is a new patch with new kill animations so I may well be back stealthing and sniping away soon 😀  still love the game and fully intend ‘finishing’ it at some point

dragon age: although i started again i can’t really face going through the whole thing so more occasional pottering here 😛  there is talk though of more in the series – yay!

so there you go – plenty of potential gameage but not really in a gaming mood at the mo.  so have been doing lots of other non-computery stuff over the last month or so 🙂

although usually when I write a post like this, I get my game back on and blogging resumes 😛  we shall see

bleurgh…

we’ve all got or had stinking colds so posts will resume soon 😉