Today, after five long years, Maltheas became a level 90 Weaponsmith. It was a fine moment of celebration, as he reached the very peak of the profession he chose, so long ago, back in Temple Street.
So this evening he will be respecing to Carpenter, beginning again as a newbie crafter.
There are a number of reasons for doing this:
1. Primarily, there doesn’t seem to be much point in actually being a weaponsmith these days. Back in the day, you could make a good living from making fine weapons to order, but in recent years it has become very rare that Maltheas, or anyone else, actually wants anything he can make, apart from for the “Proof is in the Pudding” quest. The best craftable weapons in the game are general recipes, rather than weaponsmith ones, which he can just as easily make as a carpenter. Until recently, weaponsmiths did also have access to some special adornment recipes, but they have been moved to the new adorner craft.
In addition, the recent stat changes have lead to an awful lot of completely useless stats on crafted weapons, and they lack the ability modifiers many looted items have acquired. Anyhows, as Maltheas levels at Extreme Quester speeds, he has plenty of time to find the best equipment, and that is not usually crafted.
2. As a templar, he can only use crushing weapons. The reward for weaponsmiths for the “Shadows of the Betrayed” quest is piercing. Now, I know that it is supposed to just be ornamental, and I shouldn’t worry about it, but look at its stats.
It has over double the DPS of the awesome weapon Maltheas is already using. To a low level adventure who is also a high level crafter, the Ethernaut craft-weapons are like lightsabers. I am hoping that once Maltheas respecs to Carpenter, the Shady Swashbuckler, who sells rewards from quests you have completed, will offer him the carpenter’s hammer version. This is not really why I decided to respec, but it did get me thinking about it, questioning why I was a weaponsmith, and influence which craft I chose to change to.
3, Carpenters have all the fun! They, and Provisioners, are the only professions that do not have to compete with item drops or quest rewards to any significant extent, and game balance is mostly irrelevant to furniture, so they will never end up in the situation of not having anything worth selling or getting nerfed. Admittedly, this fact has lead to there being a whole lot of carpenters, but even so, I’m looking forward to decorating the house with all the things Maltheas will make as he levels. Even if he never sells anything, at least he can actually use the stuff he levels up on to good purpose, which has not been the case with weaponsmith.
4. Quests. Mmmm, quests. He’s completed all the weaponsmith and outfitter specific quests. Becoming a carpenter will open up the carpenter and craftsman specific quests. Having said that, respeccing tradeskill is not something I plan on making a habit of, and the intent is that Maltheas will remain as a Carpenter for the foreseeable future. While the quests are nice, I am not sufficiently hardcore a crafter to be hugely looking forward to levelling him again.
5. To stop him singing this at me.
 If Maltheas had a hammer. Respeccing Maltheas’ tradeskill obviously has a few downsides. He will not be able to use his Earing of the Solstice, or his Jin’Tu’s gift until he has gotten back up to level 80. That will probably take a rather long time at the rate I work. He’ll lose all his weaponsmith-specific recipes of course, but that is a loss I can stand.
He gets to keep his tinker skills, or else I wouldn’t be considering this at all. He also will keep his harvesting skills, and any non-weaponsmith recipes, such as the Far Seas ones. To that end, before the respec, he’ll be trying to max his harvesting skills out. It should be done tonight, so I’ll let you know how things turn out.
 You can rolls abouts as much as you likes, but don't be smashings the 4th wall! Behold the mightiest of artifacts, the Stone of Gygax! Not only a house item, but a roving housepet that is sure to critically hit its way into your heart!
The Stone of Gygax is available for today only, from a nice Sphinx by the name of Imenand, sitting near the Enchanted Lands docks. Her quest, “Riddled throughout the Land” involves a fair bit of travel, but using the conveniently located spires to the south will help speed things up. No spoilers here, but the usual suspects have a write-up already.
What home is complete without some polyhedral dice? Not Maltheas’, that’s for sure! It is a fine tribute to a man that helped shape a generation of fantasy gamers.
 Maltheas shows off his Brewday swag. Brewday, the thinly veiled St Patrick’s day celebration, has returned to Norrath. All the quests from previous years are back, along with some holiday harvesting and crafting. Here, Maltheas is modelling his new craftable Brewmeister Backpack, along with the cheerful looking Carpet of Clover quest reward. The carpet is a handy bit of kit for any newer player, being a 35% speed mount. It’s not quite so useful for older characters, but it is so jolly that I think Maltheas will ride it for a while anyway.
 Pink elephants. That wasn't lemonade though. Maltheas follows the teachings of Rodcet Nife, the Prime Healer, diligently. So it is that he never drinks alcohol, except for when he must assist Snoogle in tracking down a number of very odd creatures. They can only be seen while inebriated, so for half an hour every year, Maltheas staggers about the land squinting at things, and wishing Norrath would stop spinning about so much. In the above picture, he has just managed to track down the elusive Pink Elephant.
 The Avatar of Brell, god of Crafting. Here seen asking Maltheas to get a round in. Brell, patron god of brewers, is tromping about Antonica as he is wont to do at this time of year, forever in search of a selection of fine beverages. This year he is giving out the recipe for the Brewmeister Backpacks as one of his reward options, so Maltheas decided it best to indulge him. You would never see Rodcet Nife engaging in such embarrassing behaviour.
It all went a bit pear shaped up at EQ2’s end-game today.
Battlegrounds went live. I’m quite excited about this addition to the game, as I discussed here. Unfortunately, as it turns out, anyone who went into a Battleground with over 200 AA points had their points set back down to 200 when they left the zone.
For folks who don’t play EQ2, Alternate Advancement points are something you gain through a separate system to levelling, that you can spend on various extra powers and improvements. They’re not something you want to be losing. Until the launch of Sentinel’s Fate the cap was 200, which then went up to 250. So people were only really losing the points they had gained in the last week. However, as a lot of them would have been gained through doing non-repeatable quests, it was a bit of a big deal.
Battlegrounds are now back up after some quick fixing work, and any player affected by the bug should be able to contact customer services to get their AA returned in full. Hopefully no harm done (except to the CSR’s nerves), once everyone is fixed.
None of this affected Maltheas, of course. Battlegrounds are only for folks of level 80 upwards at the moment. Still, he has his own problems. Kaladim was supposed to have been retiered down to t4 in GU55, but it seems that many of the quests, and even some monsters in the dungeon, are still level 60ish. The bugfixing attention is unsurprisingly focused on the high level content of Sentinel’s Fate at the moment, but hopefully Kaladim will receive some love soon.
There is also a problem with quest drops as of today’s patch. In any quest that drops a physical item that you have to loot for a quest update, the chests are completely empty. This should be getting hotfixed tomorrow.
 For a Ratonga, Qeynos can be an emotional Battleground.
BATTLEGROUNDS
* Battlegrounds are now live in EverQuest II! To access them, simply hit Alt+Z.
GENERAL
* Guard levels in Freeport have been slightly adjusted: many level 95 guards remain, but they are no longer blocking access to quest updates for good-aligned players of high level.
* Obelisk of Lost Souls: Characters who are high enough level to gray-out the access quests now automatically gain the power to open the doors.
* Sata, the Quel’ule faction merchant, now also sells scholar type fuel (candles, coal, and incense).
ITEMS
* Elemental Barrier (a unique proc on some PvP gear) has been improved as a proc and now stacks with itself
* The PvP proc Mutilation has been changed. Instead of reducing the effectiveness of your target’s heals (thus making it only effective vs healers), it now reduces the effectiveness of all heals on your current target (making it effective vs anyone who is being healed)
* Those that completed the quest “The Fleshbound Tome Speaks Again” can now buy the “Flesh Bound Tome” from the city sages in Freeport and Qeynos.
* Those that completed the quest “A Crusade to Faydwer” can now buy “The Missing Pages of the Sword Heist Journal – Rebound†from the city sages in Freeport and Qeynos.
* Those that completed the quest “Hadden’s Earring” can now buy “Hrath’s Journal” from the city sages in Freeport and Qeynos.
* Sentinel’s Fate (and scaled-to-90 TSO dungeons) heroic legendary gear should all have resists now.
* Roger Goldie’s Straw Hat should no longer have the “Hooluk in a Hat†effect on it.
QUESTS
* Players that decline or delete the quest “Geobot” after completing “Conflict Among the Kobolds” can now regain it by speaking with Watchman Plarg in Steamfont.
* Players are no longer being misdirected to search within “The Hole: Outer Vault” for Dartain’s Fortress, while on the quest “The Footsteps of Dartain: Emergence.”
* Players on the quest “The Footsteps of Dartain: Experimentation” only need to speak with the spirit once in order to advance the quest.
* “Infiltrating the Sanctum: Emissary Kvikz” now recognizes when the player defeats “Sslan’yiz the Animator”.
* Alim Dabir in Sundered Frontier now responds for the quest â€Further Research Required†even if you have previously deleted it after completing other quests.
* “Justice for Jojo” now updates more reliably at the final stage, and correctly removes quest items from inventory when they are no longer needed.
TRADESKILLS
* Incorrect recipe costs on a number of crafted Mark of Manaar equipment items have been corrected.
NEKTULOS
* The “guardian mist grinnin” have a higher chance of carrying the kneespikes required for the quest “Ashland Kneespikes.â€
VASTY DEEP
* Xilaxis the Explorer’s item tables have been corrected and he should always drop loot on both normal and challenge-mode.
 Bitey the Armoured Highland Stalker mount from EQ2's Sentinel's Fate This is Bitey, Maltheas’ new Armoured Highland Stalker mount that came with the Sentinel’s Fate collector’s edition that I won. It’s very nice, with a 65% speed boost, and a realistic feline run animation that is so bouncy that if I use it for too long I get motion sickness. For looking cool, though, it’s top of the heap of EQ2 mounts at the moment.
EQ2 has a fair variety of mounts. There’s a vast range of horses, bears, and rhinos. Even some flying carpets and magical platforms. As there is a definite progression of mount speeds and buffs, often you outgrow them, but recently we gained the ability to turn unused mounts into house items, so we can still take care of our loyal friends. Here is a family photo of Maltheas’ mounts.
 The Many Mounts of Maltheas From the left, we have a pack unicorn which grants bonuses to harvesting. The Armoured Pinto, which gives bonuses to xp gained while mentored. The Armoured Highland Stalker is my fastest steed at the moment, but has no other bonuses. Finally the Ykeshan bear, who came with Shadow Odyssey. The bear is a bit of an oddball, as it grows with you as you level, starting off as just a pet that follows you, then becoming an ever faster mount. At the moment he’s the slowest of the gang, but one day he’ll outstrip most of them.
They’re all great members of Team Shadowsqueak, but deep down, Maltheas wants another mount entirely. This one:
 Flying 2 feet above the ground is the only way to travel! Curse you, Free Realms, for having the most awesome mounts ever!!! Sure, they cost 500 Station Cash each, but who would be able to resist their own flying dragon mount, in six delicious colours? I wonder if there is any way they could be reused (with a less cartoony skin) over in EQ2?
Just a few pictures from Maltheas’ adventures in Everquest 2’s new Sentinel’s Fate expansion. Click the pic for a full screen version.
Maltheas only gets to play with the crafting content at his level, but it has been a lot of fun exploring new areas, especially ones I was familiar with in EQ1.
 Toxxulia Forest seen from Kerra Isle  Flying in to Paineel.  The Hua'Mein practise Tai Chi in their hidden village. The Hua’Mein are an awesome addition to the game. They are extremely tranquil in nature, and set a fine example to all the crafters and adventurers found rushing about their once secret village in such a hurry. I look forward to them becoming playable. Also, I need to learn their Tai Chi emotes!
 Pesky collection quests! I really really did not intend to do that. Maltheas was about 20% into level 38, and I was letting him gain a bit of xp for a change, so I could quickly get to 39 when I decided the time was right for that.
Unfortunately, I forgot that I was unlocked when the time came to hand in a couple of Moonlight Enchantments collections. The xp for them is utterly insane, giving him a level each. The collector takes all your outstanding collections at once, rather than letting you hand them in one at a time, which compounded my error.
Pretty annoyed with myself right now. No more levelling for Maltheas for a VERY long time indeed!
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