Ark's Ark

I’ve been helping a couple of newer players find their footing in EQ2 recently, and it has reminded me of how many aspects of Norrathian life are not immediately obvious to newer players. One example are the overland ring events. I’m not talking about the Druid Circle event that is still ongoing in EQ2. Rings events are always around, and always profitable, if you know where to look.

Ring events tend to involve a small gathering of monsters, clustered around an object of some sort. It could be a nest, or a campfire, or a tent, or any number of other things. You can tell something is going on because the object is targetable, and will come up with a white name in your target window.

Here is an example of one the the overland ring events in Antonica. The rat nest is probably the earliest ring event that a Qeynos side character will encounter. There are usually a few of them along the road which runs alongside the city moat.

The Rat Nest Ring Event in Everquest 2.

At first, it will just be surrounded by ordinary creatures. If you defeat all of those, then another sort of monster will appear, which we’ll call the intermediate monster, in this case a large moat rat. If you defeat that, then there is a good chance that a named monster, the Two-toed Rat, will appear. Like most Named monsters, it is guaranteed to drop a chest, making it a great source of loot for low level Qeynosians (or folks in need of low level loot to transmute). Many also grant AA xp. There are a few quests that require you to kill or catalogue intermediate or Named enemies from ring events, so it is important to be aware of them for that reason also.

The Rat Nest Ring Event is the simplest sort, with your only possibilities being either getting a named, or not. Other ring events may also have a chance of a glowing object appearing in the world. Using that object will give your group a buff for a time, perhaps even turning you all into lions or wolves for a while!

For another example, the Antonican camps with gnoll youths and gnoll mystics, if cleared, have the intermediate monster “Darkpaw Packleader”. Killing him may lead to a glowing buff object, the named “Tark Searfang”, or even both (or neither)! There are several other sorts of gnoll camp in Antonica, each with their own possibilities.

Some ring event spots can play host to a Distressed Merchant. These poor folks have had their escape route cut off. If only someone would get rid of these nasty monsters, the merchant would be extremely grateful!

Everquest 2 - Maltheas saves a distressed merchant

In addition to being able to do your selling and repairing with such a merchant, they also sell a number of creature catalogue quest books that you can’t get anywhere else, so saving a distressed merchant can be great for building up your library!

There are ring events all around Norrath, especially in the older overland zones. Keep your eyes open, and who knows what you’ll find, and who you’ll meet!

I occasionally get asked what quests Maltheas is working on, so in the absence of any desire to talk about the iPhone 4, I thought I’d share his current quest journal!

In the early days of EQ2, collections counted towards your quest limit! Thankfully those dark days for questers are no longer with us, but we are still often up against the generous limit of 90 active quests. Maltheas has 5 free slots at the moment, after a serious effort to clear up some tome quests, which will quickly vanish the next time he decides to load up.

Maltheas' Quest Journal

The lowest level one there, “A Key to the Past” has been a thorn in my side for about four years. It is a quest set in a peculiar little instance called the Tomb of Valor in Stormhold. A chamber is filled with wandering undead, and sarcophagi which begin to open. You need to quickly close them again, or else more undead appear. While being attacked you can’t shut sarcophagi, so it starts going downhill from there. Malth is at the point where he is in very little danger down there, but he still can’t deal with the undead fast enough to keep all the sarcophagi shut and get Lord Chesgard to spawn. I haven’t given that a go for a couple of levels, so should probably have another try sometime soon. I’d probably do better if I did not feel bound to chronomancer down to a level where the undead are green, to give them a fighting chance!

Most of the greener ones are in heroic dungeons, such as Runnyeye. Heroic dungeons are soloable, but you do have to accept that it’s going to be a bit of a slog, and you usually need to be a few levels higher than if you were grouping. Maltheas can currently get about halfway through Runnyeye before it starts getting totally impossible, and it’s the quests that need to go further that remain. Deathfist Citadel is similarly unpleasant, and only the sewers beneath it are survivable at the moment. The green Nektulos quests are actually in the D’Morte Burial Chambers, from the old Bloodline Chronicles adventure pack.

For every quest there is a time, and their time has not yet come. Extreme Questers enjoy pushing their limits, but at some point you have to accept that certain things are impossible at your current level!

N'Kzak the Unnatural - A battle for another day.

I’m probably going to let Maltheas level in the next few days, once I’ve cleared up the rest of the quests in his journal that I think might be doable. Levelling to 42 is tempting, as you get a big power boost from being able to use mastercrafted gear, but I’ll try to see what 41 can manage first. Maybe that will be the magic number that brings Lord Chesgard to his well-deserved end.

Do you have a quest, in whatever MMO you play, that has been sitting in your quest journal for years?

Edit: It seems this video is autoplaying for some Internet Explorer users. I’ve moved the entire post below the “keep reading” link”. – Ark

Continue reading In which Maltheas fails to understand internet memes and viral marketing.

Everquest 2’s City Festival runs for the first week every month, and this month it has washed up in the Frostfang Sea. Below, you can see all the items that are available for city tokens, as well as the collection reward post box which is sitting on the counter to the left. It’s a fine starter collection of furniture for this cold land. The floor tile is “polished ice”.

New Halas City Festival rewards