I think we’re close to the end of Spinks’ trial (see Spinks, a link!) in EQII, so perhaps it’s time for a summary of what we’ve been getting up to. Though if you do visit her blog, and I’m fairly sure everyone who goes here goes there first you may have already read her take on things.
We played our Sarnak babes up to level 20, after stalling them at level 18 because I just don’t like being a big hulking character in ugly plate, and I’d already decided that befpre we got to cosmetic armour slotting. I don’t like feeling hunched over, and my Sarnak looks a hell of a lot better from the front than back, despite cool tail! Also, the Shadowknight just isn’t gelling for me. I do miss healing hybrids. I will try one, but for now am still testing the waters of a fighter-y class.
So Spinks took me to Qeynos where we dabbled with Froggies (um, Froglok, ofc). She took out a monk and I tried… hrrm, a Mystic? (one of the shaman, whichever is the good one). Despite being back to healing, I didn’t love it either, and instead eyed her monk with some jealousy. Remember, my first ever MMO char was a DAoC friar – I’m drawn to holy orders it seems.
Firstly I got a big hung up on wanting to play a Ratonga, purely for cuteness. But then I also wanted to play a monk. Too lazy to betray on a first char, decided to try out a monk for myself. In order not to duplicate too many starter zones, we picked fae. Ended up with the same colour wings and a monk/dirge duo and off we went. Zoooom. Almost got put off by the insane squeakiness of voice of some little girl NPC who’d (of course) lost her dolly. If I were an NPC parent, I’d make assiduous use of a stapler – is all I’m saying! But the quests were pretty straightforward, we had our first tricky moment in Drippy Cave and had to redo the fight a few times before we realised we weren’t quite ready to take on 6 mobs without an AE taunt or any healing. We got it sussed and flew off to the next zone.
My fae (Idrys) is currently lost up some tree (Spinks crashed so I logged at the time) and we’re around level 10. I’m sure we’ll be getting the fae to 20 because it’s been enjoyable so far, and I do love monk moves with wings. I loved the starter pyjamas too and my next set of gear is GORGEOUS. It reminds me that despite being fashion-challenged and disinterested in real life, I like my MMO chars to look good. Maybe not amazing, but good enough that I’m not ashamed of them. Love CCP for allegedly bringing in fashion designers for World of Darkness!
For the record, I’m not wedded to a tank class. I do like monk of the ones I’ve tried however. I’m going to try Warden and/or Fury next because they hit my melee/healer hybrid love. Quite liked Inquisitor, enjoyed Templar more than Shadowknight… and not at all interested in casters – I have only successfully played casters in DAoC in fact, and have never returned to the cloth-wearing classes. Weird, eh?
I’d write more about the quests and the experience, but suffice it to say I’m glad I bought a 1-month sub, and expect to play longer than that, even at only one day a week. It’s relaxing, a change of scene… I’m enjoying exploring the many classes currently, and we all know I’m not one to really examine the mechanics behind a game or WHY I’m enjoying it.
