[mmorpeegee]

Btw, any news on this patch? >:[

Anyone play on the test server?

[mmorpeegee]

I had a LOT of fun in this game the last few days! I'm in my mid 30's now, which is usually when I quit. But this time I have gone to Dargur's Tomb and I'm having a lot of fun. I can solo (with my 2box) really well so I have done the first step of the quests by myself.

But tonight there was a ranger LFG and he was about the same level, so I invited him. I was at the bottom of the dungeon with tunnels full of Ogres, and they are slow kills with my duo (everything is). But I could summon the guy to me, and it made it so much fun! My DK tanked, and the ranger killed stuff really quickly, and my cleric was there to look out for us. We went all over the place and it was really good fun. They really nailed the adventuring/dungeon crawling aspect of this game. My quest is to kill 3 big named Ogre bosses, so we explored the whole place looking for them. Watching my little halfling ranger friend sneaking around gave me a real feeling of being a small group of adventurers on an epic quest. So much better than the typical gank 90 bats type stuff.

I love the dungeon itself too, it's massive and I love that there are roamers, groups of mobs that need to be split, and mobs that see invis. So I can scout ahead but have to be careful. Mostly we just fought our way mob to mob. There is a fair bit of tension too because it took me a long time to get down there. There are lots of mobs that see invis in the dungeon, and its a long way, so if we wiped, it would take maybe half hour or more to get back to that spot.

Really fun stuff. Definitely comparible with my first love, Everquest.

[Loampounder]

Yes, tackling the dungeons with a good group is really the highlight of this game. I started going through VT with my guild in the low 30's. It was great to experience what a confident, mixed party can do in VG. I really like all of the abilities that the varied characters can bring to bear; it really makes large combats (it was common for us to have 5-6 mobs at once) fun.

Indirectly, after going through experiences like that, you realize how the VG experience was suppose to be. Some of the long campaigns (like Celestine Wardship) look really long if you consider soloing or only getting pick-up group, but a group of friends can really make it a medium quest with very good rewards. Sadly, most of that impact hinges on a large community.

[mmorpeegee]

Yes. Some of the longer quests take a long time alone, but I bet a good group would rip through them in no time! And it would be a lot more fun too. Most my memories of grouping in Vanguard are from beta unfortunately But the US server I am on now actually seems quite good! I don't know if I would call it busy, but it seems like there are plenty of people to play with.

I am hoping this ranger guy will play with me regularly though, his dps was insane! My DK is an amazing tank, and my cleric is good healer, so I think with the three of us we could pretty much go anywhere and do anything, and it would be at a decent pace too.

I am looking forward to continuing on to 50 ish now. I dinged 36 tonight which is the highest I've been. Hopefully I can keep motivated and go all the way and hopefully see some of the raid content.

[mmorpeegee]

Argh this game really tugs my heart strings sometimes.

I made a new character tonight just because I like trying all the classes. I was running around on the newbie island and some guy was going around handing out gear and buffs to newbies. He was really nice and he had a macro that he clicked. He summoned me some berries and his macro said your name and said enjoy the berries. He obviously made a twinked character with macros and travelled the trial isle helping out and welcoming newbies.

It just shows how passionate a lot of the players are for this game, and even for all its faults, I can still see why people are passionate about it.

[mmorpeegee]

Jeez Dargun's Tomb is huuuuuuge. I'm quite far along with the questline now I think. I am on the bottom level with undead dwarves all over the place and I am collecting the final pieces which I think will make my uber weapon It's really fun, hard work by myself though. (duo). But worth it.

[tdewey10]

Originally Posted by mmorpeegee

Jeez Dargun's Tomb is huuuuuuge. I'm quite far along with the questline now I think. I am on the bottom level with undead dwarves all over the place and I am collecting the final pieces which I think will make my uber weapon It's really fun, hard work by myself though. (duo). But worth it.

I've never hit the bottom of DT - I'm annoyed work has gotten in the way of Vanguard I haven't been able to play in two weeks. Maybe weekend after next.

Hope you get something nice there!

[mmorpeegee]

Thanks and I did Really good dungeon and really good questline. Kind of sad to leave now but I have spent almost 2 weeks in that same dungeon! So I'm looking forward to going to new places now. This is also the highest level I have ever been in Vanguard, so everything is new to me now.

I grouped with some really high level players recently which opened me eyes to a few things. Firstly, they had me use "Mentoring" to bring them down to my level which was really cool! You can also exploit it by going out of the zone and coming back, and then the level stays the same but your stats get reset, or something. I love it because not only can high levels help me out like that, but it has encouraged me to start another alt, and I will mentor my level 37 DK to help my alt catch up to him. (I decided to swap my Cleric for a Druid, because the DK rarely needs heals, but we reeeeeally lack dps)

Also I learned a lot about how the game is in the high levels. And they also gave me a list of good places to go to from 40+. I have never been to any of those places so there is still plenty of the game I still have to look forward to.

I think my subscription will end any day now, so I'll be subscribing for a second consecutive month which is a first for me in Vanguard. Although having said that, I am tempted to wait for them to release the new patch first. I am really keen to get the flying mount for my new character, seeing as I've missed out on old randolf this time.

[Loampounder]

Originally Posted by mmorpeegee

Although having said that, I am tempted to wait for them to release the new patch first. I am really keen to get the flying mount for my new character, seeing as I've missed out on old randolf this time.

Don't hold your breathe. The "new patch" may or may not happen this year and you won't get a permenant flying mount anytime soon.

[mmorpeegee]

Ahh ok lol. Thanks for the heads up! I was starting to wonder that myself too, because there's been no word. Well at least I can always get a horse.

[Loampounder]

Originally Posted by mmorpeegee

Ahh ok lol. Thanks for the heads up! I was starting to wonder that myself too, because there's been no word. Well at least I can always get a horse.

For the past three years, SOE has had a horrible track record of announcing things for VG, releasing a lot of details, and then letting things die on the vine. Once some interns make some new hairdos and the VG team showed them on with some pictures in the forum. Those hairdos never made it to the live game. Silius even gave details about Nexus and said it was about to be released. Never happened. The AA's they announced will be in the game soon have existed for two years. Don't listen to SOE until it happens.

[mmorpeegee]

I'm no Fozz, and I suspect some plaguerism maybe, but I posted an unrelated fairytale on the official forum.

http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/po...topic_id=56638

It's unrelated I swear!

[tdewey10]

Originally Posted by mmorpeegee

I'm no Fozz, and I suspect some plaguerism maybe, but I posted an unrelated fairytale on the official forum.

http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/po...topic_id=56638

It's unrelated I swear!

Funny ;-)

[mmorpeegee]

Thanks lol, couldn't help myself I always liked that story as a kid and sometimes when I'm playing VG, and I'm struck by how beautiful and yet tragic it is, that story pops in to my head :P

[mmorpeegee]

Still loving my time in this game! It's weird that after 5 years, I still really love it when I play it, and this time I have been enjoying it more than ever. It's not perfect but this time it has really struck me just how big the game is and how much it has to offer.

Part of the reason I'm enjoying it so much is because I'm 2boxing and my characters are far better than when I did this last year. I can do *anything*. Even group content including 5 dots and groups of 4 dots, I can still do it, it just takes longer. But the time is not an issue to me, I just really like doing dungeons, and I spent the last several years playing Shards of Dalaya, pretty much to just relive my love for Lower Guk and Sol B etc.. But Vanguard is quickly taking over now. I never realised just how many dungeons there are! They aren't mentioned in the game so I only realised when I saw someone post a list on the official forum, but there seems to be several dungeons to choose from, every 5 levels. It's a huge thing for me. I am not very interested in grouping because I find that tends to trivialise the content and everything becomes too easy and too grindy. And of course most of them are just impossible to solo. But doing them as a duo seems almost like the game was meant to be played, and when I uncover all these new and exciting ones, it's almost too good to be true!

My two main characters reached 38 recently, doing it in a really nice dungeon I had never been to before, involving summoning a giant gnoll queen or something - basically just as good as any WoW instance. But I realised that my DK+Cleric duo would be far better off by replacing the Cleric for a Druid, so that's what I've done. So for the last week I have been leveling up what is now my 7th character, and I have done it in almost entirely new places and quests. There are a few locations which I love to go to, so I went to those. But there are some locations I just couldn't face grinding through, yet again, and I was really concerned about this. They are key places too, like Veskals Exchange and Misthaven and the Hunter's League etc.. But so far I have gone to completely different places and done just fine without ever having to visit those places, and even although I have explored most of the world with my other characters, I still find new places to hunt. The locations are so amazing, beautiful and packed with good quests, and now that everything seems to actually work in this game... it's all a lot of fun! So this time I went through Three Rivers which is usually made obsolete by Veskals. But I really enjoyed it. I then spent a long time in Khegor's End which I haven't been to since beta. I had a lot of fun in there, and did lots of quests, and made lots of levels. I had trouble figuring out how to complete one or two quests but the game has so much to offer, I just didn't even worry about it, I just abandoned them and moved on. I got to a point where I didn't know where to go, so I went with Silverlake which again I have never really hunted in before because it is usually made obsolete by my usual Misthaven / Hilsbury / CIS / Trengal journey. But this place has been really fun too, and I finally got to do the Cairnworth Hall dungeon which again, I haven't been to since beta and it wasn't working properly then.

I am doing all this by using the Mentor system to bring my DK down to the same level as my Druid, which has been a really useful feature! I am going to keep leveling my Druid and hopefully catch him up to my DK and then we can continue on through the 40's which will be all entirely new to me. But I am doing it all with new locations and whenever I get fed up of something, I just move on!

Really having a blast and hopefully I can keep enjoying it to 50 or 55 and maybe see some raid content before GW2 is released. There are some design choices that stop me from deeply loving Vanguard, but this time I have come as close as ever before. It might be the last time I ever play it but at this rate, I'll at least be leaving it with really fond memories of it.

[Loampounder]

I have had the same sort of experience. I started a second character (a Qalian Paladin) and began outside of Khal. I wanted to focus on local adventuring quests as far as I could to experience the region. I found a quest line and adventuring area I had not been to before. "Taking Down the Rats" quest was one quest to do 15 other quests in the Neambog and Ghalgad area. It had a great reward. It was good, even at low level, to have a longish question that covered some areas I had not been to before (Ghalhad outpost).

Leveling is a bit fast but I am still enjoying the game.

[mmorpeegee]

Yeah those lower levels especially seem to fly by. I love finding a new area that's fun and full of quests and you can just spend days there doing stuff. That's what I was like in Silverlake. Then tonight I had my first real group! I had one last week but that was mainly mentored people helping me out, this time it was all other players around the same level as me and it was really fun

Pretty soon I'm going to Vol Tuniel which I don't think I've ever done before. I did Dargun's Tomb with my Cleric/Dk, but for my Druid I heard Vol Tuniel is better and full of caster gear. And then after that I'm gunna do Thelaseen which is supposed to be good fun, and that's another place I've never been to And then my Druid will be caught up to my Dk and I can continue on past 40, for the first time!

Having a lot of fun, amazing how buggy it still is though! I mentioned a list of annoying bugs a page or two back in this thread, but there are even more now There is one where players crash after leveling, so in a group that's low ish level, and ripping through a dungeon, people are dropping like flies every 5-10 minutes. There's a few others too, and although I'm having a blast, they remind me of the main reason why the game failed in the first place. Shame.

[Loampounder]

Latest rumor:

As for what Naylee said.. the team is larger, there is a new Producer, Gidoo is associate producer, we will see some old familiar names again, and they are taking another look at the upcoming content.

Hopefully VG really did get some additional resources, but of course that means the new content in the pipeline gets pushed back.

[mmorpeegee]

Thanks for the info.

As much as I love the game and have always wanted them to show it some love, I can't help but laugh at their incompetence. For the last few years when the game was pretty much cutting edge and had very little competition, they completely ignored and abandoned it. Now, after 5 years, as the game is starting to really show its age, and as we are seeing the likes of ArcheAge which looks like it might be king of sandbox MMO's, and just a few months before the release of Guild Wars 2, some serious competition, only now do they decide to throw some money at it?! It's almost like SOE is run by someone who WANTS them to go out of business. It's like they are trying to purposely throw the fight.

Am I being harsh? Or are SOE really the Dumb & Dumber of game developers?

[AsheMan]

A couple posts about future updates and some rumors don't necessarily equate to any money being thrown at Vanguard. It's just words so far!