1100 Days

I read over on the EQ2-Daily forums that the EverQuest II 3 year veteran rewards were now in game.

3 years, since we have had no leap year funniness since EQ2 came out, is 1095 days.  The official EQ2 launch date was November 8th, 2004 according to Wikipedia, so technically, we should have a ways to go before anybody can claim this reward.

Of course, I checked my own account, and as of last night I have 1100 days.

Again, technically, I had only 830 days as of last night, having started playing the game on November 13, 2004.  But with each EQ2 expansion you purchase, you get a bonus of 90 days towards your veterans reward.  I have all three expansions, so that tacks on another 270 days for a total of 1100.

So I got on for a minute this morning to claim my reward on Blintz.  Since you get the reward on three characters, I will have to think about which other characters should claim the reward.

The Three Year Veteran Reward gives you:

• Three 1 hour potions of +55% adventure experience
• Three 1 hour potions of +55% trade skill experience
• A 40 Slots Salesman’s Case
• The title “The Distinguished”
• Ancestral Scroll – gives you an “of” title for an EQ server

I certainly want the trade skill experience potions for Blintz, and maybe the adventure potion as well, though adventure experience has not been much of an issue so far.  Those potions, by the way, are the same ones as the two year reward.

I use one of my other characters for selling.  I will have to find out if there is a way to get the “lore” and “no trade” 40 slot salesman’s case into another character’s room.  Since you can only have a single character on an account selling at any given time, it would seem a waste to have two of those cases sitting idle.

The salesman’s case also reduces broker fees to 10% versus 20% for player produced cases. (Thanks to Rotacidare for confirming that tidbit.)

As for the title, I will wear it with pride.

40-40 Fae

Three months and one day after starting this character I made level 40 in both adventure and trade skill.

I hit adventure level 40 on Sunday while finishing up the shiny brass halberd heritage quest.

Then I got on Monday night and ground my way through armorer level 39.  60% percent of a level, 6 items per 10% of advancement, 36 items created and I was done.  I had 27 feyiron clusters left when I levelled. 

I sold all 36 items back to the vendor.  My salesman’s cases are full on Vikund and I wasn’t in the mood to store them.  (If you are on Crushbone I can make you a deal on some feyiron armor!)

For those who want the overall score, I crafted 564 items from starting on trade skills through to level 40.

Now I have to get my armor skill up to level 44 to be able to make all of the items I will need for the next tier.  I can still adventure though, as  my feysteel items are at least as good as the fulginate items I will be able to make and I cannot wear or wield ebon items until adventure level 42.  And when I get there, I will be able to wear my JBoots, so that is one less item to make!

And, yes, once I hit 40 the next tier of recipe books were available at the trade skill vendor.  Thank you again Loredena for that tip.  Trust me to worry about such things.

I took two veteran rewards for Blintz, two that gave elixirs of adventure and trade skill experience bonus. (Plus a title.  Blintz is running around as “The Dedicated.”) 

I have not used any of the elixirs yet.  I plan to save to trade skill ones for the late 40s, as I recall that being a particularly wearing stretch of trade skilling.  The next durability buffs do not come until level 50, so by the end of the 40s it can be a lot of work to get pristine results.

All in all, doing the trade skill work has not been as bad as I thought it would be.  The real annoyance has been the price of raws on the market, and that problem seems to go away at 40, as a lot of the raws are selling for prices around a silver. 

Once stocked with materials, the first pristine bonus and the experience boost of vitality made things bearable.  I cannot imagine how I did trade skills the first time around, back at launch.

Next stop is 50!