Reynaldo Fabulous says, “Nice Boots! I’ll Take ’em!”

I had run the heritage quest “The Journey is Half the Fun” at least four times before I even rolled up Reynaldo Fabulous on the Guk server.

The first couple of times I ran the quest, it was as part of a guild group.  There were a couple of stages, most notably the Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest, that required a scout class with evac to be able to finish in the allotted time.

After that, I ran the quest a couple of times with my own scout characters, so I had that ability on hand.

When Reynaldo hit level 40, I felt it was time to start him down the path to his own pair of Journeyman’s Boots.  As a berserker, he lacked any innate speed buffs as well as the evac option.  But, since other heritage quests had been tuned down in EQ2, I decided to see if I could solo my way through the quest.

And, to cut to the chase, I could.

With the griffon towers in Nektulos Forest, the I finished the run with plenty of time to spare, while Thundering Steppes I finished with a good 30 seconds still on the clock even after I stopped along the way to pick up some sparklies.

In fact, the only problem I had on the whole run was in Feerrott.  It has been a while since I last ran through there.  The spiders along the southern leg of the run have a nasty 30 second root, and there are a lot of spiders, so Reynaldo was waylaid on his first run through the ‘rot.

The second time through I used a totem of the chameleon to go invisible and just walk past the spiders.  And, despite the fact that I am always a bit lost in Feerrott, I managed to make in with time to spare.

And, as a double bonus, the last bit of discovery experience Reynaldo got in Feerrott pushed him over the line to level 42, so he was able to wear the boots before he had even finished the quest.  And turning in the quest was good for 75% of a level, so he was nearly 43.

The boots themselves got improved along the way, as you can see below:

February 2007 Boots

And now:

December 2008 Boots

Yes, I realize that is the chain vs. plate, but aside from the mitigation, the other stats seem to be boosted, and the +10 spell and combat art damage is a very nice boost indeed.

So they made a nice addition to Reynaldo’s wardrobe.  In fact, his clothes were not keeping up with his last name, most of them being tier 3 gear.  Fortunately, Killanna was around and made Reynaldo a new suit.

Reynaldo in Fulginate

I opted for fulginate.  While ebon is truly fabulous, at the rate Reynaldo is going, he would only end up wearing it for a few days before looking for a replacement.

Still, he bought tailored, not off the rack.