The Shadow Odyssey Introduction

Read through the story below for a nice little in game accounting of what I've been up to since TSO shipped. Rather than deal with the lag of a hundred bajillion adventurers fighting over mobs and resources in the Moors, I decided to jump right into the crafting aspects of the expansion. Other than Malfi as an 80 sage, Yrkin was my next highest crafter at 50. Since that is just the right level to participate, I took him to the Moors and found the Ship Out! quest line to get the necessary faction for the Supply Division. Since then he has done the Clockwork instance once, solo, getting him to level 55 and also earned two more levels doing first time combines of the essential recipes in the 50 - 55 Carpenter books. That puts him at 57 right now with a slowly replenishing vitality. He's also done two weekly quests and is eyeballing some writs for faction as well.

Trincket and Maellendy are my next two highest crafters, and I've been working on them in the traditional way. Since they are both scholars, they can level just off pristine combines without too much reliance on writs. Both gained three levels - Maellendy 43 to 46 and Trincket 40 to 43. My Woodworker, Xharel, is also in his 40s, but I was getting bored with crafting by this point. As Stargrace says, after doing the tradeskill instances, crafting the old way is just not as much fun!

So I took a break from the crafting table and took Yrkin out for some adventuring in Antonica. He had earned a couple of levels in Mara running the introduction to the village quests, which dinged him up to 20 or so. I wanted to get him his Shin charm, but for that he needs harvesting of 240. Most of his skills were in the 30s, except trapping which was NINE! Oye! So back to Oakmyst and The Caves to get that up to the minimum for Antonica, then out for harvesting. I forgot how much fun I have in Antonica, and I started running quest lines as I was seeking out harvestable bits all over the place. This of course lead to more levels which got me to looking at my gear... Ugly. So...

I decided to get him geared up with full Steel armor (Granyte) and weapons (Exander), bow and arrows (Xharel) hex dolls (Texl), food/drink (Tobiegh), and jewelry (Trincket) as well as App IV abilities (Maellendy). Yes, I have every crafting class available to me, and I LOVE to gear my alts up with all crafted stuff. It's a great way to play the game in my opinion as it really feels like you are taking a character from nothing and working your way up through the ranks! I used steel for the armor and main weapons, fir buckler and bow, and non-rare materials for the rest of it. I really like the smart loot options they put in place in Antonica. 99% of the time a Treasured chest gives him a new Adept I which is a GREAT way to adventure. Always something useful!

That's what has been keeping me busy in game! What was supposed to be 20 minutes or so crafting up his skills the other night turned into a three our, alt hopping, craft-a-palooza! But my hoppy little Paladin looks pretty good in all his gear now!

I also bid farewell to the Renegades with Malfi, moving him over to my crafting guild. Since the TSO Signature series of quests grants Status at most of the steps, and there are five (or so) new Heritage quests out there, AND Renegades are already a level 80 guild, I decided to swap him over to take advantage of the status he is going to be earning. Autumnmist Enterprises is the name of my little alt guild and currently we are level 12. Every bit of status, at this point, helps a lot so I wanted to see that status put to good use.

Outside of adventuring and crafting I've been decorating a bit, and put together what I think is a great little apartment for Maellendy in Baubblshire. If you get a chance, stop by and check it out. I have it all decorated for Frostfell right now, and will probably take some pictures of it to post here and/or in the Norrathian Homeshow thread on the official forums this weekend.

Finally, I'm going to be working on my Fury (Autumnmyst) who is currently 42. I want to get him up to 50 so he and Malfi can duo some of the instances. I've heard about the lootable furniture in the instances and want to get myself some of that, as well as the Void Shards that are available.

So much to do and so little time!

Oh! And for those keeping track... I haven't touched any information about TSO yet, outside of great blog posts by Star and Tipa. Everything I've done in TSO so far has been by my own blood, sweat and tears. And I LOVE it!