h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Can't say that I have, I'm afraid.

i haven't heard of it either, sorry. but then again, i usually only hear about mmogs that are covered pretty heavily by the US gaming mags and a few blog sites i visit.



i've been playing ffxi again. i accomplished some things in-game that i've been working on for a long time (+2 years) and there's an expansion coming out in about 25 days, so i've been putting more time into getting some things done that i've been putting off.

so if you haven't seen me in a bit, marv - that's why. i do still log in if i'm not in a party around ~11pm EST though. i had just hit 31 on vetenari too...

anywho, on top of playing ffxi and wow i've gone and ordered some offline games (well, except for one, kinda): tetris DS, elder scrolls: oblivion and kingdom hearts II.

If it wasn't for my personal vendetta against Sony in general and Playstation in particular, then I'd snatch up the first copy of Kingdom Hearts 2 that I could find. It looks fantastic.

So Microsoft have sold Sigil games to SOE, meaning SOE will now be handling Vanguard, a game I had had my eye on. On the plus side I already have a Station Access account which subs me to SWG, EQ2, MxO and several other games that I'm not interested in. On the downside, SOE have a poor track of fiddling with games that were perfectly good to begin with. However they have 'promised' to stay out of development and concentrate on marketing and managing the servers etc. Time will tell.

Vanguard has many aspects of SWG that I love, player housing, the promise of detailed character selection, a good crafting system and an engine that looks as combat will be great fun. Still in the second beta phase and no sign of a release date yet.

SOE has a horrible track records with games it seems. I hope they do this game some justice and don't try to fiddle with it too much.

I've been playing the expansion to FFXI lately and haven't had time for many other games. I've put in about 13 hours in Kingdom Hearts II (have just done the Pirates level - oh, how silly they made Johnny Depp's wakl, I'm sure he'd approve), I'm having some fun doing msc. things in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion while completely ignoring the main goal of the game, other gaming is sporadic. I logged onto WoW for the first time in about 3 weeks last night to see Marv very close to 60. Shaman is not very attractive for me to play, since I lost my 2h points from respeccing, plus there are a lot of hillsbrad quests for me to do (ganksville) so I decided to start an undead rogue alt for some fun - and some future ganking of my own.

Don't get mad, level a rogue.

Nine bubbles to go to that final ding. My guild is finally doing some good instancing. We ran UBRS last night with only one wipe (thank Thral for soul stones).

"Don't get mad, level a rogue"

Caer is a rogue and no one wants a rogue in a group, which is daft as she is a good damage dealer and will assist. She is living in the blue at the moment as I've played her so little. I shall try the W&EPLs for grinding today.

It helps if you have a good guild. My guild in just getting into high end instancing. We've got the key for UBRS and have been running that nightly. Soon it will be BWL, MC, and eventually (in a couple of months as our 50's hit 60) AQ.

WOOHOO! I got that final Ding! Now I am actually earning gold too, for the quests I am running.

I did the Children's week quests today. Took about ten minutes I think. It was quite fun.

Well done, Marv!

Did the Childern's Week quests too, with two of my girls, they both have little piglets now.

The guild I'm in is smallish, but they do the UBRS etc quite often. My problem is that I'm not around when they all are as I play SWG in the evenings. However the other evening I didn't have anything I had to do in SWG, so was able to go to UBRS and it was great fun. We formed a small raid party (8 of us), so there were two of us rogues, but not enough healers which meant it was still quite a challenge. We managed to kill the Beast.

Caer, we wiped on The Beast in a PUG the other day. It was stupid. The healers didn't. The DPS kept getting dead (me) and the warriors could nto hold aggro to save their souls.

I swear it's like there is a law that states "Do one job, and do it poorly". I am going to have to farm UBRS, LBRS, Strat and Scholomance for my shadowcraft pieces, so I am going to spend a lot of time in there.

my new rogue is lvl 11 now and... i find myself dying all the time. i'm not used to this - this never happened on my mage or shaman. i think i'm used to having that mp pool to fall back on. oh well, i'll get used to it eventually.

one question though: does dual-wield get better? it is sucktacular at the moment.

Dual wield is the only way to go. It gets a lot better once you get poisons as you can DOT or slow your mobs significantly. Vanish is a great skill too. I was dying constantly in the low levels too, but it got a lot better. If you need a bit of cash for your char let me know.

The magic level is 20. That's when you get your poisions. Oh, there is a poison vendor in XR. It's right by the FP.

You can buy vanish powder from the vendor in SI:7. Dual wielding is brill, use swords for grinding, daggers are best for PVP, but currently my preferance is for a sword (phantom blade) in main hand and dagger (can't remember which) in off hand. Stealth and attack from behind whenever possible as those attacks are the rogue's most powerful.

I'm never online when the guild do the big instances, so will be a long time before I can get the shadowcraft stuff.

I disagree Caer, I think that a dagger main hand is better because it allows you to ambush etc that requires a dagger. I have a hanzo blade in my off hand and a lifeforce dirk in my main.

I guess it all depends on where your talent points are. I rarely use ambush and my sword does shedloads of damage compared to the best dagger available. SWC is still fairly new and there is little high levels stuff on the AH, so to some extent it's a case of make do.

The best way is to try things out and see what suits. Personally for PVE in the high end isntances, I do far more damage when I use a sword and dagger. But I have never really understand why the faster weapon should be in the off hand.

as for having the faster weapon on the second hand, the delay of the first weapon is based on the second. so if your second weapon comes after the first weapon hits, you want it to be as close together as possible or else you'll have a longer "turn" before you hit with your first weapon again.

lvl 12 was the "big" level for me i guess. lvl 10 came with that crappy slash and whatever move, which was confirmed to me as sucking. i can't remember what exactly i got at 12, but i haven't died since. now i am 13 and have 2 Blackened Defias pieces equipped - i have the belt in my bank waiting for 17 but not of the other pieces. i would love to have the complete set - i think perhaps i will take my shaman to the deadmines to farm for the pieces. not sure if he'll be able to do it though... i'll find out soon enough.

bah. i just looked at see that body is lvl 19 BOP and legs are super rare. orz

Sporky, let me know if you need any crafted items for your rogue. I can make a lot of things at all levels of leatherworking. I'd be happy to help a friend and guildie out.

(not sure if this will double post as the guide threw a little spat there for a moment)