Tales of an Angry Ogre

I think this is a fairly interesting story, a quick and dirty summary of my travels in eq2, without some sordid details of course …

I’ve been playing everquest 2 since the day it came out. I was a level 64 iksar monk in eq1 and loved the intricacies of split pulling and having a real sense of purpose on raids and even most groups. However, after playing everquest 2 for about 20 minutes, I logged into eq1, gave away all my money and possessions and canceled my eq1 subscription. I was completely hooked on eq2.

My first toon was an Iksar fighter, named Xartan, same as eq1, on the Najena server. However, after a few hours i discovered i wouldn’t be able to make a monk, only a bruiser. I didn’t really want a bruiser at the time, so I deleted, and made a kerran fighter, who i eventually made into a monk. His name was Shinosuke.  After getting him all the way to level 26 or 27 fairly quickly, i determined that the effeminate genie look that sony gave us was not for me. Also, there was no split pulling, and i really couldn’t tank as well as a plate tank at all.

So, i deleted and made my current toon. Ogre, Shadowknight, Xartan. I loved it, he was a joy to play, solo with, and tank for groups with. I shot up in levels rather quickly and didn’t really notice the shortcomings of the class until i hit level 50. At that point, the biggest issue was perception. Apparently, there were lots of other shadowknights. Also, they all sucked. Apparently. However, i knew several of us didn’t suck, so I was a bit confused as to what people had problems with. Remember, that at the time, the prime stat for tanking was mitigation. Shadowknights just didn’t come close to the mitigation of warriors, so we were left to dps. However, our dps wasn’t very effective at the time, since there was very little plate gear with int on it… we were royally screwed, and it took months and months for sony to figure it out.

Regardless, i managed to get into a good raiding guild at the time, Ancient Vengeance. We were clearing every encounter in game without much issue. Somehow we managed to do this with 3 full-time shadowknights on most every raid. It was pretty ridiculous, but we still had relatively few issues. When deserts of flames came out, we stopped raiding - for a long time. I wasn’t happy, so I left and joined a smaller, up-and-coming guild, Age of Prophecy. We had fun raiding a few things and I had a good time in the guild. However, the server itself was a little strange at the time. It was the highest population of all the servers (aside from Antonia Bayle) and so me and my fiancee decided it was time to move. The free server transfers came up, and we jumped at the chance to move servers. We went over to Lucan D’Lere where I joined a guild called Marauders. Little did I know that the day I joined was the day after half the guild left due to some inner strife. After a couple of weeks i found out that some people didn’t get along with the leadership at all. I was completely oblivious to it all when I joined - although I did find it odd that our main tank logged out in the middle of a raid one day… After sticking it out and eventually taking over responsibility of raid leader we started to raid again, taking down simple targets that we should have obliterated without issue. At the same time I had gone on some raids with the ex-marauder members, who had formed their own guild called Torrent Knights. Unfortunately, TK already had 2 shadowknights and really didn’t need a 3rd.

So the time came that i was wanting for a raiding guild, and was eventually talked into moving servers… back to Najena I went. This time, however, I had to change names. Somebody had taken the name Xartan. So, Shadowgeist was born. I didn’t make many friends on this trip to Najena, pissed off that I wasn’t able to raid, wasn’t given a chance, and couldn’t catch a break with so many other shadowknights in game making a bad example of our class. Luckily, I still kept in contact with the guild leaders in Torrent Knights on lucan. After just a few weeks, I was asked to move back and join them full time, they finally had room for me, if I wanted a spot. I jumped at the chance, knowing how rare it was to get into a good raiding guild with a shadowknight. Things went fabulous. We were clearing everything in a matter of weeks. After about 6 months, TK was in the top 3 or 4 raiding guilds on the server. Unfortunately, good things always come to an end at some point. There was some internal strife, the guild leader had decided to step down, and nobody wanted to take over the ship… within weeks the guild was decimated by some poor decisions and almost completely fell apart.

When sony announced a second set of free server transfers, we moved again, this time for good to antonia bayle. Lucan D’Lere was a nice server, but the population was ridiculously low. AB was the exact opposite! Bustling with people the server had several high end guilds. Again, however, it was near impossible for me to get into a real raiding guild, always dismissed for being a Shadowknight. I even made an alt, a necro named Xoolander. However, somebody reported the name, clearly the name made their pathetic life worse and I was asked to rename. I chose the name Bloodpact, and to this day he sits idle on AB, doing nothing, at level 72 … Anyways. I finally got the chance i was hoping for, a random tell from somebody asking me if I wanted to raid with their alliance. They were doing well and didn’t have a crusader, and thought they could maybe use one. I jumped at the chance and before long was a member of Arsenal. After doing fairly well in EoF raids we decided to kill the alliance and go guild-only. This caused a lot of argument but in the end may have been best for all parties involved. Those who wanted a more hardcore raid style stuck with Arsenal. Those who did not, stayed in their own guilds. Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same… right? Eventually I got into an argument with a couple of officers regarding the recruitment of a new member, who I did not approve of. I actually said that if they invited him, I would leave. They invited him, and so I left. Turns out, the same thing happened to another long standing member (original leader) who opposed another person joining and had to leave for the exact same reason.

I finally broke down and posted on eq2flames, willing to move servers, whatever, for a chance at raiding again. I’m glad I did, as I was invited back to Najena to join Siege, a hardcore raiding guild that was currently short a crusader (away from game) and had no shadowknights on the roster at all!

Well, I’m now in Veeshan’s Peak, having a blast with a new guild and some old friends on the server I started it all on anyways.

And now you know.. the rest of the story?

So I got my shadowknight epic weapon about a week ago. Its got a proc that triggers 1.8 times a minute, for 15 seconds of extra hate from lifetaps. Hate and aggro control has long been an issue with shadowknights. The problem is that the bulk of shadowknight hate is built up over time. If dps were also built up gradually it wouldn’t be an issue. But, nobody starts off a fight with all their weak attacks and gradually moves to their big ones, not when you want things dead, fast. So, the shadowknight looks like a chump that can’t hold aggro. Now, while I applaud sony for at least acknowledging our concerns and giving us tools to correct this, I think its a cop-out. If they wanted to fix aggro for shadowknights, they should just FIX IT! So far I’ve got roughly 25 aa’s spent entirely on extra hate. It barely brings me up to par with other tanks. Barely. I don’t understand why Sony can’t just admit they messed up with Shadowknights and fix the class altogether. Not a single person would complain if Shadowknights lost their hate-over-time and were given taunts in line with other tanks. Nobody would complain if Siphon Hate were bumped up to rival Amends (well, maybe those stupid paladins, but screw them!)

Anybody have any idea about Shadowknight hate and how to rectify it, try /feeedback once in a while. The devs do listen, but not to forums and blogs…

On another topic, I’m very excited about Street Fighter 4. I think capcom will hit a home run with this game, for the folks who loved the original series. It’s going to be a 2-d fighter with some 3-d elements. In fact, it looks like it will be simplified to exclude some of the flashier features of the games that came out after the original street fighter 3. Now, if you know your stuff, you’d also know that the original creators of street fighter 2 were the same folks who made the EX series of street fighter games. Those games were actually my favorite. SFEX+A was the most fun street fighter game I’ve ever played. Keep in mind, my favorite KOF games were the first 2, i find that once you get too complex the game loses its flavour.

Finally, lets talk about the Ottawa Senators (NHL).

I live in Ottawa, and can still remember where i was when they announced we had won the franchise - taking a sip of water from the drinking fountain in the hallway at high school. I was so excited that we had or own NHL franchise. I’m still excited about our team. Now, at the beginning of the year if you’d told me that the Sens would be in a tight race for first place in the conference, I’d be happy. However, the way they’ve got there… well. Lets just say they haven’t been playing to their potential. But really, as Jacques Martin always used to say, its all part of the learning process. I think the Sens came out this year guns’a'blazin, looking to show everybody they got to the finals for a reason. They were still pissed off they lost in the finals (which by the way is still further than the Leafs have gotten in the last 40 years… and counting!) So naturally, they came out and crushed their opposition. Then, the realization that you can’t win the cup in October set it. They got lazy, tired, unmotivated. Its a long season, and too many of the players are looking ahead to the playoffs. Too many aren’t focusing on the games at hand. Can you blame John Paddock? Maybe he’s not the best choice for this particular team. He’s a teacher, he’s not a finisher (does that make sense?). He isn’t the kind of guy who coddles players. Why was he hired then, for this team? Simple. Jason Spezza has a mancrush on John Paddock. He has been quoted numerous times as stating that he thinks John Paddock is the best coach he’s ever had.

Jason Spezza also wasn’t signed to a long contract to start the year. You know that Jason gre up a Leafs fan, and there was a strong chance he’d leave this year if he didn’t get things his way. So, you throw him a bone here and there. Sign John Paddock. Keep Brian McGratton (one of his best friends) around, even if he can’t contribute much to this team anymore. Sign Dany Heatley long term… and the pieces start to fall in place.

I really think that despite the clubs outward face about how they’re gunning for the cup this year, and blah blah blah… i think the trades Bryan Murray are making are designed to help for next year and not this year. Mike Commodore is exactly the type of defenseman they want. Big, physical, and experienced. He’s also young. Stillman - he’s experienced and local. Both these guys are Canadian and have cup rings. Will Murray try to resign them? Damn right he will! If you think about the trade, Bryan Murray just moved two Americans out for two Canadians. He’s gone on record as to say his plan is to make the team bigger, stronger, and more Canadian. While I find Don Cherry’s assessment of the situation fairly racist, I can’t argue that there are few European or American players who seem to have that extra gear come playoff time. Daniel Alfredsson is one of those guys. Anton Volchenkov is another. There are a lot of strong players who have that extra gear, but its just easier to fill the deck with Canadians. I don’t think its neccessarily a truth about hockey players, but when you live in Ottawa and are trying desperately to compete for fans with the Leafs and Canadiens, the more “local” talent you have, the better. I think Bryan Murray is a very, very smart man. He knows the only way we’re going to win a cup is with a strong, proven goaltender. Unfortunately, those guys don’t just grow on trees. I’ll talk more another day about that particular issue…

Hi folks!

I figured since everybody else had a blog out there, I’d make one too.

I play Shadowgeist on Najena, in the guild Siege. My toon is a level 80/140 Shadowknight. I’m a tank.
I also enjoy fighting games (street fighter 4 anybody?), gangster movies, and hockey (GO SENS GO!)

I’m going to try and keep this blog pretty wide open in terms of topics. One day it might be about hockey, another day epic quests in everquest 2, and maybe politics, the state of the world, global warming, shoe sizes, and which place in town serves the best hotdogs… who knows?