Back in WoW, a bunch of us from the guild went on a rampage through Auchindon. I’d been meaning to go there for a while now since I had a bunch of quests in the various wings there, and after we were finished, I managed to clear six spots in the quest log and am now much closer to finishing the Nagrand achievement.

And this is a bonus xp weekend in EQ2, so I played my illusionist alt for most of the day. I managed to gain five levels in both jewelcrafting (up to 48) and my class (up to 43) before the vitality ran out, mainly through questing and fighting in Feerrott. I also managed to find two ebon clusters, one of the rarer tradeskill components that had been eluding me for quite a while — I needed one for a quest for my shaman, and could only find one through a different quest up till now.

Not much has been happening in WoW lately, as I’m mostly just doing the dailies. I did finally collect enough Champion’s Seals for the pony bridle, which now lets me access the bank, mailbox, and a vendor from anywhere (once every four hours, anyway) — never again will I be screwed when I go to turn in a quest only to realize that I forgot one of the pieces in the bank. And I also saved up enough cash for the next upgrade to the Kirin Tor ring, though the stat boost was fairly minor. One more upgrade to go now.

Yesterday, in EQ2, we delved in to Solusek’s Eye and completed all of the quests in there. It was kind of annoying in how you get mobbed in certain areas, and have to go really deep through some repetitive areas to get to the target for the final quest, but we were never really in any danger. Some familiar old enemies made a reappearance, like lava duct crawlers, but overall it’s a very different place than it was in EQ1.

And beforehand I managed to finish off a bunch of old quests in Steamfont and the Enchanted Lands, freeing up a fair bit of quest log space.

Before I fall behind yet again…

EQ: The Tuesday group just whomped some rats and snakes in Blightfire Moors and then headed off to do another LDoN instance, this time from the Commonlands camp. We managed to complete a hard one fairly easily, no doubt thanks to the mercenaries. I hit level 27, and I’m making some decent cash, so maintaining the mercenary shouldn’t be a problem.

EQ2: This week was called off since two members were unavailable, so I mostly just worked on finishing off old quests. That included the Polished Granite Tomahawk, which I’d left unfinished for quite a while. I finally actually have some breathing room in my quest log.

WoW: I finally hit exalted with the Kirin Tor and could buy the robe from them, and I’d accumulated enough money to buy one of the Kirin Tor rings and one upgrade to it (I still need more gold for the remaining two upgrades). I also got new boots from hitting exalted with the Wyrmrest Accord, a Brimstone Igniter from emblems of triumph, and a few drops from running instances, for a fairly significant gear upgrade over the last little while.

I finally got my Venomhide Ravasaur mount after running the 20 dailies for it, though I’m not sure I’ll use it as a primary mount. Like the hawkstriders, it’s too tall and gets blocked in some arches and doorways.

And finally, I worked on quests a fair bit over the weekend and got the achievements for Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley. I think I only have four other zones to finish off now, and only something like 40 quests total. I’ll just need some help with the dungeon and group bits…

I was out of town for a few days and didn’t get much gaming done, but there are a few other things to catch up on:

EQ2: We continued questing in Lavastorm, finding some new quests and completing a few for the goblins there. Oddly enough, completing quests for them lowers a faction rating rather than raising it, and we can’t buy their rewards until we get our faction low enough.

EQ1: We met up in Crescent Reach and did some more of the gathering quests there. They’re kind of annoying since they require drops that everyone in the group needs to collect separately, which can take a while. Ah well, I got my beastlord to level 16 at least.

WoW: I worked on quests in Outland for a bit, getting the achievements for three of the zones, but there’s still a lot left to go in the others. I tried to solo Sethekk Halls, but it’s a lot tougher with my priest than it is with my warrior. Otherwise, I’ve just been doing the dailies, slowly getting towards crusader status with the tournament. I did finally get the polar bear from the frostmaiden daily, so that’s one less thing to worry about.

I also created a couple new characters, a druid and a hunter. I haven’t played the druid much, but I’ve gotten the hunter to level 13 and picked up Mazzranache as a pet. I think I’ll stick with using a scorpid for now though, as they’re tougher tanks.

After working through Uldaman, Dire Maul, a few other miscellaneous quests, and a whole bunch in Silithus that I’d previously missed, I’m down to five quests to go for the Loremaster of Kalimdor achievement. I’m still not sure where I’m going to find those five, though I know I could get four out of the centaur quests in Desolace. I’d prefer not to have to though, since that means a lot of faction grinding to reverse my current alliance…

And in Everquest news, another group of us from a forum have started a regular group in EQ1. On Sunday we made it through the tutorial (I took a Vah Shir beastlord), and today we did a bit of questing in Crescent Reach and then explored Blackburrow. I doubt I’ll stick with this one though, as I’ve got too damn many MMOs going already.