Anyone Got A Map?

Thanks to my obsessive interest in realizing the music that's been in my head for forty years, I've barely played a game in the last month and a half. I haven't watched a single TV show or movie for almost as long. Luckily, these kinds of obsessions don't last forever, not in my case anyway. I can feel this one beginning to slow down a little, now. 

With the compulsion to just make one more video momentarily at bay, I did manage to log into EverQuest II yesterday and not, for once, just to get some screenshots for a blog post, which has been just about the only reason I've seen the inside of any game in the last month. I went in with the active intent to take a look at the new update, Lure of Darkness. 

No, not to "take a look at it". To play it.

So, this is going to be a post about the new contested dungeon, Spiral of Vul, and whether it's any good, then, is it? You're going to tell us whether there's a solo version or a solo area? Whether a  Necromancer is better-equipped to handle this kind of at-cap content than a Berserker? If the loot's worth having? Useful, informative information drawn from personal experience. That sort of thing, right?

Nope. None of that and for one very good reason. I couldn't find the damn place.

I got the update alright, obviously. As I've said before, EQII is one of the easiest and most efficient games to update I know. No problem there. 

The problem comes when you log in to try and do any of them. This is by no means the first time I've spent most of a first session after a GU just running around, looking for where to start. This time, though, I gave up before I got anywhere and I don't just mean with the new dungeon.

The update is substantial. It includes the aforementioned Spiral of Vul, the first contested dungeon for a while. The term, as used by Darkpaw, means a dungeon that more than one group can be in at the same time, not an actual open-world dungeon. They're still instances but they're shared instances and you don't get to choose who you share them with. 

Spiral of Vul, like most contested dungeons, looks like it's pretty big, containing as it does:

• 40 Contested Bosses
• A new Contested Raid Boss
• 37 new quests & missions
• 59 new achievements
• 17 new collections

The dungeon isn't the whole of it, though. There's plenty more. 

There's something for Crafters

• 3 New red shiny collections
• Crafting quest and daily tradeskill missions
• Tradeskill researcher

Only crafters who've done... something... I forget what... can see red shinies, just in case you're wondering what's crafty about those.

There's lots to keep Raiders occupied, too. (I originally typed "to keep Raiders happy" but obviously that's never going to happen.)

•  Dragon Necropolis: Ancient Tombs [Raid]
•  Dragon Necropolis: Disturbed Vaults [Raid]
•  Flooded Scar: Abyssal Assault [Raid]

There's even something for slackers and filthy casuals:

•   New Overseer Season 07 – Sentinel's Fate
•   New Achievements
•   New rewards
•   43 New Quests
•   22 New Agents 

If I'm honest, it was that last part that interested me the most. I used to really enjoy the Overseer system. For well over a year, I picked all my ten quests every day and liked it. The process was fun in itself but the rewards were excellent. I filled my vaults with rare crafting mats, upgraded my gear, got new mercenaries... all kinds of exciting and worthwhile things.

 

Then, after a while, the rewards stopped being useful, let alone upgrades, the quests never seemed to change and the whole thing started to feel flat and stale so I stopped. I was under the impression that was because new seasons had been shunted into the more expensive expansion packs as perks and that the poor old Standard Class players were no longer entitled to them.

 

Maybe that is what happened but now I think I probably must have read it wrong. However it worked, this update supposedly gives everyone access to the new Season. After I failed to find the dungeon entrance I thought I'd take a look at it instead. And guess what? 

 

I couldn't find that either!

 

 Anyone got a torch?

 

Before I get ahead of myself, though, what about that missing dungeon? How come you couldn't find that, Bhagpuss? Eh?

 

It's like this. We all know how confusing it can be, coming back to am MMORPG after a long time away. We've all experienced it. Many of us have written about it. 

 

I'm enjoying reading Wilhelm's account of returning to Lord of the Rings Online after a while and even though he knows the game pretty well, it's clear he's battling through any number of obstacles, unwittingly set in his way by developers who don't really pay all that much attention to the details as they might concern or confuse a player coming back after a layoff. 

 

With most MMORPGs you don't even have to go anywhere to get that kind of experience. Just navigating the latest content drop is often enough. It certainly is in EQII.

 

I haven't been away from EQII. I consider myself a regular, current player, even if only at the casual level. I've played many sessions this year. I have two adventurers and four crafters at the level cap. I've finished the main storyline in the latest expansion. You'd think I'd be able to log in and find the new content, when it arrives, especially when said content is a dungeon with its entrance in the starting zone of the current XPack.

 

Well, I couldn't. Since it's a Void dungeon and all the other Void dungeons have kilometer-high vortexes swirling above them, I was hoping the location would be obvious but it's not. I flew all over the map looking for something like that but there was nothing.

 

Next, I thought there might be a letter in the mail, telling me to go meet some dignitary to discuss the Vul problem. That happens a lot in Norrath but not this time. 

My third idea was to go round the port at the start of the zone and see if there was a questgiver there, handing out breadcrumbs either for the dungeon or the new tradeskill quests. Couldn't find anyone. I did get excited when I got a new tradeskill quest but it turned out to be something I'd missed from the expansion, not anything to do with the update.

 

I re-read the News article on the update on the official website. That was long on lore and short on locs.

 

Excuse me, but have you seen a dungeon anywhere around here?

Finally, admitting defeat, I googled "Spiral of Vul", hoping to see a location or a map or a description. I got... nothing. A link to the MassivelyOP piece that links back to the Press Release an that's all.

 

I just googled it again and now there's a link to a four hour video of someone doing the dungeon but that's only been up for twelve hours. I might have to watch the beginning to see if I can spot where they go in.

 

All of that, plus swapping between my Necro and Berserke,r several times, trying to check if their different progress in various questlines made any difference (It did not.) took me the best part of an hour. I did manage to find three of those red shinies but that was all I had to show for my time.

 

When I moved on to taking a look at the new Overseer season I discovered there wasn't one. Not for my Necro or my Berserker. Just all the same old stuff I'd gotten bored with long ago. I fiddled around with that for a bit to no avail, finally resorting once again to Google, where I found the entire wiki entry on the subject: 

 

"Become a level 61 Overseer to unlock season 7"

 

 I checked my Necro's and 'Zerker's Overseer levels. They're both mid-way through Level 45. I guess that explains it. It would seem I have some catching up to do.

 

I strongly suspect now that I misunderstood what's been happening with the Overseer system for the last two or three years. I probably ought to have been levelling it up to get the new seasons, which I now seem to recall were arriving for the hoi polloi some few months after the high rollers had first whack at them. 

 

Not having bothered to keep up my levels, I'm guessing I never got the pop-ups about the new seasons as they became available, which in turn made me think they weren't. As Isaid, even when you play these games regularly, it's sometimes hard to know what's going on.

 

I'll add it to the pile of catch-ups my Necro already needs to do before the next expansion arrives in November or December. It's a big pile and getting bigger instead of smaller. The Berserker may have to wait even longer. I'm not sure I have the patience to do ten dailies on two characters every day for six months just to get back to where I should be already.

 

As for the contested dungeon, I think I'll wait until some kind person updates either the wiki or EQ2Maps to let me know where to go.

 

I'll get back to you on what it's like in there if I ever actually find the place and go inside.