The neatest thing I've built in a while. 
Ingredients:
I'm going to add a screen and some fireplace tools, so it's not quite finished yet, but it turned out so well that I wanted to share!
(You can see it in Riowa's Lion's Mane Suite [non-status], South Qeynos, Crushbone server.)
With the increase in level cap in Sentinel's Fate, I thought it might be worthwhile to purchase a tradeskill XP potion from the Station Marketplace. I wanted to rush my main, a Sage, from 80 to 90 as quickly as possible.
There are a few potion "strengths" available for purchase, differing in the amount of time each one lasts as well as the percentage bonus given when you consume it. The one I went with gave me a 55% XP bonus for 2 hours, and it cost 2500 Station Cash — the equivalent of $25.00.
Spending so much on a potion made me not want to waste a single drop of it. As long as my main was logged in, she was going to be chained to that crafting station! This sounds like exactly what I was hoping for, except for one thing: Vitality.
At those levels, 100% vitality will only last a couple of levels. With my vitality bonus and the XP potion, I burned through them within about 30 minutes. Oh hey, look! I have this, which will refill my vitality once a week! That's another couple of levels down, woohoo! Wow, I still have a whole HOUR left on my potion!
…But the vitality is gone, with no way to refill it except to not play that character for a few days. Continuing to try and level with no vitality — XP potion or no — isn't exactly my idea of a good time.
And that's how I spent the last few weeks. I spent almost the entire time on my secondary characters (a Tailor and a Carpenter), running the daily tradeskill missions for fun and profit.
Here comes the best part:
Not only have those two alts gained just as many tradeskill levels as my main, but they've earned a boatload of plat AND earned max faction with their respective crafting groups. Buying that potion and doing my best to take full advantage of its benefits has left my main WEEKS behind in faction and coin — not to mention $25.00 lighter.
My advice? Don't purchase the Marketplace potions unless you have money — and time — to burn.
…Because Erollisi Day is coming to Norrath again! From February 4 through 16, you can participate in special quests and earn tokens to spend on lovey-dovey goodies for you and your home.
You can learn more about this year's festivities at EQ2Players.com, and get some in-depth details about the crafting side of things over at EQ2 Traders.
I've been immersed in the EQ2 Nights of the Dead celebrations for the last few weeks. The haunted house, haunted mansion, and trick-or-treating of years past have returned, and new for this year is a spooky hedge maze, the Hollow Hedge. All of the events are fun and not too grindy — you might find yourself wanting to run the events dozens of times to get your fill of all the goodies up for grabs. These range from a new appearance-only armor set to some appropriately ghoulish house items.
In other Halloween News, the Super Spooktacular in Free Realms is still going on. You can earn lots of cool costumes and prizes, and the quests to get them are short, sweet, and fun. Most of the festivities center around Sanctuary, although you'll find celebrators through Sacred Grove who will point you in the right direction.
This wasn't planned, but I noticed that my dog Moxy is dressed up as a Gay Pride parade! /thumbsup
(That's totally my Froglok Conjuror's catch phrase.)
I can't believe it's been a whole month since I've posted anything. It's not like I've been slacking, either…I've put in enough hours on a recent corporate project to warrant browsing for a laptop of my very own. Yvria, my Weaponsmith in EQ2, hit level 80 last week. Kharri, my Carpenter, finished her crafter epic yesterday. I'm steadily leveling up my combat jobs in Free Realms, one at a time. My Animal Crossing: City Folk town is still chugging along, and I log in daily to keep all my flowers watered and stuff.
With the weather changing from summer to fall, I've had a fibro flare-up or two that's slowed me down for a few days. Right now I'm suspicious of some intense coughing fits I've been having recently. If I feel myself passing away, I'll let everyone know well in advance. No, you can't have my stuff. :p
I've decided to move my guild's website from Dragonfly CMS to WordPress, since I've been really getting into making new themes lately. I'm even seriously considering making a WordPress port of Roster Master as a plugin, but we'll see how that goes when I have more time to concentrate on it.
I'm designing an AION website for an ex-EQ2 sig artist friend. It's going to be way cool and will be launching before the game is released later this month. The AetherNet — keep an eye on it!