You don't need to grind it. It's just another little 'mini-game' by doing a node hunt. You can get some fast profession mats either for yourself or to sell. Sometimes when I'm tired of questing or PvP, I'll mix it up with some node farming. Just another thing to do for variety.

The Profession bonus is also only 1/2 hour long and pops up at various times during the day. The nice thing with the low level areas is that you can't aggro the creatures even if you stand on them.

Farming, grinding, same basic thing. In Rift I used to run circuits to collect mats to create whetstones for the guild. Horrible waste of time.

Not to mention what's being done here is essentially an exploit.

How is farming items an exploit? I've done it in every MMO. Typically by the time you finish a circuit, your node has reappeared. Also the instance change is on a timer, so they are aware of the ability to instance change to reset nodes.

You don't need to grind it. It's just another little 'mini-game' by doing a node hunt. You can get some fast profession mats either for yourself or to sell. Sometimes when I'm tired of questing or PvP, I'll mix it up with some node farming. Just another thing to do for variety.

The Profession bonus is also only 1/2 hour long and pops up at various times during the day. The nice thing with the low level areas is that you can't aggro the creatures even if you stand on them.

Sekret frming spot, dead men tell no tales:

http://thehalflingherald.blogspot.com/2013/05/low-level-astral-diamond-farming-video.html

well everyone knows blue is better than green, so that's why it's recommended! :p

If Cryptic did that on purpose it would the best troll ever. Unfortunately the way they actually did do it, isn't too far off from trolling its customers.

I am confused about some equipment levels... I have a blue L9 dagger, that no matter what seems to be recommended over my found green daggers, even though the damage is higher on the greens and so are the bonus effects.. any idea why?

Because Cryptic is stupid.

Price to the vendor is the ONLY thing the 'recommended' system looks at. The ONLY thing.

Proof:

Hey that's me!

Switching gears for a moment... There is a lot of lore in the game - is any of it from the Neverwinter RPG games? I'm really not up on my D&D at all. Did the Sword Coast exist prior to the Baldur's Gate PC games? I mean, there's no "canon" when it comes to D&D outside what is the rulebooks, right?

The lore is all from the Forgotten Realms modules and books. The game story itself runs parallel to the Neverwinter series of books which I actually was reading before I even knew about the game (or realized there was a tie in). The books are actually pretty good and take place about 100 years after the events in the earlier Drizzt books (yes, I have a guilty pleasure for bad pulp fantasy ).

I may have to check those out eventually.  I just noticed they released a lot of the older FR books on the Kindle, so looks like I may be re-reading a bunch of the older series,:The Moonshae Trilogy, The Empires Trilogy, Shandril's Saga, Maztica, The Avatar series, Finders Trilogy and Druidhome.

Haven't read those in probably 20 years, but I remember liking the Avatar series and the Moonshae, but not much else. RA Salvatore's stuff was hit or miss, but he did a pretty good job with this latest series.

Switching gears for a moment... There is a lot of lore in the game - is any of it from the Neverwinter RPG games? I'm really not up on my D&D at all. Did the Sword Coast exist prior to the Baldur's Gate PC games? I mean, there's no "canon" when it comes to D&D outside what is the rulebooks, right?

The lore is all from the Forgotten Realms modules and books. The game story itself runs parallel to the Neverwinter series of books which I actually was reading before I even knew about the game (or realized there was a tie in). The books are actually pretty good and take place about 100 years after the events in the earlier Drizzt books (yes, I have a guilty pleasure for bad pulp fantasy ).

you can also earn Zen by doing surveys found here.  the length and amount given varies, but if you're bored at work you might be able to score some free Zen.  I've found hitting refresh sometimes gives you new free survey options.

about the only drawback is you may not be eligible for one. or you might get a bit into another and find it saying 'sorry, you're not qualified' due to the last answer, which can make them seem like a puzzle as you try and figure out what they want to hear.  All the ones I have done haven't asked for personal info; if they do I just skip them.

I've gotten about 200 zen from it by doing a couple of them and wasting maybe 10 minutes, enough for a lockbox key.

Wow.  I went through all of the top ones and was DQ'd from all of em.  heheheh

Me too 

I can usually spot a heavy Brooklyn, Queens, Lon-Gisland or upstate NY accent pretty well. New England has its share of unique accents too.

My kids are growing up in Florida and I'm starting to hear some local accents in their speech like yesterday when my 9 year old said "room" it sounded like "rum" (no he wasn't talking about rum).

What's a good solo class? (I know all are soloable). Thinking of going Cleric. Seemed pretty good from the beta.

Just picked this up based on your recommendation. I generally don't like twitch IOS games because I'm not fast enough on the small screen, but the action is not terribly frantic.

Any hints or tips for starting. Must have skills? How many goldmines to build? Etc.

By the way, I haven't done the math on this in a long time, but on a 30 year mortgage, a single extra payment can shave about 7 years off your mortgage, so it is definitely something to look into if you can.

That sounds a bit off.

It's black magic as far as I'm concerned. We were deathly afraid the appraisal on our house was going to be too low when we bought, but it came in (surprise) exactly at the purchase price. I mean, really? Exactly the purchase price and not a penny more? The comps were all over the place and from several years ago, so it looked pretty silly. But we got our house, so were happy.

Got the appraisal back today on the house we're buying and it came back....exactly at the purchase price. I don't understand why the Appraiser knows the price. It's obviously a target to hit rather than an objective number. He also stretched the comps to make sure they met the number so we make the deal. I have no faith if the house is actually worth the price now. Of course on the house we're selling it didn't appraise and they did not take any of the numerous upgrades and addition into account at all.

The entire appraisal process stinks IMO.

Btw, I agree that the personal stories quest need to adjusted.  I'm thinking that Anet assumed most people would be grouping or playing a tank class, some of those mobs hit entirely too hard

It's odd how difficult the story missions can be.  I've died more in those missions than anywhere else.  Some of them are just wonky hard, with what seems like a buggy amount of spawned enemies.

I had some issues with the story missions until I figured that I can't go toe to toe with multiple tough mobs. I was able to kite them from ranged and abuse terrain to get through it (guess my old Hunter skills came in useful). Felt like I was cheesing the fight, but I didn't care too much. This is at 30-40. Not sure how it is at higher levels.

The dog will go, but they will make you pay by waiting until they get back inside to shake off all that water.

If that's real, that is amazing.

It's hot!

Being responsible for a guild/people in an MMO can be extremely time consuming and somewhat rewarding. At some point in my WoW career I ran our raiding guild for awhile, but passed the torch when I realized I just wasn't going to commit the time needed.

I'll never play MMOs the way I used to, which is why I think GW2 is the perfect answer with 'casual' gameplay that still has social interaction.

Are you hacked into the MIT pipe??

The entire album + booklet is $.99 on Amazon mp3 download now.

I'm very pissed that DTV didn't do something financial for their customers for not being able to deliver the content we paid for. I pay a shitload of money for Directv, I expect to get what I paid for or get some form of refund if I don't.

Quick story about Directv:

When I wanted to upgrade my DVR last year I went through the steps of ordering one from their website for a $100 (they had a special). I had the older box - can't remember the model number,  but it was slow as molasses. They advertised the latest model so I ordered it as an upgrade. I was shocked when I got the exact same box in the mail that I already owned. I called to complain and process a refund. I sent the new box back and after a month of not getting my upgrade I called to bitch them out for the shoddy customer service as well as the fact that they sent me an old box.

The guy that helped me was amazing. Not only did he refund my money, and shipping, he setup an appointment with a local rep to deliver a brand new box. A few days later the tech showed up and installed the box as well as checked my dish and lines. Best of all, they did it all for free.

After years of crap service from other companies I am still shocked at how well I was treated by DTV. They certainly bought some loyalty.

Their CS is definitely hit or miss. I've had some great reps and some bad ones. I've gone the retention route a few times but I'm tired of doing it and yelling at them. It takes a toll on me. I don't want to have to keep fighting my cable company.

Salty Directv!

I’ve already seen commercials with the stars and even animated characters from Viacom shows talking about DIRECTV. What’s going on?
A:

The people who create or star in Viacom shows aren’t independent spokespeople but paid employees at Viacom who oftentimes make millions. These clips and commercials are sometimes clever, sometimes not, yet they’re all like political advertising without any full disclosure. Independent studios typically won’t allow their people to participate, so Viacom (or others) are left to use only the people on their own payroll. It’s always wrong to have an actor or comedian say things in support of people who can make them even richer, and especially when it comes at our customers’ expense, but it’s indefensible to try to use children’s trusted cartoon characters like Dora the Explorer to try to trick and scare them.

 

How is Uverse?

WOW... They actually pulled the channels WTF...

Crazy. I've been less than happy about the prices I've been paying. Maybe a time for a change, but I'm not sure comcast or AT&T is any better. I barely even watch TV and pay $120 for DTV. It'sfor my kids and wife.

or August 25th, for the cool kids 

those wacky Canadians!  I'd feel better if they advertised 'No Sasquatch' or 'No Rabid Mooses' or the likes.

What's next? "No witches in the neighborhood"? "Cellar cleared of cursed books"? "Monster-free residence"?

I thought we lived in the 21st century. Guess I should have known better.

this might help explain how they work up there

Although the biggest case about not disclosing the haunted status of a house happened in Nyack, NY.

I thought it was the house they used in Zork when the new owners were eaten by a Grue.

I love the Oatmeal for this. Of course it does generate publicity for Funnyjunk considering I never heard of them before, but at least it's not positive publicity!

Some great people in that picture. And Justin Bieber just fucks it up by acting like an ass.

Padd Trek is free today. Remake of those old trek games us elder folk played on mainframes.

I really should have played classes I won't play at release, the problem was I really didn't like playing them, so I went back to my 2 starting classes, Guardian and Elem.

I can't wait to share this new wonder
The people will all see it's light
Let them all make their own music
The Priests praise my name on this night

Seeing it for $19 at BestBuy right now if someone was on the fence.

Awwwwww