(Warning: the following is filled with self-congratulations. Ignore it if
such stuff offends you.)
After finally getting flagged for PoV and PoS, I zone into PoV. My first
time here we pulled those tall human guardians, which are perhaps the
wimpiest level 63 mobs in existence. We didn't exactly have a high DPS
group, so kills were slow but steady.
This, my second time, a guildie takes me across this high winding bridge to
a castle in the middle of a rocky desert that somewhat reminds me of
Dagnor's Cauldron. This is evidently a popular place as there is a group in
front of us and a group to our right. We go to our left.
There are a few guildies in the other groups, and I immediately get a tell
asking if I'm grouped. I tell him that I am, and he whines a bit about how
terrible his cleric is. I commiserate as best I can.
We begin pulling. We have a beastlord, a wizard, a shaman, a ranger, and
me. That may not strike you as the idea group - no tank. We kept
advertising for either one, but no one in our guild or in our alliance
channel responded. The beastlord decides to go out and pull - and promptly
dies as two stone golems beat on him. These guys do damage fast. The
ranger takes over and uses harmony to grab the mobs one at a time.
Forewarned by how quickly the rogue dropped, I heal somewhat liberally.
Mind you, I don't have KEI, so I have to be careful. It's a delicate
balance to strike. It works all right on the first pull, but on the second
a lightcrawler add means that I'm healing liberally. That one battle takes
half my mana, and I try to sit and med. They pull when I get to forty
percent mana (40m), and again I try to heal safely but sparingly. Complete
heals start at about fifty percent health on the tank. Casters get
low-aggro heals (Celestial Elixir, or CE).
We're doing okay, spiders, golems, and lightcrawlers. We go through a few
tanks - one would come, tank for half an hour, then have to leave for one
reason or another. We just can't get one to stay. A couple of times I get
tells from one of the other nearby groups asking for a rez - clerics drop
fast to these mobs.
We get an honest-to-goodness warrior to tank for us. Things are going all
right - but there are rumblings. I see /ooc messages "Don't train us!"
"Just stand and die." Something I ignore at the time, just as the
voluptuous teenager doesn't notice the slowly-opening door as she walks
along in the spooky house. Then, during a pull, I get a tell asking for a
rez from one of the other groups. Is that a shadow looming over the
scantily-clad heroine? Is that the shadow of an axe creeping along the
wall? A monk comes to our group dragging the corpse to a cleric, then dies.
And all hell breaks loose.
*Four* spiders come swarming. This in addition to the golem we're fighting.
The ranger attempts to kite them, and quicker than I can blink he is down to
seven percent health. What follows is blindingly fast action:
Supernal Remedy on the ranger, bringing him up to 40 percent. One on the
shaman, bringing him up to 80. Oh, hello Mr. Spiders, all three of you.
Divine Aura. A_Guildie_01 Tells you, "Can you rez us?" Cancel Divine
Aura - can't afford to let it run its course. Complete Heal main tank. CE
wizard. CE ranger. Remedy ranger. Shaman slows generating much aggro -
Remedy shaman. CE shaman. Remedy wizard. A_Guildie_01 tells you "Can you
rez us?" Argh, I heard you the first time. CE beastlord. Beastlord pet
dying, too bad. Anyone else to heal? Oh... me. CE Monual. /tell
A_Guildie_01 "Sec, train." CH tank. Divine Barrier. A_Guildie_02 tells
you "Can you rez our cleric?" A_Guildie_01 says, "Yeah, same train wiped
us." Target Ranger, waiting for DB to run its course. Remedy ranger. CH
tank. CE ranger. CE wizard. /groupsay "20m". You have gained experience!
Sit-stand real quick to see if any mobs try to get me. Yes, two spiders
jumped towards me. Stay standing. You have gained experience! CH tank.
/tell A_Guildie_02 "Dealing with a train, will be a minute." You have
gained experience! CE shaman. You have gained experience!
Finally, after this frantic activity, I am almost out of mana and most of
the group is below fifty percent health but the mobs are dead. There is a
collective sigh of relief. The ranger comments that he was *sure* he was
dead and expresses great surprise at finding himself alive. I finally begin
rezzing, first the two corpses that brought the train to us. Then I round
the corner of the castle to find that both of the other groups have been
completely wiped. The train the monk had brought was unintentional, he
thought his group had the train handled but the group was wiped and the mobs
came looking for him. I do lots of rezzes, then head back to my group and
med.
I remember, way back when I was still in my mid-50's when I was on a guild
hate raid, one of my guildmates refused to put me into a group with the main
tank because, in his words, "Monual sucks." Me, I thought I did pretty good
just then. I kept my group alive when the same train had wiped two other
groups (granted that the other two groups quite likely thinned out the train
a bit and did some damage to the mobs we ended up killing.) I knew how to
heal so as not to build too much aggro, and I knew when to DA and, equally
important, when to click off DA so I could heal again. I instinctively
moved myself to get away from possible aggro while launching heals when
needed. In short, I thought I did a darned fine job in a nasty situation.
Kudos to my group, too, for not panicking and for doing their own jobs.
The guildmate of mine who uttered the words, "Monual sucks" no longer plays
Everquest. I remember an expression that was printed on many t-shirts about
ten years ago: "You can talk the game, but can you play the game? Duke.
We can play." You could substitute the name of any sports franchise or
college team you wanted to, I saw many variations. I had to smile as I
thought about it. I may not be the best-equipped or most-experienced cleric
on Drinal - far from it - but I know how to keep my group alive.
Monual. I can play. :)
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
High Priest of Rodcet Nife
Winter's Light
Drinal server
This page is Copyright by Skaarak; Everquest (TM) is property of Sony Online Entertainment
All stories and art work are Copyright@ by the origial owner/writer.
Most, if not all stories, were taken from newsgroup alt.games.everquest (AGE), I recommend that anyone who gets a chance to read it should!