During work I check in on EQIM to see what we're raiding tonight. Looks
like the plan is to kill A'D and Grummus to flag some of our stragglers and
alts. Easy if annoying mobs.
I get home and log on to find out that we've already killed Grummus. I putz
around in the Bazaar - been looking for a copy of Destroy Undead, but can't
find one anywhere - then join everyone in heading towards the Plane of
Valor. I make use of one of my most recent purches - the Gnomish Vanishing
Device - to cross to the dragon wall and move inside. It takes a very long
time to get started, mostly because people are logging on alts or the mains
of people who left their login information with someone else so they could
get flagged. We sit and buff. I do a /who guild and a /who allied_guild_01
and find 72 people in the zone. This will be easy.
We click down. The clerics begin discussing a healing strategy. I
recommend avoiding Complete Heals and just cast fast heals like Supernal
Light and Supernal Remedy on the main tank. Mana shouldn't be a problem
since A'D should go down quickly. This plan is agreed upon, and we set up.
Alas, the tanks have formed a new strategy they chose not to share with the
clerics. A paladin runs up, tags A'D, DA's, then pulls to one side of the
main force. The tanks run up and engage - out of range of the clerics'
heals. They die quickly. Despite this embarrassing start, A'D dies.
Huzzah.
During the flagging stage, we discover that someone has snuck into the A'D's
lair without our knowledge - easy to do with this many people. He says he's
just here to observe, but some people see him hail the Planar Projection and
"ninja" a flag. There is much comment about this in /ooc, especially since
the ninja-flagger belongs to a guild that doesn't exactly have a sterling
reputation.
Speaking for myself, I see no harm in people "ninjaing" flags. I think it's
great that people get access to new content and new zones. However, there's
a strong sentiment about the fact that these people haven't "earned" the
flags. I suppose I can understand that sentiment, but I'm still not sure I
agree. Then again, last Saturday some people led a "zerg" raid on the
Behemoth that got 300 people flagged. Since then, XP-ing in the Plane of
Tactics has been a nightmare; lots and lots of trains. It's nice to have a
relatively quiet zone to XP in. But... well, I stand by my original
conviction: allowing people access to new content is a good thing.
Meanwhile, a new debate has started in the cleric channel. The question has
arisen about whether we should be announcing heals other than Complete Heals
in the cleric channel. Some clerics have been announcing every heal, some
clerics - like me - only announce Complete Heals. Amazingly, this debate
will last some hours and will not end with any kind of consensus. One thing
about our clerics: they're forthright and not shy about expressing
themselves. I admire that about my fellow clerics, but this debate I don't
allow to engage my attention, simply because it's not an issue worth
spending a lot of energy on. I throw in a comment here and there but
otherwise don't say much. There is much passion on both sides of the issue,
and in the end no consensus is reached. We're all still friendly to each
other at the end - the debate, will intense, was never heated - but we
decide to just keep doing what we each do. Not the result some were hoping
for, but perhaps the only reasonable conclusion.
I ask what we're doing next - I'd like to go XP. I'm halfway through 64 and
would like to ding 65 soon. Plus I still don't have Mass Group Buff, which
is definitely a much-needed skill. A'D was killed at 8pm my time; I can get
in several good hours of XP.
But no, a new raid is announced: Agnarr. I've actually not heard of this
guy; evidently he hangs out in Bastion of Thunder. Alas, no one has a key.
But one of our monks has everything but one piece. So we move in; I get a
group that includes two chanters, one of them being botted by the SK in our
group. We start killing random mobs in one area until the key piece drops.
Then we begin.
Getting to Agnarr is not easy. We start by having to kill one of his
lieutenants. We zone into a large circular room. Around the perimeter are
lots of fire elementals. We begin killing these and the lieutenant. He has
an annoying AE, but I have Remove Curse and Word of Redemption. During a
chaotic battle where we beat down all the fire elemental thingies and then
focus on the lieutenant, everyone in my group stays alive. Yay Monual!
There are quite a few people to rez and I get to it.
Askr the Lost spawned after the lieutenant died. I ask in our group what
the next step is. The non-botted chanter responds that I should just be
patient and all will be explained. Now, I hope I haven't given the
impression that I'm a paragon of virtue in this game. I'm not. I
immediately bristle and lash out about how that was a non-helpful,
non-responsive, and slightly condescending thing to say. The chanter just
repeats his statement to wait and see. I won't let it die. Fortunately the
SK brings peace by explaining the next step. We will all hail Askr and tell
him "Transport", and we'll move up to the next area to defeat another mob.
I settle down after that.
When everyone's been rezzed and rebuffed, we all say "Transport". We get
transported to another large circular area, except there are no walls or
ceilings here - just stars. It looks like the Tribunal area in the Plane of
Justice. There are mobs around the perimeter here, too, along with the guy
we have to kill.
Chaos ensues. The tanks try to get aggro on the boss mob. Others try to
kite all the other mobs. Druids are trying to banish. Clerics are trying
to heal the Tanks while avoiding the 1500 DD AE. At one point, everyone in
my group but me is dead. Yay Monual! I start clicking corpses in between
heals. Alas, I get aggro and go down quickly.
I get rezzed in. I loot and assess. The boss mob is being kited around.
Tanks are trying to beat down the adds. Corpses litter the landscape. I
have no mana. I have a mod rod left over from A'D and I use it. The
advantage of having two chanters in my group becomes evident, as the botted
one is able to KEI me, and later the non-botted one is able to VoQ me.
While recovering mana, I go around clicking corpses like mad. People keep
dying and getting rezzed back in. No one has any mana. Slowly, we beat
down the perimeter mobs, kill them off one by one, then go after the boss
mob. He falls, and we collapse in relief. That took *forever*.
We huddle together and buff up. Once again we have to move up to a new
area. This one will have our target: Agnarr. We come up with a new
strategy. Our guild leader will zone up, DA, then try to draw all the mobs
as far away from the zone-in area as possible. The rest of us will come up
and try to split the mobs. One tank is designated the "adds assist" tank;
the rest are assigned to Agnarr. Confident in this strategy, we begin.
My guild leader does indeed draw the mobs away, and we zone in without
incident. This is another large circular area, with stone walls, a ceiling,
a large Guardian-of-Forever-looking portal, and a door. The Agnarr Main
Tank moves in. Alas, all the adds do *not* get split off, and the MT dies
very quickly. So does the second MT. So does the third. Agnarr has an
annoying AE that's draining my mana. I try healing, and I manage to get the
attention of Agnarr himself. I take interestingly large amounts of damage
and down I go.
I'm rezzed back in fairly quickly. During my absence we've managed to start
kiting *everything*. A wizard announces that he's managed to snare Agnarr.
We huddle up in the center of the room. I observe that all the adds are
being kited clockwise around the room and that Agnarr is being kited
counter-clockwise. There are mounds of corpses and I begin rezzing.
I remember once getting into a debate with someone in a.g.e., I forget who.
I maintained that the cleric epic isn't as overpowering as some would make
it out to be. Mostly it just saves time recovering from a wipe, nothing
more. The person I was debating with countered that the ability to rez
people quickly and send them back into the battle makes the cleric epic
almost unbalancing. I didn't believe my debater then. I'm convinced now.
Having clerics rez quickly while they themselves are out of mana is making
all the difference in this battle.
It's time to begin killing off the adds. The tanks try to aggro one. This
leads to a bunch of them wading into our camp in the middle, AE'ing the heck
out of everyone. I get in a few heals before succumbing. I sit in the
nexus and watch. I get a hug from another naked cleric who also got a free
TL to bind. We sit with a naked shaman and watch the battle. I use say to
wonder whether I should pester the living clerics for a rez. The shaman
offers the opinion that we're about to wipe. I'm not so sure. After
another minute I do make a comment in the cleric channel that rezzing the
dead clerics back in might be helpful. After another minute, I get a rez
box. I pop back in, loot, and begin clicking on other corpses.
We've managed to kill a couple of the adds. Agnarr is now being kited by a
ranger, who assures us he had good aggro. Once again the tanks attempt to
split off an add; once again the center is swamped by mobs. I see a cleric
go down and immediately click her. Less than thirty seconds later she's
back in and sends me a tell compimenting me on my quick rez reflexes.
I get in heals and avoid aggro. The chanters have been charming some of the
adds and using them to fight the others. We seem to be doing all right.
People continue to die and get rezzed back in, but for the most part the
tanks are staying up for extended periods. The adds go down, until all we
have left is charmed mobs and Agnarr. I target Agnarr and find tha the's at
98 percent. Jeeze. All this time and we haven't even really begun.
Word is passed around that Agnarr will summon giants every 20 percent. We
move in to engage, the clerics chain-CH'ing the Main Tank. I'm struggling
with mana; my mod rod is used up and we have no mages in the raid. I have
Ancient: High Priest's Bulwark, VoQ, Spiritual Dominion, and my FT 12 items
helping me to recover mana, not to mention constantly casting Yaulp V. But
still, mana is very very tight. Fortunatley we have about eight clerics,
and while we're all low on mana, at least we're giving each other some time
to recuperate between heals. The only problem arises when too many clerics
decide to take a med break at the same time, and a tank falls. Then we
switch to a new tank and begin again.
Agnarr drops towards 80 percent and everyone is told to get off Agnarr and
prepare for the summoned giant. One of the clerics peels off to help on the
giant while the rest of us continue to heal the main tank. Agnar hits 81,
80, 79.... no giant. Hmm. Someone comments that maybe it's every 25
percent. At 75, a giant appears in the portal. Everyone moves in and kills
him, then switches back to Agnarr.
Finally, at long long last, I feel like we're in a rhythm. Beat on Agnarr.
At 50 percent, back off and prepare for add. Kill add, go back to Agnarr.
Repeat at 25 percent. My only challenge now is mana. Agnarr is still
proc'ing his mana drain AE. I'm never getting above 20 percent and am
hovering at about 11 and 12 percent. One of the necros says "Send tells for
mana." I'd sent him a tell previously, but he'd been out of mana then. I
now send another tell and he begins twitching me. We lost another tank
between 50 and 25, but another steps in and we keep him up the rest of the
fight. I'm actually shocked when Agnarr enrages - have we actually managed
to get him below ten percent? I keep healing as best I can... then Agnarr
falls.
If we collapsed after the last battle, we fall into a collective coma after
Agnarr dies. This battle had taken freakin' forever. I rez a couple of
folks, then follow everyone through the door, which leads to a set of stairs
going up. At the top is Karana. We hail Karana and get a flag. I ask what
the flag is for and told it is one of the flags needed for elemental planes
access. Loot is announced - two swords and a rune. Our guild leader loots
the rune and turns it in to the cleric spellkeeper in PoK and gets Hand of
Virtue - only our second copy in the guild. The best possible result.
It turns out that if you say the right phrase to Karana you get a TL to
bind. I take advantage of that just for fun. I sit in the Nexus and note
that it is now 2am. I'm not sure how long the battle with Agnarr took but
it had to have been at least an hour. Still, the result was worth it; the
alliance is abuzz with good feelings.
Many people comment that the battle was quite fun. I'm not sure that I
agree - I don't look forward to doing that again, which I know we will - but
I have to admit that accomplishing something after a long effort leaves one
with a very satisfying afterglow.
BTW, if you ever want to see my guild's new site, it can be found at:
http://members.cox.net/winterslight/news.htm
Not as graphics-intensive as other sites, but a good way to find if I'm
telling y'all the truth about my guild's accomplishments or if I'm just
making it up as I go along. =)
Yet another step closer to the elemental planes. Now if we could only bring
Bertoxx down, we'd be styling.
-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!