The Gates of Discord expansion is what we've been focusing on. Sure, we do
Time every time it respawns, but then we go right back to plugging away at
GoD. We're not fanatical about it - I'm certain we're well behind in
progression from other uber-guilds, and we're slightly behind our own
server's other high-end guild. But we are still making it a primary goal to
progress as far as possible.
It's not hard to motivate people; a lot of the loot is of Time quality. But
it's kinda strange to try and progress when there are no walkthroughs, no
online guides, no step-by-step procedure written out. While we've never
heavily relied on such things - we usually work out our own strategies - at
the same time it's been useful to see how other people have handled similar
situations. This time, for the first time as a guild, we're exploring areas
that are unknown to anyone.
I've been practicing for a bridge tournament at the end of the month, so I
missed a lot of the early one-group expeditions. Fortunately, I was able to
participate in a couple of Smith Rondo raids, which allow you to bypass the
first four expeditions altogether. I did find groups to finish the fifth
and sixth trials, allowing me to become flagged for Kod'taz.
We got past the first and second Ikkinz trials, even though I missed them.
I did attend one Packmaster raid, which unfortunately we haven't been able
to solve yet. While clearing there, though, an earring dropped: Protective
Spirit Earring, AC9 STR 5 DEX 10 STA 10 WIS 10 HP 90 MANA 100. Not the
world's greatest earring, but an upgrade over my Solstice earring, so I
rolled on it and won.
This dropped my FT down to 13. However, I was able to use the new Tribute
feature to convert all of my old Salubrious Heraldic armor to a useful
amount of tribute points. I used that to add 150hps and FT2. It's nice
when you can use tribute to shore up any shortcomings like this. And since
Heraldic Armor is still worth a goodly amount of tribute, even after the
nerf, I have a good supply of points I can use to keep those things going.
We went to try the third Ikkinz trial. Word had filtered down to us that it
was bugged. We refused to believe it and went to try it ourselves. We got
to one point where a bunch of golems spawn and they have to be killed in a
certain way - one has to be killed by a ranger, another by a rogue, etc.
Alas, we found that this was, indeed, bugged, and after trying over and over
and over again to get the right killshots, we finally got kicked from the
expedition when time ran out. Ah well; we'll try again after the patch
tomorrow night.
Ah well, there are still some mobs we can try in Yxtta. Off we go, clearing
our way merrily. Or not so merrily; lots of deaths, more so than with other
clearing we do. The mobs sure do hit hard. At one time we have six mobs in
camp that are quite efficient at killing healers; by the time we get them
all killed off, I'm the only living cleric.
We move into the first temple and just outside this one room where a giant
snake-woman is on top of a platform. We discuss a strategy - pull her off
the platform into a corner. We know she likes to charm people, so clerics
are advised to use Purify Soul on the Main Tank when he gets charmed. Alas
that I don't have PS yet. I do load up Greater Remove Curse to help as best
I can.
We rush the snake-woman and discover something right away - she's tethered
to the platform. Plus every time she warps back to the center of the
platform, she heals a bit. The MT gets charmed. Our guildleader calls
"Abort". I obediently run back out of the room, along with half the raid.
The other half is still in the room while the other officers question, "Why
abort?" The mob's hitpoints are dropping fast, after all. Our guildleader
says, "Okay, re-engage" and we move back in. Alas, we're getting respawns,
one of which kills me.
We wipe. With all the respawns, there's no choice but to drag all the
corpses to the zone-in and reform there. One thing I really dislike about
GoD: how difficult the Corpse Runs are. You can't bind anywhere in GoD; the
closest I've been able to get is Nedaria. So you have a long run past mobs,
some of which see invis, run faster than SoW, and hit really hard. I have
made it a practice to have a corpse at Natimbi loaded with invisibility
potions, so I can loot a couple and run back. I make use of this corpse
now, grabbing invis potions and running to Kod'taz, then to Yxtta. At the
zone-in a necro summons my corpse and I rez and loot, then help rez other
folks as they get dragged or summoned. I just don't get how making it so
difficult to recover from group or raid wipes is considered fun. I really
think SOE blew it big time on this; GoD can be such a chore, and a non-fun
chore at that, simply because they made CR's so gosh-darned difficult.
While this long recovery is in progress, we discuss the battle. Evidently
after I died, the snake-woman gave off four AE's. They seemed to
significantly slow down melee attacks, significantly slow down casting time,
significantly reduce spell-casting range, and something else we can't quite
figure out. All efforts to remove the AE's with PS and RGC and Radiant Cure
proved futile.
So for the next attempt, we'll all just have to rush the platform, sticking
really close to the MT. The tanks will have to work on keeping the
snake-woman centered on the platform so she won't warp and heal, and
everyone who can remove curse counters has to help keep the MT from being
charmed.
With this new strategy devised, we clear again. We rush in and onto the
platform. The MT gets charmed, and I spam RGC's on him until he snaps out
of it. When the mob drops to 50%, I get to see the four AE's in action.
The reduced spell-casting range is extremely annoying; I practically have to
be on top of the person I'm healing. Still, I do my best, healing and
RGC-ing the MT. The four AE's quickly wear off, then we get blasted with
them again. Because of the slow, our DPS is way down, and the mob is only
slowly dropping down from 25% health. Finally, finally, after a few deaths
and quite a few charms, the mob dies. Hooray.
Loots are announced. My eye is drawn to the range item that drops: Aneuk
Contemplation Skull AC 23 STR 10 DEX 20 CHA 10 WIS 20 HP 180 MANA 180
SV FIRE/DISEASE 10 SV COLD/POISON 20 Shielding: +3% Stun resist: +3%
Focus Effect: Quickening of Mithaniel. I "only" have Speed of Mithaniel on
my main-hand item; it would be nice to upgrade to Quickening, at the same
time freeing up my main-hand to be upgraded by one of those nice Time
hammers. So I put my name in, and a few minutes later get awarded it.
Happily I loot it. My guildleader tells me that it's a server first.
That's pretty cool; first time I've possessed something no one else on the
server has. Range items have a graphic if you equip them after equipping
your main- and off-hand items; the Skull looks, in fact, like a leg bone.
It's a pretty unexciting graphic, reminding me of a Flintstones-era
toothpick.
We decide to try and figure out the Golem ring next. Alas, we keep
triggering wave after wave of golems when we guess wrong. I feel bad for
the mage that decided to go AFK near the zone-line; the triggered mobs rush
the raid from the zone line, and start by reducing the mage to a fine mist.
We wipe to the fourth such triggered wave, and after the CR, the raid is
called; we've raided enough already today.
I announce that I'm LFG, and a rogue sends me a tell asking if I wanna help
with some Ikkinz trial nameds. I'm happy to oblige. This involves getting
an expedition that spawns a named near the zone line. Then you have to find
the trial zone-in, moving through a bunch of see-invis mobs. Everyone has
to use their little tricks for rushing past such mobs; for clerics, than
means casting Divine Aura and hoping you get there before it wears off. As
you can imagine, not everyone always makes it. For such trials, two clerics
are always used, so as long as one makes it you should be all right. In
fact, I head for the wrong trial and die - when DA wears off I can't even
click Bestow Divine Aura on myself before I'm dead. And BDA is an
insta-click. That's how fast I die. Fortunately the other cleric makes it
and is eventually able to go out and rez me after the rogue drags my corpse
to the trial zone-in.
The named mob is right there at the zone-in. We prepare - which takes a
while because we have no chanter and without VoQ it takes me forever to med
up. Killing the named doesn't take much strategy, just a bit of luck. I
pacify the mobs on either side of the named, then the monk pulls it to the
warrior. We two clerics try spamming fast heals on the tank - the mob puts
out just insane damage. Alas, I completely forgot to cast Divine
Intervention on the warrior, and a nasty damage spike kills him. We
immediately zone out. After the mob resets we zone in, rebuff, and try
again, this time with DI on the tank.
The mob comes. We keep the tank up for quite a while. DI goes off once,
but we keep healing. Finally, though, I run out of mana - spamming fast
heals is expensive. The other cleric is also out of mana, and the tank
dies, followed quickly by the monk. The mob is below ten percent, so I sit
down to memorize a nuke quickly. When I stand up, the rogue is down to a
sliver of health, with the other cleric trying to heal him. The rogue dies,
the mob moves on to the shaman, the other cleric zones. I begin casting my
nuke. As I cast, the mob has plenty of time to finish off the shaman, turn
and hit me for a goodly amount of damage, then keel over dead. After the
mob dies my nuke uselessly hits it. Boo for stupidly slow-casting cleric
nukes, but hooray for shaman dots.
It's a little strange that I'm the only one in the zone when the mob dies.
I link the loot to my relieved groupmates: Glyphed Prayer Ring AC 25 STR
10 STA 10 CHA 10 WIS 20 INT 20 AGI 5 HP 160 MANA 160 ENDUR 160 SV
FIRE 10 SV DISEASE 17 SV POISON 18 Spell shield: +5% Effect:
Regeneration VI. Two people already have this ring and the warrior was, in
fact, being botted by the rogue, so after I rez there are only three of us
to roll on the ring. On a 200-500 roll, the monk rolls a 236 and the rogue
rolls a 280, so I feel pretty good. In fact, I roll a 390 and happily loot
it. Nice upgrade from my Ring of Immobilization. This also bumps me over
7K hitpoints finally. I still need to get Natural Durability to bump that
up even further.
The rogue is a little disappointed - he's been trying to get this ring for
himself for quite a while. I assure him I'll always be willing to help. As
annoying as these mobs are to farm, the loot is fantastic.
That kind of sums up Gates of Discord as a whole. Stupidly difficult to get
to, stupidly difficult to recover from wipes, mobs that do massive DPS, loot
that's on par with Time loot. It's not as fun as I'd hoped - but I have to
admit, I'm happy with the loot so far. We'll have to see what the future
holds; perhaps I'll be yearning for a new breastplate soon. =)
--
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
Archon of Rodcet Nife
Silent Tempest
<- Index
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!