Our guild was in Ssra last night, doing insignias for the *last* time. Most
everyone has their Emp key but there were a few stragglers / new recruits
that didn't have their insignia. So we pulled mobs for five hours, and in
the process I dinged 63 (been slacking terribly on levels while I
concentrate on smithing).
Right at the end, after midnight, Blood spawned. A quick look in our guild
alliance channel showed 31 folks. Not enough to do Emp, but Blood still has
some loot we could use. Besides, we're still new to the Emp room and it
would be valuable CC experience if nothing else. So after the officers
dickered for a bit, the call went out. Most everyone was in Ssra anyway; we
waited for a few more folks to show up, then ran into the Emp room.
Two chanters, three clerics. Fortunately Blood is a wimp. A monk and a SK
experimented with a pulling method - try training Blood and its surround
mobs from one corner to the other and hope that Blood resets first and can
be singly pulled. Well, the snakes always reset first, and after a few
iterations, we set up CC and pulled the old-fashioned way.
It didn't go that well. Crowd Control was having a hard time of it - there
simply weren't enough healers to go around. I responded to a dozen cries
for healing help while trying to keep an eye on the Main Tank. I had to use
DB and DA during the battle as I drew aggro, but in the end Blood went down.
A chanter was down and a cleric was down and Emp was due to spawn, so loot
had to be awarded *fast*. Two drops: a veil and a mace. I really didn't
have a lot of time to pay attention to stats, since I was frantically
rezzing and healing. More folks kept dying, so it was an endless cycle. I
did take one second to click on the link to the mace. Seemed to have some
nice stats, CLR DRU SHM, so I put my name in for it. Officer was screaming
for folks to put their names in fast, and finally said, "If you don't tell
me in the next ten seconds that you want this loot, you're psklyg'z." (I
have the badword filter on.) This was soon followed by "Grats Monual mace."
Since we were in a rapidly sinking ship, I chose enlightened self-interest.
I ran over and clicked on the corpse and quickly looted the mace. It was
fortunate that I did this, since one of the CC tanks chose that moment to
die and the snakes decided it was time to make some cleric steaks. The
wizards were screaming "AE TL INC!", someone else shouted "EMP!" and I was
trying to kite the mobs away since both DB and DA were down. Alas, I didn't
last long enough to get hit by the Area of Effect Translocate to Bind. Down
I went, losing 63 in the process.
Eventually I made my way back to Ssra and got my corpse summoned. After
rezzing myself and looting, I sat down and finally, finally took a good look
at what I had looted:
Same MANA and WIS. Mace has 100 HP; epic has 10 STA. Epic has 50 resist
points spread across all resists; Mace has 50 resist points split between
disease and poison. Mace is a better melee weapon, but if I'm going to
melee, I'll summon my Hammer of Souls (1HB, 14/18, effect is a 150dd proc).
Epic is neat-looking and is a good light source. Mace looks exactly like a
Fine Steel Mace and wielding it makes me night-blind.
In other words, I think I may have made a mistake in asking in on this loot.
I looked up the effect on the Mace. Desperation is a hate reducer, dropping
my hate by 100 points. In other words, if I cast a CH and draw mob aggro, I
should be able to beat on the mob with this mace until it procs, at which
point I'll be dropped way down on the hate list and it will go back to
beating on the tank like it should.
However, I just can't imagine this being terribly useful. Any tank worth
his salt can draw aggro off of me relatively quickly. I just can't imagine
a situation where it would be helpful to me.
Does anyone else have this mace? Do you find the proc helpful at all? What
utility do you get out of it? I just don't see any practical use for the
effect, and can't imagine why SOE would add such a useless proc to such a
high-end item.
I *do* appreciate the strength bonus, so if nothing else I'll keep this
equipped so I don't get encumbered so much. Still, I can't help shake the
feeling that I used up a valuable loot chance on something that is of almost
no use to me. I'm hoping y'all can tell me something I'm overlooking about
the effect.
--
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
High Priest of Rodcet Nife
Winter's Light
Drinal server
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