What's your definition of a bad raid? It can be many and varied. I
remember my first official raid... on Mistmore Castle. We were a bunch of
noobs that had no idea what we were doing. The trains were legendary. When
mobs got to low health, we'd let them wander away. We actually never did
make it inside the castle. We did manage to die quite a few times.
As unpleasant as that experience sounds, it wasn't half-bad from my
perspective. Just going on a raid was a thrill for me. And I learned an
awful lot about how raids were run.
Aside from that, about the most frustrating raid I've been on was a Gore
raid we tried when I was still in Avengers of Honour. Over and over again
we attacked Gore. Over and over again we wiped. We really weren't sure
what we were doing wrong. After four tries we gave up. A manaburn team had
been patiently waiting on the sidelines; when we indicated that we were
done, they swooped in and killed Gore in seconds. That was rubbing salt in
our wounds. The manaburn team was actually quite gracious about the whole
thing, and even gave us one of Gore's drops - a haste belt.
A raid where I, myself, performed very badly was again an Avengers of Honour
raid in Chardok to get the Iksar Betrayer. I was really bad that day; I
gambled that a Complete Heal would hit the Main Tank before he died, and
lost. Then when someone began yelling at me for letting the Main Tank die,
I yelled back instead of healing the new Main Tank. He too died, and the
raid wiped. I learned a lot - duck out, don't gamble; don't get distracted.
But I had made a bad impression on quite a few people, which eventually came
to a head a couple of weeks later.
But that's another story. =)
Last night I log in. Normally I can tell by guild chat and chatter in the
cleric channel whether we're actively raiding. My initial impression is
that we are not, which surprises me because it's 8:30pm Eastern. When I ask
if we're raiding, I'm told yes, get to Earth. As I make my way (I'm at my
bind point in PoM, so I have to faithstone to Qeynos and run from there), I
find that we have once again attempted to spawn the Arbiter of Earth. We've
been trying for over a week and have failed. This time the officers
/petitioned, and my guild leader is talking with a GM right now. I can
predict what the outcome will be, though, and so it proves: the GM can do
nothing but provide feedback to the developers about how bugged Earth is
right now. Almost as soon as I zone into Earth, the announcement goes out:
get to Air, we are killing Xegony.
This is exciting news. Last time we tried Xegony, we got her down to 19%
before wiping due to an add of one of her guards. We've been eager to give
it another try, but we always seemed to be short of clerics. Sunday we had
plenty of clerics, but only one chanter. Today we have lots of both, so
we're gonna give it another go.
As I make my way to Air, I do a /who all on the druid guildie of mine who is
also bound in PoM. He's not online. Reluctantly I bind myself right
outside of Air. Just as well, perhaps; I was making little progress on the
armor quests, and being bound in PoM can be a real liability at times.
One of the SK's announces that a Vox raid is being organized. Dang; I
really want to send Marrtuk on one of those. Not because I want his epic -
I can't imagine asking people to attend an hours-long raid in the old Plane
of Air just so I can get an epic I would immediately bag - but because
Monual only got in on one successful Vox / Naggy raid. I want to experience
more of what it's like to kill those guys. Oh well, another time.
We zone in to the new Plane of Air and slowly begin dying. A couple of
people duel each other; most of the rest die to the white suit of armor that
gets pulled to camp. This process takes a while. I pass the time by
trying to sell my Boots of Flowing Slime in the market channel. The price
on these things is amazing - evidently the drop rate was nerfed in Cazic
Thule, so they're extremely rare. When I checked in the bazaar, I saw
prices ranging from 110K to 125K. So in that context, 100K should seem
cheap, neh? I've been trying to sell them for a few days. A few nibbles,
but no sale yet. Oh well. Eventually we get our corpses summoned up to
Xegony Isle and rezzed. I get there about halfway through the process.
We are deep in discussions about healing strategy. Nothing major will be
changed. We have more clerics than last time, so we lengthen the chain
accordingly. I'm real hopeful; mana shouldn't be a problem this time.
There's quite a few administrative details to work out. Who to send tells
to if we need a mod rod. Who to send tells to if we need twitching. Who to
send tells to if we somehow get AE'd. Oh, and don't get AE'd. Positioning.
Everyone got a mount? Good. The cleric that is first in the chain wants to
know when he should start the chain. As soon as the incoming message is
displayed, he's told. The cleric that is after me in the chain sends me a
tell asking that I put her name in all caps so that it stands out. I
comply.
All is good; we've done this before. Full of anticipation, we pull Xegony.
Alas, *just* as Xegony gets pulled, one of the clerics in the chain goes
linkdead. The chain does not compensate; there is an ominously long pause.
Too long; the main tank dies within a minute. Gamely we try to use the
Rampage Tank; he does a good job of acquiring aggro before Xegony can kill
too many clerics. Alas, the Crowd Control people, upon hearing that the
Main Tank had died 60 seconds into the fight, kind of give up. Adds swarm
the clerics. I DA, run a long way away, DB, then sit and camp.
I log on Marrtuk, who is camped in Echo Caverns at the Taskmaster. This is
great XP for my 47 pally. While waiting for the okay to log on, I pull an
undead slave and put it out of its misery. I am quickly told to log back
in, and after finishing off the skellie, I do that.
The cleric channel is full of recrimination; know your place in the chain,
including who is before you. In a way, this was just bad timing; if we'd
run through the chain a couple of times, everyone would have already been
familiar with the order. As it was, since this happened exactly at the very
beginning, we hadn't yet familiarized ourselves with our exact positions in
the chain. Still, we should have made certain to know who was before us in
the chain without having to have gone through the chain.
All right, time to regroup. We reform, rebuff, med up, get into positions.
Xegony is pulled. Alas, the Rampage Tank is AFK. He dies. I'm not certain
what happens, but Xegony loses aggro on the MT. She moves towards the
clerics. The MT manages to reacquire aggro, but not before the clerics get
AE'd. We scream for cures. We try to reposition ourselves out of AE range,
but this is a disaster waiting to happen. The Main Tank is gamely trying to
move Xegony back into position, but in doing so moves out of range of the
clerics who have tried to move out of AE range. The Main Tank dies. Again,
I DB, DA, camp. It's a race this time; Xegony kills the cleric next to me
just as I get out.
Back on Marrtuk, I see that the Taskmaster is up. I pacify the nearby
skellies and pull him. The battle takes a while, and in the meantime I wait
for the call to log back on. Finally I get it, and I finish off the TM and
camp.
I miss guildchat during all of that, so I'm not certain how the MT lost
aggro. And really, it's not important for me to know. I get ready to heal.
We go through the usual; rebuff, med up. As we're medding, I suddenly get
hit by Xegony's AE. I turn around, and there she is, merrily beating on the
cleric support staff. Again I DA, DB, camp. Back on Marrtuk, the cleric
channel is full of irritated chatter. Evidently one of the druids got a
little too close to Xegony trying to distance herself from the cleric camp.
Once again, I log back on Monual. We rez, rebuff, the usual. This is not a
trivial process; it takes a while for people to build up mana for it all.
As we're medding, I see in guild chat, "Xegony in CC." I turn and see CC
folks running straight for us. Behind them is Xegony. Evidently one of the
wizards, after getting buffed in the cleric camp, lagged badly trying to get
back to the Crowd Control camp. He lagged right into Xegony aggro range.
For the fourth time I DA, DB, and camp. This is getting ridiculous. I do
get cheered in the cleric channel as the only cleric who has managed to
survive every botched attempt. I get told to log back on, and I do.
Alas... Xegony got hit by someone's damage shield. The first wave of adds
spawned. Those adds have island-wide aggro. I'm dead the instant I log on.
So much for my spotless record.
I arrive at my bind point outside of Air, extremely annoyed. So are the
guild officers. It's getting late, and everyone is frustrated beyond
belief, so they wisely decide to call off the raid.
This was our worst raid attempt ever. We kept wiping because of stupid
reasons. We did not get one good attempt at Xegony. We can kill her, I
*know* we can - if we can just stop doing stupid things.
I decide not to bother waiting for the graveyard. I log on Marrtuk and take
out my frustrations on the Taskmaster camp. This place is about as good XP
as a soloing 47 pally can get. I'm getting a little over 1 percent XP per
kill, and these guys are easy to kill. I'm never in any danger. Oh, a
couple of times I get an undead slave and the Taskmaster at the same time,
but that's why Mithaniel Marr gave me Lay on Hands. The XP flies by, and
the frustration slowly fades into a dull kind of contentment.
Suddenly a serverswide announcement is made. Want to help beta-test the
Lost Dungeons of Norrath? Go to this web site to sign up. Hmm. I alt-tab
out of EQ and bring up the web page. I alt-tab back and forth between
killing skellies and filling out the beta application. I complete the form
and am told to check my inbox in the coming weeks to see if I was accepted.
Cool; I'd love to be the guy everyone curses at when they discover bugs in
LDON. "Fire the QA staff!"
Marrtuk is approaching 48, so I bear down. Finally he dings. I decide to
stay for one more Taskmaster spawn. This turns out to be fortunate timing
in many ways - just as I'm fighting this last TM, my KEI fades away. And
when the TM dies, he drops a snake organ, his rare drop. Cool - I now have
two. One more and I can get the Enduring Breath amulet from Katta, which
will be useful for when I eventually go soloing in The Grey.
I run back to Shadowhaven and make my way to PoK. I /ooc that I'm donating
for KEI, but no one responds. It is pretty late, after all. I camp out
Marrtuk and log on Monual. I zone into Air and attempt to rez myself.
Oops - corpse is too old. I completely forgot that time spent on an alt
will decrement the rez timer. Oh well... I'm still almost two full yellows
into 65. I can eat a few deaths. I don't even really get irritated;
dinging 48 on Marrtuk still gives me a feeling of accomplishment. When he
hits 49 I'll get a bunch of new spells, so I have that to look forward to.
So a really bad raid, followed by a useful XP session on my alt. Through in
getting in a beta application for LDoN, and overall it wasn't a bad EQ day.
Coulda been better, though. Shoulda been better. Next time, Xegony, next
time.
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
Archon of Rodcet Nife
Silent Tempest
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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!