Well, I must say I'm pleased by Umbriel's advancement in City of Heroes.
She's up to level 32 now (out of a max of 50). CoH has become my
leisure-time activity, because it sure is a lot more fun - I still enjoy
jumping far and wide. I can leap hundreds of yards in a single bound and
it's a blast. In fact, when I log on Monual, my first instinct is to try
and jump so I can get to Time more quickly. Alas, that doesn't quite work
out.
I took a small break from EverQuest. I didn't stop completely playing the
game, just logging in a lot less often than usual. I started doing other
things with my evening, and playing CoH when I wanted to mess around online.
Still, I want to keep active in EQ, so I've made a concerted effort to log
on every night during raids. I'd complete the raid, then log back off to
play CoH or something. It's a fair compromise, and keeps me active while
preventing me from burning out.
My return to full-time active status coincided with my guild's marked
progress in Gates of Discord. I went on one Uqua raid where we ran out of
time but were making good progress. Our guild had been gutted by a string
of long-time people quitting the game altogether; in fact, one of our
guildleaders decided to hang it up. I'll miss that because he provided a
mature presence amongst the officers, and was a steady hand during the worst
of times.
So we had to recruit lots of people and get them flagged and geared. We've
got Time down to a one-day clearing, and new recruits load up on gear. If
you think this is an opportunity for someone to take advantage of us, well,
it's already happened. A cleric recruited with us, got flagged for Kod'taz,
got a few pieces of Time gear, then ebayed and laughed at us. Mostly (and
surprisingly, to me) the people in our guild didn't care. It's not like
there's a lot we can do about it, and it's a price we're willing to pay to
get our numbers back up. We do take satisfaction out of the fact that he
quit just before we beat Uqua, so he missed an opportunity on getting that
flag.
Oh, Uqua? Yeah. As is customary for guild-firsts, it seems, I wasn't
logged on the night we finally beat Uqua. Subsequently I've logged on for
raids only to find we're raiding Qvic, which I can't get to. And the next
time we scheduled a raid was a Saturday night when I had plans with friends.
There might have been a time when I would have cancelled those plans to play
EQ, but it's certainly not now. I go out and have a good time and the guild
beats Uqua again.
So I keep at it. Monday, Ikkiniz 2. Tuesday, Qvic, which means I play CoH
that night. Wednesday, Time cleared in one go - an SK recruit gets two
items that one night, adding about 400hps to his total.
Thursday, Uqua.
I log in early and make my way through Kod'taz. Since the revamp, this is a
lot less scary than usual. I make it to Yxxta without breaking a sweat. A
few people are there already, so I sit and relax. I get a tell from a druid
who was experimenting with the golem riddles on the other side of Yxxta and
wants to know if I can go rez her. Sure, I say, and zone back out so I can
run to the other Yxxta zone line in Kod'taz. Alas, I run into the see-invis
wandered. I get stunned, then get interrupted twice trying to cast Divine
Aura. Down I go. Rats.
The druid drags me back to the Yxxta zone line. There are, alas, no other
rezzers at the raid yet, so I wait about ten minutes until another cleric
rezzes me. While looting my corpse, a wizard in the guild shouts about an
incoming train. I'm looting so I don't see the message. He stops and dies
within sight of the zone-line, and yells at me for not zoning and causing
him to die. I appreciate the fact that he ate a death keeping me from being
trained, so I don't argue back. Once again I try to make it to the other
zone line and rez the druid, who then evacs us back to the raid.
By this time more people are here, so we begin forming groups. Quite a few
people have come out of the woodwork now that we're making progress again.
I'd complain about fair-weather guildies, except the timing of my own break
from and return to EverQuest appears to put me in the same category. =/
We zone in and begin clearing. We really seem to have the clearing part
down; even with the nasty zone-wide AE that drops our stats way way down, we
clear all the way to the oven. This is not trivial; imagine your stats
reduced to pre-Kunark levels while fighting GoD mobs. We had to learn to
adjust our tactics. Fortunately each of these mobs drops an item that
provides immunity to the zone-wide AE. The downside is that if you die, the
item disappears. Still, they are useful trinkets, and early on I manage to
grab one for myself.
We get to the small room with two doors. It's a trap, and if you trigger
it, the entire raid gets blasted for high amounts of fire damage. We also
have this part down pretty well, and get past the trap without triggering
it. I've been blasted more than enough times to know how frustrating this
part can be, and am relieved to get out of the trap and to move on.
More mobs, sometimes coming three or four at a time while we try to keep
tanks with 125 STR alive. During the clearing, I manage to ding an AA
point. For someone who's played steadily for three years, I have amazingly
few AA points. I buy Advanced Healing Adept 3, which adds 10% to all my
heals. One of the basic, basic Cleric AA's to get, and I'm only just
getting it. I haven't even begun Natural Durability, Innate Enlightenment,
or Spell Casting Subtlety yet. Y'see, even three years ago the pure XP
grind wasn't my favorite thing. Far more fun it was to do silly quests or
camp rare spawns for items (man, that +10 WIS shield was so uber back in the
day) or become a GM smith or level up an alt or any of a thousand other
things besides get into a group and kill the same mobs for hours. I don't
regret my play style, but there is a price to pay compared to those who have
grinded out the AA at the picnic tables in Fire.
Now we get to the twins. Two mobs that have to be killed simultaneously.
We split the raid into two and take them each on. Early on I get hit by an
AE that drains my mana. Another cleric asks me why I'm not with them, in a
place that's safe from the AE. Well, it's because I've never been this far
in Uqua and I don't know of this magic hiding place. I can't find them in a
quick search, and instead concentrate on healing the tank as soon as my mana
regenerates. This seems to work, as at one point I draw healing aggro from
the mob and it decides to come kill me. Not sure how that happened.
I get rezzed back by the fire trap. We have yet more mobs to pull and kill.
I've lost my protection against the stat-killing AE, but I'm told that soon
we'll disable the zone-wide AE. After clearing the trash, we move into a
room and begin pulling the guardians to the main chamber. One of our monks
says, "Bad pull" and four mobs come and kill the tanks lickety-split. With
no tanks, we can't keep them under control and we wipe.
I feel a few seconds of despair - the one time I can make it, and this is
the time we fail - but then I read in guildchat that the necro's were able
to Feign Death and live. They rez a cleric, who rezzes the rest of us
clerics, and we rez everyone else. Hooray; back on track.
We kill the rest of the guardians, and with that, the zonewide AE goes away.
In celebration I cast Antidote on all of my groupmates (the zonewide AE
could be cured by two castings of Antidote, but it was a fairly pointless
gesture as the zonewide AE would go off a minute later). Now with full
stats, we're ready to take on the final mob.
The preparation for this encounter makes my head spin. A complex strategy
is explained to us. Man, no wonder we've had such troubles with this
encounter; there are so many things to do. I ask a couple of questions
until I'm pretty sure I understand my assigned duties.
Finally, a monk gets told to activate the script, which locks the zone and
prevents anyone else from joining the raid. A golem spawns - A Devastating
Construct. I heal the tank on the construct while staying near the final
boss in this zone - an untargetable mob named Vrex Barxt Qurat. Another
tank is also standing right next to him, waiting.
As the Construct's hitpoints drop, Barxt suddenly becomes targetable and
attacks the warrior. I'm one of four clerics who's been assigned to start a
Complete Heal Chain on this tank, so I switch targets and fall into the
familiar rhythm of the CHC. As usual, we have some slight difficulty
adjusting to a four-person CHC because our endless Time clearings had
thoroughly ingrained no-pause CHC's into us, and the two seconds we need to
wait between heals feels like an eternity.
Most of the raid is on the Construct still, hoping to kill it before it
becomes untargetable again. When Barxt's hitpoints drop to a certain point,
both he and Construct become untargetable and a dozen mobs spawn and begin
attacking. Fortunately these are mezzable and/or kiteable and really not so
difficult to deal with if we're prepared. The Construct, alas, was at 0%
when he became untargetable, but not dead. Oh well, he'll die quickly.
I run around trying to heal off-tanks and kiters. I get aggro once, but am
able to channel a Divine Aura. This part is controlled chaos, and we do
manage to kill all the mobs. Once again I get ready on the warrior fighting
Barxt.
When the last of the mobs die, Barxt and the Construct become targetable.
As predicted, the Construct dies very quickly. The raid moves in on Barxt,
but we're told to watch our DPS. I don't really understand why, but we
don't want Barxt to get too low. There's another wave of adds to deal with,
and we want to be ready.
At 40% health on Barxt, we're told to stop attacking. The next wave of adds
spawn, and we deal with them easily. During this, one of the officers
mentions he saw a message flash across his screen that there are only
fifteen minutes left in the raid. I don't know if I believe him; one of the
things that drives me up the wall is that a significant portion of the guild
thinks it's hilarious to constantly lie. This has not been a form of humor
that appeals to me. Amongst the common jokes is to panic people into
thinking something bad is happening, or linking false loot after a mob dies.
So this message about fifteen minutes left, I don't know if I believe it or
not. I decide to ignore it for now, since we seem to be nearly done anyway.
The last of the twelve mobs die and we return our attention to Barxt. We
lose the main tank - not really sure why, we'd had no problems keeping him
alive up until then - but before we can switch, Barxt dies and we get the
message that we've beaten the expedition. Yay!
I find the spirit, hail it, and get my quest piece. I then look at the
loot. One piece is a breastplate:
Nice, right? Well, with everyone having Time breastplates, the officers
have problems giving this one away. I have to shake my head; I agonized
over getting a new breastplate for eighteen months. Now that I finally have
a good breastplate, suddenly excellent breastplates are practically rotting.
Finally, when no one puts their name in, our guildleader starts naming names
of people who should go in on the breastplate. One of those named is a
cleric who doesn't yet have a Time BP, and it gets awarded to her very
quickly.
Now, this is nice. A better focus effect than my Time BP. I shrug and put
in my name. I don't have high hopes - I've missed quite a few raids
recently, and my participation outside of raids is nil. So imagine my
surprise when it gets awarded to me. =) Happily I loot it and put it on.
I then try a few heals but no one's damaged, and my attempt to self-inflict
damage meets with limited success. Ah well, another time.
I log off, very pleased. I'm flagged for Qvic, the Monty Haul of GoD zones.
And, I have to admit, that was a fun raid event. EQ is always more fun when
you're winning. =) Nothing in CoH (so far) compares to the tactics,
strategy, and teamwork required by a successful high-end EQ raid encounter.
CoH doesn't come close; it's all about wading in and blasting until things
are dead.
I honestly have no clue what our next step in GoD progression is. I'll have
to do some research. And this time, I'll be there to help the guild figure
it out. With Omens of War looming, we still need to beat GoD. And I'm
looking forward to the journey. Even after all these years, EQ is still fun
for me.
--
-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!