Logged in the afternoon in time for a Klandicar run. Yeah, even got a quick ride out to WW. Made it to the raid no sweat and got all buffed up. I was grouped with Seyah and Krushh, a rare treat, cause you get to know what is going on. Krushh and Ripert and then Seyah zoned out on a call and I followed. Remember the real slow zone loading problem? Bit me in the ass. Somehow a named dragon was parked on top of the DN zone out and I was almost dead before I had the UI back. In fact I died before I could really do anything. Since FFA is always a race, Ripert and I watched the dragon kill from the top of the hill, not buffed, so we couldn?t even get close. I tried to shoot him some, but, the AoE is tough with no resist. Bitter.
After that, we farmed in Ssra some. Still need a Com1 key and the Rhags were due up late Saturday night. However, the guild was itching to raid, so the farmers were pulled out and we did the Junk Dragon again. Meanwhile Aurore had Ssra to itself and killed the Rhags. Bitter.

Logged in the afternoon in time for a Klandicar run. Yeah, even got a quick ride out to WW. Made it to the raid no sweat and got all buffed up. I was grouped with Seyah and Krushh, a rare treat, cause you get to know what is going on. Krushh and Ripert and then Seyah zoned out on a call and I followed. Remember the real slow zone loading problem? Bit me in the ass. Somehow a named dragon was parked on top of the DN zone out and I was almost dead before I had the UI back. In fact I died before I could really do anything. Since FFA is always a race, Ripert and I watched the dragon kill from the top of the hill, not buffed, so we couldn?t even get close. I tried to shoot him some, but, the AoE is tough with no resist. Bitter.
After that, we farmed in Ssra some. Still need a Com1 key and the Rhags were due up late Saturday night. However, the guild was itching to raid, so the farmers were pulled out and we did the Junk Dragon again. Meanwhile Aurore had Ssra to itself and killed the Rhags. Bitter.

Wyture, a druid who used to be EE, posted something today. It made me upset. She left the guild because she thought they were biased against druids. She could never get a group, so she figured it was her class. She thought druids were inferior to the other classes in the high end game.

Ok, so why am I getting all the groups, all the xp, and cool loot on raids? Am I an extra special druid? Or is it that I work my butt off putting together a group every damn time? I am so tired of people complaining that things are not handed to them on a silver platter. Finavar and I spend hours and hours discussing tactics. He researches new places to go. I figure out what classes we need. We go. We die ALOT. But we don't sit around whining in guild chat that no body wants to group with us.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but it's the person, not the class. If you can't get a group, you probably couldn't get one as a cleric or an enchanter, either. At least, not with the same people more than once.

Don't whine at me! Don't ask me to do for you what is hard enough doing for myself. I do get a lot of help from the guild. More than I deserve. But I don't expect them to do the work for me! I (with Finavar's help, of course) organized the raid that got me my Jade Reaver. And Finavar's. And Heng's, too. O, and one for the guild bank. And then I went back to help some other people get theirs. As for groups, I make my own. Nobody asks me to join their group, ever. But many people ask to join mine. Stop whining at me, get off you butt, and get it done.

Bianca

We are trying to make the next step in power to hit harder targets. Right now, we are farming NToV when we get a shot at any of the named and trying to get ST keys when we get that shot too. We are going to need primal weapons from ST to have the DPS needed to break into the high-end PoP zones. We are also going to need gear from VT to handle the 2K AoE and other nice features of those encounters. To get into VT, you need to be able to kill the Emperor Ssra. But, Ssra and VT shard farming hasn?t gotten the attention that NToV has, probably because they are ?harder? (i.e., you can?t just zone in and kill shit, you need to sit in long camps getting keys) . But, now the push is being stepped up, yay.

Today was a Server Reset Day, which always gets us rangers flushed out and about looking for FFAs. PE had beaten us to NToV (again) and none of the first brood were up (ST key holds). PoI targets were also engaged, so we headed for the Shade in PoN. Enroute we got information that Rhag1 was up in Ssra and if we hurried, we could take a shot at him. Ssra is currently a highly contested zone with a couple of other guilds our size trying to make the move up another notch in power.

Who comes up with these names? I know they are trying to add to the flavor of the game, but I have trouble with Latin rooted English and then EQ throws Rhag Zhezum at you. Colloquially known as Rhag1 since he (it?) spawns on the first floor. He is a punk, perma-rooted, no AoE, slowable. I used Trueshot on him and hit a new high crit of 516 with acrylia arrows. ¾ of the way through the fight Krushh says not to use offensive disciplines because killing this guy spawns Rhag2 (Rhag Mozdezh) and he is harder. Great. Too late.

As it turns out, that was fine since it took us long enough to clear to Rhag2 that TS was back for me. This time I used mage summoned arrows and they didn?t hit near as hard. We had a mage in our group and she mistook an exclamation I made about no arrows (referring to the emperor fight since you can?t make band damage arrows) as that I was out of arrows. She gave me a quiver and 6 stacks of arrows. I felt compelled to use them (also, acrylia arrows are in short supply and expensive).

Rhag2 isn?t slowable, but still went down pretty quick. The loot from both was good even though there was nothing for me personally. We definitely need to get on these guys? dance card on a more regular basis. Although I can see how tough it will be since there were TWO other raids in the zone at the same time, over 150 people. I was stunned the zone didn?t crash.

Killing Rhag2 spawns Arch Lich Rharg'Zadune, but you need a key to get to him and no one on the raid has that key as yet. IMHO, just as well as it was approaching 1am EDT, late enough for this little ranger.

I was starting to think this wasn?t going to happen. We have been grinding hard towards this goal for 2 weeks, trying to squeeze in some exp time around the raids here and there. Last week was really busy and we had to end one exp session at 3:30am while still 8% or so away. Monday night we had a sweet exp group in the castle of PoD when the guild decided that they wanted come and do Grummas. 2% from level, gah! Some after two wipes, we are 3% away and it?s 1:30am. Time to pack it in.

Tuesday night we got an early start because it is guild night and we are committed to doing that. So Bi begins the pickup group creation while I whip up some grub. The group goes together pretty quick and since the top of the castle is PoD is camped, we head to the factory in PoI. Aurore just wiped on the Behemoth, but the factory is open. You need a feign death puller to do the golems. It is a must. Best we could do though was a GoB 53rd level SK. That didn?t work so well. She died on every pull. Then, we tried pulling with a 62 druid, that didn?t work either.

After a shuffle of personnel, we find the castle is open and we are ready to give that a try. I am vibrating in place because I can see this not working either, it is taking a while to get everything lined up and guild night raid hour is approaching. Finally, the people are in place and we run out to the castle, pull it clear and run in. Then Irislilly (cleric extraordinaire) comes by and buffs us. Virtue sure makes this camp a little easier especially when the cleric is a little on the low side. So, we get started in earnest about 9pm, still 2% from level with a lot of static in guildchat about raiding. We are going to level before any raiding.

Three uneventful hours later, we have made 15% into 58, plenty of padding to secure the level. Woot.

As you can guess from the title, this was not a successful run. I was pretty jazzed about this raid even though it ganked my exp group in the same area right short of level 58. GoB has tried Grummas a few times and failed. It seemed like confidence was high on the tactics this time. Killing Grummas and hailing the planar projection afterwards will get you flagged for the Crypt of Decay, a cool zone.

You start by killing Gryme the fat biker dude who drops a No Rent key that opens the castle proper. Then you kill trash and then Aramin the Spider Lord, more trash clearing to the guardians near the crypt. Once there, you have about 12 spawn points to keep clear with very, very short timers.

We had a full 72-person raid with several extras hanging with us for flags. We were going to go in level order for flags until all 72 were used. Assuming we won. Which didn?t happen.

As we were all set, a paladin wandered too close to the bottom of the ramp and agroed Grummas. Well, so much for planning, CHARGE! It almost worked too. The guards from he back room really blew it for us. We had Grummas down to 15% at wipe.

Reset. Lots of pissing and moaning. Some personnel changes and in 30 minutes we start clearing our way back in. Confidence was still high. We almost got him last time and we weren?t even really ready. This time, for sure, we would get him. Except, it was getting late and people were, IMO not very focused. Lots of chatting and emoting and such.


We get to the top of the ramp and rebuff, but for some reason, stuff just is taking too long, repops keep interrupting the buffing and all. Eventually, we charge. Bad idea. Repops right off the bat, clerics all die early, quick wipe. We barely dented him. I camped at 1:30am with Rez effects. Oh well?

At the end of a LONG weekend with the boys we need a break from reality and decide to play some. Not on more than a few seconds when Krushh gets on looking for action (you know how BHE can be). We decide to go do Vindi for an opening act. Man, I remember touch and go kills on him, now, he went down with 0 or 1 deaths. And fast. No breastplate though, boots and head is all. Still early (9pm), we decide that the Junk Dragon needs dead to get most of the rest of us factory flags. Excellent! I have been wanting this flag. Access to one of the two remaining Tier 1 exp areas that don?t take personnel that you aren?t going to get in a pick up group (at least, we are not).
Clearing to the dragon is a pain, very similar to Follow the Gnome in CT. The long march was only relieved by the stowaway that got accidentally invited to the raid by being LFG at the PoI zone in as we were getting organized. He was a complete ass and was eventually desentioned to the zone in by our wizzie crew after mouthing off to Krushh and breaking several mezzes.

The Dragon was not a tough fight for GoB either; I used Trueshot on him and only got to swing half a dozen blows after it wore off before he died. The loot was good, if you are a dress wearer. Nothing much for me, but the flag was what I wanted.

Gah, another day w/o EQ, I think I am getting the shakes. I have a million things to do tonight to prepare for a busy weekend with the boys, but I *will* get on tonight. Mallo has posted a teaser about a raid. Undoubtedly, it will be another obscure high end mob in a zone no one goes to where we will wipe spectacularly. I am good with that. Taking a crack at the boss of Akheva the other night was cool even though it wasn't the tightest run raid and looked doomed from the start. I put up with the politics and BS because this is the ONLY way Finavar will ever get to see highend content. I remember when I was starting out in EQ and Bi was telling me that her highest character was 25 after a few years of playing. I thought that 25-30 was fine and was sad that there was some serious high-end stuff like Vox and Nagafen that I would never see. Then we got into this guild...and they don't raid punk crap like that. And the rest is history.

Ack, I have fallen off the boat and not updated in a week! I wish I had something interesting to report about our adventures, but there really isn't anything huge to report.

Friday we joined a GoB raid on NToV, convienently got a CotH right to Aary's pit, no two hours of pulling trash. YAY. PE was also in NToV, so we negotiated a plan where GoB when Left and PE went right. Frankly, they expected us to spend all night wiping to Vyemm leaving them free reign. Unfortunately for them, Vyemm went down by the numbers. As did Lady Mir, Koi, two other unremarkable dragons and finally Lady Nev. Lots of cool loot, none for us though :(. Oh well, there is always next Friday.

Sunday was one of those PAINFUL exp group nights where we had to dig out the pieces parts and band something together. It took 1 hour 35 minutes to get 6 people more or less qualified to turn oxygen into carbon dioxide in the same place and then to a fairly lame PoD camp. All in all, 3.5 hours of work and just 10% of level to show for it.

Bi has a ton of projects due this week, so we may not actually be on much sadly. I really want to level up to 58.

I need to finish up fletching. I have been putting it off because it's slow and expensive. But, I need to be able to make Acrylia arrows and Nightmarewood Compound Bows. So, Saturday afternoon I decided to try and trival the last arrow you can make from storebought components: Silver-tipped Steel-shafted arrows. They cost approximately 150pp for a set of stacks of components. And, if all goes well, you lose about 23pp on the sell back + 6pp per failure in the batch. The recipe trivials at 202. After that, only acrylia arrows (or bows) will be skillups. Bow are just too expensive to even contemplate and acrylia needs to be farmed and smithed.

So, click, click, click. After 3 hours, I made it from 192 to 200. I have no idea how many arrows I made. I burned 500pp, so it looks like roughly 3000 combines. All I noticed is that my eyes hurt, my wrist hurt and I think I am dumber for trying. Once I had 2 skillups in the same batch, once I went over 100 combines w/o a skillup. EQ is heartless, capricious and completely too time intensive. I averaged around 80 combines per skillup, I think.

Then, as a slap, I ran out of arrows on the first Prototype in last nights raid and that good for nothing mage never summoned me any arrows. Even though I gave his rogue many stacks. Ah well, some guys were never meant to be dresswearers... So, after we wipe on the 3rd Proto, I run and get arrow pieces and while waiting for a rez. Needless to say, I got a skillup in the first 5 combines. /sigh

Nothing too too exciting for the last couple of nights. No raids got off the ground, so we got a good chunk of 57 put down. Wednesday night we had a docks camp in PoN for about 3 hours. Solid work with a good enchanter allowed me to chain pull to my Turkish delight. It was going so well, we cleared all the wraiths near the docks and I couple get a good look at the spiders that I have been dying to kill (they drop the silk for Nightmarewood Bow strings). I used my new toy Bind Sight to explore the camp...no way. There is one spider that I think I can single pull. If I am wrong, I get three. All the other spawns are clear 2 pulls. We need a good monk (I have yet to meet a necro that would be comfortable FD pulling them and only one SK, though I admit that I haven't really met that many).

Anyway, I get talked down from the tower and get a good exp stretch in with no problems at all. We did get 2 SPs though, making them the second and third that I have seen drop in an exp group.

Thursday night was a late start because I loaded up my game PC with XP and had to reinstall EQ (7 CDs + the LoY and updates). The first 2.5 hours were PAINFUL. No other way to describe it. Gaerett was waiting for us (i.e., working on tradeskills) and all we needed was the cleric, slower, spare DPS deal). Bi set to work and got a Cleric straightaway. I go to group her up while Bi works on a slower. Into PoD, group her, she claims CCY and we head out there to hold the camp. All good. Gaerett gets KEI and then comes to help. Except he is a human, and it is night. So, back to the GY to find out that my UV sight spell is self-only. Oh well, he can just /follow me. While we were there, the cleric dies out at the castle and ignores group chat. We never find out why or how. Then she leaves the group.

OK, got to get the camp while Bi looks for another cleric. Well...someone had left a spider on the zone wall run to the castle. It dots me from an AMAZING range. So, I root it. Oh, so sorry, there are really 2 spiders. And a rat. Ranger Gate. F*CK. 30 minutes to get a rez. At least it's a 96%. OK, that camp is long gone anyways. We get RCY, no problem.

Again, spider problems. Between my run and me running Bianca out there, another 30 minutes go by. First pull, no problems. Second pull, 2, at least. Or chanter is 52, there is no way she is going to lock them down. So, I run to the zone. One is snared anyways. Run back, again. I get to camp, only this time they old mobs remembered me and I chain agroed the whole camp (8+). F*CK. Run to zone again. And this time zone.

More pulls. The chanter is very quiet. She manages to slow 2 out of 15 before Gaerett dies before the cleric can CH. Bianca, the DoT Queen next, of course. No evac for us. I lock the mob down and SoW the tanks. The chanter gates (never to be seen again).

After work/school, we had no responsibilites or things need done, so our April Fool's evening was spent online. We had one goal: level. 15% to go to 57. We need levels to take our characters to the next level. Already more than half the active raiders in the guild are flagged for Tier 2 if not higher. In order to continue to raid with the guild, we can't be more than one tier behind. Once we hit 60, they will flag us, so all that remains is grinding these last few levels out. Then, it is going to be AA time where we can really make our characters into our vision for them.

So, the evening started with a little side trip to UP to kill Rumblecrush and Doomshade on a GoB raid. That included a biazzare death of Finavar crossing ME (I really hate that zone). I got feared right as I near the zoneline and ran back out towards the zone. I hit the pillar repeatedly and got smacked by the Akevan once for 169, LOADING, PLEASE WAIT....

WTH? I should have had a fighting chance to get out of 3 mobs and hit the zoneline that was right there. I think I died to a bug, but it is not worth petitioning anything. Besides, Lorrelei was coming along behind and I got clicked back in in short order.

RC and Doom are not really a hard encounter for GoB these days, even for second team RLs. We did partially wipe on RC the first try because we were short on clerics and the healling on the tank didn't start soon enough. RC Flurries every round, so it didn't take long to burn through all the melees (death 2 for yours truly, not the way I wanted the day to go). But, we got back on track and put them down.

Afterwards we took Gaerett and headed to PoT to put together a PoP exp group to finish the grind to 57. Uncharacteristically, that went really well and we were off to an RCY camp in PoD in like 10 minutes. Buff and pull. This was a great camp. I had never been in the courtyard area, but this is tailored for grinding and by midnight both Bianca and I had Dinged. Yay. Now to find my new spell (Greater Healing -- 300 HPs, phffft).

Tonight, we will try to pad that level some since one NToV raid is usually good for -1% these days :)

Finally! This quest is finished. Ths quest is for a helm, only Rangers of Tunare need apply. It requires you to turn in the heads of 4 named giants. 3 from the arena in Kael and one from Wakening Lands near the Kael entrance. I got the 3 'hard' heads on one of the many faction runs in December. I was level 49 at the time and disappointed to learn that the turn-in won't be rewarded unless you are 55. Sigh. I needed the last giant head, but there was no hurry. Everything I passed through WL, I ran by the Frost Giant Overseer, waved, pointed out that he was on my 'list' and ran on into Kael.

Then, I was 55 and I felt it was time to mark him off my list. But this guy is 56, summons, hits for more than I can take, etc. I hate asking the guild for help, but since I would now be able to do the turn-in, I felt I could, in good conscious, ask. I had already done my research. I felt that a good high 50's group should be able to do him and if any were 'uber', it would only get easier. So, line up a cleric and an uber paladin for after a raid and go and check. No, not up. Damn. Well, he is up about 3/4 of the times I got through there, so next.

Nope, not next time. Or the time after that. Or, for weeks after that. Once even, as Bianca and I were checking, a group was pulling him. Danm. Finally, on the last day of spring break, just 17% shy of 57, he is up and uncamped. It was early on a Friday morning, but we managed to put together a team of Lorrelei, Kenelan (does this guy ever sleep?), Tals and Eliani. A side trip was required to rez Tals and Minagerie who wiped in Umbral Plains, probably because he was chatting with us. Tals and Eliani snuck across ME and CotHed us over, the easiest crossing of ME I have ever had. And one of three times that I crossed without training the zone bigtime. We had a little trouble finding Minagerie's corpse, but eventually all was good and Minagerie was safely gated off to her bind.

OK, next step is tricky. Tals, Bianca and Lorrelei are not KoS to CoV, but Kenelan and I are for sure Max KoS. And, Wuoshi is up (BTW, I think she is on my 'list' now). So, we setup for an immediate succor on porting. And a good thing since by the time my UI is up, I am already dotted I hear a pissed off Wuoshi. Poof the party succors. Except for me. /boogle Apparently, there is a very small chance that someone gets left on a succor. Of course, it's one of the KoS folks. Of course it's me. Well, not much to do but run for it. I had Form of the Great Wolf up, so I cast it and run hauled ass. Woushi chases for a bit, but since I didn't hit her, I don't get summoned and I get away. Woo Hoo. Zone to clear agro, zone back. All is good.

Mages cast pets, we get all buffed up and then run out to slay a giant. Except Bianca invised us for the run phase not knowing that would whack the pets. Damn. OK, reload. Ken and I kill the giants in the way, now there is no need to sneak.

OK, stand here, I will be back with one giant. Easy single pull and /wave goodbye to one Frost Giant Overseer. /Cheer and hugs all around.

Now, part two, the turn-in. I had been to PoG exactly once before with Bianca just to look around. I had my fingers crossed that Yaskel and his crew had not raided PoG this week and the Tunarean Earthmelder would be up. Luckly, he was. Turn-in done and:



Woo Hoo. Finally a decent head piece for this gimp ranger. OK, time to get out of here and get out on with the planned grind to 57. Except...I don't know where the door is. I was only here once and with Bianca, we just ported out. Now, I was by myself. Both my in-game map and my printed map didn't have an exit marked. Doh! OK, wait for Bi at the zone in. Now, port out. Yay.