With the Queen left on our plate from the night before, we picked up there. That was a little shaky at the start but settled down and the Queen kill itself went very well. Then it was off to Natimbi for my least favorite script of all time: The Cragbeast Queen. I hate her. She is immune to archery, proof against everything except piercing, AoE rampages, AoE snares, has insane regen and reflects most spells. This time I decided I was a hedge-wizard and light-weight healer. With rangers getting upgraded heals in the recent patch, I have focused on that skill lately and can now crit over 3K, so it's worth the effort. This is real handy because Bianca can concentrate on cures or keeping the MA up and I can patch heal the group.
After that it was Txevu again, to kill the easy minis again. 18.5 points, no loot.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Sunday, April 17th
Sunday night it we started off with the 2 Txevu easy minis and then it was time to try the King in RSS again. With our refined tactics we managed a pretty smooth kill. Grish had intended to do the Queen too, but a bunch of other folks must have been as tired as us and we lost the numbers to make a respectable try and we called it at about 11:00pm. 14.5 points, no loot.
Saturday, April 16th
Saturday is looked upon all across the land as the day of reward. We have toiled all week long and we expect to reap the benefits of a day of total slackitude. Alas, this was not to be. Bi had to do father maintenance as the wedding day approaches and his VISA card is still much in demand. My parents decended so my father could help me repair some storm damage on the house. By the time the kids were settles, dinner done, parents sent off, it was 8pm. Time to get a little exp grouping done and maybe an RSS group for runes and stuff.
Well, not so fast. We log in and the guild is in Qvic buffing for a raid. I was pissed. Last Saturday was blown with a full clear of PoTime (where I was whored out of a very rare TimeSpinner drop). It had therefore been two whole weeks since the exp meter had nudged upwards and had, in fact, edged lower with all the raid wipes.
Being a dick, I immediately send a tell to an officer along the lines of, "WTF? Isn't Saturday supposed to be an off night?" Keldora is such a sweetheart and possibly the nicest person I have met in EQ. She indicated that yes, it's supposed to be a night off, but people were begging for a raid. I don't remember what, exactly, my reply was. I was just trying not to kill the messenger. Bianca, also looking for an exp night, asked what we should do. Well, there is nothing for it but go. There are 40 or so Triune on and with one exception (besides us), they were all in Qvic. Raiding isn't manditory, but... we need a tank and a slower to do any meaningful exping and they are all in Qvic.
We arrive just as Mnat is pulled and we jump in and get grouped and buffed during the fight. Then Grish makes an announcement in the raid channel to the effect that is a short raid night to make folks happy and that no one is required to attend, etc., etc., feel free to leave. Well, as I have already observed, it's gonna be real hard to get a group with most of the potential folks here at the raid. In addition, the dick factor we would incure by leaving the raid after that kind of announcement. I think this did have an effect, and possibly, I wasn't the only one to complain. In any case, the target list was the 3 Qvic minis and CBQ before we were cut loose.
Determined to make the best of the situation, I had Bianca put together a group for exping while the raiding was in progress. The raid was done at 10:00pm and we were in camp in RSS at 10:30pm following the inevitable flailing about. We had a pretty strong team: Higgboth, Warble, Dawgrin and Lucman in addition to us, of course. We setup in the Riftseekers camp and cleared the whole area. From there you can get 3 names and we got each one a couple times. In fact the loot started to rot. All of us that didn't already have the RSS signet for the Anguish quest got our ring, I got a greater rune (Howl of the Predator), Higg and Dawgrin both got the 25AC augs (Flameshield Stone), Higg got the Bauble of Aggression Bianca got a priest class charm (Wailing Soulshard) that appears to be better then the PoP charm. Also, this was the first time we had exped in RSS. OMG, the exp is amazing. On the order of 5%AA per kill and we will killing fast. So, we fired up the EQ 6th anniversary quest potion (doubles exp for 36 or so min). Between 10:30pm and 1:30am I got 15AA. Just sick. Now we know where all those ober folk got their 1100 AAs, RSS. Good while you can get it, pity we will be lucky to ever get a group that good again.
About that time, I was falling asleep, as was Lucman and we decided to call it. We ran out the last of the potion time and ported out. About this time, so of the certifiable raiders in the guild decided to go to Qvic and await the mini respawn so we could get in some cheap bonus loot. For reasons I can't fathom in the light of day, I agreed to this. Actually, Bianca is hunting the fairly uncommon Qvic sleeves and wanted another shot at them. I had worked all day, played all night and was past exhausted. So, I told her, fine, go to the raid and when they get ready to pull names come and get me, I will be napping. I know how slow these things come together, so I laid down and was fast asleep. About 2:30, she woke me up and we spent the next hour kill minis and the requisite trash. Fortunately for me, I got the second HP augment in my quest to top the other server rangers. It's a pretty common drop that I have seen run up into the 50-70 neighborhood by INT casters. I refuse to pay more than 20 for something like that, so when Ptav dropped it, I bid 20 and got it. Fortunately, it's lore and probably all the other melee had that already.
So, our night finally ended in a port and /q at 3:30am.
Well, not so fast. We log in and the guild is in Qvic buffing for a raid. I was pissed. Last Saturday was blown with a full clear of PoTime (where I was whored out of a very rare TimeSpinner drop). It had therefore been two whole weeks since the exp meter had nudged upwards and had, in fact, edged lower with all the raid wipes.
Being a dick, I immediately send a tell to an officer along the lines of, "WTF? Isn't Saturday supposed to be an off night?" Keldora is such a sweetheart and possibly the nicest person I have met in EQ. She indicated that yes, it's supposed to be a night off, but people were begging for a raid. I don't remember what, exactly, my reply was. I was just trying not to kill the messenger. Bianca, also looking for an exp night, asked what we should do. Well, there is nothing for it but go. There are 40 or so Triune on and with one exception (besides us), they were all in Qvic. Raiding isn't manditory, but... we need a tank and a slower to do any meaningful exping and they are all in Qvic.
We arrive just as Mnat is pulled and we jump in and get grouped and buffed during the fight. Then Grish makes an announcement in the raid channel to the effect that is a short raid night to make folks happy and that no one is required to attend, etc., etc., feel free to leave. Well, as I have already observed, it's gonna be real hard to get a group with most of the potential folks here at the raid. In addition, the dick factor we would incure by leaving the raid after that kind of announcement. I think this did have an effect, and possibly, I wasn't the only one to complain. In any case, the target list was the 3 Qvic minis and CBQ before we were cut loose.
Determined to make the best of the situation, I had Bianca put together a group for exping while the raiding was in progress. The raid was done at 10:00pm and we were in camp in RSS at 10:30pm following the inevitable flailing about. We had a pretty strong team: Higgboth, Warble, Dawgrin and Lucman in addition to us, of course. We setup in the Riftseekers camp and cleared the whole area. From there you can get 3 names and we got each one a couple times. In fact the loot started to rot. All of us that didn't already have the RSS signet for the Anguish quest got our ring, I got a greater rune (Howl of the Predator), Higg and Dawgrin both got the 25AC augs (Flameshield Stone), Higg got the Bauble of Aggression Bianca got a priest class charm (Wailing Soulshard) that appears to be better then the PoP charm. Also, this was the first time we had exped in RSS. OMG, the exp is amazing. On the order of 5%AA per kill and we will killing fast. So, we fired up the EQ 6th anniversary quest potion (doubles exp for 36 or so min). Between 10:30pm and 1:30am I got 15AA. Just sick. Now we know where all those ober folk got their 1100 AAs, RSS. Good while you can get it, pity we will be lucky to ever get a group that good again.
About that time, I was falling asleep, as was Lucman and we decided to call it. We ran out the last of the potion time and ported out. About this time, so of the certifiable raiders in the guild decided to go to Qvic and await the mini respawn so we could get in some cheap bonus loot. For reasons I can't fathom in the light of day, I agreed to this. Actually, Bianca is hunting the fairly uncommon Qvic sleeves and wanted another shot at them. I had worked all day, played all night and was past exhausted. So, I told her, fine, go to the raid and when they get ready to pull names come and get me, I will be napping. I know how slow these things come together, so I laid down and was fast asleep. About 2:30, she woke me up and we spent the next hour kill minis and the requisite trash. Fortunately for me, I got the second HP augment in my quest to top the other server rangers. It's a pretty common drop that I have seen run up into the 50-70 neighborhood by INT casters. I refuse to pay more than 20 for something like that, so when Ptav dropped it, I bid 20 and got it. Fortunately, it's lore and probably all the other melee had that already.
So, our night finally ended in a port and /q at 3:30am.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Friday, April 15th
Inktu'ta -- It didn't look like we had the horses for this when the raid started, but enough folks joined in while it was in progress that we completed this event probably the cleanest we have ever done it. It's one of those things that you can read about on the web but until you are actually running for your life from DT mobs, you don't "get" it. Just about everyone has done this one now and things are pretty smooth.
For once the trash mini-names dropped armor instead of the useless DoT shielding augs too. Bianca got Gaelin's Woodland Sandals for 80, a bit more than you would normally want to pay, but we are not wasting a lot of time farming Qvic these days, so you got to take what you can.
I was looking at the EQRankings site. I am now #3 on Morell-Thule for rangers, HP-wise with 8200 odd unbuffed HPs (I actually see more like 8600, but I am not sure Magelo properly accounts for DoN and stuff like that). In just a few months in Triune I have lept up from #23, pretty cool. Looking over the gear for the two Reviction rangers ahead of me, they don't have amazingly better gear than me. What they do have is HP augs in like every slot whereas I have a lot of regen and ATK and only a few HP augs (mostly the smaller ones too). That explains the 1300 HP jump between me and them. That is too high a cliff to climb just with gear. Even raiding as often as I do, it will take a few months to replace the gear I need. So, I need to start collecting HP augments. Even though my slots are almost all filled, there are several augs that I could see myself dropping. So... When the Cracked Sandstone of Fortitude dropped as part of the loot from the mites event and no one looked interested, I grabbed it for 10 points (the min). OK, not a lot of help, but it's 40 HPs and goes into an empty slot too.
We were on time and it finished late enough that we didn't do anything afterwards, so 14 points for us.
For once the trash mini-names dropped armor instead of the useless DoT shielding augs too. Bianca got Gaelin's Woodland Sandals for 80, a bit more than you would normally want to pay, but we are not wasting a lot of time farming Qvic these days, so you got to take what you can.
I was looking at the EQRankings site. I am now #3 on Morell-Thule for rangers, HP-wise with 8200 odd unbuffed HPs (I actually see more like 8600, but I am not sure Magelo properly accounts for DoN and stuff like that). In just a few months in Triune I have lept up from #23, pretty cool. Looking over the gear for the two Reviction rangers ahead of me, they don't have amazingly better gear than me. What they do have is HP augs in like every slot whereas I have a lot of regen and ATK and only a few HP augs (mostly the smaller ones too). That explains the 1300 HP jump between me and them. That is too high a cliff to climb just with gear. Even raiding as often as I do, it will take a few months to replace the gear I need. So, I need to start collecting HP augments. Even though my slots are almost all filled, there are several augs that I could see myself dropping. So... When the Cracked Sandstone of Fortitude dropped as part of the loot from the mites event and no one looked interested, I grabbed it for 10 points (the min). OK, not a lot of help, but it's 40 HPs and goes into an empty slot too.
We were on time and it finished late enough that we didn't do anything afterwards, so 14 points for us.
Thursday, April 15th
Fucking Blogger, this is twice it ate a post. If the post servlet times out, you are SoL because hitting "Back" gets you a blank form.
Anyways, another night of hookie for us. Raiding every night for weeks on end is too much. Out to dinner with the boy and then a couple of Babylon5 episodes before a reasonable bedtime (for once).
Anyways, another night of hookie for us. Raiding every night for weeks on end is too much. Out to dinner with the boy and then a couple of Babylon5 episodes before a reasonable bedtime (for once).
Wednesday, April 6th
Txevu - this place is still the place we love to hate. It's full of very deadly trash. It takes a long time to get into position to span the loot mobs. At least they come in pairs, more or less. It helps balance the long moves and clears. But the low end mobs only drop one item each. The monks love pulling this place, 3-6 every time as fast as they can get rezzed, rebuffed and back out there :)
We have yet to get there early and clicking on all cylinders really. Either we get there after other targets, or we are light on numbers or something. We need the Triune that smokes Uqua and Inktu'ta to show up one night, early and ready. It seems just starting a Txevu raid takes an extra 15 minutes. Gasp, it must be the semi-dangerous run from the Qvic zone in to the statue. There are people in the guild who would prefer every raid zone to be a direct zone in from PoK or the Guild Hall. Now, I am not advocating the kind of running that I did back in my greener days of Luclin, but... geez people, get some Cloudy potions and run for Peete's Sake.
At least this was an only target sort of night. We got there on time (thanks to the aforementioned slow start). But, we did leave "early", i.e., about 11:30 so this was only good for 18.5 out of 22.5 points. All the "easy" mobs smacked down, but the Runt event still kicks our ass. No loot this run.
We have yet to get there early and clicking on all cylinders really. Either we get there after other targets, or we are light on numbers or something. We need the Triune that smokes Uqua and Inktu'ta to show up one night, early and ready. It seems just starting a Txevu raid takes an extra 15 minutes. Gasp, it must be the semi-dangerous run from the Qvic zone in to the statue. There are people in the guild who would prefer every raid zone to be a direct zone in from PoK or the Guild Hall. Now, I am not advocating the kind of running that I did back in my greener days of Luclin, but... geez people, get some Cloudy potions and run for Peete's Sake.
At least this was an only target sort of night. We got there on time (thanks to the aforementioned slow start). But, we did leave "early", i.e., about 11:30 so this was only good for 18.5 out of 22.5 points. All the "easy" mobs smacked down, but the Runt event still kicks our ass. No loot this run.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Tuesday, April 12th
We played hookie. Bi got home late and stuff was going on, by the time we could think about logging in, it was 21:30. F that. We spun two more episodes of Babylon5 and went to bed. It looks like the guild did Inktu'ta and then more Txevu.
Monday, April 11th
Last night's Txevu raid had several dead spots in it while we try to get in unflagged and partially flagged people. This kind of waste of time really pisses off those of us who work hard at beating the stuff the first two times. So Grish and Jordaan decided on a sweep of all 3 Txevu flag raids immediately. Tonight we blew through Uqua like it was easy. Man, what 2 moths of farming Qvic and beyond will do for a raid force. At no time were we in any danger of blowing this one even losing our main tank in 20 seconds. That done quickly and easily, we were off to Ikky4. That started off with a partial wipe in the big temple in KT because people were yelling to get to the instance, but no one was leading the way and a bunch of us wandered into a bad place. Once we got reorganized, all was OK. But, Uqua, even on the easy setting, takes a lot out of you. So this raid moved very slow and I was dozing by the end. 15 out of 18 points for us on this run, no loot.
Sunday, April 10th
Against my better judgement (still steaming from Saturday), we joined the raid. RSS for Feratha, Chailak and the Queen version 2. All very smooth. If the King had been up, we probably would have done him too. But he wasn't, so dessert was a slice of Txevu. We got 14.5 points and I got a Dark Chain Circlet off of Aneuk Nyrt Ymosa, a total PITA mob with a nasty DoT. 60 points, dirt cheap for the effects and HPs.
Saturday, April 9th
PoTime, I now completely hate this zone. It's time consuming, most of the loot is marginal at best except for the apps, AND I got whored on the Timespinner drop. I am still mad about being slapped down for something that is NOT in the rules and there is NO discussion on the boards of ammendment of the loot policy. Fortunately for Triune, there really are no options on MT right now. However, once we merge with EM, there may need to be some shopping.
Oh yeah, we smacked Rikki again afterwards. I was so made after Bert that I probably *should* have gated and logged off. But, we only had one more mob, then Quarm and then Rikki. The last 2 drop nice stuff. So greed and the fact that I had already paid the price in hours kept me in raid. Irky tried to talk me off the ledge during the setup for Rikki, but we never finished it and the guild's position is indefensible IMHO anyway.
I think I need to raise the issue with the officers some just to taser them, if nothing else.
24 points, no loot for us.
Oh yeah, we smacked Rikki again afterwards. I was so made after Bert that I probably *should* have gated and logged off. But, we only had one more mob, then Quarm and then Rikki. The last 2 drop nice stuff. So greed and the fact that I had already paid the price in hours kept me in raid. Irky tried to talk me off the ledge during the setup for Rikki, but we never finished it and the guild's position is indefensible IMHO anyway.
I think I need to raise the issue with the officers some just to taser them, if nothing else.
24 points, no loot for us.
Friday, April 8th
Second Txevu run, more people, Friday night lateness. We went to 00:30 before we hit the wall with a badassed mob that flurries for 5K. We saw the first Muramite Chest piece drop. No loot for us, but 24 happy points.
Thursday, April 7th
Triune's first romp in Txevu. Wow, what a deadly place. But fun and interesting. We had a lot of people come and go during the course of the evening, so we never had a focused force. Still, we managed a bunch of names. We scored 20 points for the evening, no loot.
Wednesday, April 6th
Second Noqufiel kill, Txevu is now open for farming! This one went very smooth. If it wasn't such a PITA, we could farm it. But, I expect Txevu to distract us to the point of only doing this for flags. Bianca scored a Relic of the Unremembered for the expected price of 110 points. We earned 14 for the night and got to bed early while the newly flagged folks sorted things out for tomorrow's first raid.
Tuesday, April 5th
The evening started with Stabbeth's final epic fight in Oasis, which started (as an instance) before we could get there, then off to RSS and the first guild kill of Queen Pyrilonis. 15.5 points out of 20 for us and no loot. This is so similar to the King fight that we had no problem killing her despite a few botches. I expect we will soon have things down to the point we can get all 4 big mobs in RSS in one night.
Monday, April 4th
Another smorgasborg night. We can't raid Txevu until we have beaten it twice, a policy of fairness in the guild. So tonight we killed Chailak in RSS, then Rikki, the CBG and finally the Fabled Talendor. We showed up slightly late and missed the first log, 12 out of 15.5 points for us, no loot.
Sunday, April 3rd
The King is Dead. Yay, it was a LONG-assed attempt but, we eventually overcame King Gelaqua in RSS. Another first time kill, we are definately on a roll. This time, 26 points all in. I managed to snag one of the nicest ranger shoulder items in the game - Ilsin's Mantle for the princely sum of 180 points. But, it's something I would have gone 200 on easy. It is one of only two Sharpshooting III items in the game (the other being in Txevu, and oddly also a shoulder item).
Friday, April 1st
Die Noqufiel Die. And die he/she/it did. First time kill and welcome to Txevu baby. It was a marathon night, but everyone was on their A game and at no point did I think we wouldn't win this encounter. Spending all night in Inktu'ta and the first time kill bonus was good for a fat 29 points.
Thursday, March 31st
Thusday night was an easy night for once. After all the grinding and dying in top end content, we kicked back and blew out the backlog of epic fights. We managed to complete 14 of them in total including 2 of my last 3 fights. It was a bit nerve-wracking since the overzelous nukers almost blew away my mob before I could hail it. I am glad we didn't have to attempt these fights with EE/EG. I was to this point before EG folded and I didn't think we had the juice to do it, and I am sure of it now. It's sad, because I could have had epic 1.5 5 months ago...but, thems the breaks as they say. Anyway, I am all set for my final fight. And considering the current epic standings, I should be the next one we do.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Wednesday, March 30th
This night started off farming Qvic a bit, then we TLed to Natimbi to take down the CBQ (my least favorite fight in all EQ, hands down). But, we couldn't get into position in time. So we went off to The Ascent and smacked Rikki down again. On the first try, without a full raid. I think we may have cracked his code. Unfortunately, that went so well we had time to get to Natimbi and do the CBQ afterwards. Bianca got some really nice pants for the total steal of 70 points: Supple White Leggings
Tuesday, March 29th
This was Uqua backflag night. Annoyingly, we didn't manage to log in in time for the ontime bonus, but we managed to catch up pretty well. I almost hosed the whole raid after the twins though. I have a small procedure done (in real life) that day and was tired and on meds. After the twins, we meet back in the center room and I was a chatting away while loot was settled, etc. Then I noticed that there are no one around me. Thinking that they were setting up for the big 6 mob trap and that I missed the move command, I turned, noticed the door was closed, opened it and saw mobs. That is bad, real bad actually. There are no repops in Uqua (it's hard enough already, trust me), so I was facing the wrong way and triggered the trap. Fortunately, I didn't walk in, so they were not agro...yet. Once triggered, they wander towards the raid. This gave the alert puller a chance to shout "RUN" and get everyone into position to intercept the trap almost like we had planned. I don't even think anyone died. A freaking miricle and thanks to the fact that everyone has lots better guild since we started farming Qvic. I felt bad about it and apologized to the raid leader immediately. Fortunately I am not a bonehead like that very often and he let it go.
Monday, March 28th
All freaking night in Qvic and Inktu'ta. BUT, we mastered the Cursecaller event and took our first crack at Noqufiel. That event is a blast, similar to Cursecaller and even more fun IMHO. Untimately, we wiped, not quite having the script right, but we are close. In 4 days Txevu is ours. The Cursecaller event drops a real nice ring, the only Sharpshooting II item in the game. Since my SSI earring is a bit light in the stats, I have been looking for a replacement and I jumped on this for a very reasonable 120 points. Check it: Lustrous Shimmering Band
Sunday, March 27th
The was an off day, Easter Sunday. We did play most of the day working on various projects. In the evening we did a DoN mission that we didn't fully understand and took over 3 hours to complete, it was hidious, but we did win...eventually.
Saturday, March 26th
Saturday is usually an off night for Triune, so Bianca and I went to an SCA event and then had dinner. Too tired to play, she went to bed. I wasn't really tired and found that we were actually raiding. Mostly it was runing around smacking Fabled mobs, except for the one that smacked back: Trak. I can tank the regular Trak, but the Fabled one hits for 5K, plus AoE. Rugged especially for a casual raid rather light on numbers. After wiping twice, we gave up.
Friday March 25th
Our turn in the PoTime rotation. The last of the regular rotations as we start to move away from this stuff. I say good riddance. That would have been nuts for me to say 3 months ago as I had worked so hard with GoB and EG/EE to get to see PoTime. But having been there, done that, it's boring as hell. The strats are down cold, the zone was designed as minor challenge to level 65 raids. We are all 70, many with 500+ AAs and gear better than what drops here. Yep, it's a fast way to gear up apps, I was one just a few months ago. But, now there is no challenge and no gear here for me. This was another full clear with Quarm going down easy at 0100 with only 40 some folks left.
Wednesday, March 23rd
The night started off in Qvic for more mini farming. Then off to The Ascent for a little Rikki bish-slapping. Yep, the 10th try is the charm, LOL. We finally beat Rikkukin in what we believe is a server first. The loot is amazing:
Since that went so smoothly, we went off to Inktu'ta to farm the Herald event before bed.
Since that went so smoothly, we went off to Inktu'ta to farm the Herald event before bed.
Monday, March 21st
We started off in Qvic, got a mini or two and then moved into Inktu'ta. That first part is still such a PITA. The Herald event is something we have down cold at this point (and our resists are much much better for weeks of Qvic farming). The stonemite event is really easy and yet we have continually found ways to fuck it up. Well, tonight was different and we popped it clean. As a result we were reasonably fresh to tackle the golem rooms and then trigger the Cursecaller event. That was nuts. I had read about it online, but it's way more intense and amusing than you can convey very easily. Especially considering there are guilds right behind you in progression. Details can wait for now, believe what they say, it is one of the best scripts in EQ.
Friday March 18th
Another multitarget night: Off to Qvic for some minis and maybe Cyno, I forget. This week's attempt to clear Time failed when Quarm warped a few times and the zone crashed (i.e., it was a good raid to miss). So we had Quarm still up and no one in Time, so we fixed that.
Thursday March 17th
Don't remember too much here. The target list was Feratha and Chailak in RSS, a Qvic mini, a failed attempt on Rikki, a beat down of Hulcror in Wall of Slaughter.
Wednesday March 16th
Bianca had an after work party where family was invited to celebrate a sales milestone for her company. It was OK and all, but... no raiding for us as a result. Triune beat on Rikki for a while it looks like.
Tuesday March 15th
We had stuff to do and were tired, so no raiding for us today. It was Triune's turn in PoTime and we had a full pop. Looks like they did a full clear, raid ended at 0130.
Monday March 14th
Obviously, I haven't been keeping up like I had intended, it's been busy at work lately. Oh well, these older ones are going to be brief to get me caught up. We started the evening off with some mini action. With AV and PE in Qvic, it's getting less common to get these, usually just hitting what's up on our way to Inktu'ta, as was the case tonight. We didn't have a big force, so we just did the Herald event and TL'ed out to whack the CBQ before calling it a night.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Sunday March 13th
Dragons must die. Well, right after the big spider.
We form up in LS and kill off the big spider event first for 9 more shards. Sadly, I don't get one, but Bianca does. That morning we started on the DoN progression tasks. Pretty straight forward, we should be caught up to the rest of the folks pushing the progression in a week or two.
Afterwards it's off to Rikky the dragon. Rikkukin the Ancient. PITA dragon. Well, it took 2 (more) tries, but we smacked him down in what we believe to be a server first. The loot is very sweet and 2 items went for 200 (the max) and one for 150. Our new start appears to work well, we got close on the first try (6%) and bet him easily on the second try. Looks like we will be seeing more of him.
Then it was time to try the next Dragon in the progression, Kessdona the Enlightened. Very little info on this one, be we jumped in with our customary verve and promptly got owned. Well, it wasn't that bad, but we didn't come close to beating her. However, we got all the info we needed to form a strategy. Unfortunately, it was getting late and lots of folks logged so we couldn't try her again. I expect we will be back though :)
We form up in LS and kill off the big spider event first for 9 more shards. Sadly, I don't get one, but Bianca does. That morning we started on the DoN progression tasks. Pretty straight forward, we should be caught up to the rest of the folks pushing the progression in a week or two.
Afterwards it's off to Rikky the dragon. Rikkukin the Ancient. PITA dragon. Well, it took 2 (more) tries, but we smacked him down in what we believe to be a server first. The loot is very sweet and 2 items went for 200 (the max) and one for 150. Our new start appears to work well, we got close on the first try (6%) and bet him easily on the second try. Looks like we will be seeing more of him.
Then it was time to try the next Dragon in the progression, Kessdona the Enlightened. Very little info on this one, be we jumped in with our customary verve and promptly got owned. Well, it wasn't that bad, but we didn't come close to beating her. However, we got all the info we needed to form a strategy. Unfortunately, it was getting late and lots of folks logged so we couldn't try her again. I expect we will be back though :)
Saturday March 12th
YAY, an off day finally.
We spent 10am to 3:30pm in Vxed so I could work on my CBQ belt quest. Alas, to no avail. The drop rate appears mythical, we crawled the whole thing, wiped only once, got 3.5 AA, but NO SHELLS. WTF? I am very upset about this, I have 50 raid points into the rest of the quest, it's all I need to finish things off.
Bi went to visit her Dad, I went to a bookstore and we met for dinner and a movie, no EQ, nice evening.
We spent 10am to 3:30pm in Vxed so I could work on my CBQ belt quest. Alas, to no avail. The drop rate appears mythical, we crawled the whole thing, wiped only once, got 3.5 AA, but NO SHELLS. WTF? I am very upset about this, I have 50 raid points into the rest of the quest, it's all I need to finish things off.
Bi went to visit her Dad, I went to a bookstore and we met for dinner and a movie, no EQ, nice evening.
Thursday March 10th
Epic raids. Otherwise know as the gay-ass Bard Dragon hunt.
We start off in WoS and promptly wipe to the Girplan Gaurdian as we get there. Then we smack him down in round two. Then it's off to Dragon's Necropolis (yes, the other side to the freaking world) for bard epic stuff. This is for the shill Preathen and while he has read up on the script, he hasn't led a raid so it takes forever to set up and beat the relatively simple dragon. Then we do the previous step for Lazylegs and find, after some more pissing about, that we can't spawn the first dragon yet. Oh well, TL and bed.
We start off in WoS and promptly wipe to the Girplan Gaurdian as we get there. Then we smack him down in round two. Then it's off to Dragon's Necropolis (yes, the other side to the freaking world) for bard epic stuff. This is for the shill Preathen and while he has read up on the script, he hasn't led a raid so it takes forever to set up and beat the relatively simple dragon. Then we do the previous step for Lazylegs and find, after some more pissing about, that we can't spawn the first dragon yet. Oh well, TL and bed.
Friday March 11th
RSS again, this time for Feratha, the 2 headed dog. Another easy kill. Since we had a good tank line up online, Grish decided to give the King a shot. After 1.5 hours of prep, we ran in and wiped in the classic 30 seconds. Not too surprising as we had very little hard information on the script. But, it was painfully clear that we didn't have the numbers we needed and all the waiting around getting stragglers in made it really tedious. So, we didn't try again. Instead Grish decided to farm the first part of Inktu'ta, at 10:30pm. Nahhh, we went to bed instead.
Wednesday March 9th
Started a bit late in RSS for Chailak. Easy kill, nothing else up, so off to Qvic. PE/AV, someone was there and pissing and moaning, so we cleared to Inkut'ta to work on that some. Cleared the big trash and the first event, but didn't have numbers to do much else.
Tuesday March 8th
An off day for us. We had the WW meeting until 7pm and then needed to eat. So instead of cramming something in front of the computer and ingoring the kid, we went out and had a decent meal and then chilled to 2 episodes of Bab5. A much needed break since our usual off night, Saturday, was spent on a full clear of PoTime (7.5 hours).
Monday March 7th
The night was spent in DoN land.
First the dragon. We beat him the first time a week or two ago. A fast and fun fight, we farm him every 5 days. Then it was on to the next dragon in the progression Rikkukin, or as I call him Rikky. Rikky is a PITA. He has 3 AoE, 4 really, casts them all the time and and flips all over the place. You got the DoT, tough enough as it is, but not too bad. Then there is the "breath weapon" AoE and then two forms of focused rampage (for 5K and 7K). Oh, and he AoE blinds and will occasionally cast a spell that turns melee damage into health.
Is that sick or what? Now, he warns you about these things in emotes. You have (or at least you should) to put up another chat window and through "other" into it so you don't miss the emote that will let you avoid some of the fun. Well, we tried this 3 times in 3 hours and failed at them all. The delay isn't the script, there is no trash or lockout, it's the MGB timers. You need to have some MGB heals, Paragon, etc. And it makes no sense to try again without them if you failed with them. So we wait and wait and ponder about getting SoE to give us a way to lower that reset time.
First the dragon. We beat him the first time a week or two ago. A fast and fun fight, we farm him every 5 days. Then it was on to the next dragon in the progression Rikkukin, or as I call him Rikky. Rikky is a PITA. He has 3 AoE, 4 really, casts them all the time and and flips all over the place. You got the DoT, tough enough as it is, but not too bad. Then there is the "breath weapon" AoE and then two forms of focused rampage (for 5K and 7K). Oh, and he AoE blinds and will occasionally cast a spell that turns melee damage into health.
Is that sick or what? Now, he warns you about these things in emotes. You have (or at least you should) to put up another chat window and through "other" into it so you don't miss the emote that will let you avoid some of the fun. Well, we tried this 3 times in 3 hours and failed at them all. The delay isn't the script, there is no trash or lockout, it's the MGB timers. You need to have some MGB heals, Paragon, etc. And it makes no sense to try again without them if you failed with them. So we wait and wait and ponder about getting SoE to give us a way to lower that reset time.
Sunday March 6th
Into Qvic and Inktu'ta.
We got an early start, but AV had an even earlier one. They had just beaten Uqua the first time and are practically beside themselves to farm Qvic. We show up for our usual pre-serious raid mini smackdown to find them sitting on the spawn point of one of the minis. Considering at least half of them are probably AFK and almost everyone in the guild 2 boxes (or more), if the mini did spawn, they would probably wipe on the spot. The usual pissing and moaning ensues and then a mini spawns, not the one they are waiting for, but another one. And they move to take it. After watching them half wipe to trash in there zeal to get to it, we decide to relieve them of the burden and move past them and clear the temple.
At that point, they decide that the right thing to do isn't finish rezzing and rebuffing and move back to their original camp, it's to train us with the name we were pulling anyway and the last 2 mobs in the temple. Needless to say, that really wasn't even a challenging pull and we had that completely under control. So, one of their rogues, whose name escapes me, trains us with about 6 more. This caused a bit more of a stir, but they got handled with a minimum of casualties. Back to the named. A few folks had her in the corner and were applying the beat down, so I joined in. When the mob hit zero health, I took a beat down from behind. Apparently, AV got completely distraught over the fact that we handled the first 2 trains and brought a third right at the end so they could ninja the loot. Too bad they wiped to the train too....
Rezz and rebuff, listening to much more pissing and moaning (both in guild and in public). We let them have that mini, we move to another that had just spawned and kill it, then move to the Inktu'ta tunnels and clear down to that.
Inktu'ta is our current road block, beating it will give us access to Txevu - Lair of the Elite, a bit of a loot zone for GoD and the next to last zone in the progression there. We want to get in there, farm that a bit and then more on to Tacvi, the final zone in Gates to close out that expansion. After which we will have to decide whether to push through the MPG trials and into Anguish or focus on DoN. Frankly, by the time we finish GoD, we may also be done with DoN. Unless there is more content than I have seen or read about, I give us 4-6 weeks before finishing that up.
Anyway, Inktu'ta is a pain-in-the-ass zone. It is really 4 trials linked sequentially. So far we have mastered the first and have that on farm status, but have struggled a bit with the strategy for the second phase. We have beaten it, but it takes too long. I expect we will have that down on the next run though.
We got an early start, but AV had an even earlier one. They had just beaten Uqua the first time and are practically beside themselves to farm Qvic. We show up for our usual pre-serious raid mini smackdown to find them sitting on the spawn point of one of the minis. Considering at least half of them are probably AFK and almost everyone in the guild 2 boxes (or more), if the mini did spawn, they would probably wipe on the spot. The usual pissing and moaning ensues and then a mini spawns, not the one they are waiting for, but another one. And they move to take it. After watching them half wipe to trash in there zeal to get to it, we decide to relieve them of the burden and move past them and clear the temple.
At that point, they decide that the right thing to do isn't finish rezzing and rebuffing and move back to their original camp, it's to train us with the name we were pulling anyway and the last 2 mobs in the temple. Needless to say, that really wasn't even a challenging pull and we had that completely under control. So, one of their rogues, whose name escapes me, trains us with about 6 more. This caused a bit more of a stir, but they got handled with a minimum of casualties. Back to the named. A few folks had her in the corner and were applying the beat down, so I joined in. When the mob hit zero health, I took a beat down from behind. Apparently, AV got completely distraught over the fact that we handled the first 2 trains and brought a third right at the end so they could ninja the loot. Too bad they wiped to the train too....
Rezz and rebuff, listening to much more pissing and moaning (both in guild and in public). We let them have that mini, we move to another that had just spawned and kill it, then move to the Inktu'ta tunnels and clear down to that.
Inktu'ta is our current road block, beating it will give us access to Txevu - Lair of the Elite, a bit of a loot zone for GoD and the next to last zone in the progression there. We want to get in there, farm that a bit and then more on to Tacvi, the final zone in Gates to close out that expansion. After which we will have to decide whether to push through the MPG trials and into Anguish or focus on DoN. Frankly, by the time we finish GoD, we may also be done with DoN. Unless there is more content than I have seen or read about, I give us 4-6 weeks before finishing that up.
Anyway, Inktu'ta is a pain-in-the-ass zone. It is really 4 trials linked sequentially. So far we have mastered the first and have that on farm status, but have struggled a bit with the strategy for the second phase. We have beaten it, but it takes too long. I expect we will have that down on the next run though.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Back to Work
It's been 15 months since we had an update. Largely this was because we end up being officers and then guild leader of EE. That was a ton of work and a lot of writing emails and posts. That left little time or energy to chronicle our adventures here. Things are a little calmer now and I am looking to get back in the practice of writing. Also, there are a few folks who might like to keep in touch with our doings in Norath even though they have moved on to other games.
I am going to start with Saturday night and move forward as I get time. I am also going to encourage Bianca to jump in when she can.
Saturday is usually a night off in Triune. We raid pretty much every other night, so that is a much looked for break to get back some exp and work on quests and other projects. Unfortunately, it was our turn in the rotation for PoTime. We had to raid or skip our turn, and give up Quarm. Generally, PoTime takes 2 nights to clear. We do phase1 - phase 4 one night and on our next turn, we have to redo p1 to unlock it and then got to phase 5 and phase 6 to finish up. This turn should be p5-p6, i.e., the good loot.
However, there was a huge server patch this week. Usually, SoE only resets Time if that zone itself is patched. So, after clearing p1, it became clear that the instance had reset and we had a full spawn, not just the last 2 phases. Well, it was early and even though the turn out was a bit light, Grish, our raid leader, decided we would aim for a full clear in order to keep us on schedule. And he offered a 5 point bonus for anyone who could tough it out to the end. Well, the good loot only drops at the end, and 5 points, while not a lot, was just enough to entice this greedy bastard to stay.
It wasn't the smoothest clear ever. As I noted, the turnout was a bit light and it lacked some of our A-Team. We had a hellish start to p4 that involved at least 2 partial wipes. But, we managed to pull it together and get the Zek brothers down plus Saryrn and Terris Thule. Then on to p5. This was where I expected us to hit the wall. RZ, Bert, Inny and CT. We were healer heavy, which is good for these big hitters, but low on the DPS, which is bad. However, each of these guys went down gently with only minimal casualties.
Now, it was late. Really late. Jess went to bed halfway through p5, we zoned up to Quarm at about 2am. And summarily beat him down with only 41 folks and less then a handful of deaths. Then it was time to do loot and TL home. Time, 2:30am, 20 points in the bag.
All in all, that was a silly thing to do, but the leadership wants to back off from the 4 clears of PoTime a month to 2 and needed to get back on schedule. Even though I am relatively new to high end raiding, I completely agree. Considering the loot that we are getting from Inktu'ta and Qvic, this place just isn't worth a lot of time. It's great to gear up apps, lord knows I got a lot here on my first few runs. All at the minimum bid of 10 points. But, other than a few flavor items, there is nothing here that I want. Certainly nothing I would pay more then 30 ro 50 points for. The high-end Quarm loot is still going for 100-150 points, depending on what drops. But, of the 30-40 drops we get on a full clear, most of p1 and p2 rots and nothing goes for more than 20 or 30 until p5.
Lots of folks are saddened by this and describe PoTime as a "fun" raid. When I question them on this, I get the sense that the real reason that they like it is that 30-40 items drop and you are likely to get something if you are interested. With nothing really here for me (except maybe the mythical Timespinner), I grudgingly do it for the new folks and am happy we are scaling this back. At least with the new flagging system we don't have to do even lamer content in order to do an app farm zone.
I didn't even bid on anything tonight. There were a couple of rings that were nice, but the bidding went over my personal limit before I could even jump in. Bianca got a nice ring (Ring of Evasion) for 10+ (she had picked up a 90 mana aug in Qvic earlier that afternoon(Glyph of Souls) which was gonna rot; this is the subject of a semi-rant to follow).
I am going to start with Saturday night and move forward as I get time. I am also going to encourage Bianca to jump in when she can.
Saturday is usually a night off in Triune. We raid pretty much every other night, so that is a much looked for break to get back some exp and work on quests and other projects. Unfortunately, it was our turn in the rotation for PoTime. We had to raid or skip our turn, and give up Quarm. Generally, PoTime takes 2 nights to clear. We do phase1 - phase 4 one night and on our next turn, we have to redo p1 to unlock it and then got to phase 5 and phase 6 to finish up. This turn should be p5-p6, i.e., the good loot.
However, there was a huge server patch this week. Usually, SoE only resets Time if that zone itself is patched. So, after clearing p1, it became clear that the instance had reset and we had a full spawn, not just the last 2 phases. Well, it was early and even though the turn out was a bit light, Grish, our raid leader, decided we would aim for a full clear in order to keep us on schedule. And he offered a 5 point bonus for anyone who could tough it out to the end. Well, the good loot only drops at the end, and 5 points, while not a lot, was just enough to entice this greedy bastard to stay.
It wasn't the smoothest clear ever. As I noted, the turnout was a bit light and it lacked some of our A-Team. We had a hellish start to p4 that involved at least 2 partial wipes. But, we managed to pull it together and get the Zek brothers down plus Saryrn and Terris Thule. Then on to p5. This was where I expected us to hit the wall. RZ, Bert, Inny and CT. We were healer heavy, which is good for these big hitters, but low on the DPS, which is bad. However, each of these guys went down gently with only minimal casualties.
Now, it was late. Really late. Jess went to bed halfway through p5, we zoned up to Quarm at about 2am. And summarily beat him down with only 41 folks and less then a handful of deaths. Then it was time to do loot and TL home. Time, 2:30am, 20 points in the bag.
All in all, that was a silly thing to do, but the leadership wants to back off from the 4 clears of PoTime a month to 2 and needed to get back on schedule. Even though I am relatively new to high end raiding, I completely agree. Considering the loot that we are getting from Inktu'ta and Qvic, this place just isn't worth a lot of time. It's great to gear up apps, lord knows I got a lot here on my first few runs. All at the minimum bid of 10 points. But, other than a few flavor items, there is nothing here that I want. Certainly nothing I would pay more then 30 ro 50 points for. The high-end Quarm loot is still going for 100-150 points, depending on what drops. But, of the 30-40 drops we get on a full clear, most of p1 and p2 rots and nothing goes for more than 20 or 30 until p5.
Lots of folks are saddened by this and describe PoTime as a "fun" raid. When I question them on this, I get the sense that the real reason that they like it is that 30-40 items drop and you are likely to get something if you are interested. With nothing really here for me (except maybe the mythical Timespinner), I grudgingly do it for the new folks and am happy we are scaling this back. At least with the new flagging system we don't have to do even lamer content in order to do an app farm zone.
I didn't even bid on anything tonight. There were a couple of rings that were nice, but the bidding went over my personal limit before I could even jump in. Bianca got a nice ring (Ring of Evasion) for 10+ (she had picked up a 90 mana aug in Qvic earlier that afternoon(Glyph of Souls) which was gonna rot; this is the subject of a semi-rant to follow).