It's a pain trying to get to the Elemental gods. Our server's uber-guild
has about a two-hour head start on us - they have lots of people in the
Eastern time zone while my guild has lots of Central and later time zone
participants. I'm in the Central time zone, and I also work until at least
6pm every night, which often means not getting home until 7pm Central. And
I'm not alone in that. So the upshot of all of this is that the uber-guild
gets in position to take down Elemental gods well before we do.
We've had some luck with Fennin Ro. Once the trigger popped while the
uber-guild was otherwise engaged. We moved in, killed him, and subsequently
wiped on FR. I was part of that attempt, and the problem was getting the
right healing strategy. We had to stay a fair distance away to avoid FR's
AE, and the Main Tank kept getting summoned right to FR's feet, which would
put him Out Of Range of our heals. After several different strategies, we
ran out of time.
The next time the FR trigger was up, we had people XP-ing in Fire. We had
people zoning in, but so did the uber-guild. Finally, with about 20 people,
we pulled and killed the trigger, much to the uber-guild's disgust. The
Fennin Ro event is *long* - you have hours to get to and kill him. So we
slowly moved our way up the ramp while more and more people logged on and
joined. We finally got to 70+ people when we pulled FR. I logged on *just*
as FR fell, and I hurried through Fire to Fennin Ro, only to be informed
when I got there that the Planar Projection (or Spirit of Flame, I think)
had depopped after getting 72 hails. Man, that was tough.
This weekend we find that Corinav is up and decide to give him a go. This
will be our first Corinav attempt, and we honestly have no idea what to
expect. Oh, in general terms we know - we have to kill a ton of mobs and
Corinav within 18 minutes of killing the trigger. The mobs will come in
waves. We don't know if the mobs are stunnable or what. We set up, then
pull and kill the trigger. We then begin pulling the mobs. They turn out
to have very few hitpoints. Some of them are stunnable, so we begin to pull
lots of them while the casters AE the lot. This works very well to begin
with - until, at some point, two untargetable named mobs move into camp.
There is literally nothing we can do but wipe. We're not entirely sure how
the untargetable mobs aggro'd on us. We're fairly certain it wasn't the
AE's - the monks think they know how to avoid getting agro next time. We'll
see. We have five days to think it over.
The next day I log on and am told to head to the picnic tables in Fire. I
ask for a levitation in Plane of Tranquility and get one from a wizard in
the uber-guild. He also offers to Invis me - he knows where I'm going - but
I decline with thanks.
I zone into fire and do my usual routine: mount my drogmor, shrink myself,
and invis myself. I follow the zone wall to the first castle wall. I
"climb" the wall by looking straight up and moving left and right. This
only works if I'm shrunk for some reason. I get to the top, go down the
stairs, cross the courtyard into the area beyond. The birds are up - "charm
chickens" is the common vernacular, I believe - and they guard the bridge.
Of course they see invis, and I ask how I'm supposed to get by them. I'm
told to follow the right zone wall, so I do, and notice that the bridge
conveniently touches the right zone wall before it makes a sharp turn to the
left. I climb down and proceed across to the second castle. This area is
teeming with mobs - and I do mean teeming. It's like the entire contents of
the Dreadlands have been beefed up to 65+ levels and dumped into a small
area. A strange design for this area; it's like a newbie area for
Elemental-flagged guilds.
I get to the second castle, wait for the see-invis mobs to path past the
castle gates, then run inside through the courtyard to the picnic tables.
An uber-guild group is XP-ing there. I sorta wonder how they feel as more
and more of our guild surrounds them. One of them is someone who recently
used us to get flagged for the elemental planes, then dumped us a day later
to join the uber-guild. He's of particular interest since he posted a few
weeks ago on our guild's General forums talking about how much we wanted to
join such a nice guild like ours. After he used us and dumped us, we added
a few acidic remarks of our own to his post. Oh, and as predicted the
Luciya flame on the Drinal boards was turned into a Silent Tempest versus
the uber-guild flame. It's now approaching 500 posts.
We form up. I get invited to a group. The group leader invites me into his
group, then goes AFK and makes another guy the group leader. That guy then
goes AFK and makes me the group leader. I invite more people until we're
full. The raid kills the trigger and moves in. It's not too hard, and we
proceed through the ring. Our only slip-up is not healing the Main Tank
enough during one of the mini-bosses, and when he died the second MT simply
couldn't get aggro, and the mini-boss proceeded to eat half our raid before
we could kill him. Embarrassing but easy enough to recover from.
We then pull Fennin Ro. I'm in the chain so I dutifully hit my CH hotkey
while watching the battle. I notice that the Main Tank is not getting
summoned to FR's feet this time. I wonder how they managed that - perhaps
there's some distance that's close enough not to get summoned but far enough
to stay in CH range.
Fennin Ro goes down pretty easily. I rush to hail the Spirit. I can't seem
to get a target on the Spirit, but when I see someone else hail the Spirit,
I target them and /assist. I hail the Spirit and get my Globe, which I then
equip. A minute later I get a tell from a guildie asking what kind of
shield it is I'm using. I tell him he's got the exact same shield already,
and link him the globe. He sheepishly admits to having that same shield in
the bank. I look around and notice that all of the newly-flagged folks are
also wielding their shields.
Oh, and loot. We get two Gleaming Mesh Girdles. Very nice - 30% spell
haste on beneficial spells, great stats, CLR / DRU / SHM. But only a couple
of weeks ago I got a belt off of Tallon Zek, and I already have spell haste
from my Agnarr globe, so it's not really worth it for me to go in on this
item. However, we also get a plate greaves mold. Now *this* I'd like to
have. I put my name in. The Girdles are quickly awarded, but the officers
take quite a while to award the leggings. When someone comments about this,
one of the officers says that just about the entire plate-wearing portion of
the raid put their name in. My hopes, which were faint to begin with, are
effectively extinguished - no way I'll be getting these. A few minutes
later, the greaves are awarded to one of our warriors. He turns them into
70AC greaves with awesome stats. Ah... someday.
The officers ask people to check for Sol Ro and Earth rings. Sol Ro is up.
The Vine ring is up. We'll do both. We move in to Sol Ro. My group loses
a couple of people and I invite a rogue. I buff a few people, then sit down
to recover mana. Alas, they decide to start pulling mobs at exactly that
time, and they gleefully beat on me. I live, but barely.
Up we go. We actually have no problems getting to Sol Ro's chambers, which
is just about a first. We form up, and I'm on Rampage Tank duty. The RT
happens to be one of the guild's co-leaders, a paladin with a ton of AA's -
his most recent acquisition being MGB so he doesn't get inundated with tells
for BSS. Sol Ro gets pulled, and I through a couple of fast heals on the
Main Tank until the chain get going, then target the RT. It turns out to be
more of a chore than I expected - he's getting hit by the AE's as well as
Rampage. I can't just burn fast heals on him, I'll run out of mana. So I
have to try and use Complete Heals judiciously. At one point my timing is
slightly off, and he gets down to one bubble of health. I'm down to two
seconds until my CH goes off, so I decide to wait it out rather than duck
and cast a fast heal. "Heal me!" the RT screams into the raid channel. At
exactly the same time, my CH goes off for the maximum, 7500 hitpoints.
"Thank you!" the RT then replies.
Sol Ro goes down. I'm expecting two gauntlets, or two masks, or a gauntlet
and a mask, which seems to be the only loot he drops for us. So I'm
surprised when a back item is linked - Raiment of the Fire Son. I check it
out - ooh, Marr's Gift. I've gotten just about every focus item I really
want - mana preservation, spell haste, extended duration, spell distance.
The only other one I've really wanted is improved healing. Marr's Gift is a
25% bonus on instant heals - CH excluded as always. I put my name in and
link my Shroud of Emerald Vines from way back when we were still farming the
High Priest in Ssra. A couple of minutes later I get a tell from one of the
officers asking me what my last awarded loot item was. I am forced to admit
that I recently got a nice neck item from Rallos Zek the Warlord - y'know,
the one with mana preservation. I am certain this puts me out of the
running, so I'm quite surprised when I am subsequently awarded the back
item. I run and loot it. Now, at last, I have all the foci I could ask
for. =)
On to the Vine ring. I've lost a couple of members in my group, and when I
get into Earth I notice my guild leader is LFG, so I invite him. We clear
our way along the zone walls to the Vine ring and begin pulling. The Vine
ring is relatively easy to pull, but with some tough-hitting mobs as you
move in towards the center. As we begin clearing, the wizard in my group
comments to the group that he always goes AFK for dinner during the early
stages of clearing the ring. I smile and say, "Wait... say that one more
time in the group that has your guild leader in it." The guild leader gets
a good laugh as the wizard stammers that he had permission from another
guild officer to go AFK. The guild leader understands, of course, although
he does get in one more dig by making a notation: No Elemental Drops next to
the wizard's name. He's not serious, of course, it's all in fun.
I used to have two channels: one for the alliance when I was part of
Winter's Light raiding with Crimson Twilight, and one for the cleric
channel. After we merged with Crimson Twilight, I was too used to typing /2
to make comments in the cleric channel, so I decided to autojoin
serverwide.age instead. My contributions are erratic at best. During the
Vine ring, the channel gets asked about how to avoid the HP's stun in Ssra.
I perk up and type in what I always did. Feels kinda nice to be able to
contribute something material - I know how frustrating it is to wipe to the
same mob over and over again trying to learn. Corinav in particular is
going to be a major pain.
As we clear towards the center, at one point a monk FD's a bit too close to
the raid. Three of the hard-hitting mobs move in on the Main Tank. People
are emoting good-bye's to the MT. I sigh and say, "Incoming death" to my
group as I'm casting a fast heal. This will be a good test - I'll at last
get to see what difference my new Raiment will make. Supernal Light goes
off and I see it heal for 3377 points - a new record, especially considering
I don't have any AA points in HA or HG. As I predicted, the mobs then make
a beeline for me and make cleric pate out of me. Still, the MT lived, which
was the point of my self-sacrifice. I get rezzed back in.
We finish the ring, getting one silk and one plate mold. Not bad. We're
done so I gate out. I try to find a group - I'm only 20 percent away from
becoming an Exarch - but most of the guild is moving to help a cleric get a
General kill for her rogue twink's epic. As one person puts it, they have a
PoP-sized raid for a Kunark-era mob. I predict the mob to die in about
fifteen seconds, but I don't hang around to see how it goes - I log off and
play Neverwinter Nights instead.
Fennin Ro down, Corinav in the learning stages still, and the farming
continues of elemental molds. Soon I hope to see us kill more of the
elemental mobs and - dare I say it? - eventually get into Time. Ah, dreams.
--
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
Archon of Rodcet Nife
Silent Tempest
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!