We still haven't gotten Xegony. And not because we keep failing, but
because we haven't tried. We can't seem to reach a critical mass of clerics
and chanters early enough in the evening to make a serious attempt at
Xegony.
So we've been doing the usual farming. Water mobs, Fire mobs, Earth rings.
Our guild leader has been making it a point to do an Earth ring in the early
afternoon. The European players in our guild love it because it allows them
to do an actual raid during their prime time. It takes them twice as long
to clear a ring as it would our full raid, but it's still worth it to them.
It's kinda nice having the Elemental Planes almost all to ourselves. The
uber-guild has been focusing exclusively on Time, and the only other
Elemental raiding force, the alliance of Japanese guilds we call Voltron,
hasn't been doing many of the mobs. We've got the spawn timers of most of
the mobs down pat, and can put ourselves into the best position to get at
them. It's actually amazing the number of times we've been farming one mob
in Fire just as another pops elsewhere in Fire. Officers have been doing a
good job timing all that.
So it's just been farming, farming, farming. Tons of bracers, helms, boots.
Beginning to get more and more arms - that's one piece I'd really like to
get myself, as I still have Heraldic arms. We try to kill Fennin Ro every
time we can - sometimes Voltron beats us to it - and so have been getting a
few legs as well.
We finally got the Earth rings cleared one time and moved in towards the
Arbiter. We actually got to the Arbiter with plenty of time to spare - we'd
done lots of economizing, like pulling the last mob of the last ring to the
zone-in, and then immediately began clearing towards Arbiter as soon as that
mob fell and before loot was awarded. With everyone doing their job,
Arbiter fell easily, and a bunch more people were PoEb flagged.
The officers decided to give some PoEb mobs a try. No, not the Rathe - not
yet. But there's a courtyard with three ziggaruts, each with a mini-boss on
top. We get to one corner, gird our loins, get into full boss-killing
mode - and find that these mini-boss's are complete wimps. They die
super-easy, and have some amazing loots as well.
Excitedly we kill the other two. This spawns the Warlord. He stands at the
door that leads to the Rathe. Once again we get into full boss-killing mode
and pull the Warlord.
Alas, this is one of those memblur-ing bosses. A few seconds after he gets
pulled, a shaman lands a debuff. Just like that, the Warlord is right in
the middle of the raid, killing the shaman and then beginning to lay into
everyone else. A few people manage to camp.
Okay, no problem, rez up and try again. This time we survive the initial
memblur, but the mob also procs a slow. The MT gets slowed and loses aggro;
the Warlord gleefully begins eating clerics and other folks.
Okay, no problem, rez up and try again. This time we survive the initial
memblur and we have people curing the Main Tank. The curers see a message,
"Your target has been cured" and stop curing. Alas, the Warlord procs *two*
AE's, and the shaman only cure one of them. The slow is still in effect,
and the Warlord begins summoning clerics, one after the other, about sixty
seconds apart. The chain collapses and we wipe.
Mind you, I'm saying this all after the fact. After we give up, we start a
thread on our guild forums talking about the Warlord fight. The two AE
effects on the MT is mentioned, and next time we'll try chain-curing. No
problem.
We don't go back to the Warlord for a couple of days, instead killing some
of our other targets. But, last night, I log on just as the call is being
made to get to PoEb. I make my way over and we clear into the
three-ziggarut area. Just as we get there, one of the mini-bosses spawns.
Ah, cool. We pull him and take him down, easily. The other two quickly
spawn. We pull the second mini-boss but leave the third one up.
Now we get ready for the Warlord. One of the paladins will be chain-curing
the Main Tank. We get our healing chain set up. The Warlord is incoming...
I start the CH chain. Immediately the Warlord makes a beeline for me and
lays me out flat. Two other clerics die also. We make a game attempt at
it - I get rezzed back in and desperately try to get back mana - but healing
is just too ragged, and the MT falls, rampage spreads out of control, and I
manage to die a second time.
Okay, let's try again. We pull, I start the chain, Warlord memblurs and
summons me. Hello, bind point, nice to see ya again. We abort very
quickly.
As we're buffing up for the third attempt, I say into the raid channel, "How
about having a ranger WS the mob until the first memblur?" The officers, in
turns out, already have a plan for something similar, using a Shadowknight
instead.
Mob is pulled by the SK. The mob memblurs and the warrior takes aggro as
the SK dies. The CH chain settles in and, after a moment, engage is called.
After a couple of minutes I notice that no clerics have died and the main
tank is still alive. "What's he at?" I ask my group. One disadvantage to
being a cleric is that you can't see for yourself what the mob's health is
at all the time. "61" one of my groupmates says. "We got him," I reply
confidently.
A little too confidently. The MT dies - we had a gap in the CH chain. The
next MT steps in, no problem. The Warlord gets down close to 10 percent.
The RT sees a memblur call in the raid channel and stops attacking, like he
should. After a few seconds, he engages again to keep his position as RT.
Alas, the Warlord chose that exact moment to enrage. RT goes down. RT
spreads really really quickly. The people who have been curing the MT die.
The MT gets slowed and loses aggro. Warlord is now running amok gleefully
killing everyone. Clerics are trying to figure out who to heal - the MT is
sitting there at full health, unable to get aggro because he's still slowed.
Finally, I mem a nuke and start blasting away at the Warlord. A wizard alt
of one of our shamans gets in the killshot, and the Warlord dies, somewhat
messily on our part.
At last. I'm looking forward to seeing the loot - the Warlord drops arm
molds, I know. He indeed does drop two elemental arms - one silk, one
leather. I sigh and lean back. The last three arm-dropping mobs haven't
dropped plate.
Loot is awarded, everyone is rezzed and buffed, and we pull the third mini.
He dies, and lo and behold - another Warlord spawns. Dang, if only we could
do this all night long. Alas, the mini's are on a three-day timer.
Still, we're excited at the opportunity to take down the Warlord again. We
set up. SK pulls, MT acquires aggro after first memblur, chain settles in,
everyone engages. Click, click, click, it all comes together, and the
Warlord dies with barely a struggle. As one of our officers put it,
"Welcome to farm status, Warlord!" It's a great feeling when you develop a
strategy and fine-tune it until the mobs that were giving you so much
trouble finally fall easily.
Loot is announced - a nice one-hander that has "bard" written all over it
and... plate arms! Gleefully I put my name in. I've been wanting this for
a while... alas, I did just get an elemental helm three weeks ago. We'll
see. I feel my chances are good - it's a *huge* upgrade for me.
The one-hander is awarded quickly, but debate is dragging on the arms. We
pass the time by clearing the remaining mobs so that we can open the door
that leads to the Rathe. We don't plan on engaging them... just that some
of us want to look at them. =) Finally, after 20 minutes, the announcement
is made: grats my guildleader on the plate arms.
This effects me strangely. There is no question that my guildleader, a
paladin, deserves the item. He rarely goes in on loot. He is online every
single day - an amazing feat, really. These two facts usually mean that he
gets first dibs on the really really nice stuff.
But dangit... the arms he upgraded were Arch Lich arms - AC 40 HP 85 MANA 70
and lots of other stats. Way better than my Heraldic. I'd love to have the
equipment he's destroying. No question Elementals are a big upgrade for
him, and no question that his attendance and the amount of time since his
last award merits him getting the arms. Rationally I understand and agree
fully. Emotionally, it bothers me; his equipment is *so* much better than
mine. He's upgrading pieces that would be an upgrade for me, and that's a
difficult piece of information to swallow.
It also bothers me that it bothers me; I don't want to be a loot whore. =)
I also recall the last time I felt this way, when a cleric was awarded the
Shawl of Awakenings as an upgrade to his Eighth Shawl while I still had
Heraldic. Lo and behold, the next time the Shawl dropped, I was awarded it.
Loot tends to even out over time; with just a little patience, I'll have my
arms and any other loot I want. As was said, the Warlord is now our
personal loot farm, so other arms will come.
While I struggle with my irrational emotions, I gate out and head to
Chardok. My pally is now 51, and for the second time I am shocked at the
difference in the XP rate after you hit 51. The skellies in the Taskmaster
camp are now light blue, as are all the surrounding mobs. Marrtuk has moved
back to LGuk. I got him to solo the Frenzy camp. A frenzied ghoul was up
when I broke the camp, and lo and behold, he dropped an FBSS. I remember
when this was *such* an uber item that would sell for thousands of plat.
I'll be lucky to sell it for a few hundred now.
Marrtuk will now have to hunt in more dangerous areas to get solo XP, and
mobs that turn and run away have the potential to be a lethal problem. So
for weeks I've been trying to get an Anklesmaser, a 2HB that procs a snare.
I've found none for sale, and I'm sure the market channel is getting tired
of me saying every fifteen minutes, "WTB Anklesmasher". So I've determined
that if I can't buy it, I'll get it to drop. Alas, the mob that drops the
Anklesmasher is in the library in Chardok. Y'know, the library behind the
locked door. I want to ask for help from a rogue to come help me, but first
I want to test to see if I can at least get to the door by myself.
It's a darned slow process. I can't just invis my way there because of the
annoying mix of living and undead mobs. So I take two steps, pacify a mob,
take two more steps, pacify another mob, etc, etc. There are a lot of mobs
to pacify; getting past the fort is a challenge. I eventually make it to
the bridge. Fortunately the Bridgekeeper can be pacified. Alas, I get too
close trying to pacify a skellie on the other side of the bridge. It
aggros, everything aggros, I DA and try to run to the zone. I take a wrong
turn and end up in a pit somewhere. DA drops and I try to gate away, but
with ten mobs including the Bridgekeeper pounding on me I have no chance.
Down I go.
This is embarrassing to the extreme. Now I'm going to have to ask for help
getting my corpse. I'd be tempted to go and try and retrieve it myself if
only I knew where it was. Dang, if only I could buy some kind of tinkering
device that summons corpses.
Fortunately, I had publicly stated in guildchat what I was doing. A curious
necro decided to follow me to Chardok to see how far I got and to help if I
could get through the door. He arrived just in time to see me get
obliterated. He sends me a tell "Consent". Relieved beyond words, I
consent him. He asks if I have an EE, but I had the foresight to bind right
outside the zoneline, so I zone back into Chardok and he drags my corpse to
the zoneline.
My necro guildie pulls the Grand Herbalist to the zone line, charms a
skellie, then kills it while I watch. Looks like an interesting fight. I
throw him a Virtue, then log. I should wait until I have some serious help
before making this attempt.
I'll get that Anklesmasher yet. =) And whatever other loot I want. If I'm
patient enough.
--
-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!