Well, my last post was about my reawakened addiction. Now, I'm
contemplating retirement.
Why? Several factors. One of the biggest is that my guild is dying.
Indirectly I blame GoD. That expansion seemed to discourage a large number
of people, leading to many old-timers leaving. Normally that wouldn't be a
problem with us, as we could recruit new members. However, most people
interested in high-end raiding on Drinal are applying to the "other"
uberguild, simply because they've progressed farther than we have. And
because almost all raid content is instanced these days, the other
uberguild's leadership has had no need to use the slimy, underhanded tactics
they've used in the past (like, for instance, plugging the corridor to the
Emp room in Ssra with people transformed into Ogers). So while their
leadership hasn't changed and their inclination to block our progress us is
as strong as ever, there haven't been any serious blowups between us in over
a year. So no one has had a chance to see how despicable their leadership
can be, and happily join the guild that's progressed the furthest on Drinal.
This applies to cross-server apps, too. They've gotten a surprising number
of cross-server apps, while we have had exactly zero. Cross-server apps
aren't concerned so much with server reputation, just in an active high-end
guild with the furthest progression on a server with little high-end content
competition.
So, people are leaving, and we aren't getting good quality replacements. We
have been spinning our wheels for months now trying to gear up our recruits.
We got to Zun in Txevu twice, several weeks ago, and haven't attempted him
since. We just keep doing the same Qvic / Txevu / Riftseekers mobs over and
over and over again.
This has caused more and more of our solid core of old-timers to either quit
the game or - shockingly - joined the other uber-guild. It's amazing how
some of the most virulent other-uber-guild-haters have changed their tune.
I guess seeing high-end content in an active raiding guild is more important
than holding a grudge; I can understand that to an extent.
But it's not something I could ever do. I would never, ever join the other
uber-guild. They have done far too many dishonorable things in the past for
me to consider being associated with them.
Today, our head cleric announced she was taking an indefinite break from EQ,
just the latest in a series of people leaving the guild. Even our
guildleader, who has one of the best reputations in all of EverQuest and is
the most dedicated and knowledgeable player I've ever come across, has begun
to question whether he can continue running the guild. The writing is on
the wall. In our desperation, we have started taking just about everyone
who applies, including one guy I met waaaay back when Monual was level 20.
An extremely obnoxious person who for some reason thinks that being a higher
level or having more AA's gives him an innate superiority over everyone else
in the game. I was quite saddened when we accepted him, although we had
little choice because he is an active everyday player with skill.
It just seems inevitable that our guild will wither away into one of those
marginal guilds that can raid a few high-end targets but will unable to make
any progression until well after the fact. And that's not what I want out
of EQ.
So, should I put in a cross-server app myself to some other guild? Alas.
Recently I accepted a new 4x10 shift at work. This is more money and better
prestige within our organization, so it is an important career step.
However, the hours are from 10am-9pm Central M-W. That essentially means I
miss most of the raids three days a week. And because I like to take at
least one day a week to do non-EQ stuff, that means I have at most three
normal raiding days a week. So unless I can find that active high-end
Alaskan/Hawaiian guild that raids from 10pm-2am Central time, there's no
high-end guild that would take me.
It's a measure of my addiction that I considered turning down the 4x10 shift
just because it would interfere with my EQ. =/ Fortunately I came to my
senses. RL > EQ is a common saying, and truly it applies here. Still, I
regret what it's done to my raiding time.
Where does that leave me? I don't know. I've considered just removing
myself from the frustration of seeing the guild die and just be one of those
social players. But that's not what I want from EQ. I wanna see the good
stuff, Tacvi and Anguish and stuff like that there.
Last night, I logged on at 10pm just as the guild was finishing up a series
of epic raids. I myself am at the very last stage of my 1.5 epic, but since
we'd just done another cleric's final epic fight, there was no way we'd have
enough people remaining online by the time the mob respawned. No worries, I
can wait. I joined a group of eight people to help one of our shamans with
his Umbral Plains mob. This mob is relatively easy, low DPS, slowable, a
nasty AE that stuns but easy enough to handle. We engaged it and I healed
the main tank, and it seemed clear I was going to have no mana problems at
all.
Then, with the mob at 10%, several unfortunate things happened at once. The
mob cast its AE stun. At the exact same time, it enraged. The warrior
didn't notice the enrage message. His hitpoints started plummeting
dramatically while I stood there stunned. I went from lightly tapping the
Complete Heal key to pounding on my fast heal keep to frantically stabbing
my Divine Arbitration key. With the tank's health at the barest sliver, the
AE stun wore off and I was able to DivArb him for 9800, my best DivArb heal
yet. "Nice save," the shaman commented. "Did slow wear off?" the tank
asked. "Enrage," said the wizard. "Oops," said the tank.
We finished off the mob and the shaman got his epic drop. I felt satisfied.
Those are the kind of situations you live for, where you have to make good,
fast decisions in order to survive. I love moments like that. It's why I
still play EQ. And yet, I may see precious few of those moments in the
months to come.
So, I sit here and think. Quite a bit. Retire? Try to find a guild on
another server that would take a part-time cleric? Try to stick it out with
my current guild? I don't know the answer. I'm going to let it all slosh
about in my brain until an answer pops out.
One thing's for certain: I won't be playing WoW or EQ2. I have no interest
in starting all over from scratch. But something's gotta give, and I have
to figure out what that something is.
--
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
Prelate of Rodcet Nife
Silent Tempest
Drinal server
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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!