I work until 7pm Central time, which means I can't begin raiding until
7:30pm Central, 8:30 Eastern. When my current guild's recruitment officer
spoke with me, he told me that raids began at 7:30pm Eastern every day, and
I replied that I know coming late would be a weakness in my application, but
on the upside I would never log early and I'd be available for after-raid
stuff. That seemed to satisfy him because he said no more on the subject.
So last night I log on right at 7:30pm. The guild is just forming up in
Lavastorm and I quickly join them. There's tangible excitement in the air;
the guild believes that after weeks of effort, they can now beat the final
dragon in the Dragons of Norrath expansion: Vishimtar the Fallen.
I join the raid and am quickly shuffled off to a group of mostly just plain
DPS classes. I think one of the big reasons I was recruited despite not
having Anguish access is that they've decided the guild decided they needed
at least one cleric per group for this encounter. Given the raid max of
fifty-four people, that's nine clerics.
We get the expedition. I have done some preliminary DoN stuff, but I
haven't progressed much because I don't have the faction needed yet (I'm
only indifferent to the good side) and because I've been focused on more
important things like signets. Evidently you need Ally faction and have
done all the other solo, single-group, and raid events to get this last
expedition, whose goal is simply to defeat Vish. So even though I
personally am stuck at the second tier of progression, I'll be able to see
how it all ends.
The guild zones in and buffs up. This is always difficult for me, because I
don't have the AA that expands the maximum number of buffs that I can have.
And I must have three slots free: one for Yaulp, to help regen mana during
the fight; one for duration heals such as Celestial Regeneration or Paragon;
one for the AE that Vish will cast, so that it doesn't overwrite any of my
other buffs. So I need to decide which twelve buffs to keep. Maelin's
Methodical Mind, a clicky from my Quarm shoulders that adds mana regen, is
always in my first buff slot. Then I need Clairvoyance, Steeloak, and
Spiritual Ascendance to also help with mana regen. Then there's Balikor's,
Wunishi, and Brell's to add hitpoints. Dead Man Floating to keep from
falling for 32K if I get hit with the knockback. Aura of Devotion to help
my spells be cast more quickly. Some shaman buffs that increase my stats
and thus my hitpoints. And the various resist buffs. I can't keep all of
that on me. I end up clicking off some of the resist buffs because I figure
I'll be casting a lot of group heals anyway, so it doesn't matter how well I
resist the AE.
Finally, we move in towards a large cavern where Vish is roaming. A ranger
casts WeaponShield and moves Vish into position, where the Main Tank takes
over. Other clerics have been assigned the task of healing the tank. I'm a
"floater", which means I simply keep my group alive and help out in any
other way I can, including keeping Divine Interventions up on our tank and
chanters, and perhaps providing a battle rez or two. Battle rezzes are very
tricky because every time someone dies a nasty mob called a spiritwraith
spawns. Also, people being rezzed risk getting immediately killed by the AE
and spawning another spiritwraith. We've decided to try and keep battle
rezzes to a minimum - and, more importantly, try to keep people from dying
altogether.
So for the first few seconds of battle I actually have nothing to do. The
AE hasn't gone off yet and my group is taking no damage. Still, I don't
want to try and mess things up by doing anything experimental, so I just
wait for the AE.
It finally hits. It's a well-nigh unresistable AE that drains hitpoints at
an alarming rate. The one and only way it can be cured is by using the AA
Resplendent Cure 6, or RC6. For this first AE I use RC6 to remove the
curse, and the people in my group hardly take any damage. Good. When the
next AE hits, though, I start by casting my group heal over time, Ethereal
Elixir, then I wait for the curse to run its course and cast Word of
Replenishment, my group direct heal. Yes, there are better version of both
spells, but I don't have them yet. And I'm saving my AA group heal over
time, Celestial Rejuvenation, for a later MGB.
So far so good; my job is pretty simple. It's the others that are kept
busy. There's a lot to keep track of; enchanters are locking down all the
adds, and one spotter is roaming around looking for eggs to spawn. When
they do spawn, the melees in the raid immediately run to kill them. If
they're not killed quickly, they'll hatch a whole bunch of nasty drakelings
that are pretty much guaranteed to wipe the raid.
Vish's hitpoints drop slowly, and I begin to run low on mana. But not to
worry; this is one encounter where mana is not a problem. There are certain
mobs that, when they are killed, will explode mana, bringing everyone in the
raid to Full Mana. So when the casters begin to run low, the order is given
to kill one of these mobs. Boom - instant mana. I'm back at full mana and
feeling good.
As Vish's hitpoints begin to drop, other mobs who have been watching from
the sidelines suddenly become active. We have paladins tasked with
off-tanking this mobs, and they leap into action. We still have to keep
watching for adds. As Vish's hit points drop towards 25%, a new wrinkle is
thrown in: Creeping Doom. This gets cast on random people, and is a
negative effect that seems to have no detrimental effects until it reaches
the end. As it expires, it hits you for 32K of damage. In other words,
it's a ticking time bomb with a death touch at the end. Fortunately, there
is a mob that wanders around the room, and if you hail it and tell it to
"Shoulder my burden", it will remove the Creeping Doom. Alternatively, I as
a cleric can time the casting of Divine Aura so that when the CD goes off,
I'll be protected.
At 25%, another spotter keeps the guild Message of the Day updated with the
mob's location. It is imperative that people with Creeping Doom get it
removed, because we don't want the adds associated with player deaths. Oh,
and we still have to watch for eggs.
My job is still pretty simple: keep everyone in my group alive, watch to
make certain I don't have Creeping Doom cast on me. A cleric officer calls
for an MGB Celestial Rejuvenation, so I cast it. Vish's hitpoints keep
dropping. Below 20%, below 14% - our previous best. 10%... 9%... 8... 7...
And then I die.
Did I mention eggs? People are so excited by Vish's slowly-dropping
hitpoints that an egg is overlooked. It spawns a bunch of drakelings, and
when I cast my group direct heal, they all immediately aggro *me*. I go
down, spawning another add, others die, and the whole thing snowballs very
quickly into a complete wipe with Vish at 4%.
Drat.
People are, in turns, disappointed and excited. Yes, we came so close only
to fail, but we now have a proven strategy. Just need to keep executing
right until the very end. We quit the expedition and form a new one, rez
everyone, buff up. Groups get reshuffled a bit as some people leave and
others join. I end up in a group with a bunch of wizards, mages, and
necros. The kill-steal group, if only such things existed any more.
It takes a while to do all this, but finally, we begin again. Again, my job
initially is very easy. I just stand there healing my group, occasionally
checking on the Main Tank to see if I need to help out on the healing there.
We're off to a good start until an officer curses us with the comment,
"We're doing well." Not five seconds after that, I target the Main Tank
just in time to see him die.
"Main Tank down" is called out. The secondary Main Tank steps up and
quickly grabs aggro, and all things considered we have a smooth transition.
And suddenly I have something to do; I run into the midst of all the melee
attacking Vish, target the fallen MT, drag him to safety, and rez him.
While I do this an AE hits, and I tell my group I'll be right back to heal
them as soon as I finishing rezzing. After my rez hits the MT, I run back
to my group, quickly heal them back to full, and run back to hover over the
MT and heal him as he's rezzed - don't want him to die immediately before
he's had a chance to loot. While I'm running back, someone says in the
cleric channel, "Main Tank is still dead." I reply, "I rezzed him already",
which is met with some relief. When I run back to the MT's corpse, I see
the cleric officer already standing over him, and I see him say in the
cleric channel, "I'll buff him back up." Seeing that he's got this in hand,
I run back to my group.
Except for that mishap, we do seem to be doing well. As Vish's hitpoints
fall, I keep my group alive and cast another MGB CR. At 20%, I get hit with
a Creeping Doom. I look around, but no one's mentioned lately where the mob
is that cures the CD. I target myself and cast Divine Aura, then finally
find the mob and get CD removed anyway just to be safe.
Back at my group, I keep them healed. One of the clerics healing the Main
Tank dies, and I'm told to help out with the MT's heals. I do, and because
a mana mob was recently killed, I end up chain-casting Pious Light while
watching Vish's hitpoints... 10%... 9%... 8%... "EGG!", everyone runs and
kills it... 7... 6... heal heal heal... 3... 2...... 1.........
0............ (omg this is the longest 0% in history).......
And Vish dies.
The guild explodes into cheering. We can't quite relax, as there are still
the adds the paladins have been patiently off-tanking. One of the mages in
my group doesn't realize he has Creeping Doom, and gets death-touched, the
only time anyone's died in my group in all the Vish attempts I've been a
part of. We finish off the mobs and take a look at the drops. They are
awe-inspiring. An earring with 330hp/mana/end. A caster PRI/SEC that has
335mana, 325hp, and a bunch of neat effects. A one-hander that's
34dmg/21dly (!!) that procs a heal. I can only shake my head in wonderment.
Clearly these items won't be going to me, a trial member, I say into the
group. A wizard in the group says he's been in the guild for years and he's
not even going to bother to go in on any of the loot - clearly only the most
senior and active members of the guild are going to be getting these drops.
And so it proves, but of course no one grumbles - it's no less than they
deserve for all the time and effort they've put into the game.
Meanwhile, everyone is getting turned into a froglok. It seems to be a
guild custom on a first-time kill to pose around the corpse with everyone
having illusion: froglok. I smile and comply; we take two screenshots, one
around the body and around the head, which is sticking through a rock in the
middle of the cavern and has the name of the corpse hovering over it. It's
mildly amusing seeing the whole guild, as froglok, run from one position to
another.
Finally we gate out, done with raids for the night and highly satisfied. I
find myself smiling, once again happy to be living a life where I can
participate in raids like this and contribute to a successful outcome.
So now I've seen the beginning and end of DoN. There's still a lot for me
to cover, and a lot of benefits if I go through the progression myself.
Something else to add to my ever-growing list of tasks in EQ. Hopefully,
though, one day in the far future I'll be standing over my own version of
Vish. As, of course, a froglok.
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
Prelate of Rodcet Nife
Lotus Cult
Quellious 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!