My first raid ever in EverQuest, was Bertoxxulous. I was so nervous. I was tagging along with a friend’s guild on Veeshan Luclin, Keepers of the Elements (who are still around and going strong today). I was also an enchanter, and back when we were doing this raid they were an essential part of it. Actually in a few raids they were. It was nice. I remember so many people being involved. I remember how long the raid was, even though it was timed. I remember listening eagerly for all the instructions, and me being VERY nervous about not being nearly as “uber” as everyone else was.
It was exciting, and I still remember.
There are very few raids in EverQuest that I’ve actually done. Remember, I came to the game five years too late. Only stayed a year before EQ2 came out. I still had a lot of fun though. I did maze raids, Terris Thul, Saryn, old raids from days long past. I raided PoFear just once with my rogue, and spent most of it dragging bodies around. I loved shroud of stealth. I raided The Hole with Rage Veeshan (before Luclin and Veeshan merged). For every single one of those raids I was on edge, and always of the opinion that this was simply bigger then us (how ever many had gathered for that day). I remember raiding in PoI and not even knowing what we were raiding because I was on spider duty. To this day I don’t even know what the mob looked like I just remember mez’ing / helping dps down spiders. I think they were spiders, my memory may be a little foggy on that. I want to say we were raiding Behemoth, but again, I never saw the mob, so I’m not sure. It was one of the most annoying flags to get when I was working on those. Everyone complained about it. Pick up raids were not something one wanted to do for this encounter.
I ran Invis through some of the zones last night, just visiting old haunts. I’m still not uber, but I am having just as much fun now as I did way back when. I even see some of the same people still running around. The game is still quite active, do a /who in the bazaar or in the guild lobby and you’ll be surprised, I know I was. I realize I spend a lot of time traveling down memory lane, but how can you not when you’re exploring things you did 4-5 years ago.
One zone I certainly want to hit is Plane of Mischief. Gawd I love that zone. I spent hours and hours and hours there, farming named (who are difficult to tell that they’re named, on purpose of course), my first trip in I was smashed by a giant bunny who saw through invisibility and I laughed for weeks. It quickly became my zone of choice, and any time Fistinyereyes (the beastlord I used to play with) mentioned where I’d like to go (we could easily duo) that was the top of my list.
Ah, memories. They’re awesome. Every one of them.
The fight with the spider mezzing, btw, is Manaetic Behemoth. Two hours of setup followed by a fifteen second fight. The fight had to go so fast because of the wide variety of AEs (MB would throw two from a list of four, but you didn’t know which two until you started the fight, and by then the first wave of raiders were usually dead). Aside from throwing up a couple of MGB heals as we ran in, even the clerics nuked, similar to the Coirnav fight, but for different reasons.
Each successful fight was followed by frantic backflagging, because we had mutual backflagging deals with uber guilds and they always had some recruits they needed to get through.
I actually wrote a song about it, back in the day.
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To the tune of “One Tin Soldier” aka “Theme from Billy Jack”
Listen guildies, to a saga, about a raid not long ago
About Behemoth, in Innovation, and the guild we’ve come to know
In the factory, was a mad gnome, talking trash about the Zeks
And the people that did hail him, who soon would become battered wrecks…
Go ahead and raid old Terris, you can go ahead and kill TZ
But when you try to kill Behemoth, steamed cutlets you soon will be
There won’t be any clerics standing, come the final fray
For in the bloody carnage after… “a tin soldier” walks away
So the officers of CE, changed the message of the day
Come to the plane of innovation, we need all logged in today
When we gathered at the zone, and proceeded to buff and pray
Far above us, in the factory, a tinny voice began to say…
Go ahead and raid old Terris, you can go ahead and kill TZ
But when you try to kill Behemoth, steamed cutlets you soon will be
There won’t be any clerics standing, come the final fray
For in the bloody carnage after… “a tin soldier” walks away
So we killed all of those spiders, in the corners as we were told
Woke the Behemoth in the power room, marched in there so brave and bold
Slashed and burned and stabbed and nuked it, kicked and bashed and taunted too
It burned and scalded and assaulted until all that stood were me and you…
Go ahead and raid old Terris, you can go ahead and kill TZ
But when you try to kill Behemoth, steamed cutlets you soon will be
There won’t be any clerics standing, come the final fray
For in the bloody carnage after… “a tin soldier” walks away
You have a cleric whenever you want one :) Or a druid.
Don’t forget Kuron!
Well, now that I have my BST over on Luclin… I’ll go to PoM with you any time you want. I loved that zone. It’s been a while, but I know I had an absolute blast there.