March 25, 2009

Taking down Valdoon 1.0

stargrace March 25, 2009 No Comments

I remember Valdoon first, from EQ2. In that instance. Where he just would NOT stop talking. You remember the one too, right? In Loping Plains? Well, last night I got to extract some revenge on him and I’m trying to decide where this persona was worse, in EQ or EQ2. 

In EQ Valdoon is located in a Lost Dungeon of Norrath raid. Specifically: Mistmoore Catacombs – The Asylum of Invoked Stone. Now, many people have heard of LDoN before and it typically garners a strong response. You either loved the expansion, or you hated it. I happen to fall into the first category, I loved LDoN. I find it a shame that people (typically) no longer do them. It used to be a great way to get groups. Now the dungeons are pretty much ignored, you can research all of the spells that you used to have to do LDoN’s for. I do have a few points that I used to purchase a ring so that I could put a type 3 augment into it (it’s a pet focus for my necromancer from Seeds of Destruction) but aside from that, there’s been no real reason. 

However. I’m blessed with having always played EQ with some amazing people, no matter what time I seemed to step back into the game. When I first started playing it was with a Beastlord named Fistinyereyes, when I returned a few years later it was with Nostalgia, and then again with Ninga and Ultann. Exceptionally lucky, I know. What’s even better is the amount of exploration and discovery I get to enjoy based on who I happen to play with. Ninga is always dragging our group off some place new – some place that most groups no longer do. Of course we do get to enjoy a good amount of the newest expansion as well (remember we just completed Oceangreen Hills progression not that long ago from SoD) but we spend a lot of time doing the older stuff too. 

So it was that we spent last night in the LDoN raid. There was nothing of particular value that we were after – but the mission did reward some pretty nice rogue gear by the end of it if we would be so lucky. 

There are two versions of Valdoon in this raid. You have to first kill the gargoyles that spawn much like you do in the EQ2 instanced version. Once these have been killed a fake version of Valdoon spawns. Now, if you’ve ever done LDoN raids before you realize how ESSENTIAL it is that you have alcohol tolerance up to as high as it can go. Pretty much all of the named (at least in Guk and a few others that I have done now) have an AoE that is based on your ability to handle drinks. If you have low tolerance, you will spend MOST of your time swerving around the instance, being unable to cast anything because it actually physically interrupts you, and feeling dizzy. This is of course how I spent my time because I’ve never worked on alcohol tolerance on any one of my characters. I believe it sits at a grand skill of 1. 

Once you’ve killed the first version of Valdoon it’s off to the second. Unlike EQ2 where you have to listen to his (very long) speech that drones on and one, this time you just kill him. Of course he does have a few other tricks up his sleeves as well. 

He has the alcohol AoE that goes off (and by the end of it I was worried my characters would NEVER see straight again) and he also spawns adds. He also has a large (ie: long) mez that’s unresistable that goes off. 

If his adds manage to get to him, he’ll life tap their essence and heal. He did this often. My girls ended up dying to him during the fight, but he was down to 5% or so and Ninga and Nocbot (the cleric) battled on like champs until finally when I thought all hope was lost, Valdoon fell. He dropped a clicky wizard item, a ranger bracer, and also the wonderful pair of gloves pictured on the right hand side. Why are these gloves so great? Well, the clicky can be used from inventory, and that was a HUGE bonus for Invis (my 73 rogue). That wasn’t the end of her fun though, of course not. She also managed to get a fabled blood earring of rage from Plane of Tactics yesterday and so did Ultann’s shadowknight, which was fantastic. We were trying to camp one for Ninga but alas he had to step out and missed the drop. While we were there Kameeko (my enchanter) also managed to get herself a very nice fabled shield. She’s been spoiled lately, she’s now sporting a fabled 1hb from Bastion of Thunder, a ranged item from Plane of Earth, and the shield secondary from Tactics, as well as a ring from Earth. 

The group also headed to Plane of Fire to see if we could not get the final fabled piece I needed for the gate necklace – and it dropped without too much issue at all! Now I need to pick up the container before fabled ends, and then I need to get started on the regular version of the necklace. Once I’ve completed the regular necklace I can turn in the 5 pieces for the fabled version. It will be a very nice upgrade to Minxes and while I may not actually need the gate portion I’m still excited. I’ve always loved doing these types of quests. 

Yesterday was also busy on Drinal as it was the location to the 10th anniversary party for the evening! I hope everyone had a fantastic time, and enjoyed all of the firework goodies that they got! 

It’s been really busy in game lately, and I’m still loving every minute of it. 

See you in Norrath! (and Middle Earth, tomorrow!)