PUG Raid Heads to Bonemire #EQ2
stargrace 
First of all, a big huge thank you to the individual who donated to me via the paypal link on the right hand side – it was very kind of you, and I really appreciate it. It’s actually the first time I’ve ever gotten a donation via that link, and after 6 years of running MmoQuests it just made me feel nice. I know I don’t typically write about cutting edge news, or controversial topics, but it made me smile to know that someone else out there appreciated the time I’ve taken to write about my experiences and opinions on the games that I play, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
The Antonia Bayle server was bustling this weekend which always leaves me in two different states of mind. Number one, it’s fantastic to see such a healthy population of players – but the public channels tend to bring out the worst of people. Zones were a little crowded, which also of course brings out the worst in people. Thankfully after my many years of gaming I’ve learned to tune most of these things out, and can ignore channels pretty easily. I still join them on Antonia Bayle because I’m always waiting to hear about a guild hosting an older raid – I love to participate in those.
When I heard a call go out for people to join in a Labs raid (a level 70+ raid zone in Bonemire) I eagerly volunteered the services of my swashbuckler. I had never been there with her before and even though none of the loot would have been of any use to me, I was confident that the aa from going would be worth it (and I was right). The raid was amusing. We had a group of level 10’s tagging along for the discovery in each room and for the aa of named (even though they were too low to get experience, aa is still given). Every single time an AoE went off that group would die. There was another group of level 90’s mentored down to 80, and a third group of mid 70’s who were there at a level appropriate range. Loot was NBG (need before greed), and the tank had never been there. These days you can brute force your way through just about every single older raid (there are some exceptions, like Djinn Master’s Prism) and that’s what we did in this instance, full force.
There were deaths, lots of them. I thought that was cute. It was more or less because we room pulled every single encounter, and things like to AoE. Living against that much damage is never a sure thing unless you’re well geared and mentored down (and have an exceptional healer). I think everyone had fun in the end, I didn’t see any complaints at least.
My swashbuckler managed to ding 86 and I’ve spent a few hours flying back and forth between the two public quests in order to obtain gear for 90. I’ve already managed to get myself the fabled bp so far, and 5 other pieces of armor. I believe all I’m missing is the forearms, but a few of my pieces are the lower tier of PQ gear, which I’d like the higher versions of. That, and the fabled weapon. I also managed to win an adornment which was nice. SG is a hit-and-miss type PQ where some times we do really well (last night was a fine example of this) and then other days it’s complete failure and the raid re-sets into a lower version of heroics instead of epics. At least I’ve still managed to win gear this way.
Moving forward I need to finish leveling to 90, and work on those aa. I’d like to finish off my mythical, I need to start (and finish) to speak as a dragon. The quest has changed so that you no longer need to run around Norrath hunting for tablets, but I will still need to visit Nagafen a few times, and I need to speak the language of the giants in order to interact with his body guard. I still love how much EQ2 offers me in terms of game play, there’s so much for me to do.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!