raiding

The Changes in Raiding

I don’t consider myself a very hard core raider. Even back when I was raiding full time I never joined a guild that used call lists to gather members, and I’ve never fought an avatar. I enjoy raiding a great deal, but with so many games on my plate some times it’s simply not in my best interest to spend that much time in it. Thankfully Paradise Lost is quite aware of my unique hours, and I’m able to raid with them casually. Last night they were off to Perah’Celsis’ Abominable Laboratory which is one of the new Sentinel’s Fate raid zones. No, I’m not about to post strats here – but.

I did want to make a comparison between TSO raids and SF raids. First of all, developers had already stated that they didn’t want Sentinel’s Fate to be a repeat of The Shadow Odyssey where healers paid more attention spamming cures then anything else. If someone asked me what Zarrakon looked like I would have to check the guild hall trophy because I spent most of my time curing and running for red and blue pools (and trying not to fall off the edge of his platform). SF has a little less curing, but a lot more jousting (at least what I’ve seen from it so far). Jousting to avoid massive “bad things” that will happen to your raid if you don’t joust.

My favorite encounter by far was Perah’Celsis himself for one very specific reason. First of all, the fight is intense. Understatement actually. He has a buff that has a chance for random raiders to become charmed. The charm can’t be cured for a specific duration, once that passes you can cure it. There’s nothing more fun then having healers, mages, scouts, and fighters of your own raid all running through the ranks and killing everyone. In so many encounters it is the mobs who get to do the smushing, but this time around I think the guild got more kills then the named.I love learning a new encounter and being able to explore a new zone. It’s refreshing. It’s also exceptionally nerve wracking.

My mystic managed to land two pieces of gear (sure, no one else wanted them but that’s besides the point) which was nice and I really did have a good time even though I spent most of the night doubting my healing capabilities. It’s hard when you’re in a full raid of people who are geared up properly and who have been playing together for years. My character is still sporting T2 from TSO and some pretty poor jewelery slots. I did the best I could, and hopefully that was enough. It also comes in handy that mystics are armed with a whole lot of buffs for their group, so even if my healing wasn’t top notch, I was at least providing some awesomeness for everyone else.

Happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath! I have a post in mind about Battlegrounds, but until things are a little more ‘fixed’ and not so ‘broken’ I’ll be holding off on that. The few that I managed to get into were actually a LOT of fun, and I’m looking forward to talking about them!

Spirits of the Lost, and the Echoes of Time

Ah, sweet memories. Yesterday once my paladin reached level 60, I turned off experience so that I couldn’t level past that mark. I had volunteered to help Siege out in obtaining some extra achievements. I mentioned before that when EoF came out, the old achievements had been reset, so those who had not been to the old content and obtained aa from them back then, can now. Well, that consisted of pretty much every old T5 raid that rewarded aa, as well as a good portion of the ‘less then popular’ T6 raids (not counting the one that replicates shimmering citadel because most guilds farmed that one for status but wouldn’t farm the Djin Master’s Prism for example). If you’ve never been to Spirits of the Lost before, it’s a fun zone. It was REALLY hard back when level 50 was the cap, too. The zone was released along with the server wide quest to unlock the froglok race. I never beat it when 50 was the cap, in fact yesterday was the first time any one of my characters had completed it (and I didn’t even have the quest for the title so that sort of sucked). Even though it’s been years, the quests related to this server event are still there. The chain of quests gives fairly good aa (because you have to gain the trust of the frogloks) and also rewards a shiny house item. The final quest rewards a title, for saving the frogloks. 

So why bother going back to this ancient zone? Well the grind to 200aa is a hard one. The closer you get to 200, the more experience you need. If you’ve been an avid quester and are not a new character, that means you’ve probably already done (and gotten aa) for the quests through the older expansions which leaves you with less options. There has been a huge increase of people mentoring and passing through older content for the achievements, which I’m happy to see. 

There are a LOT of named in this zone, which is why Siege decided to do it yesterday afternoon. 

My paladin got 6 just from that zone alone. The final boss to the zone of course is Venekor (who you also defeat again in KoS) and then finally Varanak the Everlasting. Since my group was mentored to level 60, and the three groups consisted of end game raiders for the most part, it took very little time to work our way through the raid zone, and it was a lot of fun. The loot was amusing, a lot of the named encounters would drop a whole slew of adepts and crafting rares, but nothing more. I remember when those crafting rares used to be *rare* and people would fight over who would get to have a few in their pocked when they left the raid. The same happened in DoF raids that would reward crafter bits, everyone would bid their dkp on them because it was just so difficult to farm any. Ah, I miss days like that, a lot. 

Once we were finished in the zone, we headed to the Feerrott and took down the x4 encounter just outside of Cazic Thul. Three pieces of chain fabled gear dropped which was a nice surprise. The guild also gained a good amount of status, contested epics always reward a lot. We also went to Solusek’s Eye, where there was another epic up. Another three pieces of fabled gear, this time plate. 

After that, it was off to the Commonlands, to defeat Echoes of Time. This zone used to be so difficult for my guild, I remember wiping over and over again, when 50 was the max level. The named used to eat through people’s weapons (armor? pants?) and before long we’d have a naked tank. King Zalak the Ancient gave us no problems today though, and he was dead in 18 seconds. Wow, fast zone. 

When I mentioned I wanted to get back into raiding this wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but I had a lot of fun none the less. A thanks to Siege for letting me tag along, I hope they all gained a lot of achievements.

AGAIN?!

Ever since 2006, I’ve been betraying my ratonga bard over and over. This is probably the 8th time or so I’ve switched her, if not her class then her city. Why? I’m not quite sure it’s just one of those things. Alts and betrayal quests. I’ve betrayed every single one of my characters at least once at some point in their EQ2 careers. 

I even own both the dirge and troubador epics already, so it doesn’t matter which class I play, I won’t have to worry about that quest. I’ve got both of the mythical quests on me as well, which you can actually complete each of. If I ever get to that point. 

Which brings me to my next point, raiding. I think I want to raid. Well, I’m going to be left with a lot of very lonely empty nights alternating every week every month starting in January. Winter is already dark and lonely enough without anything to do, so I’m thinking of getting into raiding and wasting my time that way. We’ll see, I haven’t made any solid decisions yet (like who to raid with or what guild). It’s just been something I’ve had on my mind. I don’t even know how to get started any more, or if I’m too far behind. I’ve got the 80 troub, warden, and coercer, as well as the 79 illusi and 77 templar just waiting there, and the 74 defiler on her way up. I’d like to settle into raiding with one character. I don’t want to raid 6-7 days a week, but we’ll see. 

Hope everyone else is having a wonderful Wednesday!

Nomadic Gamer