From -4416889546425541709 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fb739,e515f021fd8b6cfa X-Google-Attributes: gidfb739,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-02-17 13:09:13 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!cyclone.bc.net!sjc70.webusenet.com!c03.atl99!news.webusenet.com!telocity-west!DIRECTV!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Just Jekke Newsgroups: alt.games.everquest Subject: Re: Funnest day Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 16:09:07 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: References: <2lL3a.126689$tq4.3712@sccrnsc01> <6H%3a.36$w27.4449@nsw.nnrp.telstra.net> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.8/32.548 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 229 Xref: archiver1.google.com alt.games.everquest:265437 My "funnest day" in EQ actually just happened, if I can stretch the definition of day to mean any 24 hour period. On Torvonnilous, King Tormax and the Statue of Rallos Zek have average lifespans approximately equal to that of Yelloweyes in Paludal Caverns. They pop and, within minutes, three or four guilds zone into Kael trying to establish first in force. Our guild has been at nearly every spawn for two weeks with extremely limited success. We've routinely killed Dain and Yelinak, but so far Tormax has eluded us. Friday, the server goes down for about a half an hour at 3 pm, resetting all of the spawns. The officers decide that this is our chance, not only to grab Tormax and Statue, but to take our first shot at the Avatar of War. As soon as we get twenty guild members, we move into Kael and start killing, even though none of the targets are up yet. They're due to spawn within the next two hours. Because I'm trying to work on my Kromzek faction to turn in some long-mouldering quest items in my bank, I stay out of the clearing. Since I also have Shroud of Stealth, a guild officer asks me to head over to Tormax's throne room and watch for him to spawn. I stand there, staring at the throne, listening to raid chat, checking my e-mail and newsgroups on my second machine, answering the periodic tells I get from the officer to make sure I'm still awake and paying attention. Whenever I go afk or have to drag the overzealous necro who's pulling for the raid back for a rez, I make sure that one of our non-KoS types comes and takes my place. Periodically, a low-level ogre named Tmaxwatcher logs in, looks around, and logs out. I don't know if he sees me, but whatever guild he's scouting for, I'm determined that they're not going to get Tormax because I lose attention. Vindi pops and is dispatched quickly. The guild still has plenty of people who can use Vindi drops and we kill him whenever it is convenient to do so. I stay where I am. I'm really not needed for the Vindi fight. He goes down with a whimper. Slowly, the hours pass. Two hours, three hours, four. The spawns are late. People are getting antsy as they clear wave after wave of mostly cyan giants. We're gathering critical mass, but people also start having to log off as it gets later. Our raid force is hovering around the fifty-person mark. If too many people log out without being replaced, we're going to have to call it off. If too many clerics, rogues, wizards, warriors, or even rangers have to go, we're going to have to call it off. We have the force to try Avatar of War, but only just barely. At about 11 pm, I tell the officer, "I'm going to summon King Tormax now by going afk with no one watching. I'll be back in about a minute." I go afk. I come back and have typed, "/tell Officer Bah! That didn't " when Tormax pops. Some idiot has been periodically yelling Hail, Statue of Rallos Zek when he's not up as the height of hilarity. So, when I erase my tell and send instead, "Hail, King Tormax," it takes some reassurance to the officer that I'm not fucking with him. Even as we're doing the last of the clearing, another guild capable of killing Tormax is converging on the zone. But, they never have a chance. The funnest day has begun. I run back to the raid and get fully buffed as they're setting up to pull Tormax to Arena Right (where we do all of our fighting in Kael for some reason.) The pull goes flawlessly. We get one green add during the fight, but a ranger turns around and tanks him off of the casters. When Tormax is at 2%, all of the people trying to get Zek faction (myself included) turn off attack and /q out. We log back in to a flawless victory and my tell window is full of congratulations. I say in guild, "Thank you for all the tells. I guess that means I won something?" Tormax has a couple of nice drops, but I already have a Horn of Hsgara (which I saved up for a *long* time and bought) and I didn't ask for anything. About a dozen people laugh at me in guildchat and tell me I just won the Shard of Hsgara's Talisman, which means I will now be keyed for Sleeper's Tomb. It's long been my goal to get to every zone in EQ, but particularly Sleeper's Tomb. Before I can even think to wonder how long it will be until I get a chance, an officer sends me a tell, "Sleeper's raid at 2 pm tomorrow." Midnight passes. Around 1 am, the Statue still hasn't spawned. Everyone is exhausted. The guild leader tells us to call it a night. We're still stoked from the Tormax kill. Avatar would have been nice, but there will be other opportunities. I send out a plea in guildchat for a druid or wizard to get me to Dragon Necropolis so that I can get my Sleeper's Key. A guild bard with a druid alt takes pity on me. Since I've never been able to get to the platform with Jaleb Dar's Shade on it in the past, I buy a ten-dose grow potion and head out. By the time I get to DN, it's quarter after three. Trying to levitate up to where I can hail JDS and hand in the talisman proves to be nothing but frustration and there's no one online who's done it and can give me a hint. The druid accidentally trips the dragon construct trap, which sees through invis. So, we have to call it a night. I get a fresh Spirit of Eagles and log out right outside of DN. I need to get some non-EQ stuff done and end up falling asleep around 6 AM. But, knowing I may need a team to clear to JDS, I log in at noon the next day. The Construct has despawned or been killed. I go and give levitating up to JDS another try, still with no luck. Finally, someone logs in and tells me to drop lev and *jump* the last step. I turn in and get my Sleeper's Key. Around 1, our Kael scout logs in and tells the guild, "Hail, Statue of Rallos Zek." We mobilize to kill the statue, but only have about 30 on, nowhere near enough to take a shot at the Avatar. But, the statue still has some great drops. So, we delay our run on Sleeper's, gather, and kill it. After loot is given, we wait in Kael while the officers discuss the next step in channel. Soon, we find out that we've caught a break. There are three other guilds in competition for the Avatar of War. The Euroguild is busy killing the Emperor in Ssra. The guild that's been farming it doesn't have enough people on to mobilize, nor does the guild that's really not ready for the Avatar, but seems determined to blow a few spawns to prove it to themselves. Meanwhile, our numbers are creeping up. With invites, we have 40+. The word comes down. We're staying to do the Idol unslowed and take a shot at the Avatar of War. We need to do it fast, though. The uberguild that farms AoW isn't going to stay asleep forever. And, with over 150 members, they don't need a huge turnout to kill him. We're buffing up to pull the idol when our guild leader tells us that the uberguild's guild leader has just sent him a tell wishing us luck on Avatar of War. We've got a reprieve. An hour later, there are 54 of us in raid. We buff up and pull the idol. About nine times, we're told--no casting slow, no slow-proccing weapons. There are to be no questions as to whether we did this by the book. We pull Idol and beat it to death with no offensive melee discs and lose about a half dozen. The Avatar spawns and the timer is started. We rez up, buff up, med up, and pull in about ten minutes. The pull is flawless. We get good position and assist is called. The main tank manages to stay standing until about 60%, then drops. We make a clean tank switch. Still the only corpse is the lucky weaponshield ranger who took one for the team on the pull and he's been battle rezzed back in. Then, around 45%, the second tank drops. The tank swap is not so clean. A half dozen drop. Worse, among the dead are two of our MT rotation tanks. The only warrior who still has defensive available is a new recruit who's nowhere near as well equipped as the rest. He has a hard time getting aggro and we lose a bunch of melees to riposte and rampage as the Avatar turns around. The tank gets aggro, gets defensive going, and holds aggro long enough for us to rez and buff the two original MTs. Down the Avatar ticks. At 30%, the Avatar is pinned in the corner and the non-MT melees all fire their offensive discs. I score a couple of four-digit backstabs. At 18%, the Avatar chews through the penultimate MT. I turn attack off and evade, but evade fails. I'm in the rogue group and, as I wait for evade to recycle, I watch two other rogues drop. Then, I get aggro. The quad drops about 4,000 of my 5,500 hit points. Evade pops. I hit it and duck away from the main combat. The Avatar spins around and starts pounding on his designated tank. I call in raid for a heal and some shaman brings me up to about 70%. At 12%, he turns again and starts chewing on some of the robes. I mistime my evade and get quadded again. This time, I don't have enough hit points to survive. As I rematerialize in Plane of Knowledge, the raid channel is frantic. The last rotation tank has dropped and the Avatar is running amok at 9%. He gets down to 6% before the first tank from the original rotation manages to get aggro again. His defensive is spent and he drops at 2%. Another tank gets aggro, then a third. These are all toons that have died earlier in the fight now. Someone calls out 0% in the chat channel and I can see the empty health bar in my head. Half the guild is watching from their bind points now. As we'll find out later, one of the OOM clerics, recovering enough mana for a CHeal but finding no one standing able to tank nukes the last 700 points of damage that fells the Avatar. The cheering goes out on every channel. I'm rezzing in when the loot is declared, so I miss it. It turns out to be two flayed barbie masks and two warrior helm. I send in my tell with my current face slot (Death Mask of the Elysians,) but didn't expect to loot anything, having just gotten my Sleeper's Key the day before. But, while the officers are considering loot, I check who's on. There are four rogues on the raid. Two are invites. There are two bards. One is a trial member. One is an invite. We've got five invites on the whole raid and three of them are in my loot category. So, the two masks go to me and the other full-member rogue. I gratefully pass down my Elysian mask and thank the guild extensively. It literally felt like we would have lost with one less person. As we are regathering, we get our last bit of good news of the day. Sleeper's Tomb is still spawned. Those of us who are keyed head over. By this point, I'm exhausted and enough people are that we gather in the entrance chamber of Sleeper's and go afk for about an hour. I take a forty minute power nap, splash some cold water on my face, and get back to work. We clear quickly, taking down Master of the Guard and Progenitor with minimum casualties. The prismatics are kind of junky--a 2hs, a 1hb, a 2hb, and a bow. I loot the new Priceless Velium Spear, which looks like primal and has a slightly better ratio than my current weapons, but with no stats or haste on it, it's more of a souvenir of my first trip to Sleeper's Tomb than a weapon that will actually see any use. It was me or Rot. We do MotG and Progenitor so quickly that we decide to see how fast we can get down to Ancients with the nineteen people we still have on and keyed. The answer turns out to be that we can't. We lose both clerics in a bit of chain aggro and have to have a necro summon the whole raid back to the surface. Just about 24 hours after the Tormax pop, I finally log out. I've gotten to help my guild kill two MObs we never did before, to raid in a zone I've never been in before, and to get my hands on the sort of loot I would have viewed as unreachable even a year before. And *that* was my funnest EQ day ever. --Jekke ===================== Playing on Torvonilous Veteran Moulin Khmer (Dark Elf Rogue, 65) http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=87681 Sheava Ebonrezzor (Dark Elf Cleric, 56) http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=392441 Brikk Hauss (Ogre Warrior, 46) http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=399065 And on Test: Persona Nongratis, Dark Elf Enchanter 26 Gnyght, Gnome Paladin 11 Entropea, 0.5(Elf) Druid 10 Shoque, Iksar Monk 9