The first thing that happens, when I start (re-start) playing Everquest, is that I stop writing blog posts (for the most part). This is probably because most of my blog posts are written while staring at the computer wondering what to do next – and that time is now filled by me staring at Everquest wondering what to do next.
Just, you know, keeping you up-to-date.
Previous Confessions [Part 1] [Part 2]
Being an EverQuest raid leader is a position of responsibility. Sure, it’s not on the same scale as school teacher, police officer or children’s TV presenter, but it should not be taken lightly. As a raid leader your actions and language should be an example to those you lead. Raiders are of all ages and backgrounds, ethnically and religiously diverse and you should always take care to be courteous.
Choice of words therefore is critical. I would strongly advocate never swearing.
Unless absolutely necessary.
Such as in the following situations.
Readers of a nervous disposition or delicate nature should stop reading now (also, if you’re under 18 you should seek your parent or guardian’s permission before reading, or check with your local wizard).
[Sat Jul 30 23:38:48 2005] You tell your raid, 'I remind you ALL to read the fucking charter before raiding with us' [Sat Oct 01 23:32:56 2005] You tell your raid, 'when people then leave afterwards it really fucks us over' [Sat Sep 09 23:15:27 2006] You tell your raid, 'patience folks please - keep an eye out for trash - welcome to why people don't fucking farm ikkinz 3' [Sat Feb 09 21:07:03 2008] You tell your raid, 'but whle they are clicking you can't click otherwise it fucks the order up'
[Sat Jun 25 23:37:59 2005] You tell your raid, 'we never know if we should do this tower first or last, it's always a fucking pain' [Sat Nov 05 21:36:26 2005] You tell your raid, 'then we give it 5 seconds and then i'll call assist and you come over push him onto us and burn the fucker' [Sat Jan 07 23:27:46 2006] You tell your raid, 'ok mob has a nasty AE, hits for 3-4k, single target rampages, and memblurs all the fucking time' [Sat Mar 18 21:37:10 2006] You tell your raid, 'if we stay near where we zone in, it's 2, if we stray it's 4, if we stray badly it's 6, if we fuck up it's 6 + Sol Ro' [Sat Feb 25 21:55:43 2006] You tell your raid, 'the trash is fucking annoying and snares, roots, etc.' [Sat Apr 22 22:12:00 2006] You tell your raid, 'but let's not forget, he probably hits like a fucking truck' [Sat May 20 21:13:23 2006] You tell your raid, 'it's fucking chaotic, we just need to try and survive' [Sat May 27 20:42:15 2006] You tell your raid, 'this is a revenge match - i hate this little fucker' [Thu Sep 07 20:16:48 2006] You tell your raid, 'so let's not fuck about with it once we're inside' [Thu Sep 07 22:38:09 2006] You tell your raid, 'we kill the mob to 90% while he's beating the fuck out of us' [Sun Sep 10 00:26:06 2006] You tell your raid, 'we will 1. kill him once with extreme fucking prejudice' [Sun Sep 10 01:08:30 2006] You tell your raid, 'top game from everyone folks, we give Derg 5 seconds and then we rush the fucker' [Sat Feb 03 23:04:28 2007] You tell your raid, 'they both have fucking horrible AE's' [Sat May 21 20:38:49 2005] You tell your raid, 'and from 90% you go full burn and nuke the fucker into the ground without mercy'
[Sat Sep 08 22:56:13 2007] You tell your raid, 'GHOSTS IN THE FUCKING RAID' [Sat Jan 07 22:08:43 2006] You tell your raid, 'Adds in the clerics fucking kite them ' [Sat Aug 09 22:01:04 2008] You tell your raid, 'Kill that fucking orc PLEASE'
[Sat Jul 30 23:43:30 2005] You tell your raid, 'ok we will need to re-clear and then redo this - sorry for the fuckup'
[Sat Aug 26 22:19:13 2006] You tell your raid, 'who's not in the fucking zone?'
[Sat Sep 17 20:58:06 2005] You tell your raid, 'GET THE FUCK OFF THAT TREE' [Sat Oct 15 22:19:00 2005] You tell your raid, 'get the fuck off this mob until i call assist NOW' [Sat Jan 07 22:07:27 2006] You tell your raid, 'FUCKING NAIL HIM' [Sat Dec 03 20:32:12 2005] You tell your raid, 'Ok, I won't ask again - you will all move back behind me NOW and you still NOT fight the mobs in that fucking doorway' [Sun Feb 05 00:43:24 2006] You tell your raid, 'Get off that Guardian of Dresolik and fucking assist Cheichn' [Sat Feb 25 21:16:32 2006] You tell your raid, 'we are not engaging get the fuck off him' [Sun Mar 26 02:46:07 2006] You tell your raid, 'BURN THE FUCKER' [Sat Jun 24 21:38:51 2006] You tell your raid, 'FUCKING INVIS' [Sat Aug 26 23:28:15 2006] You tell your raid, 'MOVE BACK FROM THE FUCKING EDGE NOW' [Sat Oct 28 20:47:59 2006] You tell your raid, 'those folk not in the corner, get in the fucking corner NOW' [Sat Nov 25 20:47:57 2006] You tell your raid, 'BACK THE FUCK OFF' [Sat May 21 22:51:11 2005] You tell your raid, 'get off thos emobs, get them out of that fucking corridor' [Sat Feb 23 21:27:45 2008] You tell your raid, 'and don't fucking train us' [Sat Nov 20 21:28:56 2004] You tell your raid, 'fucking surround it - not all on the same side as me'
[Sat Feb 18 21:56:49 2006] You tell your raid, 'It's a fucking Egg Jihad' [Sat Feb 26 23:23:39 2005] You tell your raid, 'fucking perfect' [Sat Apr 16 23:40:08 2005] You tell your raid, 'YES YOU DRESS WEARING FUCK' [Sat May 07 21:05:26 2005] You tell your raid, 'and our shield will be RIGHTEOUS FUCKING ANGER' [Sat Jan 15 20:18:14 2005] You tell your raid, 'before we go anywhere - thanks for a fucking awesome turnout'
[Sat Oct 01 23:31:55 2005] You tell your raid, 'ahh fuck it' [Sat Sep 17 22:05:16 2005] You tell your raid, 'fuck' [Sat Jul 15 23:03:41 2006] You tell your raid, 'ah fuck' [Sat Jul 28 23:23:49 2007] You tell your raid, 'fuck it'
[Sat Jan 26 23:10:50 2008] You tell your raid, 'we killed Tunat and he was fucking ugly'
Other than those situations, you should try and avoid swearing.
You can read part one of this series, and the general background here. But in summary, I played EverQuest, I ended up being a co-leader of a most excellent raid alliance, and these posts are about remembering some of the madness that entailed.
EverQuest was brutal about death, right from the outset. You lost XP, you had to go and find your corpse to get your gear back, and that meant getting to it, without any existing gear. Eventually you could get resurrected, and over time they added ways to summon your corpse to you, but they never got rid of the XP penalty. In groups, you could expect to die a couple of times per night if you were doing tough content, in raids, depending on your role, you could expect to die 10 or more times. Over the course of an evening, that’s a reasonable amount of lost XP even if you are getting 96% resurrections. But that was the job, if you were a tank, puller, healer or crowd controller you were going to die more than anyone else. Of course, everyone else was going to die as well ….
The tanks on our raids had their own channel, and death was a common topic. Our tanks were fearless in the face of death and gave it the respect it deserved.
[Sat May 05 21:03:27 2007] You tell tnftank:7, 'i'll take dref too for ramp in case I die?' [Sat Jun 02 23:20:38 2007] You tell tnftank:7, 'i usually go to shit when i die' [Sat Jun 02 23:47:38 2007] You tell tnftank:7, 'but at least let me die first' [Sat Jun 30 21:02:43 2007] You tell tnftank:7, 'no furious, expect me to die ;)' [Sat Feb 10 21:51:02 2007] Zorblag tells tnftank:6, 'This last fight is mean. Aaddx will likely die.' [Sat Mar 17 22:43:06 2007] Zerblag tells tnftank:6, 'But expect to die.' [Sat May 05 21:52:55 2007] Tinyface tells tnftank:7, 'hehe i cant wait to give mine a shot but ill probably die :)' [Sat Sep 22 22:20:39 2007] Zerblag tells tnftank:7, 'About to die.' [Sat Oct 06 20:03:08 2007] Nevarna tells tnftank:7, 'I'll die anyway so it's all good' [Sat Jan 26 19:57:51 2008] Glutious tells tnftank:7, 'a good day to die '
[Sat Mar 22 21:57:11 2008] You tell tnftank:7, 'if tinyface dies, just laugh at him and then step on his corpse to take over tanking' [Sat Apr 28 21:31:23 2007] You tell tnftank:7, 'If Cheichn is still afk he's about to die'
[Sat Oct 13 19:41:04 2007] Sidyenai tells tnftank:7, 'ok, nev, you go to mirror and look yourself into your eyes and say: i wil not die this raid, i will not die this raid .. 20 times .. :D' [Sat Jul 19 20:31:51 2008] Zerblag tells tnftank:7, 'AE ramp on Nightshade. Don't die to it or you get laughed at.' [Sat Mar 15 21:22:17 2008] Tinyface tells tnftank:7, 'Dont fall off the walkway, you will pop to the middle and die a horrible death' [Sat Aug 04 21:39:58 2007] Zerblag tells tnftank:7, 'It'll be faster just to die Aaddx.'
[Sat May 19 21:08:49 2007] Tinyface tells tnftank:7, 'hehe i NEVER die :)' [Sat Apr 07 23:30:50 2007] Drefaen tells tnftank:6, 'whee, day off, Aaddx nevr dies'
[Sat Jan 20 21:32:22 2007] Drefaen tells tnftank:7, 'sure, I haven't died yet, I'm starting to get worried' [Sat Jan 20 22:50:14 2007] Drefaen tells tnftank:7, 'I haven't died yet, feels odd' [Sat Jan 27 23:18:06 2007] Drefaen tells tnftank:7, 'should I be in NW corner? or only when Brich dies? I mean if Brich dies' [Sun Jan 28 00:17:58 2007] Drefaen tells tnftank:7, 'I suspect I'll die here, I've only fell over once so far' [Sat Feb 03 20:16:09 2007] Drefaen tells tnftank:6, 'I recon I shouldn't get one, I always die 8)'
And of course as co-leader of the raids, it was up to me to remind our most excellent raid force of the critical strategy regarding the stuff we were killing. This mainly revolved around not dying.
[Sat Sep 22 22:15:31 2007] You tell your raid, 'the important thing - just don't die' [Sat Sep 29 21:27:48 2007] You tell your raid, 'DO NOT DIE NOW NOT THIS CLOSE' [Sat Oct 13 20:58:40 2007] You tell your raid, 'then we kill stuff, and don't die' [Sat Oct 13 20:59:22 2007] You tell your raid, 'ok south - don't die this time :p' [Sat Aug 09 22:12:05 2008] You tell your raid, 'DO NOT DIE' [Sat Aug 09 22:39:01 2008] You tell your raid, '1. don't die' [Sat Aug 09 22:39:10 2008] You tell your raid, '2. friends don't let friends die either' [Sat Feb 05 21:32:24 2005] You tell your raid, 'nice - don't die while we do loot' [Sat May 07 23:14:51 2005] You tell your raid, 'we WILL NOT DIE HERE TODAY'
As you can see, I really liked this ‘not dying’ as a strategy …
[Sat Sep 22 21:24:46 2007] You tell your raid, 'so everyone tanks, no one dies' [Sat Jan 06 20:35:03 2007] You tell your raid, 'oh and don't die' [Sat Sep 08 19:29:38 2007] You tell your raid, 'ok same deal - only this time we don't die' [Sat Sep 08 23:24:46 2007] You tell your raid, 'Do NOT die' [Sat May 28 20:26:22 2005] You tell your raid, 'follow Aaddx we're charging the arena - don't die' [Sat Jun 11 20:22:10 2005] You tell your raid, 'don't die :p' [Sat Nov 26 23:09:25 2005] You tell your raid, 'stay focussed don't die' [Sat Dec 03 20:53:53 2005] You tell your raid, 'don't die' [Sun Jan 29 00:42:41 2006] You tell your raid, 'oh key thing - don't die' [Sat Feb 11 22:35:48 2006] You tell your raid, 'NO ONE dies'
It worked for our raid team, so I stuck to it, who would have thought ‘not dying’ was the most powerful weapon a raid team could have?
[Sat Mar 04 22:21:51 2006] You tell your raid, 'don't die' [Sat Mar 04 23:10:20 2006] You tell your raid, 'and don't die' [Sat Apr 01 21:28:47 2006] You tell your raid, 'don't die, it's a long fight' [Sat Oct 21 22:24:20 2006] You tell your raid, 'groups 1-3 will kill it and they won't die' [Sat Dec 09 20:59:23 2006] You tell your raid, 'stay focussed, don't die, and we can do this' [Sat Dec 16 23:23:37 2006] You tell your raid, 'don't die that's silly' [Sat Feb 17 22:52:24 2007] You tell your raid, 'here we go, no one dies' [Sat Mar 10 22:50:19 2007] You tell your raid, 'we must not die' [Sat Mar 24 19:57:47 2007] You tell your raid, 'do not let my 3rd favourite SK die' [Sat Apr 07 23:19:28 2007] You tell your raid, 'DO NOT DIE HERE I WILL BE UPSET' [Sat Jun 16 20:17:40 2007] You tell your raid, 'oh AE Rampage - don't die' [Sat Jul 21 20:58:07 2007] You tell your raid, 'All you have to do now is NOT DIE' [Sat Jul 28 22:47:13 2007] You tell your raid, '20 mobs at a time - don't die' [Sat Jan 05 20:17:45 2008] You tell your raid, 'off-tank, don't die' [Sat Jan 05 21:52:17 2008] You tell your raid, 'pull him - don't die' [Tue Dec 11 20:25:29 2007] You tell your raid, 'no one die, everyone win, easy victory' [Sat Dec 15 21:20:11 2007] You tell your raid, 'Hold on then - refuse to die'
[Sat Mar 08 22:14:40 2008] You tell your raid, 'try not to die, but it's an UGLY raid' [Sat Jul 02 21:40:50 2005] You tell your raid, 'we have *not* tried this before, so we will probably all die horribly' [Sat Sep 08 18:46:19 2007] You tell your raid, 'Ok - Oly gets to die later - thanks Oly' [Thu Sep 07 23:30:54 2006] You tell your raid, 'tank order is - all tanks form a queue and die for your country - followed by weaponshield rangers' [Sat Apr 21 21:59:12 2007] You tell your raid, 'we have to trigger these two mobs, normally we make Aonia die, but today it's Moone's turn, I need to talk her through it so it'll take a moment longer than normal' [Wed Aug 22 22:26:26 2007] You tell your raid, 'that's the voice of a man who expects to die again' [Sat Dec 15 22:39:49 2007] You tell your raid, 'each week someone thinks that, and they die'
[Sat Oct 29 23:28:14 2005] You tell your raid, 'we're going to kill a Dragon - don't die on the way' [Sat Feb 25 20:23:25 2006] You tell your raid, 'please don't die in BoT it makes me sad - get invis' [Sat Nov 04 21:47:22 2006] You tell your raid, 'and die, at Noit's feet, to provide him something to stand on'
[Sat Dec 08 22:54:51 2007] You tell your raid, 'we assist Nlaokx, we mezz the snake pops, and we refuse to die' [Sat Jul 29 20:29:12 2006] You tell your raid, 'Fake Rallos - AE Rampage - fight at max range, do not die' [Sat Jul 29 20:29:23 2006] You tell your raid, 'Real Rallos - AE Rampage, adds, shit, etc. do not die' [Sat Dec 03 20:43:20 2005] You tell your raid, 'on the next named - no swarm pets, no hammer pets, no sword pets, and don't die' [Sat Dec 03 20:49:54 2005] You tell your raid, 'Named inc with adds - do not break mezz - do not die' [Sat Jan 14 22:15:38 2006] You tell your raid, 'ok we're going left - follow - tank 3 mezz rest - assist aaddx easy - don't die' [Sat Feb 10 20:53:53 2007] You tell your raid, 'next mob is archetype again - we do it the same only this time, we don't die' [Sat Feb 10 22:34:01 2007] You tell your raid, 'biggest train of undead wins - go get some - don't die, don't bring anything that might be ugly' [Sat Mar 31 21:02:17 2007] You tell your raid, 'aggro on the snake will bounce like hell - just kill her and don't die' [Sat Apr 14 22:54:14 2007] You tell your raid, 'there'll be a load of mobs outside the instance - just zone in - don't die :p' [Sat Jun 16 20:15:21 2007] You tell your raid, 'i can't remember what his AE's are, what cures them, how bad they are, or anything else :) so let's pretend they don't exist, try not to die' [Sun Sep 02 00:11:03 2007] You tell your raid, 'everyone will be in south except 7 and 8, you will burn south, you won't die' [Sat Jun 28 20:52:29 2008] You tell your raid, 'your job is to aggro your mob and bring it into the cubby and then not die' [Sat Jun 28 23:36:41 2008] You tell your raid, 'going to do this the same way, but not die as much' [Sat Jul 05 22:38:17 2008] You tell your raid, 'stay on your feet - too close to die now'
[Sat Jul 19 22:41:25 2008] You tell your raid, 'you're not allowed to die until you have no mana, no endurance and then no hitpoints' [Sat Jul 19 20:24:12 2008] You tell your raid, 'if tanks get out of range for heals, just let them die, /tell [tankname] laugh you were out of range' [Sat Feb 09 20:49:05 2008] You tell your raid, 'don't die, it'll be embarassing' [Sun Oct 28 00:04:54 2007] You tell your raid, 'if you die it's your own fault :p' [Sat Jul 29 21:23:29 2006] You tell your raid, 'if you die because you're not invis i'm gonna be really unhappy - 2 people last time' [Sat Nov 27 23:26:24 2004] You tell your raid, '500pp to let him die' [Sat Jul 30 23:22:28 2005] You tell your raid, 'anyone in plate who dies including clerics gets laughed at ok' [Sat Aug 06 13:03:39 2005] You tell your raid, 'if you die, we laugh at you' [Sun Feb 12 00:28:37 2006] You tell your raid, 'Hail the PP - if you died we laugh at you' [Sat May 20 23:10:43 2006] You tell your raid, 'don't die to enrage or I'll kill you right after we rez you' [Sat Feb 03 20:07:46 2007] You tell your raid, 'if you die, it will trigger a chain reaction of death and we will wipe' [Sat Apr 14 20:59:02 2007] You tell your raid, 'every mob in here ENRAGES - based on our new policy - anyone who dies to ENRAGE buys me something nice in the bazaar for 10kpp+' [Sat Jul 28 20:23:30 2007] You tell your raid, 'if you die to ENRAGE today, you get to clean my toilet with your toothbrush tomorrow' [Sat Aug 04 20:23:53 2007] You tell your raid, 'ok follow please - anyone who dies does the dishes' [Sat Aug 11 20:08:58 2007] You tell your raid, 'don't die in WoS, or we point and laugh' [Sat Mar 08 21:56:00 2008] You tell your raid, 'if you can't cancel magic, don't bother, you're probably just gonna have to die ;)' [Sat Mar 22 21:22:40 2008] You tell your raid, 'aug mobs inc soon, don't die to them, it's embarassing :p' [Fri May 26 20:35:54 2006] You tell your raid, 'Jae died, we can laugh later' [Sat Jan 07 23:42:20 2006] You tell your raid, 'which tank didn't die?'
[Sat Mar 10 21:52:58 2007] You tell your raid, 'WHY DO YOU DIE TO ENRAGE?'
The guild I was a member of in EverQuest was a ‘family’ guild, as they were known. It existed for social reasons and to allow us to enjoy the group/casual element of the game. We were also friends with a few other guilds in a similar position. The thing with EverQuest is that it sucked you in, and so a few of us, starting small, began raiding things with a small alliance of guilds. Over time the raids grew, but we prided ourselves on casual raiding, we enforced as few rules as possible and we avoided big raid style loot management (DKP).
We ended up beating some of the toughest content in the game, and boy, did we have fun. These posts are random memories I have about raiding in EverQuest, both with my own raid team and with other raid guilds and alliances.
My first experience of large scale raiding in EverQuest was with the Blood & Guts guild. They were in a raid team formed from two European guilds so they raided pretty much in my timezone. I’d had almost no raid experience, joined them with my wizard, and went on a learning curve that looked more like a cliff. As a wizard, my role was simple.
This should be pretty easy, and to be fair, it’s one of the easiest raid roles in EverQuest. One of the most colourful raid leaders with Blood & Guts was Kasstou. I was always amazed that one German guild and one French guild used English as the primary language in their raids, which certainly made it easier for me, but must have made it a nightmare for them. Not only were they typing in a foreign language, but they were doing so in a high stress environment trying to convey critical information.
Anyway, Kasstou had a habit of shouting ‘burn’ into the raid channel. Here’s a few examples,
[Sun Jul 11 23:17:37 2004] Kasstou tells the raid, 'BURN HIM' [Sun Jul 11 23:56:41 2004] Kasstou tells the raid, 'BURN INNO DOWN' [Sun Jul 18 20:17:30 2004] Kasstou tells the raid, 'ok disc burn' [Sun Jul 18 21:11:01 2004] Kasstou tells the raid, 'BURN NOW' [Sun Jul 18 23:23:43 2004] Kasstou tells the raid, 'BURN LIKE HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL' [Sun Jul 25 20:56:40 2004] Kasstou tells the raid, 'DISC BURN KILL FASTTTTTT'
This used to frustrate me, because calling for burn suggested I hadn’t been trying to do as much DPS as I could have, the rest of the time. I was a conscientious wizard, I was always trying to ride that line between aggro and DPS, I was always burning! Once or twice I even complained about this to fellow group members.
When I started co-running my own raids, however, all that moaning went out of the window. It became obvious very quickly that sometimes, you needed a single word to inspire greatness in your raid team, to elevate them to greater heights of damage. At those times, BURN was the right choice, and so over time, I found myself using it more and more as we raided!
Reading back these log entries, even now, reminds me of the events, the mobs and the people involved in raiding in EverQuest, I miss you all, they were good times!
So, for your nostalgic pleasure, Grayhelm calls BURN!
[Sat Jul 02 22:41:40 2005] You tell your raid, 'BURN NOW' [Sat Jun 04 23:47:56 2005] You tell your raid, 'burninate' [Sun Aug 14 00:03:55 2005] You tell your raid, 'burn dis nuke whatever' [Thu Oct 20 21:08:39 2005] You tell your raid, 'BURN HIM ALL OUT' [Wed Mar 22 20:39:59 2006] You tell your raid, 'WE CAN DO IT BURN BURN BURN' [Wed Apr 05 20:28:33 2006] You tell your raid, 'DISC BURN NUKERISE' [Thu Aug 24 22:13:13 2006] You tell your raid, 'BURN BURN BURN BURN' [Sat Feb 02 22:51:35 2008] You tell your raid, 'more burn' [Sat Jul 12 21:49:05 2008] You tell your raid, 'ok mini burn on Emperor Draygun, the Lich King'
[Sun Jan 28 00:27:06 2007] You tell your raid, 'BURN COME ON YOU CAN DO IT' [Sun Mar 26 02:46:07 2006] You tell your raid, 'BURN THE FUCKER' [Sat Sep 08 20:22:42 2007] You tell your raid, 'ALL GO BURN KILL SHOUT THROW THINGS DIE DIE KITE DOOM DEATH GO' [Sun Dec 11 00:06:25 2005] You tell your raid, 'OH NO UNIVERSAL CHAT DOWN - BURN Velitorkin' [Sun Mar 11 00:09:10 2007] You tell your raid, '30 seconds MORE BURN' [Sat May 20 23:10:59 2006] You tell your raid, 'DISC BURN - throw laundry' [Thu Aug 24 22:14:30 2006] You tell your raid, 'burn him - use harsh words' [Sat Jan 13 20:44:10 2007] You tell your raid, 'Full burn - all discs go go go' [Sat Jun 09 23:34:53 2007] You tell your raid, 'BURN with ANYTHING YOU HAVE' [Sat Sep 01 21:51:08 2007] You tell your raid, 'BURN clerics light on mana' [Sat May 10 23:23:03 2008] You tell your raid, 'Burn hard, Burn early, Burn often'
[Sat Aug 27 22:05:21 2005] You tell your raid, 'burn his ass'
[Sat Sep 29 21:28:34 2007] You tell your raid, 'BURN MY MOB' [Sat Sep 29 21:29:04 2007] You tell your raid, 'burn east' [Sat Sep 29 21:30:34 2007] You tell your raid, 'BURN WEST' [Sat Nov 10 21:03:01 2007] You tell your raid, 'BURN SOUTH NOW'
[Sat Aug 27 23:33:09 2005] You tell your raid, 'BURN TT - KITE ADDS' [Sat Feb 10 22:02:59 2007] You tell your raid, 'GO GO BURN KITE KITE BURN KITE' [Sat Mar 24 19:57:05 2007] You tell your raid, 'BURN DO NOT PUSH BURN BURN BURN' [Sat Jun 02 23:49:19 2007] You tell your raid, 'Full swarm pets - burn burn burn etc.'
[Sat Aug 20 22:24:37 2005] You tell your raid, 'BURN FFS ARGH - when you see that, go full DPS' [Sun Sep 11 00:44:02 2005] You tell your raid, 'for gods sake BURN' [Sun Jan 28 00:24:40 2007] You tell your raid, 'BURN Innoruuk ffs' [Sat Jul 14 22:02:10 2007] You tell your raid, 'If you have Endurance left - WHY? BURN DISCS NOW' [Sat Jul 21 22:15:06 2007] You tell your raid, 'If you have ENDURANCE LEFT - ask yourself WHY - BURN THIS MOB' [Sat Oct 13 21:04:59 2007] You tell your raid, 'someone burn south ffs' [Sat Dec 01 23:57:55 2007] You tell your raid, 'health going up? BURN'
[Sat Mar 10 22:27:04 2007] You tell your raid, 'BURN Tqiv Araxt the Enraged please someone' [Sat Sep 15 23:50:16 2007] You tell your raid, 'ok someone burn this thing to the ground please'
[Sat Oct 29 22:17:02 2005] You tell your raid, 'control your aggro this is not a burn competition' [Sat Sep 29 21:21:50 2007] You tell your raid, 'slow burn'
[Sat Aug 11 20:35:03 2007] You tell your raid, 'remember - full burn from the outset - dying with any mana or endurance is a waste' [Sat May 21 20:38:49 2005] You tell your raid, 'and from 90% you go full burn and nuke the fucker into the ground without mercy'
[Mon Oct 29 20:38:21 2007] You tell your raid, 'Grats Burn - loot up'
[Sat Nov 27 21:33:32 2004] You tell your raid, 'burn disc or it's all over'
[Sat Mar 15 20:31:09 2008] You tell your raid, 'burn the cat'
[Mon Apr 07 21:16:07 2008] You tell your raid, 'electrical burning smell here, if we go LD,send fire engines' [Sat May 31 23:16:18 2008] You tell your raid, 'Burn SIDDHAYA'
[Sat Mar 15 22:02:19 2008] You tell your raid, 'there will be NO BURN call - we CONTROL this fight all the way through' and then [Sat Mar 15 23:27:53 2008] You tell your raid, 'FULL BURN Emperor Draygun, the Lich King DOTS and SWARM PETS GO'
I’ve spent a week moving 160GB of data around, and around, and around, and around, for a lot of reasons, none of which I want to go into.
But I did find this, and it made me laugh. A throwback to my EverQuest days.
Grayhelm killed an awful lot of Orc Pawns.
(Hah, apparently I already posted this image, in 2009, when I deleted EverQuest, what do you know)
These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.
You were there.
You were there when the first of our enemies fell. You were all there when blind, we still prevailed against The Itraer Vius.
We were all there the day the Avatar of War fell to our combined might, the moment the cursed snakelords of Luclin gave up their treasures, and when the Emperor’s presence was diminished by our deeds.
I remember.
You were there, risen from near death when we beat the Trial of Endurance and found our way into the lair of the Overlord, and we were all there when he was vanquished to the cries of our revenge. His mightiest lieutenants long dead, the chaotic power of Hulcror nothing before our righteous strength.
Time will not weaken the memory of our journey through its very plane of existence, the effort it took to get there, the sacrifice, the team work. We were there when Quarm fell, we were all there.
I was there when you forged through the Gates of Discord and defeated the best it had.
I was there when we rewarded our allies with epic weapons beyond compare.
I was there when headless monstrosities, dragons, giants, daemons and all manner of creatures from our collective nightmares learned there was something in the darkness to be feared more than they themselves. We were transcendant, resplendant, and we gloried in our power.
We were TNF, and I was there when we learned we had nothing to fear.
It’s only a game they might cry. And we laugh for none know the truth of that as well as we do. It is only a game, but you, you are real. Friendships are real. Shared experiences, triumph, defeat and victory are real.
We were all there, connected, together, a team, friends.
I know who you are because I have seen you in the shared moments, I respect you all, miss you all.
Whatever you’re doing at this time of year, I wish you all the best and hope you can share this moment with those you love, in spirit if not in body.
Here’s to 2010. You will be there, in my thoughts.
A couple of folk were kind enough to read and comment on this post, and I’d been thinking about it some more as well. There are some mitigating factors which I wanted to talk about. Some of these are negatives about how EQ does it and some positives or ‘not as bad as it sounds’ stuff about LotRO.
Firstly, with EverQuest, helping your friends level is the same process as levelling yourself, any time, all the time. While this makes it simple, it also makes it pretty tedious, in fact, much of EverQuest is pretty tedious (I can say this now, after not playing for a long time, although clearly at the time it was more engaging). You go out, you kill stuff, you continue doing that until you level and then you do it some more. So while it makes it easy to keep your friends at the same level, it doesn’t exactly provide much variability.
In line with that, although LotRO quest based XP means you might have to repeat the same quests a few times to keep your friends at the same levels, it’s essentially no different from EverQuest. You get to run around killing stuff, while in the background your friends are completing quests and getting XP. So the end result isn’t any different. You might find you don’t get much XP, but the aim is to let your friends catch up, not keep the gap at the same distance so this isn’t an issue either. Because the quests in LotRO cover a lot of locations, you’re more mobile than you would be in EverQuest and killing stuff is, after all, the same as killing stuff no matter where you are. So it’s not as bad as it sounds.
Secondly, there is value in killing a lot of creatures in Lord of the Rings Online. Each area has a number of deeds, those deeds give titles, XP and traits as rewards. There are mob kill based deeds which tend to have two stages, the first gives a title, the second gives a trait. If you only go to an area, complete the quests and move on it’s unlikely you’ll kill enough creatures to get both levels and you might not even achieve the first. This is especially true of elite mobs (such as Trolls) or non-aggro mobs like crawlers. However, if you keep going back to help out your friends, you will complete those deeds and end up with a more rounded character. So there is absolutely some benefit to being in a place for longer periods killing the creatures, and helping your friends is just a bonus.
Thirdly, related to the above, there are quests from level 39 and up which require you to kill a lot of creatures to get rare pages (especially in Angmar and the Misty Mountains). If you’re helping friends in those areas (which I am), then you’ll see your pages drop without having to go back later and just farm them. Another bonus to being somewhere beyond completing the quests yourself.
There are numerous other things you can do, while helping friends level, which add value and which you would otherwise have to ‘farm’ or ‘grind’ out on your own. As long as the mobs give some XP, you’ll earn skill-based deed increases (where you’re required to use the same skill over and over until you earn the trait). Often in tough fights, you don’t get the chance to use less-useful skills but in trivial fights while helping friends you can use the same low-damage skill over and over until you complete the deed, without exposing your friends to a grisly death. There’s always a need to collect crafting ingredients and recipes, even below your currently attained skill tier, which is why you’ll often find people helping out their friends leaving them to ‘handle’ some creatures for ‘just a moment’ while they mine an ore node or collecting some wood (before returning to revive their companions).
Turbine have added some specific rewards for repeating certain quests lines (mainly the Book based quests), since they’re fellowship quests and you always need people to repeat them unless you’re very lucky. The rewards vary from the okay to the lacklustre but it’s still an option.
If you’ve done a lot of stuff solo, or in small groups, there’s a good chance you’ve missed a few fellowship or tougher-then-normal quests. Going back and helping your friends while you’re slightly higher lets everyone complete these quests. I had a perfect example of this a couple of nights ago in Angmar, there’s a bunch of elite quests inside a fort which I hadn’t done (neither had Grete or one of our other friends). We were helping two friends level, and we went and did those quests. With 5 of us they were fun, challenging and more interesting than the regular quests and we all got some XP. Although the rewards weren’t really upgrades for 3 of us, it was still a good chance to do some of the harder content that we wouldn’t otherwise normally see.
Lastly of course, the real benefit, is that you get to spend time in a group with friends, having a laugh, some decent banter, and quoting nearly all of Aliens in the process. Sure we chat in the Kin channel when we’re soloing or just mooching, but there’s something more social about being in the same fellowship, standing in the middle of Angmar cursing at the enemy and laughing when someone gets knocked off a horse on the run back to camp.
NB: All of this discussion excludes any element of swimming across Evendim. There is never any good reason for repeating any action which involves swimming anywhere in Evendim. Turbine need to add some swimming deeds. Then and only then will I gleefully help out in Evendim. Yes, adding the boat was a fantastic move, but by then I’d already spent half a lifetime swimming across that damn lake. The boat doesn’t go to the Blue Lady’s cave does it? Oh no. And you still have to swim to Salamander Island don’t you? Yes. Too. Much. Swimming.
… on my hard disk.
I deleted EverQuest today, from my hard disk. I’d say ‘uninstalled’ but I haven’t installed EQ since the very first time, it was decent enough that you could just copy it anywhere and it would run (just about), so after the first time I installed it and through all my machine upgrades I just copied it around as needed.
Today I deleted it. Before that I logged my two main characters on one last time, and ran them to their home cities. I even ran my dwarf along the route he used to run all the time when I first started playing, from Kelethin to Kaladim, when he was making banded armour.
I killed an orc pawn as I went by (as I always used to), and I was pleased to see my faction was still okay.
Orc pawns, one of the first things I ever killed in EverQuest, and also the last.
Good times.
I shall spend the rest of my life checking my tail for the sign of the Crushbone orcs, but I fear they’re out classed and out numbered.
So yesterday I closed my last remaining EverQuest account. It’s been a fun time, but I’ve just gradually moved away from EQ. Some of it is frustration with the game, some to do with the direction it had gone and was going, and some is just because I’ve been doing it so long.
The game in my view is damned if it does now and damned if it doesn’t. They needed to close the gap between ‘hard-core’ players and ‘casual’ players or risk totally losing one of those segments of the playerbase, however, each change to achieve that alienates another bunch of players. While I understood the need for the changes, they didn’t enhance my game they just made me feel like it wasn’t worth trying.
The people in EQ kept me playing for longer than the game alone would have and without them it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as much fun, so if any of them read this – thanks, it really was an honour.
I’m past devoting that much time to a single game, I play Lord of the Rings On-line casually, sometimes spending lots of time in game and sometimes not playing for ages, but I can always pick it up and drop it as required. It suits me, and I love the lore. So if you know me and you want to say hi, pop in to the [EN-RP] Laurelin server and look me up.
Thanks to everyone in the guilds I was in, the groups I was in, and anyone who had to put up with my control-freakery nature.
These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.
I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise to most people, but I cancelled my last EQ account yesterday (Grayhelm) after stopping the other two in the last few months. I’ve not been in game for quite a while, it seemed silly to continue paying for it.
It has been my honour to experience this game with you, to be there at 2am during our breakthroughs, to be there during the fun times and the hard times.
EverQuest is a life experience, not just a game. It’s a social environment in which people form relationships, and those relationships kept me in the game well past the point where the game alone was fun. That’s testimony to the quality of the people, in the guild and in the game as a whole.
I don’t regret my time in EQ.
(The website is safe for as long as it’s required. I will continue to maintain / patch the code as required.)
Take care folks, enjoy what you do where ever you do it. If you’re ever in Lord of the Rings Online on a European server let me know (I hang out there casually, killing Orcs and screaming Baruk Khazâd!)
You can find me here -> http://perceptionistruth.com and you can mail me at my regular mail address (which is gnomtrix at gmail dot com).