Monual's Willful Ignorance
Richard Lawson
find a correlation between my posting and me winning a piece of loot, you
may not be far wrong.
Last night, I log in and immediately am told to get to Vex Thal. I mount my
trusty drogmor and off I go. Along the way someone asks if I can do a
smithing order for them; I tell them I'm going on a Vex Thal raid and will
likely be there for hours.
Zone in, get coth'd to the first blob, group up, buff, etc. I get asked in
the cleric channel to MGB Virtue and I have to remind them that the one and
only cleric spell I don't have (besides little things like all the lesser
resurrection spells and Temperance, etc) is Hand of Virtue.
Already people are questioning how far we should go. We are pretty much in
an all-or-nothing situation; if we only clear part of Vex Thal, Drinal's
alliance of Japanese guilds will come in clear the rest up to and including
Aten Ha Ra. So either we just kill this first blob then gate away, or we
push through to AHR. With some trepidation, we commit to trying to get to
AHR tonight. We start killing the first blob around 8pm Central.
The blob dies and we begin clearing. Right away I notice that we appear to
be working quite well tonight - no broken mezzes, dealing with crowd control
with few deaths, etc. The monks comment on the fact that Feign Death seems
bugged - when they FD, the mobs seem to completely forget about them. This
is working in our favor in Vex Thal; the monk can aggro eight mobs, FD, and
get right back up and only aggro two mobs. One monk is doing what it
usually takes two monks to do.
Other changes aren't working so well in our favor. On the first blob, for
instance, one of our rangers got summoned and killed very early in the
fight. The rangers are having to deal with the added aggro, and it's
painful. Aggro in general has changed, and I find I'm healing more folks
than usual.
You'll have to forgive me if I forget the exact names of the Vex Thal mobs.
They all have very similar-sounding nonsensical names - Diablo Xil Xerox
Tivo or some such stuff. So I can't tell you the exact name of the boss we
fight at one point, only that we had to clear a long hallway, run up half
way, pull the boss mob to us, and engage. This we do, and he goes down
without a fight. We are told to move immediately to the south hallway and
begin clearing mobs. Alas, too many folks go into "post-boss-mob-AFKness"
and ignore the instructions. The hallway starts repopping en masse, and
suddenly the south hallway is flooded with mobs. And I do mean flooded.
Clerics and chanters begin falling as I frantically try to keep tanks and
the remaining chanters alive. People are dying in droves, and in between
heals I try the odd rez, starting with dead chanters and moving on to dead
clerics. We're trying to control the mass of mobs as best we can, but it's
difficult with so many targets. I begin by being convinced we're about to
wipe but still try to keep the tanks alive. The tanks are doing a pretty
good job each finding an unmezzable mob and engaging it while staying alive.
Very early in the fight I have to use Divine Barrier followed by Divine
Aura, and when a mob begins beating on me I resign myself to death.
Fortunately a chanter tells me, "Don't worry, I gotcha Mon" and mezzes the
mob on me.
We seem to be doing okay... we seem to be on the way to recovery. Then we
get a brand-new flood of mobs from the room on the other side of the
hallway. People again begin dying in droves, and one of the officers
wonders if we shouldn't just AE TL at this point and summon corpses. No one
responds, though; I think it's understood that if we do that, we're giving
up on AHR and no one wants to do that.
So we bear down again. The chanters are screaming that they are very low on
mana, and the necros begin twitching them. My mana is pretty good,
actually - a combination of my FT 14 plus all my mana regen buffs, including
my Shawl of Awakenings and a constant stream of Yaulps. Plus I'm actively
avoiding high-mana heals like Supernal Light - not only because I can't
afford the mana, but also because I can't afford the aggro. I'm either
casting Complete Heal or Supernal Elixir. Shortly after the second flood of
mobs I sit (miraculously avoiding aggro), quickly mem Ethereal Elixir,
stand, and MGB EE. This burns some mana, of course, but it seems to help.
I go back to trying to keep tanks and chanters alive. I notice that at this
point DA and DB have both refreshed - this has been a *long* battle.
During the battle everyone who's died gets rezzed, so when the last mob
drops we quickly move forward and continue clearing - we can't afford to
stop and rest or we'll run into yet more respawns. I have a vague feeling
it's getting late. Very late. But I don't want to actually look at the
clock or I'll realize exactly how late it is and force myself to go to bed.
Extreme tiredness hovers on the edge of my consciousness but I choose to
pretend it doesn't exist.
We move on and kill more mobs, including another boss mob. He drops some
decent arms and two identical cloaks - 100 hp/mana and 25 to all resists,
but nothing more. Our guild officers try to award the cloak, but no one
wants it. Finally, one of our shamans is forced to loot it. Meanwhile, our
allied guild awards the arms to a cleric, then awards the cloak to the same
cleric. They had the same problem we did - no one wanted the cloak. So
when the cleric mentioned it would be an upgrade for him, he was awarded the
cloak as well. That's the first time I've ever seen one person win two
drops off of the same mob. =)
We're losing people left and right, and we ask how much further it is to go.
Not far, we're told - mini-Aten, then AHR. We'll skip the blob Atens this
time because it's so late. We port up to mini-Aten and take her down. A
Cloudy Steel Mask drops - good stats, right-click Invisibility, cleric
useable. I put in my name and I get awarded it. Huzzah! No more Gnomish
Vanishing Device. As is customary, I ask if anyone could use my current
face item as an upgrade - that's how I got it, after all. The cleric that
got awarded two drops off of one mob mentions that he could use it. When no
one else responds, I publicly award it to him while calling him a loothog,
to general chuckling. I then ask if anyone wants my GVD, Collapsible
Toolkit, and Mana Batteries (I had just bought a stack of them, too). I get
flooded with tells and, in sorting through them, I find that a monk could
use the GVD, but she doesn't need the toolkit because she has one of her
own. So I award her the GVD. Another person mentions he could really use
the toolkit so I give it to him; he's extremely happy about that. A couple
people could use the batteries so I split them amongst myself. A lot of my
loot gets redistributed after I get awarded the Cloudy Mask, so it's a good
deal for lots of folks. Too much, actually - I later realize I still need
the toolkit for my shrinking device. Ah well; I have lots of plat, I can
just buy myself another one.
A cleric guildmate and I have been speculating on loot. In the privacy of
our tells we can indulge our greedy natures and admit how much we want
certain items. I've made no secret of my desire for a breastplate drop from
AHR, and she wants the shield - she never got a shield drop from the HP in
Ssra before we stopped farming it. And since it's the allied guild's turn
to award the Soul Essence to one of their members, our guild will have first
pick of the other drops. With AHR in sight, we're getting excited, although
after getting awarded the Mask I am forced to admit that I probably can't
expect to be awarded the BP if it drops. She reassures me by reminding me
that the priest breastplate has yet to drop from AHR in all the times we've
killed her.
We click up to the AHR prep area. I am *really* tired at this point. I
*really* don't want to know what time it is. Wearily the remaining clerics
set up the Complete Heal chain. There are only 37 tired people remaining,
but that should be plenty for AHR. I start off the chain, and we keep the
main tank up for a while. AHR's health goes down more slowly than usual -
we're missing a lot of DPS. We lose the first tank at around 60 percent
when his health drops from full to dead in less than two seconds. The
second tank moves in and we keep him up the rest of the long fight.
Loot is announced - no priest BP or shield. The cleric guildie and I
commiserate. The priest item that does drop is actually a good one - the
Mask of Judgment, 18% mana preservation on *all* spells, CH excluded as
always. Dang, if I *just* hadn't been awarded a mask... I can't in good
conscience ask for it. It turns out to be moot, since our officers decide
to select one of the other pieces of loot to award. I gate out and camp,
and shudder when I at last look at the clock and notice that it is 5am.
Ugh.
Was it worth it? Lots of people got nice stuff, and I got a right-clicky
invis item. Is it worth the pain I'll go through today? I dunno. Check
with me tomorrow. =)
--
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
Archon of Rodcet Nife
Winter's Light
Drinal server
Ben Haddick
"Richard Lawson" <no...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:b71gg...@enews4.newsguy.com...
> You'll have to forgive me if I forget the exact names of the Vex Thal
mobs.
> They all have very similar-sounding nonsensical names - Diablo Xil Xerox
> Tivo or some such stuff. So I can't tell you the exact name of the boss
we
> fight at one point, only that we had to clear a long hallway, run up half
> way, pull the boss mob to us, and engage.
Learn akhevan!
Ans - the
Kel - A
Xundrau (Xundraux) - weapon
Xi - of
Tekar - mortal death
Vex - heart
Temariel - knowledge
Vius - darkness
Akuel - gift
Thal - Sacred
Thall - Priest
Tavuel - Pain and suffering
Dutenes - Enemy
Xeturis - Failure
Kaas - Black
Thox - Blood
Diabo - Master
Va - shadow
Xakra (Xakreum) - spirit
Dyn - stone
Xauninae or Xiall - Luclin
Centien - Warrior
Senshali - Rogue
Liako - Knight (thus va liako - shadow knight)
Centi - servant
Zethon - Wizard
Ishinaear - Justice
Fiel'tian - light of day
The one major word that escapes me is Xin.
Olaf
news:v98mcdm...@corp.supernews.com...
Heh, awesome. Why are no mobs in VT flagged as undead, oversight or on
purpose?
olaf
Richard Lawson
> oversight or on purpose?
I've gone back and forth on this. My guess is that it's on purpose, so that
no one can use any undead spells or AA's to make clearing VT any easier.
9_9
Olaf
> > Heh, awesome. Why are no mobs in VT flagged as undead,
> > oversight or on purpose?
>
> I've gone back and forth on this. My guess is that it's on purpose, so
that
> no one can use any undead spells or AA's to make clearing VT any easier.
> 9_9
Probably, but damn thats kind of anal, isnt it? How much time you think
would be shaved off by letting Destroy Undead loose or the pally disc every
however many minutes? Raids there are probably 10 +/- 3 hours for most
guilds that still do the place, is undead flagged mobs gonna knock a
significant chunk of time out of that equation?
olaf
James Grahame
"Olaf" <ola...@BLARGswbell.net> wrote in message
news:fhWma.640$7O2.30...@newssvr30.news.prodigy.com...
SOE must think so, because originally the robe-model mobs were all
flagged undead. Check old patch messages and screenshots for confirmation.
James
Olaf
news:HpXma.54512$7L.35...@news0.telusplanet.net...
Ha damn thats funny, I didnt know that. I figured they had never been
flagged undead. So they went out of their way to reduce Necro, Cleric and
Pally DPS? I guess its no secret that these classes are the keys to good
DPS on a raid...
olaf