Monual vs. Rallos Zek the Warlord
Richard Lawson
mob. Not a mob that drops pieces for an epic weapon, but a mob that's a
major roadblock to progressing in EQ. For example, I logged in five minutes
too late to join a Emperor Ssraeshza raid. I had to sit and watch our
alliance channel chat as they fought the Emp for an hour before finally
taking him down. There was much celebrating, which of course I joined in
on, but with a touch of melancholy - I wanted to be there, too.
We also learn from experience. Despite getting publicly jeered at by our
server's uber-guild (they devoted an entire web update to mocking our Emp
kill and the fact that it took an hour), we did Emp again and again. The
second time, he went down in twenty minutes. Our fastest kill to date has
been just under eight minutes. It may take us a while, but we *do* figure
out how to do these kind of mobs.
Last night, I log in with much anticipation; we are going to try to kill
Rallos Zek the Warlord for the second time. Friday, I had logged on well
after our first kill, and again cheered vigorously while at the same time
fighting off disappointment that I wasn't there to share the moment.
Saturday, the uber-guild decided to kill RZtW and we could only watch.
Sunday was Easter, no raids. Monday was supposed to be a Vex Thal clearing,
except a warrior who was relatively new to being the Main Tank in VT pushed
a mob the wrong way and the whole raid got summoned by warders.
When I log on, my guild has already begun the clearing. It's too late for
me to join them, so a rogue comes and challenges me to a duel. I turn my
back on him, accept, then sit down. I get backstabbed, which forces me to
stand up, so I sit down again, and play stand-up/sit-down until I'm dead.
I'm bound *right* outside Tactics so I zone right back in while the rogue
drags my corpse to the raid. I get rezzed, loot, get buffed, and prepare
for Tallon Zek.
The Zek brothers go down without a struggle. We really do have this part
down pat by now. We move in to fake Rallos Zek and this time I don't try to
talk the druid out of succoring us when RZ despawns. RZtW is up in the
Arena, and we have surprisingly few corpses to summon. We run over to the
arena, float down, and prepare. Everyone's focused and paying attention.
Rallos Zek gets pulled - well away from the clerics - and then everyone
engages. I'm simply healing over and over again as part of our chain, and
our Main Tank is staying up. There are some impressive damage spikes, but
the spot-healing along with the chain is keeping him on his feet. At one
point, I /assist the tank to see what RZtW's health is at, and it's below
50% already. Thus encouraged, I /assist RZtW to get back to the Main Tank
and continue the chain. Adds are spawning and being dealt with - "SNARE
BOARS, ROOT WRAITHS!" In less time and with far fewer deaths than I thought
possible, RZtW goes down.
Yay!
I immediately rez the dead - all two of them. Then I do a /hidecorpse all
and look frantically around for the Planar Projection. Dang, where is it?
I ask in the raid channel and am told it's up in the center of the Arena. I
begin moving in that direction - and see a stampade of 15 boars or so
running right at me. Hastily I retreat, move to one side, and approach the
center. Two wraiths aggro and start beating on me, but I find the Planar
Projection, hail it, and get my flag. I don't even mind that I get killed
shortly thereafter. I'm flagged - huzzah!
The uber-guild must be appraised of our situation, because I get a tell from
a friend of mine in the uber-guild commenting on the drops we got. We chat
for a while; he comments that the uber-guild plans to "lock down" Solusek Ro
for a while in an attempt to keep us out of the Plane of Fire. I bristle,
but he assures me that we have an easy way to counter that - simply clear
the Plane of Water while the uber-guild clears Solusek Ro. If we do that
often enough, the leadership will give up trying to keep us out. Hmm.
Naked, I run back to the Plane of Knowledge. I run up to the top of the
library and hail the head librarian. Hmm... nothing. "I have new
information". Still nothing. I ask in guildchat and am told I need to find
the seer to unlock my memories. I run down to where she was the last time I
talked to her - but she's not there. I ask and am told a dozen different
places where people have seen her. I check them all out - no clue.
Somebody has been having fun aggroing the Seer and moving her around, trying
to make it more difficult for us to get our flags straightened out. I have
no proof of who it might be, but I have my suspicions.
A ranger uses track and finds the seer sitting next to the Paineel stone. I
run up to her, sit, and unlock some memories. I immediately get four new
character flags. Encouraged, I run back to the library. "I have new
information" produces nothing. No response, no flag. Dangit all to heck.
Have I missed a flag without being aware of it? A rez pop-up box appears in
front of me and I take it. I loot my corpse in Tactics, then zone back out
and talk to everyone I can think of in the Plane of Tranquility. Nothing
new. What am I missing?
I have no more time to contemplate this as we are told to head to Vex Thal.
Evidently, Voltron (our name for the alliance of Japanese guilds on Drinal)
didn't clear VT. They only got half-way through before they gave up because
it was too late. We CotH in, clear clear clear for hours, kill Temariel,
Mini-Aten, the blobs, and finally AHR. Once again AHR fails to drop a
priest breastplate; it's become a running joke that the breastplate is
purely mythical. The leggings drop and I wouldn't mind having those, but
our allied guild nabs that, so I gate out to try and figure out my flagging
problems.
I again hail the librarian - no flag. "I have new information" - no flag.
I try zoning into an elemental plane - but I lack the willpower. Another
guildmate of mine is having the exact same problem. We consult with each
other and the guild, but no one has any useful guidance. I wonder in
/guildsay if I forgot to get a Bertox flag in all the times we've killed
him - but another guildmate points out that I would not have been able to
zone into the Tower of Solusek Ro without the Bertox flag. I'm stumped. I
look for the seer - but she is no longer next to the Paineel stone. Someone
has moved her *again*. I ask, and am told she's now on the top floor of the
library, next to the librarian. So much for my powers of observation. I
run up and talk to her and unlock memories and guide my meditation and I am
at a complete and total loss. What am I missing?
Finally, my guildleader asks if we've asked the librarian for information
and lore. Lore? In all these hours, that's the first I've heard that word
uttered. I hail the librarian and say, "I have new lore". Suddenly I get a
flood of text from the Librarian - and a flag. My hopes rising, I once
again say, "I have new information". I get a *bunch* more text - and
another flag! I read through the text and see the Plane of Time mentioned
for the first time. That sends a small thrill through me; we are actually
further down the path now that will lead us to the ultimate end-game zone.
I gate to PoTranq and run to the nearest elemental zone line - Plane of
Water. I click, and my screen freezes. Hooray! I'm zoning into an
elemental plane! I arrive and find a zone empty except for a guildie bard
that's AFK. Happily I look around, approach the edge of the water, and
immediately four mobs aggro me. I blanch and immediately whirl around and
click on what I hope is the zone-out - and find that, thankfully, I am
correct. I do a /who on the bard, but she's all right - still alive in PoW.
Perhaps the mobs won't pursue outside of the water.
I decide to try Plane of Earth. I find the zone-in and happily click it.
When I arrive, I find a bunch of people at the zone line. This includes a
group of uber-guilders that is mostly made up of people who have left our
alliance of guilds. There's also a few people from the alliance there and
we happily congratulate each other. They want to get a group together, but
it's 2am and I have to log and get some sleep. I camp right there in PoE,
despite not really knowing if that's safe or not.
So, I'm pretty happy at this point. Another major milestone accomplished.
It'll be a while before we can fully capitalize on it - we are going back to
kill *all* the lower-tier flag mobs one last time, from A'D to Mith Marr.
That should catch everyone up on flags, and we'll likely kill RZ a couple of
more times, too. Once that's done, we'll begin attempting the elemental
mobs. Once again, we'll be in direct competition with the uber-guild for
mobs. I wonder how that's going to go. Hopefully, better than it has gone
in the past.
Rallos Zek the Warlord is dead. On to the elemental planes!
--
-Richard
Monual Lifegiver
Archon of Rodcet Nife
Winter's Light
Drinal server
Lance Berg
Richard Lawson wrote:
>
> We also learn from experience. Despite getting publicly jeered at by our
> server's uber-guild (they devoted an entire web update to mocking our Emp
> kill and the fact that it took an hour), we did Emp again and again. The
> second time, he went down in twenty minutes. Our fastest kill to date has
> been just under eight minutes. It may take us a while, but we *do* figure
> out how to do these kind of mobs.
>
Heh, your guild is much further along than the one I'm in, but we have the same
learning arc; wiped on first AOW and lost the spawn (much screaming from other
guilds for wasting one), took down second in a long hard fight by the skin of
our teeth, killled third one in half that time with 10 fewer people, killed
fourth one so easily we were thinking he might have switched name tags with
Vindi! We do learn.
> When I log on, my guild has already begun the clearing. It's too late for
> me to join them, so a rogue comes and challenges me to a duel. I turn my
> back on him, accept, then sit down. I get backstabbed, which forces me to
> stand up, so I sit down again, and play stand-up/sit-down until I'm dead.
> I'm bound *right* outside Tactics so I zone right back in while the rogue
> drags my corpse to the raid. I get rezzed, loot, get buffed, and prepare
> for Tallon Zek.
Two things occur to me. Watch out with that trick in POP, be dissapointing to
be dragged almost into position and then have corpse pop to graveyard...and
worse to be rezed and find body popped to GY while you were zoning in, so all
your gear is back at the zone line!
Second, when you want someone to kill you, click virtue and any other HP buffs
off. Should cut their time to kill in half, and its not a pain like taking off
your HP gear. After all, you are going to lose all buffs anyway on death.
Sitting shouldn't be necessary, if the rogue is so low level and poorly equipped
he can't take down an unbuffed cleric in a few backstabs without help you can
enjoy mocking him for it while he demonstrates that fact. I wouldn't bet on it
though.
Bergh
James Grahame
"Richard Lawson" <no...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:b86fg...@enews2.newsguy.com...
>
> The uber-guild must be appraised of our situation, because I get a tell
from
> a friend of mine in the uber-guild commenting on the drops we got. We
chat
> for a while; he comments that the uber-guild plans to "lock down" Solusek
Ro
> for a while in an attempt to keep us out of the Plane of Fire. I bristle,
> but he assures me that we have an easy way to counter that - simply clear
> the Plane of Water while the uber-guild clears Solusek Ro. If we do that
> often enough, the leadership will give up trying to keep us out. Hmm.
Water has the Coirnav event, a blowable 18 minute timed fight that only
pops once every 5 days. If CiH hasn't killed it yet, you can make sure they
never kill it (getting down there and triggering the battle isn't terribly
hard). Hopefully that point will be made to them when they try and keep the
pops-once-per-three-days Solusek Ro locked down.
> Somebody has been having fun aggroing the Seer and moving her around,
trying
> to make it more difficult for us to get our flags straightened out. I
have
> no proof of who it might be, but I have my suspicions.
I've heard that some of the NPCs in PoK are moving (and warping) around
on their own, too. That could be the problem. For example, you later find
the Seer in the library, beside the Librarian. When you aggro mobs in PoK,
other mobs will assist. You've seen how tough it can be for some people to
just go up the elevator normally. Now imagine pulling the Seer to the
elevator, being pounded on all the way up, and getting back out while the
entire room assists the Seer. I know you fear griefing, but in this case I'd
lean towards bug over grief.
> I gate to PoTranq and run to the nearest elemental zone line - Plane of
> Water. I click, and my screen freezes. Hooray! I'm zoning into an
> elemental plane! I arrive and find a zone empty except for a guildie bard
> that's AFK. Happily I look around, approach the edge of the water, and
> immediately four mobs aggro me. I blanch and immediately whirl around and
> click on what I hope is the zone-out - and find that, thankfully, I am
> correct. I do a /who on the bard, but she's all right - still alive in
PoW.
> Perhaps the mobs won't pursue outside of the water.
Oh, they do. I think everyone that gets flagged for the first time
trains themselves when they first zone into an elemental plane. Here's what
to expect in each:
Plane of Fire - zone out is the tree between the buildings to the left of
you when you zone in. That whole field in front of you is filled with blues
to kill, and is simple, basic XP. If you stay at the zone-in area and aren't
trained, you are safe. There are mini-nameds that can spawn in this area,
single group killable, with loot like the BST swarm pet weapon and a FT III
belt. If you want valuable drops, kill spiders for their saps (used to make
fire silk-class armour). Rare drop, but not as rare as some of the other
rare drops from Fire.
Plane of Air - zone out is the book right beside where you zone in. The
zone-in is NOT safe, as mobs do path there about once every 30 minutes. The
mobs right near zone-in are annoying in the extreme - they cast Sunbeam
(blind) and split into several smaller mobs when they die. You could, in
theory, do XP here, but odds are you'll only go to raid.
Plane of Water - zone out is the sponge thingy in the graveyard, as you
found out. Zone-in is safe unless a cleric zones in and trains. ;-) Some
mobs will leave the water, like the trilouns, but most will not, like the
fish. So any XP will involve getting everyone wet. There are mini-nameds,
pullable to the pond right beside zone-in, that have neat drops, but it'll
be a pain doing so. Tradeskill drops near zone-in are incomplete (you'll
only be able to get half of the smithing temper, for example), so this zone
is usually empty except for when people raid.
Plane of Earth: zone out is the big panel in one corner of the zone-in room.
Zone-in is safe, as long as it hasn't been trained. There's plenty of
single-pullable mobs out there, just have to be wary of the high number of
wanderers if you head in certain directions. Armadillos split upon death, so
they stink for XP. Other mobs, if killed, can mess around with the rings,
but you'll find out about that as you learn the zone. In general, if it's
yellow and not a named, leave it alone. Fair number of mini-nameds, one of
them is a named tree that drops a nice priest class FT II earring. Trees are
the best things to kill, because they drop two rare tradeskill components -
saps for silk-class armour, and bowstaves for the omfg bow. If, once you
leave the zone-in area, you hang a right and sit in the corner there, you
should be able to pull the trees in front of you and other odd mobs. This is
a great zone for XP.
> Once that's done, we'll begin attempting the elemental
> mobs. Once again, we'll be in direct competition with the uber-guild for
> mobs. I wonder how that's going to go. Hopefully, better than it has
gone
> in the past.
It depends what you try and kill. There's three types of "big nameds" in
the elemental planes - non-mold droppers, mold droppers, and gods. You won't
be trying any gods except perhaps Fennin Ro any time soon. Mold droppers are
mobs capable of dropping the quest pieces for Elemental armour, and they are
generally tough. Non-mold droppers drop VT or Ssra-level loot, but are
usually a cakewalk. Because the non-mold droppers usually have only one or
two loot items on their drop tables, you will quickly fill up with their
loot. Therefore, I doubt CiH will fight you much over the non-mold droppers.
Good luck on your explorations in the elemental planes!
James
James Grahame
"Lance Berg" <emp...@dejazzd.com> wrote in message
news:3EA6D786...@dejazzd.com...
>
> > When I log on, my guild has already begun the clearing. It's too late
for
> > me to join them, so a rogue comes and challenges me to a duel. I turn
my
> > back on him, accept, then sit down. I get backstabbed, which forces me
to
> > stand up, so I sit down again, and play stand-up/sit-down until I'm
dead.
> > I'm bound *right* outside Tactics so I zone right back in while the
rogue
> > drags my corpse to the raid. I get rezzed, loot, get buffed, and
prepare
> > for Tallon Zek.
>
> Two things occur to me. Watch out with that trick in POP, be
dissapointing to
> be dragged almost into position and then have corpse pop to graveyard...
The res timer will expire on a duel-created corpse before it graveyards.
That's the real issue with a duel-and-drag - the ressers on the other end
have to click the body ASAP. Five minutes, including time to zone, consent
the rogue, and get the body dragged to camp, is fairly tight.
> Sitting shouldn't be necessary, if the rogue is so low level and poorly
equipped
> he can't take down an unbuffed cleric in a few backstabs without help you
can
> enjoy mocking him for it while he demonstrates that fact. I wouldn't bet
on it
> though.
I'm sitting at over 3900 HPs completely unbuffed, and about 1300 AC.
Yes, unless I sit down it takes a while to kill me. Monual isn't up that
high yet, but he's getting there.
James
Richard Lawson
> I've heard that some of the NPCs in PoK are moving (and warping)
> you fear griefing, but in this case I'd lean towards bug over grief.
Hmm, perhaps. Especially since everyone knows that all you need is a ranger
to find any named NPC, no matter where you stash it. So maybe I shouldn't
attribute *everything* to a sinister plot by the uber-guild. =)
> I think everyone that gets flagged for the first time trains themselves
> when they first zone into an elemental plane. Here's what to expect
> in each:
<snip>
Thanks, James. That was *very* useful and informative. I shared it with
our alliance members to give them a heads-up on what to expect, too.
> Good luck on your explorations in the elemental planes!
Thanks again. =) I very much appreciated your helpful and insightful
commentary all during the journey that led me to the elemental planes.
Rod Ramsey
"James Grahame" <jamesg...@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:s4Cpa.18054$8r5.2...@news1.telusplanet.net...
>
> "> The res timer will expire on a duel-created corpse before it
graveyards.
> That's the real issue with a duel-and-drag - the ressers on the other end
> have to click the body ASAP. Five minutes, including time to zone, consent
> the rogue, and get the body dragged to camp, is fairly tight.
>
While in Chardok with no mage this week, we killed people with my animation
pet (chanter, non-kos) and I drug them down to be rezzed. The theory we
were operating on was that pet kills give us the 3 hour rez timer as opposed
to the much shorter duel rez timer.
I forgot to check to see if that was true, but I know some of the rezzes
took more than 5 minutes (some as long as half an hour or more due to a few
issues) and noone complained about xp loss...
James Grahame
"Rod Ramsey" <rra...@youknowwhattodo.mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:b86r6u$idn$1...@slb9.atl.mindspring.net...
As well they might not, given that they lost no XP. ;-)
James
James Grahame
> "James Grahame" wrote:
>
> > I think everyone that gets flagged for the first time trains themselves
> > when they first zone into an elemental plane. Here's what to expect
> > in each:
> <snip>
>
> Thanks, James. That was *very* useful and informative. I shared it with
> our alliance members to give them a heads-up on what to expect, too.
>
> > Good luck on your explorations in the elemental planes!
>
> Thanks again. =) I very much appreciated your helpful and insightful
> commentary all during the journey that led me to the elemental planes.
Then let me help a little more. The best loot guide I know is at
www.silentredemption.org - it has errors, but they usually aren't massive
errors. From that lootguide, here's the easier stuff.
PLANE OF FIRE: Fiery Spirit Equine, Jopal Seer, Doomfire Warlord, Captain of
Fire, Sorceror of Fire, General Reparm, Doomfire Firecharmer, Obsidian Tree
Spider Queen, and Flame Overlord are all one-groupable mini-nameds that can
spawn in place of regular mobs. Criare Sunmane, Jaxoliz Dawneyes, General
Druav Flamesinger are non-elemental droppers that are on three day timers.
Magmaton, Pyronis, Quavonis Firetail, Babnoxis the Spider Queen, and Blazzax
the Omnifiend are all elemental mold droppers, on three day timers. All
elemental mold droppers, or the rings that spawn them, are on three day
timers.
PLANE OF AIR: the non-elemental droppers are Baltador the Cursed, Melernil
Faal'Armanna, Queen Silandria, Calebgrothiel, Rinturion Windblade, Arch Mage
Alchtonion, Inlocher the Warlord, Chamberlain Escalardian, Gakamenial
Fir'Disralsi, and Lossenmacher. There are other named non-elemental
droppers, but they are spawned as part of the process to spawn the elemental
droppers in the zone (Avatars of Wind, Smoke, Dust, and Mist).
PLANE OF WATER: the non-elemental droppers are Swordfang, Triloun Seer,
Savage Deepwater Kraken, Razorfin, A Toughened Anglerfish, Monstrous Sea
Turtle, Triloun Egg Keeper, Regrua Overlord, and others which I cannot
remember. The elemental droppers are Grioihin the Wise, Krziik the Mighty,
Ofossaa the Enlightened, and Hydrotha.
PLANE OF EARTH: elemental droppers are spawned by completing the rings, so
you won't bumble into them. Tantisala Jaggedtooth is the crocodile that
guards the way to the guy that drops the EarthB key (Mystical Arbitor). The
mini-nameds are Tribal Leader Diseranon, A Prismatic Basilisk, Calris
Bristlebranch, The Living Earth, A Pristine Gem Golem, A Korascian Warlord,
amongst others.
Enjoy!
James