It seems that the guild "Township Rebellion" was able to defeat the first event in Solteris today without avoiding any part of the event. Gratz to them.
I heard through the grape vine the tactic they used involved using 7th vetern aa all at the same time. I do worry a bit about the event if it requires a guild to have 10- or 20 7th dps members... a fight should not be tuned around 7th vet.
I spoke with Rashere about the event earlier tonight, and we both agreed that it was plenty hard, but it was intended to be hard.
I guess I'll need to discuss how to think outside of the typical raiding box to a few of my guild members... cause I know we won't have the dps to win this first event for a while. Thats fine by me, I enjoy a good battle!
Oh, and in complete seperate news... if you are a dps with 7th vet, please apply to Momentum... ;)
Well, thanks for reading today, check back tomorrow for more fun!
-Swamp the funk
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
How to get to Solteris
I thought I'd start today off with an easy to follow walkthough on how to get to Solteris. This is my first try on giving our strats, so go easy on me, I'm sure I'll make mistakes and have to update things here. I will list all the missions you need for Solteris, and give the best help that I can. You can do the group missions in ANY order. But you need Mission 5 to do missions 6-8, and you need mission 6 to use the portals in missions 7 and 8.
First of all, go download the newest expansion maps.. I suggest Obscura's Maps .
The first step is to get to Katta Castrum. Katta is very easy to get to, you can use your guild hall to make a direct portal. You can also get to katta by entering the giant whirlpool that is located smack dab in the middle of the buried sea zone. (if you haven't seen the whirl pool yet, its worth seeing!). The first 3 solo missions and group missions are all from NPC mission givers inside of the Pyramid (Elnot, Plik, and Maladoks)
Once you are in Katta you need to find the giant pyramid in the center of the city. There is an entrance located on the north side of the center pyramid. Once you enter the pyramid (which actually some funny combine name...) turn to your right (west) and find:
"Prime Researcher Elnot Waymun" (Elnot, missions). Hail him, follow diaglog till he gives you a "Combine Signet Ring" and your first solo task "A city in Peril - Speak with Researcher Plik. "
Go to:
"Researcher Plik" - Talk to Plik until he gives you the first group mission "Knowledge is Power"
Group mission 1 is a fun game of hide and go seek. It is not very diffacult, and can be solo'd by a rogue and some clever sneaking. If you want to do it with a group... you'll have to find and enter the zone: Jewel of Atiiki. After enter Atiiki you have to invis up and find the pyramid that has a circle "teleporter" pad. The right pad will cause you to zone into an instanced zone... the wrong pad will keep you in Atiiki. Once you zone for a second time into the instance zone, you must clear all the trash in your way as you work to the top of the pyramid... you are look to find the "Hand of ****" I can't remember how it is spelled exactly, because sphinx's have weird spelling for their names. Anyways... after you clear all the trash, and find the Hand of XXXX (don't worry about the other named npc, they won't aggro on you), you have to start the game of hide and go seek. What happens is you and your group all run down into the pyramid and find a spot that you think the seekers won't find you. Make sure your particle effects are set on high so that you can see the big aura that the Seekers use to detect people. After you evade the seekers for 3 waves... you win, go talk to the sphinx and then finish the mission by talking to Plik.
After finishing mission with Plik, go back to Elnot and get the solo mission: "A city in Peril - Speak with Researcher Maladoks"
You can find Maladoks on the south of Elnot. Talk to Maladoks and get the second group mission.
2. Locating the Statue - Very easy mission, find the prexus statue (marked on the maps I think) wait for the named to show up at the statue... and kill the named! *SwampNote*I have just found out of an alteration to this mission, apparently the named is now guarded by a few other mobs... I'll have to run through this mission again to find out for sure.
After you finish that, go back to Elnot, get solo mission "A city in peril - Deliver the rubbing to Head Mage" You can find the Head Mage on the South East side of the the room where Elnot is.
After you finish that solo mission, head back to Elnot and get another solo mission "A city in peril - Speak with Tactian Sodut" To find sodut, you can either use a succor type spell (which ports you right next to Sodut), or you need to head out of the giant pyramid and circle around the pyramid to the south side. You will see a grassy area with tents and lots of mission givers... on the west side of this area is Tactian Sodut.
Talk with Sodut until he gives you group mission 3 "The Snakes are Hiding Something".
Say Ready to Sodut when you are ready to zone in for this mission... be warned if you are not invis you will probably be jumped as you zone in... so be very careful. You'll need to work your way up to the north side of the zone where you will find another Pyramid thing, but this time its full of snakes. I use invis and run past as many mobs that I can find. Keep at eye out for DeathXXX snakes and Pain Golems... they tend to see invis. When you get into the temple start clearing up to the second floor... then clear all the Enforcers (?? I think thats what they are) might be Patrollers... until you get the 3 temple schematic parchments. Done!
Head back to Sodut and speak with him to get group mission 4 "Counter Attack"
Mission 4. My notes are not soo great on this mission, but as I recall, you have to work your way up to the Golem Quarry, which is about half way between the zone in and the snake temple in the north, you'll know you are there when you see a bunch of construction equipment and a bunch of golems. You need to kill 3 named golems, and this is tricky because the golems will spawn waves of adds on a timer... (I think it is 4 adds every 30 seconds). To kill these named, I just had the tank use ae aggro everytime adds came, and had the group go FULL BURN DPS on the named. Afterwards we cleaned up the adds, they have very very low hp... you could probably have a Mage or Wizard AE the waves as they spawn. The adds are mezzable and stunnable as well. **need to do this mission again, it has been altered since I last did it.
After you are finished with the 3 named, you are done! So head back to Sodut in Katta.
Speak with Sodut to get group mission 5. " Confront Emperor Zaarisz"
Mission 5: When you start this mission you can invis up and do the see-invis dodge game all the way back to the north shissar temple. Once you are back in the temple clear your way up to the top where you will find the Emperor... now here is where I used a trick... set your group up outside of the Emperors room (need to be far enough away that the Emperor will not aggro on your for being too close)... have a monk or necro or bard walk into the room and trigger the fight, but DO NOT AGGRO THE EMPEROR (do not debuff or hit him)... you can pull the adds he spawns out of the room to your group, kill them fast because another wave of adds will spawn soon, and then another, and then another... I think there are only 4 waves of adds... so if you survived that... all you have to do is med up, and then go kill the Emperor in his room. Sounds easy ehh? lolz... I suggest leaving a campfire or a rezzer near your setup spot... you'll probably wipe to the waves of adds on your first try. The Emperor hits pretty hard 3.5k ish range, so you need a real tank.
After completing mission 5, Gratz you are now flagged for Silyssar!!
Head back to Sodut and get a solo mission "A city in peril - Make Contact with the Shissar Loyalist"
Finding Vizier Zio can be tricky at first. He is on the South-East side of Katta, in a tower, in the inner ring area... He is also marked on the maps that I had you download (you did download them right?) Or you can ask for someone to show you his location.... it wasn't easy for me to find my first time, so do get discouraged.
Speak with Vizer Zio and get group mission 6. "Where there's a will" this mission is easy, you enter Silyssar (on the outter edge of katta, North West side, look for a teleporter pad pyramid thing). As soon as you zone in head straight north until you get a task update for entering the cavern... you must stay in the cavern until the task updates again. Do NOT aggro the Sorcers, or you will end the mission. You can defeat the waves of adds they summon, OR just wait for the task to finish itself... pretty easy, I just used a monk FD and waited for the mission to finish itself! Just don't die!
Gratz you can now use the teleporter pads in Silyssar.
After you've finish mission 6, head back to Vizer Zio and get group mission 7 "Slay the Serpent"
Mission 7 is made much easier with a Rogue, infact, I'm not sure how to get all the temple updates without a rogue... I'll make sure to find out better information here about that... but it seemed pretty easy for a rogue to handle. When you enter Silyssar you need to turn 20 degrees to your left and then head straight out from there... you will see a set of teleporter rings... enter them, and don't worry if you have aggro... anytime you enter a teleporter pad you will drop ALL aggro. (be careful pet classes, you guys need to watch for pet aggro, cause mobs will follow your pet up). You have to work your way up from pyramid 1, to pyramid 2, to pyramid 3, then fight and clear all the way to the bottom of Pyramid 3... not diffacult, mobs hit hard, so be careful with your CC and pulling. Kill the named at the bottom of the pyramid, and you are done! easy right? lolz...
Head back to Vizier Zio and get your final group mission 8 (woot!) "Stop the Ritual"
Group Mission 8: This is the hardest mission by far, the final boss is super hard. Ok, do you remember how you got to Silyssar, used the portal pad to get to the third Pyramid for mission 7? Well you need to do that all again! You'll have to clear your way down to the Emperor's room, where you will find the Emporer and 4 named minions. At first you might think the minions all have the same name, but it isn't true... they each have a slightly different name. Its VERY important that you watch the emotes of the minions, you need to figure out which minion is doing which chant. There are 4 chants, High, First Middle, Second Middle, and Low... Failing to kill the minions in that order (High->First Middle->Second Middle->Low) will spawn 2-3 more mobs on top of the other troubles. So, DON'T KILL THEM OUT OF ORDER!!!....Now comes the hard part, there is NO way to split the 4 minions from the named... so when you pull you will get the named and 4 of his minions... you can't mez the adds, and they all hit hard... What I did was have a necromancer sit out of the fight and just FD in a corner near by... When we pulled the mobs the first time, we focus'd all dps on the first minion (high chant) and kill him... then we wiped.... we rezzed up (using that necromacer), and then pulled them all again, and killed the second mob (First middle)... rinse repeat until all the minions were dead and we were left with the named... As long as you don't kill the mobs in the wrong order, you don't have to worry about them respawning... its hard, and took like 3 hours to do, but it works. You could also use a campfire to return to your spot if you have 3 fellows with you. After you kill the Empress, MAKE SURE TO LOOT THE QUEST DROP!!!!!! If you don't you'll have to do it all over again and that sucks!
After finishing mission 8, head back to Vizier Zio, hail him and recieve the last solo mission "A city in peril - Give the items he requested to Elnot"
Head back to elnot, give him your combine signet ring (single), and then give him the artifact you looted from the Empress (remember from mission 8? I told you to loot it!).
Congradulations, if you put the Combine Signet Ring on now, it should have 300 hp on it, if it does, you are flagged for Solteris, Home of Soluesk Ro!!
If you don't have 300 hp on your signet ring, then you missed a mission along the way...
Mission 8 is REALLY hard, so don't feel bad if it takes you a while to beat it. I really didn't like mission 4, simple due to the fact that the named were spawning adds soo fast it was sick. It's important to download all the maps, they really make it easier to find the various spots I'm talking about here.
Use Invisability wisely, use rogues and monks wisely, do these two things and you will make these missions much easier and less time consuming.
Ok, enjoy, and check back later for another article,
-Swampfunk the Wise
First of all, go download the newest expansion maps.. I suggest Obscura's Maps .
The first step is to get to Katta Castrum. Katta is very easy to get to, you can use your guild hall to make a direct portal. You can also get to katta by entering the giant whirlpool that is located smack dab in the middle of the buried sea zone. (if you haven't seen the whirl pool yet, its worth seeing!). The first 3 solo missions and group missions are all from NPC mission givers inside of the Pyramid (Elnot, Plik, and Maladoks)
Once you are in Katta you need to find the giant pyramid in the center of the city. There is an entrance located on the north side of the center pyramid. Once you enter the pyramid (which actually some funny combine name...) turn to your right (west) and find:
"Prime Researcher Elnot Waymun" (Elnot, missions). Hail him, follow diaglog till he gives you a "Combine Signet Ring" and your first solo task "A city in Peril - Speak with Researcher Plik. "
Go to:
"Researcher Plik" - Talk to Plik until he gives you the first group mission "Knowledge is Power"
Group mission 1 is a fun game of hide and go seek. It is not very diffacult, and can be solo'd by a rogue and some clever sneaking. If you want to do it with a group... you'll have to find and enter the zone: Jewel of Atiiki. After enter Atiiki you have to invis up and find the pyramid that has a circle "teleporter" pad. The right pad will cause you to zone into an instanced zone... the wrong pad will keep you in Atiiki. Once you zone for a second time into the instance zone, you must clear all the trash in your way as you work to the top of the pyramid... you are look to find the "Hand of ****" I can't remember how it is spelled exactly, because sphinx's have weird spelling for their names. Anyways... after you clear all the trash, and find the Hand of XXXX (don't worry about the other named npc, they won't aggro on you), you have to start the game of hide and go seek. What happens is you and your group all run down into the pyramid and find a spot that you think the seekers won't find you. Make sure your particle effects are set on high so that you can see the big aura that the Seekers use to detect people. After you evade the seekers for 3 waves... you win, go talk to the sphinx and then finish the mission by talking to Plik.
After finishing mission with Plik, go back to Elnot and get the solo mission: "A city in Peril - Speak with Researcher Maladoks"
You can find Maladoks on the south of Elnot. Talk to Maladoks and get the second group mission.
2. Locating the Statue - Very easy mission, find the prexus statue (marked on the maps I think) wait for the named to show up at the statue... and kill the named! *SwampNote*I have just found out of an alteration to this mission, apparently the named is now guarded by a few other mobs... I'll have to run through this mission again to find out for sure.
After you finish that, go back to Elnot, get solo mission "A city in peril - Deliver the rubbing to Head Mage" You can find the Head Mage on the South East side of the the room where Elnot is.
After you finish that solo mission, head back to Elnot and get another solo mission "A city in peril - Speak with Tactian Sodut" To find sodut, you can either use a succor type spell (which ports you right next to Sodut), or you need to head out of the giant pyramid and circle around the pyramid to the south side. You will see a grassy area with tents and lots of mission givers... on the west side of this area is Tactian Sodut.
Talk with Sodut until he gives you group mission 3 "The Snakes are Hiding Something".
Say Ready to Sodut when you are ready to zone in for this mission... be warned if you are not invis you will probably be jumped as you zone in... so be very careful. You'll need to work your way up to the north side of the zone where you will find another Pyramid thing, but this time its full of snakes. I use invis and run past as many mobs that I can find. Keep at eye out for DeathXXX snakes and Pain Golems... they tend to see invis. When you get into the temple start clearing up to the second floor... then clear all the Enforcers (?? I think thats what they are) might be Patrollers... until you get the 3 temple schematic parchments. Done!
Head back to Sodut and speak with him to get group mission 4 "Counter Attack"
Mission 4. My notes are not soo great on this mission, but as I recall, you have to work your way up to the Golem Quarry, which is about half way between the zone in and the snake temple in the north, you'll know you are there when you see a bunch of construction equipment and a bunch of golems. You need to kill 3 named golems, and this is tricky because the golems will spawn waves of adds on a timer... (I think it is 4 adds every 30 seconds). To kill these named, I just had the tank use ae aggro everytime adds came, and had the group go FULL BURN DPS on the named. Afterwards we cleaned up the adds, they have very very low hp... you could probably have a Mage or Wizard AE the waves as they spawn. The adds are mezzable and stunnable as well. **need to do this mission again, it has been altered since I last did it.
After you are finished with the 3 named, you are done! So head back to Sodut in Katta.
Speak with Sodut to get group mission 5. " Confront Emperor Zaarisz"
Mission 5: When you start this mission you can invis up and do the see-invis dodge game all the way back to the north shissar temple. Once you are back in the temple clear your way up to the top where you will find the Emperor... now here is where I used a trick... set your group up outside of the Emperors room (need to be far enough away that the Emperor will not aggro on your for being too close)... have a monk or necro or bard walk into the room and trigger the fight, but DO NOT AGGRO THE EMPEROR (do not debuff or hit him)... you can pull the adds he spawns out of the room to your group, kill them fast because another wave of adds will spawn soon, and then another, and then another... I think there are only 4 waves of adds... so if you survived that... all you have to do is med up, and then go kill the Emperor in his room. Sounds easy ehh? lolz... I suggest leaving a campfire or a rezzer near your setup spot... you'll probably wipe to the waves of adds on your first try. The Emperor hits pretty hard 3.5k ish range, so you need a real tank.
After completing mission 5, Gratz you are now flagged for Silyssar!!
Head back to Sodut and get a solo mission "A city in peril - Make Contact with the Shissar Loyalist"
Finding Vizier Zio can be tricky at first. He is on the South-East side of Katta, in a tower, in the inner ring area... He is also marked on the maps that I had you download (you did download them right?) Or you can ask for someone to show you his location.... it wasn't easy for me to find my first time, so do get discouraged.
Speak with Vizer Zio and get group mission 6. "Where there's a will" this mission is easy, you enter Silyssar (on the outter edge of katta, North West side, look for a teleporter pad pyramid thing). As soon as you zone in head straight north until you get a task update for entering the cavern... you must stay in the cavern until the task updates again. Do NOT aggro the Sorcers, or you will end the mission. You can defeat the waves of adds they summon, OR just wait for the task to finish itself... pretty easy, I just used a monk FD and waited for the mission to finish itself! Just don't die!
Gratz you can now use the teleporter pads in Silyssar.
After you've finish mission 6, head back to Vizer Zio and get group mission 7 "Slay the Serpent"
Mission 7 is made much easier with a Rogue, infact, I'm not sure how to get all the temple updates without a rogue... I'll make sure to find out better information here about that... but it seemed pretty easy for a rogue to handle. When you enter Silyssar you need to turn 20 degrees to your left and then head straight out from there... you will see a set of teleporter rings... enter them, and don't worry if you have aggro... anytime you enter a teleporter pad you will drop ALL aggro. (be careful pet classes, you guys need to watch for pet aggro, cause mobs will follow your pet up). You have to work your way up from pyramid 1, to pyramid 2, to pyramid 3, then fight and clear all the way to the bottom of Pyramid 3... not diffacult, mobs hit hard, so be careful with your CC and pulling. Kill the named at the bottom of the pyramid, and you are done! easy right? lolz...
Head back to Vizier Zio and get your final group mission 8 (woot!) "Stop the Ritual"
Group Mission 8: This is the hardest mission by far, the final boss is super hard. Ok, do you remember how you got to Silyssar, used the portal pad to get to the third Pyramid for mission 7? Well you need to do that all again! You'll have to clear your way down to the Emperor's room, where you will find the Emporer and 4 named minions. At first you might think the minions all have the same name, but it isn't true... they each have a slightly different name. Its VERY important that you watch the emotes of the minions, you need to figure out which minion is doing which chant. There are 4 chants, High, First Middle, Second Middle, and Low... Failing to kill the minions in that order (High->First Middle->Second Middle->Low) will spawn 2-3 more mobs on top of the other troubles. So, DON'T KILL THEM OUT OF ORDER!!!....Now comes the hard part, there is NO way to split the 4 minions from the named... so when you pull you will get the named and 4 of his minions... you can't mez the adds, and they all hit hard... What I did was have a necromancer sit out of the fight and just FD in a corner near by... When we pulled the mobs the first time, we focus'd all dps on the first minion (high chant) and kill him... then we wiped.... we rezzed up (using that necromacer), and then pulled them all again, and killed the second mob (First middle)... rinse repeat until all the minions were dead and we were left with the named... As long as you don't kill the mobs in the wrong order, you don't have to worry about them respawning... its hard, and took like 3 hours to do, but it works. You could also use a campfire to return to your spot if you have 3 fellows with you. After you kill the Empress, MAKE SURE TO LOOT THE QUEST DROP!!!!!! If you don't you'll have to do it all over again and that sucks!
After finishing mission 8, head back to Vizier Zio, hail him and recieve the last solo mission "A city in peril - Give the items he requested to Elnot"
Head back to elnot, give him your combine signet ring (single), and then give him the artifact you looted from the Empress (remember from mission 8? I told you to loot it!).
Congradulations, if you put the Combine Signet Ring on now, it should have 300 hp on it, if it does, you are flagged for Solteris, Home of Soluesk Ro!!
If you don't have 300 hp on your signet ring, then you missed a mission along the way...
Mission 8 is REALLY hard, so don't feel bad if it takes you a while to beat it. I really didn't like mission 4, simple due to the fact that the named were spawning adds soo fast it was sick. It's important to download all the maps, they really make it easier to find the various spots I'm talking about here.
Use Invisability wisely, use rogues and monks wisely, do these two things and you will make these missions much easier and less time consuming.
Ok, enjoy, and check back later for another article,
-Swampfunk the Wise
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Day One End
Class Balance?
What a busy day today was. I hope all the new readers are enjoying the material. I'll be covering a plethora of topics over the next few weeks. I want to get a really good base of articles for everyone to read.
If you find that you enjoy this site, please suggest it to your friends! The more people that visit the better!
Also, I will be answering online questions... so if you have a question about EverQuest please send it to swampfunk@gmail.com and make sure to have a title that says "A question for Swamp!" or something like that.
Well, keep it awesome
-s.funk
Fellowship 101
One word: Campfire (or is it two words? ...)
Fellowships are awesome, for campfires alone. When you register for a fellowship, you get a insignia. This insignia is really a right click teleport to campfire item. It is on a 15 minute recast timer... thats pretty darn fast. To make a campfire all you need is 3 fellows standing next to each other... and only for a brief instant... soon as the fire is created it lasts a long time.
I've been using it to transport to my guild raids and to transport alts around quickly... but thats not all! For a relatively cheap amount of platinum you can set a camp fire with a positive effect. These effects are nice and last a very long time.
I'll have to make a good write up of all the campfire effects... but they are really nifty.
Other than campfires, the benefits are really just a fancy form of chat. Using the /fs (fellowship) channel allows you to talk easily with your fellows. But I just use mine channel to coordinate the campfires... which I'm really enjoying.
Well, back to round number 4 of sisters tonight... soon phase 1 will fall... soooooon.
-Swampfunk the Fellow
Fellowships are awesome, for campfires alone. When you register for a fellowship, you get a insignia. This insignia is really a right click teleport to campfire item. It is on a 15 minute recast timer... thats pretty darn fast. To make a campfire all you need is 3 fellows standing next to each other... and only for a brief instant... soon as the fire is created it lasts a long time.
I've been using it to transport to my guild raids and to transport alts around quickly... but thats not all! For a relatively cheap amount of platinum you can set a camp fire with a positive effect. These effects are nice and last a very long time.
I'll have to make a good write up of all the campfire effects... but they are really nifty.
Other than campfires, the benefits are really just a fancy form of chat. Using the /fs (fellowship) channel allows you to talk easily with your fellows. But I just use mine channel to coordinate the campfires... which I'm really enjoying.
Well, back to round number 4 of sisters tonight... soon phase 1 will fall... soooooon.
-Swampfunk the Fellow
TBS and the Raiding Guild
The Buried Sea is the latest expansion released by Sony Online Entertainment. It was designed for the upper end of the character level spectrum. While there are three major areas of TBS to explore (Pirates, Combine, Solteris) I would like to focus on Solteris.
****BE WARNED SPOILER INFORMATION SOON****
Solteris is a fiery set of islands and home to the god "Soluesk Ro". Thing is, the plane has been attacked and is weakened. The question to "Where has Mayong Mistmore gone," was also answered when you reach Solteris to find it full of Mayong's minions.
Surprise! The vampire demi god has decided to weaken the Sun in hopes of unleashing the undead on Norrath. Go figure, what a typical vampire strat... remove the sun and evil will reign forever. But did he ever think of how he would sustain a food source for his people? No!
The Solteris raids were designed to be "very challenging" for the best raiding guilds. But, considering that there are less than 15 guilds that can even consider tackling this content, its safe to say most casual EQ'rs will not see this raiding zone for years.
I must say, the challenge of this zone really appeals to me.
When I was younger I always played by video games on the hardest setting possible. Why? Because you learn the game faster that way. Sure it's more painful, takes way more time than usual, but the challenge is what drives me. The more impossible the challenge, the sweeter the reward when you defeat it. This is why I hope no one beats Solteris for a while. I want to see the best guilds laboring and working to find the solution to these raids. If guilds are able to win events without significant effort, then the entire expansion will be a waste.
Event 1: Sisters, again?
Anyone that has made it through Demi-Plane of Blood has encounter the "Sisters" event. The three vampire sisters (Althea, Brenda, Christine) are viaing for the attention of their master (Mr. Mistmore). Apparently, after they were defeated in Demi-Plane of Blood the Mayong thought to himself, "These girls can slow down the raiders while I formulate my attack on Sol Ro". Mean while, Soluesk Ro is thinking, "hurrah for ho's!"
This event is centered around a giant sun dial. There are two phases. Currently my guild has not been able to reach phase two, since we are still working on the mechanics of the fight. The requirements for this fight are pretty crazy it seems. I won't spill much more info on this fight besides saying, "trying to kill the 9 trash sucks".
I wouldn't suggest changing a thing about this fight yet. One guild has already beaten the fight. But it seems that guild was able to bypass some of the difficulty of the event's design. I'm not saying that's a negative thing either, but the loophole that was used for the first win has already been corrected.
Something that worries me, the lack of helpful emotes for this fight... all the sisters say is "hey go kill these dudes, bring me three things" and then the guild is left trying to figure out, who the dudes are, how to kill the dudes, what the things are, which sister wants what thing, what the things do or matter, and how are we going to have enough juice left for the next phase? If the design team would add a few more emotes that give hints to the amount of time the event has left, what items the sisters want, and what the giant sun dial is for... that would be great.... or atleast have a lore book somewhere that gives clues for the various raids... using rare drop or quested lore books to get information that could guide raiders would really help EverQuests raiding game: Rare Lore Information. Knowledge is power.
So that about wraps it up for what the top of the top raiding guilds are doing right now. Event 1 in Solteris is pretty freaking hard, but I expect to see some wins by this weekend.
****BE WARNED SPOILER INFORMATION SOON****
Solteris is a fiery set of islands and home to the god "Soluesk Ro". Thing is, the plane has been attacked and is weakened. The question to "Where has Mayong Mistmore gone," was also answered when you reach Solteris to find it full of Mayong's minions.
Surprise! The vampire demi god has decided to weaken the Sun in hopes of unleashing the undead on Norrath. Go figure, what a typical vampire strat... remove the sun and evil will reign forever. But did he ever think of how he would sustain a food source for his people? No!
The Solteris raids were designed to be "very challenging" for the best raiding guilds. But, considering that there are less than 15 guilds that can even consider tackling this content, its safe to say most casual EQ'rs will not see this raiding zone for years.
I must say, the challenge of this zone really appeals to me.
When I was younger I always played by video games on the hardest setting possible. Why? Because you learn the game faster that way. Sure it's more painful, takes way more time than usual, but the challenge is what drives me. The more impossible the challenge, the sweeter the reward when you defeat it. This is why I hope no one beats Solteris for a while. I want to see the best guilds laboring and working to find the solution to these raids. If guilds are able to win events without significant effort, then the entire expansion will be a waste.
Event 1: Sisters, again?
Anyone that has made it through Demi-Plane of Blood has encounter the "Sisters" event. The three vampire sisters (Althea, Brenda, Christine) are viaing for the attention of their master (Mr. Mistmore). Apparently, after they were defeated in Demi-Plane of Blood the Mayong thought to himself, "These girls can slow down the raiders while I formulate my attack on Sol Ro". Mean while, Soluesk Ro is thinking, "hurrah for ho's!"
This event is centered around a giant sun dial. There are two phases. Currently my guild has not been able to reach phase two, since we are still working on the mechanics of the fight. The requirements for this fight are pretty crazy it seems. I won't spill much more info on this fight besides saying, "trying to kill the 9 trash sucks".
I wouldn't suggest changing a thing about this fight yet. One guild has already beaten the fight. But it seems that guild was able to bypass some of the difficulty of the event's design. I'm not saying that's a negative thing either, but the loophole that was used for the first win has already been corrected.
Something that worries me, the lack of helpful emotes for this fight... all the sisters say is "hey go kill these dudes, bring me three things" and then the guild is left trying to figure out, who the dudes are, how to kill the dudes, what the things are, which sister wants what thing, what the things do or matter, and how are we going to have enough juice left for the next phase? If the design team would add a few more emotes that give hints to the amount of time the event has left, what items the sisters want, and what the giant sun dial is for... that would be great.... or atleast have a lore book somewhere that gives clues for the various raids... using rare drop or quested lore books to get information that could guide raiders would really help EverQuests raiding game: Rare Lore Information. Knowledge is power.
So that about wraps it up for what the top of the top raiding guilds are doing right now. Event 1 in Solteris is pretty freaking hard, but I expect to see some wins by this weekend.
Swampfunk's Mission Statement
First of all, please excuse any grammar mistakes you find for the time being, I haven't really perfected this method of creation and will probably make many mistakes... just imagine how rough a 8 foot troll has typing... :)
EverQuest is a virtual world. The population is huge, bigger than most cities in the United States. Not everyone can play EQ 30 hours a week for 9 years, but many people want to at least feel like they know what is going on in the game. I've worked my way up the food chain in EQ long enough now that I received many tells from people with various types of questions. Everything from how to create a character to how to retire a character. I think I've been asked about more topics than I have hairs on my body and that's a lot!
After a while, I've come to realize that it would be wise for me to put some of my knowledge down on web space. When you get 50 tells a night asking for help, you know its probably time to blog it!
Hopefully, my readers will be familiar with the popular Mobhunter (http://www.mobhunter.com) website that Loral is currently running. I feel that this website does a really good job of informing the general EQ populace. My blog will take that idea, change it a bit, and then run with the new version of it. I hope to be able to post editorials (and maybe some guest articles too!) that will condense a weeks worth of EQLive forum trolling down into a nice and easy to read page. I also will be discussing the game from the high end raider point of view. Loral's articles are usually posted from a more casual tone of voice, even though he is in a raiding guild.
In addition to the news articles, there will also be some of my personal philosophy on EverQuest. I will discuss everything from EQ's development, to raid strategy, to guild building, to forumology, and whatever else I find important to discuss.
Some future ideas that I will consider implementing will be personal online help services. I see many people that need advise on EverQuest, and since I know I've already helped soo many on their way in EQ, I figure why not help more! The idea is, if I help one person to improve thier game and to further enjoy EverQuest, then I've done a service the EQ community as a whole.
Well, that is the idea: provide news, information, and services. I guess it seems ambitious, and that's ok! I'll be working on the look and feel of the site, adding some swampart at some point, and hopefully some links section.
Now the good news is, with the new Internet Explorer 7 you should be able to use the RSS stream to feed my posts straight to you without having to check for new updates everyday. At least that's my plan for the time being.
Alright, keep an eye out for my first editorial "TBS and why I blame Zajeer".
Keep reading!
-Swampfunk
EverQuest is a virtual world. The population is huge, bigger than most cities in the United States. Not everyone can play EQ 30 hours a week for 9 years, but many people want to at least feel like they know what is going on in the game. I've worked my way up the food chain in EQ long enough now that I received many tells from people with various types of questions. Everything from how to create a character to how to retire a character. I think I've been asked about more topics than I have hairs on my body and that's a lot!
After a while, I've come to realize that it would be wise for me to put some of my knowledge down on web space. When you get 50 tells a night asking for help, you know its probably time to blog it!
Hopefully, my readers will be familiar with the popular Mobhunter (http://www.mobhunter.com) website that Loral is currently running. I feel that this website does a really good job of informing the general EQ populace. My blog will take that idea, change it a bit, and then run with the new version of it. I hope to be able to post editorials (and maybe some guest articles too!) that will condense a weeks worth of EQLive forum trolling down into a nice and easy to read page. I also will be discussing the game from the high end raider point of view. Loral's articles are usually posted from a more casual tone of voice, even though he is in a raiding guild.
In addition to the news articles, there will also be some of my personal philosophy on EverQuest. I will discuss everything from EQ's development, to raid strategy, to guild building, to forumology, and whatever else I find important to discuss.
Some future ideas that I will consider implementing will be personal online help services. I see many people that need advise on EverQuest, and since I know I've already helped soo many on their way in EQ, I figure why not help more! The idea is, if I help one person to improve thier game and to further enjoy EverQuest, then I've done a service the EQ community as a whole.
Well, that is the idea: provide news, information, and services. I guess it seems ambitious, and that's ok! I'll be working on the look and feel of the site, adding some swampart at some point, and hopefully some links section.
Now the good news is, with the new Internet Explorer 7 you should be able to use the RSS stream to feed my posts straight to you without having to check for new updates everyday. At least that's my plan for the time being.
Alright, keep an eye out for my first editorial "TBS and why I blame Zajeer".
Keep reading!
-Swampfunk
Who is Swampfunk and why do I care?
Well, now I'm on a keyboard that I can use. The old one is a piece of junk, turns out if you get a soda poured into a keyboard... it generally ruins them.
Ok, so why am I writing a blog and why should you care?
First off, let me tell you a bit about myself. I'm a 23 year old student at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. I study computer science and I hope to find a job developing video games somewhere someday (feel free to proposition me game companies!!). I've been playing a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG or MMO for short) called EverQuest (EQ) for near 9 years as I post this. I'm also what you would classify as a game addict.
What is a game addict? Well, they have many names: Ubers, hardcore raider, elite raiders, obsessive compulsive raiders, assholes, cry babies, and about any other name that you can use to negatively label a lifestyle. I generally play 30 hours or more of EQ a week. Usually, right about now is when any normal person starts to think, what is wrong with this guy. Well, after 9 years, I've been ridiculed by most of my friends and family for playing EQ as I do. It has been very difficult maintaining my play time without seriously damaging my life. There have been times when I have thought that it was a waste and that perhaps I should just quit and go find another hobby. But, then I came to realize that this is more than a hobby, or addiction, it was what I am passionate about.
When you play a MMO for any elongated amount of time, you go through the same problems as most heavy drug users. Social issues, budget issues, problems with working and living, health issues, and of course gateways to other addictions. For a long time, I was convinced that playing EQ as much as I do was as bad as being addicted to a hard drug. I even attempted to quit a few times due to this fear. I was able to quit and leave EverQuest for 8 months (in 2002). At that point in time(2003) I felt that I was able to quit whenever I wanted to and I decided that I did wish to return to the game.
I have a few ground rules when I play. First of all, friends and family always come first. As a hardcore MMO gamer, you have to realize that the game is less important than you friends, family, job, school, etc etc. If you don't, the game can and will ruin everything you have and cause serious issues for most people. After that rule, the next rule is never let a guild control you. Guilds have powerful influence over many members, sometime people begin to accept guild rule as some sort of real authority. This is bad, you choose to be a member of a guild, you always have the option of leaving that guild and joining another. There will always be a better guild. So don't let them control you.
Currently, I play as Swampfunk, a level 75 berserker, and I'm a member of the guild "Momentum" on Maelin Starpyre server. The website is http://www.momentumeq.com and is ran by Goodurden.... the craziest french Canadian warrior dark elf ever. Momentum or Mom as we fondly refer to it as, is a hardcore raiding guild. Momentum is a reformation of the guild Assent, formally of Kaidman the troll druid. Momentum is in the top 3 guilds serverwide currently, and hopes to remain competitive in the newest Solterias raid content.
I also am the Super Admin (read: head babysitter) of the one and only EverQuest berserker community website "GoBerserker" http://www.goberserker.com (and the crowd should be going wild at this point, gotta give it up for GoBerserker.com, they had faith in a class that had nothing!!) GoBerserker is my other major web project, it allows me to easily spread information and messages to the berserker community, to whom I /salute!
I also play a plethora of other games, but I think I'll save that topic for another post.
Well, that's me in a nutshell... this is just my rough draft, can always expect to see edits and changes as I find my errors!! Thanks for reading!
-Swampfunk
Ok, so why am I writing a blog and why should you care?
First off, let me tell you a bit about myself. I'm a 23 year old student at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. I study computer science and I hope to find a job developing video games somewhere someday (feel free to proposition me game companies!!). I've been playing a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG or MMO for short) called EverQuest (EQ) for near 9 years as I post this. I'm also what you would classify as a game addict.
What is a game addict? Well, they have many names: Ubers, hardcore raider, elite raiders, obsessive compulsive raiders, assholes, cry babies, and about any other name that you can use to negatively label a lifestyle. I generally play 30 hours or more of EQ a week. Usually, right about now is when any normal person starts to think, what is wrong with this guy. Well, after 9 years, I've been ridiculed by most of my friends and family for playing EQ as I do. It has been very difficult maintaining my play time without seriously damaging my life. There have been times when I have thought that it was a waste and that perhaps I should just quit and go find another hobby. But, then I came to realize that this is more than a hobby, or addiction, it was what I am passionate about.
When you play a MMO for any elongated amount of time, you go through the same problems as most heavy drug users. Social issues, budget issues, problems with working and living, health issues, and of course gateways to other addictions. For a long time, I was convinced that playing EQ as much as I do was as bad as being addicted to a hard drug. I even attempted to quit a few times due to this fear. I was able to quit and leave EverQuest for 8 months (in 2002). At that point in time(2003) I felt that I was able to quit whenever I wanted to and I decided that I did wish to return to the game.
I have a few ground rules when I play. First of all, friends and family always come first. As a hardcore MMO gamer, you have to realize that the game is less important than you friends, family, job, school, etc etc. If you don't, the game can and will ruin everything you have and cause serious issues for most people. After that rule, the next rule is never let a guild control you. Guilds have powerful influence over many members, sometime people begin to accept guild rule as some sort of real authority. This is bad, you choose to be a member of a guild, you always have the option of leaving that guild and joining another. There will always be a better guild. So don't let them control you.
Currently, I play as Swampfunk, a level 75 berserker, and I'm a member of the guild "Momentum" on Maelin Starpyre server. The website is http://www.momentumeq.com and is ran by Goodurden.... the craziest french Canadian warrior dark elf ever. Momentum or Mom as we fondly refer to it as, is a hardcore raiding guild. Momentum is a reformation of the guild Assent, formally of Kaidman the troll druid. Momentum is in the top 3 guilds serverwide currently, and hopes to remain competitive in the newest Solterias raid content.
I also am the Super Admin (read: head babysitter) of the one and only EverQuest berserker community website "GoBerserker" http://www.goberserker.com (and the crowd should be going wild at this point, gotta give it up for GoBerserker.com, they had faith in a class that had nothing!!) GoBerserker is my other major web project, it allows me to easily spread information and messages to the berserker community, to whom I /salute!
I also play a plethora of other games, but I think I'll save that topic for another post.
Well, that's me in a nutshell... this is just my rough draft, can always expect to see edits and changes as I find my errors!! Thanks for reading!
-Swampfunk
A first post
Well this is the first post here at feedingthetroll.blogspot.com, is that exciting!!
Since no one else will read this post for a while, I have time to really think out what I want to use this website for.
step 1) develop something that people want to read
step 2) find a fan base
step 3) polish
step 4) collect benefits
This all seems pretty easy....sure, easy......
Well since the keyboard I'm using right now sucks, I guess I will cut this first post short and switch over to a good keyboard!
Welcome to the beginning, thanks for reading!
-Swampfunk
Since no one else will read this post for a while, I have time to really think out what I want to use this website for.
step 1) develop something that people want to read
step 2) find a fan base
step 3) polish
step 4) collect benefits
This all seems pretty easy....sure, easy......
Well since the keyboard I'm using right now sucks, I guess I will cut this first post short and switch over to a good keyboard!
Welcome to the beginning, thanks for reading!
-Swampfunk
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