Everquest Southern Armada Raids Week Seventy Four

01/08/04 Week Seventy Four

Tier One
Tier Two
Tier Three
Saryrn
Terris Thule
Tallon Zek
Vallon Zek
Bertoxxulous
Innoruuk
Cazic Thule
Rallos Zek

This weeks raid did not go smoothly. It wasn't just me, I think everyone was having a very "average" day. Basically this raid was just lumpy. It started off badly with a near wipe in Tier 1 Fire. That immediately put us behind the 8 ball in terms of time. It didn't really get better from there. We struggled through Tier 2 and 3 and finally began to get out act together around Tier 4.

There was nothing immediately I could point a finger at and say "this sucked", just that nothing seemed to work all that well. We cleared out tier 4 and then managed to near wipe in Tier 5. The pull of the armies for the AOE clear could be termed a little "enthusiastic" on the part of the Monks. We effectively managed to wipe about a half of the raid in one pull which took us time to recover from.

Vallon didn't drop my earring (Bastard) so by the time 2:00AM rolled around I figured it was time to head to bed. As I was logging Southern Armada was just forming up for the engage on Rallos Zek. They dropped him and decided it was time to finish for the night leaving us with Innoruuk and Quarm to kill for the following Thursday.

Thursday:

An extremely quick form up and clear of Tier One. It was almost like people were embarrassed at their performance on the previous raid and were on the ball. Either that or the beer drought in Sydney had ended and people were now properly pissed.

Either way it spelt doom for Inny.

We dropped Quarm with no worries at all.

As we had plenty of time on Thursday we headed over to GOD and an attempt on Ikkinz 2 and 3.

We cleared through 2 and were about half way through 3 when I had to get to bed. I have to admit its starting to be fun. When an encounter can start to seriously challenge your power as a guild is when the game gets interesting. Its not at the level of the elemental Gods yet, but its definitely shaping up that way.

Now here is where I think SOE fell down on the Gates of Discord expansion: 

Aliens, its a fucking fantasy game, stop it with the damn Aliens. If I wanted aliens I would play StarWars:Galaxies. 

Spell Availability: Give us our sodding spells. The next expansion is nearly out and I still don't have a full spell book. I at least have the advantage of a raiding guild and a bunch of guildies regularly fighting in KT and higher zones. For the non-raiders and the casuals it must be insanely frustrating. I know I certainly wouldn't be purchasing the next expansion as a casual, what for?.

Assassins: I'm a Hero, I play this game to be "The Hero" not to be a hired assassin for the Wayfarers guild. They want stuff killed, let them go do it. Bring back high fantasy.

Graphics: The 5 or so models there actually are in the expansion look really good, but cookie-cuttering your way through a zone does not a good expansion make. Give us Boss Mobs that look different, give us models that really stand out. I actually really like the look of the little elf guys, but I never get to see them as they are always surrounded by a raid.

A lot of people hate it (mainly non-raiders) but for me the best expansion so far for MOB models has been POP. Each zone has something different and each boss from Xanamech up has a Unique look and feel. For Zone design and for the way zones integrate and work within each other and the way the Lore works, for the "look and feel" of zones, easily the best expansion was Kunark.

Zone Design: I really really hate the idea of using the same zone model for all the trials. Its cheap, its shitty and it looks awful. there is no excitement of zoning into somewhere new for the first time. I do ikkinz 1-4 and I know the fucking zone is going to look exactly the same every bloody time. This is just cheap, SOE claims that they are still devoting resource to EQ and then they put out stinking piles of shit like GOD.

The have announced Omens of War, the next expansion on from GOD to be coming out soon. I will end up buying this for one reason only. Levels.

I want to continue raiding with Southern Armada as raids are the best part of the game for me at the moment. To continue to contribute to SA raids I will need to level to 70. To be honest this pisses me off. Its already been let slip that the level increase was supposed to be released prior to GOD's release but they fucked up. SOE now knows that people are so fucked off with them that the ONLY way to get anyone to buy the sticking pile of shit, that I'm positive OOW is going to be, is to bundle the "free" level increase into the expansion pack

SOE has admitted that GOD was a complete screw up from the design stage up, they admitted that the level increase was to be free, they admitted that GOD and OOW were originally one expansion and they got split up by the bean counters. They have managed to completely alienate an already angry player base.

OOW should be a free release.