Well a very lite week for raids due to it being Xmas. So the only raid we had was Monday this week. It turned out that I was to be getting an early Christmas pressie. Vex Thal, the zone I keep missing the raids for, was not only up but fully populated. I sat waiting for the raid call, hoping and hoping for Vex Thal.
The raid leaders however decided that there weren't enough keyed people online for VT, so the first call of the night was to the Elemental Plane of Earth as there appeared to be several Rings up. Now I wasn't thrilled with that, a fully popped VT just sitting there waiting to be killed! However where the officers say, I go and with a smile on my face. So off to Earth it was, to face the mindless and relentless hordes that dwell there.
First up was the Ring of Mud. For some reason SA was not having a good night at the start. We got ourselves set, people dribbled in over the course of the early pulls and the MOB's came in slowly but surely. Then came the slightly more complex bits of the ring, the Sludge Lurkers and their multi spawns.
We were still doing reasonably well at this point, stuff was dieing, none of us were. Then suddenly and for no readily apparent reason, it all turned to shite.
I think that simultaneously the members of SA went AFK, fell asleep, grabbed a drink, lit up a smoke, turned to talk to their flatmate's/wives/girlfriends, scratched their ass, surfed to a really good porn site, turned their brains off (I was guilty of this one) etc etc. Whatever happened we took our eyes off the ball and what should by now be a clean easy sweep for us, turned into a CR and rebuff.
Whatever happened and for whatever reason, it seemed to wake us all up a bit, we reformed, sorted out buffs, pulled and cleared our way quickly past the boss of the ring.
At this point I was resigned to doing the rest of the Rings, as I understood that at least another two were up. So I was settled in to a night of wall watching and nuking on inc when the raid was called to VT!. *does the happy AHR dance*
So a quick port, run to Vex Thal and COH later we were engaged with Kaas Thox Xi Ans Dyek and beginning our journey into the depth of Vex Thal.
Now, never having done VT before, I had no idea what to expect. I had this update all planned in my minds eye, names places, loot dropped etc etc. Then of course the reality of VT hit. Essentially we pulled lots and lots of MOB's with completely incomprehensible names, all of which were identical to each other. Most of them also have some nasty AE's so caster's have to stay away from them and getting good screenies was a little difficult. So rather than screenies of each and every kill, here is a Named, Diabo Xi Xin Thall.
Then of course there are the many trash MOB's. Here is a Pli Thall Xakra. Imagine 4 hours with at least 3-6 of these in camp at all times and you are in VT.
At this point it was getting very, very late, like 3.00am kind of late. I started to get tells from a couple of people along the lines of "Hang in there, we are nearly there" and "You still awake?, don't worry not much longer". They kept sending me little tells of encouragement throughout the night. To those who sent me such tells (and you know who you are) thank you very much. I probably would have logged a lot earlier than I did without your encouragement.
Finally after hours of trash clearing we get to the first really interesting MOB of the zone Va Xi Aten Ha Ra.
She is colloquially known as "Mini Aten" and drops the Sanguine Robe. Unfortunately for me she chose tonight to not drop it. That kind of sucks after SA getting 2 out of 2 robes in the last few weeks. I had actually sent a tell for an item earlier and then backed out of it, I figured that I would rather take the risk and wait and see if a robe was going to drop.
She is colloquially known as "Mini Aten" and drops the Sanguine Robe. Unfortunately for me she chose tonight to not drop it. That kind of sucks after SA getting 2 out of 2 robes in the last few weeks. I had actually sent a tell for an item earlier and then backed out of it, I figured that I would rather take the risk and wait and see if a robe was going to drop.
The three best caster robes in the game short of the third tier Gods of The Elemental Plane of Time, are the Sanguine Robe from Mini Aten, the Robe of Secrets from Aten ha Ra and Kodiacs Robe from the Emperor. Each robe is desired by a different silk class for different reasons. For Necro's its the Sanguine robe. Although it has slightly worse stats than the other 2 robes, it comes with Regen. For Necromancers far more than any other silk class, HP is all, because for us HP=Mana.
So I was a bit disappointed when Va Xi Aten Ha Ra didn't drop the Sanguine, but them's the breaks. I got to see her die and I got Screen shots so I was happy. We get to hit the Emperor a lot more often than we ever do VT, so maybe one day I will send a tell in for an Emp Robe, and if I am very lucky I may even win it. It is after all still a mighty fine robe.
Finally we reach the mighty Aten Ha Ra. She stands there proud, defiant, just aching to have her ass kicked by us.
Which we then proceeded to do. I must admit after all the clearing to get to her she was a little bit of a disappointment. It could also have been the fact that it was 5.00am at this point and I knew I was getting up at 6.45am to go to work. She died absolutely flawlessly and to be honest I wish she had been more trouble. Hell, killing Terris Thule is harder.
Aten Ha Ra is one of those MOBs, like the Emperor that you just have to kill in order to say you have fully experienced EQ. She is the kind of MOB I came from Karana to Prexus and joined Southern Armada to be able to see and kill. So I am damn glad I hung out till 5.00am to kill her. However the chances of me hanging out till 5.00am on a week night to try and get a Robe again are very very slim. So I did it once and I'm glad I did. But damn I felt REALLY bad on Tuesday morning at work.
/wave Aten Ha Ra and have a good Christmas all
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