Everquest Southern Armada Raids Week Seventy Six

19/08/04 Week SeventySix

Ikkinz Trial 4
This was our first attempt at trial 4 but we had successfully completed Trials 1,2 and 3 in the previous weeks with very few problems. Trial 4 however is supposed to be like the TZ/VZ encounters in Time in that they tend to stop Guilds dead in their tracks for quite some time.

The only thing we knew about this raid was we were going to need a Research Book (and I thought got the wrong one and had to go and get the LOY one in the middle of the raid - DOH. Turned out it didn't really matter which Research Book it was.) and a Tailoring kit. So I headed off and grabbed both of those and we formed up into Ikkinz 4.

We initially got the entrance wrong and had to run around the temple a bit looking for the right one. We finally found it and as we zoned in we received the following inspiration words from our much Esteemed Leader, the Great Bear, Kezlar.

"By the way guys I have nfi how this trial goes so the tactics tonight are suck it and see"

For those of our American friends who don't swear cause you are too damn pristine 'nfi' means 'No Fucking Idea.'

Now we had sort of been following the same tactical procedure for the first 3 trials so to be honest this wasn't too much of a surprise. At first I thought that this trial was going to be as boring as the first 3 and we would mostly cruise through it with only the odd MOB presenting some little challenge. Then we ran into the Altar Overseer.

Damn it I'm going to have to start writing the encounter names down again. Basically we engaged one particular stone looking guy, no difference from any of the other stone looking guys we had taken on recently, and he utterly ganked us. The entire raid was down literally within about 30 seconds of the engage. He had some god awful AOE we just weren't expecting, the adds he called in we expected, we just didn't expect them to be quite so evil.

So we reformed after the wipe, readjusted our tactics and charged in again. This time we took him down fairly smoothly, but the sudden shock definitely shook me up.

We have been in "farm" mode for several months now, so running into something capable of taking us out as a raid that fast was definitely a wake up call. Suddenly GOD was a looking a bit more interesting.

We continued on with the raid and didn't really have any more issues till we hit the final Boss, the Keeper of the Altar. I had been nodding on and off all night for some reason and after the first wipe against the Keeper I basically fell asleep waiting on the raid reform. I woke up at 2:30am face down on the keyboard which was making a "Get your fat head off me" beeping noises.

Its the first time I have actually fallen asleep on a Raid. I've nodded, I've dozed, I've "rested my eyes" but I've never fully gone to sleep before.

At that point I logged. Southern Armada went on that night and dropped The Keeper of the Altar. So basically in 4 raids in a row we have cleared the Ikkinz trials.

Now Wolfestar said something on our boards the other day I thought I would share as I think it sum's up one of the faults of the GOD expansion rather well.

Wolfestar quote

I've been trying to think why GoD to me seems so flaky. It's not the flagging system, or lack of different mob types. It's not even the high difficulty, or the fact we should have been level 70 to do it. I actually like the Ikkinz instances, even though they are the same map and models.

It suddenly dawned on me this morning. It lacks a sense of place.
I couldn't even tell you the name of the continent it's set on, or why it's only just been discovered. Or where it is in relation to the other continents.
Kunark, Velious, Luclin and PoP all had a clear history, and location. They could be mapped in relation to their neighbors - Odus, Antonica and Faydwer. (Granted you had to hold a tennis ball above the map and say Luclin for that one, but you know what I mean ).
Remember printing off tons of maps, and then using them to navigate from Qeynos to Freeport? That to me gave it a tangible reality.
To me, this lack of place is why it's out of step with the rest of the game. I'm still having loads of fun in EQ, but I think Sony stuffed up the basics.


I agree wholeheartedly. GOD is "nowhere" in particular, if you drew a map of the continents of Norath, with connection maps to the Old and New Planes, Luclin etc you could do it and have some good idea of where it all fit into the physical layout of the EQ Universe.


Yet I have absolutely no idea where GOD or OOW is set. Is it a Plane?, a Continent?, or some until now undiscovered Moon?

Time on Thursday was a full clear.

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

DPS seemed awful low at the beginning of the raid which slowed down our progress through Tiers, 1,2,3. We had a few glitches here and there in the upper Trials which caused delays. Thus I ended up logging at 2:00am shortly before we engaged Innoruuk.

Recently for various reasons I have been rather heavily stressed. The major of these reasons is I hate where I live and I am stuck there for at least another 6 months. I don't know if you, the reader, have ever been in a position where you would rather be at work than at home because home is so unpleasant, but that's where I am now.

So I am sitting on the Time raid, we are progressing as normal. Towards the end of the raid I suddenly realize I'm sitting there thinking "That XXX should have been mine!, I DESERVED that XXX!, Why didn't I get that XXX?."

I'm not like that, I never have been, I don't raid for "Stuff" and I've just never been that Loot-centric. But I found myself sitting there absolutely focused on getting stuff that I thought I somehow 'deserved' and getting really angry when I didn't get it. I am just so not that person.

I was just stressed and tired. I've determined to reign myself in if i ever start going down that path mentally again. I don't like it.

Anyway, one of the reasons this update is late is I have been working on a complete redesign of this Web site. 

Its still being built and it will be being changed and tested over the next few weeks. So if something doesn't work, don't get too bitter and twisted as Its a long way from finished.

I am completely rebuilding and reorganizing the layout of the site as well. How I'm going to port all of the existing Data into the site I really don't know.

I've also started keeping track of the named kills in GOD so I can properly identify them in these updates rather than saying "the 2nd named rock guy in Ikkinz 2" so next weeks update will be a lot more detailed.