10K Giveaway Contest #3 - Raid Tales

[Handull]

To preface this story I want to add that the cleric was lvl 59, the wiz was probably lvl 60, but the rest of us were low 50's at best. This was also my first time fighting the reavers and being past the locked door in CoM. It was a smaller raid, but it was a nail-biter for sure and a ton of fun for everyone who was there.

The beginning: What might have started out as a joke from Mordavin lead to a full 12 main raid of the reavers in CoM. Starting out with a lower level tank and one cleric didn't go so well, and lead to a wipe after killing the first reaver and his first repop. As we gathered up the corpses and reorganized, a few more people came over, and we had a solid force ready to go. We quickly got into the rhythm of killing these guys and went straight for the top, the three rooms in the sky, skipping over the room of 5 reavers up the lift. The final spawn of the zone dropped easily and we evaced out to EJ to head back in to find the remaining reavers.

What happened next: At this point we lost a few people, including one of our clerics, and were down to an 8 man force. Luckly will still had our rogue, main tank, and a great cleric to keep us going. We went back in and quickly cleared the first room again, moving to the back hallway. It took a while playing around with the lift to find ways to safely pull the non-reavers in that room (though a straight pull just might have worked), but once we got up there the reavers started falling without a problem. We were under the impression that Lord Rak'Ashiir would pop after all 5 of these mobs had been killed, and we were happily killing the 3rd repop of the 3rd reaver when, you guessed it, the Lord popped on us.

The fight: At first I was very worried, and was on my toes ready to evac, expecting his AoE spells to drop us quickly. To my surprise, he seemed to be a pushover. Within almost no time he was down to 70%, and it seemed like we had this in the bag. At some point, though, he dropped his first AoE nuke, and everything changed. I mean sure, I'd watched the tank's HP drop a once or twice by 25% due to a nuke, but all of a sudden the melee half of my group was down to 2% HP, 30% HP, etc. I got one more heal off before they started dying...

"Camp Out": At this point I told the main healer to camp out, and I started spamming Sup Heal on the tank to give the cleric enough time to get out of there and rez us all later. He was part way into his camp when he stood up and yelled "burn hin down". In the panic to heal the tank, I hadn't checked the mob's HP, and he was around 36%. I switched over to nukes, and we were going big or going home. He was quickly down to about 8%, but it seemed like just not enough. The druid and the wizard were out of mana, and while the melee's that were left were slowly bringing his HP down, you could see it also creeping back up. So there we were, down to bones of the raid. Main tank barely hanging on, cleric trying to keep the tank on his feet, and the druid and wiz waiting on mana to nuke. Everyone else was dead! The mob was at 1%HP, but no one else was left. The mobs HP ticked up to 2%; all seemed lost. Then I remembered something. Something I hadn't really needed up until now at all. The Mod Rods the mage was handing out before! Being at full health, I quickly clicked my Mod Rod, cast the last nuke, and landed the kill shot!

The Aftermath: Unfortunately the cleric died in the final moments of the fight, but it didn't matter, we had the loot, and now just had to med up and do a bit of a CR. Of course it wouldn't be that easy though... Suddenly the two non-reavers in the room popped, and the three of us reamaining, low on mana and the tank sitting at 9%HP, had to act fast. We were able to quickly root the mobs, reform into one group, and evac to safety!

After the very satisfying corpse run we handed out our shiny new Atramentous Shield and went on way adventuring across Norrath. The final team of 8 consisted of a druid, cleric, warrior, sk, paly, mage, wiz, and rogue.

[mail4youtoo]

It was cold on that winters night. The moon was full, lighting the landscape in an eerie glow as I waited on top of the small hill. My lizard scales had an almost bluish shine to them in this light, making a strange contrast with the leather armor I was wearing. I was cold, but I didn't move to find warmth. I waited silently, holding onto my Iksar beserker Club. I was cold but I waited. My raiding party was here for one reason and one reason only.. and that was to kill a vicious ice dragon that roamed these lands feasting on the bodies of the weak and scared for months now. Her name was Gorenaire and someone needed to put an end to her wrath. We called ourselves the Triad. We were 38 strong and seasoned warroirs of Norrath. We took it upon ourselves to rid these lands of this horrid beast

As I waited in the darkness of this vast area known only as the Dreadlands, I could see other creatures of the night roaming by. Large evil, spider like creatures from the nine planes that called themselves the Draccnids. I could hear the howls of the Drolvargs off in the distance making their home at the ruins of Karnor's castle. The suddenly a movement in the distance. Something large was heading in my direction. As the object grew closer I knew what it was... It was Gorenaire. Her white scales were gleaming in this winters night. Her long legs moving gracefully as she crested a hill not far from me. I could feel the tremors with every step of her razor sharp clawed feet. It was time. I knew this was the reason I was here. This was it and I made my move.

I threw a small dagger at her from my hiding spot and quickly turned to run, not even taking the chance to find out if the dagger hit her or not. It didn't matter. The terrible scream she launched in my direction was clue enough. There was no tuning back now... it was on.

I sprinted back to were the rest of my party waited. We had camped in the valley leaving these rolling hills of icy grass and into the high lands of the Burning Woods. We decided on this spot for the ambush as it would allow our ranged fighters to keep as far out of melee range as possible without the risk of attracting the attention of other creatures that may be near.

I ran.

"Incoming!" yelled another lookout from the darkness. "She's here!" Yelled another.

Everyone quickly moved into action as I ran into the valley with this beast on my trail.

Our big Ogre warrior, Scratch, stood his ground and taunted the wicked beast. His large arms bulging has he swung his huge two handed sword for her head. For what seemed an eternity, nothing moved but the 2 beings in this mortal dance of death. I couldn't move... I couldn't look away... I was frozen... What have I done leading this beast here... She was sure to kill us all. My fear was overcoming me.

A shout from our half elven bard leader snapped me from my inner thoughts. "Attack!!" he screamed and the raid had begun. Lightning bolts and arrows flew through the air as the rest of the melee team closed to deal the death blows to this foul beast. Our Cleric healers stood back from the fray casting their powerful healing magic on those who were injured or dying. This was going to be a long fight.

Being a monk, I knew I had to get close to do damage and sprinted to her side. I swung with all my might but it seemed as if every move I made, every swing of my club was in slow motion. I had to keep trying. Members of my guild were dying around me. I could hear their death cries and the beast cheered with every victory

"Another lost soul has found it's way home." She yelled with a gleam in her eye.

A few party members ran away in fear. But for what ever reason they had in running, they soon returned. Live together or die together. The battle raged on for what seemed like hours

"Casters!" our leader yelled. "Give her all you got! Arrows and fireballs and disease spells flew all around. The cuts on the dragon were increasing even though she would cast her own healing magic. We had her and she started to feel it as well.

Then it happened... she turned and ran. Running back to whatever gaping hole to hell she emerged from... we had her and she knew it. The remaining raid surged forward in a death ball to finish her. She never made it back out of the valley. With a final blow from the mighty warrior, she fell. Gorenaire was dead.

[Hagglebaron]

Some great stories thus far! If some of you don't have particularly interesting raid stories to share, i'm very interested to know just what it was like to first step into the planes of Fear and Hate back in the day when they were new.

Was it something that the players mostly discovered for themselves? Or did the staff give alot of information on the planes in an announcement. I just envision a wizard seeing the spell "Alter Plane: Hate" and experimenting with it, eventually finding himself in the plane of Hate for the first time. Or a raid coming upon or fighting Innoruuk for the first time. Stories involving any of that would be interesting to read, i never got to experience any of that when i played during live.

[Goraith]

When I get off work I'll post about the great PoF wipe on Prexus, circa January 2000. It resulted in eight hours of CR.... naked with several hundred other naked people.

[Slave]

My bard, my wonderful, wrist-snapping bard...

One fateful day In the Year 2002, I saw a few notes flickering off a Singing Short Sword up in the Bazaar... that moment changed the course of my destiny. Loading up the trusty Allakhazam site, I determined that I would get one for myself.

Armed in the bright red armor of the Fierce Herald, I sallied forth into the Plane of Fear to earn my Amygdalan Tendril. What followed can only be described as epic or retarded, depending on your point of view.

It took every skill I had ever learned, every nanosecond twist, to careen through that unpopulated zone and survive. The mobs summoned me, dispelled me, shadowstepped me. Weaving in heals with Selos, charms and resists, for a week straight I was a one-bard assault on the fortress of Cazic Thule. My mantra of attaining the Sword at all costs sustained me, and every Amygdalan I looted was simultaneously a bright beacon of hope and a swift nutshot of despair as I truly realized this quest above all others was going to be the long haul.

In a week, I saw no one else in the zone.

Eventually I formed groups and ushered them into this red-skied nightmare. They were balanced, they were well-armed, and they were led by someone who, by then, really knew what they were doing, if I say so myself.

They all died.

Slaughtered one by one or wholesale, it made no difference: the combined might of the adventurers of Norrath was absolutely no match at all for the fury of Fear. It soon became apparent that after the (multiple) corpse runs for my followers, I had a better record going it alone... so I did.

I notched another hole in my belt, rubbed my aching hands, steeled my heart and eyes, and resolutely marched back in through that damned portal.

[MeleeMurder]

Back when I was on Rallos Zek (Pre Merge and nerf) We went to raid Old Seb and as we set up another raid showed up. Before we new it there was 50+ people in there destroying everything that moved. It was pretty epic, we must have been fighting for 2 hours. I got items that day from Seb drops and PC's.

[Flunklesnarkin]

Based on a true story..


"So there i was watching Real Housewives.. god i love that show.. when i got a text message. I walked over to my computer.. logged in and zerged a dragon.


3 minutes later i was back to watching real housewives.. the end"

[Teeny]

My favorite EQ story happened back in late Kunark on the Veeshan server. A friend and I decided to form our own guild and try our hand at doing a little bit of raiding. We weren't the best, nor were we super experienced, but we still god some stuff done.

We decided the best course of action as a guild was to get one of our most active/best clerics her clicky. So we started off heading down to chardok royals. As we started to clear from the very beginning I started to warn people about the traps, and the hole in the ground. I spoke about it so much, people were like yah whatever. Anyhow we start moving into Royals, and again i warn about the hole. We start clearing, and the first patch of mobs we fight, I myself fell in the hole agro'ing the queen and most everything in that direct area. The raid wiped, and to this day anyone who was with it won't let me live down the fact that i warned the entire raid about it, and was the one who did it when we got into position. That was the longest CR I ever had to do, probably one of my least favorite moments in EQ, but in a sick demented type of way I found it kind of funny. We made our way back down, got our clicky later that week. Every raid after that though, whenever there was a hole, i caught flack for falling just one time. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Probably a close second favorite story, happened during early Luclin. My guild found out that Lodizal was up, so Myself (Rogue, Paladin, Wizard, and Monk) drop over to IC to our druid who was kiting lodizal thru the water. Only to be met by 22 people from another guild. After we immediately engage, they jumped on lodizal, i remember we called to burn all of our discs, the wizard Manaburned, and we got the XP. We promptly took our loot and ported out. They were mad to say the least but they learned quick, you never mess with a rogue/monk disc'd with a wizard Manaburning and hope to get xp. 5 vs 22 and 5 won! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.].

[Plyssken]

I wanted to be the 1st warrior on my server with my Epics and no one would touch the Plane of Sky. The Uber guild on the server had better fish to fry then deal with that zone so I researched and took a team up after a lot of work. Had to make a pact to do the raid over several days & had people promise to log out & come back at certain times. We had pooled members of several guild & were the 1st guild on the server to take out the Sprioc Lord. We even had some /anon members of the Uber guild along for the ride so they could try & get key pieces for their Epics. ;-)

We were the people on the server busting into a crazy zone that no one touched, it was the biggest rush I think I ever had on EQ! And I led the raid. For years I kept the hot keys I had about the zone I remember one was no Area Affect spells on Island one! :-)

All that & the dumb parrot didn't even drop the sword I needed. Ah well.
Classic EQ

[Daliant17447]

My best EQ moment