I hope I die before I get old

On Monday, Moorgard put a link on his blog to all his old mobhunter articles. Being an avid eq1 player for 5 years or there about I decided to read through them just for fun. Some of the things I found really surprised me:


- Here is him commenting on charm changes in Kael Drakkel after the world first kill of the Avatar of War by Legacy of Steel and Shock of Swords.

"Until then, we make a plea to Verant: keep your customers informed. Even though only 80 players were directly affected by the change to Kael, when you cripple one of the top guilds in the game, you cripple the dreams of tens of thousands of players across all servers who look to these guilds to give them hope for the future of EverQuest.

Hope like that is priceless to a company, and is irreplaceable once lost."

and

"So, Verant is saying that the change in Kael is not due to the Avatar of War being killed through the use of an unknown "bug." Rather, it addresses a general problem that has manifested itself in other ways within the city of the giants.

Tormax and Vindicator/Statue have had charmed giant pets used against them for a long time now. It's only been lately that pet aggro has been changed to allow 25-person raids against these ubermobs to be carried out successfully. Fixing such an obvious exploit is, without question, a good idea.

However, the timing in this case--as in other "bug fixes" by Verant--is certainly suspect.

Are we really supposed to believe that, had the AoW not been killed twice within a week, that this change was scheduled to happen anyway?"


- This is his general comment on a remark from Tigole about raiding in Sleeper's Tomb.

"If you don't know why that's so damn funny, it's time to get the hell out of Crushbone and try a real raid."


- Here is a little snippet from his take on instancing.

"So along comes instancing to solve all these problems, right? Well, not everyone thinks so. A lot of people like the competitive aspect of EQ, and argue that instancing dumbs things down too much. They don't want to see EQ become an ubermob-on-demand system where players can order up whatever content they want, when they want it.

They have a point. EverQuest is, after all, a massively multiplayer online game. If people want content all to themselves without working for it, there are plenty of single-player adventure games that should suit them. A big part of the appeal of EQ has always been that the people who put in the most time and effort reap the biggest rewards. Uberguilds should have access to content that others don't because the uberguilds have worked harder for it. Without those kind of rewards, players lose their motivation to beat the high-end content, and I suspect a lot of people would lose interest in the game."


- The last quote I am going to put up is Moorgard's opinion on encounters that are ridiculous and obviously have some problems with them like the Derivine Matron and the rewards that should come from them.

"But after weeks and weeks of the best guilds in the game all working on the same encounter without success, it's time to simply accept that the encounter is broken, either accidentally or deliberately.

Read the uberguild sites and boards. Almost all of them are losing people to boredom and frustration. That's what happens when your progress is halted--and it's the biggest danger for any gamer, whether you're at Ximix's level or Furor's. When people get too frustrated with a game, they move on. While there might not be a lot of compelling places for frustrated players to go at the moment, it's likely that there will be soon.

EverQuest is in need of two things right now, quite badly. First, it needs another full-blown expansion that will offer a lot of compelling content to the high-level but non-uberguild player. We're talking multiple zones that range in difficulty from just above NToV to Vex Thal, but without the bullshit hassles of a VT-like key quest. Second, it needs the Rathe Council to fall. Lock uberguilds into months of Plane of Time farming if you must, but the PoEB roadblock has to go, and the content beyond it has to make people drool. High-end players have to be able to say "yes, it was worth it" for the health of the game. Even players who will never reach that level of content care about it, and need to know it's out there and working.

So the question still remains: Does PoP suck? For some people, yes it does. And it's pretty important for that to change."


Following the links at the start of this entry you can read all his articles, and there are many more good little bits and pieces scattered around, especially if you are an old eq1 fan. The one thing I just have to say though is....

What the fuck happened Moorgard?

Evidentally you used to be on the good side. You used to understand and see all these issues we are constantly battling in eq2, only now your one of the people helping to keep them as problems. Seriously, whats the deal?

To use a phrase from Bart Simpsons, "What happened to you Moorgard, you used to be cool."

Lesson Learned or Just Unflattering?

Well, the second installment of " Born to Raid" over at Ogaming has been up for a couple days now. This time, Vellek leader and main tank of Vagabonds over on Unrest was interviewed. Take a look: http://eq2.ogaming.com/data/4170~Born2Raid-Vagabonds.php

After reading this one, there are a couple different ways to look at it. Either Tamat realized that his interview with NPU was ridiculous, misinformed, and all around laughable, or, and more likely, he just doesnt think as much of Vagabonds as he does NPU.

There was no congratulations Vagabonds, as there was NPU. There was no you guys are the best Vagabonds, as there was NPU. In general, this was a very unflattering interview. The way I looked at it, Tamat has clearly decided in his little misinformed universe that there are two types of guilds that are born to raid: NPU and then everyone else.

The one thing I found really...interesting...in this interview was Vellek's list of the most neccessary classes to a raid. He listed them as Guardian, Defiler, Dirge, with a Swashbuckler coming in 4th. How the heck did he come up with that? The way I define most important is a class that does something that really helps out that NO other class can do. Swashbuckler as 4th? I have a swashbuckler and no fucking way. A brigand owns a swashbuckler hands down for a raid. Sorry other swashbucklers, its true. While it is true you dont neccessarily NEED any particular class to win a raid, some do help more than others. My own personal top 3 would go something like:

1. Brigand - Nobody debuffs like a brigand. A brigand allows all other classes to land their debuffs and abilities easier and for more damage. Combined with the ability to do t1 dps and innate ae avoidance and you have a class born to raid. No good raid is without a brigand.

2. Dirge - A dirge is the perfect compliment to a tank. Nobody supports like a dirge with their power regen and amazing parry/stoneskin buffs. It may not be the most exciting class to play, but a dirge is very versatile bringing great buffs to a dps group as well should the tank group be full.

3. Coercer/Troubadour - I couldnt decide wich one seems more valuable. Power regen is an issue for a raid. Without it, an easy kill can go to questionable, and possibly result in a wipe. Nobody can power regen like a coercer. Throw on some hate, mezzing, and a little deaggro and they are an amazing class if played correctly. A troubadour on the other hand can bolster a properly configured group's dps by a very significant amount. Add on the group deaggro wich is a must for some classes to play to their potential and you have a class I personally never want to be without.

Obviously a raid needs a tank and healers, but imo its there isnt one that really makes or breaks a raid like the classes above do. What do the rest of you think about the most important raid classes?

Anyways, back to the topic...

Since Tamat didnt say it, I will. Congratulations Vagabonds! It is no easy task with the current state of the high end raid game to maintain a guild these days. Your guild has been around a long time and continues to perform well. The turnover/burnout/frustration rate with the "uber" guilds these days is at an all time high and when "on your knee's" guilds like NPU get all the publicity it doesnt always make keeping a full roster of quality players easy since that relies so heavily on cross server applicants/recruits. Keep going strong and killing the mobs without resorting to a joke of a guild like NPU that does nothing but kiss ass, beta test things for their developer friends, pat themselves on the backs, and parade around like they are somehow superior to the guilds that actually do things without developer info and help.

Wich reminds me, why the heck is the popular/public opinion that NPU is so damn great? What have they done that a handful of other guilds have not? I guess the most recent notch on their belt was the world first kill of Chel'drak. Its no secret they beta tested this encounter, and they beat it in a matter of hours before Second Dawn did. That can be chalked up to bad luck with the RNG. Furthermore, there are 4 other guilds that beat it shortly after who never beta tested the encounter and had to start from scratch when the adventure pack went live. Oh, and btw, of all the guilds that did kill Chel'drak, why has NPU only killed him once? Its been 3 weeks now. Second Dawn will be killing him for the 4th time tonight, but NPU still just has one kill to date.

The excuse I have heard is that they are more focused on killing the Matron in Mystic Lake. Please. That is pathetic. Chel'drak takes 15 minutes (30 if your one of the guilds that took 10-20 min to kill him). You zone in, you kill 3 trash encounters comprised of heroic mobs and then you kill the turtle dragon. Get in, get what's yours, and get out. The zone in is even located in mystic lake on the way to the matron ring event. Since NPU seems to love world firsts and proclaiming to the world the exact date, time, and what they had for breakfast the day they do anything of the like, why would they leave an "easy" and quick encounter alive that has many world firsts undiscovered on the loot table? Yeah, I call bull shit on the "we're more focused on the matron" excuse. 30 minutes every 5 days for some nice gear is more than worth the time.

And the Winner Is?

What makes someone, who plays on any server but my own and does not participate in the high end raid scene of Everquest 2 think that they have any idea what that scene actually looks like?

Honestly, everyday on some message board there is new person who hasn't even gotten to level 70 telling one of the high end guilds how much they suck or how bad some other high end guild on some other server owns them. Why do these people think they even have a clue or for that matter, that their opinions are worth more than the garbage on the side of the street?

The latest in this uninformed, ignorant babble, and what prompted this post can be found here: http://eq2.ogaming.com/data/4160~NPUinterview.php

This is Ogaming's very own Tamat doing a fully biased, flattering, and ass-kissing interview of an NPU member. Who the fuck is Tamat? Does anyone know? I heard that he was a member of the guild Drow over on the Unrest server.

You may be thinking to yourself, why does the name Drow sound familiar? Oh that's right, that's the guild most of the devs and their cronies (Curt Schilling) play in! If this rumor is true, that would certantly explain the infatuation with NPU, SOE's little love child.

Anyone in one of the upper echelon guilds knows that there is no guild that is heads above the rest. There are 5 guilds or so that are all of comparable skill and talent that routinely are among the first around to kill any and everything relating to the high end raid game. Anyone who says otherwise is full of shit. Of course each individual member is going to say, well I think is better than but they know that they are pretty much on the same general level. At any moment that competition could get the next world first or whatever (less so in the case of guilds that get to beta test over everyone else). So, if the players who are actually out there and experiencing this content know this, surely some random fuck who has no part in the game would pick up on it right? Oh no, I bring to you the dumbest fucking interview question eq2 has ever seen:


"Tamat - Ne Plus Ultra has arguably dominated most of the Kingdom of Sky expansion. What do you think helped put NPU above the rest in this expansion?"


Wait, what the fuck did he just say? I think I know quite a few guilds that may take offense to that statement, and for good reason. Did he miss out on the fact that NPU beta tested more of KoS than any other guild? Or how about that they in no way, shape, or form dominated the expansion on a world wide scale at all. I think Snarks of Eternal Chaos said it best:


"Gorenaire-NPU
mutagenic-npu
Talendor - disso
harla dar - vagabonds
MoA - arirang
princes - disso
hurricanus-ec
claymore/tarinax-disso

seems like more of a spattering of guilds, and noone seems to be able to lay claim to 'most' of kos"


Just for completion's sake, lets add Vyemm to NPU and deathtoll access to Dissolution. I would also like to add Cruor to that list since he was another notch on the belt, and I believe the rights to that one go to Second Dawn (correct me if I am wrong, it might have been EC). I still fail to see how NPU dominated the expansion. Of those now 10 or 11 benchmarks of the raid game, I count only three to NPU. 30% = dominated? You know what a 30% winning percentage gets you in sports? Fired.

I wonder if Tamat took the time to even ask ANYONE in the high end raid game about what really has transpired before he made such an ignorant remark. His idea of a "Born to Raid" series of interviews had a chance to be informative and entertaining, and possibly even a useful tool for the developers to see what the major raid guilds are thinking about their game. Instead, with the very first inclusion of the series, Tamat has turned it into a joke. I have learned that next he plans on interviewing Vagabonds, followed by Eternal Chaos, and then more guilds to follow although I do not know any specifics of that.

In his own words, Tamat says, "I'm interviewing the best of the best." Take that how you will guilds on his interview list. It is quite clear he considers NPU to be in a league of their own, not sure what he feels about the rest of you. I know I would have a hard time fielding his questions when in the back of my mind I know he is thinking NPU owns you.

My opinion on the guy? He's a misinformed dumbass who has a real future working for a tabloid since obviously facts matter very little to him and he has lost all journalistic integrity already.

From Sea to Shining Sea

For those Americans out there its the continuation of 4th of July weekend.

This is the first time Im taking a break from work and the guild and finally taking a few days to go out to the lake. For the rest of you, go out, start up the barbeque, and get drunk or else America will fall back under the rule of England.