:::18 May 2006:::
Been a while since my last update. So I will try to catch up. I withdrew my application
to Failure. It is obvious that I will not be able to meet their schedule. I would log in and the main raid would be full and
half-way through their objectives. The B-Raid members would either not be on or in a full 20 man raid. So I was odd-man out.
Nothing against Failure but when schedules don't mesh it is better to cut ties than to get frustrated.
I did apply to Absolute Chaos, with Ghaani, which I am now a member. I am sure that Guuinnes will be AC tagged before
long. AC is Paladin heavy (the Chaos raid usually goes in with seven paladins with as many as NINE on one raid!) There are
only a few AC tagged Hunters on the Chaos raid. After that first Ony Chaos Raid I went to with Ghaani I knew that I belonged
in AC. Many of my long-time friends are in AC. Friends that I first met in EQ. Many of them are the "raiders" from Mithril
Web. I have been raiding with them for almost a month and it felt right. Ghaani has been getting a few upgrades - Dragonstalker
Helm from Ony, Giantstalker boots from MC, Quick strike ring from MC, and Ribbley's Quiver. Last night, after the Ony Raid,
Lorely (mage), Kenpachi (warrior), Sole (hunter), Taffy (priest) and I (hunter) went to Barron and I got a Black Baron Cape
(awesome hunter cape!) and some upgraded gloves. I misunderstood Sole thinking that he had a better cape and rolled on the
cape. He is fully tier 1/2 equipped and I made a mistake. I talked to him and we made a follow up run to try to get him a
cape. That time the group makeup was interesting, Lorely and Sole were the only holdovers from the first run. I logged in
with Guuinnes and was the healer. We got another Guild Paladin to tank and a warlock for more DPS. The run was interesting,
we did not finish in 45 min but we did get Sole the cape! The Beaststalker pants that I wanted to get on Ghaani also dropped,
but they are BOP so She couldn't get them. The cape is a rare item and we were very lucky to have two drop in back to back
runs.
Anyhow, Ghaani is my main character once again with Guuinnes being an active alt. I will be using whichever character would
best help the group/raid/whatever the best. Guu is still far and away better geared than Ghaani but I see her closing some
of that gap soon.
:::24 April 2006:::
Not much of an update. It has not yet been a week with Guuinnes tagged as a Failure
trial member. I have been to one AQ20 run and the rest of the time I have spent getting my NR up. That means I have been spending
time in Maraudon. Yep the level 50 dungeon. I should have spent most of my time farming in Silithus but I decided to help
other apps (and myself) get some decent NR gear. I have about 25 NR atm, but I severely gimp the rest of my stats. On one
hand I kind of understand why Bliz makes us get different resist gear. If there were no need to get gear then the end game
and end game to come would be useless. I do HATE farming such low level areas to get what we need. I think the instances SHOULD
lead to the other. For example UBRS yields FR gear for MC. MC yields Fire + Shadow resist gear for BWL. BWL yields Shadow/Fire
and Nature Resist for AQ. AQ yields Nature + Frost? for whatever is next. This would FORCE people to do the earlier zones
to get to the final ones. For the most part the MC gear does have FR and BWL does have some FR and Shadow but it does nothing
to prepare you for later "end game" encounters. There still should be some lower "green/blue" drops that have the needed resists
but they should not be the ONLY place where these items are available.
Friday night I took Ghaani on the Chaos Ony raid. That was fun. That was the first time I had taken Ghaani to a "major"
raid (if you can call Ony a major raid). The attempt was flawless. We had just over 30 people and I don't recall a single
death. The whelps were contained perfectly and there was not an occurrence of whelps in phase one or phase three. Nothing
dropped that I could use, but I wouldn't have rolled against anyone if they needed. Since Failure does not schedule anything
on Friday/Saturday Ghaani should be making the Chaos Friday night run more often.
There are Too many Paladins on Elune. Each raiding guild I look at has at least seven or more active paladins. That would
be fine if Paladins had more than one role during a raid (heal/cleanse). During a raid we are not responsible for/expected
to tank or really fight at all. A Paladin carries a great big shield and mace (or a great big two handed sword or mace) yet
all we do is heal people and provide an aura of resistance (devo is nothing more than a melee resist). There is no way for
me to move to a PT server without starting over and I do not want to start over. If I did start over I'd be a rogue or druid
depending upon the server's population.
