by Savanja on Apr 20, 2006
It's so cute talking to couples who play together. When they have differing views on the game or differing play styles, you can see a lot of nights on the couch approaching when you get them talking about those differences! However, in this case, Tegilu and Xaivtox both agree on their favourite raid to go on. Tegilu tells us a little bit about it in her own special way. "Actually, the one that comes to mind is the epic version of the Shimmering Citadel. If you are not familiar with it, it is actually a series of epic named mobs and their minions. They were varying levels of difficulty, and had different types of aoe spells so one might require maximizing heat resist while another required poison. Between each encounter within the zone, we would rush to change out all our equipment with the appropriate resist gear to enhance our chances of surviving the encounter... As an lllusionist, I was responsible to keep the minions mezzed while one fighter per minion used taunt to keep them focused away from me. I think raiding is more satisfying when your "toon" has a specific role to play, and this zone gave me a chance to be something more than a group battery and haste buffer." Xaivtox does what he does best at this point and lets his better half take point while he just nods and smiles and does his best meat shield routine. Isn't he just adorable when he does that flexing thing?
Not to be outdone by his incredibly insightful better half, Xaivtox threatened me with death during our next outing if I didn't tell everyone his favourite raiding story. And after hearing it, I have to acknowledge that it's really far better than even my story of accidently Odysseying the guild leader before they put in the confirmation boxes. He wholeheartedly agreed and made sure I had every detail right for all of you. "Prior to the last guild I was in, about 3 groups of us went somewhere in the sewers beneath Qeynos to work on some HQ, all of us having WAY too much of a good time. Myself, deciding to be a jerk, played an ancient song over Teamspeak- I played the "Safety Dance". I still have screen shots of 18 people all doing /dance (and several other emotes) at the same time as at least 4 or 5 other groups went walking by wondering what everyone else was drinking (in large quantities). The female GL was laughing so hard over TS she started to do that "snorting" laugh- unfortunately, that laugh was contagious." Please, for my sake, agree that this is funny. A healer without a tank in a heroic zone is hamburger.
After Tegilu finished beating up her man for threatening to let me die, (clarity dealers are a healer's best friend!) we talked a bit about raiding guilds themselves. What you end up with in a dedicated raiding guild is a lot of very knowledgable players. They know their classes, they know the game. These people are some of the best sources for help there are. When you can pin them down. Because unfortunately, with the dedication comes a tendancy to take the game a little too seriously. I can vouch for this one from personal experience. As can my new friends. Which is one of the reasons they made the move to the more casual guild. Obviously the experiences can't compare. Apples and oranges, Xaivtox actually threw some of each at me to illustrate his point. After a rather spirited, if painful, food fight, we did determine that there are aspects of a raiding guild that could be of use to smaller more casually run guilds. With the help of experienced raiders, we've been able to do a few things that we weren't able to before and that lends some extra fun and excitement to things without taking away from the relaxed feeling that we cultivate. It is possible to have the best of both worlds.
Something a good many gamers share is a love of talking. Some of us started out in MUDs and goodness knows you develop some superhuman typing skills there. Moving on to games like EQ and SWG, communication also matured. Programs like Teamspeak and Ventrilo started popping up and changed the face of raiding. Now, I've been in guilds that conducted raids old school where all the coordinating was done by typing. Xaivtox pointed out that this made getting the raid together cumbersome. "Some form of voice chat is imperative- and at least for the MA,MT,ST,SA, and MH to have microphones if you want to have accurate instructions given to 23 other players in a few seconds- and that's all the time you have sometimes. I have done 72 player raids in EQ1 with only typed commands, and they took several hours to get going. Timing is everything in EQ2 against some mobs- calling joust, emergency heals, debuffs, when to all out open out and nuke a mob with everything you have, and that is just not going to happen even if you macro the majority of your commands. This isn't to say that everyone needs a microphone, but the ability to hear what is going to happen and what to do." Tegilu agreed, with the caution to make sure you have a headset if you have children running around. Just to toss in my two coppers here, I have to vote in favor of the voice chats simply for the entertainment value. Especially when your guild indulges in happy hour Friday nights.
Thanking them both profusely for all their help and the fun, not to mention their insights into the minds of "reformed" raiders, I collected myself and turned to go. But of course, I, Columbo style, had to ask just one last question. The bane of my level 50, pre-expansion existance was the Zek instance. That nasty worm ate me every time we went in and once our main tank had to shell out 40g in repairs. So of course, I had to know if, and how, they had done it. After they finished laughing and calling me a total "n00b," they answered me, tears still streaming down their faces. "Yes, but I think we were a bit higher than 50. He was much more doable at level 60. In fact, he was gimp. We can probably one group him at 70. But if any yew resin drops, it belongs to my tailor so she can finally make that stupid velvet gown I won the recipe for." I refuse to print Xaivtox's response cause he was just too uber and smug about it, making some rather derogatory comments about dark elves into the bargian. Hmph!
All in all, it was a ton of fun getting to reminisce about my raiding days and spend some time getting to know the newest members of our little family. They are perhaps some of the finest examples of raiders, and players in general. They are warm and caring folks who are always willing to help out. Welcome to the family guys, and thanks again for your time.