Seeq of The Rathe

Progression Server Announced

2006-04-27T08:09:00.000-05:00

Rashere has announced SOE's intention to create a Progression Server. Gameplay will commence in the original world zones, with only original world equipment, spells and character models, and progress through the storyline to Prophecy of Ro.

Since all of the game strat is very well-developed, I bet it that a hardcore guild such as AfterLife or Blood of the Spider will only need about 2 weeks to gear up and open Velious. After that I think it will be another month to open the Planes of Power. Quarm will fall within 4 months after the server goes live. Once the hypothetical guild is geared with Time lewtz, they'll blast through the "uber" expansions very quickly. I'm willing to bet that they'll be in PoR 9 months after the server goes live.

Epics? The real push will be to get the droppable gear. The epics that are earned on this server won't start appearing until progression slows down.

I wonder what the server economy will be like? I imagine that EC, and later Bazaar prices, will be sky-high for years, until enough players get to a high-enough level to trivialize VT and 3rd-tier Elemental gear.

Ding 75!

2006-04-26T11:20:00.000-05:00

From IGN: http://tinyurl.com/k255z

"Rashere has confirmed at Fan Faire that the level cap will be raised to 75 with the next expansion.

"There is a rumor of a new starting city as well, but no mention of where that might be located. It makes sense that a new starting city would follow from an expansion release where you can go level from 1- 70 (75 now!) in the same expansion."

Travis "Rashere" McGeathy was the lead designer of at least the last two EverQuest Live expansion packs.

Trumpet 127!!

2006-01-24T23:39:00.000-06:00

Early last week, SOE effed up royally by spawning at least 1 Beta-test vendor into Knowledge. Of course, about a zillion people managed to transact business with the vendor before he poofed.

SOE's response to their error was to roll back every EQ character who ever ran by the vendor, much less transacted with him. The roll back was 24 hours into the past. Thousands of folks lost flags, levels, AAs, gear, plat and more.

As you can imagine, the community politely expressed their concern...er...more truthfully, the community let SOE know that there was no way they were going to take this lying down.

SOE realized that this could represent a turn of the tide in EQs subscription numbers. Their 2nd response was VERY interesting: They announced a double-XP weekend. That's right, all earned XP would be modified by 200%! Later on they extended the weekend until 12PM CST on Tuesday!!!! /huggerz SOE

The result? Highpass Hold was filled with 250+ toons at all hours of the day and night while peeps ran the Pickclaw's Revenge monster mission over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. All of those peeps were dinging levels and AA at furious rates.

I didn't learn of the situation until Sunday morning. Over the next 2 days I ran the MM countless times with my AA slider pegged to the East. I wrapped up all of my Planar Defense and Mitigation abilities, earned Shield Block 3, and got most of the way through the Omens Defense AA before my brain shut down and I fell asleep.

I wonder if we'll ever see a repeat of the double-XP weekend. . . .?

Identity Thieves ZOMG

2006-01-14T07:34:00.000-06:00

The EQPlayers database has uncovered the existence of identity theft on an unprecedented scale.

Rangers? Oh. My. God. Why did it have to be Rangers?

Another try...

2006-01-08T11:08:00.000-06:00

WOW! It's been 4 months since my last entry. I guess I'll make another try at keeping things up-to-date.

Let's see, in the last 4 months I've dinged level 70, and I now have 87AA which includes most of the PoP defensive and mitigation AAs. Most of my experience since 66 has been earned by doing endless repetitions of the DoD Fairies mission...the quick, 15-minute mission followed by 25 minutes of downtime dovetails nicely with my RL availability. But, when time permits, I forgo the Fairies for a Creator mission or an MPG pickup group.

I've done a lot of shopping in the bazaar, particularly for Radiant Crystals, which have then been used to buy Dragons of Norrath equipment and augmentations. By far my juciest purchase was a Radiant Celestine of Sight, which gives me worn Plainsight (nightvision as strong as Ultravision, and See Invis). Now I don't have to beg Ultravision off every ENC that I encounter.

The result of all this leveling and shopping is that I now have 6.4kHP and 1500AC unbuffed, and I buff to 10.3kHP and 1750AC. Not bad for a casual player's toon who was only 64 and 6.5kHP buffed in August of this year.

I finally completed my Epic 1.0 in a furious blast through The Hole and Plane of Fear with my friend Gbab, a Troll Shaman with Precision Strike. One of many memories from that experience: Cazic Thule popping literally on top of me while I was chasing a fleeing MOB. For some reason I was able to get out of aggro range before he knew I was there. But talk about your heart-attack moments!

And the biggest news is that I'm now Elemental flagged. It seems like it's been forever since my first Manaetic Behemoth event. Big ups to Grave Wisdom for helping me through the progression.

Now, Quarm beckons....

2 weeks already?

2005-08-21T21:27:00.000-05:00

Wow, 2 weeks since my last blog! How time flies.

I dinged 64 this week. /gratz me, I'm now within spitting distance of being as ubah as the most ubah players in late 2002, when Planes of Power was released {grin}. Level 63 was 100% raid XP, which is why it took so long for me to ding 64.

Planar Progression continues...in the last 2 weeks GW and our allies have killed 3 of the 5 Sol Ro Minis - Xuzl and Rizlona remain. I'm now 4 kills from the Elemental Planes - Bertie, Xuzl, Rizlona and Mithanial Marr will face my blade in the weeks to come.

Rumpus in the Hole

2005-08-07T22:43:00.000-05:00

GW stormed The Hole this Sunday afternoon. We took 2 full groups. It was funny how quickly we were able to drop mobs on the front end of the zone, and sickening how dangerous things became after we entered the old city.

We won ENC and SHM Epic 1.0 drops, but my PAL Epic 1.0 drop eluded us. Guess we'll have to go back for that yellow-bellied Keeper of the Tombs when he wakes up from whatever sleep he's been sent to.

For icing on the cake we took down Echo of Nortlav and Guardian of the Seal. The Guardian gave us a real run for our money, including a full wipe when we our tactics laxed during our first attempt at making him dead. For a 2-group raid, he's one mean mutha if you're not on your toes.

Thanks to Gretha Vangrath of GW for leading the charge...

Stop, drop and roll - RZtW goes down in flames!!

2005-08-05T00:10:00.000-05:00

Wow wow wow - that's all there is to say about the Grave Wisdom-hosted, 72-person, average level 65 raid that completely pwned the Rallos Zek the Warlord script last night.

This was GW's first-ever attempt at the big, bad Warlord, and our desire to be tested to our very limits did not go unfulfilled. The Plane of Tactics was decorated with corpses by the time all was said and done, but...one of those corpses was RZtW! /cheer

Congo Rats to all on the raid. Thanks to EoF for leading the charge, and thanks to OOR and AW for providing extra manpower.

Next stop? Maybe Mithanial Marr. Maybe Sol Ro. Whatever it is, it's coming sooner rather than later. Stay tuned....

Bashin' the Behemoth

2005-08-03T01:13:00.000-05:00

The Manaetic Behemoth fell last night under the combined strength of Grave Wisdom, Evolution of Faith and Order of Rage. This would be the 5th time that GW has killed MB. For last night's raid, we had 49 people with an average level of 64. As you can imagine, it was a total cakewalk.

In November of 2004 I developed a pretty complete MB strategy guide with the assistance of the gang in alt.games.everquest. Read that guide here, if you like.

EverQuest Slang, Acronyms, Lingo

2005-08-01T15:15:00.000-05:00

Someone whom shall remain anonymous has started up a Wiki on EverQuest Slang, Acronyms, Lingo. Check it out and please contribute your knowledge.

Can 454,000 Norrathians be wrong?

2005-07-29T13:30:00.000-05:00

From SirBruce's terrific MMOGCHART.COM, regarding the subscription levels of Massively Multiplayer Online Games:

"EverQuest (Accuracy Rating: A)
EQ’s figures pretty much speak for themselves. At one point their growth seemed nearly unstoppable, but the trend began to slow, and after peaking at about 460,000 subscribers, it now appears EQ is shrinking. Indeed, the latest press releases from SOE are quoting only “over 430,000” and in their announcement of EQ’s 5th anniversary the claim only “over 420,000”. The latest two data points on the graph come not from press releases, but from inside sources, and they show a somewhat different picture than what was indicated before – EQ reached some 550,000 subscribers in September 2004, and as of June 2005 stands at 454,000. It is important to note that the more recent data points represent not just total monthly subscribers, but also subscribers with active accounts on free time, eligible accounts on game time cards, etc. It is possible that the earlier figures from the SOE press releases were deliberately conservative, and/or did not count such accounts, thus accounting for the discrepancy. "

Adam vs. The Death Star

2005-07-29T11:03:00.000-05:00

Pictured left: Adam Joffe, CTO of Sony Online Entertainment, in SOE's Data Center AKA The Death Star. He's facing off against 1 row of the 1500 servers which host EQL, EQ2, EQOA, Planetside and SWG.

I don't know the name of the EQ2 character on the right, but he looks like he's being stonewalled on a petition...or maybe he's about to gate.

Read the full IEEE SPECTRUM Online article.

Of pwnt and pwnage.

2005-07-29T01:32:00.000-05:00

A mixed bag last night. We tore through Grummus in almost exactly 60 minutes with a 52-person raid, average level 64. I'd like to think that's very respectable.

Then we reorganized and took a swing at Manaetic Behemoth with 40-odd folks again averaging 64. Maybe we shouldn't-a oughta done that. 90 minutes later we were picking up the corpses and logging for the evening.

MB is quite a bit tougher than many of the later progression mobs. I think the problem with MB is that every last toon has something important to contribute to the raid, and a slacker or two is a sure recipie for getting dead quick.

I Heart Jesters

2005-07-28T15:40:00.000-05:00

Say it with me 3 times.
Jesters are NOT bad.
Jesters are NOT bad.
Jesters are NOT bad.

Viola! Fiery Avenger!

2005-07-27T16:45:00.000-05:00

After literally years of collecting rare items, and a couple of hours work generating good faction through camping a tedious hand-in cycle in Odus, I am now The Rathe's newest owner of the Paladin Epic 0.5 - the Fiery Avenger!!

A great many thanks are due to the members of GW, especially Mekanaras, Gretha, Grokus, Khetan and Runesane, and to my friend Gbab of Precision Strike. NO WAY could I have done it without your help.

This leaves me with 2 steps to complete in the Paladin Epic 1.0 quest:

The Keeper of The Tombs in The Hole must be killed for his loot, and I must travel to The Plane of Fear for the final hand-in. I'll post news of my further adventures here.

Make Haste, Lay Waste

2005-07-27T16:10:00.000-05:00

An all-Grave Wisdom raid took down Xanamech Mizfarthen (aka Robozilla) in the Plane of Innovation last night. It was a very easy kill, which is what you'd expect from a guild with our firepower. But it punctuates just how strong we've grown since the last time we met Xanamech, when he spent most of the evening wiping the floor of his arena with our bodies.

One of the drops was a Woven Shim Choker, with 41% worn haste. I've been wearing a 34% item for years, so this is a respectable upgrade. I dumped a load of DKP into the bid and won the drop. It's a neck-slot piece which replaced my Honorary Amulet which I won in a roll on a recent Aerin`Dar raid...

So, I gave up some HP, AC and other stats for 7% more worn haste. But now I can toss my 34% worn-haste Spiked Seahorse Hide Belt in favor of something tradeable which can help make up for the lost AC. And, the sky's the limit if I try to hunt down something no-drop!

Linkfest #1

2005-07-26T15:43:00.000-05:00

Sony's Official EverQuest Live website
http://eqlive.station.sony.com

Wikipedia's EverQuest Live-related links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everquest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG

Allakhaazam
- the largest and most complete EverQuest Live resource
http://everquest.allakhazam.com

alt.games.everquest
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.games.everquest
http://www.icynic.com/~don/EQ/age.faq.htm
- the alt.games.everquest FAQ
http://www.icynic.com/~don/EQ/grouping101.htm
- Grouping 101 FAQ
http://tinyurl.com/ad67u
- a recent list of many EQL-oriented websites

Paladins of Norrath
- a free, EQL-Paladins only discussion board
http://pon.myfreebb.com