A Call To Arms & An Impassioned Plea For Help

Well we managed to beat the Grounds raid tonight with 27 players, a few folks 2 boxing but mostly not. Took us 4 or 5 tries due to minor issues but we did manage to do it. I think we are the first guild on Test to do it or any raid that high other than if some guild copied over their entire raid force from Live. So to those who doubted us, maybe this will prove we aren't just talking to hear ourselves talk and can do more than people expect. We'll be doing The Well on Thursday and possibly Tick Tock on Saturday and then doing the Grounds again on Tuesday. Eventually we'll start working on Argath and then Valley and Sarith once we've gotten more practice and honed our skills and strats. If you want to be part of the revolution of the Test server http://strontium-test.guildlaunch.com is our site if you want to copy raid ready toons of any class over if you want to commit to at least 1 raid a week, our nights are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday (optional) and we do let guests raid but gotta be 90+ and be able to use Team Speak to at least listen and follow instructions etc =)

@Bylan, How is leveling a cleric past 70 difficult? That's the time we start to shine as a solo class. I've found it much more efficient to just solo light blues instead of having a merc out constantly draining my mana with heals.

Clerics definitely get better at soloing with the combination of DoN ward and Vow/Promise from TSS levels, however, it's relative to the cleric's previous speed, not to other classes, or a full group of tank, you as healer, and your assorted sources of DPS (not mercs).

To the OP, out of curiosity, how many druids and/or shaman do you have?

We currently have 1 druid box and I think 3-4 shaman boxes that are well geared and AAed and people know how to play and can be played as the primary toon instead of boxing

I'm still sorta waiting for them to get rid of f2p gold on test. Then the guild roster would probably drop from 15 active players down to about 1....maybe zero. I still don't get how it's long term viable.

How what is viable? The guild or perks for playing on test?

I guess they are one in the same, aren't they? Although I was speaking specifically about f2p gold status. And Gyurika, you forgot to mention how many of those chars are just /testcopy's of someone else's raid gear on Firiona Vie? How many of those were bought for a million pp per copy? Or was it your guild doing the selling?

I agree with Shiftie, raid content will continue to be tested by cutting edge guilds in Beta and Live servers. Many of the players in those guilds are extremely active in their constructive relationship with the content they play. Giving feedback and reporting bugs is not something exclusive to Test. Although it may work well for general and group content, it does not work well on Test for raid content. This is because many guilds of equally motivated and conscientious players on Live will always get there first.

I am simply saying that maybe gathering together a core group of players who meet the following criteria may not be the best way to start a high end raiding guild:

A. On test to avoid paying for the game
B. Pay one million plat to copy someone's raid geared character on Firiona Vie to avoid following gear progression.
C. Power level that class to level 95

I was also reiterating Shiftie's point that testing raid content on test server is not necessary and would add that your intentions are just a smoke screen.

Who. Cares.
If this is their way to have fun, more power to them. Its not having an impact on me.

Most of you that are here posting from the Live servers really don't have much of a clue about the Test server, being outside sources looking in. This isn't a bad thing, but those of you that are attacking us just because of the perks we get on this server have to know:

Test wasn't always a free Gold membership server, nor were the expansions always free. I started my EQ "career" when the game was first released in 1999 and paid for every expansion that was released up until today for two accounts (I recently added a Bard to my crew giving me 3 accounts total). Mind you I started on Live servers (Lanys T'vyl) and didn't start raiding until around the time of Luclins release with my Warrior who was my main at the time. I was eventually told about the Test server by a guildie who messed around there frequently when Omens of War (Fall 2004) was the current expansion. I was so taken in by the friendliness of the people on the server I quickly found Test to be my new home. Although I have to admit, the General chat is not what it used to be today, there are still friendly helpful people sitting in there willing to give you any advice you may ask for and rotting loot is frequently advertised for open grabs. I myself often give away Tier 3 VoA group loot.

Sure, Test has never been a super populated server with a smorgasbord of raiding guilds to choose from. The only raiding org that existed back then was Primal Brood, who joint raided with Zen Cabal (a guild I called my home for about 4 years) and a couple of other smaller guilds. Test has always been behind on content, there is no changing that just due to the fact that the population stinks and has always stunk. Raiding orgs on Test have always had to have a couple of people botting something that most people wouldn't want to main. I would two-box my Beastlord and Cleric for raids, because while there were Cleric mains, there was still the need for a few to be boxed. Back then we didn't have a problem filling up a raid roster to the brim because we had the same level of dedication towards raiding that you players on Live have, even if 10 or so were botted. We have never been any different from the players on Live when it came to that.


It wasn't impossible to box on raids. I remember boxing the trial in MPG with the Kyv Bowmen and you had to watch for the emotes to duck, stop moving, or to keep moving and a couple more that I can't remember. The most memorable fight for me that I had to box though was Vishmitar, now that was a blast. You'd be amazed at how much easier using audio triggers and paying attention can make multi-boxing a raid. A lot of the DoDH raids had emotes you have to watch for as well, and yet, people boxed them.

When I first joined the Test server and got my characters up to the cap, which was 70 at the time, PB (Primal Brood) was raiding GoD while picking off peoples 1.5 and 2.0 raid fights, as well as the no-flag required OoW zones such as WoS and RSS that had raid targets, as well as the MPG Raid trials to get our looting rights for CoA. Whenever the Fabled were up we would take down the Fabled that required raids as well. We were never very far behind the live servers when it came to progression. Eventually another raiding org showed up on the Test server called the Test Server Friends (TSF), which were many different guilds who would raid together.

These raiding orgs continued to raid for a couple of years up until around the time of SoD when raiding started to die down on test, and around that time free transfers were allowed off of the Test server to any Live server of your choosing due to the extenuating maintenance work being done to the Test server. It was mostly used as a safety precaution because the player base on Test was concerned about the characters being wiped and losing everything they worked for. Most of the raiders from PB/ZC and TSF went to Rathe. I wasn't currently playing at the time and wasn't aware of the free transfers so I didn't get a chance to transfer off, and I doubt I would have anyways. It seems the need to worry about a character wipe wasn't necessary seeing as my Beastlord and Cleric were still there the next time I logged in when the game went F2P.

Not everyone in our guild who are here to raid are raid copies off of FV. There are quite a few, myself included, who were born on Test and have earned the gear we are wearing, as well as the progression we have pushed through. We don't expect people to copy over in full force T3-4 VoA raid gear. All we are looking for are more numbers to add to our rank who have a decent mind set towards progression. Hell, my three-box crew are geared in mostly VoA tier 2-3 group gear that I farmed myself. You don't HAVE to be a raid copy to come over here and raid with us. It isn't stated anywhere in our requirements that you have to be straight up raid geared or you aren't allowed in.


Now towards those of you attacking us based on the fact that Test is F2P Gold Membership on Test:

I only had one account for EQ that I would play on when I first started, and that was during my time on Live with my Warrior. When I joined Test I made a second account for a Cleric box and I tanked with my Beastlord, and tanked quite well if I might add. Test wasn't a F2P server back then, Test only went F2P when EQ itself went F2P. I payed for TWO accounts from 2004 up until the time that EQ went F2P. I added my third account when EQ went F2P due to the fact that I really needed a puller to make my group complete. As my current financial standing is right now, it's a godsend that Test EQ is both F2P and free Gold Membership. I just simply wouldn't be able to afford to keep my accounts up, plain and simple.

Now that doesn't stop me from buying the expansions for my accounts for the awesome /claim rewards that most of them come with, as well as making small purchases on my three accounts from the SC here and there whenever I have some spare cash to spend. I know a lot of other players that spend a crap-load of money on the SC. Some of which probably spend more in a month than they would have spent on a full years worth of subscription time.


Before this gets any longer, I will leave it at that. Just know, raiding isn't impossible on this server. It's been done before, and it's being brought back alive now. I for one, am glad that I didn't get to transfer off of this server. Just the people here on the server make it worthwhile to stay. Test is my home and always will be.

Cheers and safe hunting.

*Raises hand*. I fully intend to pre-order the collector's edition of RoF. In fact I'm working around my pay days and release day now to ensure I have the cash there when billed. Gonna place the pre-order itself soon. Do I need to? Nope. I'm basically paying $60 for 2 mounts, 2 mercs, 2 pet illusions, and a couple house items and a task. Maybe $20-25 in actual value since on Test I'm already flagged for VoA and, presumably, will be for RoF as well. Doing it anyway.

I also blow ridiculous cash on SC. Gotta have dem illusions. What I dump into Oathbound packs in my never ending search for the Siren illusion (the one thing I want more than anything that I'll never be permitted to have ) once MAYBE twice a month, alone, is more than I would have paid for RBD's account in gold per month, not more than I would have paid for all 4 of my accounts however, not by a long shot, but then again I don't buy SC at all for my boxes, it all goes to RBD.

That being said, people really do need to stop advertising Test (In this thread, by my guildies at that) as the "uber cool secret club house of free gold and expacs". I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it's not, and that's not what it's here for. The kind of people you'll attract advertising the server like that are likely the opposite of the kind of people we would actually want on Test. (We don't need anymore Greattoads)

This thread highlights the real issue here, and applies to many servers. The Cleric class while very very handy on raids is virtually useless outside of raids.

SOE has had a hate on for the class for quite some time. My main was a cleric for approx 7 years of EQ and was chosen specifically because I loved the group game. Clerics where horrible solo but critical for the success of a group for any challenging content. Before the age of the merc my main was a valuable contributor to any group, after mercs it was more like charity if a group was nice enough to drop a merc and add a real cleric. The problem was highlighted even more when a new expansion came out and the people that power levelled to max level in a day or two popped a J5 merc that had much greater healing power and Rk 2 buffs than my raid geared cleric of 6 years.

Other priest classes have seen a massive increase in relative healing power as well as being afforded the ability to Rez, while clerics don't have any of the nice bonuses like snare, slow, dots, etc etc. Clerics don't even have a decent invisi.

There are a lot of people who Bot clerics but there is very very few people raising 1 as a main, in modern raids that depends on reacting to an endless string of ATs the BOT option is very limited.

I still love EQ... The game is a blast but for me the Cleric class is DEAD!

Mercs are here to stay and I do like them but they have effectively destroyed the cleric class . If SOE adds cleric mercs to raids it might be a good time to delete mine to open up a character slot.

If some of your guildies or friends want to make characters on test server, I will transfer over my powerleveling toon. I can PL them from 1-70 in about 3 hours give or take....and then you guys can group with him to get him higher level....If interested let me know!

Everyone always skips over and leaves out Coyote Moons two years of 4 day a week raiding on Test Server when they talk about raiding on Test. We were the first to legit flag and clear GoD from Kod'Taz thru Tacvi. First to clear CoA, First and only guild to kill OMM before he was one group trivial. First guild on Test to legit flag and raid Demiplane of Blood, Only guild to Raid Tier 2 of Demiplane of Blood. Only guild to flag and start raiding Deathknell Keep.

And we did all this with one, single, actual live human being Cleric. All the other clerics were 2 boxed alts.

Honestly fulltime raiding on Test is done. There are not enough bodies on Test to fulltime raid and never will be again, at best you can maybe grab a PUG raid from time to time at best. There are many incentives to play on Test, but lets face it, after more then half a decade of dbl exp, free this free that and now free Gold, it is what it is. For every person who joins Test, 1-2 others leave Test, and this really just wont change now.

To get CM up and running, I had to jump through tons of hoops, recruit across 5-6 gaming websites from FoH board, Redditt, EQLive etc etc for many months. Then we had to powerlevel doznes of new people who agreed to come over (No Testcopy back in 2005/6) and finally had to call in every favor I had to get 32 people copied from Live servers to Test server just so we could start our first raid in Plane of Fire. This was a monumental effort, one that I do not seeing happening or even working today.

Sorry for the bad vibe but like I said before, it is what it is.

We beat both The Grounds for the 2nd time tonight and The Well with 34 players in zone about half were 2 boxed. We will be doing Upper House on Thursday and our raid days are Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm EST and sometimes an optional raid night on Saturday. The revolution has begun and will not be derailed no matter how much hate or dissent is thrown our way, we will prevail

Proud to have been a member of Primal Brood ! I started On test in 1999 and only last years changes to the server forced me off. With limited playtime, I just can't find the motivation to dual advance characters. Loved test, but can't see myself coming back..can't recreate the old community

You do realize people were 1-3 grouping all of those raids when they were current? Now? Most all of the gear is outdated and when RoF launches will be completely outdated.

I hope you succeed. But you should take those 32 people at the VoA raids, they really aren't that difficult, 30 people or less on live servers including many boxes have beaten argath, valley, sarith, beast domain.

Sounds like you guys are in the wrong guild on test =p

@shiftie We certainly plan to do Argath and Valley and beyond in the very near future but we also aren't rushing things because we have a mixture of people who are getting used to raiding again and we don't want to overwhelm anyone and also practice makes perfect as the old saying goes. I know Benhan said he talked to you and if you are curious I'm sure he could explain it in more and better detail, he is our raid leader after all.

@Vasil not sure who you were talking to but if you're on Test and want to raid with us send me a tell later today when I get on. I should be back from errands around 3-4pm CST and online around that time

I'm an officer in The Faceless Order. I was just posting to entertain myself =)

If you guys get tired of peeing into the wind while iceskating uphill, sac down to our level or roll new toons and join us. Sure we are years behind in progression but if you like test and want to keep your friends together we are a pretty strong organization that is having a lot of fun while progressing through content. Our long term goal is to progress right into end game.