Not sure why you think we stopped? We have never stopped hitting TBL raids once (per my post). We’ve kept them off lockout, some weeks on 5 day cycles instead of 7 day cycles to speed things up. We can only beat three of them at the moment (Stratos, General Reparm, and Prince Ralaifin), so the gear is limited. But we’ve never stopped and the armor/gear is starting to go to non-tanks more so than tanks finally! It’s progress but it doesn’t solve the mechanics issue.
I just want to say that I think your guild should really be commended for what you all are accomplishing. Keep it up, and I hope you guys keep seeing success. A competent raiding guild is an important social and gameplay pillar to preserving server communities.
This is why I thought you stopped.. Your own words.. And other raids (minus maeratas) the more your other classes have in the hp department .. the more forgiving some of the events become. (Yes this is an actual strat btw.. and gear flation is a fundamental part / aspect of eq thats not even debatable ) There for the better geared your overall entire raid force is .. the more forgiving some aspects of raids become ..
Sorry if I was unclear. We are only able to clear a few TBL raids and therefore despite increasing our TBL raid count from 1 to 3 with the launch of ToV, we are only just now (February) gearing up non-tanks beyond key focus items. Notably, our non-tanks were able to get a fair amount of Phlogiston and Scaleborn gear, but outside of select pieces (Arms / Legs mostly), the majority of these items are inferior to ToV group gear. In terms of the other general comment about gear on non-tanks making events more forgiving, I agree for some events. However, event mechanics are a MUCH bigger influencer on success for certain events. For example, more hp gear on mages isn’t going to save you from Drusella’s aura in Drusella’s Vault, nor is it going to enable you to avoid death if you and your box cleric are both emoted to run away simultaneously during Plane of Smoke.
More HP is definitely going to make you more likely to survive those aes. You can also do things like buy a dragon glyph and save it for when you're going to be eating an emote. If the emotes are causing you grief maybe assign someone responsible for helping heal, we used to have a druid assigned to help heal people who got the emote in doomfire.
Appreciate the suggestions. We are religious users of dragon glyphs to get us through the tougher portion of some raids. Examples include the final burn on Griklor, General Reparm snails, or tanking Mephits in Smoke. They are definitely a game-changer for us and have been the difference between winning and losing some raids. The emote in Doomfire doesn’t give us problems anymore ... the triple emote in Smoke on the other hand, not so much!
I think it is awesome that you all are rebooting and starting to kill targets, but you need to put yourselves out there for people to know you exist beyond your own server. I forgot Vox even existed until you made this post. I would recommend adding your guild to http://www.elitegamerslounge.com (EGL) to show your progression and guild off. I say this because there are a lot of top end raiders that like to go raid with other guilds after they clear their own schedule, and browsing the guilds that post on EGL is the easiest way to find them (all servers and guild links in 1 place). That might help your numbers a smidge. EGL is also a good recruitment tool since people other then raiders are able to go there and see all the other guilds in the game, check out their web sites, and see which guild fits their needs (days and times).
The warrior's don't need the muhbis'. Go DPS upgrades first like mellee weapons and focus'. Get GMM down as quick as possible. That's where you get your good outter wear from. Then the first tier of TBL for weapons and visibles.
We actually did do melee weapons first for the EIM from TBL. We’re doing the same thing with ToV where the Diamondized Ore is going to melee first to get weapons while the visible armor (and certain non-visibles) are going to the tanks first. That said, our tanks needed the EIMs for gear as well. Remember, we can’t beat every raid in TBL, so the only way for us to get the tank neck or the tank ear is through Muhbis. We are also only beating 3 TBL raids a week which means 6 visible pieces — supplementing this with muhbis armor makes a huge difference. We haven’t invested much time in GMM other than clearing Rustbottom. Event #2 has too much movement and the reward (only 3 pieces of gear) pales in comparison to investing our time in progressing through new TBL raids. We’ve tried a few times but ultimately are met with a lot of death due to all the running around.
GMM loot is > TBL loot. I would say that it's worth more than any TBL raid if you care about non-visibles. When you get GMM on farm most of TBL will rot except for the muhbis.
Edit: Bleh, I did not mean to bump this. I followed a link here and assumed the discussion was current. Only certain mobs on GMM2 can blind/stun the kiter. Use that to your advantage and eliminate them first, if anyone is having trouble with it. Of course if DPS isn't high enough the event would not be possible for a force, however you can strategically eliminate the low HP/troublesome ability mobs first.
Like he said, "Non-Vis" slots. The GMM slots are better stats than the equivalent Muhbis slots. The BiS path for TBL was Muhbis for Vis & Weaps and GMM for Non-Vis and of course the 4 chase items were better than both of those. TBL gear ranking went T1<T2<Anni. T1 being the normal dropped loot, T2 being the Muhbis stuff, and of course Anni is GMM. Only GMM didn't include items for every slot, so the slots not dropped by GMM have Muhbis for BiS.
Charms and one ear require muhbis as well. There are more slots to be filled in regular TBL raids than GMM. Suggesting GMM only is stupid.
Where did I say to do GMM Only? My post clearly showed that Muhbis was BiS for several slots which only come from normal TBL raids. I was only pointing out that thinking Muhbis>GMM for the slots that GMM has was wrong.
