Dirge's Irae -- Whysprr's Adventure Blog

Discussion in 'Dirge' started by ARCHIVED-Whysprr_Wyrd, Oct 30, 2006.

  1. ARCHIVED-Whysprr_Wyrd Guest

    Entry the Fifth – Role-playing, One Line at a Time
    I’m not a role-playing purist. If the cleric goes afk and the group wipes I’d much prefer to hear that the baby had a poopy diaper than some contrived explanation involving magical fluxes and thaumaturgic dysentery. That being said, I adore good role-playing, and there’s simply not enough of it around.
    I don’t play on an RP server, I was already level 25 when I found out they exist. I can’t whine about there being no concerts or weddings or any such events because I haven’t lifted a finger to organize any. It’s getting tedious here on the dirge boards for me to complain about not getting any romantic walks on the beach, and I haven’t exactly asked any of the good-looking High Elf paladins back to my room to look at my tapestries either.
    That being said, there’s a lot of room for improvement in the minute-to-minute RP environment, and I’m here to encourage people to do their bit to make the game more interesting -- a line at a time.
    Why not start with simple things, like the typical LFG announcement? I mean, how dull is ‘Dirge 67 lfg’? In my twenties and thirties I used this one:
    /# Devastating dirge, xx, seeks group for short-term cheap relationship pounding loathsome beasts.
    I’ve lost all my optimism now, and have pretty much settled on:
    /# Dirge 67, looking for group. Minor hygiene and personality problems, but basically good company.
    Neither one works all that well for getting good pickup groups, frankly, but I doubt it’s worse than the straightforward-boring version.
    And since we’re working on groups, how about the looking-for-members version?
    /# Grp sks healer, dps for instances, high 60s.
    A little self-promotion never hurt, try my version:
    /# Fab group for Den of the Devourer, we’ve got the tank to keep the blood off the ol’ chainmail, we’ve got the dirgely goodness, just need a healer and a wizard or something to pull aggro and keep things interesting and we’re all set. Come ON, people, I’m not getting any younger here! [I add the last sentence after a few less-desperate-sounding tries don’t work]
    Well, OK, maybe you don’t want to humiliate yourself that much. But sheesh, folks, we’re dirges, we’ve got a reputation for intelligence and brooding charisma to keep up, be creative. If you can’t come up with ideas on the fly, write ‘em out ahead of time.
    Now, once you’ve raised everyone’s expectations with this sort of thing, you can’t just sit in the back of the party, debuffing, mashing buttons, and looking fabulous. I’ve done several things in the past to try to make grouping a bit more interesting:
    -Introduce group members to each other. If you know some of them, add interesting details. If you don’t know anyone, make up the interesting details. “Hello, Goblinwhomper, this is Nastynecromancer, who sleeps with a stuffed pink plush ratonga doll. I think you’ll have a lot in common.”
    -Develop some specific behavioral or verbal elements that’ll make people remember you. I call everyone ‘my dear’ in the hope that it’ll remind people of their grandmother and they’ll excuse my evolving dementia. Of course, being memorable can backfire, there’s this strange silence on the chat channels now when I sing out that I’m looking to group. But all those social animations are there for a reason, use ‘em, just don’t get ridiculous about it. I’ve just got to write a macro to put my /battle cry (‘Shoo, you mean thing!’ – how great is that?) in front of Jael’s.
    -Encourage people. If someone comes out with a flash of wit, drop ‘em a tell and tell ‘em you appreciate it. If someone’s got an interesting character, interact. If the warlock gets off a huge nuke, draws aggro from the whole zone and the group wipes, say: “Great shot, Nukeemtilltheyglow.”
    The tactical system of EQ2 is deep and rich, but let’s face facts, you get a character to their sixties and how many surprises are there? The quests are interesting for awhile, but who reads all that stuff the NPCs natter on about? The uber-raiders will say that there are endless opportunities for group learning and challenge there, but honestly, who listens to the uber-raiders except other uber-raiders complaining about how their stuff isn’t the uberest? There’s always better gear and shopping, but then you run out of money.
    No, it’s the other people in this game that make it work in the long-term, and it’s worth some effort to make yourself interesting, and to make the whole game more interesting for everyone around you.
    ====
    Incidentally, I’m a perfect monster of vanity, hearing that people appreciate what I’ve written is absolutely wonderful. And I acknowledge every one, but off-line in a private message, because I’m pretty sure the dirge community at large would rather have dental work than read the minutes of the Whysprr Admiration Society. But in case you were wondering whether I appreciate it, I most certainly do.
    Now, back to making fun of the troubadors.
    Best,
    Whysprr
  2. ARCHIVED-Dechau Guest

    *Hugs Whysprr :smileyhappy:
  3. ARCHIVED-Anvilhead Guest

    I've mostly been doing raiding anymore with my dirge. In those raids, we've taken to annoucing reses in one channel so that your neighborhood paladin or necro or other dirges aren't standing there casting the same spell.

    The common announcement goes "Res Inc for %t"

    I've adapted mine to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome back, fresh from a wildly succesful tour on the far side of living, the one, the only %t."

    I guess I'm doing my part Whysp!
  4. ARCHIVED-Whysprr_Wyrd Guest

    Entry the Sixth – I Can Fix That!
    I don’t know about you, but when I’m grouped it’s extremely hard to keep track of everything that’s going on, especially if the tank’s cute. I’ve gotten better in recent times, I think, but it’s still tough.
    The problem, of course, is that as a dirge we can fix a lot of things that can keep a group from functioning to its potential. It doesn’t matter if a wizard knows what’s going on, they’re just going to nuke away until they pull aggro and die regardless. We’re in a more responsible position, though.
    There are, of course, lots of clues to what’s going on, principally in the display of what’s happening with the other characters in the group. If the tank’s health is allatime in the orange and the healer’s always out of power, that might be a teensy little hint that it’s time to replace Tomb’s with the parry buff. And if halfway through every battle, the warlock’s health bar goes red and then her spleen soars past your ear, well, maybe there are aggro problems.
    But, problems aren’t always evident. A quick, sharp healer targeting the mob instead of the tank, or using group heals, can make it hard to spot aggro issues. Unless the mob is a giant spider with venom-dripping jaws, I can never tell that it’s a poison attack that’s making the tank drip green slime from the waist of his plate mail – heck, for all I know all berserkers do that. And lots of folks don’t realize just how many different problems we can solve – or that we can’t solve ‘em all at once due to limited concentration slots and the necessity to pick and choose what debuffs to throw first.
    When I get a pickup group – probably over half the total groups I end up with – I often make a little speech that goes something like this, which I should really wordsmith to a razor-edge and dump into a macro:
    “OK, gang, listen up because I’m only going to say this once, later on the critters will rip my throat out and I won’t be able to talk, which you may consider a blessing. The dirge motto is: ‘I can fix that!.’ So if you think there’s a problem – power, aggro, you don’t like my hair-color, whatever – pipe up, there’s a good chance I can make it better. Now, let’s go out and provide nutritious snacks for those <insert name of monsters we’re going to be fighting>.”
    This isn’t a high-yield deal – most groups go along just fine, and most problems are easily discovered by being aware of what’s going on. And I wouldn’t advise it for groups where the tank and healer spend their time jumping up and down around the room while waiting for the last characters to show up; frankly, powerful drugs or, if the whole group’s doing it, slitting one’s wrists, are all that helps that. But it does remind people to communicate, and does show that you’re a no-nonsense, goal-oriented group-mate who can be relied on to drop and run as soon as a better group comes along.
    Best,
    Whysp
    Note added in editing: This weekend I was brought sharply up against the fact that I'm deeply, horribly prejudiced. My prejudice is against characters who jump all the time, I consider them automatic idiots. So I went into Hall of Fate with a tank who jumped all the time, expecting nothing but disaster, and she was simply one of the best tanks ever. So, Kangaroo, the whole schtick above about the jumping doesn't mean you.
    The rest of you, she's the exception that proves the rule (and she role-plays the jumping bit, hence the name, by the way). Stop it, already.
  5. ARCHIVED-Hazeroth Guest

    I got a treat a few days back.

    I was in a instanced group with 3 Dirges, an Assassin, a defiler and brusier MT.

    Did we have any problems? Most of the time not, other then someone getting over eager and triggering trap mobs, having 5 or 6 groups of mobs on us and wiping.

    But the rest of the T8 instances? It was beautiful. I'm a DPS Dirge so I took the role of handling all the DPS stuff since I took the INT line, and Bria's since I was maxed out on Advancing it and had a Master I to boot. I still had room for my self buff. I let the other's figure out how to divi' up the other buffs.

    It was like, **CoB** this and "Casting Chime" that all over the place. Even with one healer we still rocked the joint because of OoS and it stacks quite nicely with other casting. We tore through the zones like they were all green. If we were fighting one group it usually didn't stay standing longer then 10 seconds (named mobs about 15 seconds before they went down). If we were fighting multiple groups it took about 30 to 45 seconds to handle them all but we were almost always CoB'ed throughout the zone.

    I highly recommend grouping with other dirges just for the fun factor.

    Silentchord, lvl 70 Dirge
    Antonia Bayle, Journeymen of the Overlord
  6. ARCHIVED-Whysprr_Wyrd Guest

    You anticipated a question I was going to pop here -- has anyone done the Dirge Dream Team Group -- tank, healer, dirge x 4? I was going to ask how it went, but it sounds like you answered that.
    If any Kithicor dirges want to do this, drop me a PM or a mail in-game and we'll make it happen.
    Whysprr
  7. ARCHIVED-Whysprr_Wyrd Guest

    Entry the Seventh -- Damage Attenuation for Dirges
    The flickering candlelight lends a strangely formal appearance to the struggle, as if it were merely an elegant dance. It is not, however, a dance.
    The great reptilian beast, leather-winged, with malevolent intelligence in the yellow eyes, aims powerful blow after powerful blow at a warrior in plate, blows which would be crippling or lethal were their force not absorbed, or subtly deflected, by the wisps of blue light drifting about the warrior. Meanwhile, great gouts of fire and a drifting green mist, flung by two robed mages behind the warrior, bite into the creature's scaly armor.
    The creature does not merely await its doom, though. Leaping swiftly, it swings its great mace in a brutal arc that intersects the thinly armored chest of a young woman -- the young woman whose prayers drew down the oddly effective blue wisps. She is flung against the far wall of the room, chest a red ruin, eyes already glazing over. The creature turns its attention back to the warrior, who is forced back toward the mages by great blows that stagger him, denting his armor. It’s just a matter of time before the creature inflicts a crippling blow. The mages eye the door.
    As the warrior retreats, a woman steps from the shadows. She's been there all along, her songs cheering her comrades and annoying the creature, or perhaps it was the other way around. The odd arrow she'd flung did little real harm to the creature. But now she sings with more urgency; a strange flurry of notes in an odd mode that magically bind the dying cleric's spirit to her body, and ameliorate the damage enough that the young priest’s divine magics can complete the healing. This takes time, however; and now the warrior is already on his knees, left arm broken and shield hanging useless, fending off the mace with his sword.
    The singer steps up to the creature, dagger raised as if to attack, and as its eyes flicker toward the weapon she delivers an eye-watering knee to a place where even an armored reptile prefers not to be kicked, a blow perfected in dozens of bars when someone objected to the singer's choice of historical ballads.
    As the reptile roars in outrage, the song changes. A scent of rain fills the room, images of sun slanting down on the plains and the strange rituals of the droags in springtime, with a little cabaret back-beat. The lizard, clearly distracted by thoughts of female droags in silk camisoles and fishnet stockings, aims a blow at the kneeling warrior, breaking a leg and sending him sprawling to the ground, but as clearly, the creature’s heart isn't in it. Until another fireball ignites his tail, reminding him that mating requires survival first.
    The singer clashes her sword and dagger together in an odd, hypnotic, accelerating rhythm, which the warrior's sword seemingly takes up, and suddenly they're on the attack, blades flashing, each strike creating an oddly disturbing tone that makes the creature twitch and flinch from the blows, ruining the rhythm and precision of its brutal attacks.
    As her blades flash, the singer, unnaturally-red hair flying, aims another song at the warrior. Her face goes pale with agony as his arm and leg straighten, while hers throb with the pain the song transfers to her body.
    The strange rhythm of the blades falters, the singer kneels exhausted. But the young priest is back in the fight now, the blue mist protecting the warrior. The creature looks toward her again, but the warrior shouts “Kh-gnakk – rrrth – mmgggrrgh!”; which translated means: “Your brood-mother wears a silk camisole and fishnet stockings in a burrow in Baubbleshire!”, and it roars and continues to pound ineffectually at him. A high-velocity shard of ice from one wizard pierces a place in the creature where the green mist had eroded its armor, and it falls with a thunderous crash. The handsome warrior gives the pretty cleric a look of astonishingly dumb devotion, gives the mages a thumbs-up, looks back at the singer with a slightly condescending 'what have you been doing, eh?' look, and strides deeper into the dark corridors.
    =====
    For some reason, I recently ended up in a couple of instance groups of one fighter, one cleric (usually less than level 70 -- comparatively weak relative to the group and critters) and a whole passel o’ mages. I can't complain, I dinged 69 in the Hall of Fate, but it made me think more carefully than I ever have before about damage limitation as a primary role for dirges. I mean, what else was I going to do? And when it came right down to it, each group was limited not by firepower but by the ability of the healer to keep up with the damage the 70+ heroics were dishing out.
    Dirges limit the damage the tank and group take in lots of ways, of course. Parry buff, stoneskin, even Harl's agility decrease damage, while the aggro buff keeps the attacks on the well-defended tank instead of on someone fragile. None of that takes much more tactical skill, though, than the ability to realize it's needed.
    At least as important as these passive defenses, though, is the ability to actively decrease the damage output of the mob. As we faced ever-nastier critters, I was contemplating all the tools we have at our disposal -- and the intricate tactics required to use them most effectively.
    I count ten different abilities for directly decreasing the critters' ability to put wear and tear on the ol' warrior. I'm doing this from memory, might have some of the durations off by a bit. They are:
    Ability Effect Duration CommentDaro's debuff line slow 1 minDiscante line str decrease 1 minSide blade line dps decrease 14 secLanet's line daze 7 secCacophony of Blades interrupts 12 sec, up to 17 w/AAWail of Hymn of line interrupt AOE instant Tarven's line interrupt instantCheap Shot stun 2-4 secGarsin’s Fear runs away 14 sec breaks, very lameSapping Shot line roots mob 8 sec breaks
    The ability to mix and match these abilities gives dirges tremendous power to salvage desperate situations, or just to let a group hunt higher than it otherwise could, but maximizing the yield from them takes skill. For example Tarven’s then Cheap Shot works great, Cheap Shot then Tarven’s wastes the interrupt.
    I’ve never tried to optimize this as much as in Halls of Fate. We were fighting the great big honkin’ dragon inside HoF, Sothis, and we’d wiped twice already. I doubt I can claim all that much credit for putting it together; it was more adds management that did it for us than anything else. I think, though, that putting CoB early in the battle (I usually save it for after I’m done debuffing to maximize debuffed time and damage from the disease procs) kept us from getting into a healing / health / aggro hole.
    I'd point out the considerable synergy of Oration of Sacrifice and CoB in emergency situations. If you trigger CoB and then Oration, the Oration duration goes while you'd be doing nothing but CoB autoattack anyway, and the CoB interrupts will markedly decrease the incoming damage while Oration healing hits. This is a good way of recovering from a healer death after you combat-rez. Since Grievance is a rapid cast and CoB procs off it, you can even get started getting back the health lost to Oration.
    So, I was sitting here trying to make a systematic scheme out of this and getting frustrated because there’s such a diversity of groups and situations, when suddenly I realized – this is a blog, not a textbook. I don’t have to be systematic unless I want to! And it’s interactive, too! Why should I do all the work.
    Damage Attentuation. Discuss. Give examples. For extra credit, name the spells the Dirge cast in the vignette above, in order.
    Edit: to remove egregious errors noted below.
    Message Edited by Whysprr on 12-26-2006 07:04 AM
  8. ARCHIVED-Salmastryon Guest

    Just a small point for now, but Lanet's stops auto attacks not spells and CAs. So interrupts with Lanet's is a good combo.
  9. ARCHIVED-Whysprr_Wyrd Guest

    /doh I had it backward!!
    Now I have to think the whole thing through again. Figures.
    Whysp
  10. ARCHIVED-Whysprr_Wyrd Guest

    Entry the Eighth -- Reflections on Old Age
    So, I've been level 70 for a bit over a week now. It was an eventful evening, I bludgeoned some guildies into going into the Den of the Devourer with me, and we devoured everything in our path. I dinged seventy about halfway through to the general approval of everyone in my guild, who were pretty fed up with the whining, and finishing off the big bug let me turn in the Grizfazzle quest to upgrade my bow -- I'm a huge Jael's fan -- and finishing the quest got me an Achievement point which in turn got me Don't Kill the Messenger. So all in all very satisfying. I would've broken out the champagne only there wasn't anyone to drink it with -- some things don't change even at 70.
    So, where do we go from here?
    It's nice to be able to pick weapons without following the one-slash-one-pierce rule. I replaced my slasher with the higher-rated Dark Linger dagger which also procs a lifetap -- very cool. So now it's Two Daggers Whysprr.
    Echoes of Faydwar came out, and I was kept busy exploring for a bit. The new instances are fun -- considering how long I've been playing it's bound to strike you as bizarre that I'd never really figured out the difference between instances and dungeons until recently.
    I found the shoulders to the new Vhalen's Legendary bard armor on the broker, and bought it like a shot, though I'm about to the point of pawning my sensible cotton underthings I've blown through so much money recently. And, for a wonder, it looks good -- sort of a teal color, no obscene projections, goes with my hair and with the Ballad Breastplate I picked up awhile ago. Yes, I know that’s not what it’s called, but I’m writing this while journeying and all my armor is stowed in the hold because after one look at me walking on deck the crew refused to be responsible if I wore it while on the water, I’d sink like a rock. Can’t blame ‘em, I’ve fallen off every high place there is to fall off of and some I’m quite sure nobody expected to be a problem. I had to leave a group in the new caverns in EoF last week because I fell off something and never could catch up.
    As you can tell, my Digressors Anonymous group kicked me out.
    So, I'm determined to track down the rest of the set (the Vhalen's set, remember, you were reading about it just an hour ago). This is a pretty stupid idea, I suspect. If I do the math:
    Five pieces to go times:Twelve 'class' items to drop times:One drop per instance run or dungeon crawl times:One armor drop per two runs (at a guess) times:One run or crawl every two nights, figuring alternates for crafting, raiding, questing, or actually sleeping God forbid:
    I'll complete the set in 240 days -- eight months, by which time it'll be obsolete. So I guess I'm probably condemned to look like a ragpicker forever, though at least I look like a tasteful ragpicker now instead of a blind ragpicker who chooses clothing by sound, like I've looked since 62. Since I discovered that armor I've religiously looked for more bits on the broker, but there's none to be seen. Am I missing something here, or are these sets only achievable by the most determined players with nothing else to do with their lives?
    It's waay easier to get groups now. So, I’ve decided to take the next few days and finish up the Dragon language quest, a miserable solo-grind through the whole bloody planet. Got to do it, though, to finish up my Tunare quest so I can have yet another horrifying money-sink in my life.
    Best,
    Whysp

    Message Edited by Whysprr on 12-06-2006 08:58 AM
  11. ARCHIVED-SorrySonOfA Guest

    Grats on 70 Whysprr! Oh, and from your entry the seventh. I believe the default time for CoB is 12 secs, unless you've burned 3 of the new EoF AAs on it already.
  12. ARCHIVED-Priestbane Guest

    The rest of the pieces are no drop, else they'd also be for sale as well. =/
  13. ARCHIVED-Whysprr_Wyrd Guest

    Entry the Ninth – Mostly Off-topic, Avoid if You Hate Christmas
    I listened to a striking recording of this song on my way to work recently, and realized it’s both dirgely and seasonal, as well as really, really strange in spots, and good for that. Here it is, there are variations from the whole English-speaking world, but this one was collected in Yorkshire, England.
    Old Winter is come with its cold chilling breath
    And the leaves are all gone from the trees
    All nature seems touched by the finger of death
    And the lakes are beginning to freeze
    When your minds are annoyed by the wide swelling flood
    And your bridges are useful no more
    When in plenty you enjoy everything that is good
    That's the time to remember the poor
    The cold air and snow will in plenty descend
    And whiten the prospect around
    The keen cutting wind from the north will attend
    And cover it over the ground
    When the hills and the dales are all candied with white
    And the rivers are froze on the shore
    When the bright twinkling stars they proclaim the cold night
    That's the time to remember the poor
    O the time draweth nigh when the seasons on Earth
    All the world will agree with one voice
    All nations unite to salute the blessed morn
    And the ends of the Earth will rejoice
    When death is deprived of his cold chilly sting
    And the grave is a terror no more
    When angels and men alleluja shall sing
    Then the rich will lie down with the poor
    I find this forum, and all of you who post here in this strange little community, to be a great joy, and there are few enough of those in life, so we ought to appreciate ‘em. So, well done, one and all, for your passion and wit, your willingness to help, your openness to new knowledge and new ideas, and your tolerance of one another’s little weirdnesses.
    At the same time, I was reminded that anyone reading these boards is rich by definition – in a world where billions of people go hungry and suffer from preventable illnesses, pretty much anyone with Internet access and leisure time to play a computer game qualifies as rich. And most likely you’re rich not only in material things, but in talent and knowledge as well. You know what's coming, don't you?
    A quest is really a story, so Everquest players probably appreciate a good story. You don’t have to believe in it to recognize that Christmas is a great story, one with ‘adventure, excitement, love, betrayal, special effects, good guys, bad guys, narrow escapes, reversals, mysterious strangers, a great chase scene, and the promise of a great sequel”*. It’s a story of great things in humble packages, of the power of the powerless, and of grace in an often graceless world.
    We are not, most of us, called on to do great things, but to do small things greatly. This Christmas, regardless of your opinion of religion, take at least one moment to learn something from the story. Be graceful to the graceless. Give something to someone in need. Use your wealth, of money or talent or knowledge, to make the world a slightly better place.
    Remember you’re rich.
    Remember the poor.
    Best,
    Whysp
    *Connie Willis, “Miracle and Other Christmas Stories”, 1999. Connie Willis is a Hugo- and Nebula-winning science fiction writer. As a writer, she walks on water.
  14. ARCHIVED-Whysprr_Wyrd Guest

    Entry the Tenth – Carrying My Own Weight?
    Just hold off on the Whysp-ain’t-so-wispy-try-a-salad-jokes, OK?
    Last night was a blow to my self-image, and made me wonder a bit about the state of the dirge. I’m an independent-minded little whatnot, perhaps you’ve noticed. And part of being independent, at least for me, is feeling like I’m pulling my own weight – or a bit more – in a group.
    OK, some of this was my fault, or nobody’s. I got invited to Achadechism, only I was in Qeynos finishing up a pile of swashie runes for an old friend, and I was in Qeynos instead of Somborn doing that because the last time I headed out I had my sack of raid junk instead of my crafter’s bag. Creeping senility, that. So the group was tapping their feet and being Very Nice About It as I dashed to Nek Forest just in time to see the blasted boat vanishing in the mist, I tried to swim for it once but it’s faster than I am – like everyone else these days, it seems.
    Does anyone else hate Greater Faydark as much as I do? Stupid Achadechism is clear across the zone once you get there from Butcherblock, I evaced to the halfway point, and promptly fell into the river. It went downhill from there, and the ranger had to come find me and gently, kindly, lead me to the zone. Look, it’s the outdoors, OK? Rangers=outdoors. Dirges=smoke-filled clubs with rude audiences.
    I just hate it when they’re kind.
    What a group! Shadowknight, ranger, warlock, dirge, warden, templar, it was going to be fierce. Only fly in the ointment, the SK didn’t turn the mob all the time, just often enough to keep me off-balance, so I used my new reminder-shtick:
    “<name suppressed to protect the guilty>, do you know how to make the gorgeous ranger and the plain but good-hearted dirge lust after your fabulous tankliness?”
    Infuriatingly, he said no. I’m not that easily suppressed though.
    “Pity that, because I’ve got the answer – turn the mob, my dear.”
    They just laughed at me and threatened to report me to my guild. Some knights, you just can’t win.
    Despite that, we walked through the zone like a big hairy spider at a cheerleader’s convention, spreading fear and consternation as we went. Aside from the teeny-weeny problem at the beginning, when I cast Hyran’s on myself instead of the SK, and the warlock promptly grabbed aggro and dropped like a rock, I felt like I was doing my job. The warlock died a couple times even after I got Hyran’s lined up right, so I didn’t feel so responsible, plus, the mana-drain in that place makes Bria’s indispensable. Lashing out with Clara’s and Banshee and Jarols’ at the group-mobs, I figured all was well. I even won the lotto for a Master, some defiler spell, and that was good because all the dirge equipment goes and hides under the bed when I enter an instance.
    So, we pulled out of Achadechism, leaving the blood and critter bits on the walls to the janitorial staff, and headed for Obelisk of Blight. I never get to do two instances a night, but you’re only middle-aged once.
    Most of the rest of the group was able to druid-port to Lesser Faydark, but I didn’t because I never found out about the leaf-thingies until then. I wasn’t the only one in that humiliating condition, but I was the only one who took a wrong turn and zoned into Loping Plains. Fortunately, or so I thought, the warlock had to pull out, and we picked up a paladin who had to slog out from Qeynos, so even though I pulled up to OoB ten minutes after everyone else, it wasn’t me they ended up waiting on.
    The paladin was parsing. You can see where this is going, can’t you? No, nobody gave me grief for not doing enough, they were a perfectly nice, supportive group. I welcomed the parsing, ‘cause it’s a pain to do for myself, and I’m all about performance improvement. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move out of fourth place in the parse except for an occasional battle, just often enough to make it hurt. The ranger, OK, that’s understood, dps machine. The SK benefited from Verlien’s and whatever tank junk the others had put on him. But you’d think I could at least give a paladin a run for his money, wouldn’t you? I mean, we’ve got buffs and debuff utility but they’ve got important buffs, plus they can tank, heal, rez, make us beg for dates, and we’re at least ostensibly a dps class. OK, I occasionally got chatty – hey, the Shadowmen really did do a nice job with the Winterfair decorations down there – but even when I stuck to my guns, er, buttons, there was ol’ Whysp, number four again.
    So, perhaps we do need more dps, or something. I’ve always thought of the notion of ‘balance’ as somewhat chimerical for a whole array of reasons. In a complex game, valid criteria for balance are elusive – what does it even mean? If you balance challenge for hyperoptimized powerhunters you end up with a game full of hyperoptimized powerhunters, and the vomiting flu would be more fun. I’ve always wanted the developers to concentrate more on thinking up fun stuff for everyone to do than on fiddling with microbalancing class A against class Q and the whole lot against the Green-Lunged Player-Whomper. But, I felt like if I were looking at that group, and asking who wasn’t pulling their weight, it’d be ol’ Whysp.
    And that is NOT because of my Haagen-daz problem, OK? It’s not.
    No dirge stuff dropped. If I seem grumpy today, you can’t blame me.
    Oh, you will anyway.
    Best,
    Whysprr
  15. ARCHIVED-Elslav Guest

    Kudos to a fun thread to read! I read your latest entry today while eating lunch and look forward to your next
  16. ARCHIVED-TheBramble Guest

    it's always frustrating when a full group needs to sit around for 15 minute waiting for someone who doesn't know their way around to figure out where to go, and joking about the likely ebayed status of the person we're waiting for in local chat is only funny for so long. Of course confusing zones like lesser fay and Loping Plains don't help either, and nevermind the tremendous effort involved in getting yourself from the old to the new world.
    If you ask any City of Heroes player, they'll tell you that the one thing that makes that game what it is, above all else, is the travel powers - you will spend more time changing zones that plodding through them in that game if you are in a hurry. I don't see super-travel powers working EQ2, obviously, but it would be nice for the devs to acknowledge that there is nothing fun about running through grayed out zones to get where you are going. More fast travel options would be fantastic: a portal in Q harbor right next to the Maj'Dul carpet to take you to Kelethin, more classes with the ability, maybe only available through AAs, to teleport a character on the same map directly to them, maybe a handful of classes with the ability to do that across zones, faster griffins that take less scenic routes, ulterian spires that take you to KoS on demand, etc... There is nothing fun about waiting, and no one plays this game to sit around and do that. Let us be able to get to the fun stuff - the instances, dungeons, quests - faster!
  17. ARCHIVED-Morganth Guest

    Awesome.
    I am not sure how I missed this thread, I read all your posts.
    You make this game more fun for me. I often find myself in situations and ask, "What would Whysprr do?"
    Keep Rockin'
  18. ARCHIVED-Vincenzo Guest

    Really enjoyed the last few posts Whysprr. It's been really fun to read recently. I loved the vivid description of your fight with a Droag.

    Just as a comment about your notes about pulling our own weight:

    I don't actually think we ostensibly are a dps class. I think we are a buff/debuff class. And I don't think people think "Oh we could invite that Dirge to the group but she's not great dps...let's see if we can hold out for an assassin". They invite the Dirge because they know they will make everyone else in the team perform better. That's what the Dirge is about imo.

    Remember, you were sacrificing your personal dps buff (the yellow buff) in the group weren't you? By doing that you were lowering your own personal dps and improving the efficiency and strength of the group. If that isn't pulling your own weight I don't know what is.
  19. ARCHIVED-Whysprr_Wyrd Guest

    Entry the Eleventh: The Weird Fascination of Raiding
    Uber-raiders out there probably should make sure you’re sitting on a plastic sheet or something, you’re going to find this ridiculous, and I’d hate to be responsible for you wetting your desk chair, the smell tends to linger.
    The Brethren of Kithicor (and the Sistren, too, but we’re not officially part of the name) finally defeated Lord Vyyem recently, despite my presence in the raid. We’ve been pounding on the Labs weekly for a couple of months, or rather, the Labs have been pounding on us. I know, I know, by uber-raider standards this is comical, but the absurdity goes both ways. Some of the uber-guilds have a standard of discipline that makes the United States Marines look like a good girl’s finishing school. Quoting from a nameless (to protect the guilty) guild site: “We raid 5 nights a week and sometimes more, logging in is not an option. Let me repeat, logging in is not an option.” My surgery rotation wasn’t that intense. Think about it – you can raid top-tier EoF content, or you can become a general surgeon. For cardiothoracic surgery you probably have to wait for the next expansion.
    We’re not like that. If a dirge finally logs on three hours past the starting time after dealing with homework crises, an emergency Band-aid, and a month’s worth of overdue bills, it’s not “throw her out, Jeeves, and see that she bounces twice,” it’s, ‘Yo, Whysp, wanna come to Labs?,” and some poor soul who’s two-boxing logs one character off with relief and after I get pounded into the dirt a couple times by the droags at the bridge I dash in and everyone’s inexplicably glad to see me. And we don’t exactly have a finely-honed pack of selected characters, either. We haven’t got a wizard, brigand, or shaman to our name, the coercer was the one who got logged off the two-box, and I think we had two paladins and three guardians. Some of us have Ventrillo, some don’t (like me, I need to fix that), but at any rate we throw out random comments on the raid channel and nobody rags on us. On the other hand, we do track dkp (What’s that stand for anyway? Deranged Killer Pixies? Despairing of Klaiming Prizes? Dirge Kan’t Play? OK, the p is probably points and I’m reaching on the k’s, but still.), and everyone cheers when someone gets something cool, and it’s an achievement when we defeat something that vaporized us before.
    And that’s probably why it’s enjoyable. For fast-paced action give me a group that’s fighting stuff just slightly too hard for it, not a raid, Lord knows. A lot of raiding is standing around while Thwapp does a bio break and Angreal and Venora do stuff I can’t talk about here and the cat walks across Cptfuzzytail’s keyboard and pees on the mouse. Then we’re about ready to roll and somebody else says they have to burn their lungs out and mutate their DNA and make their cells turn mean and vindictive with a cancer stick. OK, they don’t phrase it quite like that, I elaborated a little.
    Much of the rest of the time is spent recasting the blasted buffs after a wipe – apparently nobody who hasn’t run a dirge realizes that all that junk takes about 2 minutes to cast, I’m always standing in the entryway while everyone else is pounding down the corridor. Or maybe that’s the hygiene issues.
    Even when the battle’s underway, there’s a certain, not boredom, because it can get intense, but a certain hypnotic quality as the mobs health bar sloooooooowly drops and everyone’s power bar slowly drops, until that golden moment when… the tank’s health bar drops like a rock and then everyone’s health bar goes black.
    Honest, that’s not how it usually goes.
    There’s a fair amount of room to make things a bit more interesting in raiding, too – I use my ferocious /battle cry (Shoo! Go away!!) to say I’m ready to roll instead of ‘yo’ or ‘rdy’, but I need to start using something more colorful, like ‘Yep, got an extra pair of sensible cotton underthings all set in my backpack.’
    The battle with Vyemm was exciting, though. We wiped twice, once from problems on the pull, once when the coercer (back being two-boxed after someone else, smarter than I, called it a night) got a resist memwiping the Alzid. The third time was the charm. I was in a sort-of-dps-sort-of-MA group, and between a razor-sharp healer, Grievance, Wail of the Dead, and Dark Linger I managed to stay on my feet the whole battle, while rezzing everyone in my group at least once. It was a bit weird standing underneath this giant dragon-creature, wondering when someone would get through its armor and intestinal contents would start leaking down, adding a new terror to the AOEs, but we hung in there, fighting, dying, being raised, and gagging on the stench of dragon entrails. Whoops, not yet, that’s the next generation of computer hardware; Everquest 3, with TeamStink.
    It’s that moment of triumph when everyone cheers and we all look around at each other and go, ‘Yes, we DID it ohmigod is it 2AM????’ that makes it all worthwhile. At least until the next morning when getting the kids off to school and going to work feels like the Bataan Death March.
    So, while my recommendation about memorizing verses to the Hedgehog Song (in the FAQ) still stands, I have to admit there’s a weird glory to raiding. I think it’s the same thing that makes people play golf (not that I can speak from personal experience about golf, mind you, I'd rather have a root canal); hours of indescribable tedium for one magnificent moment.
    No, nothing I could use dropped. What were you thinking?
    Best,
    Whysp
  20. ARCHIVED-Priestbane Guest

    Legacy from EQ1 raiding, DKP = Dragon Kill Points. Generally (but not always) assessed per named mob kill on a raid to reward attendance.
    Congratulations on your Vyemm kill. Tell me he at least checked a box on a couple of your quests? =)