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Game Forum / Role Playing Games / EverQuest / December 2003Tea hits the big time. Sorta. (Long. Rambling.).
Teapray was level 46 when Lenny decided, with her encouragement, to reroll as a Shadowknight. It was a good thing for both of us, and when we reach parity again we will be a stronger duo that we were before. But also, in a sense, it was a bit hard on me. I had been playing the lower end game for over two years at that point, and I getting excited again with EQ at the prospect of reaching new content. In particular, I was looking forward to reaching level 49, and getting the 90% rez. I know that the 75% rez I had wasn't too shabby. I knew that the 15% difference wouldn't be too earth shattering. But still. When you see people trying to get a rez, most of them want a 90+ one. When I offered to cast my 75% on a dark elf, he told me to keep my paladin magic to myself. When I told him I was a cleric, not a paladin, his reply was "Well, you rez like one". He is a know roleplayer that hates "lightbringers", so of course I didn't take it personally, but still it stung just a bit. There were a few other times when I felt inadequate because of my level. I went into Cazic Thule with a bunch of guildees. Our main tank was paladin, and his group heal was like 500 points to mine of 105. All of these are small points, to be sure, but the added up to the fact that I wanted to at least hit level 49. I didn't completely quit while Lenny re-leveled. I worked on trade skills. It was nice to actually be able to make Grobbs Liquidisfied Meat, one of those ooh, ahh things that other people seemed to be able to make, but not me. I also had a few other goals I wanted to meet. I was making pretty good money in the bazaar selling celestial essences, imbued emeralds, and then the GLM, and I wanted to do some shopping. I replaced all of Lenny's Crusty armor, and got myself in full plate. I got my earring of the Solstice. I wanted and got a necrotic divining device and shrinking device. I wanted a vanishing device, but had no luck finding one. I posted that I was in the market for one on the FV community boards, and watched the market channel, but no luck. I bugged Splendid to take up tinkering and make me one, but he somehow resisted my suggestions. I found a gnome in the bazaar, Myron, who was obviously a high end tinkerer, and sent him a tell asking him that if he happened to see my message when he woke up, and was able to make a GVD, to please contact me because he was clearly so good at making wondrous devices. Later that day, I saw someone selling one in the market channel for 10k. Yikes. That is the first time I saw one for sale, and seen a price associated with it. I only had about 2 k at the time, but I knew I would be able to raise that sort of cash, given a little time. But I wouldn't be getting it anytime soon. The next day, however, Myron sent me a tell. Since I had asked him so nicely, he would be happy to sell me one at cost, 1000 plat. Would that be fair? My jaw dropped. I told him that it was hardly fair, at least let me throw in an extra 500 plat to you know, just because! He told me he was wealthy, and it really didn't matter to him, he had gotten lucky in the bazaar himself with the components. Feeling guilty, I paid him the 1k and got the GVD and 3 batteries from him. He wouldn't even accept any money for the batteries. Needless to say, he is now on my "Free temp and rezzes for life" list. All this was very nice, but it wasn't what I really really wanted to do... level to at least 49. I told Lenny that I was sorry, but I couldn't just tread water any more. He had to set his goal to 49, because that is where I was headed. Which meant that at least at first, I would have group without him. And that made me nervous. We work well together. If I mess up with him, well, I feed him, so he has to forgive me. Feeling more than a bit odd, I put up my LFG flag for the first time since Teapray was born. I went to get a glass of soda, and when I came back I saw I had gotten 3 tells from different people. I decided to join the one in the Plane of Justice. I was by far the youngest of my group, and was very nervous. But I kept my cool, used my Heal over Time spells and assist keys to keep track of who had agro, and made no big mistakes. The group did wipe at one point due to an overpull, but there was nothing I could have done to prevent that, and everyone knew it the second we saw what was headed at us. I joined a few groups after that. I wasn't too sure of how others would see me as a cleric. After all, I was used to duoing with my husband, playing in the same room with me. Our communication is done verbally, not by typing. And we are used to each other styles. But it turns out that the consensus seems to be that at least I am not a disaterously bad cleric, and some seemed to thing that I was very very good at it. I wasn't leveling fast, by any means, but I was leveling. Last night, I ran Lenny to Dulak. It was place I had always wanted to hunt, but without the ability to invis easily, I hadn't braved it. But with my new GVD, I could scout ahead, and found that it might really be worth our time. We got there, and found a coupld of people Lenny knew there. At this point Lenny and I could group together, so we all got together. At 48 I was the highest level, and we were all doing well. Then two members of our group left, leaving me and Lenny, with another Shadowknight about Lenny's age. We were on a dock near a boat, with Lenny pulling from the ship. And it was still going well. I was getting very very close to dinging 49, and I was excited. "Ok guys, about to ding. Need maybe three more. Don't mess up!" They both laughed. Lenny pulled. As he ran down the gangway, another spawned. Ok, two. We could do two. Um... why is my KEI icon blinking? Damn! For the first time that night, I was worried about mana. But we were stilling doing it. I got the attention of one, lead it away, and rooted it away from the tanks. They were beating that one down, and getting a bit low on health. I couldn't keep them topped off, because root keep breaking on the other one, and it was beating me down and taking my time to re-root it. And then another one from the dock spawned, almost on top of the SKs. And I knew that we were going down. I yelled for Lenny to feign. He ignored me, and harm touched the first one. He and it died in each other arms. I yelled for the other SK to feign, Feign, FEIGN. Turns out he didn't have it memmed. /gasp! He was doomed, and we both knew it. And when he died, I would too... I was much to far to make to the zone, and besides, I didn't have DA memmed. I know, /gasp! I made a hard choice. It would be hard to make it back with my GVD on my body, trivial for me to come back with it. For the first time since Teapray was born, I gated out of a battle, with the other SK at 13%. And when I landed in the PoK, I realized that I was level 49. I had only needed 1 mob to ding, and Lenny's Harmtouch was the one that brought it down. I was elated! And ashamed that I had gated out. But now I could rez at 90%! After I bought the spell. I grabbed a fresh KEI, ran to the gnome's cleric guild, and got my rez spell, then grabbed a SoW and ran back to Dulak. Both SK's had made it back to Dulak at that time, and dragged their bodies to the zone. With mixed feelings, I cast my first couple of 90% rezes. Neither was mad at me. And on the way back, the other SK picked up some more party members. Lenny soon went to bed, but I stayed long enough to get 4 blues worth of insurance experience. This new group commented several times on what a great job I was doing. Overall, given my prior performance, I don't know that I did. But still, I still felt good about it! Now. No more leveling for me till Lenny hits 49 as well! -- Annie To join the alt.games.everquest chat channel type /join serverwide.age:age If you want to stayed joined, then after that type /autojoin serverwide.age:age Currently playing: Teapray-- 49 High Elf Cleric on Firiona Vie Teamort-- 16 Dark Elf Necromancer of Lanys T'vyl Lentea-- 33 Ogre Beastlord On Firiona Vie -- If you can't figure out my email address, you're not supposed to write me. <Chainsaw Snip> > And when I landed in the PoK, I realized that I was level 49. Gratz Tea!  SignatureZarxx 27 Ogre Beastlord (Drinal) Ssarss 23 Iksar Beastlord (Drinal) Gwydonn 19 High Elf Cleric (Drinal) Grunnge 09 Vah Shir Bard (Drinal) Kjorn 22 Barbarian Beastlord (Firiona Vie) > And when I landed in the PoK, I realized that I was level 49. I had only > needed 1 mob to ding, and Lenny's Harmtouch was the one that brought it down. I > was elated! Congratulations! Thanks for the inspirational story, hope to see you in game some time soon. Winterfury Thunderwolf Barbarian Oracle-Shaman of 60 Winters Citizen of Firiona Vie > Now. No more leveling for me till Lenny hits 49 as well! Why don't you get up to 51, then you can go 100% aaxp while he catches up. Run 3 will be a very handy thing to have. > Now. No more leveling for me till Lenny hits 49 as well! Why don't you get to 51 and go 100% aaxp until he catches up? Run 3 will come in very handy as you use your gnomish vanishing device to go places. Hi; What a Great Story. I agree with the others. Keep going till 51 and get run3 while Lenny's playing catchup. Some of the Best aa's there are. Merry Christmas Doctorzoid 64 Cleric > Teapray was level 46 when Lenny decided, with her encouragement, to reroll > as a Shadowknight. It was a good thing for both of us, and when we reach parity [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > ooh, ahh things that other people seemed to be able to make, but not me. I also > had a few other goals I wanted to meet. I was making pretty good money in the > bazaar selling celestial essences, imbued emeralds, and then the GLM, and I > wanted to do some shopping. I replaced all of Lenny's Crusty armor, and got [quoted text clipped - 105 lines] > -- > If you can't figure out my email address, you're not supposed to write me. > He was doomed, and we both knew it. And when he died, I would too... I >was [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >Teapray >was born, I gated out of a battle, with the other SK at 13%. Common sense is often the better part of valor. The first time I was *ORDERED* by the GL to gate out or camp I felt like I was abandoning my group. I was *so* embarassed to leave them to die. Now I realize a Living Cleric is worth alot more than a dead one. Congrats on 49! (FWIW, I was never insulted if someone wanted to wait for a better rez. If they found one I'd thank the higher level cleric *myself*. You realize pretty quick clerics are happy to help out another cleric this way:))) "This time: gonna do it RIGHT!" -- Bob Seger Jennaii > When I offered to cast my 75% on a dark elf, he > told me to keep my paladin magic to myself. Bah. I hate attitudes like that. There's roleplaying, and there's being a jerk to someone who's trying to be helpful. The only worse thing is being asked for a rez, agreeing, then being asked if you have a 96% rez, and being told "never mind" when you don't. > Our main tank was paladin, and his group heal was like 500 > points to mine of 105. Paladins are pretty much the group heal kings. I mean yes, our group heals will heal more and, at the highest level, take some disease, poison, and curse counters off... but pally group heals are *fast*. And, frankly, our mana is better spent on individual heals anyway... if things go bad, it's nice to have a good-sized pool of mana to burn on fast heals. > I didn't completely quit while Lenny re-leveled. I worked on > trade skills. That's something that will always work for ya. I don't regret the three months I basically stopped XP-ing and became a GM smith. It pays dividends even now. > I decided to join the one in the Plane of Justice. I was by far > the youngest of my group, and was very nervous. That's one nice thing about being a cleric... you can easily join groups where everyone's several levels ahead of you. No matter how tough the dungeon, it's comforting to know that your heals are unresistable. =) > But it turns out that the consensus seems to be > that at least I am not a disaterously bad cleric, That fact that you are active, not afk, and care immediately puts you in the top twenty percent. =) > Last night, I ran Lenny to Dulak. Just as an aside... do you have your Pure Blood spell yet? If not, it might be worth farming the places in LoY where you can get your Pure Blood drops... the fort in Gunthak, the Luggalds in Nadox, etc. Pure Blood is our best disease cure and is handy for curing slows and malo's. So if you're gonna be leveling Lenny up, it might help to do it in a way that benefits you, too. =) > "Ok guys, about to ding. Need maybe three more. > Don't mess up!" /wince Do you *like* to wipe? My goodness, may as well just use /shout to ask everyone to immediately train you! =) Nothing the Wipe Gods like more than to be invoked with such innocent phrases like "One more pull" or "This camp is easy" or "About to ding". > I yelled for the other SK to feign, Feign, > FEIGN. Turns out he didn't have it memmed. /gasp! Jeebus. There's only one thing worse than an SK who doesn't have FD memmed... > And when he died, I would too... I was much to far to make to the > zone, and besides, I didn't have DA memmed. ...and that's a cleric who doesn't have DA memmed! =) /shakes finger *Always* have DA and DB memmed. The only only time I don't have both up is when I'm power-leveling my alt in some very easy place and I want to have an extra spell gem for roots and MoR and stuff. The rest of the time, DA and DB are up. It's not just a way to run away when a group wipes... I admit that DA's seldom useful for that, especially since you'll not often find yourself close to a zone line. It's best used as an aggro management tool... when you land a CH and the mob begins to pound on you, use DA to get aggro back on the tank. This may not be a big deal now, but as you start tackling mobs that hit harder and harder, you'll find yourself less able to stand there and take a few rounds of hits while the MT tries to draw aggro off. So get in the habit, now, of having DB and DA up and using them to drop yourself down the mob's hate list. Oh, and also learn that DA and DB are spells you can click off in case you need to land a heal quick. Okay, done lecturing. =) Back to your exciting tale. >And when I landed in the PoK, I realized that I was level 49. Hehehe... you must do like I do, and play EQ without any sound. Yay Teapray! The level achieved during the heat of a tough battle is sometimes the sweetest. > This new group commented several times on > what a great job I was doing. =) That's always always nice to hear. And should lay to rest any doubts you had about your clericking skills, young miss. Grats Tea. ^_^ -Richard Monual Lifegiver Archon of Rodcet Nife Silent Tempest Drinal server > Bah. I hate attitudes like that. There's roleplaying, and there's being a > jerk to someone who's trying to be helpful. The only worse thing is being > asked for a rez, agreeing, then being asked if you have a 96% rez, and being > told "never mind" when you don't. I don't really like this guy. He's considered to be something of a, I don't know, a mascot or something to the hard-core RP element of the server. But to me, yah, he's just a mouthy little jerk. But this is FV, and the attitude that dark elves can be as big a jerks as they want to be as long as they don't actually violate the PNP is fairly prevalent. > That fact that you are active, not afk, and care immediately puts you in the > top twenty percent. =) Heh, you might be right about that. There has been a fair amount of activity on the FV community boards about clerics gating out at the first sign of trouble, clerics telling others to chill out, it's just a game and sheesh!... maybe you should get some fine bud like I got to calm you down.... things like that. I did one LDoN where things went pretty smoothly. I had KEI, we had plenty of DPS, and I basically just coasted by casting nothing but HOT spells. Sure, nobody got below 60% ever, but I wasn't doing any stunning or nuking (well, small nuke when I was pacify pulling). The leader raved about how great a job of healing I was doing, and the others agreed. It _really_ made me wonder what kind of clerics they were used to grouping with. > Just as an aside... do you have your Pure Blood spell yet? If not, it might > be worth farming the places in LoY where you can get your Pure Blood > drops... the fort in Gunthak, the Luggalds in Nadox, etc. Pure Blood is our > best disease cure and is handy for curing slows and malo's. So if you're > gonna be leveling Lenny up, it might help to do it in a way that benefits > you, too. =) Never even heard of this quest. I guess I should run over to alla's. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. > Do you *like* to wipe? My goodness, may as well just use /shout to ask > everyone to immediately train you! =) Nothing the Wipe Gods like more than > to be invoked with such innocent phrases like "One more pull" or "This camp > is easy" or "About to ding". Heh. As you can tell, I'm not an especially superstitious person. Though things like this are making me wonder about this policy. Maybe just a *little* salt over the shoulder wouldn't hurt anything. > *Always* have DA and DB memmed. The only only time I don't have both up is > when I'm power-leveling my alt in some very easy place and I want to have an > extra spell gem for roots and MoR and stuff. The rest of the time, DA and > DB are up. My problem is that I'm having a hard time paring down my spell line up to just 8. I mean I always always always have Celestial memmed, and Superior and Complete heal, and also root. I usually have my biggest nuke memmed. Then we throw in pacify, and a couple of stuns. Or, in this case, it was one stun and gate (forgot to unmem it from earlier). I do use all of these spells fairly frequently, and wouldn't be real eager to give any of them up. > It's not just a way to run away when a group wipes... I admit that DA's > seldom useful for that, especially since you'll not often find yourself [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > that hit harder and harder, you'll find yourself less able to stand there > and take a few rounds of hits while the MT tries to draw aggro off. Yeah, I know. The thing is that up to and including right now, I rarely ever get agro, and when I do, I just back off and root. This is my first character that I've ever gotten above 40, and I am used to the lower game strategies. I do know that I will have to, in all probabitity, but it isn't going to be second nature to me. > So get in the habit, now, of having DB and DA up and using them to drop > yourself down the mob's hate list. Oh, and also learn that DA and DB are > spells you can click off in case you need to land a heal quick. Ugh. Both? BOTH?! That's *two* spell gems. What, lose the nuke? The stuns? I can't see me dropping any of the others. > Hehehe... you must do like I do, and play EQ without any sound. I do. It's always been somewhat distracting to me. And even more so, since Lenny's computer and mine are right next to each other's. There's been a few times when he's heard sounds comming from my computer, assumed it was his, with hilarous results. > Yay Teapray! The level achieved during the heat of a tough battle is > sometimes the sweetest. I was more excited about this particular promotion than I had been about several others. For one thing, I never really thought I would get to the point where I would have a level 90% rez. I mean, that's something real high level people get! And it really did feel like we had snatched it from the jaws of defeat. It was one of the more exciting times I had had playing EQ in a while. > =) That's always always nice to hear. And should lay to rest any doubts > you had about your clericking skills, young miss. I admit, I'm paranoid about this. To me being a cleric is one of the easiest, and yet fun things to do. And yet, I keep hearing about so many in my proffesion who manage to screw it up. Heck, in other incarnations I've grouped with clerics who were always OOM, getting agro, missing heals and having people died when they really shouldn't have, and other various blunders. I'm not saying that I'm perfect, of course, but I rarely get agro unless I want to for CC purposes, and don't often have to rez groupmates unless I've decided that they were expendable to avoid a group wipe. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, for it to get hard like I keep hearing others saying it is. But I have made it to level 49, and I keep hearing from others that I do a good job, getting on numerous friends list and several repeat requests to rejoin former groupmates. Maybe I not worry about this so much. > Grats Tea. ^_^ Thanks Richard! As a postscript, Lenny and I have decided that I don't really have to stop leveling, since I can start dumping exp into AA's in a couple of levels. He's level 45 now, so we can easily group together, and it turns out that he'd rather group with me than some random_cleric_023. He says that there are alot of very good ones out there, but more than a few pretty bad ones. He's just as soon not take his chances and group with me. Heh, the other day he did a dungeon with a full group, alot of DPS, one dwarf cleric, and no backup healer. The cleric declared "Hey, there's no other healer here! I have a very bad feeling about this." Lenny said in group that he could heal himself with lifetaps. The cleric replied "You're going to have to." I was puzzled when he told me about this. I mean, when I am the main healer, I am the the _main_ healer. If there is a backup, they are there for emergencies. But usually, they get to do their other jobs. I am cleric after all. Clerics are *good* at healing. And thanks to everyone else who has sent me grats! -- Annie To join the alt.games.everquest chat channel type /join serverwide.age:age If you want to stayed joined, then after that type /autojoin serverwide.age:age Currently playing: Teapray-- 49 High Elf Cleric on Firiona Vie Teamort-- 16 Dark Elf Necromancer of Lanys T'vyl Lentea-- 33 Ogre Beastlord On Firiona Vie -- If you can't figure out my email address, you're not supposed to write me. Annie, I have greatly enjoyed both your story and your attitude. Go Girl, and I wish we had many more of you! Weganna 40 ranger, 7th Hammer My problem is that I'm having a hard time paring down my spell line up to just 8. I mean I always always always have Celestial memmed, and Superior and Complete heal, and also root. I usually have my biggest nuke memmed. Then we throw in pacify, and a couple of stuns. Or, in this case, it was one stun and gate (forgot to unmem it from earlier). I do use all of these spells fairly frequently, and wouldn't be real eager to give any of them up. ------------------------------------------ Not sure what prices on FV are like, but try getting a "Donal's Bracer of Mourning" - mana free cleric clicky pacify bracer. Great item to have and free's up a spell slot. T. Ah, back home and back into trolling the newsgroups full-time. It feels good. > and I basically just coasted by casting nothing but HOT spells. Nothing wrong with that. =) Not the most mana-efficient method, of course, but if you have KEI and enough mana left over to nuke, then you're obviously doing all right. > The leader raved about how great a job of healing I was > doing, and the others agreed. It _really_ made me wonder > what kind of clerics they were used to grouping with. A lot of people try to cut things too close with Complete Heal ("Gonna get you to join my Purple Club tonight, Main_Tank!"). Mostly, though, it's Divided Attention Span Theater, where clerics are watching TV instead of a tank's health bar and then try to catch up later. > > *Always* have DA and DB memmed. The only only > > time I don't have both up is when I'm power-leveling [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > My problem is that I'm having a hard time paring down > my spell line up to just 8. I admit that I do lots of spell-swapping. That's where having a mount is very useful, since you can swap spells and not get sitting aggro. Also, the patch that allowed you to right-click and choose from a drop-down menu a spell to put into an empty gem was a godsend for me. Right-click gem to empty it, then right-click again to choose a new spell to put into its place, and bingo-bango-bongo I'm in business. It all comes down to playing style, really. You take a very active role in your groups (pulling, CC, *and* nuking *and* stunning!), I think because your groups tend to be small (3-4 people). I tend to only group in full groups, and there's almost always someone who can pull/CC/stun/nuke better than I can. You've had to play a variety of roles as a result, and are usually in a situation where you simply *can't* slack or everyone will die. It's made you a better cleric in most aspects. There are some adjustments you're gonna have to make as you approach 65, but I'm confident you can make them. =) > > This may not be a big deal now, but as you start tackling > > mobs that hit harder and harder, you'll find yourself less [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > do know that I will have to, in all probabitity, but it isn't > going to be second nature to me. Short story time: I never ever used DA until I was in my 50's. Then I went to a Hate Raid and died eight times (after the break-in). Those mobs hit hard and it seemed like whenever I healed the Main Tank, down I'd go. It was only afterwards that a tank asked me why I wasn't using DA. I made the adjustment and never had a similar problem again. The moral is: you can get by just fine without DA until your 50's, and you can very quickly learn how to use it. So perhaps my finger-shaking at you was a bit of an overreaction. =) > Ugh. Both? BOTH?! That's *two* spell gems. > What, lose the nuke? The stuns? I can't see me > dropping any of the others. As an aside, if you're in a full group with good DPS, drop the nukes. Our nukes aren't totally bad but they take a looong time to cast and a looong time to refresh. If you're in a full group, you won't be able to get off more than one or two casts before the mob is dead. So you can easily give that up and your group's DPS won't noticeably suffer. The stuns and pacify are also easy to dump because usually you can either find someone who's better at casting those things or learn to live around them. > Heh, the other day he did a dungeon with a full group, > alot of DPS, one dwarf cleric, and no backup healer. > The cleric declared "Hey, there's no other healer here! > I have a very bad feeling about this." ... One cleric should be all the healing a group ever needs. ... I'm stunned speechless. I can understand why such a proclamation would make Lenny nervous. Signature-Richard Monual Lifegiver Archon of Rodcet Nife Silent Tempest Marrtuk Knight of Mithaniel Marr Drinal server > A lot of people try to cut things too close with Complete Heal ("Gonna get > you to join my Purple Club tonight, Main_Tank!"). Mostly, though, it's > Divided Attention Span Theater, where clerics are watching TV instead of a > tank's health bar and then try to catch up later. I don't have much experience with CH yet. Lenny just didn't have enough Hitpoints to make it all that useful. He is now, however, approaching the point where I will have to get used to it. I know that it is one of the biggest defining spells of my class, however. Right now, though, it is the one that makes me the most nervous. This passes, right? > I admit that I do lots of spell-swapping. That's where having a mount is > very useful, since you can swap spells and not get sitting aggro. Also, the > patch that allowed you to right-click and choose from a drop-down menu a > spell to put into an empty gem was a godsend for me. Right-click gem to > empty it, then right-click again to choose a new spell to put into its > place, and bingo-bango-bongo I'm in business. I have mount too. Her name is Gumdrop, (she's green!) and you're right, she does make it easier to swap spells outside. Not much use in dungeons, of course, but some use is better than none. I understand that I might be spending more time in the planes as I get older. > It all comes down to playing style, really. You take a very active role in > your groups (pulling, CC, *and* nuking *and* stunning!), Well, to be honest, I don't usually do all four of these things all of the time. Pulling and CC is what I am mostly used to when grouped. Nuking only in emergencies, and stunning if I happen to get bored. But mainly, I sit and med, and then heal. > I think because > your groups tend to be small (3-4 people). I tend to only group in full [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > you're gonna have to make as you approach 65, but I'm confident you can make > them. =) Actually, I would estimate that almost 75% of my experiencing has been in a group of 2, me and Lenny. And the vast majority of that with Lenny 1.0, without a single spell to his name. I'm glad that you have confidence in my future abilities. Let's hope that the future bears that out. > The stuns and pacify are also easy to dump because usually you can either > find someone who's better at casting those things or learn to live around > them. Well, since I read Lance's essay about just using the level 5 stun (thanks Lance!) I'll just be keeping that one loaded. And I'm looking into Thomas's advice about getting a Donal's bracer, as well. But things are bit weird on FV as far as prices go. I bought a set of Donal's arms for around, well, I don't remember, but it had to be under 2k or I would have remembered it. Yesterday I looked for any Donals stuff in the bazaar, and found two sellers for the arms...at over 117k each. Ya, right. Good luck with that. Oh, and no bracers to be had at all. I wonder if Lenny and I could duo in Old Seb. If now, I wonder if I can talk Splendid into coming along and baby-sitting us. > One cleric should be all the healing a group ever needs. Well, with only one healer, I guess there is more of a chance of a wipe should there be an overpull. But jeez, EQ is at least a little bit about living on the edge, isn't it? > I'm stunned speechless. I can understand why such a proclamation would make > Lenny nervous. Even if I was doubting my ability to keep up with a specific group, I would never ever blurt that out at the start of an adventure. It seems like a great way to get a group from thinking "Great, we got a cleric, this is going to be fun" to thinking "Uh-oh..." -- Annie To join the alt.games.everquest chat channel type /join serverwide.age:age If you want to stayed joined, then after that type /autojoin serverwide.age:age Currently playing: Teapray-- 49 High Elf Cleric on Firiona Vie Teamort-- 16 Dark Elf Necromancer of Lanys T'vyl Lentea-- 33 Ogre Beastlord On Firiona Vie -- If you can't figure out my email address, you're not supposed to write me. >> A lot of people try to cut things too close with Complete Heal ("Gonna get >> you to join my Purple Club tonight, Main_Tank!"). Mostly, though, it's [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >defining spells of my class, however. Right now, though, it is the one that >makes me the most nervous. This passes, right? Not particularly. Every time I grouped with a new tank or an old tank in a new location, I have to determine anew whether they're a CHeal-at-20% or a CHeal-at-80% tank. There's a lot of finesse in what makes a good CHeal. --Jekke ===================== Playing on Torvonilous Mipmip Bromeliad (Froglok Cleric, 36) http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=850034 Veteran Moulin Khmer (Dark Elf Rogue, 65) http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=87681 Qiin Dred (Iksar Necromancer, 55) http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=717977 > > The stuns and pacify are also easy to dump because > > usually you can either find someone who's better at [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > level 5 stun (thanks Lance!) I'll just be keeping that one > loaded. Just wanted to add this one observation: Lance didn't mention that there's a level limit on the level 5 stun. It won't work at all on mobs level 55 and above. So yes, it will be a useful tool for you for a while, but not forever. The rest of Lance's essay was spot-on and should be something all clerics read. Signature-Richard Monual Lifegiver Archon of Rodcet Nife Silent Tempest Marrtuk Knight of Mithaniel Marr Drinal server >>>The stuns and pacify are also easy to dump because >>>usually you can either find someone who's better at [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > The rest of Lance's essay was spot-on and should be something all clerics > read. But aren't all the other stuns up until post 61 also level limited in the same way? If I recall correctly, I ended up switching to a different stun, but still keeping just that one memmed, for much the same reasons; but whenever -not- on 55+ mobs, moving back to Stun itself. I also recall thinking Bash came along (for clerics) just in time, as I was utterly unable to stun the Chealing spiders in PoDisease but could count on bash to interrupt that nasty Cheal more often than not. Splendid >>*Always* have DA and DB memmed. The only only time I don't have both up is >>when I'm power-leveling my alt in some very easy place and I want to have an [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > frequently, and wouldn't be real eager to give any of them up. > >>So get in the habit, now, of having DB and DA up and using them to drop >>yourself down the mob's hate list. Oh, and also learn that DA and DB are >>spells you can click off in case you need to land a heal quick. > > Ugh. Both? BOTH?! That's *two* spell gems. What, lose the nuke? The > stuns? I can't see me dropping any of the others. Well, first off, drop one of the stuns. You should either be capable of stun lockdown, or not; two stuns won't let you chain stun to keep a mob 100% unable to do anything, and one stun is almost always enough if all you need it for is to stop a gate or Cheal from a mob as its about to die, or for other useful purposes such as halting a mob thats' beating on the chanter long enough for him to get it mezzed. Further, there's a big difference between your level 5 spell, Stun, and (almost) all your other stuns; the level 5 version is worlds better. Its cheapest, fastest to cast, isn't AoE (more on this in a sec) and most important, does no damage. Why is "does no damage" a good thing? Well, none of your stuns do enough damage to be useful as nukes, really, and their mana to damage ratio sucks anyway. Try taking down a single dark blue mob by doing nothing but standing and casting your heavy damage stuns at it till it dies... you'll run out of mana and your target will still be at 80% hp. But there's more to it than this. Stuns get a resist, damage spells get a resist, stuns with a damage component get Two resist checks, and if either fails then neither the stun nor the damage gets in. So a stun with damage component is actually -less- likely to stun the target than your good old level 5 Stun. But thats not all. Doing damage means a chance to break root; every time you damage a rooted mob with a spell, it gets an extra check. And damage ALWAYS breaks mez. So if you are throwing out a stun in order to control a mob for few seconds while someone else is attempting a more permanent CC spell, and they happen to get theirs landed before your stun lands, you can end up actually breaking the mez (or ghetto mez as Root is often referred to). But your level 5 spell, Stun, will never break either sort of CC. And, Stun has no knockback component. Knockback on nukes is nice in some cases, as moving a mob often interrupts its casting. But since landing any stun effect Always interrupts casting, this is a non issue. Moving a mob around means messing up the melee damage output, risking more riposting, possibly even losing MT aggro altogether. Its a rarely something you want to do, although its sometimes necessary to put up with it in order to deny spell casting to the mob. Further, as a cleric, aggro control is an issue. Stuns are admittedly a bit high on aggro to begin with, but the no damage stun (the cleric one that is, the paladin only ones seem to be a bit different) is the lowest of the lot, its the easiest one for melee to overcome. Faster, cheaper, same stun duration, same 100% (assuming it sticks) effective casting interruption, sticks more often, doesn't screw up CC, gets you less aggro... the only reason to ever cast any other stun (at your level... there are a couple arguably better stuns for some situations at higher levels) is that all your stuns have a long cycle time, so casting your second tier stun if you need another interupt before Stun ungreys might be necessary, and casting your Third stun might be needed if both the others are grey. You should know in advance, though, when those rare circumstances are likely where its going to be necessary to chain cast stuns like that, or to deliberately move mobs around via knockback. Other than those situations, there's little reason to mem more than Stun, the jewel of the line. Splendid > Just as an aside... do you have your Pure Blood spell yet? If not, it might > be worth farming the places in LoY where you can get your Pure Blood > drops... the fort in Gunthak, the Luggalds in Nadox, etc. Some of those parts might still be above a level 49 with lower level companions, but what you can do, do. The spell really is that good. > Pure Blood is our > best disease cure and is handy for curing slows and malo's. Although it doesn't cure Malo, bad Monual. ;-) He meant to say Tash. > > "Ok guys, about to ding. Need maybe three more. > > Don't mess up!" [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > to be invoked with such innocent phrases like "One more pull" or "This camp > is easy" or "About to ding". When I want to annoy some of our guild warriors, I'll send them a tell mid-CH: "Looks like you're going to one-tank this!" The funniest response was the warrior who was so busy typing a nasty "don't say that!" tell back that he ate Enrage and croaked. > > And when he died, I would too... I was much to far to make to the > > zone, and besides, I didn't have DA memmed. > > ...and that's a cleric who doesn't have DA memmed! =) If the mob after you doesn't have ranged attacks, and you have five seconds, there is another way. Use the GVD, then run for zone. Nothing along the way will see you, and the mobs assisting the thing after you should be far enough behind you that you don't get hit on the way out. But yeah, DB is an always-up spell. > Okay, done lecturing. =) Back to your exciting tale. > > >And when I landed in the PoK, I realized that I was level 49. > > Hehehe... you must do like I do, and play EQ without any sound. I've always had sound on, and it's never been annoying since they changed critter combat sounds to "only if you're hitting it". You should turn it back on, there's some neat sounds in game. Like when Xegony casts her AE, it sounds like a woman is speaking in tongues - very neat! Yes, I'll do anything to make a Xegony fight bearable. Last one I turned on effects to watch her light up with all the spells. Not a lot of lag with the new effects, and the end of the fight when everyone starts nuking her was very much like the end of a fireworks display. Highly recommended! James > I've always had sound on, and it's never been annoying since they > changed critter combat sounds to "only if you're hitting it". You [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > James Not a lot of lag, even on my low-end system. But, boy, don't try to play a bard with all effects on! :) SignatureArch Convoker Mairelon Snapbang of Lanys T'vyl http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=701866 |
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