The Azmo Thread - Week Three, Post One

From time to time, things are said in Everquest that must have a screen shot to prove the player's perverseness, stupidity, finger slips, embarrassing incidents, naivety, or other hilarious situations. Sometimes even action shots can get the irony or hilarity of a situation across. I'd like to believe over the last few years that I have captured the ones I was lucky enough to have happen in my presence. I have decided to post a few on my blog once or twice a week over the next few weeks until my collection is depleted and I must renew it. Happy Hunting and Good Laughing!

(These use to be preserved under "Azmodian's Thread" in the Shadowknight forums on my guild's old webpage, but alas, it is no more. However, this explains the title of this blog and all of the brother blog posts. Hope you enjoy. Please email or comment any questions if you don't understand why it is funny.)

The Azmo Thread - Week One, Post One

From time to time, things are said in Everquest that must have a screen shot to prove the player's perverseness, stupidity, finger slips, embarrassing incidents, naivety, or other hilarious situations. Sometimes even action shots can get the irony or hilarity of a situation across. I'd like to believe over the last few years that I have captured the ones I was lucky enough to have happen in my presence. I have decided to post a few on my blog once or twice a week over the next few weeks until my collection is depleted and I must renew it. Happy Hunting and Good Laughing!

(These use to be preserved under "Azmodian's Thread" in the Shadowknight forums on my guild's old webpage, but alas, it is no more. However, this explains the title of this blog and all of the brother blog posts. Hope you enjoy. Please email or comment any questions if you don't understand why it is funny.)

Withdrawals

I'm really having Everquest withdrawals. With everything we have had going on in life lately, I haven't logged in approximately two months. I'm sure Maksoka is angry and think I have fallen off the face of the planet. I wish I had some people down to play with me. With Clane busy all the time, Steve moved on to Red Dead Redemption, Kevin gave up, Kat never got fully started. Sad days.

I've been feeling so nostalgic and remembering all these awesome stories about EQ.
I think I will start posting some of them up until I can play again.

Temple of Veeshan - Round One

A few days ago, Azmodian and Stabbity decided to adventure into Temple of Veeshan. We had a couple of very enjoyable hours killing dragons under the guise of getting gear for my level 15 wizard and his level 10 druid. It is really quite a fascinating "dirty trick" that we pulled.

In ToV, the gear these days seems silly when compared to the gear most of us enjoy on our main characters. The armor class and statistic bonuses on ToV gear is laughable at best to any current raider, and the raw hit point and mana is only 100 at its highest. However, there is absolutely no level restriction on this gear. Other places with similar gear have level restrictions of 51 or 60, which obviously means you must be of that level or higher to equip it to your player character.

Temple of Veeshan offers premium and gasp inducing gear so long as you are level 1. I realize that statement seems like a jab to the old dragons of Velious and a joke to any high end raider. However, for a moment, take me quite literally. I saw Rocksmasher and wanted to cry. Azmodian would have killed any number of Indigo Brotherhood and gladly ruined his own lands for that mallet when he was a young a dark elf. I mean, lets be honest here, Azmodian currently only has 43% haste on a fabled belt item he got a few years ago. It hasn't been upgraded because haste isn't always the easiest thing to come by if you want haste over 36%.

Now, in ages past, the real problem and question was "Well, yes the gear there is great; but how in the name of Veeshan do we get a level 1 character to the dragon's corpse to even loot such an item?". In the event that the zone hasn't been placed under Sony's magical twink ruining spell requiring a player character to be a particular level to enter the zone, you could always risk running the poor little character across many dangerous zones to reach the zone of destination. If the baby character did make it alive, you would likely need a rogue with Shroud of Stealth capable and willing to drag the dead body of the small character from the zone line to a cleric near the dragon corpse. For most people, this sounds like too much work for an alternative character. Never fear, Sony solved this problem for you.

Now that we have Fellowships in game, things of this nature are easy beyond belief. I simply added my alt and Stabbity's alt to our fellowship. Once the dragon had been dispatched, we would quickly log out and log in our alt. We would use their Fellowship stone to port them to the Campfire which I had placed near the dragon's corpse before logging off Azmodian. We happily looted up and logged back on our main characters to continue the killing spree on our mains while rinsing and repeating the loot method on our well loved alts.

Please take to note though, that you must have three people who are in the fellowship in close proximity to lay down a campfire. We remedied this by simply boxing our friend's bard, Thaden. Also, some level restricted zones will still not accept a player character below the appropriate level even if they are using a campfire to port in. Be sure to give it a test at the zone line before clearing a zone with the sole purpose of gearing your alt. I am also quite unsure if this violates anything in the EULA or is considered manipulation in any form. I can't assure anyone that it does not; but it doesn't appear to harm anything or anyone.

In the end, it was quite fun to kill my beloved Velious dragons once more; and being able to do this for my alts was an added bonus.

Happy Hunting!

Temple of Veeshan trash train.
Velious trash acid trip.
All the pretty colors.

The Statue of Rallos Zek, The Idol of Rallos Zek, The Avatar of War

Wednesday February 10th, 2010

Approximately 9:00am
Upon server reset, I jump on my Abyssal Steed and head straight for Kael Drakkel. Forget the dragons, Forget the planes, I am on a mission this morning. I need the Statue of Rallos Zek. I have a few reasons behind this compulsion. The first being that Stabbity wants the barbie mask from Avatar of War; and the second is I have NEVER seen this triad before. I arrived to find an empty alcove where I should be staring at the Statue of Rallos Zek. My heart dropped. I laid there, feign deathed, to discontently pout. As I was considering moving on, a corpse came flying past my head. Some poor druid had found a train of his very own that he couldn't shake while checking on the same mob. Feeling guilty, I sent him a tell. Evidently he was after the Swiftblade of Zek for his warrior alt. We talked for a bit, and he brought his mains down to sit and camp the spot with me for awhile. He is in Goldenhearts. An older guild on my server that once had a best friend of mine, Werek the druid, as a member. All of these happenings happened right after 9:00am. We both sat around for awhile, chatting, waiting, and watching our respective televisions. Around 1:00pm, my fast friend had given in; and bid me good luck. I continued on with my daily activities while I laid there "lifeless" in Kael Drakkel. Approximately 5:00pm I was writing a bit when I just happen to look up from my notebook as I sat on the bed. The empty, forlorned space I had previously been staring had was filled! Before my faux dead body stood the Statue of Rallos. I immediately sent Primal (the character I met only a few hours ago) a quick tell. He headed down with his beastlord, necro, cleric merc, and warrior merc. I offered to log on my cleric or any other character; but we decided we had more than enough man power for this fight. Luckily we were right. After reading a lot of boards, and trying everything for over four years to get this guy, I have come up with some speculations of my own.

Some specifics on the mobs:
The Statue of Rallos Zek - a. Vindi has nothing to do with his spawn timer; b. he will spawn after a server reset. it is +/- 7 hours from server reset. this means he could spawn right as the server is unlocked or, as in my case, 7 hours following a server reset; c. he is of course, no longer a real challenge for anyone Demiplane geared or better. I would say any hardcore dps character with Seeds and Underfoot gear should be able to solo him; d. he does still have quite the regen, and I wouldn't suggest tank or healing classes attempt to solo him. If you did pull it off, it would take a ridiculous chunk of play time to take him down with no real dps.
The Idol of Rallos Zek - a. Does not spawn on the Statue's corpse; b. he can be found by going through the false wall to the right of Statue's spawn, following the tunnel several hundred feet to its end. Right before it pops you out in the arena, you will run in to the Idol of Rallos Zek; c. at some point, the Idol was suppose to be more difficult and drop no loot as a precursor to killing AoW. This only remains true for very, very tiny raiding guilds or family guilds looking to have some fun. For my friend and myself, it was an identical fight as that of the Statue.
The Avatar of War - a. he spawns dead center in the giant arena; b. he is ugly and quite a simple fight. took a little longer than the other two, but still very easy for us. Again, I'd imagine for a non dps solo or a small, yet to be geared up raid force he might still pose some problem;
c. he is no longer having the weird pathing issues as he use to have a few years ago; d. I do wonder if back in the day people ever nuked each other or got affected by area of effect while fighting in the arena since it does in fact flag you for pvp.

Misc. Comments: Very few of my spells landed on all three mobs. I managed to land self only lifetaps, a self only duration lifetap, Touch of the Wailing three which is a temporary hit point spell, and of course hatred spells. All dots, challenge for power, thefts, and direct damage sans lifetaps were resisted. My pet did minimal extra dps as he always manages to do. The necro complained of the same resists. For the most part we just seem to whittle away at him with pure melee and occassional lifetapping.

More Screen Shots:
The Statue of Rallos Zek "Fistpumping" behind his two guardians.
The Statue of Rallos Zek hiding like a p00n.
The Idol of Rallos Zek getting owned
The Idol of Rallos Zek fight - Cramped Quarters
The Avatar of War getting angry.
The Avatar of War crotch shot.
The Avatar of War corpse 1 and corpse 2.

Server was going down like Azmodian at Mardi Gras

Wednesday, February 10th 2010

Approximately Midnight
Well speak of the devil. I mentioned Alantha from House of Norrath yesterday; and she ever so shockingly appeared. She is guilded in some small family guild, but she rarely plays according to her. So very strange. I did have fun catching up with her though. I agreed to take her out into Norrath and for us to duo all the things that use to kill us. More updates on that soon hopefully.

Maksoka ran Thaden and myself through some Field of Scale progression. In fact, I do believe we are only missing one last mission at this point. Truthfully, I had a bit too much wine last night while /ooc in the real world, and I had to look up reward pieces on Alla to figure out what I actually did in Norrath. I also must admit to getting completely owned in the face and severely raped by everything in the zone that took an interest in me. It is so extraordinary to be in Kurn's Tower again though. I found it very exciting and scary again. The idea of not being invincible and concerned with what is creeping just around the next door is thrilling to say the least.

Favorite quote of the night:
Maksoka tells the group, "You think it is still considered domestic violence if I beat you since you are a shim?"

The server went down approximately 3:00 AM MST.
It remained down until 9:00 am.

Lastly, bazaar sales made by my traders on Bertox on Wednesday February 10th 2010 before server restart:
7 Cobalt Ore sold @ 665p
4 Titanium Ore sold @ 360p
5 Tungsten Ore sold @ 350p
Uncut Goshenite sold @ 20p
Uncut Amethyset sold @ 10p

Why, oh why did I join this pick up raid?

February 8th, 2010

10:45 pm.
I logged in tonight in the hopes of what we all hope for - some experience or an AA or just a fix for my Evercrack addiction. I found my real life pally and bard friend mulling around in Monster Missions. A full one, of course, because if there were room for me...well that would be the work of the divine itself. I have ultimately decided that when it comes to Everquest, your real life friends don't make the best EQ friends and vice versa. Not to say this is the rule for everyone, and perhaps my relationships are just the exception. I did however find a large brew barrel sitting dead center inside the guild lobby. It was like a dream come true. When I shook it, party ale poured from the spout! I rejoice in the fact that in EQ I can do the same thing I do in real life when bored - DRINK!I stumbled about the guild lobby happily for a little while although these days that stumbly, happy feeling is harder to get since my dark elf drinks like a dwarf.

I find that EQ holds a certain nostalgia for us all. I also find myself concerned that I will end up like Alantha. A druid in the family guild I first joined as a young shadowknight. She would never leave from her trader in the bazaar. Instead, she lamented of days past; and only when we would return to old content would she appear in all of her beautiful porting glory. I hope I do not find myself stuck alone in days past of Everquest that few remember or return to see.

11:06 pm
I am relieved to see my boredom may be cured by Dynamos of Norrath. They are doing a pick up raid in Riftseekers Sanctum, and have asked me to tank. I haven't been there in many years mind you; but I figure what is the harm. I have nothing better to slay currently. I was completely and utterly wrong. While I do believe Dynamos has good intentions, they are quite an unorganized bunch. We aren't even in a raid because they need to use mercenaries for healers. I find this quite terrifying. Between 11:15 pm and 12:06 am I managed to die four times - through no fault of my own as I am very well equipped to be tanking in RSS; and I find myself praying I was in one of those gawd awful pickup server raids we use to do to flag for Planes of Power instead of here. They managed to take down only Feratha and Queen Pyrilonis before wiping and summoning to lobby on King Gelaqua. Despite the fact that he was repeatedly decimated due to no healing, Stabbity took home some new shiny arms from the Queen.

12:16am - February 9th, 2010
Maksoka and Stabbity go shopping in the bazaar. Previously on "Pimp your dps" Maksoka took Thaden out on a shopping spree, and I was sad I missed that episode! However, last night's programming on "Pimp your dps" was quite entertaining. Stabbity was supremely grateful and humbled. I can't thank Maksoka enough myself, considering how badly Green Team needs some dps in our little group. Maksoka reminds me of Kheibik - a monk I will save for another detailed story at another name.

12:40am
Maksoka (UF and Seeds geared monk), Tidefire (unknown gear shaman box), Doriusx (Time geared paladin), Thaden (Anguish and bazaar geared bard), Stabbity (Time, Anguish, and bazaar geared rogue), and Azmodian (Demiplane geared shadowknight) head into Oceangreen Hills to pick up a Seeds of Descruction progression task. We zone in to Oceangreen Village instance on the task "A Dread Challenger". The purpose of the task is to protect the village with as few deaths as possible. We previously attempted this task while I was three boxing and no Maksoka (he is a beast by the way). We camped up in the NW and had only the bard attempt to scout the village and pull the invading mobs to our camp. This DID NOT work. Instead, Maksoka instructed us all to run around like silly boys and girls making a big circle of the whole village. We just killed the mobs as they appeared to invade, running to each others distress calls. This seemed to work perfectly. Sign, sealed, done, and done. Two deaths occured - Doriusx who with full mana did not seem to want to heal himself, and of course the rogue which only means we had a real adventure since everyone knows you always kill the rogue at least once for good luck.

1:58am
We all make our way to Toskirak. Doriusx has to make a pit stop for invis potions which is pretty typical. Upon zoning in, Stabbity runs to loot a rotting 1 hander augmentation with additional backstab damage. This seems to be his lucky night considering poor Azmodian gets something new every three months or so! Maksoka tanks and Tidefire heals. I figured out why after I got aggro, the Rallos ogres hit me like a mack truck, I feigned death at 2% health, and Maksoka hit the OH SHIT button to save me. Unfortunately, that was about the most exciting thing to happen all night. I got 1% per kill at level 78. I used lesson of the devoted and then a potion of adventure to get the remaining 29% experience I needed to reach level 79. Towards the end, I did roll and win a 2 hander augmentation that was 5 base dmg. It was bittersweet, since it will be replacing my Dark Shroud Gem I worked ever so hard for in Demiplane.

Lastly, Bazaar Sales from my trader on Bertox on February 8th, 2010 between 1:00am and 10:45pm:
Elaborate Defiant Plate Helm sold @ 100p
Shadowscream Steel Collar sold @ 10p
Elegant Defiant Silk Gloves sold @ 50p
Crude Combatants Shoulders sold @ 50p
Flawed Defiant Longsword sold @ 20p
Flawed Defiant Silk Gloves sold @ 20p
Harmonagate sold @ 100p

Real Life Marriage Quest among Everquest Players.

Kat and Kevin got hitched. Well, unofficially hitched.

I witnessed the whole thing at the court house along with Steve (who, to everyone's relief, was not singing his bardly songs at the legal ceremony). I did however get to cause my usual spectacle when taken in public. No..no.. I did not throw myself at the judge, protesting and demanding this terrifying idea in progress be stopped. Infact, using something around runspeed 3 I got in to the court house on time. Once I zoned in, I charmed the clerk, pick pocketed a ceremony number, turned in flowers for the good karma quest to the other couple npc's, and off tanked a judge until backup could arrive. Steve evidently cast selos on his mount to get to a bank (unbeknownst to us at the time there is in fact a banker inside the plane of justice here in Phoenix, AZ). Kat and Kevin trained all the way to the court house and slipped inside. Steve didn't have a key once he arrived at the zone in again, and evidently at the time he hadn't trained up his lock picking skills - too bad Clane wasn't there. Kat charmed the additional judge and had him unlock the door. The deed was then done, raid complete. Grats Kat and Kevin on looting two wedding rings!

Norrath, we pledge our loyalty to thee

It is 2pm. I came to consciousness only 45 minutes prior to this moment. My battle wounds are definitely showing this morning. Aching feet, a stiff back, a cut on my right thumb to match the scratch on my left palm, a cough from too many cigarettes and beers the night before, and I definitely need a fix....I need to log back in. Oh my dear lover has returned to me; destroyer of lives and maker of virtual heroes.

My dearly beloved Everquest.Logging in again was strangely exciting. It felt taboo and frightening. I am aware of how nerdy chic it must sound to describe a video game in a way that trumps the way I speak of sex.

My companions and I encountered many battles last night as well. The shaman came face to face with a most villainous boss mob intent on ruining her quest for a LAN by casting "life drain: work late". The shadowknight was suffering from fatigue and stun after being attacked by a wave of mobs named after household rooms and items. The paladin, while working on his alcohol tolerance, became so irrevocably intoxicated that he was transfixed by the shadowknight's armor and his own personal lack of an epic weapon. The rogue, after lock picking a particularly stubborn Dell chassis, waited quite impatiently for the rest of the party to pull themselves together. Eventually, after much discussion and fighting our way free from a tangle of evil ethernet roots......we could enter Norrath and play!!!

With the prep work behind us, my friends and I did have quite the time playing last night.
I boxed my prized shadowknight and a great cleric loaner from an old friend. I have decided that I never should have left, because I was quite close to amazing for the time period in which I abandoned EQ. Kevin's paladin is a bit behind (a bit being five years or so, hehe), and he dies quite easily. Kevin has heart and dedication though which I think are two important factors when playing Everquest. Katherine has no utter clue what she is doing. It is cute, and I think she will learn her character in time and love him. She also probably would have had a better time had I not accidently instructed her to cast AE slow as oppose to target slow. At least we did solve the mystery of why the shaman was always out of mana. Clane seems silent for now, which is his usually m.o. about most things. I hope he is having a fun, and I hope everyone else is as well.

Last night was the most fun I have had in a while despite the search of vendors for invis potions only to realize my cleric had a bag full. Oh, did I mention that shaman invis on a paladin sucks? Ask Kevin. I am sure he will respond, and I quote, "I TOLD you shaman invis was no good, I TOLD YOU. Go to the corner, go to the corner, let me rezz the cleric in the corner. I am so scared right now. I am gonna pee right now if we don't rezz the cleric. What if I die? then we are just boned. Get in the corner!!"

So, after my first night back..I'm tired, wired, and my group is logged in waiting on me.