Golems down - first try!
What the hell just happened??? "We're just gonna go take a look at the Golems!", they said. So we went to take a look. We slogged, we died, we returned and damned if we didn't win!
I didn't even have my camera ready, so most of the shots are after the fight ... 40 something tries to get Aary and one for Golems??? Huh?
On to Vulak!
Elm
Aary - Finally Dead!
Good things never come easy.
I really don't remember when we started working on Aary, it feels like ages ago. The last post was our FTK on Defenders in June, so I suppose that's when it was, but damn if it doesn't feel like years! How many attempts to get the Strat, no, really the mechanics, down? 35 to 40? I think so.
It's really not a difficult event from a combat perspective, it is all about everyone on the team knowing their role and performing that role without error. That finally happened, last night, it went so smoothly it felt like a farm event! Here are some pics from the journey ...
The event begins with Aary on the ground, where he stays until 50% or so. It seems easy enough at first, just hit him!
Once it gets rolling, it's all about the auras and managing the adds. The aura team includes people who are going to get banished, so they are grouped with a mage who can summon them on call. Grolik is also a challenge, once he spawns he has to be unlocked (rangers from the aura team do this with nukes) and he is then DPS'd for the rest of the event by a few Wizards (and no one else). Once sufficiently damaged, Aary goes airborne and flies around for a while, on the ground, orbs and adds are spawning and killed. 3 groups from the guild run through the Fire aura, in addition to the "called aura" so that they can pick up a bane that helps with killing the adds.
Eventually, he lands and has to be killed (while continuing to manage orbs, adds, and so on). Do all of that flawlessly, and it's a win!
FTK Aary!
Elmindor
Defenders - FTK!
Well, that was easy! (not)
It feels like we've been working on Defenders since the beginning of time (actually, it was April, but it feels like ages!). We have tried a number of strats along the way, including one where the Red Dragon actually disappeared (well, somehow or other he was way above us and no one could hit him without a bow!).
Last night, it all came together! What did we do?
- Take fewer people
- Better positioning of Drakes and Dragons (to avoid auras, etc)
- Turn off player models (which helps with finding Drakes)
- Die less and DPS more!
That's what I noticed anyway ...
Hard event to get screen shots as we are so busy all the way through, but, just like a good porno, there have to be action shots, so here is one anyway!
And, finally, here we are relaxing and drinking beer after the conquest!
Yeah! New loot!
Aary, here we come!
Crusaders Falls!
About friggin time! Crusaders, our latest Bete Noire, has finally been beaten! Every attempt at this raid so far began the same way:
If you know the stages of any project, this is the "irrational exuberance" phase of the adventure. After this, our strat kicked in. We tried, essentially, the following:
- Leroy Jenkins Attack - we all go "balls to the wall" to take them down (and get flattened)
- Groups in corners - we left a full group in each corner (better, but not enough DPS to finish, plus one group got wiped out by accident crossing the zone)
- Ranger/Pally pairs in the corners (worked better, but without the Rangers for the final push, failed (of course)
- Leroy Jenkins Attack - enough said
- Modified Leroy Jenkins - but with a Pally in each corner (and bards DA'ing the groups) ..
So far, so good!
And, and, and ...
Success!!!
Sontalak's Deadly Auras (FTK!)
Tier 2 has opened, so last night we headed to Sontalak's cave to take him on. There are a lot of moving parts in this fight - big white aura that revolves around him (and must be avoided or you get banished) as well as a green aura from a statue that kills you. On top of this, waves of adds, adherents, aggressors and so on, that come in a steady stream for what feels like weeks. Those adds need to be moved around as well, to avoid the rotating white aura, and they have a nasty habit of settling into the green aura, thus killing people who are on them and not paying enough attention.
It took us three tries, tweaking the strategy each time, and killing numerous rangers (yeah, I know) but we finally got the payoff!
Hail Champions!
CoV Break-In!
Well, after what felt like months of slogging through ToV reruns and the CoV beta, not to mention the horrors of 2020, it's finally out - new expansion and new raids!
We started with the raid version of the DN Hero which most of us have done a number of times by now, Zlandicar! This event was pretty straightforward - kill the dragon as fast as possible and keep certain adds (Pipers) from reaching him. I'd say we can consider this one to already be on "farm status":
Next, we moved on to "Tantor & Friends" - who we killed on the first try in beta, but not so much after that as it was tweaked. This event is a bit more complex, with vicious bunny rabbits (seriously!) as well as Tanterlings that spawn along the way and have to be run away from the raid. Tantor also chases you forcing you to flee! We managed to take him down as well!
Finally, we moved on to Klandicar. Here is a nice image of him waiting to be killed!
Sadly, my camera jammed at this point and I was unable to capture the kill shot, but I'll be sure to post it next time we do the raid!
Elm!
p.s.
With revised strat and working camera in hand, we returned to Klandicar and exacted our revenge!
CoV T1 down!
For Rorleva! (why not?)
This raid was just not the same without Rorleva there, here you go Ror!
Breaking, Breaking News - ToV on Lockout (Where's Next???)
Greetings Champions!
We have late breaking news, here at the end of August! We, apparently, have remastered Velk's and, as a result, ToV is now on lockout!
Where's the Beta???
Breaking News - Tov has Fallen!
Greetings Champions (and friends of Champions)!
Can you believe it??? Baseball is back! Wait, let me read this again, no, that's not it, ToV has fallen! We began our march with remastery of ToFS1 (I still think that means "Tower of Frozen Shit", but I'm told that's not true). No photos were taken, been there, done that, again and again!
Following that, we moved on to the Wedding Event (Til Death Do Us Part) . Turns out, that one was the easiest of the three, at least in my view. Here are a couple of photos from the event:
The Event:
The Payoff!
Having taken down the happy couple, we moved on to ToFS 3 (Tsserina Syl'Tor). She was waiting for us:
This one turned out to be a bit trickier and we experimented with a number of strat tweaks until we figured it out. One challenge was figuring out how to get to the wall in time after being summoned. The secret here turned out to be "run to the first wall you see after being summoned" - sounds easy, but wasn't! The next challenge was figuring out how to identify & kill the correct mirrored images. The answer to that turned out to be "put the person be mirrored out in the middle so we can see what they look like" (vs, descriptions such as "well, he's an ogre, he's kind of green, smells and is large!"). Those tweaks got us through it after a few tries - here we are finally nearing the end:
And, down she went (taking ToV with her)!
All hail the conquering heroes! All hail CoN!
(back to Meratas???
News of Champions - Summertime Edition!
Greetings Champions!
Since we last posted, a lot has happened, in the game and in real life. Most of us would agree, I am sure, that the game is a welcome respite from the challenges of real life, so, through it all, we continue to play! What have we been up to? Well, we have pretty much worn out TBL and are pretty much focused on ToV these days. A lot of folks have made great progress on their Ears, or have finished them. We did take time out to beat our heads against the wall in Mearatus for a while. Here's proof!
That was so much fun we decided that we really should be focused on ToV.
We have made great progress in ToV as well, including a recent FTK of Velk's!
And, of course, the payoff!
On a personal note, the three months since I last posted have been difficult for all of us, myself included. Some have lost jobs, some have been wearing masks (and some not I suppose). Speaking for myself, I lost the love of my life in April to Cancer, so it's been hard. For 20 or so years, my wife put up with my game play in EQ, in fact, encouraged it. Even when she was ill, she wanted to make sure I never missed a raid because she knew I enjoyed it and it was important to me. Many of us have someone in our lives who puts up with our love of this game and makes room for us to play. Make sure that person knows how much you appreciate it, I know I did.
/salute
Elm
News of Champions - Late March Edition!
Greetings Champions!
So, the news team has expanded, thanks in part to an infusion of "new" blood from AoH. I am Elmindor and I am now part of that expanded team!
Now that we have combined forces (AoH into CoN), I'm sure you would agree that we are now a very strong team and we are kicking ass! What have we done lately??? Where to begin?
Well, one of the first things that we beat as a combined force was Stratos, and that is now completely on farm status (now that we have figured out, more or less, how not to wake up sleeping mobs!):
Great Divide - once we figured out that the Coldains not only were on our side, but were uber, we've been beating Great Divide:
Eastern Wastes has fallen as well, Griklor (refused to pose for a photo, sorry!) and the Sleeper have fallen. The Sleeper was a bit tricky until we figured out that skirt wearers and other range fighters should be located over on the pillar (oh, and that we should not blow things up near the pillar), after that, piece of cake!
What else???? ToFS has been beaten a few times now, although it still requires a serious investment of cannon fodder:
Aalishai has fallen, although it too has require some investment!
Here we are, enthusiastically awaiting our first attempt!
Here we are, after our first attempt!
But, never fear, we have now beaten it several times!
That's just a sampling of our adventures since December. Stay tuned for more!
On a serious note, stay safe Champions and keep washing those hands!
Elmindor
The Inaugural Champions of the News News Story
Hello, fine readers, and welcome to another installment of
Now, I know what you’re thinking, “
Once this contamination was cleaned up, The Guild News Champions of the News Team was only required to remain in the Small Guild Hall regen pool for 3 Norrathian years. With all that being said, let’s get to the News.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Champions has broken into The Burning Lands and much like prom night, we didn’t really know what to do once we got inside, besides keep on dancing.
With two major victories back-to-back, our Champions are now 2/3rds of the way through The Burning Lands initial tier of stupidity! Thanks to the help of our Colorado-based druids, we can see clearly now that the rain is gone. We can now see all the obstacles in our way. Unfortunately, it seems that the next obstacle in our way is the Black Smoke Monster from Lost.
And with that, I've been