So our guild attempted our first "hard" mode raid last night, after our standard raids. It was only 8pm on the West Coast so 33 of us decided to do Queen Malarion in Bertox Temple. Note- we had just finished the 54 man raid on Queen, and 33 of us decided to take a stab at the "hard" version.

And we were successful. To be honest, I didn't notice that much more "hard" with it- I got hit with an 11k AoE twice during the event, which was easily dealt with. I did notice many more maggot spawns than previous normal encounters, but we had three enchanters who were taking care of them. And outside of our main tank (who happened to handle the first 90% of Queen's HP) going down at 10 and a small confusion of trying to get the next tank to regain aggro... it seemed fine. And we are far from a high end guild- I would say we are #3 on the server, right behind Diligence and Lunacy Unbound as far as progression.

The great news, of course, is that SoD T3 raid armor piece dropped for us- arms/legs. Enchanter won, made legs that were 1k mana piece- better than anything we could have gotten in Crystallos raid.

Bad news, of course, is that now everyone wants to be part of the 36 raid roster. And we are now generally bringing 45-54 per raid. So who sits out is going to be a potential roadblock. And if we do the whole West Coast people thing, well... not fair to the East Coast who has to go to bed at 11pm and work the next day of course.

Bottom line- if you are still playing, and in a guild that can handle Queen Malarion... you should be able to handle the "hard" version. Grats on your future T3 raid armor.

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I suppose if I had been a mage I'd still be playing too.

Lots of people still play. A lot more, of course, have left.

At the end of the day- they are just games. Forms of entertainment. Some get their entertainment from EQ, some from WoW, some from consoles, etc. As long as you enjoy doing what you are doing and don't let it consume you, then who cares how you get enjoyment in life? Provided it is legal, of course

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I wasn't trying to sound like a douche, I would seriously be playing if I had been a mage. You guys are killer, especially after about 1K AA's.

I would say that right now, we are overpowered. We were in Korafax, and tank went down. Melee (rogue, ranger) started getting destroyed. I told them to back away and let my air pet tank. Sure enough- steady heals, nothing stressful. Rogue and ranger were obviously pissed off that an air pet could tank better than them

It should change with new expansion though- no new level increase means mobs will be tougher, hit harder, etc... but pets will remain the same. So (at least from a pet tanking perspective) we should be decreased somewhat.

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Wait, Cicely is saying that EQ is just a game? The apocalypse is nigh!

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Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW