Saturday, January 26, 2002

EverQuest - Bad night in the Warrior Room

Ugh, 6 hours of play and only 1 yellow to show for it (it takes 5 yellow bubbles to complete a level). I can tell that level 30 is one of those "heck" levels (the experience required to complete this level is double that of level 29). Well, that, and I died 3 times (so I should've gotten 2 yellows tonight, maybe more). Just couldn't seem to do anything right tonight, we had 9 deaths in those 6 hours, I just couldn't keep the other players alive (lost 3 of them during the same fight). So, I'm a little dissapointed in my cleric skills tonight (as I'm sure the other players were as well).

Guess it was payback time since I managed not to die at all from levels 25 to 29 (and hadn't lost but one or two people this entire week while I was the group's cleric). Some nights, you just can't get the group balanced enough to get ahead of the spawns in the Warrior Room, and take the spawns in the Raider Room. (All of our nasty events were due to the Warrior Room re-popping while we were fighting the Raider Room mobs.)

Oh well, learn from your mistakes and all that, gives me more time to maximize my melee and specialization skills.

Labels: EverQuest

posted by Wuphon's at 1:32 AM

Thursday, January 24, 2002

Today's Spam, Sigh

Must be getting close to Valentine's day.... yet more personal ad trash (this one is vague enough to sound plausible, but it's the same sob story I've heard before about having to use "such and such" a service because either they don't have to pay, but you do, or they were stalked).

---

From: susan88@my-webbox.net
Subject: it's been a while...

Hey how are you? Thank you for responding to my personal ad. I know it's been a while, and yes, I got a few responses to my ad and a few gentleman (typical stalkers) even decided to send me over 50 emails. I guess hoping no one else would be able to have me. That kind of thing scares the heck out of me. Out of the few responses I did get to read, yours was great! You really sound like a great guy for me!

If you are really sincere, open minded, love to travel and would like to get to know me better please respond to my new photo personal ad below. and maybe you can place one that i can look up, Unfortunately I have been stalked, harassed, and even attacked by some crazies in the past. So I decided to try this to make first contact, that's all. Does this make sense?

I am sure you understand. So if you are really interested in meeting, please respond and talk to me on the phone for a few minutes! (Respond if Serious Only!) I hope to hear from you soon)!!

Susan

(some porn site) my user name: susan8839

Labels: Spam

posted by Wuphon's at 4:36 PM

Tuesday, January 22, 2002

EverQuest - tales from the warrior room

Gee, I wonder what's been going on in the rest of the world of Norrath? I've been holed up down in the warrior room group in High Keep for so long I think I'm starting to grow mushrooms on my head. I did some serious leveling up this past weekend, starting at just shy of level 24 up in the guard room group on Saturday morning, and dinging into level 28 during last night's warrior room session (actually I dinged twice last night).

It was good to move down into the warrior room on Sunday. Life in the guard room group had been getting too easy (with the increase in my mana pool from both leveling up and getting additional wisdom stat gear, a larger heal spell at level 24, and better tactics). I was growing very bored with the level of mobs that the guard room was pulling (mostly dark blues with the occasional black or yellow con). On the other hand, it was good experience for everyone since we had no deaths.

As a level 26 cleric, the warrior room is a scary place, unless you keep the spawn broken you risk having a goblin warrior pop into an already bad fight (plus we were pulling raiders which are even higher level). Goblin warriors are level 30-33, and the raiders are 31-34, both hit for up to 68 damage (I have "other hits" filtered off, but know from personal experience what they hit for). Still on Sunday evening we had a very powerful and capable group that was able to handle up to 3 raiders all at once without any deaths (I used all my mana and a 4th would've been certain death for at least a few of the party).

Monday evening was tougher. Initially it was easy because we had a level 34 warrior as our main tank (who was excellent at maintaining aggro and took very little damage), but once we moved down to a 26 warrior and a 29 paladin as our main tanks things got a lot dicier. On the plus side, we had 2 druids who had gotten their Greater Healing spells (270 heal for 150 mana), but that means 2 healers who aren't as adept at avoiding aggro and who aren't wearing heavy armor (the druid class in EQ is limited to leather, while clerics are allowed to wear full plate). I stuck to my tried and true methods of low aggro healing (using the Bravery buff as a heal, and using Celestial Remedy, both low-aggro), until things got desperate and I couldn't stop the bleeding on the main tank with low-aggro heals. Finally during one pull, I had to use Divine Aura to grant myself 18 seconds of invulnerability to give them a chance to taunt a mob off of me. That time it worked, but leaves me without my ace-in-the-hole for 15 minutes until that spell refreshes.

Sure enough, a few minutes later we get a bad pull. This fight started at 22:16 with a seer, visionary, and raider all at the same time. I probably started the fight with about 80% of my mana pool (which is okay). Dropped a Celestial Remedy on the main tank quick, then got back to medding (or tried to). Unfortunately, I ended up at the top off the seer's hate list and it came over to visit me. Nothing like a level 29-31 mob beating on you while you're trying to get a spell off. About 30 seconds in I asked one of the group to root the thing so I could get away from it (my root spell wouldn't stick). Instead they threw a 270hp heal on me, and I'm still getting beaten on. I manage to channel a 2nd Celestial Remedy onto the main tank shortly after being healed (while still being beated on). Unfortunately I have to follow that up with a Greater Healing on the main tank who's taking a lot of damage fast. 90 seconds into my beating I managed to get a Greater Healing off on the backup healer.

Now, after 2 GHeal's, I'm really at the top of the mob's hate list and with only 10% mana left there's not a lot of healing I can do unless I can get to meditate some mana back. I managed to drop a bravery on myself with my last shred of mana, waiting anxiously for that Divine Aura icon to refresh. Unfortunately, this can only delay the inevitable after being beat on for 2 minutes (because I'm now down below 30% health and the mob has enraged on me). At the 20% health mark, I told the group "bye all", and got ready to make my CR, the seer then proceeded to hit me for maximum damage 3 times in a row (64 dmg each time) which ended it for me after 2 minutes 15 seconds.

At least I died with my boots on (meaning I had no mana left to use) and that was damage that the main tank didn't take. Plus after you appear back at your bind point you'll have full mana, so I promptly memorized my main heal spell, ran back downstairs and dropped fast heals on everyone who was down around 40% health.

Sigh, DA was only about 5 minutes away from refreshing (18 seconds would've made all the difference that fight). Still, it was a fun fight and mine was the only death we had that night (thanks to the 2 secondary healers).

Labels: EverQuest

posted by Wuphon's at 10:25 AM

darla1972 makes another appearance

I guess darla1972 is still in business as well, I've now gotten a 3rd e-mail which is almost exactly identical to the first e-mail that I got from this "person" last summer. Oh, and I get e-mail about this one as well.

---

From: darlanew72tyr@yahoo.com
Subject: Hi there...:)

I think you answered my ad if it was not you I am sorry.
If it was I could not answer
you because my computer died
and I could not get a new one until I get a new job or
something. I hope you are still interested,
as I realize lots of days past.

Gosh, I really don't know where to start ....
Mabey you can tell me little more about yourself,
and most of all, are you still looking ?

If you are interested in more about me, I have a profile
at a free site ... I didnt want to use a pay site because
that did not seem like a good thing .. To many of those
around. You can check my profile at

(some porn URL)

I am NOT a Porn Chick ..:)
I just chose it because you don't have to pay,
And they allow any pictures I want.
Oh yea , My username is darla1972 .

Dont really know what else to say for now
Let me know if you are interested, And I hope
you dont run when you see my picture :)

Bye ..... Darla

---

Subject: darla1972, know her?
To: WuphonsReach@yahoo.com

hey just wanted to let you know that I also have gotten the same E-mail as you more than once:) just thought you would like to know that there are other people out there that know her too.

posted by Wuphon's at 10:16 AM

More one-on-onechat e-mails

Still getting e-mail about people who are checking into one-on-one chat and wondering if it's for real or if it's just a scam. Well, my opinion is that if it smells fishy, it's probably fishy. I really feel sorry for the one fellow who got taken for a good amount of money and he doesn't mind my posting his responses here (Randall, I hope you find a good gal). So here's the latest batch of e-mail for those interested.

---

Hey Wuphon,

Read you Wuphon's Reach URL. I got the same jenny234unow@hotmail.com email. What a waste! I also got an email from jnson00@hotmail.com (Jen Benson) with a link to http://www.one-on-onechat.com/105.html. Pretty good looking catalog model. Too bad it isn't a real personal otherwise I'd be all over that. Anyway this Rev. Vincent Angst Chewbacca person is going to be cooked.

Ralph

---

Count me in as one of those who is grateful for your archive of pages that discuss the seemingly obvious scams that come from www.one-on-onchat.com. I did a tiny bit of digging on another website that suspiciously pops up upon a visit to One-on-onechat.com - which is justdate.com - and looking at the whois data:

vipertel
dan steen
6506 Ridge Rd
Baltimore, md 21237
US
Phone: 4105741106
Fax..: 4106790397
Email: dans@vipertel.com

...is awfully similar to the one that you found for one-on-onechat.com:

v
d s
6506
B, MD 21237
US
Phone: 4
Email: revangst@excite.com

Thought you'd find that interesting if you hadn't already know. Anyway, regards - and I hope you are having/had a fine holiday season!

Joseph

---

Hi,

This may come as a surprise, but I was recently contacted by a person claiming to have a voice profile on one-on-onechat. This is the second time this has happened, so I became immediately suspicious of a fraud.

I conducted a Google search on the domain name "one-on-onechat", and came across your BLOG archives. So I read through them and was quite astonished to see that I wasn't the only person who experienced these strange emails. Unfortunately, I didn't catch onto the hoax soon enuf. I ended up being taken for more than 280 dollars :( It's amazing that this company is STILL in business and successfully scamming people like this -- taking advantage not only of people's trust -- but breaking their hearts as well. It's disgusting. You'd an operation like this would be shut down by now.

Anyways, I just wanted to share my experiences, and thank you for sharing yours. Hopefully other people catch on sooner than I did.

--Randall

---

Wuphons Reach wrote:
>
> OUCH!
>
> Well (sigh) yeah... I wish you had found it sooner
> (guess I'm just more cynical than most). Yeah... I've
> had to make sure I'm extra-careful with what I said
> about one-on-one (I think I'm okay with what's
> there... it's not defamation only statement of
> opinion).

Why be careful? They are powerless, as far as I'm concerned. With the second email, I actually called the number just to see if I could get through to the mystery "girl" in question. Unlike my first experience, this time a guy answered to take my CC info. He was also very rude. Everytime I'd pause even briefly to get my information, he would get angry and inform me how unbelievably slow I was and that he had better things to do than to wait for me. Sheesh!

And then when I did finally get on the voice chat, I asked her how she knew me. She said, she wasn't sure of who I was, because she had written several people. So I then asked why she emailed me. She said she wanted to get in touch with old friends again, because it's been awhile. So, I stated that if she know who I was, then why couldn't she have addressed me by my name in the saluation of the email. (I shouldn've also mentioned that the email was sent through an unidentified email gateway to mask her true origin, but I forgot). She said she didn't know. Then I informed her that I didn't had no friends by the name of [her name]. So she apologized and said it was just a mistake. "A mistake?!" I yelled. How do you just mistakenly write to a stranger on the Internet under the impression they are a friend, telling them to dial a toll-charge entertainment number simply to contact you? I proceeded to warn her that if she ever wrote me again, I would be pursuing a civil lawsuit for harassment. Then she got really upset, and said "Hold on now, Who do you...". Then I hung up and called the first guy back again and warned him that I was in the process of reporting OneOnOneChat to the Better Business Bureau and the National Fraud Information Center for scamming. Before he could even finish saying "Oh my", I hung up.

I still have a record of the URLs somewhere where you can see quite clearly that just one girl in particular, changes her race from being Oriental to being Caucasian in two separate profiles. Not to mention the same girl has over 20 separate profiles. It's an outright scam -- clearly begging for censure.

Trust me, OneOnOneChat is a company that does not deserve compassion. Defamation is one thing, but posting straight-out facts is another. And the fact is that people do not change race and that people do not contact you by email a friend and don't even know who you are. Companies also don't get angry at you when you are giving them your credit card number.

--Randall

---

Hi there,

I just wanted to say thanks for writing. And I'm sorry for venting. Don't take it the wrong way. It just kind of builds up after so long, and to know that some stranger can use you like that and get away with it is very upsetting. :) Thank you for hearing me out.

Sincerely,

--Randall

posted by Wuphon's at 10:10 AM

Monday, January 21, 2002

EverQuest Cleric Aggro Management in the 20s

(just a copy of a long rant I wrote on various message boards late last night)

I just spent the weekend in High Keep's Guard Room and watched a level 22 cleric gain aggro on every other multi-mob pull (we had no enchanter, and even though I was level 25/26 they wanted the primary healer role). So after watching them over-aggro so much I figured I'd come here, vent a little, and get some advice to see if I'm on track. I just envision that cleric getting killed every multi-pull when they start using Greater Healing. Now that I'm moving down into the WR of HK, I really need to avoid aggro if at all possible (and maybe other young clerics could use the pointers from y'all).
At level 19 we don't have much to work with (although Luclin added a nice heal over time). And I realize our buffs (symbol, Daring/Bravery take a level or 3 to hit their maximum potential).

14) Healing (60m 100h 1.67 ratio)
14) Symbol of Transal (55m 73h 1.33 ratio)
19) Celestial Remedy (190m 260h 1.37 ratio)
19) Daring (60m 115h 1.92 ratio)

At level 24, we get 2 upgrades and a new heal.

24) Symbol of Ryltan (111m 158h 1.42 ratio)
24) Bravery (70m 140h 2.00 ratio)
24) Greater Healing (150m 300h 2.00 ratio)

My tactics (and things I've seen, especially when fighting without an enchanter):

1) Don't start healing tanks at 90% health if it's a multi-mob pull. One of those mobs is going to come over and personally thank you for your efforts (causing chaos while you spam your "ON ME" key and everyone has to stop and come over and taunt it off of ya). Granted, with only a 100hp heal at your disposal, it will be tough to stay ahead of the mob's damage output if you let the tank get too low, but if you're getting beat on, you'll be doing zero healing (or meditating).

2) Get someone to buy that Luclin Celestial Remedy for ya (if you can't get to Shadow Haven yourself). On a 3-4 mob pull, even without an enchanter, it's almost always possible to drop this on both tanks that are taking damage (I wait until 50-70% health) without gaining aggro. On a good day, it stops the bleeding (keeping the tank at or above the health level when it landed), on a bad day, it just bought me some time before I have to throw a large aggro heal. I started using this around level 21 regularly (it's sooo mana intensive), and now at 26 I'll use it up to 3x in a fight. Best used if you can meditate for the 24 seconds (and gain some mana back).

3) Since I'm talking about aggro avoidance, you shouldn't need to worry about AC/Defense/Dodge, but it happens and you should always have Defense/Dodge maxed out every few levels. Sometimes it's better to trade WIS items for AC items. The longer you can stand there and take a beating gives the tanks a better chance to taunt the mob off of you.

4) Use your Daring/Bravery buffs as spot heals. If there's a druid in the group, don't let them lay Skin like Steel on the group (it negates your ability to use Daring/Bravery as a low-aggro heal). Because you're updating a buff, you'll gain a lot less aggro, plus it's mana efficient and keeps a buff up (one less buff you'll have to time). Wish I had learned this trick before level 26. Symbols are too expensive to use this way (unless you're a very rich cleric).

5) Save some mana for the end of the fight. This goes along with point #1 about not healing early. Once you throw a heal, that's it, that mana's gone, nothing you can do if tank 2 (or a caster) suddenly starts dropping like a rock. My goal is to end the fight with 20-40% mana and all my group at or above 40% health. (Tanks fight just as well at 40% health as at 100% health.) In fact, towards the end of a long fight, I'll actually start using smaller heals and buff updates so that I can "touch up" the maximum number of people if things are still touch and go. And as long as I have mana, we can handle that spawn that likes to pop on top of us right after we finish a close fight.

6) Save Greater Healing for single-mob encounters, or for when low-aggro tactics just aren't going to cut it. Hopefully by the time I have to drop a GHeal, the tanks have generated enough aggro on all the mobs. But GHeal is something I now reserve for when the tank hits 40% health (and Celestial Remedy and Bravery can't stop the bleeding, or I need to drop enough health on the tank to keep them alive long enough to drop a heal on another player). Anytime there are multiple mobs, odds are high that I will gain aggro from the GHeal.

7) Don't fight back if you gain aggro (and don't run around like a dress wearing caster, you're allowed to wear plate armor for a reason). It'll prevent the enchanter from being able to mez the mob (in fact if there's an enchanter, tanks should probably stay on the primary target while the cleric/enchanter use stun/root/mez). Stun it, root it, and scoot out of range if you have to. Besides, if you get too low of health, you can always Divine Aura to buy the tanks 18 seconds.

Now, what other tactics are there? (Or is there something wrong with these tactics? Flame me! Teach me! I'm only a level 26 cleric and still learning my craft!)

Labels: EverQuest

posted by Wuphon's at 10:29 AM