Ding Dong, the Gate Keeper is Dead!

First came Caravaggio: read the forums here and here.

That was two days ago. Now, the next server to take out the Gate Keeper and unlock the doors to Chaos Requiem is none other than Carracci!





Read all about it at the forums, here and here!

Congratulations!

Encounter with the Griffon

[Side note: holy god - 394th post, and the blog is WELL on its way to 50k hits!

Must make plans!]

[Side note again: as of the writing of this post, the Griffon in Channel 2 of Carracci was still alive, and was still bringing all his/her/its rowdy monsters to the party. At last count, the mobs included Grizzly Scavengers, Sabel Tigers, Joaquin Wild-Dogs, Gehvars, etc. And all that on top of the regular Vegas Javier mobs, natch.

On top of that, a Griffon Egg was discovered in Channel 1 as well! Vegas Javier will wind up getting placed under an involuntary interdict today if the Griffon appears there in both channels.]

I was leveling in Skullic Dungeon again this morning when someone started broading about the presence of a Griffon Egg in Vegas Javier Channel 2, Carracci server.

Now, of course, whack a Griffon Egg long enough and the Griffon itself appears; the Pioneers Warning at the entrance from Rion Prairie says as much.

After a bit of thought, I decided to join Deputy Faction Leader Xei in taking a look-see at the egg, and maybe to participate in the Griffon raid if the boss DID appear.

Never saw the egg, though; en route to the coordinates mentioned in the broads, THIS happened!



So yeah, we were in the soup right there.

When I got to the map coordinates, Griffon was already there:



And even with the equipment my newly-90 characters were carrying, they didn't stand a chance against the boss, since they were up against THESE stats.



The really headdesk-inducing part, of course, was when Xei and I realized that many of the server's experts were streaming in - but were unable to chip away at the big bird-thing's life....

Wasn't there supposed to be a time limit on the Griffon, though? Someone said if Griffon didn't take a hit to its HP within 10 minutes, it was going to go *poof* and disappear. Not in this case, though, as I was there for at least 15 minutes - long enough to eat breakfast while watching - and it was still there, and still spawning assist mobs.

Stompin' Rero

Takhisis Faction instant boss raid: just add one (1) Gerero!

So there we were in TK around midnight, happily leveling, when deputy faction leader Lecat began bopping around several fairly well-known maps, looking for trouble. As it turns out, trouble found him: Gerero in Gehenna Bridge, Channel 2!

I'd never even seen "Rero", the boss's nickname, before, so on a whim, I rushed to join Lecat and AlphaOmega there, and this is what we all got dropped into:





We were eventually joined by Mitchin, making for four families whacking at Rero. That meant we took a little while doing it, but in the end - it was done and ding dong the boss is dead! No one else was on the scene at that time, so all the spoils went to TK ^^

Great job TK! Let's do that again soon!

NineMoons meets Diablo and Vergo the Cursed

So I was poking around Pradera de Ceniza this morning to farm for more Refined Aidanium; my current pastime is to hoard minerals for crafting, because I am a devout believer in being prepared for forging in future.

Chasing dogs and spiders got me to THIS place on the map:



Well, since some WrathOfGod members were already there, I was quickly drafted into the squad, and given the double duties of resser and buffer; most of the buffs you can see on my characters in the screenshot were therefore cast by me except the elemental and vet-wiz stuff.



Turned out that with all the high-powered characters already there, Diablo didn't last long at all. He might as well have been gone in 60 seconds XD I didn't even have to resuscitate anyone.

***

Half an hour later, I moved to Porto Bello Desolate Cliff. No real reason this time, just wandering the map, picking up bits of Refined Ionium where possible, trigger fingers ready to run like hell should any boss be spotted.

Instead of running AWAY from a boss, I wound up running into THIS!



@.@ *checks amount of resuscitation potions*

I was still in the squad from Diablo since I'd forgotten to leave, and there were a lot of WOG members present, so I tried to ress as many of the fallen as I could, while simultaneously avoiding all those damn bosses who were making bloody nuisances of themselves.



*mutters* Vergo the Cursed is apparently a bully. Never goes anywhere without his posse. Probably thinks he's fly....

...Never mind that he DOES fly.

That was SOME introduction to two of Granado Espada's biggest, most sought-after bosses.

[That just makes them sound like they're eligible bachelors or something! *headdesk* XD]

Colony Wars update: War is hell, but lag is worse!

[The title of this post comes from a slogan I thought of while - you guessed it - slogging through lag.]

First things first: the current map of Granado Espada in Cervantes server.



Congratulations to GuardsOfHonour, Vradical, WrathOfGod, MaFiaCLuB™, Halcyon, and Apathy factions for acquiring / defending their colonies!

***

If one glance at that map above makes you say "Hmm, something seems to have changed" - well, you'd be right. Two factions bowed out of contention for colonies tonight: Fenrir, which apparently disbanded recently; and Fukkatsu, whose last CW tonight was, and whose name has been wiped from the map.

Little wonder, then, that Fukkatsu got warred by everyone else, their colonies attacked by the contender factions as soon as the session began.

Two factions declared war on Fukkatsu just prior to the start of tonight's Colony Wars: WrathOfGod and Vradical. The latter declaration ended in a truce.

The other declarations below:

Apathy v Fukkatsu
GuardsOfHonour v Fukkatsu
MaFiaCLuB™ v Fukkatsu - truced
FallenAngels v Fukkatsu - truced
MaFiaCLuB™ v FallenAngels - truced
Apathy v FallenAngels - truced
Halcyon v Fukkatsu - truced
Vradical v FallenAngels - truced

Both Fenrir's and Fukkatsu's members have since been absorbed into other factions, including [but not limited to] Vradical, Illuminati, et cetera.

[Speaking of Illuminati, a member of that faction dropped in at one of the WrathOfGod colonies and confirmed that they were not joining this session either. That makes about 3 sessions missed, and the rumblings of a comeback continue throughout the server, especially with the absorption of some ex-Fenrir members.]

***

Notes from WrathOfGod:

With many of the senior members absorbed in multiple boss raids prior to the Colony Wars session, we squadded up late, but soon enough an attack team was formed to target the colony at the Old Port of Coimbra; and the defense squad was asked to assemble at Pradera de Ceniza.

Two defense teams showed up at that colony and were told to prepare for anything and everything that could possibly happen, and to get ready to warp to the other colonies [Ferruccio Junction and El Lago de Tres Hermanas] should they get attacked.

So we waited, and waited, and waited....

And we actually all went after faction vice-leader Callisto at some point when he checked in on our defense squads, and his characters' names were burning a bright red.

Aside from that and visits from other random factions [Halcyon, the aforementioned Illuminati, and even one female fighter from ValhallaKnights], there was nothing much to do again.

So we went back to the old standbys of leveling off the dogs in the map, and summoning random big monsters. This week we got a Thoracotomy, a Vladimir, a Sabel Tiger, a Grim Reaper, and a Jungle Velociraptor.


Tuon helps to tank a Thoracotomy. [Got a crap drop XD]

During the first hour our attack squad succeeded at their attack on the colony at the Old Port of Coimbra; here's the world announcement of the takeover:


Hurray for a fourth colony!

With less than ten minutes left in the session, we were all called to that new colony by Callisto and the other squad leaders. At first it was going to be for a celebratory photoshoot, but then we got word that the area boss Dekaravia was in the area - and we decided to go after him!

[Warning: Dekaravia has a nasty debuff that hurts vets more than it does lower-levels - ironic since vets ought to stand a better chance against him. For reference, read this funny post in the Vradical blog.]

Lots of Spartans jokes ensue from the mixed crowd [mostly vets plus a healthy sprinkling of lower levels], and we find ourselves up against THIS ugly guy:



And, less than ten minutes later [shortly after the Colony Wars session ended], we'd all been wiped out.


OMGWTFBBQ pwned. *facepalm*

And I logged out, chuckling, to write up my report. Will ETA once I find out whether the faction killed that boss or not.

ETA: Revenge is sweet - Dekarabia went down in the second run, and apparently said "I need somebody to help me" as he died. [So big bosses talk!]

Till next week.

Æphemerals try out a faction raid!

Logged back into the game tonight after running some errands, and the first thing I find out in faction chat is that they are making plans to do a faction raid. Target: the Treasure Golem, the dreaded boss of the Tetra Dungeon.

And it was a motley crew indeed that showed up in the Tetra Antiquities Room, where that boss can be summoned by means of a Key item: faction members Soruco, Rydralle, Dalmacus, and Fleva got there first, then NineMoons [me, of course], and last but not the least, Thoraine.

[Before you ask: yes, I was the goat - or the lowest-leveled member - of the squad that we formed. T_T

I'm leveling as hard as I can, thank you. Hoping to reach 4x in the next three days....]

Here's me and Rydralle playing around a little with the poses before we started the raid. Sorry the UI's on - I wouldn't be able to identify the families otherwise.



Dalmacus summoned the Treasure Golem, and we defeated it after getting nearly everybody killed, except for Fleva. While no one was able to capture the screenshot of the first Golem going down, here are the screenies where we celebrated our victory.


Here's the unruly crowd, with the UI on so you can pick out all of our names.


And here's the orderly shot, in which we all lined up and did the point-to-the-front pose that means victory in a mission.

It's off-center because I'm near the end of the line.

I spent a lot of time dead during the three raids we attempted, but I managed to get these pictures of the next two victories anyway:


That thing went down in the very next second.


And that AoE never materialized - that third Golem was killed before it could complete the spell.

[Incidentally, yes, I HATE Atomic Power Stomp - the Golem's AoE attack - with a passion.]

Somebody said "Chimera" for next time - but I have the bad feeling we need to have the WHOLE faction - all 50+ of us - in for that one.

If only, at least, so I won't be the goat of that particular raid. :P