This week on Saturday I logged at 9 pm my time (3 pm EDT) and posted for baba’s hard. In about 10 minutes I had a full group and we were ready to get going. I usually post for level 28-30, but occasionally let lower level characters join, this time both the other divines were a bit lower level. But I wasn’t worried, I figured we’d do good anyway. I asked the party to split themselves for puzzles, except I told Osi to go left, Doobrey and Upload to pick different sides as well as Iqos and Jobit, to even out the group a little. We ended up with 7 going left and 5 right, but the sides seemed even enough anyway. We had a few lag spikes during the run and I died during the puzzles because I lost focus for a moment, trying to get the normal scarecrows and the red ones separated. Of late I’ve had really good puzzlers on my side with 2-3 people working on them, this run I ended up doing them mostly myself with Deviltoy pitching in a little. During the end fight we killed everything like we did last time, killed shamblers and then baba. The raid completed in 39 minutes and we got skunked on loot.
Off to strahd. Since the hard run last week went so well, I wanted to continue doing hard. I asked the party if that was ok, and got a few yes’s. Some people left, some switched characters and I lfm’d for the free spots. I believe it took 10-15 minutes for us to get started. Osi had some problems zoning in, so I helped him move his character so he could join us. I had the same plan for this run as last week; clear the shadows in the doors room, find strahd, d-door back, do stairs, shrine, and do the sweep tactic of the doors. I learned this run that the trinket used for rescuing people from the grip gets the charges back when you shrine. Me and Osi were trying our best to rescue people this run and we had a few less deaths to grip. The stairs run went quite well, I think we had more than one rogue working on the traps, so things progressed faster. In the heart fight I died again, and some others too so we waited out the death timers before picking up the sunsword, stepping out on the stairs and d-dooring. Devil stayed behind to talk to the NPC. For doors we started NE and worked our way south. Someone ran off NW so after opening all the doors east we headed there. We found the torches somewhat quickly, lit them and headed to the end. The plan was for Devil to use the sunsword and me to heal him, but at some point things went a bit sideways and Khohnan picked up the sunsword (which drops on death) and continued. I had said no for the barbarian to play tank earlier as it’s been my experience that they are glass cannons, but he did a good job (i.e. I was wrong) and we finished in the first try. The raid completed in 39 minutes and Echo of the Sunsword and Pain, the Half of Whole dropped.
Lujaan wanted to do Defiler, but I said I was going to post for TS first and I did. I assumed we had int due to the rogues, but wasn’t sure about str since Devil left. Lujaan said he could do it, though, so I opened up the rest of the spots for anyone. With two spots left I decided to start, and I believe we filled before we got to fire & ice. Fire & ice completed without issues and we took the short cut to the rust monster room as we always do. Since you only need the rune from fire & ice to do the Sorjek fight (without it he heals and you won’t be able to damage him), and only the end chests give legendary loot, we skip doing the other runes and head straight to the end fight. I asked the ranged characters to park Sor’jek by the safe spot, which they successfully did and the rest of us could dps him in a somewhat safe way. The raid completed in 15 minutes and from what I could see two leathers and Devil’s Defense dropped.
Next I posted for defiler. I stick to hard because it’s been my experience that elite lags that much that it’s a hit or miss if you’ll even be able make it through. Last time we tried we didn’t manage to get all the executioners since the raid kept freezing up. It took a bit longer to fill this raid than the others, but eventually we were ready to get started. There was some momentarily freezes, but they were short enough for us to manage to complete the tasks at hand. Over all the raid was again mostly waiting with a few short fights in between. When the east gate opened we ran there, gathered for a few buffs, then headed to the end fight. Killed the snake, killed the boss and looted. The raid finished in 21 minutes (unsure if it’s even possible to do below 20 minutes due to timed spawns) and Keykee got his boots (Boots of Blessed Travels). Gauntlets of the Arcane Soldier and Fellblade also dropped.
Since someone had suggested LHOX, I posted for that one next. We didn’t seem to have a tank in the group, so I lfm’d for one. I also asked for a charmer on the lfm, but since Leaden said he could do it if we don’t get one, I didn’t require the last joiner to be a charmer. Once the party filled and we had a tank and a charmer, as well as consecrate, rebuke (me) and a buffer, we were ready to go. I think it took about 10 minutes. I stayed by the tank mainly to start building stacks of rebuke on Xy’zzy and the rest of the group ran around killing trash. Once puppies were charmed, Niv also stayed to buff the puppies. Puppies were doing good and Xy’zzy was damaged enough for us to be able to kill her. I say something like ‘she’s ready, kill her’, everyone runs to center and Xy’zzy goes down. The raid completed in 6 minutes. I believe a couple of items dropped including Robe of the Celestial Sage.
I asked the party if they wanted to do more raids and fotp and citw was suggested. Since I wasn’t tired yet, I said I could do both, starting with fotp. I posted and we waited. This raid took quite a while to fill seeing as we had completed LHOX at 4 minutes past midnight and it wasn’t til about a quarter to 1 before were in progress in Fire on Thunder Peak. I did have a couple of people interested in joining, but since someone who join had said their friend was driving home quickly to join us, I figured I’d save them the spot. For the raid we had two dragon tanks and I told Osi to stay with one and I’d stay with the other. We also helped dps the dragons. We had some deaths and some semi-exciting moments with trash, but over all it was a somewhat easy run. The raid completed in 21 minutes. I don’t think I saw any named item drop, but we all got a fire phlogiston of course (everyone always gets one on elite or higher).
Since citw takes almost an hour to run and isn’t really that popular of a raid anymore, I decided it would be my last raid for the night. I had decided earlier to do both fotp and citw on R1, citw because it’s not too difficult but gives a much better loot chance than hard. First it took us maybe half an hour to fill, then when I stepped in I realised that I forgot to make sure I had a trapper. Someone wanted to switch to a different character, someone else said they could switch to a trapper. Normally on reaper if someone recalls, it locks the instance from anyone else entering, but I learned you can get around it if said person logs off to switch instead. Two ppl log off and switch and then the trapper realised they weren’t flagged so they switch back. We decide to recall to grab som greater dispel magic scrolls and restart. Back in again we get to the legs fight where I, while showing what I’ve found to be the safest spot to stand if you want to avoid getting knocked off, manage to fall and for some reason Ana falls with me and get stuck somewhere way out nowhere. We complete the legs fight and start running onward only to realise that there isn’t a way to get Ana back. So we recall to restart. I’m quickly losing interest in doing the run at all, but I promised so I’m sticking with it.
Back in things go better. I believe we had less or no falls at the legs and continue without any real issues. Lag wasn’t terrible either. We complete the optionals and I take Ana to do the orbs while the rest finish off the rest of the trash. As we get to the area before the end fight I summon a shrine and we rest up before starting the end fight. When I activate the end fight, a bunch of monsters spawn on top of us and we fight them off for a while, until we have too many spell wards to deal with and decide to run up. As it turns out the greater dispel scrolls didn’t work on the wards, or it only neg leveled them a little, but didn’t remove them. I must have run through at least 4 wards before getting up to the Lolth area. I take Ana closer to Lolth so she makes Lolth corporeal, and some of party members run up to Lolth. I look for people to raise while trying to keep Ana out of trouble. Suddenly I notice that Lolth is gone and I’m told it’s time to do the orb. I do the orb and before I’ve had a chance to grasp it I hear Lolth say “quick, summon more portal keepers”… I’m way too far from the pathway, but I manage to get through, but Ana doesn’t. I and someone else get stuck on the wrong side of the barrier while Ana is on the other side. When the others get the barrier down again I run out to find Ana and this time she goes through.
After managing this far someone had fallen off or something and was running back. We wait for him but soon someone else in the party is getting impatient, so I talk to Ana to spawn the chests. lost person eventually manages to join us for loot. We even got the 6th chest this run, meaning I managed to keep Ana out of trouble. Yay!
It was now almost 3 in the morning for me, so I tanked the group and logged off.
That’s all for this week’s raids.
Thank you for stopping by and if you’re on Orien, feel free to check out my Sat night raids.
Cheers.
Micki's Delirium 
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