A story about Darathar (or How 1 Mob Makes People Go Nuts)

[manimal2]

<DIV>About 2-3 weeks ago (somewhere around there) a chat channel was formed on Mistmoore server by a person who was not in a hardcore or uber raiding guild and a handful of his friends soley for working on the prismatic quests.  Maidens Gulch part of quest was completed and the channel started to grow fairly decently.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>On the nite of May 25th, Darathar died to us.  I tanked, not a single piece of fabled gear on me.  I didn't even have a zerker or conjuror in the group.  We did have a nice amount of healers tho.  It took us almost 2 days of learning the encounter and about 3 full armor repairs total over those 2 days.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Everything was awesome, we had some kick [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] players from all kinds of different guilds (some unguilded) come together and really tried to follow directions and work as a team.  This encounter taught us SO MUCH about our classes and how to play together properly that I feel as tho our whole play style has somewhat changed just because of this encounter.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm not even up to the darathar part on the quest yet (missed 1 day where the raiders did all the drakotas for the rings), but I was just as happy after killing Darathar than anyone who did complete the quest.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So the hardest mob in the game is dropped by us.  We didn't progress through other instances/raids and gear up and then work on Darathar when we thought we were ready.  We all just jumped for the hardest quest in the game and did it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Then drama ensued.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>People who were in the raid channel who didn't make it online for the raid in time were upset and talking smack.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>One guy in the raid was running around claiming he led the raid when he didn't.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>People in uber guild(s) or higher end guilds started hating, banning people from playing with us.  I know some players who needed prismatics and only had darathar to complete the quest were banned from playing with us that belonged to some of those guilds.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Our RAID LEADER got yanked offline and put into a chat room with SOE GM's because the encounter was not intended to be defeated by a non guild raid before the expansion came out and they needed to verify we didn't use any exploits.  In the end they said grats.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Maybe we weren't intended to kill darathar as an unguilded raid but we did it.  It was almost 1/3 pick up raid lol.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Maybe I shouldn't be able to tank encounters like that with standard crafted ebon armor (not even a full suit) but I did it, I had tons of great backup and skilled players that are willing to learn and follow directions are a wonderful thing.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Maybe some of us shouldn't be running around with prismatic weapons but they are and some people are complaining we have no right to since we are not in a big raiding guild.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The death of this mob caused a LOT of drama for our raid leader and some of our raid members.  Can't believe the attitude some people get when you do something they haven't been able to do, or don't think you should be able to do.  A few people even told us we had no chance even if we got her past the first 25% on the previous nite's raid.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>After this raid I did end up with a couple of questions tho.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Was Darathar made more difficult on the patch of the 26th (day after our raid)?  I'm assuming not being able to exit and re-enter the zone now is going to make the encounter more difficult but I don't think I saw any upgrades to abilities on that patch (not sure).  I know the version we fought had the general "haste" upgrade given to all epic mobs, as well as the more "potent breathe ability" the dragon has.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>How many people have actually killed this version we did?  How many of those people did it outside of a big guild?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Yeah I'm posting this because I was REALLY excited at what we accomplished.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But I am also posting this so people can see how much drama ONE kill can bring to an entire server (hell it even crossed our server boundaries and affected some other people on other servers, enough to get our raid leader pulled into a chat with gm's).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For those on our server upset at this, lighten up.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For those wielding new weapons now, grats.  Even if Darathar is made unkillable for us before I get my chance at finishing my quest, I am still one happy guardian at our accomplishment.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Whether we were intended to be able to drop darathar or not, it is still a big accomplishment no matter what.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>To all the guardians here that contribute posts with helpful information, I thank all of you, this forum has been a regular source of information for me to use to confirm or to learn new things.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>/bow.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[SirDra]

<DIV>After live update 4 or 5 which ever one it was Darathar was made alot easier, it would have been amazing if u guys took him down before that but its not even the least bit supprising that just a random group of people with a little organization could take him down</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The haste, i didn't even notice a change same encounter as ever</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Personally i consider him a joke for supposedly being the hardest mob up to now, he was actually a challenge before the updates</DIV>

[manimal2]

<P>It wasn't really a random group of people.  Minimum level for the zone is level 49 and we have been raiding for a few weeks together throughout the whole Speak As a Dragon, Fire and Ice, and Deception quests.  Granted we had to replace a few people for the last attempt because some people couldn't stay on for more than 10 hours <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> We just weren't a GUILD.</P> <P>Question: Is Darathar still the hardest creature in the game even throughout all of its versions?  If not what is?</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Shizzirri]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> SirDrake wrote:<BR> <DIV>After live update 4 or 5 which ever one it was Darathar was made alot easier, it would have been amazing if u guys took him down before that but its not even the least bit supprising that just a random group of people with a little organization could take him down</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The haste, i didn't even notice a change same encounter as ever</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Personally i consider him a joke for supposedly being the hardest mob up to now, he was actually a challenge before the updates</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>I don't care what people say in regards to patches, updates, nerfs, changes in the encounter, whatever the mob is still a challenge, and taking him down regardless to live update 4 or 5 is a pretty big accomplishment being able to survive/tank a mob like that is something you should be able to brag about, I highly doubt a random group of people could cordinate a raid against this guy as it is still a red mob, and the tank still needs to have some clue of whats going on around him in order to win, plus his attacks well they still suck and the raid leader needs to know how to setup groups like the MT group in particular.</P> <P>Personally though to think this is the toughest mob in the game right now is something I wouldn't agree with at all, there are now probably three mobs tougher than him imo</P> <P>Trembler > Darathar, K'Dal > Darathar (silence/memblur attack yes that sux), New Venekor > Darathar - AE poison every 10 sec's yeah that's worse that what dara does.</P> <P>In regards to darathar being made harder or whatever our guild seemed to struggle with him a couple of days back but we we're missing some of our more key members and that was probably why we usually wax him also.  this latest patch did something to him also with his fire attack not sure what.</P>

[TunaBoo]

Hum ranking mobs hardness? Prolly for us k'dal Drathar trembler (hard raid to achieve, the fight itself isn't that hard) lord nagalik In any case, sucks about all the drama. Loot does bad things to people. I am very curious why soe would question people for doing out of a guild.. kind of silly. <div></div>

[Aren]

<P>K'Dal is actually pretty easy if you figure him out, Tremblar is easy as Zalak if you do him right.</P> <P><BR>Darathar is still the only mob in the game that you can do everything right, and still lose, other then the new Venekor.</P> <P>I think it's cool that you guys accomplished this with a pick up raid, and gratz.</P> <P>I too am disapointed that the current Darathar is a lot easier then the one we first killed, as it was a pretty good accomplishment when you could kill that version, as we are still the only guild on our server to kill version 2.0.</P> <P>But even in his current state it's a tough fight, and worthy of grats for taking him down, especially in a pick up raid.</P> <P>I remember how crazy pick up vox and naggy raids were full of first time raiders, that didn't know what they were doing, and got everyone killed.</P> <P>Good times</P>

[manimal2]

<P>I think we wasted more time and deaths on Darathar's bugs than anything.  When we would form up and buff after a wipe she'd just take off and eat a breezer or two after sitting there quietly and then all hell would break loose.</P> <P>And it wasn't a pick up raid, I'd say at the end of the night maybe 1 group's worth of people were replaced because people couldn't stay for the whole time we were there and had to leave.  It's a core group of people who have been raiding for about 3 weeks from different guilds that were not capable of doing this.  It was just a NON Guild raid.  This core group progressed through the whole prismatic quest together, we didn't sit in front of the instances looking to fill 3 groups each nite with random people, we usuallly only had to fill 1 group <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />.</P>

[Subtlekni]

A huge Congo Rats Krunked!  I knew it was going on, I knew when it happened, but I didn't realize you were involved.  I experienced similar drama in EQ1 when doing small guild join raids/pickup raids pre Kunark and Pre Velious.  Shrug it off, try not to fill your ignore list to full, and be proud of the accomplishment.

[SirDra]

<DIV>that buff agro thing happend to us as well about 3 times but presistance is a good quality to have <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[Reebwen]

Well that is totally awsome. A big cheer  to your whole raid for the win.  In the end  NOBODY can tell you anything but gratz. <div></div>

[JNewby]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> SirDrake wrote:<BR> <DIV>After live update 4 or 5 which ever one it was Darathar was made alot easier, it would have been amazing if u guys took him down before that but its not even the least bit supprising that just a random group of people with a little organization could take him down</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The haste, i didn't even notice a change same encounter as ever</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Personally i consider him a joke for supposedly being the hardest mob up to now, he was actually a challenge before the updates</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>thats kinda a weak comment since ou are part of a huge good guild... you have plenty of people backing up up... try to take him down without them... then tell me he is easy

[Nazo]

<P>Huge Gratzz to you and every single one in that Raid....</P> <P>And dont let your sense of achievement diminish because of a couple of jerks who claim it is an easy encounter etc.. It maybe an easy encounter for 24 similar geared raid experienced people but put anyone of them as the leader of a pick up raid and see what happens.</P> <P>Good job you did all...</P>

[Tankz]

<DIV>First off Congrats on Darathar, he's a tricky mob to tank the first time around. That being said, he is also an extremely easy mob to defeat (tricky doesn't necessarly = hard). The only hard part about the encounter anymore is that he bugs a lot. If he doesn't bug, your looking at a 20 minute fight, thx prismatic and going home. The whole quest is completable with 18 people, Darathar included. I think that if Sony wants this to be the hardest mob in the game, they should make it so. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As it stands right now, imo the only relatively hard mob in the game is the LS epic. Everything else that is supposedly a groupx4 can *probably* be accomplished with 16 people. (You'd need 22 or so to get past the Tremblar waves, but he'd definately doable with 16)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyways, sorry about all the drama on the server, completing Darathar w/o a guild is definately a worthy accomplishment. </DIV>

[vindrow]

Well, all I can say is Congrats....sounds like you guys put a lot of hard work into this raid and it worked out.  I say enjoy your prismatic weapons and ignore the haters, and just goes to show that you don't always need a guild to work together to do the raid content. <div></div>