I consider my self a casual gamer, in the fact that I really do not have set hours or days that I play. I play when all my real world tasks are done, only then do I get to sit down and run off to slay the dragon.
I will say that I do end up in game almost every night for at least a couple hours, and more on the weekends unless we have something else we have to do or want to do.
So like many other gamers out there who play Everquest 2 who watch the daily and nightly parade of Mythical announcements dance and tease their way across our screens, I decided that I too would like to at least try and finish off my epic weapon and join the ranks of the finished! IF everyone and their dog can get theirs done why can’t I?
Getting ready to raid:
There is a certain amount of prep work a person needs to do if they want to go raiding in Everquest 2. Gear, spell level and your AA’s need to all be in order.
Raid leaders are going to laugh at you if you show up in Treasured or Master crafted armor.
It has to be Legendary or above. Which is not that hard to do if you got the class set piece, and now with the shard armor anyone can, with a little work and some friends get a Legendary to Fabled quality set. Other wise you won’t last 5 mins into most raids, you will be a constant grease spot on the floor.
Your spells need to be Adept III or Masters. Again, not a problem for me, I had went out and harvested, got the rares need to get my spells made. One of the easiest steps for anyone to accomplish, really, but I wonder how many causal players have done this and instead settled for dropped or bought Adept I’s.
Finally a respecting of ones AA Abilities. This one took a bit of research on my part, which I talked about on the Jethal Silverwing show. Up to this point in my gaming life I had no real idea which AA’s would be the best and took the ones which I thought would be fun to do, such as the line that allows you to charm a pet, and for the title Hunter. Only after I compared rangers who were all in the top 100 in 3 different category did I get a better picture as what I really should have picked. Its not uncommon for people to have different AA line ups, such as one for soloing and one for groups or raids. I had now stepped into that group when I placed my old AA line into the respect Mirror and was a bit sad at having to give up the Title Hunter which was something I felt defined my character.
Get ready, set…..RAID:
I was lucky enough to be offered a spot in a raiding guild who was allowing outside people to join with them. I agreed to commit my self to a 3 times a week raid schedule, which I figured I could do. My raid times started at 6pm my time and since I got home before Jethal, I could make sure his dinner was ready for him at least.
For a whole month on the raiding nights, I would race out of work and run to the store and then get home as fast as I could, prep and get dinner going and be in game and at the raid gathering spot. I will say I had a great time and got 1 update to this Mythical quest line, but, everything else was crumbling around me.
Jethal would get home, tired from work, only to find me with my face buried in the monitor, my whole attention focused on the game. I would mumble a “hello” and something about dinner being on the stove or in the oven. There was no time now to go and sit with him for dinner, watch a little tv together and just be with each other after not seeing each other outside of sleeping.
He would come home and announce that he had a new movie for us to watch during dinner, only to become crest fallen when he remembered that I was too busy to do such a thing with him. “oh your raiding again, I just wanted to spend some time with you!”, he would say then silently go sequester him self up stairs for the remainder of the evening.
Raiding was now taking the place of our evening time together. and throw in the Radio show night where its a rush to get dinner done and for him to get ready, that makes 4 nights a week, leaving us only 3.
That 3 does not give a person enough time to tend to the needs of a guild, nor work on more shard armor with friends or any other in game things with out taking even more time away from us. Yet I tired to balance it out during that month, tried to keep my normal play along with this extra play and it was not working.
This was becoming more like a job than anything else and like a large gapping wound, all the fun was bleeding out. It would takes months before I would see my final updates, and I could not see this situation getting any better, but only worse.
The man who loved me enough to move from the east coast to the west so we could be together was now being placed on the back burner of my life for some game item. Even though he understood, I could no longer take the sadness in his voice. The guild was also being hurt, my lack of attention there was notable, hardly had time to comment or interact with our members,
End of the line:
I told the raid leader my plight and bowed out, I could no longer keep this 3 nights a week up. I might be able to swing 1 night but still not sure if I will be allowed back in for that or left on the “back up list”. I fully understand why raid leaders keep such tight reins on their groups, a raiding group has to be like a well oiled machine in order to fight and win these higher end encounters.
I am a causal player who knows how to raid but will not sacrifice my normal life schedule in order to finish this Mythical weapon quest. No in game item is worth it.
Is there a place for causal players to raid in Everquest 2?
That I do not know yet.
If a raiding group is willing to do only 1 night week instead of pushing for 3 or even more, and the people who form this are at least willing to commit to that 1 day, there might still be hope. It is more than just the willing commitment to playing, it is also being prepared to raid. Add in the needed knowledge of a zone and tactics on how best to fight a mob and maybe it would be possible.
So far I have not seen this happen, and I can now understand why people seek out other well established raiding guilds and groups to pay them for a spot into the higher end tier fights, VS, Over King, Leviathan and VP. I know I would if I had the plat to spend just so I would not be faced with months on end of raiding nights, because I want to spend my time else where instead of turning something fun and enjoyable into another job.
