TeyaBrosna
02-22-2011, 11:45 AM
The Khally Project Weekly Challenge: The First VoN.
Khallyope, the Rogue 1/Ranger 13 Elven Arcane Archer, has completed the Vault of Night raid.
...almost.
The challenge I set for myself three weeks ago has finally come to fruition, thanks to my new guild. One of my new guildies, a gentleman I shall refer to as “Santa,” volunteered to lead us. Santa has written guides about this raid and really knows his stuff.
Surrounded by guildie compatriots and led by a bastion of patience and knowledge, we blew through VoN 5 with the speed of a tortoise after his crack high has worn off. All hail and mad props to Santa (a.k.a. Tharlor the Dwarf), who explained every step, every fight, every control box, every puzzle with perseverance, cogency and clarity. The game is a better place because of players like you, Saint Nick. It took a while, but you only get the chance to experience something for the first time once, and this group was determined that no one would be left behind. There were at least three of us who were seeing it all for the very first time, and we certainly appreciated that kind of exquisite care.
Wifey the Wizard, Clancie the Cleric and I were gently led through this pre-raid, and now SO very much of what we'd read about it makes sense. I'm terribly anxious to run it again, just so that I can have the opportunity to put my new-found knowledge to the test.
We pulled levers, spun wheels, killed zombies and constructs and generally listened quietly and went dutifully where we were told. A couple of people were apparently instructed to swim in the red pools, and they performed these tasks admirably. (I was not one of these people, fortunately.) No one freaked out at the deaths though, and that was the part that was most laudable, in my humble opinion. We had two TRs in the group, so we performed VoN 5 on Hard mode, which *did* make me sweat a bit at first, but I needn't have worried. Even though they were determined to squeeze every drop of experience out of the quest, they were unbothered by the deaths as everyone was truly doing their best.
When the last boss fell, my girls and I each got over 20k experience. It was *thrilling.* The best was yet to come, however. The center of the room became a portal, and beyond that portal lay...Velah.
I trembled with excitement.
Santa took another couple of minutes to explain what would happen after we entered the portal. Something about 1st base, pillars, hiding behind rocks and disco inferno. GOT IT! Wifey reminded me three times that I'd been assigned to third base, which still completely escaped me the moment we entered the VoN 6 map....because it's *gorgeous!* I couldn't help myself - I had to take a minute to just look around. The group obligingly stood there for a moment, then showed us the hiding spot where it's safe to buff. Then - we were off! Running, running, run-- Oh look! Stuff to fight! PEW PE--
"No, Khally - THIRD BASE!" Wifey reminded me.
"Not this one? Gotcha!" I kept running. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one who was assigned to other bases, so at least I had people to follow. (Sad that I need people to follow even in a map that is essentially one-way.)
Ack, we're being attacked! PEW PEW!! PEWPEPEW!
"That's second base." To her credit, she didn't sound exasperated as much as...resigned.
I ran on. Three of us arrived at what was apparently third base. Fire elementals! Let's GET 'EM!! I could feel the grin on my face as I hurriedly attacked the monsters, still trying to look around for the dragon while not falling off the walkways. (Although I have to confess that I totally wanted to fall off.)
"Okay, hit your pillars - get 'em down to about 10 percent!"
Suddenly, Wifey screamed.
"What happened?!"
"I...I almost killed my pillar. It was an accident. They apparently *really* don't like Disintegrate. I think it's got half an HP left."
I didn't have time to be disturbed by her tone of wonder, the kind of tone that says "Heeyyyyy, I'm *really* quite strong! I bet I could do ANYTHING!!" You know, the kind of tone that every comic book character gets immediately prior to coming the villain? That's the tone she had. But I was busy at the time (much like the heroes always are, hrm...).
Santa arranged the signal and we all finished killing our pillars. And then...what was that? Who said that?! Was it...Velah? IT WAS!
"Where is she, I can't see her!" I shouted.
"EVERYONE - BACK TO THE HIDING SPOT, NOW!" I didn't have time to crane around to find her, it was time to run again. Putting my head down, I dashed back with everyone else, little elven legs and heart pumping with excitement.
MADE IT. I swear I could hear panting over my speakers.
"Alright," Muffin's drawl chimed in. "Let's give Khally a few moments to just appreciate how awesome this view is. Khally...meet Velah. And she's terribly excited to meet you!"
...and there she was.
This was the moment I'd been waiting for for *days* - nay, weeks! - now. Eight months of dungeons and now finally, the dragon. My brain refused to work properly. The entire group fell silent and I felt like I really should say something profound or eloquent...were they waiting on me to do that? I had a horrible feeling they were. They'd arranged this VoN trip specifically so that my girls and I could get to this moment....but I was robbed of speech. The fertile phrases which awaken me each morning and send me dashing to my computer had fled, and in their place was left nothing but a hollow, echoing void.
I *may* have whispered "Oh, my god." Can't remember exactly.
What I DO remember is standing there in a clump of pixel-based humanity and seeing her in the distance, majestically floating up and down...her movements dictated by the force of the deadly fireballs she was hurling at us. Fortunately, the others had been correct - we were perfectly safe hiding behind this rock. She didn't appear to be willing to move out of that central circle to chase us (thank goodness!), while I, on the other hand, was PERFECTLY willing to stay safe behind that rock indefinitely.
"No fire attacks, guys! Everyone ready? Casters, follow me and I'll show you where to stand. LET'S GO!"
"Oh, my god!" That time it was Wifey. We exchanged tense but thrilled looks, then ducked our chins and RAN. I was not the only one of the group whose enthusiasm was pumping - I heard battle cries echoing all over. My grin got wider and wider. As we got closer to Velah, I began to truly appreciate how BIG she is. From our safe vantage point, she'd been beautiful certainly, but impressive in the way that the Grand Canyon is in postcards - pretty, but essentially 3.5 inches by 5 inches.
"Melees, what you're gonna want to do is essentially stand under her chin and whack her on the head as hard as you possibly can. When you see little wisps of smoke coming out of her nostrils, run back behind the rocks where the casters are. That's a sign that she's readying her inferno attack and we WON'T survive that."
Stand under her chin and whack her on the head?! I'd never been so incredibly grateful for being an archer as I was at that moment. The casters were in place, the melees headed toward the danger zone, and I... Well, I have to admit that I took an extra few moments to just watch it all unfold. Standing with the casters, I waved what was certainly a final farewell to our brave infantry.
I saw Clancie dashing out from cover to bravely throw heals and Wifey rolled sideways a couple of times to toss out some negative energy. Taking a deep breath, I strafed sideways into the hot zone and began ManyShotting. I may or may not have actually hit the dragon with any of my arrows. If I did, the damage numbers must've been off the top of my screen. Within a couple of seconds however, that became an issue of far lesser importance than the fact that suddenly all of the melee fighters were rushing STRAIGHT at me, yelling "RUN! SHE'S GONNA INFERNO!"
Hurling myself back towards the casters, I clung to a handsome bard and buried my face.
DING! DING! DING!
Not everyone had made it. "Lag!" Someone wailed.
"It's alright, gimme a sec and I'll get you up," one of the clerics called out.
Santa took a deep breath and reassured us that the situation was salvageable. "This happens sometimes, don't sweat it, guys."
I *was* sweating, I couldn't help myself. One of those melees who had gone down had had like a million HP and he'd been dead in a skinny minute. Our two heroic clerics kept an eye on each other and headed out the moment the inferno was over, rezzing the melees. One melee up, two...
"Somebody get over there and start hitting her!" For the first time, I heard the faintest note of discomfort in Santa’s voice. What was happening? WAIT - I'm hurt! MEDIC! MEDIC! Every tick, all of us were taking damage - how is Velah doing that?! To this day, I don't know. In retrospect, Santa had been trying to tell us that that particular attack can only be avoided by actively meleeing the dragon. I squinted into the distance to see if the newly-alive melees were smacking her around again.
"I'm on her!" I heard someone shout.
"Comin' in with heals," someone else chimed in.
"PEW PEW! PEWPEWPEW!" Thank goodness I didn't actually depress my PTT button when I screamed that.
"Inferno incoming! INFER- NOO!!"
DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!
And just like that, we had a winner. Velah.
For a few moments, no one spoke. We'd come all that way only to fail.
"Well guys," Santa finally spoke. "Honestly, we did great. That happens sometimes - she's a tough cookie." His relaxed attitude seemed to release the tide of everyone's excitement. My speakers will filled with overlapping comments.
"Did you see that!" "I lagged!" "****, she's big!" "HORC!!"
"Let's all gather around," Muffin said, giggling. "I gotta get a picture of this."
It was a fantastic idea and was greeting with uproarious approval. Twelve ghosts posed in front of Velah, who was still happily floating above the central circle. We giggled and snapped pics. The leader reassured us again that we'd all done just fine and good news! Since we didn't complete the raid, we could do it all over again whenever we wanted! At any other time, that kind of suggestion might have been greeted with groans and moans, but not that night. I wasn't the only person who was perfectly willing to repeat it all RIGHT then.
We didn't end up repeating VoN that night. It was late by the time Velah finished with us and real life called several of us away. We finished out, repaired our gear and went our separate ways. It's taken me two days of thinking about what happened that night to finally record it all, not because it had been so very complicated but because that quest deserves respect and reflection.
To the development team, I salute you. Velah is a masterpiece, powerful and beautiful. To my raid team, I raise my glass. In true St. Crispin's fashion, we can all meet in taverns for years to come now and compare the scars Velah gave us that night and chuckle over our collective demise. We'll pull out the pictures we took, point and laugh at how silly we looked, posing like that. There will be no shame in the fact that we technically failed. We worked together, followed instructions and did our best. Most importantly however, we had a BALL.
Taking a closer look at my copy of the 'death by dragon' picture, I squint to see some of the finer details. (Well, I kinda have to...it's all gray-toned.) There I am, grinning like a fool. There's Clancie, tired but happy. Wifey is off to one side, crossing her arms and giving a charming lop-sided smile. And...what's this? It could be a trick of the poor lighting, but I could swear that Velah herself is smiling. Just a little. A small, knowing smile...really just one side of her lips curled up. "You'll be back," that smile says.
And I most definitely will. :)
Khallyope, the Rogue 1/Ranger 13 Elven Arcane Archer, has completed the Vault of Night raid.
...almost.
The challenge I set for myself three weeks ago has finally come to fruition, thanks to my new guild. One of my new guildies, a gentleman I shall refer to as “Santa,” volunteered to lead us. Santa has written guides about this raid and really knows his stuff.
Surrounded by guildie compatriots and led by a bastion of patience and knowledge, we blew through VoN 5 with the speed of a tortoise after his crack high has worn off. All hail and mad props to Santa (a.k.a. Tharlor the Dwarf), who explained every step, every fight, every control box, every puzzle with perseverance, cogency and clarity. The game is a better place because of players like you, Saint Nick. It took a while, but you only get the chance to experience something for the first time once, and this group was determined that no one would be left behind. There were at least three of us who were seeing it all for the very first time, and we certainly appreciated that kind of exquisite care.
Wifey the Wizard, Clancie the Cleric and I were gently led through this pre-raid, and now SO very much of what we'd read about it makes sense. I'm terribly anxious to run it again, just so that I can have the opportunity to put my new-found knowledge to the test.
We pulled levers, spun wheels, killed zombies and constructs and generally listened quietly and went dutifully where we were told. A couple of people were apparently instructed to swim in the red pools, and they performed these tasks admirably. (I was not one of these people, fortunately.) No one freaked out at the deaths though, and that was the part that was most laudable, in my humble opinion. We had two TRs in the group, so we performed VoN 5 on Hard mode, which *did* make me sweat a bit at first, but I needn't have worried. Even though they were determined to squeeze every drop of experience out of the quest, they were unbothered by the deaths as everyone was truly doing their best.
When the last boss fell, my girls and I each got over 20k experience. It was *thrilling.* The best was yet to come, however. The center of the room became a portal, and beyond that portal lay...Velah.
I trembled with excitement.
Santa took another couple of minutes to explain what would happen after we entered the portal. Something about 1st base, pillars, hiding behind rocks and disco inferno. GOT IT! Wifey reminded me three times that I'd been assigned to third base, which still completely escaped me the moment we entered the VoN 6 map....because it's *gorgeous!* I couldn't help myself - I had to take a minute to just look around. The group obligingly stood there for a moment, then showed us the hiding spot where it's safe to buff. Then - we were off! Running, running, run-- Oh look! Stuff to fight! PEW PE--
"No, Khally - THIRD BASE!" Wifey reminded me.
"Not this one? Gotcha!" I kept running. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one who was assigned to other bases, so at least I had people to follow. (Sad that I need people to follow even in a map that is essentially one-way.)
Ack, we're being attacked! PEW PEW!! PEWPEPEW!
"That's second base." To her credit, she didn't sound exasperated as much as...resigned.
I ran on. Three of us arrived at what was apparently third base. Fire elementals! Let's GET 'EM!! I could feel the grin on my face as I hurriedly attacked the monsters, still trying to look around for the dragon while not falling off the walkways. (Although I have to confess that I totally wanted to fall off.)
"Okay, hit your pillars - get 'em down to about 10 percent!"
Suddenly, Wifey screamed.
"What happened?!"
"I...I almost killed my pillar. It was an accident. They apparently *really* don't like Disintegrate. I think it's got half an HP left."
I didn't have time to be disturbed by her tone of wonder, the kind of tone that says "Heeyyyyy, I'm *really* quite strong! I bet I could do ANYTHING!!" You know, the kind of tone that every comic book character gets immediately prior to coming the villain? That's the tone she had. But I was busy at the time (much like the heroes always are, hrm...).
Santa arranged the signal and we all finished killing our pillars. And then...what was that? Who said that?! Was it...Velah? IT WAS!
"Where is she, I can't see her!" I shouted.
"EVERYONE - BACK TO THE HIDING SPOT, NOW!" I didn't have time to crane around to find her, it was time to run again. Putting my head down, I dashed back with everyone else, little elven legs and heart pumping with excitement.
MADE IT. I swear I could hear panting over my speakers.
"Alright," Muffin's drawl chimed in. "Let's give Khally a few moments to just appreciate how awesome this view is. Khally...meet Velah. And she's terribly excited to meet you!"
...and there she was.
This was the moment I'd been waiting for for *days* - nay, weeks! - now. Eight months of dungeons and now finally, the dragon. My brain refused to work properly. The entire group fell silent and I felt like I really should say something profound or eloquent...were they waiting on me to do that? I had a horrible feeling they were. They'd arranged this VoN trip specifically so that my girls and I could get to this moment....but I was robbed of speech. The fertile phrases which awaken me each morning and send me dashing to my computer had fled, and in their place was left nothing but a hollow, echoing void.
I *may* have whispered "Oh, my god." Can't remember exactly.
What I DO remember is standing there in a clump of pixel-based humanity and seeing her in the distance, majestically floating up and down...her movements dictated by the force of the deadly fireballs she was hurling at us. Fortunately, the others had been correct - we were perfectly safe hiding behind this rock. She didn't appear to be willing to move out of that central circle to chase us (thank goodness!), while I, on the other hand, was PERFECTLY willing to stay safe behind that rock indefinitely.
"No fire attacks, guys! Everyone ready? Casters, follow me and I'll show you where to stand. LET'S GO!"
"Oh, my god!" That time it was Wifey. We exchanged tense but thrilled looks, then ducked our chins and RAN. I was not the only one of the group whose enthusiasm was pumping - I heard battle cries echoing all over. My grin got wider and wider. As we got closer to Velah, I began to truly appreciate how BIG she is. From our safe vantage point, she'd been beautiful certainly, but impressive in the way that the Grand Canyon is in postcards - pretty, but essentially 3.5 inches by 5 inches.
"Melees, what you're gonna want to do is essentially stand under her chin and whack her on the head as hard as you possibly can. When you see little wisps of smoke coming out of her nostrils, run back behind the rocks where the casters are. That's a sign that she's readying her inferno attack and we WON'T survive that."
Stand under her chin and whack her on the head?! I'd never been so incredibly grateful for being an archer as I was at that moment. The casters were in place, the melees headed toward the danger zone, and I... Well, I have to admit that I took an extra few moments to just watch it all unfold. Standing with the casters, I waved what was certainly a final farewell to our brave infantry.
I saw Clancie dashing out from cover to bravely throw heals and Wifey rolled sideways a couple of times to toss out some negative energy. Taking a deep breath, I strafed sideways into the hot zone and began ManyShotting. I may or may not have actually hit the dragon with any of my arrows. If I did, the damage numbers must've been off the top of my screen. Within a couple of seconds however, that became an issue of far lesser importance than the fact that suddenly all of the melee fighters were rushing STRAIGHT at me, yelling "RUN! SHE'S GONNA INFERNO!"
Hurling myself back towards the casters, I clung to a handsome bard and buried my face.
DING! DING! DING!
Not everyone had made it. "Lag!" Someone wailed.
"It's alright, gimme a sec and I'll get you up," one of the clerics called out.
Santa took a deep breath and reassured us that the situation was salvageable. "This happens sometimes, don't sweat it, guys."
I *was* sweating, I couldn't help myself. One of those melees who had gone down had had like a million HP and he'd been dead in a skinny minute. Our two heroic clerics kept an eye on each other and headed out the moment the inferno was over, rezzing the melees. One melee up, two...
"Somebody get over there and start hitting her!" For the first time, I heard the faintest note of discomfort in Santa’s voice. What was happening? WAIT - I'm hurt! MEDIC! MEDIC! Every tick, all of us were taking damage - how is Velah doing that?! To this day, I don't know. In retrospect, Santa had been trying to tell us that that particular attack can only be avoided by actively meleeing the dragon. I squinted into the distance to see if the newly-alive melees were smacking her around again.
"I'm on her!" I heard someone shout.
"Comin' in with heals," someone else chimed in.
"PEW PEW! PEWPEWPEW!" Thank goodness I didn't actually depress my PTT button when I screamed that.
"Inferno incoming! INFER- NOO!!"
DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!
And just like that, we had a winner. Velah.
For a few moments, no one spoke. We'd come all that way only to fail.
"Well guys," Santa finally spoke. "Honestly, we did great. That happens sometimes - she's a tough cookie." His relaxed attitude seemed to release the tide of everyone's excitement. My speakers will filled with overlapping comments.
"Did you see that!" "I lagged!" "****, she's big!" "HORC!!"
"Let's all gather around," Muffin said, giggling. "I gotta get a picture of this."
It was a fantastic idea and was greeting with uproarious approval. Twelve ghosts posed in front of Velah, who was still happily floating above the central circle. We giggled and snapped pics. The leader reassured us again that we'd all done just fine and good news! Since we didn't complete the raid, we could do it all over again whenever we wanted! At any other time, that kind of suggestion might have been greeted with groans and moans, but not that night. I wasn't the only person who was perfectly willing to repeat it all RIGHT then.
We didn't end up repeating VoN that night. It was late by the time Velah finished with us and real life called several of us away. We finished out, repaired our gear and went our separate ways. It's taken me two days of thinking about what happened that night to finally record it all, not because it had been so very complicated but because that quest deserves respect and reflection.
To the development team, I salute you. Velah is a masterpiece, powerful and beautiful. To my raid team, I raise my glass. In true St. Crispin's fashion, we can all meet in taverns for years to come now and compare the scars Velah gave us that night and chuckle over our collective demise. We'll pull out the pictures we took, point and laugh at how silly we looked, posing like that. There will be no shame in the fact that we technically failed. We worked together, followed instructions and did our best. Most importantly however, we had a BALL.
Taking a closer look at my copy of the 'death by dragon' picture, I squint to see some of the finer details. (Well, I kinda have to...it's all gray-toned.) There I am, grinning like a fool. There's Clancie, tired but happy. Wifey is off to one side, crossing her arms and giving a charming lop-sided smile. And...what's this? It could be a trick of the poor lighting, but I could swear that Velah herself is smiling. Just a little. A small, knowing smile...really just one side of her lips curled up. "You'll be back," that smile says.
And I most definitely will. :)