Called to Participate in Bigger Excursions - Tips, Tricks, and Info for Raiding in EQ

 

RAID!!! Kills bugs dead... err.. gathering a bunch of characters together to take on a much harder target than can be taken with just one group.

In Game Tools

The basics the tools you need to join a raid is in the game: Raid Window, Extended Targets, Chat windows and filtering. 

Raid Window

One of the most important tools for the raid is the raid window. Here are some basics...

Characters can be invited individually by the raid leader or, targeting a group leader, a whole group. If characters are invited individually, they will fist be put into the "Players not in a group" section. The raid leader can swap characters around in the groups by drag and drop. Some who were in groups might be put into the "not in group" holding section of suddenly find themselves in a group of one. Do not despair the raid leader is just working on optimising the make up for the raid.

Raid groups are not like an adventure group. If there is only one bard, for example, to best utilize that sweet mana regen songs, there might be a group that is all clerics or other healers with a bard since healing on a raid is one of the top priorities. There will also be the main tank group that is usually maximized for the benefit of keeping the main tank alive and able to keep agro. The rest of the groups are damage, which is important, but without the main tank and healers staying up, they're not going to be able to do much damage. When possible, there will be at least one healer in each damage group, usually a druid, and even a bard. But. it all depends on who shows up. 

If you find yourself in a group without those classes to maximize your own damage. Take a look at how many of each class are on the raid and if there are enough of those to go around. If one is in the main tank group or a healer group, consider the importance of keeping the main (and off) tank alive so you can do your damage. It's better for the whole raid to achieve the objective, taking down the boss or mini-bosses, than it is for you to be highest on the parse. If you die on a raid and you're not the main tank or a healer, you might also might not get a rez right away. Keeping everyone else alive will generally take precedence. 

Since the raid window shows you everyone's classes, if you're ins a support role in a damage group, such as a bard in a mage/wizard/necro group, consider how you can shift your spells/songs to maximize your group. Bards have buffs for melee and magic user. In a magic user damage group, the melee songs are less important than boosting the magic user damage.  

Like the guild window, there is a DUMP buttom which will 'dump' the contents, the list of characters, levels, classes, etc. into a text file. The contents of the text file can be copied into a spreadsheet for easy viewing. 

Extended Target Window (Xtar)

The Extended Target is for more than just showing how many things are hitting you or your group, it can also be used to set targets of all types which can then be clicked in the Window to target then or put into a macro with /xtar #.

Right-click on one of the slots in the ET window to bring up the menu of options. 

Using Current Target, Healers can set the slots in the window for specific characters. Target the character you want to be in the target slot and select Current Target to set the slot to that character. Example, the cleric in group 2 needs to monitor the health of the tank in group 1. The cleric targets the tank and then clicks Current Target. The targeted tank and their health/mana/endurance will appear in the window. Later, when the tank is being hit, the cleric just as to click them in the Extended Targets and heal. Healers can also use the roles (Puller, Group Tank, Group Assist, etc) if the group role tags are used.

Using one of the Raid Assist # Target options for one or more slots, damage dealers can make sure they're only targeting the current designated target which helps both to focus damage and to not break crowd control.

Sometimes a raid leader will want to have specific targets "marked" which can, as an example, help monitor the health of a boss while taking down the adds without the need to click back and forth.

Auto will display all the mobs that are currently agro'ed on your raid. 

Player Agro Percent will show the percent of the agro you have on the target in that slot.

The Extended Target window is not just for raids. This might give you a few hints on how to make it useful for all your adventuring (and een more reason to rejoice with the level 20 unlock of the feature).

AND, recently the ability to save sets what added, so you can have a grouping set, one or more raiding sets, and a solo set, etc. and switch between them with ease. This is similar to the spell gems saved sets. I don't recall the / command added for the Xtar sets. I'll add that when I find it. (Spell gem sets can be swapped with /memspellset [name].)

Macros with the Extended Target Window

You can address any of the slots in the window with /xtar #. Unlike /assist it never turns on your auto attack, so you will also need a line with attack if you use it as a melee damage dealer. AND, like any series of commands, you do need to add brief pauses (that might need to be adjusted depending on lag). 

/pause 4, /xtar 1
/attack

or

/pause 4, /xtar 1
/cast 1
(for a heal spell in the first spell gem)

And so on.  

Talking in Raid 

To talk in raid, type "/rsay" or "/rs" and then when you want to have appear to all others in the raid. If you type "/g" then only your own group in the raid will get the message. 

During the raid, unless you're a raid leader, it's best to keep chatter to a minimum. If you have flavour text on your spells/songs/abilities, it's better to have that in "/emote" or "/em" since most don't have emotes going to the same window. 

You can create a chat window just for specific chat channels to make them easier to see.

Right-click on any chat window and select New Chat Window. Move the window to a location on your screen where you will see it but it doesn't get in the way. 

After you open the new window, right-click on the new window and select Filters then select the chat you want to appear in that window. An star will be by all you selected. I have a window in the upper right side of my screen with all the important things I want to see conversationally especially group, guild, and raid so I don't have to look down. 

You can also have the lines in the window time stamped. If it's quiet, you won't respond to something said 10 mins ago as if it was just said.

Chat size will increase the text size but, until the chat windows are converted the font type can't be changed.

You can also change the colours used by the chat to make it easier to see. Alt-o for options (or the nut icon in the Window Selector) then select Chat. Make the colours work for you.

Under UI is where you will see the "show/hide" for the "Bad Words" and Spam.

You can also have any window 'fade' when it is not in use by using the alpha background transparency adjustments Lock will make it stay in that spot and, with Esc to Close not selected (*) it won't close when you hit the escape button a bunch of times. 

Chat Window for Event Text

You can also create a chat window just for event text to help you see it and react to it. Reacting to events is mostly for later raids (i.e. raids in Planes of Power and later), but you could also use it to filter other specific types of chat (like buffs wearing off)

After you open the new window, right-click on the new window and select Filters then Event Messages. Now all the NPC emote events, like "Venril Sathir focuses his intent on Vyxy" will display in that window and nothing else. 

Special Considerations (Levels, AC, Resists, etc.)

In Classic, you might not need to focus as much on minimum AC and resists, but these do become very important later. You might even have a set of armor specifically for certain encounters which might not be the best for your damage output but will be important for your survivability. A dead character does zero DPS. Pay attention to pre-raid information from the leaders to increase your survivability.

All Planes (Hate, Fear, Sky, and all that come later, except Plane of Knowledge) require a minimum level of 46. If you're on a raid and you die and delevel, you won't be able to be rezzed in the Plane nor can you reenter. Since we no longer leave equipment on the corpse, the good news is that you won't lose your gear because you cannot reenter. However, it's still better to have a "cusion" of experience when going to a plane rather than just barely dinged 46.

Some encounters, especially in later expansions, require reacting to events such as moving to a particular location when the Boss Mob says something. Like running out of a room when "Venril Sathir focuses his intent.." on you. Paying attention and reacting quickly can be the difference between the whole raid being stunned or just you. Don't worry, you won't need lightning-fast twitch reflexes, just pay attention to pre-raid instructions and to the events in the raid itself. 

Entering a Raid Location

In modern EQ, on both the TLPs and Live, there are two types of raids: Open world (OW) contested and Dynamic Zone (DZ) instanced. 

For an OW raid, you enter the zone with the raid target(s) and look for them to be available. Each raid boss (and mini-boss) has it's own spawn cycle some of which are many days long which means it might be dead when you were planning to attack it. The methods to reach the Classic Planes open world differ between the three zones.

• Plane of Fear is a massive portal in a hidden cave off the Feerrott. You simply "jump" through the portal. To leave, you simply jump back out of the portal (kinda like Stargate!)
• Plane of Sky requires a wizard port to get to the first island and then either bought or dropped keys to get to the others. To leave, simply fall off the side and land in the Freeport bay. 
• Plane of Hate also requires a wizard port. But... to leave you need to be ported to a different location, Gate, or Origin. 

For a DZ, in the early expansions after the raid leader has 'set' the zone by hailing the applicable Agent of Change (AoC) and answering their questions, each member of the raid will need to target the AoC and say "Ready". For a bit of roleplaying flair, you can put the word ready into any sentence and it will still work. I amuse myself with saying "I'm not sure I'm ready" and whoosh I'm sent. (The trigger word might be different for some raids and DZ missions in later expansions.)

NOTE: Make sure you're not invisible in any way and that you are "say"ing the trigger word and not telling it to your group (i.e. you're on a chat box with an 'always talk here" filter). A quick way for casters to make sure they're not invisible is to cast a benign spell like a buff with yourself targeted. Those without spells can turn on their auto-attack with themselves targeted. Either will break IVU which doesn't have a visual indicator (and the icon can be lost in the sea of buffs).

Lockout Timer

Since OW targets are on a spawn cycle, there is no Lockout Timer on them. If you encounter the mob in the open world, it can be killed by you at any time.

All DZ have a Lockout timer of 1 week. On Oakwynd the lockout is on the character. Elsewhere it is on the account. 

Live

For some of the epic targets, there is "a harbinger" who can be hailed by the one who is on the epic quest to spawn a special version of the target that will only drop the specific item(s) needed by that class for the epic quest. These are not on any TLP. 

Extra Tools (out of game)

To enhance communication, voice chat is often used because it's easier to speak than type fast while also swinging that virtual sword or casting all those spells. Generally, you would only need to be able to hear the voice channel during the raid so the leaders can give directions, but you would not need to speak yourself.

Discord

For most, you can use Discord on the same computer with Everquest to run in the background while the game is running.  Alternatively, you can use Discord on your phone. 

Configuring Voice settings on Windows

While you aren't required to use a mic and talk in the voice channel, you still want to configure this for a possible future day. Push to Talk is the preferred method for input since the mic is only turned on when you want to say something and off the rest of the time.

1. Click on the gear near your name in the lower left corner to open the User Settings. 

 2. Scroll down to the Voice and Video, select Push to Talk as the Input Mode, and select a key on your keyboard you want to use to trigger the mic, preferably a key you are unlikely to hit except when you want to. With this setting you control when your mic is "hot". It will not activate if there is any noise around you. Even if you have your mic muted or disabled, this setting can help prevent stray noises from your setup. (Just remember what key you set as your 'push'.) Escape will save the settings.

3. Back out at the main screen, next to your name, there is are icons of a mic and a headphone. Click on the mic icon to mute or unmute your mic. Muting your mic -and- setting the push to talk will ensure you're using voice only when you want. 

Muting the mic also shows as an icon on Discord to alert others your mic is completely disabled. If you don't have a mic or don't want to speak in the channel at all, make sure the mute is on. 

Joining the Voice Channel on Windows

Now you're ready to join the voice channel for the raid. In the Discord menu for Call of Nature, click on the channel designated for the raid.

[pic coming]

At the bottom, just above your name, you should see "Voice Connected in green. There will be a list of those who are currently in the channel listed under the channel name. If some are not raiding on their "Main" the names in the channel might differ from those in game, but most will likely be the same. 

To disconnect from the voice chat, click the icon of a phone headset with an X. 

I suggest going through the rest of the User Settings for Discord and possibly even reading their documentation on how to set other items. 

You can generally keep Discord minimized or in the background during a raid.

Joining Voice on phone

On Android (the phone I have), if you do not see the server icons on the left side (i.e. you've been chatting with a friend), look  for three lines in the upper left corner. This should take you to the server selection.

1. As above look for the Raid voice channel for Call of Nature.
2. You may get a pop-up asking you to Allow Discord to record audio. Allow this.
3. At the bottom of your screen you will need to click the "Join Voice" button.
4. If you don't have "push to talk" configured, you will get a notice it's required but it will join you to the chat with your mic muted. 
   
5. You will see bubbles of all those in the chat channel.
   
6. To leave, tap the middle of the screen to bring up the bottom menu for the channel and click the phone headset with X icon.
   

Log Parsers (optional)

Some players like using log parsing applications during raids that can give you audible triggers and/or crunch the stats to give a DPS rate. These applications are entirely optional for Call of Nature events. Applications that ONLY read the log file and do not change anything in the Everquest files or interrupt the game's client/server communication are acceptable to both Daybreak and Call of Nature. Applications that change the game files or intercept/alter the communication stream are not. GINA is an example of a log parser. 

Have FUN!

Raiding can be stressful, true, but it can also be exhilarating and fun. Working together with many other people, more than just one group, to bring down a BIG BAD (or just attempt to) can be an adrenaline rush unlike normal grouping and definitely unlike soloing. You need to rely on other people doing their part as well as doing your own. 

If there is a game event planned, try your best to be on-time for the assembly so the raid can be started on-time and be courteous and mindful of the rest of the raid. 

Communicate with others of your same class on the raid during the assembly time. There are spells, songs, and abilities that when done in rotation or in conjunction with each other pack a bigger punch. 

If you're a support class, like a bard (hey that's me!), don't worry so much about your own parse, strive to pump up the jam on everyone else's. If the raid wipes, it really doesn't matter that you "topped the parse". 

What really matters most of all is that you all worked together to bring down that BIG BAD.