Feldon 
This week, we’ve heard things crashing and crumbling down from all directions in the EQ2 community, so it was easy to miss an in-game barrier being shattered. We’re talking of course about the Plane of War!
On August 25, 2011, Game Update 61 arrived, bringing with it the challenging Drunder and the War of Zek which rages inside it. It has taken six months for the first raid guild to clear the towers of Sullon, Tallon, and finally Vallon Zek on challenge mode, and thus unlocking the Plane of War on the Antonia Bayle server.
We took a moment last Tuesday to speak with Arabel, leader of the Equilibrium guild about this accomplishment. This interview was written on Tuesday, but then held back due to all the ProSiebenSat news so it would not get drowned out. Anyway, read on for a glimpse into what it takes to be a world-first raid guild.
EQ2Wire: For those who are unfamiliar, please tell us about yourself and what is your history with previous guilds before leading Equilibrium?
Arabel: I’ve been in game since 2004, and raiding since the Splitpaw adventure pack. Like most people I just slowly worked myself up through guilds over time as my original main, a Wizard named Arabel. I started out on Faydark, going through a few guilds. Clan of Shadows and Eternal Chaos in EoF when I really started to get in to raiding. I then went to Saints of Norrath, and not long after to Second Dawn, also during EoF. I was an officer when we merged and made Confirmed. I left Confirmed when my life changed and I couldn’t raid, I also sold Arabel on the Bazaar at the time to make a little extra money. I couldn’t quit though, and ended up playing around on my SK and Templar is some PST guilds on Oasis.
Arabel: Then we made Hallowed Wrath on Mistmoore, where I was also an officer. That guild did okay for it’s time, but after a while I decided it was time for me to run a guild where I could make all the decisions, and so Equilibrium was born at the end of TSO. Everything is history since, with a lot world firsts including things like Master Yael, Sullon, Tallon, and Vallon. Lots of history, but like everyone else it just took time playing the game, learning mechanics, and working my way up. Over time playing a lot of different classes based on what my guild needs.
EQ2Wire: Your guild recently were the first in the world to defeat Vallon Zek (hard mode). How do you feel about this? Was this a matter of motivation, skill, communication? What finally pushed it over the edge and made it possible?
Arabel: This was definitely one of the more satisfying kills to date, pretty near to Master Yael. It took a lot of communication and small tweaks to our strat as we discovered more and more things that could go wrong. It definitely took people pushing themselves and working together, as the dps requirement is pretty high and there is a lot of moving parts to the encounter. The last set of changes was pretty large, though there is definitely still a random element to this encounter that I hope gets tweaked some.
EQ2Wire: We’ve heard some about “patch kills” where mobs are broken until some known bug is corrected. How often over the last year has your guild been stuck waiting for a bug fix to progress? What’s the general consensus in Equilibrium on the speed of your progression in Velious?
Arabel: This expansion has definitely been the worst with needing patches to kill mobs, especially in Drunder. It really goes to show that not having a Beta with a bunch of guilds to go through the content before it goes live makes a really large difference. Almost every single encounter in Drunder was a case of pull, send in feedback, wait for fix. I understand it from the developer side that you’d rather launch content to hard and tone it down to be correct then too easy so that everyone kills it and you have to beef it up, then stopping half the people. From a player perspective it takes getting used to, and can amount to some frustration, especially in times when those changes get pushed down the priority list and you end up waiting a long time for them.
EQ2Wire: How many hours a week are you raiding these days? What would you say (that I can print!) to folks who say that raiding happens in ‘mom’s basement’? What do you guys do when you’re not raiding?
Arabel: We raid 22 hours a week on a PST schedule (6 hours Sunday, 4 hours Mon-Thur). We have players from all walks of life, working all sorts of different jobs. Sure, we have people going to school that play a lot, and others that only have time to log in for raids. There are plenty of people with families and kids. It’s just people like everywhere else, just these people tend to have a desire to be the best at raiding and want to achieve that. The drive to be the best at their classes and among the top raiders is the only real difference. It’s all about ambition and what you want to do.
EQ2Wire: Have you thought about how Equilibrium will look a year from now? What’s the raiding landscape looking like these days with fewer updates, linear stats, the continued challenge of recruiting when there are so many MMO options?
Arabel: Raiding is always somewhat of a revolving door. The most stable the guild ever was was the 3 months from a little before we got the world first Master Yael to a short period after DoV launch, a time when we didn’t need a single person and didn’t lose anyone. Over the course of DoV a lot of people have come and go, and some even come back. Most people from a year ago wouldn’t recognize the guild today. That is just what raiding is, a constant challenge of keeping people. Especially with the slower pace of content development.
EQ2Wire: Are you looking forward to EverQuest Next?
Arabel: I honestly can’t say if I’ll play EQNext or not. I’m sure I’ll probably try it, but like most new MMO’s I have a feeling it just won’t draw me in. It always feels like the companies get a goal in their heads but never truly achieve anything that keeps the player actually playing.
EQ2Wire: We’ve been told to expect more Velious content in April. Are you or your guild familiar with any of those original Scars of Velious raid zones? If so, which are you most looking forward to?
Arabel: I didn’t play the original Everquest, so I can’t really say what might be coming. New content is always exciting to look forward to, because you never know what you might you might get.
EQ2Wire: Will Equilibrium be making an appearance at Fan Faire this October?
Arabel: I think I might have to make another appearance this year. Who knows who might show up! Vegas is always a fun place to have an excuse to go to.
EQ2Wire: Thanks for your time! Do you have any final thoughts?
Arabel: Just a hope that we get an expansions worth of content in April, it feels vastly over due! Thanks for your time and interest!
I did ask Arabel about the ProSiebenSat deal and although Equilibrium does not currently have any EU-based players, they have in the past. He expressed surprise at SOE’s decision to region lock a game which has been out for so long.
Congratulations to Equilibrium!
Title Art courtesy Rixan
Nice article 🙂
And as Arabel says, I hope there is an expansion worth of content in April 😉
Congrats to you all!
completely obsolete interview.
It was to be published on Tuesday, but then there was this other news you might have heard of involving ProSiebenSat?
Equilibrium on Antonia Bayle cleared Vallon HM WW #1
Validus on Splitpaw cleared Vallon HM WW #2
Revelations on Butcherblock cleared Vallon HM WW #3
Validus on Splitpaw cleared Vallon HM WW #2.
Validus on Splitpaw cleared Vallon HM WW #2
Wow. Talk about bittersweet.
I am glad to read something that is purely related to game play. Thanks Feldon.
Yes, I should have just binned the interview as soon as a 2nd guild beat it, right?
Just ignore the idiots, Feldon. It was a good interview.
Awesome to hear that guilds are pushing into PoW. Thanks for holding off on posting this until that ProSiebanSat stuff had calmed down, it was a pleasure to hear something good coming for once in a few weeks.
Nice interview, and congrats to Equilibrium! (Agreed that it’s nice to hear some good news.)
Yes, it is good to hear some good news. COngrats to all of those guilds that got the first, second, and third kills. Curious as to how fast it might have happened if SoE would have been quicker solving broken or bugged issues.
My eyes literally bugged outta my head when I read the raiding times. That is some serious committment. I dont think my eyeballs or my ass could handle it, never mind the fact that I have go to work and make a living for me and my fammily.
“We raid 22 hours a week on a PST schedule (6 hours Sunday, 4 hours Mon-Thur). We have players from all walks of life, working all sorts of different jobs. Sure, we have people going to school that play a lot”
Lol. People in school that play a lot? Sounds like you all do.
It’s great to hear that Guild’s are still progressing through content and are committed to it, especially with the news of late! Congrats all round!! 😀
Arabel knows his stuff without a doubt.
He was being pretty nice in that article 😛
Grats Equilibrium!
Let loose the boars of war?!!
Interesting article, nice job, and grats to Equilibrium, Validus, and Revelations for a major accomplishment.
It is quite a few hours, but I know others who put that kind of time into a hobby. It too excessive for me, though.
Ya theres nothing wrong with playing that much, but its kind of strange saying people with jobs ONLY log in for raids. 22 hours of raids is more then i play a week and i dont even raid lol.
I raid 12 hours a week, certainly not competing for ww rankings, but you can see and do alot of eq2 content with a 9-12 hr / week raiding schedule.
My guild runs multiple raid forces, and we have raiders who play less than 6 hours / wk and still raid and have cleared all EM content.
Stereotypes about raiding are largely unfounded.
Hehe good read. Grats Equilibrium and Validus.
@Atan
You’re right you can get a lot of content done, we only raids 14 hours a week in Revelations.
@ Daniel “Lol. People in school that play a lot? Sounds like you all do.”
Most people that call themselves casual on my friends list and tell me that they don’t have time for HM raiding, are usually logged on for more then I am.
I raid officially 9 hours a week, back in the EQ1 days – my late days were pretty hard core – 6 days a week and often over 5 hours per raid – often raided close to 36 hours a week.
I’m not saying thats suggested – however 22 hours isn’t all that bad for that kind of success level.
@Atan
Yeah, we’re only a couple mobs off the pace raiding less than 10h/week.
Nice interview – tak!
And thanks to Arabels guild for contributing to a lot af the class forums on Eq2flames, those forums would be rather bleak without your dedicated players contributions 🙂
I guess 10 hours a week is the difference between 1st WW and 3rd WW. I’ll stick with 12 hours a week thank you hehe.
Great interview! Good thing I wasn’t interviewed about DoV.
I have been lied to enough, as have my friends. So good bye to anything that has the name sony on it.
Thanks for the post Feldon! Great interview, and I agree…this week was a better time to post it 🙂