Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty
of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is
already defeated.
Sun Tsu
The Art of War
I've heard horror story after horror story about Uqua, but I found that I rather enjoyed the challenge of the zone and loved the effect it had on my guild. The MOBs in Uqua, on their own are not so hard really, the various AOEs and effects not so bad, the zone topography rather unremarkable. When you combine all those things, you wind up with the most unforgiving ground I have ever encountered in Everquest, or any other MMO. Its really not that the zone itself is so hard, it is that it provides you with so many opportunities to defeat yourself. One ill-timed mistake by one member that would go unnoticed elsewhere can snowball in to a wipe and CR with astounding speed. It is a challenging and demanding raid, one that can only be won by pulling together as a team and making virtually no mistakes.
From the first pulls of the evening, we knew that this could be the night. Pullers were working flawlessly, keeping perfect pace with the raids ability to kill. The tanking crew was working like the brutesquad of old, debuffers and healers were on the money, DPS was putting stuff down fast. We had all the right tools, we were making no mistakes, but could we sustain it ?
Our pace rarely slowed, the Rage and Fury of Trushar fell to us with barely a whimper and we regrouped to start pulling the traps towards Barxt. It was all smooth sailing, but Uqua is afterall, Uqua. One tiny miscalculation and one MOB became 3, became 5, became 10 and within a few seconds, nearly all of us were at our bindpoints. Fortunately a necro had gotten down and we were able to recover, we continued undaunted, perhaps even a little thankful for the reminder of how quickly things can go wrong.
Soon only a single doorway stood between us and Vrex Barxt Qurat. We regrouped a little, rebuffed and took a quick break to regain our focus. Soon the fight was on, the golem was pulled but 3 clerics were down before we had him fully controlled, far from an ideal start ! DPS teams kicked in to overdrive, dispatching the golem and starting on Barxt. All the trouble we'd had on our previous attempts with Barxt and his adds never seemed to materialize this time, Barxt fell, barely seeming to put a fight.
<img src=http://www.eternalsovereign.net/pix/barxtdead.jpg>
Since I'm on a Haiku kick lately
Barxt died to ES
Victory nearly flawless
Congratulations!
<img src=http://www.eternalsovereign.net/pix/barxtguild.jpg>
