JoJangles on 30/7/2002 at 01:47
/chuckle
That's such a big misconception on your part that it's funny, no offence, of course, that opinion is shared by litterally thousands of people outside the raiding circle(though I know not what your experience in raiding is...) Truly, an average raid for my guild(per mob, not day(my guild kills 3+ big mobs per night on average, usually limited by what's up)) lasts roughly 45 minutes... We're not that selective on who raids with us on a single raid, but to get into our raiding pool takes a certain degree of knowing people... basically if I wanted my buddy to raid, it'd more or less be my rear on the line, besides that, the only requirement in general on any of our raids is to be 55+(for ToV raids, you have to have 100 + fire and cold resists, as well as not being KoS to CoV) This means that an 'average' player with some decent time invested in EQ(It took me one month to get to 50, and it takes about 2-3 days per level for 50-55 for me playing... a lot, which means you can play casually (1, 2 or 3 hours a day, a few days a week) and make 55 within a few months or so (do your own math).
This means that quite a lot of people can raid, but you just got to have that 'friend' to get your foot in the door, for my guild, and a few others on my server.
Kunark dragons, fear, hate, low velious mobs, all these can be done by middle tier guilds with a bit of experience and organization... from then... well, my guild went from not being able to do Gorenaire, Talendor and the like in November to doing Yelinak/Sontalak/Cazic Thule/Rumblecrush in July..( Though that's a bit decieving, as we had an incredibly experienced group of individuals before then who had been on raids with the big guilds on my server and knew what they were doing, but even still)
Essentially, the option of raiding is available to anyone, you just have to grab the golden ring.(Of course, if you have a bad reputation on the server, odds are one of the 40 people(on average during a raid) in the guildchat will know you, personally or by reputation, and easily put down any chance of raiding with my guild. =)
Getting to know members in my guild is quite easy, we're friendly, jovial, and often childish, but we're a good group of people who make friends easy, other guilds on my server share this.(Though others don't, but since they're 'stealing MY mobs' I'm a bit biased.) So it doesn't require much time... In fact many of our members raid only a few times a week, so that's only a few hours, and we've never demanded they get above 55 for any raids(however when our main enchanter left, we demanded our second chanter get to 60 for KEI =) For raiding guests, we ask that they raid a bit (like 5 times a week) but we're not nazitisical(maybe a word) about it...
AS for getting to 55, a bit of planning and asking smart experienced people can make it 'alot' easier(as well as making friends with those smart experienced people, who should be in a raiding guild!!) and while 'hitting the grind' of leveling isn't that fun, raiding is a real blast, and you make friends etc(besides, you can impress totally hot chicks with your knowledge of dragons and giants and various luclin mobs /wink wink)
For those who don't share my fervor and love for the raid itself, because my guild does vindi for 'faction' now(19 times or so I think) we're essentially giving this item:
Inline Image:
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/equipment/graphics15/Chestplate_of_Vindication.jpgto people who may or may not use it, as we have so many(16 I think, he's dropped boots 3 or 4 times...)
It's fun to watch guys who just come into our raiding pool who are equiped with planar or less armor, it's nice to watch them get kitted out with the stuff we already have...
So in finality you 'don't' need to play a lot to raid, you just need a level 55 character, which many average players have(You get as much out of it as you put into it... like anything else, as EQ is more than a 'game' it's a hobby)
As for the resource management of Verant in terms of how much time and expense is invested in end game when compared to 1-46, essentially many end game players 'two box' and have been doing so for years, IE: having multiple accounts, so I've had 3 accounts for a year, and have had 2 accounts for 1.5 years, and one account for 2 years... or something like that, so basically I've spent more than a lesser guy who's had 1 account for a few months, economically I've 'paid' for more. And of course on the everquest scale, those at the top eat twice as much as those on the bottom (like the real world scale)
As for Ebay, purchasing a 55+ account costs a fair amount of change, and isn't an option for too many people,(more in terms of explaining to the missus than actually affording it =) and it's not a big problem(as it's illegal)...
End game isn't headache free.. ask a guild camping Vex Thal keys, or better yet, ask a guild raiding Vex Thall =)
