29 March, 2005

Serket Breaker.

It's odd. At first, I thought Equilibrium was a sky LS, although it seems to be that while their activities are primarily sky-based, some members occasionally pop down for ground HNMs just for fun. Of those, Serket is the one HNM we've been trying for every now and then, and while we were unsuccessful at claiming Serket yesterday (as I said, the challenge in HNMs now seem to be claiming it, as opposed to killing it), today, Serket fell into our laps.

Stev initially wanted to go camp Simurgh in the Rolanberry Fields. I decided to tag along just for the supposed thrill in HNM hunting, although when it came apparent that we wouldn't make it in time (Simurgh spawned and got claimed), we shifted over to Serket. And so, our chocobos turned around and headed straight for the Garlaige Citadel.

I. Hate. Camping.

Period.

Each time I come down to the bottom floor of the Garlaige Citadel (third time already), I keep asking myself why. Not only is camping mind-numbingly boring, having to stay there for anything that is up to the full 3-hour window is really quite testing. Sure, I can always chat with people, but there's always that risk of Serket spawning mid-sentence and missing the claim. Given that (most) people have a method of killing Serket down to a 't', Serket gets claimed very quickly, and even "spawned" claimed on my screen last night.

THe place started out with just a few other people camping, although it soon quickly filled with people from all assorted HNMLS'es, some of which I had never heard of before. I ended up camping the area to the far east with the Magic Pots and undead, and eventually, someone from BBQGold joined me in camping. Well, now I was in a fix. >_< We ended up chatting a little bit, and I basically told him my situation of trying to figure out which LS I'd end up going in. I'm not sure if he understood my situation or not, but it'd be very embarassing to have BBQ members see me help out a different LS when I'm trying to get into BBQ! >_<

Unlike last night though, a sufficient number of Equilibrium members were bored enough to make the trip down to Garlaige, and I think we had twelve of us in the end. Thankfully, Serket only spawned around one hour into the window, (as opposed to the last twenty minutes like the previous time) and happened to spawn right in front of our PLD (Hiaku). The lines in /party chat flew by:

{Provoke} >> Serket (or something to that extent)

Serket was ours! Now just had to kill him.



Surprisingly, Serket didn't feel terribly devastating that particular evening. I remember him casting a lot of Bindgas, but compared to his spin attacks that deal massive AoE damage and Stuns everybody, that was nothing. Sure, he Poisonga'ed a few times, but we managed to minimise the damage. It still got a little close- three of our members somehow dipped into red health (partially because we had no WHMs with us), but Cure IIIs and Poisonas from the /WHMs sufficed.

Having to fight in these circumstances wasn't too bad, to be honest. I just ended up playing White Mage for the battle since I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do, and I felt curing would help more than nuking. The lag, however, was horrendous. I couldn't do anything to time with such lag, which got to the point where my Stun on Serket's Earthshaker would go off way too late, and even movement was choppy at best. I had a three-second delay between my commands and execution, but at least it was somewhat manageable. Serket has a fair amount of HP, but we eventually whittled it down, and just as I was going to get an Elemental Seal'ed powered Thundaga III going, he fell. Damn lag. >_<

It was still fun though. At least, HNM'ing is fun as long as you get the claim. With Serket's death, we eagerly awated the drops. Serket Ring? Venomous Claw? Maybe even...Strider Boots? ^^



Guess not. >_<

At least I resisted Bind! ^^ Of course, being part of the killing party, I am now staring at one of many cheesy titles you get for killing an HNM- the omnious Serket Breaker. Yeah...

Finally, a Happy 21st Birthday to Faeyth! Now, if only that {cat} would log on and get around to taking a little pressie I left behind...

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