Tunare agreement makes like a tree and leafs
 

For the past 6 weeks or so the guilds Aftermath, Azure Guard, Core, and the PSG alliance had an agreement on the terms for engaging and killing Tunare, one of the few raid bosses that drops several best in slot items. With every other raid Target, the first guild to achieve an FTE message (First to Engage) has the "rights" to engage and attempt to kill that Target until it dies or the guild wipes. The vast majority of the time, it's a frantic race to the Target where the first guild to engage or pull it gets the kill. Tunare was a rare exception.

With Tunare, there's a window in which she can respawn. While in this window, guilds will have level 60 bards and rangers waiting outside the PoG zone in who will spawn in and run as fast as their legs will carry them over to Tunare to obtain an FTE. The guild to win this foot race has 12 hours to clear the entire zone (a requirement before engaging the Leafy God) and kill Tunare without interference from any other guild. If a guild wins one week, they must skip the following week to give the other guilds a shot. That was working out pretty well until Aftermath lost three weeks in a row.

The thing with Aftermath, is that they're used to winning. They're the top guild in the server, the most experienced players gravitate into the guild, and they typically kill the most raid targets each week. When things don't work out for them, they tend to push, bend, or propose new agreements and server rules which benefits them. It's understandable: the leadership makes decisions to ensure their guild continues to obtain the most raid loot. That wasn't happening with Tunare so they backed out of the agreement.

Their counter proposal was the same terms, but with the time to kill Tunare reduced from 12 hours down to 4. Clearing the entire zone takes some guilds all day to do, some less, you can probably guess which end of the spectrum Aftermath is on. Sometimes Tunare will respawn at 2am which makes clearing the entire zone and killing Tunare from 2 am - 6 am unrealistic for most guilds due to the understandable lack of interest to stay up all night playing a video game. Aftermath does not have this issue as their membership includes players from variety of time zones and people who have no issues losing sleep over Everquest.

What does this mean for the future of the Plane of Growth? Does it degrade into the familiar chaos of guilds intentionally and unintentionally training each other once Tunare pops? Does Tunare watch the Out of Character chat fill with toxicity and defamation as guilds attempt to leapfrog each other? Probably. Will the raiding guilds grow tired of this atmosphere and begrudgingly enter into discussion on a new agreement? That's what I'm hoping for, but recent history shows that without regular involvement and mediation from server staff, player agreements and guild-to-guild communication quickly deteriorates into what's always happened across the raid scene.

I thought this was everquest not mario kart

No mention of rooted dragons which completely changes the dynamic of the raid scene.

shit post, would not recommend that anyone read it, cause i sure didnt.

Sorry, but you don't deserve BIS loot when you can't defeat the encounter within a reasonable time frame.

Another example of AM getting salty about losing something they wanted and saying 'fuck it' to the rules they agreed to.

So happy I don’t raid anymore... what an absolute shit show.

fun and game are two words that should still apply to when you sit down and open EQ.

I'm assuming that you're implying 4 hours is reasonable, and that if a guild cannot clear PoG in 4 hours, they do not deserve the loot she drops.

12 hours is reasonable for every guild who can kill Tunare. The only guild who can reliably clear in under 4 hours is Aftermath. It is not reasonable if only one of the guilds are able to adhere to the agreement.

The few times I've endured a PoG clear, it took roughly 6 hours which other players suggested was about average. If 12 hours is considered too much and 4 hours too little, than make a counteroffer and try to meet somewhere in the middle? Community boils down to compromise and no one is overjoyed with the outcome but interactions are still civil.

Idk, giving Tunare to the guild of what ever one player zones the fastest (best cpu or ping) was kind of silly. That's always going to be the same player - AKA the reason scout became a rolloff, and ring 8, etc.

More true to classic 'first in force' would be the first guild that gets X players in the zone. Probably 4-6 groups for a raid like this. Any less and realistically you aren't going to finish the clear in time.