First I would like to make a few points before I go into the details.

1. THANK YOU Zenmaster / Moradis, guild leader of The Band of the Broken Bow. He was our host. Thanks also to all of CTA for letting the members of Syrian Drauka participate in the event. Thanks to Dustie our raid leader, I know your job is tough! Thanks to Cebe my group leader who said "Let me just tell you up front, Your gonna die" LOL

2. Although we didn't kill Naggy I had the BEST time. Ever since I started playing EQ and I learned who Naggy was I have wanted to face him. When we logged out of chat and headed back online for the final assault I looked at my little girl in the character selection window and literally said out loud: "This is your shot girl, time to show Naggy what you got" . . .

3. I am heart broken for those of you who were hoping to get your epic loot that night. We marshaled such a great effort I thought for sure Naggy was going to die. I personally, if you will have me, would like to try again.

4. The purpose of this post is to "enlighten" those who were not on the raid and who have no experience with a raid on this level; there were many things I learned. We started out around 8:30 pm EST entering Sol (b) at that point Dustie had made 6 groups which were well balanced to fight our way up to Naggy before the final assault. The tricky thing here is that you are trekking through a dungeon with many people running around you and you might get lost or left behind. Almost immediately our cleric went LD upon zone in. Cebe stayed behind while the rest of us forged forward with the bulk of our force. There were also designated runners who were familiar with the dungeon who were running around picking up and protecting stragglers, this was an excellent idea, because there were at least a few.

Ahead of us a few high level groups 53+ 'ers cleared out the fire giants. Once we got to the throne room we gathered there and waited for the pull team to bring out the final Fire giants this was nice because we got a chance to work a little within our groups at killing something. At his point I thought I was in my raid group, later I found out this was not so. . . The pull team had a little trouble with the FG's coming out of the "Near Lair" area . . . poor Zenmaster I think he died 4 times during the raid :( Eventually we finally pulled the big Wizzy FG and Toebee won a very nice item. Congrats Toebee. The item was no drop so we needed to act quickly. Although I waved my right to any loot I feel I would like to make a suggestion to the next raid leader. The roll itself and the call seemed to go smoothly, an "/ooc Toebee has won the roll with a 98, 15 seconds". Again I wasn't involved but it seemed to me more then a few casters did not roll on the item I'm not sure why perhaps they weren't suppose to. At any rate once you do the /ooc any caster who feels they did not roll or believes they got a higher roll will have 15 seconds to "ROLL" or ask for a review. I'm really not sure if this is feasible and might only serve to prolong and already "LONG" event . . . hehehe

The next thing I learned was that I had to dispell every darn buff I had for the final buff. I wasn't sure why because I didn't think Naggy dispelled but HE DOES ! LOL This was organized extremely well. We were instructed to put up our LFG flag and wait to be called for the final buffing. As luck would have it just as I was being called a spider popped and started attacking me, hehe, now remember I don't have one cotton picking buff up, well the spider which cons blue starts kicking the crap out of me! Thankfully there were a few High level characters acting as "escorts" again this was a good idea and worked well. I arrived at the buffing circle and I am invited into "NICKS" group. They have a bard singing mana song and each buffer also has clarity 2. the first thing that happened was they gave me "JUNK" buffs these buffs serve no other purpose then to act as road blocks for Naggy's dispells. Some of the silly buffs included water breathing and a druid Damage shield. Some of the less important buffs are added then the most important MR and FR buffs were added. Finally they asked me to disband and then camp out "AND GO TO CHAT".

Now I didn't understand the purpose of this at first but now I do. There are so many people being buffed that by the time the buffers finish with the last person and then meditate to full mana the first person would start to have there buffs drop! So I camp out and go to chat where Dustie gives us our Final groups and lays out the battle plan . . . now this was interesting . . . Dusty choose to do something I didn't think would be possible. She said that all the tanks would group up and then once they fell to 60% life they would exit the battle area and run to a "healing station". Not knowing if this was possible I of course followed her instructions to the LETTER ! hehehe (deep breath)

We log out of chat and log back into Naggy lair and get with our groups. . . I added at this point my last few ranger buffs and stood ready for the final assault . . . bad luck strikes . . . apparently one of the most capable Tanks in the raid can't get back online. (now keep in mind we are all standing there with our buffs droping) I think his name was "Psiko" and he looked pretty awesome too. . . More bad Luck . . . Cebe our group leader goes LD too. . . she was also a very capable warrior. . . At this point I took the initiative and instructed my group to disband and I began to reinvite my members . . . More bad Luck . . . Dustie faced with the buff situation decided to order the attack. . . :(

I didn't have a chance to reinvite everyone in my group. . . but unfortunately it was inevitable . . . we simply had to attack now or risk going through the rebuff process again. . . *I ran in to face Nagafen* . . . I target Nagafen and hit the auto attack button, I am surprised, Not only am I hitting Naggy but I'm actually dealing a "brisk" amount of damage. ( I checked my log file and found that during my first pass at Naggy I dealt in excess of 600 points - - It was early this morning that I looked at the log so I don't have an exact count but I am close) The good part about this (I am happy as I sit behind my keyboard) is that I am resisting the FEAR and quite a bit of the FIRE so I AM STANDING IN WITH NAGGY ! (note buffed MR was 108 and FR was 96) I got clawed a few times during the first pass and the odd fire damage I was taking soon go me down to 60 percent life so I follow Dustie's instructions and run out the healing station.

I get my heals.

I run back in again to face Naggy, I notice at this point that all of my JUNK buffs have fallen. During this second swipe I still deal a decent amount of damage but I lost a few buffs during this melee, however I stood in much longer because there were other people who were feeling the brunt of the aggro. Again I dealt in excess of 600 points of damage. However I soon fall below 40% life and run out . . . at his point I see people dieing left and right . . . but Naggy was LOW OMG he was SOOO LOW . . . I only have 4 buffs left 2 of them were my ranger buffs . . . I run out concerned that there might not be enough mana to heal me so I am standing there healing myself.

A cleric stands. I get my heals

I run back in again to face Naggy, 4 buffs up one of them had to be my MR resist spell because fear was NOT working. However the fire damage was sticking again. I can't hit the blind side of the barn! I did 204 points of damage there were so few hits that I could add every one up. My life falls again I run out.

I get my heals

I run in again to face Naggy for what would be that last time. I have NO buffs. The only other melee type I see standing is "MONTY" And he is taking the agro, I press my taunt key but I am hitting so miserably that it does no good. NAGGY IS SOO CLOSE TO DEAD ITS INCREDIBLE! He only had the red bar up to the "L" in Lord Nagafen. Monty dies and as far as I know I am the last tank standing . . . I was hoping there were others I couldn't see who could finish the job . . . The FEAR sticks this time . . . and Naggy Fear kites me to death . . . I dealt 84 points of damage on the final attack. . .

Hmmm hind sight is 20/20. What I learned for myself: When I ran to the healing station I should have had mem'ed a bunch of Junk buffs .. . things like "endure cold" "shield of thistles" "see invisable" that would have made all my buffs last longer and me last longer, while I was getting healed I could have casted these three on me in no time, while the clerics healed me . . . I feel that this alone if all the rangers experienced what I did might have won us this battle. Because of this I would like to volunteer to be the Ranger class leader for the next attempt ( again IF you want me to come :). by doing this I will explain to all ranger before we enter the zone the theory behind the "ROAD BLOCK BUFFS" and how rangers can be more effective then regular tanks toward the end of this battle by preserving their more important buffs. . . Please tell all rangers to: "report to Wildice for instructions" when they check in with the raid leader.

Things I would like to know: (please if you are someone who can answer these questions could you post replies to this message)

1. Was anyone able to land any DD spells? If so what level were you and class, also what spells were you casting?

2. Who tried casting DD's unsuccessfully? What is your class and level and what spells didn't stick?

3. Did any clerics try using their DD stun spells? If so how successful were you?

4. If a cleric enters the Lair will he/she draw agro it he/she just heals? Were there any clerics geared up well enough to enter the lair?

5. If the shammy was able to land a slow on Naggy would he dispell himself with his dispell? If so would it be wise to have the rangers continually snare to put "road blocks" up in front of the Shammy's slow spell?

6. Did anyone Dot successfully? If so class and level and what was the spell?

(OMG I have typed over three pages) Bringing this to a close: We were so darn close to killing Naggy it wasn't even funny :( If we had just one more Nuker it would have done the job . . . Or if we hadn't had the bad luck of loosing a few of our tanks just before the assault . . . I know if Cebe and Psiko (SP?) were beating on Naggy for the Duration they could have done the job.

PS In reading over this some of this sounds Critical in its tone, please know that I consider myself to be a "STUDENT" of EQ. The comments I have made are more of a tone to discourage people who think they will get special treatment on the raid. Any of my people from Syrian Drauka who don't have experience with a raid of this size need to know this. (IE. If you go LD you will not be waited on) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Don't be offended by any of this.

Wildice Polarfury

Ranger of 48 Winters

I AM a protector

Maniac at the Helm of Syrian Drauka