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Player of the Week: Maylian Ap'Aurelius Real Name: Patrick Allakhazam Name: Tassoth Character Name: Maylian Ap'Aurelius Character Race: Iksar Character Class: Beastlord Deity: Cazic-Thule Server: Antonius Bayle Guild: D'Pikey Guild Website: www.pikeys.net Guild Rank: Member Length of Time in Guild: 1 and a half years Real World Location: Southampton, England Career / Employment Industry: Currently I work in IT Procurement for the Government. I did my degree in Environmental Conservation and keep an eye out for work in that area. Hobbies: Obviously EQ. Also play D&D with some friends on a weekly basis, although its more to have a few drinks and a laugh with some RPing thrown in. I love cooking as well and enjoy testing out new dishes or inventing my own. Family? 1 Brother Besides EverQuest, what other MMORPGs have you played? My old housemates moved to EQ2 when it was released so I played a bit with them, but the raids weren't complex enough for my liking so stayed with EQ. How did you find out about EverQuest, and when did you begin playing? I used to play Shadowrun, which is a roleplay game like D&D but set in the future. My friends were in EQ beta and didn't stop talking about it, when I bought my own PC for University I thought I'd try EQ to see what the fuss was about. On my first session I got to level 11 and was hooked, shame I didn't realise I was on pay as you go dialup and it cost me about £60. I made Maylian as my first character in 2002 and haven't changed since. Do you know anyone in real life who plays EverQuest? I used to play with my friends back on Veeshan and this Allakhazam account used to be my friend's, hence the name Tassoth. Also met with my old guild Sceptered Isle at a guild party last year and remain friends with them all as they are amazing people, hopefully I'll go to the next Pikey guild party and make some more friends. I also work with a friend and his wife that play on AB now, but most the people I knew are either on my old server (Luclin) or have left EQ :-( How did you come up with your main character's name? The Maylian part I made up myself as I thought it had a nice ring to it. Ap'Aurelius was taken shamelessly from Arthurian lore, got a GM to put it on my name back in 2002 and its something I still cherish. Wouldn't want to change my surname for all the tea in China. What factors affected your choice of race / class for your main character? I always though Iksars looked the best and I loved the evil side and the idea of a beastlord sounded fun. It took a lot of getting used to being KoS everywhere but its something I have come to embrace. About how often do you play EverQuest, and how long is a typical playing session for you? I raid with the guild 4-5days of the week for around 4 or 5 hours a day. I then try and group or box on Friday and Saturday for about 5 - 12 hours. It's essentially a second job, but enjoyable.... How do you spend your time in game? As I say I raid from 7pm GMT to 11pm or sometimes later. Normally I try and log on a bit before hand to exp and faction since SoF release, but 80% of my time is raiding and I love it. What other class/race combinations have you levelled past 35? 80 High Elf Cleric (my box cleric), 75 Wood Elf Ranger, 69 Vah Shir Bard, 67 Wood Elf Druid, 58 Iksar Necro, 51 Iksar SK. Approximately how much of the EverQuest world have you experienced? If we exclude SoF I would say I've probably experienced about 98%. Unfortunately there are a few raids I've never done which were Sendaii and Relic. Other than that I've been to pretty much every zone, done almost all raids and loved every minute of it, apart from the minutes I spent in PoFear. What is your least favourite expansion? It would be between PoR and LoY. I like LoY for the map function and the group zones are still excellent and it was pretty much the only expansion since PoP to be for groups and not raiders. PoR had some good group content but the raids were pretty weak, Deathknell was the most disappointing end zone I have ever been to... Thumbs down to PoR. What is your favourite zone? Plane of Time, Crystallos, Plane of Fear and Hollowshade Moor. I remember the pride of zoning into PoTime when it was current, clicking up to P4 and P5 to see the Gods stand around and the emotes you would get after completing each phase. I love the look of Crystallos: The shimmering walls, the size of the zone, the massive dragon statues. PoFear, whilst I hate this zone it is because of that hatred and fear I love it. Like most, my abiding memory is of constant wiping and never ending corpse runs, no other raid zone has been so hard from zone in to survive. AG North is close if you trigger the Army by moving too early, but not on the same scale. Hollowshade I love because of the faction, size and feel of the zone. Also getting my 2.0 there gave me a certain affinity to the zone. What is your favourite NPC? Sugal the Fist or Pendle Dashinger. Love the massive knockbacks Sugal does, especially when I discovered him during LDoN's. Pendle for being the biggest undercon and the fun of training him to Cabilis guards when I was a little un. What is your favourite raid encounter (if different from NPC)? Loved Performer event in Demiplane pre 75, it is chaotic fun and just very enjoyable. Simon Says MPG trial is along the same vein, if there was a single group event like that I would be in heaven. Vishimtar just scared me since I thought I'd be the one that wiped the guild. Aprosis pre-80 gets my vote though since it was touch and go if we would win, good mix of full burn excitement and massive control and months of failed attempts before we finally downed it. If the war between Firiona Vie and Lanys T`Vyl erupted again, which side would you take? I'd be impartial and kill whoever is left standing! Describe your most memorable moment or proudest accomplishment in game. Getting my epic 1 and getting the guilds first kill shot on Aprosis at the intended level. What is the largest amount of platinum you have ever had at one time, and how did you go about accumulating it? A couple of million, by shrew selling and buying in bazaar normally. What are some things you would change or implement in order to improve EverQuest? Sack Prathun... Clone Nodyin. But seriously... Sack Prathun! What types of spells, skills, disciplines, and/or alternate abilities would you like to see added to your class? An actual group haste that lasts 30 minutes, can be extended by item foci / AA and a reworked Ferocity line. I would also love an actual AA swarm pet since we are the only pet orientated class without one. If you were responsible for organizing and running a GM event, what would it be and how would it play out? I have taken part in organizing GM events as I was in the guide programme a couple of times. Doing the Royal Rumble events were always good fun or the gnome race across Norrath. If you had to start over from scratch, what race/class combination would you choose? Iksar Monk or Iksar Beastlord. I like being useful and would love to play a proper DPS class like a monk, but really I am very happy with my character and don't think I'd change. How do you describe EverQuest to your coworkers or computer-illiterate friends? I try not to discuss it, its my dirty secret. But I just describe it as Onling D&D to those that do ask. What is next for you in the world of EverQuest? As a guild hopefully finish off Solteris as we only have Two Gods left, then we can work on SoF raids and faction. ** Pick the winner in a battle between... Qeynos vs Felwithe - Qeynos Innoruuk the Prince of Hate vs Cazic Thule the God of Fear - Cazic, Inny is a pussy cat. Giants of Velious vs Akhevans of Luclin - Akhevan's 4 arms are better than none... Muramites of Discord vs the Drachnids of Darkhollow - Drachnids, they just look damn mean. Tradeskilling vs Questing - Questing, I've always wanted to tradeskill but suicide seems a less painful option. Instance Zones vs Static Zones - Draw, I like instances as it prevents KSing and training but Static zones are also great fun for exactly the reason I like instances. Monster Missions vs Project M (PvP as Monsters) - MM's I guess, never been a fan of either though. Soloing vs Pick-Up Groups - Soloing / Boxing Guild Raiding vs Grouping With Friends - Pretty much the same thing, I love raiding and normally only group with guildies or other top guild members on the server. I do like grouping with friends I've made and helping them out with epic fights etc though. GM (real people) Events vs Scripted (computerized) Events - GM Events, much more scope to mess around. Although on AB they always seem to be scheduled for prime raid time. Arena Royal Rumble vs 1-on-1 Duel - Royal Rumble Faydwer vs Odus - Faydwer Kunark vs Velious - Kunark, a lot of eerie zones to creep you out like Emerald Jungle. Planes of Power vs Gates of Discord - Gates of Discord, the challenge of the raids here were a real step up from PoP and LDoN and excellent group events like Tipt and Ikkinz. Depths of Darkhollow vs Omens of War - DoDh, great fun for everyone. Great group missions and rewards and some really fun raids as well, finally seeing Mayong throwing his sword around is a real treat! Bard vs Enchanter - Bards don't seem to exist on AB so Enchanter wins by default. Monk vs Rogue - Monk, Rogues are too busy complaining about Monk DPS to notice their own death Paladin vs Warrior - Does anyone really care? Allakhazam vs Illia - Alla's, been a great source of info over the years, hopefully I've also helped with the few posts I've made.
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