I have designated Zbran as my "quest completionist" toon. He is the one I am trying to run all non-raid quests with**. And up until a few updates ago, he had. But lately, I've been running with a guildie to 'expand' the original goal to include running all non-raid quests on elite...at least, the ones with heroic versions. I think I may have to settle for completing the "epic versions only" content on normal† (maybe hard). But we are closing in on finishing all L20 and lower, non-raid quests on (heroic) "elite".
Tuesdays are "Cannith Guild Night". And though (sadly) it seems to just be me and one other person as of late, we're still committed to it. So, once a week, we tackle what's next on the list...unless we decide to run something else, which does happen from time-to-time. (And if other guildies ever decide to come join us again on Tuesdays, we'll abandon my list to run "whatever" the group feels like running.)
With the exception of "Stealer of Souls (SoS)" (which my guildie still needs to get some of the various flagging gems in order to be able to run it), all non-raid quests below L17 are done...until the next update that has L17 and lower quests.
But I do already have several L18+ quests done on (heroic) elite, so it's not like I have "all" L18+ quests left to run. Most of what's left is the "Dreaming Dark", the "Devils of Shavarath", and the "Secrets of the Artificers" chains....and the "Fashion Madeness" quest.
This last Tuesday, we did "In the Demon's Den" and "The Shipwrecked Spy" - in that order. "Demon's Den" took us 2 hours. Partly because of probably my least favorite game mechanic of all time - 'simultaneous kills'. If we had had (3) players, it probably wouldn't have taken that long, because on "elite", you need to kill all three ritualists within about 30-seconds, or they will respawn. Of course, their spawning locations are in three separate tunnels, two of which are fairly long. And with only two of us, that basically means dragging all three of them to the same general location. Even though the wiki says "the middle", it can be anywhere - fortunately, they do not 'rubber band' or regen their health.
It took us a while to realize that something was amiss, at first. Then, after checking the wiki, the herding took quite some time too. Not to mention a couple of accidental kills, causing respawns and even more herding (but I wasn't going to mention that).
Oy! Even with L25+ toons, that quest is tough - not because we were getting hurt that much (indeed, there were a couple of deaths, but for a two hour stint, that's not that bad), but just because of that thrice...um...darned 'simultaneous kill' mechanic (have I mentioned that it's probably my least favorite game mechanic of all time?).
After it was done, my guildie says, "Let's not do that one again." To which I respond, "Don't have to, now that we've done it on elite." {Phew!}
It'll still take a few weeks and we'll probably have at least one more update before all is said and done, but by the end of summer, at least, Zbran should have all L20- non-raid quests completed on (heroic) elite. So, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Let's just hope that it's not an oncoming train...
_____
* AKA "Shard". Many other on-line games in general, and MMO games in particular, call them "shards". If you want to know why, use your Google-fu...
** Yes, indeed - I did end that sentence with a preposition. And all of you "English is derived from Latin and therefore proper English must follow the Latin rules of grammar" uptight people can...well, go away (don't go away mad, don't go away sad, just...go away). Newsflash: English is not Latin. Therefore, ending a sentence with a proposition is occasionally OK (according to several grammarians - look it up yourself, if you don't believe me). And so are split infinitives***.
*** The only reason "split infinitives" are considered a 'no-no' in English is because infinitives in most other languages are just one word - and you can't (properly) split one word. But in English, infinitives are made up of two words - "to" and the verb (e.g. "to go"). So even though the (arguably) most famous of all split infinitives is considered (by some) improper, it really is not that big of a deal. And if violating these (not universally agreed upon) "rules" just happens to tweak some of you "language lawyers" out there, well that's just gravy (hehehe).
† To state that I never run "casual" would be incorrect. However, I typically only run "casual" if other party members want to run it, or for specific reasons like gathering map-pieces (in KA) during the Crystal Cove event. But in general, as others could tell you, I scoff at "casual". *Scoff*
Needs more footnotes :)
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