So, That's How It's Gonna Be, Huh!?!

As you probably know, a fair number of players from both the Face Stabbing Misfits and the Lifetakers and Heartbreakers have spent the past few weeks preparing our characters for an eagerly anticipated raid on the Demon Queen. We even managed to help one of the new members of the Lifetakers and Heartbreakers get his character ready for the raid and over the Level 13 hump *just* before we gathered everyone together for the raid.

Needless to say, we were all excited to show the Queen that we were a group she really didn't want to mess with.

We were off to a shakey start, though; the first time we entered the quest, someone noticed that it was showing we had entered on Normal. As a group of Level 13-16 players, Normal was inappropriately low. So, we popped back out, dropped group and re-formed, and tried it again on Elite.

Once back in on the proper level of difficulty, things seemed to be going pretty well. We fought our way through the initial mobs and entered the arena for the show-down. Of course, some of our players have been away from DDO for a while, and most everyone else was either new to the raid or haven't participated in an age, so there were quite a few of us standing around hoping someone else would know what to next. The honor fell to RedRaider.

So, we get everyone into the designated positions, Red sets up a Wall of Fire on the Queen and then proceeds to chat her up. Incensed by a man in a skirt, she begins to buff herself and cast her own area-of-effect spells, like Blade Barrier.

While she preparing her battlefield, she started to take a smidge of damage from the Wall of Fire, and then she bugged out.

Okay... maybe we made a mistake with the Wall of Fire.

There is, after all, a known bug in the game right now that, if you cast an area-of-effect spell upon the spawn point of a mob prior to the commencement of an encounter, the spell will actually cause the game to flip-out and prevent the encounter from initating.

At all.

Your only recourse at that point is to recall, regroup and start over.

Which is precisely what we did.

This next time, Red waited to cast a Wall of Fire until after he chatted up the Queen.

And, subsequently, the raid proceeded a little further. She now summoned the spinning blades, which promptly cut-down half the party, including my Cleric, Aequinox. The problem was that she was still standing in the Wall of Fire Red had cast, but she'd stopped taking any damage.

Actually, she'd stopped doing anything but flailing her arms.

Yet we all continued to suffer wounds from all of her defenses. It didn't take long for us to all release out for another go.

On the third try, Red got a little ahead of the rest of us... he jumped into the quest before Stonehands had converted it to a raid group. Which meant that we had to drop and reform (again).

(Red just gets so excited...)

On the third, official try, we didn't lay down any spells at all, and Red simply went over to chat with the surly queen... After being sure that she was actually doing her thing, Red deferred to PuddinTan to cast the Wall of Fire.

No dice.

She did summon her spinning blades and she did (finally) teleport, but none of the spells the casters or healers used were doing her any damage at all. And, she bugged out, again, just standing there, flailing her arms and not actually doing anything.

We took a short breather before the fourth try, for the casters and healers to get their mana back, and we tried it again.

Need I tell you that everyone was a touch cranky by now?

Well, some more than others...

With a small adjustment to starting strategy, we let Red do the honors once again, and waited to see what happened.l

As with the third attempt, the spinning blades made their appearance, the archers appeared, and the Queen teleported. But, as before, she was taking no damage at all. And, once she'd teleported, she bugged out again, still flailing her arms.

At this point, everyone was pretty pissed off, but we were at least willing to give it one more shot.

Too bad it turned out the same way.

Several members of our group were very displeased. Most of us were unhappy, but also very confused. It wasn't like we were knowingly doing anything to cause her to bug-out. She just did it all on her own.

You know, I can understand that these raid bosses occasionally like to be selfish with the raid loot, or they like to make us work a little harder for whatever reward we seek. But, I've never seen a raid boss invite a group into the arena, only to be completely ignored. If you don't want to play, why even invite guests to visit? What's the point???

Well, several folks submitted tickets but, as usual, the Game Master was far from prompt in any sort of response; we broke group and set out to do other things.

Seriously, though... that Demon Queen... RUDE! Very, *very* RUDE!!!

Next time, we'll teach her some manners...

Keep it fun!