Raid
From EQ KnowledgePit
[edit] General Information
The term raid refers to a very large group (several actual groups) of players getting together to achieve (or attempt to achieve) a goal that would otherwise be impossible; this could range from (most commonly) killing the big mob, to (less commonly) rescuing a prisoner in a castle or helping a fallen maestro finish his song.
[edit] History
Raids have been in place since the game's inception, with Lord Nagafen and Lady Vox in the Old World. Ruins of Kunark added a large amount more raid content, then Scars of Velious raised the level cap to 60 and surpassed that. Raids were still rather clumsy though. Players could only band together in groups of 6, and had to use /ooc, /shout, or /gu to chat.
With Shadows of Luclin, another large raiding world was added, along with the beginnings of the Universal Chat System, so public channels were no longer necessary for raids. Planes of Power further revolutionized raiding. "Raid groups" were introduced to the game; using commands that began with /raid (/raiddisband, /raidinvite, etc), up to 12 groups (72 players) could all join up in one raid, using the /rs channel for raid-related chat. Sony also announced at this point that 72 was the official size for raids; that is to say, when raids were tuned for difficulty, they were tuned for 72 players.
After Planes of Power, there was a dry spell; Legacy of Ykesha didn't contain any raiding content that was considered worthwhile by the player base, and Lost Dungeons of Norrath raids were buggy and tuned way too difficult for the reward. Gates of Discord broke the dry spell with an extremely overtuned expansion; this is often considered the "iceberg that sank EQ", the expansion was tuned for level 70 players, but the level cap was not raised to 70 until the next expansion, Omens of War. As a result of this, piled on top of two expansions with no real raids, coupled with poor timing (shortly before the release of World of Warcraft and EverQuest 2), plus the fact that the official raid size was lowered to 54 players (with hardcapped instances), top-end guilds quit in droves.
However, EQ did not sink. Not completely. It kept chugging along. Omens of War introduced some more level 40+ content, raised the level cap to 70, and was another average-sized expansion with a decent amount of raid content. Dragons of Norrath was mostly group-centric, with a handful of raids, ranging from 18-player mini raids to full 54-player raids; they were all instanced. Depths of Darkhollow was another average-sized raid expansion, although this was the first expansion with zones that had both static and instanced versions, including its end-game zone.
Prophecy of Ro was a small expansion; many guilds skip it all together as far as raiding is concerned, especially with the focus effects being outdated. The Serpent's Spine was a two-headed expansion; two progression paths, each with an end-game raid zone that was an instanced version of a static zone. It also raised the level cap to 75. The Buried Sea added a single end-game zone, with a rather long (eight group missions) but very bearable keying process.
With Secrets of Faydwer, the level cap was raised to 80; in addition, a very large amount of raid content - four tiers of progression - were added. This was also the first expansion on the one-year expansion cycle; content is intended to last guilds that long.
