Having read through certain news posts by the twitchy awesomeness that is
?ammas, I feel like I wanna do something silly! So, here goes:

You know how when the Big Boys' egos clash here, they often go 'well you'd
still suck ass at Tiamat!" or something like that? Well, how about we go
there, give it a whirl and see how much ass suckage we'd manage to get done!

Honestly, I think it's a damn shame how 90% of the 'highbies' here haven't
ever witnessed what is probably the most creative, the most demanding and, by
far, the most fun to kill monster in this game. So, basically what I want is 8
dudes (or dudettes!) who've been around, killed lots monsters, lead exp, maybe
even lead eq(!!), but who've never been to Tiamat, or at least never been able
to kill the old, chromatic bugger.

But here's the thing. I'm not gonna lie to you. Our chances of actually taking
down all the five incarnations are slim, some would say non-existant. While
I've lead a lot of stuff, I don't have a lot of experience on leading Tiamat,
and the little that I have is from years ago. The Tiamat today is a completely
different beast altogether. Also, just last time my reckless, suicidal,
"I-CAN-TAKE-IT-oh-crap-I-died"-kind of leading got us into a lot of trouble,
so there's no way you guys could only rely on me to have us come out
victorious.

So let me know if you're interested! I was thinking about going sometime after
mid May or so if I get a crew together. I know there are plenty of "Big Boy-1"
dudes here who never get asked to come pay Tiamat a little visit, so here's
your chance. Yes, hard-core guys will mock us. Yes, they will laugh at us. In
fact, we'll probably be the laughing stock of the whole mud, but holy crap it
will be AWESOME!!

Of course I am serious. I find it rather strange so many people thought I was
somehow being sarcastic or something, and other, more cynical, people thought
I was just... well let's not even go there. We've actually even made some
progress in terms of finding members, but I wouldn't mind being contacted by
more mages, druids or nuns who might be available.

I totally agree with you on Tiamat being both intense and fun, even more so
when you're there for the first time. However, I somewhat have to disagree
with your comparison. While I by no means wish to belittle the efforts of your
party, and while I know that player power has increased dramatically over the
years, the Tiamat back then, although really difficult, was still quite a bit
easier than it is now. Heck, Tiamat just two years ago was quite a bit easier
than it is now. I'm sure you know this though, since you've been pumping new
ebylness into your dear dragon yourself, haven't you! Anyway, this was the
reason why I didn't want to get everyone's hopes up. Not because it couldn't
be done (it can), it's just that it's so much more difficult these days due to
the increased alertness required from both the leader and the members. I was
told that even the arguably best leader in this game said a while ago he would
never go to Tiamat with first-timers ever again.

So far I've been told we won't get past the first incarnation, we'll have no
chance versus the fourth, or we'd just fail miserably against the fifth due to
people not being used to playing other people's characters. Personally the one
that worries me the most is the second. Maybe this means we'll fail at the
third! Anyway, the point of this whole party was to see what actually
happens. People getting to see this incredible mob is of course a nice bonus,
too.

In any case, thanks for your encouragement! Having now read through what I
just wrote I'm kinda starting to fear our pessimism (me and highbies x y z,
not you!) kinda watered down the original, supportive optimism of your post.
So I think I'd better end this mammoth post of mine on a more positive note:

TIAMAT IS ****ING AWESOME!