Tedious only begins to describe the process of obtaining individual access to Anguish for most of our members. Despite this disconsolate factor, we managed to produce a raidforce consisting of 40 Raging Fury members, and ventured into the Sea of Anguish for the first time friday evening. Not really knowing what to expect from the final tier in the Omens of War expansion, our goal was merely exploring the initial part of the zone, though after encountering our first named nemesis, we deemed this mob quite possible to best with our numbers, the result, a serverfirst slaying of Keldovan the Harrier.

Our second trip to Anguish proved to be a prosperous one, the citadel having recently been subject to an itemization post a corrupt database, initially yielding merely rubies in place of the augments listed below. However the pathing was most definitely overlooked as many a lightning warrior projected itself randomly across the zone, admittedly aiding us rather significantly in regards to pulling, though still an issue that could easily have been corrected in todays patch. Chimeras appear to be a trendy addition to Omens of War, and in a fight highly reminiscent of Chailak, Ture fell tonight in what can only be described as a surprisingly easy encounter.

During the weekend we paid the royalty of Riftseekers a visit, and nothing but regicide aptly describes the aftermath of our visit there. One has to wonder whether or not Sony Online Entertainment has drawn inspiration from the Riftwar saga when creating this zone, none the less, both the royal blood lines were relentlessly left heirless.

Nothing noteworthy to report progression wise of late, though we have surprisingly enough been rather busy with reflagging necessities for Anguish. Sony was applauded for their initiative with adding keys to the named loot table within the final tier zone in Anguish, though one thing they neglected to ascertain, was that they actually worked as intented. Currently these keys do not function at all, and merely take up inventory space, though upon contacting those responsible, we were assured this was an issue that would be corrected in the upcoming patch.

Onwards to the recruiting though. We are currently seeking 1-2 warriors to join our ranks. A certain equipment standard is expected, in addition to 300+ aa points. Having completed the individual key part for Anguish is definitely a bonus, though far from a pre requisite. GoD and Pop flags are of little interest, as we close to never venture into old content any more, apart from a nostalgic visit to Tacvi once in a while.

No update is complete without a certain visual aspect, and lacking other material, three of our most recent epic completions will have to suffice. Warriors interested in applying for a trial, feel free to contact Nineveh or Karde in game, though those of you that decide to contact Karde, expect atleast 10-15 minutes wait, as our monk recruiter sporadically decides to leave his computer.

Following the complaints of the difficulty, or lack thereof, that met the raiding playerbase once obtaining access to the Citadel of Anguish was eptly dealth with in last weeks patch. Although I much agreed with several others that have voiced their opinion on various forums and news pages, I must say that I am somewhat disappointed in regard to the method of increasing the difficulty on certain mobs.

An example that immediately springs to mind is Ture. Having reached what is currently the final frontier of high end raiding encounters in Everquest, I would expect each mob not only to have a unique looking model, but also to have an ae ability shared by no other mob in the game. Not necessarily an unbalanced effect that would slaughter a guild in seconds, but an effect actually named after the encounter in question. Half of our enchanter team ran around desperately searching for a chaosslayer to charm once noting the Wanton Destruction
spell cast on them, though surprisingly enough, none could be found.

We have, similar to many other guilds I am sure, experienced somewhat of a drop in numbers of late, nothing dramatic, though at times we lack the needed 5-6 people to fill up the instanced expeditions nicely. As a result, we are opening recruitment for all classes the next two weeks, wanting to fill these spots with dedicated players willing to surpass the allure of other games currently being released. Read our recruitment forum, and apply either through e-mails, or ingame contact with Nineveh / Karde.

Our numbers have stabilized somewhat of late, and currently we are merely looking to fill the final positions needed in our guild. The following classes are of particular interest:

• warriors
• druids
• enchanters
• shamen

Obviously exceptional players that do not match the classes mentioned about may still apply. If you wish to be a part of the most challenging encounters Everquest currently has to offer, apply today, contact Karde, Nineveh or Timmok in game. We've actually been rather busy the last week, slaying Anguish nameds, completing all Muramite proving ground trials, and quite regally liberating Riftseekers of their torn poLitical intrigues. Celsius and Lithorien will have the honor of displaying their newly aquired epics for the visal part of this update however, as all of the encounters mentioned above can be found further down on this page, or within the archived news.

Twice before in the history of Everquest has the guild stood against an encounter as disconsolate as Warden Hanvar within the Citadel of Anguish, its predecessors being the Rathe Council amid the height of the Planes of Power, followed by a more familiar Zun'Muram Tkarish Zyk. All of the endeavours mentioned above had the distinct ability to totally halt progression for quite a significant amount of time, albeit one factor set Warden Hanvar apart, namely the recent exodus from the game caused by the allure of newer "improved" games.

Like many a guild serverwide we lost a fair amount of our regular playing base, rendering the Warden encounter not doable, considering a peak attendance of mid thirties. Recruiting was obviously intensified, primarily consisting of players applying from outside the boarders of Antonius Bayle, and merely a few weeks after, our numbers stabilized anew.

Having worked on this encounter for close to two months, most of us will likely suffer more than a fair share of grey hairs now knowing that our initial tactics were actually Dead on, though limited numbers mixed with poor execution deemed our attempts unworthy of success.

As the pictures will hopefully indicate ( sorry Finnemann! ) I was not present during the encounter, though Finnemann managed to secure the following gem from Faiar:

We are currently looking for a few clerics to join our healing branch. Healing is an essential part of every raid encounter, and to progress accordingly, our numbers need to increase somewhat.

Progression wise we have recently added Keldovan the Harrier to our weekly routine, joining Warden Hanvar and warm up bait Ture. Requirements are 200+ aa and 5+ days playtime a week. Interested candidates are requested to query Anthas, Karde, Nineveh or Uren in game for further details. Crosserver applicants are encouraged to apply, though obviously we will accept local miracle workers as well :)

Send your application to: here

Alot of people have complained about the lack of corpseshots displayed on the page of late. Personally I thought an action picture spoke volumes well beyond a corpse stained across the zone interior, though upon receiving a few comments, in addition to reading the latest news posting on Darkwind's frontpage, I decided to explore the possibility of directly influencing the position of the Anguish nameds once merely a few percentage of their lifebar remained. Much to Uren's disdain I might add, how could one even consider to let an AE rampage mob roam blithely through our raidforce!

Despite initial worries, the results were not half bad, bar Ture who seemingly managed to force himself into a nearby wall after having been stalked in open territory for quite some time. We are still working hard on aiding Jelvan, and I fear having to write another news posting within the week. That being said, we are still looking for a few dedicated clerics to join our ranks, high playtime and alternate advancement are both traits held in high regard, the rest we can easily provide.

Countless hours has of late been spent amid the remnants of Jelvan's nightmare in the lower depths of Anguish. Haunted sans comparison by the three ellusive Tormentors, we have been throwing ourselves repeatedly at a seemingly relentless foe, though post one of our later attempts, we discerned one of the vital aspects that eventually yielded the key to solving this event.

I've read numerous places that this event is one of the hardest designed to date in Everquest, and while I fully agree with that assessment, I must voice my disapproval towards any encounter that deems 20% of the expedition to be inhabited by clerics a necessity. That being said, the Jelvan encounter offered us an andrenaline rush that has long been absent in an Omens raid endeavour. If nothing else, conquering the tormentors is the ultimate test of teamwork and coordination, a test any guild would be proud to complete.

Our recent progression was somewhat halted by a lack of key classes for events such a Jelvan, though with a recent influx of new trialists, we are ready to continue where we left off prior to the last year coming to an end. A formal greeting was obviously arranged with Arch Magus Vangl, ending at 65%, though I will not promise any corpse shot here tomorrow, only time will tell. In case you wonder where all our globes of discordant energy are ending up, the second picture below should suffice for explanations!

Merely one quote this time, though the content alone is disturbing enough to justify the limited amount. For explanations feel free to inquire from Finnemann ingame.

Arch Magus Vangl proved himself to be quite the adversary, especially faced against a raidforce in deep contemplation of what unheard of strategy to apply against this particular encounter. Several intricate battleplans were made, and all found unworthy. During our last attempt of the evening, as our initial plan was on the brink of failure once again, a rather blunt statement was uttered in our raidchannels; Merely zerg the lummox...

Somewhat baffled that our medieval approach of brute force was the key to winning, potential corpseshots all but eluded me, and hopefully the screenshots of Mata Muram will suffice for now, despite their limited quality. As the first quote below will clearly outline, we were somewhat uncertain whether or not the nemesis of Anguish himself was initially aggro, or triggered through a brief display of exquisite lore, thus we sent our blithely unaware monk Karde in to investigate with the clear instruction of merely checking if the mob was indeed triggered.

After receiving our general go ahead, Karde immersed himself in the lure of Mata Muram, and seconds after asking "What worlds" a totally unaware raidforce found themselves quite Dead. Several petitions were made that night though, and hopefully Karde will adorn himself with a new title within the week; Karde the Illiterate