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In the red corner, still undefeated after 785 encounters serverwide, the warden of the north,
the taelosian roadblock, the phonetical impossibility, Pixxt Kretv Kraxt!
As we draw nearer to yet another everquest expansion, I would like to take a brief minute
reflecting upon the most recent one, namely the Gates of Discord. Despite the arduous
critic it has received, supposedly being the direct cause of Afterlife, Fires of Heaven and
similar guilds throwing in their towels, the taelosian continent has definitely had its moments.
Initially, the idea of deeming six trials a necessity for zoning into Kod'Taz were far from
trailblazing following the flagging tradition of the Planes of Power. However it seems fairly
obvious that several tuning issues were overlooked when you consider the fact that upon release,
merely warriors had the ability to tank these trials, and obviously a cleric to keep up with
the healing required. An enchanter present would also increase the rate of success, leaving
half the group open to the various classes in need of the trial in question.
Once having gained access to Kod'Taz, these necesseties became more evident, in some cases actually
depending on two clerics and two warriors for certain single group events in the zone. Though when
a guild became eligible for raid events, the first two were quite entertaining, yet the third trial
soon became the complete reciprocal. The test of transcendence was far from finished, and
who can forget the infamous brawn, intelligence, wisdom messages that supposedly was more than ample
information in order to unlock the mysteries of this event.
Uqua sadly became the next bottleneck, far from remotely possible, guilds were oblitterated
seconds post of zoning in, and eventually this was the most obvious cause of dismay amongst the users,
causing a mass exodus from the game, and continuous praise for the upcoming Blizzard title, World of
Warcraft.
Qvic was a rather refreshing change, no initial bugs, and quite an original encounter found in Cynosure. The
flaw of this zone though, was the entrance to the next tier, namely Txevu. Endless trains have been endured
from various guilds running through this zone at random, on too tight a schedule to engage in a clearing,
followed by a coth sequence. Simplicity at best would be merely adding a portal stone at the Qvic zone in,
granting access to the zone in area of Txevu, requiring minimal clearing, though with the requirement
of having the Cipher of Txevu to operate it on a regular basis.
Inktu'ta was without a quiver of doubt the highlight of the Gates of Discord expansion, original challenging
encounters, deeming the tactical aspect of the fight equivalently important to mere damage output.
Having said that, the idea of rendering 90% of the raidforce useless against Zun'Muram Tkarish Zyk is
far from what makes the required number of 50 people log on for this time consuming encounter.
Our most recent complaint lies within the walls of Tacvi, thus the opening paragraph. For those of you unfamiliar
with Pixxt Kretv Kraxt, guilds serverwide have pretty much agreed upon the fact that she is unbeatable until
either the release of OoW, or until developers find it in their time to properly tune the final phase
of this expansion, a task which unfortunately is far from the topmost priority at this stage of Everquest.
Albeit the negative aspect has been somewhat overwhelming, GoD has most definitely been a challenge unlike
any expansion to this date. I must admit that the developers in general have done a top notch job in designing
diverse encounters needing more than brute force. The general consensus still stands though, unfinished content
has wreathed a most unhappy userbase, and has directly caused a major part of the old school players to
look elsewhere for onling gaming.
Omens of War will be a welcome change to our raiding agenda, and its contents and availability will to a huge
extent decide the future of Everquest, though this is merely my personal opinon. Concluding this rant, I would
like to mention the fact that I have personally taken over Reffi's most excellent progression page, and have of
late been receiving many an email. Hopefully this page will continue to be the primary source of progression
data during the exploration of the new expansion as well. The page can be accessed by clicking here
In lieu of the anticipated Omens of War patch, six of us toyed with the idea of making a dedicated exp team attempting
to reach level 70 in the shortest amount of time possible. Once obtaining the first level we decided to continue our
session as long as the experience gained remained somewhat equivalent to the starting amount. Personally I would never
have expected myself to have the endurance to complete such a task, though as the night passed by, we found ourselves
still online, the result being Mitnick, Bendail, Nineveh, Myrian, Missbailey and Frezzer being the first six to adorn
themselves with the Omens class title, respectively listed in chronological order.
Aproximately one and a half week into the expansion most of our guild have breached the level 70 barrier, and without further ado,
our exploration of discord commenced tonight within the Muramite Proving grounds. So far these guild trials have proven themselves
to be highly innovative, offering both a challenging and enjoyable raid event. Our first completed trial was the test of specialization
which was completed sans too much adversity on our second attempt, though admittedly, the lockout timer on these trials can be
somewhat of an annoyance. Shortly thereafter we attempted the trial of power, and I think that I speak for the entire guild when I
proclaim this to be one of the best encounters ever made in Everquest history. Play nice policies definitely come into play as
you attempt to best a guild equipped in full old world planar armour and their original epic weapons. Sadly these remnants of a lost
age proved to be beyond our abiLities tonight, though hopefully we can prove worthy adversaries should we meet anew. The test
of adaption was next on our agenda, and already some tendencies from the GoD expansion became evident as we bested our second trial
of the day.
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New epic quests were also introduced with the Omens of War expansion, and like many a guild we have gotten a few of them completed,
namely the Shaman, Wizard and Beast Lord one. Zorrbald has also wielded his new weaponary, though I had not been able to catch him
online for a brief photo session, thus we will have to manage without the latest iksar fashion.
Post the last update we ventured into Tacvi in hopes of overwhelming Pixxt Kretv Kraxt with our newly obtained
level 70 raidforce, though much to our disdain, five mere levels was far from sufficient to best this highly disconsolate
encounter. Despite not defeating the fonetical impossibility, we made solid progress and managed to endure the infamous
fourth wave of hatchlings. Hopefully there will be an obituary to read here shortly.
Onwards to more enjoyable news. The mastery of power was completed today, in what was practically an epitome of success (phrase
chosen merely to appease Timmok). A fair amount of tactical discussion resulted in a plan which seemingly worked without
flaw as we haughtily enforced a rather dubious play nice policy against the blithely unaware kunark raid force.
We also finished two new class epics, namely the enchanter and cleric one, Zourite and Einon respectively posing alongisde
Zorrbald, who was thoroughly upset for being left out of the last update.
The Projection of Tactics trial was successfully beaten today after numerous learning attempts.
Many an oaf found themselves aptly struck down by Kyvs with an accuracy that even outshone Anthas's performance.
For reasons beyond my comprehension I was selected as one of the Kyvs primary targets, and unfortunately spent most of this
encounter attempting to evade quiver after quiver, deeming the
visual aspect of this update to be somewhat lacking.
Nothing noteworthy to report progression wise, though as my last update was all but lacking in regards to eyecandy, I give you
Uren and Myrian, respectively wielding the first bard and druid epic on Antonius Bayle. Also worth noting is Elrriks completion of the warrior epic, which most definitely needs a graphical overhaul.
Far from a dearth of updates lately, and successfully completing the trial of endurance most definitely requires
yet another news posting. The guild was left laving after having wavered somewhat in the resolve needed to overcome
this trial, though after compiling what we learned in our prior attempts, our tactic was executed sans flaw and
yielded our fifth trial rune, eagerly awaiting the Mastery of Mind. The latter appears to be the obvious bottleneck,
though we have made some interesting discoveries there as well, stay tuned for further progression updates.
Warden of the north, Pixxt Kretv Krakxt was defeated tonight in what I believe to be a serverwide second kill. "The insano snake" as we have taken to calling this mob is obviously tuned for a level 70 raidforce,
which is primarily the reason for its limited amount of demises. With the availability of new more rewarding content in the
form of Omens of War, Tacvi is far from a priority to most guilds currently, though those of us that have endured Tacvi for
several months insisted on revisiting the end zone of GoD once the guild in general had peaked in levels.
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Nothing but anticlimatic ambly describes the aftermath however. The first Zun clone of the north died within a minute, and
would most likely have been found lacking matched against an Aneuk from Txevu. The second Zun of Tacvi's northern hemisphere
however proved to offer quite a few surprising elements, and due to the late hour, merely one attempt was made at the final
guardian of Tunat.
Nevertheless, Tacvi is on the agenda anew tomorrow, and hopefully, there will be atleast one new serverfirst to report.
After many a tiresome night in the trial chambers of the Muramite proving grounds, the Mastery of Mind was finally
defeated tonight. Countless attempts have been made at this all but arduous event, and more than one tactician found
themselves on the brink of frustration post a thorough ravaging from the ever present feran inhabitants. Another
serverfirst, though marginal, secured by the guild, and through Zwickel I was able to venture somewhat into the
depths of Anguish, merely to provide a more enjoyable graphical aspect. Hopefully there will be news of interest
to report from the end zone of Omens shortly.
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.
34 entries
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