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

In what can only be described as a way overdue kill, Tunat'Muram was defeated tonight, marking the completion of the Gates of Discord expansion, aproximately one year after its official release. Raging Fury practically spent weeks within this zone during the prime of a now obsolete expansion, but progression was thoroughly halted by Pixtt Kretv Kraxt, a fate shared by many a guild serverwide. Rumours of our upcoming victory actually caused a few dormant members of the guild to make an appearance, making tonights raid even more enjoyable.

Truth be told, this encounter was far from as difficult as one might expect, though it definitely followed the trend of the other encounters found within the zone, offering a much needed respite from the weekly Anguish routine.

As the topic indicates, we are currently seeking active CLERICS and ENCHANTERS to bolster our ranks. Cross server applicants are encouraged to apply, the two traits we hold in high regard are activity + ability. Id est, high playing times, and preferrably a certain amount of alternate advancement. For further information about the application process, please review our recruitment section on the forums or contact any officer in game (Anthas, Frolaak, Uren, Xack, Karde, Nineveh).

Onwards to more jovial aspects. Our enchanters are known serverwide for their unmatched logic and strategic dispositions, the first quote displayed below is an archived uttering from our suisse tactician, while the second quote was a recent occurrence, clearly following the trend.

Have you ever experienced an applicant constantly making up excuses for not attending raids? Most guilds probably have, though I think it fairly safe to assume that none bares even the slightest resemblance towards what you are about to witness below. Without further ado, Raging Fury proudly presents, Ravjack!

• Ravjack tells the raid, 'sorry about that 3min afk. daughter was choking in her sleep. silly cow decided to chew her teddy bear'
• Ravjack tells the raid, 'guys i ned to camp, electric cut out and im on battery charger atm. will be back when it comes back up.
• Ravjack tells the guild, 'still time to make Qvic? sorry i tried at 7pm to log on and it wouldnt let me so went to the pub for a drink =)'
• Ravjack tells the guild, 'this is ravjacks better half .. hes had to go out on an emergency, im gating him out just in case ..... he will be on later'
• Ravjack tells the guild, 'fookin poodle pulled my monitor power out'
• Ravjack tells you, 'i know your not gonna be happy but im gonna have to go now, baby milk was left in granada and daughter needs a feed in 2hrs so i have to go next town down to buy milk. sorry ill cya laters'
• Ravjack tells you, 'sorry about friday had a phone call from friend who broke down outside valencia city. had to go pick his family up and take em home'
• Ravjack tells the guild, 'afk need to walk dog b4 this raid or wife will skin me'
• Ravjack tells the guild, 'im on wifes laptop atm. my pc still wont let me in. damn fookin sony and ther equick fixes'
• Ravjack tells the guild, 'sorry about that guys. i went ld with /rewind command then i couldnt get in with login being down

Prior to the Dragons of Norrath release, the general opinion was that the content of the new expansion would merely be an extention of the adventures found in the Lost Dungeons of Norrath, initially festering a hesitation amongst the players when deciding whether or not they would actually purchase the expansion.

While the mission system is highly reminiscent of the adventures found in the predecessing expansion, the DoN counterpart offers a very innovative and compelling progression quest, adding a sorely missed aspect to the game, namely an active player base outside of the normal raiding hours. The lack of new alternate advanced was somewhat frowned upon by many already at the peak of personal improvement, though the quest mentioned earlier has proven itself to yield quite significant rewards, a definite aid to any raiding guild.

Raidwise we have attempted two of the five dragons residing in the newly discovered lands beneath Lavastorm Mountains, more precisely Tirranun and Rikkukin. The latter supposedly offered quite an amusing encounter, though sadly I was not able to participate in the fight. Off the bat, Dragons of Norrath appears to be an entertaining addition to the Everquest saga, dissipating the faineant periods between actual raiding content, while having upgrades that will sough after by high end as well as low end players.

And to potential developers browsing this page; FIX THE AM ENCOUNTER IN ANGUISH !

Concluding this update, one of the most inappropriate zone crashes we have experienced of late, though as someone was kind enough to remind me of, it could have been much much worse, i.e during Jelvan. The actual crashing process did not occurr until Warden Hanvar's hitpoints moved from 1% to 0%, in other words, perfectly timed.

Still mostly praise to the Dragons of Norrath expansion, albeit the lockout timers are somewhat excessive. Having to wait for nearly four days prior to repeating a 24 player event is all but disconsolate. Having said that, most of the encounters we've attempted so far are highly enjoyable, most definitely the Guardian of the Sands event, which proves the programmers have taken an innovative path in regards to expedition design and strategy.

Upon reaching Yar'Lir we discovered an apparent vanity issue, the dragon having indulged himself with several titles, most pertaining to weather related elements, though we will merely refer to him as Yar'Lir. Knowing that defeating this event would set in motion a one time dynamic event opening up the nest for our server, we all agreed that our weekly Anguish farm could easily be postponed to permanently alter the state of Antonius Bayle.

Through unlocking The Nest, we obtained access to the following monstrosity, it seems the Yar'Lir model is a popular choice for high end DoN mob design. Traits found amid the earlier Gates of Discord encounters were recognized upon playing around with the event somewhat, and hopefully we will return soon to engage the guardian of the dragon spawning grounds.

European servers have long been neglected in comparison to the American ones. I could mention GM events being arranged at 4 am, patches ending at midnight, pretty much rendering the entire day worthless for raiding. These are things we have long since learned to accept, our server being the oddity amongst the pack, located on a foreign continent. However, leaving the Arch Magus Vangl event broken on Antonius Bayle only is hardly a minor issue, it is pretty unbelievable considering the fact that we have two high end guilds located here, both deeply involved their learning process against Mata Muram. Having spoken to several raidleaders serverwide, they've all confirmed the encounter is working perfectly. Set aside five minutes of your precious time to patch the Anguish zone on the server that most likely utilizes it the most...I usually refrain from ranting about such issues, but this has been postponed for way too long now.

A decaying dragon withered to the unrecognizable by the corruption festering beneath the mountains awaited a wary raidforce amid the eerie setting of the nest. Summoning an array of unDead servants to his aid, Vishimtar sought to spread the taint that seemingly had consumed the once lithe dragon, to no avail.

This encounter is possibly the most captivating challenge of DoN to date, not necessarily due to the difficulty involved, the dragon himself is quite easily bested once the correct strategy is applied, though the involvement of every member present definitely makes this fight one to remember.

Unlike the Mata Muram encounter, one slight neglect will not render the fight all but impossible, but merely prolong an already lengthy fight. As of yet we have not been able to allocate further content in the DoN expansion, and while the newest addition to Everquest has of yet been all but euphoria, one can only hope that further raiding content will be revealed. If not, completing an expansion in less than three weeks will surely be somewhat frowned upon, time will tell. Extremely poor screenshots this time around, one could almost think they were supplied by Finnemann!