Yesterday evening Raging Fury was finally able to beat the third event in Sepulcher called Fumerak the Quintessence.

It took us quite some time and many deaths to down this raid, with some people losing more than a level worth of experience in the process. Adds quadding for up to 40 K damage versus tanks with over 9000 AC, a named who in certain states hits for over 55 K and some funny AE effects with pushback, blind etc. – pure joy!

Still the raid wouldn’t be so bad (I mean, we have all asked for challenging content here in RF, so there we go), if it took a bit shorter until you finally get to the stage where it really matters. It is really frustrating when you focus for ninety minutes, just to wipe in the last percents. I doubt that in its current incarnation this raid will be beaten by more than a dozen guilds serverwide and this has nothing to do with arrogance from my part. I simply don’t think that there are many guilds left in EQ who can field the constant force willing to die endlessly for days (or even weeks).

Anyway, I am glad we managed to overcome this challenge and hope we can get the next two events beaten soon as well to finish the expansion - stay tuned!

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Tonight Raging Fury finished the latest EverQuest expansion as fifth guild serverwide, keeping up our streak of staying among the top five since GoD. As usual I would like to thank all our guild members for the work and effort they have put in, especially our raid leading team, the recruitment team for getting us some great additions to our guild and all the other people who do all those pesky little tasks which have to be done to run a guild smoothly.

I also want to congratulate the other 4 guilds who have already beaten the expansion, well done. I myself will not go into any details, why we were "only" number 5 this time after being on place 4 during UF, I think whining about being held back by bugs and events that can't even be triggered is unfitting for a high end raiding guild. We managed to overcome all the obstacles in the end and are still among the very best - that's good enough for me!

Let me just say that it seems the longer it takes to beat an expansion, the harder the events are, the better it is for RF.

Underfoot was such an expansion with hard events and challenging scripts. It had its bugs, as is the case with pretty much every expansion in every MMORPG, but it was far from being as bad as HoT (which is why I think the good old "Halls of Testing" would make a rightful translation of this acronym). The newest expansion was infested with bugs, wrong grades of difficulty for the intended tier and sadly enough simply annoying mechanisms which make this the expansion I myself have enjoyed the least in a long period of time (raidwise, the group game is actually not bad, although I still miss a challenging endzone).

Well, let's see what events did we beat since the last update?

In Tier 3:

• The raid in Upper HoT, which is a total joke, so I didn't even bother to take pictures of

• Al Kabor's Nightmare, which is actually not too bad, except for the small fact that the adds don't depop after a win.

• Miragul's Lair, which we couldn't do for 2 weeks, as during that time the trigger NPC was simply gone. After it was back we could go for it and it is one of the most challenging fights in the whole expansion, a real gate keeper:

  

• Cazic's Final Stand in Fear, which has been tuned down a ton in the last patches, so that now it is an easy going raid:

  

• The raid in Morell's castle, which imho is one of the best designed this expansion

After downing all of these events it was farming time to get the keys for T4 (only Fear and MC raid drop them), until we finally felt the thrill to enter Sanctus Somnium...

That thrill was taken away soon by the first event in SS! AE pushback makes a totally annoying mechanism, which simply prolongs a fight which is otherwise not really hard.

On we went to event 2, which has an AE mezz involved - still, it's not that bad.

Event 3 was underwater fight - yay, 3 events, 3 different annoying mechanisms, WTG devs to make raiding fun! Oh, you add some adds that repop even after the event is won and make looting another night mare (like on Al Kabor's)? Good job there... Mind you, none of the events is overly hard, they are simply not fun!

Event 4 was a complete joke and so easy that even all those guilds who were whining about the "overly hard Ritual of Terror raid" would be able to beat this.

Event 5 had some interesting ideas and riddles in it, so that was something new and innovative, deserving a screenshot:

Event 6 makes me want to hurt whoever designed it. Seriously, the idea itself is not bad at all, but the reset is so buggy, that in the end nothing matter, just keeping up.

The final event shows Morell Thule in all his might:

Once again the "annoyometer" reaches new high scores: how do you like a raid where people get ported outside the raid zone with no way of getting back in except via banner? You think it's crap? So did we... Want to add a ton of autoaggroing red-con adds with all sorts of particularly nasty AEs? Good, good, people are now really hating this event so much, that upon victory the usual cheering was more or less replaced by "thank god, it's over"

As icing on the cake you make the adds repop once you open the chest upon victory to make up for another fine wipe brought to you by SOE.

To sum it all up I quote one of our members:

But it wasn't all bad this expansion, we also had some incredible wonders happening:

Also, with skilled people like our members, we don't fear anything:

And in the end it's all about the members and the community, where else would you see people be so open?

Questions like the following show the deeper thoughts only the wisdom of age beings to mind:

So that's it for now folks, farming time starts, let's all hope for fast fixes on some of the most annoying bugs and maybe the addition of a real high end raid zone with hard raids, because of the difficulty to beat them not because of the number of bugs or the sheer attrition to annoying mechanisms.

I am proud of my guild and its long tradition of high end raiding. Even during rather bad expansions like the current one has been we still hold our place among those very few guilds at the top.

Imrahil

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Here I was today, trying to find a movie featuring the animal which was the main ingredient of the raid we had beaten last night (called "Masked invaders"). So I entered "movie, badger" into the search engine most beloved by the chinese government and see what I found:

That video summarizes pretty well what happens during the hours of boredom and annoyance one has to get through to win this event. The next quote is also a fitting summary:

Although the idea for a raid after a stupid song might sound funny, believe me it is not and my guild mates shared the feeling:

So the reason why we stayed on it until almost half past midnight to finish it off was only so that we wouldn't have to come back the next day. After somewhere around 3 hours (which felt like 30) we finally were at the big boss badger:

Normally after beating an event for the first time (OK, admittedly we had beaten it a week ago when it was in a totally gimped state, but that doesn't count) people cheer and are exhilirated - on the badgers though it was only a sigh of relief going through the GU that it was finally over. Did I mention I didn't like the raid? Guess so...Anyway, at least we got some loot for all the tedium:

4 events down, but a few more to come and although I might seem a bit annoyed with the last raid, all in all I do enjoy the current expansion from a purely raider's point of view - events are hard and challenging and need people with good attention and focus, with the skill to play their class and the will to work in a team to achieve something.

You think you do fit into that description? Good!You want to become a part of Raging Fury? Even better!You are among the following classes?

Pure awesomeness, as those are the classes we are mainly looking for, but we have a few limited spots open for other classes as well (especially another Beastlord or a Necro), so check our recruitment section for details.

Not among the classes we have currently open? No need to wimper "Badgers badgers badgers"! We do accept applications from exceptional players from most of the other classes as well, so speak to our recruiters Illandra, Nalelini or Zorland or talk to an officer.

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Approximately a month after our first defeat of Breakneck in MMM, we finally defeated all the obstacles laid before us and have finished the zone in yet another in a long list of serverfirst victories.

As one of the guilds who entered MMM early and started working hard on progression, we have seen our share of bugs. We have killed 2 different Breaknecks, 3 different Krond (including the "unkillable regen" version) and 3 different prototypes. We have had events where you had to drop instance and clear trash again on every wipe cause events wouldnt reset properly and how can you forget the elevator of doom with its huuge trains?

One of the strengths of Raging Fury has always been to never give up. Was it 50+ attempts on Overlord Mata Muram and over 100 failures on Sisters in Solteris? Meldraths Majestic Mansion has surely tested our patience. Never the less, we came out on top, doing what only 3 guilds serverwide has done before us and that makes this victory even more Sweet.

We are lucky that our continued success seem to draw high quality apps to Raging Fury to incorporate into our team to fill the roles after those that venture on to reallife endeavors and on the other hand less than a handful left us to join other competing guilds over the last 2 years that I can remember, despite ongoing tells from other recruiters (some more humorous than others). All in all this means that over the years we have had a strong foundation of experienced raiders at our disposal. Hats off to them all and they deserve a place on this frontpage for sure.

Below you can see our raidforce getting ready for the final battle with Meldrath

And ofcourse the outcome was a nice picnic in what used to be Meldrath's room!

We still have a very uneven distribution on core drops, so was almost funny to see that the BP core was one of our rarest and we now have a happy wizard with a new robe. MMM is still a source of tons of weapons for us and its not uncommon at all to get 5 weapons in an evening. Meldrath himself proved to be no different and dropped a new weapon for us, along with a nice ring.

So whats next for Raging Fury? I guess 2 months of key farming and gearing up before we enter Crystallos and kick some behind in there. As usual, if you are interested in joining us, send a tell to our guild recruiter Illandra. I know we might have room for an exceptional shaman and enchanter. We are most likely talking solteris gear and high RA, but Illandra will know for sure.

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Here we go! Last of the events leading to the final confrontation with Meldrath the Malignant has been defeated and we have paid the gnome mastermind the first visit. Expect to see a full update of the whole MMM zone defeated soon!

So we did as he asked and went to pay him a little visit. Put a nice little dent in his suit also and plan to make that dent quite alot bigger very soon!

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Tonight we took another step towards facing Meldrath himself, as Seneschal Bargangle Tinkerson was defeated. To increase our chances of winning, I wasnt online and therefor have no pictures other than the winning strat. So I am gonna break the rules and share this with you all, courtesy of Rummux the Tactician

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With The Buried Sea expansion fast approaching, Raging Fury is looking to reinforce our current raidforce with some new people. It is no secret that TSS was tough on several people, but like always they stuck with us to see TSS defeated. Unfortunately after finishing the expansion and being in farm mode for a month, people loose the thrill of progressing and some decided it is time to move on to reallife adventures. A big thank you to those people who helped bring us to the top of the game year after year. I am sure you will be successfull in whatever you choose to do in RL

Fortunately for YOU, this means we have a few openings for people eager to experience the best of what raiding can be like in EQ. We are looking for players that are happy with their class, who still has a desire to play EQ and not any other newly released games. We are looking for highly motivated players who are willing to work on Solteris flagging and dont mind showing up night after night for wipes while we learn the new challenges that lie ahead of us and who are willing to stay when the boredom of farming hits us after we complete TBS. You have to be a teamplayer and be able to keep a positive attitude even when things dont go our way.

If you think you match this description, then please contact our recruiter Illandra or any of the officers, even this grumpy dorf in game, via the board or e-mail. All classes welcome, though some will have higher requirements than others based on current needs. High priority will be given to a couple of clerics, paladin, shadowknight, ranger and necro at this point, but if you can convince us that we need you, then please do so

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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.

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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.

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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

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