Unlike his esthetic equivalents in Anguish, Hatchet used every pound to his advantage and through mere girthsize repeatedly plowed through a blithely unaware raidforce within his chambers of torture in the Demi-Plane of blood. This encounter is without a quiver of doubt the most entertaining fight we have seen for a long long time, and while the majority of Demi-Plane still remains wreathed, I feel safe in proclaiming that this is so far the best encounter in the Depths of Darkhollow expansion.

That is where the praise ends however, one should always give praise when it is due, as should one always relay the reciprocal when needed. For more than a month now, the Demi-Plane of blood has remained the most poorly designed, and the least thought through zone in the game, ranging from named encounters that render themselves totally unfunctional, to mob respawns that literally makes it all but impossible to get from one location to the next within the zone without utilizing a magician corpse, a few necromancers for ressurrection purposes and obviously a willing batch of knights to lead the way.

This method of skipping content has up until the end of last week been the primary method of transportation utilized by 100% of the guilds that are currently progressing through the end game content of Everquest. Serverwide chat channels have made it a simplicity to communicate with other guilds experiencing exactly the same thing as we did over the last couple of weeks. Raiding in the Demi-Plane was not even remotely resemblant of anything one might regard as fun. Imagine having to wait for close to two hours while a fraction of your guild is involved in the process of moving a corpse from one location to the next. Based on the conversations I had with several high end guildleaders during the October month, their conclution was all but unanimous; if left in its current state, the Demi-Plane might very well cause an exodus reminiscent of the one we all bore witness to during the Gates of Discord. Regardless of what potential progression you might make within in a zone, it is hardly worth the effort if you are not even enjoying it.

There are always exceptions however, a minority of people were actually advocating that the zone should be made more difficult, as the current level of challenge was barely sufficient to satiate their need for adequate challenges. I have personally not seen any definitions of the epitome/paragon of hypocracy, but that statement comes extremely close if nothing else does. The same minority that refuted any change to the zone as it was not challenging enough as it was, backed their comments up by killing Zi-Thuuli inside the Dreadspire castle, as the encounter in its original state proved to be too tough to handle. Admittedly one might say that rendering the one challenge of this fight obsolete is merely thinking outside the box, but when you have to skip 100% of the trash spawns in a zone merely to reach a named encounter, I would hardly feel justified in proclaiming that something is too easy, atleast not until you've actually managed to handle something the way it was intended.

As mentioned earlier, the Demi-Plane of blood was seriously altered last week, including longer respawn times, lowering of assist range for certain inhabitants and several other minor changes that combined severely heighten the enjoyment of the zone. Clearing trash is still somewhat of a challenge, but at the moment is is possible to complete, within acceptable time limits. When altering content to such an extent as was the case last thursday, it would only be common courtesy to announce the alterations, had this been procrastinated much longer, I am pretty certain that the aftermath of such a delay would be highly noticable.

Two things that would help enforce the intentions behind the modifications to the zone would be to make it impossible to remove the zonewide area effect, and to disable the call of the hero spell within the Demi-Plane. Truth be told, being able to skip content in a zone through using a buff-stacking issue to remove an area effect; thus being able to make corpse runs that otherwise would be impossible while being snared is not original, it is unintentional.

Progression wise, Everquest seems to have entered a cold war era, new mobs are being killed but those killing them does not deem it important enough to update their newspages. As far as we are concerned though, a news posting is to announce a milestone your guild has overcome, nothing more.

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.

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.

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.

Normally a guild refrains from displaying encounters which did not exactly turn out as planned. One could almost believe raids rarely fail, trains never occur and that Klavs actually stood his ground against the Emperor for more than 5 minutes prior to the release of Planes of Power.

All of the above can easily be dismissed as mere fables, and to illustrate Raging Fury proudly present the aftermath of a certain wizard chosing all but the right moment to show off a newly aquired Xuzl skill, though rest assured, others have experienced similar, and no it was not me!

Finishing up with a few random quotes, keep in mind that none of these are "serious", except for Deidda:

The lair of Terris Thule was actually found populated for once, and thus the forces gathered in preparation and anticipation for what was to be the first major milestone in the Planes of Power, not accounting for Kerafyrm's lineage nor the male version of Chikaka (residing within the Plane of Disease, and rather bold). Should you have further problems making the actual connection, feel free to inquire ingame.

The first planar deity slain, a more diverse zone selection available, two new trinkets, more accurately two Indigo Snake Bracelets and a Sable Lined Mantle and hopefully a continous line of updates equivalently prosperous still to come.

Late Monday night the inner sanctum of Seru was desecrated as the Lord Insquisitor himself stood against a vast force of adventurers with one sole purpose, completing their last lunar challenge.

With the slaying of Lord Seru, each nemesis from the depths of Ssra to the darkest corner of Vex thal has been defeated, and thus we bid the shadows of Luclin adieu.

Loot consisted of Yttrium Studded Leather Boots, Heavy Yttrium Chestplate and Bow of Storms.

See you all in Halls of Honor

Loot consisted of Wrath of Mithanial and Shoulderpads of the Visionary.

Raging Fury ventured into the depths of Vex Thal this weekend, for the first time encountering the challenges of the second floor of Luclin's goldmine.

Vex Thal is known to many as one of the better incomes for high end equipment, though you also risc exposing your guild to another feared everquest syndrom, namely the fashion one.

Recently Antonius Bayle managed to rid itself of being known as the server with the most players totally lacking a sense in regards to clothing, as Mentin was finally convinced to put on a robe after a unanimous guild decision.

Though Frolaak seemed determined to reinstate this, atleast that is the only possible explanation one could reach after seeing the following picture

Two days of continous pulling later, we were faced with Aten Ha Ra herself, and in collaboration with the rest of our weekend, things went as they were supposed to.

Craon, Zwickel, Frezzer and Azmodai all adorned themselves with her loot, atleast the three later mentioned ones as the rumour has it Craon is currently occupying himself working on a certain faction.

The goals we set ourselves as a guild in Luclin were all met with this clearing, and focus has now been shifted towards the Planes of Power, thus check back for upcoming planar battles.