These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.

This is a long post, stick with me 🙂 It’s also a little early, we usually write something at the start of the year, but I’ve had a couple of questions about TNF and the SoF release prompted this a little earlier than normal. So, here we go …

Wow, another year has passed. It’s hard to believe it was only the start of 2007 that TNF made it into the Plane of Time. A lot of hard work in zones that offered little reward during 2006 to get everyone flagged, and then a few happy romps in Time for some fun clickies. At the start of 2007 I wrote a post on what we thought would be coming up in the following months (you can read it here). I said, and I quote,

We have no plans to get flagged for Anguish

And then,

if you have some spare time and wanted to, go pick up a few Anguish signets, you never know what he future will hold.

Well you went and got your sigs. We had no plans to get flagged for Anguish, but hell, beating the MPG trials was just so much fun it kind of just happened by accident. We’re in Anguish, we’re kicking Anguish Ass and we’re enjoying it. I wrote this half way through the year, to cover our progress at that stage, and since then we’ve surpassed all our plans. I wanted to take the time to write another note, let you know where TNF is, and where myself and Siddhaya see us going in 2008.

But first of all, I want to talk about ‘the wave’. TNF has been riding the wave for a couple of years, we’ve been just ahead of major gear inflation since we started. Three major gear advancements in 2006/2007 were a cause for concern for TNF. Firstly, the loot from DoDh / PoR group encounters was better in some cases than you could get in the Plane of Time. It was ok, not everyone had it, and the Plane of Time had fun factor and useful loot still. Then we broken into Qvic, but the armour from TSS powered molds is actually just slightly better than the Qvic armour. Again, it wasn’t easy to get, not everyone had it, and so Qvic / Inktu`ta still had something to offer. Finally, we broke into Anguish, and around the same time the single group armour from The Buried Sea turned out to be better or roughly similar to Anguish armour for some classes.

TNF doesn’t only raid for the loot, in fact, the loot isn’t our primary reason for raiding. We raid to show you guys new content in EQ that you might not otherwise see. For some raiders in TNF, loot upgrades on raids have always been rare, due to either being well geared before joining TNF or doing a lot of group work outside of raids to upgrade past the content we were killing. For many however, TNF has been a source of great loot upgrades.

With the release of the Secrets of Faydwer there can be no denying that the wave has broken, TNF raid targets will be behind the loot curve. Gear dropping in Dragonscale hills has 250 hitpoints and various mods, loot from further in SoF is even better. Armour you can buy in the bazaar (well, if you’re very wealthy) is better in some cases than Anguish armour. If there was ever a time where it was easier to get group upgrades than raid upgrades, for many of our raid force, now is it. I want to reassure you that TNF strategy will not change. We want to show you stuff in EQ you might never otherwise see, and that means that despite the loot we will reward the effort of working through Kod`taz, Ikkinz, Uqua, Qvic, Inktu`ta and Txevu and we will go to Tacvi and beat Tunat’Muram Cuu Vauax.

And that brings us to 2008, TNF’s fourth year. Four years of casual, once a week raids. Four years of hard work. Four years of loyalty, dedication and fun!

Gates of Discord and Omens of War

I promise 2008 will be no different. We will defeat the two heads of the Muramite army. Tunat’Muram Cuu Vauax in Tacvi will fall before us, and Overlord Mata Muram in Anguish shall lie at our feet, a broken wreck. I can not say how soon these things will happen, we still have challenges in Txevu to beat, and you have seen the trouble Overlord Mata Muram has given us, but I can promise you they will happen. TNF will beat both the Gates of Discord and the Omens of War content.

Dragons of Norrath

Yar`lir is our bitch, Rikkukin is our foot stool and Tirranun is beneath our contempt. Kessdona may well suffer a swift defeat one day, to say we went, but the real target left amongst the once mighty Dragons of Norrath is Vishimtar. TNF will be paying the beast a visit, and we expect to come away with our arms full of trophies.

Depths of Darkhollow and Prophecy of Ro

It’s time to band together in groups again, and to begin working on your raid zone access. Just as with GoD and OoW, there are single group tasks that must be done to gain access to the most powerful content in DoDh and PoR. Some of you already have access, some have been working on it and others still haven’t started. We need you to get access to Dreadspire Keep, Razorthorn and Theatre of Blood. There’s a lot of work to do it, and we’ll all need to work together to achieve access. As well as the single group stuff there are raids (like Matriarch Shyra) which provide flags, and in between GoD and Omens, it’s these targets we’ll be looking at in 2008.

The Serpents Spine, The Buried Sea, The Secrets of Faydwer

We’ll look at the targets in these three expansions and see if there’s anything we can throw in for some fun, but we don’t expect to be making any major progress or attempting anything significant.

Summary

It’s been a fantastic year. I’m proud to have reached Anguish the right way, with friends, having fun. I’m proud to be knocking on the door of the final zone of the Gates of Discord. I’m proud to be at the stage where we can beat Vishimtar and draw a line beneath yet another expansion. In 2008, TNF will beat GoD, OoW and DoN. We’ll do that because you guys work hard, turn up and continue to improve every time. We can’t do it without you. In 2008, TNF will step further into the Depths of Darkhollow, beating the most challenging raids we’ve ever seen, and we’ll look to the Dragons in Relic to offer a challenge.

A year ahead, a year of challenge, of mystery, of blood and fire. A year of dragons and demi-gods. Step up, be bold, show no quarter. We’re asking more of you than ever before, maybe everything you have to give. Here, now, this is where we make our stand, where we draw the line. Tunat’Muram Cuu Vauax can not be allowed to live. Overlord Mata Muram must die to pay for his crimes. Vishimtar the Fallen has crossed over and must be sent back. Tsikut, Shar`Drahn and Ashenback blight the very world with their presence and will be sent back to the ninth plane of hell from whence they came.

Be bold.

Show no quarter.

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.

These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.

Well you turned out! 53 live and willing players turned up for our fourth run at Anguish, and our last official TNF raid before our three week break. Thank you for making it! I felt sorry for Keldovan as soon as I saw we have 53 folk there, I mean he’s never really caused any issues, so having another two groups of people wailing on him was always going to be painful for him, and so it turned out! Jelvan was sweet, smooth, almost trivial, we’re getting better with off-tanking group setups and the two extra groups of DPS really make it smart.

And so it appears that Ture is to be our nemesis, often considered the easier encounter, twice now we’ve made it look hard! Still you pulled through and beat it without needing a full wipe and it keeps us fresh. With Ture down Hanvar is never an issue, and although our Arch Magus fight wasn’t as tidy as last time it was never at risk.

And so on a day where I felt sure we would have a good shot at the Overlord, he pulled out a bug from his bag of tricks, charged the raid the instant AMV died, pathed back and closed his little hut. So we decamped and killed Yar`lir instead.

It was a great turnout, we got some cool loot, and I hope we can do it again after our break many more times.

As I said in my last post below, Txevu and Tacvi lie ahead of us, we need people to continue to focus on getting Tipt/KT keyed, Qvic keyed and Txevu keyed to keep numbers up while inside Txevu/Tacvi. We won’t be doing much stuff in Txevu (low return vs. risk) but we will be playing Tacvi as often as possible to get some nice weapons and other toys.

See you all in three weeks, don’t forget Zerblag has already scheduled some stuff on the TNF off-days, show up, give her your support, get some loot.

These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.

It’s sounds more like a sneeze than a zone, but many TNF’ers got their Cypher of Txevu last night, the last real flag in the Gates of Discord. Txevu is a static zone, and inside you find the instance entrace for Tacvi, the final zone in the Gates of Discord and an instanced raid zone. Because Txevu is not instanced, the targets inside aren’t always up. We’ll have a little bit of work to do in there to get a couple of keys which allow raid leaders to request the Tacvi instance. Once that’s done we probably won’t spend much time in Txevu itself.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Last night, Inktu`Ta. A good turnout, not the 50 we were hoping for but a good 40-odd people. Cynosure was up, and you can’t go to Inktu`Ta with him alive, so we gave him a little TNF introduction. We also did Zoo for the first time, which was fun, especially when she leashed and started summoning us, but we coped, rushed her and her little pets and left her dead.

Our third visit to Inktu`Ta, the first had been a resounding success, the second not so good. The curse callers did us in, but this time we weren’t about to be beaten by some dead cowardly ghosts, we ran like champions and we burned burned burned and they died died died (er, again). Noqufiel is a pushover once his little ghost buddies are dead and while he put up some token resistance he was never really in any kind of position to negotiate.

Inktu`Ta beaten for the second time, another bunch of TNF’ers with their Cypher of Txevu, and the final two zones in the Gates of Discord looming ahead of us. Which is where I came in at the top of this note.

One more raid in October, and we’re going back to Anguish. I’m personally hoping for a huge turnout, in the high 40’s, because if we get that we’re good to attempt Mata Muram again. After that, TNF is taking a three week break in November. Hope to see you in Anguish next weekend, let’s make the fight before our little break one to remember.

And then when we get back – Txevu, Tacvi, Dragons, Anguish, perhaps a little more toe dipping in the Depths of Darkhollow, and beyond.

These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.

Our third trip to Anguish, and this time it didn’t crash, yay. Keldovan was no worry, but Jelvan, ah sweet Jelvan why do you always need to be rescued. This event is on the edge of TNF’s comfort zone. We know we can beat it, but we know it can beat us as well, we went into this event 1 win for 3 tries (1 wipe following by a win, followed by a wipe two weeks later followed by a zone crash which stopped us trying again).

I’m sure those of you who’ve raided with me know that I never get over-excited and I never shout in rsay, ever. No really, I’m calm and relaxed and in control at all times.

We beat the Jelvan event – but it took us 20 minutes, and it included these phrases in rsay,

I want to see you pull this out of the hat
if you can rez – go rez someone
stay alive we can beat these two *****
you want a story to tell your kids about?

I’ve never been more proud of the TNF force than when we rescued Jelvan. We did indeed pull it out of the hat, it was an incredible recovery. No one gave up, we never accepted defeat. We beat that event through force of will and determination and you deserve the loot that dropped.

We nailed Ture and Hanvar on a high and we took on the Arch Magus Vangl for only our second attempt – and he died in 3 minutes 59 seconds with about two deaths. Disdain, pure disdain for his AE’s.

Which meant the wall came up on the Overlord Mata Muram for the first time in TNF’s raid history.

It would have been rude not to play with him. None of us were sure how it would go, TNF has proven us wrong time after time, and we’d just nailed AMV like he was an Orc Pawn. But alas, we had too much to learn about the encounter, and at around 80% the Overlord had his way with our raid, and we died, laughing.

An astoundingly good Anguish raid – for me personally, one of the most memorable raids in my EQ history, and certainly one of the most fun as member or co-leader. Next week, back to the Gates of Discord and the Benny Hill Event. But the Overlord shouldn’t rest easy, TNF will be back, and we’ve got his measure.

These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.

You know you’re raiding the Gates of Discord when the zones you’re moving through sound like bodily functions or tribal sacrificial practices. We went to Inktu’ta, the Unmasked Chapel for the first time on Saturday 22nd September. Startup was a bit slow due to some real life stuff, but the fun thing about Inktu’ta is of course, the first mob you kill drops some Qvic armour. Nijacka the Scourge duly obliged and dropped a Qvic bracer. You can read up as much as you want about a zone, but you never know what you’re up against until you step foot in it and try the first mob. A lot of the commentary on the web about Inktu’ta is pretty old by EQ standards so we really weren’t sure how we’d stand up to the first pull.

Well we stood up easily. Nijacka may as well have been trash. And so started the trash ploughing, until we reached Kelektrix. It’s a fun little event, spawns some shadowstepping mobs with rather nasty AE’s which you need to kill before you can engage Kelektrix, and then when they respawn you have to kill them again. TNF did us proud, beating the event cleanly and quickly, despite the chaotic nature of it and having not seen it before. I have to admit at this point I was worried, Uqua had been seriously tough on our first attempt, and Inktu’ta was supposed to be a real challenge. Had we somehow gone to the wrong zone? Had we perhaps got the level 48 version with no loot by accident?

I think Kelekdrix may have dropped some loot, honestly I was too busy at this point to notice. I want to sneak in a thanks to the full raid leadership team at thsi point, a raid like Inktu’ta takes a lot of different co-ordination action behind the scenes and it’s fully a team effort. We dropped into the next section and started setting off traps (which root anyone in range), we stumbled through that, took out a couple of door guards like they were level 5 orc pawns and entered the Stonemite event.

I’ve read a lot of reports of Inktu’ta, I’ve read a lot of information about this event, I’ve read a lot of stuff on the Sony boards about it, so I was a bit apprehensive. TNF showed once again that we need not worry – we moved calmly to our positions despite the short notice of the required activity, we killed anything which annoyed us, and on cue we triggered the right phrase and unlocked the door. I was starting to wonder if I have already awakened from this nightmare and was in fact just dreaming.

The corridor of deadly golems was up next – a raid wiping event with golems which trigger in fours and AE rampage. We prepped, setup, warned the heal team, advised the tank team, and engaged … and didn’t really notice the first set. Or the second set, or the third set. The final set died with a bit of a whimper. Quality tanking, healing and solid DPS meant we basically dealt with the golems like we’ve been dealing with their kind since Ikkinz one. Trash to be tossed asside.

Ah but finally, the event anyone who’s read about Inktu’ta was waiting for – the Cursecaller event. Or as we prefer to call it, The Benny Hill Event. While killing a bunch of rooting mobs, you have to avoid fast spawning death-touch mobs which chase you until they catch you, getting quicker and quicker as they run. It’s chaos in a tin. Confusion in a bucket. Had we finally met our match in Inktu’ta, could we handle the chaos and rez quick enough to stay in the game? Of course we could, with aplomb. Lessi reports getting the emote almost instantly and completing 138 laps in record time before finally dying to her curse bearer. Others weren’t so lucky and died within seconds. But none-the-less, we killed the Cursecallers, rezzed the fallen, and tried to get the Benny Hill Theme Tune out of our heads.

And so the final event. The deadly and deceitful Noqufiel. Another chaotic encounter, in which you must constantly strive to engage the True Form of Noqufiel while ignoring his deadly Mirror Image. Of course, it would be too easy without the additional benefit of high-speed death touching ghosts, so some of those are thrown in as well. Finally a challenge for TNF. This event kept us on our toes, but due to sterling healing, tanking and solid teamwork from everyone, Noqufiel fell and TNF left victorious. Txevu and Tacvi await, a class above Inktu’ta no doubt about it, with complex events, nasty spells and just brutal damage output. We’ll be ready. We’ll soak up whatever they can give and give back double for no charge.

We are TNF, and we are not afraid.