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News Update coming as soon as I finish sorting through 6 weeks of PoP screenshots! (tonight) We've been busy, busy, busy getting lots of stuff dead.
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Click on the thumbnail(s) and link(s) to view larger images and loot. Well the last month has been pretty much business as usual, ramping up our farming efforts as we prepare to leave the worst expansion of Everquest behind, in anticipation of yet another expansion that once again promises the earth in content and development, yet we all know what to expect don't we? Aim low in your expectations and no doubt you won't be disappointed - I'm guessing most of the EQ community is feeling this way after the abortion of an expansion we've endured for the last 11 months. You may have noticed a recent poll a couple of weeks back when logging into Everquest, asking you whether you thought VI should concentrate on fixing old content, bug fixes, zone revamps, or concentrate on new content - that's about the first real admission from VI that they can never deliver everything they promise, and that now they want to cut their "talented" development staff even further, and then vindicate themselves by telling us they're only doing what we wanted. Ironic that there was no option for VI to concentrate on BOTH old content, bug fixes, zone revamps AND new content. Well... onto the farmage - Aten Ha Ra down and Vex Thal fully cleared for the 11th time on Terris-Thule. Unfortunately some emergency patching prevented us from completely clearing the zone another two times. Kudos to VI on the loot revamp for the zone, the risk versus reward finally seems to be paying off, although I do miss the slaughter potential of the AE Blind (yep I'm a glutton for punishment) that they replaced with a point blank directional stun/knockback. Aten Ha Ra  VT just doesn't quite feel the same without AE Blind, and for those entering VT post-AE Blind and post-loot upgrades, you won't feel quite as challenged, you'll probably save some of your coffin funds, but at the same time you also won't feel like you've been quite as bent over and boofed backwards after all the work you put into getting there. Also on the upside, it seems that after introducing loot to Eom yard trash, with about a one in a million drop-rate, they finally patched them to start dropping at a more reasonable rate. It would however be nice if you bastards at VI would fix the damn bugged Akhevan Warders that have been reported on every server for months now, that you just plain don't seem to care about. Oops!?!  There is however one thing that can still break the monotony of killing the same endless four-armed or robed yard trash over and over and over again for hours on end - yep, you guessed it, a good sized train. If you've yet to experience a train in Vex Thal, you don't know what you're missing. You win some, you lose some... I'll let you guess what the outcome of this one was. Emperor Ssraeshza  In other news, with a recent Emergency patch in Ssraeshza Temple, Verant has FINALLY got around to fixing the Emperor so that he is no longer hugely affected by the impact of the lag of many people in the zone or at the encounter itself. For some time now the Emperor was experiencing massive melee and ability (his 4k touch) lag that made him trivial for guilds that would not have been capable otherwise. This is above and beyond the accidental slow change that went in when Verant first introduced their resist changes a while back that was fixed reasonably swiftly. This encounter has finally been restored to the state that it was designed to be in, as it was when we first overcame it many months ago, and its a heck of a lot more fun the way its MEANT to be. It's sad that some guilds on all servers, that would not otherwise have been capable, managed to kill the Emperor and complete their VT keys during the time that this encounter was both messed up with resist changes, and messed up due to unbelievable lag effects. Needless to say, with the Emperor restored to his former glory, and the Gimperor no more, he continues to go down for us faster than a $5 (that's Canadian dollars) hoe on Ogees. Emperor Ssraeshza was obliterated another 4 times in the last 2 weeks, bringing our grand total of Emperor killings up to 18, and some untold number of destroyed power sources. The Ancients of Kerafym's Lair     Once the challenges of an expansion are all overcome, nothing breaks the monotony of endless farming of the same mobs over and over for phat loot as going back to experience revamped old content again in an older expansion for a smattering of still overpowered loot (prismatic) mixed in with sub-par loot, and to just plain reminisce. We took a couple of retro trips back to Sleeper's Tomb to test out the recent zone revamp, and were pleasantly surprised, although quite similiar to the way it was pre-Sleeper awakening, there are some cool new mobs with new abilities and a general PoA style feeling around the zone now with some splitting-mobs, new quest items dropping and unsolved quests. The new Warders (Ancients), although with different models to the originals, are much the same as they were when we first cleared the originals mid way through last year, however the 4th warder replacement is a good deal easier than the original. For up and coming guilds, this zone should be a blast, even more so than it was originally.   Shiny Metallic Monk Robe (SMMR) & Dorf Mask Along with the new quest items, the emergence of new primal (now called prismatic weapons) with an even higher drop rate than they were pre-awakening, the revamp introduced some nice replacements for the long-gone shroud and gnome mask, the new Lungi of the Forbidden and the Besmirched Mask of Conception, as modelled above by Vanix and Uadien. I would like to extend my heart felt congratulations to the designer of the Lungi of the Forbidden for making it look like an SMR from Lower Guk, as its provided us with hours of ongoing entertainment teasing poor Vanix. Thx Dumbass!  With the revamp of Sleeper's Tomb, which sports an even higher drop-rate of prismatic (primal) weapons than it ever did pre-Sleeper awakening, as well as being considerably more fun, I was reminded of this asstastic retard quote from that day long ago when we released the Sleeper that still cracks me up to this day. Although we most likely won't be spending much time there at all, overall the entire revamp brought back some very fond memories.  The Walking Dead...  As you can imagine, with the hectic raid schedule we've been sporting for the last couple of months, many of our members have begun to look like the "Walking Dead" while at work or school! I guess this is what too much caffeine, no-doz, cigarettes, and an assorted selection of illicit substances does to you. Sorry Alah! Feign Life skill mastered!  But more seriously, on a recent trip to Vex Thal, we were witness to Alahsan's macro'ed skill raising of the newly introduced monk Feign Life skill. By all accounts he mastered this skill in an exceedingly short time while running an illegal macro program afk during a particularly boring raid.  We're not exactly sure why VI introduced the Feign Life skill, other than to scare the shit out of newbies.The Judge, the Jury...  And last but not least, for months and months we've had an issue with unwanted people spying on us while running the Glyphed/Exiled/Cursed triggers in the Ssra basement. However, with the more recent resist changes, and Vzyh'dra the Cursed's charm being so much more difficult to resist, we were lucky enough to finally be able to exact vengeance on an unwanted visitor who decided to get too close. Although his accomplice escaped unscathed, the verdict was obvious and the punishment for spying was meted out swiftly by our trained Executioner. and the Executioner!  That about wraps it up for the last month or so... aside from commenting on the up and coming cleric/mage/monk nerfs due with next week's patch, for which at this point I'll reserve my judgement until we see the overall effects and hope certain encounters are re-tuned appropriately, instead I'll leave you with a comprehensive list of corpses! On with the Bodycount! Everything that keeled over for us over the last four weeks: 12x Thall Va Xakra, 10x Kaas Thox Xi Aten Ha Ra, 9x Vzyh`dra the Cursed, 9x Glyphed Covered Serpent, 9x Vzyh'dra the Exiled, 8x Kaas Thox Xi Ans Dyek, 7x Diabo Xi Va, 7x Diabo Xi Xin Thall, 6x Emperor Ssraeshza, 6x Thall Xundraux Diabo, 6x Thall Va Kelun, 5x Aten Ha Ra, 5x The Avatar of War, 5x Blood of Ssraeshza, 5x Arch Lich Rhag`Zadune, 5x Va Xi Aten Ha Ra, 5x Diabo Xi Xin, 5x Diabo Xi Va Temariel, 5x Burrower Parasite, 4x The Statue of Rallos Zek, 4x Shei Vinitras, 4x Derakor the Vindicator, 3x High Priest of Ssraeshza, 3x Xerkizh the Creator, 3x Tunare, 2x The Final Arbiter, 2x ZeixshiKar the Ancient, 2x Tjudawos the Ancient, 2x Vyskudra the Ancient, 2x Kildrukaun the Ancient, Thought Horror Overfiend, Lord Yelinak, Cazic-Thule, Itraer Vius, Grieg Veneficus, Master of the Guard, The Progenitor, King Tormax, Klandicar
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quote: Our in-house agility warrior adds: Does that sound like we’re short on priests? Well that’s simply not the case…you see in Valon we belive in Quality….not Quantity…Co-ordination, not Choking…lets have a look at the fine sample of shamanatic skills we have:  What about clerics you ask? Well, quite frankly we take only the best, second rate CH’s just don’t cut it with us.….but don’t let me scare you away…have a look for yourself at the high benchmark we have set..  Good Luck in your Apps…god knows you'll need it once you get accepted
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