Visceral//Progression

Like dominoes they fall.

2010-08-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

Our Arch Nemisis: Agnarr has finally fallen. As a result, we have opened LDoN for the guild to enjoy! The rest of the night is best summarized by a series of screenshots.

Grats all on loot...there was a ton of it!

Welcome to the Show.

2010-08-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Elemental Planes Visceral! Tonight we began our progression in the Elemental Planes, starting with some Plane of Air minis! We skipped last Wednesday's raid as leaders and members alike prepared themselves for Sunday evening. Everyone was pretty pumped about starting our progression, and it showed in our turnout of 50+ raiders.

Outside Plane of Air

So in we went, clearing our way to our first target, the Avatar of Smoke...or his ring at least. We had to kill several waves of mobs, followed by a named before he would spawn. Oh yes, and we had to summon Captain Planet.

Not sure when monk became an element..but it probably just makes Captain Planet even more bad ass. We cleared our way to the Avatar of Smokes temple, and proceeded to pull him out of hiding.

Some shiny loots came from our smoky friend, Solkeli made off with: Elemental Gauntlet Mold and Deuberry with Woven Steel Sash. Onward to the Avatar of Wind ring..more of the same clearing waves of mobs followed by a named.

Apparently Deuberry likes to stand in front of my photo ops. The Avatar of Mist gifted both Takeo and Ozgarde with Elemental Helm Mold!

Good job on our first run at the Air Minis all! We were moving a little slow for various reasons, but we will be working on speeding up the pace so we can get all 4 down in a single night in coming weeks.

Incoming ~[Elemental Planes]~

2010-08-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

So it's about that time. We've been together as a guild now for right about a month, most of us are now 65 with numerous AAs, and we've tackled a good deal of PoP targets as a guild. Everyone take the coming Wednesday off to prepare for our progression. Polish off some AAs, read up on some strats, and eat lots of protein. We'll be moving in to elementals on Sunday 8/22.

Along with many housekeeping items we are performing within the guild, now is also the time where we will begin requiring an application to join, look for details on our forums in the next day or so.

Oh yeah, we killed Aerin Dar again, and I was there to capture some screenies this time.

Terris Thule

2010-08-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

We're trying to knock out as many PoP targets as we can before elementals, so we are attempting them as we find them up. Luckily we found Terris Thule up for the first time Wednesday evening, so we formed up and headed that way.

A few moments later...

Believe we had a 40 member turn out last night, which is great. Agnarr gave us some more trouble tonight, but we had a much easier time on the first two bosses before Agnarr. We're going to change up our strat a bit next time, and take him to the floor once and for all. Look out for us in elemental planes, it won't be long now...

Bertoxxulous has a LOT of friends.

2010-08-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately due to the hectic nature of this event, I didn't get very many screenshots. We were quite busy fighting hordes of undead. Resurrecting the ever expanding pile of guild member corpses, and then rebuffing them. So with that said, please excuse the low quality shots that follow.

Luckily we found the Spectre of Corruption up Sunday afternoon. We moved in on the Crypt of Decay, which was great because all members 55+ were able to join in. The event consists of killing the Spectre, which begins the event, slaying hundreds of undead minons while waiting for 'king' mobs to spawn, and killing 12 of these kings in 2 hours or less. Bertox supposedly despawns after a 2 hour period, engaged or not.

The Spectre went down without too much trouble. Any deaths were drug with us to the North end of the zone, where we entered a circular room waiting for the event to begin. Sooner than expected, the undead started spawning, on top of us, in the hallways, and everywhere in between. We fought them off, while rezzing the dead. We had a pull team assembled to bring any Kings to us that were popping throughout the dungeon.

We took down all of the kings, although we had several close calls on some accidental pulls of FAR too many adds than it looked like our 30 man raid force could handle. Wish I had a screenshot of some of these pulls.

After we took down the 12th king, Bertoxxulous spawned. We were ok on time, but we needed to hurry. Our cheal chain was set up, and we called for the pull. Bertox ran in and Zulthuus picked him up. We knew we needed to be at max melee range, but just how far his hit box was, we did not expect. Several people were lost to his AE rampage, and Zulthuus went down fairly quickly. Thorgen tried to save us and took up Bertox pally style, but we were unable to recover.

We did not want to give up yet. At this point our supposed 2 hour timer was long gone, but we were in a hurry either way. We buffed back up and sacrificed Aoli as he chased Bertox away from the zone in so we could set up the raid.

We quickly set up in the north hallway, the raid at one end, and our tank, Thorgen, at the other. Ordered the pull on Bertox, and the fight began. Terrible screenshot, because I couldn't get close to Bertox without taking an AE ramp to the face.

The fight went much smoother this time. We had a tighter cheal chain running, and everyone knew to stay WAY back from Bertox this time. Having no adds helped a bit too. After some hacking and slashing, you might be able to see what is left of Bertox. All I could find were his feet.

Grats Jepeto on Symbol of the Plaguebringer and Wraithkin on Radiant Mask of the Disease Lord

Awesome job on the fight everyone, another tough encounter that we managed to push through with a 30 man raid force. Props again to the healers on this one, who had to do a TON of battle rezzing, and were able to adjust their cheal chain to deliver us a win the second time around! Nice work pullers also, who were able to bring us all of the kings so we didn't have to move the raid force!

Hmmm...we still need to get revenge on Agnarr..

Lord Mithaniel Marr

2010-07-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

We felt the sting of defeat Sunday from Agnarr, but we picked ourselves back up Thursday night to give Mithaniel Marr a shot. Going to keep this short and sweet. Me tired.

We cleared through HoH to the Temple of Marr, aka HoHb.

We cleared through a bunch of angry giant dogs in the temple until we finally reached Mithaniel's room. We cleared 3 mini trigger mobs to activate him. One of them happened to be a giant frog.

We slew the frog, and moved into the room. Long story short, here was our second pull on MM, before and after.

Awesome job everyone, this was by far our toughest kill so far. The guy hits like a truck and wasn't able to be slowed, so props to the healers. I believe this was their first official complete heal chain in Visceral! Thanks everyone for hanging in there, I know we had to fight respawns a couple times.

Don't forget that while we currently overgear these fights, we are running them with 25-35 members in a raid. During PoP raid sizes were significantly larger. We still need to remain focused on raids and keep performing like you would in any other situation. The raids are definitely giving us a challenge, so don't let your guard down!

Grats to Lazaretto on Cloak of the Wrulons and Miazma on Dart of Immobility !

Our first wipe.

2010-07-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

We started off Sunday with a trip to the Plane of Disease, with our sights set on Grummus. We decided on this target to get some of our lower level players involved, as well as get them an early flag to Crypt of Decay. Hopefully that helps them pull down some serious exp in the coming days! Oh yes, Grummus was nice and dropped some new shields for Myself and Zevon! Woot!

With Grummus down, we parted ways with our members sub-57, and headed towards Bastion of Thunder. I had farmed our Agnarr key the other day, so we decided to give him a shot. His event is a bit more difficult than the fights we have been doing, so we were prepared for the worst.

So in we went. We only had one wizard to destroy portals for us (gogo Fadar!), but luckily we had a couple enchanters to take care of the adds. We kited the boss around the room until the portals and adds were all dead, then pulled him in to Belgard. From that point it was cake, and we brought him down fairly easily.

So now everyone was somewhat prepared for what to expect in the next Tower. We zoned in with the same plan, tweaked slightly for efficiency, however our kiter was having trouble gaining the attention of the boss and we lost several members right off the bat. I was able to grab him and started kiting for a while, but there was significant damage to the raid. Our clerics began battle rezzing who they could, but it wasn't looking good. Eventually, I took a dirt nap as well, around the same time we finished off the adds.

Most of the healers had very little mana from being battle rezzed, with the exception of one or two divine rez targets. They are what very likely saved the raid. Our numbers were low, our mana was low, and people were getting cursed (silenced/rooted), which was preventing a bunch of our damage from reaching the boss. Somehow our mana (barely) outlasted the bosses health, and we were victorious, but by the skin of our teeth.

We rezzed, buffed, and went over our Agnarr strategy. We gathered around Askr, ready to head in to our next and final challenge.

Unfortunately, this time, to zone in, saying the keyword didn't work. A strange mob spawned to which we started hailing to no avail. I eventually tried out a right click on the mob, which did the trick, and ported me into Agnarr's room. I promptly died, which is why I have no screenshots of our brief time alive. I relayed the information to our raid, but it was a bad start, and we couldn't recover this time. Agnarr had defeated Visceral. We ran back to give it another try, but while rebuffing Askr despawned on us, leaving us stranded and unable to get back to Agnarr. We'll try again next week, and I'm sure we'll get him down with little problems now that we're used to the fights, they are all very similar.

Mini Targets for Mini Raids

2010-07-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

We held our second mini-raid Thursday AT 8PM EST! Remember these raids are purely for fun and aren't required or worth any DKP!

So we head in to solro, with our intended targets being a mini or two. We headed toward Xuzl first, however unfortunately, he was not up when we got there.

Well that was a bummer, but we still wanted to kill something, so we decided to head into Bastion of Thunder and smack around some Tower minis. After a little bit of miscommunication, and wrong turns, we made it up to our first mini in the earth tower. Had a little pulling blunder and got all 4 bees with the boss. Somehow we managed to drop the bees quickly with no deaths and then moved on to the boss.

He dropped two caster rings which went to Fadar and Minustide! Awesome to get loot out of here that isn't going to waste!

After that we had time for one more tower, so we headed up to the lightning tower. The room this boss is in is a bit peculiar, because it's a big ring around a giant pit. Our initial strategy lead us to believe we may have adds if we stay up top, so we tried pulling him down to us! So he ran the loop, and we waited.

When he finally came out of the other side, he had brought about 10+ giant friends with him. We took a few deaths in the process of saving the rest of the raid.

So we decided to go up top to him, and deal with whatever adds the fight decided to throw at us. Turns out, there were none, and another beast fell to the might of Visceral. He dropped two shiny daggers for the two rogues that were with us, so grats Miazma and Dalazh! Again, so great that we are able to use the items that are dropping for us!

We wrapped it up for the night with that kill and distributed a couple parchment spells in PoK afterwards. Raid got off to a rocky start since our initial targets weren't up, but we made the most of it and had a good time, got some loot, and got some more raid experience under our belt as a guild. We're learning to work together in these little events, and it's hard to go wrong with that.

Terminator 5: Gnomish Vengeance

2010-07-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

Sunday we held our first guild event! With true progression still several weeks away, we planned to terminate the Plane of Innovation this weekend for fun!

Our meet time was scheduled for 2:45PM EST, however, as you can see, quite a few people showed up over a half an hour in advance!

We started into the planes, and handed our little gnome friend, Mr. Anizok, a few items and he took off to lead us to the dragon. We almost lost our good friend to some pets and damage shields, however he made a full recovery thanks to the timeless combination of Mez + Memblur.

After a while of clearing, we at last made it to the beast! It was a quick fight, but Belgard still took some heavy hits.

The healers were able to keep Belgard alive, and we grabbed our Factory flags, and passed out some loot! Grats Belgard on the aggro hammer, and Minustide on the shield!

We hailed our gnome pal for the factory flag, and backtracked to the factory to engage the Manaetic Behemoth. This time there was a little strategy involved to avoid getting blown up by the spiders (which most people did at some point, especially after the raid!).

We started the fight, and began killing the spiders. Eventually, the Behemoth went active and whacked Belgard down fairly quickly. No fear, Thorgen was here. Thorgen picked up the Behemoth and tanked it down like a champ.

Grats Calarie and Skinneh on the ring and shoulder piece, respectively.

All in all a fun filled day in the plane of innovation! It was our first outing as a guild, and even though the mobs were far below our power level, we still got some basic practice on all the raiding essentials: buffing, listening, assisting, (rezzing), and following directions.

Look out for more events in the future as we go deeper into the planes before we start our Elemental progression!

Shinies + Guild Pace Commentary

2010-07-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

Our forums and DKP site are now up! Thank Leyawyn when you get the chance! She will be working on a new homepage for us in the coming weeks, so stayed tuned for that. Until then, we'll be using this blog as our homepage (we've forwarded our domain ), so please keep checking here for updates. Use the navigation bar at the top of this site to find our forums and dkp, they will take you directly there.

If you are a member, be sure to register on the forums. There is a ton of important information there that you need to read and participate in. There is currently a poll for preferred raid days, a post on our leveling and progression pace, and a post on detailed rules & guidelines.

I think it is important that people understand our intended pace, because we have seen several members really power through to level 65, although it isn't too difficult these days. We do not plan to begin progression content for roughly 1 month, so please do not be in a huge rush to level.

Besides..we can't start raiding until we get enough rangers...

Although we have seen a turn out of almost 80 members, the guild is still in the early building stages, we've only been formed for less than a week! In the coming weeks, look for some 'mini raid events' happening online! We'll be looking to knock down some low tier targets for some low pressure fun that players from 46-65 can all participate in. These are in no way related to our progression, but rather a way to further experience the Planes of Power as a guild.

Sunday!

2010-07-12T05:23:00.000-07:00

So I wasn't on for much grouping Sunday, so I can't provide you with any high octane, action filled screenshots. However, a few updates nonetheless.

1) My wife, Leyaywn, is currently working on a complete website for us. She'll be getting our big boy forums up before too long, followed by a DKP system, and finally the welcome page, and any other frills we decide to add. I'm very excited about it, I can't stand these dinky forums I embedded here on blogspot.

If there are any artists out there, let me know if you would be interested in constructing any sort of banner for our homepage!

2) Exponental growth wins! Guild bank overflowing! We about doubled in size Sunday, up to 47 members! Everyone has been having tons of fun, grouping together in places like Lavastorm, Kurns Tower, City of Mist, Sebilis, even Plane of Justice! It's not too late to join in, people are still joining as level 1 characters all the time and the leveling speed is just crazy.

Thanks to the generosity of our guild members, we've been able to accumulate an insane amount of defiant armor and weapons for newcomers to get geared up with, and we have a fairly healthy amount of the level 20+ tier. This is awesome, keep it up guys.

Lots of free items in our guild bank..plus our online roster at about Midnight EST!

Good days are good

2010-07-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

What a day! The guild is growing fast with all sorts of players, many returning from hibernation. The leveling process is so fast now it's hard to believe.

We've got members just starting their journey, some in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and a few 65s ready for action. New players are joining all the time, so don't worry about having trouble catching up and getting involved!

As a guild we've managed to gather a nice little stash of beginner loot in our guild bank, and it's open to all that can use it to help get them off on the right foot. Don't be afraid to group up with your guildies, everyone has been very friendly thus far..haven't seen any biters yet.

A few shots taken from today..

Field of Bone action!

Death in SolA..must..poke...elf...

Roster is coming along nicely!!

Day 1: What is pants, precious?

2010-07-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

We had a few people show up for opening night. A couple of us were able to group up for some good old fashioned leveling action. We started out in field of bone, but ended up in Lavastorm, which incidentally, is a hot zone (get it?).

This is what we looked like at the end of the night. Me wielding an odd assortment of items including a purple hat and a broom. Pants optional.

Hope to see more of you during the weekend!

An Introduction

2010-07-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

Visceral is yet another take on the popular, yet fragile progression format. I’ve seen styles that have worked, and those that haven’t. With the servers recently merging, the time is ripe for new and returning players alike to experience content at a pace where they can enjoy, learn, and gradually grow in to what Everquest has become in 2010.

So much has changed, even since I left roughly 4 years ago, it is difficult to imagine jumping into the top tier of content without experiencing all of the content missed since you have left. That is the ultimate goal. To re-assimilate the guild into the current Everquest culture slowly and naturally through the content we’ve missed. We WANT to get up to current content and participate in the cutting edge encounters, just let us experience what we missed first.

The idea here is to experience the content, but without the extremely stringent restrictions on gear, spells, etc. Of course, general rules & guidelines will be in place, but expecting 50+ raiders to not use x, y and z spells, and to not wear a single piece of gear, and not invest in any AAs that are beyond our current era, is just far-fetched.