Vyemm falls, and the Guild Levels

There was a pick up raid last night headed to Labs, you know that old Kingdom of Sky zone off of Bonemire, the one with Vyemm at the end. I remember that zone fondly, even though I’ve probably wiped more times there then anywhere else. I remember that zone mostly because it’s where I first discovered that I actually liked raiding, and I was good at it. I had applied to Second Dawn on Najena, who were (at the time) the best raid guild across all servers. It’s funny how things change, now Second Dawn isn’t even around any more, having moved servers and merged into another guild. Anyhow, the pick up raid was only looking for healers and Torrent Knights (ie: guild of three plus one plus one!) were out in full force (minus Calreth who is back to his army job) so we decided to head to Labs ourselves just the four of us and see what damage could ensue.

I’ll admit, I had my doubts. I have a bad habit of disliking things that are new or that I consider above us (ie: way too hard). I’m not sure why, it’s sort of ground into my play style. I try to work on it but it’s a slow process. Anyhow, I was confident that we could clear the zone, but I had wiped so many times on Vyemm himself (and we would have to tank both him and Prime at the same time) that I was leery.

I shouldn’t have been.

The entire zone melted before us like hot butter. Thanks to Kasul, Ultann, and Wpus we probably had more dps in those three then an entire raid would have back in KoS. We looted a lot of neat (trash) items, Ultann got his fabled shadowknight helm, the enchanter helm dropped (which I didn’t role for because I brought the dirge to Labs for stoneskin) and a lot of other random items. We were there for one thing in particular, the crate containing Vyemms head, to add to our guild hall collection.

We’re down two trophies at the moment, Darathar and Vox, because my paladin Sharatan placed those two over on Kithicor. Since she didn’t make the move over to Antonia Bayle, they’re still there. Kasul needs to kill Darathar, so it’s not too big of a deal, and I’ve taken to camping Vox in Permafrost to see if we can’t get the old girl to give us her crate. This being a heavily populated server I imagine it will take a lot of camping.

These trophies are quite common now, some people even sell them and place them in your hall for you – but for me personally each one tells a story. We have Gynok which was a bug, it dropped from the Befallen group instance instead of from the raid encounter shortly after trophies were put in, and we also have Godking Anuk, which was our first time in the raid zone and we had no idea what to expect, grayed out or not.

The old Vox trophy was something I tanked on my paladin, petrified that we would wipe. Our Darathar trophy was the first time we did an extended chain as a guild, and visited the Isle of Refuge that players typically skip these days because it is in dire need of a revamp after the newer zones released (TD, Neriak, and Greater Faydark). These are stories I won’t soon forget, and it’s all part of why I love going after the trophies and why I take so much pride in them.

Aside from our glorious defeat of Vyemm – the guild reached level 35, freeing up two more amenity for use. We purchased the shattered lands bell which is an exceptionally vital amenity we have all discovered, and we also purchased a merchant that we can finally sell all of our status items and other random tidbits to. At level 40 (which we should reach without too much difficulty) we will be able to purchase a mender, a fuel merchant, and a writ merchant, bringing us close to where our previous guild was. Plus it will give us another row of guild bank space, which is never a bad thing.

I wanted to send out some hugs and hellos to those who have sent me tells (specifically Ellithia) over the last few days introducing themselves as readers of the blog! I really appreciate the comments, and I hope everyone is doing fantastic, and that the server treats you all well (especially if you’re newcomers). I have met so many wonderful people lately, it’s fantastic. If you send a tell and I seem to not reply, please don’t take it personally chances are I’m boxing and have simply forgotten to stick the AFK tag up on the healer.

Today is Thursday, which is great. I need to get a bunch of Wizard 101 game time in, hopefully that will come this weekend. My little wizards have been having a blast exploring through the new world. Despite the fact that I’ve been writing about EQ2 pretty much none stop, I am still playing other games! I’m still recuperating from being sick for so long (no news yet, sighs) and it’ll take a while but I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things.

Happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath!