It’s just a typical Saturday and Vintage decides to check on one of our favorite hunting grounds, Plane of Hate. We arrive to the familiar eerie whispers of kirakeui’s and forsaken revenants as we looked around for any minibosses to stomp. They must have known we were coming since they all decided to hide for the first few hours of our visit. We worked our way around the zone towards our friend Maestro of Rancor who we haven’t had the pleasure of attempting yet. Our first pull was unfortunately ruined by bad pathing, however our second was right on the money, as we watched him fly away in fear like he did a decade ago.

The Loot:

Shield of the Stalwart Seas: Bank
Six Note Blade: Four

In Attendance were: Takt, Tilk, Monkus, Tolk, Kieson, Kapowie, Cobilt, Shlomo, Blic, Dooks, Messi, Four, Rhuark, Bibble, Koard, Shuvit, Wieglaf, Leadawen, Dunkirk, Heeby, Rictus, Brawndo, Barrett, Wejbot, Lopp, and Xica.

** Update March 1, 2010 **

With our weekend adrenaline and momentum running high, our members wanted to make a second trip to Plane of Hate on Sunday to say hello to the mini bosses who were rudely unwelcoming the day before. We brought three groups to farm gear and kill nameds, including our first High Priest M’Kari, and outfitted our new planar bard pretty well in the process.

Saturday’s Loot:

Etheral Mist Vambracers: Wieglaf
Imbrued Platemail Chestplate: Four
Imbrued Platemail Boots: Leadawen
Imbrued Platemail Bracers: Leadawen
Insidious Halo: Lopp
Insidious Slippers: Lopp
Insidious Manacle: Dunkirk
Indicolite Vambracers: Nicol
Indicolite Bracer: Shuvit
Scaled Hierophant Bracer: Brawndo
Woven Shadow Vambraces: Rhuark
Prismatic Shield: Xica
Etheral Mist Greaves: Rot
Legionnaires Gloves: Rot
Legionnaire Scale Vambraces: Rot
Scaled Heirophant Gloves: Rot
Valorium Greaves: Rot

Sunday’s Loot:

Apothic Crown: Barrett
Ethereal Mist Bracer: Wejbot
Ethereal Mist Vambraces: Wejbot
Ethereal Mist Bracer: Snaredrum
Ethereal Mist Gloves: Xica
Imbrued Platemail Boots: Cayotee
Imbrued Platemail Greaves: Cayotee
Imbured Platemail Gloves: Cayotee
Imbrued Platemail Breastplate: Cayotee
Indicolite Bracer: Torrad
Indicolite Gloves: Nicol
Insidious Gloves: Dunkirk
Insidious Pantaloons: Lopp
Runed Etched Greaves: Unity
Woven Shadow Gauntlets: Heeby
Woven Shadow Bracer: Rhuark
Woven Shadow Boots: Rhuark
Woven Shadow Greaves: Rhuark
Rod of Infinite Thought: Lopp
Martune Rapier: Cayotee
Dawnchaser: Cayotee
Tainted Darksteel Breastplate (epic): Number
Staff of Elemental Mastery: Earth: Guild Bank
Shiverback-Hide Boots: Rot
Legionnaire Scale Bracers: Rot
Indicolite Vambraces: Rot
Martune Rapier: Rot
Apothic Boots: Rot
Ethereal Mist Greaves: Rot
Imbrued Platemail Greaves: Rot

Six dragons have fallen in two weeks to our dragon slaying squadron. We almost pulled off a win vs Vox with one cleric and 17 total members this week, leaving her helpless at 7% before our tanks and cleric died and she was unleashing her fury on everybody else as a dragon is expected to do! We reloaded with a second cleric and the fight was a breeze, losing maybe two people in the end. Lady Vox must have been planning to devour many souls and store lots of treasures, but fortunate for us, we looted all three of her Mystic Pouches for ourselves!

The Loot:

Kavruul`s Mystic Pouch: Monkus
Kavruul`s Mystic Pouch: Dooks (swapped with Kapowie at Naggy fight)
Kavruul`s Mystic Pouch: Shlomo
Runed Bolster Belt: Shuvit
Torn, Frost covered book: Guild Bank
White Dragon Scales: Guild Bank

In Attendance were: Shuvit, Bibble, Lulzcat, Dunkirk, Saittane, Cobilt, Monkus, Heeby, Barrett, Shlomo, Autotune, Snaredrum, Ashlawn, Joban, Mefsolis, Xica, Kapowie and Deco

The next night, we planned to visit our favorite red scaled dragon so he wouldn’t feel left out of our love. Lord Nagafen, a fun fight as always, didn’t scare anyone away with his dragon’s roar and we finished him rather easily without losing many of our own also. More bags for the guild, and our first Red Dragon Scales for our bank.. Still looking for some torn burnt books… don’t you read anymore, you ancient illiterate dragon?!

The Loot:

Treasure Hunter’s Satchel: Shlomo
Treasure Hunter’s Satchel: Kapowie
Bladestopper: Guild Bank
Prayers of Life: Guild Bank (Main Tank)
Red Dragon Scales: Guild Bank (Epic)
Blight Hammer of the Scrouge: Guild Bank

Fire Giants Loot:

Polished Mithril Torque: Nicol
Polished Mithril Mask: Lulzcat (Ninja looted brawndo)
Mithril Greaves: Guild Bank

In Attendance were: Dooks, Sarte, Lopp, Deco, Xica, Kapowie, Ashlawn, Lulzcat, Brawndo, Heeby, Nicol, Monkus, Nuzz, Shlomo, Rhuark, Mefsolis, Barrett, Cobilt, and Wejbot.

Over the weekend we planned another double-header of dragon raids on Lady Vox and Lord Nagafen. The fights went a little differently this time but we still managed to pull off double kills on our first and only attempts. The beginning of the day started out rough as Ice Giants were trained on the camp twice before we even had a chance to set up for the raid, causing us to start an hour later than planned. Once we got our full force ressed and buffed, it was smoother sailing as we cleared the Ice Giants and prepared for the actual Vox pull. We executed (very well imo) a buffing station set up for getting all our members trash buffed (and we improved our speed and efficiency at this prepping for Naggy). Before we actually engaged Vox, we already had agro which caused the bard who was playing magic and cold resist songs on the tanks to be summoned and dead before even standing a chance. Lesson learned, relog the bard and turn off songs until the tank has agro.

Vox was carrying a decent belly full of loot including:

Runed Bolster Belt: Sarte
Dragon Bone Bracelet: Rhaja
White Dragon Hide: Cobilt
McVaxius Horn of War: Koard
Hammer of Grace: Guild Bank
White Dragon Scales: Guild Bank

Members and Friends in Attendance were:

Leadawen, Rhuark, Messi, Shuvit, Cobilt, Nuzz, Dunkirk, Xica, Heeby, Rhaja, Bibble, Shlomo, Lulzcat, Barrett, Deco, Kapowie, Koard, Tilk, Tolk, Takt, Wejbot, Monkus, Sarte, Mefsolis, and Joban.

After hearing the cries of Lady Vox whimpering to the darkness, we were all hungry for another dragon to slay! We traveled across the continent to the home of Lord Nagefen who was probably taking a nap from his 7 day journey back to his lair yesterday. We cleared the Fire Giants in record time again, blowing through anything that stood in front of our army. The buff stations prepared us quickly for the battle and we began our rampage. Although we lost both of our tanks halfway into the battle, our DPS were able to nuke and DoT Naggy down for a Vintage Victory. Lessons learned from this battle were, the tank needs to pull Naggy closer to the door to not be OOR of the healers.

Naggy’s belly was also full of treasures, including:

Bladestopper: Sarte
Blight, Hammer of the Scourage: Joban
Treasure Hunter’s Satchel: Monkus
Tinkers Bag (Passed Down): Athlete
Gold Plated Koshigatana: Guild Bank
Selo’s Drums of the March: Guild Bank

The Fire Giants Loot:

Mithril Greaves: Heeby
Polished Mithril Torque: Heeby
Polished Mithril Mask: Deco

In Attendance were: Dunkirk, Cobilt, Barrett, Leadawen, Lopp, Tolk, Takt, Athlete, Koard, Tilk, Heeby, Lulzcat, Monkus, Xica, Kapowie, Rhaja, Deco, Messi, Rhuark, Shlomo, Shuvit, Bibble, Sarte, Nuzz, Joban, Wejbot, Rictus and Brawndo.

Finally, it was still early, so those of us who were still hungry for more slaying traveled to the Plane of Hate where we pulled and slayed Grandmaster R’Tal and many of Innoruuk’s minions. We had plans to attempt Maestro of Rancor however it was getting late for many so we decided we would attempt him another day.

Drops in Plane of Hate were:

Rakusha Cloak: Monkus
Imbrued Platemail Gauntlets: Leadawen
Imbrued Platemail Greaves: Lulzcat
Ethereal Mist Boots: Xica
Indicolite Bracer: Nicol
Indicolite Helm: Torrad
Scaled Hieropahnt Helm: Brawndo
Scaled Hierophant Bracer: Brawndo
Indicolite Helm: Rot
Runed Etched Bracer: Rot
Runed Etched Boots: Rot
Legionnaire Scale Breastplate: Rot
Legionnaire Scale Gauntlets: Rot

And finally, Vintage is proud to announce one of our Old World progression goals have been met, the slaying of both Naggy and Vox twice, so we are now raising our level cap to 52, allowing 51 and 52 Kunark spells and AA’s to be stored but NOT USED. Over the next few weeks we will continue working on our other Old World goals including more Vox/Naggy kills, Golems in Fear and Mini’s and Maestro in Hate, and Isle 3 of Plane of Sky before fully opening Kunark to our members. We want to thank everyone who has been with us along the way and the Al’Kabor community who’ve supported us throughout our memorable nostalgic experience, and look forward to joining everyone in the Ruins of Kunark soon!

Great Job Vintage! Congratulations on everyone who attended our successful Naggy and Vox raids today. It feels great to look back to only two months ago when Fire Giants would take 2-4 hours to clear, when we did it today in effectively 1hr 20mins. Then downing Naggy himself, that was unbelievable! I was on Lulzcat for most of the fight twisting my three songs and watching Nicol stay healed up to tank him as Ashlawn was running in naked over and over nuking her ass off lol. Boxing for encounters like this SUCKS, I was probably 10% as effective as I could have been on my ench, wiz and necro, so I appreciate all the people we have in the guild that make what we do possible. Naggy down on our first attempt, and Vox, which was an even easier fight, and of course Phinny which is like icing on the cake, was a pretty kick ass day.

In the next few weeks, we’re going to plan a few more dragon raids, some Hate and Fear to gear up some of our newer members who just joined or are mid 30-40s and are catching up to raid levels, and some Sky and Hole. The goal in the next few weeks before unlocking Kunark, or raising our level cap or whatever we decide on doing as a guild, will be to make sure everyone’s got mostly decent gear so there isn’t a gimped member when we all start steamrolling Kunark.

There will also be some new recruiting policies and processes being made soon with the anticipated Kunark release such as: new members who are joining us now should understand that we are in the process of unlocking the next expansion, and if they join and cannot make it on our max 50 raids before we move on… we’re very sorry but we cannot wait for every new member. Also, 51+ characters who apply to the guild can only join if NO AA’s have been spent. We will review each app on a case by case basis if they do have spent AA’s to determine if they are allowed to join or not.

We’ll discuss further internally in the next few weeks about when and how we’ll actually unlock Kunark, so stay tuned. Hopefully we’ll have a lot of active members on nightly to XP, farm Kunark gear, work on Epics, and more…

Congratulations everyone on loot today, and looking forward to the next dragon raids (next weekend).

The Dragon Loot:

Gauntlets of Fiery Might: Monkus
Hierophant’s Crook: Mefsolis
Treasure Hunter’s Satchel: Dooks
Selo’s Drums of the March: Bank
Frost Covered Tome: Sarte
Frost Covered Tome: Bank
McVaxius’ Horn of War: Leadawen
McVaxius’ Horn of War: Bank

In attendance were: Monkus, Dooks, Lulzcat, Decayed, Mefsolis, Sarte, Cobilt, Nicol, Xica, Kapowie, Wieglaf, Rictus, Ashlawn, Deco, Rhaja, Messi, Dunkirk, Leadawen, Rhuark, Wejbot, Negadien, Brawndo

Our forums have been abuzz this past week with the idea of starting a guild for Vintage alts so we can find each other when we are not on our main characters, and be unrestricted in where we group together and the gear and spells we use. This alt guild would also be a perfect home for new members who are not ready to bind themselves to the progression rules but still be able to find, group, and get to know Vintage members before they join.

Also, in the past week our newest idea was to create Vintage PvP Alts who turn in their PvP books at level 1 and start playing the game without twinkage in gear or coins, and to level and fend for themselves with only their starting weapons and gear and money that they loot and earn on their own. These PvP alts will be able to use PoK, like the rest of Fantaisie Impromptu, and it’ll be interesting to see these alts of ours getting griefed and hunted in the weeks to come. We have also set up a New Vintage PvP Forums and PvP Members Page to track PvP kills and rankings!

So, we thought starting this new alt guild was a good idea, and Sarte took the initiative to contact the GMs and get the new guild created yesterday. However, due to problems with new guild creation on Al’Kabor, all members of Vintage are now appear to be in Fantaisie Impromptu too and we’re all waiting for SOE to properly fix the guild ID’s and names of the two guilds, Vintage and Fantaisie Impromptu. So… in the meantime, the rumors are true, Vintage has been eaten by our alt guild! Stay tuned for updates as they happen, for both of our guilds!

** Update Feb 3, 2010 **

The GM’s have identified the issue with guild creation and have “assured” me that precautions and fixes are in the works so that future guilds will not effect our guild. Fantaisie Impromptu was destroyed yesterday, and “Vintage” without the space was restored, although it seems like we are still guild ID 0. When I asked the GM about our guild still being guild ID 0, he replied by saying we must be a very old guild and he respects us for being around for so long… I guess technically being a progression guild in classic era, we are the “oldest” guild on the server, sort of.

Meanwhile, Fantaisie Impromptu’s fate rests in the hands of our Harry Potter and Twilight fanboi, Sarte! Hopefully the guild will rise from the ashes in the next day or so.

We visited Fear again Friday night and Sunday in attempts to gear up our half-elf Paladin friend (and many others in the guild, however he was the whiniest so it must be pointed out we did it all for him!), yet after clearing most of the gear mobs in the zone again, we were disappointed with the lack of loot that had dropped for us. A few pieces for everybody there, and another experience wiping to and clearing the evilest zone to date.

The Loot:

Ethereal Mist Boots: Snaredrum
Vermiculated Armplates: Bibble
Shiver-back Hide Armguards: Monkus
Shiver-back Hide Armguards: Dooks
Anthemion Skullcap: Rhaja
Valorium Greaves: Sarte
Carmine Sleeves: Kapowie
Flayed Turmoilskin Belt: Bank
Flayed Turmoilskin Belt: Bank
Blighted Armbands: Decayed
Blighted Sleeves: Rictus
Runed Etched Boots: Rot
Thorny Vine Boots: Rot
Carmine Gloves: Rot
Valorium Greaves: Rot

The Attendance and Loot list was lost for Friday’s raid, and upon thinking and trying to remember what had dropped on Friday… we couldn’t remember if anything had actually dropped. So we’re chalking it up to the list above is basically what we got the entire weekend.