• Tuesday, 19. March 2024 11:54

Chapter I

Killing our first dragons in The Scars of Velious



When I did join Darkwind in November 2001 the situation was quite unique.
Antonious Bayle was founded and several guilds moved to AB and did fight a hard battle for the #1 position on this server.
We had strong competitors with Mortalis, Innit and last but not least a total retard French guild called Justice Divine (or so).
At this Time Darkwind did raid North Temple of Veeshan.

Nice Pulling skills...



Of course we did slaughter also every key holding mob to stock up our Keys for Sleepers Tomb.
In this case Lord Yelinak did hit the floor to Darkwind somewhere in the End of 2001...



It took us some time to fight our way through all this Dragons in NToV... but finally we come to the last one. The big, mighty Vulak.



Now, something did happen that should become part for the rest of my life in Everquest and Darkwind...
I got my first loot with Darkwind at all:
The Robe of Vulak Aerr !!!



Meanwhile Darkwind got hands on enough keys for the most unique progress Event / Zone in Everquest at all: Sleeper's Tomb.
The unique part of this zone is that you can do the final event only 1 Time at all on every server (unless a bug comes up like it did happen on AB)
Once you kill all 4 Warder Dragons at same time, the Sleeper comes free and doing his killing spree around trough Norrath.
As far I know Darkwind was the only guild worldwide that did awaken the Sleeper 3 (!) times.



For Antonious Bayle there was some kind of an agreement among the 3 Guilds, who was able to release the Sleeper, so that every guild would have its Chance to farm some loot.
Unfortunately this agreement was broken by 1 guild and so Darkwind decided to release the Sleeper.
Many people on AB did hate us later because we did this...





The last and final goal in this Expansion lured in the cold depths of the giant city Kael Drakkal:
The Avatar of War
It took Darkwind a quite long time to get him laid but finally on 22.01.2001 Darkwind did the "impossible" and Killed the AoW for the first time.



Ohh! before I forget I found something regarding our hardest competitor at this time...



Now I will tell you the secret how Darkwind was able to become the leading guild on AB at this time.
Our spies got hands on some L33t strategies.
Now after 6 years I think is safe to show you how we managed to beat all the stuff...





Ohh, while we are at strategy... Here another one for You.
The Ogre Wall !



Chapter II

Farming shards in Shadows of Luclin



As the time moved on - The year 2002 was come and it got a title for Darkwind:
The Year of the Snake.

In this expansion there where simply snakes everywhere.
big snakes, small snakes, yellow snakes, brown snakes, four-handed snakes, gay snakes, fucking gay snakes everywhere !

Darkwind managed to fight trough this expansion but lost his status as #1 Leading guild on AB to Mortalis until the very end when we cleared whole Vex Thal in the legendary 16 Hour raid from zone in up to the throne of Aten Ha Ra.

I got not much own screenshots from this time with bosskills as I focused my ss on my new Nuke records all time - something you do not interest for I guess
But I got some pictures from our website from this time...





Now, here is a place where we had quite some fun during that time.
The Holy Bridge of Death.
I cannot even count how many times I did fell off and died. Later on I did remember that I am playing a cleric and used my DA before.



As said above already Darkwind did struggle in mid of 2002. This was a really hard time. But thanks to our officers Darkwind did continue to rebuild and gained slowly our old strength again.
One of the things we did at this time was a Raid-Alliance between Darkwind and Raging Fury called > DWARF <.
We did this because both guilds was not able to kill the Emperor on its own at this time.

Here is the pre event to trigger the Emperor



It was the 27.07.2002 when DWARF killed the Emperor for the first time and obtained their first keys to Vex Thal.
The kill did happen with a raidforce of 112 People !





On 07.09.2002 we gathered 9.00 in the morning and stared to kill stuff in Vex Thal...
It was way after midnight when Aten Ha Ra did hit the floor.
Darkwind cleared Vex Thal for the first time and the raid was permanently ongoing for about 17 Hours !!
This was one of the days I never ever will forget in my life





Darkwind was back on its own feet again and for over month the guildmotd did look like this...



We also made a visit to this mean boy...



Chapter III

Facing the Gods in the Planes of Power



In the end of 2002 came the release of another, really huge expansion. Planes of Power.
It was also the time when SOE did decide that it's a good idea to release own Europe servers. Mortalis took the offer and left AB. The Annoyance, called Justice Divine, left as well so DW had almost no competitors left beside Raging Fury.

The first god we killed in this expansion was Terris Thule on 02.11.2002



We did not lose too much time, did our prequest for access to Plane of Torment and Saryrn's Tower.
On 11.11.2002 Saryrn did hit the floor to Darkwind for the first time.



Only a few days later again we spent some time to Visit Lord Mithaniel Marr.
(I want to mention the "graveyard feature" SOE came up with in PoP. Normally not a bad thing, but in this zone the design devs must have been drunk or totally brainfucked. The graveyard was at zone in, in the middle of respawning mobs that saw through invis)

In this screenshot you can also see 1 thing that was a curse to Darkwind over all the years. You may notice the spot where MM died.
I can tell you that Darkwind was truly Master in killing Raidmobs at locations where nobody was able to reach the Loot without GM assistance.
Darkwind killed mobs in walls, in corners, on roofs, hell even on trees.

well... MM died on 18.11.2002 for the first time



Only a few days later, on 21.11.2002, Agnarr the Storm Lord did bow before Darkwind and went down.



After Agnarr was down there we came to Rallos Zek the Warlord. This one was really mean and it took Darkwind about 1 full month of raiding to get him dead.
After downing RZtWL something did happen that nobody expected.
Kalle, who tanked for DW over the last years did decide to retire (fow now - he did come back later for some time)

Rallos Zek the Warlord died to Darkwind on 06.01.2003 for the first time



The last god standing beside DW and the Elemental Planes was Solusek Ro (well I'm not quite sure if sol ro was before RZtWL in progression anymore but the date on my screenshot says we killed him after)

Solusek Ro did fell on 15.01.2003



Now the Elemental Planes were opened and Darkwind did continue there...
Our first Target was Fennin Ro who died on 26.01.2003 for the first time.



Next target on the menu was Xegony.
I bet you all did love the way up to Xegony's Isle. You remember those really nasty spiders...? I'm sure you do !
Darkwind called them "Turbospiders"

P.S. Please take notice that I did the killshot on this



About 1 month after we killed Fennin we were able to make our second stroke on the dashboard on the way to Plane of Time.
It would have been done some days earlier, if we would not had druids in our raid who managed to evac their whole group back to the zonein in the middle of the fight !

Xegony went down on 27.02.2003 for the first time.



The next zone we went into - I did not like at all.
Not only because I had to rez always dumb people who did not care about a underwater breathing item. You ever did try to heal someone while swimming in water with an add on you? No? You should try it out - it's really fun.

Again about 1 Month later after the bitch hit the floor we managed to Kill Coirnav, The Avatar of Water for the first time.
We made stroke #3 on the dashboard on 01.04. 2003



Now comes something that nobody really did like at this time.
The Rathe Council.
The time Darkwind did give this event the first tries if was flagged to be unbeatable. (Same as Uqua in next expansion btw)
After some mysterious patch the event got changed to become beatable and it took Darkwind a not long time to figure out how this fight works.
I can't even thank our enchanters enough for all the effort and temper during this events.



Darkwind destroyed the Rathe Counciel on 09.05.2003 (sorry the screenshot sucks - I know)



Please take a look who killed the Avatar of Earth and opened the gates to Plane of Time for Darkwind...
(I know it was not the original first kill - but belive me timing a killshot as Cleric is not that easy at all)



Now, as we had beaten all elemental gods we were able to get our Plane of Time acess, ...and to the combine.
This officer had a lot of work to do that evening... If i remember correct it was Torelan.



On 09.05.2003 Darkwind did enter Plane of Time as first Guild on Antonious Bayle



The next few months we continued spending time killing the gods in the EP's and of course on our progress in the Plane of Time.
As usual on those progress raids we did wipe now and then and had some spare time between our attempts. We usually took this time for talking about strategy, rezzing and rebuffing.
But sometimes people can become really bored and think it's fun to bombard the guildchat with 10-liners.
(Hint: The interesting part on this picture is the chatbox)



Only 65 days after Darkwind did enter PoT for the first time we stood in front of the final encounter in Plane of Time
The first pull of Quarm did happen on 13.07.2003 22.41 CET



Really scary - Isn't he?



Only 9 days later on 22.07.2003 01.12 CET Darkwind finished the Planes of Power Expansion when Quarm hit the ground for the first time.



What did follow was a long time of farming Plane of Time until SoE released the next Expansion over half a year later.
During this time many valuable members left EQ and we got a lot of fresh blood into Darkwind.



Chapter IV

Through the (really) broken muramite grounds in the Gates of Discord



After a long time of farming PoT finally we got a new expansion to play with.
Gates of Discord
With the release of GoD - for me Everquest's game design started to go down the river in small steps.
For the first time in EQ history the raidprogress was not bound anymore only on raids - It also did require group quests that had to be done separately to gain access for the next raid instance.
On the release of GoD many things were going wrong. The first few months almost always ended in frustration over broken content ( Uqua anyone?).
During this time DW did recruit at least 10 - 15 new Clerics because people left.
GoD was a really hard time for the guild - but in the end Darkwind survived once more and grew even stronger and was later one of the first serverwide guilds to kill Overlord Mata Muram in the following expansion.

I will start with a map that shows you the typical zone design in this horrible expansion for Darkwind.



In April 2004 the Group-progress stuff was done and we started raiding seriously again.

Ikkinz Trial #2



and Ikkinz Trial #4



Now we come to something that every active raider was pissed off for a big time... Uqua.
I don't know how long DW and other guilds did bang their heads on this bugged event, and wasted lot of raid days on it with no chance to win this.

In the end someone from SOE stepped up and said:
Thanks for Betatesting Darkwind !

At least there was 1 funny part in Uqua - The "Oven".
I stopped to count how often we wiped because some asshat clicked the door when not supposed to do so.
I think this was also the first time when watching emotes in everquest became really important.

Darkwind managed to beat (the patched) Uqua finally on 18.05.2004



The next step on our way to Tacvi was beating the event in Inku'Ta
Darkwind destroyed Noqufiel for the first time on 06.06.2004



The next on the way was High Priest Nkosi Bakari on 27.06.2004



all this effort finally led us to the last mob that stood between Darkwind and the final Zone, Tacvi.
This encounter was something different because the fight relied almost only on tank survivals and a charmed pet, that did almost all damage until the mob died.

It was the 13.07.2004 when Zun`Muram Tkarish Zyk bit the dust and to never stand up again.



(final content of GoD is explained in the next Chapter)

Chapter V

Might and Dwagons in Omens of War and Dragons of Norrath



Was the period between Plane of Time and Gates of Discord to long - Now it was the first time in Darkwind's history that a new expansion got released before we were able to finish the current one.

Darkwind stepped into Omens of War expansion. We had to kill some small events and had to endure 6 Miniraid trials to get access to the Lands of Loot... aka Asylum of Anguish.

The door to candyland opened for Darkwind on 18.10.2004





Between the loot farming and working on Mata Muram in Anguish, Darkwind also found time for a long time overdue debt.

On 18.01.2005 Darkwind killed Tunat'Muram Cuu Vauax and finished Gates of Discord.



Oh damn, I almost forgot to mention another expansion that SOE released meanwhile. Dragons of Norrath.
It was not really a full expansion because it was short, easy and just thrown on the marked to keep people entertained for a short while. I think Darkwind steamrolled over in about 8 - 10 weeks.

At least it had Dragons !
The last one was Vishimtar the Fallen - the one and only challenging fight in Dragons of Norrath. This event got almost everything you people liked:
Emotes that make you run through the half zone looking for a mob (with limited time of course - shoulder my burden!), adds spawning on dead people (means nobody should die - yeah no shit), deathtouch (wHHooHOOO!), kiting fun, spawning eggs you had to destroy (if not, even more adds) and 1 or 2 other nasty things I do not remember anymore.

It was on 29.03.2005 when Vishimtar the Fallen, bit the dust worldwide for the first time to Darkwind.
Of course the mob died in a fucking wall - so no corpse screenshots , sorry folks





Now back to the real world ... err... expansion.
While we farmed the crap out of Anguish there was still 1 Mob unbeaten.
No less one than Overloard Mata Muram.

This encounter is something where a lot of things can go wrong. People where curious why the trash in Anguish dropped so many nice mask... with good stats on it. They should become the most important part of this script.
Mata Muram was the first fight where we had an order to make use of those shiny Audiotriggers.
What do you think was the most common order that came over raidorders in this event ?

It was : >>> CLICK YOUR DAMN MASK !!! <<<

I think this was the encounter where our officers did hand out the most and the biggest DKP fines in Darkwind's history we ever had.



On 03.05.2005 Overlord Mata Muram did hit the floor for the first Time on Antonious Bayle and in Darkwinds history ! (as you can see, we managed to kill him in a wall agin)



Im sure you all aware about some feature called "ninja-looting.
While under normal circumstances this is a really bad and sad thing - In this case it was rather funny an we all had a good laugh.
Some days ago already Madlez and Baean had a smal disput who would be the officer that will loot the first OMM in DW's history.
Now it happened that Athmoz just stepped up and ninjaed our first OMM and looted such piece of crap !

We still hate you Athmoz for all the shit-loot you pulled out of our mobs during many raids !



In the time after our OMM kill, Darkwind spent, after being invited by the EQ developers, some serious time in the beta for the next upcoming expansion :
Depth of Darkhollow
It was also the last expansion I played "hardcore" in everquest and before I had my long break of over 1 year.

Playing in beta together with some EQ devs was something new, it was fun, and often we had a good laugh while doing it.

The beta was full of strange things, strange people and this...



Chapter VI

Pinning down the spine in the Depths of Darkhollow



When the expansion finally got released, Darkwind didn't lose any time and worked hard to get into the Demiplane of Blood.
One of our first targets was Emperor Draygun.
We killed him on 15.09.2005 for the first time.



We also did pay this guy a visit, but since he was not needed for progress it was the only time we did kill him on 20.09.2005



Darkwind proceeded through some more pre-events and finally obtained access to the Dreadspire Keep, or Demiplane of Blood
The first time we clicked those statues outside was on 09.10.2005



Now comes something that could even be worse than surprise buttse... If you do not expect things that can happen.
I talk about Zi-Thuuli of the Granite Claw.
Normally you see some trashmobs and think "Ok let's kill it and proceed" but this mean guy just spawns randomly
and he can do so out of every trashmob you kill in the way... anywhere. So far not that bad.
But you may think about it different, when he spawns while you are fighting on a bridge and you find out further that he does cast an AE-Knockback.

Anyways once you have killed him for 4 or 5 times he will not show up again.



The next little one did cause some serious headache.
Sanguimanus the Redfang.
Imagine you have to run around a lot while being snared from a zonewide AE, and catch him or his adds when they spawn - or even worse... run to our clerics.
We left him out for some cycles until most of our members got immune to the Zonewide AE (nice idea btw @devs)
that caused a snare and a permanent manadrain as I remember.

In the end he died like every mob that passed the path of Darkwind; and as far as I remember, in a form of first worldwide kill (in this expansion we had quite a few of those!)
(Please notice the left side of this picture and recognize the surname of Athmoz)



Did I tell you already that Demiplane was full of challenging events ? Here comes the next one.
Hatchet the Torturer.
This was also an encounter that did cost many people some DKP (at least I hope so - I never checked) for dying stupidly.
Stupidly means, in this case, failed to recognize your emote and either eat a deathtouch or, in worst case scenario, wipe out half the raid when you failed to run away from him.
Our tank... Mugg... also had his part of fun since he realized that Ogres don't have eyes in the back and the guild had to guide him all times to the next trap on the floor.

Hatchet was killed on 20.10.2005 for the first time



The next one is the encounter I hated most in this whole expansion.
Roley DeFarge and his skeletal wife.
I think the record how long this fight took was something about 50 minutes.

Now matter how long this did take' in the end we sent both back to their graves.
No clue about the first kill but this particular kill - look who got the killshoot please - did happen on 09.01.2006
(please also take a look in the table to the right side. Mireille was afk there for the whole fight!)



Now the expansion Depth of Darkhollow was nearly finished as only the Master himself Mayong Mistmore was left to kill.





Chapter VII

The Decadence: Prophecy of Ro, The Serpent's Shrine, Fabled PoP and over



At this time I decided to take a long break from Everquest mainly because I had gotten a new job and I got cursed with WoW (yeah, I mean World of Warcraft).
I played causal Everquest from time to time to see how the guild was doing, but I don't have any good pictures anymore that would document Darkwind's raid progress for the next 2 expansions.
In November 2007 I got back into the raid business in Everquest with Darkwind and tried to catch up as good as it was possible for me.
When I came back I found an almost new guild. Only a handful of people were left from the "old times".
But after 1 or 2 weeks I really did feel home again - back into the Darkwind family.

So my personal "storyline" of Darkwind will end at this point, although there is a bit more I can show you.

When I got lured back into everquest I found out, that Darkwind was still able to kill stuff. Unbelievable but they did !
Meanwhile we did raid in Prophecy of Ro Expansion and worked hard on our access to Deathknell, Tower of Dissonance.

On our way we did stumble over this lady - 30.04.2006



I cant provide you a good Screenshoot, but on 20.08.2006 I was there when Darkwind killed Ayonae Ro.



In September 2006 there was the release of a new Everquest Expansion : The Serpent's Shrine.
This expansion made me, and many others as well, finally stop playing EQ, or like in my case, to take an extended break.
The reason behind this was, in my eyes, a totally retarded game design when it comes to raid progress and - the most important thing - to gain access to the raid zones.

I really did not count them all, but until you were able to zone into Ashengate (raid) you had to complete over 30 (!!) single and group tasks.
Not that doing all this group and single tasks was bad enough - for many of them, you had to go into the non-instanced Ashengate zone and fight together with sometimes over 200 people in this zone where drops were from rare (!) mobspawns.

Did I mention that sometimes your flags got bugged and you had to call a GM to fix it (after 1 week waiting of course).
Or you where unlucky and died during the event and did not get your flag while the guild did finish the event ?

I don't know how - but I even endured trough this and when I finally was flagged for all Ashengate raids, my guild told me that I would have to do the same again for Frostcrypt.
Sorry folks but that was too much...

Here come 2 pictures taken from a progress raid for AG access
Date was 08.10.2006





Shortly after this I stopped with Everquest completely and returned a bit over 1 year later in November 2007.

When I returned, the guild was close to finish the Buried Sea expansion already and worked hard to beat Soltaris.
Soltaris was done by beating the 2 gods around December 07 / January 08.
Darkwind now worked on the progress for the last and current expansion Secrets of Faydwer. Until Darkwind disbanded on 27.May 2008, we beat this expansion up until Meldrath.
(forgive me, I do not have screenshots from this time at all)

Like every year in March / April Everquest celebrated his anniversary and makes some old expansions fabled.
In this year Darkwind looked very forward to this and many people started working on they Plane of Time access early to get it done when the fabled season started.

Darkwind focused on Plane of Tactics and Plane of Time and obtained a lot of very nice upgrades (I think almost every melee in DW got fabled Blade of War now).
For many members in Darkwind this was the last time they went cheering to a raid.

For many "old time" members, like me, this fabled PoP was simply a blast.
We were reviving old memories and had to wipe some tears out of our eyes.

These last great moments of Darkwind will never be forgotten




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