On Sunday evening, it finally happened. After a mere 388 pulls, Ragnaros finally met his end on Heroic for a Guild First, Realm First, and US 93rd kill for Monolith. Since joining the Horde and moving in with the folks of Monolith, this was the first boss that I’ve experienced from (almost) first pull to finality. [...]

Though his mind is not for rent, don’t put him down as arrogant. His reserve a quiet defense, riding out the day’s events. There is a plague quickly gaining momentum across blogs and comment threads that is all, but unexpected in the age of feed readers, article snippets, and “every voice counts, especially mine!” Everyone [...]

And like a single domino, that falls while the rest stay vertical, we’re fed these empty fairy tales. Will you believe them?–Rise Against, Disparity By Design The 24th of August, 2011, the day of Blood Red Moon’s final raid as a guild. At some point or another we’ve all thought about what we would say [...]

My off-raid nights are usually reserved for things like hockey games, cleaning my house (or myself occasionally), or watching movies. Last night wasn’t unlike any other except that it was spent watching a movie (the movie?) about raiding. “The Raid”, directed and produced by Kevin Michael Johnson, is coined as a documentary meant to enlighten [...]

Sometimes you just need a shave and a haircut to jump-start things. It would not be a stretch to say that my writing has tailed this expansion. In the past my adventures through the latest tier was detailed on these pages moments after the pixel dragons hit the floor. Looking back over a fight and [...]

Eighty-percent of success is showing up –Woody Allen Forward This is written not as a warning, ultimatum, or scolding. It is a frank explanation of the brain activity of a Raid Leader (or this one, at least) during the week leading up to a raid, the moments before a raid, and immediately after. My best [...]

Can nobody save us? Will anyone try? The pyre is burning, the severance is dying. And all along they say it. Help is on the way.” – Rise Against Housing crisis! Gas prices! Unemployment! Tsunamis! Urban cobras! This is about none of those. Despite the above topics not receiving nearly enough coverage in today’s reserved [...]

…I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back. ‘Til things are brighter…I’m the man in black. -Johnny Cash The brief story of the trials and tribulations of one guild leader, a raid on the edge something great, and his best efforts to push his team over that edge. It’s been too long [...]

“There are two kinds of spurs in this world, my friend; ‘those who come by the door: and those who come by the window”–Tuco, The Ugly Al’akir, being end of instance boss (even if that instance is very short), is a step up in difficulty from the other fight in the instance. Usually this increase [...]

Don’t think. FEEL. It’s like a finger-pointing at the moon. Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all of the heavenly glory! — Bruce Lee With a day off to literally do nothing in-game, I had a little bit of time to reflect on normal mode Tier 11. We still have plenty [...]

First up is the Theralion ground phase of the Double Dragons encounter in Bastion of Twilight: TANK, MELEE, RAID, DRAGON, FABULOUS FLAMES I’ve seen a lot twitter chatter and forum posts about issues in this phase of the fight and I was having a hard time understanding why. The enrage timer for this fight is [...]

The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual. – Vince Lombardi Last month I wrote about how it is important in Cataclysm to properly handle mechanics, take advantage of crowd control, and generally, just play the game. The underestimation of damage and the tendency to treat trash as [...]

80% of success is showing up – Woody Allen Someone asked me the other day “where can I find your podcast, do you have a link on your blog.” I quickly realized that not only did I not have a link, but I didn’t even make a post about the podcast at all! Over the [...]

You know, as I lie here, I can’t help but notice… the reason I am out of nine millimeter rounds is that I was not properly briefed. And the reason for that is that this mission was not properly researched. If certain people had bothered to gather intelligence on the creatures before bumbling into the [...]

Speed Kills – Al Davis Before we start, that is probably the first and last time I’ll ever quote Al Davis, but it’s apt to the discussion. The hot topic swirling around twitter and the blogosphere is on leveling to 85. Do I go with no sleep? Do I go without food? What zones do [...]

This topic was prompted by Beru, so all the credit goes to her. I was going to leave this in the comments section, but I want to share her article as well as my comments/response. Here’s a brief excerpt. … Exactly How Are These Raids Going To Be Equal? As I was ranting a bit [...]

The Account-Wide Achievement falls into a completely different category than what we currently have. I agree that some achievements on an account level don’t make a whole lot of sense. On the other hand, there is a part of me that wishes my characters were more linked together than they currently are. It gives confidence to those that invite you to a raid or party that you’ve at least seen the content, but there is always the privacy factor. Many players don’t want their peers to know about their alts or other characters they might play “in secret” and that’s understandable.

I think what we’re missing are tools that allow players to customize their account. What do I mean by that? Maybe Blizzard needs to give a little more power to the players.

Son of Odin, Thunder God, Master of War. Asator The lift of the NDA on in-development Cataclysm content and the opening of closed beta has unleashed an avalanche of information (or tidal wave, I suppose would be more appropriate for this expansion) onto the web. Most of it is a lot of stuff that doesn’t [...]

Rebels souls, deserters we were called. Chose a gun, and threw away the sword. Now these towns, they all know our names. Six gun sound is our claim to fame. — Bad Company You’ve already watched the TankSpot video, you’ve read the brief strat write-ups on WoWHead, and maybe even dabbled in a bit of [...]

Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it. The last week has been a torrent of information. Since the initial announcement of shared resets between 10 and 25 man raiding. Initially it looked as if Blizzard may as well just decide to stop offering a 25 man option altogether. As Sunday the 13th faded into [...]

The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept. – George Carlin Like the last ride of the day, Wrath of the Lich King is going down the final hill to the station as Cataclysm is still under construction with its gates opening later this year. It’s been just [...]

Don’t let the world deceive you, don’t let their words betray you, don’t let their lies deceive you. Let them do their worst–Killswitch Engage The drought of New in the World of Warcraft has been long, so long in fact, that I think local authorities were asking people to only read one (two if it’s [...]

The bullet points from Bashniok [MMO-Champion]: Hero Points — Low-tier, easier-to-get PVE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most dungeons. (most like the current Emblem of Triumph) Valor Points — High-tier, harder-to-get PvE points. Maximum cap to how many you [...]

Bibi’s quick take on [MMO-Champion]: 10-Man and 25-Man raids will share the same lockout. 10-Man and 25-Man raids difficulty will be as close as possible to each other. 10-Man and 25-Man raids will drop the exact same loot, but 25-man will drop a higher quantity of items. Normal versus Heroic mode will be chosen on [...]

“Death can take me if I can’t be free. I am not like you, I’m a dying breed!”-Five Finger Death Punch It’s hard to remember back to the time when there were no achievements in raids. We’re coming up on nearly two full years of raiding with those little 10pt boxes flashing on our screen [...]

We shall neither fail nor falter; we shall not weaken or tire…give us the tools and we will finish the job.–Winston Churchill Shamans, for once, get to be the first to receive the Good News about their class changes coming in Cataclysm. Restoration Shamans have quite a bit to look forward to as we see [...]

Everyone’s got to have the sickness, because everyone seems to need the cure.–Metallica A significant feature/change in Cataclysm was released yesterday as The Blues announced a complete overhaul of the dispel system. At the moment dispelling anything is an after-thought. The game prevents you from making a poor decision and provides some classes with a [...]

In our last edition we examined two prominent types of raids (Gym Class and the Hollywood Film).  I’m sure you’re familiar with or can at least relate to either of those situations.  Here’s some more to chew on. Broadway Show Live 4 nights a week. All this Spring. Very much like the Hollywood Film, except [...]

“It’s not just the scheme we use. It’s the players.”-Dick LeBeau Strategy. Practice. Execution. These are the three steps when approaching any raid boss.  The strategy is given out, you wipe (sometimes a lot), and then you win (strategy executed).  For every guild out there, there are an equal variation of structures and guild makeups.  [...]

Champions, attack! – Tirion Fordring Last night Blood Red Moon sewed up the final encounter in Icecrown Citadel 25 (Normal Mode) with the defeat of the Lich King.  The kill marked another Alliance First for us, and on a progression related note, kept us right on pace with our horde competition when we start hard [...]

Bornakk and the boys addressed several topics in their recent Twitter Chat held last Friday.  Most interesting was their response to the badge system in Wrath of the Lich King. From the Blizzard: Q. What have you learned from this expansion’s emblem system? A. Having that many different kind of emblems is overwhelming. In hindsight, [...]

I bought a parrot, and the parrot talked, but it did not say I’m hungry, so it died – Mitch Hedberg “You’re a bad healer…” is a multi-part series on the dynamics of raid healing in WoW.  Part 1 focused on what persona it takes to be an effective (and consistent) raid healer.  Part 2 [...]

Good healing isn’t about preventing a fall,  It’s about bracing for impact. This is part 1 in a series on healing (and more specifically raid healing).  Part 1 will focus on what it takes in a person to be a great healer.  Part 2 will focus on the tools of a quality healer.  Part 3, Fights [...]

Despair, so delicious. Icecrown Citadel is one of the most fun raid instances, if not the most fun raid instance Blizzard has designed. It has everything. Lore tie-ins, interesting trash that isn’t just 8 pack after 8 pack, and bosses that have truly great mechanics to deal with.  You can pick out some great moments [...]