Tuesday, March 31, 2009

NightKnight is back in action!

Hey all,

I know its been a while since I've done much of any posting, but I promise to pick it up again XD.

So I'm in a new guild with the gf as trial members, and all is well so far. We've impressed the fellow guildmates and they seem to enjoy bringing us along for raids. We'll be going in for a speed run of H Naxx tonight, which will be much to my liking since that place has begun to wear me out.

3.1 couldn't come any sooner really. I've definitely had this overwhelming feeling that we've run out of things to do in the game now and most tasks in the game have become somewhat boring to me and the gf.

I took a break from the game during my staycation the past 10 days or so and began playing again when we both could play. To be perfectly honest, I didn't miss the game at all. I was definitely enjoying the time I had with the gf and life in general :). I can't bash the game much though, since its what brought me and my girlfriend together in the first place! Thats an amazing story in itself which I don't have much need to discuss here ;).

The game is amazing for what it offers people. It's a nice escape from your life outside of the game, you just have to be careful not to let it become your life. First and foremost its a game, and its meant for people to socialize and work together to thrash monsters and defend your "world". I've seen firsthand people who've been overcome by the game and lost their jobs, got kicked out of school, and got run down.

So yes, be excited that Ulduar is coming out soon -- but don't let it take over your social life!

I'll post again after our run tonight to let you all know how our speed run goes.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

New Guild, Not much else

Well, after another terrible raiding night (consistent with the fail we've been experiencing the past few weeks) my gf d/ced from the raid last time and the guild leader kicked her from the guild. This was the last straw for both of us and I promptly logged on and kicked my own characters and removed myself from the guild. Outermost is no more. The current leads from the guild did not want to listen to the pleas of everyone around them to not let all players switch to roles they want to fit into. "We need an elemental shaman" he says "we need a feral dps druid" the other said. Among plenty of other comments which ultimately led the guild to have about 21 dps, 2 tanks and 2 healers for core and the rest were picked up from who knows where and were expected to fix this issue we were having of not being able to clear content we cleared over and over again with plenty of ease.

That guild is in shambles and I'm glad we left. My gf and I recently applied to Ethereal and were promptly invited for trial memberships within 2 days of our apps. So far they have been fun and very understanding with our situation and the fact that we'd like to raid together. I won't be around the computer too much for the rest of the month, but I'll update with any other news if I happen to raid.

Peace out!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

The Almost Undying :(

Well, we went in to attempt an Undying 10 man Naxx run last night... and We lost one person on Thaddius by crossing positive and neutral charges :(. The run was going very smooth until then, and we ended up disheveled and lacking in focus afterwards. People stepped away from their A-game and swapped it out with their I don't care game. Understandable considering there's nothing in 10 man content that we want.. we just were interested in the achievement.

So no Undying for me or my girlfriend this week, but we'll try again next week and see how that goes.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Heroic Sartharion 3D, NOW IN TECHNICOLOR!

So last night we walked into Sartharion's Lair, the Obsidian Sanctum to work on Sarth 3D.

To be honest, I didn't really feel like coming home to more work when I'm overloaded at work as it is. That being said, even though I wasn't very excited to make progression I still went along and gave it my all.

It felt like we were back in our training wheel days of learning Sartharion 2D. Everyone was attempting to give it their all, but we ran into a few snags. Some healers continued to die over and over again, some missed seeing the voids on the ground, some literally jumped into the voids attempting to dodge the drake's breath as the tank was moving him.... etc.

My girlfriend and I couldn't help but feel some frustration after seeing continual wipes due to the same problems and we expressed our utmost "concern" to each other of what was occurring before our very eyes. The dps were okay for the most part as long as they continued to watch for fissures and kept a keen eye on our drake tank (he was adjusting to having to move the 1st drake into the 2nd drake's landing position, so we had to adjust our own running paths to avoid getting blasted in the face by a breath).

We had one promising run where we had downed the 2nd drake, but had instantaneously lost our Main Tank and Add Tank. Other than that we lost focus and had to call it an early night. We do have some members who lack in a decent internet connection / PC to play the game when we're attempting a difficult event like Sartharion 3D. Most attempts had followed through with a tank DCing or 1 or 2 Healers DCing all at the same time.

Some people thought we had made no progress, but with the surprise DCs .. what do you expect.

We will be headed back in there again Thursday.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Sunwell... Preparation for T8 content?

Thats right. Our guild is using one of our raid nights to do Sunwell progression lol. Think of it this way.. Yes its easier now that we're 80 in T7.5, but the encounters take knowledge of the fight and a lot of movement -- and they still wipe the raid if you do it wrong.

We went in last week with high hopes, but we were lacking people on for the event. We got up to the Eredar Twins, then called it a night.

Last night we walked in to get a good start on the place so our raid night tonight could concentrate more on the bosses we struggled with. We'll begin tonight with Felmyst. Felmyst is a difficult encounter when people are lacking the focus to dispel, move and watch the paths for beams / plague. Give it a try, I bet you'll wipe :).

The main reason why we're going back to the Sunwell is to get our mindsets back into what a real raid is supposed to feel like. We're supposed to have discipline and focus when trying to grind out the content. With that in mind, don't sacrifice fun either. You have to have balance to have a happy raid group. Once you concentrate too much on one or the other, you start to have detrimental effects on your group. You start wiping, you lose focus, people get frustrated.

Keep this in mind when you're preparing your guilds for Ulduar, it's not going to be as easy as you think ;).

By the way.. T8.5 with the kilt / surcoat = hawt, T8.5 with pants = ghey.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

You did what in one raid night?

So there we were, getting prepared for raid night, and being told to get to the Eye of Eternity for our 25 man raid night.

We walk in, get buffed up, 2 shot Malygos.

"Everyone get to Dragonblight, we're going to do Sartharion 2D." So we make our way over. Someone notices that we just took control of Wintergrasp. "Change of plans everyone, lets get a port to Dalaran and everyone head to the Vault!" shouts the guild leader.

20 Minutes later.. 25 Vault of Archevon cleared, and the guild leader picks up again: "Okay, everyone head back to OS and take a 5-10 min bio."

Expecting to have at least a few attempts and get him down once again.
About 45 minutes and 1 shot later, Sarth 2D down.

Much to the surprise of the guild leader, he gets anxious and tells everyone to head to Naxxramas for some more raiding lol.

So we decide to call it a night after 5 bosses in Naxx. What a rush! All in 3.5 hours, we cleared almost the entirety of content available to us! We turned our 3 day core raid week into an easy 2 day. To make up for the quick run through, we're going to be doing Sunwell as a mandatory raid night now to get in preparation for the complexity of Ulduar raids.

My girlfriend and I both managed to pick up a new piece of gear last night (I finally replaced my last blue!), so we were both pleased with our hectic run :).

Expect more news upcoming this week!

Oh, and I had a 200,403 damage crit on an understudy during the Instructor Razuvious fight ;).

Monday, February 23, 2009

Heroic: Sartharion + 2 Drakes Down for Outermost!

Hey all, sorry for the long hiatus in posts -- it was a rough week.

So as a guild we walked into Sartharion to make more progression work on Sartharion +2D. We had 21 people to start, and ended with 23 people in raid. Yes, our first 2D kill was with 23 people! To add to the bit of hilarity, I was healing lol. So we had 5 healers in there, including me (which I'll say that I was about a 1/2 healer since none of my gear was enchanted haha).

Much to our surprise it worked and our kill was smooth as butter! Since I had so much practice as melee dodging the firewalls and avoiding adds, it was a pretty easy transition when healing. I only got hit by the firewall once, and I bubbled out of it :).

I'm very proud of our guild's accomplishments so far, we're definitely progressing well as a newer guild on the server. All we have left for progression is Sartharion 3D and the 6 minute Malygos kill. Should be interesting and keep us occupied until Ulduar (I hope).

I hope all of you have a pleasant rest of the day, I'm taking Monday in stride and trying to not let nerves and stress get to me with my deadlines approaching :P.