After overcoming the frustration of a missed first week kill due to a bugged instance, we stepped back in last night, stakes in hand.  It didn’t take long to finish out the encounter.  I believe our attempt counter was at 11 when we zoned out to head over to the tournament grounds. This was definitely one of the more complex encounters thus far in ICC, requiring a fair bit more thought about individual roles than the encounters preceding it.  After we worked up a priority list for bites and polished our positioning strategy, we were rewarded with a kill.  Now….if only we hadn’t had the Mp5 trinket drop.

Recruitment is currently open for a few select classes.  Please visit out boards and head into the recruitment section to keep updated!

Little late on this one, as we recently had a change in our posting format. We are also working heavily on a new website, taking much of our free time aside from raiding and power leveling terrible paladins!

We’re going to file this under an encounter that “is a lot more terrifying heading in than heading out”. We quickly realized that the encounter was able to be underhealed, as well as DPS wasn’t the benchmark we should be shooting for. Instead, perfect transitioning. Congratulations to the team on pushing this one out a bit ago. Sorry I didn’t get the post up sooner! Stay tuned for a Lana’thel shot from tonight.

We evaluated our position in our roster, and came to the conclusion over the week that we would be interested in seeing some quality applications. At this point in the process, we haven’t declared anything as being specifically closed. Instead, we are looking for top contender for their roles.

• Must parse extremely well.
• Situational awareness must be incredibly high.
• Critical thinking and fast reactions are key.
• 100% Availability.

We will be reviewing applications over the weekend with a keen eye out for players who “fit the mold” of what we are looking for.  If you think you have what it takes to start the journey for ICC Hard Modes, follow the navigation bar at the top of the page to our recruitment boards.

We don’t really have a lot of news running around to throw out out at everyone right now. With the holidays, and the extreme lack of content, we slipped into a mock hibernation of farming. It’s been nice to focus on enjoying the game and not coutless hours or progression wiping.

However we do have some news to share with our viewers. One of our very own has chosen to get married over the holidays. No word on the official date (I doubt he will ever let us know for fear of a WoW raiding party at the church doorstep), but we did receive news that the lucky wife to be accepted his marriage proposal. A heartfelt congratulations and pat on the back goes out to one of our raiding members, Coopy. May the sun always shine on your crotch. And when it doesn’t, may we always be here to lend a flashlight.

In addition, we have opened up “select” recruitment for a ranged DPS. We are looking specifically for a warlock who is experienced in all three specs, and has no problem changing them up on the fly. This position is a core raiding spot, thus the applicant should be raid ready in comparable gear to our casters, and ready to rock it out in ICC progression.

A day late on the first post! It’s been a hectic week at work, and prep for ICC (Lulz) had pre-occupied me a fair bit. First we send out a congratulations to one of our ten mans for completing the highly sought “Tribute to Dedicated Insanity”. Official comments state that they “may or may not have” had technical difficulty with Northrend Beasts. Great job guys!

The second congratulations goes out to the guild as a whole for completing the first wing of ICC without any serious hang-ups. While roaming the silent halls, we did come across the disconnect boss. Oddly though, he sat back down and let us do our thing. There really isn’t much to say about ICC other than it’s “pretty” at the moment. In addition, no one bit it too Lord Marrowgar. A big disappointment since the first person to be pegged to be mowed over was Pokeadot. Oh well! There is always next week!

I leave you with a picture of the final boss in the wing, Captain Blood Transfusion.

It’s been a while since an encounter worthy of hours of wiping came across the games path. This encounter was nothing short of a complete and utter headache. I won’t go into detail about the 17 hours spent wiping to the encounter. I won’t go into detail about the many on the fly changes to the strategy we had laid out. Nor will I mention the 250+ posts on our forums regarding Anub.

Instead, I will send a congratulations and a job well done to our roster for all the hard work put into this. Easing the lesser of the achievements our this week we begin to enter the next confident we can get a repeat kill with the same strategy, and at the least [A Tribute to Mad Skill].

Stay tuned for a roster lineup, including a video of the entire encounter with the complete vent to be posted. Now, we close our doors to progressive raiding and hone our skills and continue to gear up until Icecrown. It feels good to have a small vacation!

A Special thanks to Blizzard for designing an encounter that makes even the most seasoned veteran’s asshole clinch, DXE/BW/DBM for not having the intelligence to tweak their timers accurately for Shadow Strike, Grid for releasing PC icons 2 secs before PC actually wears off, Anub for being fickle and deciding to only break an ice patch if HE WANTS TOO, and let’s not forget Shandris.

Slacked a little on this one, when I should have posted it last week. Congratulations to our first 10man team to complete Tribute to Insanity. An incredibly nerve-wrecking encounter built on jitters left even our most seasoned raiders twitching at the end. Excellent display of performance and attention across the board.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the second group does just as well this coming week. Sinn, trolls look horrible on wolves. I’m just saying.

This one came a little late to us, but none the less was deserved and expected. The nights Anub heroic attempts had shed a little light onto our roster, showing the leaders it was near peak focus. 4 pulls in, we walked away with a nifty new title. Big congratulations to those that were in attendance on their accomplishments. Those that were absence deserve the same round of applause for their effort in learning the encounter.

Now, if we could only finish out our last two legendaries. ….

For those of you who have been following our progress, we have been incredibly busy. While reaching the upper echelons of guilds in terms of ranking is always a dream and goal of any guild, there is a certain price to pay. For a lot of guilds, that price comes in some of the following distasteful flavors. 30 Hour raid weeks. 5 day schedules. Larger, over exaggerated rosters. We are happy to say that we have reached the ranks of these other guilds, without these things.

Raiding three days a week, 12 hours, and only having a 29 person roster speaks volumes of the skill and commitment our members have. We have been able to secure ourselves US Rank 129, including a prestigious World Rank 2 in terms of 3 day raiding guilds go. Finally, the hard work pays off.

Twins fell last night after a 10min break, and a quick dynamic change to the way we were doing the encounter. Ending the week with 11 attempts, saving Anub for next week we begin our weekend vacation.

Congratulations on your kill and ranking Epitome.