Calendar

- I agree with Holyssa, DPS was really awesome towards the end. Unfortunately for the first half it would seem people weren't eating their wheaties or something. Phase 2 and Phase 3 are a DPS race, we really need folk to pump out that damage. - Some players *REALLY* need to work on their kiting skills. Yes I said *SOME*! It would seem that if Thaladred were to change his gaze to these players then it was guaranteed kill. I need EVERYONE to be on their toes while this mob is alive and react both *QUICKLY* and *INTELLIGENTLY* - I propose a change of tactic on the Pheonixes; I found that the eggs would too often hatch simply due to the DPS switching onto the shock barrier. For this reason I will call for DPS on phoenixes only AFTER a shock barrier has been taking care of. Meaning that after every barrier, *ALL* range DPS *MUST* kill the phoenixes (and their eggs!) before continuing to DPS Kael'thas.

Quick bump to highlight the sale of Nether Vortexes!

Hey guys, I just wanted to apologize for not being able to make it yesterday, I had to attend a last minute birthday party I couldn't miss. I'm glad to see you guys weren't too gimped without me. From the impressive list of loot Baracko has sent, me I see that you guys succeeded quite well. Gratz! Cal

Hey guys, Just want to give all of you a nice pat on the back for a job well done last night! Getting mid way to Kael'thas Phase 4 in such short time is no small feat. I'm convinced that if we continue down this path we'll be knocking him down in no time at all. In order to reduce some of the chaos occurring during Phase 4/5, here's a summary of his abilities and how I'd like our group to handle them: Kael'Thas Abilities: Phase 4: Fireball: Main ability, hits for about ~25k (damage is reduced by the mace buff). Shock Barrier + Pyroblast: 100k hp shield he puts on before casting 3 successive pyroblasts (each hitting for 45k to 55k). Mind Control: Mind controls 2 to 3 players for 30 seconds. Arcane Disruption: 2k arcane damage and 10s disorientation effect to the entire raid (staff buff negates the disorientation). Flamestrike + Phoenixes: 50k to 100k damage ground AoE that will spawn a phoenix. The phoenix will do a ground AoE that hits ~2k. Phase 5: All the same abilities (no Pyroblast and no Mind Control). Gravity Lapse + Nether Vapor + Nether Beam: Throws everyone in the air and shots players with a 2.2k chain lightning type beam. Roles: Melee DPS: - DPS Kael'thas. - Rogues should assist in freeing Mind Controlled players. Range DPS: - DPS Kael'thas. - DPS Phoenixes and their eggs if there are any. - CC any Mind Controlled players. Healers: - Heal your respective targets. Everyone: - Stay out of Flamestrikes. - Stay out of melee range of pheonixes. - Make sure you activate your weapon (if it needs activation). - Make sure you're within range of a staff buff. - Prioritize DPS on the Shock Barrier in order to interrupt the Pyroblasts. - Phase 5: Spread out when Gravity Lapse occur, stay as far away as possible from Kael'thas and other players. Things to consider: - Range DPS should be closer to melee and not be at max range to reduce rogue travel time when dealing with Mind Controlled Players. - Holyssa should tank phoenixes away from the main raid and must have a stuff buffer covering him. - Gravity Lapse does not incur an aggro wipe, since the MT will no longer be increasing his threat players must carefully watch their threat. Please check the bottom of the spreadsheet Roles and Group Formations for your specific roles. Good job again, Cal

Hey Scryll, That's going to be kind of rough, I haven't been keeping track of who got what with regards to plans. Your best bet (and any other Crushers who might be interested) would be to post which plan you're interested in and I'll find you someone that can craft it in the raid. I'm pretty sure we can make just about every item (even the Belt of Blasting has dropped very recently -- though I forget who got it). So let me know if you're looking for something in particular, Cal

Hey Clan, I had made a post some time ago publicizing the remaining SSC patterns that our raid was not interesting in having. It would seem I have fallen behind in my duty to promote the sale of these plans to the remainder of the guild. The raid is no longer going to be venturing into SSC so this is your LAST chance to procure any of these plans. In a couple of weeks they will be put on the auction house for general public availability. Here's a list of the plans currently available: [Hurricane Boots]x2 [boots of the Long Road]x2 [boots of Utter Darkness]x1 [boots of the Protector]x1 [boots of the Crimson Hawk]x1 [boots of Natural Grace]x1 All of these plans will be selling for 200g each (proceeds go towards the raid repair bills). You can message Calandor in game if your interested. This price is only available to friends, family, guild mates and alts of raid members. ***NEW*** We will now be selling Nether Vortexes at the same price, that is to say 200g, starting today! (Guildmates, friends, family and raid player alts only please) Happy shopping, Cal

Hey guys, Great job last night! I thought our progress on Kael'Thas was awesome, keep up the good work! A few notes however: For Phase 1: - Holyssa is right about Capernian, we often see people INSIDE the 30 yard range. I don't think all of you quite understand just how far 30 yards is! Both Baracko and I were getting pretty sick having to repeat for people to back up. Please pay more attention next time, take a look at your skills and try to figure what your options are OUTSIDE of the 30 yard range. If there's nothing you can do, then you MUST sit the fight out (it's not a DPS race). Also, DO NOT DPS CAPERNIAN UNTIL SHE IS IN PLACE! For Phase 2: - Great job with the weapons, but we need to figure out a good plan to get them down faster! - Here's the proposed DPS schedule for phase 2: - Casters DPS the bow while melee DPS staff (both should go down at the same time) - AoE casters DPS all weapons while single target casters and melee DPS target the mace. - Single target casters & melee move on to shield (all weapons with the exception of maybe the axe should go down at the same time) - Everyone who doesn't have a specific role in Phase 3 finishes off the Axe If anyone has any suggestions please let us know! Cal

Hey guys, I'd just like ask everyone to maybe take a moment and review their DKP standings off the website (see the first post for links). I've recently been having issues with the mod & application used to accumulate the DKP and store it on the web page. It would seem the mod goes a little berserk while in-game and often wrongfully charges DKP. I've been doing my best to re-adjust and correct these mistakes out of game but I would certainly appreciate you guys taking a glimpse at what was awarded and charged under your name. If you find any irregularities please let me know and I'll fix them ASAP. Thanks, Cal

Hey guys, In order to remove some of the confusion with the positioning of players during Phase 2 of the Vashj fight, I did a small diagram. Note that at this point such visuals shouldn't be necessary, but I still get the feeling that people aren't quite sure where they should be. We are sometimes getting too many Elementals on top with way too much health. While Tainted Elementals should be a priority, it shouldn't be a sole person's responsibility to take them down. Healers and DPSers should be near the top of the stairs and keep an eye out for Striders. As Striders get closer to the group, players should carefully take a few steps down the stairs to avoid getting feared or cleaved. Anyone that isn't in a side group or kiting an Elemental, should find themselves at the center of the top platform. They should be mindful of the Striders and Nagas, they both cleave and will 1 shot anyone but a tank. Red = Melee DPS Blue = Healer Green = Range DPS Note: I haven't bother putting down actual player names, I'm assuming most of you know where you fall in this picture. Besides we may be doing a few more tweaks in the near future. Hope this helps a bit, Cal

Hey guys, Well I have to admit last night was a little rough trying to kill Vashj. It would seem many of us are getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of progression on this fight. We all knew that this fight would be though coming into it, but it's very disappointing to see when the little progress we have succeeded in obtaining gets washed away. We need to pull together if we want to succeed and EVERYONE really needs to pull their own weight. We were all made aware that this raid was going to be taken more seriously than previous raids and that if serious progress is to be had then an equal amount of effort on the part of raid members should be given. That being said, we are noticing a lack of effort on the part of certain raid members. How do we fix this? We've invested much time building up group cohesion, getting gear and learning the fights. If a player is a weak link, my personal preference is to aid this player in overcoming their issues rather than replacing them and starting over. What's Going on? I'm instating class leads based on the various roles required in the instances. The job of these leads is to provide feedback to other raiders with respects to their performance and provide me with a general overview of each player's contribution. - They will keep track of when and who is using consumables - They will keep track of who comes to the raid repaired and unflagged - They will provide you with feedback on your performance - They will provide me with feedback on your performance - They will be the go-to person whenever you have questions or opinions with certain encounters or raid policies - They will manage their group of people in the manner they see fit (and subsequently mind their own business with respects to other groups) - They will make recommendations with regards to whether or not you are viable for MH/BT or if we should cut our losses and find someone else Here is the new raid structure: Why are we doing this? We have in the past relied on raiders coming forth whenever they needed help or if they thought their performance was sub par. We place A LOT of value on players with an active interest in improving themselves. However, it would seem our weak links either don't know they are under-performing, are too shy to ask for help or are simply too stubborn to follow any advice. We need to have players with a more raid-centric mind set. I hope that having a more organized structure within the raid will help our players obtain a higher performance level so that we may achieve our goals. Your raid leader, Cal

Look at the first post of this thread =) There are 2 links

Hey Holyssa, I missed it because it's a quest item that leads to a reward. Anyways, it's been fixed, feel free to resubmit if you like. I've also improved the final results a bit, though it's still not quite what I want.

Alright, so the form is now up and running. All you need to do is put in your name, check the boxes corresponding to the loot items you want and put in the number of badges you still need. I highly recommend doing this with Wowwiki open in another window, they have excellent TK/SSC loot pages. Google spreadsheet forms are still kind of new and there's some funkiness involved. If you make a mistake or want to change your information just go ahead and redo the form (I'll deal with the outcome later). Don't rely too much on the form's "Previous Responses" section, I have no control over what Google writes there and it doesn't accurately reflect the data that's been gathered. I've instead added a link with the non-formatted data inside a spreadsheet (updates ~3min or so). At some point I'll have something more formal that will clearly represent the data. The links can be found in the first post. Cal

The 2.4.0 patch does not change our raiding schedule. We will still clear SSC and work on Vashj Thursday. The only thing that "may" change is how quickly we migrate from SSC/TK to Hyjal once Vashj and Kael'Thas have been killed. Multiple factors do come into play however: - How quickly the server is able to unlock the new badge vendors - How many of our raiders will be able to get significant upgrades from the new badge loot - The number of upgrades left in SSC/TK for our raiders However, with the new option to directly confront Vashj and Kael'Thas I would like the following from all the raiders (I've ask this in all the raids I've done and I know from experience that only ~33% will comply): - An ordered list of the remaining drops that are upgrades to you in SSC/TK. - The approximate number of badges you require to get the new 2.4.0 items that would be upgrades for you. The idea here is to get an overview of where the raid should be going, which bosses are still needed and how much gear is left to be gathered. If no real upgrades are left then we'll work exclusively on Vashj and Kael'Thas and then move on (I doubt this is the case for the time being).

I would caution you before you starting buying up the entire stock of patterns. There are typically very good reasons why these patterns don't sell as well. Usually it means there are items of superior quality or that there are items easier to come by. SSC/TK epic doesn't necessarily mean it's better. I'd recommend guild mates do their homework and verify that the pattern is indeed along their upgrade path before forking the money.

I've been meaning to do this for a while, so here it is finally: The SSC and TK raids have been accumulating more and more BoE epic patterns. Typically these patterns are sold on the AH for gold which gets redistributed to the raid members to cover some of the hefty repair and reagent costs. When the patterns are not sold they are then offered to alts, guilds, friends and family at a lower cost. This has been going on for a while now but hasn't been publicly announced to the guild in general (due to my own laziness/lack of time). The cost for any one pattern is currently set at: 200g Here are the available patterns: Boots of the Crimson Hawk x 2 Boots of the Protector x 2 Hurricane Boots x 1 Boots of Utter Darkness x 1 If you are interested in purchasing any of these patterns, please send an in-game mail or whisper to Calandor. Thanks, Cal P.S: I will attempt to keep this post up-to-date with the latest available patterns.

Hey Zeb, It was getting quite tedious to maintain a list of all the patterns we've been acquiring. If you're interested, send me a tell in game and I'll let you know what's left. I think there might be a hunter LW plan or two! Besides that I think the raid is pretty well equipped for now. Just make sure you have enough pots, flasks and food for yourself =)

Hey guys, I've been meaning to make this post for some time and now that I have a few minutes I might as well do it. I need to touch on a sensitive issue, so please don't take whatever I say personally, this isn't directed at any one person. Recently I've been noticing that several of our raiders are getting "tired" of running with us. I'm starting to get more whispers from people asking if they can suddenly get replaced in the middle of the raid or if they can altogether miss the raid. From the start of this endeavor I specifically asked each and everyone of you if you were committed to the raid, all of you said yes. I also understand that each person's "level of commitment" might be different and past raid leading experience has thought me that this kind of situation does occur and needs to be dealt with. That being said, my best piece of advice is the following: If you cannot see yourself dedicating 6 hours a week (2 days a week) for the next 4 months, PLEASE let us know and we'll find you a good replacement!!! There's nothing wrong with saying "this is a as far as I will go", we are far better off replacing you then having you start resenting the raid and under-performing. I will NOT give in to demands from people asking to finish early when there are 24 other people wanting to go on. I will NOT tolerate people leaving early and having the rest of the raid wait 15 to 20min to find another sub-standard replacement. I will NOT tolerate people missing because they simply don't want to raid anymore. I'm not trying to push people away, I'm very happy with all your performance and punctuality. Those of you who have an waning interest in the raid, please be vocal about it! The soon you let us know, the sooner we can adapt. Just because someone is on the replacement list certainly doesn't mean they'll never get back in. Something to think about. Cal

Thanks for the info Harne. It's been dealt with. The choice of replacement had to do with timing and availability. Helreath did have a player willing to play his character for him, however the replacement did not have any Warlock experience (despite having SSC experience). We were quickly able to get a Mage who had both experience with our group AND SSC so it was decided that in order to minimize disruptions within our group we'd aim for the more familiar face. In Taiden's case no such replacement was easily available. Don't get me wrong however, I am *VERY* pleased with people's efforts to find their own replacements. You've all been doing fantastic jobs with regards to that and please keep it up. Ultimately we try to choose whatever ends up being less disruptive to our group, it's nothing personal. Cal

Fixed, added Brainah and Jaern to the list, sorry we missed that.

Hey guys, I've been wanting to respond to your concerns sooner, but so much as been happening lately I just haven't had the time till now: Finding Replacements: We know not everyone has the contacts necessary to find a suitable replacement for themselves. This policy is put into place only as a means to help the raid leaders make a smoother transition whenever someone is absent. Finding replacements is just as hard for us as it is for most, I think a helpful hand from other raid members would help tremendously. Teamspeak Vs. Raid Chat: Between timers, cooldowns, boss mechanics, whispers and Teamspeak it's often hard for some of us to respond and keep an eye on raid chat. I'm aware that this makes it somewhat unfair to the members who cannot communicate using Teamspeak or feel uncomfortable doing so. My suggestion is as follows: make your request or suggestion on chat, if you don't get a satisfactory response then by all means start sending whispers. Baracko, Kadiana, Kailand, Waldonnis or myself would be more than happy to assist you! Don't sit there and feel that you're being ignored, there's just so much going on sometimes that we have problems keeping up. MAKE YOURSELF HEARD, IF IT'S IMPORTANT FOR YOU THEN IT'S IMPORTANT FOR US! Tempest Keep Adds: - Awesome job guys, you're all doing very well on this. - We still need some work done on the Phoenix-Hawk Hatchling / Tempest Falconer groups. I fear that regardless of the strategy we use it will remain a chaotic fight (thank god there's only 2 groups). If you want to make suggestions please do so. A'lar Phase 1: - Easy-mode, good job everyone! A'lar Phase 2: - Progressing very well but a few things still need to be worked on: - Getting people OUT of the flame circles. - Getting people AWAY from meteors and adds. - Getting a better DPS/Tanking control on the adds. - Getting a taunt rotation on the A'lar tanks. - Making sure tanks taunt immediately after a meteor. Pre/Post-Raid Preparation: I have the impression that much of the difficulty we were having the other night was due to people not being prepared. The A'lar fight has several technical aspects to it. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO READ UP ON THE FIGHTS. I try to explain them as best I can before the encounter, but my 5min blurb on TS pales in comparison to the wealth of information that can be found on the web. Please check out: www.wowwiki.com www.bosskillers.com Making Suggestions: Whether it be a suggestion regarding progression, thrash pulls or a boss fight please be aware: - That you need to give us enough time to consider what you are saying to us. Don't make a comment 10 seconds before the pull, try to give us enough overhead time to think about what you are bringing to the table. - Before making a suggestion please be aware of all the facts. Many make suggestions are done without fully understanding the mechanics of a fight or why certain things are being done. - Finally, your suggestion, despite being good, may not be adopted. It's just the way it is, learning is an iterative process, if you change the process you inhibit the learning. So I hope this address most of the recent concerns people have been having. We might get a little "asshat"-ish once in a while, but we try to do it in the name of progression and to help our members reach their top efficiency, it's nothing personal and it's mean-hearted. Please don't feel that you can't come talk to us, I'm always willing to listen and I'm happy to do so! So let's kick some A'lar butt tonight! Cal

Zuworty is a mooncloth specialist, but if you're free to use his spellcloth or shadowcloth timers if you like.

Hey Kalea, I think he should be available. I'm just trying to get people into the habit of finding their own replacements (as opposed to relying on the raid leaders who already have plenty to do). If you see Uglutz around at some point make sure to ask him. Thanks, Cal

To Kalea and Zebgora (and anyone else thinking of missing a raid in the future), I really appreciate the heads up on letting me know you'll be missing, but if at all possible, I'd also like raiders to try and find their own replacements. Finding replacements is pretty hard to do, even with the connections I have and I don't feel like this is solely my responsibility. So please, if you have a minute in game, try asking around a bit, see if anyone could replace you and let me know! Thanks, Cal

Yup Zeb, I haven't forgotten about your absence and we have plenty of mages that able to replace you on Thursday. Have fun in ZG, Cal