Written by Sil
Wednesday, 27 June 2007

Umbrage raid tactics revealed

1) Always use protection (wipe protection that is). The person you select should be aware of their surroundings and move to a safe location in order to res the raid as quickly and efficently as possible. This saves the raid valuable time and gives more time for progress. For the sake of clarity it should be noted that you should never pick suicidal taurens who leap from bridges just as they get DI.

*Sadly a warlock saved him instead of leaving him to the fish.

2) Teamspirit is an essential component, respsect for the lives of your comrades. If you don’t care about each other you can never hope to succeed. In some cases it is a good idea to recruit a morale officer. Probably not this guy.

*We would like to think he is cheering for us but due to the fact the boss was on 97% it is unlikely.

3) Communication is key. A raid leader needs accurate and relevant information as soon as possible in order to make informed and intelligent decisions.

Following whispers I was able to make an informed and needed decision; open warlock recruitment.

4) Leading from the front. Officers should stand proudly at the head of the guild, facing the same dangers as their members

Of course there is something to be said for observing from a distance to fully appreciate a "test" pull.

Despite our obvious handicaps Umbrage has enjoyed the bountiful loot of SSC the last few weeks, indeed we have noticed that void crystals seem to be a generic and common drop from bosses.

After the mind numbing boredom of Morogrim SSC finally coughed up a highly enjoyable fight in Hydross. Unforgiving of individual errors and full of action, the fight often goes down to the last few seconds. After a night of learning him the giant elemental lay dead, and even after multiple kills the fight remains fun (plus you get to hear "but i didn’t have any dots ticking" way too often).

Leothras is another encounter high on the adrenaline and offers ample opportunity for one of our favourite pastimes, Battery baiting. The fight itself is a good one, reminiscent of Battleguard Sartura - one of AQ40’s better Bosses, and demands both movement skill and controlled dps (or 24 others in your guild who can so so while you lie there watching). After two 1% wipes we felt it was time to relieve him of his loot and add him to the list of vanquished bosses. This was followed by the pleasureable experience of not dusting the first kill loot, something of a rarity for us in SSC.

SSC has not been the only place to entertain Umbrage. The Eye had a visit last week and we would like to personally thank Blizzard for removing the attunement 2 days after we keyed the entire guild. A slightly unbalanced raid (read as one mage) made the first pull entertaining but the trash was swiftly learnt and we took a look at Void Reaver.

We would like to praise the encounter for its dynamic design, groundbreaking challenges and gameplay, but sadly will have to settle for saying it has nice loot.

The subtle charms of Lady V await!

Written by Sil
Wednesday, 06 June 2007

Two More Down

This week saw Umbrage drive forwards into Serpentshrine with renewed determination, taking down two bosses in a single week and the total to three.

The difference between these two fights could not be more different, Morogrim Tidewalker being about as exciting as watching paint dry and Fathom Lord Karathress who provided an exciting encounter full of variety.

Sadly during the course of the week it was discovered that you could simply pass by Morogrim without aggroing him, thus ruining our early evening entertainment of "make the hunter pull it and suicide while we all run past"

Fathom Lord Karathress was the first to fall, his minions surrendering their powers to strengthen their lord before he was battered to death well before his enrage timer.

*Note our shamans desperately trying to prove they are needed

Morogrim was a slightly more problematic, if only because after about 5 minutes it was quite clear that people would have to pull out their own fingernails to stay awake long enough to kill him. Returning the next day, full of caffeine and pre-warned about his astounding tactic of boring people to death Umbrage vanquished him and his little murloc friends in short order.

There is still time to join Umbrage in SSC, a tnkaing spot and a mage slot remain open (applications through the forums).

To activate your forum account PM me ingame or send an ingame mail/forum PM!