True to form Umbrage waited until the last hour of the raid week to vanquish this particularly ugly dragon. Felmyst has continued the high quality of SWP bosses – combining elements of the first two nicely. The enrage is not too bad, any guild with the dps to kill Brutallus has the dps to kill this (assuming your dps live!). The movement is important but fortunately without the randomness of Kale’s portals. Like so many fights before it, practice is the key and once it clicks – everything goes right (and of course being able to pinpoint the cause of any wipes…..)

Fortunately for Felmyst she was also blessed with seasonal boss abilities called ‘Sun’, ‘Girls’ and ‘Euro 2008’. These did their best to slow down progress, especially combined with the tricky raid setup. This enabled her to survive a few weeks longer but to the detriment of Hyjal which suffered the ignominy of being alt-bashed. However with our healer team in fine form and our dps ensuring they did not let the side down, the dragon’s cunning use of encapsulate and gas nova were to no avail and she dropped from the sky gifting the raid with pretty epics.

Our condolences go out to Trynn who far from enjoying the exceptional graphics of the Illidan shield is now cursed with the fugly crap she drops. Apparently the stats make up for it - but that is very much a secondary consideration. The Twins now lurk in our future although they seem well hidden behind a gauntlet of trash – which I am sure is less difficult when you don’t pull it while looting at the far end of the dead scar.

Elsewhere in Umbrage news recruitment remains open for a select few classes. The shadowpriest slot remains vacant (for some unknown reason), a slot beckons for a well geared rogue and joining our awesome tanking team remains an option. Well geared healer applicants will also be considered but unfortunately dps opportunities are very limited. After all who could turn down the opportunity to raid with these fine members of society??

Our drive for a second glaive for our little rogues continues as BT shifts from a joy to a trial. While some of the loot (read Council and Illidan) is still desirable the rest of the instance is pretty much a void-fest. The slight increase in money and badge drops helps to compensate for this but we look forward to the day we can simply skip the first 6! True to form we like to mock our members on our updates and this time we have two winners ……Mince and Darkmage!

Mince has the honour of holding our first glaive, a shining example of skill and dedication to the rest of the dps. Unfortunately his reputation was tarnished when a second rogue (played by a holy paladin due to normal player absence) button mashed his way above him using only 3 buttons for the fight. This clearly ends the debate of which is more skilful to play in a raid – melee dps or a healer. Illidan clearly found this a good reason to withhold the second glaive.

Elsewhere Flatmage – lord and commander of the “give me a group with a BM hunter, elemental shaman, boomkin and shadowpriest (and all possible innervates) and I will do 5000dps on Brutallus” group – was busy proving his skills on the alt Magtheridon run. After 3 years of raiding the concept of ‘dead = 0 dps’ is still in its infancy and despite 2 battle resses and being relieved of the burden of clicking was consigned to mid-table mediocrity. Magtheridon remember is easy to die on – there is the ceiling collapse at 30% which “one shots you” and most certainly cannot be iceblocked and erm, something else unavoidable!

Perhaps in future he will be a little less cavalier about essential buffs………

As summer arrives talk in the guild switches from cerebral topics such as the long term effect of global warming on the migratory patterns of swallows to well……. porn.

Some people however have taken it one step further and and have actually started skipping raids in order to further their careers in somewhat dubious fields.

Between SWP fights we also found time to take in an old favourite - one of the most flavoursome bosses. Sadly at level 70 he doesn’t present much of a challenge unless you choose unarmed as your method of killing him. Initial cries of cheating at the hunter pets subsided as it became apparent that it might take quite a long time without their help…..

The Twins beckon!