Time flies when you are having fun and that is exactly what Flame Leviathan has provided us with. More than any other this fight has proved how an encounter can develop with increasing levels of difficulty until it is a superbly tuned fight, unforgiving of mistakes and unbelievable fun to participate in. The progression of the fight from the no tower zerg, which we have since perfected using 8 undergeared alts (yes on heroic), through to the two tower fight which while not zergable allows a few errors and is well within the reach of most guilds. With the addition of the third tower comes a choice about which of the two remaining ones to leave up (both affect the fight in a very different way). We chose to unleash Freya and her friendly plant things on our first 3 tower kill and leave Hodir and the ice beam for last. While we might (and often do) criticise Blizzard for bugs, lag, class imbalance etc it is also fair to say that in this encounter they have hit a winner. While we all chose classes for a reason on this fight it is irrelevant what class you play as almost any role can be fulfilled by almost any class. Like all true challenges it is dependant on all people fulfilling their role and while, after a few kills, we can recover from one mistake the first time this was not an option. Even if the loot was not worthwhile there would be an argument for doing it with 4 towers up every week, the same reason we play the game - for fun and for the challenge.

[Edit: Well between me writing this and posting it (comments regarding my slacking are not welcome), it seems this fight was the recipient of a huge nerf. Not only a health nerf which would have made the fight slightly more accessible but the total gimping of one of the beams rendering the fight at least 50% easier. Sadly this is the way of things - that encounters get nerfed a little as time goes on - however given the fight gets easier the more gear you get this is one I felt was not worthy of a nerf yet. It gets easier by itself as more people fill up on 226lvl items.]

Elsewhere Ulduar is developing nicely, the step up from gimp mode to challenging mode is extreme in some encounters, turning a simple mindless zerg into an encounter to test your dps, healing, tanking and awareness. Only Freya has degrees, the others are all or nothing. Some immediately grab you as encounters you can just about, almost, maybe do with a little tweaking. Some make you shake your head and wonder how you will cope with 3 adds when one makes the fight 100% harder already. Some simply make you laugh - as Mimiron turned the entire room into an impromptu bbq - steak a speciality (sadly only well-done). It is nice to see encounters were progress is steadily made, where you can see yourself working towards the end result even if the progress is slow - one day soon victory will be ours!

Hodir continues to provide a barometer for dps epeen stroking, however following a shortage of dps one night we allowed one of our resto shaman to dps alongside our regulars. Initially their joy at her low dps swelled their egos further however some of us knew the cause and shortly afterwards the smile was wiped from their faces.

Ten man Ulduar has provided us with some amusing fights, on some fights you cannot gain much insight into the encounters as Thorim and Hodir surrender their hard mode kills with barely a whimper, on others you can get a feel for the Heroic encounters - Freya with two happy tree friends, general tentacle with his saronite blob-thingy and Yogg Saron with only two guardians as the other two gaze down (probably drinking a cup of peppermint tea) and do, well, nothing. It’s nice to get a feeling for these encounters and the ten man just wets the appetite for the 25 mans as you are able to imagine the challenges massively increased in the heroic.

If Ulduar is an example of the raiding of the future then Blizzard’s domination of the market looks sure to continue, personally I think the loot on 25 man should be improved given the increased level of difficulty and perhaps some of the 10 man encounters made slightly trickier (certianly the ‘harder’ modes) - but it is hard to deny that Blizzard have improved massively on Nub-Naxx and produced encounters which make your heart race and leave you with a desire to beat after a night of wipes.

As a shameless plug, recruitment remains open in some classes as we seek to bolster a few areas. Never one for benching people we look for people who want to raid 4+ times a week, who are prepared to devote time and energy to raiding and own pets which are able to cope with being left unattended for 5 hours without needing feeding/walking/shearing/bathing/riding. We are particularly interested in a mage (feel free to contact Arile for an informal chat prior to applying), a resto druid (contact Squishable) and a holy priest (contact Jezara). There are also opportunities for a dps dk, a lock and possibly a rogue. Should you wish to discuss applying feel free to poke me during the evening (on Effis) - if I am healing a boss fight you’ll have to wait, on trash - well - that’s a different story.

I used to state that a good understanding of English is required to raid with us however the reasons for our occasional lack of communication seem to have little to do with English, or indeed any language.

We are pleased to note that guild spirit remains high and as we work towards our raid goals we get closer and closer as a group. There is however a line which should never be crossed - some people however barely slowed down as it approached……

We all know that love is sometimes found in guild but it is usual to at least pause long enough to take a breath before trying to attract different people.

And finally a word from our resident slacker

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