The Only Escape

The last raid week was tremendous for us, as it was very similar to every piece of the puzzle clicking into place. Three new bosses died. Three new bosses may not seem like allot – and there are allot of folks that love to debate 10 versus 25 difficulty but here is just one simple fact- in the same room, 10 characters will have more space to spread out. End of argument. Mechanics, etc aside, this is one fact that cannot be argued. Everything else is equal. For us, it was synergy. Things clicked, and bosses died. Bastion of Twilight was cleared for the first time.

This week, we’re right back up to Cho’gall. Everything is cleared but end bosses – and we’ll spend the rest of the raid nights working on progression kills after we kill Cho’gall early this evening (oh, and Conclave). Nefarian is the main focus. Stepping back into Bastion of Twilight, we were somewhat pushing to get through the bosses quickly but also to get a feel for these achievements. We’re not ones to waste time. We feel like we’ve wasted enough getting “gelled”. This specific achievement was extremely easy to accomplish, so if you haven’t tried it you should.

The method we used- mind you, we had Time Warden, Nether Scion, and Slate Dragon, was to release two drakes, bring them down equally, and then kill Halfus Wyrmbreaker. In hindsight, it may have been faster with the reduced health pool to go ahead and burn on drake, (still releasing two at the start), release the third, and bring these two drakes down equally for the increased damage buff. We did succeed with this strategy on the first pull, but the burn on Halfus was slower and the loss of that third buff from killing the 3^rd drake was noticeable. We did use three tanks, but that’s a normal strategy for us. We rotate between having six or seven healers- and with holding a drake up longer, we went ahead and kept 7 healers. It was successful.

We also got a look at how difficult the next couple of raid achievements may be for us. Next on the agenda- Heroic Halfus.

Everything Ends

It’s been awhile since I’ve written. I’ve watched guilds struggle. I’ve watched guilds come and go. I’ve seen a huge decline of 25 man guilds as they dropped into 10 man raid groups, or just 10 man raid guilds, never completely making the transition back. One thing holds true – No Quarter Given has – to itself. We are still a 25 man raid core. We still have our same principles that this guild was built upon. We still go through the same effort to keep things just as drama free and as transparent as possible, while maintaining calmness – not always an easy thing when someone is ranting to you about a pixel or fails to realize, you’re just as human too.

Cataclysm has brought so many changes to World of Warcraft and it’s no where near being close to the end of many ripples Azeroth will feel. I’ve met so many great people through this game. I’ve sealed off some friendships, but I’d also like to point out – those friendships are only sealed as long you let them be. I took this last week to remove those barriers. People leave guilds for a variety of reasons- and they give a variety of reasons. This last week, well, I’m losing yet another dear friend to the “real life” raid boss. It happens.

The irony is this is that I’ve seen it many times. I’m not mad about. I, of all people, do understand. This is game. It’s a game I’m often told I take a bit too seriously – and it’s a game that I put allot of myself into by way of this guild, its day to day organization, and its structure. I would never want anyone to stay in this guild that is not happy, but more so, if real life takes you away from us- and I mean us, this guild, this extended family, it is just the way the dice roll. We pride ourselves on being adults. We will hate to see you go, but it doesn’t mean we lose all contact. There is real id, we have our guild Facebook, and there’s email. The best compliment even on the way out is that, while we all realize the commitment cannot be made anymore or the dedication to raiding, you enjoyed your time here. The atmosphere you described is what every officer in this guild works very hard to try to maintain as behind the scenes as possible.

I can think of many people that have passed through our “doors” to other guilds, or even just to leave game. Quite a few I still indeed call friends. They are still on my Facebook pages. I still chat with them when time permits. Nothing is forever. Enjoy your friendships while you can, and enjoy raiding with your friends. You never know when the “real life” raid boss may come for you.