Tonight, April 2, 2013, the day after our fourth anniversary, after handily helping us down three bosses in Throne of Thunder on 25-Man mode, nine core raiders from "Gear Don't Fix Stupid" joined our guild.

We are thrilled to have Jinksy, Pein/Sparkix, Celticwoman, Toxic/Vall, Divinelightz, Keenya, Grinderz, Shrooms, and Theenigma join our ranks. Our potential to progress as a 25-man guild has never been better and we are very well situated to take advantage of the better loot 25-man raids offer.

Tonight's raid was quite remarkable given that (1) our teams have never raided together, (2) we one-shot both the first two bosses (the second of which had only been downed once before by either guild) and (3) we all progressed on the third boss, downing him for the first time. Watch Darkener's video and listen carefully to the dialog, it almost sounds like we have been raiding together for years.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suGDWgh2jtk&feature=share&list=UUlnH6K2PA83W7OtSgl_uytQ

Sha of Fear here we come! The full sized image can be found here, and a video of this encounter can be found here.

“Group 1”

Tanks – Ashamann, Fáyt
Healers – Darkener, Meld, Shopsticks
DPS – Babylonia, Detroitdemo, Møjojojo, Moonshýne, Tzpaladin

Other G1 Progression Raiders – Priestly the Paladin, Rynglok

TFC Alliance First! Full Clear of Mogo'shan Vaults!



Grats to Morph's Raid Group

Tanks:
Badmammajama
Thorlind

Heals:
Morphorous
Danirae
Shopsticks

DPS:
Windstrom
Zynaste
Sammyjr
Killinstreak
Ashamman

Until we reached the Heroic Warmaster Blackhorn encounter, I actually thought we were just going to slide through the entire raid in heroic mode. Until that point, we were putting about a night of wipes on each encounter before clearing it. We were within a few percent of downing Heroic Spine of Deathwing about 100 pulls into it, but didn’t actually down him until our 194th attempt. Ouch! This was definitely the most difficult encounter I’ve ever faced and I tip my virtual hat to all of you for sticking through it because every other Alliance raiding guild collapsed when facing the same challenge. People say the Heroic Madness encounter is much easier than Spine but I disagree. I felt like we were in such good shape by the time we got there that it just seemed easier and only took us a few raid nights to clear. Completing the Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider achievement at the same time made it worth all the trouble.

It was an honor and a pleasure to run with you guys and I have a lot of respect for everyone that was involved in progressing through the heroic encounters. I promise you we’d still be in there wiping if everyone didn’t pull their own weight, identify problems, and recommend solutions. This progression was a total group effort and a whole lot of fun.

“Group 1” The First Kill Group:

Tanks – Thorlind, Tzpaladin
Healers – Darkener, Perennial, Whackerzz
DPS – Ashamann, Carinne, Detroitdemo, Larry, Windstrom

Other G1 Progression Raiders – Ulik, Sinisterx

Yikes, was that really it!? Those encounters were tons of fun but I'm sure we're all hoping that heroic mode will prove to be more of a challenge. We cleared in the middle of our 5th raid night. We decided to reset the instance at 7/8 while our buddies, who thought they were hot on our tail, extended just to beat us. This made our Alliance first kill that much sweeter and I must say that I actually tasted heaven in my mouth when Deathwing dropped! Oddly enough, heaven really does taste just like chicken. Too bad, so sad. Love ya fellas!

Success in Dragon Soul is really dependent on teamwork, patience, and focus fire. I noticed right away how important it was that everyone was able to watch their debuff timers and enemy cast bars. Target and assist macros were an absolute must. When a single player in the raid couldn't monitor these special events, they would wipe the group. Good thing <FoO> don't stand in the fire!

Our team did amazing. Every single person in the raid contributed and kicked ass! A special thanks to Detroitchamp for progressing with the group until 7/8. I look forward to progressing through the heroic content and hope to post an image of a heroic kill soon!

A full sized version of the image above can be found here.

Team "Dog Eat Dog":

Tanks - Ashamann (OT), Ulik (MT)
Healers - Altheâ, Perennial, Whackerzz
DPS - Babylonia, Detroitdemo, Kittyhawk, Tearix, Zaegis
Emotional Support - Mr. Bill