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More below the fold:
This week's Artcraft previews something that has apparently been a thing - the option of having customizable character accessories like quivers, librams, and ammo pouches be available as you level, as a drop from raid bosses, or possibly craftable.
The full article is here, and these probably won't drop till well after the expac, but it's another way to differentiate characters and possibly show secondary professions.
With that, let's go on to the raid reports. Here's the Team Z and Saturday Night Massacre report from Tvath, entitled "Put a Thok in It":
Team Z never claimed to be hardcore raiders. We're casual, we raid once a week, and while we have some great players we're not in it to be "l33t." That being said, success sure doesn't hurt. Sunday night we had one of those magic moments that comes along once in a while in raiding.
Thok, the big dinosaur, had been giving us trouble, but we'd been refining our strategy and learning from our mistakes as we went. One of the things we were trying to do is stretch out the main damage phases of the fight, where Thok is a little more under our control, and minimize the bits where he's walking up and down the room targeting random players and generally being a pain.
And on this one pull -- magic. That first phase lasted FOREVER. Then we made quick work of the in-between phase. Then the second damage phase lasted even longer! So long that we killed him without ever getting to the second or third jailers. Big thanks to subs Vanillapie, Maesterlock and Rockchalk.
We won't talk about the dozen or so times we wiped on Siegecrafter Blackfuse after that. Because for just those few minutes, we had magic.
A small but enthusiastic group set forth for Saturday Night Massacre, making quick work of Tempest Keep and going on to Black Temple. I love these Outland raids. OK, there's a certain thrill in fighting things that just fall over dead if you sneeze, but also I like catching up on bits of lore that I never experienced at level (I only started playing less than two years ago). I also picked up the Outland Raider title, which puts me up there with the best players of 2008. W00t!
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And here's the Team Kaels and Flexorama report from Ninotchka:
This has been a great week for both the Flexorama team and Team Kaels.
Flexorama convened on Tuesday evening, everyone buffed up with the new item upgrades. We absolutely wrecked Blackfuse and the Klaaxi – we even made it through pre-Garrosh trash with no issues. So, I had threatened everyone that, while I’m happy to bring along low-geared folks for Blackfuse and Klaaxi fights I was going to ask people to step aside for Garrosh if it looked like we might not have the firepower to kill him. Monomis convinced me to do one pull on the fight with everyone who signed up. And you know what? One shot!
Of course, we had some ringers in the group who knew the fight well in normal mode. But we had quite a few people who had never pulled it outside of LFR. I would like to apologize here for my incoherent sputtering when people weren’t grouped up to break the mind control – I remember thinking at the time that I was sounding (in my head) like those ragemonster raid leaders who fail to adequately explain something and then yell at people for failing to do what I want anyhow. But everyone listened and learned, and the mind controls were handled perfectly right up to the last one at 4%. We missed interrupt on Carune, then (I think) Tay, then I got MC’d and it looked like we were about to have one of those heartbreaking 1% wipes. Monomis told me to bubble and I was reaching for the button when all of a sudden, poof! He was defeated! Achievements! Cutscene! People bitching because their bonus roll netted nothing but gold!
Well, that’s not quite true. Two people got heirloom weapons (Voban and Buck). So flex night ended with congratulations all around and people happily putting together gems and enchants.
Team Kaels is very happy with our item upgrades, too. We tore through the first three heroic bosses on Tuesday night, repeating our Protectors kill like we had had them on farm for months. We got a few good pulls in on Sha of Pride, and everyone but the tanks got to experience pac-man and figure out how not to get flustered when you get teleported in. We tried several different spread-and-stack strategies and finished the night with a 43% wipe. So on Wednesday night, we wandered in and tried some different things. Chanta went shadow and Monomis went resto and Tay went fire [I actually stayed Arcane! - Tay from the forums] and I went back to the upgrade vendor and spent all my valor. We remembered to be close to the group when Banishment was about to hit, and the Reflections were placed so that the tanks could gather them nicely with able assist from misdirecting hunters. We had a 4% wipe with Chanta dead most of the fight and we knew this one was in the bag. Chanta switched back to disc, and boom! Dead Sha.
Iron Juggernaut is the next-hardest heroic boss we haven’t killed, and from my reading it appears to be the fight that makes healers cry. Some people even 4-heal this fight. Wish us luck.
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And yes, I forgot to refresh my Wreck List tab and missed Pamena's Team RubiPam report. Here it is now with my apologies:
Team RubiPam report:
Well, we had our whole regular team back Monday night, after a good farming run last Thursday, and we came very close, AGAIN - 2% wipe. I had already suggested that if we didn't get him that night, we take a week to farm and use the new patch upgrade opportunities to get our gear up before we try him again, so that's what we're doing.
But our big very sad news is that Rubidium is compelled by real life business to step down from raiding, except for occasional guest appearances. We are devastated to lose him, but he needs a break, and his real life (I know, what is THAT?!) is kicking his butt right now, so he has to cut back on his WOW time. We are hoping he'll be able to join us next Thursday for another, and I hope successful, assault on Garrosh and completion of this tier.
So we will be thinking about what the future holds for our group after Garrosh is dead - some people may want to take a break, others (myself included) will want to keep going, maybe with one night a week schedule, and try some heroic bosses. We will probably, therefore, be looking for new folks to step in - we'll keep everyone posted on where we are with that in the future. AFTER we get Garrosh done.
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And that's all I have this week.
For the Horde!