The power is undeniable.

We couldn't figure it out - we had been wiping, little things going wrong that turned into big things going wrong, people panicking, bad luck. All of it combining to thwart our attempts to defeat Illidan time and time again.

Then Fellina equipped... THE trinket.

He died that go, and it wasn't even close. I swear to God, this is a true "I win" trinket. When we go into Sunwell, we'll be through it in about 10 minutes, tops.

 

 

Congratulations to Fellina on Shroud of Absolution, Gradar on Lightbringer Chestpiece, Amnarak on Black Bow of the Betrayer, and Garainla on Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer.

I want to give a special congratulations to Shyeera and Nellenya, who took up one of the most difficult jobs in the game: tanking the Flames of Azzinoth. Having to deal with that amount of pressure and wiping the raid repeatedly as you learn how to handle it is not for the faint of heart, and I appreciate both of you sticking with it.

A while ago, I wrote that one of the goals that I had was to defeat Illidan before the Sunwell dropped in patch 2.4. We've accomplished that, but a lot closer to the release of patch 2.4 than we wanted. The last few weeks have basically been a whirlwind for us - after canceling our raids a few weeks ago, many of our membership were in California the week after, attending Greg's service. Killing Illidan was pretty much the last thing on anyone's mind.

But this game, no matter how silly and trite it can be, no matter how frustrating, can also be a place to laugh and relax; a place to get your mind off of things, no matter how painful they may be. For years, I've been telling anyone who would listen that it's not the gear, it's not the bosses, it's not the gameplay that keeps people logging onto to a game like this - it's the people you play with.

It's the Canadian who finally spoke on vent after we killed Kael.
It's the psuedo-Canadian who passes on everything so other people could have gear.
It's the mod author who designed the most-used threat mod in WoW and still pulls aggro off the MT.
It's the gnome with a twelve second cast time on ice block.
It's the quiet warlock who causes us to wipe multiple times when he's not there, because we're just so used to him doing what needed doing.
It's the kindest, gentlest person you can imagine, until she tells you to stop fucking sucking.
It's the man who would wander off the highest places you could find.
And it's those people who gathered in a circle one night to reminsce and honor that man.

I'm not going to make some silly comment because of this kill like "If Gregil were here, he'd be proud of us." First, it's a kill, it's an accomplishment, but it's a computer game boss dying. There are far better ways to honor his memory. But the real reason I wouldn't make that comment is that it's just not true. If Greg was here, he'd say something like "What took you dipshits so long?" If he was still awake in his chair. Which he likely wouldn't be.

Instead, what I take, and what I hope everybody takes from this kill isn't some sort of honor'ing of our friend, or even how leet we are(which is pretty damn leet). It's how so much of this raid has stayed the same over the years, the friendships that we've created during this time, how so many of us have moved from content tier to content tier together, always wiping and screwing up and rezzing and wiping and rezzing some more. It's how we've met new people and they've become our friends, becoming part of our joyous cycle of screwing up and wiping in new and horrible ways. God, do we get frustrated sometimes, but it always seems to turn out okay(even if it's Archimonde). Forgive me for getting sentimental, but we've created something special here, and it won't matter if we're the first to kill Kil'jaeden or the last. It's the people I play with that will keep me coming back. It's people like Gregil.

That's the best way I can think to honor him. Not by killing a boss, but by relating why this is so important to me. I hope it's important to you.

Congratulations, everybody. See you in Sunwell.

HWAH

Oh yeah, after a grueling four hour long battle with the Illidari Council(Marlon, Jackie, Jermaine and Tito), we got to meet Michael himself. He's much more of a whiny little emo kid in person.

Anyway, the Council sucked so much that we decided to take a killshot picture with Illidan, because he's actually important. FLYING V, ACTIVATE!

We finally got to devote some real solid time on them - we filled out some roster spots and got to spend some quality time in SSC and TK as a result, reacquainting ourselves with our old friends Vashj and Kael, but unfortunately at the expense of the new crew we've been hanging out with. We'll make it up to them, believe you me.

Congratulations to Cinara on Helm of the Illidari Shatterer, and to Adrine and Golijov on Slayer's Legguards!

Onwards towards beating the game! At least until 2.4 gets off PTR!

Warden's Reprise ended their 2007 raiding season yesterday night by giving Gurtogg one last go - some of you may remember how some unnamed Paladin suggested going after him before Teron and spending about a week wiping to him as result of having seven healers. Consequently, people were looking forward to this raid about as much as I look forward to the feats of strength during Festivus.

However, bringing in Lytania and revamping the healing strategy, as well as the power of a fully operational feral spec healing turned the tide, and we were rewarded mightily. A shot of us preparing for the feast below:

And the aftermath:

Congratulations to Garainla on the Wand of Prismatic Focus and to Cinara on the Unstoppable Aggressor's Ring.

With this kill, we're officially on hiatus until 2008. However, it may be helpful to take a look back and see what we've done in what surely is our most successful year of raiding so far.

On December 4th of last year, the GoG killed Noth the Plaguebringer. That was the last major 40 man boss we'd kill before the expansion hit, and the transition to 25 man raiding took a great deal of time, effort, and patience. Gruul fell on March 25th, but we'd have to wait a whole three months for Magtheridon to die, on June 17th. Back then, we were raiding one, maybe two nights a week, and often having to cancel raids because of a lack of interest. The fact that we had gotten Magtheridon down was almost shocking, for the amount of time we had spent on him, and the number of raids we'd been forced to end early or cancel.

Things started to pick up after this, and we began to transition to a raid group that raided more often, and were rewarded with greater success as a result. The GoG as a whole downed Doomwalker and Doom Lord Kazzak in July, and WR went on a tear, killing Void Reaver, Hydross and the Lurker Below. When we finally added a third day, major raid bosses began to drop. August saw the rest of SSC fall in a matter of two weeks, with Vashj only a week after Leotheras. Al'ar fell in September, and Solarian as well, though we spent a far greater time waiting for a patch to hit than we actually spent time in TK.

October saw one of our greatest successes, as we transitioned to a steady four-day raiding schedule and downed one of the most challenging fights in the game, Kael'thas Sunstrider. The amount of effort put into the Kael fight by everyone involved is really the best reflection of this raid group, as we spent a LOT less time on Kael than is customary for most raid groups. The amount of preparation by everyone involved, and the amount of focus displayed in defeating one of the hardest fights in the game was really a joy to watch and be part of.

With the hard part done, the easy bosses in T6 content rounded out the rest of October, as we went on a bit of a rampage. Kael died October 15th, Rage Winterchill the 16th, Naj'entus and Supremus on the 17th, Shade of Akama the following week. The aforementioned foray with Gurtogg only slightly dampened our spirits, as Teron began November. We then turned to Hijjel, having much more trouble with trash than most of the bosses - Anetheron, Kaz'rogal and Azgalor rounding out the month.

And finally, we have December - two weeks to get Archimonde, and a single day spent on Gurtogg, leaving us having cleared Mount Hyjal and only three bosses between us and Illidan Stormrage in Black Temple.

Of the kills, I think Archimonde and Kael'thas really stand out as being two people really rallied around - working through a continual stream of wipes to figure out where things were going wrong, keeping positive about it and moving from wiping seconds into a fight(in the case of Archimonde) or seconds into Phase 2(Kael) to finally downing them.

What's in store for 2008? Well, our goal when we established WR was to defeat every 25 man raid instance before the Wrath of the Lich King expansion comes out. A second goal that I personally have, and I know many others share, is to defeat Illidan before the Sunwell drops. We're well on our way to doing both, and this is a goal that's only in sight because of the amount of effort put in by the people involved. But even if we're unable to meet either or both of these goals, that shouldn't detract from the amazing successes Warden's Reprise has had in 2007.

It's a good time to be a member of the GoG. WR is doing very well in progression content, and Bane of the Betrayer is being revamped to provide a casual approach to 25-man raiding, and I'll be excited to see Bane's members posting killshots on this news page in 2008. But independent of our raid groups are our casual members, our PvP'ers and our RP'ers, members of Alligare, Northrend Commonwealth, Southsea Buccaneers and Unbroken, all of whom are making this game fun to play years after launch, who are making our server a more enjoyable place to play. It's a wonderful thing to have pride in something you're a part of, and I think every member of this alliance can say to anybody on this server that they're a member of the GoG and be proud of it.

I hope everybody has a safe and happy holiday season - may your Festivus pole be bright, and your tinsel never distracting. See you in 2008.

Remember that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Dr. Crusher gets trapped in a warp bubble and they have to get her out by summoning the Traveller and then him and Wesley had to turn all invisible and shit in order to save her?

THIS MADE MORE SENSE THAN THIS INSTANCE DOES.

HOWEVER.

We did finally find the first really challenging boss in the "BATTLE FOR MOUNT HYJAL THAT ACTUALLY ISN'T THE BATTLE IT'S JUST A TIME BUBBLE THAT'S NOT REALLY HAPPENING BUT WOO EPIX," and it just so happened to be the last boss! So much so that as the wipes piled up, some of our raiders began to take it hard. Some got angry:

Some went insane:

And some just went and hid:

Still, we found ourselves suffering wipe after wipe. Until we came upon a glorious discovery - the Tome of Dipshittery, whose power unleashed would prevent us from wiping constantly. Here is a page from this amazing book:

With the power of this holy artifact, not even Archimonde could defeat us! ....the 49th time we attempted him! WOO!

 

Congratulations to everyone on a very well-deserved kill - and to Cinara for Cataclysm's Edge, Bushidox for Scepter of Purification, Dimitra on Skyshatter Helmet and Fellina on Hood of Absolution!

 

Last night's raid was interesting, in that it possibly started out as one of the worst night's of raiding we've had in a while. Not only did we manage to wipe three times on Hyjal trash before ever seeing a boss, but we started late, made generally silly mistakes, and managed to spend over an hour killing things that didn't even have the decency to drop something useful.

This is what Cinara might call "farming Hyjal rep" instead of "wiping over and over."

Strangely enough, after "farming Hyjal rep" for what seemed like forever, we finally faced Kaz'rogal, and to our shock (and awe), we utterly decimated him. Revitalized for the coming trash, we plowed through it like we were on mission. At least until we hit the 14 caster wave. I mean, really. Fourteen?

After slightly tweaking our strategy, we found ourselves easily through even that wave, thanks in part to judicious use of a warrior sponge and overpowered horde racials, and minutes later, Azgalor was plowing through our base, killing our mans. We'd had a bit of trouble with Azgalor the two other times we'd faced him, but this time, we took to heart the wisdom of Vontre, who in a fit of clarity once said: "Sometimes, there is fire. You have to not be in the fire."

After we stopped trying to hump the fire, the fight was easy.

This kill was one of the most shocking and possibly second-most rewarding we've had (Kael still wins), because of how poorly the night began. The night very easily could have devolved into finger pointing and sniping, but instead, people worked through it, and a one-shot of our first T6 boss was the result. Awesome job.

Congratulations to Weazus on Bow-Stitched Leggings, to Drinks on Handguards of Absolution, and to Argat on Lightbringer Gloves.

What's next? NO TRASH. Oh, and this guy.

I'd also like to wish farewell to Chesible and Eluvial, who are quitting WoW to focus on other, slightly more real opportunities. They are two of the longest serving members of the GoG, in fact, I remember hitting 60 two years ago and finally getting to go on the UBRS raids which Eluvial was always going on. This was back before we thought Paladins could heal - in fact, I have screenshots of myself in the Big Bad Pauldrons from Zul'Farrak laying the smack down on the Beast. I'm glad that we got to see Archimonde in their last raid with us, since they've been such a large part of the GoG for such a long time.

Even if Chesible is ruining my epic shot of the coming battle with Archimonde by wearing a pumpkin hat.

Reason #1 Gradar says why damage meters are potentially harmful: Some people take them too seriously and attempt to do anything in their power to do the most damage on any given fight.

Enter the Weazus.

By the time his reign of terror had ended, Kaz'rogal and about 10 others lay dead at his feet. While we celebrated and rezzed our dead, we now live in fear of the day Weazus snaps again, and unleashes his shamanistic rage upon this unsuspecting world.

Until then, we're gonna keep taking treasure from dead bodies and taking pictures of us celebrating around the corpse!

Congratulations to Amnarak on Valestalker Girdle and Gradar on Hammer of Atonement!

Observe, the Flying V applied to other boss encounters. FEAR THE KNUCKLEPUCK.

 

 

A special thank you to Startouch, for providing with me with the info which put us over the hump(the wiping twice hump). And for threatening to kill my family if we didn't kill Anetheron. That's motivation, right there.

Congratulations to Weazus on Don Alejandro's Money Belt and to Drinks on Anetheron's Noose.

By the way, this is what happens when you're expecting Jaina to mass teleport you and then she disappears LIKE EVERY OTHER MAGE WHO HAS EVER SAID PORTAL INCOMING AND TELEPORTED INSTEAD.

 

 

Freaking mages. 

So, yeah. Sorry about that Gurtogg thing. It was just a little fling though, nothing too heavy or involved, right?

... yeah. Let it be known that trying Gurtogg with 7 healers leads to people at my doorstep with pitchforks. So, we decided to try something a bit easier. Even though Fellina almost spasm'ed at his voice acting, we managed to prevent the collective hurling that Fellina's schoolgirl-like excitement tends to cause, and worked on letting everyone practice their ghosts. Once that happened, it was all over but the shouting.

And though we're not supposed to share our UBAR SECRET TERON STRATEGY with the world at large, I just wanted to show off the easiest way to do boss encounters in TBC, for not everybody has the benefit of the greatest tactician of our age, Miniux.

Step 1) Form a flying V.

 

 

Step 2) Form the Flying V around Gorefiend.

 

 

Step 3) Epix!

Congratulations to Shyeera on Rifle of the Stoic Guardian and to the GREATEST PALADIN ON EARTH.... in the world on Girdle of Lordaeron's Fallen.

In a shocking turn of events, Warden's Reprise has opened recruitment for the first time in the history of the GoG, as we seek fresh meat to throw at Illidan's lackeys. If you are interested, please head to the forums and fill out an application.

We are currently looking for either a restoration druid or a holy paladin. If you are not one of these two classes, please do not fill out an application, though we thank you for the interest.

Defeating this boss is much like an overnight rendezvous with me - 3 minutes long, and people involved exclaiming "is that it? Really?" after it's done.

And I know you mean.... oh yeah... that's it. It's understandable. Because it was business time.

 

Congratulations to Kallindril on Wristbands of Divine Influence and Kaera on Kilt of Immortal Nature.

 

Actually, we just kind of made it bug out. Not on purpose(OH GOD DON'T BAN ME), but evidently it's too difficult to make a mob that flies in the air without making it freak out and freeze like a deer in headlights 10 feet off the ground.

I mean, the wings weren't even flapping. What was keeping them aloft? Strings? A jetpack? Some type of... emissions? Like from a butt?

Anyway, we have more pictures of us celebrating around corpses, because nobody respects life like the Alliance.

 

 

This is High Warlord Naj'entus. He enjoys long walks on the beach, impaling Kallindril, and getting stabbed in the face and looted for treasure. Congratulations to Weazus on Rising Tide and to Garainla on Slippers of the Seacaller.

 

 

This is Supremus. Was Supremus. We decided that though he seemed a friendly sort, the fact that he would randomly spawn volcanoes that would incinerate our raid membership was creating a strain on our relationship. So we exploded him and attempted to mine him for precious jewels. No jewels, but congrats to Edagh on Pauldrons of Abyssal Fury and to Myaa on Bands of the Coming Storm. 

Err... let's try that again.

...

ATTUNED TO BLACK TEMPLE!

...

Yeah, we killed Rage Winterchill. Much harder than Kael'thas, what with the seven phases of doom and all. Or was that the Seven Layer Burrito that Nellenya can't have because she lives thousands of miles away from civilization, where civilization is defined as having Taco Bell?

Anyway, here's the killshot.

Wait, that's not a killshot, that's some delicious* Taco Bell! Sorry about that, Nell.

Real killshot!

 
See that little black ball? Yeah, we turned him into that.

Congratulations to Pazzuzu on Chronicle of Dark Secrets, and to Chesible err I mean Amnarak on Bracers of the Pathfinder!

*delicious is, of course, relative

Easy fight, imo.

 

Considering the amount of time and effort put into this fight by everyone involved, I was *this* close to never calling people dipshits again.

But I can't deny my true nature.

That being said, an amazing job - 4 different strategy threads, hundreds of gold in repairs, consumables, and all for ONE goal - to get Kallindril to talk on vent. And when that floppy headed son of a bitch said his first "aboot," it was all made worth it.

Congratulations to Fellina on Gauntlets of the Sun-King, Shyeera on Royal Gauntlets of Silvermoon, Gradar on Lord Sanguinar's Claim, Dimitra on Cataclysm Chestguard, and Eluvial on Nordrassil Chestguard.

ONWARDS TO HIJJEL!

So, funny story. One day, I hear "Hey, Solarian is changing next patch, so you can't cheese the fight with 500+ AR sponges!" Happy to be relieved of the burden of collecting another useless set of resist gear, we decide to put the fight on hold until the patch comes.

This was roughly 15 years ago.

Finally, bored of farming content(as evidenced by the number of times we'd announce a pull only to have half the raid AFK reading FO), we decided to give Solarian a go, just as they announce the patch is coming next week.

Three pulls later, she's dead. Brute forced, the true GoG way. WHO NEEDS ARCANE RESIST?

 

 

Congratulations to Amnarak on Star-Strider Boots, and to Kallindril on the Ethereum Life-Staff.

Now, it's onto Kael'thas, which means that we will all soon learn to hate. If you talk to one of our raiders over the next couple of weeks and they attempt to stab you in response to "Hey, how are you doing?", this is the reason. If you talk to me... actually, just don't talk to me. I *will* hunt you down and kill everyone you've ever loved. OH GOD TRASHdvlxbkhcfl;d

Two things I learned from this fight.

First, if you say that phase 1 is the easiest and that the majority of this fight is learning how to handle phase 2, you'll immediately spend a night wiping to phase 1 and then easily get through phase 2.

Second, if you threaten to cut anyone who asks about fire resist for the fight, they'll still do it anyway BECAUSE IT IS FUNNY AND ORIGINAL.

Asses.

Either way, here's your killshot, even though my computer got all wonky and didn't take a picture during the colorful light show explosion.

 

 

Congratulations to Eluvial on the Phoenix Ring of Rebirth, and to Zenyara on his Pretty Pink Axe of Doom.

Also, I want to thank Gara for allowing me the pleasure of learning about life in the Navy.