This past week we continued with 10 man raids, doing one night of Ulduar (clearing out FL 2 turrets, Razorscale, Decon, Kolo, Cat Lady, and Hodir), a night clearing VoA 10 man and Ony, and we also tried to do an Ony 25 man with some GCC folks, in which we made some valiant attempts to get Ony, but we could not get her down.

Upon discussion and review afterwards, we want to stress to folks how important it is that if you want to come on the raids for higher level content (Ulduar, ToC, Ony), you need to work towards getting your gear level up to the appropriate level for the content in question, and that you do some research into the fights.  This is not only for 25 man raids, but for 10 man raids too.  Folks, every day there is a daily heroic instance which gives out 2 Emblems of Triumph, and anywhere from 4-6 Emblems of Conquest.  Do these instances!  Get those emblems, and get your gear up!  And don’t wait for a guild group to run you through; these daily instances have folks begging in LFG / Trade every day for people to come.  Get out there and do these!  If you are currently rocking 10 / 25 man Naxx gear, get those Conquest emblems and get yourself some of the Ulduar equivalent gear.  And if you are wearing Ulduar gear, get those Triumph emblems and deck yourself out in some nice ToC equivalent gear.  Blizzard has set the emblem system up by including them in heroics for this very reason; so that you can get yourself some decent gear without having to rely on it strictly from raids.  You need to take advantage of this!  You will be pleasantly surprised how quickly you can get yourself some really nice gear if you take the opportunities that Blizzard has presented to you, and then you will see the fruits of your labor when you go into the raids and watch your amazing dps just blow things away.  Not taking advantage of this will just lead to continued frustration…

This week there are some individual organized raids being set up.  I will be back to posting alliance raids starting next week, so be looking for those to be posted on the website Event Manager soon.  We will be pushing to advance in Ulduar and 10 man ToC, but it will be predicated on how well the folks who sign up are prepared to be in the content scheduled for that night.  If folks have not done what is necessary to be ready for the content posted, we will either cancel the raid, or move to a lower level content area.  Our hope is to continue working through Ulduar and move into ToC, but we need folks to help us by being ready to be where we are going, and not relying on the group to ‘carry’ them through.  Additionally, on the weekend raids we will continue with posting them as 25 man raids, in the hope that we can get enough folks to sign up to do them.  Otherwise, we will pick the optimum group and do them as 10 man.

Peace,

Hawk

Our first Ony kill, from a couple of weeks back...

The Ulduar 10 man group continues to progress, slowly but surely....

Freya down.  Unfortunately someone spoke to her (trying to hit on her and get her 'number'...), so she fled to Yogg's room before we could get a decent screenshot.  We'll get a better one next time we kill her.

And our first foray into 10 man ToC...

Peace,

Hawk

So…. Blizzcon 2009 has come and gone.  It was a great time again this year for most of us, except for those folks who had to work the 12-16 hr. days making the show happen… (and we love you for doing it!).  All of the great things coming up, not only for the new expansion – Cataclysm- , but also for the next patch ( back to Ony!), indicate that we have some exciting times ahead of us!  It was great to meet up with folks at the ‘Con, and share the excitement, and be a part of the great community we have here in BSRM and RC.  If you go into the general forums you will find some pics that Alak took from Blizzcon; thanks Mitch for posting those!  It was a great weekend, and I want to throw out special thanks to Dan (Embera), Mitch (Alakthon), Dana (Cameo) for coming to the show and making it a blast, and also to Tracy (Druni) and Vicky (Kaippe) for driving all the way up to have dinner with us on Sat.  The show was great; the company was even greater.  It is all of you fantastic folks who make playing this game worthwhile, and all of us are grateful to count you as friends.

Finally, I want to give a big thanks to a special someone, but circumstances won’t allow me to mention her name specifically.  But I believe many of you know who I am talking about.  Her dedication, passion, and love for the game, and the community that she created 5 years ago when she started a little guild called Brave Sir Robins Men, makes me proud beyond words.  It has gone beyond just running the guild, and now encompasses her RL, and her part in making this past weekend the fantastic event that it was is immeasurable.  If there is an example of the kind of wonderful people that we have in this guild, she personifies it to the fullest.  Thank you for everything that you did to make Blizzcon 2009 a fantastic experience!

Peace,

Hawk