It’s been a great few weeks of raiding. Numbers seem a little more stable (though we’re still looking to recruit a few people), we’ve been farming the instance well and swiftly and within a week or starting Lei-Shen lies dead at out feet. It took 2-3 full nights of progress, with us first mastering P1 transition, then P2 dps-requirement, then P2-transition (having tried various different options of which pillar to level up). Having given up on dealing with 3+ over-charges at once, we switched to static shock and with a bit of rejigging cooldowns, managed to hit P3 with enough people alive to snag a kill. All in all, after a little bit of a slow start to the tier we’ve really picked up in the last month and made some good steps forward.

Here’s to heroics…

It’s been a little while since my last post, but here’s an update of our Throne progress to date along with a collage of various screenshots from Tortos through Twin Consorts. With RL taking it’s toll and recruitment seemingly very hard at the moment it’s been a tough month or so raid-wise. We’ve succeeded in getting at least 2 raids out per week though, with most weeks managing the 3 which we aim for to ensure reasonable farm & progression time in such a big tier. Given our limited time we’ve made some great steps forward, from farming more smoothly, to knocking over lots of new bosses. Thanks to everyone for helping us through and really playing well when we do get to raid. This reset we killed two new bosses, same the reset before, and at least one new boss each reset before that for a few weeks. All in all we’re now firmly sitting in Lei-Shen’s antechamber and come Tuesday we’ll be looking to eye him up and take him down.

Well done everyone, keep up the good progression.

We’re also still recruiting, for almost all roles (dps, healers & tanks), with only a few no-go classes, so do take a look at our forums and apply. We’re always looking for skilled players to take up the call, add to the banter on mumble and help us expand the awesome little community we’ve got going here. Friends (RL or IG) & family socials also very welcome.

After a little bit of a slow start, mostly due to still being short a few dps (recruitment is open; also potentially for a 3rd tank who doesn’t mind dps’ing a bit too), we’ve now knocked over the first three bosses in Throne of Thunder and are well on the way to a fourth. Our two to three week mini-break between tiers seems to have worked wonders and people are general firing on all cylinders, online lots and raring to go, which is great. It’s awesome not only to raid with such good people, but to have friends online to quest, race through dailies, four dps heroics (because healers are for wimps) and occasionally pvp with too.

Having a guild where the people you play with are your friends as well as just the people you raid with is somewhat of a rarity in WoW, and something which is particularly great about DM. If that isn’t a good reason to join, I don’t know what is.

A little late in posting, but in our last raiding week before the xmas break we knocked over our final T14 normal mode boss, Sha of Fear. It took little more than a single night, with us killing him on our very first pull on the second night of progression. It’s left us in a really nice position going into the break, with heroic modes ready and waiting come the new year. I hope everyone has a fantastic break and watch this space for the heroics in 2013.

It’s been a fantastic last week for progression, with our first kill of Grand Empress on Tuesday to clear Heart of Fear, and then kills of Protectors of the Endless, Tsulong and Lei Shi on Wednesday & Thursday. We then spent half a raid on Thursday playing about with the Sha of Fear, and I’m hoping with a bit of fine tuning on platform & add dps we should have him down before too long. With the xmas break coming up it might not be until the new year, but we’re going to give it everything we’ve got and if we snag a kill in time for mince pies and mulled wine, all the better. Now, if I could just find my way back from Stonard, I have a mage Sha to kill…

A few more weeks progress and a few more bosses laid low. Blade Lord proved to be almost trivial in P1 only to be somewhat of a nuisance in P2. Garalon was somewhat trickier, primarily because of just how big he is and how spread out the raid could very quickly become. A bit of a tactics switch up and some good old fashioned rogue tanking and down he went. Wind Lord was another pretty tight dps check, especially when aoe-dps was king and we run a lot of less strong aoe classes at present. It took a few nights, but in the end he went down fairly smoothly. My favourite fight of the instance so far (and not just because tanks get to do silly damage). It was very reminiscent of Moroes, an early boss I really enjoyed back in TBC.

Progression is continuing on Amber Shaper, and with a bit of c0nstruct practice I’d expect him to hit the deck in the not too distant future. Well done everyone, keep up the good work!

Will of the Emperor proved to be somewhat of a pushover compared to Elegon and we rounded up the first 3 weeks of Mists raiding having nicely cleared Mogu’shan Vaults before the Heart of Fear release. Immediately on it’s opening we decided to “dip a toe” and see what it might have in store. The first boss, Zor’lok, is rather fun, though somewhat steep on burst healing requirements during his Force & Verve channels. After a couple of evenings practising disc dodging and managing a raid of 4 people with aoe fear being mind controlled and fearing us into rings and death in phase 2, we dropped him with about an hour to spare on the second evening. Many thanks to everyone for the huge effort that’s been put in so far this tier, and in particular to Kat who played all evening on a broken PC with 3 fps.

We had a quick poke at the next boss and hit phase 2 on the 3rd pull, so he’s definitely next on the hit list after we clear Mogu’shan again for gear.

Elegon was the first boss in the instance which really tested us, both with high dps & healing requirements along with not insignificant tank damage. We had two nights where we were in or around the burn phase a few times, but either needed to stack more damage buffs on the boss, or found the healing requirements too steep. However, with a bit of practise, refinement of strategy, and some strong performances all round, down he went on night one of the new reset. Very well done folks; just Will of the Emperor to lay low before Heart of Fear releases next week.

We’re well into our first full week of raiding now, and having got two bosses down on our single day within week one, we’re up to four kills now out of the six bosses available, with one more night to go before the reset. We’re still somewhat behind the gear curve in a few areas, but most people are now relatively up to speed, and good progress is being made. Last night we pushed over Gara’jal and having had issues running 3 healers he positively keeled over once we switched to 2. Spirit Kings proved not too tricky either, and after a nail biting post enrage wipe at 173k hps, we refined our dps strategy and killed them with 30 seconds to spare with a trickier order. All in all, some nice first raid week progress, and with any luck we’ll manage to drop Elegon and Will of the Emperor in the not too distant future and start tackling the heroic modes.

Definitely Maybe took her first tentative steps into Mogu’shan Vaults last night, after a hurried two weeks of levelling and gearing up. Still woefully under-geared things felt somewhat more challenging than normal modes historically have been, which was somewhat refreshing, though I doubt it will last long once we’re out of the blues & greens. Even so, with a good bit of dps push, some sterling healing and a little bit of frantic post enrage-kiting, we succeeded in downing Stone Guards and Feng the Accursed. Not too bad for night one. Gara’jal is next on the chopping block.