UK National Championship 2008

Less that a week left now until the nationals which are in Shieffield this year. And I think I have finally decided on the deck type I will run with. Having brought less cards of the last three sets than I did with the first three I have less options for suddenly changing my mind!

Any way what am I running? Well....

It will probably not be a Hunt for Illidan updated version of my hunter deck from the Realms and DMF Lyon. The reason being that while a good deck, it just dosn't have enough tech options.

It definatly will not be a mage control deck, I've played the water elemental control decks... boring! And completely not my style. Tho this is an archetype likely to crop up a lot in the event so my almost decided choice has a lot of answers to it.

It won't be bubble boy/girl as I really HATE paladin decks! well almost as much as I hate paladins in PvP - Damn bubble and heal to full with no way of stopping it at all!!! It would be less annoying if they where not in tin can suits. This is the UK, so there WILL be a large number of people running paladins... so teched against they are.

Well I've not yet mentioned what I'm going to run with and being honest I'm not going to! But I'll add a few more that will almost certainly appear.

Ssssssssssss, traitor druid rush, a fast deadly and damn right scary archtype. Damn not running mage so no spell stollen serpant form for me.

Its allegidly a problem in this country, but how much of this is due to Media hype is open to debate. A similar problem is in this game as there has been a large increase of kids with knives and daggers. Such as the persistant untargettable Ashtongue Blade, the destructive Retainer's Blade and even some funky throwing knifes. So expect dagger rogues as well!

To finish this post I have a fun way of making a good rare quest (yes I did just say Quest, Rare & Good in relation to one card!!!!) work even against solo decks!!!

The quest is Minions of the Shadow Council, the 2nd card is Metzen the Reindeer, and to finish off something to kill the pirates straight away! such as splash damage from a water elemental! Pull it off and even against solo decks you can pay 3 to draw 3 cards! If you had more than one copy of the quest out they are ALL now ready for pay 3 and draw 3!!!

Wisp

Interesting Reading

Ok, while at work on saturday, the only one I have to work each year, I came across an interesting series of articles on the BBC website. They are about numbers and statistics and how the media and marketing makes use of them in a way that shows what they want rather than anything like the truth!

And so we have 
Lesson 1 > Surverys
Lesson 2 > Counting
Lesson 3 > Percentages
Lesson 4 > Averages

Now why have I linked these? Easy they are about numbers and I like numbers!!!

Wisp

Back to the grind!

Well, I made a few of runs to Stath, after 5 Frayed Abomination Stitchings. Your guarenteed one a run from Ramstein the Gorger but have a chance of more from the abominations. Well 4 runs 
and only one per run.  And as is the law of sod, the 5th run resulted in 4 more!!!

Then as I had all the mats to make 24 libram handins (8 of each) it was time to go hand in! Well the run from the Dire Maul Library to Feathermoon Stronghold and back takes about 15 minutes, so the hand in took me 3 days! But in the end it was done and this happened

I am now Revered with Shen'dralar! All thats needed to add another exalted to my belt now is a few more libram hand in. To be precise if I do them in 3's this means its time to farm: -

14 x Libram of Rapidity
14 x Libram of Focus
14 x Libram of Protection
42 x Pristine Black Diamond (already have!)
112 x Large Brilliant Shard (erm have 16.....)
14 x Frayed Abomination Stitchings
28 x Blood of Heroes
28 x Skin of Shadow

Well I better get farming then! And when its time to hand in I think I'll recruit a 'lock, a mage plus one other so I can portal out to a post box and then get summoned back in!

Wisp

MMO's

Well, I got wisp the ranger into the mid 70's. Built a Tier one city and then had a heart attack on discovering the materials needed for Tier Two city buildings!

Started a demonologist got it into the level 30's and

Got bored! Yup I got bored with AoC. The first 20 levels are awsome, and its worth getting a character of each type upto level 20 just to see how the destiny story arcs interweave. After that is ok the first time round but once you hit the level 70s it sort of gets dull.

Now at this time I logged onto wow and did not much, got bored there as well!

So for the last month or two I have been playing silly little games I pick up from Big Fish Games which has helped pass the time. And now as off last wednesday I'm back to WoW and not bored anymore. Looks like I just needed a break!!!!

So AoC subscription has gone, and I'm back ontrack with my wow leveling projects! Maybe I'll also be motivated to post here more regulaly again as well!

Wisp

City Building

Well Wisp has now passed 40th level and can now learn her two professions. Well as I’ve been telling the guild since we booked our “Guild Village” spot in the Purple Lotus Swamp that one of them will be Architect. Having a profession beyond the mundane little things really appeals to me.

So what is needed to build a keep, the first building for the village? Well 20 Bricks which is 200 Sandstone, 15 Joists which is 150 Ash, 10 braces which is 100 Copper and 5 Plain Facades which is 50 Silver. Fine so far I have most of that myself already! Add in the fact that our guild village is in a private instance only shared with the guild who take the southern city spot, means that farming is easier as I find lots of 100% nodes.

Now materials covered what else is needed? A plan, which is drawn up from 2 parchment and 1 drawing  ink, sounds simple enough off to see the trader. Ink 25s… erm OUCH. Parchment 50s each… erm 2 by 4 to the face! So 1g25s is needed to build the keep, at level 41 I have 60s.

Building our village may take a while, but at least it’s a guild thing so I don’t have to farm all the mats and buy all the paper & ink by myself. Time now to keep levelling as I have a 3g horse to get and then a keep to build!

Wisp

Dark Moon Fair – Lyon

What an awesome weekend that was. My notes are complete rubbish and I should have written this up Monday so any mistakes are down to that! So time to run over the highlights!

My first time in a plane, I didn’t get a window seat on the way out (but did on the way back and the views are amazing). And take off! WOW! The plane taxied to the runway and I had a small smile, the engines kicked in the acceleration and my smile grew, when the plane left the ground that smile became a grin and with every jerk and jolt it just got bigger, it was all I could do to stop myself laughing out loud! All I can really say is “What a Rush”. I’d love to learn how to fly just so I can take off and land repeatedly.

Once in Lyon I met up with my team mate Jack (who was reporting for UDE rather than playing) and the three Middlesbrough players he had driven down with. We got some food and then went back to our rooms for some play testing.

Saturday and the Fair was HUGE, 209 competitors made it the biggest DMF to date in either Europe or Yankland. We met up with the four from Lincoln, making a group of 8 UK players, UDE report 10 but I’ve no idea who the other two where, ready to face the world!! or Europe as the case may be.

The first pairings came up and it was time to play. I was using my Chaigon deck from the UK realms but with a few more tweaks, the decklist and credits at the end.

Round one was Mage #1. The cards just flowed and he was squashed very flat very fast for a nice comfortable 2/0 win
[UK Players => Me 1-0, Andrew 1-0, Gary 1-0, John 1-0, Julian 1-0, Mark 0-1, Karl 0-1]

Round two was a ripped deck… damn. Game one though I rushed him to death and it was over by turn 5. In game two I sided in only 1 silent fang … why???? Must have been a moment of madness! But it was on the table in time to stop his first ripped and despite recurring deshura my allies squashed him a 2nd time. Another 2/0 win for me.
[UK Players => Me 2-0, John 2-0, Andrew 2-0, Julian 1-1, Gary 1-1, Karl 0-2, Mark 2-0]

Round three was against the world champion. Yup that’s what I said! Before the round Jack told me I was playing the world champion (made me worried) with a runetusk deck (made me more confident). So I sat down against a mage deck….. O well Jack must have been mistaken as to who I was paired against. I went on to beat mage deck #3. Turns our Jack had got some French players and their decks confused, it was the world champ I beat after all. That was good for my confidence!
[UK Players => Me 3-0, John 3-0, Andrew 2-1, Julian 2-1, Gary 1-2, Karl 1-2, Mark 1-2]

Round four was Mage #3. What is it with these little 25 life pipsqueaks?. But By this time I am buzzing and made the win needed to guarantee my cut to the top 64 and the draft.
[UK Players => Me 4-0, John 4-0, Julian 3-1, Mark 2-2,  Andrew 2-2, Karl 1-3, Gary 1-3]

Round five was a rogue deck, and my cards finally deserted me. In one game I had a had fall of jank, completed a one dreani’s and hit two jubilies but still had a hand of jank, at the end of my 3rd turn I’d discarded 4 cards. Well ended up losing 0/2. Was a shame but hey these things happen.
[UK Players => Me 4-1, John 4-1, Julian 3-2, Mark 3-2, Gary 3-2]

Ok the draft and I’m in pod 2, I’ll need 3 wins to guarantee top 8 and taking advice from jack on board I grab an infusion of fortitude from my first pick, as I let priest cards wheel it becomes obvious to me that I am the only one drafting priest. I pick up a second infusion and a couple of absorb magic’s. Later on I pick up an Eclipse after letting it wheel, which goes nicely with the instant 3 cost heal 8 (split as you like) card Salvation. I’ll admit I’m not the best drafter, I let two Ingrid Shadowstorms go past me and picked up an Atani of the Watch which being honest is pretty crap in draft as it doesn’t trade off in any way shape or form. So in the end I had a reasonable but could have been better traitor priest deck – list at the end.

Round six and lol victory in game two came from the use of Piana and Eclipse to slowly burn his hero and allies until I could drop the big guns. I won 2/0 comfortably keeping me on track.
[UK Players => Me 5-1, John 4-2, Andrew 4-2, Julian 3-3]

Round seven and letting the flip denial dude slide came back to haunt me, that combined with no early game cards beyond my healer and Antani showing up in either game meant I could not get an momentum going and in the end I lost 0/2. So my dreams of top 8 almost gone – might have a chance on tie breakers if I win my last match.
[UK Players => Me 5-2, Andrew 5-2, John 5-2, Julian 4-3]

Round eight went to time, I lost the first game, and got the second game with an eclipse and then healing his hero for 8 when he had 7 health left. The third game had been on 1 damage each for a while when time was then called. He had just done intensify rage on Jezbella of Karabor and used it to kill off Order Keeper Henley, and it was over to me at time. I promptly stole his ally with my flip traded off his only other remaining ally. His turn was some more aggression ready to hit me with. In his end phase I dropped prayer of healing on my acquisition to keep it alive and hit him with it. His turn and he couldn’t get the last 3 damage needed to beat me.

So my final score was 6/2. Turns out that the person with 7/0 folded against his 6/1 opponent so that they both got into the top 8. The result was 8 people on 7/1 so no top 8 for me.

[The final UK player standings where => Me 12th, Andrew 18th, John 22nd, Julian 52nd]

I am understandably really chuffed with 12th out of a field of 209! This netted me a £60 amazon voucher – will be a lot of books. And 12 boosters, 6 MotL & 6 SotB. Called a rocket on the first Servants pack and pulled on! (Would have done that on every pack, but getting it on the first looks impressive!!!) Just need to give it a few months before I sell it (I’ve used one already) and that’s the whole cost of the trip covered.

Overall it was an awesome event and I really enjoyed myself.

So I end up with my constructed and draft decks. The constructed deck is based on a deck by Mark Slack which he used in one of the USA realm championships, I was trying to build a 
myriam deck and jack pointed me to an article featuring his deck. I like playing hunter decks to I took it, tweaked it and ran with it!

Contructed Deck - Hero: Chaigon Steelsight
Main: 61 Cards

4x Xavar the Resourceful [1]
4x Zandar Shadesprocket [1]
4x Apprentice Merry [1]
4x Marksman Glous [2]
3x Vindicator Kaldel [2]
2x Chipper Ironbane [2]
4x Waldo the Decoy [3]
3x Jubilee Arcspark [3]
4x Myriam Starcaller [4]
3x Fury x 3 [5]

2x Bloody Weclome [2]
3x Feign Death [3]

2x Annihilator [2]
2x Glaive of the Pit [7]

4x Kilbler's Exotic Pets
4x Marks of Kil'jaeden
3x One Draenei's Junk...
2x Chasing A-Me 01
2x The Defias Brotherhood
2x Dr. Boom

Side: 10 Cards
1x Chipper Iron Bane [2]
1x Bloody Welcome [2]
2x Burn Away [3]
3x Thrill of the Hunt [4]
1x Annihilator [2]
2x Silent Fang [2]

Draft Deck - Hero: Remba Abbess of Ash
Main: 31

1x Touch of Darkness [1]
2x Infusion of Fortitude [1]
1x Prayer of Mending [1]
2x Absorb Magic [2]
1x Salvation [3]
1x Mental Anguish [3]
1x Eclipse [5]

1x Xavar the Resourceful [1]
1x Atani of the Watch [1]
1x Piana [1]
1x Hanaga Silvervein [2]
2x Durae Crystalshield [2]
1x Vindicator Agran [3]
1x Anchorite Alonora [4]
1x Magdeline Prideheart [5]
1x Breen Toestubber [5]
1x Orderkeeper Henley [5]
1x Narthadus [6]
1x Weeble [6]
1x Gabble [7]

1x Abyss Walker's Boots [2]

1x Gurok the Usurper
1x Information Gathering
1x Forces of Jaedenar
1x Natural Remedies
1x The Spirit Polluted
1x The Sigil of Krasus
1x Wanted Durn the Hungerer

Side: 9 (The other playable cards drafted)
1x Vindicator Belian [1]
1x Zaistor the Vigilant [1]
1x Aldana [2]
1x Orderkeeper Calister [4]
1x Rames the Purifier [4]
1x Fade [1]
2x Heartening Arrival [3]
1x Crystalfire Staff

Wisp

Flash of Insight

To day at work I had one of my flashes of insight!!! About 15 years ago Lenny Henry did a comedy called Chef. Now flying forward to recent years Gorden Ramsey swears a lot and shouts and every one in kitchens in a similar way.

THEREFORE – Gorden has OBVIOUSLY modelled himself on this show!

Like all my sudden understandings about the inner workings of life and the universe this one was completely unrelated to the current topic of conversation.

Wisp

My first Illidan Kill

Well, last night was our guilds 2nd Illidan kill and my first. So I have finally got my neck piece that teleports me to the gates of the black temple, conveniently close to the best place I’ve found for farming cobra scales….

Any way he dropped the main hand Warglaive of Azzinoth. Which went to the only rogue in the raid, had no fury warriors present either.

Ok now a quick question in Warcraft III what class was Illidan? Answer – Demon Hunter. Ok what classes can use the warglaives? Answer – Warriors & Rogues. Can you see the issue here? Illidan is a HUNTER but we can’t use his weapons….. stupid game :p

Wisp

The Death List

Before I get onto the main topic off this post, here is another screen shot of my AoC character highlighting something I noticed on the character selection screen while loading the game. Its only a small thing but these kind of touches can really make a game. This one is the fact that the neckpiece being worn is actually visible on the character.

The other reason is I can't get over how damn good the characters in this game can look!

Now onto the main topic of this post. I rolled on a PvP server and I am fully aware of what this means while playing and levelling. But there are still some things that piss me off.

1) getting ganked by someone twice your level - I was killed by a level 40 Assassin when I was level 20.
2) getting attacked while talking to quest npc's - you can't do anything to defend yourself and may not know its happening until your dead.
3) killing someone who is almost dead from fighting npc's - this one is less annoying tho, especially as I have been guilty of using it to kill someone a lot of levels higher than me.

But as I’m on a PvP server I know these things are going to happen all the time, although in the case of the first one I think its mainly sad losers trying to get over an inferiority complex. So its silly getting annoyed as it was my choice of server type. Instead I have my Death List! I'll happily make a note of these people from the combat log and screen shots and one day I'll hunt em down and have VENGENCE! REPEATEDLY! First on my list is.

He was ganking people in their low 20's around quest giving NPCs. After my death I used tracking to hunt him down in stealth, arriving in time to help 3 other irate people lay into him.

Wisp

New Trinket

Last night I got my first bit of Black Temple loot in over a month. From the Illidari council comes.

On our Illidan attempts during the rest of the evening I recon the proc is up at least 33% of time which is nice as it lifts my armour penetration to 586. Plus I saw it refresh itself before the duration was up, this is good because it shows the trinket doesn't have a hidden internal cooldown.
The major bonus from the trinket for me tho is the 20 hit rating, this allows me to swap my 3 orange HR gems (total +13 HR, +13 Agi) for yellow crit gems (+26CR). I will hit 33% crit unbuffed eventually (a random target pulled out of the air).

Talking about crit not sure what is a good amount the more the better I suppose. As I'm using a 3/2 Steady/Auto macro and Steady shot has a 1.5 second cast (without haste buffs) this means in theory every 4.5seconds I have fired 5 shots. So an average of one crit a "cycle" would be 20% i.e. one crit every 4.5seconds. Which is crap. So if I wanted twice as many crits it would be 40% and one ever 2.25seconds. Fractions are annoying so I think I'll like to round down to one crit every 2 seconds. A quick bit of maths…

There is a shot every 0.9 seconds so S = 0.9. And we will say that T is the time between critical hits. Finally we sill say the C is the % chance of a critical. Putting this together we get a nice little formula.

S/C = T (If we have a 20% crit chance this gives > 0.9/0.2 = T = 4.5)

Ok now we want to know the crit % needed for 1 every 2 seconds giving us.

S/T = C (0.9/2 = C = 0.45)

So from a quick bit of theory crafting based on an assumption that the 3/2 macro gives me 5 shots every 4.5 seconds I have aquired my target crit % (raid buffed) to get a crit every 2 seconds.

Wisp

A new incarnation of Wisp

On Friday, I went an brought a copy of Age of Conan because I was curious and a lot of friends from wow had been giving it a go. Including some who have quit playing. First thing to notice, my graphics card is just below the recomended level (I have a 512Mb GeForce 7800 Gsomething, and recomended is a 512Mb GeForce 7900 GTX) Then we move onto the 32Gb hard drive space... Yup I said 32Gb!!! As I only have two 80Gb hard drives in my PC, full of a lot of junk it was time to make a trip to Argos.

Eventually I arrived home with my new game and a 500Gb external hard drive. This game having cost me over £100 but I needed the storage anyway. 30 Mins to move all the junk from one partition and its overspill onto another into my new harddrive. A quick defrag of the now empty partition and its was installation time.

We will now take a quick break to read my book, go to buy food from the supermarket, prepare and eat dinner, do some more reading.

Over two hours later the game was installed and patched.

Well character creation is awsome! I could spend hours on this screen customizing how my character looks down to the smallest little detail! Basic mode lets you choose your chars size and height, select from a list of predefined body marking, facial features etc. Then you hit advanced! your can change anything from the angles or the eyes, shape of mouth, nose & chin. The shape and lengths of arms, legs, torso etc. After 5 mins of messing around with this I did realise that I have no sense of proportion and only if I wanted to make a bug eyed monster would I use this section! Back to basic for me. And so the new incarnation of Wisp is born! Small and slight, a mere wisp of a lass. (See I can even justify keeping a variation of my WoW chars name.)

The gameplay reminds me of a multiplayer morrowind, some one else mentioned Oblivion but I never got around to playing that due to WoW. I am seriously enjoying it at the moment, and the music, well, its impressive. Combat is resonably simple in concept but mastering it will of course take time. You have 3 basic attacks left, centre & right. Then you put combo moves onto your hotbar these involved using them and then one or more basic attacks in sequence. Add to this the fact you can get other combat bonuses by double tapping movement keys, and it becomes a really engaging system.

Will I keep playing? A good question, and I think it will depend on the end game. I have already almost decided that in the next wow expansion I will be doing the end game instances in the 10 man mode rather than 25. A more relaxed approach should give me the time to actually do other things!

Wisp

The Tiles of Existance

The tiles of Existance are a form of divination used in the world of my campaign. Unlike methods such as tarot cards or palm readings they can not be used to foresee the future of a single person. The tiles are instead used to get an understanding of the current state of things on a global scale, as well as the near future.

(The root of my ideas for this has come from the fantasy series, A Malazan Book of the Fallen, one of the best I have read for years. The link takes you too its wikipedia page.)
A "deck" of tiles contains a variable number of members, this is due to changes in the balances of power in setting. All the tiles are broken down into three categories, suites is the best way to describe them, these are "The People", "The Orders" & "The Influences".
The People. This group of tiles has never been known to change in size - none have ever left or joint the deck. The tiles are: - The Oracle, The Dark Seer, The Sorcerer, The Conjurer, The Mystic, The Artificer, The Mind Dancer, The Body Mage & The Invoker. One tile for each speciality plus invocation. When both tiles from a discipline are shown on the field of a reading it is said The True Seer, The Elementalist, The Blade Mage or The Soul Mage is in play.

The Orders. This group of tiles has had the greatest number of changes over time, when a new order is created or an old one destroyed their tile enters or leaves the deck. The current tiles are: - The White Sun, The Black Moon, The Purple Dream, The Orange Flame, The Blue Wave, The Golden Sword, The Crimson Soul & The Unaligned.

The Influences. The last category of tile, these represent both the major supernatural groups, as well as key features and symbols of the setting. The tiles in this group have been known to change but the last time was hundreds of years ago. The current tiles are: - The Elemental, The Spirits, The Angelic, The Demonic, The Mundane, The Dead, The Heart Stone, The Gift, The Portal & The Circle.

A reading of the tiles is made upon a field. Each tile is placed in a fixed order upon a named location in the filed. The diagram below shows this casting space.

So in order the these locations and there general meanings are:-

1. The Focus. The tile placed here is the focus of the entire reading and it has an influence on every other tile that comes into play.
2. The Ally. This tile supports the focus.
3. The Foe. This tile has the opposite function to the ally and is at odds with the focus.
4. The Lands. This location represents reality out side of The Risen Hold and is usually considered as a positive tile.
5. The Risen Hold. This tile in this location is considered to be in a position of power, risen above the rest. Like the Lands this is usually a positive tile, but when at odds with Lands both become negative.
6. The Wastes. This is a barren location and the tile placed here is viewed in a negative light.
7. The Shattered Hold. A tile here is in a position of weakness, its power base damaged or destroyed.
8. The Ascendant. The tile that is placed in Ascendancy is rising above the field, generaly a good place to be. At least for what the tile represents.
9. The Mirror. The last tile to be placed in a casting, this tile is the mirror through which all that has come before is seen. A good way of looking of it is imagining it as a kind of filter.

And so that is the Tiles of Existance. I will leave you as an example the casting my players saw at the start of the Concord (A meeting of the mages from the orders to discuss issues). This reading confirmed the suspisions of some of them and horrified others.

The focus is the heartstone and its ally is the gift. In opposition stands the mundane. There is a war between the magical and mundane world. Moving to the lands, occupied by the White Sun and in the risen hold the Black Moon. A representation of their current conflict for these two can never be reconciled. Next in the wastes are the Angelic and the shattered hold is of the Golden Sword. The guardians and their patrons cast down! Rising ascendent above this field is the Demonic. And so the last tile the mirror through which this field of conflict and war is seen is that of the Crimson Soul, returned to the deck at this inauspicious time.

With the mirror certain things come into light, the heartstone at the focus is that of the Crimson Soul as is the gift. This means the war between the magical and mundane world is that of the Crimson Soul and the mundane world. The conflict between the lands and risen hold is to the Crimson Souls benefit as two very powerful potential foes are occupied with each other. The ancient foe and opposite of the Crimson Soul is in the shattered hold with there allies in the wastes.

Finally the Demonic is rising in ascendance. This last line means a lot as the characters discover that not only was the original order destroyed for binding a powerful war demon its members had the blood of demons running through their veins. These are the ancesters of the characters and so they too have a demonic legacy.

Wisp

UK Realm Championships

On saturday in Brumland, was the first major UK competition of the year. In the Brittania hotel just around the corner from the station over 70 players arrived for the tournement plus more for the side events. The atmosphere was Awsome, if a bit too hot by early afternoon due to air conditioning being dead!

To start every one got an EA Wraith Scythe participation card as well as a top 8 qualifier T-shirt, back dated prize support, so I have three of em!

And sometime soon after 10 the first of 7 gruelling rounds began! And I was facing Nimadus the Implacable. (Paly deck nr 1). Game one, My inspiring allies helped to keep my hand full while the board built until I had two Myriams burning the tentacle faced bubble boys face. His turn he counted the damage I would do and cast lay on hands. Yippee two turns for me! that 20 damage guarenteed but I had a glaive of the pit in hand so it was my game anyway, top decked a Fury and killed with the kitty kat instead to keep my secret weapon, well, secret. Game two was similiar myriam's & kadel's burning him quickly.
1-0 (A good start)

Round two and .... Jack .... DAMN IT! sooo typical playing a team mate so early on. Well in playtesting his desecrator deck beat me about 70% of the time. And to add insult to injury I lost the die roll. Game one I got smashed on turn 5, twig to the face > rak > twig to the face > rak > twig to the face! So game two, he got rushed to death by turn 6. Fury + Fury, go kitty go! Game three - damn was close, dropped a fury he cycloned it. And finished me off. Would of got him next turn with my 2nd fury but he had a cyclone ready, and the next card on the deck was Fury nr 3! but thats the way things go!
1-1 (Drat)

I'll admit I can't actually remember which order the following three rounds happened ..... so this may be wrong!

Round 3 or 4 or 5, And an Aleyah Dawnborn match up. Game one was quick, I laid down the rush got as far as 2 Myriams on the board. Then came my clever move! My opponent han Solanian's Belongings available and a blessing of freedom in the graveyard. So I played Chipper from my hand, then tapped Myriam nr 1, he off course completed solanian's to recover and then play the blessing. So on the chain after it resolved I blew chipper to blow the blessing! With the two myriams and a glous that put him on 28. Not finding a way out of the last point we moved onto game 2. This was a game I felt really bad about winning, after muliganing my opponent had nothing. His only none resource play was to drop Tatulla. I responded with bloody welcome and kiblered a Fury. On his turn 5 he knew I had fatal damage available and conceeded.

Round 4 or 5 but deff not 3, and time to play my 2nd team mate of the day - Jay. Another Aleyah Dawnborn deck, and two very fast games, I'd rushed him too death twice in about 20 minutes. Looks like this deck I'm using loves to play bubble boy control!

Round 3 or 4 or 5, Can't even remember this one! but I won it!

Back to a proper time line!

Round 6 and Andy Morgan, this was a matchup I had been dreading, in playtesting I was very weak against ripped decks. The first game went on until about turn 12 before he finally finished me off. Was a bad muligan, and I think my starting hand while not good would have done me much better. Then onto game two and it was flawless, the cards came as they should and he was squashed flat fast. Final game, I was no longer too worried about Andy's deck, but despite a muligan my rush never materialised and he won.
4-2 (Sigh - Get the last and its down to tie-breakers).

The final round Lionar the Blood Cursed, This match was for 5-2 my best result ever in a competition this size. Game one was over fast my opponent was rushed efficently. Game 2 I lost, my muligan was into five cards costing 3+, a bloody welcome and a single quest. The final game came soooo close. His turn 7 down came deafening shout, my field all died. as my turn 8 started I drew a fury, to go with my burn away, not enough resources to use both and claim the game, so I did the only thing I could and killed the shout. His turn, 8 to the face from self readying ferocity guy - Ras'fari Bloodfrenzy - And a glaive of the pit dropping and smacking me. Put me on 2 health left due to the weapons minus five. He was tapped so fury came down for game.
5-2 (Now the wait begins)

I had gone into the 7th round in 11th place, and I had 30-40 mins of waiting time after my match before the final placings got announced. I knew I would just miss it and get 9th, and I was correct. Jack on the other hand made it through, he started round 7 in 10th.

My best performance EVER in a comp this size so I was happy, at the same time a bit gutted to hit 9th. From now on 9th place will always be the Bittersweat one for me! No Nintendo Wii, or Ipod touch for me, but I did get my playset of EA wraith scythes, another T-shirt - getting a serious collection and 24 boosters. Which can't have come from the same box because I got 4 epics and 3 more biscuit loot cards! Overall a brilliant day and roll on Darkmoon Fair: Lyon!

Wisp

The Druids Quest

Gather around children while I tell you a great tale of two young druids on a quest for their swift farm forms. Be warned that while this is a tale of adventure and daring, it is also quite scary in parts.

And so around 9pm our tale begins out side the entrance to Sethekk Halls, where the party, Playcat had gathered from among her friends was waiting.
First there was a Restoration Druid, experienced in the ways of healing, taking time out from her adventures in SSC, TK, MH and beyond.
Second there was an Elemental Shaman also equipped to Tier 4 and above. Third there was a Mage, maker of food, water & sheep and like the two before was geared to T4 and above.
Finally there was the two young druids, both spec’d feral, both with defence scores way beneath the cap, laughable amounts of armour and barely 10k health in dire bear form!! Can you guess who was tanking!

So as one (or five actually) they passed the translucent purple barrier with the sinister and incredibly portentous skull in the middle of it.

The first set of mobs two bird man thingy guards, immune to being turned into mutton. The heroic party buffed and rearing to go! Young Playcat enrages to generate some rage and just as she attacks…
“Wait a second, I’m moving next to the entrance just in case” says our resto druid.
… charging into one monster trying to aggro both as all hell breaks lose.
“Good start” says the ghost of the other young druid.

Rebuffed and ready the group try again, and soon fall into a brilliant rhythm, except the many times they died, of dual bear tanking. Many twisted bird men fell before the teeth and claws and magic of this group until the first boss was reached. The fight is brutal and bloody but despite the little pet elementals the terrible bird fiend summons the foul monster is soon roasting over a spit! Grilled Chicken anyone?

Before the party can continue they must slay two Raven Guard.
“Beware these hit hard”
Smack smash whollop, both young druid tanks die in seconds!
“Really?”
As the ghosts run back to that sinister pink skull floating across the entrance the group make plans on how to kill the raven guard, aware that beyond there a several more pairs lurking around.

And over the next hour or so with many breaks for alcohol and food! The party changes! Our Shaman leaves to make way for a hunter, our Mage swaps to his Warrior character, our new hunter swaps to his warrior to pick up the guard that always runs past and ganks our resto druid!

“Sometime soon, Wispcat is going to come to this place with a group all equipped in T5/6 level gear and KILL EVERYTHING HERE!” says young Playcat during one of the many corpse runs.

And at this point the best quote of the epic adventure was made by the other young druid.

“That’s the PVE equivalent of swapping to your Season Three geared character, after someone ganks you in the barrens”

And so the group that finally killed the pair of raven guard consisted of our two young druid heroes, our resto druid, the warrior of the hunter and a new Druid tank (this one with actual tanking stats and gear!!!).

The journey continues as more and more groups of bird men are slain until at the top of some stairs two more raven guard, guard a door. After another death the warrior swaps back to his hunter and Playcat makes way for Wispcat. The dps was sorely needed.

The two raven guard are peppered full of arrows and the group of intrepid heroes move onwards deeper & deeper into the Halls of Sethic. Soon after killing enough bird men to keep every KFC in the country stocked for a couple of years the summoning room of the evil Raven God was clear! And the very last group of birds between here and the big bad boss bird had also been slain. And so Wisp left to make way once again for Playcat
“Almost done, soon we can actually get some sleep”

It was time, four druids and a hunter stood ready to slay Anzu. I would tell you children that this was another heroic and brutal fight, full of close shaves, desperate potion drinking, feral’s shifting out of cat form to do emergency heals but I would be lying!

At their feet lay the corpse of the raven god! Our young druids could after one last fight go and learn the ways of flying bloody fast from an instant cast spell. The final boss bird was the only thing in their way! Ok only in their way if they went on and not back.

But these are great heroes and so going back was never an option!. Another massive fight occurred was as hard as Anzu was………
“Why do we always struggle on trash and easily kill bosses?” was asked by the tanky druid.
“The bosses are never the problem on heroic” replies wise young Playcat.

And so it came to pass, at around 1am, that Playcat had completed all the quests within Sethic on heroic difficulty, where as most people do them on normal, had gained the key to the shadow labs, and with the other young druid can now herb on the wing at high speed! The AH shall never again earn money from Wisp buying flasks!

That children is the end of the epic tale “The Druids Quest”. So what have you learnt from this tale?

“That characters raiding end game instances may be able to carve their way through heroic instances as if they where warm butter, but when playing alts they need to remember gear makes a huge difference!”

“That anyone who tries to do heroics which most of there gear being quest rewards from quests going up to level 70 is nuts, and for two of the party of five to be similarly equipped makes them ALL nuts!”

“That KFC is made out of dead bird men!”

Wisp

What Lurks Out There

Now its time to describe the main groups of entities out there in the world of my Crimson Soul Chronicle. These grouping a reasonably broad, but breakdowns within the group all share common traits, and needless to say there are things that cross and blur the lines between.
The first two are probably the hardest to comprehend, which is why they are first.

The Elemental
These entities are the very essence of a thing. If you take something and metaphysically boil it down you will be left with an elemental. For example take the flames on a camp fire and within is a Fire Elemental. Take a pebble on a beach and within is an Earth Elemental. This is on the simplest level, elementals get more complicated as the thing they are the essence off becomes more complicated. Magna from a volcano, boils down to an elemental of fire & earth. Elementals are primal forces and largely without intelligence, but there are always exceptions. Living things like plants & animals do not boil down to an elemental, but the parts that make up their physical forms do. A fact that can be used to devastating effect by those with the knowledge.

The Spirits
The spirits are the metaphysical reflection of a thing, cast upon the world. A fire spirit may appear similar to a fire elemental but are very different creatures. Like elementals most spirits are mindless or without intelligence, this though is dependant on what has cast the reflection and how people view that same thing. For example a tree spirit is cast by a tree and its concerns are off a tree. But if intelligent creature view that tree as evil and malignant, the spirit comes to be evil and malignant. This is because the tree has been metaphysically altered.

The Angelic
Angels, Messengers of God(s), Mortals who ascended to sainthood. These beings are divine in nature, the move silently and almost invisibly among mankind seeking to guide and enlighten us. Those who can see them are considered blessed and the gift they give to those who work with or for them is the inspiration of a concept or idea within that mortal. Beware though for the Angelic are not a united group and what some believe is correct will truly terrify you.

The Demonic
Demons, Fallen Angels, Mortals damned to the hells. These beings are dark creatures. They feed upon the mundane world, small demonic imps feed on the flesh of animals while greater demons may feed on emotions such as hate or regret or lust. Others may feed off concepts such as murder or war. The demonic make pacts with mortals and in exchange for their “gifts” the beneficiary is required to perpetuate the ideas that feed the demon.

The Dead
The dead who will not or can not move on. All members of this group once lived as mortals do, they where born, they grew, they died. This group breaks down into two major subdivisions – Insubstantial and Physical dead. The first group are your ghost and poltergeist type beings. An argument rages between scholars as to whether these entities are actual dead people whose souls have not moved on or the spirits of dead people. Yup there is a difference, have a look at The Spirits above. The physical dead on the other hand are walking corpses from mindless rotting zombies to highly intelligent vampires.

There remains but one major group left within this world, and that is the Mundane, the mortal, us!

Wisp

Druid Hits 70

At 4 minutes to midnight I finally got my 2nd character to level 70!

All thats left for tomorrow after work is a massive 185 consortium rep for honoured, so I can get a better shot at gems that being only friendly. A collection I have to do tomorrow as its the last day this month, miss it and I lose em. Then the harder task of getting nearly 5000 lower city rep, clear the group quests and an instance or two will hopefully be enough. Once thats done its bye bye 5000g and hello quest chain for my epic farm form.

Wisp

Exalted Nr 32 - And the Moon!

Last night I got my 32nd faction upto exalted while in Black Temple. The means that I have every TBC faction that requires a raid group complete. This makes me very happy as any other gaps I can fill in myself even if its after WotLK has come out!

And I got to see the moon in shadow moon valley from the domain of Illidan as well. You have to agree is looks damn good!

Wisp

The Orders

Ok, so the setting of my current campaign has several orders of mages living within it. While some things are fundamentally the same across them all, others are radically different.

The current orders are: -

• The White Sun,
  
• The Black Moon,
  
• The Orange Flame,
  
• The Blue Wave,
  
• The Golden Sword,
  
• The Purple Dream
  

You will notice a lack of The Crimson Soul, this is because the rest of the magical world doesn’t know they are back yet! Well lets now have a quick run down of the character of each of these orders.

The White Sun.
This is the order with the most members, its also one of the most powerful. The White Sun are the self appointed police of the magical world. They believe, fanatically, that they have the right to punish those breaking the laws. Laws which they themselves impose. The order of the White Sun was responsible for the destruction of the Crimson Soul in 1782.

The Black Moon.
This order is small in size, but the members are some of the most powerful mages in existence making its power on a par with the White Sun. The order itself is matriarchal in structure as well as being two tiered in ranking – those born within the order above those who have joined from outside. Fortunately for many the Black Moon doesn’t really give a damn about any one else and keep themselves to themselves.

The Golden Sword.
Crusaders is a good way to describe this group. They hold themselves to a higher purpose and laws than those of the mundane world. Many members of this group have made agreements with the Angelic and its even rumoured that divine blood run in their veins.

The Orange Flame.
Almost all members of the orange flame have skills in the Elementalist discipline which is appropriate as there main dealings are with Elementals. Members of the Orange Flame bind elementals of fire & earth to their service as well as make bargains with the greater elemental beings of fire.

The Blue Wave.
This order is the counter and balance to the Orange Flame. Again most members will have some skill as Elementalists, but its is water & air that is bound to their service. The bargains and pacts of the Blue Wave are with the powerful entities of water.

The Purple Dream
The strangest order of them all. The members of the purple dream have abilities beyond all others when it comes to the human racial sub consciousness. They can call into reality things from man’s greatest fears and desires. The rumours go that the more powerful members of this order can even travel into the group mind of non human creatures both mundane and supernatural.

So that is an overview of the magical orders in my game. In my next post on the chronicle I will go over the main supernatural entities that exist within the setting.

Wisp

Magic of the Orders

This is my first post on the system & setting i'm using in my Chronicles of the Crimson Soul campaign.

Magic.
In this setting there are two primary forms of magic, The Disciplines & Invocation. The first is only accessable to those with true magical power, while the later can be used to some extent by anyone. These abilities control what someone can do.
There are two other stats that are important for the use of magic, Magical Strength being the first. The form and source of this power can be manyfold but for the characters and all other members of the Crimson Soul this stat is called Inheritance. It is combined with a discipline or invocation to form the dice pool. When the effect of a discipline is maintained the effective Magical Strength drops by one.
The last magical stat important for the system is Magical Power. When an ability is used points are spent from this pool. For disciplines they are regained every 5 rounds at a rate equal to your Magical Strength. For invocations the points are locked up until its duration expires.

Ok now that the base is explained we will move onto the actual disciplines themselfs. There are 4 disciplines of magic each of which is broken down into two specialities. Its the specialities that a character has dots in.

True Seer

• Oracle - Abilities to see distant places, the past and possible future.
• Dark Seer - Abilities to see the hiden world, things and creatures hidden from mundane sight.
  

Elementalist

• Sorcerer - Can maninpulate elemental forces in coincidental ways, such as making a computer short circuit or a flame just across a gap.
• Conjurer - Can directly create elemental forces from nothing, flinging fireballs and making walls of stone.
  

Blade Mage

• Mystic - Just think of kung fu films and the almost impossible things the characters can do, run upwalls, move incredibly fast, kick someone standing on the other side of a room.
• Artificer - Can make weapons & martial equipement out of nothing. Imbuing them with power.
  

Soul Mage

• Body Mage - The power to alter your own and other peoples bodies, from harder skin to extra limbs to mind influencing pheremones.
• Mind Dancer - Reading of minds, entering peoples dreams and leaving lasting changes on their psyche.

There is one other thing about the disciplines that is very important to know! They leave marks on those who know them. Every character has mystical tattoos on them. A character has three colours, the first represents the disciplines and the other two each represent a specialism in each discipline. So a character with only one specialism in a discipline has a two colour tattoo, with both its three colours. Each discipline marks a certain part of the body and when powers are used at high levels or for extended periods they glow and become noticable even under clothing.

• True Seer - Marks around and between the eyes.
• Elementalist - Marks around the upper arms and legs.
• Blade Mage - Marks on the hands and wrists.
• Soul Mage - Marks across the chest and back.
  

Next the power of Invocations. These come in two types, those that have to be learned and those that can be performed from guideance such a book. To make use of the learned types you must have an invocation skill of at least its level. For the others no invocation skill is needed but to have it would help with reliability.

An invocation takes a number of hours equal to its level to perform and if a duration is not stated lasts for 24 hours. To perform an invocation successfully a number of points of Magical Power must be spent equal to its level. These are then locked up until the ritual ends. I did say that non-magically gifted people can perform rituals, but they are without Magical Power. For them the answer is sacrifice, a route also available to those with power if they should so choose. For an idea of the value of a sacrifice heres a quick chart.

1. Sacrificing a small mammal such as a rat or chicken. Losing a finger or toe. Giving up something of great value to you - like permantly breaking all contact with a loved one.
2. Sacrificing a larger mammal such as a cat or dog. Lossing a hand or eye.
3. Sacrificing a human. Lossing an arm or leg. Giving up every think you have and own.
4. Sacrificing your own life.
5. .....
   

As you can see the more powerful the invocation the more is needed and the cost increase is not linear! There is a way around the great cost though and thats to cast the invocation as a group. Each mumber making there own contribution to the total power of the invocation.

And that is the overview of the magic of my campaign. In the next article I shall go into an overview of the organisations of the world.

Wisp

Reorganising Tags

I fell like adjusting the tags attached to my posts. Basically I've added an "Online Games" tag to all posts about World of Warcraft and Blogshares. It'll also be added to any future game I may talk about.
And for the all the posts currently tagged as "Roleplay" there will also be an extra tag based on the campaign or system I'm mumbling on about.

Wisp

So Whats Been Happening? Part 4

Roleplay

Because of the number of TCG events i've been to on sundays and the unavailability of the rest on other sundays I have not done much of my sunday games this year.

But I have been running a game when I go to see friends outside the hell hole that is Milton Keynes. For mechanics i'm using White Wolfs old world of darkness system, but the game setting is, like a lot of my games these days, my own. The game is called "Chronicles of the Crimson Soul."

In this game the character possess magical abilities in one or more of four disciplines. The use of this power is very free form with the characters skills applying a limit on the effect. They had been taught by a now dead relative and warned to "Beware the Orders".
The game had started with them receiving a mysterious letter telling them the time had come to reform the order of their ancesters destroyed hundreds of years ago. So the characters come together and then set out to find the three parts of the shattered Heart Stone and by reforming it recreate the order of the Crimson Soul.
Now the characters are hunting down the other magically empowered decendants of the old order. I think i'll post most about the setting and system in future posts.

Wisp

So Whats Been Happening? Part 3

Online Games

On blog shares I’ve sort of only stating paying attention to it again in the last couple of weeks, so not a huge amount to say. I am still working on getting ideas in every industry and every artefact.
Did find one industry I’d brought 1000 or so ideas in relatively cheaply that was now worth orders of magnitude more! So sold all but one and jumped from B$25 Billion to B$225 billion cash in hand! Dumped 75 of that into my investment in the Blogshares Bears Corp leaving me with 150 Billion there and the same as free capitol. Another nice thing to come back to is the rise in value of some ideas has made me a trillionaire.

At the start of the year I spent some time messing around on a game called Duels, there is a link in the side bar. It’s an amusing time killer but has too much luck involved to keep me interested for long periods of time. Basically you fight other players and bots. Use special moves and different equipment. But it’s a case of set your character up and let it go. As I said it kills time every now and then.

The other game I’ve have been playing, a very recent discovery is PoxNora. Its interesting, basically a “Collectable Turn Base Strategy Game”. You buy “Packs” of runes and then use your collection to assemble a 20 rune “Deck” which is used to play the game. A nice touch is that the Champion runes (the characters as opposed to Spell, Equipment & Relic runes) gain experience during each battle that can be used to upgrade them. There is a sample set for each of the 8 faction you can use to play and I think I’ll use them till I have learnt how to play and stand a chance of winning this game or get bored! Before I sink any real money into packs.

Wisp

So Whats Been Happening? Part 2

WoW TCG

Servents of the Betrayer, set #5, is now out with some interesting cards! Survival hunter can finally move properly into the solo field! Like I orginally tried a year ago when through the dark portal came out. I've so far only really tried out one new deck idea, and have more in my head I need to start working out. The deck i've been using is a Horde Traitor Druid build.

"Traitor Druid?" I imagine hearing you ask! whats that?

Well Traitor heros are new to this set, in most regards they are just like normal heros who took a different path.

"Different Path?" you might say if you actually existed!

Yup, different path, take as an example Morn Walks-the-Path. He is an upstanding cow hunter in the rabble... erm I mean Horde and the traitor horde hunter is Morn Salts-the-Land. Notice the similarity? well this may help as well

 

Basically they are the same "Cow" but having taken different paths in life. This concept is the same for all the traitor heros. And whats nice is the flips, in most cases the traitor flip is a twisted varient on the "loyal" flip. The benefit for being a traitor hero? You get access to some SICK traitor only abilities and allies. The cost is the loss of any talent ability cards.

"I understand now, thank you O great one" you would say I'm sure!

Anyway my first SotB deck is: -

Desecrator Stormclaw

Abilities [30]
4x Form of the Serpent
4x The Natural Order
4x Cyclone
4x Tainted Earth
4x War Stomp
4x Moonfire
3x Tranquility
3x Chew Toy

Allies [8]
3x Magister Ashi
3x Pathaleon the Calculator
2x Warlord Kalithresh

Equipments [8]
4x Wastewalker Helm
4x Wastewalker Leggings

Quests [14]
4x Deep Sea Salvage
4x Information Gathering
3x Manaforge B'naar
3x Dr. Boom!

Things of interest in this deck:

• The Wastewalker lock down. Basically when the helm is out any ally that is exhausted that my hero deals damage to gets destroyed. The leggins deal 1 damage to any opposing ally or hero that becomes exhausted. One both are out my opponent can no longer attack, protect or use tap abilities on there allies without them immediatly getting destroyed.
  

• Tainted Earth. Want to use your quests? well its going to cost you health! sure you want to complete it?
  

• Form of the Serpent. This card gives my druid an attack form that grows in size, with the option of resetting its counter to do damage to an pposing ally. which also works with Wastewalker helm of course.
  

• Mana Forge Ba'nar & Warstomp. Both are for use with the wastewalker lockdown to force opposing allies to become exhausted and therefore destroyed.
  

And in the side deck! Illusionary Rods. The cheap counter to discard decks! ubre tech!

Wisp

So Whats Been Happening? Part 1

World of Warcraft

I will start with my main hobby. Prometheous officially stopped raiding soon after my last post in January and I was left with no idea what I was going to do. After a couple of weeks I had more or less decided to play much more casually and level my alts while waiting to see what Wrath of the Lich Kings brings. Some friends have now stopped playing, one just totally disappered :(, another made a server transfer to try a fresh start and has since moved all her alts over as well.

One friend got me into DICE, he’s yet another one who has since quit his subscription, who where just about to start on MH & BT raiding. (I had to suffer a few weeks of SSC & TK raids but I survived!) So in the last three months I've seen every boss in MH & BT fall except for Illidan, and as this is the first week we shall make serious tries on him I sure he will also drop soon.

In other news there has been a major content patch (2.4) with a new quest area, new faction, loads of new daily quests, a new five man instance and a new 25 man raid. I'm exalted with the new faction, Shattered Sun Offensive, and along with Scale of the Sands (mount hyjal) I am upto 31 exalteds, with the 32nd coming after the next BT raid. I like the new 5 man, its quick and entertaining. While learning it I'd suggest 2 or 3 Crowd Controllers, especially on heroic. This is less important with better gear and I've done a heroic with me being the only CC'er - that was amusing!

The new daily quests generate a lot of netherweave. The best way of disposing of this stuff is to turn it into netherweave bracers and disenchant them. From a sample of about 100 bracers I was looking at an average increase in value of 150% from the value of the cloth on the AH.
Well.... that used to be the best way, several of the new daily quests give a shattered sun supplies as a reward, inside every one is a green item. Imagine a large chunk of the alliance population getting 4-5 green items of junk every day... with me so far? What do you do with this junk? answer you get it de'd and sell the enchanting mats on the AH. Result? the value of Arcane Dust (the most common result of this process) has collapsed. So now the best way to dispose of my mountain of cloth is to turn it all into heavy bandages and vender them, 3g a stack of cloth.

Enough of that for now. My druid is now level 68 and the proud owner of "Farm Form". Which is as awsome for herbalism and mining as I expected it to be! Just two more levels and 3000 gold away from doing the quest chain to get "Epic Farm Form". At which point I can stop spending a fortune on the AH for Wisp's raiding supplies! Once the druid is done attention turns to the mage, currently 56. Once its upto 70, I'll not only be able to get all my herb requirements farmed myself, I'll be able to produce all my potion/flask needs myself.

And Finally, one of my alts has its own guild "Wisp Inc". We a not recruiting and have a guild tabbard and a four slot guild vault.

Wisp

3 Months to Long!

Its been over three months since I have typed nonsence for my imaginary readership to read!
Well tomorrow that changes. And I start to post again. I sort of feel like my life is on hold atm, think its been that way for years so time to start moving once again!

Back Tomorrow!

Wisp

Raid Instance Attunements

Ok, I am of the opinion that attunements for instances are a good idea, especially from a story point of view and to show character progression. I like the key approach used in a lot of 5 man instances where only one member of the party needs it to open the door to let the rest in. Eg Scholomance, Dire Maul North, The Arcatraz, Shadow Labs etc. As far as I'm concerned there is not a 5 or 10 man instance in this game to date with an attunement requirement I don't approve of.

But this article is about raid instances and going back all the way to Molten Core here is approximatly what is needed to get into them (errors are due to faulty memory).

• Molten Core (MC) - A 5 man instance.
• Onyxia's Lair (Ony) - A long quest chain with solo, 5 man and 10 man content (the 10 man being UBRS).
• Black Wing Lair (BWL) - A 10 man instance (UBRS again).
• Zul'Gurub (ZG) - None.
• Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (AQ20) - None (unless you include the server wide war effort and quest line starting in BWL that was needed to open the gate for the server).
• Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (AQ40) - See AQ20.
• Naxxramus (Naxx) - You buy attunement based on Argent Dawn rep, free at exalted. This rep can be gained solo or 5 man.
• Karazan (Kara) - Long Quest chain including Solo and 5 man content.
• Gruul's Lair (GL) - None.
• Magtheridon's Lair (ML) - None.
• Serpent Shrine Cavern (SSC) - Used to be kill Gruul and Nightbane so 25 man & 10 man content. Requirement now removed.
• The Eye (TK) - Used to be 3 quests into 4 heroic level instances 5 man content. Requirement now removed.
• Mount Hyjal (MH) - Kill Vashj & Kael'thras the last bosses in SSC & TK. 25 man content.
• Black Temple (BT) - Complete quests in SSC & TK, then the first boss in MH. 25 man content.

Ok, pre TBC raid attunment was done via 5/10 man and solo content. Some like Onyxia was a long chain but there was nothing that could hurt or kill a raiding guild if members left. New raiders could get themselves attuned without a raiding guilds support and therefore made applying for and recruiting to those guilds easier.

Post TBC thigs began to change. Karazan the new 10 man instance is really equivalent to the old 20 mans (ZG & AQ20) requires 5 man and solo content to gain attunement this makes it no different from from the old raids. Gruul and Mag are both very short 25 man raids on a par to Onyxia's lair neither of these requires attunement to enter so irrelevent to this post :p

Then we come to SSC, before they removed the attunement if you had a guild membership upset you would be set back to Gruul. This is annoying but for a guild in SSC should be able to clear Gruul's in under an hour even carrying halve a raid who have not killed him before. And as long as you have people who know how to play there class you can get the nightbane kill done in Karazan simply enough as well.

TK, this was just 5 man content to get attunement so while you couldn't easily pug it, it was possible to run people through to get their quests done for attunement.

So far I have no real problem with the attunement needed. The TBC ones before the requirement was removed could be irritating if you suddenly have to recruit new members but that was all. This all changes though when we hit the current end game instances.

For MH you have to kill the last boss in SSC & TK. These fights are not easy they are two of the most complex to execute in the entire game. Every member of the raid needs to know their job and understand what is going on. You can't afford to carry anyone in these encounters. They take practice to get all the pieces to neatly slot into place.

On the one hand this is progression, but on the other hand if you on your way through MH & BT like we were, a major guild upset can dump you straight back into SSC & TK! Hell you could of cleared MH & BT and if you lose members you get dumped back into SSC & TK! which is why the guilds at the top only replace there members with those already attuned. These have too come from the guilds just starting this content. People moving to those guilds get a free ride (in my opinion) to epics and the guild they came from gets a bullet in the gut. Demoralising and painful.

I really beleive that in The Burning Crusade blizzard really FUCKED up the end game raid requirements.

Wisp

A Step Back

Due to a certain group of people who f*ck*d us over by leaving, just as our MH/BT campaign was getting into full swing we have had some set backs. A few others have left to join one of the two guilds on the server to have cleared all of the TBC content so far, which is also frustrating as they where damn good players. After the Christmas Break there are a couple more missing faces as well. Including Kers :( Tho I've been told he is coming back but wont be raidleading any more. I wish I knew which sh*t p*ss*d him off so badly.

So its the first week back to raiding and we're once again in SSC/TK to get 9 people attuned to Mount Hyjal. Thats 9 in a raid of 25 some of who have not even attempted Vashj before! One of the most technical fights in the game with a new raidleader to boot. That is NOT FUN! but I am optimistic that we will be back on track in a couple of weeks!

Especially as a Friend whispered me they had an Archimond wipe of 29% in MH! We where ahead of that guild!

Wisp

Welcome to 2008

Just to say happy new year to all my imaginary readers :D