The Heroes Return

After a forced hiatus of over a month and a half, due to attendance woes, Empyreal Fray fielded a raid team last night and actually raided. It felt good. It also felt a little odd. It has only been a month and a half but I know, at least on my part, that there was some serious rust that needed knocking off.

We started at Baradin Hold, where I momentarily forgot where my taunt button was. I'm not sure what happened there, but when it was time to taunt the boss off of the other tank, I instead hit my interrupt button, and then proceeded to question in my mind why the boss hadn't turned toward me. Luckily I figured it out before he did his big thing again.

Then we moved on to Blackwing Descent and proceeded to one-shot the big worm (Magmaw), the fours statues (Omnotron), and captain chemistry (Maloriak).

We did have to pug one DPS, a warrior, and he played pretty well. Although, he did get two pieces of gear off of three bosses and then, without much warning, left.

But such is the price of pugging.

Regardless, it was a great night, and it felt really good to be raiding again. Here's hoping that we can repeat tonight.

Of Trolls and new Tiers

I really need to get better at this blogging thing. I don't post anywhere near enough. Anywhoo . . .

Attendance is still our biggest problem in EF. We have picked up a couple of new players, but at the same time, lost a couple of our core raiders, so it was a zero-sum action. Anyone interested in joining a raiding team that is good, just perpetually short-handed?

Of Trolls

Cataclysm has done something that no other expansion has ever done before. It has continually made me feel sub-standard. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the harder content. It is just the virtual kick to the junk when you wipe in a 5-man. And let me tell you, I have been doing a lot of wiping in 5-mans of late.

Of the two new (new = recycled) troll instances, I have only seen Zul'Gurub. On raid nights, when we are short, we are just running random troll instances instead. I have queued for a random troll instance three times now, and have gotten Zul'Gurub each time. That also means, I have spent three nights in Zul'Gurub. I have yet to finish the instance. Not due to giving up, but just due to running out of time.

The boss mechanics are . . . unforgiving. Anyone who knows us EF people, we have traditionally been weak when it came to mechanics, and tended to just power through fights. In the Wrath era, that was possible, in Cataclysm, not so much. It is funny, most of the bosses we can one-shot (even on the first night). But others, whose mechanics are more brutal (like Zanzil) we wiped again and again on.

Tonight is another scheduled raid night, and while I am holding out hope that we will see 10 people online, I am planning on going back in and finally finishing Zul'Gurub.

New Tiers

Also, a few days ago, Blizzard released the new artwork for the Tier 12 Paladin gear. At first glance, I didn't like it at all. It doesn't even look like plate armor. It seems more like something a Warlock would wear. Much like Tier 10, as I have looked at it more and more, it has grown on me. At first glance, I didn't like Tier 10 either, but when it came time to get rid of it, it was hard. I had really come to love the look of the burning skulls on my shoulders. Maybe it will be the same with Tier 12. We will see.

I do recognize the similarities in style between Tier 12 and Tier 2. It very much has that Inquisitor feel to it again. This time with an added fiery theme.