Once again we have shown the reason we continue to be one of the longest lasting and tight knit groups in this game. A weekend to remember and good friends to share it with… Special thanks to Rhyse and Cary (Govols) for taking the time to snap some great shots and post them them and also make some into this kick ass video.

 Lrah

            When I coached youth football, every year we allowed the team to make up one play and name it whatever they chose. It was a big deal for them and we made sure they got to run their play once every game. We kept the plays from earlier years as well so by my fifth year we had Redneck super bomb, Wolverine slash left, and  my favorite defensive blitz: The Terminator. I have no idea why I’m putting this on the front page…oh wait, I remember why. I was thinking up a title for last nights great raid, the one that appears at the top of this post, and it reminded me of making up those names.

            So enough about my aimless ramblings. We had a great night last night in ICC 25. 9 bosses down in 3 hours. We pushed through the first 4, then downed Fester, Rotface, and Putricide, then finished with Princes and Blood Queen (which we had the quest for and got to her in time). We tried a few new things and they worked pretty well with saving time. We are also getting a lot more marks every week now so that’s an added bonus. A fine job from everyone last night!

            One thing you learn through years of raiding is that some nights are going to be bad, some nights are going to be really bad, and some nights are going to be awesome. Last night was an awesome night. We went into ICC25 without many of our regular dps, without our regular raid leaders, and with the intention of getting down what bosses we could. We drove a stake into Bloodqueen, we dropped the plague boys (gratz Hordeyez on your shadows edge) and after that we decided lets get a few attempts on Putricide. Most of us didn’t expect a downing, we just hoped we could get some new people accustomed to the 25 man fight.

            We one shot him.

            And it wasn’t a long drawn out, nail biting fight either. It was a pretty easy one-sided confrontation. Many of our crew had only seen him in the 10 man fight. Its a testament that you should never predetermine how your raid is going to go without getting in there and giving it some attempts. A great job by our entire crew, especially those who don’t normally get to see 25 man content. A great job by Lrah and Barny keeping us focused and calm and Bloodi who ran around as the Abomination and kept the floor clean. We had stellar healing as always and our dps was focused and fast.

            But most of all a great job by all of last nights raiders for not deciding it was an off night and for giving an unforgettable performance and having fun as a team doing it. And whats your reward for doing all this? Now we get to start working on Sindi. Hurrah, woot, super…I think I’m going to take a vacation.

Ah summer…sun, beach, hot days and cold beers. So it begins, but one might wonder how its affecting Nevermore’s raids and attendance. I’d have to say very little. We commonly find ourselves short staffed as summer begins in full but we have not missed a raiding night in the past few weeks. Its a good start, and we are still working hard on IC25, and several IC10 mans head out every week.

            Don’t forget that Lrah’s Nevermore party is coming up on June 25th. Now would be a good time to make your final plans and start working up your alcohol tolerance. The ice luge does not show mercy on the weak or unprepared (right El?). The parties are always fun, never violent but commonly filled with mayhem. Just be cautious of the snoring bear with the 13″ CRT sitting on his lap and an empty bottle of long island in his hand. And for those who may have been at the fall party last year, believe me when I say you have only had a small taste of what the summer party is like.

            One other thing for our members, we’d like to set up some fun summer events. Whether it be raids on alliance capitals, Nevermore PvP tournaments in Dire Maul arena, or level one races across the continent, we’d like to see some ideas on what might be a fun event for us to do in the coming weeks.

            Tpaw out!

Nevermore is now 9 for 12 in 25 man Icecrown Citadel as we have just recently downed Blood Queen Lana’thel and have begun work on Prof Putricide. We now have several 10 mans at Sindi (10/12) and I feel confident we’ll be going up against the Lich King very soon.

            I know we are reaching a time where many guilds are finding their raiding numbers thinning from the break in the weather as summer nears. I’m proud to say that we haven’t missed a beat as our raids are moving along fine and we are seeing raids going out 4 to 6 nights a week. That being said, we are keeping the doors open for new players who are interested in joining Nevermore and who are ready for ICC 25.

So we’ve made it to March and everything’s going green, spring is right around the corner, and miraculously the mountain of snow at the end of my driveway is just a memory. No green beer for me this year but to those of you who are headed for a one way trip to hangoverville, please be safe and be smart.

            So what’s going on in Nevermore land? Our 10 mans have been working diligently at the bitch queen Sindragosa (Lich King…..Bitch Queen……get it…….uh…….yeah). Our 25 mans will be starting work on the wing end bosses (our final obstacle was council, which we hadn’t tried till last week for an easy 2 shot). Our attendance is pretty sporadic (its the weather I tell you). And Taco, who claims to have  motherboard issues is actually spending all his waking hours throwing his xbox controller at final fantasy 13. Ok, I am too but I do still raid .

            To top things off, Noblegarden is right around the corner. You know what that means? Yep, hours and hours of server lag as all the munchkins (and I don’t mean children) log in and hunt for eggs during our raiding hours. I can only assume, to make things even more challenging, they will release 3.3.3 or whatever the next big update is numbered, on that very week.

            Oh, and my good deed of advice this week is………Let sleeping bears lie!

            I know that title is the name of the holiday achievement, but I find it strangely adequate to sum up our road to ice crown. First we fought our old enemies in Nax, then we faced both mechanized and godly powers in Ulduar, then we essentially get lulled into complacency by the ‘buffet line of bosses’ in ToC. And finally we get to face up against the might of our arch nemesis in Ice Crown. I would not be overstating things if I said that Ice Crown Citadel is WoW’s Death Star, it’s Mordor. We’ve been waiting to stick pixilated swords into Lich Kings frozen hide since…oh hell since we opened up the original brown boxes of our first World of Warcraft game discs.

            Patch 3.3 is one of the better accomplishments of the development teams, despite a few annoying bugs it may have introduced. The new LFG system makes gearing your alts a breeze. The IC5 man dungeons are fun (but did we have to regurgitate the horrible Reliquary of Souls, those faces have given me nightmares since the first time I saw them). And finally we get to step foot in the final goal, Ice Crown Citadel.

            Our 25 man raid, getting off to a bit of a slow start and bothered by some key absences, finally maneuvered around the long winded, always talking, won’t ever shut up, Lady Deathwhisper and made a couple attempts on the gunship. Our 10 man raids finished the instance, one of them doing the last 3 bosses in about an hour and a half. Its not hard, but it’s definitely more interesting and complex than the ToC buffet.

             So on we go, into the abyss, hopefully Lrah packed plenty of flasks this time because I have a feeling he’s going to need them. Vanish 4tW!