Progression

EoF was supposed to head into ICC Wednesday night. That didn't work.

Tried Thursday. That didn't work either.

Finally, we made it back in on Saturday. I was sick and out of commission earlier in the week, but there were also a couple more folks who couldn't make it to the weeknight raids. It was probably a good thing, really. A little break now and then can't hurt.

I was lucky enough to get the shield from the Gunship Battle. Finally, I got to ditch the one heroic item I was still lugging around. I've always had miserable luck with shield upgrades.

The real story of the night, though, was Festergut. First attempt was an almost instant wipe. During the second attempt I died and our other tank blew up due to 10 stacks of Gastric Bloat. The third time, however, proved to be the charm. Clean kill, no deaths, much rejoicing.

We took a look at Rotface before we called it and, if we execute as well as we did on Saturday, I'm hopeful we'll be able to drop him this week.

Recap

After last Wednesday's..."issues"...with ICC, we walked in on Saturday and one-shot all the content we had previously cleared. We then two-shot Saurfang.

The Turned Champion isn't really that bad of a fight when you get down to it. It just requires communication, especially when things don't go according to plan. If, for example, a Blood Beast starts gnawing on melee for some reason, don't panic...just say something to the ranged responsible for picking them up. There's not a ton of room for error, but you can get yourself out of a fix if you stay calm and just talk to each other.

We took a look at Festergut and are going to give him an honest effort tonight if we can manage the personnel. There was a lot of "do we have the dps for this?" talk, but I think we can do it. The mechanics on that fight aren't as complicated as some of the other ICC fights, so our dps crew should have enough room to work without that much distraction.

I also learned that I can't tank Heroic Halls of Reflection, specifically, the waves at the beginning. I gave it my best effort, but simply cannot pull it off. If the mobs all came from the same place, I could manage, but because they're coming in from all over the room it's a little too much for this poor, old, beat-up Warrior to handle. I also get a bit of lag sometimes when dealing with AoE, so when a rifleman drops a frost trap on top of whatever AoE the group is doing I end up with a couple seconds of a frozen screen only to return to find a dead healer.

I'm sure I could do it, but it would take some practice. The problem with practicing a unique set of pulls from a specific instance, though, is that four other people are paying for it, too...both with time and repair bills.

All in all, it was a good weekend in Azeroth. Got my Ashen Verdict ring and even managed to putz around with the holidays. I don't think I'm gonna get titles out of both of them, but I'll settle for some achievement points and vanity items. My banker is very happy with her new Lovely Red Dress, but keeps bugging me about the black one.

Hopefully we can take out Festergut tonight and cross another boss off of our progression list.

Well That Sucked Less

Last night we took down Razuvious for our weekly raid. Nice and easy, and holy crap did we need it.

After Wednesday's charlie foxtrot, much analysis and discussion happened and we've decided that, while we could have executed better, the lag certainly didn't do us any favors. Marrowgar dropped the last two weeks, so it's not like we can't handle the fight. In fact, I'm confident tomorrow night he'll die like he's supposed to.

I'm not sure if I'll be raiding ICC this weekend, but either way I'm hoping EoF gets some new boss kills out of the deal. I know once we get past the hiccups we'll have the place cleared before Arthas knows we're in the building.

Have I mentioned that I love my guild? Such an incredibly smart, talented, and friendly group of people to run with.

Anyway, stay tuned for, hopefully, some good news.

New to the Blogosphere

A fellow EoFer and the one who's usually stuck healing me during raids, Heleva.

Go make her feel welcome.

Seriously, go.

Tweetspiration

I mentioned on Twitter that taking a long hiatus as a WoW blogger leaves you with nothing to write about when you return. With that, Aoirselvar and Kadomi provided me with a couple of post ideas. Since I've got wicked writer's block, I will run with both.

From Aoirselvar: I guess you can start writing about your experience returning to the world of Azeroth.

Mostly, it feels like I never left. Now, I've logged in over the course of the hiatus, but it was usually on a Saturday morning when only a couple of guildies were online anyway. I'd do a couple of dailies, maybe work the auction house a little, and then log off.

I didn't feel awkward or rusty until we went to ICC on Saturday night. That's when the time off showed itself for me. I didn't feel like I was really in the pocket the first couple of pulls. I really wasn't at my best throughout the run, for that matter. I'm not saying I did poorly, but I certainly noticed that I was out of practice.

My guild is great. They've been so understanding and welcomed me back with open arms. The only remotely weird thing from a social standpoint is that everybody has better gear than I do. I laugh when I see a guildie on their 4th or 5th 80 and that alt has a gear score that dwarfs mine.

I've got some work to do.

From Kadomi: You raided ICC, how about your first impressions?

I really enjoyed getting to work a bit in ICC. I think Blizzard did a great job with the place, overall. Based on what I've seen, you can't exactly waltz your way through there. You have to actually think about the trash, and the bosses aren't pushovers. Also, the dodge debuff really makes things interesting.

My last real raiding experience was in Ulduar. I was involved in a couple of trips to ToC 10, but neither amounted to much of anything. Even in TBC, we never really got past the first tier or so of raiding. The chance to go in with a really, really good group and take on some of the higher-level content this time around was exciting.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I wasn't really geared for the place when I walked in, and on top of that I was horribly rusty. I'm looking forward to getting some upgrades and getting myself back in shape.

Thanks for the ideas, Aoirselvar and Kadomi! I'll get back into the swing of this blogging thing sooner or later.

Enter the Tank

Hey. Remember me?

I've been logging on the past couple of weekends trying to get back in the swing of WoW. I missed it, frankly. I missed my guildies, I missed raiding, and I missed cursing every time I get aged yolk (if I don't get that proto-drake before Cataclysm, I'm heading over to the frickin' wolvar, I swear).

Saturday I pulled one of my marathon sessions. I was trying to squeeze in dailies while running after the Baby Tank and keeping the Puppy Tank from peeing in the house.

Saturday night was EoF's second evening in ICC 10. Tatia asked me if I wanted to go, but I didn't want to walk in there with mediocre gear and kill any momentum they had from the prior week when they managed to down three bosses. As the day progressed, though, I realized I really, really wanted to go with them.

So, I picked up the mats for a quick and easy upgrade and signed up. We had a Lock finishing another raid, so we decided to start clearing trash while we waited on him. Started pulling only to realize our other tank, a Pally, was having some technical difficulties. We initially thought it was just a dc, but as it turns out his whole computer went nuts and he was down for the evening.

Down to eight raiders, now, with a tank (that would be me) who's out of practice, undergeared, and trying to hold on to 200 The Damned (hyperbole intended) while all of our better-geared dps go nuts on them.

It worked. Don't worry, I was surprised, too.

We cleared to the first boss, had one of our crew bring in an alt tank, and filled the open slot. Had some difficulty with Marrowgar, but two shot Deathwhisper and the Gunship. Marrowgar was even nice enough to give me a mace as a "welcome back to raiding" gift. It got late, and we called it a night.

When I was raiding more regularly I generally overgeared the content we were attempting. This was the first time in a while I undergeared the content and, subsequently, had less of a margin for error. All in all, I think I did ok.

Might even sign up again for next week.

Believe It Or Not

...people are still showing up here on a daily basis.

Might as well give them something to read.

After my last post, I logged in and made several overdue and well-deserved officer promotions (Millea/Tatia being one). They offered to hold down the fort while I did what I needed to. I love my guild.

I've been online more in the past couple weeks. Messed around this past Saturday with holiday achievements, got in a raid that didn't get far, and got to see the new 5s for the first time.

The new dungeons are simply beautiful. Kudos, Blizz.

I also dabbled in the new random dungeon system. Pet or not, I hate PuGs and will probably not be volunteering myself for it on too regular a basis. I have to say, though, that I got very lucky with PuG members the first time I tried it. The dungeons were easy and the folks we picked up were solid players. Quite painless, overall.

I suppose it helps to be the tank, but that doesn't stop people from pulling for you as I've learned in the past. I like to set a brisk pace (assuming the healer is keeping up), but I will slow down if necessary to maintain control over the pulls. Must not have been too bad for our cross-server groupmates, as nobody complained about it.

I picked up the T9 shoulders with Triumph emblems. I could have waited a bit and picked up the higher ilvl non-tier shoulders, but I was in need of an upgrade and the shoulders provided much-needed expertise. I'm hoping I can get some runs in this week to pick up another emblem upgrade and, possibly, grab some items from the new dungeons.

It's good to be back.

Resurrection or Redemption

It's been a long time since I've posted something here. It's been a long time since I've really wanted to.

As we all know, real life has a tendency of getting in the way of our best laid plans. I had every intention of taking my new guild as far into the endgame as I possibly could, documenting our triumphs here. Haven't done either.

Had every intention of leveling a couple of alts to 80. Only managed 70.

Had every intention of being a good guild master. I've barely been online.

H1N1 made its way through our house, we're preparing for a surgery for the Baby Tank, we've had endless drama surrounding a family member and a custody battle, and I've been trying to balance all of that family stuff with work...both my day job and my other job.

Most nights, I don't have the energy to log in. Even some weekends. This past weekend, for example, once I got all the real life stuff out of the way there wasn't anything left in the tank (no pun intended).

I'd like to get back online and playing with some degree of regularity. I've already told my guild that I will likely not be raiding, but in reality I've completely let them down because I haven't even been available..

Bottom line: you can't run a guild if you're not in-game.

Should probably just do what's best for everybody and turn it over.

The Circus

I've been a musician for a long time...almost 3/4 of my life. I love everything about it: driving for hours on end, eating horribly, living on bad gas station coffee and energy drinks, the sound check, the hurry up and wait, the heat of the lights on stage, the energy from the crowd, and the complete exhaustion that sets in after you give your all.

A lot of people compare it to a circus. That's a pretty decent analogy, really. It's all so crazy and you don't have time to process half of what's going on.

My home life is a circus, too. This morning the dog had an accident on the basement stairway (three guesses who got to clean it up), Baby Tank had a spina bifida-related problem (a minor one...just took time to fix), kids were yelling at each other and fighting over the bathroom, and amidst all that I had to get showered and ready for work.

One of my deficiencies as a functional adult is, as Cheesi will tell you, my inability to balance things. I'm really, really bad at it. I go to work, play and promote my music, run a guild, lead raids, deal with kids, etc, etc, etc. I manage to pull it off, but rarely with flying colors.

I haven't played WoW much in the past week, but I did get online this weekend for quite a while. It was a lot of fun. I ran Ulduar on Mis and monkeyed around with a couple of Hallow's End achievements, and I leveled Mactire the Death Knight in the hope that one day in the near future he'll get to snag some Northren herbs for his Inscription.

But, like most guilds, we've had some drama. We are losing one of our absolute best raiders to another guild on another server. That's a huge blow to EoF. He's one of the best DPS Warriors I've ever seen, very well geared, loyal, dedicated, and a smart, smart player. Not to mention he's a really cool guy.

In addition to that, there's been a rift developing over something that happened while I was away. I won't go into details, but it's something that will strike fear into the heart of anyone who's ever managed a guild as a GM or an officer: Loot Drama.

I had a blast this weekend, but finding out about these things was like a punch in the gut. My 9-5 job is crazy, my music job is crazy, my house is crazy, and when I see things like this happen (among adults, mind you...which makes it all the more frustrating) I just can't seem to muster the energy to put on a happy face and deal with the situation in a rational manner.

My problems with balance should have deterred me from starting a guild. Either I live online and neglect everything around me or I hop on once in a while and neglect the guild. I'm not good with gray areas.

I've gotta figure this out.

Nice and Easy

Naxx last night was exciting because it was the first time in for Cheesi and my bro-in-law Willy. I think we may have had one or two other first-timers as well. Started way late because the Baby Tank hasn't been feeling well, which made it impossible for us to actually get started before she went to bed.

We cleared two quarters and I think the only complete wipe we had was due to a stupid move on my part on trash. Other than that, it was cake.

Most importantly, we had loot drops that people could actually use. Tons of upgrades got handed out to some of our folks who don't get to raid as often.

There were a couple of heated moments. That stuff happens, though. Guilds are like families, and as such it can't be cupcakes and puppies all the time. Just means we're a healthy unit. If we didn't have a minor scuffle now and then, I'd be worried.

At the end of the day, it was a solid run and a fun time. Loot and achievements were passed around and we got to expose people to some content they haven't seen.

From my standpoint, I got a handful of emblems and, even though I had a couple of deaths, I still made money from the run. That's generally a good sign.

Ulduar At Last

I love the smell of progression raiding in the morning.

Yeah, I know most of you have cleared Ulduar and have a weekly naked run through it, but it was EoF's first time there. We had a former guildie walking us through the fights, but it was nearly a complete EoF team.

We went 3/4 in the Siege area. We would have dropped Ignis given a little more time, but we put a time limit on the raid because we knew we were going to lose a few folks.

I'm really impressed with the talent we have in our guild. Everybody learns fast...really fast. Flame and XT were two-shot and Razorscale was one-shot. It's good to be surrounded by players who know how to diagnose a problem with an attempt and fix it the second time around.

We're going to have several teams running this week. We set up early runs to help those who can't make the later raid times (and, as a result, haven't gotten to raid very much at all) get some experience and gear in Naxx and OS, and we've still got Ulduar up as a later run to accommodate those who are geared for it.

As long as people keep signing up and bringing their A-game, we can ride this wave of momentum through Ulduar and beyond. I'm hoping to be blogging about ToC in the near future.

Ulduar or Bust

Tomorrow night we have an Ulduar raid scheduled. This will be our guild's first time in, and the first time for many of us as individuals.

In TBC, we as a guild never made it past the first tier of raiding. I never saw anything outside of Kara, Gruul, and a pull or two into SSC. I'm glad we're in a position to be moving forward progression-wise and taking our raiding to the next level here in WotLK.

Hopefully we can get the sign-ups and manage to make the run happen. Most of us are geared for it (in some cases overgeared for it) thanks to emblem purchases, so, once we get the hang of the fights, we should be in a position to really make some rapid progress.

My goal, lofty as it may be, is to be able to walk into Icecrown-10 very soon after it opens. Even if we're still mopping up the last few bosses of Ulduar and ToC, I'd like to be able to make some progress in the defining raid of WotLK while others are also progressing through it.

From a blogging standpoint, I'd love to be able to help the community. Right now, I'm relying on recommendations from the community when it comes to tanking fights. If I'm involved in progression as it comes, though, I can be one of the bloggers making the recommendations based on my experience tanking the "current" content.

As long as we can get the personnel to come along, I think that we, as a guild, are in a position to make some solid progress over the coming weeks.

It's exciting. I just hope it plays out.

Attendance and Recruiting

Tatia posted about some attendance issues we're having in EoF. Rather than assault her blog with a wall of text comment, I decided that I'd simply post my thoughts here. I'm certain we're not the only guild having this problem.

We're not a terribly large guild, but those of us who are usually online are pretty serious about doing our best when we have a goal to accomplish. When we pull enough people to raid, we bring our A-game and get the job done. We have enough people with the skill and gear to clear the bulk of the 10-man content out there.

There are two things, in my opinion, that stand in our way. One is going to be a permanent problem given our guild's makeup. The other, I believe, will pass.

The first issue we have is that the vast majority of us are adults with jobs, children, and other adult responsibilities. We're always going to have to deal with conflicting schedules and there will never be a day of the week when every raid-ready person in the guild will be available.

That's a minor problem. Multiple raids a week will give people several opportunities to jump in and see some content. If we can't have a consistent schedule, we'll deal. We're adults, right? We just need the personnel to make it feasible.

The second issue, while temporary, is what I believe to be our brick wall for the time being. I can sum it up in one word: Cataclysm.

Ever since the announcement, people have been "preparing" for Cataclysm. I've heard guildies talk about how they want this character or that leveled to 80 before Cataclysm comes out, or how they want to grind a given profession. They're shelving their mains and not bothering to run the content that they don't "need anything from" (which is exceptionally frustrating to me considering our primary issue is attendance...no need to "give up a slot" if nobody's going to fill it).

It's a natural response. When Wrath was announced, everybody got excited and started thinking ahead to Northrend. Here's the thing, though: we won't be seeing Cataclysm anytime soon. There's still a good chunk of Wrath content we haven't seen yet (Icecrown, anyone?). There's plenty of time to accomplish your pre-xpac goals and still see the content that is currently available.

I think that the post-announcement buzz will die down and people will start putting more effort into the present. It's a temporary blip.

Another point Tatia raised is recruiting. I believe I know the person she was talking about, and, while I also consider him a friend, I respectfully disagree with him now the same way I respectfully disagreed with him when he raised the issue in CoF.

Recruiting is not bad. We need bodies online, and we should recruit to fill the gaps that we have. However, "recruiting heavily" is not exactly what EoF needs to be doing. What will inevitably happen is that we'll end up with charged-up members who want to raid every night of the week, but will get frustrated when we're not moving along as fast as they'd like. I've seen it happen, I've seen the hateful forum posts, I've seen the angry /gquits, and I've seen the backlash that leaves a nasty taste in everyone's mouth.

A guild in our position needs to recruit, but needs to do so patiently and practically. We can't invite people who will clash with the overall culture of our guild, but I'll go so far as to say right here in my public forum that if you're a skilled player who wants to be a part of a casual raiding guild feel free to stop by Bloodhoof and give me a holler. We need the help and we'll be glad to have you, but please be aware that we are by no means a hardcore raiding guild.

Bottom line: both sides of the recruiting process need full disclosure when it comes to expectations. Failure to provide the necessary level of communication up front reaps very, very bad results in the end.

In closing, I believe that EoF as a guild will succeed in WotLK endgame content and beyond. We won't be at the bleeding edge, but we will do well and have fun in the process. We'll have hurdles and setbacks, but we can go as far as we want to if we continue to give our best go at it.

Thanks for the spark, Tatia.

Like I Have Time For This

Because I'm not busy at all with a full-time job, a part-time job, a house full of kids, a new puppy, guild-mastering, and raid-leadering, I figured I'd fill up some of my free time by creating a Twitter account for Echo of Fate.

Feel free to follow us if you happen to care at all what we're doing with ourselves. Or you can just laugh at me while I try to manage two active Twitter accounts.

Side Note: I've noticed that several people on Twitter and in their blogs have expressed guild dissatisfaction. I'd like to recommend the awesome people at Guild Launch if you want to start up your own guild like I did and don't want a headache when you set up your guild site.

They're much better than other services I've tried, and they've put a lot of game-specific widgets and such in there. Lots of cool stuff to play with and ways to keep your guild organized.

Tell them Misneach sent ya. They won't know what you're talking about, but tell them anyway.

New Bloggage

After months of trying to convince her it would be a good idea, Millea/Tatia/Koalabear has started up a blog of her very own.

Go and show her some love!

Catching Up

Big, big weekend for EoF.

Friday night, Cheesi and I had to run the Baby Tank to the hospital. Due to her hydrocephalus (common with spina bifida) she has a shunt that drains the excess cerebrospinal fluid from her skull to her abdominal cavity where it's reabsorbed into the body. We've been blessed so far, but shunts do malfunction and get infected.

So, anytime BT spikes a fever and we're not sure what's causing it, we have to go to the ER. They ruled out shunt problems, strep, and a urinary tract infection (common because she's catheterized) and sent us home assuming it was likely a simple virus. She's doing much, much better now.

While Cheesi and I sat in the hospital, Echo of Fate ran into OS and took down Sarth with 1 drake up. They then knocked out both bosses in VoA.

Saturday night, we flew through the Arachnid and Construct Quarters of Naxx. Sunday, we went back in and cleared Military and dropped Noth. Really, the only fight we had a problem with, aside from one wipe on Grobbulus due to a little miscue, was the Four Horsemen. We banged our heads up a against that one for a while until we could get the best strategy for our group and coordinate it properly. If my memory isn't failing me, I believe we one shot everything except those two fights.

We extended the raid lockout on Naxx to knock out the other four bosses this upcoming week. I really want to get to Sapphiron and start handing out EoE keys to as many people as possible so we can get that one off the progression chart and then start farming it without having to worry if we've got a keyed person online.

We have a number of people who are geared for at least Ulduar 10, so I think, as long as we stay diligent and keep up our momentum, we may just start to catch up to the rest of the field as far as the 10-mans go.

And Bronze Drakes For All

Counting the run last night, I've done Heroic Culling exactly three times. Wasn't a fan of Escape from Durnholde, not a fan of CoS.

Why am I not a fan of these glorified escort quests?

Because I'm the tank. Hear that, Thrall and Arthas? Quit facepulling everything, you n00bs. I'll lead, you try to keep up.

And Arthas, you self-righteous douche, quit saying "make haste" and then walking like we've got all freakin' day. We want a shot at a Drake and don't have time for your endless, nauseating pontification every time we step on a plagued roach.

There. I feel better.

Last night was my first time actively going for the Drake from the get-go. We succeeded in beating the timer, and Tatia (or Millea, or Koalabear) won the Bronze Drake, so big gratz to her.

I decided after the run that Echo of Fate would actively pursue getting everybody in the guild a Bronze Drake. As much as I hate that instance, I'd love to see everybody get the achievement and the mount. I'll tank it every night I'm online if I have to until everybody's got it.

Nothing wrong with hunting down a vanity item or two, right? They're a great group of people and they deserve it.

One Week Down

It's been one week since we got the last signature for our charter and ventured off into the brave new world of Echo of Fate. So far, I couldn't be happier.

We're still working out details here and there...outlining policies, working on the guild bank, working on the website...but we're off to a great start.

I've decided to delegate as much authority as possible, primarily so I don't end up getting completely burned out a month in and give up on the whole thing. Cheesi is serving as banker, Millea (who posts here as Koalabear) is our raid coordinator, Willy (bro-in-law and former GM) is our recruitment officer, and we've nominated another guildie, Dily, to be the guild "quartermaster" since he has a 450 everything.

Tonight is OS. This weekend is Naxx. I can't wait to start killing some bosses and impaling their smoking corpses with the Echo of Fate banner. We've got a great, talented team and now that we have a new purpose I know we'll really make an impact on our server.

Our biggest need at this point is healers. We have guildies who've rolled healer alts, but the problem with that is if they're healing, we lose really great DPS. It's a complicated balance to maintain.

A Holy Paladin or two would be absolutely fantastic...just throwin' that out there...

But, anyway, life so far is good as a GM.

Honeymoon's not over yet.

Starting From Scratch

Things are going nicely, so far, with the new guild. Hopefully the honeymoon doesn't end for a very, very long time.

As far as progression goes, I wanted to start from scratch and work our way up. This week, we're hitting OS, maybe VoA, and Naxx. I'm looking forward to the satisfaction of seeing EoF down the bosses and marking them off of our website's progression widget.

We have some very well-geared guildies, many who need nothing from Naxx or OS, so hopefully that will help move our progression along quicker considering we're getting a very late start.

We may never get to the point where we have the personnel for 25-mans, but for right now I'm happy just to plow through the 10-man content and see how far we can go.

Trial of a New Guild

When I decided that I wanted to pull the trigger and start this new guild, I knew that a couple of people expressed interest in coming with me. As it turns out, a very large number of former guildies have joined me, including my bro-in-law (Call of Fate's GM).

Ignoring all of our alts, we're a very lean, streamlined guild. Still need to get some depth in the roster, though, to avoid having to PuG and, eventually, get two raid teams running simultaneously each week.

It means a lot that so many people joined me in this crazy experiment. I told them all in /gchat last night and felt like such a mushy idiot, but I meant it.

~*~

Tried the new 5-man over the weekend for the first time. Ran it two times in a row: first on regular, then on heroic. Overall, I didn't love it and I didn't hate it...kind of a middle of the road feeling about it. I just wish there wasn't so much Light-forsaken talking. Can we just fight already?

Round 1: I've done so much jousting over the past couple of months that Round 1 wasn't too terribly bad on either reg or heroic. Had some issues with people getting to fresh horses after getting dismounted in heroic, but overall, not many hiccups.

The little "run out of the arena after the bosses are down and you get dismounted so they reset and are easier to pick up" trick is probably not going to work for long. I have a feeling Blizz will nerf it. Still, it makes the round easier and we'll get as much mileage out of it as possible.

Round 2(a): Eadric the Flashbulb...err...Pure. Come on, Blizz...not every fight absolutely has to have a gimmick. "Hey, let's make him get really bright so you have to turn around mid-fight!" Fire the guy who said that. Got Eadric on reg, fight was easy.

Round 2(b): Argent Confessor Paletress. Got this little tart on heroic. As a woman of the not-so-much-cloth, she should be stripped of her priestly robes...if she were wearing them, of course. This fight turned into "How many tricks does your party have to break fear." Other than that it wasn't that bad at all. I really want to fight my memory of Hogger, though...and soon.

Round 2 (addendum): I've seen both of these individuals in the AC tent on the tournament grounds. I've gone to Eadric countless times to pick up the dailies, and Paletress and I have played "confess your naughtiness" on occasion (she calls me "Uncle Mis," incidentally). Bottom line, I'm familiar with both of these NPCs.

So, please, explain to me how they're two feet taller when you fight them in the arena. I call doping. WTB drug test. There's some HGH floating around the Argent Crusade camp and I demand an asterisk by all of their titles because they earned them with the help of performance-enhancing drugs.

Round 3: This is, without a doubt, one of the toughest 5-man fights I've ever done. Our first go at the Black Knight on heroic had me, the final group member standing, die when the little prick was at 200 hp!!! Second go, we died in phase 2...not pretty. Third time was the charm, though.

Again, not my favorite instance, but it has its charm. I got two excellent upgrades...to my PvP set. No sweet tank love, but that's cool.

New guild, new instance, new drive, new purpose. Feels damn good.