Sang Grail

Real Men of Genius

Thanks to Shinrobi, we had an opportunity this weekend to join an ICC 25 run with the Real Men of Genius guild. Five of us went on the run. We had a lot of fun and we got to see some 25 man content that we hadn’t seen before (at least I hadn’t seen it before).

We cleared the first wing and the Plague wing (Putricide). Our first wipe was on Dreamwalker at the end of the evening when people were getting a little tired. We called it a night, but all agreed it was a good night of raiding.

The hope was to fill out 25 with the two guilds, but we were about 5 people short. The rest were filled by PUGs.

The raid leader, Yogiboo, and other members of Real Men of Genius all seem really nice. Duck and I stayed up and chatted with Yogiboo for awhile after the raid. I think it will be fun to run with this guild and get to know them better.

Raid Requirements

A new aspect of this run was the raid requirements. We have previously laid out some raid requirements for our guild runs, but we tend to be a little more relaxed when we have to make choices between getting 10 people or not running at all. Real Men of Genius laid out some pretty simple rules, but those rules help aid in the success of the run.

1. There is an expectation of 7K dps.
2. Gear was checked prior to the run, especially for PUG members.
3. All gear is expected to be gemmed and enchanted.

What’s Next?

The run was considered successful, and another run has been posted for next Saturday. If you haven’t received an invite and you are interested, please talk with Shinrobi.

The plan is to start at the beginning again, but this time go through a different wing on the Upper Spire.

Loot Rules

I’m still trying to fully understand the loot rules that were used, so I might have this a little wrong. We can clarify it at the next run.

NOTE: This has been edited after some clarification.

1. Need Roll - One need roll win per night. Roll need if you really want something. NOTE: if you wait to roll greed instead, you will be rolling against offspec rollers too.

2. Greed Roll - This can be a main spec (if not wanting to roll Need) or offspec roll. You can win these rolls multiple times, but precedence goes to someone who hasn’t won a greed roll yet.

3. Marks (Trophies) - These are open rolls for anyone (by class)

4. BOEs and Primoridial Saronite - These are rolled for at the end by people who didn’t win anything. NOTE: BOEs will go through a Need Roll first, but no Greed Roll.

Thanks Shin!

A special thanks to Shin for working with his friends to set this up. Even though our Saturday night raid attendance has been low, I know some people were disappointed to miss out on 25 man runs after our runs with GOTL stopped. This is a great option for guild members to be able to 25 man raids without having to join a full PUG.

Happy Raiding!
~Daff

Movies

Foxer’s recent dilemma with finding movies to watch reminded me of a post I saw a while agon on one of the WOW blog sites that I like to read from time to time: World of Matticus Movie List. In addition to Foxer getting a list of movies to check out, older members like myself can get a kick out of reading the list and remembering all of those great movies. Make sure you scroll down to find the movies in the comments.

NOTE: some movies listed are rated R and intended for those old enough to watch those movies. Do not consider this a recommendation for younger members.

Matticus

I’d also like to give a quick plug for the World of Matticus blog. It’s usually quite entertaining and filled with good information. There are several contributors from different classes. Give it a try!

Yeah Duck! I’m talking to you. That’s a mighty fine axe.

Silliness aside, the second ICC run went really well this week. Duck’s axe drop was just an example fo great gear that raid members received. I think every item was used for a main or off-spec. We had 5 Sang Grail members and representatives from both Guardians of the Legacy and Order of the Lion. Matthouse (Shinrobi) and Strongwolf (Mufoxaa) ran the raid.

Raid Participants:

• Matthouse - Tank
• Maelwyn - Tank (OOTL)
• Strongwolf - Healer
• Maddhealnfor - Healer (GOTL)
• TheDuck - DPS
• Xandalis - DPS
• Drooed - DPS
• Linalli - DPS (OOTL)
• Ushadaran - DPS (OOTL)
• Sadneis - DPS (GOTL)

Thank you all for participating and being supportive of our raiding approach! The group downed the first wing of ICC with no deaths and also completed the weekly quest and the mini-boss. We will be sending out invites for next week as well.

Happy Raiding!
~Daff

My Learning Process

I thought I’d write up the process I’m going through to learn the Blood Princes fight…just in case it helps anyone else with the process.

Step 1: Watch the video - Check! Reaction: Watching the video the first time was really kind of like the first two times we attempted the Blood Princes. There was a lot of things floating around and a lot of running around but I couldn’t figure out what any of it meant.

Step 2: Read the Abilities and Strategy. I read Shin’s forum post and also checked out BossKillers.com. “oh crap!” the web site changed. I don’t want to register and all that jazz. So I found the link to the old version of the site and read through the info there. It was pretty much exactly what Shin wrote up for us. NOTE: I copied Shin’s forum information to a post right before (below) this one.

Step 3: Watch the video again, this time hitting pause to try to look for certain abilities:

a. Kinetic Bomb - I was trying to figure out if this was the purple orbs, the red orbs or a white orb that didn’t show up in the video much. I’m thinking this is the white orb, since I saw it slowly decend at one point and then go back up.

b. Dark Nucleus - I quickly figured out these are the purple orbs. You can see them come up and then they start looking like they are being channeled to one player, or maybe that’s the boss. In any case, they are pretty easy to see.

c. Flame and Empowered Flame - These must be the red balls that you see traveling toward a player. I’m not sure if you can tell the regular from the empowered, other than that you will see the casting of Emplowered Flame, and this only happens when Taldaram is the boss we are damaging (has the Invocation of Blood).

d. Shock Vortex - I saw a note that the regular version of this can be avoided. In the video, I can clearly see the swirling white area on the floor.

e. Empowered Shock Vortex - I couldn’t see anything on the ground for this, but I think you can see the boss cast it (when Valanar has Invocation of Blood). You can see the melee scatter from time to time, and this should be when they see Empowered Shock Vortex being cast.

Step 4: Pick out key areas I’d like to focus so that I’m not overwhelmed by all of the information.

Abilities to focus on by Prince

Focus first on the abilities when Valanar has Invocation of Blood. This is how the fight will start. Once we get past the first prince, then we can focus on the next.

Prince Valanar:

a. The caster that will tank Keleseth has one initial job: Learn to recognize the Dark Nuclei and keep the attention of about 3 at a time. This might require some running around. All others should ignore the Nuclei.

b. Ranged raiders should spead out, keeping an eye out for the swirling white on the ground (shock vortex). Simply move out of it when it appears.

c. Melee should watch for Empowered Shock Vortex to be cast (someone should call this out) and scatter. It’s important to be about 13 yards away from each other. I am thining we might want to designate spots to run to so people can keep their bearings on where to go and how to get back to the boss. This will also prevent melee from running to the same spot.

d. Healers should watch for the fire balls heading to someone. A shield might help.

e. At least one range DPS need to be in charge of the kinetic bomb and never let it het the ground. Until we get a feel for how much damange is needed, this player may not be doing much damage to the bosses. Once we get a feel for it, then hopefully they can do both.

That seems like the basics. If we can get those mechanics down pretty well, then we can focus on what happens when the next Prince has Invocation of Blood. It will be random which prince is next.

Prince Keleseth:

a. Nothing special happens here, except the Keleseth tank will take lots of Shadow Damage that is hopefullyl mitigated by the Dark Nuclei.

b. I saw one suggestion of blowing melee cooldowns on this prince.

Prince Taldaran:

a. The fire balls can become Empowered when Taldaran has the Invocation of Blood. When these are cast, it is important for the range DPS to run to the path of the ball to reduce the damage. If this is not done, the ball will kill it’s target.

b. We need to dispel Glittering Sparks. This may not be limited to just this portion of the fight.

In General, summarized slightly differently:

Range:

1. Stay spread out
2. Move to the path of the empowered flame balls, also do this where easy for the non-empowered balls.
3. Stay out of the white shock vortex
4. Kinetic Bomb Range (Mage) - Job number one is to keep this in the air while trying to move as appropriate as described above.
5. Keleseth Tank gets the attention of the Dark Nuclei and attention of Keleseth. This is job number one. Move as appropriate as described above.
6. All other range do NOT hit the Dark Nuclei
7. As able, focus damage on the prince with the Invocation of Blood.

Melee:

1. Focus on the prince with the Invocation of Blood
2. When attacking Valanar, watch for Empowered Shock Vortex…when being cast, scatter and avoid others.
3. Watch for white shock vortex under your feet. Tank will hopefully move boss.
4. When attacking Taldaran, get in path of the Empowered Flame balls.
5. When attacking Kelesth, use your cooldowns for max damage

Healers:

1. Watch Keleseth Tank if not enough stacks to mitigate damage. Also watch DOT.
2. Notice who the flames are going toward and anticipate damage. Shield before hit and POM.
3. Spread out and move similar to Range players.

Tanks:

1. Keep your target occupied.
2. Move out of white shock vortex.
3. Anything else?

Time to try the fight

All of the information above is from reading and watching. I might not understand it completely, or have some of the information wrong. The next step is to actually try the fight. I’ll add another post to see how all of this pans out in the fight. It’s easy to say what to do, but doing it in the heat of the battle is completely different.

Additional Research

I’ll probably also check out Elitist Jerks priest forums to see if I can find some healing pointers on the fight. I also like to google the fight and also look on some of my favorite blogs for information. Let me know if you find any other good sources of info.

Happy Raiding
~Daff

Happy birthday to Shin! Happy Birthday to Shin! Happy Birthday dear Shinrobi, Matthouse, (whatever your shaman’s name is)! Happy Birthday to Shin!

When I find myself with some time to kill, I check out MissMedicina.blogspot.com to see if any blog titles in her blog roll catch my interest. Ready blogs for me is kind of like a treasure hunt where I bounce from blog to blog looking for clues (aka the next link that looks interesting).

I found Miss Medicina while looking for information on Saufang many months ago. She seems to be the center of the Priest / healer blogging community from what I can tell. She’s got lots of other sites on her “blogroll” (I barely understand what that is), and when she’s actively posting to her site, she does a nice job summarizing worth-while healing posts.

Here are the results of my treasure hunt today: MissMedicina.blogspot.com which led me to Righteous Orbs - “Lick My Decals Off, Baby” which led me to Pugging Pally - I Am Not Afraid of You And I Will Beat Your A*s.

I mention these posts for the main reason of explaining how I got to the following video that was included in the last post. I have to admit I didn’t even read all of the post and skipped right to the embedded video, like many of you will do while “reading” this post.

Fast Tube by Casper
Anyway, I hope you find it half as funny as I did. There are many other links that will come up for other videos by same source.
*Visit Youtube at your own risk, as it may contain links to inappropriate content or include language in comments that I consider inappropriate*

We had another successful 25 man raid this weekend. We have been raiding for about 2 hours and clearing the first 4 bosses in ICC pretty easily. This means lots of loot and lots of fun.

I was going to list all of the loot from the run, but it’s getting to be a lot, and I don’t have that much time tonight.

My personal favorite drop of the night was [Nibelung]. Jarlaxyle was the lucky recipient of this wonderful staff. Gezabelle won this staff last week. The picture shows the Val’kyr that comes to fight by your side. At one point during the raid, Gezabelle had three Val’kyr fighting with her.

Nibelung

We have started a weekly raid rotation for 25 man runs. Check the in-game calendar for an invite. If you don’t have an invite, ask Daffnae for one. 10 man raids will hopefully resume soon.

~Daffnae

Infrequently Asked Questions

What’s with the title of this post? Are we changing our name?

No we aren’t changing our name. Last night was our first night raiding with Order of the Lion, along with our usual partner in crime, Guardians of the Legacy. The title of this post is a combination of all of the guild names.

Who are these people, and why are they in my raid?

Order of the Lion is a guild that Rusti saw recruiting to try to fill out their raiding team. Karahnae spoke with Linalli to see if they would be interested in filling out our 25 man raids, and they decided to give it a try. I spent some time chatting with Linalli last night. She seems nice.

What did we raid last night?

We did the 25 man version of the weekly last night by downing the first 2 bosses of TOC. We then moved to ICC and downed Marrowgar.

You can check out the logs at World of Logs: TOC and ICC

Does an alliance need a name?

Well, the simple answer is “No, an alliance doesn’t need a name”; but that would be boring, and I was having fun playing with the names of the 3 guild to see if I could find a fun combination.

Are we seriously trying to name the alliance?

No. But what about “Legacy of the Singing Lion” or “Order of the Grail Guardian”? I’d have to say my favorite is Legacy of the Singing Lion, only for the fact that “singing” really has nothing to do with “Sang”, but for ignorant, non-french speakers like myself, I can see the connection.

Are we really an alliance? We just met.

I guess we really just met, so calling ourselves an alliance would probably be jumping the gun. But we are moving on to the next raid as a group of 3 guilds.

Are any rules / processes changing?

The same loot rules will apply.

We will be using Calendar for sign ups. That seems to be working better for some people, so we will keep using it. If you ever don’t see and invite that you think you should see, just let Daffnae know.

I get so lost with all the new names…can you help me keep it straight?

It will take some time to keep all of the new names straight. Especially for the new folks, since we often use real names instead of character names…or we use other character names. If you click the “more” link, you will see a list of raid attendees listed along with the names you generally hear used for them.

Continue reading to see a list of the raid attendees. (continue reading…)

Even though we didn’t have a 25 man raid on Saturday night, we still had fun with our friends in Guardians of the Legacy. After the weekly quest, we took our fun over to Bladefist to invite several GOTL members into Fullobull (our horde guild).

We are branching out from our mostly tauren guild, so we added a Steak Sauce rank for the non-tauren members.

Here are some basics about the guild if you haven’t joined and you are interested.

Realm and Guild Name

Realm: Bladefist
Faction: Horde
Guild: Fullobull

Guild Ranks

Cowgirl: Athaena (aka Daffnae)
Ribeye: Tauren Members - should have full rights
Steak Sauce: Non-tauren Members - should have full rights
Sirloin: Mostly meaningless rank, but I like the name
Ground Chuck: Mostly meaningless rank, but I like the name

Recruiting

Now recruiting: Friends

All Ranks have the ability to invite new members. This guild is really intended for friends of members and not really for random players looking for guilds. Many of us have met online, so if you play with someone long enough that you think they would be a good fit and you consider them a friend, then feel free to bring them into the guild.

ALL SANG GRAIL AND GOTL MEMBERS ARE WELCOME!

Guild Rules

1. Don’t be a jerk
2. Don’t be an idiot
3. Fun is optional, but encouraged

NOTE: general noobness is acceptable…you just can’t use the “I didn’t know any better” excuse for being a jerk.

Guild Website

I will be setting up a web site (actually a sub-site of this one) to post Fullobull news. It’s just wrong to post horde stuff on an alliance site, so it will be coming soon. It’s going a little slow because I’m using this as a reason to learn more about how these sites are setup. When I have it ready, I’ll pass on the info and include a link from here.

The History of the Death Bunny and our Tabard

The death bunny is a tribute to one of the old Sang Grail guild masters that no longer plays: Nalani. I don’t know if there was special meaning in it for her, other than poking fun at the “death cobra” tabard option, but the death bunny has persisted in many aspects of our guild.

The tabard colors were selected by myself to look as silly as possible and also match my headband on my blood elf. Yes, I am indeed a girl.

Questions

If you have any questions about Fullobull, I am always happy to help out, but everyone is considered an officer, so feel free to make up the answer yourself. This guild is meant for fun, so nothing should be taken too seriously.

McMurdock from GOTL has been sending out invites in the in-game calendar for a couple of 25 man runs this weekend.

Friday - Weekly 25 man raid (I think it’s Patchwerk, which should be easy)
Saturday - ICC 25

Our internet is still a little flaky, so I’m not sure if Duck and I will make it, but we will try.

If you don’t have an invite and want to go, please contact me in-game (if I’m on) or send a note to McMurdock so we can get you added. I would say, just send me an in-game mail, but with my internet issues, it’s probably best to contact McMurdock if you don’t see me on.

Happy Raiding!
~Daffnae