News Archive - december to may - 2008

Weekend update!

Friday: We cleared T1 DP and Roley in T2.   RF slowed us down this time around, but we bounced back and did good overall.  We had our best time on Roley to date, with around 40 mins duration.   Nice work everyone!

Saturday:  Started off good, we cleared down to Devlin and killed him.

Tris continued to be a struggle, but we did test a few theories we tossed around earlier in the week.   We wiped several times, but not without great effort by everyone!  We appreciate the dedication to sticking things out during wipes, especially when we're testing some new ideas on these events.   Thanks to everyone who stayed also.  Based on those wipes, we can now adjust accordingly for future Tris runs and refine our prior winning strats.

Leaving Tris to suffer to lycanthropy, we moved back up towards Performer and although we didn't have the numbers, we did two attempts for practice before calling it a night.

Even though we didn't clear as many events as normal, it was still a productive evening and weekend overall.  We gained valuable bane weapons, and picked up some loot drops.  The banes get us one step closer to Mayong, and the loot helps us in overall collective power.

Demiplane is no zone for the weak.  It's a grueling experience, but offers great challenges, fun events and lore.  Our perseverance to overcome these obstacles will not only strengthen us as a raid force, but make our successes that much more rewarding. 
You guys are not weak, and I know you can handle this zone.  Mayong Mistmoore's mind games will not have an affect on our morale!  His time will come...

Schedule Update:

The attempt at Thursday slots for raiding hasn't panned out very well.  Not every day will work, and there are other possible days we may consider trying in the future.   For now,  I won't schedule Thursday in anymore, but stay with Friday & Saturday.  This seems to work for the majority at the moment.

This was a trial and error approach for Thursday raiding.  It's difficult to poll what days work with open raiding, and numbers fluctuate often because of other factors such as summer population decline, guild raid schedule changes, holidays etc.

You may have noticed, I'm trying to advertise more in /shout as I pass through zones.   This is an effort to help spread the word about our raids and bring in new faces.  As always, feel free to tell your friends and people you meet in game about our raids.  Even getting word to those who may not meet our level requirements yet, helps us.  A person below 75 for example, may remember someone mentioning Freelance, and when they reach 75, may seek us out.  Or they may have higher level friends they mention it to and so forth.

Hope to see everyone next weekend!  Have a good week!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on June 1, 2008

flawless performance!

Friday:  We cleared all of T1 DP and Roley in T2.

Saturday:  We killed Devlin, Ur-Gorloch (aug mini), and pulled off a Freelance first Performer win!

The first attempt on Performer we made it to at least wave nine.  On the 2nd attempt, we improved, held off on our discs and almost pulled off a win.  We wiped around wave 14 of 16.  Following the 2nd attempt, while we CR'd, we made some targeting tweaks and fixed a couple other minor issues.  Being so close to a win, and strong on emotes, it was clear we could beat this event.  Everyone performed flawlessly this time, and we pulled off an outstanding win!

Impressive job everyone on the emotes, and staying calm during the chaos!   Doing this event with only 34 people, is a major feat and brings us one step closer to Mayong Mistmoore!

Schedule & Progress Update:

Slotting in Thursday night this past week didn't result in a great turnout.  However, it may have been in part due to the long weekend in the U.S, and not many realizing we scheduled a raid Thursday.  I've slotted Thursday night in again this week, and will continue to rally during the week to spread the word.

The DP push is on.  We're stepping up the pace on events, pushing faster and harder.  We're not waiting around for slackers.  Our start times are clear:  7pm EST,  6pm CST, 4pm PST (8am Japan, Okinawa time!).  Obviously not everyone can make these times exactly due to RL, however once in game, plan accordingly please.   It helps us greatly by having a prompt gathering and starting within a 15 min grace period.  I realise this is open raiding, I just wanted to give a friendly heads up.

On the topic of slackers!  Those with outstanding AE blockers to hand in, if you show up prior to our start times, during the gather, we can help you do the hand in.  To be clear, showing up 5 mins to 7pm, is not enough time to do your hand in for ZiT / Hatchet.  If you're unable to make it earlier then that, try and get the hand in done at some other time.  We're more then willing to help anyone with blocker hand ins, just drop myself or any FL regular a tell in game (yes I just volunteered everyone, way to step up!).

Have a great week everyone!  Hope to see you on the weekend!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on May 25, 2008

the Performer minions sing their songs!

Friday:  Cleared T1 Demiplane and killed Roley in T2.  A nice start to our weekend!

Saturday:  Opened with a Devlin kill, then a smooth run on Tris.  We then killed Ur-Gorloch, the aug mini dropper, before heading back up towards Performer.

Our Performer attempts were the best to date.  In the past, by the time we got to Performer, it was usually later in the evening and numbers were down, but we always tried to make an attempt anyway to practice.  We made good time last night and had a couple hours to really make an effort on this event.

We made three attempts:

• 1st - Performer died in like the first wave! Haha!  I expected this anyway, and it was funny to watch.

• 2nd - While we waited on the reset, we ironed out who was having hotkey issues.  We made it to at least wave 9 of 16 on this attempt.

• 3rd - Couple more hotkey issues resolved, we improved from our last attempt by making it up to Spinstress, wave 13 of 16.
  

Just in those 3 attempts, we made significant improvement.  A tribute really to everyones hard work and focus on emotes, while dealing with waves of adds. 

Outstanding effort by everyone!

If you are having any troubles setting up our hotkeys for this event, please send me a tell in game.  If I'm not available, please send a tell to: Nuvane or Thewun.

Schedule Changes:

In order to push forward in Demiplane, I'm slotting in Thursday night next week for T1 DP.  We'll see how our turnout is for this night and do what we can in T1.  This will help us jump start on Friday & Saturday, allowing more time to work on Performer.  I'll try and do extra advertising and tells during the week to make this happen.  

If you want to help with advertising, please spread the word among friends, guildies and enemies!

Demiplane - AE Blockers:

Normally I send reminder tells to some long outstanding slackers who havn't handed in their AE blockers.  As of late, prior to raids during our gathering, we've been doing short clears down to ZiT and Hatchet turn in NPCs.  This is to help people with their hand-ins.   I'd like to thank others who are helping with this, even though they benefit in no way themselves.

Be aware, we won't always be clearing down prior to each raid.  So it's important that if you need a hand in done, you make the effort to try and get it done prior to our raid nights.  We will not be delaying our raid start times by doing these hand-ins.

If you need assistance with ZiT or Hatchet hand-ins, please feel free to send me a tell in game.  If I'm available, I'll gladly help you break down to these areas.  Another method you may find helpful, is to check the AE Blocker thread here and see who else is missing the same hand in as you.  They may be in the same boat as yourself, and welcome the help breaking down to do the hand in together.

If you're confused about the AE Blockers in general, read the page located here.

Progress Update:

We're making positive progress in Demiplane.  Now that we are more familiar with the events, and we've refined our tactics, we can see event times decreasing.  I'm confident we can improve on our current times for certain events, and we're making the necessary adjustments.

Your efforts are not only being noticed, they are appreciated.  Collectively, we're stronger now because of our recent experiences in Demiplane.  We'll continue to apply our experience and push forward to Mayong Mistmoore and defeat him!

Have a great week.  Hope to see you next weekend!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on May 18, 2008

Marathon Roley!

Friday: We did ZiT, RF and moved down for Hatchet while we prepped a new tattler for Sisters.   Following Hatchet, we went back up for Sisters.  We came close to a win with  only one tattle missing!  By this time, it was late and we decided to call it a night and pick up the rest on Saturday.

Saturday: From where we left off on Friday, we did Sisters, then Devlin.  We made a great attempt on Tris, but we were just short on the dps needed for a win.  We got her down to 15% or so before the adds became too much.  Tris was too close to make further attempts without more DPS, so we moved back up to the ballroom for Roley.

Roley was a marathon fight!  We started off with the needed rogues, but they had to go to their guild raids along with a few other classes, so part way into the fight we had to change our strat.  We pulled off a win, but it took us 1 hour and 48 minutes from engage to finish!  Nice work everyone!

After Roley, everyone was tired, but a few of us pressed on to get some Performer practice in.  We only had about 2 groups left at this point, but we did manage to get to wave 4 on the event.   The entire purpose was for people to practice using their hotkeys and work out issues.  We only did one attempt, but it was time well spent.   I'm certain those that stayed are better prepared now for this event having experienced it.

Thanks again all those who attended.  If you know others, friends & guildies, please pass the word along, more always welcome!

Have a great week.  See you next weekend!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on May 11, 2008

Weekend update!

Friday: With around 30-35 people, we killed ZiT, Sisters and Hatchet.

Saturday: A slightly higher turnout with around 39-42 people.  Although it took us a couple tries and experiementing with new tank spots, we managed to pull of a win on the 3rd go.  Great effort, and a learning experience overall.

Following Redfang, we made a lengthy attempt on Roley, but couldn't pull off the last weapon click.  Thanks all those who stuck it out until the end!   We'll get him next time!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on May 4, 2008

short update!

Friday: With a good showing, we cleared all of T1 Demiplane and Roley in T2.

Saturday: We had a slightly lower turnout, but we made the best of it by killing Devlin and making some attempts on Tris before the dz crashed.

All in all, we were only one event short compared to last weekend.  This is just the nature of opening raiding, sometimes we have off nights. It was still a successful weekend of farming DP, and exposing the zone to some new faces.

Just a friendly reminder, if you havn't set up your hotkeys for Performer, please do so by next Friday.

Thanks everyone who showed up!  Hope to see you next weekend.

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on April 27, 2008

Weekend update!

This was our first weekend we've done Demiplane on Friday and Saturday.  We had a great turnout and made significant progress on both nights.

Friday: We cleared all of Tier 1 and topped off the evening by pushing into Tier 2, resulting in a Freelance first kill of Roley & Adrianna DeFarge!

Saturday: Picking up where we left off, we recleared up to the castle and made our way towards Devlin.  This took two attempts.  The first, we got him down to around 8-9% before wiping.  We adjusted our positioning for the 2nd attempt, and pulled off a much easier win.

Following Devlin, we managed a close win on Tris Wallow III.  Near the end, we had alot of adds, but our CC team held it together while everyone with a heal / RGC spell was going to town on Tris.  Considering this was our first go on Tris, we did extremely well.  With some minor adjustments and more wins on her, it'll go alot smoother I'm sure.

After Tris, we went down and killed the aug mini Ur-Gorloch.  We cleared up towards Performer room and set up inside.  We knew we wouldn't get far into Performer, but the goal was just to expose everyone to it, especially those who had hotkeys set up in advance.  We did 4 attempts, and each was well worth the time.  This is a work in progress event, and will be our biggest challenge in Demiplane.  My best advice to anyone attending DP with us is to come prepared with your hotkeys and triggers set up in advance.  If you have any issues setting them up, please don't hesitate to send myself or Nuvane a tell.

Great work everyone, and thanks all who helped out.

Have a great week!  See you all Friday!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on April 20, 2008

Hatchet gets the axe!

Friday: Fabled ends in the middle of next week, so this was our final round of Fabled.  We took out the following targets: Jaxoliz Dawneyes and Criare Sunmane in PoF, then Elemental Masterpiece, Rinturion Windblade and Queen Silandria in PoA.  We wrapped up the evening with a Freelance first on The Fabled Xanamech Nezmirthafen in PoI! 

Fabled has been good to us over the last few weeks, and it was a nice change of pace from regular targets.  Thanks all who showed up, and congrats to those who won loot.

Saturday: Prior to entering Demiplane, we took out Vule and finished up Monocles for 9  new people.  Special thanks to the Click Team lead by Nuvane: Breniar, Macloan, Imnotjim, Eroan, and Siddhaya.

We made great progress in DP, with our first Hatchet win and complete clear of Tier 1!  Following Hatchet, we went down and killed Ur-Gorloch.  It was getting late by this time, but we didn't want to leave without making an attempt on Devlin.  With only 18 of us, we managed to get him down to 75% before wiping.  I'm confident we can do him with more numbers next time.

Excellent work everyone!   Thanks to those who were able to stay a bit later and attempt some new stuff.

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on April 13, 2008

weekend update!

Friday: Another round of fabled this weekend.  We started off with the Fabled Keeper of Sorrows in PoN.  Afterwards, we were fortunate to find Bertoxxulous up and took him down without issue.  Following Bert, we headed over to Tactics and killed the Fabled Vallon Zek.  With Bert and VZ being Freelance firsts, I think we did good overall.  It's always a gamble with these fabled being in static zones open to all, we were lucky to find these targets up.  Thanks all who attended, and nice work!

Saturday: Our Demiplane progress is coming along.  We pulled off our 2nd Redfang and Sisters win in this run.  We finished up the evening with a first attempt on Hatchet.  Our attempt on Hatchet was mainly to get everyone familiar with the scripted emotes and general feel of the event itself.  We managed to trap Hatchet four times, and then sustained as long as we could after that.  Four trappings on Hatchet for our first attempt is an outstanding feat.  With a few refinements for next time, I'm confident we'll improve.  Nice job everyone, and thanks all who were able to stay to give it go!

I've scheduled Vule again for next weekend, since he wasn't up on Saturday.  For all those who still need Vule, please show up to this if you're able.  Thanks.

Hope to see everyone next weekend!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on April 6, 2008

Catfight in the castle!

Friday:  A nice turnout to kick off the weekend with another round of fabled kills.  We had some different targets to choose from this weekend, but we weren't picky.  Our wins included: Grummus, Keeper of Sorrows, Saryrn, and some PoAir minis - Elemental Masterpiece, Rinturion Windblade, and Queen Silandria!

Saturday: We made some Demiplane progress, with our first Sisters win!  It was a very close call at the end, but our tattlers managed to get one last tattle just as things were falling apart in the hallway with an onslaught of adds.

Hopefully we can repeat our success on this event reliably.  We've decided to make our marked map mandatory for all those that attend.  This helps us tremendously in locating lost sisters quickly.   The required information and map download is available here.

Outstanding work everyone, and special thanks to all the lookouts, tattler team, and of course, our CC team which was stretched to the max again.

We'd like to start attempts on Hatchet for next weekend.  In order to prepare, everyone must have proper working Audio Triggers for this event.  You can reach the Hatchet trigger page here.

For all those still needing Vule, we've scheduled it for Saturday, before going into Demiplane.  I know we've had to leave out a few newcomers because they didn't have Vule done, so our hope is they'll be able to attend on Saturday and finish it up.   If you know of others that would like to raid in Demiplane with us, this would be a good opportunity for them to possibly pick up the Vule flag.

As always, please pass the word along about our raids to friends and guildies.  Thanks!

Have a great week.  See you next weekend!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on March 23, 2008

redfang defanged!

On Friday, we gathered a large force together to take out some old PoP targets now turned Fabled.  Our wins included: Aerin`Dar, Rizlona, Magmaton, Blazzax the Omnifiend and Arch Mage Yozanni!

We ended our Fabled Friday evening with an attempt on Coirnav the Avatar of Water, but he knew we were no threat.  We did however manage to get him to 98 percent!  Haha.

Overall, a successful night of Fabled.  Thanks all who attended, and congrats those who won loot.

On Saturday, we made some great progress in Demiplane.  Taking advantage of our stronger force that evening, we took out Redfang for the first time.  It took two attempts, our first that evening we got him down to 17 percent,  we made a few adjustments for the win on the second go around.  Outstanding work everyone!

Following Redfang, we made our strongest attempt on Sisters to date.  We had some bad luck on a couple of the tattles, when both sisters were in the same room with each other.  Luck aside, we'll assign more lookouts next time in key areas to help co-ordinate missing sister locations faster.  This will put us one step closer to a win.

The best way to help us on this event, is to download our modified map here.   When we all share the same map, we can co-ordinate accurately with everyone using the same numbered markers for reference.  We appreciate your help, thanks again.

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on March 23, 2008

short update!

Friday: Did a clear of CoA, skipped OMM due to lack of key classes.

Saturday: We continued our progress in Demiplane.  Although we didn't beat the Sisters event, we gained valuable experience from our attempts.  We have ironed out the last few details to help co-ordinate communication with tattlers and warping sisters.  The revised strat info is incorporated into the tattles page for next weekend.

Fabled Mobs:
We did some fabled last year, and we'll try and hit up some this year again.  I've slotted in Friday for fabled, so we'll scout around prior and see what's up.  Some of the fabled mobs may be up during the week, and we will hit them if numbers allow, so keep an eye out in the Freelance channel for details.  If we can't find anything up on Friday, I have some backup targets in mind so we don't waste a raid night.

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on March 16, 2008

weekend update!

Saturday:  We made progress in Demiplane this weekend.  After killing Zi-Thuuli, we took out Maggotmiser (aug mini).  Following Maggotmiser, we made a few attempts on the Wailing Sisters event, while our bat CC team locked things down for well over an hour.  It was time well spent, which made it possible for us to refine our tattler team tactics and adjust positioning.  With a few tweaks in place for next weekend, I'm confident we can beat this event.

Outstanding work everyone. 

Special thanks to the CC team: Nuvane, Ardi, Felden, and Heeth!  In addition, thanks tattlers: Imnotjim, Eroan, Macloan, and Foxbird!

Friday: Alternating between CoA and PoR now, we went and did HP and the Sverag boss.  We tried to repeat our success on Ghost, but he got the better of us this time.  Even with the lower turnout, we gave it a good go.  Nice effort all.

Have a great week, see you all Friday!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on March 9, 2008

Zi-thuuli down!

Short update today:

Friday: We cleared CoA, and got OMM on the 2nd try with only 31 people.  Outstanding effort by everyone, and thanks to those who were able to stick around for the win.

Saturday: We started out with a quick Vule kill, then gathered at the zone-in for our first venture into Demiplane.  We took out Zi-Thuuli and made a good attempt on Redfang.  Overall it was a good night, and the impression I got was that everyone had fun.

Hope to see everyone next weekend!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on March 2, 2008

More freelance firsts!

We continued our winning streak this weekend, taking down some fun targets in PoR while continuing to farm Vule.

Friday: Returning to Tunare's Shrine, we took out High Priest again with ease.  Following HP we went to Relic and killed Porthio the Second Born.  To finish off the evening we hit Sverag, Stronghold of Rage and took down Terish Fellclaw and the boss of the zone Razorclaw the Defiant.

Saturday: Started out the evening making some corpses on the clear.. Too bad they were our own (hehe).  After clearing down properly, we engaged Vule, but he got the upper hand and took us out!  Of course he promptly despawned to tell all his friends.  He came back 10 minutes later, but we had regrouped by then and rubbed him out in a flawless takedown.

After Vule, we headed over to Razorthorn, Tower of Sullon Zek.  We cleared up to Ghost prep area and started our set up.  The engage was perfect, and things were going good until about 65%.  We were DPS'ing Ghost too fast and getting overwhelmed with adds.  We stopped all DPS and regrouped while tanking Ghost.  Once we were ready, we continued our assault and finished him off.

Following our marathon Ghost fight, we cleared some trash, pulled and killed Snowtail.   We had an easier time on this fight, even though there was a charm aspect.  What made it more managable was the adds didn't hit as hard as the ones on Ghost.

Great job all on keeping a cool head during the Ghost fight.  Nicely done everyone.

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on February 24, 2008

Overlord Mata Muram down!

Several Freelance firsts this weekend!

Friday: We started out the weekend with a corruption of ro event in the PoR expansion called The Guardian of the High Priest.  We've done some PoR in the past, but never this particular event. 

It was a straight up fight, with adds, a DT mechanic and an AE.  Although we lost our MT shortly after engage, we recovered quickly and worked the script down for a win.

Since it was still early following our Guardian victory, we headed over to Sverag, Stronghold of Rage.  We killed Terish Fellclaw easily and decided to give Nezark, the Undying Spirit a go.  As we were clearing repops, we had an early agro on him so we went with it.  From that attempt, we got him down to 10% easily.  We definately would have won but had repops in the area that complicated things and the AE knockback threw us off guard.  On the second attempt, we killed him with ease, having corrected our positioning to avoid the respawns and counter the AE.

Saturday:  Kicked off the evening by getting our Vule farm for DP flagging out of the way early since he was up.  Our time on this target was much faster, from target call to finish.  I'm confident we can improve for next time.

Following our Vule kill, we went ahead with our next planned target CoA and Overlord Mata Muram.  We cleared CoA at a good pace and prepped mask clickers along the way.

After killing AMV we began our OMM prep.  After a brief explanation of the event and our strat, we finished up buffs while pre-assigned task leaders set up their teams in channels. 

The initial engagement was smooth.  We opened as planned with a FD start, followed quickly by the pulling and charming of both the Coerced Lieutenants that spawned.  

With our pets ready, DPS and AE groups in position, OMM was pulled to the cubby and MA called in the DPS.  Although RT wasn't set properly at this point, we had no choice and had to go with it.  We knew OMM would reset shortly and we'd be able to set RT.

As we continued the fight, it started to get chaotic!  But our teams held it together.  At one point we had our key enchanter die to the DT mark (hehe) and a bard quickly stepped up to fill the gap and get the pet under control.   The enchanter was res'ed and back in the thick of it within seconds.  While this was happening, our AE team had it's hands full dealing with waves of adds that were spawning.  The tanks swung into action gathering all the adds up tight while the casters AE'ed them down!   Many healers were saved in these efforts no doubt.  All the time this was going on, OMM was dealing with our fearless MT and RT!  Each time OMM would reset, we'd pull him back to the cubby and our DPS teams eager for blood stepped up!

At different points during the fight, we had both our MT and RT dead, res'ed in and rebuffed.  We resumed the fight and everyone kept focused on their assigned areas.  At this time, we were getting close to the 30% port to Ture's room stage.  Once OMM  reached 31%, the Riftseeker script kicked in and we called for the /corpsedrag of our fallen comrades.  The script finished and we were all ported to Ture's chamber!  We dragged the corpses back to just before the click up into OMM's room.  From there, we res'ed and rebuffed.

We were ready now, freshly buffed, full endurance and mana.  Blood was in the water, we knew we could do this.   We sent in our RT, and MA called the rest to click in.  Everyone quickly set up into their sections just like before.  We recharmed both Coerced Lieutenants and we were back in the thick of things!  We called for discs and our DPS team put forth some DPS as never seen before!  Vengeance was their thinking from past failures with this beast and they were not about to let that happen again!  AE groups were in full disc at this point and all you could see was spams of lasher death messages the instant they spawned!   OMM's time was running out, down to the last few percent of his life, he was moved back to the middle for the final kill.  It was a massive onslaught now, and finally with everyone gathered around focused on him, OMM was defeated!

This was by far one of our toughest long standing targets to kill and it's always nice to finish off the boss of one expansion before heading into another.

Outstanding effort by everyone!

Special thanks to those put in charge of the CC, AE and Dispell teams: Nuvane, Imnotjim and Tylon.

Thanks to all those who continue to raid with us and a friendly welcome to the new faces we see popping up.

Our Direction:

Demiplane is on the horizon.   We've flagged 11 more people last night on Vule, and with the /randoms decreasing, we're getting very close to finishing up these flags.

CoA has been good to us.  We've cleared it many times, and just like with Tacvi, we can see the gear is starting to get near rot point.   In the next month or less, we'll most likely be phasing CoA out.

It's important that we don't stay in one zone for too long and stagnate.  We need to push forward and challenge ourselves with new targets.  Demiplane and Deathknell (PoR) offer us great rewards and fresh events.  We'll mix in some other content of course here and there.  The PoR raids are not all for progression towards DK, so that offers us one avenue to explore and we can mix in DK flagging events as we work through Demiplane.

Our goals and objectives in content should always be changing, and so far we've done very well.  I'm confident we can continue our efforts and explore fun new content together.

See you next weekend!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on February 17, 2008

Blood raids & Vule!

We continued our Demiplane flagging Saturday by doing Bloodeye, Co9 and Emperor Draygun.  Following those 3 targets, Vule was up by then and we headed over and killed him.

All in all, a successful evening.  We're coming close now to having enough flagged to start doing Demiplane raids.  Each week I'll poll and see how many are missing what Blood Raids and Vule flag.  From last weekends poll, we had at least 10-12 people that were missing Draygun and Co9; which is why we did those targets last night.   Whether we have to do another Sendaii will be determined by how many are missing the flag.

From the Vule angle, we'll probably have to do him 2 or 3 more times.   I realise we had only 20 people random last night, so minus the 10 winners is only 10 remaining.  However, it was late in the evening and some people left that possibly needed the flag.  Next weekends Vule randoms may give a better indication of how many more we need to do.

Congrats to those who won a flag on Vule last night, finished up a missing Blood Raid, and to all those who won loot.

Thanks again to those who continually show up each week to show their support and help flag others.  Your efforts are greatly appreciated, and in the end will make us a stronger force in Demiplane.

Special thanks to the click team on Vule led by Nuvane:  Breniar, Dheath, Eroan, Taxles and Masbik!

Target Shifting:

While we're finishing up Vule flags and the odd Blood Raid, we're going to shift our focus a bit.   By changing our targets now and then, it gives us a little breather and helps avoid burnout on our progression towards Demiplane.

To start off, we've made several attempts on Overlord Mata Muram in the past, and even before level 80 we came very close to winning.  At the moment, the best chance of success on this event would be to do him on the Saturday.  That's the day we have a stronger turnout in key classes such as enchanters, clerics and tanks.

For next weekend, our Vule schedule won't change, it'll just be in conjunction with CoA. 

Having done Vule twice now, we're confident we can do this event much faster.  We'll either do Vule at the start of the evening or after CoA.  This all depends on numbers and whether Vule is up.  So for the upcoming Saturday, I've scheduled Vule + CoA (including OMM).

In moving CoA to the Saturday for next weekend, it frees up the Friday.  For a change of pace, I've slotted in the Guardian of the High Priest raid.

The schedule is posted here.

Hope to see everyone next weekend!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on February 10, 2008

Sendaii revenge!

Having been so close to a win last weekend on this event, we went back on Saturday and showed our vigilance by defeating her in a smooth first go.  Each time we do this event we've refined our tactics and this last attempt was no different.  We made some minor changes on wave 3 that helped reduce the deaths, which in turn made us stronger going into wave 4.

At least 25 people at the Sendaii raid were missing that particular flag.  So overall, it was time well spent in our continual efforts in flagging towards Demi-plane. 

Thanks to everyone who showed up.  Exceptional efforts by all those who attended!  Special thanks to the CC team led by Nuvane.

From a quick poll last night after Sendaii, it showed about a dozen or so that are missing some of the other blood raids such as Draygun and Co9.  I've scheduled both those raids for next weekend and Vule (if he's up).

Have a great week!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on February 3, 2008

sendaii to 7 percent -  so close!

On Saturday, we gathered a large force to try for a 2nd win on Sendaii.  We almost had it, but wiped at 7%.  We know where we went wrong and can fix it for next time.  Regardless of the loss, everyone did an outstanding job!

I've scheduled Sendaii again for next weekend.   I'm confident we can repeat our prior success on this event.

Thanks to all those who showed up!  Hope to see you again next weekend.

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on January 20, 2008

Master Vule down!

Saturday: We killed Master Vule on our first attempt.   Nice work everyone, and special thanks to the team of clickers & gargoyle watchers: Nuvane, Tarneil, Sinnayr, Eroan, Breniar, and Dheath!

Congrats all those who won a flag!  We randomed off the 10 spots, and did the task between targets.

Following Vule, we killed Draygun to finish up the night and flag those who were missing that kill.  These blood raids are getting smoother.  We didn't heal Draygun up as much this time, and that makes for a shorter fight.  We had DI fire only once on the MT, and that's pretty good considering I only had a 3 wheel rotation.  For next time, I'm going to try and put in a 4th CH'er, most likely a druid since we usually don't have 4 clerics in attendance.

Friday: We did our usual clear of CoA.   We were all gathered and ready to go when the zones went down and didn't come back up until an hour or so later.   So we had a delayed start on CoA.  We gathered again after things were back up and did a successful clear.

Upcoming raid Saturday:

Since our Sendaii win was during the holidays, alot of people were unable to attend.  I did a quick check last night just after raids, and we had at least 30 people that were missing it.  This isn't surprising, as I knew we'd have to do Sendaii several times.   But it's nice to know ball park figure of how many actually need it still.

Sendaii is scheduled for next Saturday January 26th.  For all those missing this flag, try your best to make this raid.  For those who already have the win, it'd be great to show your support and attend also.

For those who are attending this particular raid for the first time, I'd highly recommend you read the replies I made to the Sendaii raid posted in the events section on the forums here.  It covers an overview of the event and our strat.  There's alot of information to cover, so it's great to review it before going in so you're prepared.

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on January 20, 2008

blood raids continued

We started our 2nd cycle of blood raids to finish up those who missed flags the first time.

Although the server crashed part way through our Co9 attempt, most came back afterwards and we reformed and won.  Earlier in the evening we did Shyra and Bloodeye. 

Since it was late and numbers had dropped off we didn't do Draygun.  However, I scheduled Draygun for next Saturday and Vule.

As noted above, Vule is scheduled for this upcoming Saturday (Jan, 19th).   This target is in a flagged zone and in a section of the zone that requires an additional flag to enter.  Details on how to obtain both these flags has been available on this site for months now here.  Additionally, the Vule event posting on the forums here has the details also.

Note: Vule is part of DP progression, so attending is important if possible.

Just a friendly reminder, do not leave these flags to the last minute.  We will not pig anyone into DSK, nor coth anyone into Vule chamber. The above flagging tasks are not difficult, and I suspect most people have some of them done already just from normal grouping during DoDH era.

Friday we did our regular CoA clear and skipped Vishimtar again due to a lower turnout. Vishimtar hasn't been that popular of late, so I didn't bother re-scheduling it for this upcoming Friday.  Maybe at a later date we can come back to it.  I can accept that not every target is popular, so it's all good in passing it over at the moment.  We did manage to get a few Vish kills in and that was great!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on January 14, 2008

Council of nine and bloodeye down!

Saturday we did both Co9 and Bloodeye.  Nice work everyone!  With these 2 wins, we've done all 5 of the blood raids at least once.

Having done these raids now, we know better what to expect and we can do multiples in one sitting.  This benefits us in that the more we do in one shot, the less chance people will miss them while they're there.

I've scheduled all 4 of the blood raids minus Sendaii for next weekend.  The idea here is to get everyone up to speed on these raids and just have them missing Sendaii.  Then we'll do Sendaii once or twice more to finish up everyones blood aa.

I can't stress enough how important it is to try and show up to these blood raids.  Equally important are those who have them done now to continue to show your support by attending them again and helping your fellow raiders finish thiers.

Friday we did our regular clear of CoA and skipped Vishimtar due to numbers.  I kept Vish scheduled again for next weekend, but numbers have been sporadic on Fridays lately so we'll see how it turns out. 

We're making good progress of late and I'm confident we can repeat our successes and continue to push forward.  Thanks again for coming to these raids and helping others!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on January 06, 2008

Emperor Draygun, the lich king down!

On Saturday we continued our push towards Demiplane by killing Draygun.  This was our first attempt and win on him, which is always nice to see.   Nice work everyone!

We have two blood raids left to do.  I've scheduled both Co9 and Bloodeye for next Saturday.

For those that were unable to attend Sendaii last weekend,  we're most likely going to have to do that raid 2-3 more times in the next few weeks.   Please do your best to keep an eye on the events forum section for details on these raids so you don't miss them.

We made two attempts on Vishimtar Saturday.  The first attempt I'm not going to go into details, but I will say:  druid buffs are important here! haha.  A minor oversight of info we did know about in the past but I never thought the one DoT Vishimtar does was that damaging to the MT!   A learning experience!   After our CR we went again and got Vishimtar down to 3% before wiping.   There's a few things we're going to do different for next weekend which should iron out our problem areas.

Friday we did CoA clear, with a spur of the moment attempt on OMM.   We got him to 40%!   A win here is totally within our grasps!   This is worth subsequent weekly attempts if we have the enchanters and other key classes in attendance.  Lets make more enchanter friends!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on December 30, 2007

Sendaii the hive queen down!

Saturday we rallied our force to squash this big spider and her little minions!  It was a slow start early in the evening, so we decided to go kill Shyra while we worked on numbers.  After Shyra, we had the numbers we were looking for and we started the gather in Hive.

For those that don't know, Sendaii is a 4 wave event.  Each wave has it's challenges, which is an understatement when talking about wave 3.  Sendaii is part of a series of raids called blood raids, which are used as part of access to Demi-Plane.

Waves 1 & 2: Went smooth, although we had a few deaths, it was expected and res's were done quickly.  Wave 1 time was 5 min 40 sec.  Wave 2 was 4 min 54 sec. 

Wave 3: This is where we've had the most trouble in the past.  But we brought 4 enchanters this time and behind the scenes channels were setup to help communication. 

It's hard to describe the scene on wave 3, other then to say it was chaotic!  People running around avoiding Sendaii's AE, res's going on, all while assists are being called. 

Elapsed time for Wave 3 was 32 minutes 37 seconds!

It was interesting near the end of the wave, you could see more people were paying attention to Sendaii's position.  I'm guessing as a direct result of being hit by her AE a few minutes prior.

Wave 4:  We had an early engage on this wave, we stalled 3rd wave but Sendaii activated and so we started our assault.  Compared to the last wave, this was trivial.  We had 3 other tanks step up and offtank each copy, and the real version was quickly revealed.  Her copies despawned around 43%, and we resumed our DPS.  As we approached the 25% mark, the CC, SK's and SHMs  were prepping for the adds.  Once the adds started popping, it was full burn on Sendaii.  Sendaii dropped and we then dispatched all the adds in short order.

Elapsed time on this wave was 12 min 39 seconds.

Overview:

This was by far, one of the most difficult events Freelance has done to date.  I just want to say, thanks to everyone who attended.  Amazing effort and perseverance through all the failed attempts on this has paid off.  It takes immense self discipline to follow instructions, assist smartly and carry out assigned duties and clearly you all understand and demonstrated that last night.  Nicely done everyone!

More Blood to spill:

Having Sendaii done leaves us with 4 remaining blood raids to complete.  For most, it's actually 3, since we've done Shyra a number of times in the past.   Having said that, we have to do:  Council of the Nine, Emperor Draygun and Bloodeye. 

Emperor Draygun is scheduled for next weekend.

Just a reminder,  Vule is also part of the keying process for DP, and it requires some minor tasks to be completed by each of you.   These tasks are all outlined here.

Other raids this weekend:

On Friday, we did our usual CoA clear and had a flawless Jelvan kill.  Our Vishimtar attempts didn't go so great (wipe at 6 or 7% I believe), but we have won the event in the past, so with some minor corrections we can get back on track here and keep a good win ratio.

Great weekend overall

Have a Merry Christmas!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on December 23, 2007

short update

Friday we gave Vishimtar a go, got him to 2%.  We did a 2nd attempt, but lost a few people by then and so the first attempt was our best for the night.  It's obvious we can keep to our previous wins on this encounter, it's just a matter of focus and practice for those not familiar with it still.  We're keeping it scheduled.

After Vishimtar, we headed to CoA with 36.  We cleared that in 2 hours, which is good time considering our lower numbers.  Jelvan event was clean this time, very few deaths.  Nice work all!

Saturday was supposed to be Sendaii, but we only had 30 people.  Not enough for that event, with only one enchanter showing.

On the note of low turnouts lately, I'm guessing it's a result of the time of year (Christmas) and people are still exploring SoF.   My hope is in the next couple weeks things will pickup and we'll get back on track.   Next week more people may be on holidays and possibly some guilds not raiding for that week, we may see a great turnout for our events.

Thanks to those who have been showing up lately, great show of support!  Keep passing the word along to your friends & guildies and others!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on December 16, 2007

Weekend update

Saturday: We had a slow start for Vishimtar, and so we skipped ahead and did CoA instead.  We tossed around the idea of trying Vish after CoA, but figured we'd lose some numbers as it was later in the evening and decided to just call it after the CoA clear.

On a high note, we did have an epic Jelvan fight!   At the one point there I thought for sure it was a wipe, but it turned around when people really stepped up.  Great recovery there everyone!

We had lower then usual turnout for Sendaii attempt on Friday, but we went ahead and gave it a shot.  We didn't make it as far as last weeks attempt, but it was a learning experience from the stand point of, I won't go in there with only one enchanter again.  In addition to the lack of healers, we just had a general low turnout for it, somewhere around 36 people.   Comparing the showings for the past 2 weeks now on this event, we had more show on the Saturday then Friday.  Having said this, I've scheduled Sendaii again for Saturday this upcoming weekend.

On the topic of these blood raids.  I do try and line up key people in advance, but any help is appreciated.  Our biggest lacking lately has been clerics (or any healer type will do), enchanters, and shaman.   Feel free to rally any of your friends / guildies of any class.

Keep in mind.  Just like with MPG trials to get into CoA.  We struggled on a few of those at the time.  Doing them over and over is just how it works and it's not uncommon on this particular event we're working on to fail it 15 times or more before a win.  Most guilds fail it at the 3rd wave.

The reason we're making this push for Demi-plane is because we can't continue to farm Tacvi and CoA forever.  We must push forward and take on the challenge of progressing to the next level.  I know we can beat this event, we have the dedicated skilled core now with strong raid discipline.   As long as we keep at it, learning and refining our tactics, we'll squash this queen and her little minions!

Loot lists have been updated.

Posted by Furro on December 9, 2007

sendaii progress!

Saturday, we did Vishimtar and then revisted Sendaii the Hive Queen to work on our DP progression.  It's been a couple months since we've attempted Sendaii and we made a good showing this time around. 

This was our best Sendaii attempt to date.  We made it partially through the 3rd wave before things started to fall apart.  However I'm not discouraged in the least.  Considering we havn't tried Sendaii in a while, we'll improve on aspects from this raid for next weekend. 

To help things go even smoother, I've posted the strat on the forums here.  This will allow people to read through the event, see what's going to happen, and what we want you to do.

Sendaii is scheduled for next Friday (Dec 7).  Feel free to tell your friends and guildies.

Friday, we did our regular clear of CoA and partial clear of Tacvi.   We had an instance crash in Tacvi, but recovered and managed to do 2 more mobs in the south wing before calling it due to low numbers.  Since we're making a DP access push and dedicating a night for Sendaii on Friday, Tacvi is bumped for this upcoming weekend (Dec 7/8).  This scheduling allows us to still do our weekly Vishimtar kill in conjunction with CoA clear.

A side note for raid gathering.  Gathering has been too slow of late.  Start times are made clear in 3 different timezones posted on the forums, announced in the channel several times a week and 30-45 minutes prior to the raids.  If you're serious about attending these raids and progressing, then please try your best to show up on time.

Thanks for coming everyone and great work on Sendaii so far!

Loot lists have been updated.

News archived.

Posted by Furro on December 2, 2007